Attitudes of Being
February 16, 2025 6th Sunday OT - C
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi
Today’s Gospel is generally known as Jesus’ “Sermon on the Plain” and it is Luke’s version of Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount”, commonly known as “The Beatitudes”. While many think that these two are different interpretations of the same event, they are most likely two different events, as Jesus would have preached with this theme often as he journeyed throughout Judea.
So, what is a “Beatitude”?
A beatitude might be considered a definition of what God considers as the measures of holiness in His people. In his beatitudes, Jesus also tells us “how” people would be blessed if they possess this measure of holiness – their “reward”, if you will.
Now, Jews of the time believed that the measure of God’s favor was reflected primarily in earthly measures of health, wealth, and procreativity. We see this echoed throughout the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms, like in Psalm 1 and Psalm 40, which make up our Responsorial Psalm for today.
But Jesus’ measure of blessedness is counter-intuitive to the Jewish belief. We see this in both Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels, although when we think of Jesus’ Beatitudes, we normally think of the nine from Matthew, chapter 5. They and their corresponding rewards are:
1. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
2. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
3. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
4. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
5. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
6. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
7. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
8. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
9. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.
In today’s Gospel, however, Luke only lists 4, which correspond roughly to Matthew’s first, second, fourth and ninth ones.
1. Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
2. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied.
3. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh.
4. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
And, unlike Matthew, in addition to the blessings, Luke also includes warnings for those who fail to pursue them:
• If you are rich now, you have received your consolation.
• If you are content now, you will be hungry later.
• If you laugh now, you will grieve and weep later.
• If all speak well of you, beware! for false prophets were honored the same way.
Scholars point out there’s a difference in focus in how Luke presents his blessings and woes to those of Matthew. Matthew emphasized the religious and spiritual attitudes required for blessings in the heavenly kingdom inaugurated by Jesus (as seen in “poor in spirit,”, “meekness”, “mercy”, “hunger and thirst for righteousness”, and so on.) In all instances, there will be a reversal of fortunes as measured in the heavenly kingdom to come for those who cannot identify with those who are less fortunate.
By contrast, Luke’s blessings and woes address the real economic and social conditions of humanity (the poor vs. the rich; the hungry vs. the satisfied; those grieving vs. those laughing; the outcast vs. the socially acceptable).
Does this mean that you should not be rich, or well-fed, or happy, or thought well of? Of course not! But they do present a warning to living a life that is too comfortable and not addressing the challenges that others face in this life. (Maybe instead of saying, “… you will be …”, it should read “… you should be …”, which would better reflect how we should identify with those who are experiencing these states of life.) His “woes” identify the reversal of fortunes for those who ignore the woes of others, both in this life, and especially in the afterlife.
It also means that if you are suffering today from poverty, hunger, depression, isolation or discrimination, God still loves you and has something better in mind for you. It can be hard to feel blessed as we struggle, but God is still there for us.
And we don’t have to “earn” God’s blessings. We, through God’s Love, are already blessed spiritually. But if we are also materially blessed, then we should take to heart what can happen if we don’t appreciate His blessings, and if we don’t recognize from whom those blessings stem. Like Jeremiah: “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, but blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD”. If we depend on others for our prosperity, good health, or other earthly blessings, we not only risk disappointment but we may miss out on the true blessings that only come from God.
We are all blessed. But we should never forget that true blessings do not come from what we have here on Earth, but in what we will receive in Heaven. And we don’t want to lose what God has already promised us.
A priest-friend of mine likes to ask this question of children and adults alike: What is a Beatitude? His answer: It’s an Attitude to Be. If we profess to be Christian, then others should recognize us as Christians by how we live out these beatitudes, these blessings. By our Love.
Those of you who were ever on an ACTS Retreat with Hector Cardenas before he passed away might remember one of his favorite adages: “My point to you is, Life should not be about working through your To Do List, but is all about working through your To Be List!”
Most of us, if we even made a list of New Year’s resolutions have already cast them aside, and if you’re like me you have a to-do list of tasks to accomplish at work or honey-do things at home. But it isn’t what we accomplish that is important to God. It is who we are that is.
God didn’t create Human-Doings, He created Human-Beings. Let your humanity show just how God has blessed you. And if you don’t feel blessed today, remember Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.” God will bless us when it counts the most – in heaven, for all eternity.
Sunday, February 16, 2025
Attitudes of Being
Sunday, January 19, 2025
Whatever He Says
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi
In today’s Gospel from St. John, we see the beginning of Jesus’ ministry – and the first of the seven “signs”, or miracles, that John uses to showcase the divine nature of Jesus as the Christ.
In addition to the changing of water into wine here, the other six signs are:
1. The healing of the royal official's son in Capernaum (John 4:46-54)
2. The healing of the paralytic at Bethesda (John 5:1-15)
3. The feeding of the 5000 (John 6:5-14)
4. Jesus walking on water (John 6:16-24)
5. The healing of the man blind from birth (John 9:1-7)
and
6. The raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-45)
Now, while John in his Gospel only emphasized these seven “signs” instead of the collection of miracles that the other Gospel list, John used each one of his to help his community understand a particular aspect of the divine nature of Jesus, and to set the stage for John’s version of the Passion of Jesus and his subsequent resurrection.
It is important to note that most scholars figure that John’s Gospel was probably the last one written, maybe somewhere in the 90’s, and so his need to portray the various “whats” of Jesus’ ministry – the many healing and other miracles which would have been fairly well known by Christian followers by then – would be of less importance to the people than the “whys” of each, which witnessed to Jesus’ divinity as the only Son of God.1
Now, I often wonder, why change water into wine as your first sign? Jesus could have just as easily raised someone from the dead, like Lazarus, which would have really gotten people’s attention. And why was this sign so important to John? I mean, this particular miracle of changing water into wine is unique to the Gospel of John – you won’t find it mentioned anywhere in any of the other Gospels.
According to the introduction to the Gospel of John in the latest revision of the New American Bible, this first sign “symbolizes the entire creative and transforming work of Jesus.”
Let’s look at this story a little closer. It begins with Mary, Jesus and some of his disciples being invited to a wedding in Cana, shortly after the calling of Jesus’ first disciples. It’s about 4 miles from Nazareth to Cana, so the wedding must have been fairly important to Mary to travel that far to attend it. It is also reasonable to assume that this would be a fairly large celebration. Mary might have even been related to the couple.
As for Jesus and his disciples, they had recently begun traveling together – the previous chapter ends with the calling of Andrew, Simon Peter, Philip and Nathanial, and the beginning of this verse, although not included in today’s reading, puts this event as three days later. So, while John the Baptist has identified Jesus as the Lamb of God and the Son of God, these new disciples have yet to fully experience the divinity of Jesus.
The story also doesn’t say how long the party had been going on, but according to ancient Jewish wedding customs, a wedding celebration usually lasted for several days, so the fact that they ran out of wine isn’t necessarily surprising. But we can see some important symbolism in this sign:
• Weddings were communal events meant for celebration.
• Wine was a significant part of Jewish celebrations – it was meant to “gladden men’s hearts” as we hear in Psalm 104.
• Wine production was a major industry for the Jewish people, and God’s blessings were often compared to wine.
• And of course, at the Last Supper, Jesus used wine to signify His Blood.
From a theological perspective, Jesus’ creation of wine from water would have been seen by the Jewish people as a sign of the generosity of God and the amount created would show the abundance of that gift.
But before the sign itself is what might be the most important statement in this passage - Mary’s comment to the servers: "Do whatever He tells you." I’m not sure that converting water into wine was what Mary had in mind, but she had confidence in Jesus ability to come to the wedding party’s assistance.
Note:
• Mary’s intercession on behalf of the wedding party without being asked is a sign of her motherly concern for those around her. We recognize the same thing in her today when we ask her for her intercession on our behalf.
• Mary’s direction to the servers is the same to us today – if you are a disciple of her Son, you must do whatever He tells you.
And therein lies our greatest challenge: understanding what Jesus is telling us to do right now. I sometimes wonder what the servants thought when Jesus told them to fill those water jars. If it was me, I’d be wondering what jars of water had to do with the wine running out.
Kind of like someone today saying to God, “Hey, I’m out of gas” and God replying, “OK, go and get a five-gallon bucket of water.” It wouldn’t make sense to me.
Which I think may be our greatest challenge today. We face so many problems, both personally and in our communities at large, and we don’t know what we are to do. So, we turn to God for help. But what we are told doesn’t seem to make sense to us. Follow the commandments.
On the surface, the two greatest commandments sound simple: Love God, and love our neighbor. But how do we do that? If we listen to what the world says in all its fears, we may not hear what Jesus is saying to us in our hearts. Or, even if we hear, we may not trust that it will work out for the best.
Which brings us back to today’s Gospel. Once the water became wine, everyone at the celebration benefited, even without knowing how it came to be – or even knowing there was a problem in the first place. But the servants knew; and so did the disciples.
Even though they were just starting on their journey with Jesus and probably didn’t know what to expect, this first sign opened their eyes to the wonder – the mystery – of Jesus. And it says that they began to believe in Him.
We too are journeying with Jesus. And like his disciples, we too will see wonders and signs which we may not understand, and we will be called to do whatever he commands us, even if we don’t understand it or agree with it. And it will probably cost us something – maybe a lot. But if we will trust in Jesus, then we will share in the copious gifts God has in store for all of us, either in this world or in the next.
So, in the face of uncertainty or doubt – when the wine runs out – let us always do whatever Jesus commands us. And remember the simple prayer from St. Faustina Kowalska whenever we are in doubt or don't understand:
Jesus, I trust in You.