'Blessed are you who are poor' - Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C
Submitted by FatherSean on Sat, 02/13/2010 - 08:40.
Readings
New American Bible (Philippines, USA)
Jerusalem Bible (Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, Scotland)
Gospel
Lk 6:17, 20-26
Jesus came down with the twelve
and stood on a stretch of level ground
with 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.
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.”
Sermon on the Mount, Cosimo Rosselli (1481-82)
I couldn't find any painting of the Sermon on the Plain, which is St Luke's shorter version of the material St Matthew uses in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7).
As Blessed as the Poor
First we have set aside the more familiar 'beatitudes' found in Matthew's gospel. 'Blessed are the poor in spirit'. Matthew gives us a spiritualised, set of attitudes. To discover the more material, gritty slant of Luke we need to work out what sort of congregation he has in mind.
By the time the Gospels were written, the new congregations that had sprung up were city dwellers. Luke was clearly an educated man. This implies that his family were of some standing because education was expensive. Whereabouts did Luke write? In a city outside the Holy Land certainly. Antioch is one suggestion - possible but not provable. What were his church members like?
Father Linley's description of the lives of the early Christians for whom St Luke was writing could describe the lives of so many Filipinos and the 'ex-rich' he refers to could be the so many people who had fairly secure jobs before the current recession. These last two weeks I've been in touch with two different families where two salaries are coming in but where they have had to borrow and beg for money to cover very expensive but urgent medical expenses.
Beatitudes and God's Ultimate Justice
Biblical Reflection for 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time C
By Father Thomas Rosica, CSB
TORONTO, FEB. 9, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Today's Gospel presents us Luke's beatitudes taught on the plain where people from all walks of life intermingle (6:17-26).
The reference to the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon in verse 17 means that not only Jews from Judea and Jerusalem, but even Gentiles from outside Palestine come to hear Jesus. Luke's version of Matthew's Sermon on the Mount has many similarities to Matthew's version (5-7), but also many differences.
Matthew has nine beatitudes and no woes, Luke has four of each. Luke compares the blessedness of the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and the persecuted to the sadness of the popular, the smug, the full, and the rich. "Woe" is Luke's way of describing what befalls those who fail to recognize God as sole source of true meaning and lasting joy.
