My dear Parishioners and Friends,
In preparation for a Catholic Funeral Mass the family is given the chance to pick the Scriptures that will be read.  Over the years I have noticed that often they will pick the Beatitudes.  This text is the Gospel read this Sunday (Luke 6:6-26).  Besides being a loving reflection of the Lord’s teachings, I have concluded that it is selected because the family wants to celebrate that these expressions of the Lord were experienced by them through the life of their loved one.  That is the way it should be. Who would not want to be remembered in that way?  It is always a blessing and joy to see Christ in others which encourages us to live the same Christian life.
On first reading the Beatitudes we might think that the Lord holds up to us a standard that is impossible.  We might think that His Way is pie in the sky or an impossible dream.  We might think that what Jesus says is grand, but not possible or practical in this world.  That is where we are wrong.  The standards of Christ are not mere dreams, not mere sentimental lofty thoughts, but quite livable and attainable.  Love is real and can be ours.  Love does not pass away even in death but comes to fullest realization in Heaven.  Often, we pray: (Psalm 136:1) “His steadfast love endures forever!”
The advantage the early disciples had over us is that when the Lord was speaking, they could look at His loving, radiant, kind face and look into his tender, piercing, eyes, hear His golden voice, and see in Him that He practiced what He preached and that He could make such aspirations very real in daily living.   That is why our hearts, minds, and souls must constantly look to Jesus so that what He taught is made real to us.  His love is that powerful.  His grace is always enough for us.
(Baltimore Catechism): “Why did God make you?  God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy forever with Him in the next.”
Yours in the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
Fr. Mark G. Mazza, Pastor