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Reflection on this Sunday's scripture readings
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Zephaniah 2:3, 3:12-13
Psalm 145
1Corinthians 1:26-31
Matthew 5:1-12
This week we are asked to seek the Lord through integrity, humility and justice. The prophet Zephaniah wrote in 7th century BCE during a time of political turmoil when kingdoms rose to power only to be toppled by another even more powerful. Zephaniah saw that the future of his people and the surrounding nations was in God's hands. God would devastate the rebellious nations and ravage the people of Israel particularly for their false worship, arrogance and rebelliousness. Only the humble would survive whom Zephaniah urged to seek God and seek him urgently. Their reward would be peace undisturbed by the neighbouring nations.
St Paul teaches that God does not choose the wise and the strong but those who are nothing at all in the eyes of the world. The only thing that human beings can boast about is the Lord.
Jesus, well versed in the prophetic tradition of his people, drew on similar themes of humility, integrity and mercy to characterise the happy or blessed in God's kingdom given to us here by Matthew in the form of Beatitudes (a state of happiness). In these strange paradoxes, Jesus teaches us that the holy people in God's sight are the poor, the hungry, the mourners, peacemakers, the merciful, the persecuted. Those who fulfil these virtues will find blessings when his kingdom comes.
Are you seeking God today? Why?
Read the Gospel slowly. Which of the beatitudes speaks to you most today? Does the verse console you? Perhaps it is calling you to a deeper relationship with God. Let God speak to you about that.
When you read the psalm today allow the words to sink into your consciousness. Notice that it is the Lord who is active in the psalm.