Reading 1 Jer 17:5-8 Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, but stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth. Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: it fears not the heat when it comes; its leaves stay green; in the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit. Responsorial Psalm Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6 R. (40:5a) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord. Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked, nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, but delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night. R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord. He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord. Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. For the LORD watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes. R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord. Reading 2 1 Cor 15:12, 16-20 Brothers and sisters: If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Alleluia Lk 6:23ab R. Alleluia, alleluia. Rejoice and be glad; your reward will be great in heaven. R. Alleluia, alleluia. 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.”
FAUSTI - "Blessed are you ." It is the good news that Jesus has given to the poor, to whom He announces the fulfillment of the promise. It is God's judgment on the world. It reveals His way of evaluating the reality, opposite to ours, and His way of saving us, so different from what we think. The Beatitudes constitute the Manifesto of the Kingdom of God, the New Law, a new code of life for those who welcome the Kingdom. The fruits of life and salvation are linked to it. This proclamation of the Kingdom is what Jesus accomplished in His Life, culminating in His Passion-Resurrection for us. The Beatitudes for the poor and the lamentations for the riches shouldn't be read in a moralistic key, as if they were saying what man "must" do. Rather, they say what God does and how He acts in human history. In the descent from the mountain, Moses revealed what man must do, now, in the descent to the plane, Jesus reveals what God Himself does. It is important to know this in order that we can listen to it, welcome it and bear fruit! The intent of the proclamation is to reveal to us the Face of God in Christ, so that the very Glory of His, which is that of the obedient Son, may be revealed on our own. The Life and the Work of Jesus manifest the true face of God that "no one has ever seen" (Jn 1:18). In His mystery of death/exaltation, we see how God gives the Kingdom. In His Passion, Jesus, hated, banned, insulted, rejected and defamed, solidarizes with the poor and identifies Himself with them, Himself who was already poor and hungry before. In His Resurrection, He realizes the Beatitude in the first person: identifying to Himself all the poor, in the fullness of the Messianic banquet and in the laughter of victory. Luke's speech is understandable only to the disciples. It is a Word addressed to those who, having discovered the treasure, wish to live its fruits to the full, willing to abandon all that is an obstacle to it. Jesus addresses those real poor people, of all sorts, whom He has taken care of. His "taking care" of all misery is His messianic sign. He will satisfy these hungry people with His Bread and will dry their tears with His Consolation. We also listen to the same Word, because, in obedience to Him, we are transferred and kidnapped in God, in whom salvation is offered to all the lost. It is to be noted the present time of the first Beatitude and of the first lamentation. Already "now" the Kingdom is of the poor and already "now" the rich are excluded from it with a surrogate of consolation... The other two beatitudes/consolations are in the future simple: they are respectively the fruits/surrogates of the Kingdom that will mature in the future. This means that with Jesus the present history is definitive, but not closed, it is indeed definitively open towards its term of salvation. This present/future tension, between an hour and an after, is the very space of history, a place of human decision to welcome the freedom of Christ. The last beatitude/lamentation indicates a future situation, but one that will soon become actual, in the time of persecution. Then it will be for the disciple his present of participation or not to the Passion of the Lord. The Beatitudes can only be understood by knowing God who is Love for all His children. His justice is to take away from those who have and give to those who do not have, so that the fraternity may be lived in concrete terms. Our concept of justice, "to each one his own" is based on human injustice and codifies the selfishness that originates it. It is useful to note that the distinction between poor and rich is easy to read outside. It is very difficult to read it within the heart of man: only the Word that penetrates into us discerns between bliss and alas, painfully cutting evil in us from good. Each of us is torn between having, power and appearance on the one side and the Lord's call to poverty, service and humility on the other.
REDEMPTORIS MISSIO- J. PAUL II Characteristics of the Kingdom and Its Demands The liberation and salvation brought by the kingdom of God come to the human person both in his physical and spiritual dimensions. The kingdom of God is meant for all mankind, and all people are called to become members of it. To emphasize this fact, Jesus drew especially near to those on the margins of society, and showed them special favor in announcing the Good News. At the beginning of his ministry he proclaimed that he was “anointed … to preach good news to the poor” (Lk 4:18). To all who are victims of rejection and contempt Jesus declares: “Blessed are you poor” (Lk 6:20). What is more, he enables such individuals to experience liberation even now, by being close to them, going to eat in their homes (cf. Lk 5:30; 15:2), treating them as equals and friends (cf. Lk 7:34), and making them feel loved by God, thus revealing his tender care for the needy and for sinners (cf. Lk 15:1–32).
The liberation and salvation brought by the kingdom of God come to the human person both in his physical and spiritual dimensions. Two gestures are characteristic of Jesus’ mission: healing and forgiving. Jesus’ many healings clearly show his great compassion in the face of human distress, but they also signify that in the kingdom there will no longer be sickness or suffering, and that his mission, from the very beginning, is meant to free people from these evils. In Jesus’ eyes, healings are also a sign of spiritual salvation, namely liberation from sin. By performing acts of healing, he invites people to faith, conversion and the desire for forgiveness (cf. Lk 5:24). Once there is faith, healing is an encouragement to go further: it leads to salvation (cf. Lk 18:42–43). The acts of liberation from demonic possession—the supreme evil and symbol of sin and rebellion against God—are signs that indeed “the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Mt 12:28).
FEBRUARY 14, 2010 Divine Justice Woe to you that are full now… Jesus, lifting up his eyes to his disciples, says: “Blessed are you poor…. Blessed are you that hunger…. Blessed are you that weep…. Blessed are you when men hate you… when they cast out your name” on account of me. Why does he proclaim them blessed? Because God’s justice will ensure that they will be satisfied, gladdened, recompensed for every false accusation in a word, because from this moment he will welcome them into his Kingdom. The Beatitudes are based on the fact that a divine justice exists, which exalts those who have been wrongly humbled and humbles those who have exalted themselves (cf. Lk 14: 11). In fact, the Evangelist Luke, after repeating four times “blessed are you”, adds four admonitions: “Woe to you that are rich…. Woe to you that are full now…. Woe to you that laugh now” and: “Woe to you, when all men speak well of you”, because as Jesus affirms, the circumstances will be reversed; the last will be first, and the first will be last (cf. Lk 13: 30). This justice and this Beatitude are realized in the “Kingdom of Heaven”, or the “Kingdom of God”, which will be fulfilled at the end of times but which is already present in history. Wherever the poor are comforted and admitted to the banquet of life, there God’s justice is already manifest. This is the work that the Lord’s disciples are called to carry out also in today’s society.
FEBRUARY 17, 2019 Jesus Calls Us to Happiness – Away from Idols We are happy if we acknowledge we are needy before God The page from today’s Gospel thus invites us to reflect on the profound sense of having faith, which consists in our trusting completely in the Lord. It is about demolishing worldly idols in order to open our hearts to the true and living God. He alone can give our life that fullness so deeply desired and yet difficult to attain. Brothers and sisters, indeed there are many in our day too who purport to be dispensers of happiness: they come and promise us swift success, great profits within our reach, magical solutions to every problem and so on. And here it is easy to slip unwittingly into sinning against the first Commandment: namely idolatry, substituting God with an idol. Idolatry and idols seem to be things from another age, but in reality they are of all ages! Even today. They describe certain contemporary attitudes better than many sociological studies do.
This is why Jesus opens our eyes to reality. We are called to happiness, to be blessed, and we become so as of now, to the measure in which we place ourselves on the side of God, of his Kingdom, on the side of what is not ephemeral but rather endures for eternal life. We are happy if we acknowledge we are needy before God — and this is very important: “Lord, I need you” — and if, like him and with him, we are close to the poor, the suffering and the hungry. We too are like this before God: we are poor, suffering, we are hungry before God. Although we possess worldly goods, we experience joy when we do not idolize or sell our souls out to them, but are able to share them with our brothers and sisters. Today the liturgy invites us once again to question ourselves about this and to be truthful in our heart.
Reading 1
RispondiEliminaJer 17:5-8
Thus says the LORD:
Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings,
who seeks his strength in flesh,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He is like a barren bush in the desert
that enjoys no change of season,
but stands in a lava waste,
a salt and empty earth.
Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
whose hope is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted beside the waters
that stretches out its roots to the stream:
it fears not the heat when it comes;
its leaves stay green;
in the year of drought it shows no distress,
but still bears fruit.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6
R. (40:5a) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked,
nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
but delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
that yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Reading 2
1 Cor 15:12, 16-20
Brothers and sisters:
If Christ is preached as raised from the dead,
how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?
If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised,
and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain;
you are still in your sins.
Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ,
we are the most pitiable people of all.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Alleluia
Lk 6:23ab
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Rejoice and be glad;
your reward will be great in heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
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.”
FAUSTI - "Blessed are you ." It is the good news that Jesus has given to the poor, to whom He announces the fulfillment of the promise. It is God's judgment on the world. It reveals His way of evaluating the reality, opposite to ours, and His way of saving us, so different from what we think.
RispondiEliminaThe Beatitudes constitute the Manifesto of the Kingdom of God, the New Law, a new code of life for those who welcome the Kingdom. The fruits of life and salvation are linked to it.
This proclamation of the Kingdom is what Jesus accomplished in His Life, culminating in His Passion-Resurrection for us.
The Beatitudes for the poor and the lamentations for the riches shouldn't be read in a moralistic key, as if they were saying what man "must" do. Rather, they say what God does and how He acts in human history. In the descent from the mountain, Moses revealed what man must do, now, in the descent to the plane, Jesus reveals what God Himself does.
It is important to know this in order that we can listen to it, welcome it and bear fruit!
The intent of the proclamation is to reveal to us the Face of God in Christ, so that the very Glory of His, which is that of the obedient Son, may be revealed on our own.
The Life and the Work of Jesus manifest the true face of God that "no one has ever seen" (Jn 1:18).
In His mystery of death/exaltation, we see how God gives the Kingdom.
In His Passion, Jesus, hated, banned, insulted, rejected and defamed, solidarizes with the poor and identifies Himself with them, Himself who was already poor and hungry before.
In His Resurrection, He realizes the Beatitude in the first person: identifying to Himself all the poor, in the fullness of the Messianic banquet and in the laughter of victory.
Luke's speech is understandable only to the disciples. It is a Word addressed to those who, having discovered the treasure, wish to live its fruits to the full, willing to abandon all that is an obstacle to it. Jesus addresses those real poor people, of all sorts, whom He has taken care of.
His "taking care" of all misery is His messianic sign.
He will satisfy these hungry people with His Bread and will dry their tears with His Consolation.
We also listen to the same Word, because, in obedience to Him, we are transferred and kidnapped in God, in whom salvation is offered to all the lost.
It is to be noted the present time of the first Beatitude and of the first lamentation.
Already "now" the Kingdom is of the poor and already "now" the rich are excluded from it with a surrogate of consolation... The other two beatitudes/consolations are in the future simple: they are respectively the fruits/surrogates of the Kingdom that will mature in the future.
This means that with Jesus the present history is definitive, but not closed, it is indeed definitively open towards its term of salvation.
This present/future tension, between an hour and an after, is the very space of history, a place of human decision to welcome the freedom of Christ.
The last beatitude/lamentation indicates a future situation, but one that will soon become actual, in the time of persecution. Then it will be for the disciple his present of participation or not to the Passion of the Lord.
The Beatitudes can only be understood by knowing God who is Love for all His children.
His justice is to take away from those who have and give to those who do not have, so that the fraternity may be lived in concrete terms.
Our concept of justice, "to each one his own" is based on human injustice and codifies the selfishness that originates it.
It is useful to note that the distinction between poor and rich is easy to read outside.
It is very difficult to read it within the heart of man: only the Word that penetrates into us discerns between bliss and alas, painfully cutting evil in us from good.
Each of us is torn between having, power and appearance on the one side and the Lord's call to poverty, service and humility on the other.
REDEMPTORIS MISSIO- J. PAUL II
RispondiEliminaCharacteristics of the Kingdom and Its Demands
The liberation and salvation brought by the kingdom of God come to the human person both in his physical and spiritual dimensions.
The kingdom of God is meant for all mankind, and all people are called to become members of it. To emphasize this fact, Jesus drew especially near to those on the margins of society, and showed them special favor in announcing the Good News. At the beginning of his ministry he proclaimed that he was “anointed … to preach good news to the poor” (Lk 4:18). To all who are victims of rejection and contempt Jesus declares: “Blessed are you poor” (Lk 6:20). What is more, he enables such individuals to experience liberation even now, by being close to them, going to eat in their homes (cf. Lk 5:30; 15:2), treating them as equals and friends (cf. Lk 7:34), and making them feel loved by God, thus revealing his tender care for the needy and for sinners (cf. Lk 15:1–32).
The liberation and salvation brought by the kingdom of God come to the human person both in his physical and spiritual dimensions. Two gestures are characteristic of Jesus’ mission: healing and forgiving. Jesus’ many healings clearly show his great compassion in the face of human distress, but they also signify that in the kingdom there will no longer be sickness or suffering, and that his mission, from the very beginning, is meant to free people from these evils. In Jesus’ eyes, healings are also a sign of spiritual salvation, namely liberation from sin. By performing acts of healing, he invites people to faith, conversion and the desire for forgiveness (cf. Lk 5:24). Once there is faith, healing is an encouragement to go further: it leads to salvation (cf. Lk 18:42–43). The acts of liberation from demonic possession—the supreme evil and symbol of sin and rebellion against God—are signs that indeed “the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Mt 12:28).
Benedict XVI
RispondiEliminaApril 19, 2005 – February 28, 2013
FEBRUARY 14, 2010
Divine Justice
Woe to you that are full now…
Jesus, lifting up his eyes to his disciples, says: “Blessed are you poor…. Blessed are you that hunger…. Blessed are you that weep…. Blessed are you when men hate you… when they cast out your name” on account of me. Why does he proclaim them blessed? Because God’s justice will ensure that they will be satisfied, gladdened, recompensed for every false accusation in a word, because from this moment he will welcome them into his Kingdom. The Beatitudes are based on the fact that a divine justice exists, which exalts those who have been wrongly humbled and humbles those who have exalted themselves (cf. Lk 14: 11). In fact, the Evangelist Luke, after repeating four times “blessed are you”, adds four admonitions: “Woe to you that are rich…. Woe to you that are full now…. Woe to you that laugh now” and: “Woe to you, when all men speak well of you”, because as Jesus affirms, the circumstances will be reversed; the last will be first, and the first will be last (cf. Lk 13: 30). This justice and this Beatitude are realized in the “Kingdom of Heaven”, or the “Kingdom of God”, which will be fulfilled at the end of times but which is already present in history. Wherever the poor are comforted and admitted to the banquet of life, there God’s justice is already manifest. This is the work that the Lord’s disciples are called to carry out also in today’s society.
P.Francis
RispondiEliminaMarch 13, 2013 – Present
FEBRUARY 17, 2019
Jesus Calls Us to Happiness – Away from Idols
We are happy if we acknowledge we are needy before God
The page from today’s Gospel thus invites us to reflect on the profound sense of having faith, which consists in our trusting completely in the Lord. It is about demolishing worldly idols in order to open our hearts to the true and living God. He alone can give our life that fullness so deeply desired and yet difficult to attain. Brothers and sisters, indeed there are many in our day too who purport to be dispensers of happiness: they come and promise us swift success, great profits within our reach, magical solutions to every problem and so on. And here it is easy to slip unwittingly into sinning against the first Commandment: namely idolatry, substituting God with an idol. Idolatry and idols seem to be things from another age, but in reality they are of all ages! Even today. They describe certain contemporary attitudes better than many sociological studies do.
This is why Jesus opens our eyes to reality. We are called to happiness, to be blessed, and we become so as of now, to the measure in which we place ourselves on the side of God, of his Kingdom, on the side of what is not ephemeral but rather endures for eternal life. We are happy if we acknowledge we are needy before God — and this is very important: “Lord, I need you” — and if, like him and with him, we are close to the poor, the suffering and the hungry. We too are like this before God: we are poor, suffering, we are hungry before God. Although we possess worldly goods, we experience joy when we do not idolize or sell our souls out to them, but are able to share them with our brothers and sisters. Today the liturgy invites us once again to question ourselves about this and to be truthful in our heart.