FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD
JANUARY 29, 2023
Fourth SUNDAY of Ordinary Time
WORD of the DAY
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. (Matthew 5: 1-12)
“How shall I live this Word? 
Even before dwelling on the beatitudes, what strikes us are the eyes of Jesus open on the people in front of Him. He understands the pain, the tears, the iniquities, the possibilities, the limitations, which mark the life of those who follow Him. In the history of salvation, God sees the suffering of the oppressed people and sends His Son as liberator who enters into the painful events of humanity. In fact, the mysterious discourse that Jesus entrusts to His disciples is centered precisely on calling blessed those who evidently did not concretely experience beatitude, but the opposite of it. Jesus doesn’t promise something that will just happen, but says that right in this time, while everything seems adverse and unsustainable, a bliss is hidden, a profound sense of things that converts the things themselves from misfortunes to favorable graces. It is the paradox of perceiving oneself liberated precisely in what apparently seem like obstacles to us. It is discovering the joy at the bottom of the pain, the gratitude even in the difficult reality of the disease. Strength and courage in tribulation. Accepting the beatitudes seriously, then, is not simply learning a new moral law, but it means observing with transfigured eyes what we experience today in our lives. They are the eyes of faith that support us in seeing what the eyes of naked reason fail to glimpse.
O God, who promised the joy of your kingdom to the poor and humble, grant your Church to follow her Master and Lord with confidence on the path of the evangelical beatitudes.”
The Voice of Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Author
Beatitude is access to a point of view that unifies the Universe.
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E-mail: srmterzo@gmail.com Website: www.sanbiagio.org info@sanbiagio.org Blog: livingscripture.wordpress.com Comment by Fr. Maurizio Lollobrigida, SDB
