There are times in the gospel stories when Jesus offers encouraging words to the men and women who are following him, men like the fishermen, Peter, James and John and women like his mother Mary, and the other women who later were with him at the cross. Today in the gospel we are told that Jesus gathers these close disciples away from the demanding crowds and they sit down where he can address them without interruption.
And here he tells them about the search for blessedness and happiness. Happiness is found, he tells them, as the fruit of characteristics like poverty of spirit that are counter to the culture of this world. Jesus names eight paths to this state of beatitude: poverty, mercy, meekness, peacekeeping, sorrow, singleheartedness, search for righteousness and suffering within such a search. He himself follows these paths in his own life.
Jesus tells us here how to get closer to him and also how to get closer to others who follow him. His words give us energy to carry on with our lives with a confidence that does not depend on worldly success but on imitating his practice of the beatitudes. The message clearly flies in the face of the characteristics that that are valued by the worldly.
And we, too, may find it difficult to consider what the world calls negative experiences like meekness and forgiveness as sources of blessedness and happiness.
But consider such people who have had such experiences. Many of them have expressed the results of these experiences as a true peace that can make them smile at God’s action in their hearts.
Fortunately we have a history in this nation of heroes who became blessed. Think of Rosa Parkes, a religious woman of great dignity who did the very humble thing of offering herself as a symbol. She sat down on that bus in the wrong place and she began a change in the nation’s commitment to public accommodations. And think of our men and women medical professionals who, with nothing but love for others, set up merciful health care in places, even remote places, where children are dying. There is an example of such outreach organized by our own University’s Institute of Clinical Bioethics, an outreach even to the sidewalks of Kensington where men and women caught in addiction need health care. And imagine, too, the wealthy who are poor in spirit, men like Warren Buffet who will give away all of his billions to charity before he dies. And think of those in sorrow whose memory of loved ones moves them to dedicate their lives to the promotion of measures of health and safety that were missing in the lives of their deceased loved ones. An active consolation!
Let’s consider two points: First: Today many in our country reject the beatitudes. Second: How can we practice them?
Today, however, our nation is suffering a particular neglect of the traits of the beatitudes. Yes, over my lifetime our country has grown in its sharing of opportunity and wealth. But among our utter failures has been the lack of concerted effort to regulate our systems of immigration that traditionally provided opportunities for citizenship for millions who seek it. The current reaction to those seeking citizenship is far from a merciful response searching for righteousness and peace. Today most traces of mercy in normative procedures of asylum and temporary protective status have been replaced with the harshest judgments. In this new world filled with fresh punitive practices, the teachings of Jesus are rejected as our nation seeks a false security in behaviors of arrogance and retribution exactly opposed to the practices recommended in the beatitudes.
The powerful people behind these practices have a way of gathering a kind of religious following, not of course for a dedication to biblical truth but rather a religious like dedication to opposite characteristics.
This situation has been brewing for years and politicians of varying persuasions have not addressed it in any adequate way. And now some powerful people hurl abusive language toward the undocumented in an attempt to rob them of their human dignity. Unfortunately there is an audience of citizens eager to accept this abuse as supporting their own thinking.
As it turns out, of course, Temple authorities in Jerusalem adopted a similar abusive strategy to get rid of Jesus. They ridiculed Jesus with the false title of “king of the Jews” and mocked him with the crown of thorns. This in preparation for a kangaroo court with false witnesses and mob support so that they could put him to death.
Cardinal Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, has spoken out many times in the past year deploring the dehumanizing language that some use when speaking about our immigrants. The Cardinal reminded us of a video posted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) some months ago. It featured agents in tactical gear with a biblical verse from Proverbs 48 appearing on the screen, a verse aimed at depicting agents as the "righteous" pursuing the "wicked". And this is the quote: “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.” (Proverbs 48). Of course, this ignores the frequent directives in the Old Testament about welcoming the stranger among us.
So Finally: How can we practice the beatitudes in the present environment? The truth is that fewer than 5% of the undocumented in the United States are among those who can be described as criminals. Fortunately law-abiding, hard-working immigrant families have abundant friends in their neighborhoods, friends who are willing to step out and defend their rights. Thousands of peaceful citizens are stepping out on the streets of Minneapolis and calling for ICE to leave their city. The peaceful protest is an example of a practice of the beatitudes: a committed humility speaking to power, a sorrow for the fractured families, a seeking of righteousness and peace. Such public protest is a statement defending the undocumented in all of our cities and it is being imitated in a number of ways around the country.
Cardinal Cupich is only one of our many Catholic leaders who are confirming the dignity of the human person. In fact, even though the abusive language of the arrogant seeks to rob others of their dignity, our teachings urge us to address even the arrogant themselves with truth. So, yes, even Donald Trump cannot give away his own God-given dignity even when attempting to strip it from others. So we address him and his followers with a plea to be in touch with their own human dignity. Only then can they recognize this dignity in others and confirm such dignity with the manner in which they carry out their duties.
We do recognize that Jesus, of course, did not react to civil power in this way. Jesus called King Herod a “fox” and refused to save himself by performing miracles for him. But I think in the current state of our country, the Spirit is assisting us to work miracles in differing ways at various levels of government as we practice the beatitudes.
In our present national crisis a nationwide group of Catholics from many dioceses are planning prayer and witness opportunities around the country with a unified national name. This Lent and Easter period has been given a name: “Season of Faithful Witness.” A local group here will be just one of many groups taking part by gathering in public prayer and witness in the support of human life and human dignity. You can find internet info with these words “Season of Faithful Witness.”
So let us pray now at this altar witnessing to Jesus Christ who gathers us together with his promises of beatitude and happiness. We especially want to pray with the undocumented meek whom God promises to bless with possessing the earth.
