Dear Friends,

Today the Lord speaks of the beatitudes in the gospel. He says, “Blessed are you, who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God”, (Lk.6.20) who are the poor? They are those who place their trust in the Lord, not in riches.

The beatitudes reveal an order of happiness and grace, of beauty and peace. Jesus celebrates the joy of the poor, to whom the kingdom already belong.

The Lord also says, “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received consolation” (Lk.6.24). The Lord grieves over the rich, because they find their consolation in the abundance of goods. Let the proud seek and love earthly kingdoms but blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Abandonment to the providence of the Father in heaven frees us from anxiety about tomorrow. Trust in God is a preparation for the blessedness of the poor. They see God.
You will notice that Jesus does not address the poor as some modern social reformers do. Some modern reformers tell the poor to hate the rich, to use violence, to start a revolution.

The world has its own idea of blessedness. The world says: Blessed is the man who is always healthy. Blessed is the man who rules, or who wield authority. Blessed is the man who is rich. Blessed is the man who enjoys life. Blessed is the man who is popular.

Jesus says: Blessed are the poor. Blessed are those who though in the world, yet are not of the world. Blessed are those who are not attached to this world. The world says: get all you can and keep all you get.

All kinds of wrong become possible to the man who makes his own pleasure. The stars shine as brightly during the daylight as they do at night. But during the day, they are not visible because of sunshine. If one is content with the sunshine of pleasures of this world, he loses the vision of the stars, the vision of eternal blessedness. The words of the Book of Revelation can be applied to him: “for you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing; you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.” (Rev.3.17).

I would conclude this message with an example. In the U.S a protestant girl became a catholic and joined a convent against the wishes of her father. Her father wrote to her:”I shall leave to you twelve and half million dollars provided you leave the convent.” She wrote back saying “my heavenly Father is richer than my earthly father.” and she remained in the convent and became a religious.

On Wednesday we start the Holy season of Lent. Let us not focus our attention on earthly, material things but on Jesus who became poor in order to make us rich.

Fr. Chris