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Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Mt 5/1-2 |
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| Background: There are two versions of the Sermon on the mount, the one from which the eight beatitudes we hear today are taken and the one in St. Luke’s Gospel in which the Sermon takes place not on the mountain but on a plain and there are six beatitudes and six woes. Probably both go back to written traditions which changed somewhat over time (While St. Matt’s are more elegant, St. Luke’s is probably older). In both cases the tradition presents not a single sermon that Jesus gave at one time but a composition of many remarks he made at different times and places. The beatitudes are NOT a new set of commandments of things we have to do, but rather a statement of possibilities. These are the things we are able to do, however erratically and imperfectly, if we believe in God’s love about which Jesus has taught us. |
read the padre |
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Story: Once upon a time, Molly Whuppi and the girl’s
basketball team at Mother Mary High School had a home game against Christ the King High
School. CK was always a push over for MM because their players were not very good,
didn’t have good coaches, and didn’t take the game seriously. They were in short
dweebs. So Molly and her team thought they’d breeze through the game and win by
twenty five points, they didn’t practice much and they were busy celebrating
Christmas. At least. Alas for them, they started slowly and
CK played better than they had ever played before. Ever. Finally in the fourth
quarter MM made its move, though they were down twenty points. They narrowed the gap to
five points, but in the last two minutes of the game, they were just too tired. Their legs
ached like they had become jelly and they could hardly raise their arms to shoot. CK won
by two points, after Molly herself and missed two free throws, which she had not done all
season. The boys in the school all laughed at them. "Well," said Molly,
"all right! We missed an opportunity! Even Shaq gets tired!” So the meek don’t necessarily take over the land unless they are willing to work on it.
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