4th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2026
Zephaniah 2:3, 3:12-13; 1Cor 1:26-31; Matthew 5:1-12
Three words from today’s Readings strike me powerfully: they are “humble”, “blessed”, and “justice”. How many times do we encounter each of them?
In the passage from the prophet Zephaniah, we encounter “humble” twice, and “humility” once. “Justice” appears in its opposite, as we are told “they shall do no injustice” and also as “righteousness”.
Psalm 146 (145) provides two mentions of “justice” or “the just”, but also gives us “those who are bowed down” who could equally be described as “humble”, while St. Paul tells us that God chose the weak, the foolish, the low and despised. They too might be defined as “the humble”.
Finally, in the Gospel, we are given the Beatitudes, as Our Lord introduces those who are Blessed. Nine times we meet the word “Blessed” and twice we encounter dikaiosune, here translated as righteousness, but equally capable of being rendered as “justice”.
That amounts to eight references directly to humility or its equivalents, including the weak, the low, the foolish and despised; and six to justice. Add to that the categories of those who are named as blessed, all of whom might be classed as “humble”, and we have an impressive array. Are we entitled to claim that what God wants of us is humility, allied to justice, which together lead to blessedness?
I think that we are, but we need to tease out what these words mean. I have often pointed out that the word “humble”, drawn from the Latin “humilis”, has at its root another Latin word “humus”, meaning “soil” or “ground”. To be humble is to be grounded, to have one’s feet on the ground, to have a down to earth grasp of our own worth. There is no room in God’s Kingdom for arrogance, for big headedness, for an exalted notion about ourselves.
Yet both St. Paul, and Our Lord in the Beatitudes demand still more. To be truly humble, according to Paul, is to be at odds with the values of the world, to have very different standards. If we are to have the humility which brings blessedness, we must have values which lead to our being judged as foolish, weak, low and despised. We do not go looking for wealth, fame, accolades, domination or power. We model ourselves on someone who was humiliated and crucified.
Ruled out are the callousness and self-seeking which pursue profit at the expense of the well-being of others, personal enrichment rather than the common good, economic growth which exploits the planet, self-advancement which entails trampling on others. The so-called “gospel of prosperity” which claims that faithfulness to God will make us rich is a blasphemy.
One of the best things that the Bishops of England and Wales have ever done was to produce a document in preparation for the 1997 General Election entitled “The Common Good”, a title which speaks for itself. As I have mentioned before, it was immediately denounced by the then editor of The Times, a certain William Rees-Mogg, as “economically illiterate”. The bishops were judged to be foolish and weak, precisely how leaders of the Church should be perceived if St. Paul is to be believed, which I assume that he is.
Finally, what about justice? How much justice is there in our world? Or rather, how much injustice? The latter seems to increase week by week. Over the last few days, we have seen the Israeli government bulldoze a building belonging to the United Nations Refugee Agency, which has stood on the West Bank for decades, another killing of a civilian by what have been referred to as “storm troopers” in Minneapolis, followed by the immediate character assassination of the victim by government officials, and here at home a small but significant incident, of which I heard on Sunday.
A lady who was in receipt of Disability Benefit received a phone call from the DWP. “You have been reported as having been seen walking normally.”
“Yes, I had a really good day. I actually risked going out without my walking aid.”
Immediately, her benefit was cancelled. She was unable to pay her rent, so she was evicted, ending up in a YWCA hostel. This is far from being an uncommon story. I remember a similar incident years ago involving Tommy Smith, the former Liverpool footballer. He too was in receipt of Disability Benefit. He accepted an invitation to “kick off” a charity match. He hobbled onto the pitch, gave a fairly feeble kick to the ball, and hobbled off again. He too had his benefit cancelled. What price justice?
Do you, do I, have a hunger and thirst for justice? What are we doing about it? If the answer is “Nothing”, can we really expect the Lord to call us “Blessed”?
