Sunday Reflection, February 11: The Beatitudes

Scripture Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/021107.shtml
Jeremiah 17: 5-8
Psalm 1
1 Corinthians 15: 12, 16-20
Luke 6: 17, 20-26

This Sunday’s Gospel reading gives us Luke’s version of the Beatitudes. As I looked at the reading, I noticed that the Gospel selection for the liturgy omits a couple of verses in the middle. And so I went to my Bible and read the verses that were left out. After mentioning the great crowd of people that came to see Jesus, Luke tells us that “they came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were healed. Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and he healed them all.” Then Luke continues with the blessings and woes pronounced by Jesus. These Beatitudes, then, are situated in the context of the crowds flocking to Jesus seeking healing and life. He is the one through whom the power of God flows to bring new life to those in need of it. He wants people to be alive in the fullest sense of the term.

As I thought about this teaching of Jesus, I recalled the days leading up to the death of my mother a few years ago. It was a time of vigil by her bedside in the hospital as she lay in a coma. The doctors kept telling us that she had only another day or so to live, but she hung on for three weeks. My siblings and I took turns staying with her. It was a difficult time for all of us. I found it to be a particularly exhausting and stressful experience. Nevertheless, there was also something that made those weeks a time of blessing. My siblings and I, along with other relatives and friends, were brought together and we knew we had to support one another. Time was given to us to say our final goodbyes to our mother. There were moments of heartfelt prayer shared together. Only God knows how many expressions of personal prayer were spoken by each one of us individually. Those were days in which we recognized our need for God’s grace and presence in our lives more intensely than usual. It was a time in which we reflected more deeply on the hope that Saint Paul talks about in the second reading for this Sunday – our hope in the resurrection of the dead. In many different ways, including ways we probably still do not realize, we were blessed during those days of vigil at my mother’s bedside.

In the Gospel, Jesus addresses his disciples in the midst of the hordes of people who are flocking to him for help. As he does, he says some things that sound pretty odd at first hearing. He pronounces blessed those who are poor, those who are hungry and mourning, those persecuted and ostracized because they are his followers. On the face of it, this Gospel might give us the impression that Jesus is glorifying human suffering and misery. One could walk away thinking that Jesus is suggesting that the more miserable we are the more blessed we are, and the happier God is. But we know that such an idea is not his teaching at all. Luke has just told us that Jesus is busy giving healing and new life to those who are ill or imprisoned by the powers of evil. Jesus reveals a God who wants people to have life in its fullness.

It seems that Jesus calls the poor and suffering blessed because they are people who are likely to recognize their need for God. They are more motivated to turn to God for God’s help and strength, just as the crowds in the Gospel came to Jesus with such eagerness, hoping just to touch him. Jesus addresses warnings to those who are wealthy and popular because they may well fail to recognize their need for God. Throughout his Gospel, Luke recounts stories in which the well-heeled do not use their wealth to help the needy. They tend to be trapped by their possessions and to fall short in their trust of God. It is too easy for them to place their trust in other things, in themselves alone, or just in the present experience of satisfaction.

In this Sunday’s first reading, the prophet Jeremiah proclaims a similar message. He compares those who place their trust in human beings or earthly powers to a barren bush that is lifeless. He likens those who entrust themselves to God to the tree planted beside the water that receives bountiful nourishment and refreshment.

You and I know very well that we are called to place our ultimate trust in God and not in other things or other people. Nor are we to place our ultimate trust in our own personal or professional accomplishments. That is not news to any of us. Each of us has probably experienced times in our lives in which we have recognized our absolute dependence on God and God’s grace in a particularly intense way. My siblings and I experienced that as we kept vigil with my mother at the end of her life. For others it might be a time of struggle with school, deep disappointment in a friendship or other relationship, an experience of illness, or simply the recognition that even our best and most sought after accomplishments do not fulfill us completely. At times like that, we may feel like the people in the Gospel who reach out to Christ in order to touch him and experience his presence and power.

This simple message, though, is one that we need to hear over and over again. It is a word that we need to meditate on with attention. It is just so easy for any of us to lose sight of where we are putting our ultimate trust. Amidst the pressures and temptations of life, it is so easy for us to transfer our trust to something (or someone) other than God. But when we do make a conscious effort to orient our lives and our decisions toward God, we discover a deep joy and satisfaction that nothing else can replace. When we try to live each day with trust in Christ, asking for the strength and the grace we need for that day, other things in our lives tend to fall into their proper place. We find ourselves deeply rooted, like the tree planted next to the life-giving waters. When we live in communion with Christ we experience a resonance with the heart of reality that can sustain us through the difficult times.

As people who come to the Eucharist to be nourished at the table of the Lord, we are those who celebrate and reaffirm the fact that we belong to Christ. We are his. Deep down, I suspect that all of us realize that we are truly happy, we experience real contentment, when we place our deepest hopes in God and make our decisions in the light of our relationship with God. This God whom Jesus reveals is not a heavenly tyrant who wants to keep us in our place. He is a gracious God who offers us true freedom and wants us to flourish. As we come to the Eucharist this Sunday, let us ask the Lord to remind us of the many ways in which he is faithfully present to us. And let us remember that we belong to him.

Fr. Robin Ryan, cp