Working with the Word

Focusing the Gospel

Key words and phrases: Blessed are you, kingdom of God, on account of the Son of Man, woe, now

To the point: Luke seems in this Gospel to be exalting the downtrodden simply because they are downtrodden, and cursing the comfortable simply because they are comfortable.

What really is at the heart of this Gospel is the manner of life that makes present the kingdom and assures us that our “reward will be great in heaven.”

The model of this manner of life and the source of the blessedness it brings is Jesus himself.

Connecting the Gospel …

… to the First Reading: Blessedness, by its very nature, bears good things because it is of God. For Jeremiah, blessedness brings the lushness that water can bring to a desert. For Jesus, blessedness brings the unimaginable reward of belonging to God.

… to experience: Although we in our society are proud that we do not have classes or castes that separate, in fact we do have distinctions that separate, not least among them being the rich and the poor, the have and the have-nots.

We discover the presence of God’s kingdom when people come together across what divides and share both gifts and needs, so that everyone is on “level ground.”

**From Saint Louis University