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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
Jesus 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. But 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.”
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Reflection:
There’s a story of a man in his late thirties
who had a successful life in this world. Name it and he had it: women, riches,
power and the like. It may seem that he was enjoying what he was going through
but he was empty deep inside. So, he resigned from his high paying job and he
subsequently joined a catholic organization that serves the poor.
His life there was simple but he found real
happiness and fulfillment. Many of his friends hated and insulted him for what
he did. However, he did not mind them because he found Jesus in that
organization and subsequently built a deep friendship with the Lord.
What is the main requirement to get closer to
Jesus? It’s to suffer for the sake of the advancement of His kingdom in this
world. Without suffering for Christ there would be no close friendship with him.
Many of us are so afraid to suffer for
Christ sake because this will disturb us. If we have this mentality, we
therefore are only thinking of ourselves and not thinking of the welfare of
others. We only are concerned of what we can get from this present world
(wealth, power and the like). And forget about what is there for us after this
world.
We may be stripped of our riches in the
process of our desire to get closer to Jesus. Many will hate us even distance
themselves from us. But what the heck! We have to understand that we don’t live
in this world to be in this world. We live in this world now so that we can go
to heaven and be with the Lord someday.
Our motivation in existing in this world
should always be heaven to be with Jesus. Otherwise if our motivation is
centered in this world alone, we would never have peace. We may have all the
things in this world but we still will have no peace for there’s an absence of
Christ in our life.
In this Sunday’s gospel Jesus tells us: 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 (Luke 6:22).
Therefore, let us not be afraid of the
challenges. That we might face for the sake of advancing the kingdom of God in
this world. For this is the reason of our existence. God made us to exist in
this world so that we could bring others closer to Jesus.
Have you already suffered for Christ and have
you already brought somebody closer to him? If your answer is yes, you are truly
blessed! – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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