Be the 1st one on your block to be a T. Tude!!!!!!

“Is that your final Answer?”

That is the question that Regis Filburn used to ask contestants on the popular game show, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”

I thought of that question when I was reading the Beatitudes from St. Matthew’s Gospel. He says to the early community of disciples and to us that only God has the final answer for those who trust in Him.

In normal circumstances people live with grief, poverty, meekness, persecution, insults, hunger, and lack of right relationships with others and with God for a long time (and some time for their entire life time). Those conditions are devastating and life changing. Most of the time people who are grieving, poor, and the other conditions, at the very least, carry those burdens with them forever. Yet Jesus says in the Beatitudes that those folk are BLESSED! It is hard to imagine that someone who is mourning the loss of someone very dear to them would ever consider themselves blessed. And I could probably try to put myself into the shoes of any of the “blessed” people in Jesus’ list and feel either burdened or cursed. But Jesus says, “Blessed are…” all of them. Why?

Because God has the final answer! God promises richness, laughter, comfort, mercy, THE KINGDOM, God’s inheritance, satisfaction, ETERNAL reward, and being with God face to face for disciples willing to trust in God through the turmoil of life. These promises of God are especially for those who are heavily burdened in life. But they are also for us disciples who choose to make the burdens of others our own. When we choose to be empathetic to the grieving, to care for and share with the poor and hungry, to make ourselves humble, to be concerned for those living in violent circumstances, to want peace, collaboration, and good relationships with all of our neighbors in this world and with God, to choose forgiveness over revenge; then we too have the same promise from God. We have the chance to receive rewards that nothing or no one on other can offer. That is God’s final answer!

It may seem foolish in the eyes of the world to believe and trust in something like this but if we look at the life and ministry of Jesus in all four of the Gospels, living the Beatitudes is what He did. He CHOSE to welcome the outcast, to make all people His concern, to want all people to live in harmony with one another, and to suffer insult and persecution for God’s and our sakes. He did so to the point of giving up His entire life for us and so that God’s will could be done. He gave us the model so that we would be able to live the Beatitudes also, and know the beauty of the Resurrection and life with God forever.

The Beatitudes are ideals for us to try to attain. They are glimpses into the mind of God regarding our lives. Knowing God’s “final answer” can help us live the lives we need to live here and now.

Pizza,
Fr. Chuck