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Gospel Reflection 20070211

Take up your cross.
Most of the time we try to avoid suffering ourselves and work to lessen the suffering of others. But when life brings unavoidable suffering to us, we must accept it, learn from it and endure. Pray for the grace to take up your cross and bear it as Jesus did, on behalf of others.

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Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Luke 6:17, 20-26
Jesus came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground. A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: "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. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But 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.”


Today, and for the next two weeks, our Gospel reading is that teaching of Jesus which, in St. Matthew’s Gospel, we know as the Sermon on the Mount. The two evangelists present essentially the same material, but there are some minor differences. Most notable, perhaps, is the setting for the sermon. While St. Matthew tells us that Jesus went up the mountain to teach, St. Luke depicts Jesus descending the mountain after prayer to teach on the level ground. For this reason St. Luke’s version of Jesus’ teaching is often called the Sermon on the Plain.
Both evangelists recount Jesus beginning His sermon with “beatitudes.” “Blessed”, “happy” are those…St. Matthew records eight such beatitudes, while St. Luke gives us only four, followed by four “woes.” Despite the obvious variations in the telling of the story, the message is essentially the same in both Gospels. As familiar as the beatitudes are to us, we should today take time to reflect on their meaning once again. As a help to us in coming to a deeper appreciation of the meaning of the beatitudes, the liturgy today gives us the passage from the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah.
The sage advice of the prophet gives us a solid basis for understanding Jesus’ beatitudes. Jeremiah puts it succinctly and clearly: “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings…Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.” There it is. God and God alone is worthy of our faith and trust. The things of this world –even other human beings—simply cannot bring our faith and trust to fulfillment. By no means should we take this message of the prophet as a cynical warning to avoid other people or their counsel and friendship. After all, God Himself can and does speak to us often through other people, especially those in whom we confide as friends or spiritual directors. Rather, Jeremiah insists that every good thing and person in God’s creation is given us as a help to know God. Everything in this world is passing away. It is God alone who remains our hope and our final happiness.
I think that we need to take this advice very seriously and even very literally. As a priest I have spoken so often with Catholics – many of them life-long Catholics and very good people – who were let down – disappointed – in some way by a spouse, a parent, a good friend, or sometimes by their pastor. They had put their trust in this person, and in some way that trust had been betrayed. When the person who lets us down is a priest, or a religious sister or some other representative of the Church, there can be traumatic effects. While I would not want to minimize the importance of being a trustworthy friend, the Word of God reminds me today that the only person Who will not disappoint me –will not let me down – is God. It is one thing to seek God in and through the things and people that are part of His creation. It is another thing to substitute those people and things for God.

After having started his public ministry, Jesus was recognized as a great Master of the Law. Many people followed him. They came from the surrounding country to listen to his words. In great numbers, many people who needed to hear the doctrine that the Master taught came to listen to him. That is why great numbers of people always followed him. Saint Luke tells us that one day, when Jesus came down from the mountain with his Apostles, he saw a great crowd. Using the Beatitudes, he explained the spiritual qualities that a true Christian should possess.
The Beatitudes that Jesus preached applied to everyone, regardless of social class or culture. They have endured throughout the centuries as an example of the type of conduct that should be followed. They call on everyone to live a fully Christian life.
The message of the Beatitudes is, for some people, difficult to understand and accept. Those who do not follow the sometimes-difficult road of a life in Christ do not accept the Beatitudes that the Lord preached. This is because they do no like what they say. Nor do the Beatitudes promise them instant happiness, which is what they want. We know that nothing in this world can give us the absolute happiness that many look for without rest and at any cost. But, in an attempt to obtain it, there are people who are capable of stepping on their brothers and sisters in the faith. They look for happiness in power, fame and money. The only thing that they find on that road is an unhappy life for themselves and for those who surround them.
We know that it is difficult to follow the Beatitudes that Jesus proclaimed in the Gospel Reading today, especially when we live surrounded by violence, envy and injustice. Nevertheless, Christ demands that we leave all of those things behind and become meek of heart. We can do it. We will not be the first ones to do so. Jesus did it, as did the great saints of our Church. If we follow the Beatitudes of the Lord, even though this is difficult, we will feel peace in our lives. We will begin to do without material things, we will no longer be slaves to ourselves and we will be able to follow go through life with perfect dominion over the things that the world offers us to tempt us.
Today we live in a materialistic age that pushes us towards personal immorality. The modern methods of communication: television, movies and magazines, many times exalt a decadent lifestyle as something normal and desirable. Christ, in the Beatitudes, asks us to do just the opposite: to live a good live, in solidarity and dignity. The Lord shows us the road that we should follow to encounter true happiness. If we follow the road that the Beatitudes indicate, we will find eternal happiness at the end of our life.
Let us be humble and learn, once and for all, that true happiness can only come from God. The only way to find it is to live honestly in his love. Do not lend a deaf ear to Christ’s teachings in the beatitudes. If we do so, we will only find loneliness, bitterness and sadness.

Today's readings deal with Faith and Works. The prophet Jeremiah tells us "Cursed is the one who thrust in human beings, but Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord." When we reflect on this we know from personal experience the truth of this quote. How often have we been let down when we relied on our own resources of those of others. We all have true and loyal friends, but none like the Lord. He is always there for us with that unconditional love. Our faith and trust in Him is the only constant in our lives.
Luke's Gospel tell us of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in which he gives us the Beatitutes. Jesus calls blessed the poor, hungry, the weeping and those insulted and denounced. In Jewish society these were the outcasts of society. They were outcasts because it was believed that they had lost favor with God and were being justly punished for some sin, their own or their parents. Jesus goes on to denounce the rich, well fed, happy and go lucky, the very people Jewish society considered those blessed by God. Jesus turns the Jews belief system upside down.
This Sermon on the Mount opens the New Covenant by Jesus between God and human beings. I will be your God and you will be my people, but not just a few - all are included, especially those considered outcasts.
Jesus calls us to a new reality, a new sense of right and wrong. Just as Jeremiah reminds us that we cannot rely on human or material things since they have no lasting value, only loving God and doing His will here and now will lead us to ultimate happiness now and in the world to come.

Jesus tells us: "Blessed are you who are poor." Is he serious? Most of us do whatever we can to avoid poverty. Poverty certainly does not look like a blessed state of life. The poor, Jesus speaks of, have to do with our inner attitudes, our poverty of spirit. It is our willingness to admit our need for God and others. It is our ability to admit our mistakes and the fact that we do not have all the answers. It is our openness to ask others for help and then accepting it. It is a poverty of spirit which willingly acknowledges nothing is really ours. Yet, it is a realization that we are infinitely rich because all that is God's He has given us.

1. Blessed Are the Poor. You don’t have to be lacking in material possessions to be poor in spirit. However, we do have to be poor in spirit in order enter the Kingdom of God. To be poor in spirit means recognizing God as the author of your life and the Giver of every good gift. To be poor in spirit, you have to humble yourself. No matter how successful you have been in the eyes of the world, you have to realize that God has given you everything you have. If you hope to inherit the Kingdom of God and enjoy everlasting happiness, then you have to humble yourself.


"Blessed are you who are hungry." This is a hunger beyond our physical desire; it is a hunger within our spirit. You and I are called to hunger for justice, for love and unity, for the day when all people will recognize God. It is difficult to stand for what is right because it is frequently opposed to the values of this world. Doing the will of God the Father is seeking what is right and just.
2. Blessed Are the Hungry. What is it for which we all hunger? All of us truly hunger for God. There is a hole in our hearts that can only be filled by God. We all want to love and be loved. We can’t stop hungering for a closer relationship with him. We can’t be satisfied with the level we have achieved so far. God doesn’t just want to be a part of our lives; he wants to be at the center of our lives. He wants to be the desire of our hearts and he longs to be longed for by us. He wants to live in communion with us and fully possess our hearts so that we can become all that he created us to be.

"Blessed are you who weep." We weep because we mourn. How well do we express our feelings or show our emotions? Do we mourn over the selfishness which is part of us? Do we mourn for all who are suffering, even if we do not know them?
3. Blessed Are Those Who Mourn. When we suffer, be it physically or spiritually, we frequently turn inside ourselves and reflect upon the causes. Suffering is a consequence of sin. This affliction can -- and often times does -- lead to repentance. God does not reject a humble and contrite heart. Just as a caring father pays closer attention to his child when he or she is hurting or sick, so does our heavenly Father come close to us when we are in pain and comfort us when we are afflicted. Thus, the presence of the Cross and suffering are not something to be avoided at all costs. Rather they are blessings from God. They are a sign that he is close to us, that he loves us, for God reproves and chastises those whom he loves (cf. Revelation 3:19).

"Blessed are you when people hate you." We may think that this situation only existed during the persecutions of the early Church but it is happening today as well! Can we freely admit our love for the Lord? Do we stand up for the values of the Gospel? Are we able to "take the heat" for being a visible Christian at home, on the job in the community? We need to pray that we will be willing to suffer so that justice will prevail. May we be willing to work so that truth will prevail. May we never accept wrong no matter where we find it. May we never be compromising, uninterested or too busy to be bothered.
Jesus puts a rather positive spin on some things that we would ordinarily consider to be quite negative. He tells his listeners that they are happy in their poverty, their hunger, their sadness, their persecution. We must be careful not to romanticize this teaching. Jesus and His Church have consistently sought to alleviate the suffering of human beings. The Lord never hesitated to cure those who were sick or suffering, to provide nourishment to those who were hungry and to bring joy to those in sorrow. So it had been with His body the Church. The point is not that these deprivations are good in and of themselves. Rather they help to situate a person in a right relationship with God. In other words, it is precisely those who are empty and in need who see most clearly that their trust must be in God alone. Haven’t we all experienced something of that? It is in our desperation, when we have nowhere else to turn, that we so readily trust in God and His mercy. That’s the point.

I would hazard a guess that most people here today have, at one time or another, fantasized about coming into a large sum of money and what they would do with it. It might be after buying a lottery ticket or picturing the Publisher's Clearing House truck stopping at your house or imaging yourself sitting in that seat on the Millionaire TV show and saying: "Yes, that is my final answer". We may pick different amounts - what would I do if, right now, I had $30,000,000, or $300,000 or $30,000 just fall out of the sky and into my life. Visions of paid off house mortgages, paid off car loans and travel come into the mind along with even more mundane things like a new refrigerator. So do other things like helping out our children and family and friends and church and those in need. We daydream about what we would do, how we would live, and what would change in our lives.

We have bought into the conventional wisdom that we can solve our worries in the here and now - it does not have to be the big lottery winner.. .just a few thousand dollars more and we could eliminate much worry from our lives.

Each of the three readings today is an affront to conventional wisdom. In the gospel of Luke, the beatitudes completely reverse our conventional aspirations: "happy the poor", "happy are those who hunger now", "happy are those who weep."

It is hard to "unlearn" the conventional wisdom. It is hard to embrace the unconventional wisdom of our faith.

This is one reason why periods of loss, crisis and change are so difficult. The death of a loved one, the loss of a job, a major illness - all these events force us out of comfortable routine and conventional ways. Crisis forces us to look upon our lives in a new way.

Who has not, at some moment in life said, "God, if you would just______"? For example, you are very ill or injured and all you have is a hospital bed and pain. You lie there and begin to think about all the things in your life which seemed to matter so much and now seem to matter so little. You make mental decisions to change yourself. "God, if you would just heal me - now I know what is truly important and unimportant - if I can get over this illness, this injury, I will change my life."

Then we go on and list the changes we would make. We would trade time. We would take time spent in pursuit of material gain and apply it to spiritual gain. Time at work or time watching TV would go down and time for relationships with family, friends and God would increase.

Then, we get well. What normally happens then is, bitten by good health, our best intentions fade and we once again move into lives of conventional rather than unconventional wisdom. We let the lessons - that what is truly important in life is what stirs our souls, not what comforts our bodies -just drop away.

Jesus calls us in today's scripture to choose how we invest our lives.

He says: "But woe to you rich, for your consolation is now. Woe to you who are full; you shall go hungry." The words here represent someone who is going to go bankrupt. The woes in Luke's gospel represent bankrupt policies; they are ways of life that (using modem business jargon) do not yield a return on investment.

It is a life focused on following our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is a life involving the important things - like love , forgiveness, kindness, mercy, honesty ....

It is a life of unconventional wisdom where only the richness of your soul and the contents of your heart are counted.
The “woes” – really no more than the converse of the “blessings” – give emphasis to the fact that our satisfaction and ease in this life can be a real hindrance to our placing our confidence in God. Again, I think we know this from experience. The happier, healthier, richer we are, the more apt we are to take satisfaction that we or the things of this world are responsible for that. Remember Jesus’ warning: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:25) It is not that riches are evil in themselves. Once again, the point is that those who are rich in the things of this world can easily forget that it is God Who is the source of every blessing. As difficult –even strange, perhaps – as it sounds, we should not resist the sufferings of this life. These are our share of the cross of Christ. And unless we take up our cross each day and follow after Jesus, we cannot be His disciples.
Jesus gives us the profile of the type of persons He desires to be His followers. He is not giving us suggestions but rather a serious set of instructions of what it means to be Christian.
In the end, today’s Gospel asks us to be honest about the source of our hope and confidence. Our popular culture is quick to counsel us that our hope ought to be placed squarely on the things that this world has to offer. Surely we will be finally happy if only we can get that new car, the new VCR, the new house, etc., etc. It is seductive. But it is empty. How true are the words of St. Augustine: “Our hearts are restless, Lord until they rest in you.” In God alone can we find our true and lasting joy. Blessed are we who place our hope and God. Cursed are we if we place our hope in this world.

It is all a matter of faith, of trust in the care of the Lord who loves us without reservation. If we do trust Him and turn to him in all our needs we can be assured we will be blessed. On the other hand, if we only trust in things, woe to us. What is really important in your life? Be honest, what do you really, really value? Things? - the big house, the new car, designer cloths, fine food? Perhaps its recognition and praise by others. Yet we know from experience that all these things decay and pass away. Its not long before that new car has a scratch or dent and the new car smell is gone, its just a used car. Human recognition and praise is here and gone before the ink is dry on the newspaper.
The only lasting things and the only things we take from this life are relationships, relationships with loved ones and with God. We come into this world with nothing, but we do take something out - relationships, especially our relationship with God.
Ask yourself - Were do I put my trust?

posted by Mike Young @ 11:23 AM