Today’s
beatitudes from St Luke’s Gospel is a shorter list than St Matthew’s Gospel.
Another interesting difference is that St Luke accompanies his shorter list of
four beatitudes with four corresponding and contrasting woes. I find the contrast
interesting.
Our first
reading from Jeremiah also offers us a contrast between the person who trusts
in God and the one who trusts in mere human effort. The one is like a bush in
the desert, and the latter like a tree with deep roots near a source of water.
These
contrasts in our readings today might help us have some perspective. If we ever
experience contentment and adequacy in our own efforts, then perhaps we are
settling for less than for what we were made. On the other hand, although we
are naturally averse to vulnerable situations, such situations might be a
blessing if they open us up to a deeper trust in God.
In order to
let God into our heart, we might need to experience a certain dissatisfaction
with this world. That experience might be painful. It might be totally
unmerited and unwarranted. Yet such experiences, can become, by the grace of
God, windows into the mystery of Christ crucified and risen.
Our second
reading points us in this direction: “Christ has been raised from the dead.” Therefore,
if we remain in Him, we know the victory is ours, though we may only glimpse it
at times. Yet the centrality of the death and resurrection of Jesus in our life
is our reason to proclaim with the responsorial psalm: “Blessed are they who
hope in the Lord.”
God Bless, Fr. Carlos,
OSA.
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