Blessed are the Poor, the Weeping, and the Level- A homily for the 6th Sunday on the Beatitudes preached at Genesee Abbey
After a night in prayer on a mountain Jesus selected twelve disciples as His apostles. We can imagine the wonder and joy of these men as they began to realize what had taken place. St. Luke recounts, in today’s Gospel: Jesus coming down with the Twelve stood on a stretch of level ground and although surrounded by a very large crowd, looked directly at the Twelve and began to instruct them, the first of many teachings.
Standing on level ground, Jesus leveled with them, spoke very frankly and the message was very clear. It had to do with their call to follow Him, about important realities of the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed and would continue to proclaim. With loving directness He spoke and held their attention; no man ever spoke as this man did and they, with others, were captivated.
Blessed are the poor – you who recognize and accept the poverty of your soul and seek the wealth of the Lord’s loving presence. Blessed are the hungry – you who desire to know the Lord intimately in a communion of faith. Blessed are those who weep – you who lament over your sins with true contrition. Even blessed are you when people disdain you for your faith, your charity because then you are truly of Christ, truly marked as His.
These called blessed – hopefully, us – are people anointed, inspired by God, enlightened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit to live for God and not for self alone. Of these, the prophet Jeremiah proclaimed, “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord.”
Jesus, still with His eyes fixed on the Twelve, continues to level, to be frank with them; He has only their good in mind. The blesseds are followed by the “woes”. Four exclamations of dismay, even of regret that had to come from the sadness Jesus saw in the lives of people, like sheep without a shepherd.
As Jesus continued, surely His facial expression, the tenor of His voice emphasized the seriousness of the message. Woe to you who are rich for you who have no need of God’s riches, no need of God if truth be told. Woe to you who satisfy your hunger on what is passing, what is only here and now; you waste your life on convenience, pleasure, sinful pursuits. Woe to you who laugh now for your life is very shallow, caught up in foolishness, empty of what is eternal. Woe to you when all speak well of you for your witness of belief is poor and even unseen, lost in the crowd. Jeremiah said of these: “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord.”
Jesus’ words directed to the Twelve most frankly are directed to us just as frankly, for we are called to be His disciples, too. We are called to reflect on our own discipleship. Where do my loyalties lie, where does my faith reside? Is Christ leading me to the Father by the Holy Spirit or is my loyalty, really, just to myself? As Jesus leveled with the Twelve so He asks us to level with ourselves, to be frank, honest so that His Holy Spirit may work in us, lift us up as His “blessed ones.”
In the prologue of his Gospel (Jn 1; 1 – 14) St John writes this of Jesus, The Word: “Whatever came to be in Him, found life, life for the light of humankind.” This is the Light the Lord desires for us, each one of us, to desire and to become more and more His chosen ones, His blessed ones, filled with His life and light.
To this may we all assent with enthusiasm, even with delight!