Pauline McGrath, OP

SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 

LUKE 6:17, 20 – 26

This Sunday’s gospel begins with Jesus coming down the mountain with the twelve apostles and stopping at a piece of level ground.  Before we look at what happened next, let us look back a little and see what Jesus was doing before this.  When we do we see that Luke has Jesus going up a mountain.  There he stayed and prayed all night.  Later, while still up there, he gathered his close disciples around him and from them he chooses twelve who were to be his apostles.

The word “disciple” means a “learner” and the word “apostle” means “one sent out” or an “ambassador”:  so, these twelve were being sent out far and wide to bring Jesus’ message to all.

Let us turn again to next Sunday’s gospel.  Luke has Jesus and his apostles coming down to a piece of level ground.  There they were met by a large crowd of Jesus’ disciples who were waiting for him.  Among them were many sick people who were hoping to be healed by him.

The word “level” spoke to me.  It tells me that Jesus was not “above” anyone; he was very much among his followers.  I found that a beautiful image of Jesus.

Luke then has Jesus fixing his eyes on everyone.  He proceeds to give them a very deep teaching.  This is what we now call “the Beatitudes”.  They were actually a series of amazing, almost explosive, sayings to all the people around him.  They were very “revolutionary”.

Unfortunately, it is different now for us.  We are so familiar with them that it is hard for us to see just how revolutionary they are.  They are not quiet, peaceful sayings but are full of huge challenges.  They take all the accepted standards and turn them on their head, completely upside down.  Just imagine someone saying: “Blessed are the poor” or “Woe to the rich”.  To talk like that is to put an end to the world’s values then and now.

The invitation for us is to read them slowly and to try to read them with the mind of Jesus.  Hopefully, we will begin to see them in a new light and begin to understand them better.  It might be helpful to go to verse 24 where Jesus says: “Woe to you who are rich because you have all the consolation you are going to get”.  To try to explain this saying look at the word “have”.  In this context the word “have” is to receive full payment.  It is in fact a business word.  It is about receiving full payment for work done.  It is all about setting your heart on the world’s values but that is all you will get.  Our call and the call of all Jesus’ followers is to set our heart and all our energies on being utterly loyal to God and true to Christ.  In our lives we are constantly faced with eternal choices and it never ends until our lives are over.  The choices are as follows:  Do we take the easy way, the way that yields immediate pleasure and profit or will we take the road which yields toil and sometimes suffering?  Our call from the gospel is to concentrate on the values of Christ and not of the world.  It can be a wonderful call and at times brings immense joy.  Jesus’ teaching tells us that the joy he gives us will amply compensate for the trouble it will bring us.  Can we trust that call daily, do you think?

Finally, let us look at some of what is in the first reading from Jeremiah and see the link between it and the gospel.  It sums up clearly what Jesus is saying to us in the Beatitudes.  “A blessing on the one who puts her trust in the Lord for her hope.  She is like a tree by the waterside that thrusts its roots into the stream;  when the heat comes it feels no alarm, its foliage  stays green; it has no worries in a year of drought, and never ceases to bear fruit.”