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Gospel: Luke 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.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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A businessman once approached Mark Twain and said: 

“Before I die, I intend to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I want to climb to the top of Mount Sinai and read the Ten Commandments aloud.” 

To which Twain responded, “I have a better idea. Why don’t you stay right at home in Boston and keep them?”

Actions speak louder than words.

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In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives an updated version of the Ten Commandments, often called the Beatitudes. Each Beatitude begins with three words: “Blessed are you.”

While these teachings are found in both Matthew and Luke’s Gospel, there are two key differences.

First, Matthew describes Jesus as preaching this sermon high up on a mountain, while Luke describes Jesus as being down on a plain.

Secondly, Matthew recounts the Lord as always speaking in the affirmative – “Blessed are you” – while Luke balances blessing with woe, “Woe to you.”

Why would Luke write a different account from Matthew? What is his account saying to us?

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Matthew’s version of the Beatitudes is often called The Sermon on the Mount because he describes Jesus climbing a mountain, then delivering his sermon from on high, giving the impression that the Lord is preaching from somewhere between heaven and earth.

But if we are looking up at Christ, then he is looking down on us, making the Beatitudes seem like lofty ideals, heavenly teachings, which we can only aspire to live out.

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Luke’s account, however, is called The Sermon on the Plain, because he describes Jesus as coming down from the mountain. Then, “standing on a level stretch of ground,” Jesus begins to teach.

“Blessed are you who are poor… who are hungry… who are weeping… who are hated, excluded, and insulted on my account,” he says.

If we imagine the Lord saying these things to us at eye-level, or even beneath us if he is seated, then the impact is dramatically different. Here the Beatitudes are not lofty ideals delivered on a mountaintop; rather, they serve as our very foundation.

Luke leads us to consider several things:

Where do we see Jesus standing, high on a mountaintop or down on a plain? Is religion something that we only aspire to live out, or is it the very foundation of our lives?

Where we do we see ourselves standing, high up, above the poor and suffering, or down on the plain, shoulder to shoulder with the rest of humanity?

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Luke’s Beatitudes are undoubtedly about today. They’re about this community coming together, addressing the needs of the sick, the sorrowful, the poor and marginalized among us – not only materially, but also spiritually.

Thus, they also lead us to consider, what are we doing to seek and save the lost? How are we bringing the Gospel to those who are weary, or have yet to hear it?

These are some of the guiding questions our pastoral council is considering while working on the draft of our next strategic plan, which will affect all of us and will require raising up new leaders.

Maybe the Lord is calling you.

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Unlike Matthew, Luke balances his four Beatitudes with four woes. 

Blessed are the poor, but woe to the rich. Blessed are the hungry, but woe to those who are filled. Blessed are the weeping, but woe to those who are laughing. Blessed are those who are hated, but woe to those who are praised.

Jesus is not saying that we must be poor or hungry in order to be blessed. However, we must live in solidarity with those who suffer, bringing them comfort by what we do.

As Saint Teresa of Avila once wrote, “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet, but yours. Yours are the eyes with which he sees, the hands with which he blesses. Christ has no body now but yours.”

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“Before I die, I intend to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land,” a man once said to Mark Twain. “There, I want to climb to the top of Mount Sinai and read the Ten Commandments aloud.” 

To which Twain responded, “I have a better idea. Why don’t you stay right at home in Boston and keep them?”

Shouldn’t we stay here and do the same?

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Image credits: (1) Local Vineyard Church (2) Church of the Incarnation, Richmond, VA (3) 365Give

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Genesis: 3: 1-8

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals
that the LORD God had made.
The serpent asked the woman,
“Did God really tell you not to eat
from any of the trees in the garden?”
The woman answered the serpent:
“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;
it is only about the fruit of the tree
in the middle of the garden that God said,
‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.’”
But the serpent said to the woman:
“You certainly will not die!
No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it
your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods
who know what is good and what is evil.”
The woman saw that the tree was good for food,
pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom.
So she took some of its fruit and ate it;
and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her,
and he ate it.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened,
and they realized that they were naked;
so they sewed fig leaves together
and made loincloths for themselves.

When they heard the sound of the LORD God moving about in the garden
at the breezy time of the day,
the man and his wife hid themselves from the LORD God
among the trees of the garden.

The Word of the Lord.

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The opening chapters of the Book of Genesis provide the foundation for a Judeo-Christian understanding of the world. Here we are introduced to themes like: creation, humanity, good, evil, suffering, and death. All of which remain, to some extent, mysteries. 

However, there are many parallels between Genesis and the Gospels, helping us to understand the deeper dimensions of Christ’s public ministry.

Consider two examples today.

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First, God creates Adam, then he gives Adam one commandment: “You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden, except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; when you eat from it you shall die” (Gen. 2:17).

This gives the impression that God already knows Adam will disobey him. Yet, in the very next verse, God decides to create Eve. The universe continues to unfold.

Adam and Eve live peacefully in the garden until Satan, the ancient serpent, slithers around the tree of knowledge, convincing Eve to eat from it, as we hear in our first reading today.

This act of disobedience breaks humanity’s relationship with God.

Jesus reverses this curse thousands of years later in John’s Gospel by telling the crowds: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him on the last day” (John 6:54). 

Thus, communion with God was lost – and is now restored – by eating. 

Adam and Eve ate disobediently from the tree of knowledge, while Catholics now obediently consume Christ’s flesh and blood in the Eucharist.

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Secondly, Jesus’ public ministry stands in stark contrast to the evil actions of Satan. 

Whereas Satan ruptured humanity’s ability to see God and to hear his voice in Eden, Christ restores the faculties of a man – and by extension all of us – in today’s Gospel, allowing us to see Jesus as Lord, and to listen to his voice.

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While themes like creation, suffering, and redemption are ultimately mysteries, as we study the scriptures, we begin to make sense of them. As it’s written: “Wisdom will enter your heart, knowledge will be at home in your soul” (Proverbs 2:10).

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Image credits: (1) Security Sales and Integration (2) Micha Redding (3) Hillspring Church

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Gospel: Mark 7:24-30

Jesus went to the district of Tyre.
He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it,
but he could not escape notice.
Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him.
She came and fell at his feet.
The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth,
and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
He said to her, “Let the children be fed first.
For it is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
She replied and said to him,
“Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”
Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go.
The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed
and the demon gone.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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This is one of only two miracles in the Gospels that Jesus performs at a distance. In both cases, the person being healed is not physically present.

Today it’s a desperate mother who falls at the feet of Jesus, telling him that her daughter is being tormented by a demon. 

In the ancient world, a “demon” could’ve been many things – something as mild as a temper, more serious like mental illness, or actual demonic possession.

We don’t know what the case was, only that this little girl needed help. 

The second miracle Jesus performs at a distance is the healing of another child, Jairus’ twelve-year-old daughter. Interestingly, both children are Gentiles, not Jews.

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Why would Jesus heal a Gentile? And why from a distance?

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To emphasize two things:

First, Jesus came to save all people.

Second, healing a person from a distance re-enforces the intercessor’s faith – in both cases, it was the faith of the parent that saved their child.  

This Gentile mother has no proof that her daughter has been healed other than Jesus’ words, “You may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.”

Yet that was enough, which is why the Lord says elsewhere, “Not in all of Israel have I found such faith.”

Only from a Gentile.

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So, what does this mean for us?

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Just as the Lord healed children at a distance, all we need to experience his power from on high is a strong intercessor, or better, a heart filled with faith.

As it’s written in the Letter of Saint James, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful indeed.”

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Image credits: (1) iStock (2) A Parent’s Faith, Joy Margetts (3) Studio Now