Reversals and renewal

The life of the believer and the blessings which accompany that life are outlined in the texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary. Paul exhorts the Colossians to live in the life which is renewed by the experience of intimacy with Jesus and which rejects conflict with others, dishonesty and self gratification in favour of a universal shift to acceptance and forgiveness as a community is built for all people in Christ. The psalmist is thankful for the works of God. The Body of Christ described by Paul is this work of the Father. The praise of God as faithful in all His Words and gracious in all His Deeds is witnessed in the flesh of those living in intimate relationship with the Divine. The Gospel from Luke makes a clear picture of the reversal of culture which Rick Malloy, S.J asserts is Jesus mission to bring about the Kingdom of God as a new social order, a world wherein all values are reversed and the first shall be last and the last first. Blessings from God, living in the intimacy experienced in Colossae and praised by the psalmist is in lives of the poor, hungry, mourning and those hated by society. Scholars note that the fuller account and the more prominent place given the Beatitudes in St. Matthew (Matthew 5-7) are quite in accordance with the scope and the tendency of the First Gospel. Luke expresses the life of the Beatitude people in contrast to those who reject the offer of life. Matthew offers much food for thought and poetic setting for the majestic pattern of full free life of the believer guided by the Word of the Beatitudes.