LUKE 6:17, 20-26
In the Gospel we hear four pronouncements of beatitude – blessedness – and four declarations of woe.
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A NEW WAY OF LIVING
Luke 6:17, 20-26
In today’s Gospel, Jesus sets forth an entirely new way of living.
Actually, Jesus’ bold instructions for daily living not only are listed in Luke’s Gospel, but also found in Matthew’s Gospel. It is the poor, the hungry and those who weep daring to lay claim to real and lasting happiness. They are the ones who genuinely enter into God’s Kingdom.
In contrast to Matthew, Luke is more concerned about the lived experience of the poor, the hungry and those who suffer. Authentic people no longer are troubled by the weightiness of duplicity. The influential and powerful, however, cannot bear such change. They will not go with out fight, mocking, scorning and persecuting those earnestly seeking Jesus and working in His Holy Name. How genuine Christians in our own age experience such awful revilement, even from misguided members of Church.
Turn to Jesus! Turn to Him Who encourages everyone caught in conflict to stand firmly with the prophets and those whose fidelity to God powerfully inspires our own.
Jesus condemns those whose lives are in pursuance of wealth, power, pleasure and recognition. They form good company with the false prophets and wicked shepherds.
Nowhere else in the Gospel does Jesus stretch us like He does with the Beatitudes. And nowhere is the pathway to true freedom so clear and attainable.
