catholicPittsburgh.org

Reflections on the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Doris Dick & Sharon Geibel

The readings for
this Sunday:

Zephaniah 2:3, 3:12-13

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Matthew 5:1-12a

Throughout time people have ached for upright leaders and inspiring examples of lives well-lived. We tend to look without and to those in positions of power.

The scripture readings with which we have prayed and celebrated over the last few months have reminded us to look deeply in unexpected places for leaders and inspiration.

• A young maiden and the carpenter to whom she was betrothed quietly yet stalwartly trusted in the word of God. They made a home and family within which the Savior of the world was born and formed.
• Three Magi saw the rising of a foretold star and followed it to find the Christ child. They then rejected the direction of Herod, a leader, and instead followed the message of a dream, God’s call within, and returned home by a route that deprived Herod of the information he needed to murder the child.
• John went into the desert and began to baptize and prepare the way for the One who was to come. When he saw the Spirit descend upon Jesus, he trusted that Jesus was this One.
• When Jesus called to Simon and Andrew and then James and John, they left the only life they had known and followed him.

Many of us know the experience of craning our beings toward or after one whom we hoped would be such a leader or such an example. At times we have been rewarded for our movement out in hope. At times we have been disappointed. The readings for today’s celebration of the liturgy seem to know that. They again call us to look deeply in perhaps unexpected places. They call us to look for our inspiration in a place where God has always promised to be found, if we would but only look. The readings call us to look within, that we might experience the inspiration for a world that aches for upright leaders and inspiring examples.

How are we to be that example for ourselves, our contemporaries and the generation(s) that look to us? We are to be the remnant, the humble and lowly people who seek God and seek justice. The times we live in suggest to us that we can take refuge in our success, our beauty, our 401Ks, etc. The prophet Zephaniah reminds us that we are called to seek justice and find our refuge in the name of God.

St. Paul reminds the Corinthians and us that we may not be wise, powerful, or of noble birth, but we are called by God. We may be thought to be foolish, weak, or lowly by the world. We may be despised by some, but we are called.

Our world needs upright leaders and inspiring examples of lives well-lived. Today’s readings remind us that we are called to be these people.

How do we foolish and weak people provide that leadership, that example? For certain, it is a lifelong process. We find some powerful and challenging starting points in Matthew’s Gospel. We are to mourn what calls for mourning in our lives and our world. We are to be meek, yet experience and act upon our hungering and thirsting for God. We are to live out of mercy and pure heartedness. We are to be peacemakers. We are to risk persecution for speaking up for what is right.

If we live the lives that we -- each one of us -- are called to live, we may be persecuted. If and when we do find ourselves insulted or persecuted, we are to rejoice. Rejoice because we live in a world that hungers for upright leaders and inspiring examples. When we live in response to our call, the world receives a glimpse of this.