Some years ago I was in Ireland and one of my cousins came from a funeral and he was laughing.  He told me it was the funeral of the town rascal. You know, no one liked this fellow.  He was un-likeable.  The priest was going on and on about all these good qualities. After about ten minutes, my cousin said, the son, sitting in the front row next to his mother leaned over and asked her, “Mom, who’s in the box?  He’s not talking about my father!” 

You know the story about George.  Have I told you about George?  There was this priest, who was newly assigned to a parish. He drove to his new parish and as he got out of the car – the first time he had ever been there – there was a funeral.  They said, “Thank goodness you’re here, Father.”  So, he quickly dressed and of course he knew no body, much less the deceased.  After the gospel was read, he said, “I need some help because I don’t know any of you people and I surely don’t know George, the deceased.  So I’d like to ask someone to stand and come forward and speak about George.”  So, the good priest sat down. No one moved.  So he got up and he said, “I know it’s very difficult to talk in public but the man deserves a decent send off.  Someone please, come up here and say something good about George.”  And he sat down again and no one moved.  So finally, he was getting irritated, he said, “Look, we’re not leaving here until someone stands up and says something good about George.”  Finally, an old farmer stood up in the back of the church and he said, “Well, Padre, his brother was worse!”

Today we’re going to start working on your eulogy and on my eulogy.  Today’s a good day to start.  Fortunately, the great majority of funerals are far easier to preside at than ol’ George or the town rascal.  Most funerals, the person has lived a reasonable life, in terms of years.  They’ve had the opportunity to get a few grey hairs or to lose what hair they had.  As we look back on their life, although there’s great sadness in parting, we are often able to look back and see how blessed that person was. There’s a great healing in funerals, I think you’d all agree with that.  Oftentimes, when someone who was really holy dies, we use this reading we heard today, from the fifth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel--The Beatitudes, The Sermon on the Mount. Really, they are the hallmarks of a Christian and the people who have those qualities.

The Sermon on the Mount is very important.  I’ll prove that by looking at the scripture--the structure of the scripture, itself.  Notice that the scripture says, “Jesus saw the crowd, so He went up to the mountain and He sat down.”  That’s kind of strange.  Why did they mention that?  Well, it’s very important to know what that means.  Anytime anyone in the Bible goes up on the mountain, you’d better listen.  When Moses went up to the mountain, he received the Ten Commandments.  When Jesus went up to the mountain, He was transfigured before James, John and Peter, and before long Elijah and Moses appeared as well.  Important things happen when you go up on a mountain.  It’s also important to note, “He sat down,” because the listeners of the scripture, when it was written, would know that means that He was teaching definitively.  The cathedral church, the word “cathedral” comes from the Latin word for “chair.”  A cathedral is named after the Bishop’s chair because that’s where he sits.  In ancient times and to some extent even today, when one is sitting and teaching, that shows ones power and authority.  In universities you hear about the Chair of Humanities, the Chair of Science.  The person who occupies the Chair is the expert, who is honored by that position. 

All the scriptures are important. All the Gospels are important but this is particularly important (the Sermon on the Mount) and it’s particularly difficult.  If you ask most Christians, “What are the rules I must follow to be a good disciple?”  Most people would say, “The Ten Commandments,” and I don’t think that’s right.  “The Ten Commandments" are so basic. They’re really relevant to every religion, even to people without religion.  Right?  You don’t steal, you don’t cheat, you are faithful to your promises, and you don’t kill.   Nine of the Ten Commandments are “Thou shalt not.”  Only one of them is a positive commandment – You will honor your mother and your father.  (Remember that, children.)  The rest are negative.  Really, they’re just rules to live by.  But the flip side to the Ten Commandments is more important and that’s the Beatitudes that we heard today.  If you want to be just a good person then keep the Ten Commandments.  If you want to be a good Christian, if you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, then live according to the Beatitudes.

They are difficult to live by, aren’t they?  They even sound wrong.  “Blessed are the meek”?  “Blessed are those who are mourning”?  “Blessed are those who are persecuted”?  “Blessed are the poor”?  That’s heresy to our society today.  No one says, “I want to grow up to be poor.”  “I’ll grow up to get persecuted!”  Yet, these are the words of Jesus.  Sometimes you’ll hear them explained away.  You can’t explain them away.  He means what He says.  Paul reinforces it.  Paul says, “God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise.  God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being can boast before God.”  Jesus is saying, “If you want to be my disciples, be poor in spirit, be compassionate, hunger for what’s right, be merciful, be pure of heart, be a peacemaker, etc.”

Now, those don’t sound like the things we teach our children to achieve success, do they?  And yet, the reality is that these Beatitudes work.  They surely will work getting us into heaven.  But they work now, as well.  We are better people if we live according to these challenging Beatitudes.  For years I would read them and say, “How in the world can you be in charge of anything and be like that, be meek?  Because when we hear the Beatitudes, we hear, “Wimp.  Meek – wimp, wuss.”  Well, Jesus was meek and He was no wimp. 

Just this morning, I was thinking, of all of our presidents.  Who do you think was the greatest president we have ever had?  Quickly.  Don’t think, just say.  Lincoln, right? As a matter of fact, I was reading about him in between masses.  I’ve got a little book on him. The Ford Foundation and the Mellon Foundation on Lincoln’s writings put it out.  It’s The Greatest President.  It’s interesting.  Sometimes when we look at our presidents, and the more we learn about them, we realize they weren’t so good.  Just the opposite is true of Lincoln.  The more we learn about Abe Lincoln, the better he is.  We are learning more about his depression, his health problems, depression in his wife and the poverty of his childhood.  The more you know about him, the more you love this man. Someone for Christmas gave me a two volume set of all of his writings and his letters, mundane letters, about petty political things – he was in low level politics in Illinois for many years – and, unlike Los Alamos, sometimes politics can be very petty.  None of that here.  And yet, in his writings he is so humble and meek.  It’s amazing. 

Now, you all know about Lincoln.  Look at these Beatitudes again and think about Abe Lincoln.  The poor in spirit – he was poor in every way.  When I was on sabbatical, I was within five or six miles of where he lived in southern Indiana. He lived there for about 12 years.  He lived near what is, today, Santa Clause, Indiana, just south of Jasper.  His mother died when he was very young and his only sister died there, as well.  It’s very poor land.  That’s where he grew up.  Blessed are those who mourn – he even looks mournful, Lincoln does.  Blessed are the meek – read his writings.  When he’s attacked and condemned, he usually said, “You’re probably right.  You deserve better.  I’m doing the best I can.  Pray for me.”  That’s his response when he’s attacked and he meant it.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. There were some revisionists for a while that said the Civil War wasn’t about slavery and now we know that indeed it was.  He thirsted for righteousness.  He knew the equality of man under God.  Blessed are the merciful –look at his Reconstruction of the South.  Although he wasn’t able to lead for very long because of his assassination, he certainly was merciful towards his former enemies.  Blessed are the clean of heart. Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness – John Wilkes Booth took care of the last part.  Our greatest president was meek, merciful, humble, gentle--Christ-like.  He didn’t speak much about God and although he was a religious man, he did know the Bible – he used it when he wrote and when he spoke – but he lived like Christ.  He is our greatest president.

I think the lesson that I am trying to tell myself is that I need to live like that and I’ll be a better priest.  You need to live like that and you’ll be a better husband, a better wife and a better leader at your work, and a better member of this community.  The Beatitudes are a challenge but they are the right way of living.  We should stop trying to live happy lives and start trying to live blessed lives.

In a few moments we will baptize Miranda Monique.  (“MM, like Mickey Mantle.  Beautiful name!)  A lot of times, I’ll ask parents, “What do you want for your kids?”  And they say, “I want my children to be happy,” right?  How about this, “I want my children to be blessed.”  That’s better.  The word happy is interesting.  The root of that word, hap, is luck, chance.  The word blessed is different.  One of the meanings in the dictionary of “to be blessed” is “to be consecrated by the blood of a sacrificial animal.”  We are consecrated by the Blood of Jesus Christ.  Miranda Monique is about to be consecrated in water and in blood of the Holy Spirit. 

So, be blessed.  Teach your children to be blessed.  Teach them the Beatitudes and try to live them yourself.

Today, let’s start working on our eulogies, on our funeral homilies.  To live the Beatitudes, to follow Jesus Christ, is not to be a wimp.  It’s to be a true man or true woman made in God’s image and likeness.