The message of hope. “Blessed are the poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours!” This is today’s good news (Lk 6:17, 20-26). But many find this statement perplexing and contradictory. How can the poor be fortunate? How can the hungry be happy? How can those who are weeping be joyful? How can the hated, insulted, and persecuted rejoice?
How can we who are mired into different forms of misery known to this broken world truly find meaning? How can we be called blessed?
The contradiction ceases ONLY when we who are suffering acknowledge the power of the love of God. The loving God never leaves his suffering people orphan.
This is what Jesus announces in the gospel reading. He announces the message of hope to those whose lives have become seemingly hopeless because of injustices, persecution, exploitation and sheer powerlessness. He is saying, “Hold on. God is here. God reigns. God triumphs over sin and evil. The Kingdom of God is yours! Hence, your suffering will be reversed. Remember this. Do not despair!”
When we are right there in the heart of suffering, we, short-sighted and faithless as we are, tend to despair. We tend to loose grip of the beauty of life. And if the world such as what we have continues to build structures of suffering so much so that it makes sure that more and more people stumble and fall, how can we ever conceive of true happiness as a people?
We need to realize that we cannot stand alone. We cannot depend only on our human strength. In the darkest hour of the night, we have to believe that daylight awaits us. It may be fearful while we are there. But we need to hold on. May bukas pa. We have to cling to our faith in God who never abandons us even in his seeming absence. He is our strength. He is our hope. And God never fails those who hope in him!
The message of warning. I’m tempted to end this reflection here with this pleasant note. But the latter part of the Gospel reading, while not very pleasant, is equally significant. Jesus addresses too those who cause the suffering of people while they themselves enjoy the bounty of life, oftentimes at the expense of those who are suffering.
In Jesus’ time, the rich, the powerful, and the holy were so conceited to think that God was on their side which explained their bounty. Their self-righteousness systematically marginalized the poor from society and even exploited them. They looked down on the poor as sinners and deserving to suffer!
So, as the prophets before him has done, Jesus pronounces in the gospel today his denunciation of this kind of attitude. “Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep…” (v 25).
This is a precaution, a warning to those who maintain an I-don’t-care attitude to the suffering of God’s people and more so for those who are the cause of the pain and unhappiness of God’s children. The warning consists in the reversal of situation: Should the rich and powerful continue their insensitivity and abuses, they will end up in misery.
Jesus' message, hence, assures the poor of God’s love and bounty. They have all the reason to be hopeful. To them Jesus is saying, “may bukas pa.” But to the conceited and exploitative rich, he is expressing his stern warning that, should they not repent, “may araw ka rin!”
Lord, heal our land
Father, heal our land
Hear our cry and turn our nation back to You
Lord, heal our land
Hear us oh, Lord, and heal our land
Forgive our sin and heal our broken land
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