Stewardship – Blessed are You
By: Harry Verhiley

When you are asked to give to the building of the kingdom or to those less fortunate, know that you are faced with an opportunity to invest, not only in God’s kingdom or the lives of others’, but also in your own happiness. In both the Sermon on the Mount (as recounted in St. Matthew’s Gospel) and the Sermon on the Plane (as recounted in St. Luke’s Gospel) the Lord provides us with a clear plan of what we are to value as His followers. His Beatitudes offer practical advice regarding how we should respond to our circumstances and how our experiences lead to happiness.

St. Luke refers to four beatitudes: poor, hungry, weeping, and persecuted. These descriptions of circumstances involve dependency on God. Blest are you poor; the reign of God is yours. Blest are you who hunger; you shall be filled. Blest are you who are weeping; you shall laugh. Blest shall you be when men hate you… your reward shall be great… (Lk 6:17-49) The word that is usually translated as “blessed” in the beatitudes really means “happy.” When Jesus speaks his lessons to the crowds, he does so with great happiness because he knows that true happiness comes from God, and He, of course, is God. Also, He sees the people as His treasure. And for this treasure He squanders everything, even His very life to save them—to save us!

He knows well that we desire fulfillment: we want to be satisfied, we want to laugh and be entertained and be happy, and be respected and thought well of. Although, Jesus makes the point that no matter what is going on in our lives, God loves us. Even if our faith is weak, or if we are crying, or if we are not on the fast track of life and things are not going well for us, even if people are mocking us and seek to do us harm. No matter what – God loves us even though it appears that you do not have, you are still really blessed because you will have far more than you think you don’t have. Jesus takes the things that we fear the most, poverty and hunger, grieving, and being hated, and shows us that if we have enough dissatisfaction in our hearts with the way things are, perhaps we will come to know that our lives are more than the current experience. And through that uncomfortable experience, we can be blessed because it can lead us to know that our way to happiness is not within our own power, we cannot save ourselves, and we come to realize that we are in most need of a savior. Think of when our prayer life is the strongest, usually it is during tough times.

The truth is that our lasting treasure is not of our own doing, but with God. Jesus speaks of what is truly valuable and what truly makes us blessed—happy. He prepares us for eternal truth, that which in the end will be lasting happiness. Jesus’ mission, lived-out through the work of the Church is the path to that eternity. We are given many gifts from God; these gifts are essentially power. For example, God grants a person a loving and caring family, a good education, a skill to make money… money to buy things and even influence the community by investment and contribution. God grants the gifts that give us power. It is money and the treasures of this world that we think of when we think of fulfillment and well-being, laughter, entertainment, vacations, people admiring us. In our world we equate money with happiness, because money is power: ever since we got the first little coin as a child. We saw money as a means to the “forbidden fruit,” candy—the utopia of childhood. We learned that money gave us power to acquire that which we desired—candy. And when we ate candy we were happy (at least for the moment). Of course we grew up to learn that there are more stimulating experiences in life compared to candy. If we honestly evaluate those experiences we may find that we seek power and control because we want to be our own god... we want control, we want to generate happiness all by ourselves. As believers, we know that we are not, and never can be, our own god. We do not own anything, all that we “have” is entrusted to us by God, and that makes us “stewards.” The sooner we understand that, the happier and freer we will be. Jesus teaches that the key to happiness is to hear the word of God and live it. Even if the present condition is difficult, we can be happy, because we can be at peace with God. Some people find themselves unhappy because they spend so much time seeking happiness in things that truly do not give happiness.
God is the source of all happiness. If we are seeking happiness in something other than God, we are looking for love in all the wrong places. Too many of us are preoccupied about the future or too consumed with the past to concentrate on the beauty, the awesomeness of the present. For if we live in the past, we live with regret and if we live in the future, we live in anxiety. Our challenge is to do what we are doing and do it for God’s glory. If we want to find fulfillment in life, we must know that satisfaction is not grasping for power, fame, money, or worldly pleasure. We should seek to do God’s will, and recognize that we are really poor and empty and only through Him we can be rich and full.

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MAYORDOMÍA -
BENDITO SEAS
 
Por: Harry Verhiley
 
Cuando se le pida que contribuya a la construcción del reino oa los menos afortunados, sepa que se enfrenta a la oportunidad de invertir, no solo en el reino de Dios o en las vidas de los demás, sino también en su propia felicidad.
 
Tanto en el Sermón del Monte (como se relata en el Evangelio de San Mateo) como en el Sermón del Plano (como se relata en el Evangelio de San Lucas), el Señor nos proporciona un plan claro de lo que debemos valorar como Sus seguidores. Sus Bienaventuranzas ofrecen consejos prácticos sobre cómo debemos responder a nuestras circunstancias y cómo nuestras experiencias conducen a la felicidad.
 
San Lucas se refiere a cuatro bienaventuranzas: pobre, hambriento, lloroso y perseguido. Estas descripciones de las circunstancias implican dependencia de Dios.
Bendito eres pobre; el reino de Dios es tuyo Bendito eres tú que tienes hambre; serás lleno Bendito eres tú que estás llorando; te reirás Bendito serás cuando los hombres te odien ... tu recompensa será grande ... (Lc 6: 17-49)
 
La palabra que generalmente se traduce como "bendita" en las bienaventuranzas realmente significa "feliz". Cuando Jesús habla sus lecciones a las multitudes, lo hace con gran felicidad porque sabe que la verdadera felicidad proviene de Dios, y Él, por supuesto, es Dios. Además, él ve a las personas como su tesoro. Y por este tesoro derrocha todo, incluso su propia vida para salvarlos, ¡para salvarnos!