How
To Possess The Kingdom Of Heaven?
(Spiritual
reflections on Mt 5:1-12 a)
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
To own a comfortable house, have a stable job, live with
a happy family, all this is just something very simple which all of us dream
of. However, as a saying goes, “No pain,
no gain”, we have to work harder and harder in order to make our dream a
reality.
With regard to the possession of God’s Kingdom, Christ
Jesus, our Lord and Savior, sets up a list of eight requirements for us
Christians to meet if we wish to be accepted into intimate relationship with
God.
Generally speaking, the eight requirements together
constitute a strong statement against too much dependence on material matters
such as money, power and flesh desire as though an aircraft had to be detached
of all forms of support and sustenance on earth in order to take off and fly
into the blue sky.
“Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This statement is by no means a condemnation of
properties and possessions, much less of the rich, because money by itself is
not evil. The danger lies in too much
attachment to money, giving top priority to money over other moral values, to
the detriment of our honesty, of our good sense of human relationship and even of
our faith in God. Christ once warned us
of the conflict between serving at the same time God and money.
“Blessed are they
who mourn, for they will be comforted.” This means that we Christians have
to confront the truth that true and lasting happiness cannot be found in this
life. As long as we are still far from
seeing God face to face, we have reasons to feel completely satisfied but
instead we must long for the day when our hearts can find rest in God as Saint
Augustine beautifully puts this in his own words: “You have made us for
yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
“Blessed are the
meek, for they will inherit the land.” God the Creator made the human
person in His own image, with the four gifts that ensure each and every human
being of the highest dignity over other creatures, namely intelligence, love,
conscience and freedom. All forms of
conflict can be solved through peaceful ways, through sincere and honest
dialogue in particular. Violence, even
violence in words, is not proper for us who are given the blessing of kind and
wise language.
“Blessed are they
who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” The most loving and caring Father of all, God
would be very quick in responding to the prayer of us His children whenever we
ask Him for His blessing on whatever we need for our true and lasting happiness
in His kingdom.
“Blessed are the
merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”
The God Whom we believe in, the God Whom we worship, the God Whom we
love, is so loving and caring that He has allowed His merciful love to prevail
over His divine justice as clearly demonstrated in the life, suffering, death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ, His Only Son, to save us from the power of
sin and death. In return for God’s love,
mercy and forgiveness towards all of us sinners, we should treat one another
with compassion, understanding, love, mercy and forgiveness.
“Blessed are the
clean of heart, for they will see God.”
This reminds us of how to see the world and to judge people with the
eyes of innocent children, always wide-open to new things, or more exactly with
the gaze of Jesus Christ on the wonders of this life and of all people who came
to Him for blessing, for guidance and for healing. With Jesus’ eyes, we can see our loving God
even in the thick darkness of our life.
With our clean conscience, we can see God even in the sinners, in the
criminals and in our enemies.
“Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Our God is the God of peace, and he made
everything in the world in harmonious and peaceful ways. All things have been set up in peace so they
can live all together in peace. We know that
the reason for all forms of conflicts, even armed and bloody conflicts and
killings in our world is our sin. Sin
separated us from God, from one another and from the living environment, the
earth planet. Aware that we are children
of the God of peace, we are supposed to bring peace to the people whom we meet,
the people with whom we live, and to the environment in which we enjoy a
comfortable life. When we bring peace we
are worthy of being God’s children. Only
the devil, Satan, the father of lies, the father of all forms of division and
hatred, is the reason for our suffering and all forms of disaster and
calamities. They are not the children of
God, because God is the God of peace.
“Blessed are they
who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
This blessing is given to those who
always fight for human rights and justice, for human compassion among peoples,
among different beliefs, among different cultures, and for this they are
persecuted by dictatorial regimes. Let us pray for them because they are really
fighting for freedom, for human dignity.
We are supposed to join them in our struggle for a better world where
people of cultural and religious differences can live in peace and
understanding. This is a blessing for us
if because of God’s just cause we are persecuted, imprisoned and killed. We should be happy and proud of our struggle
for friendly relationship among peoples and countries.
Sisters and Brothers,
We have received message from this Sunday Readings taken
from the Holy Bible. When we go out of
this church, we bring the message of God’s Word everywhere, to everybody whom
we meet in life to be worthy of being Christians, those belonging to Christ,
alive or dead, and worthy of God’s blessing.
Fr. Francis Nguyen, O.P.
