Gospel reflection for Feb. 16, 2025, Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jesus knows the struggles that his disciples will have with the world. Those who choose the life of faithfulness are blessed. But Jesus also speaks of “woes,” for those who do not prioritize the blessings. It is not enough that those who take up the task of discipleship are blessed, it is important to emphasize that those who do not will encounter strife. Today Christians are divided in response to the poor and marginalized. Those for whom wealth and power are important, Jesus is a fanatic. To those who understand that reliance upon God’s mercy is of paramount importance, Luke’s Beatitudes resonate with the very rhythm of the universe itself.
God’s mercy, however, is ineffective unless his disciples — his Church — exercises, lives, and shares that mercy in the world. We must stand as living witnesses to that mercy, even when the world — even many of our brothers and sisters in Christ — who prefer judgment over justice; hatred over love; freedom over responsibility; retribution over mercy.
The Beatitudes are not mere platitudes, although they do frequently grace the walls of our institutions. They provide the foundational guidebook for exercising the vision of Jesus for the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven into the world. The version of the Beatitudes found in Matthew is a little more comforting and popular. He uses the expression “blessed are the poor in spirit”, and not just “the poor” and, of course, there are no woes, either.
We cannot at the same time make claims on discipleship and disenfranchise the poor, the downtrodden, the lost and the forsaken. We live in a world where we want to not so much end homelessness, but to get them out of sight. We espouse a desire to take care of the poor, but we don’t want to spend our money to do so. We march for life, and then protest support for unwed mothers, infants and children who are hungry, unsheltered, or who have been forced to live on the streets or walk across our borders.
While it is easy to celebrate and espouse the Beatitudes, it is the “woes” that Jesus utters that should be alarming and challenging to us. Luke records Jesus as adding: “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.”
This is the tension that all of us as Christians live within. We all prioritize certain aspects of the life of faith. Everyone of us is placed into situations where we make compromises. This is true because we have competing values, interpretations of the scriptures, personal needs, and other factors that mold and shape how we make decisions.
If nothing else the Beatitudes call us to two things: the first is the awareness of the needs of others — the poor, the hungry, those who weep, those who are despised and persecuted for their faith. They are in need of our prayers and our support.
Secondly, we are called to a conversion of mind and life. Maybe we need to shed ourselves of some of the excesses of our lives; perhaps we need to experience a genuine hunger for the basic sustenance of life; we may need to experience genuine sadness at the condition of our world, the marginalization of others, and a disregard for the call of the Gospel; perhaps we all need more courage to live and express our faith with the boldness that will make others uncomfortable and might cause us to lose friends and family.
The Beatitudes should genuinely make us uncomfortable because the call of Jesus is indeed contrary to many of the values and attitudes that our society, our places of business, our schools, and others place upon us.
Jesus calls us to a radical and transformative way of life.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.