Dear friends,
As we contemplate today’s “good news”….in Sacred Scripture that is…juxtaposed to the secular “foul news” of the day… we hear Jesus’ exhorting us to look at our lives and our ways of “being in the world” through the lens of humility and compassion. The Beatitudes are an invitation to open our minds and hearts to the reality of what truly makes life
worth living. Worth…the deep abiding sense of “worth” is not to be found in our what we possess, or how we are recognized, or the power we possess….nor is “worth” contained in what we have suffered or lost, but rather “worth” is situated in our inner being…our integrity…our knowing that “only in God can our hearts be at rest” and our living out that Truth. In this way, we are truly “Blessed.”
Jan Richardson offers a moving meditation on the Beatitudes that is much in keeping with our thoughts today. We share it with you for your prayerful reflection: “Here in the beatitudes and throughout his ministry, Jesus proclaims that blessing happens in seeing the presence of Christ, in hearing him, in receiving him, in responding to him. And because Christ so often chooses places of desperate lack—those spaces where people are without comfort or health or strength or freedom, those places where they hunger for food or mercy or peace or safety—it is when we go into those places, when we seek and serve those who dwell there, that we find the presence of Christ. And, finding, then carry him with us.
To be blessed is not a static state. There is a dynamism within the word blessed: it implies an ability to be in the ongoing process of recognizing, receiving, and responding. To be blessed is to enter a kind of pregnancy: to take Christ in, to let him grow in us, to bear him forth, then to receive him and bear him yet again in our acts of mercy, of compassion, of solidarity, of love.
And you? Who or what do you name as blessed? Where do you encounter the blessing of Christ in this world? How do you seek to embody the blessing of God in your own life—to see and to hear Christ, to recognize him and bear him? Do you think of yourself as blessed? Who has given you this name? Who have you named as blessed?
May we have eyes to see and ears to hear, and may Christ have cause to say to us:
Blessed are you.
Blessed are you.
Blessed are you.”
At The Spirit of Life, our belief in the sacredness of all created beings and loving relationships compels us to respond with care and compassion to all who are marginalized in our church and world. We invite you to come and to pray with us as we “do our own work” in growing into a deeper awareness of our own gifts and ‘growing edges’ and together create a community that invites diversity and honors the uniqueness of each individual and every journey. We are confident that you will feel welcome in the “home” of The Spirit of Life.
John Foley, SJ, sums up today’s Gospel with this thought…and it is our wish for each of you:
“Go where God’s love is quietly present. Become a home for the people of this earth, helping them receive their blessing. And receiving our own as well.” (John Foley SJ)
With loving blessings,
Jean & Ron