It is, therefore, something that takes all that we have in order do so, living so that, as St. Paul, in our second reading reminds: “we should…boast not of ourselves but in the Lord.”
There is a great story I once received in an email, which I think encapsulates this well and I would like to share with you now.
It is a story about a mountain climber who wanted to climb the highest mountain, and he prepared himself very well, so well, in fact, he wanted the glory all for himself. As a result, he decided to climb the mountain all alone.
Things were going well until one night when it got so dark he could see nothing since even the stars and the moon were covered by the clouds. As he was climbing, about to reach the top of the mountain, he slipped and fell, falling at a great speed. In fact, he could only see black spots as he went down and the terrible sensation of being sucked by gravity. As he was falling his entire life literally flashed before his eyes, and he remembered all the good things and the bad things that he had done. He felt his death imminent until, all of a sudden, he felt the rope that he had tied to his waist pull on him very hard.
He was hanging in the air, only the rope holding him and keeping him from falling any further. He could think of nothing else except to scream out “Help me God!”
He heard a voice from the sky answer: “What do you want me to do?” He replied: “Save me God!” The voice responded: “Do you really think I can save you?” The man replied: “Of course I believe You can.” The voice then told him: “Then cut the rope tied to your waist.” There was silence and the man decided he could not do it, and so held on to the rope with all his strength.
The rescue team tells that the next day the climber was found frozen and dead, his body hanging from the rope, his hands holding it tight…only ten feet from the ground.
All he had to do was let go, all he had to do was trust, humble himself and accept the fact that if he wanted to conquer the mountain he couldn’t do it alone, that if he truly wanted to succeed, he had to “forget himself,” as it were, and allow the mountain of his pride to be conquered first.
In fact, that is what Jesus is reminding us of in our Gospel today, that when we are lacking anything we seek support, and when we lack what is most fundamental to us, we come to see what is most important in our lives and, as a result, come to rely upon He who can help us, the One who knows better than ourselves what we truly need.
For, the beatitudes, believe it or not, are an instruction for happiness, but it is happiness that is only understood in the light of Christ, a happiness that only makes sense when we allow ourselves to be led, when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, that is, hungry, poor, sad, hated and persecuted, because it makes us dependent upon the same Christ who lived the reality of the Beatitudes in His own life.
And, they show us that true happiness, true fulfillment only begins here on earth, but reaches its culmination, reaches its pinnacle in Heaven, in fact, the word “beatitude,” means “fulfillment” in Latin.
Therefore, when we change our view, when we look at the world with eyes of humility, we come to see that when we are hanging at the end of our rope, when our own pride has brought us to a place we don’t want to be, we need not fear, but only truly let go, knowing that if it is not a cliff or someone there waiting, it will always be the hand of God ready to catch us if we cut the rope and fall in faith.
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