Saturday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
And then, on that day, the mountains shall drip new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk; And the channels of
He replied, "Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it." Luke 11:28
PietyJesus, help us to understand what you mean when we hear your message and what you want us to do when you command us to observe it. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Give us the courage to turn the other cheek when we are struck on the first side. Give us the generosity to surrender our shirt to the person who steals our coat. Help us to imitate the acts of our loving Father by giving to everyone who asks of us.
Holy Spirit, guide us to go good and expect nothing back in a fashion that seeks no reward, judges not and forgives always. Help us to graciously accept your graces that will be poured into our lap. Amen. (Based upon Luke 6:27-38)
http://www.usccb.org/nab/101307.shtml
Today, as someone attempts to praise Mary, Jesus points out and underlines the fact that Mary is blessed (“Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Luke 1:42) not because of her condition as his mother but by her amazing faith and conduct in life.
Mary is not blessed just because of giving birth to the baby Jesus. She is blessed because she heard the word of God and observed it ("Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Luke 1:38). Mary’s state is referred to by Luke in the same way that the Beatitudes are introduced back in chapter 6 with the words “Blessed are…”
According to the authors of Reading About the World (Volume 1), “These famous sayings must have exercised a powerful attraction for the downtrodden people who made up much of the early Christian community. Quite specific rewards are offered in compensation for present suffering.” Beyond that, Jesus laid down principles for living in relationship with others.
In today’s reading, Jesus reduces the beatitudes to one sentence. However, what exactly is the message that Jesus wants us to listen to? Perhaps based upon the formulation of this statement in the same way as the Beatitudes (Luke 6:21-38) that might be a good place to look.
In Luke 11, is Jesus turning away from the aspect of suffering and bestowing grace upon those who act in certain ways – hearing the word of God and observing it – even if they do not suffer?
While that might seem possible, Jesus may in fact be pointing us right back to the Sermon on the Plain (Matthew had Jesus deliver the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, Luke places Jesus on more level ground, accessible to all long before the Rehabilitation Act of 1999). This Gospel for the Poor opens up the vision of who can expect the grace of God to those who hear and act whether or not they suffer physically or economically, emotionally or spiritually.
Jesus teaches that Grace is heaped upon people not ONLY because of the condition of their lives, but also because of the conduct of their lives. So, just like our tripod can not stand with merely Piety and Study, Jesus adds Action – specific tangible actions – to his rules for living.
One writer calls the message embedded in Luke 6 “Jesus bombs” because these messages are new, having never been expressed in the Hebrew Bible. Now, these new concepts – like loving your enemy – explode upon the scene when delivered by Jesus to the crowd. These statements practically grab you by the ears and shake you. But what are we to do about them?
ActionWhat is the condition of our life? What is the conduct of our life?
How do we live as upper- and middle-class Catholics in a rich culture when the vast majority of people (including brother and sister Catholics and Christians along with Muslims, Jews and others) are poor around the globe? How do we handle this? How do we deal with Jesus’ beatitudes in our middle class, materialistic world in which the vast majority of us live?
Perhaps we can not change the condition of our life because we were lucky enough to have been born into the world in the richest nation in history. So maybe our only chance is to be known by the conduct of our lives.
Will people really know that we are Christian by our love?
How will you show them today?
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