Australia Day

See commentary on Matthew 5:1-12


Homily 1 - 2014

I sing the Beatitudes, but, really, they challenge me.  Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up the hill…  They were out in the Galilean countryside, up the hill.  Who would make up a crowd out in the country?  It wasn’t a Sabbath.  So it wasn’t a day-off.  They would have had to be the unemployed, or underemployed rural dwellers – landless, dispossessed peasants.  No work, no pay.  No pay, no food.  So, malnourished, and susceptible to every virus or infection floating around.  Their life-expectancy was, so the scholars say, somewhere in the mid-thirties.

The first four of the Beatitudes describe them very accurately.  Poor, more than poor – poor in spirit, totally dispirited, crushed.  Gentle - The translation misses the point.  Non-violent would be closer – but not as a thoughtful, chosen response arising from a sense of true human dignity, but the lifeless reaction to a sense of worthlessness and hopelessness.  Those who mourn – depressed, even despairing.  Hungering and thirsting for justice, precisely because ruthlessly exploited, oppressed, marginalised and ignored.

They were the discounted, unresponsive and silent victims of the political and economic elites living in their mansions in the cities of Israel.  To them, then, the poor in spirit, the non-resisting, the mourning and hungering for justice, Jesus said, yours is the Kingdom of God… you will have the earth [the land] for your heritage... you will be comforted... you will be satisfied – enough for everyone! 

Pie in the sky - in the sweet bye and bye!!  Not if Jesus could have his way.  Not if people would listen to him, open their eyes, get a sense of human dignity – of everyone’s human dignity, because loved – loved! – by God.  To those who needed it most he wanted to give hope – because without hope they would simply remain as they were, and effectively rot away.  But everyone would need to change; and he challenged them precisely to do that.

He mentioned three key responses – mercy, clear-mindedness through self-knowledge [what the translation calls purity of heart], and determined commitment to peace and reconciliation.  Blessed are the merciful … the pure of heart … the peace-makers.  He also warned quite clearly that the truly merciful and the true peace-makers [in a world where many are doing “quite well, thank you”] can expect, not hero status, but, as the Beatitudes put it, abuse, lies and persecution.

It is Australia Day tomorrow.  We all like the holiday – but many of us do not feel totally at ease with the kinds of things going on in our country.  We want to hold our heads high.  And some of the things we are and do make us feel proud.  But much of our political and economic discourse is governed by anything but mercy, clear-mindedness and relentless commitment to inclusion, genuine understanding and reconciliation.

There are victims galore, too many victims, and we continue to create more.  It seems to me that our hearts are growing colder, harder – fanned by misinformation and unnecessary or unreal fears..  I feel at times ashamed, and somewhere inside me I want to weep.  I lament that we are not moving in the direction of greater joy or inner peace, or getting at all closer to what Jesus saw as the Good News of the Kingdom.  There is a job ahead of us as Christians.

Pope Francis has been summoning us to bring Gospel values to our world since he was elected Pope last year.  He wrote a magnificent document two months ago.  Right at the beginning he wrote: I wish to encourage the Christian faithful to embark upon a new chapter of evangelisation marked by joy, while pointing out new paths for the Church’s journey in years to come.  Later on he wrote about the source of the Christian concern to spread Jesus' Good News: Being a Christian is ... the result of an encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.  Let me finish with a remark typical of Francis about the spirit which marks the approach of all who bring the Good News of Jesus to the world: The one who spreads the Good News of Jesus must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral!  Let us recover and deepen our enthusiasm.