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Gospel Commentary – September 10, 2025
There are many ways of presenting Jesus. There is a very popular holy card that depicts Him in glory, with a very gentle face and rays of light streaming from His hands—an image that makes us think of Divine Mercy. And indeed, that is one image of Jesus. But it is not the only one. When we read the Gospel, we find texts like today’s that can hardly be given a “sweetened” interpretation. In this passage, Jesus presents Himself as radical. There are no half-measures. What He says is what He says, and no matter how harsh it may sound to our ears—or how much we may simply not want to hear it—it is His word.
It is a simple, brief text: four beatitudes and four woes (some prefer to call them “ill-fortunes,” playing with the words a bit to soften the second part of the text). But the text leaves no doubt about whose side God is on.
God is on the side of the poor (do we really need to interpret what “poor” means? It is obvious: those who are getting the worst share in our society). God is on the side of the hungry (and there is still hunger in our world—real hunger, hunger for bread, hunger from not having anything to eat day after day). God is on the side of those who weep (for whatever reason, since the text does not specify). God is on the side of those who are hated because, committed to the Son of Man, they strive to make God’s Kingdom present in our world—a Kingdom of justice and fraternity.
And God pronounces woe on the rich who are unwilling to share, on those whose tables and stomachs are always full, on those who laugh without coming near or even looking at those who weep, on those who are applauded by everyone because they ignore the cry of those who suffer and say only what the powerful want to hear.