Today’s gospel according to Luke is a part of the Sermon on a level place. In the gospel of Mathew it is the sermon on the mount. Whether Jesus said the beatitudes on the mountain or on a level place does not play any role. The content is similar and important.
It is written there that Jesus spoke to them as many people came to him. That means, Jesus spoke to the people in order to console them, to encourage them, to help them and to give hope to them. Poverty, hunger, sorrow, persecution etc. were the themes of beatitudes. The audience were suffering from any of these evils. The ordinary people of the time and the country were discriminated and oppressed. Those people who were around Jesus were important for Jesus although the teachings of Jesus were applicable to the people of every group and every age. Today we think in a special way about the marginalised fellow humans beings as we try to realise the message of Jesus.
I think that in order to understand Jesus and his message, we either have to empathize with the situation of the people who no longer saw any hope in life, who did not have the minimum to survive, who were persecuted and oppressed, or we ourselves must have had experienced hopelessness, poverty, hunger or persecution at least for a few hours. Hardly anyone among us has probably experienced persecution, oppression or poverty like the ordinary people in Jesus’ time had to experience.
We can summarize the various themes of Jesus’ sermon on a level place in the term poverty and the fight against poverty. The term poverty has different nuances and meanings, as we use the term poverty to describe deficiencies. I think, we can overcome deficiency and hardship in all areas of human life with the terms being poor or being rich.
With the Beatitudes, Jesus encourages the poor, the sad and the persecuted people in order that they could live richly, happily, contentedly and benevolently if they would trust in God. This hope and this perspective are valid not only to the poor and the sad, but also to all individual people and organisations who fight against poverty, persecution, oppression and fundamentalism, as there are thousands of people suffering from in the world today. It is interesting to know that despite the various undertakings and efforts that exist around the world to combat poverty and oppression, there is still much to be done in this area.
Whenever I visit sick and old people, I have the feeling that many of them are also belonging to the poor and the discriminated. We often forget that a person’s life begins as a small child, the child slowly grows up, that we can achieve a lot in life as adults and then in the aging process we slowly go back into the hands of God as an enrichment and fulfillment. Old people could also look with admiration at the decline of their strength and their frailty, as they slowly physically and psychologically reach the end of the lives and reach fulfillment. But it often happens the other way around, because many people feel lonely and excluded due to the lack of human interaction.
The promised kingdom of God belongs to every person. It is a kingdom of peace, joy and harmony. Whether we can experience such a kingdom in everyday life and imagine it for the world, is worth considering for every Christian. Hope that we will realise the kingdom of God on earth.
Fr. Joseph Pandiappallil MCBS