<div class=oldwebkit><p><em>While the Commandments speak of behaviors the Beatitudes speak of dispositions. Matthew seems to set up Jesus most famous sermon as the internalization of the Divine law. But keeping the law in our hearts still leads to certain behaviors although perhaps less focused on avoiding the bad than approaching the good. Todays reflection invites us to keep the love of Jesus alive in our hearts and let our actions show that love to the world.</em></p></div><div class=oldwebkit>&nbsp;</div><div class=oldwebkit><p><strong>The Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time</strong></p><p>Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13</p><p>Psalm 146:6-7. 8-9 9-10</p><p>1 Corinthians 1:26-31</p><p>Matthew 5:1-12a</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>I Want to Be More Love in my Heart</h3><p>&nbsp;<em>A Reflection by Ann Marie Szpakowska</em></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Lord I want to be a Christian in my heart.</p><p>Lord I want to be a Christian in my heart.</p><p>Lord I want to be a Christian in my heart</p><p>In my heart in my heart</p><p>Lord I want to be a Christian in my heart.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Lord I want to be more loving in my heart.</p><p>Lord I want to be more loving in my heart</p><p>In my heart in my heart.</p><p>Lord I want to be more loving in my heart.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Lord I want to be more holy in my heart.</p><p>Lord I want to be more holy in my heart</p><p>In my heart in my heart</p><p>Lord I want to be more holy in my heart.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Lord I want to be like Jesus in my heart.</p><p>Lord I want to be like Jesus in my heart</p><p>In my heart in my heart</p><p>Lord I want to be like Jesus in my heart.</p><p><strong><a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=188nRnK0JWA target=_blank>(Hear Yolanda Adams version)</a></strong></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>In the 1970s I had the opportunity to take a seminary course on the Gospel of Matthew. Our professor stressed two inter-related points. First Matthews intended audience for the gospel were Jewish people who also believed Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. Second Matthews gospel often mirrors the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy which the gospels audience would be very familiar with.&nbsp;</p><p>The Book of Exodus recalls Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. In Matthew chapter 5 Jesus gives us the Eight Beatitudes on a mountainside. These are the beatitudes in the gospel passage we hear in this weeks Scriptures. How do we compare these two keys teachings which have been used as a template for ethical/moral or righteous human behavior?</p><p>In an episode of a science fiction program I once saw scientists find a way to go back in time and recapture and record speech. They decide to bring back Jesus words on the Mount. Their hope is that somehow it would change the behavior of contemporary society if people heard Jesus himself preach the Sermon on the Mount. Their experiment fails. It took little time for people to begin to argue about what was really meant by Jesus words and to fail to practice its precepts. It seems the Jewish people depicted in Exodus had a similar problem. The tablets were barely down the mountain when the Israelites found reasons not to put them into practice.</p><p>Going back to the basics the dictionary says that beatitudes means blessings and blessings means happy. I need to admit that poverty mourning hunger and thirst or persecution do not raise my happiness quotient one iota. And being merciful clean of heart or a peacemaker requires fortitude among other virtues which at times I know I do not possess.</p><p>The lectionary ends our Gospel with verse 11: Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad for your reward will be great in heaven. This verse changes the third person they and theirs which Jesus had been using (Blessed are they who mourn etc.) to the second person you. Thus Jesus directs this last beatitude personally to those hearing these words (In this case US!).</p><p>As LGBTQ+ people of faith we are well acquainted with persecution from both religious and secular sources. Indeed as I pen this reflection Roman Catholics and others await the burial of Pope Benedict II Emeritus who often served as one of our persecutors. We have been inundated by the analysis of his career his theological writing and his shepherding a religious institution in crisis: too holy and therefore untouchable for some and too human and therefore frail for others. It was reported by a nurse that his final words were Jesus I love you spoken in Italian. My initial instinct was to dismiss it because in the liminal moment of death one would revert to ones mothers tongue and his was German. Yet I ask myself who is this Jesus that Benedict loved and how might Benedict be surprised by Jesus when they see one another face to face? And who is this Jesus whom I love whom we as Christians love? How well do I love this Jesus? How I treat others remains the litmus test the only test that matters.</p></div><div class=oldwebkit>&nbsp;</div><div class=oldwebkit><div class=mobile-full><img class=mobile-full src=https://www.dignityusa.org/sites/default/files/civicrm/persist/contribute/images/uploads/static/botsannmarie_szpakowska_0d72cdefcaa960ff1e1e83271ef634ff.png alt= width=166 hspace=0 vspace=0></div><div class=mobile-full><p><em><strong>Ann Marie Szpakowska</strong>&nbsp;has been active and in leadership of Dignity/Buffalo for nearly 40 years. She also participates in the Women's Caucus and has been an active contributor to Liturgical planning for Dignity's Conventions Conferences and on Feminist Liturgy Committees over many years.&nbsp;She has presented workshops both locally and at Dignity Conventions.</em></p><p><em>She has also been a member of St. Martin de Porres parish since 4 inner city churches merged and built a new sanctuary in 1993. St. Martin de Porres is a predominantly African American community in Buffalo New York.</em></p></div></div><p style=text-align: center;><a class=btn btn-primary href=https://www.dignityusa.org/civicrm/mailing/subscribe>Subscribe to Breath of the Spirit</a></p>