Sunday 6C: Would you like to flourish? (16 February 2025; Luke 6:17, 20-26)

A reflection on the Beatitudes (mostly) and Woes in Luke. Written and spoken by Kieran J. O'Mahony OSA. 

www.tarsus.ie and www.tarsusscriptureschool.ie

Gentle piano music to close the meditation

Transcript

John's Lane
D08 F8NW
16 February 2024
Luke 6:17, 20-26
Would you like to flourish?

Welcome

We are probably more familiar with the 8 or 9 Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. Luke locates this teaching in the Sermon on the Plain. In fact, Luke has shaped the Sermon on the Plain (6:17-49) into three sections, actually followed by the lectionary: Luke 6:20-26 (6C25), vv. 27-38 (7C25) and vv 39-49 (8C25). So these three Sundays are very focused. Each section is carefully indicated by Luke (vv. 20a, 27a and 39a).

A bit of background

Both Matthew and Luke have expanded an original three beatitudes matched by three woes. Going behind the gospel texts to the original Q source version, the teaching may have sounded like this:

Blessed are the poor, for of them is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are the hungry, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the mourners, for they shall be consoled.
Woe to the rich, for they have received consolation.
Woe to the satisfied, for they will be hungry
Woe to the consoled, for they will mourn.

Beatitudes are typically in the third person (happy the one who…). Luke has adjusted to second person to speak to his hearers, that is to us, directly. We may also notice that Luke is faithful to the original non-spiritualised version: he means literally the poor, the literally hungry and literally those who mourn.

Topic

When we find ourselves confronted with such noble, even exalted and unsettling teaching, it can be daunting, to be honest.

Steps

Before plunging in, there is a question of how to translate the opening word of each Beatitude. Our readings are taken from the original Jerusalem Bible and there we find the word “happy”, as in “How happy are the poor.” The most recent version of the Jerusalem Bible has reverted to the traditional “Blessed are the poor.” The challenge for translators is that both meanings are in the original Greek, makarios. Here are three modern efforts to come up with something fresh. One British writer, the Jesuit Nicholas King, came up with “congratulations to the poor” which captures the paradox but makes me just a bit uncomfortable. His compatriot, the Anglican bishop and scholar Tom Wright did much better. He rendered it thus: Blessings on the poor, which has a nice energy. But the best I came across comes an American evangelical scholar called Jonathan Pennington. In his study of the Sermon on the Mount, he comes up “Flourishing are the poor.” It might not be your only version but it does capture the two senses of happy and blessed and a very attractive energy. After all, who would not like to flourish?

Happiness, by its nature, eludes definition but a description might be possible. We could each ask ourselves: who are the people I know you are really happy, who are truly flourishing and simply good? In my own experience, the really flourishing people tend to show three marks or qualities. Such people are unusually “integrated” — the inside and the outside are one person, what you see is what you get, both in terms of values and life story. Secondly, without making any song and dance, such people a firmly other-centred. They have made the discovery that happiness comes not directly but indirectly. It really is not all about me. Finally, in my experience, such people live by a higher vision and set of values, usually undergirded by faith. Such people are attractive to meet and you come away with a feeling of being enriched. Not only that but the train of wholeness, kindness and faith stands in stark contrast to the more usual “settling for less”, a risk at any time in history and perhaps especially in our day. The temptation to distraction and what we may call merely sentient, “externalised” existence is strong.  Paying attention to experience takes us close to the wisdom teachings of the Bible, of which the Beatitudes and Woes form a part. 

Luke does not teach the Sermon on the Plain as a detached programme for good living. On the contrary, in his view, the Sermon and the Beatitudes in particular are firmly rooted in the person, mission and destiny of Jesus. Jesus lived the Beatitudes to before he taught them and so they provide, in their own way, a thumbnail sketch of who Jesus was. In Luke’s Gospel, the beatitudes ought to be read in the light of Christ: Jesus himself is poor (8:1-3, 9:58), he hungers (4:2; 24:41[!]), he weeps (19:41), he is despised and rejected (22:54, 63–64; 23:35–38, 39). Again, it is a question of paying attention to experience. Jesus lived what he taught: he spoke from within. Precisely because the Beatitudes were first lived by Jesus, they constitute the pattern for his followers, then in Luke’s day and now in ours. Just as Jesus’ identity is embedded in the Beatitudes, so is ours, if only we dare to look at ourselves and see how we could truly flourish. 

Conclusion
It could easily seem that the Beatitudes are indeed highly exalted, otherworldly, and therefore beyond us. That is why I began by inviting a reflection on truly good people that we have known. We have not here an impossible ideal but on the contrary the path to blessedness, happiness and flourishing, open to us all. Instead of settling for less, we should lift up our sights and see the greatness that God dreams for each one of us. God does not want us to be reasonably good, reasonably happy, reasonably loving. Even that seemingly high ideal is settling for less. He wants us to be unreasonably good, insanely happy, and irrationally loving.

Conclusion

Let me read the Beatitudes again, from the NET Bible, adjusting blessed to flourishing and woe to opposite of flourishing which is “moribund.”

Then Jesus looked up at his disciples and said: 
“Flourishing are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God belongs to you.
“Flourishing are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. 
“Flourishing are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

“Flourishing are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject you as evil on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and jump for joy, because your reward is great in heaven. For their ancestors did the same things to the prophets.

“But moribund are you who are rich, for you have received your comfort already.
“Moribund are you who are well satisfied with food now, for you will be hungry. 
“Moribund are you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.

“Moribund are you when all people speak well of you, for their ancestors did the same things to the false prophets.

Let us pray

O God, teach us the hidden wisdom of the gospel, so that we may hunger and thirst for holiness, work tirelessly for peace, and be counted among those who seek first the blessedness of your kingdom. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen