Blesses are the poor, and cursed are the rich (gospel), that means: blessed are those who trust in God (only) and not in man (first reading). In the independent theme of the second reading St. Paul goes on talking about the resurrection of Christ: If we do not rise from the dead Christ has not risen. But without Christ's resurrection our faith is in vain.
The first Part (Jer 2:l-25: 13b) of the Book of Jeremiah contains prophecies against Judah and Jerusalem from the time of 626 (time of the king Josiah) till 587 (fall of Jerusalem). In Jer 7-2C we have four discourses from the time of Jehoiakim (7-10; 11- 13; 14-17; 18-20). However, the discourses were not delivered the way we find them now in the book, but are composed that way later. It will be impossible to say in what context each part was delivered.
Today's first reading belongs to the third discourse (Jer 14-17). It's a sapiential saying as we find them in the wisdom Books and proves that the prophets were influenced by wisdom teaching as vice-versa the prophets put their stamp on wisdom literature. The idea of a just man being like a green tree because his strength is in God we find in Ps 52:10; Prov 3:18; 11:13; Sir 24:13 ff. Equally do wisdom books contrast the trust in God and the trust in man (Ps 39:5; 117:8-9; 145:3ff). Even the Egyptian Sage Amen-em-opet has the same idea (Instructions of Amen-em-opet 6:1-12; cf. James Pritchard. The Ancient Near East, p. 422). But the closest parallel we find in Ps 1. Many think that this psalm is dependent upon Jeremiah, for the trust in the law is characteristic of later Judaism.
Reading this pericope with the gospel in mind we see: A rich man (easily) trusts in his wealth and not in God; he is like a tree in the wilderness, which cannot survive because of lack of water. A poor man, however, relies on God and is like a tree planted by water. It survives all the heat and drought.
1 Cor 15 is one of the richest mines on the doctrines
of the resurrection, as we saw last Sunday. After Paul has shown the reality of
Christ's resurrection (15:1-11) he goes on giving the reasons for our own
resurrection (15:12-34): (1) We are one with Christ by our regeneration, by our
solidarity with Him. He the head has risen, so we the members will rise in due
time. Initially we have already risen in baptism. From this follows: (a) If
Christ has not risen, he is not God, for he referred to his resurrection as
proof of his veracity. (b) All preaching of the apostles is a lie only, if
Christ did not rise, for the preaching is based on Christ's resurrection; the
essence of the gospel is preaching Christ (crucified) and risen. (c) All
faithful are misled, they remain in their sin, baptism is in vain, if Christ
did not rise. (d) The Dead are hopelessly lost. Then Paul goes on: (2) Those
who are baptized for the dead show their belief in the resurrection (15:29).
(3) A
life, full of sacrifices, such as the apostles lead, would otherwise be folly
(15:30-34). The last two paragraphs are not in today's second reading.
As one sees, this is a timely topic for a homily.
Reading of the Good News: Luke 6:17.20-26
Today's beatitudes we saw in the version of Matthew (4th Sunday of the year A). They mark the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount (Mt, or Sermon on the Plain: Lk). This is more a theological than a geographic description: For Matthew the great sermons and covenants take place on a mountain; a plain expresses the universality of Christ’s teaching in Luke.
Neither of the two versions brings the very words of Christ. Each evangelist selected and composed according to his outlook on Christ and the need of his hearers (readers). Matthew lets Jesus be confronted with the question what he thinks about the Mosaic Law and thus accepts it but perfects it. Thus his theme of the Sermon on the Mount is: "Be you perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect (just)” (Mt 5:48), and the sermon develops this new perfection (justice). Luke, writing for non-Jews who have no interest in the Mosaic Law omits all the material dealing with the Law and thus comes up with the theme: "Be merciful as your Father in merciful" (Lk 6:36).
Matthew has eight (Mt 5:11-12, although introduced with “blessed” is not a ninth beatitude, but only an extension of the eight in 5:10), Luke four beatitudes. Luke has probably the more original form than Matthew. The four beatitudes, common to Matthew and Luke are revolutionary, whereas the four remaining which only Matthew has (gentle, merciful, single-hearted, peacemakers) are more “ordinary”, idealizing "small virtues" in life, which everybody, even a non-Christian would admit as desirable.
The four woes are probably added by Luke. Since beatitudes (makarisms) are usually in the third person, Matthew comes closer to the original form than Luke. The sequence of the second and third beatitude in Luke (hungry, weeping; in Mt: weeping, hungry) is probably caused by the fact that hunger is the result of poverty. Thus the sequence is changed by Luke, not by Matthew.
The fourth beatitude is different from the other three and was probably not spoken by Christ in connection with the Sermon on the Mount but only later when one clearly could see that Christ was going to be rejected and thus also any follower of Christ. The poor, hungry, weeping is the same group of peace.
HOMILY
BLESSED ARE THE POOR - DANGER OF RICHES
1. Would anybody dare go to Tondo in Manila and tell the many squatters there: "Blessed are you poor!?” For that matter: did any founder of any religion or any politician ever say something like this! And so some think, Christ never said it either and never could say it. Of course, we seldom have the very words of Christ in the gospels, but the formulation of the different evangelists in most cases. And if we compare the version of the first beatitude in Matthew ("blessed are the poor in spirit") and in Luke (“blessed are you poor”) then Jesus probably said: "Blessed are the poor, theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew in his time when the Christians were not that poor anymore realized that our moral attitude toward wealth and possessions is important. Important is that we use them the right way, being detached from them spiritually. But Luke stresses actual poverty as we can see also in his second work, the Acts, where the Christians sold everything and had everything in common (Acts 2:45; 4:32).
2. We can say that the beatitudes as the Sermon on the Mount are addressed directly to Christ's disciples, although in the hearing of the crowds (Lk 6:20-17), the beatitudes are meant for those who follow Christ not for the world in general. They are not a general law, but are demands upon those who have already been enabled by grace to fulfill them. The disciples, called upon to follow Christ are in Pauline terminology "in Christ" and thus can live such a kind of life. The beatitudes place in front of the disciples the life and ideal Christ lived himself.
3. Christ does not curse riches as such, nor bless poverty as such. The actually poor are blessed because God’s favor is with the poor as we see it in Scripture (Ps 86:1-2; 147:63). With Christ things have changed. In his person we are blessed, in his person the kingdom has come. And thus blessed is everybody who accepts Christ whole-heartedly, even if that would mean persecution for his name’s sake, or if it would imply material poverty. The stress is on God’s and Christ’s grace, not on our activity. That poverty can make a person more open to God comes only secondly, but it comes.
4. Luke has certain scepticism and almost fear against riches. Riches are dangerous for a man. After all, riches are often acquired by oppression of the poor. So Luke can call riches “mammon of iniquity” (Lk 16:9). This idea is still clearer expressed in other books of the Bible: Isaiah shows that people became rich by joining house to house, taking it from others: "Woe to you who join house to house, who connect field with field till no room remains, and you are left to dwell alone in the midst of the land (Is 5:8)! And Amos, the prophet of social justice tells the rich: "Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! You ask…We will buy the lowly man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals" (Amos 8:4.6). —James is still more outspoken: "As for you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries…Here are the wages you withhold from the farmhands who harvested your fields. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You lived in want on luxury on the earth; you fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter. You condemned, even killed, the just man; he does not resist you" (James 5:1.4-6).
5. Riches hinder us to place ourselves into other people's shoes. After all, that's what God wants us to do more than anything else, to feel with other people. Even cult, sacrifices to God mean little or nothing, if we do not share with and love our neighbor. This is especially the message of the prophet Amos. "Hear this word, women of the mountain of Samaria, you cows of Bashan, you who oppress the weak and abuse the needy, who say to your lords "Bring drink for us! "The Lord has sworn by his holiness: Truly the days are coming upon you when they shall drag you away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks…Come to Bethel and sin, to Gilgal, and sin the more; each morning bring your sacrifices…I hate, I spurn your feasts, I take no pleasure in your solemnities. Your cereal offerings I will not accept…Rather let justice surge like water, and goodness like an unfailing stream (Amos 4:1-2.4; 5:21.24). The rich women of Israel do not feel with the poor. Their main intention should be justice, concern for the poor. But they do not care. Their sacrifices to God are only external show, which God refuses since the concern for the poor is missing.
6. Rich people do not see their (poor) neighbors. The parable of the rich man and the poor Lazarus, proper to Luke (Lk 16:19-31) illustrates this point. The poor Lazarus was lying in front of the rich man’s door (Lk 16:20). A door one uses many times a day for going in and out. But the rich man was just too busy to see poor Lazarus. The rich man had only the many banquets and drinking-bouts in mind, which he had to prepare for his friends. There was no time left to look around. Poor Lazarus was like a part of the furniture or part of the building, which one can see hundreds of times without really noticing them. He was an object, not a person. We do not even have to assume that the rich man was a miser who begrudged Lazarus something to eat. After all, there was so much that fell from the table (Lk 16:21). But nobody gave it to Lazarus (Lk 16:21), least of all the rich man.
Not wanting to see a person in need we pass him by. This is again illustrated by Luke. Priest and Levite saw the man fallen among the robbers who was half-dead (Lk 10:30). But they "passed by on the opposite side" (in Greek: antiparelthen). This expression is very significant. They saw the man in need (from a distance) but acted as if they would not see him, went on the opposite side so they could pass him by at a distance. They must have been preoccupied with their duties they had to perform in Jericho and did not want to lose time, nor to be levitcally defiled. It was not exactly material riches that made them not see the person in need, but riches in a large sense.
Being busy with all kinds of work, duties and preoccupations and thus riches in the larger sense makes us often not see our neighbor, especially if that neighbor looks so dirty and rundown, like a bum. And yet, these people are Christ himself. At the last judgment we will be judged in the measure we saw or did not see Christ in these our neighbors as Mt 25:31-46 illustrates. Those on the right side are surprised that they shall go to heaven (Mt 25:37). But they are told that it is because they saw Christ in the hungry, the thirsty, the strangers, the naked, the sick, the prisoners (Mt 25:40). And those on the left side who will be rejected to hell are equally surprised about the judgment because they would have gladly done something for Christ, if they only would have seen him on earth, but unfortunately Christ was not on earth, so they think and say. But they are reminded that just precisely this was their fault that they did not see Christ in the many dirty faces of their neighbors.
7. Rich people easily become insensitive to God and thus their own future goal, their real destiny in life. This is one of the meanings of above parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man asks Abraham to send somebody from heaven to his father's house where he has five brothers. "Let him be a warning to them so that they may not end in this place of torment" (Lk 16:28). Obviously the rich man was taken by surprise by his death. And he wants to be that this shall not happen to his five brothers. "Let him be a warning to them so that they may not end in this place of torment" (Lk 16:28). He was so preoccupied with his looking for riches to increase them that there was not time and thought left to think about God and eternal life. He had no time to prepare himself for the life hereafter. Only now after death he finds time to think about God and his own meaning of life. But now it is too late, fool that he was. So the last suggestion Abraham rejects with the remark that somebody coming from the dead would not convert a man steeped in worldly pleasures either. For a man of good will it is enough to listen to the word of God in Holy Scripture, which is always at our disposal.
A similar idea we find in the same gospel of Luke, in a pericope proper to Luke (Lk 12:13-21). In a parable a man is completely absorbed in his possessions and in his planning to improve and increase his possessions that there is no time left to think about the fundamental questions why we are here on earth. His harvest is so rich that he has to build new barns. Thus he tears down the old ones in order to build new ones. But it does not come so far. That very night God lets him die. And so the rich man has no barns, but even worse: He stands empty-handed before God because he never thought of God in his life, of his eternal destiny, being so preoccupied with his possessions.
8. Somebody may say: That picture of Luke on riches is quite one-sided. It certainly is. After all, Matthew, who is equally inspired and thus true as Luke, says: "Blessed are the poor in spirit." It all depends on our attitude toward riches. We must and thus can be detached from all inordinate attachment to riches. We must use riches as if we would not have them. But how easy this is, is another question. After all not only Luke (Lk 18:18-30) of whom we would expect that word as the radical evangelist, but also Mark (Mk 10:17-31) and Matthew (Mt 1.9:16-30) bring the pericope of the ideal young man who has observed all commandments since he was young and wants to do more (in order to have eternal life), but he is not able to leave all his possessions and follow Christ so that Christ can only say: "How hard is it for a rich man to enter heaven. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven" (Mt 19:24; Mk 10:25; Lk 18:25).