{"id":2119,"date":"2017-01-29T12:15:11","date_gmt":"2017-01-29T10:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/?p=2119"},"modified":"2017-01-29T12:15:11","modified_gmt":"2017-01-29T10:15:11","slug":"4th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-cycle-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/2017\/01\/29\/4th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-cycle-a\/","title":{"rendered":"4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s Readings teach us that those who are \u201cpersons of disinterest\u201d in the eyes of the world are always of interest to God, and a true source of good and virtue in the world. In today\u2019s First Reading the Lord tells Israel that if they truly want safety and security, they must seek justice, humility, and his law.\u00a0The unjust are destined for destruction by their own iniquity. Justice is about giving each person their due, and making amends when we haven\u2019t. It\u2019s about always seeking to do the right thing without a lot of angst or hand wringing, even when doing the right thing is hard. Sometimes doing the right thing seems to put us in the minority. The Lord says today that being the minority is not a problem. If being honest and doing the right thing puts us in the minority, it is a minority the Lord himself shelters. The \u201cremnant\u201d mentioned in today\u2019s First Reading are those Israelites, that minority, who strive to do the right thing and who\u2019ll be the seed of the new People of God when the Messiah comes.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s Second Reading Paul reminds the Christians of their humble beginnings. They were \u201cpersons of disinterest\u201d before the Lord came and made them strong and wise in him. Our Lord revealed that the Gospel was for everyone, no matter what their background, social standing, wealth, or talents were. That meant salvation and glory were for all. Paul reminds the Corinthians today that this lofty calling should not go to their head. They have no importance that they did not receive from Our Lord. If there\u2019s any pride to show, it\u2019s to be proud of Our Lord. Christians are often seen by the worldly as foolish, weak, and uninteresting. Yet these \u201cpersons of disinterest\u201d show the power of God through living a holy, simple life that often leaves the worldly envious and questioning their own happiness and choices in life.<\/p>\n

In the eyes of the world, and, often in the eyes of these \u201cpersons of disinterest\u201d it seems they are giving up something and receiving nothing in return, but in today\u2019s Gospel we see that the beatitudes are promises to those \u201cpersons of disinterest\u201d that all their legitimate and noble aspirations will be fulfilled. Each description of someone \u201cblessed\u201d in our Lord\u2019s estimation is not a description of striving to be interesting, but striving for something nobler and persevering when faced by trials and difficulties. Living a \u201cblessed\u201d life brings benefits that cannot be obtained in any other way. They are the path to a relationship with God, and Heaven itself. It\u2019s through our humility and \u201cdisinterestedness\u201d that the Lord shines in our lives and in the lives of others.<\/p>\n

If you run down the list of today\u2019s Beatitudes and remove the words \u201cHeaven\u201d and \u201cGod\u201d from Our Lord\u2019s promises you have a pretty good list of what the worldly want too. They want power, satisfaction, security, happiness and comfort, but they\u2019re not seeking it in God, and ultimately they\u2019ll fail. As believers we can fall into the same trap. We can strive for a \u201ckingdom,\u201d but not the kingdom of Heaven, and as believers we know that every other kingdom fades away. We need not even consider all the wrong turns we take in life seeking a kingdom that will fade away, if we ever achieve that \u201ckingdom\u201d at all. The Beatitudes are attitudes that become our road map to everything noble and truly worthwhile. Meditate on them this week and see how you can \u201cbeatify\u201d your outlook and get on track for true success: a holy life from here to Heaven. It will help others get on track too.<\/p>\n

Readings:\u00a0Zephaniah 2:3, 3:12\u201313;\u00a0Psalm 146:6\u201310;\u00a01 Corinthians 1:26\u201331;\u00a0Matthew 5:1\u201312a.<\/em>\u00a0See also\u00a010th Week of Ordinary Time, Monday, Year II<\/a>,\u00a0 All Saints<\/a>\u00a0and 10th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s Readings teach us that those who are \u201cpersons of disinterest\u201d in the eyes of the world are always of interest to God, and a true source of good and virtue in the world. In today\u2019s First Reading the Lord tells Israel that if they truly want safety and security, they must seek justice, humility, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[179,34,45,15],"class_list":["post-2119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cycle-a","tag-fourth-week","tag-ordinary-time","tag-sunday"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p65qtw-yb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2120,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2119\/revisions\/2120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}