Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc.
23RD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Psalter: Week 3 / (Green)
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 45: 11-12, 14-15, 16-17: Listen to me, daughter; see and lend your ear.
1st Reading: 1 Corinthians 7: 25-31
With regard to those who remain virgins, I have no special commandment from the Lord, but I give some advice, hoping that I am worthy of trust by the mercy of the Lord.
I think this is good in these hard times in which we live. It is good for someone to remain as he is.
If you are married, do not try to divorce your wife; if you are not married, do not marry. He who marries does not sin, nor does the young girl sin who marries. Yet they will face disturbing experiences, and I would like to spare you.
I say this, brothers and sisters: time is running out, and those who are married must live as if not married; those who weep as if not weeping; those who are happy as if they were not happy; those buying something as if they had not bought it, and those enjoying the present life as if they were not enjoying it.
For the order of this world is vanishing.
Gospel: Luke 6: 20-26
Then, looking at his disciples, Jesus said, “Fortunate are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.
Fortunate are you, who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
Fortunate are you, who weep now, for you will laugh.
Fortunate are you, when people hate you, when they reject you and insult you and number you among criminals, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for a great reward is kept for you in heaven.
Remember, that is how the ancestors of the people treated the prophets. But alas for you, who have wealth, for you have been comforted now. Alas for you, who are full, for you will go hungry. Alas for you, who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
Alas for you, when people speak well of you, for that is how the ancestors of the people treated the false prophets.
REFLECTION:
“Fortunate are you…”
In today’s Gospel, we again see Jesus’ interjection of grief – the ouai or the woes.
This time we see this ouai in the context of the Lucan Beatitudes or makarioi (cf. Mt 5:3-11).
Those who are blessed are presented in contrast with those who are accursed.
To be able to understand this Gospel passage better, we must understand that the Beatitudes are proclamation and not exhortation.
This means that the Beatitudes, for example, are not an invitation to remain destitute.
The poor people are blessed because Jesus proclaimed their liberation from dehumanizing poverty.
That is the Good News – that the poor will be liberated from their dehumanized condition.
As already mentioned, the Lucan Beatitudes have corresponding ouai.
Hence, the poor are blessed not because they are poor but because they will be liberated.
Likewise, the wealthy are not accursed because they are rich. We reflect again that the ouai are interjection of grief.
Jesus expressed his grief over the wealthy, the satisfied and the recognized because despite the blessings they received, they failed to become the channels of the same blessings to the poor, the hungry and the hated.
In the end, we ask ourselves – are we a blessing or a curse?
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