Blessings and Woes

Luke 6:17, 20-26; February 16, 2025; 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

So how do you feel about today’s gospel? Do the words of Jesus comfort you or distress you? It depends, of course. It depends where we situate ourselves because in the gospel Jesus clearly delineates two groups. The first group are those who are blessed by God. The second group are those who are not in God’s favor. The first group consists of the poor, the hungry, those who are mourning, those who are excluded. The second group consists of the rich, the well fed, the happy, the popular. Where do we situate ourselves? It can be difficult because at times we can be in both categories. We can be well fed and still mourning the loss of a loved one. We can be happy and still excluded by some person or some group.

So what is Jesus up to? How are we to understand his words? There are two things to consider. First, the main point of this gospel is that God takes the side of the downtrodden. God extends special care (this is what the word “blessed” conveys) to those who are poor, hungry, mourning, and excluded. We know this to be true from our own experience. I bet that most of us here have had a time when we were downtrodden, when we were mourning or excluded. It is often in those moments that our faith takes on new meaning. It gives us consolation and the strength to go on because we understand in a deeper way that God is present to us. So, the first point is that God stands with the downtrodden.

The second point flows from it. If God is on the side of the downtrodden, we must be there also. You see, the problem with the people in the second group is not that they have good things. To be rich, well fed, happy, and popular are wonderful things that every person should enjoy. The problem with the people in the second group is that having those good things, they do not give any consideration to those who do not have them. But God is with those who have not. God stands with those who lack the basic good things of life. And since God is concerned about them, then Jesus tells us that we should be concerned as well.

So it is a wonderful thing if we are happy. But if in that happiness we show no mind to a family member or neighbor who is mourning the death of their spouse, woe to us!

It is wonderful if we are popular and people hold us in high regard. But if in our popularity we never give thought to another student at school who others are ridiculing or to the members of our society who are disenfranchised because of race, education, or sexual orientation, then woe to us!

We should celebrate the fact that we are well fed. I doubt anyone in this church is wondering if they will eat tomorrow. But if in that blessing we never give thought to the millions of people in our city and in our country and in our world who go to bed hungry every night, then we are not standing where God stands.

We can show such concern in an individual way, by the way we spend our time, by the way we contribute to such effective organizations as Catholic Charities this weekend. But we should also not be afraid to use our citizenship in this country to influence our government leaders. We should use what influence we have to direct some of the immense wealth of this country to those who are vulnerable here and throughout the world.

We should try to influence our government, not because we are Democrats or Republicans but because we are Christians. We understand that God stands with the vulnerable. And if we want to be with God, we need to be with them.