Today's Gospel

The Beatitudes Test

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. I'm Matthew Kelly. It's an honor to have this time with you each day to reflect on the Word of God, to reflect on the gospel of the day, to connect with the church, the people of God. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew 5:1-12. "Seeing the crowds, he went up the mountain. And when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth, and he taught them saying, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful for they will obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And blessed are you, when men revile you and persecute you, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.'"

It's a familiar reading, but it's so powerful, never loses its power, especially if we can slow down. If we can slow ourselves down, our lives down, our hearts down, our minds down. If we can slow our minds down, really think about it, it's very powerful. Did one jump out at you, one of the beatitudes jump out at you today? One jumped out at me is blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. That's so powerful, right? Blessed are those who like justice. Blessed are those who want the right thing to be done. No, it's hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Most of us have a pretty keen sense of injustice when the injustice is being committed against ourselves. Most of us, not so much a keen sense of injustice when we are committing the injustice. But today, if you have a few minutes now or maybe sometime during the day, you have a time of prayer, this is what I want to encourage you to do today is to take the beatitudes, Matthew 5:1-12, and use it as an examination of conscience. Just go through it line by line and just ask yourself, "Okay, how am I doing with that one? How can I do better with that one?" And this is not to feel bad about yourself, to realize there are opportunities to grow and God wants you to grow and God wants to give you everything you need to grow. But sometimes we're not aware of them. And we have blind spots. We have biases. We have prejudices. And sometimes we need examination of conscience to realize, "Okay, I'm not exactly who I thought I was. I have more room to grow than I thought." So today, maybe something else jumped out at you, but if you have a few minutes, go through the beatitudes, use it as an examination of conscience. Powerful experience. God bless you. Remember, don't just be yourself, be the very best version of yourself, all that God created you to be.