"Your reward will be great in heaven!"
Luke 6: 17, 20-26
The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021322.cfm
There is a wonderful story told about the
third century Roman martyr and Deacon St. Lawrence. The Roman Emperor Valerian decided that it
was time to put to death all Bishops, Priest and Deacons of the Christian
Church in Rome and to confiscate all the wealth of the Church. St. Lawrence had been given responsibility to
oversee all the wealth of the local Church and to care for the poor in their
need. The Emperor captured him but before killing him he gave Lawrence three
days to gather all the wealth of the Church and to turn it over to the Emperor.
So Lawrence immediately began to distribute
all the possessions and property of the church to the poor. On the third day he appears before the
Emperor and turned to gesture back to the door through which poured crowds of
the poor, the destitute, the sick, the blind and the crippled. He said to the
Emperor: “These are the treasures of the Church and the Church is far richer
than the Emperor.” You can imagine what
happened next and St. Lawrence has been honored as a courageous and insightful
early Roman martyr.
If we were given a choice between being rich
or poor, I have no doubt that the vast majority of us would choose rich. It
just seems to bring fewer worries in life and having unlimited wealth will
create a kind of fairy tale existence. We are saturated with the mantra that
wealth is a kind of blessing that everyone should pursue. It seems to be, for
some, the whole purpose of life, actually. Our culture is becoming more and
more secular as sacrifice, simplicity, humility and sharing for the good of the
whole give way to wealth, power, independence and subjective truth. Even though
the pandemic has set the world back it seems that to some extent the values of
the world still hold a grip. But that would be false indeed as St. Lawrence
reminded us.
In the time of Jesus the tags of poor and
rich were quite different than today.
The poor were powerless to do anything about their lot like orphans and
widows. They lived weighed down by their
socially unfortunate fate. There was no
hope for a better future and no opportunity for advancement. Meanwhile the rich
became rich because they had the power to take wealth away from those who were
not able to defend themselves. In the
ancient world power was the means of attaining wealth. You can imagine what this did to society as a
whole. In ancient Israel and
particularly around the Galilee region where Jesus spent so much time, he
touched crowds that were living merely on a hand to mouth existence.
Our Gospel this Sunday challenges us on much
of this. But, is it wrong to be wealthy?
Ask the winner of a lottery jackpot if they think their unexpected luck
was unfortunate. Money is just money it’s we who make choices that affect
others for either good or ill. That power of free will is what Jesus may
indirectly be addressing in the Gospel.
Unlike Matthew, Luke has Jesus more direct and concrete in his
accounting of the Beatitudes. The “poor in spirit” become the “poor.” Blessed
are the poor and “woe” to the rich!
Jesus comes down from the heights and addresses the crowd on a level
stretch. In Matthew, Jesus goes up and
so it becomes the sermon on the “mount.” Luke’s concern for the poor and their
condition is one Jesus identifies with.
So, here Jesus comes down to them; he lowers himself to their condition
and embraces it as his own. It seems Luke’s emphasis as a Gentile himself upon
Jesus’ care for all; both Jew and gentile alike.
These beatitudes in Luke become both a blessing and a warning. The blessing is to say to those who are poor not because you are poor but because you’ve suffered greatly God has a reward waiting for you. The Gospel does not praise poverty so much as it condemns greed. Poverty in the ancient world was brought about by the greed of others who took everything for themselves leaving nothing for most. Jesus reminds those unfortunate to have hope because God has not forgotten you or dismisses you like others. Rather, he bestows a special honor on you and will provide more than you imagine.
Yet, we should not focus only on the economically poor. While God does look upon such with preferential love, he even more so invites all of us to know that in all things, rich or poor, we must know our need for God. So when Jesus states that the poor are blessed he also implies that those who know their need for God, despite their economic state, are blessed. Those who deny or are indifferent to their need for God are in a sad state. Our Lord brought words of great
hope to a people who were hopeless. This is not the only place we hear of the
heart of God from Jesus.
Remember the story of the beggar names
Lazarus who begged right outside the door step of the wealthy man (Lk 16: 19 -
31). That man did nothing to alleviate
the condition of Lazarus; he knew he was right outside his door and simply
ignored him. After they both died the
tables were turned. God in the guise of the poor found the rich were indifferent to his presence.
Recall Jesus scene of the last judgement in
Matthew’s Gospel when the sheep and goats are separated (Mt 25: 31-46). “I was hungry and you fed me; thirsty and you
gave me drink; naked and you clothed me . . .” etec. We are called to generosity not to
greed. It’s not all for me but given as
gift for everyone and our salvation depends on this. In fact as Christians this
responsibility to give away is not optional for any of us to be authentic
followers of Jesus. We are a community bonded together in Christ because of our
common baptism and we cannot pretend to be alone or continue to have a “me
first” attitude in all things.
Now, we could immediately go to the
principles of social justice and that would not be inappropriate of
course. We must care for the human needs
of others in ways of compassion and mercy. And, on a broad level, like the
plain Jesus came to address the crowds, this fundamental principle of fairness
and justice can be applied across the board as it were. Which does not mean that the rich should give
it all away but rather recognize the opportunity before them to use wealth for
the good of others.
Our first reading from Jeremiah has the
outspoken prophet wasting no words. He
speaks of “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength
in flesh.” But, “Blessed is the one who
trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord.” If we lay our ultimate trust on
the things of God and not the things of this world as if this is the ultimate
meaning and purpose of life, then we will be blessed.
If God is truly the center of our lives, and
we see our faith as a great treasure, then material wealth is not something
that we have acquired merely through our own genius as if nothing was more
important. Our faith moves us to believe
that if I give away a portion of what I have for the benefit of others God will
still care for me because as Jeremiah reminds us: “Blessed in the one who
trusts in the Lord.” The sin of
indifference is one that the prophets and Jesus himself reminds us is
deadly.
At times the Scriptures comfort us and other
times they call us to discomfort.
Today’s readings are the latter. Our discomfort may well be a sign that we need
to open up. There is no justification
for indifference to the suffering of others. The treasure of our faith is given
as gift to bring us to greater holiness.
Jesus offers himself to us in the Eucharist
when he gave it all away for our salvation.
Open our eyes
to the needs of our brothers and sisters;
inspire in us words and actions
to comfort those who labor and are burdened,
Make us serve them truly,
after example of Christ and at his command.
And may your church stand as a living witness
to truth and freedom,
to peace and justice,
that all people may be raised up
to a new hope.
(4th Eucharistic Prayer for Various Needs:
Jesus, who went about doing good)
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