OT VI [C]: Jer 17:5-8; I Cor 15:12, 16-20; Lk 6:17, 20-26

John D. Rockefeller, Sr.(1839-1937, was a millionaire at age 23. At the age of fifty, he was a billionaire. He was the richest man in the world, but he was a miserable, rich man. At the age of 53, he was eaten up with physical diseases and ulcers. He was a grabber, not a giver. He was always trying to get more money and he was a greedy man. Greed had so consumed him, that at the age of 53, the doctors told him he had one year to live. Just one year. Here’s a billionaire, the richest man in the world, and all he could eat that year, all that his stomach could handle was milk and crackers. Milk and crackers. The man could go out and buy any restaurant in the world, buy it; he could have any food before him on the table, but it wouldn’t do him much good. It was in that year, that Rockefeller began to look at his life. He said, “I have all these possessions, and I’ve never been a giver.” That’s when he decided to become a giver. He gave to Churches, to hospitals, to foundations, and to medical research. Many of the discoveries we’ve had in medicine have come from money provided by the Rockefeller Foundation. —That man who had only one year to live at age 53, began to live, and began to give, and do you know what happened to him? He started releasing all of the internal negative things that were killing him. He got rid of his stress, his tension, and his ulcers, and he lived to the age of ninety eight, a saint to many. Depending on one’s strength and wealth can never give any solution to the ultimate problems of our life. But trust in the ultimate power of God can change our life.

Today’s readings teach us that true happiness, or beatitude, lies in the awareness of who we are and of what we are supposed to do. They remind us that we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father and that we will be  happy in this world and in Heaven only when we share our blessings with our brothers and sisters in need and work to uplift them, thus declaring our “option for the poor,” as Jesus did. The eight Beatitudes Jesus gives in Mathew and the four Woes and Blessings in Luke contradict the ideas about real happiness found in the Jewish culture and in our modern society.  According to these modern notions, wealth, health, power and influence are the true Beatitudes. 

The first reading tells us that true beatitude consists in placing our trust in God and in putting our trust in His promises. The Responsorial Psalm, (Ps 1), finds beatitude in keeping God’s Law. St. Paul warns us, in the second reading, that true beatitude is obtainable only in Heaven, and that Christ’s Resurrection is our assurance of reaching Heaven for an everlasting life of happiness. In today’s Gospel, Jesus instructs his disciples in the paradoxical   blessedness of poverty, hunger, sorrow, and persecution because these contradict our natural expectations in every way.  “Blessed are those who are poor, hungry, weeping, hated, excluded, insulted, and denounced,” because in poverty, we recognize God’s reign; in hunger, His providence; in sorrow, true happiness; and in persecution, true joy.

 

Father Louis Everly, a noted Belgian theologian, priest and writer says that so many people never find happiness because they do not know where to look for it. Too many people make the mistake of seeking one more material thing, one more pay raise, one more promotion, one more problem solved, one more handicap overcome. “If only I had that,” they often say, “I would be happy.” — Too late they learn that happiness does not come from the outside but from within.

Many people fall into the devil's old trap of seeing their Christian life as a list of obligations, a hindrance to fun, and a limit on their freedom. But when they come to the right understanding why they were created and why they are in this world they could seek and find true happiness.  Jesus doesn't want us to waste our lives; he wants us to live them to the full.

 

The manufacturer always knows what's best for the product. Everything Jesus teaches, everything he asks of us, everything the Church teaches about how to live, what to do, what to avoid -these are the manufacturer's instructions, meant for our benefit, for our blessedness. Therefore, we can never find blessedness away from Jesus’ teachings. If we are blessed here on earth according to Jesus’ teachings, we will be blessed in heaven too. This Sunday we need to examine whether we are really seeking real blessedness here so that when we are finally called home we will hear Jesus tell us: Come blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.