Sermon on the Plain

Today's Reflections

                                              

Sermon on the Plain

Lk 6:20-26

²⁰Raising his eyes toward his disciples, [Jesus] said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,

for the kingdom of God is yours.

²¹Blessed are you who are now hungry,

for you will be satisfied.

Blessed are you who are now weeping,

for you will laugh.

²²Blessed 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.

²³“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.

²⁴But woe to you who are rich,

for you have received your consolation.

²⁵But woe to you who are filled now,

for you will be hungry.

Woe to you who laugh now,

for you will grieve and weep.

²⁶Woe to you when all speak well of you,

for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

Blessed are you. Jesus begins the Sermon on the Plain by contrasting two groups of people of his time. He compares the poor and powerless and the rich and powerful; the hungry and those who are filled; those who are weeping and those who laugh; and those whom people hate and those of whom they speak well. He is not saying that we must seek after poverty, hunger, tears, or rejection. Neither is he condemning the rich because of their material possessions.

Jesus is speaking to his disciples and the Twelve he has earlier chosen about the actual condition prevailing in the land. But he is speaking to us, too, and showing us how our situations redound on our spiritual life. There are those who turn to God in their affliction and give him a place in their lives. But there are also those whose comfortable existence makes them forget about the kingdom of heaven.

“The Beatitudes present a sort of veiled interior biography of Jesus, a kind of portrait of his figure” 

(Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth).