Jesus has come to make things right and the Lucan Beatitudes reveal that in God, there will be a reversal of fortune. Now, for the change we desire, we need to take note of whom we should trust. In the 1st Reading, the writer spoke of the foolishness of trusting in man or his machinations but praised the wisdom of trusting in God. This runs against the grain of accepted convention.
Our usual response is to manoeuvre. We tend to scheme our ways around because God cannot be trusted. In that regard, He has not failed somehow to “prove” or to “manifest” His untrustworthiness. How many of us have prayed and placed our trust in the Lord only to be disappointed? Think about Job and the misfortunes that landed on him. God appeared unmoved by our predicaments especially for so many who have lost their loved ones. They have prayed, fasted, made novenas and gone on pilgrimages to pray for miracles to no avail.
The key to trusting in God is found in the 2nd Reading and it is the hope of the Resurrection. St Paul was right to point out that if the Resurrection had not happened, then we would be the saddest people in the world. But the Resurrection did take place and it should ground our trust in the Lord. The truth of Christianity is premised on the truth that we will rise from the dead. Our hope is not confined to this life alone and there is a bigger picture which allows us to survive or hold on for the long run.
The promise of the Resurrection gives meaning to the Gospel’s blessings and woes. The English translation we are accustomed to, speaks of “happiness” but a better rendering would be to speak of “blessedness”. Happiness is suggestive of contentment and it could also be emotional or simply passing. Whereas to be blessed evokes a peace of mind and an interior joy and it does not exclude the possibility of suffering.
The blessedness of the poor described by Luke is balanced by the woes of the rich who have placed their hope in material well-being or even their own political prowess. They will receive their comeuppance. For those who are poor, who really have nowhere to turn but who have humbly placed their trust in the Lord, they will be justly compensated even if what they deserve may not be found in this world.
Our reward may only come only when our earthly existence is over. Therefore, to be a Christian today is really to walk a straight and narrow path. Frequently it is a long and lonely journey. Our natural inclination is to desire a form of discipleship that is easy-going and if we encounter challenges, we want the Cross to be light enough for us to carry or the trial easy enough for us to overcome. But life rarely bestows such an easy path to greatness. The path to saintly excellence is always heroic. “Blessed are you when people persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you”.
The reality is that we do not need to “engage” the world for it to reject us. The very fact that we follow Christ is enough. But rest assured that in Him there will be a reversal of fortune as presented by these Lucan Beatitudes. The four blessings and four woes invite us to consider where we are placed. Where do we fit in the grand scheme of things? The poor, the hungry, the weepers and the hated will find their fortune reversed and that is a promise as much as for the rich, the full, the contented and those praised by the world. They may find themselves “unblessed” in the end.
It becomes frightening if we only focus on the warnings expressed through the “woes”. While it should terrify us to a certain extent what they do is to remind us that we do not exist on a purely physical plane. There is a reality beyond our corporeal existence and because we are also spiritual beings, it explains why we can never be fully satisfied materially. Just observe a person who is greedy or avaricious. They acquire wealth and somehow whatever they have gained, there never seems to be enough to make them happy.
Maybe wealth accumulation is not a good example. Online shopping may be a better illustration. Have you gone on a buying spree? What felt at that time like the ultimate purchase when received will soon leave us feeling empty. Our addiction to shopping is symptom that we may have mistaken material acquisition to be the solution to the soul’s deepest longings. What is more? The modern phenomenon of hoarding is a tell-tale sign that we may be losing the fight of believing in the Resurrection. We “save” or rather we “hoard” because nobody can be trusted, not even God.
The woes in the Beatitudes open us to the truth that we are spiritual beings and they remind us not to be fooled and trapped by the material and physical experiences of this world. What makes living Christianity impossible is when we lose the sense of the Resurrection.
We all need a reversal of fortune but not in the material sense of getting richer. What we most need is to know that our faith has not been in vain. Suffering, loss, setbacks are not the final chapters in our lives. Jesus Christ, by His Death and Resurrection, has stamped life with a promise. Life has an eternity but not in this world. Blessed is he who has placed his trust in the Lord.
