Matthew 5:1-12a

Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13

Psalm 146:6-7, 8-9, 9-10

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Matthew 5:1-12a

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain,

and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. 

He began to teach them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

for they will inherit the land.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the clean of heart,

for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you

and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.

Rejoice and be glad,

for your reward will be great in heaven.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I thank you for offering me a share in your blessedness. You truly are my Father, and I desire to see you face to face in heaven and be united to you forever in an unbreakable bond of love.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The Heart of the New Law of Jesus: In the Gospel, we continue our semi-continuous reading of the Gospel of Matthew on Sundays. We begin to read the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus acts as a New Moses and sits down to teach the crowds. While Moses descended the mountain to give the Old Law, Jesus ascended the mountain and brought the crowd with him and gave them the New Law. While the old Law of Moses was ordered to the earthly Kingdom in Jerusalem, the New Law of Jesus is ordered to the heavenly Kingdom. The New Law, unlike the Old Law, does not begin with a list of prohibitions, but with the path that leads to blessedness and happiness. Jesus is teaching us how to be happy in this life and the next. The blessings and happiness Jesus promises are not just for the future. They are blessings and beatitudes we can experience in this life. The Kingdom of God is a blessing given to the poor in spirit (the spiritually humble), to those who mourn (those who lament the suffering and sins of this life), the meek (those who are gentle and patient), those who are just, the pure of heart, the peacemakers, and the merciful. Paradoxically, we will be happy when we suffer persecution and are reviled, slandered, or falsely accused on account of being a disciple of Jesus.

2. The Humble Remnant: In the First Reading, the prophet Zephaniah speaks to the humble during the reign of King Josiah (640-609 B.C.), inviting them to seek the Lord: “Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth, who have observed his law; seek justice, seek humility.” Instead of seeking after false gods and idols (Zephaniah 1:4-60), Zephaniah calls the humble, the anawim, the remnant (Zephaniah 2:7) to seek the Lord and remain faithful to him in the midst of widespread apostasy and idolatry. Zephaniah anticipates the call to humility with which Jesus begins the Beatitudes. Zephaniah also calls the people to seek righteousness, just as Jesus calls his followers to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Zephaniah describes the remnant of Israel who will be humble and lowly, and take refuge in the name of the Lord. “The remnant will survive the calamity that is coming and will be reformed and renewed” (Catholic Bible Dictionary, 976). In the Gospel, Jesus is establishing the prophesied remnant of Israel, the small group that would begin with him and his disciples. He is giving them the New Law that will guide them as the Kingdom spreads to the ends of the earth.

3. Choosing the Weak to Shame the Strong: For the next couple of weeks, the Second Reading will be taken from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians. He wrote the letter from Ephesus in the spring of A.D. 52. He was responding to reports about division in the community and wanted to address several issues in the community. “Paul was familiar with the Greco-Roman culture in which the Corinthians lived and the powerful influence this culture had on their lives and ways of thinking; and he made use of the tools of Greek rhetoric to demonstrate to the Corinthians the emptiness of this way of thinking and living compared to the wisdom of the Gospel” (Gray, First Corinthians; The Church and the Christian Community, 19). The Corinthians prized wisdom and eloquence, and complained that Paul was not as eloquent as other speakers of the day. This love of human wisdom was pulling new Christians in Corinth away from the wisdom of the Gospel. Paul responds to this by giving several examples of true, divine wisdom: God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise; he chose the weak to shame the strong; he chose the lowly, who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something. “God’s economy of grace overturns the world categories and expectations. God chose to save the world through a crucifixion and chooses unimpressive people to be vessels of his power” (Prothro, The Apostle Paul and His Letters, 103).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, count me among the humble remnant that you have gathered. Pour forth your Spirit into my heart so that I may live the Beatitudes in my life. Show me where I can grow in humility, contrition, meekness, righteousness, purity, peace, and mercy.

Living the Word of God: Am I as familiar with the Beatitudes as I am with the Ten Commandments? Do I know the Beatitudes by heart? Can I examine my conscience today using the Beatitudes as my guide? For example, how am I living the first beatitude? When have I been proud of heart instead of poor in spirit? What does spiritual poverty and humility look like in my life? How am I called to be a humble remnant within God’s Kingdom in a world tempted by idolatry? How am I called to imitate Jesus, who was meek and humble of heart? How does humility lead to meekness and spiritual gentleness?