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Homilies are posted no later than during the week
prior to the Sunday they are needed |
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6 Ordinary Time
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Sixth
Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle C
Jeremiah 17:5-8;1 & Luke 6:17, 20-26
One clever pastor placed a letter for one and all in the church
vestibule. In bold letters, it read, "Do not feel totally, personally,
irrevocably responsible for everything. That's my job." The note was
signed "God."
"Blessed is the man who puts his trust in the Lord... (He) has no
worries in a year of drought." So speaks the prophet Jeremiah in this
Sunday's Old Testament's reading.
Contrary to Jeremiah's advice, worrying is something most of us seem to
have our doctorates in. Yet, are we not assuming the job definition of
God and usurping His burdens? Worrying we are advised is
like a rocking chair. It will give you something to do, but it will get
you nowhere.
Though hundreds of years apart, there is a great deal of resemblance
between the Old Testament Jeremiah and Jesus the Nazarene. Both
were superstar prophets. They both courageously practiced a profession
which most people flee like the plague. No matter the consequences,
each boldly spoke pronouncements that their contemporaries closed their
ears against.
Both spent times as exiles in the land of the Pharaohs. Each of them
was pursued by critics. Both spoke their own interpretation of the
Beatitudes in language that will be enjoyed to time's end. Each was
destined to die young. And neither would die in bed. And the prophecies
of Jeremiah and Jesus were subsequently proved correct.
Nor is one hard put to find a similarity in the thoughts of Jeremiah
and Jesus in today's readings. No doubt the Christ both as a boy and as
a man had read Jeremiah oftentimes with delight. Were you to challenge
Him, He would recite many of the passages from memory. One does feel a
similarity in the rhythm and the cadence of their language.
The Church in pairing these two readings wanted us to see the
resemblance between these two scriptural giants. It wants us to see
that the earlier Jeremiah is in fact almost a zerox of the Master and a
promise of what He would be.
But the Church's task is not done once you and I acknowledge that
point. It now hurls at us most vital questions. Is there any
resemblance between me and Jesus? What similarity is present between
you and the Christ? Can anyone of us say without blushing that we like
Jeremiah are almost a carbon copy of the Nazarene?
St Iranaeus testified that "the glory of God is man fully alive." What
better way to be alive than to be Christlike? If you want to soar with
the eagles, become a twin of the Christ. If you want to stagger with
the turkeys, remain yourself.
At the bare minimum, do we possess even one quality that would make
even a hostile admit we share it in common with Christ? Do we
return hurts with a vengeance bordering on pleasure? Or do we accept
them just as the record shows the Master did as part and parcel of some
strange divine plan? Do we too have a feeling for the weak, the lonely,
and the poor? If affirmative, when was the last time we went out of our
way to visit with these people or drop a note or even phone them?
For example, today's Gospel tells us "Jesus came down ...and stopped at
a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering...who had
come to hear Him and be cured of their diseases." Why does Luke stress
that Jesus "came down"? One commentator answers the question
convincingly. The Galilean had been up on the mountain. But the
crippled and the arthritic were unable to scale the mountain. So, He
came down to them. He was willing to descend to their level. Would you
and I be so willing to put ourselves out? Or would we tell ourselves
how busy we are and proceed about our tasks?
As someone has said so well, Jesus today does not need defenders. What
He does need in excess is witnesses. Are we such? Witness then and, as
St Francis of Assisi suggested, only when absolutely necessary, use
words.
Everyone of us should attempt to remember each day this week that, in a
commentator's words, we are Christ's letter of recommendation to a lost
world. He would add God put us on earth to shine as lights, not to get
used to the dark.
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http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
6 Ordinary Time
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Sixth Sunday of the Year
The Lucan Beatitudes
Today’s readings present the beatitudes as they are found in the Gospel
of Luke. There are only four beatitudes in Luke followed by four
antitheses or “woes”. Most of us are more familiar with the
beatitudes in Matthew which has eight beatitudes and no woes.
Matthew speaks about the proper attitudes of the Christian, like
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Luke speaks about the present reality
of the Christian, “Blessed are you who are poor now.”
Why
the difference? The Gospel of Matthew is written for Jewish
Christians. It speaks about the new attitudes, the new mind set
necessary for the Kingdom of the Lord. The heart must be pure,
the Spirit must be poor, those who mourn the plight of Israel fallen
from God will be comforted, those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness will receive the Kingdom of Heaven. There must be a
transformation from the Old Testament mentality to a new life, a new
testament, a new Kingdom. The Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew
present some of the fundamental changes that the ancient Jews
must make to become Christians. In Matthew Jesus gives the
Beatitudes from a mountain, just as Moses gave the Law of God from
Mount Sinai.
The
Gospel of Luke is quite different from Matthew. It was written by
a gentile convert, Luke, and addressed primarily to gentile converts to
Christianity. Luke’s audience was poor. Many were slaves or
low born. Their choice of Christianity only exacerbated their
situation. They were persecuted, suffering. In presenting
the Lord’s words to them, Luke places Jesus on a plain. He was on
a level with them. He was poor, suffering and persecuted.
Let’s look at the four Beatitudes in Luke: Blessed are you who are poor
now, hungry now, mourn now and are excluded or persecuted now.
They have a lot to say to all of us.
First of all, those who are poor now are those who recognize their
dependence on God, not on material possessions. I have met many
people who are very wealthy and yet very poor because their stuff
really means nothing to them, all that matters is to possess Jesus
Christ. When the only treasure that matters in life is the Lord,
we can be poor regarding our stuff, but we are rich in what
matters. Sometimes I ask myself, if my house were to burn down
and everything would be destroyed, would I also be devastated? I
hope not. I also hope that I would be devastated if I made a
Faustian bargain, and gained everything in the world for the price of
Jesus Christ. Then I would have nothing.
Why
does Luke even mention the beatitude, “Blessed are you who are hungry
now?” Isn’t this covered in the poor stuff? Not
really. Luke is referring to being hungry for the Lord and his
Kingdom. Many of us have been hungry this way and are still
hungry for the Lord. We made retreats, had spiritual experiences and
felt hungry for more. The song is really right: “I can’t get
enough of you, Jesus.” He’s a meal that never fills us, who
always leaves you searching for ways to find new and fuller experiences
of His Presence, ways to be nourished with His Spirit.
“Blessed are you who are weeping,” has nothing to do with
funerals. It has to do with the sorrow we feel for those people
who are living in darkness, who reject the Lord, who are in a hole and
refuse to come out of it. We can look at ourselves, our lives and
know that we have been there. We reach out to them and say, you
can be better, your are better. And we mourn for those who are
hurting so much existing in a meaningless life. We weep over the
celebrities who appear to have it all, money, fame, beauty, and, I am
sure intelligence, but whose very talents have destroyed them. We
weep for those who die alone because no one cares enough to be with
them. We weep for all who suffer various addictions. We
pray for all who have been conned by the world into worshiping the god
of materialism. We pray for all who have been deluded by society
into embracing immorality acting as though living a sleazy life
is acceptable. We weep for all those who have bought into these
lies. They are missing so much. They are throwing
everything away for so little. And so we mourn.
And
“Blessed are you when people hate you, and exclude you and insult you
and call you names on account of me.” Putting Christ in our lives
can lead others to the Lord. But there are people who transfer
their own guilt over their lives to those who are doing their best to
be Christian. They don’t talk to you. They don’t invite you
to join them in anything happening in the school, work or
neighborhood. You walk down the hall at school and they look at
you and someone says something and the rest start laughing. And
you hate that. And so do I when I’m in the grocery store or
someplace and people see me wearing a cross or in clericals and make
some sort of comment under their breath. But we
would rather have people laugh at us for our commitment to Christ then
abandon Jesus.
We
really have only one choice in life: to be for God or against
God. We can’t have both. Either we live for the Kingdom and
die to our superficial wants or we live for ourselves and lose the
Kingdom of God. Everything in life has a cost. There is a cost to
pay for following Christ. Sometimes it seems like a high
cost. It means pushing our selfish desires to the side, filling
our hunger for the Lord, grieving over those who are rejecting Him
while at the same time enduring their scorn. Everything has a
cost, but the reward we are seeking is worth all costs. Jesus
Christ, His Life now and for eternity, is worth whatever sacrifices we
are called to make, whatever mockery we are called to endure.
Considering what He gives us, happiness and meaning to our lives here,
union with Him in complete joy for all eternity, the cost is
little. Possessing Christ is the greatest bargain we will ever be
offered.
We
pray today, as always, for the courage to be Catholic.
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http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/
* available in Spanish - see
Spanish homilies
6 Ordinary Time
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Trust
(February 14, 2010)
Bottom line: Trust in the Lord: a theme for married couples as we
celebrate Valentine's day - and for all of us, as we enter the season
of Lent.
Today is the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. It is the last Sunday
before Lent, which begins on February 17 - Ash Wednesday. Moreover,
this Sunday falls on Valentine's Day. I want to develop a theme that
relates to human love - especially the love between husband and wife.
The theme also leads into Lent. I can sum it up in a single word:
trust. Or to be more specific, trust in the Lord.
In our first reading we hear: "Cursed is the one who trusts in human
beings..." And, "Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord." Jesus
illustrates trust in the Lord by giving us a series of beatitudes that
he contrasts with "woe." For example, he says, "Blessed are you who are
poor...But woe to you who are rich." The poor are blessed because they
have a greater tendency to trust in God, while the rich man can start
thinking he does not need God.
I'd like to tell you about a man who had a beautiful trust in God. It
is Valentine story because it's about how he found his wife. It
happened back in 1920, long before on-line dating services. What the
man did was place an ad in a newspaper. This is what the ad said:
"Middle-ranking civil servant, single, Catholic, 43, immaculate past,
from the country, is looking for a good Catholic, pure girl who can
cook well, tackle all household chores, with a talent for sewing and
homemaking with a view to marriage as soon as possible. Fortune
desirable but not a precondition."
A woman named Maria Peintner answered the ad. She was 36 years old, a
trained cook and the illegitimate daughter of a baker. She did not have
a fortune, but even so, they married four months later. In spite of
their somewhat advanced years they had three children - two boys and a
girl. The youngest child received the same name as his father: Joseph
Ratzinger. He is better known today as Pope Benedict XVI.
After his election, someone dug up the "wife-wanted" ad and showed it
to the new pope. The pope, of course, smiled. He knew that his parents
gave a beautiful testimony to married love. Pope Benedict would speak
often about that love. In fact, his first encyclical is entitled, "God
is Love," and it describes marriage as the pre-eminent figure of God's
love for us.
Joseph and Maria Ratzinger illustrate the love we hear about today.
They had a love based on trust in the Lord: a love that endures because
it places God first. "Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose
hope is the Lord."
If a person gets up into their mid-thirties (or forties) and they have
not found that special person, they can feel life has passed them by,
maybe even that God has forgotten them. That was not the case with
Joseph and Maria Ratzinger. From all we know, they were people of deep
faith in God. Because of their trust in God, they had an admirable
marriage and deeply united family.
The important point here is trust in the Lord. In a few days we are
going to begin a holy season that emphasizes trust in the Lord. The
Church encourages us to sacrifice some of things that are most
important to us: food, time and money. We sacrifice food by some form
of voluntary fasting, for example, giving us deserts. We sacrifice time
by giving a greater portion of day to prayer. We sacrifice money by
almsgiving - by orderings our finances to God's glory and the needs of
the poor. You will hear more about this on Wednesday - and next Sunday,
the First Sunday of Lent. All of our Lenten practices have one purpose
- to increase our trust in the Lord.
And since today is Valentine's Day, I want to honor some people whose
lives illustrate trust in the Lord, namely our married couples. No true
marriage can last without mutual trust - and no marriage can flourish
without trust in the Lord. In that spirit, I will be asking our married
couples to renew their vows.
In order to renew your marriage vows on this Valentine's Day, I ask all
of our married couples to please come forward.
Dear Brothers and Sisters: On the day of your wedding, the bride wore a
beautiful dress, symbol of the baptismal garment. The husband asked for
grace to love his wife as Christ loves the Church, who willingly
offered his life to protect and sustain her. Today you wish to renew
your vows in the presence of your children and friends. Before you do
so, I ask you first to join this congregation in re-affirming your
baptismal promises:
Do you reject Satan? R. I do.
And all his works? R. I do.
And all his empty promises? R. I do.
Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and
earth? R. I do.
Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of
the Virgin Mary was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the
dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father? R. I do.
Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the
Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the
body, and life everlasting? R. I do.
And now, dear husbands, please take your wife's hand. I ask you: Do you
renew your marriage vows to your wife, do you promise to be true to her
in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love and honor
her all the days of your life? R. I do.
Dear wives: Do you renew your marriage vows to your husband, do you
promise to be true to him in good times and in bad, in sickness and in
health, to love and honor him all the days of your life? R. I do.
Now let us turn to Lord, as we pray for these married couples and for
all of our needs:
Celebrant: In the tender plan of His providence, God our almighty
Father has given married love, its faithfulness and its fruitfulness, a
special significance in the history of salvation. Let us therefore call
upon Him saying: Lord hear our prayer.
Deacon/Lector:
For our Holy Father, our bishops and all priest and religious, that
they may be faithful in their call to fidelity and service, let us pray
to the Lord.
For all married couples, that God give them comfort and strength in
each other and joy in their children, let us pray to the Lord.
For all those preparing for marriage, that God guide them to a deep
appreciation of this Sacrament, let us pray to the Lord.
For widows and widowers, that God may comfort them with compassion, let
us pray to the Lord.
For those who suffer the pain of a troubled marriage, separation or
divorce, that God guide them into a future filled with hope, let us
pray to the Lord.
For a greater respect for the dignity of marriage and family in our
nation and society, let us pray to the Lord.
For all our deceased family members and those of our parish who have
died in faith, let us pray to the Lord.
Celebrant (with hands outstretched):
Almighty and eternal God, you have so exalted the unbreakable bond of
marriage that it has become the sacramental sign of your Son's union
with the Church as His spouse. Look with favor on these married
couples, whom you have united in marriage, as they ask for your help
and the protection of the Virgin Mary. They pray that in good times and
in bad they will grow in love for each other; that they will resolve to
be of one heart in the bond of peace. Lord, in their struggles let them
rejoice that you are near to help them; in their needs let them know
that you are there to rescue them; in their joys let them see that you
are the source and completion of every happiness. We ask this through
Christ our Lord. AMEN
(Priest blesses married couples with holy water.)
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General Intercessions for Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C (from
Priests for Life - if not using the prayers above)
Spanish Version |
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http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
6 Ordinary Time
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February
14th, 2010 AD
6th Sunday in Ordinary Time Luke 6:17,20-26
Background:
During the next several Sundays we here Luke’s “Sermon on the
Plain” –his account of the tradition which Matthew renders in his
Sermon on the Mount. There was obviously an earlier tradition of a
compendium of the sayings of Jesus which, as it was handed on, emerged
in two somewhat different forms.
Matthew edited one version and Luke another. Despite different
settings and wordings (Matthew has eight beatitudes, Luke has four
beatitudes and four woes) both have the same theme: a description of
the kind of lives the followers of Jesus will live if they trust in
Jesus’s revelation of God’s love.
The beatitudes are not normative, not new obligations to be added
to the commandments. Rather they are descriptive, new insights into the
possibility of life when one trusts in God as Jeremiah says in the
bible.
Story:
Once upon a time there was a gifted young man from an
impoverished background that set out to prove himself. He studied hard,
work his way through college and business school, and dedicated himself
to success in the company that hired him. Because he combined street
smarts and intellectual shrewdness, he was extremely successful and
rapidly moved up in the company, becoming a senior vice president
before he was forty.
He married a fine woman and they had three splendid children,
though he had little time for them, so determined was he to make it to
the top. In the process he earned a lot of money and piled up valuable
stock options.
Just ten more years, he promised his wife, then I’ll be able to
relax and enjoy life. All our kids will be out of college by then. I’ll
make it all up to them, he promised. Neither the wife nor the kids
believe him.
Then on the day of his 40th birthday he keeled over with a heart
attack and almost died.
Too much stress the doctors said. You’ve got to leave your
company and settle back to a more relaxed life. I can’t he pleaded,
I’ll be the next CEO! I can’t pass up that opportunity. You’ll be a
dead CEO the doctor replied unless you change your life style. I can’t,
the man said, I must make it to the top.
Buy the best insurance you can get the doctor replied because
your wife will be a widow before you’re forty five. |
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http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/homilies/index.lasso
6 Ordinary Time
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Feb, 14, 2010
Luke 6:17, 20-26
Demetrius R. Dumm, O.S.B.
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary
Gospel Summary
It is instructive to compare Luke's Beatitudes with those of Matthew
(5:2-11). Luke offers just four Beatitudes while Matthew gives us
eight. But the four that Luke shares with Matthew are considered the
oldest version and contain the essential teaching. Luke also adds four
Woes, not found in Matthew, and intended to re-enforce, by contrast,
the message of the previous Beatitudes.
The most important word in all the Beatitudes is the subject of the
first one, namely, the "poor." This English word, suggesting economic
destitution, does not at all capture the full meaning of the Hebrew
word from which it is ultimately derived. In that fuller sense, the
poor are the "afflicted ones" or, more specifically, the "powerless
ones." This often includes the economically destitute but it includes
also those who recognize their radical poverty when it comes to the
matter of final salvation. In the gospel, the poor stand in contrast to
the Scribes and Pharisees who, though themselves far from materially
rich, were so "full of themselves" and so smug about salvation that
they effectively closed themselves to the free gift of the Kingdom.
In essence, therefore, God gives salvation to those humble ones who
know how powerless they really are in spiritual matters and who are
ready to turn humbly to God who is more than willing to give them the
Kingdom. The "hungry" and the "weeping" and the "persecuted" are
variations on the poor ones. The hungry know that only God can satisfy
their needs and do not try to place that burden on any merely human
creature. The weeping know that God's command to love often leads to
grieving…and who love nonetheless. The persecuted, or ridiculed ones,
gladly embrace the "foolish" wisdom of unselfish service because they
realize that God's gift is only for the generous ones.
Life Implications
The seemingly benign appearance of these well-known Beatitudes conceal
a very harsh judgment on many of the attitudes of the secular culture
in which we live and by which we are probably influenced far more than
we realize. This secular culture (and our natural instincts) lead us to
place a very high premium on control. A metaphor for this in our
contemporary world is the remote control for our TVs. There is a
pleasing sense of power in being able to "zap" advertisements and
people on the screen with whom we disagree.
This tendency could be relatively harmless except when we allow it to
influence our relationship with God and our attitude toward other
people. An excessive yearning for control is clearly a prideful
attitude and it is pride, more than anything else, that blocks our
access to the free gift of salvation. It can also destroy the delicate
fabric of our loving relationship with other people.
The opposite of our passion for control is our willingness to love to
the point of vulnerability. Machismo is unhealthy because it is so out
of touch with reality. We are living in a dangerous illusion when we
think that we must always be in control. The fact is that we do not
control the most important realities in life, such as love, happiness
and life itself. These are wonderful gifts and we should be happy to
accept them as such. When we try to seize them, they inevitably slip
through our fingers.
We need to understand the true role of power. It can be very useful but
it must always be guided by love. When that happens, we can also let go
of it, when the time comes, and thus be ready for the exquisite gift of
God's Kingdom.
Demetrius R. Dumm, O.S.B.
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http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
6 Ordinary Time
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SIXTH
Sunday
Jeremiah 17. 5-8; Psalm 1. 1-4, 6; 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20; St. Luke
6. 17, 20-26
Some refuse to believe in God, saying that the evil in the world,
including the physical evils of hunger and thirst, would not be
permitted by a good God, or at least would be brought to an end by Him.
The mystery of evil, and in particular the senseless suffering of the
poor, the rejected, the excluded, and the persecuted, must be
understood within the whole context of God's plan, which is for our
happiness, but an eternal unending joy which can never be taken away,
unlike the things of this world.
The happiness of the new heavens and the new earth which God will
reveal at the end of the world can be obtained by all through Jesus
Christ our Lord. No man or woman is excluded from the redeeming embrace
of God's love. For this reason the Christian message is truly good news
for all, including the poor and downtrodden of the world. But this
truth does not dispense anyone, and in particular Christians, from the
demands of charity and justice for the relief and care of the poor. We
are commanded not simply to tolerate or accommodate the poor, not
simply to feed and clothe them; we are commanded to love them as we
love ourselves.
"The Church's love for the poor...is part of her constant tradition."
This love is inspired by the Gospel of the Beatitudes, of the poverty
of Jesus, and of his concern for the poor. (CA 57; cf. Lk 6: 20-22, Mt
8: 20; Mk 12:41-44) Love for the poor is even one of the motives for
the duty of working so as to "be able to give to those in need." (Eph
4:28) It extends not only to material poverty but also to the many
forms of cultural and religious poverty. (Cf CA 57) (CCC 2444)
Though hunger, thirst, nakedness and homelessness are terrible evils
and always intolerable attacks against human life, it is the lack of
love manifested by cultural and religious poverty, as Mother Teresa
taught, that is the greatest poverty today: "It is poverty to decide
that a child must die so that you may live as you wish." A profound
poverty of the heart underlies the many attacks against innocent,
defenseless human life today in abortion, partial-birth infanticide and
contraception.
The greatest poverty afflicting the human race today is the culture of
death which, through abortion and abortifacient contraception, denies a
child the right to live, laugh and love. Those who promote the culture
of death suffer a most insidious poverty, a silent killer, which
eclipses that love for even the smallest and weakest human persons
without which no one can enter into eternal joy.
Defenders of human life look forward joyfully, on the other hand, to
the promise of the Lord for those who feed, clothe, shelter and
otherwise defend the lives of the "least of these little ones": "Enter
into the joy of your Lord. Enter into the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world."
Let's pray for each other until, together next week, we "meet Christ in
the liturgy", Father Cusick
(See also nos. 2546, 2547 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.)
(Publish with permission.) http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/
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http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/
6 Ordinary Time
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Sixth Sunday of Year C
There is a distinction drawn by St Luke in the opening lines of
today’s Gospel between the large gathering of disciples and the great
crowd of people. It says in the text that they came for two things to
hear him and to be cured of their diseases.
One is tempted to think that these things were separate. It was the
crowd of disciples who came to hear Jesus while the crowd of people
came to be healed.
It is easy to understand the motives of the crowd seeking healing.
Think of a world with little scientific knowledge, no antibiotics and
few good doctors. There must have been a vast number of people ready to
grasp at any straw to be cured. And a healer like Jesus, who seemed to
have complete power over any affliction and could cure disease simply
by uttering a few words, must have seemed like a gift from heaven to
them.
These were people crying out in need, these were the true poor and so
often we read of how Jesus’ heart went out to them.
The large group of disciples, on the other hand, were those who wanted
to hear what Christ had to say. They did not especially require a cure
or perhaps had already received one; they were more attracted to his
revolutionary teaching. They wanted to know more, they wanted something
greater than a transitory healing; they wanted the key to eternal life.
So they were there waiting patiently for Jesus to come down from the
hills where he had gone to pray hoping to hear more words of wisdom and
inspiration from him. Jesus treated them quite differently from the way
he treated the crowds seeking healing. You will have noticed that when
Jesus finally did come down from the hills he deliberately fixed his
eyes on these disciples and gave them his teaching.
Luke makes a further distinction between apostles and disciples. The
apostles are the inner group who literally followed Jesus around.
In the passage just before this one Jesus goes up into the hills to
pray. And then after a whole night in prayer he summoned his disciples
and chose from among them twelve whom he called apostles. These were to
be his closest companions, the ones that he would specially train up.
But it is clear that they were chosen from a large group of disciples.
Luke is clearly indicating the strength of Jesus following among the
people. He also indicates that the crowd of ordinary people came from a
very wide area: from all parts of Judea and from Jerusalem and from the
coastal region. Jesus’ teaching has found wide acceptance very quickly.
There are two versions of the Sermon on the Mount, the classic account
is the longer of the two and is to be found in the Gospel of Matthew
and this shorter version in Luke.
While Luke’s version doesn’t have quite the same amount of material as
Matthew the two of them closely correspond.
One interesting detail is that in Matthew it is called the Sermon on
the Mount; with Jesus sitting on a hillock talking down to the people.
While in Luke it is the Sermon on the Plain, or flat place. (Perhaps it
was a bit like Thornbury Plain.) The point is that Jesus got down to
their level and spoke to them directly.
Matthew has the classic and more spiritualised version: How happy are
the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. But Luke has
the more direct and earthy: How happy are you who are poor; yours in
the Kingdom of God.
It seems to me that Luke has probably got hold of an earlier version
before the theologians started tinkering with it trying to interpret
what Jesus really meant and making the change from the straightforward
poor to poor in spirit. That was probably an early bit of political
correctness—the desperate urge not to exclude anyone!
In any event, this teaching which the crowd of disciples waited so long
to receive came upon them as a bit of a bombshell.
The atmosphere must have been electric. Jesus spending the night in
prayer, the selection of the apostles, then his arrival down from the
hills, then his fixing his eyes on them and when he was ready
delivering this extraordinary sermon.
Remember these disciples would probably have been the equivalent of the
middle class today. They weren’t hurting, they had no need of a cure,
they could afford to travel, they had no hesitation waiting around to
hear Jesus. These were no common people desperate for their next piece
of bread.
And Jesus says to them: Blessed are you who are poor, hungry, weeping.
They must have been stunned; this was a most unexpected teaching. These
people weren’t poor, hungry or weeping. And they must have been
staggered to hear Jesus comparing them unfavourably with the crowd of
sick and poor crying out for healing who were waiting close by.
We are used to hearing this text read to us over and over again from
the scriptures and so perhaps it has lost some of its immediacy, lost
some of its shock value. But if we are to sit down look at the text and
really think about it then we too might find it quite extraordinary and
deeply challenging.
Jesus is telling us that the very things that we hold so dear,
prosperity, security, happiness—everything that we strive so hard to
achieve for ourselves and our children—are practically worthless when
it comes to considering the values of the Kingdom of God.
It is poverty, starvation and sorrow that are top of the list. And he
goes on to say: Happy are you when people hate you, drive you out,
abuse you, denounce you as a criminal on account of the Son of Man.
Wow! We crave respect, acceptance, honour and respectability and Jesus
tells us that the very opposite is what will gain us the Kingdom of
Heaven. And even those welcome few words at the end—on account of the
Son of Man—don’t give us much comfort. We don’t want these things and
we will do normally anything to avoid them, it doesn’t really matter on
whose account we do them for.
We don’t even need to hear the rest of the lines in the text—alas for
you who are rich, had your fill, or laugh, or when people speak well of
you—we know they mean more of the same.
Yet these are called the Beatitudes, the Blessings! This is supposed to
be Good News! OK it is good news for the poor and the needy—really good
news for them! But is it good news for us?
We have come to the nub of the matter. And the point is that the
Christian Life takes us where we don’t expect—sometimes where we would
rather not go—and it demands a very great deal from us. It demands that
we give up our cosy assumptions; it demands that we take the harder
road; it demands that we really do live for others and not for
ourselves.
These are hard teachings and none of us ever really manage to live up
to them—but we know in our hearts that this is what Jesus wants. This
is radical Christianity. This requires strength; but not our own
strength, no, strength from heaven.
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Father Bonar will not be posting homilies for Cycle B to allow himself
time for other projects. His collection of homilies (including homilies
for Cycle B) is available at www.clydebonar.com.
6 Ordinary Time |
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These
homilies may be copied and adapted for your own use;
however, they may not be commercially published without permission of
the author. |
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