We're used to hearing people describe their good fortune as a "blessing." Just the other day I read a quote from a successful professional football player, who was asked how he felt about his all-star caliber performance.
"I've been blessed this year," the player replied. A blessing, in this context, is defined as good fortune.
The dictionary definition of "blessing," according to Webster's, is "a special favor, mercy, or benefit; a favor or gift bestowed by God, thereby bringing happiness." I imagine this is just how the football player felt about his year - that his success was a gift, and it was bringing him happiness.
In today's Gospel reading, Jesus ascends a mountain and gives his followers a profile of those he thinks are "blessed" in God's eyes. "Blessed are the poor in spirit," he begins, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied."
I don't necessarily think of the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek and the hungry and thirsty as "blessed." If a reporter sought out a broken, destitute person and asked him "How do you feel?" I doubt that the response would be, "I've been blessed this year." Yet Jesus insists that it is the weak and the wounded who are the truest recipients of God's gifts, not the beautiful and successful and wealthy among us.
The good news, however, is that those of us who feel spiritually empty, broken-hearted, rejected and desperate are closer to God than we think. It is counterintuitive, of course; at least it is to me. When I am most distraught may be when I seek God most passionately, but it is also when I feel that God is farthest away from me.
It is also good news, I suppose, that Jesus doesn't walk up to the top of a mountain and proclaim, "Blessed are the wealthy and powerful, the beautiful and the successful, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." This would mean that the kingdom of heaven operates pretty much like a capitalist economy - with success granted to those who have the right combination of industriousness, breeding, and luck.
Why does Jesus call "blessed" people who are in the midst of what appear to be very unhappy circumstances? Does God love us more when we are miserable? Hardly. It seems far more likely that we love God most when we are miserable, for that is when we are far more likely to seek God's presence, and in so doing, find it.
The truth is that God is closest to us when we are most empty. This has less to do with what's in our bank accounts than it does with what's in our hearts. It is perhaps when we feel we are frail and failing that we are most open to the gift of God's grace, and closest to experiencing genuine blessedness. Bill Peatman writes from Napa. |