2023-02-05—Be Bread Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time In last week's gospel, Matthew gave us the Beatitudes. We often think of the Beatitudes as rewards for different groups of good people. They are not. Rather, they are the characteristics that each of us should strive to embody. One could say they are the ste ps, in no particular order, that can transform us. As we know Jesus was familiar with the writings of the prophet Isaiah. In today's first reading Isaiah gives us a hint at what Jesus was getting at in last Sunday's as well as this Sunday's gospel reading. The issues in the first reading appear more than once in the gospel of Matthew. Isaiah admonishes us to share our bread with the hungry, to shelter the oppressed and the homeless; to clothe the naked, to remove oppression, false accusations and malicious speech from our communities. Then, Isaiah tells us, not only will our light break forth like the d...