4th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A 2026

The Gospel passage today must be read in tandem with the 2nd Reading. In the Gospel, Jesus put forth the Beatitudes for our consideration. Is embracing them worth our while because the blue-print for our happiness is not found in the usual configurations that we are accustomed to. Those who find favour with God are not the rich or the powerful; not those who are satisfied or have plenty; not those who are strong and free. In this reimagined realm, somewhat resembling the original setting before the Fall, the received conventions are flipped because the Kingdom which Christ has come to established favours the poor and marginalised, the weak and the merciful, the peace seekers and those who hunger for righteousness and justice.

This reimagined realm brings us to the 1st Reading where the tone is rather humbling. We are accustomed to hearing the God desires to save all. What is sobering is that according to the Prophet, God’s promise to save a remnant pales in comparison to the masses that one has come to expect because we have come to believe and accept that God has an “antecedent will” to save everyone. Maybe it makes sense that Zephaniah was merely acknowledging the truth of God’s “consequent will”. Even though God wants to save all, the reality is that He will only save a multitude. This is not because He does not want to save all or He is stingy.

This simple inconvenient truth about God’s consequent will ties in with the 2nd Reading. Paul described the remnant that God will save from the perspective of His strength. God’s power is manifested in our weakness. He will choose the weak, the unwanted, the forgotten and make them strong in bearing witness to His power and might. Thus, our glory, if there were any, does not come from ourselves but from boasting of God’s power at work in us. Those saved will not be the proud or the arrogant.

This brings us to the Beatitudes. They are ideals to be embraced and they only make sense if we can see beyond the veil of temporality. We need to stretch our vision beyond what we can see. As the Little Prince reminded us, "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye”. Sadly, we have an addiction to power. More so if we cannot peer beyond the curtains of time.

Power is potentiality. It is the ability or capacity to achieve and accomplish. It gives direction by influencing the behaviour of others or it can by coercionchange the course of events. It is even more evident for us when we want to do so many things. A good measure of our potentiality is to look into our online purchasing habits. How many of us add stuff or things to our shopping cart because the items somewhat entice us to believe that we have time for new ventures? For example, I look at drones now and I feel I would like to take up drone flying etc. The reality is, I hardly have time to do anything else.

However, our limitation has not dampened nor decreased our hunger for power. We want to possess it so that we can do more. But what Christ has shown us is what power can be. Power is at its greatest not when you wield it. Power is at its height when you serve. In fact, the 1st Temptation in the Desert was a self-serving abuse of His power to change stones to bread. Jesus refused to serve Himself.

Instead, Jesus exercised His power through the healing of the sick and the forgiveness of sins. Interestingly we are accustomed to the fact that healing of the sick involves the restoration of a person to full health and former duties. But there is more to full health and former duties in this ministry of the forgiveness of sins.

The power of Jesus to forgive sins is derived not merely from the ability to remove sins from sinners. It is not as if He needed to prove that He could do that even though He did demonstrate it when He told the man to pick up the mat and go home. Instead the forgiveness of sins is exercised through Him taking upon Himself the punishment accrued to us on account of our sins. Sometimes we have the idea that He forgives sins through a decree or a formal promulgation, like a wave of the hand, when in actual fact, forgiveness began with His assumption of our human nature. He took upon himself our frailty and at the moment when it most counted He carried the Cross and suffered physically.

The exercise of His power is His love that reaches out to others as a form of service and it was never for self-glorification and definitely never expressed incoercion. The ultimate expression of power in Christ is the Cross. It is fundamentally the most visible sign of failure and death but in God it is the most powerful sign of love and mercy.

We have a lot to learn. Power is meant for good. Have you ever wondered why our roads are so bad and merely 2km away, the roads are properly paved, lines solidly drawn and signages are consistently visible? That is an example of how power can be used judiciously for common good though I am not quite sure if I am comfortable with power being concentrated in a few hands. The point is,power is intended to serve others and never meant to enrich oneself. Therefore, it is not power that defines us. Instead, it is up to us to give power its meaning and direction.

We have the best example in Jesus. In Him, power and authority were wedded to His humble abnegation and loving service. And we can be quite certain that power, if we have it, is Christ-centred when it involves suffering especially forthe person who wields it. Thus, if you love power, be ready to suffer for Christ and for His Church and for humanity.