From the Fourth to the Ninth Sundays of Ordinary Time, Year A of the Liturgical Cycle, which we are in now, takes the Sunday Gospel readings from Matthew’s version of the Sermon on the Mount. This Sunday, that sermon begins with the litany of blessings that we call the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes convey both a comforting and a challenging message to us as followers of Christ. Christ constantly reversed the normal values of the world and pointed out that God’s love and grace did not follow human standards of wisdom and judgment. Both the first and second readings point out this divergence between God’s view and the human view of what is really happening and what is “blessed.” The challenge for us is to purify our hearts and our thinking so that we may put on the mind of Christ and see the world and its people with His eyes.

First Reading: Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13

2:3 Seek the LORD, all you humble of the earth,
who have observed his law;
Seek justice, seek humility;
perhaps you may be sheltered
on the day of the LORD’S anger. 3:12 But I will leave as a remnant in your midst
a people humble and lowly,
Who shall take refuge in the name of the LORD;
3:13 the remnant of Israel.
They shall do no wrong
and speak no lies;
Nor shall there be found in their mouths
a deceitful tongue;
They shall pasture and couch their flocks
with none to disturb them.

NOTES on First Reading:

* 2:3 The righteous oppressed are addressed and exhorted to seek the Lord or more literally, “seek Yahweh,” which is a cultic phrase that usually takes its specific meaning from the context that follows it. In this case it means to “seek to do” what is right and humble. This is a summary of Zephaniah’s moral stand against sin and arrogance.
The word, “perhaps,” does not imply doubt about God’s willingness and power to forgive but doubt as to the audience’s will to listen to the admonition.

* 3:12-13 True to form, Zephaniah identifies wickedness with arrogance and wealth and speaks of the righteous poor and afflicted ones who put their trust in Yahweh as those who will survive. It is this “remnant,” purified by their hardships who will “pasture and couch their flocks” in peace.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

26 Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, 28 and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, 29 so that no human being might boast before God. 30 It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.”

NOTES on Second Reading:

* 1:26-31 Paul tells the Corinthians that the pattern of God’s wisdom and power can be seen in their own experience, if they properly interpret it. In order to do so, however, they must abandon the human standards of judgment that they are used to using.

* 1:29-31 Paul uses the expression, “Boasting (about oneself)” for the claim to autonomy on the part of a creature. Paul considers accepting the illusion that we live and are saved by our own resources to be a radical and sinful idea. On the other hand he uses the expression, “Boasting in the Lord” (1 Cor 1:31), to acknowledge that we have life only from God and for God.

* 1:30 Paul provides a description of a new mode of existence that comes to us in Jesus. It is a new way of looking at reality that is communicated to believers by the wisdom revealed in the humanity of Christ. The content of that wisdom is clarified by the three terms that Paul has set in apposition. Through separation from sinners (sanctification), believers are removed from the control of sin (redemption), and so become what they should be before God (righteousness).

* 1:31 “In the Lord” refers to God’s action in history. Same formula appears in 2 Cor 10:17. Though Paul presents this as an Old Testament quotation it is actually a paraphrase and only a part of the quote actually can be found in Jer 9:24 (Jer 9:23 in the NAB).
Jer 9:24 reads in the NRSV: “but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the LORD; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the LORD.”
Jer 9:23 (There is a slight difference in verse numbering.) reads in the NAB: “But rather, let him who glories, glory in this, that in his prudence he knows me,
Knows that I, the LORD, bring about kindness, justice and uprightness on the earth;
For with such am I pleased, says the LORD.”

Gospel Reading: Matthew 5: 1-12a

1 When he saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 He began to teach them, saying:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.

6 Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.

7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.

8 Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.

10 Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of me.
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”

NOTES on Gospel Reading:

* 5:1 This verse begins the first of the five discourses that are a central part of the structure of Matthew’s Gospel. The Lucan parallel is in that gospel’s “Sermon on the Plain” (Luke 6:20-49), although some of the sayings in Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount” have their parallels in other parts of Luke. It seems that the careful topical arrangement of the sermon may stem from a previous structured discourse of Jesus that acted as one of Matthew’s sources rather than being his own invention. Unlike Luke’s sermon, verse 7:28 indicates that this is addressed not only to the disciples but to the crowds. Oriental teachers of the time taught from a sitting position. Matthew presents the mountain as a mountain of revelation as is common in the Bible.

* 5:2 This is a solemn introduction. While the Sermon on the Mount is Matthew’s construction, the material itself was probably derived from Jesus’ own teaching.

* 5:3-12 The linguistic form, “Blessed are (is)”, occurs frequently in the Old Testament in the Wisdom literature and in the psalms. Although probably modified by Matthew, the first, second, fourth, and ninth beatitudes have Lucan parallels (Matthew 5:3; Luke 6:20; Matthew 5:4; Luke 6:21,22; Matthew 5:6; Luke 6:21a; Matthew 5:11-12; Luke 5:22-23). The others are believed by most scholars to have been added by the evangelist and are likely to be his own composition. A few manuscripts, Western and Alexandrian, and many versions and patristic quotations give the second and third beatitudes in inverted order. In the Old Testament, the poor (anawim) are those who are without material possessions and whose confidence is in God (see Isaiah 61:1; Zeph 2:3) The NAB translates the word as lowly and humble, respectively, in those texts. It is likely that Matthew added “in spirit” in order either limit the term only the devout poor or to extend the beatitude to all, regardless of social rank, who recognized their complete dependence on God. The same phrase, poor in spirit, is found in the Qumran literature.

* 5:4 The Old Testament source for this saying comes from Isaiah 61:2 which reads: “(The Lord has sent me) . . . to comfort all who mourn.” The language used here is called a “theological passive” equivalent to the active “God will comfort them.” This is also the case in Matthew 5:6,7.

* 5:5 The text from Psalm 37:11,”. . . the meek shall possess the land” has been adapted. In the psalm “the land” means the land of Israel but here it means the kingdom.

* 5:8 Psalm 24:4 says that only one “whose heart is clean” can take part in the temple worship. Psalm 42:2 describes being with God in the temple as “beholding His face,” but here the promise to the clean of heart is that they will see God not in the temple but in the coming kingdom.

* 5:10 For Matthew righteousness usually means doing God’s will.

* 5:12 Matthew is placing the disciples in the line and tradition of the persecuted prophets of Israel.

Scripture text: New American Bible with revised New Testament copyright © 1986,1970, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine.
Commentary Sources:
Vince Del Greco
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (1990) (Eds. Brown, Fitzmyer & Murphy)