Wednesday in the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time, September 7, 2022

Luke 6, 20-26

Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus 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. But 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.”

The Lord begins a lengthy homily on how his faithful followers are to live.  Although in many ways echoing the Sermon on the Mount as found in Matthew 5-7, St. Luke describes the setting in ways that make it sound like a distinctly different occasion.  The sermon which Luke recounts also presents the Lord phrasing some of his teachings very differently from what we find in St. Matthew’s Gospel, such as his use of woe: “Woe to you who are rich, etc.”  It should not surprise us that over the course of the three years of his Public Life the  Lord did not preach on similar themes and even use similar words.  Here, he also uses different phrasings and words, according to the circumstances, primarily his audience.

“Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours.”  He does not say, “Blessed are the poor in spirit”, but, “Blessed are you who are poor”.  This is more literally translated as, “Blessed the destitute”.  That is, those who have sold all they had, given the money to the poor, and followed Jesus.  As Peter said to Jesus, “Behold we have left all things, and have followed you: what therefore shall we have?” (Matthew 19, 27).  The Lord answered him, “Amen I say to you, that you who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”  In this way they are blessed.

“Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied.”  Large crowds went without food for three days to hear Jesus, and in his mercy he fed them with a miracle, prefiguring how he would feed his followers with the Bread of Life that they could receive only from him.  “Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.”  We think of the tears of Martha and Mary at the tomb of their brother Lazarus, and the tears of Mary Magdalene at the tomb of the Lord.  The Lord gave these faithful followers cause for laughter and rejoicing, as he will give us on the last day at our resurrection.  “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.”. There were those standing with him at the time who had already suffered for him, and millions of people since, in many different ways.  “Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.”  We note that the Lord does not promise happiness and justice in a new Kingdom of Israel such as so many of his followers expected.  True joy awaits us at the end of our lives, in heaven.  “For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.”  We see that the Lord is speaking particularly of persecution by the Jewish authorities.  Luke was writing for Greek Christians who had themselves witnessed the Apostles, especially St. Paul, persecuted by the Jews in whatever town he visited.

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.”  This brings to mind the case of the rich man who did not feed the desperate Lazarus.  Abraham, in the parable, said to the rich man as he burned in hell, “Son, remember that you did receive good things in your lifetime, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted and you are tormented” (Luke 16, 25).  That is, he did not use the wealth God had given him as God had directed him.  “But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry.”  The Psalmist complains to God of the wicked, “Their eyes swell out with fatness, their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. Therefore the people turn and praise them; and find no fault in them. And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches” (Psalm 73:7–12).  But God’s justice will overtake them in the end: “Truly you did set them in slippery places; you did make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!” (Psalm 73, 18-19).  If it seems justice is delayed it is only to give these wretched sinners time to repent.  “Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep.”  Those who mock the Lord and his disciples will come to the place where there is weeping, darkness, and the gnashing of teeth.  “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”  The false prophets were those attached to the Temple as a guild but through whom God did not speak.  They told people what they wanted to hear so that they might profit from their words.  They did not call anyone to repent, as did the true Prophets such as Isaiah and Jeremiah.

We learn from the Lord’s words how necessary it is to belong to him entirely without holding anything back, for in his love for us, he holds nothing back.