MASS READINGS AND COMMENTARY | JUNE 8, 2020

MONDAY, JUNE 8^TH   Mt. 5: 1-12   Eight Beatitudes: Eight Blessings and Eight Challenges

1. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.”

• Are we poor in spirit? Could we lose what we have today and say with Job, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21)
• Do we possess our possessions or do they possess us? Do we cling to people more than we cling to the Lord? A bird can’t fly if its leg is tied by a rope or a string!
• Attachments to persons, places, and things are what cause us sadness and hold us back from soaring high in the spiritual life! It is a paradox that losing them can make us sad, but possessing them can make us sad as well! The rich young man in the Gospel went away sad for he had many possessions. (Mt. 19:22) Why? Because he wasn’t free.
• Jesus wants us to hold everyone and everything loosely in our hands, so He is free to rearrange things, to add things, and to take things away. We may feel sad at first, but when we are docile to His will, we find that He never takes something away, without giving us something better.
• Sometimes that something better is a deeper, more abiding friendship with Jesus! Lord, help us cling only to you and to our dearest Mother Mary, so we may experience the freedom and joy of the sons and daughters of God!

2. “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

• Do we mourn? It is true we mourn many kinds of losses. The death of loved ones is perhaps the most painful. Though as believers, we have hope that we will see our loved ones again.
• There is another kind of death we should mourn. Do we mourn falling into serious sin? Do we mourn knowing that our sins and the sins of others, mortal or venial, grieve the hearts of Jesus and Mary?
• Do we make a perfect Act of Contrition, also known as a contrition of love? Love for God who created us out of love – love for Jesus who suffered and died on the cross for love of us – love for Mary, our Mother, who entered into the Passion and death of Jesus on the cross for love of us?
• Do we pray the Daily Examen Prayer to thank God for the blessings we receive each day? To see where we cooperated with His grace to avoid sin, where we shunned His grace and gave into sin? Do we take time to consider why we fell – the steps that led to our fall? Do we have a plan to avoid falling into the same sins again?
• Do we beg Jesus to forgive us and pour forth His never failing mercy upon us? Do ask for His grace and help to avoid near occasions of sin tomorrow, to make our day and our life more pleasing to God?
• Do we console the hearts of Jesus and Mary everyday by offering prayers and sacrifices in reparation for our sins and the sins of others? Do we pray and offer sacrifices that a soul may get out of purgatory this day? That no sinner will die in unrepented mortal sin this day?
• Sacrifices are both voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary means the sacrifices and good works we choose to do. This should always include a concrete plan to work against our capital sins and imperfections! Involuntary means those sufferings God chooses for us, that we willingly accept. With Saint Paul, let us say: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” (Col. 1:24)

3. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.”

• Are we meek? Meekness is not weakness, but great passion under control! If you think meek is weak, try being meek for a week! The seed is patience, the full grown tree is meekness! The meek are slow to anger and rich in kindness! They do not seek their own comfort, honor, or glory. They seek only to give glory and honor to God in all that they say and do! Because they seek nothing for themselves, they will receive everything from Jesus!

 4. “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be satisfied.”

• Do we hunger and thirst for righteousness? Do we hunger and thirst for holiness in spirit and truth? Do we pray the Rosary daily, make our daily holy hour, make frequent confessions, go to Mass and Holy Communion as often as possible?
• No Sacraments? Even during the Coronavirus sheltering-in-place, we can do our daily Examen prayer to examine our conscience and make a perfect act of contrition of love. Receive a spiritual Holy Communion every day, even more than once a day! Make our holy hour an hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament live on line! We may even have time to pray more than one Rosary a day! How about a family Rosary, with everyone participating. Family members taking turns leading a decade and naming the intention for that decade. Even more graces can be earned during these difficult times, when we are not taking the Lord for granted!
• Are we faithful to the duties of our vocation in life? Are we generous in serving God by serving others? Do we try to love others as God loves them, with all their faults and failings and with a keen awareness of our own!
  
• Finally, Saint Louis de Montfort reminds us of the one true vocation we all share, regardless of our state in life: “It is certain that growth in the holiness of God is your vocation. All your thoughts, words, actions, everything you suffer or undertake must lead you toward that end. Otherwise you are resisting God in not doing the work for which He created you and for which He is even now keeping you in being!”   

5. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

• Are we merciful? The merciful accuse themselves and excuse others. How often do we find ourselves doing the exact opposite, excusing ourselves and accusing others! How often do we judge others because they sin differently than we do? The merciful forgive the offenses of others because they are keenly aware of their own faults, failings, and sins.
• With one exception, Immaculate Mary, we are all sinners. No one is free of guilt. Each one of us has pounded the nail into Jesus’ hand! Jesus taught us to pray: “Father, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We should tremble every time we pray these words for the many times we fail to forgive others! Lord, help us to keep our sins always before our eyes, so that we may be merciful to others and receive your mercy!

David’s Act of Contrition (Psalm 51 excerpt)

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, my sin is always before me. Against you alone have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge me. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

6. “Blessed are the pure of heart for they will see God.”

• Are we pure of heart? We are all born with original sin, and though Baptism removes it from our soul, its effects remain.
• CCC 1263 and 1264: By Baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as all punishment for sin. Yet certain temporal consequences of sin remain in the baptized, such as suffering, illness, death, and such frailties inherent in life as weaknesses of character, and so on, as well as an inclination to sin, that Tradition calls concupiscence, metaphorically “the tinder for sin” (fomes peccati); since concupiscence “is left for us to wrestle with, it cannot harm those who do not consent but manfully resist it by the grace of Jesus Christ.”
• However, it is not enough to banish sinful thoughts or images from our mind – we have to replace them with virtuous thoughts and images! The man who swept his house clean of one devil, ended up having seven devils return! (Lk 11:24-26)
• It’s not about what the man did, it’s about what he didn’t do! He left his house empty! If we banish bad thoughts and images from our mind, and leave our mind empty or idle – bad thoughts and images will return in spades!
• Do we make an effort at all times to fill our eyes, ears, mind, and heart with good and holy thoughts, desires, intentions, and affections that are pleasing to God? Or do we allow worldly, even sinful thoughts, images, desires, and pleasures to distract and overtake us? We will know our minds and hearts are pure when we can see God in all things, and all things in God!

7. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

• Are we peacemakers? Do we make peace or disturb the peace – in our home, at work, at church, with our neighbors? Do we create unity or cause division? Do we build bridges or barriers? Do we use our tongue to build up or tear down? Are we more likely to encourage or criticize?
• We are all a work in progress! Conversion is God’s work and He is not finished with us yet. Our work is to listen always to others, speak the truth when necessary, and pray ceaselessly that in God’s time and with God’s grace, their eyes, as well as our own,, will be opened a little to a greater truth.
• Ignatius of Loyola says of his own conversion, “my eyes were opened a little”. St. Paul says: “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” (1 Cor. 3:6)
• Being a peacemaker isn’t about compromising the truth. It is about recognizing that we are all sinners in need of conversion. Being a peacemaker is related to being merciful – God’s greatest attribute.
• Words of wisdom from Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen. “A person is merciful when he feels the sorrow and misery of another as if it were his own. Disliking misery and unhappiness, the merciful person seeks to dispel the misery of his neighbor just as much as he would if the misery were his own. That is why, whenever mercy is confronted not only with pain, but with sin and wrongdoing, it becomes forgiveness which not merely pardons, but ever rebuilds into justice, repentance, and love.” 

8. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

• If we sincerely embrace and strive to live the first seven Beatitudes, we will experience the eighth – persecution for what we believe, how we speak and act, how we live and love –  that is to say, grounded in truth that produces true freedom!
• To those who persevere in God’s truth and love, Jesus says: “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!” (Mt. 5:11-12) 
  

Christ is calling us today to accept Eight Great Challenges and reap Eight Even Greater Blessings! What is your answer???

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St. Peter Chanel Church, Hawaiian Gardens, CA