Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13 / 1 Cor 1:26-31 / Matthew 5:1-12
Most of us wake up to the sound of an alarm clock. Maybe on Saturdays and Sundays we can sleep in and tomorrow we can also sleep in since it’s a holiday.
But on weekdays, whether it is to go to work or to school, the alarm clock will be our wake-up call.
And that can be a very challenging time as our ears and our bodies keep protesting to the sound of the alarm clock as it persistently keeps bugging us.
And depending on how we want to start the day, there are many alarm tones that we can choose from.
There are those that sound like the fire alarm, such that even the neighbours at the next block can hear it. That is usually for heavy sleepers who want it loud.
Some choose to be awaken gently and so there is the radio-alarm where we can wake up to soothing music. And then there is a range of alarm tones to choose from.
But the most traditional alarm tone is provided by nature and it comes from the rooster. But the cock-crow is something that we don’t hear in our highly urbanized surroundings.
But the rooster, often generally termed as chicken, is not often noted for its morning call. Rather it is thought of as food: fried chicken, curry chicken, essence of chicken, chicken nuggets, chicken soup, etc.
But in the Chinese zodiac, the rooster takes on a prominence as this year is the Year of the Rooster.
And in the Bible, the rooster makes its one and only appearance, and that was in the trial of Jesus.
When Jesus was being questioned by His persecutors, Peter was nearby as he tried to see what would happen to Jesus. Then some people identified him as being associated with Jesus. At this he began to vehemently deny it, and when he denied knowing Jesus for the third time, the rooster crowed.
At that cock-crow, Jesus turned to look at Peter. And as their eyes met, Peter suddenly realized what he had done and he went away and wept bitterly.
The crowing of the humble rooster was used by God to be a wakeup call for Peter. It was for him an awakening – an awakening of a sleeping heart.
In the face of persecution, the call of the rooster revealed to Peter who he was and who Jesus is.
In the gospel, we heard a teaching from Jesus which is often called the Beatitudes. Beatitudes means blessings.
So what Jesus is saying is that when we are poor in spirit, when we are gentle, when we are merciful, when we hunger and thirst for what is right, when we are persecuted because of Jesus, we are blessed. The gospel used the word “Happy” but it means blessed.
And that word recurs throughout the passage. (9 times)
Another word in the passage that keeps recurring is the word “shall”. That word accompanies the word “Happy” and it reinforces it by making it into a promise.
In other words, when we are gentle, when we are merciful, when we hunger and thirst for what is right, when we are persecuted because of Jesus, then we shall be blessed.
That is the promise that Jesus is making to us, and it is He Himself who will bless us.
And that is a wakeup call for us. When we hear the teaching of the Beatitudes, we wonder about it. Because it goes against our instinct and logic to think that by giving way, by not retaliating, by being humble, by being kind, we will be blessed.
We would be more inclined to go by the ways of the world and to go with the flow by keeping quiet and looking away from injustice and staying out of trouble, by playing safe, by going for what is advantageous and profitable to us.
But the Beatitudes keep calling us to us that when we follow the Way of Jesus, we will be blessed and rise from what the world can give us to what Jesus want to give us.
There’s a story of a chicken farmer who found an eagle’s egg. He put it with his chickens and soon the egg hatched.
The baby eagle grew up with all the other chickens and learned to imitate the chickens. He would scratch the ground for worms. He grew up thinking he was a chicken.
Since the chickens could only fly for a short distance, the eagle also learnt to fly a short distance.
He thought that was what he was supposed to do. So that was all that he thought he could do. As a consequence, that was all he was able to do.
One day the eagle saw a bird flying high above him. He was very impressed. “Who is that?” he asked the chickens around him.
“That’s the eagle, the king of the birds,” the chickens told him. “He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth, we are just chickens.”
So the eagle lived and died as a chicken, for that’s what he thought he was. Or maybe he ended up as fried chicken or curry chicken.
So as the Lunar New Year begins with the Year of the Rooster, let us also hear the awakening call from Jesus.
We are not called to be of this world, to be like mere chickens that scratch the ground for worms.
But we are called to lift up our minds and hearts and lives to God so that we can stretch our wings of blessings and soar high with God’s love.
Yes, that is what God is calling us to and that is what He wants of us.
St. Peter heard it and he became who God wanted him to be.
May we too hear God’s call and become who God wants us to be.
May the New Year bring about God’s blessings so that we will stretch out our wings and proclaim God’s wonderful love for us.
May we firmly believe in the promise of Jesus in the Beatitudes and receive blessings upon blessings.