|
I Reading:
1 Jer. 17:5-8
II Reading: 1 Cor.: 15:12, 16-20
Gospel: Lk. 6:17, 20-26
With today’s Gospel we come to the
end of the first section of Saint Luke’s account of the
early public ministry of Jesus. That ministry began on
the day, when in the synagogue of his home town,
Nazareth, he proclaimed that the day had come when the
great promises made by the prophet Isaiah were being
then fulfilled.
“The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he has chosen me to bring good news
to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the
captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free
the oppressed and announce that the time has come when
the Lord will save his people”
That was a kind of
inaugural speech with which he began his mission. In
chapters 4 to 6 of his Gospel, Saint Luke tells us in
some detail what happened after that as Jesus went about
Galilee preaching, teaching and caring for the sick and
the needy. And now at the end of chapter six he brings
that part of his Gospel to a close with another speech –
much the same way as he had begun this section. But
this time the speech is a kind of ‘policy statement’. It
is very often called the “Sermon on the Mount”. In
today’s Gospel we have read the first part of it and we
will continue reading it next Sunday.
By now Jesus had chosen
his disciples, helpers who would assist him as he went
around preaching and ministering throughout Galilee. At
some stage he decides that it is time for him to spell
out for them how he sees his mission, how he himself
understands what it is all about. Saint Luke is careful
in pointing out that it is to his disciples that he
makes this ‘policy statement’ – “Then fixing his eyes on
his disciples he said: …” And this is what he said;
“How happy are you who are poor:
yours is the kingdom of God.
Happy you who are hungry now: you
shall be satisfied.
Happy you who weep now: you shall
laugh.
Happy are you when people hate you,
drive you out and abuse you…”
Taken at its face value, it’s a very
explicit statement. As far as Jesus is concerned the
kingdom of God belongs to the poor, the hungry, those
who weep and those who are persecuted. And to drive home
what he is saying, that there is no misunderstanding, he
makes the contrast – “Alas for you rich … Alas for you
who have your fill now … Alas for you who laugh now …
Alas for you when the world speaks well of you. …”
2. With the opening words of
this statement – “How happy are you who are poor: …” we
can see the similarity with the address made at Nazareth
when he used the text of Isaiah to describe his mission
– “The spirit of the Lord has been given to me for he
has anointed me to bring good news to the poor …” It was
indeed good news for the poor to be assured that –
“yours is the kingdom of God.”
Luke makes no attempt to
spell out for us what Jesus might have meant by the poor
and hungry. On the other hand Saint Matthew in his
account of the same discourse (which is much longer than
Luke’s version) does qualify the meaning by saying”
“Blessed are the poor in
spirit …
Blessed are they who
hunger and thirst for righteousness …”
So, for Saint Matthew,
the poor are those who, no matter what their state in
life may be – rich or poor, realise their need of
something beyond what they themselves can achieve by
their own efforts, with their own resources or with what
the world can provide. And that ties in with the first
reading from the prophet Jeremiah – “The Lord says
this: A curse on the man who puts his trust in man, who
relies on the things of the flesh, whose heart turns
from the Lord. … A blessing on the man who puts his
trust in the Lord, with the Lord for his hope.” And
there is a long tradition among the people of Israel
that those who recognised their own innate poverty and
who consequently placed their trust in God were indeed
God’s chosen ones – “Happy the man who placed his trust
in the Lord.” (Resp. Psalm)
So then, we ask ourselves
why did Luke not draw out this meaning for us. It would
only have meant adding, “in spirit” after “How happy are
you who are poor.” But he doesn’t and we know already
that Luke is a very careful writer who leaves little to
chance. It would seem then that he wants us to have a
good hard look at this statement of Jesus.
3. Now we know from
experience that the poor are not happy with their lot.
And indeed why should they be? The world has more than
enough wealth and resources to provide everybody with a
decent living – so, why should they be poor? It would
really be a perversity to tell them that they should be
happy and contented with being poor. And the hungry –
how on earth can we honestly say that they should be
happy because they do not have enough to eat. They’re
not! How could they be? To tell the poor and the hungry
to be happy with their lot in life – that is precisely
what those who wish to exploit them do. And obviously
that is not Jesus’ intention when he says – “How happy
are you who are poor: … Happy you who are hungry now.”
What he is saying is that they can be happy, not because
they are poor and hungry, but because they have a
special place in the heart of God. If they are deprived
of a fitting place among their fellow human beings, if
they are denied in the world of their day to day
existence what makes for a life that can be lived with
dignity, they are assured that that does not make them
less dear to God and in fact they have a special claim
on a compassionate God.
An interesting about that
is they have a special place in the presence of God, not
because they are good or particularly holy but precisely
because they are poor and hungry. That makes us stop
and think again about the place of morality in our
relationship with God. Only too often do we think and
act as if God’s loving us depended on how good and holy
we might be; that we trust more in our own moral capital
and riches than in the graciousness of a loving God. It
took someone like Saint Therese of Lisieux to get us
back to seeing that sanctity is not of our own making;
it is rather the gift of a generous and bounteous God.
“Sanctity does not
consist of this or that practice but of a disposition of
heart that places us, humble and little, in God’s arms,
conscious of our weakness and confident to the point of
boldness in His paternal goodness … What makes my soul
pleasing to the good God is the way I love my littleness
and my poverty, and the way I trust blindly in His
mercy.”
And that is why the poor
can be called happy. It is because they are all too
aware of how little they have and how little the world
is prepared to give them. All their hope and their trust
is in God, and Jesus assures them that their hope and
their trust will not be in vain.
QUOTATIONS
1717 “The Beatitudes depict the
countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity.
They express the vocation of the faithful associated
with the glory of his Passion and Resurrection; they
shed light on the actions and attitudes characteristic
of the Christian life; they are the paradoxical promises
that sustain hope in the midst of tribulations; they
proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured,
however dimly, for Christ's disciples; they have begun
in the lives of the Virgin Mary and all the saints.”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church) |
