"Blessed are You who are Poor..."

Today's Mass Readings

In today’s gospel reading we read Luke’s version of the beatitudes. There are some very critical differences between the beatitudes in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. For example, in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus delivers the sermon from the top of a mountain, hence, the term “sermon on the mount.” In Luke, this section is called the “sermon on the plain” because Jesus after spending the night in prayer on the mountain (Luke 6:12), “came down with them (disciples) and stood on a stretch of level ground” (Luke 6: 17). There are other differences between Luke and Matthew. Whereas Matthew says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” Luke simply says, “Blessed are you who are poor” (Luke 6:20). Whereas Matthew has all the beatitudes begin with “Blessed are…” Luke has one set of four blessings (Luke 6:20-22) and one set of four “Woe to you…” (Luke 6:24-26). These differences could be attributed to the evangelist and how he chose to present the same message of Jesus and also to the audience to whom they were writing. The superficial parts of the message of Jesus are adapted to the changing needs of the audience. Thus, since Luke’s audience were mainly gentiles, and poor, Luke has the first beatitudes in the original (Blessed are you who are poor). But since Matthew’s audience was primarily Jewish and were perhaps better off, he adds “in spirit” to the first beatitude (Blessed are the poor in spirit). And that is also why, Matthew has Jesus give the sermon from on the mountain because in Jewish tradition, God had always revealed himself from a mountain (Mt. Sinai for the Ten Commandments). This is Matthew’s way of saying that Jesus is the New Moses and he is giving the New Law. Thus, Jesus says later in the Sermon on the Mount, “You have said that it was said of old….” “But I say to you….”

These differences should not take us away from the main message of the beatitudes. Indeed, blessed are those who are poor/poor in spirit because the poor have only God to rely on. Indeed, blessed are the clean of heart; they are in the right frame of mind to see God in the daily events of their lives. Indeed, the peacemakers are the children of God because they are like Jesus who made peace between God and humankind. Indeed, those rich who care only about themselves, or those filled who do not care about the starving, or those who laugh at others are not blessed because their faith lies not in God but in finite things.

In light of the beatitudes, today’s first reading has good advice for us. Paul says to the Colossians, “Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry” (Col 3:5). And again, “But now you must put them all away: anger, fury, malice, slander, and obscene language out of your mouths. Stop lying to one another…” (Col 3:8-9). None of the above can lead us to the Kingdom.

We come before the Lord in our weakness and ask the Lord to transform us into the image of His son, Jesus. Jesus is the beatitude lived to perfection. Let us strive to imitate Jesus by being poor in spirit, clean of heart, peacemakers, hungry for righteousness, weeping for the sins of the world and trusting in the mercy of God.