Christian living requires work, lots of sacrifice, discipline and love. It's not easy to be poor, to be merciful, to be meek, to be peacemakers, to hunger and thirst for justice. It requires courage to be persecuted and ridiculed and mocked for being authentic Christians, for being Christ-like. It takes faith and trust in God to admit our own weaknesses and dependence upon one another rather than looking at each other's faults. It takes heroic love.
Jesus proclaims a new kingdom and it is only in light of his vision of this kingdom that we can understand why he thinks that some things are blest and some things are not.
Today, we listen to the beginning of Luke's account of the "Sermon on the Plain," consisting of a series of comparisons that address the real people, wrapped in the economic and social conditions of humanity (the poor, the rich, the hungry, the satisfied, those grieving, those laughing, the outcast, the socially acceptable). By contrast, the "Sermon on the Mount" found in Matthew emphasizes the religious and spiritual values of disciples called to the kingdom by Jesus ("poor in spirit," "hunger and thirst for righteousness," etc.).
Luke deals with real people in their real-life, day-to-day experiences. And here, Jesus speaks of both blessings and woes. But he does not place anyone in either category. Only we can choose the category to which we belong by the way we live.
How exactly do we do this? He says: "share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless, clothe the naked,stop condemning and you will not be condemned, forgive and you will be forgiven, give and gifts will be given to you."
The Beatitudes are to be lived, not just listened to. We can't just be satisfied with memorizing these words. We can't just keep them handy in a notebook that we can occasionally refer to. We can't just give them lip-service. We can't just preach them to our children and to our neighbors.
Living the Gospel is a constant challenge. What God’s vision of the Kingdom tells those who are blest is this: You must use your blessings so that others might be blest. You cannot be satisfied until everyone is satisfied. You are not truly fed until everyone is fed. You are not totally where you should be until all people can participate in the necessities of life, until all people have access to food, shelter, education and health care. This is the vision that God sets out - good things for all those who are a part of humanity.
Looking at this in another way: Blessed are we who are poor, who are hungry, who are weeping and who are outcast. And blessed also are we who are rich, who are filled, who have reason to laugh. But woe to us if we keep such gifts only for ourselves.
