Sunday Meditation: The Sermon on the Plain Continues

Last week we heard the beginning of Jesus’s Sermon on the Plain.  We heard Luke’s version of the Beatitudes.  Just as in Matthew’s Gospel, Luke’s sermon continues beyond the Beatitudes.  On the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time in Year C, we get the rest of the sermon.  As we hear, Jesus continues what some have called “the Great Reversal.” 

 

Jesus said to his disciples:

“To you who hear I say,

love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

To the person who strikes you on one cheek,

offer the other one as well,

and from the person who takes your cloak,

do not withhold even your tunic.

Give to everyone who asks of you,

and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

For if you love those who love you,

what credit is that to you?

Even sinners love those who love them.

And if you do good to those who do good to you,

what credit is that to you?

Even sinners do the same.

If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment,

what credit is that to you?

Even sinners lend to sinners,

and get back the same amount.

But rather, love your enemies and do good to them,

and lend expecting nothing back;

then your reward will be great

and you will be children of the Most High,

for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

 

“Stop judging and you will not be judged.

Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.

Forgive and you will be forgiven.

Give, and gifts will be given to you;

a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,

will be poured into your lap.

For the measure with which you measure

will in return be measured out to you.”

~Lk 6:27-38

Dr. Brant Pitre explains how this is a radical love.

 

As a pastoral homily, I liked Fr. Patrick Briscoe’s connection with this radical love with the lives of the saints.

 

As I just posted the other day, I think the life of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati would be the perfect saint that Fr. Patrick alludes to.  I think his witness really exemplifies this Gospel passage.

 

Sunday Meditation: “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

 

I love that quote and it always reminds me of the Shakespeare play where he uses it in the title, Measure for Measure.” 

For the hymn, let’s go with John Michael Talbot’s “The Greatest ‘Tis Love.”

 

Sunday Meditation: The Sermon of the Great Reversal

 

No, the Sermon of the Great Reversal is not something you have missed in your learning of the New Testament.  It’s my renaming of Luke’s Sermon on the Plain, Luke’s version of the Beatitudes.  On the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C, we are presented with Jesus’s great sermon of Blessedness.  I call it the Sermon of the Great Reversal because Jesus reverses the values of the world and presents us the values of the Kingdom of God.

 

Jesus came down with the Twelve

and stood on a stretch of level ground

with a great crowd of his disciples

and a large number of the people

from all Judea and Jerusalem

and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.

And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:

            “Blessed are you who are poor,

                        for the kingdom of God is yours.

            Blessed are you who are now hungry,

                        for you will be satisfied.

            Blessed are you who are now weeping,

                        for you will laugh.

            Blessed are you when people hate you,

                        and when they exclude and insult you,

                        and denounce your name as evil

                        on account of the Son of Man.

Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!

Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.

For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.

            But woe to you who are rich,

                        for you have received your consolation.

            Woe to you who are filled now,

                        for you will be hungry.

            Woe to you who laugh now,

                        for you will grieve and weep.

            Woe to you when all speak well of you,

                        for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

~Lk 6:17, 20-26

 

Fr. Geoffrey Plant instructs us on the language intricacies of this passage, and then enlightens us to the Great Reversal.

This is going to seem odd that Dr. Brant Pitre is going to provide the pastoral explanation of the passage, but he does.  In his explanation of the passage, he connects it with the carrying of our daily crosses.

 

Where you find happiness is through the detachment of earthly goods.  Does Luke mean to imply a spiritual detachment or an actual detachment?  This might be more controversial, but I think he means actual detachment, actual poverty, actual hunger, actual mourning, and actual rejection.  After all, isn’t that Christ’s life?

 

Sunday Meditation: “Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.”

 

John Michael Talbot’s “The Beatitudes” is the proper hymn here.

 

 

Sunday Meditation: The Beatitudes on the Plain

Luke’s Beatitudes’ sermon occur on a plain—called The Sermon on the Plain—rather than a mountain.  Look closely.  They are subtly different than Matthew’s Beatitudes.

 

Jesus came down with the Twelve

and stood on a stretch of level ground

with a great crowd of his disciples

and a large number of the people

from all Judea and Jerusalem

and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.

 

And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:

            “Blessed are you who are poor,

                        for the kingdom of God is yours.

            Blessed are you who are now hungry,

                        for you will be satisfied.

            Blessed are you who are now weeping,

                        for you will laugh.

            Blessed are you when people hate you,

                        and when they exclude and insult you,

                        and denounce your name as evil

                        on account of the Son of Man.

Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!

Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.

For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.

            But woe to you who are rich,

                        for you have received your consolation.

            Woe to you who are filled now,

                        for you will be hungry.

            Woe to you who laugh now,

                        for you will grieve and weep.

            Woe to you when all speak well of you,

                        for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

-Lk 6:17, 20-26

I think Luke’s version is more direct, more convicting.