Luke 6:17- 20

     This was not an era of mass communication. Yet news still went out. People traveling from village to village, merchants, the excitement couldn’t be contained. There was a man who heal. There was a man whose wisdom could transform lives. People began to seek him out in even greater numbers. And healing wasn’t all he had to offer. The book of Matthew gives an even more prolonged account of a teaching interval. Luke begins with what we know as the beatitudes, beginning with blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Matthew’s recitation of the beatitudes is similar, although he records ‘blessed are the poor in spirit...”
     The followers of Jesus have never quite known what to do with the blessing of poverty.
     Missionaries have sometimes taken it literally. I heard the story from a faithful Christian who came from one mission field. The descendant of one of these Christians told how the ancestors had been convinced of this. But in the modern world, their faith was despised because of their poverty and it apparently interfered with their attempt to witness and make disciples in the name of Jesus Christ. What is a Christian to do with such a situation?
     A modern theology going by the name of ‘liberation’ reacts against poverty. One of its proponents at a theological presentation was fond of saying, as if to the poor, ‘the good news is that you’re going to get your stuff back.’ Sadly, this was a poor proponent of a theology that has sought to bring forward the importance of justice. God does care about more than our spiritual health. Luke tells us that Jesus began his ministry by announcing that he had come to bring good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, release to the captive –using the words of Isaiah to speak of very physical conditions. The ancient prophets consistently called the people to account for their lack of concern for the poor. So what can Jesus mean by saying the poor are blessed…or happy, according to some translations?
     The statement can and has been interpreted in various ways.
      The poor have an earthly status that is low. The poor are despised. The poor are not envied. The poor are at best an object of pity and at worst a group which the rich and powerful wish to exploit or abuse. In his beatitude, Jesus lifts and dignifies the poor. While some theologies have sought to equate poverty with righteousness, it seems extremely unlikely that this is what Jesus intended. The poor can be as obsessed with wealth as the rich can be. All the sins that are available to the wealthy and powerful are also temptations to the poor. In this, life is an equal opportunity provider. The rich may have more options in partaking, but the moral choices remain the same.
     Mother Teresa more than adequately demonstrated how poverty can be experienced as blessed. She made the choice to be poor on behalf of a spiritual life of service. St. Francis of Assisi is another. Few Christians have tried the path as thoroughly as these Christians have. Many have tried to find happiness and fulfillment through wealth, only to discover less than the joy of the man who could proclaim brother sun and sister moon.
      The same man who proclaimed that the poor are blessed did not call upon every person he met to give up everything they owned. He told stories that demonstrated the importance of being good stewards of our resources. So Christians may always struggle with what Jesus meant when he said blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The message of justice remains important. The temptations of the material world offer false hopes for fulfillment. How we handle our material resources is a spiritual matter.

In what way can the words of Jesus influence our daily choices?
What would be the voices of today’s world in favor of promoting the opposite of what Jesus proposed?
Where can people of good conscience seek to be makers of justice for the poor and the powerless?