Fr. Michael Williams

I think we would all recognise that there is a distinction between the words happy and blessed. So rather than say, ‘How happy are you poor…Happy you who are hungry… Happy you who weep’. It is probably more correct to say, ‘‘How blessed are you poor…blessed you who are hungry…blessed you who weep’. I believe the new translations of the Bible, which we will use at Mass in the near future will rectify this problem.

It is important to make this point because one of the strong themes in St Luke’s gospel is the question, ‘What makes somebody blessed’? In the passage from St Luke’s gospel today, Jesus says they are blessed ‘who are poor…who are hungry now…and who weep now’, and those who are persecuted because of their commitment to Christ. Jesus goes on to say, ‘Alas for you rich now…for you who have your fill now…for you who laugh now’ and those who the world speaks well of.

On the surface Our Lord’s teaching seems baffling here. But with Christ’s teaching we need to go deeper. In last week’s gospel Jesus told Simon ‘to put out into the deep’. With the teachings of Jesus and the Church we always need to look at the deeper meanings, and not remain just on the surface.

Jesus is outlining the two ways to understand life: either we live ‘for the Kingdom of God’, living simply and in solidarity with the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and those persecuted ‘on account of the Son of Man’. This is the way to blessedness.

The other way to understand life is to live ‘for one\’s own consolation’, living for riches and endless laughter, and wanting to be praised by all. This is the road to Hell.

Two people stand out in St Luke’s gospel who possess the attributes of blessedness- Our Lord and Our Lady. At the beginning of Luke’s gospel we are told that Mary is blessed among women and blessed is the fruit of her womb, Jesus. These two blessed ones lived poor lives as refugees who had to flee into Egypt away from the persecuting King Herod; no doubt they knew what it was to be hungry there; they also knew weeping through the suffering of the cross. Yet they are the blessed ones and they give us an example to follow.

In the gospel Jesus and Mary never enjoy the riches of this world, nor were filled by what this world had to offer, nor were they permanently laughing and enjoying themselves, yet they are Blessed ones. And so are those who are like them.

Rather than choose the ways of the world, which are often driven by selfishness, let us choose the way of the Kingdom of God, which is way of blessedness.