Commentary on the Gospel of

Anne McCarthy rscj

Having cured the sick, freed those in bondage and despair, Jesus addresses the crowd, in particular the twelve Apostles he has just chosen, and his many disciples.

 

Jesus delivers what we know as the Sermon on the Mount though in fact it is the sermon on the level. Luke gives us a shortened version of the beatitudes; each ‘blessed are you” is balanced with a ‘woe’.  Jesus is not just proclaiming it as a way of life. Jesus was the model of this way. He lived knowing that he was blessed by God and in doing so he experienced the poverty, the hunger, the sorrow (Jesus wept at the death of his friend Lazarus) and of being reviled and rejected. 

He anticipates that those who are seriously committed to following him will experience the same, but he also promises that there will be rewards; the rewards of knowing the Kingdom of God, of being filled and satisfied, of laughing and being able to dance for joy!

What an invitation!   Paul expresses it another way in to-day’s first reading: …”Because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God.  But when Christ is revealed… and he is your life, you too will be revealed in all your glory with him.”

Comments

write comment
Please enter the letters as they are shown in the image above.