What does it mean for
us as ordinary people and Christians to live righteously and faithfully as a
person of God? All our readings have God asking things of us, but arguable,
they are ordinary things. We are not asked to be heroes, but good common
people. In many ways it is looking only to heroes for these things that leaves
us ordinary people feeling that ‘goodness’ is just out of our grasp. Yet you
are good people. The beatitudes are not aimed at extraordinary people. They
describe ordinary people.
We are the poor in
Spirit, we are the ones who mourn, who hunger and thirst for righteousness and
peace. We are the ones who can show mercy and even purity. When Jesus spoke
from the mountain, he chose to speak in a public place, not the synagogue where
he might get the intellectuals or the righteous, but in a place where the
ordinary people came to him. Jesus was speaking to ordinary people, not heroes,
just us.
And isn’t his message so different to that of
John the Baptist. John screams out “Repent! You bunch of no-hopers , or you’ll
rot in hell.” And Jesus begins his ministry by saying “you are blessed”.
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