Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 78 

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.

Stephen Hawking, the great theoretical physicist, once observed that the universe expands in every direction from every point in the universe. There is no center; or, more accurately, every point is the center. I think of that mind-numbing conundrum when I read the Bible. It seems that we can enter the Word of God with any verse and find its resonance throughout all the writings.

"Blessed are you who are poor" is a case in point. Hearing these words I think of Saint Paul's hymn in Philippians 2 and the kenosis of Jesus. I think of Saint Francis's exclamation, "Look at the humility of God!" And then I remember Jesus's birth in the little village of Bethlehem, and his lying in a manger, and the obscurity of his impoverished family. I remember Saint Paul's innumerable humiliations and his arrival in Rome as a prisoner in chains. Everything points to "Blessed are the poor." Nor does the Old Testament fail to reinforce that theme as we remember the favor shown to the lesser brothers, Abel, Jacob, and David -- who was the least of his brothers. Lesser women are also chosen: Hannah the mother of Samuel; and Ruth, David's grandmother. 

Nothing points to the divine glory and wonder and beauty of the Gospels like the humility of God. In a letter to religious, Pope Saint John Paul II reminded consecrated men and women that the proper setting for the Evangelical Life must be our poverty. If the Blessed Sacrament is displayed in a huge gold and silver monstrance, flashing with diamonds, emeralds, and rubies, the faithful might not see its beauty for all the razzle-dazzle around it. But when we find the Eucharist presented to the poor in a simple brass display, we can "look at the humility of God."

In today's gospel, turning our attention to the Child of Bethlehem who died on a cross and was buried in a borrowed tomb, he directs our attention to the poor, the hungry, the sorrowing, and those denounced "on account of the Son of Man." He reminds us that his favored ones are the least among us, the servants of all. 

After thousands of years of human occupation, we find that our earth is suffering and exhausted by our competitions for dominance, wealth, and power. Insanely, humans live in fear of starvation as they compete for ample resources in a world of plenty. The wealthy continue to amass more wealth in good times and in bad, and more so in the worst of times. That everyone knows of this injustice makes no difference whatsoever. That everyone sees where it must end persuades no one to "Stop this train!" 

We're helpless because this insight comes to us as a fact but without the power of a revelation. And so we cannot change what is happening. It has no spirit. 

"Blessed are you when people hate you..." is inspired. It comes to us with the power and authority of God to drive us inwardly and outwardly. Inwardly, we examine our own fear of being hated, and realize how pointless that is. Those who fear God fear no one less than God. 

Outwardly, empowered by boldness, we ask what should we do. Overwhelmed by a world of troubles we cannot imagine where to begin. We're not even sure we should make a difference in a doomed world. But the Lord sees far beyond our limited horizons and knows where we're going. 

Despite our impoverished helplessness, the Spirit of God directs us to worthwhile activities whose good fruits might not appear till we're long dead and forgotten. If we plant the seeds we don't need to see the harvest. The efforts are ours; the results are God's. 

Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. We need only that word of encouragement.