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Today in Our Church
Preparing for Lent
Gospel
Lk 6:17, 20-26
Jesus came down with the twelve
and stood on a stretch of level ground
with a great crowd of his disciples
and a large number of the people
from all Judea and Jerusalem
and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.
And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for the kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.
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.
Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!
Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.
For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.
But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are filled now,
for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will grieve and weep.
Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for their ancestors treated the false
prophets in this way.”
Fr, Larry Gillick, SJ
Creighton University
"... there are two kinds of persons as there are two kinds of trees and how they are planted will make all the difference. The challenge is about where are our roots. What strengthens us. What is the source of our life’s activities.
"Those who rely on the shallowness of the immediate now will live in the barrenness of the changeless. Those whose lives are propped up by their hope totally in human support have to make sure that everything remains predictable and stable. What they receive is the experience of the changeless desert. The only spice in their lives is the salt of preserving and endless thirst.
Those who reverence the now as it leads to the then are like trees rooted near a nourishing stream. They trust the beyond and are available to distress, and thirst during the times of the unknown. Their strength derives from something other than themselves or their kind.
...
"... what Jesus has come to teach us about the 'Good News'. We ... hear Luke’s account of the talk Jesus gives to His early group of disciples. Luke has four Beatitudes and for 'woe-to-yous', or maledictions. These are four strong statements about how things or conditions now will be reversed by those who will follow Jesus.
"Matthew has eight Beatitudes which predict the good life later in heaven for those who live the blessed life here on earth.
"Luke presents Jesus as telling His disciples that they, personally, are responsible for bringing about material justice and peace. He tells them that by doing this they will provoke resistance and they should expect persecution and rejection.
"Jesus is fulfilling His role as prophet. He is announcing how He intends to live and predicting how He expects to be heard and received. He is inviting His listeners to follow Him as prophets of 'root-changing'."
(the OT reading today is Jeremiah, 17:5-8)
"Luke’s presentation of Jesus here and often in his Gospel account, emphasizes the poverty of riches and esteem. There are the poor and hungry as well as the rich and full. There are those who weep and those rejected and hated as well as those who enjoy being thought-well-of. From the moment of His unrolling the scripture in the synagogue to his unrolling of His life on the cross, Jesus is inviting His followers to reverse their own value-system and assist the value-rerooting of others.
"Jesus called Peter out of his boat, and away from the identity by which he was known and knew himself. The question will always be about where are your roots, what or who tells you who you are, and what are you going to do with it all.
...
"The rich, the unconcerned, the full and the esteemed belong to the 'Now Generation' and they are already receiving all that they desire. The 'Then Generation' will live the unusual way of grounding their roots in the 'now' only as a way to bring about a better kingdom on earth. ..
"We are the 'now' and 'then' generation begotten by the Spirit and given life in Christ to do something with it all."
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