Februay17th, 2019: Sixth
Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C. Jer.
17:5-8, Lk 6: 17, 20-26.
AIM: To encourage the hearers
to persevere in their choice for Jesus, despite the cost.
How many people here would like to be
poor? To be hungry? To be weeping and hated by everybody? If I asked for a show of hands to those
questions, how may would go up? Suppose,
however, that I asked some different questions: How many of you would like to
be rich, well fed, laughing, and well spoken of by all? Aren=t those things we all want?
How, then, can Jesus pronounce a
blessing on those who are poor, hungry, weeping and hated? Are those things
good? Of course not! Every one of them is bad: poverty, hunger, weeping,
hatred, exclusion. Which one of us would want any of those things for our
children? How, then, can God want any of them for us, who are his
children? There is only one possible answer. God does not want any of
those things for us. Yet Jesus calls those who suffer these things Ablessed@ C a word which in the original Greek
of Luke=s gospel means Ahappy@
To understand why, we must look again at what Jesus says at the end of
these beatitudes: Aon account of the Son of man.@
Things evil in themselves C poverty, hunger, weeping, hatred,
exclusion C become good when they are the price
we must pay for choosing to stand with Jesus Christ, and remaining faithful to
that choice.
This becomes clearer when we look at
the context. When Luke wrote his gospel, almost all Jesus= followers were Jews. Deciding to
follow Jesus meant being disowned by family members and exclusion from the
synagogue. For many that meant poverty, hunger, and bitter grief. The passage
we just heard immediately follows the call of the twelve apostles. From a large
group of followers, some committed, others just along for the ride, Jesus
publicly summons twelve to be his closest associates. How do you suppose they
felt? Given the situation I have just described, they could hardly have been
overjoyed. They faced alienation from their friends, loss of their livelihoods,
hatred, and much grief. Some of them, I think, must have had tears in their
eyes as they responded to Jesus= call. To these frightened, tearful men, uncertain about what
they are getting into, Jesus speaks the words we heard in the gospel:
Blessed are you who are poor, for the
kingdom of God
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 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.
How would those twelve have felt upon
hearing these words? Some of them, surely, would have smiled through their
tears, knowing that despite the high price they would pay, they had made the
right choice.
Jesus goes on to utter a series of Awoes@ on those who are rich, satisfied,
and praised by all. Who was Jesus addressing? He was speaking to people like
the rich young man who felt unable to
respond to Jesus= call because he had great possessions (cf. Lk 18: 23). That
rich young man stands for all those cling so tightly to the good things of this
life that their possessions and wealth become a god for them B a false god, of course, what the
bible calls an idol. Such people have made the wrong choice. Choosing to
put worldly prosperity before God, Jesus says, invariably leads not to lasting
happiness, but to disappointment, frustration, and bitter regret.
Where do we stand? With the
frightened Twelve whom Jesus calls blessed?
Or with the young man who went away sorrowful because he was rich? Let=s not be too sure that Jesus= woes aren=t for us just because we=re not rich. Jesus is not talking
about the size of our bank accounts. He is talking about the cost of
discipleship. That cost can be high, no doubt about it. Here are some
examples:
C For
someone tired of a spouse who is no longer the young, glamorous person he or
she was on the wedding day long ago, being faithful to Jesus Christ can mean
saying No to what looks like greater happiness with a younger, more attractive
partner.
C For
a woman pregnant with a child she does not want, faithfulness to Jesus Christ
can mean rejecting the quick fix of abortion because all human life, in the
womb or at life=s end, is sacred. And for the child=s father, and anyone else who claims
to love the mother, faithfulness to Jesus Christ means supporting her
courageous choice for life in the face of the world=s scorn.
C For
the parents of a pregnant teenager faithfulness to Jesus Christ can mean
supporting and loving their daughter, telling her that those who assure her it
is all right to kill her child are wrong C and helping her to hold her head
high in the face of the scorn of those who see no problem with abortion.
C For
all of us faithfulness to Jesus Christ means upholding the right to life, from
conception to natural death, in the face of the attacks in the media and the
disdain of so-called enlightened public opinion taunting us for being
old-fashioned, rigid, members of the despised and dangerous AReligious Right,@ and not Awith it.@
C For
those called to serve God and his people as religious Sisters, brothers, or
priests, faithfulness to Jesus Christ means accepting celibacy not as a burden
but as liberation from family responsibilities, so that we may be more
completely available to God and others: emptiness, yes B but emptiness for God!
Those are high costs. How could they
be otherwise when the One who asks these costs of us paid the highest cost of
all: life itself. Jesus= words in today=s gospel seem hard. In reality they
are good news. They are his encouragement to people who wonder what they have
let themselves in for, who wonder if the cost of following Jesus Christ may not
be too high. Listen again to this encouragement, this good news. Jesus is speaking to you!
Blessed are you who are poor, for the
kingdom of God
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 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.
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