BLESSED THE POOR - BLESSING THE POOR

6^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Haitian Disaster

It’s been a month since the terrible earthquake in Haiti and by now we’ve all been flooded with images of the human suffering taking place there. The United Nations is calling it the worst humanitarian crisis they’ve ever dealt with. Many commentators have pointed out that this is a crisis brought on more by poverty than a natural disaster. The same magnitude of earthquake hit California in 1989 and the death toll was a few dozen, not hundreds of thousands. But in a country where infrastructure was lacking, building standards were low and services deficient, it has led to suffering on a mind-boggling scale.

The Social Conscience of Luke

Poverty is a prominent them in Luke’s version of the beatitudes, which we hear in the Gospel today. Frankly, we are probably more familiar with Matthew’s text. In Matthew’s Gospel, these beatitudes are part of Jesus’ sermon on the mount: in Luke, Jesus speaks from the plain in the midst of the people. Matthew presents the beatitudes in more spiritual terms, Luke in a more material sense. Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel refers to “poor in spirit.” But in Luke, the focus is on people who are materially poor and physically hungry. Given what we know about the devastating effects of poverty on people’s lives, and in light of the Haitian tragedy taking place now, it’s difficult to comprehend Jesus’ words “Blessed are you who are poor, blessed are you who are hungry.” Elsewhere in the bible, poverty is never taken as a sign of blessedness. So what can Jesus have meant by stating the opposite and what does it mean for us?

Luke’s Gospel is very socially conscious and it makes frequent references to the poor. According to scholars, perhaps a quarter of the people in Roman Palestine were desperately poor. In Luke, the people of that social class are represented in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, and in the poor widow who puts her two coins in the temple treasury. In these beatitudes, Jesus is not speaking to people of that class: rather, he is speaking to his disciples, a group that had at least some financial security. Matthew, the tax collector, was probably a man of means. Even the fishermen, Peter and his colleagues, would have owned their own boats and nets and had a steady source of income. His invitation to his disciples is that they need to embrace some form of being poor to follow him - but not total destitution. In fact, they have the means to be of assistance, to be agents of divine blessing to those who are very needy.

Poor in Worldly Goods, Rich in Faith

Our Lord’s sermon is really a series of paradoxes. He speaks of the poverty of those who live for worldly wealth, and the richness of those who trust in God (just as Jeremiah does in the first reading.) He speaks of the hunger of those whose only nourishment is the food of this world, and the nourishment of those who seek the food that only God can give. Among the terrible images coming out Haiti in the days after the earthquake were some moving and hopeful ones. That first Sunday, we saw Haitians gathering in their places of worship, singing, dancing and praying in the midst of their suffering. Although it is a poor island, it is historically a land of deep faith. It is a reality that the poor tend to rely on God instinctively because they don’t have a lot else. For the rich, it’s easy to depend on wealth and somehow leave God out of the equation. It’s not that poverty itself is a good thing: our Lord did not give a blessing to starvation, disease or injustice - those are always evil things. But the lack of this world’s goods in the lives of the poor often brings with it a closeness to the other world. That’s why Jesus was able to say, “Blessed you who are poor, yours is the Kingdom of God.”

Embracing Poverty

So what does it mean for us living in a country and city so rich in material blessings? That we too need to embrace some form of poverty in our lives, for the sake of the Kingdom. And that if we don’t do that, we will ultimately be the poor ones. That might take different forms for different people. In our prayer for the Year of the Family, we specifically mention those families who choose to live with less so that others might have more. Maybe it means getting off the runaway consumer train, always having to buy newer, bigger and better. Certainly, it should mean a spirit of detachment from material goods: we might possess things, but we should never let them possess us - they should never take priority over people and can never take the place of God in our lives. To be sure, it means recognizing our duty to be a source of God’s blessing for the destitute. We have the capacity to help and lift up those who are impoverished and suffering. On that score, let me thank you and acknowledge your tremendously generous response to the Diocesan collection on behalf of Haiti. You along with Catholics across our diocese have committed your resources to the people of Haiti, making it the most successful appeal we’ve ever had. In the process, you have shown solidarity and Christian compassion toward some of the poorest people in our world.

Beggars at the Feast

As we now approach the table of the Eucharist, we do so as people who hunger for a food beyond what this world can give. Whatever our bank accounts or investment portfolios, we can only come before God empty handed. In us and through us, may the blessings that the Lord promised to the poor be fulfilled.

Father Dan Miehm

February 14, 2010