Homily, January 29, 2023
From The Pastor
It is humanly impossible to understand the goodness of God in the fullness of the Divine nature. So much of our knowledge and understanding of Divine goodness comes through our human experience. Much of our God experience comes through church religion. Given the woundedness of human nature, it is a constant challenge for human beings to perceive and understand the immediacy and intimacy of God’s love for us. Mostly, we are left to trust the words and rituals of religion that convey to us the mystery of how and why God loves us.
A great leap forward in the relationship between heaven and earth is realized in the Incarnation of Jesus. The Incarnation is the radical mystery that God, as a Supreme Being of transcendence and love, would become so completely one with us. God the Creator becoming one in nature and being with the created. The human nature of Jesus, united with his Divine nature is an immeasurable step forward toward understanding the nature and identity of God. To see Jesus is to see the enfleshment of the invisible God. To seek to know Jesus deeply affords us a greater understanding of who God is.
Knowing Jesus in mature faith leads one toward the mind and the heart of God. Through a relationship with Jesus, one comes to perceive God’s desire to be one with all created things. This will always be an act of faith. With all the hurts, losses, tragedies, and disappointments of life, trust in a perfectly good God can be hard to embrace.
A good example of this is the unity, yet radical difference between the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes of Jesus. Both are gifts from God. Both are valid and essential foundations that guide the human heart to the heart and will of God. The Ten Commandments are laws to be obeyed for the greater good of ordered society that direct us toward God. Without the Commandments and their moral structure, how would our weak human nature ever realize the gift of Divine goodness? We need these laws, but God is infinitely more than a law giver who demands obedience. The Ten Commandments give order to the earthly realm. They are an essential first step to finding God as true relationship in the person of Jesus.
The Beatitudes of Jesus give form and shape to the spiritual/eternal realm to which we are called. The Old Testament depended on the Law to create a covenant with God. The New Testament is a relationship with God not built on Law, but on the Spirit. It is the Spirit of Jesus, which is the Spirit of God to be known and recognized in all who believe in Him. This is the root of the Beatitudes.
Following laws is good. Being in relationship with God is infinitely better. Notice there is no tone or mood of law in the Beatitudes. Jesus is revealing to us the heart of God, through his own heart. Keeping rules out of fear or punishment will never reach the nature and meaning of the Beatitudes. If we try to keep or follow the Beatitudes as if they were laws to follow, we have missed the gift of Divine wisdom given in Jesus.
Blessed are the poor in spirit is understood as realizing and accepting our dependence on God. This just touches the surface. ‘Poor in spirit’ is spiritualized, not meaning those who are without. We are dependent on the Spirit of the living God. ‘Ruah’ is the biblical word that means wind or breath. Blessed or fortunate are those who realize and accept their dependence on the breath of the Spirit for their existence. We are dependent on God for our very breath, our life. So obvious on the one hand, yet so readily forgotten and taken for granted on the other hand. Why is such a person blessed? Because with their very breath and existence they will speak God’s praise.
This attitude of praise and dependence is the mind and heart of Jesus. In perfect unity with the Father, Jesus looks for those who share the Divine mind of praise in their blessed dependence on God. Thus, they will know the Kingdom of God.
Why is this so hard to grasp? Because we are so stuck in the mind of the world, that the mind of God is resisted or scorned as foolish and a waste of time. The world denies our radical dependence as human beings in its pursuit of various forms of power and control over others. This is ignorance that is neither blessed nor happy. Without the life of the Spirit, or the breath of God, we cannot even talk.
The Beatitudes tell us what God wants for us. God wants us to know and love him in the awareness of his love for us. Jesus is the love of God given to the world. It is no accident that Jesus spent most of his time with the poor, the blind, the rejected, and with sinners. Why? Because they knew their dependance on God and could accept God’s goodness in Jesus without shame or guilt. These are the blessed and the happy ones who depend on the redemptive love and salvation of Jesus. Take in a breath and let out a praise of gratitude for God. You belong to God, and you are in good hands. Give thanks and praise. Be good for others.
Father John Esper
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