From the Pastor’s Desk: February 17, 2019

     Today’s readings remind us that a relationship with Our Lord is not optional in our lives if we truly want a fulfilled and complete life. A life without the Lord is ultimately a life without purpose. What we think, do, and experience in this life has ramifications from here to eternity. In today’s Gospel, we hear Luke’s account of the Beatitudes, also known as the Sermon of the Plain. Jesus teaches to a great crowd of followers by turning the world on its head. Jesus proposes an authentic way of happy lives (blessedness) and His logic and focus are very clear. In terms of what’s most important, worldly blessings like riches, food, laughter and praise can be spiritual woes and curses, and worldly woes like poverty, famine, tears and derision can become spiritual blessings. It is a sad truth that the more one is filled with human blessings, the easier it is to push God to the side, to think that one doesn’t need God. The real question each of us needs to face is whether our values, our logic, our focus are like Jesus’ or like the world’s. We either place our genuine trust in God or a trust in the good things of God that the devil can often easily manipulate to draw our hearts away from God. It needs to be our decision to be laborers in the construction of the Kingdom of God in our everyday lives.
 
     Jesus links true happiness with struggle, hardship, suffering and opposition, not with the prosperity, popularity, and pleasure that we normally associate with happiness. That does not mean that the good things of life are evil - not at all. They are God's gifts and we are meant to enjoy them. But they cannot be the source to satisfy our desire for happiness, because they don’t grow roots to produce fruits.
 
     Rather, Jesus is teaching us that the true path to happiness in this fallen world is paved with life's challenges and hardships. These remind us that this world is passing and imperfect, that the only dependable thing in life is our friendship with God. Hardships and challenges teach us to root our lives in the rich soil of knowing, loving, and serving Him; then our lives will be like a flourishing tree, with strong roots and luscious fruits.
This lesson has to be re-learned continually. Because of our fallen nature, we often tend to think we can find heaven on earth by putting together just the right combination of possessions, praise, and power. But we can't, as our Lord makes perfectly clear. 
 
     Luke makes very concrete statements - Blessed are the poor. He doesn’t quote the Lord as saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”  Luke quotes the Lord as saying, simply, “Blessed are the poor.” St. Luke also quotes Jesus saying, “Woe to the rich.” Jesus is not concerned with the amount of money a person has.  He’s concerned with the false sense of security that money often gives people.  Many people are tempted to trust in their possessions instead of trusting in God.
 
     The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us, that, “The beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the love of God above all else. It teaches us that true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement - however beneficial it may be - such as science, technology, and art, or indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love... All bow down before wealth. Wealth is that to which the multitude of men pay an instinctive homage. They measure happiness by wealth; and by wealth they measure respect- ability. . . . It is a homage resulting from a profound faith . . .  that with wealth he may do all things. Wealth is one idol of the day and notoriety is a second. . . . Notoriety, or the making of a noise in the world—it may be called “newspaper  fame”—has come to be considered a great good in itself, and  a ground of veneration.” (CCC#1723)
 
     I pray and wish you a truly happy week, so working together for the Glory of God and to advance in holiness of life, we will “rejoice and leap for joy! Because your reward will be great in heaven!”
 
With prayers,
Fr. Andy