Gospel Reflection
Reflection & Dialogue with Questions of the Day:
Joy of the Kingdom of God,
God’s plan for those who accept him, unlike the others.
The Gospel (Luke 6:17, 20-26):
How happy are the poor. Alas for you who are rich.
Today’s Gospel reading gives us Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, somewhat different from the better-known text of Matthew. On an initial reading, one may be inclined to give a Marxist interpretation of Luke’s Beatitudes, as, so to speak, a triumphalist future victory of the proletariat over their oppressors! But nothing could be further from the truth. The first readers of Luke, as we today, would understand Luke’s Beatitudes within Luke’s layout of his work: the call of his first disciples, with emphasis on Peter, as read last Sunday, the call of Levi (of the detested tax collectors’ rank), and the objections to this, various healings and actions by this, followed by objections and queries to this new way of acting.
Jesus has been preaching and acting out his new message for his followers and humanity. Jesus next set about seeing that is work and message continues, a momentous event for him which he prepares for by spending the night on the mountain in prayer. His message from God requires contact with the divine. Then he comes down and chooses twelve of his disciples, whom he also names apostles. At the foot of the mountain, on a level place, there are many with different diseases who come to him to be healed, a model of future humanity. These are not his disciples. He then, in the Beatitudes and Sermon, addresses his disciples who will later carry his message.
Jesus is conscious that he is in the succession of the prophets and his version of the Beatitudes is best understood again the word of the prophet Jeremiah read in today’s first readings: Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, with the Lord for his hope. Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals. Who make mere flesh their strength. The poor in biblical tradition are a broad category, of neglected and so on. God’s coming plan, his kingdom, is for them. The hungry are those who avidly look forward for some positive future. Those who mourn, in biblical tradition are those in sorrow for the sad state of the holy city, their holy land, or general situation. The three positive Beatitudes of possession of the kingdom do not end in triumphalism, but in a call to rejoice in the rejection, suffering, or even persecution that will form part of living the Beatitudes, In Jesus’ eyes, it all belongs to the prophetic heritage, carrying a message of hope, which will be responded to by opposition.
These Beatitudes have still a message for us all and for the Church.
Fr Martin McNamara MSC