Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A – February 1st, 2026
Roman Rite
Zeb 2, 3; 3, 12-13; Ps 146; 1 Cor 1, 26-31; Mt 5, 1-12
Ambrosian Rite
Sir 7, 27-30. 32-36; Ps 127; Col 3: 12-21; Lk 2: 22-33
Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
1) The new law: the Beatitudes.
Today's Gospel offers us the speech on the Beatitudes. They are so well known, cited and commented that we risk thinking that we know them already and do not need to reread and meditate on them to better understand and put them into practice. Regarding the connection between conversion and beatitudes, Pope Leo XIV said: “What appears to us to be great and glorious was first discarded and expelled because it was at odds with the worldly mentality. Those who follow Jesus find themselves walking on the path of the Beatitudes, where poverty of spirit, meekness, mercy, hunger and thirst for justice, and working for peace find opposition and even persecution. Yet, God's glory shines in his friends and shapes them along the way, from conversion to conversion” (Angelus, June 29, 2025).
Jesus did not only pronounce the beatitudes but lived them. Before describing the Christian ideal, the beatitudes describe the figure of Jesus, in his behaviors and choices. In the formulation of each beatitude, it is visible a tension between the first and second part.
The first is characterized by negative situations (poverty, suffering, persecution), the second by positive situations (possession of the Kingdom, consolation, vision of God). This means that the beatitudes are not the promise of miraculous interventions that are intended to change current situations. Situations remain what they are. Rather, the beatitudes offer a new meaning, suggesting different criteria for evaluation and reading. There is a challenge to be taken up in the beatitudes. If it were missing, we would be talking about ideals, but not about beatitudes. It is the note of joy: blessed! What joy? Founded on which root? There is indeed joy and joy. The joy of the beatitudes finds its foundation in the certainty of a happy future in communion with God and as God's gift, and in the joyful discovery that already now it is possible to anticipate a new way of life.
The first word that Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount is "Blessed[1]" (Mt 5: 2). As the new Moses, the Messiah climbs on the mountain and from that high place gives the law that affirms that joy is a duty for every Christian. In fact, in the Gospel of St. Matthew the Beatitudes respond to the Decalogue of the Book of Exodus. The first covenant made between God and the people of Israel was ratified by the gift of the law and the acceptance by Israel of this divine will. Even the New Covenant begins with the law, but the law of the New Covenant are the Beatitudes[2], and it is ratified by our "yes", our "fiat", our "Amen". Thanks to this in us, as first in Mary, joy became flesh and dwelt in and among us.
Christian law, the commandments of God and the precepts of the Church are realized in the very fact that we have the joy that is Christ, the joy that comes from the possession of God, the joy that comes from the fact that not only we are loved and we believe in love, but that to this love we respond by giving ourselves totally to the Lord. In this is happiness: to love because we are loved.
The Law of the Old Testament is brought to fullness by the gift of the "Law of the Beatitudes" of the New Testament. This gift helps us understand how the only law of the Christian is joy, since all the Beatitudes always begin with the same word: "Blessed." "Blessed" because they are poor, "blessed" because they are meek, "blessed" because they are pure at heart, "blessed" because they are persecuted: "blessed" always. The Beatitudes are laws donated by Christ to show us the vocation of the faithful associated with the glory of his Passion and Resurrection. "The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity. They express the vocation of the faithful associated with the glory of his Passion and Resurrection; they shed light on the actions and attitudes characteristic of the Christian life; they are the paradoxical promises that sustain hope in the midst of tribulations; they proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured, however dimly, for Christ's disciples; they have begun in the lives of the Virgin Mary and all the saints. ” (CCC 1717).
The Beatitudes are a promise of fullness of life and a law that indicates a program for a happy life. However, we should not think of the beatitudes as joy exempt from trials and sufferings, or as a "feeling good" purely terrestrial. We must understand them as a chance to experience that what we are and live makes sense (that is, has a direction and a meaning), provides a "belief" and gives a reason for living. We should remember also that this happiness is measured at the end of the path of discipleship. Actually, happiness is there, all along the way, but sometimes it can be contradicted by trials, suffering, and passion.
Living the Beatitudes is to live like Christ, but it is difficult. In fact, Christianity "is not easy, but happy" (Paul VI).
2) The portrait of Christ and ours.
The Beatitudes are not just the new law enacted by Christ. They "depict the countenance of Christ and portray his charity" (CCC 1717), highlighting the features of his figure and his way of thinking and acting which we must make ours with love.
On the one hand, the Beatitudes are the portrait of the Son of God who came among us, on the other, they describe the characteristics of the disciple who, following the Master by the power of the Spirit, lives imitating the Lord letting Him dwell in him. Therefore, let us practice the beatitudes to become new men with the grace that comes from Jesus. Let us recognize in them the project and the path of holiness according to the Gospel, because a saint is the new man made so by Christ.
What Christ demands is not only to be holy and perfect in love (“Be perfect as perfect is your Father who is in heaven" - Mt 5, 48), but to be blessed and happy in our perfection because holiness cannot be separated from happiness.
If beatitude supposes perfection, what is perfection?
It is the presence in our hearts of God to whom we said "yes."
It is living the life of God, who gives himself to each one of us.
Consequently, it is important that each of us becomes aware of the gift that we have received. To the extent that we are aware of this and that we truly believe in this gift, we will experience the joy that is the experience of being loved.
The theme of joy is found not only in today's Gospel. The whole Liturgy of the Word this Sunday highlights joy, starting first from the beatitude of poverty, as it appears in the responsorial psalm refrain, then from reading Zephaniah and from the passage of the First Letter to the Corinthians where Paul writes that God uses those who don’t have power to confuse the world. "Blessed are the poor" certainly implies an invitation to put the focus of our attention on the poor. The poor in spirit is the one who trusts in God alone. Saint Matthew writes that poverty of spirit cannot be reduced to an abstract and general detachment from the goods. On the contrary, it is a concrete and public attitude, the content of which is determined by the following beatitudes: the building of peace, hunger for justice, mercy, and inner clarity. There are all concrete and active attitudes. While refocusing on interior and spiritual attitudes, Saint Matthew does not forget to invite to a concrete and courageous commitment to justice and peace.
Here is the Christian law: to be happy, to be blessed in the love received and shared in a spirit of poverty.
With this existential description proposed as a law, the Redeemer responds to the natural desire for happiness, which is of divine origin. God has placed it in the heart of man to draw him to himself, because he alone can fulfill this desire. "We want to live happily, and among men there is no one who does not assent to this proposition, even before it is fully articulated (St. Augustine, De moribus ecclesiae catholicae, 1, 3, 4: PL 32, 1312). "How do I look for you, then, Lord? Looking for you, my God, I seek happiness. I'll find you so that my soul may live. My body draws life from my soul and my soul draws life from you "(St. Augustine, Confessions, 10, 20, and 29).
"God alone satisfies" (St. Thomas Aquinas, Expositio in symb. Ap. 1). That is why it is right and proper to recognize that the joy of the Beatitudes has its foundation in the certainty of a happy future in communion with God and as gift of God, and in the joyful discovery that we can already now anticipate a new way of living.
3) The Beatitudes and the consecrated life in the world.
The world lays the foundation of his joy in the possession of goods, in success, or the like. Instead, Christ in the Gospel of joy invites us to put the foundation of our joy in His love and in being like Him taking his paradoxical traits of real man because poor, meek, humble, crying, hungry and thirsty for justice, merciful, pure of heart, artisan of peace, and persecuted for justice (see Mt 5: 3-10)
One significant way of imitating Christ and putting into practice the Beatitudes is that of the consecrated virgins in the world. With the total gift of themselves, these women show that it is possible to be happy and not be fascinated by the things of the world while living in it. In the face of human affairs, we are like the ancient Greeks in front of the Medusa: they were petrified. We too are petrified and no longer have the ability to believe and to go up to God. Earthly things have a charming power. They not only tear us away from God, but paralyze us, keep us from accessing Him, and prevent us from having a real experience of what is our real wealth, God himself. This consecrated women remind us that God alone satisfies (St. Thomas Aquinas, Expositio in symb. Ap. 1), that God alone suffices (St. Teresa of Avila[3]), that our body lives of our soul and our soul lives of God. Looking for Him we seek happiness (see St. Augustine, Confessions, 10, 20, 29). Finding God, we find true and eternal happiness (P. Olivier Marie).
Patristic reading
Saint Leo the Great
Sermon XCV. A Homily on the Beatitudes, St. Mt V. 1-9.
I. Introduction of the Subject.
When our Lord Jesus Christ, beloved, was preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, and was healing divers sicknesses through the whole of Galilee, the fame of His mighty works had spread into all Syria: large crowds too from all parts of Judaea were flocking to the heavenly Physician1 . For as human ignorance is slow in believing what it does not see, and in hoping for what it does not know, those who were to be instructed in the divine lore2 , needed to be aroused by bodily benefits and visible miracles: so that they might have no doubt as to the wholesomeness of His teaching when they actually experienced His benignant power. And therefore that the Lord might use outward healings as an introduction to inward remedies, and after healing bodies might work cures in the soul, He separated Himself from the surrounding crowd, ascended into the retirement of a neighboring mountain, and called His apostles to Him there, that from the height of that mystic seat He might instruct them in the loftier doctrines, signifying from the very nature of the place and act that He it was who had once honored Moses by speaking to him: then indeed with a more terrifying justice, but now with a holier mercifulness, that what had been promised might be fulfilled when the Prophet Jeremiah says: “behold the days come when I will complete a new covenant3 for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My laws in their minds , and in their heart will I write them5 .” He therefore who had spoken to Moses, spoke also to the apostles, and the swift hand of the Word wrote and deposited the secrets of the new covenant6 in the disciples’ hearts: there were no thick clouds surrounding Him as of old, nor were the people frightened off from approaching the mountain by frightful sounds and lightning7 , but quietly and freely His discourse reached the ears of those who stood by: that the harshness of the law might give way before the gentleness of grace, and “the spirit of adoption” might dispel the terrors of bondage8 .
II. The Blessedness of Humility Discussed
The nature then of Christ’s teaching is attested by His own holy statements: that they who wish to arrive at eternal blessedness may understand the steps of ascent to that high happiness. “Blessed,” He saith, “are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” It would perhaps be doubtful what poor He was speaking of, if in saying “blessed are the poor” He had added nothing which would explain the sort of poor: and then that poverty by itself would appear sufficient to win the kingdom of heaven which many suffer from hard and heavy necessity. But when He says “blessed are the poor in spirit,” He shows that the kingdom of heaven must be assigned to those who are recommended by the humility of their spirits rather than by the smallness of their means. Yet it cannot be doubted that this possession of humility is more easily acquired by the poor than the rich: for submissiveness is the companion of those that want, while loftiness of mind dwells with riches . Notwithstanding, even in many of the rich is found that spirit which uses its abundance not for the increasing of its pride but on works of kindness, and counts that for the greatest gain which it expends in the relief of others’ hardships. It is given to every kind and rank of men to share in this virtue, because men may be equal in will, though unequal in fortune: and it does not matter how different they are in earthly means, who are found equal in spiritual possessions. Blessed, therefore, is poverty which is not possessed with a love of temporal things, and does not seek to be increased with the riches of the world, but is eager to amass heavenly possessions.
III. Scriptural Examples of Humility.
Of this high-souled humility the Apostles first11 , after the Lord, have given us example, who, leaving all that they had without difference at the voice of the heavenly Master, were turned by a ready change from the catching of fish to be fishers of men, and made many like themselves through the imitation of their faith, when with those first-begotten sons of the Church, “the heart of all was one, and the spirit one, of those that believed12 :”for they, putting away the whole of their things and possessions, enriched themselves with eternal goods, through the most devoted poverty, and in accordance with the Apostles’ preaching rejoiced to have nothing of the world and possess all things with Christ. Hence the blessed Apostle Peter, when he was going up into the temple, and was asked for alms by the lame man, said, “Silver and gold is not mine, but what I have that I give thee: in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk .” What more sublime than this humility? what richer than this poverty? He hath not stores of money , but he hath gifts of nature. He whom his mother had brought forth lame from the womb, is made whole by Peter with a word; and he who gave not Caesar’s image in a coin, restored Christ’s image on the man. And by the riches of this treasure not he only was aided whose lower of walking was restored, but 5,000 men also, who then believed at the Apostle’s exhortation on account of the wonder of this cure. And that poor man who had not what to give to the asker, bestowed so great a bounty of Divine Grace, that, as he had set one man straight on his feet, so he healed these many thousands of believers in their hearts, and made them “leap as an hart” in Christ whom he had found limping in Jewish unbelief.
IV. The Blessedness of Mourning Discussed.
After the assertion of this most happy humility, the Lord hath added, saying, “Blessed are they which mourn, for they shall be comforted.” This mourning, beloved, to which eternal comforting is promised, is not the same as the affliction of this world: nor do those laments which are poured out in the sorrows of the whole human race make any one blessed. The reason for holy groaning, the cause of blessed tears, is very different. Religious grief mourns sin either that of others’ or one’s own: nor does it mourn for that which is wrought by God’s justice, but it laments over that which is committed by man’s iniquity, where he that does wrong is more to be deplored than he who suffers it, because the unjust man’s wrongdoing plunges him into punishment, but the just man’s endurance leads him on to glory.
V. The Blessedness of the Meek.
Next the Lord says: “blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth by inheritance1 .” To the meek and gentle, to the humble and modest, and to those who are prepared to endure all injuries, the earth is promised for their possession. And this is not to be reckoned a small or cheap inheritance, as if it were distinct from our heavenly dwelling, since it is no other than these who are understood to enter the kingdom of heaven. The earth, then, which is promised to the meek, and is to be given to the gentle in possession, is the flesh of the saints, which in reward for their humility will be changed in a happy resurrection, and clothed with the glory of immortality, in nothing now to act contrary to the spirit, and to be in complete unity and agreement with the will of the soul17. For then the outer man will be the peaceful and unblemished possession of the inner man: then the mind, engrossed in beholding God, will be hampered by no obstacles of human weakness nor will it any more have to be said “The body which is corrupted, weigheth upon the soul, and its earthly house presseth down the sense which thinketh many things :” for the earth will not struggle against its tenant, and will not venture on any insubordination against the rule of its governor. For the meek shall possess it in perpetual peace, and nothing shall be taken from their rights, “when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality :” that their danger may turn into reward, and what was a burden become an honor .
VI. The Blessedness of Desiring Righteousness.
After this the Lord goes on to say: “blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied .” It is nothing bodily, nothing earthly, that this hunger, thisthirst seeks for: but it desires to be satiated with the good food of righteousness, and wants to be admitted to all the deepest mysteries, and be filled with the Lord Himself. Happy the mind that craves this food and is eager for such drink: which it certainly would not seek for if it had never tasted of its sweetness. But hearing the Prophet’s spirit saying to him: “taste and see that the Lord is sweet ;” it has received some portion of sweetness from on high, and blazed out into love of the purest pleasure, so that spurning all things temporal, it is seized with the utmost eagerness for eating and drinking righteousness, and grasps the truth of that first commandment which says: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God out of all thy heart, and out of all thy mind, and out of all thy strength :” since to love God is nothing else but to love righteousness . In fine, as in that passage the care for one’s neighbor is joined to the love of God, so, too, here the virtue of mercy is linked to the desire for righteousness, and it is said:
VII. The Blessedness of the Merciful:
“Blessed are the merciful, for God shall have mercy on them.” Recognize, Christian, the worth of thy wisdom, and understand to what rewards thou art called, and by what methods of discipline thou must attain thereto. Mercy wishes thee to be merciful, righteousness to be righteous, that the Creator may be seen in His creature, and the image of God may be reflected in the mirror of the human heart expressed by the lines of imitation. The faith of those who do good26 is free from anxiety: thou shalt have all thy desires, and shalt obtain without end what thou lovest. And since through thine alms-giving all things are pure to thee, to that blessedness also thou shalt attain which is promised in consequence where the Lord says:
VIII. The Blessedness of a Pure Heart.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God .” Great is the happiness, beloved, of him for whom so great a reward is prepared. What, then, is it to have the heart pure, but to strive after those virtues which are mentioned above? And how great the blessedness of seeing God, what mind can conceive, what tongue declare? And yet this shall ensue when man’s nature is transformed, so that no longer “in a mirror,” nor “in a riddle,” but “face to face ” it sees the very Godhead “as He is ,” which no man could see; and through the unspeakable joy of eternal contemplation obtains that “which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man.” Rightly is this blessedness promised to purity of heart. For the brightness of the true light will not be able to be seen by the unclean sight: and that which will be happiness to minds that are bright and clean, will be a punishment to those that are stained. Therefore, let the mists of earth’s vanities be shunned. and your inward eyes purged from all the filth of wickedness, that the sight may be free to feed on this great manifestation of God. For to the attainment of this we understand what follows to lead.
IX. The Blessedness of Peace-Making.
“Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the sons of God .” This blessedness, beloved, belongs not to any and every kind of agreement and harmony, but to that of which the Apostle speaks: “have peace towards God ;” and of which the Prophet David speaks: “Much peace have they that love Thy law, and they have no cause of offences .” This peace even the closest ties of friendship and the exactest likeness of mind do not really gain, if they do not agree with God’s will. Similarity of bad desires, leagues in crimes, associations of vice, cannot merit this peace. The love of the world does not consort with the love of God, nor doth he enter the alliance of the sons of God who will not separate himself from the children of this generation Whereas they who are in mind always with God, “giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace ,” never dissent from the eternal law, uttering that prayer of faith, “Thy will be done as in heaven so on earth .” These are “the peacemakers,” these are thoroughly of one mind, and fully harmonious, and are to be called sons “of God and joint-heirs with Christ ,” because this shall be the record of the love of God and the love of our neighbor, that we shall suffer no calamities, be in fear of no offence, but all the strife of trial ended, rest in God’s most perfect peace, through our Lord, Who, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Cf. Mt 4,23-24.
2 Divina eruditone firmandos = tou;" didaxqhsomevnou", a common form of expression in Leo. Cf. Lett. XXVIII. the Tome, chap. I, quod voce omnium regenerandorum (= tw`n ajnagennhqhsomevnwn), depromitur).
3 Or testament (Lat). testamentum).
4 In sensu ipsorum.
5 Jr 31,31 and part of Jr 31,33: the passage is quoted in full, He 8,8-12.
6 Or testament (Lat). testamentum).
7 Cf. He 12,18 and foll.
8 S. Paul’s lauguage (Rm 8,15) is in his mind.
9 Mt 5,3.
10 Et illis in tenuitate amica est mansuetudo et istis divitiis familiaris elatio.
11 The mss.vary between primum and primi. The rendering above given practically represents either. If primi, however, is read, it may be questioned whether the true rendering is not “the first apostles after the LORD,” which would be interesting assuggesting that S. Leo did not necessarily confine the title “apostle” to the Twelve.
12 Ac 4,32,
13 Ac 3,6,
14 Proesidia pecunioe.
15 Mt 5,4.
16 Mt 5,5. It will be observed that Leo’s order for the 2nd and 3rd beatitudes is that of the English version, not that of the Vulgate.
17 In nullo iam spiritui futura contraria et cum voluntate animi perfectoe unitatis habitura consensum: compare S. Aug). de Fide et symbolo, cap. 23, "est autem animoe natura perfecta cum spiritui suo subditar et cum sequitur sequentum Deum-non est desperandum etiam corpus restitui naturoe proprioe-tempore opportuno in novissima tuba, cum mortui resurgent incorrupti et nos immutabimur." The interpretation of this beatitude in this way is fantastic, and very strange to modern notions.
18 Sg 9,15.
19 1Co 15,53,
20 Quod fuit oneri, sit honori, the play on the words (which is quite classical) may perhaps be represented by the difference between onerous and honorary.
21 Mt 5,6.
22 Ps 34,8, suavis, A.V. and R.V.good, P.B.V. gracious, LXX. xrhstov".
23 Dt 6,5, quoted, it will be remembered, by our Lord, as “the first and great commandment” in the law, Mt 22,37 Mc 12,30 Lc 10,27,
24 The two words for “love” here are different, and speak for themselves, diligere (ajgapa`n) Deum and amare(ejpa`n) iustitiam.
25 Mt 5,7.
26 Operantium : operatio is the regular patristic term for the doing of charitable actions; for this application of the beatitude and its promised reward, compare Ps 41,1-3.
27 Mt 5,8.
28 1Co 13,12,
29 1Jn 3,2.
32 Mt 5,9.
33 Rm 5,1, where "we have" or "let us have" is the exact phrase.
34 Ps 119,165,
35 A carnali generatione.
36 Ep 4,3,
37 Mt 6,10.
38 Rm 8,17,
[1] The translation from the Greek word "makarioi"(from which comes also "maybe “) with the word "blessed" does not express adequately the meaning that this word has in the Greek language. “Blessed" should not be understood only as an adjective, but as an invitation to happiness, fullness of life, and awareness of a joy that nothing and no one can steal or turn away from us (see Jn 16:23). "Blessed" also has the meaning of "blessings" (see Mt 25:34) in opposition to "troubles" (see Mt 23.13 to 32; Lk 6.24 to 26). It indicates also something that is not only an action of God who makes us righteous and saved in the Day of Judgment (see Ps 1.1; 41.2), but already today gives meaning and conscious and joyful hope to the recipient of that word.
[2] The Beatitudes are not infrequently presented as the antithesis of the New Testament to the Decalogue and, so to speak, as the highest ethics of Christians in regard to the Old Testament commandments. This interpretation completely misunderstands the meaning of the words of Jesus. Jesus has always taken for granted the validity of the Decalogue (see Mk 10, 19; Lk 16, 17). The Sermon on the Mount takes up the commandments of the second table, ponders them, and does not abolish them (see Mt 5.21 to 48). This would be diametrically opposed to the fundamental principle being said in this speech on the Decalogue: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place."(Mt 5,17s). However, it is important to point out that Jesus does not intend to abolish the Decalogue, on the contrary, he reinforces it.
[3] This is the prayer of St. Teresa of Avila: "Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices. May your desire be to see God, may your fear be to lose him, may your pain be not owning Him and may your joy be what can bring you to him, then you will live in great peace.
