Second Sunday of Lent February 28, 2010 Reflections at Evening Prayer by Sister Patricia Crowley, Prioress

This morning we heard Luke’s account of an experience Jesus shared with Peter, James and John – an experience that the three wanted to hang on to! It was a special experience in which they realized how blessed Jesus was and how blessed they were to be sharing in that experience.

Yesterday, some of us participated in Marcia’s funeral celebration and heard the minister talk about how we need to be able to say “Blessed be God” and that our “stuff” (inside us) sometimes keeps us from being able to say “Blessed be God”.

So often when I ask one of the women who come here for retreat how she is doing, she will respond “I’m blessed. I am so blessed”.

“Blessed” is a word used in the gospels in the listing of what we commonly call the beatitudes. Michael Crosby OFM Cap says that the word “beatitude” originates from the Latin beatus and is derived from the Hebrew and Greek words for beatus.

Linguistically the first word of the beatitudes is interpreted in various ways in different translations of the gospels – Blessed are they….. Happy are they…..Fortunate are they…….

In the Greek, according to commentaries, the word used for blessed is a passive reality. When we are blessed we are receiving some divine action. In Aramaic, according to some writers, blessed has an active reality. We are blessed when we set ourselves on the right way, when we get up and do something, when we move on…..

Each day at the end of our prayer together in the morning and again in the evening, we say Blessed be God!

I would like to focus on a definition of blessing from the writings of the great German theologian, Diettrich Bonhoefer:

A blessing is the visible, perceptive, effective proximity of God.

We can consider blessing as passive when we are receptive to that presence. We can also consider blessing as a challenge to action wherein we bring God’s healing, compassionate presence to those around us and to our world.

The life of Jesus Christ certainly demonstrates this. Take today’s gospel. Jesus experienced the profound sense of God’s presence and then, proceeds to heal many. The chapter following Luke’s discourse on the four beatitudes and the four woes, chronicles many instances of putting God’s presence into action through healing and compassion towards others.

Jesus was an agent of blessing and so, we are called to be!
This Lent we have been focusing on mindfulness (on contemplation), on emptying ourselves and our space to be able to recognize the sacred space within our very selves.

An empty cup is a symbol that was suggested to help us in this awareness. That cup might also be a symbol of the blessing cup that Jesus made so sacred at the Last Supper.

An attitude of blessing is an approach to life that makes it possible for us to look at what is real with ourselves and there participate in the creative power of God at work there.

An attitude of blessing is an approach that makes it possible for us to recognize the goodness in others in any given moment.

An attitude of blessing is an approach that acknowledges that we as individuals and as a group are part of the sacred process of creating the future.

In the beatitudes Jesus is trying to get our attention. So he begins with Blessed are you……Happy are you…..All of us long for happiness.

The beatitudes are a way to happiness and they are essential to gospel living. They are the New Testament counterpart for the commandments. They are the way to learn to love.

They oblige us to consider a new way of seeing life, of touching into what is real and of drawing closer to God.

They are an exhortation shouting to us that the center of gravity in the world has shifted. (Blessings and Woes by Megan McKenna page 19)

The beatitudes point to very unexpected keys to being happy – to being blessed.
They invite us to an attitude of blessing that opens us to the

Visible,
Perceptive,
Effective
Proximity of God.

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