Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

February 1, 2026

Mark 5:1-20

Did you ever notice that the Beatitudes are all reflected in Jesus’ life? We really live when we live in Jesus Christ for others. The Beatitudes show to us the heart of the gospel where Jesus turns everything the world sees as important upside down. Today’s Gospel gives us a snap shot of the meaning of the Beatitudes. They call us to live beyond ourselves. 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches his disciples that things are not always as they seem. He startles them by putting forth that there is blessedness in poverty, hunger, sorrow, and persecution. These are all things that the world sees as negative. In poverty, we recognize the realization that God’s kingdom has more reality than our concerns; in hunger, his care for us and all creation; in sorrow, we can recognize true happiness as the old woman in the story did; and in persecution, we see true joy in trying to bring the Father’s Kingdom into being. In other words, the blessed in Jesus’ list are poor in spirit, compassionate, meek, merciful, clean of heart, peace-makers and those who are willing even to be insulted and persecuted for their lived Faith in him. Each of the readings today allows us to see that each of us should consider making a personal Declaration of Dependence on God and then work with His grace to lead a holier and happier life.

The readings today challenge us to see the reality of how we should live our lives as Christians. Jesus himself live each of these “blesseds” as he experience his earthly life. The Beatitudes are a series of bombshells or stunning surprises and moments of shock to hearers of the gospel because Jesus reverses the assumptions we take for granted that happiness is gained through riches, power, pleasure, and comfort. We believe in personal pride; Jesus blesses poverty of spirit. We seek pleasure; Jesus blesses those who mourn. We see the prosperity of aggressive people; Jesus blesses the meek. We love good food and drink; Jesus blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. He challenges his listeners to find fulfillment of their needs in God through a change in values and living with these values really implemented in the way we live. 

Now comes the difficult part; we are called to change how we view the world and ourselves. We can easily go through life blindfolded; we simply do not see what goes on around us or the people God puts into our lives. Simply put, we do not see as God sees. In the book The Little Prince, an important point is brought out: “What is essential is invisible to the eye.”

The challenge of the Beatitudes is: “Are you going to be happy in the world’s way or in Jesus’ way?” If we choose the world’s way, we are seeking our blessings in the wrong place. It often seems to us that good health, long life, happy relationships, and a good job are blessings we “deserve” for being honest, not cheating our workers or on our taxes, coming to Mass, and giving a little to charity. This is the easy way of the world. Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls it ‘cheap grace’. But the hard way of Jesus requires of us work unsparingly for the poor, the sick, and the hungry. God wants us to live as brothers and sisters who care for each another. In the final analysis, the blessing of the Beatitudes is the possession of “the Kingdom of God, which is made up of the lowly for whom God is everything.

What is essential is invisible to to eye. We search for that which is essential. And what is that for us? Jesus Christ is what is essential; he is invisible when we don’t know where to look. Yes, the committed Christian knows he is present in his Word and Sacraments, but he is also present in the people of the Beatitudes. Can we become people of the Beatitudes from today forward?

Fr. John Tran