Today’s readings offer us an abundance of blessings. In the First Reading, we are given the assurance that when we trust in the Lord, we are truly blessed: “like a tree planted beside the waters,” we will be nurtured and sustained. The Responsorial Psalm echoes this and explains that when one meditates on the law of the Lord, he too, is blessed. This emphasizes that union with God, keeps us rooted in Him. The Gospel even goes so far as to proclaim the blessedness of the poor, hungry, and despised.
The word blessed, especially as related to the Beatitudes, means supreme happiness. In Hebrew, one of the translations even means “the good life.” Being blessed as one meditates on Scripture and trusts in the Lord, seems quite reasonable. Surely, if we stick close to our Heavenly Father, we will be filled with His love and happiness.
Blessed in the Lacking
How is it possible, though, to be blessed in our lacking? Blessed are you who are: poor, hungry, weeping, hated, excluded, insulted, and denounced. To be poor and hungry is to lack financial resources and food in the very basic needs of physical existence. To be hated, excluded, and insulted is to lack esteem, respect, and love, the basics of our emotional needs. This does not sound like a blessing, but rather a curse. Yet, that is not what Christ says in today’s Gospel.
Lacking is what reorients us to the truth that God is the Giver, and we are the receivers. It is the very place in our hearts that reminds us of our dependence on Him. When we believe that we lack nothing, we are more likely to forget this authentic dependence and fall into self-reliance.
Woes
When we think we are the ones in control and seek what we desire, we avail ourselves to the “woes” mentioned in the Gospel.
Woe to you who are rich, who are filled now, who laugh now…
There is no shame in being rich or having enough material goods, but there is shame in thinking that these things are the source of happiness or that you have earned them. Anything we have is a pure and free gift; therefore, the “having” – whether it be esteem and love, or food and material resources – should be sources of constant gratitude to God, our extravagant Father.
The source of true blessedness is always and forever our dependence on this loving Father. It is His unfailing love, which allows us to “Rejoice and leap for joy” on the days of lacking, because we know that in every circumstance, we are with Him who never fails us. We are assured that we are always in His Divine Will, and we have no reason to fall into despair or despondency.
Let us live rooted near the streams of Living Water, so we can go forth confidently, assured of the constant gaze of our Father. Blessedness abounds for His beloved children!
[Readings: Jeremiah 17:5-8; 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20; Luke 6:17, 20-26
