Monday – 10th Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel – Matthew 5:1-12

Go Tell it on the Mountain

Front Porch, TN

This is an all too familiar Gospel reading – the Beatitudes!  Whenever my Scripture classes got to this passage, I always joked that these should be the “A” attitudes, not the “B’ attitudes!  These are the ideal of how we should act.  Yeah, I know, corny!  It’s what I do!

But consider today not just WHAT Jesus says today; consider WHERE He preaches.  On a mountain top!  That should be a familiar setting.  After the Flood, Noah and the ark settle on Mount Ararat where Noah offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God.  Abram takes Isaac to the mountain top to sacrifice him and instead God extends to Abram the first covenant.  It is on Mt. Sinai that God give Moses the tablets of the Law.  The Jews went up to Jerusalem to the Mount to worship in the Temple.  Many times, Jesus went off to a mountain to be alone and to pray.  Mountains were always considered sacred, places to pray, places to physically get close to God.  So when Jesus preaches the Beatitudes in today’s Gospel from the mountain top, it is God speaking to His people, instructing them on how to live and how to love.

When I was praying and prepping to preach for our Mass at the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem back in 2020, I ended up finding a quiet corner in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  Unfortunately, that is not a place available to me on a regular basis.  So these days, I find a quiet place at home, most often on the deck or front porch with shade and a view of Tennessee mountains and the sound of birds (not to mention the chickens, goats, cows, sheep, horses and mules).  Yup – our own private menagerie!

The question for you today is where do you go to meet God, to talk to Him, to pray to Him?  I am sure most of us will say “I go to church.”  But that is not always a practical option on a daily basis.  So where is your personal mountain top?  Your private place for praying? 

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