Jesus's Profile, the Beatitudes::: Wednesday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time

 Year A

Memorial of Saint Peter Claver

1 Corinthians 7:25-31

Psalm 45:11-12.14-15.16-17 (R.11a).

Luke 6:20-26

Jesus's Profile, the Beatitudes 

Today is the memorial of Saint Peter Claver who cares for the slaves merited him the name "slave of the slaves".  Looking at how he emptied himself to serve the slaves, we reflect today on the Beatitudes as Jesus's Profile, and hence how he who emptied himself to the point of dying on the Cross, calls us to everlasting happiness through detachment or imitating him who using the way of the Cross change curses into blessings, and raises the desire for heavenly blessings over earthly blessings in us.

 The Catechism of the Catholic Church number 1717 states that;

"The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity. They express the vocation of the faithful associated with the glory of his Passion and Resurrection; they are the paradoxical promises that sustain hope in the midst of tribulations; they proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured, however dimly, for Christ's disciples; they have begun in the lives of the Virgin Mary and all the saints."

In short what the Catechism of the Catholic Church is saying is that, the Beatitudes are something that Jesus Christ himself embodies. Thus they are all about him. Looking at his life you will find this astonishing truth, which we are called to imitate. 

In today's gospel we have Luke's version of the Beatitudes which has four blessings and four curses ending with the good prophets been killed and the false prophets been praised. This leads us to look at the blessings and curses that Moses laid before the Israelites in Deuteronomy 28. The Blessings starts from verses 1 to 14 and the Curses from verses 15 to 46.

The point from Moses' blessings and curses is that if the Israelites obey God the will be rich, have the land and so on, but their disobedience will bring curses of poverty, becoming slaves to others and so on. 

In Jesus's blessings and curses, there is a twist of Moses'. The reason is that while Moses is talking about earthly happiness, Jesus is talking about heavenly happiness, stressing that earthly blessings are spiritually dangerous.  

So in Jesus's case, the blessings are the curses and the curses are the blessings. This Monday Paul told us in the first reading  that our paschal Lamb has been sacrificed.  If we look at the sacrifice of the Cross that brought Salvation to all humans, which the Eucharist as an unbloody sacrifice depicts, we see a man who looks  like he has been cursed, but as the Greek word which was translated  blessed  is "makarios"  which means "happy ", he was and is indeed the happy one who wants to draw us to everlasting happiness. So on the Cross he said to the good thief;

"In truth I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise. " (Luke 23:43).

The stress  in the New Testament is that; to find real happiness, you must detach yourself from earthly goods and store up for yourself treasure in heaven.  So in Saint Paul's opinion today he says that if one wants to be single or marry, they are both okay, but those who marry will have worldly troubles,and he goes on to stress also on Detachment that, those who are married should live as though they haven't, those mourning as though not mourning, those rejoicing as though not rejoicing, those who buy as though they had no goods and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it.

All earthly things are good because God created them for us. He created everything for us before creating us humans. However, there is a higher calling which is to enter his rest, an action he performed on the last or seventh day  of creation (cf. Genesis 2:1-3). His rest is the summit of creation, and as he blessed that day, it is where true blessings and happiness is. 

By Sylvester Amakye-Quayson