Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time – 16th February 2025

This is one of two places in the Gospels that record the Beatitudes. The other, in Matthew’s Gospel, is a good bit longer and is presented as part of the Sermon on the Mount. St Luke’s version here, is much more tersely, more pointedly put.

But perhaps the most interesting difference is that Luke follows the Beatitudes, or blessings, with a parallel list of curses. Not only “Blessed are you who are poor” but more “Cursed are you who are rich.” It was this kind of revelation, together especially with what he said about The Eucharist, that began to lose Christ more followers than it gained him.

And certainly, on the surface of it, it sounds absurd. It is pretty difficult to see how there could be anything particularly blessed about being poor, hungry, ostracised, insulted or anything particularly cursed about being wealthy, happy, well-liked.

Perhaps just adding a couple of words to each of these Beatitudes can help. For example, “Blessed are you who are poor” is best understood as something like “Blessed are you even though you are poor.” Actually, the word we translate as ‘Blessed’ is better understood as something like ‘happy’ or ‘fortunate’.

And so the prophetic message is ‘You have reason to be happy, to be optimistic, to judge the world as good, even though you are poor, even though you may be hungry, even though you may be outcast’.

Christ is not saying that poverty, hunger and being abused in any number of ways are good things. But he is saying that, ultimately, they are not that bad. He is saying that no misfortune, no burden, is reason enough for giving up hope in the goodness of God. He is saying that the value of living a life based on his Word cannot be authentically judged on the basis of whether or not it makes a person rich or poor, full or empty, well liked or outcast. Ultimately, those kinds of

yardsticks do not really matter very much. The good life that the prophets promise is something far more lasting and satisfying than that.

Christ is saying that it is very possible for blessedness, happiness, that sense of rightness about one’s life, to co-exist with weakness and imperfection and fault. In fact, that is most of the time going to be the case. It is not a good thing to have to endure poverty and emptiness and ill-will, but for most of us, sooner or later, in one way or another, we do. But despite that, even though it is true, we are blessed, we are fortunate, we are destined for great things. The simple fact is that God loves wounded people.

Let us begin to chip away at our dependence on that well-being. If we are to be poor, or poorer, let us learn to do it well, hopefully, joyfully. In that, as the Gospel promises, we will be blessed.

Fr Andrew