4th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2023

God wants to turn our world upside down, reverse its direction and lead it the opposite way. Today’s Gospel message is the very familiar Beatitudes. It tells us that at the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry, He took His disciples and the crowd up on the mountain to tell them He had come to establish the Kingdom of God and to turn the world upside down. 

The Beatitudes tell us the people that the world pities or looks down upon are blessed, and those who try to right the wrongs of this world are precious to God. According to Jesus, if we work to turn this world upside down, we will do God’s will, and we will be helping establish the Kingdom of God in our midst.

Today we need to look at our world and see how God calls us to turn our world upside down. To overturn the world, we don’t have to be powerful politicians, billionaires, or social media influencers. Starting in our little corner of the world, we can turn it upside down by putting the Beatitudes into practice.

We can become poor in spirit. Being poor in spirit doesn’t mean we give away all our property and become homeless beggars. It means that we recognize all our gifts come from a generous God. Our culture approves of the self-made person and commends the attitude that an individual can become accomplished through their own determination. Being poor in spirit recognizes that our giftedness doesn’t come from our willpower but is God’s gift to us. Being poor in spirit is putting all our trust in God, and since we recognize our gifts come from a generous God, we share them with others. 

Grief isn’t something our culture appreciates. The world tells us the better we feel, the better we are, but Jesus asks us to turn things upside down. He asks us not to turn our backs on sadness and sorrow. Jesus asks us to do more than offer thoughts and prayers but to live for others and to reach out in love to those who suffer.

We can turn our world upside down by being meek. Being meek doesn’t mean we let others walk over us. Meekness is choosing our battles wisely. Our world is very partisan and prone to conflict. We turn the world upside down when we resist confrontation and don’t take exception to every hurt we experience but only get upset about grave injustice and intolerable discrimination. 

When we make our relationship with God- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit- the most central relationship in our lives, we are righteous. It is important to work to support our relationships with our spouse, family, and community, but they can’t preempt our relationship with God. We must pray daily and receive the Eucharist every Sunday to help us grow closer to God. 

So many of us live as if to say, “Everyone is entitled to their opinion.” We believe we are always right and have the clearest insights on every issue. Jesus wants us to reverse that and for us to be merciful. Being merciful means that we are willing to see situations from another’s perspective. We recognize that we don’t have all the answers and are ready to consider someone else's insights. 

The world is set upside down when we live without always having a motive. When we live with clean hearts, we don’t always look at every situation, asking ourselves, “What is in it for me?” Being clean of heart means we recognize we aren’t the center of the universe and the world doesn’t revolve around us. Living with clean hearts is living in such a way that pleasing God is most important to us.

Jesus taught that we turn the world upside down when we welcome the stranger and the outcast. The world often tries to pit people against each other, encourages us to accentuate our differences and to act out of prejudices. Peacemakers work to help develop right relationships. They anticipate possible conflicts and willingly step in to help ease them. Peacemakers make sacrifices working as intermediaries in disputes so peace can reign.

If we try to work to establish right and just patterns of life in our world by living the beatitudes, persecution from those opposed to Jesus will come our way. If we want to follow the Beatitudes, we must be ready to be persecuted and misunderstood. Those who live out the Beatitudes have always suffered for their convictions. 

Let’s commit to turning our world upside down. Let’s all decide to do our best to live out the Beatitudes. To live the Beatitudes, we need the strength of God’s grace in our lives. That strength will only come to us if we have a relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That relationship comes if we pray and are faithful to attendance at the celebration of the Eucharist every Sunday. 

Lent will begin in a few weeks. It is the season when Christians work to recommit themselves to their baptismal call to be faithful members of the Church, the Body of Christ. It is when we work on our relationship with God to strengthen it and help it grow. Begin today by planning how you will use Lent to become more committed to upending the sinful patterns of our world and living the Beatitudes more faithfully. 

The worldwide Church is in the process of preparing for a World Synod of Bishops. Pope Francis called this meeting to ask how the Church can learn to listen more faithfully to everyone in the Church. Last winter and spring, Holy Redeemer held a series of listening sessions to help with these preparations. Ron Weishaar was one of the parish ambassadors who helped facilitate our meetings. He is here today to report on the ways Holy Redeemer Parish is working to implement your suggestions.