Homily for 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
4th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Jan. 29, 2023
Matt 5: 1-12
Christian Brothers, Iona University, N.R.
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

“When Jesus saw the crowds, … he began to teach them” (Matt 5: 1-2).

(by Carl Bloch)

Last week we heard how Jesus began to preach all around Galilee, to heal the sick, to gather his apostles.

St. Matthew didn’t tell us in that 4th chapter of his Gospel what Jesus said in his preaching except, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (4:17).

Today we begin to hear what repentance means.  We begin to hear what brings the kingdom of heaven to hand.  Matthew says that Jesus “went up the mountain” and sat down.  Unlike the positions that teachers assume today, usually standing in front of a classroom or moving about it, sitting was the normal stance of teachers in the ancient world.  Thus Jesus sits and teaches.  He began his class, which has become known as the Sermon on the Mount.  It takes up ch. 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew’s Gospel.

When Matthews says, “He went up the mountain,” we needn’t think of some great elevation like Bear Mountain.  In fact, the site overlooking the Sea of Galilee traditionally associated with the Sermon is a gently sloping hillside where a crowd could easily have gathered to listen to a preacher.

Matthew is presenting Jesus as a new Moses.  Moses ascended Mt. Sinai to mediate between the Hebrews, freshly freed from slavery, and God.  He brought down from the mountain the 10 Commandments that would preserve their relationship with the God who’d liberated them.  Jesus on the mountain brings God’s word to a new people, “the crowds” gathered to hear him, and in particular he brings them a new law that supplements the 10 Commandments.  “The crowds” aren’t only the Jews but also other inhabitants to what Matthew called “Galilee of the Gentiles,” as we heard last week (4:15).

Jesus began his public ministry by calling for people to repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  The Sermon on the Mount spells out what repentance looks like.  It gives us the details of what it means to be converted, to turn our lives around, to live as citizens of the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus begins his Sermon with a new law, with 8 beatitudes, 8 blessings—or 9, if you count also the one about being insulted and persecuted.  These don’t replace the 10 Commandments but take us farther than the commandments in our relationship with God.  The rest of the Sermon on the Mount is meant to farther us also in our relationships with one another.  Jesus will proclaim in this Sermon, “I have not come to abolish the law or the prophets but to fulfill them” (5:17), i.e., to complete or perfect what Moses and the prophets taught and demanded.

One of the beatitudes blesses those “who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied” (5:6).  The word rendered here as “righteousness” is often translated as “justice” and sometimes as “uprightness.”  It’s not a legal term, as in desiring justice in law enforcement.  It means, rather, desiring and striving for a right relationship with God.  So it was, as we heard in Advent, that St. Joseph was “a just man,” a righteous man, an upright man before God (1:19).

People who are just or righteous hunger and thirst for God.  They make God the center of their lives.  They measure their words and actions by what they understand God to desire of them at a given moment.

We can call such people “upright” because they can stand up straight in the presence of God, not groveling on their knees, not cowering in fear.  Jesus teaches us—this is in the Sermon—to regard God as our Father, someone from whom our existence arises, someone who called us into being, someone who loves us tenderly, someone whom we, in turn, love with the affection of his children (6:9-13).  God wants to be close to us; this is one of the most revolutionary facets of Christianity, in contrast to other major faiths.  At the Last Supper, Jesus calls his apostles his friends.  Altho he’s their master, that’s in the sense of a teacher, not a taskmaster.  He says we’re not slaves but friends to whom he’s opened his heart (John 15:13-15).

Blessed are those who hunger for such a relationship with Jesus and his Father.  He promises that our hunger will be satisfied, that God will keep us close (even in times when we don’t sense his presence, times when we’re feeling lost, even times of persecution).  God has a great reward prepared for us in heaven (5:12), one that will completely satisfy our deepest hungers, the deepest longings of our hearts.

Desiring what God desires has implications for this life.  If we hunger for righteousness or justice, our words and actions have to demonstrate that.  In the context of education, St. John Bosco taught his disciples, “It’s not enough that you love the young.  They must know that you love them.”  This we show by action more than words, certainly more than feelings.  So, considering our righteousness, we might perceive a need to repent in some way.  We might look to some of the other beatitudes for clues on how to speak and to act, e.g., humbly (poor in spirit), patiently (meek), sympathetically (mourning), with forgiveness (merciful), chastely (clean of heart).

May we make God the focus of our lives.  May we really hunger for holiness in his eyes.