Who are the Blessed? ~ Mary Jane Oakland

Excerpts from Sunday, November 2, 2008, Festival of All Saints Homily ~ ...today, we consider the portion of Matthew that is Jesus' main sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, which begins with the beatitudes. The Orthodox would say the 'commandments of blessedness.'

In a society that values competing, winning, power and controlling -- the beatitudes at first reading do not sound like blessedness -- for they are about the poor, the peacemakers, the meek, those who mourn. How do we understand who the blessed are?

...The key to understanding the beatitudes is to realize that for Jesus' sermon to sound like blessedness, we need to develop the virtue of humility. ...St. Benedict reminds us that the first step on the way to humility and blessedness is to recognize the presence of God... to know God as the center of our lives, to know deeply that God is God -- and that we are not -- blessed are the poor in spirit -- blessed are those who have great humility before God -- for theirs is the kingdom of God.

Recently in Swaziland, I had a day showing me both the presence of God -- and knowing myself to be humbled before God by the self-giving love of a group of God's children. This happened on the second day of our chlorinator demonstrations in Swaziland. Our team headed north to a high hill near Pigg's Peak -- where a large group were sitting on rocks waiting for us to arrive. They were interested in our demonstration and received their two chlorinators with thankfulness.

On we went to Hhohho, where we met with a smaller group of people in a community building. The tribal chief had learned of our coming only the day before, and he sent his representative to question our motives and the scientific evidence that the chlorinators wouldn't poison the people. After much back and forth energetic discussion in Saswati, it became clear that the chief's protocol must win the battle that day and the chlorinators were rejected. However, the women of the community did understand what the chlorinators would do, and the war was not lost, because it was arranged for a local health team to go back later for training and distribution of the chlorinators. It was a tough lesson in Swazi politics for all of us, and we never again just assumed that the people would adopt using chlorinators to purify their water.

Then, we went on to Mpofu and there was a large group waiting under an ancient council tree. The chlorinators were enthusiastically received -- we felt relieved -- and the priest (Fr. Joel Dlamini) who serves this small outpost said, "Come, you must come down the road to the church to eat the meal the women have prepared for you." Church? I hadn't noticed a church as we drove up. And, I didn't recognize a church as the vans dropped us off. It sort of looked like a weathered log cabin with a tin roof. There was a ramshackle fence around the property with a circle of barbed wired to hold the gate of tree limbs and scrap metal shut. We walked through this gate into a red dirt yard that had been freshly swept for us with a hand broom creating half circle lines in the red dirt. We moved to the threshold -- the floor was polished concrete -- gleaming. We walked inside -- this place had pieces of cardboard stuffed into the walls -- no ornamentation other than a long piece of weaving hanging on one wall -- a weaving created from small twigs. The women were putting the finishing touches on bringing the serving dishes to the table, which must also be the altar in this place.

As I walked in, I knew the nave of this church to be a very thin place -- a place where the boundaries of heaven and earth, of time and space seem to dissolve. As we came over the threshold, we knew we were on holy ground. And we could only imagine how poor this group of Anglican Christians must be, and they were sharing their food with us. I silently questioned, How can I serve myself a piece of their chicken when the children are obviously malnourished? Their self-giving hospitality was humbling. God was truly present in them and in that place. And we seemed to hear: 'Receive the banquet prepared for you." Out of their little they had given to fill the emptiness of our affluence.

Who are the blessed? As we headed back to Mbabane, we knew that we had been received by a blessed group, who like the widow and her mite, had offered what they had. And, that in eating, we were humbled before the hospitable love of these Christians -- and we knew that God was in that place teaching us to become less sure, more humble, more willing to just be, to just be humbly before God. I give thanks for the long journey, and the poor village congregation who taught me lessons that I will remember whenever I read this section of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. For, I saw the beatitudes being lived out in their midst.Who are the blessed? Those who are able to center their lives on God and not on themselves. The Epistle write tells this day, 'See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Christ. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed.' All the saints and martyrs would teach us on this day to humble ourselves in the presence of God -- right here, right now in our lives -- and our true inner freedom is the fruit of the virtue of humility. May we know ourselves as the Blessed of God today.