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“Rags to Riches – a lesson in heavenly wisdom”
"Blest are you poor. … but woe to you rich.” These powerful words, recorded for us by Luke, offer many avenues for thought. Today’s liturgy places them in the context of Jeremiah 17 and Psalm 1, and thus connects them with the search for happiness. Jeremiah’s powerfully imaged set of alternatives provide a perfect preparation for hearing Luke's version of the Beatitudes. Notice that Luke’s Beatitudes differ from the more familiar eight (nine, really) Beatitudes in Matthew in that the Third Gospel presents them in a set of our blessings paralleled by a contrasting set of four woes.
Poverty is wretched. It means physical suffering, psychological anguish, financial insecurity, cultural disparagement, political powerlessness, and social scorn. Affluence is wonderful! It means physical comfort, financial security, political power, social and cultural acceptability, and at least the possibility of psychological health. Yet Jesus used the word blest when speaking of the poor, and he used the word woe when speaking of the rich. Obviously, he saw some kind of advantage to being poor, and disadvantage to being rich.
When Jesus blesses the poor and curses the rich, is he congratulating the economically deprived and condemning those with ample possessions? Although many argue that Matthew's “poor in spirit” dilutes Luke’s “poor,” there is a growing consensus that by “poor” Jesus means not a social class but those who know their need for God. Of course, it frequently happens that those who feel the pinch of poverty have a lively sense of their need for God, whereas the affluent, with needs well provided for, often become numb to their need for God.
Yahweh and it has four stages of understanding. First, the poor are those people who are without material wealth. Second, because they are materially poor, these people are usually without power and clout. The poor are helpless and without influence. Third, because they are powerless, these people are often oppressed and exploited. The poor are exploited people. Many people take advantage of them. Fourth, because they are helpless and unprotected, these people turn to God. God is the only person that they can turn to. They are the people who put their total trust in God.The Sermon on the Mount is considered as the 'summation of Jesus’ teaching'. If we allow the ways and words of Jesus to have their full force and vitality, we will realize that there is a higher wisdom that confounds all our categories. It is inescapable. If we are to accept Christ, there is something, someone, wholly other than our nature and inclination. The God incarnate in Jesus, the eternal Word made flesh, points to a reality that can never be reduced to human dimension. While Christ is the entry of God into our human nature, and so transforms all nature and earth itself, his very being is a message that there is more than our humanity, more than all the orderings of the cosmos.
If there is no supernatural order, the Sermon on the Mount makes no sense. But neither do our liturgies, our holy acts, and words. When we come together in worship, we do not merely celebrate and honor our frail fellowship and stories. What we do is make present to ourselves the mighty work of God, who is the “mystery, tremendous and fascinating.” We then allow God to transform, fill and mend us. It is here that the poor are ‘blessed.’ They realize that they cannot not depend on the things of the world for happiness. That poverty keeps one open to one’s need for God. That riches turn one’s heart away from God. That happiness is found closer to poverty than to wealth!
Fr Tom Kunnel, C.O