Posted by The WORD in other words (2022) by Fr Dionisio Nellas SVD – Ghana
Monday 10th Week in Ordinary Time
“Be holy; for I, the Lord, your God, am holy” (Lev. 20:7).
Holiness is our lifelong project with God. To be holy is to be blessed or to be happy.
Originally, God’s plan for all of us is to obtain true happiness, that is, to be united with him, sharing eternal joy since we are created in his own image and likeness. But sin, suffering, pain, evil, and death have entered the world.
Hence, true happiness, which God has willed for us, is impossible to achieve until Jesus Christ, through the mercy of the Father, has come into the world. “Through his death and resurrection, God has reconciled the world to himself” as first sentence of Absolution in the Sacrament of Penance would indicate us.
In his reconciling activity, Jesus, in the Gospel, has shown us the way to a holy living, a life of blessedness and happiness, the life which Jesus Christ himself lived. And these are underlined in the beatitudes, especially the four “action” beatitudes (Mt. 5: 5,7,8,9).
Blessed are the meek. Jesus himself is meek and humble of heart (cf. Mt. 11:28)
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. He himself is merciful “the Son of man has come to search out and save what was lost” (Lk. 19:10).
Blessed are the single-hearted, for they will see God. His heart is totally one with the Father “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (Jn. 14:11).
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. He himself is peace (“Prince of peace” Is. 9:5).
We call the saints blessed or happy, for they obtained the reward of holiness in heaven. They have obtained this reward because while on earth, regardless of their weaknesses and by the grace of God, they were gentle of heart, merciful, single-hearted, and they were peacemakers. Outstanding of them all is the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Mother.
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