Jesus highlights the faith by proposing trouble and beatitudes

«Blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they listen to. Verily I say unto you: Many prophets and many righteous have wanted to see what you look at, but they didn't see it, and listen to what you listen, but they didn't listen to him!»

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On this Sunday we read the text of the Beatitudes According to Luca's version. A song that differs from the best known one, present in the first Gospel, For the number of beatitudes: Four against the eight of Matteo; and for the presence of as many "troubles" that form a precise contrast with them.

If the poor are declared "blessed", the hungry, crying and persecuted, The troubles are directed to the rich, to the sazi, the laughing and to those who are praised. Moreover, If Matteo's beatitudes are included in the so -called Speech of the mountain (cf.. Mt 5,1), Those of Luca are pronounced in a flat place (cf.. LC 6,17). Let's read the text.

"During that time, Jesus, descended with the twelve, He stopped in a flat place. There was great crowd of his disciples and great multitude of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem and from the coast of shooting and Sidòne. And he, Alzàti his eyes to his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you, poor, because yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you, that you are now hungry, because you will be satisfied. Blessed are you, what a cry, Because you will laugh. Blessed are you, When men are now there and when they ban it and insult you and despise your name as infamous, Because of the son of man. Rejoice on that day and exult because, there, Your reward is great in the sky. In the same way, in fact they acted their fathers with the prophets. But woe to you, rich, because you have already received your consolation. Woe to you, What are you knowing now, because you will be hungry. Woe to you, that now laughs, Because you will be in pain and cry. Trouble, When all men say good about you. In the same way, in fact they acted their fathers with the false prophets”» (LC 6,17.20-26).

Since there is no other evangelical page who has so interested thought and culture and has been the subject of various interpretations, I will try to highlight the point of view from which Luca intends to present the beatitudes of Jesus, But also the following troubles. They, indeed, they are necessary to explain the first, they assume them and are their counterpart, so that the beatitudes, placed on this negative background, they stand out better.

Immediately after having formed the twelve (LC 6,12-16) Jesus pronounces the beatitudes, which therefore assume a particularly significant value for that group "to which he gave the name of apostles" (LC 6,13). They, United to those who first followed Jesus, are the immediate recipients of these words: “Hyd your eyes to his disciples, he said " (LC 6,20). But there is also a large crowd that listens to the speech this time, made up of Jews and people from non -Jewish areas, Like the Phoenician cities of shooting and Sidone. With this annotation the evangelist does not only intend to show that the fame of Jesus has extended outside the borders of Israel, but wishes to prefigure the post-instance extension, also to the so -called kind, of the message of salvation of Jesus. Moreover, placed immediately after the annotation that the crowd "tried to touch him, Because a force came out of him that healed everyone " (LC 6,19), The words of Jesus who propose beatitudes and troubles intend to highlight the faith in those who follow him and are looking for him, instead of the magical or interested dimension. Report people to earth and therefore in terms of choices and responsibilities. For this reason the way of speaking in the public of Jesus, As already on the occasion of the homily in the Synagogue of Nazareth, It has a "kerygmatic" and pedagogical tone; they encourage to take a position and also predispose to an inevitable division, Since the words of Jesus reveal the thoughts of many hearts (cf.. LC 2,34-35). We can say that the evangelical page that puts direct comparison, in a brutal vis à vis, poor and rich, hungry and satisfied, Afflitti e jungle, persecuted and admired people, implies a necessary choice of field, An option that ultimately is between self -sufficiency and trust in the Lord, or between idolatry and faith.

As a rule, Matteo is thought to be the evangelist of the beatitudes, Instead Luca presents fifteen in his writing, two more than his colleague e, The Other Brother, It is also the only one who transmits the bliss of the listeners of the word: "Blessed are those who listen to the Word of God and keep it" (LC 11,28). This is in fact the key to seeing bliss in the various vital situations: listen and keep the word and the signs of God, as the Virgin Mary first did.

In the Old Testament, In particular in the psalms and in the sapiential literature, The beatitudes constitute those indications given so that the man reaches the finish line of happiness: "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the company of the wicked and in the street of sinners" (Shall 1,1). If you follow you will live happily, But if you prefer another road, trouble start, that they are needed on warning: not curses, but notices, like those who gave the ancient prophets (Is 1,4; 5,8-24; 30,1; 33,1). Compared to the Old Testament, The new presents some substantial differences in this regard. For Jesus there are no particular conditions for the beatitudes, because he already declares happy those who are in a certain situation and does not say for example: "Be poor!». It turns, By calling him blessed, To those who are already poor. To bliss, or "macarism" as it is defined in a technical sense in order to recall the Greek expression, It does not establish any behavior prior because it is the announcement of a novelty that comes from God and for this reason it is difficult to grasp at first sight, It is Paradossale, does not worldly and requires faith. In this lies the originality and the difference of meaning that the New Testament brings. The beatitudes, that is, More than an ethics to put into practice, they are the announcement of a novelty, a new way of living life and thinking it, because everything is seen in relation to God, or to its kingdom. Expenses, precisely, could find bliss in the poor, in the indigent, in the suffering, in the persecuted? Or better yet: as we too can, In our personal poverty, in our sufferings or within any other tiring situation, recognize us blessed? What does it allow you to read a situation and judge it as blessed and not a curse or a misfortune? Bliss works only for those who have faith. To use a very important image for the theology of revelation, We could say that the eyes of faith are needed (P. Rousselot, The eyes of faith, 1910; Trad.. en. The eyes of faith, Milan 1974).

In faith there is the possibility of seeing in a different way, since it makes the eyes capable of grasping what otherwise remains under the surface. By virtue of grace the believer recognizes those signs that God places in his life, otherwise, without grace, He only sees failure, the death, hunger, despair. With the faith in them it sees, in spite of everything, God's presence. It is then clear why Jesus does not put conditions to being blessed. Only one is the condition previa: believe his word.

The words of Jesus are understandable In light of the fact that the advent of the kingdom of God really manifests himself in him. Beatitudes and troubles are God's gaze on contradictory human situations and this appears paradoxical, Since he sees what man does not see, upsetting the human evaluation parameters. After all, what the beatitudes put in question is the relationship with the present that for some shows itself full, satisfactory and saturated (cf.. the vulgate that translates the "sazi" of LC 6,25 with: «who are satisfied») And for others it is desire and awaiting a change. These are the poor who for their situation of lack and indigence become the first recipients of the Kingdom. True poverty is not indigence or misery itself, But the state of whom, like the Clouds (anawim The poor and humble in Hebrew) of the Old Testament, they are able to welcome God because they know they have nothing and to expect everything from him. Woe to the rich, says Jesus, When they are slaves of wealth, because they put the safety of life in them and believe that their being depends on having (cf.. LC 12,15: “Be careful and keep away from all covetousness because, even if one is in abundance, his life does not depend on what he possesses"). It is no coincidence that the divine action celebrated in Magnificat The God who "has satisfied sings (filled) of goods hungry ", while "he postponed the rich empty" (LC 1,53). Or as in the metaphorical story of LC 16,19-31 where the rich, Sazio and Gaudent, is opposed to Lazzaro, poor, hungry, naked, homeless, while, in the eschatological perspective of the parable, The destinies of the two are completely overturned. That parable is a nice narrative comment on Jesus' speech that alternates Beatitudes and troubles.

Finally, bliss in poverty and hunger However, it does not leave us quiet or without pain for the situations that chase each other in the world and for the fate of many, Especially when they suffer are unarmed and children. Faith and trust in God, As Manzoni writes, It is not enough to keep the problems away, rather «" radolizes them, and makes them useful for a better life ". A conclusion "found by poor people", comments on the writer (The Betrothed, cap. XXXVIII). But the word blessed, that we read in Greek, Since the Gospel was transmitted to us in that language, Jesus has pronounced it in Aramaic and in his language does not mean just happy, But it also means «directing, orientation, walk »and where if not in the world? We cannot escape from this world, You have to stay there and learn to see things that most do not see, Not so much because a principle of faith is lacking, But because overwhelmed by life he no longer has time to think.

There is a particular bliss remembered by Matteo. These are extraordinarily dense words spoken by Jesus by referring to the ability that we have not so much to separate ourselves from things, from daily work, from the family, but to know how to see in our environment, in daily life, what is superficially not seen, What transcends our immediate vision:

«Blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they listen to. Verily I say unto you: Many prophets and many righteous have wanted to see what you look at, but they didn't see it, and listen to what you listen, but they didn't listen to him!» (Mt 13, 16-17).

From the hermitage, 16 February 2025

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