Articles from other
Sources
Reprinted with Permission
Sunday
Reflection on
Luke 6:17, 20-26
by
Brother Joseph Alba, Carmelite Seminarian
Luke 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.”
In order
to fully understand and to appreciate this gospel,
one must look at the entire context in which the gospel was written. The
section that we are given today serves a purpose, but if one were not
familiar with the entire section, there would remain many questions that
are very crucial: for example who is being spoken to, who is present to
them, what is the situation, and what are some concrete examples of what
Jesus is talking about?
The
entire context of the text seems to be written concerning the disciples of
Jesus: regarding how are they supposed to go out and minister to the
people of God. this is better understood with the presence of the sick
people who came to be healed and who were in fact healed by Jesus.
It is
interesting to note that Jesus raises His eyes to the disciples. That is
ironic in that one might expect Him to raise His eyes to heaven or to the
Father, but instead He raises His eyes to the disciples. To better
understand this, it is important to see that Jesus stood on level ground
with them. Not on higher ground, but equal. Perhaps that is His way of
showing dignity and respect to His disciples. That is His way of
encouraging them to go out and do what they need to do for the people of
God.
But that
particular way is not easy, as Jesus says.
He talks about the blessings for those who are living a simple and
virtuous life, and the curses for the ones who are not living to those
standards. One really does not see the ramifications until the verses
following the given section, when Jesus talks about the “narrow way”. The
narrow way is the difficult path that the true follower of Jesus Christ
must walk; one that is loving and self-giving. The message is not saying
that a person has to be poor and starving in order to get into the kingdom
of God. On the contrary, it is much more difficult than that! Coming
into God’s kingdom involves forgiving and loving the unlovable; namely
ones enemies.
According to the passage one might think that it is necessary to be
unhappy, sad, scrupulous, and impoverished. That is not true. There is
an image that is sort of controversial, but in a sense that sort of goes
hand in glove with this passage, it is the image of the laughing Jesus.
Most people cannot image Jesus laughing. It is inconceivable. But why?
Can they not see the humanity within the divine Son of God? Can you see
it? Can you image the happiness that God wants for you? Can you imagine
the love that God has for you?
A lot of
the things in this passage are “contrary to what we accept” as dogmas.
Jesus wants for us to challenge those dogmas. Challenge those laws and
see if they can hold up to the test of “love”. If they cannot, then they
are not from God.
The
test of love is not the easy path
for it is not easy to love or
to forgive. If we treat all people, including ourselves with the dignity
and respect that God demands, then we are on the right path for the narrow
road that leads to the eternal Kingdom of God.
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