Citizens of the Kingdom

(4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, A, updated and revised from the homily I gave eighteen years ago on this day!)

Last Sunday we heard the beginning and core message of Jesus’ preaching: “The Kingdom of God is at hand.” The Kingdom of God, which is the destiny of all creation, us included, and is mysteriously present among us even now, is the heart of the Gospel.

Today, in Matthew’s Beatitudes, we hear a description of the citizens of this Kingdom.

First of all, the citizens of the Kingdom of God are “blessed.” The word in the original Greek here is makarios, and it’s just as easily translated as “happy.” My dictionary defined makarios as “blessed, happy, or fortunate.” That’s the first thing to know about being a Christian, a citizen of the kingdom of God: we are blessed, happy, and fortunate for the call we have received to Holy Communion with God in Christ. And that’s why the primary attitude of the Christian is always gratitude. As our own Blessed Solanus Casey put it, “gratitude is the first sign of a thinking, rational creature.”

The first beatitude says that a Christian is “poor in spirit.” That is, before God we have the stance and attitude of poor people, those who do not have what they need and who have to ask for it. We know that only the grace of God saves us, and it is only his Sacred Heart that offers the rest that our hearts desire. 

Only God can give what we truly desire, and so we are all poor before God. Therefore, for example, instead of the arrogance, the self-righteousness, and the insanity of seeking peace through violence that the children of the kingdom of this world offer us, we Christians are poor in spirit. We strive for this attitude through prayer, begging the grace from God to be “clean of heart,” so that we may be those who are blessed by our “hunger and thirst for righteousness,” rather than those driven to please and take care of themselves according to the spirit of this world.

Next, the citizens of the Kingdom of God mourn and are merciful. They are those who allow their hearts to break when they see and hear of the suffering of others. We Christians allow the suffering and misery of others affect us. We let our hearts be broken by all of the poverty and suffering and misery present in our world, because this is the first step to compassion, that our hearts might break open in prayer for the suffering, and in seeking how to give them the peace and salvation God desires for them.

Finally, the citizens of the Kingdom of God are meek, and are peacemakers. They are those who look for opportunities to not return evil for evil, hurt for hurt. We Christians seek to break cycles of violence and hurt in our families, our communities, and among nations. We recognize that the peace the world talks about isn’t real peace, but just the absence of conflict, space for each to seek their own interests without obstacles. The peace that God gives is so much more; it is a positive force for ending violence and producing gentleness and kindness.

These Beatitudes are a tall order. They challenge us to change our minds about how we look at ourselves and the world. And if we follow them, we can be sure that we will share in some of the misunderstanding and persecution that the Lord Jesus himself experienced among us. Maybe we won’t be martyrs for the faith, but if we take being disciples seriously, we can be sure that some people will mock us, some will insult us, and many just won’t get it. And when this happens, as Jesus tells us, we are especially fortunate, most happy, and blessed by the Lord more than ever.