February 1, 2026 – Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
So 2:3; 3:12-13; 1 Cor 1:26-31; Mt 5:1-12a
H O M E L Y
Most people seek happiness in a foreign country called “Elsewhere”. The poor dream of the happiness of the rich, those who suffer from isolation dream of the happiness of those who are surrounded by friends. Happiness belongs to a region where it is always warm, but not too warm. It belongs to the neighbor who has a bigger house, a more beautiful wife, more artistic talent, and whose achievements are more appreciated.
There is nothing wrong with building castles in the air, as long as we don't try to live in them. But the saddest thing is that we easily transpose the attitude I have just described in broad strokes into our understanding of the message of the Gospel.
Jesus came so that we might have life and have it in abundance, now and forever. He told us that he had given us everything he had heard from his Father, so that our joy might be complete; but we are often content to wait for happiness after death, in a kind of Elsewhere that we call heaven, when He wants our happiness to begin here on earth.
Do we not too easily interpret the Beatitudes (which we have just heard) in the following way: blessed are the poor because after their miserable life on earth they will receive the kingdom of heaven as their inheritance; blessed are those who suffer, for they will be comforted in heaven; blessed are those who hunger, for after starving to death they will enjoy delicious food in heaven, etc., etc.
And the next step, in the logic of such an interpretation, is to say to the poor: "You know, you are the truly fortunate ones, you are happier than the rich, so don't create problems for our society by trying to change the situation. You could so easily become victims of dangerous agitators yourselves!“ Or tell those who hunger for justice: ”How privileged you are to be victims of injustice! For the kingdom will be yours in heaven; and above all, don't try to obtain justice here on earth, because you might lose your reward in heaven... and you would cause us too many problems.“ ... As if all these situations were destined to remain unchanged until the day called ”the end of time," after which the roles will be reversed.
All this is not the teaching of Jesus. His teaching is in continuity with that of the Old Testament prophets who announced the reign of the Messiah as a reign in which, at last, justice would be done to the oppressed, good news would be announced to the poor, tears would be wiped from the cheeks of all who weep, and happiness would be offered to all. And did not Jesus say, “I have not come to abolish the prophecies but to fulfill them”? So when He declares, “The kingdom of heaven has come,” He means what those words mean. He is not announcing a happiness that will only be available after death, if we pass our test. He declares the poor happy, because He has come to deliver them from their poverty; He declares those who mourn happy, because He has come to wipe away their tears; He declares the hungry happy, because He has come to deliver them from their hunger.
The kingdom of God, where the lame walk, where the leper is healed, where the sinner is forgiven, where the powerful are cast from their thrones and the humble are exalted, where the hungry are fed, will not come at the end of time. This kingdom IS the end of time. This kingdom must be realized here on earth, or it will never exist. If it is realized here on earth, it will last forever, because it is a divine reality, because it is the realization of the divine dimension of man created in the image of God.
The Beatitudes are therefore not a spiritual tranquilizer intended to make us accept the difficulties of the present life while waiting for a better “Elsewhere”! They are a call and a mission entrusted to us who have received the Gospel.
How can such a mission be accomplished? Simply by doing what Jesus explains in His Sermon on the Mount, immediately after the Beatitudes: "You have been told: You shall not kill. I say to you, do not insult or even sadden your brother. You have been told: You shall not commit adultery. I say to you, keep your eyes and your heart pure. You have been told: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I tell you: do not get caught up in the escalation of violence; respond to violence with non-violence. You have been told: love your neighbor and hate your enemy. I tell you: love your enemy as you love yourself.
When all Christians—all of us—live according to these principles, and do so in a contagious way, there will be no more poor, hungry, or afflicted people. The Kingdom of God will be realized. It will be the end of time, because time will have joined eternity and melted into it.
Armand Veilleux