Search

Results

Exploring the word

13 Feb 2011 - Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

FEW OF US love the law. In a country that sometimes views government with hostility and authority with suspicion, our reflexive stance toward rules is to shred first, reconsider later. Maybe. Many of us don’t even read the operating instructions on what we buy, though our personal safety may be compromised: Just plug it in, hit the ON button, and hope for the best! When we live this way—start it up and full speed ahead, without considering the rules of the road—it can lead to trouble, even mortal peril. Though we often regard laws as barbed wire designed to entrap our freedom, they might also be viewed as the means to secure our liberty. If any idiot on the road could do as he or she pleases, travel would be open only to those who value their lives and the lives of others quite lightly. To a society like ours, the community proposed in early Hebrew writings is impossible to imagine. These people were into law. In Psalm 119, the famous love song to the law which is also the longest chapter in the Bible, no fewer than eight synonyms for torah are used: word, law, commandment, rule, decree, precept, teaching, and way. Interestingly, though, the psalm is not concerned with the regulations that comprise much of the Pentateuch, nor does it mention the commandments at Sinai or the person of Moses. Law, this post-exilic psalm makes clear, is more properly understood as a “word to the wise.” For the closest parallel to this approach, the rabbis point to the writings of Sirach. Biblically speaking, divine law is equivalent to sanity. To live any other way is madness. Because God is the source of life, becoming familiar with the divine operating instructions is the best way to appreciate that gift. As Ben Sira writes, there’s life and death out there, good and evil, fire and water. To whichever you choose, put out your hand—but do understand, these choices are not neutral. The outcomes will be dramatically different. Torah will save you, the sage insists. It will keep you from making the mistake you live to regret—that is, if you live at all. When Jesus extends the law in his Sermon on the Mount, he’s not doing it to make life harder than it already is. Jesus builds a fence around the law, as the rabbis phrase it. He tells us that the road to murder begins on the path of anger; adultery’s highway has an entrance ramp from lust. If sin is not your destination, then by all means don’t travel its tributaries. Properly understood, law deserves its own fan club. God’s laws are designed, after all, with your happiness and user-satisfaction in mind. Catechism links Good and evil: CCC 311-312; 671; 1755-1756 Law and commandment: CCC 707-710; 1961-1974 Sermon on the mount: 1724; 2262; 2336; 2608; 2746

Authors Alice Camille

Law torah Divine law sermon on the mount

Restricted
Homily themes

03 Jun 2012 - Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Cycle B

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When Jesus goes up a mountain, two important things often happened. Whether it’s his Transfiguration, the “Sermon on the Mount,” or, in today’s gospel reading, to meet his with his disciples one last time before his Ascension, Jesus was confirmed in his special relationship with God and he gave out instructions. On the mount of the Transfiguration God confirmed that Jesus is God’s Son. On another mountain Jesus delivered some of his key teachings on the kingdom of God. And on the Galilean mountaintop you get both: the affirmation that God had given all power to Christ, including the divine name “I am,” plus the commission to baptize the nations and teach “them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

Authors Joel Schorn

disciples Transfiguration galilee sermon on the mount

Restricted
Homily themes

30 Jan 2011 - Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Both Matthew (5:3-12) and Luke (6:20-23) use the Beatitudes to introduce the central discourse of Jesus in both gospels. In Matthew the "Sermon on the Mount" symbolizes Jesus receiving new commandments like Moses on Mount Sinai; in Luke, the "Sermon on the Plain" echoes Moses coming down from the mountain to give the Law to the people. While Luke's Beatitudes focus more on consoling--though they also include the "woes" lacking in the first gospel--Matthew's Beatitudes lean toward exhortation. Matthew also adds "in spirit" to the "poor," poor here meaning those dependent on God. Taken together, the Beatitudes in both gospels represent a powerful message of deliverance from suffering, both material and spiritual, and a call to embrace the way of humility and justice. The Beatitudes are not logically true. The lowly and the needy are far from happy. Jesus calls them blessed because they are faithful and trust in God. How faithful and trusting are we? God always rescues the remnant in the end. If we are not among the remnant, we should make friends there by our compassionate action. The spirit of Beatitude is joy, not miserable obligation. If we believe this, so will those who hear our proclamation and see our example.

blessed beatitudes sermon on the mount Poor

Restricted
Exploring the word

05 Jul 2009 - Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account,” Jesus famously taught in his Sermon on the Mount. And he should know, because Jesus faced precisely this kind of treatment at his debut in Nazareth. Folks didn’t simply disapprove of his teaching. They questioned his credentials and even his paternity (being called “the son of Mary” was irregular in a land where your father’s lineage was paramount). In fact, the opposition got rather physical, if you include nearly being hurled off a cliff at the end of the lesson. When we are criticized, rightly or wrongly, it rarely feels like a blessing. Even persecution for righteousness’ sake—a very specific kind of rejection—is not something most of us are anxious to achieve. We want approval, not condemnation. We seek support and encouragement, a pat on the back, and even a reward when possible. As children a cookie would do. Later on the keys to the car said it better. In adulthood we’re usually looking for more cash in the envelope. What we really don’t expect or desire, when we say or do the right thing, is to be defamed for it. Saint Paul can have his angel of Satan to beat him, and if it makes him a more noble character, more power to him. Most of us would prefer to keep that particular monkey off our backs. If I had to wrestle with an angel all night long as Jacob did, I may wind up wiser and better for it. But I’d still opt out of the experience if I could, in exchange for a good night’s rest. Ezekiel was advised at the start of his prophetic ministry that being on God’s payroll is not a popularity contest: It’s the rebellious nation that needs a prophet, not a saintly and compliant crew. Telling the weaktruth, whether professionally or in the bosom of our families, is rarely a thing for which we’ll be thanked. Having admitted all of that, I also must admit that Jesus is absolutely right—as usual. Although no one has questioned my paternity yet, the criticism I do regularly receive from coworkers, friends, family members, and the occasional opposition leader can be a blessing if I am willing to receive it as one. It does remind me, as Paul says, that my weakness reveals the strength of Christ—that such a one as I could do any good at all is a minor miracle! Criticism keeps me humble, provides the opportunity for an examination of conscience (sometimes the negative report is quite accurate), exercises my sense of humor, and reminds me that the good I do isn’t about me; it’s meant to glorify God. Related scripture links Calls to prophesy: Exod. 3:4-14; 1 Sam. 3:1-10; Isa. 6:1-10; Jer.1:4-10; Jon. 1:1-3 Who’s responsible for the message: Ezek. 3:17-21 God’s Word is alive: Heb. 4:12-13 Nothing but Christ crucified: 1 Cor. 2:1-5 Catechism links Omnipotence: CCC 268-274; 1508 Sickness and faith: CCC 1500-1510

Authors Alice Camille

keep humble sermon on the mount son of Mary Weakness strength

Restricted
Homily themes

01 Nov 2009 - Solemnity of All Saints, Cycle B

He began to teach them, saying, “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” The beatitudes in Matthew mark the beginning of the first of the five great speeches or discourses on which this gospel is built. Jesus goes up a mountain, traditionally a place of revelation, to address his disciples and deliver a set of beatitudes three times longer than those in the Gospel of Luke. Beatitudes were not new. They’re a form found in the Psalms, where blessings, and sometimes the reasons for them, are proclaimed. The gospel takes the beatitudes a step further by using them to describe the inhabitants of the kingdom of God: those who rely on God, grieve, are humble, and do God’s will; the merciful, peacemakers, and the persecuted. Not a bad description for all the saints—and those to whom God gives the fullness of life.

Authors Joel Schorn

beatitudes blessings sermon on the mount

Restricted
Exploring the word

12 Feb 2023 - Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Few of us love the law. In a country that sometimes views government with hostility and authority with suspicion, our reflexive stance toward rules is to shred first, reconsider later. Maybe. Many of us don’t even read the operating instructions on what we buy, though our personal safety may be compromised: Just plug it in, hit the ON button, and hope for the best! When we live this way—start it up and full speed ahead, without considering the rules of the road—it can lead to trouble, even mortal peril. Though we often regard laws as barbed wire designed to entrap our freedom, they might also be viewed as the means to secure our liberty. If any idiot on the road could do as he or she pleases, travel would be open only to those who value their lives and the lives of others quite lightly. To a society like ours, the community proposed in early Hebrew writings is impossible to imagine. These people were into law. In Psalm 119, the famous love song to the law which is also the longest chapter in the Bible, no fewer than eight synonyms for torah are used: word, law, commandment, rule, decree, precept, teaching, and way. Interestingly, though, the psalm is not concerned with the regulations that comprise much of the Pentateuch, nor does it mention the commandments at Sinai or the person of Moses. Law, this post-exilic psalm makes clear, is more properly understood as a “word to the wise.” For the closest parallel to this approach, the rabbis point to the writings of Sirach. Biblically speaking, divine law is equivalent to sanity. To live any other way is madness. Because God is the source of life, becoming familiar with the divine operating instructions is the best way to appreciate that gift. As Ben Sira writes, there’s life and death out there, good and evil, fire and water. To whichever you choose, put out your hand—but do understand, these choices are not neutral. The outcomes will be dramatically different Torah will save you, the sage insists. It will keep you from making the mistake you live to regret—that is, if you live to regret it at all. When Jesus extends the law in his Sermon on the Mount, he’s not doing it to make life harder than it already is. Jesus builds a fence around the law, as the rabbis phrase it. He tells us that the road to murder begins on the path of anger; adultery’s highway has an entrance ramp from lust. If sin is not your destination, then by all means don’t travel its tributaries. Properly understood, law deserves its own fan club. God’s laws are designed, after all, with your happiness and user-satisfaction in mind. Related scripture links A new heaven and a new Earth: Isa. 65:17; 66:22 God’s hidden mystery now revealed: Rom. 11:25-36; 16:25-27; Eph. 1:3-10; 3:3-11; Col. 1:25-28 The eyes of God behold human deeds: Ps. 33:18; 34:16; Heb. 4:13 Choose the path of life or death: Deut. 30:15-20 Catechism links Good and evil: CCC 311-312; 671; 1755-1756 Law and commandment: CCC 707-710; 1961-1974 Sermon on the Mount: 1724; 2262; 2336; 2608; 2746

Authors Alice Camille

Law Rules Divine law sermon on the mount

Restricted
Homily stories

16 Feb 2025 - Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

I schlepped a lot of guilt with me up the hill as we climbed the Mount of Beatitudes. I was part of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and had gladly agreed to lead music for our daily Masses. But then I’d learned a certain diva was upset that I’d not yet tapped her to sing the Ave Maria. It weighed on me. Was I just being stubborn, too bent on finding a “liturgically appropriate” occasion for this woman to share her beautiful voice? It bothered me, too, that she involved the pilgrimage leader instead of coming to me—since we’d seemed to really hit it off. I can’t remember which version of the Beatitudes were proclaimed that day—presumably Matthew’s version from the Sermon on the Mount, since we were on the Mount of the Beatitudes—but it didn’t matter. My thoughts were elsewhere. I should have been comforted by the words “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” as I was feeling awful. Had we been using Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, I would have felt even worse, as “Blessed are you who are poor” always pinged my sense of privilege and, by now, the impoverished Palestinians we saw everywhere grabbed my heartstrings. As we boarded the bus, I sat alone with my ruminating. I finally realized the guilt I was feeling concerned no diva at all—unless of course that diva was me. I’d missed the gift of a beautiful place on a glorious day. I’d missed the comfort and truth of the day’s gospel. And it was all because I was too self-absorbed to ask Jesus into my troubled heart.

Authors Mary Lynn Hendrickson

beatitudes sermon on the mount guilt

Restricted