6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

[cappie]

Today's gospel reading is the beginning of what is often called the Sermon on the Plain. We find a parallel to this passage in Matthew 5:1-7,11 called the Sermon on the Mount with all it's associated meaning, but Luke presents Jesus' authority in a different light. He is God among us.

Jesus, as he so often did, confounded popular wisdom. The Lord looked to the kind of people whom we pity, who seem hopeless, and said: “Happy are you who are poor, who are hungry, who weep. Happy are you when people hate you, exclude you, revile you, and defame you.” Then, even more astonishingly, Jesus looked to another group of people who are like most of us – who seem to have it made – and said, “Alas you who are rich, who are full, and who are laughing. Woe to you when all speak well of you.”  What Jesus is really saying to us is “Watch out!! For your seeming blessedness is in truth a great danger.”

How can this be? How can we see being hated as a positive value? Does Jesus really mean that hunger and grief will improve our lot? Why would we honour being poor?  How do we understand this?  The rich and poor are, for Him, more than members of literal economic classes. Their material state symbolizes their spiritual state. He is not calling us to go slumming or make ourselves sick or weak. No, there is something much deeper and more important in his message.  Jesus also knew, as we must learn, that need can lead us to God. Poverty and hunger and despair can provide a beginning for one seeking unity with God.

He added the “alas’ because he knew that most people like us would have a hard time imagining that being poor could help a person. Jesus focused on the very things that most of us work and hope and pray for. So, he listed them as alas’ to get our attention. He knew that being well fed, happy, and well thought of is what we really seek. Above all, he knew that purchasing material possessions, and buying insurance, and setting aside savings for retirement or rainy days would lead us to imagine ourselves as safe and secure and in control of our lives. He knew that people like us stand constantly in danger of assuming, consciously or subconsciously, that we can work our way into happiness or buy our way into joy and peace.

It is far too easy for us to believe we are powerful enough or independent enough to provide everything we could ever need. We fail to let God fully into our hearts.

What Jesus knew is that the most likely way for us to turn to God is when we are in danger and difficulty. Then, we may knock on the door that God will open. Then, we may find a saviour to befriend us.

It is so much easier to welcome God into our lives when we know our sin and our spiritual bankruptcy. We will know our absolute need for what Christ can offer, and that we cannot produce for ourselves. How blessed – how enviable – how lucky are those who understand their urgent need for the resources that only God can provide and that they may have simply for the asking.

 Jesus shows us the way to look toward God, to turn to God for help in our lives and in our attitudes and in our values. If we can recognize our need we can begin to learn where God leads us. Our deep sense of helplessness brings us before God just as we are – not as we imagine ourselves to be. We can recognize the power of God that can transform us into the happy, complete, caring and loving people Jesus calls us to be.

The poor of Jesus’ time turned to God who cared, who healed and uplifted – who, above all, loved them as they were. Their story can teach us that the love of God is gently close at hand and powerful far beyond those who rule this world. The poor can help us see the need for a power greater than ourselves to heal us and give us happiness and meaning. They help us come to the day when we will see clearly the source of this power: Jesus, the Christ, our Saviour.

 The Beatitudes are often described as a framework for Christian living. Our vocation as Christians is not to be first in this world, but rather to be first in the eyes of God. We are challenged to examine our present situation in the context of our ultimate horizon, the Kingdom of God.

[Guest]

On 2/16/2019 at 12:28 PM, cappie said:

What Jesus knew is that the most likely way for us to turn to God is when we are in danger and difficulty. Then, we may knock on the door that God will open. Then, we may find a saviour to befriend us.

It is so much easier to welcome God into our lives when we know our sin and our spiritual bankruptcy. We will know our absolute need for what Christ can offer, and that we cannot produce for ourselves. How blessed – how enviable – how lucky are those who understand their urgent need for the resources that only God can provide and that they may have simply for the asking. 

 Jesus shows us the way to look toward God, to turn to God for help in our lives and in our attitudes and in our values. If we can recognize our need we can begin to learn where God leads us. Our deep sense of helplessness brings us before God just as we are – not as we imagine ourselves to be. We can recognize the power of God that can transform us into the happy, complete, caring and loving people Jesus calls us to be.

Thank you again, Father