Soul Food for Sundays

A Reflection for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 29th January 2023

Reflections 29th January 2023
MT 5:1-12A

The Author: Edmund Kangwa Chipulu C.S.Sp.
calendar_today Date: January 15, 2023 - 2 minutes read

https://catholicreadings.org/fourth-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a/

Power in Weakness and Wisdom in Foolishness – Be of Happy Attitudes!
Today in our world many people are wounded, lonely and lost. Often, many have lost an ability to trust and love. Each day we see many examples of vulnerable groups wanting their voice to be heard and included. In our media, mainstream and social, we learn about campaigns and protests for women’s and children’s rights, the protection of nature, migrant rights, better healthcare, better education, and anti-racism campaigns as well as efforts to end corruption ranging from governments to churches so that justice may be realised in unjust societies.

Despite all this, today’s readings assure us that there is hope for better times, that those who fight for justice or who seek for peace and a better life for everyone should not be afraid because God is in control. He will demonstrate his control by positioning those considered weak to be rulers of great nations, by inspiring the oppressed and the poor to be fighters for justice and peace in unjust societies so that those who think they are powerful may acknowledge that human power is God’s weakness, and that human wisdom is God’s foolishness. Indeed, he has shown his control in the person of Jesus who assures us of a home of peace, love and joy, irrespective of the current chaos.

Jesus calls us to be of happy attitudes, to be more humane. We need to feel with others, to know that we are creatures of God whose ‘needs’ are egalitarian – we all yearn for comfort, for nourishment, for peace and justice. So, the Lord says to us that earthly life is brief; hence we ought to make the
best of it. We need to have the opportunity to receive love, promote peace, share resources and give love – love of God, of self, of neighbour and of creation. As such, our rejoicing and gladness will be authentic because it is in the Lord, the hope of all. So, we need to listen to one another to know the
needs of our neighbour, and to avoid listening to the noise that we ourselves have created; we ought to journey together towards heaven our homeland as ‘synodal people’.
Peace be with you.

Image by Wolfgang Schwenk from Pixabay

The Spiritans Emblem

Edmund Kangwa Chipulu C.S.Sp.

Part of the Irish Spiritan Province’s second-cycle formation community which offers ‘apprentice-style’ formation, Edmund is studying for the B.D. in Maynooth. A native of Zambia, his arrival in Ireland was preceded by time spent with the Spiritans in Brazil.