Weekly HOMILY for February 11, 2007: The BE-Attitudes

6th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C
Our Lady of Grace
February 11, 2007

The BE-Attitudes
(Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


BE-Attitudes at Home

When I was growing up, I remember certain statements that my mother used to make.

To my older brother Jim and my younger sister Fran she’d say things like: “Never forget where you came from.” While she knew that we would have better educational and professional opportunities than she had had – she had to quite school to help support the family – she didn’t want that to ever go to our heads.

Mom never wanted us to hold ourselves above others. She wanted us to be sensitive to those who had less than we had.

Another favorite statement of hers was, “Give the other person the benefit of the doubt.” She taught us that erring on the side of good helped us better understand the viewpoint of others.

The “other person” could be our teacher in school, one of our many cousins that we saw regularly, or the neighbor next door, who, I might add wasn’t the easiest guy to get along with.

Mom wanted us simply to listen and make an effort to understand before making up our minds and being critical.


BE-Attitudes of Jesus

In today’s Gospel, Jesus also makes a few such statements.

And beneath the statements, he knows that following God seriously does means more than a few prayers each week and a couple of acts of charity now and then. He knows that following God or himself is a life-transforming work.

Discipleship gets down to adopt and holding as our very own certain attitudes, much as my mother was trying to instill in the three of us with her statements of, “Never forget where you came from.” And “Give the other person the benefit of the doubt.”

Following God means that we move from being ego-centered or ego-driven to being God-centered or God-driven.

Jesus himself models this way of being and living. And today, in this Gospel, he teaches us these BE-Attitudes – spelled capital B-E. Capital A-t-t-i-t-u-d-e-s.

Jesus is teaching us attitudes for being. He is teaching us how “to be,” more than how “to do” or how “to achieve.”


Jesus’ Specific BE-Attitudes

(1) THE POOR: For example, Jesus says that we are and will be blessed when we are poor. This means that we are holy when we are humbled in our inner selves by the presence of God in creation or in the Eucharist.

“Blessed are the poor,” means that we are close to God when we are not so caught up in ourselves, but are caught up in something or someone beyond ourselves. It means that we are compassionate and patient with others.

(2) THE HUNGRY: Secondly, Jesus says that we are, and will be blessed, when we are hungry. What he means is that we are holy when we have an inner yearning for the fullness that only God can give.

“Blessed are the hungry” means that we crave the lasting satisfaction of a relationship with God and see how passing is the satisfaction of money, possessions, and all things material. It means that we hunger for God’s affirmation more than the recognition of others.

(3) THOSE WHO WEEP: Finally, Jesus says that we are and will be blessed when we weep. This means that we are holy when we mourn our lack of personal faithfulness or commitment or integrity.

“Blessed are those who weep,” means that we cry over the superficial values that are promoted on TV ads and how they affect even our own lifestyle. It means that we grieve the poverty and violence in our world and do something in our own way to alleviate the suffering of the oppressed.


Conclusion

So, when Jesus calls “Blessed” those who are (1) Poor, (2) Hungry or (3) Weeping, he is not exalting these conditions as we usually think of them.

No, instead he is saying that when we are rich or satisfied or always having a good time or well thought of, it can be difficult to be transformed from within. It can be difficult to embrace his attitudes for being – his BE-Attitudes.

Today, Jesus implores us to allow ourselves to be changed from within for our present and future happiness. He implores us to embrace his BE-Attitudes or “attitudes for being” for our lasting blessedness.

It worked with my mother giving us lasting attitudes; it can surely work with Jesus!