February 17, 2025
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily on the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) on February 16, 2025, at Old St. Mary’s Catholic Parish in Chicago, IL. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Jeremiah 17:5-8; Psalm 1; 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20; and Luke 6:17, 20-26.
Today, we focus on beatitudes. Now, when most of us hear the word “beatitudes,” we think of the beginning of Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, with its list of 9 proclamations, each starting with the words “Blessed are.” In some translations, they start with “Happy are.”
But the beatitudes we hear today in Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain” aren’t quite the same. Like our reading from Jeremiah and like our Psalm today, each statement in Luke beginning with “Blessed is” or “Blessed are” is paired with an antithesis: a statement about people who will be cursed or woeful. Let us immerse ourselves in the challenges of our Scripture passages today.
Luke is the Gospel of social justice. Let us recall that we are not only recipients of God’s mercy, but that we are called to share God’s mercy with others!
The Gospel of Matthew portrays Jesus as the new Moses. In Matthew, Jesus gives his great sermon on a mountaintop, echoing Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. But here in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus gives his great sermon on a stretch of flat land. Why is that?
It’s probably because Luke is making a point about social justice. Jesus came to declare the kingdom of God. That kingdom will have no more tears, no more suffering, and those who have more than they need will provide for those less fortunate. When John the Baptist says that he is fulfilling Isaiah’s promise to make ready the way of the Lord by raising the valleys, lowering the mountains, and straightening the paths, I often wonder how much of that message is about geography and how much is about socio-economic conditions.
But in the beginning chapters of the Gospel of Luke, we hear two messages of social justice that don’t have much nuance. Today, Jesus promises blessing to the poor but woe to the rich. Blessing to the hungry but woe to those filled now. Blessing to those weeping but woe to those who laugh now. Blessing to those who are hated, insulted, and excluded but woe to those who are well-regarded. We may not have felt any more comfortable in Advent when Luke reported Mary proclaiming that God “has thrown down the rulers from their thrones and lifted up the lowly,” and that God “has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.”
Does this mean that being rich, well-fed, or well-regarded are indications of sin? Does it mean that those of you who laugh at my terrible jokes now are going to be punished later? Does it mean that being poor, hungry, weeping, and hated are indications of virtue? No. Surely, it’s more complicated than that. And as we get deeper into the Gospel of Luke, we’ll observe those nuances. The vast majority of the people that Jesus meets are poor, weak, and despised. Jesus’ interactions with them indicate what the kingdom of God will be like when it comes to fruition. The individuals that Jesus criticizes in face-to-face meetings and in parables are wealthy, powerful, well-regarded individuals who neglect the poor, the weak, and the despised people around them.
The danger for most of us is to think that we’re not wealthy enough, not powerful enough, not laughing enough, or not well-regarded enough to be the people that Jesus is giving his warning to. But for the vast majority of us: oh yes, we are. Let’s be honest: when Mary spoke about God lifting up the lowly and filling the hungry with good things, did we think she was talking about us, or about other people?
Until recently, Old St. Mary’s had a Social Justice and Services Ministry that did a lot to lift up the lowly and fill the hungry with good things. They organized the collection of hygiene and toiletry items for St. James’ Food Pantry, sold Chicago Shares, kept our social services resource list up to date, ran education programs, led a Thanksgiving food and clothing drive, organized the Advent Giving Tree program, helped newly arrived refugee families, and coordinated other projects with the School. But besides the Legal Clinic, which happens here on the 3rd Saturday of every month, most other initiatives of the Social Justice and Services group have been on hold since the pandemic began.
There are several reasons for the decline of Social Justice and Services Ministry at Old St. Mary’s, but a major one is that it took a big group of committed volunteers to organize these activities, and with the progress of time, many of the original volunteers have died, have moved, or simply don’t have the energy and resources that they used to. I would like us to bring back the Social Justice and Services Ministry, but it won’t work unless we can get a big team of volunteers who are committed to planning and working all these events. This homily is the first call for volunteers. Please email me if you would be interested in making a monthly commitment to serving on the leadership of a revived Social Justice and Services Ministry. Once we hear from at least 10 people who can make the commitment — 20 people would be much better — we will try to get the group up and running again. If we don’t hear from at least 10 people by June, we will have to explore other ways to fulfill God’s call to use our gifts, energy, and resources to help the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and the hated.
May Old St. Mary’s Catholic Parish and School continue to be a place for us all to live out the blessings – and the challenges – of the beatitudes. May those among us who have enough give all we can for those who have less. May we, like John the Baptist, carry out Isaiah’s vision to raise the valleys, lower the mountains, and make straight the path for all people in need.
When it comes to God’s call to give to those in need, how do we know when we have given enough? Secular nonprofit organizations used to say to their donors: “Give until it hurts.” In my opinion, that’s a terrible way to encourage people to share their money, time, talent, and resources. The spiritual advice about determining how much to give is the opposite of that nonprofit advice. “Don’t give until hurts. Instead, give until it feels good.”
We will know that we have done enough to build the kingdom of God when our spirits, like Mary’s, rejoice in the Lord!