03 Feb – Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Our Nothingness
Yes, we can celebrate today our nothingness in the eyes of the world, because God has looked on our humility and lowliness and given us the wisdom, virtue and holiness of Christ. He alone is our boast.
- the Sunday Missal
____________________
Louis Mayer
Louis B. Mayer was the dominant figure in the film industry, from the silent era through the talkies revolution. While the other early moguls were simply trying to make the best movies they could, young Mayer was an ideologue intent on using the power of the new medium to exert what he considered the proper moral influence on the public. For Mayer the words family values had real meaning, Motherhood, the national flag, and God were equal parts of a lifelong strategy. One can trace his convictions to his early upbringing.
Mayer once told about an experience in his childhood that reveals a slice of his character. Louis had a fight with another boy and returned home with bruises on his face. While his mother was attending to his injuries, he explained that the other boy was completely to blame for starting the fight. His mother did not say anything, but when she finished, she took Louis by the hand out the back door of their home. Facing them were several hills that created distinct echoes. She told him to imagine that the hills were the boy who had beaten him up, and instructed him to shout out, at the top of his voice, all the nasty names he would like to call his ‘enemy’. Louis did so, and the bad names were all echoed back to him.
That done, his mother said, “Now shout, ‘God bless you’.”
He did so and back came “God bless you”. Mayer never forgot that lesson.
- What thoughts, feelings, occurred to you while you went through the story?
- What do you think is the ‘moral’ of the story?
- taken from “Persons Are Gifts”, by Hedwig Lewis, SJ
____________________
Zephaniah 2:3,3:12-13
Seek the Lord
all you, the humble of the earth,
who obey his commands.
Seek integrity,
seek humility:
you may perhaps find shelter
on the day of the anger of the Lord.
In your midst I will leave
a humble and lowly people,
and those who are left in Israel will seek refuge in the name of the Lord.
They will do no wrong,
will tell no lies;
and the perjured tongue will no longer
be found in their mouths.
But they will be able to graze and rest
with no one to disturb them.
____________________
1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Take yourselves, brothers, at the time when you were called: how many of you were wise in the ordinary sense of the word, how many were influential people, or came from noble families? No, it was to shame the wise that God chose what is foolish by human reckoning, and to shame what is strong that he chose what is weak by human reckoning; those whom the world thinks common and contemptible are the ones that God has chosen – those who are nothing at all to show those who are everything. The human race has nothing to boast about to God, but you, God has made members of Christ Jesus and by God’s doing he has become our wisdom, and our virtue, and our holiness, and our freedom. As scripture says: if anyone wants to boast, let him boast about the Lord.
____________________
Matthew 5:1-12
Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up the hill. There he sat down and was joined by his disciples. Then he began to speak. This is what he taught them:
“How happy are the poor in spirit;
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy the gentle:
they shall have the earth for their heritage.
Happy those who mourn:
they shall be comforted.
Happy those who hunger and thirst for what is right:
they shall be satisfied.
Happy the merciful:
they shall have mercy shown them.
Happy the pure in heart:
they shall see God.
Happy the peacemakers:
they shall be called sons of God.
Happy those who are persecuted in the cause of right:
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Happy are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”
____________________
Last week, something disturbing happened to me. You know how I always sign off with “Peace” in my emails? Someone picked up on it last week, and accused me of not really showing peace to him. He said I was pretending to offer peace and didn’t really mean it. Although it was just a casual email, thanking him for a favour he did, it has since erupted into yet another fight between me and this guy, and has robbed me of my peace.
Today’s gospel reading is telling me that I should be happy, since people are indeed abusing me and speaking all kinds of calumny against me just because I tried to be Christian. Against my better judgement, I tried to reach out in a Christian way to this person even when everyone else around me has been telling me to ignore this trouble-maker.
But in spite of all that, Jesus says, be happy. How to be happy? I am sure you have faced such things before in your own ministries. How to be happy? This is why Jesus’ message in these Beatitudes is so important, and sounds so ridiculous to the worldly. Jesus points us to the happiness that is found not on earth, but in heaven. He points us to the bigger picture, the bigger plan, which involves bringing us to heaven.
Happy we are indeed when we do all these things, and face all sorts of persecution, because we try to be like Christ. Happy we are indeed, because all these things also happened to Christ. If it were not for Christ, would we be doing this? Happy we should be indeed, especially when we focus on the bigger picture – that doing these things makes us suffer in the way Christ has suffered, and it is through the cross that we find resurrection and eternal life.
Of course we don’t suffer for the sake of suffering. But neither do we run away from it and try all sorts of ways to avoid it because this type of suffering has a meaning. It means that we are following the way of Christ, the way of the cross. It is a suffering that has a purpose to it – to make us more like Christ. We wanted to be like Christ, so we imitated him in what he would have done. Consequently, we also bear the sufferings as he had suffered for the things he did, and that makes us even more like Christ.
There are many nasty things I’d like to say to this person, but inspired by Louis Mayer, the only thing I will say to him from now on is: God bless you!
____________________
Prayer:
Dear Lord, I pray for the person that is persecuting me, that God may bless him and his family. Amen.
Give Thanks to the Lord for: The Beatitudes, which bring meaning to suffering.
Upcoming Readings:
Mon, 04 Feb – 2 Samuel 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13; Mark 5:1-20
Tue, 05 Feb – 2 Samuel 18:9-10, 14b, 24-25a, 30 – 19:3; Mark 5:21-43; Memorial for St. Agatha, martyr
Wed, 06 Feb – Joel 2:12-18; 2 Corinthians 5:20 – 6:2; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18; Ash Wednesday
Thu, 07 Feb – Deuteronomy 30: 15-20; Luke 9:22-25; Weekday after Ash Wednesday
Fri, 08 Feb – Isaiah 58:1-9a; Matthew 9:14-15; Friday after Ash Wednesday
Sat, 09 Feb – Isaiah 58:9b-14; Luke 5:27-32; Saturday after Ash Wednesday
Sun, 10 Feb – Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11; First Sunday of Lent
————————
To subscribe to this mailing list, send a blank e-mail to this address:
Godismyoxygen-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe to this mailing list, send a blank e-mail to this address:
Godismyoxygen-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
OXYGEN is also available at:
http://godismyoxygen.wordpress.com/
————————
Disclaimer: I have no control over what Yahoo! advertises in this email, and endorse none of them.
