Attitudes and Be-Attitudes"
Today's Mass Readings
To truly appreciate today's readings we must begin with last Sundays’ Gospel passage. It said, “From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand” (Mt 4:17). This is the same Kingdom that the beatitudes offer as a reward to those who are poor in heart, those who mourn, the meek, the merciful, the peace-makers, the pure in heart, those thirsting for righteousness, and those standing up for righteousness But the starting point of the blessed state, the birth of Kingdom in each individual life begins with ‘repentance.’ Let me use another word, ‘conversion.’ In last Sunday’s gospel, Jesus used the words conversion and Kingdom in the same sentence and then this Sunday he uses the words blessed and the Kingdom in the same sentence. In my opinion, any reflection on the beatitudes has to begin with a reflection on ‘conversion.’ Conversion is about replacing my attitudes with the be-attitudes. And there in lies the blessedness of the Kingdom.
The key to conversion, however, is humility. The first reading taken from the book of Zephaniah says: Seek justice, seek humility (Zeph 2:3). The continues, “ I will leave in your midst a people humble and lowly… (Zeph 3:12). In other words, we shall only really discover God when we have tread the road of humility. God is the reward for a humble people.
Humility is best lived out in our relationship with people. Humility is about realizing that we cannot damn the rest of the people and walk into heaven. We are accountable and responsible for one another. It is humility that makes us realize the need to replace our attitudes with the Be-Attitudes. In other words, the fruit if humility is conversion and the fruit of conversion is blessed of the kingdom.
The readings today encourage us to repent from all those attitudes that are contrary to the Be-attitudes. As Ash Wednesday fast apporaces, let our reflection today revolve around replacing our attitudes with the Be-Attitudes.
- Fr. Satish Joseph