Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year A) February 1, 2026

February 1, 2026 0 By BLACKCATHOLIC

The following transcript of the homily is in the original formatting that was used for the sake of live delivery with all cues, emphasis, and notes included.

Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (A)

Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13
1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Matthew 5:1-12a [Focus of the Homily]

Transcript:

“When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, he began to teach them, saying: ‘Blessed are you.’” Words from the Gospel According to Matthew.

In the Name of the Father + and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

At the beginning when God created the world, everything was in a state of what is called “Original Justice”.

This means everything was properly under the rule of God – God’s domain.

With the Fall of Man came the fall of creation in general in the sense that both human beings and the world came under the rule of sin and death with the commission of the Original Sin,

And what is the rule of sin and death other than the Devil’s domain?

After all, it was the Devil and his fallen angels who were cast out of heaven.
And it was the Devil under the form of a serpent who tempted Adam and Eve who prompted the Original Sin that brought in the rule of sin and death over creation.

Now, in the gospel reading we see the beginnings of Jesus’s famous Sermon on the Mount starting with His lesson on the Beatitudes.

And, just like the crowds Jesus saw, when we seek to live with and for God,

We come to Him as He comes to us in order to listen to Him and learn how to live the life of the blessed citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven through the Beatitudes.

But without God, sinful man comes flocking to the mountain of sin and death to listen to the Devil give his own “sermon on the mount.”

In this “sermon”, the Devil gives his anti-beatitudes of the kingdom of hell in opposition to the Kingdom of Heaven whispering things like:

“Blessed are the rich in spirit, for they don’t have to wait for a heaven they can’t see but get to have the treasures they can see now! So take in as much as you want before you return to the dust.”
“Blessed are those who trust and believe in themselves above everything else, even God and His Church, for they get to judge for themselves even right and wrong and say things like “my truth.”

Do not be deceived by this “sermon” from the father of lies!

And know well – that it was the Devil’s kingdom, the kingdom of hell, that everything was given over to through willful sin after the Fall of man and creation.

But God had a plan from the start to retake what belonged to Him in the beginning, What was stolen by the Devil,

And gain it back to the domain of the Kingdom of Heaven.

You know, the Devil was crafty and attacked the one to bring destruction to all.

God’s plan was to reverse the curse and work in stages to use the one to bring blessing and salvation to all through multiple instances of this strategy.

To start off small and save all.
To work from the inside out

This is the preferred working style of the Kingdom of Heaven.

And God worked this through the whole of salvation history as recorded in the Bible.

First, right after the Fall of Adam and Eve, God promises that one seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent: the one bringing blessing and salvation to all.

Then we would go on to see this same strategy working with multiple biblical figures:

From the one Abraham came the blessing of the Jewish people descended from him who at first had no heir.
From the one Moses came the blessing and salvation of the Israelites from Pharaoh and the Egyptians when he led them out.
From the one Jewish people came the blessing and salvation of God brought to all the nations when the Jewish Messiah, the Christ, was born from them.

And this one man, Christ Jesus, established one Church to bring His blessing and salvation to the world until He comes again.

And the Church does this through sanctifying and bringing back the rule of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, to retake God’s creation

Bit by bit,
Soul by soul and blessing by blessing,
From the small to the all,
And from the inside out,

All in patient growth over time till the end of time when all of creation will be re-conquered back under the rule of God the everlasting King of Kings.

One way that this holy re-conquest of creation for the Kingdom of Heaven occurs is through the act of blessing.

By blessing things and, especially, human beings through baptism, we participate in God’s rescuing of His creation from the domain of the Devil to the Lordship of the Lord.

In blessings we:

Turn creation back over to God.
Make thing go from cursed to saved.

And this starts with human beings, who are the pinnacle of creation.

Thus, Jesus gave humanity the Beatitudes in which we learn what it means to be blessed and how to become blessed in order to become new St. Martin of Tourses and new St. Joan of Arcs, knights and lady knights, of the Kingdom of Heaven that is coming into the world.

And when we bless things we bring the Beatitudes to both what we bless and to those for whom the things being blessed are for.

And on our mission to regain ground for the Kingdom of Heaven we rescue creation from the domain of kingdom of hell through God’s blessings and Beatitudes.

I want to illustrate this point by what happened when you call me over to come bless your homes.

And those families with houses I have blessed already know the deal,

Because when I come bless the house I really BLESS THE HOUSE.

I don’t just show up and say some nice words.

No, I get down to business – Kingdom business, that is.

I bring the surplice and a good stole and the holy water container and sprinkler that really gets water flinging everywhere.

I fill up with water and tell the family to get me some salt to bless and sprinkle with the water – because I get down like that.

But even before I bless the water and salt I do one crucial thing with both called for by the older rite of blessings used before Vatican II

I do exorcisms over the both the water and the salt.

These are minor exorcisms that kick the domain of the Devil off of God’s creatures of water and salt, both part of the fallen world effected by sin and death.

Both the water and salt will be then turned over to the domain of God through His blessing and then used for His holy purposes of blessing His people and their homes.

And the exorcized water and salt combine together to create supercharged holy water to send evil spirits away packing by the power of God.

Then I start blessing the whole house,

And when I say the “whole” house – I mean the WHOLE HOUSE.

I bless the people first.

Then I bless kitchen (and tables and the chairs and cabinets and refrigerator).

I bless living room (and the couches and the TV and lamps and the pictures on the wall).

I bless the laundry room (and the washer and the dryer and the hot water heater).

I bless hallways, the bedrooms, the garage and the cars.

I bless the closets, the bathroom, the attic, and the basement.

I even bless the ceiling to keep it from falling down on you.

I bless the dog and the cat and the gerbil and the goldfish,

I’ll even bless ol’ Mickey Mouse living in the walls if he happened to come out.

Then I go outside and bless the porch and the patio and hit the doghouse up, too.

Then I literally go around the perimeter of the house in my cassock, surplice and stole (and even my little funny priest hat if I bring it) for all the hood to see as I sprinkle your whole property with holy water.

I make sure every square inch of creation that you live on is turned back over to God so it matches the status of the people of God living in the house itself.

Then once I’m good and tired from stomping around everywhere swinging my arm like a holy madman, I come back into the house to have lunch or dinner to build back up my strength (wink, wink, hint, hint).

I take joy in doing this every time because when I bless a house for a family,

The family has the ability and duty to live the life of the Beatitudes in the little slice of the Kingdom of Heaven now won back for God that is called their home.

For then their homes become places that are blessed because in them:

The poor in spirit thrive regardless of the economic situation.
Those who mourn a loss are comforted when they cry.
The hungry and thirsty are fed with food, life lessons, and truth.
Mercy is shown and peace is made.
And where the faith of the children of God is fostered so that when the world persecutes and undermines right religion they have the spiritual tools to remain steadfast in the faith, if they use them.

And all this can still be true whether I bless your house or whether it is Father Gilstrap, Father Lee, or one of our holy deacons.

So, “Rejoice and be glad,” as you live the Beatitudes in your actions both at home and when you leave the house.

Bless the world, and re-conquer God’s creation for the Kingdom of Heaven.

And, above all, stay blessed my brothers and sisters.

In the Name of the Father + of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Given at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Hendersonville, TN.