User’s Guide to Sunday, Feb. 16
Sunday, Feb. 16, is the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Mass readings: Jeremiah 17:5-8; Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 & 6; 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20; Luke 6:17, 20-26.
The Gospel passage today is Luke’s version of the beatitudes. It is critical to understand that beatitude is not something we achieve; rather, it is something we receive. Jesus is saying that this is what the transformed human person is like when Christ transforms us.
We are still blessed even when poor, mourning or persecuted.
Here in Luke’s version, there are also woes issued for those who reject the offer of the Lord. Let’s pair them up and consider the woes with the blessings.
Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.
Who are the poor? They are those who, by God’s grace, have their true treasure increasingly in heaven rather than earth. They are poor to this world but rich to God. Indeed, how blessed and flourishing our life is when we no longer obsess about the possessions of this world.
But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
If we have hoarded wealth when others were needy, or used our wealth in unjust ways, whatever comforts we enjoyed are over and only a stern judgment awaits.
Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied.
The key is to hunger for God and the things waiting for us in heaven. Many hunger for wealth, power, popularity, the latest fad — anything but God. But how blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what really satisfies, who are excited and satisfied at what God is doing in their lives. They are blessed indeed.
Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry.
The things of this world can satisfy for only a time, for, being finite, they cannot suffice our infinite longing. God alone can fill our longings. But if one refuses this true food and true drink (see John 6:55), which is Christ himself in the Eucharist, there awaits only a longing that will one day be permanent.
Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.
How blessed and flourishing is the life of those who are not obsessed with worldly happiness and accept suffering as a part of this life and who weep about sin and injustice, not merely worldly things.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep.
Rejoicing with the world is wonderful for a time; then comes the cold and unforgiving depths.
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 …
In life we are going to suffer, so it might as well be for something noble. How blessed are those who, because they love God and his kingdom, are hated by this world.
Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.
If the world is cheering for you, you’re playing on the wrong and losing team, if by “world” you are adhering to the philosophies, power structures and inclinations that are at odds with the teachings and truths of God.
A friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. (James 4:4)
