Homily for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B - 6/16/2024)

Good afternoon. This week, we continue with our homily message series on the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are at the “heart of Jesus’ preaching” (CCC 1716). The Lord says: “I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer 31:33). When I think of the Beatitudes, I imagine this path that is paved with the wood of the Cross and leads to heaven. I imagine on both sides of the path are the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments to keep us on the straight and narrow path of God’s laws that lead to eternal life. I imagine along this path are guideposts to help us find the source of true happiness in our lives: our LORD JESUS CHRIST. These guideposts are the Beatitudes.

In the Beatitudes, “Jesus expresses the will of God to lead man to happiness” (Pope Francis, 1/29/2017). Saint Augustine confessed that “our hearts are restless till they find rest in [God].” So many people in our society right now are restless. They lack joy in their lives. Worst, they are numbed by the empty promises of an increasingly secularized world. For us to avoid the same pitfalls, we need to live the Beatitudes in our lives, like this one that is the focus of this week: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3). Pope Francis reflected that “[the] poor in spirit are those who. . . know how to be humble, docile, open to the grace of God” (Pope Francis, 1/29/2017). The Holy Father continued, saying: “The poor in spirit is the Christian who does not trust in himself. . . who is not stubborn in his opinions but instead listens with respect and willingly defers to the decisions of others.”

In the same way that “meek does not mean weak” (Fr. Charlie, 6/9/2024), not being stubborn in our opinions but listening with respect and willingly defer to the decisions of others are not signs of weakness but of power, especially when it comes to listening to God speak to us in our lives. It takes strength, courage, and power to trust in God completely rather than trust in ourselves, to be obedient to Jesus Christ, and to be docile to the Holy Spirit, particularly when it comes to our Catholic faith and the teachings of the Catholic Church. This can be challenging for us. It was challenging for me early on in Diaconal Formation when we were asked to be docile to the Holy Spirit and obedient to the Bishop of Austin. However, by the grace of God and with the help of priests, deacons, and spiritual directors, I learned to be humble and “poor in spirit”, to abandon myself to God’s mercy, forgiveness, and will.

This abandonment of ourselves to God is at the heart of the Beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit. . .” (Mt 5:3). Saint Paul understood “poor in spirit” when he wrote: “I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10) and that “the weakness of God is stronger than human strength” (1 Cor 1:25; 3:19). John the Baptist said: “He must increase; I must decrease.” (Jn 3:30). Of course, no one embraced “poor in spirit” better than the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose “soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; [whose] spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed” (Lk 1:46-49). Let us not forget Saint Joseph, the model of authentic masculinity and faithful fatherhood, who is blessed in his silence and for his obedience to God as the guardian of the Immaculate Conception and the Incarnate Word. He died a happy death.

Saint Paul puts so beautifully this character trait that all holy men and women, saints of God have in common: “. . .[they] never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. . .” (Gal 6:14), They are “poor in spirit” and are blessed because they courageously “walk by faith, not by sight.” They acknowledge and embrace their own weakness and lowliness before the strength and greatness of God. They “have survived the time of great distress [and[ have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 7:14) because they trusted not in themselves but rather they entrusted themselves to God’s love, mercy, and care. Therefore, “. . .theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” These holy men and women, saints of God stand before his throne and he will “shelter them. . . shepherd them and lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev 7:15, 17).

This is why, I think, we look to these holy men and women, saints of God for guidance and for their intercessions. They went through the trials and tribulations of life and yet they remained faithful to God to the end. We are all sinners striving for holiness and saintliness in how we live out our Baptismal calling as priests, prophets, and kings in our daily lives. We learn to be “poor in spirit” and live lives of holiness and saintliness in our own families - the “domestic churches”, with the help of our parish community, so that we have the courage to remain faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Church out there in the secular world.

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t is when we are “poor in spirit” and dependent on God that we are like the seed that is scattered on the land. The seed of faith that is sown in our hearts at Baptism “would sprout and grow” and “[yield] fruits.” Yet, “we know not how” because, when we cooperate with the Holy Spirit, we “walk by faith [in God], not by [our own] sight.” We are “humble, docile, open to the grace of God”, trusting in God and not in ourselves. Moreover, it is when we are “poor in spirit” that our faith is like the mustard seed that, while it is the “smallest of all the seeds on earth”, once it is sown, “springs up and becomes the largest plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” Like the mustard seed, our faith can grow and bear fruit that brings hope to people that God puts in our lives.

Reflecting on this, I want to share with you briefly the story of a parish priest who lived and served in Connecticut in the late-1800s. If there was ever a priest who embodied “poor in spirit”, it was Fr. Michael J. McGivney. In the book, “Parish Priest”, the author observed this aspect of Fr. McGivney’s inner life that never wavered from his earliest days to his last: “his faith in Catholicism. For better or for worse, he did not question, he did not surmise. He believed - with impervious conviction” (p. 202). Under Fr. McGivney’s guidance, “men from different parishes were united in a Catholic society designed to help them in the Christian obligation. . . of caring for a family, spiritually and financially” (p. 159). The “mustard seed” of a “Catholic society” that he founded in 1882 is the Knights of Columbus. From humble beginnings, the Knights of Columbus, which was founded on the principles of charity, unity, and fraternity, is now a global fraternal Order of Catholic men that brings hope to the people that God puts in the lives of the Knights of Columbus.

Supreme Knight Patrick E. Kelly reflected that: “We may never know in this life the good that will come about through our personal acceptance of our mission in Christ, just as Father McGivney [did not] how our Lord would use the Knights over the past 142 years” (Columbia, March 2024). However, like Fr. McGivney, whose life “was not described by great occasions or grand gestures. . . [but by] the humility of moments. . .” (p. 202), when we are “poor in spirit” and depend on God, we too can go from faith the size of a “mustard seed” to faith that brings hope to people that God puts in our lives. Then, we and all those we encounter will be blessed.