BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (# 12)
6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – February 15, 2004
“Blessed Are You, Poor …”
BIBLE READINGS
Jer 17:5-8 // I Cor 15:12, 16-20 // Lk 6:17, 20-26
I read with great amusement and interest the following story of Fr. Jerry Orbos, the Mission Director of the Mission Office of the Society of Divine Word, an international congregation of priests and brothers serving in more than fifty countries all over the world (cf. Jerry Orbos, Light Moments, Book IV, Manila: Logos Publications, 2002, p. 39). It is an example of what it means to be truly blessed by the Lord. The Orbos family may not have money, but in choosing to live the spirit of the Gospel, the family members experience the deep joy and the immense treasures of God’s kingdom.
“My father was a lawyer, but he didn’t have money. Maybe because he was a good man and didn’t charge his poor clients. I remember how he helped many people from the barrios with their legal needs. He himself would do the typing on his old Underwood typewriter, and he would often ask me to get coffee for him and his clients. On different occasions, the people he helped would give him rice, fruits, poultry or livestock as tokens of gratitude. One time, he received two goats which he wanted to be butchered because no one could take care of them. I pleaded that I will take care of them, which I did. I would gather grass, give them water, and let them out in the fields every afternoon after classes. Soon the two goats multiplied, till I had about twelve, and felt like I was some goat magnate at the age of twelve.”
Today’s Gospel passage (Lk 6:17, 20-26) depicts Jesus as coming down the mountain together with the chosen Twelve and meeting a large group of disciples and a great crowd of people from Judea, Jerusalem, and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. To these people who needed healing and were hungering for the word of God, Jesus addressed the inaugural discourse of God’s kingdom (cf. Lk 6:17-49). Instead of staying on the mountain, the evangelist Luke portrays Jesus as coming down from the mountain. Like Moses who descended to the plain to deliver the law to the people (cf. Ex 34:15), Jesus went down the mountain to speak his saving word to his people. The inaugural discourse of Jesus begins by proclaiming the beatitudes of the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and the persecuted on account of the Son of Man (Lk 6:20-23). As a counterpoint to the beatitudes are the maledictions directed to the rich, the satiated, the happy, and the popular (Lk 6:24-26).
Against the backdrop of last Sunday’s Gospel reading with its climactic final sentence: “When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him” (Lk 5:11), today’s liturgical assembly is being invited to focus its attention on the contrasting pair: “Blessed are you who are poor … But woe to you who are rich” (Lk 6:20, 24). These strong words, however, should be situated in their proper context, which is that of Jesus’ consciousness of the radical eruption of the Reign of God in the here and now. The biblical scholar, Eugene Maly explains: “While we believe that Jesus has inaugurated the end-time, the Father’s reign, we realize, too, that the world and its history continue. In that continuing history material goods can have a relative, but never an absolute, value. They are even necessary for sustaining progress in the world. Even Luke speaks, with apparent approval, of a great dinner given for Jesus by the wealthy Levi (Lk 5:29).”
When Jesus declared the beatitude of the poor, he was not declaring a social class blessed. According to Robert Karris, the blessed condition comes from and will come from the kingdom that Jesus is effecting. “Those who want to belong to the poor of God, that group which acknowledges its need of his salvation, will become recipients of the kingdom provided they confess Jesus, the bringer of the kingdom … The rich are those who do not want to commit themselves to Jesus and the kingdom he effects. They are content with their present, comfortable existence.”
Eugene Maly explains further: “Whenever the word rich is used elsewhere in the New Testament in a disapproving manner, the author assumes one of two things. Either the riches have been unjustly acquired, in which case the rich are warned to weep and wail over impending doom (Jm 5:1-6), or they are seen as a powerful temptation, as the source of one’s trust in place of God (Lk 12:16-20); especially I Tim 6:17). In the same way poverty is seen as something good, not in the absolute way as a value in itself, but as one of the most powerful means for trusting God alone. So powerful a means is it, in fact, that poverty is almost presented as a synonym for trust in God. To be poor is to be dependent on the Lord.”
We must take seriously the exigent appeal and challenge addressed to us by Jesus as he proclaims anew in the liturgical assembly the beatitude of the poor and the woe of the rich. Indeed, the Kingdom of God is the ultimate value and in this perspective, we realize that material wealth has only a relative value and must be used to promote the Kingdom value. According to the Nigerian biblical scholar, Samuel Oyin Abogunrin: “Riches are God’s blessing as long as they do not lead to greed and selfishness. They are the means to help the poor. It is how we use God’s blessings that will determine our standing before God.”
The Christian disciples who have made the Kingdom of God their fundamental option and absolute treasure are truly rich. Anthony Bloom, a Russian Orthodox monk and a medical doctor, writes: “We are rich, and everything which we possess is a gift and a sign of the love of God and the love of men. It is a continuous gift of divine love. And as long as we possess nothing, love divine is manifested continuously and fully. But everything we take into our hands to possess is taken out of the realm of love. Certainly it becomes ours, but love is lost. And it is only those who give everything away who become aware of true, total, final irremediable, spiritual poverty, and who possess the love of God expressed in all his gifts.”
Do we take time to join the crowd of disciples, the afflicted and the poor who hunger for the Word of God? Do we listen with receptive hearts to the challenging discourse of Jesus on the beatitude of the poor and the woe of the rich?
Do we wish to belong to the circle of “the poor of God” by confessing that God’s Kingdom is fulfilled in Jesus? Do we totally belong to Jesus and the Kingdom he brings to fulfillment?
How do we make use of the blessings given to us by the Lord? How do we use the “riches” we have received to alleviate the plight of the poor?
III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD
Leader: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.” (Lk 6:20)
Assembly: We possess nothing because we are masters of nothing in our possession. All we possess is a gift. The Kingdom value possesses us. God alone suffices. We totally depend on you, O God; you are our only treasure.
Leader: “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” (Lk 6:24)
Assembly: The moment we try to be rich by keeping something safely in our hands we become losers, for love is lost. May we use the bounty of blessings we have received from you to alleviate the plight of the poor and to promote the Kingdom value. We totally depend on you, O God; you are our only treasure.
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours … But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” (Lk 6:20, 24)
A. ACTION PLAN: Today is a privileged moment for the examination of the heart. In the kindly light of God’s love, probe your heart and see what are the areas in which you are the recipient of Christ’s beatitude: “Blessed are you who are poor …” and/or his malediction: “But woe to you who are rich …”
B. ACTION PLAN: Today’s “Wish List” of the Poverello House, a non-profit, non-denominational organization whose mission is to enrich the lives of all who pass our way, to feed the hungry, to offer basic services to the poor, etc. is the following:
- Men’s coats, sweaters, and sweatshirts
- 8 ½” x 11” Copy Paper
- Turkeys, Ham, Coffee.
Visit their website: www.poverellohouse.org and see how you can be of help.
Prepared by: Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang, PDDM