JANUARY 28/29
You Can’t Take It With You is a comedic play that premiered in 1936, and was adapted for the screen in 1938. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1937; and the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director in 1938. It was also re-made in 1979 starring Art Carney and Jean Stapleton.
The story is about two families. One a strait-laced family of bankers; and the other an erratic and wacky family of incompetent madcaps. The banker’s son falls in love with the daughter of the other family. Simple, right? What could go wrong?
Near the end of the play, the patriarch of the other family tells the patriarch of the bankers:
You’ve got all the money you need. You can’t take it with you. … And what’s it got you? Same kind of mail every morning, same kind of deals, same kind of meetings, same dinners at night, same indigestion. Where does the fun come in? Don’t you think there ought to be something more. … We haven’t got too much time, you know–any of us.
Today is the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
In our first reading we hear from the Prophet Zephaniah – one of the 12 minor prophets, and dating from the 7th century BC. He admonishes his listeners to submit to God’s direction in the Law.
In the second reading, from the First Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul tells them to consider how the ways of the world are not always in line with God’s ways.
And in St. Matthew’s Gospel, we hear the – perhaps all-to-familiar – Beatitudes.
Matthew’s version of the Beatitudes are read on this particular Sunday, as well as on a Monday in June. It is also read on (1) All Saints Day and (2) All Souls Day; (3) at Funerals, and (4) Ordinations, and (5) Confirmations. And it is offered as one of many options for (6) Marriage.
Eight times in the Lectionary. Eight uniquely different events. Maybe the Church is trying to tell us something?
Blessedness – or
Beatitude is a possession of all things held to be good, from which nothing is absent that a good desire may want.
At least according to the 4th century Saint, Gregory of Nyssa. But he goes on to say that Beatitude – being blessed – can only be fully understood in comparison to it’s opposite: misery, affliction, and suffering.
We need to look at what we have, and what we don’t have … both materially and spiritually. Where are we lacking, and where are we fulfilled.
Material things may make us comfortable in this world. But sometimes, the things we own end up owning us. And to possess the good things described in the Beatitudes … those spiritual goods that we actually can take with us … into Eternity.
The Beatitudes have been called the commandments for the Kingdom. And, indeed, they are guides to Eternal Happiness and Divine Joy.
The Beatitudes are our guide to the path into Eternity, and the goods they embrace are eternal goods the draw us closer to God’s eternal Kingdom.
As we approach this altar to receive the Most Holy Body and Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, may the graces we receive in this Sacrament empower all the other Sacraments we have received … for a deeper outpouring of Faith, Hope, and Love. May these Divine gifts fill us to overflowing, and guide us – ever closer – to union with God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and direct our actions in this world, so that we might be eternally blessed in the next.
