GOSPEL REFLECTION, WEDNESDAY, 23RD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, 9 SEPTEMBER 2026

Luke 6:20-26.  The Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount are about how life is in perspective of the Kingdom of God.  They present a radical alternative to the way of the world, but we may wonder rightly whether anyone takes them seriously.  They are so radical that they up-end the secular world’s understanding of what is good and what is not in the society of Jesus’ time, and ours too.  The challenge of the Beatitudes is this: will we be happy in the way of the world, or in the way of the Kingdom?

We must note right away that the Greek word for ‘blessed’ is Makarios, which is also readily translated as ‘happy,’ and different translations of the New Testament take it to be either.  But we ask, is the Kingdom experience of happiness like happiness in the way of the world?  

‘Blessed/happy are the poor!’  Does that make worldly sense for those whose experience of a happy/blessed life means, if not riches, then at least enough to be comfortable?  But wait … Matthew’s  version of the Beatitudes says, ‘blessed are the poor in spirit.’  That makes a difference!  Poverty of spirit is vastly different from an ego-driven demand for wealth and power, for in the world the wealthy are powerful.  On the other hand, poverty of spirit does not mean a grovelling humility in the way the world understands it.  Poverty of spirit in the way of the Kingdom means to acknowledge “one’s need for God,” as the New English Bible expresses it.  The latter is not a translation, but a paraphrase, an attempt to say what such poverty means in the Kingdom.

The Beatitudes four statements of blessedness are followed by four ‘woes,’ expressing what the world understands.  ‘ Woe to you who are rich now,’  you have had all you get!  ‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will know what it means to be hungry, deprived;’ and ‘woe to you who are cheerful now, for you will weep.’  Rich, well-fed, cheerful in the way of the world comes to an end, but not in the eternal Kingdom.