Has Christ turned your world right-side up? Deacon Tommy O’Donnell, SJ, reflects on how Christians are called to transform the world by staying close to Jesus. Based on the readings for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Today, Jesus flips the world right side up.
Hi, I’m Deacon Tommy O’Donnell, and this is my One-minute homily.
The early Christians were accused of trying to flip the world upside down, and I say thanks be to God! Today, Jesus gives us the beatitudes, and it’s easy to forget how world-flipping they are. I mean, “Blessed are you when people hate you?” Who says that?
But the point is NOT that we should strive to be hated. The point is that the blessed have their eyes so fixated toward heaven that they’re not even concerned with whether or not they’re hated. Each of the beatitudes today points our eyes toward heaven…toward Christ.
As Saint Ambrose says, we’re called to look beyond ourselves to the One who was made poor for us, who hungered in the wilderness for us, who wept for us as he entered Jerusalem, who received hate, insults and exclusion for us, and who was cast out and crucified for us. When our eyes are drawn to Christ, they’re shifted away from the anxieties and frets of the world and toward the joys of a world rightside up.