God Alone Makes Us Blessed

God Alone Makes Us Blessed

Lk 6: 17, 20 – 26

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Introduction

Today’s reading is Luke’s version of the beatitudes. This version of the beatitudes speaks about the blessedness of those who do not enjoy what we may call the “good life” here on earth. On the other hand, those who already enjoy what seems to be the good life may after all end up not being blessed at all.

The Gospel

The reading today is Luke’s version of the beatitudes. Matthew’s version differs with that of Luke in a number of ways. First, the setting of Luke’s beatitude is on a stretch of level ground. In Matthew’s version, we see Jesus addressing the crowd on a hill, hence, the sermon on the mount.

In Luke’s version too, Jesus addresses his disciples. In Matthew, however, he addresses the crowd. But the major difference between the two versions lie in their content.

Luke’s version carries a certain clarity of message that is specifically addressed to the poor and to those who are not.

The Lord addresses those who are poor in the following manner:

“ Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude and insult you and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way. ” This is the first part of Luke's version of the beatitudes.

The second part is not really a list of blessings or “beatitudes.” Instead they seem to be statements of caution which want to elicit a kind of a reformed behavior from those who are not poor and unfortunate. To them the Lord Jesus has this to say:

“ But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

With Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, Jesus seems to direct his message to those disciples who were already living their lives attuned to the spirit of the beatitudes. But Jesus also addresses those disciples who have yet to learn how to think of and care for people other than themselves in order to inherit the kingdom of God.

Reflection

They say that the beatitudes paint an accurate portrait of our Lord Jesus. If we look at the beatitudes, we see that those who are blessed are those who are poor and hungry, those who weep, those who are hated, persecuted and insulted. And rightly so, we could safely say that Jesus was all of the above.

Jesus was himself poor. Jesus experienced hunger. Jesus wept. He was hated, persecuted and insulted especially at his passion and death. And just like all the prophets, Jesus was rejected by his own people.

By the world’s standards, the life of Jesus was not at all a successful one. He did not gain wealth, he was a man of sorrows, he was a man unloved and unappreciated. He simply did not have a “good life” as we know it but had one that was deprived, sad and tragic. He died poor, thirsty and rejected as people jeered him on the cross.

But what then makes Jesus blessed? His blessedness lies in his complete trust and confidence and total abandonment to God. In return, God provided for his needs. God loved him, calling him his beloved son. God’s love for Jesus was so great that not even death had any power over Jesus because  God raised him back to life on the third day. Jesus was blessed, as it was God who took care of him with a love that was simply incomparable with anything that the world has ever known.

Such blessedness is also ours if we learn to put our complete trust and confidence and total abandonment to God. To put our lives at the hands of God; to entrust to him all our concerns, and to abandon ourselves to God who knows what is best for us.

When this happens, then deep inside of us, we know that despite of all the deprivations, the insults and rejections we encounter, we know that we are still deeply loved and cared for and that nothing, not even death shall separate us from this love. As Pope Francis himself has said: “ After everything has been said and done, we experience joy deep inside of us because no matter what,  we know we are deeply loved. “ God provides. God satisfies. God sustains and rewards us at the end.

Now the second part of this reading doesn’t deal with the beatitudes but with a series of “woe to you” statements uttered by Jesus. These “woe” statements are cautionary statements for anyone wanting to belong to the Kingdom of God.

These series of “woes” underscore the fact that when we rely and trust in material wealth, when we are obsessed by popularity and the pursuit of the “good life,” we run the risk of being blinded ourselves by these things. We start to crave and depend on them for our well being, eventually forgetting and abandoning God himself as our true source of happiness and well being.

And what is the warning for those who rely on these things? The Lord tells us: “You have already received your consolation; you will be hungry; you will grieve and weep.” In the end, all those who trust in created things, Jesus says, will be disappointed. Those who put their trust in created things exchange God's love for something that will not last. In the end, as Jesus tells us, our lives become empty when we put our trust in so many things except in God who alone makes us truly happy and blessed.

Prayer

Dear Lord, I cannot imagine a life like yours that is poor, hungry, sad and rejected. It is not what I imagine to be a good and successful life. Yet you tell me today that people who are poor, hungry, sad and rejected can really be blessed.

Today, you teach me to rely on you totally, to trust in your providence, to abandon myself to you for you alone are the source of true happiness, a happiness that is well secured because of your love. Amen.

“Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help. When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day, their plans perish.” – Psalm 146: 3 - 4

For reflections like this, go to my blog: thevineyardlaborer.blogspot.com