Jer. 17: 5-8; Ps. 1:1-4, 6; 1 Cor. 15:12, 16-20; Lk. 6:17, 20-26
Blessed are you who believe all that the Lord has proclaimed for great is your reward in heaven and the beginning of heaven is now. Now has the kingdom of God come to those who believe and are firmly planted on fertile ground. This is the promise of God from the beginning of time for those who trust in the Lord. Blessed are you when trust leads to hope and hope to the revelation of God with us.
Blessed are you who witnessed Christ raised from the dead that we may hope and believe that our day is coming. Recall how not only Jesus rose from the dead but with him the graves were opened and many witnessed the souls who had fallen asleep rise with him. Death was conquered on the cross and with it, judgment came into the world that our death is now our personal day of judgment before the Lord. If we have died with Christ then we are certain to rise with him. The lesson of dying to ourselves is the teaching Jesus gives today in the gospel.
Blessed are you who recognize your own poverty corporal and spiritual. Corporal because all we have is a gift from the Lord to be shared and spiritual because we recognize our own weaknesses, brokenness, and sinfulness. We are humbled wounded warriors for Christ that in our poverty he may dwell to bring us our victory in battle.
Blessed are you whose hunger cannot be satisfied with food only but with righteousness in doing he will of God. The essence of food is to nourish both body and soul in order to rise up against the enemy and conquer evil with good.
Blessed are you who weep for your sins and the sins of the world. Your joy and laughter are the mercy and forgiveness from the Lord. Prayer, fasting, and charity are the weapons against sin that all may come to the truth.
Blessed are you when you stand firm in your faith in a world that seeks to “cancel”, intimidate, and even persecute you for resisting the lies that are treated as norms of social acceptance that are anti-religion and separate God from the world.
This is the Christian way that opens the gates of heaven. Many have chosen to go their own way hoping to insulate themselves with a simple belief that a good God will bring all to heaven so “just live and let live”. Others have become the resistance in opposition to God’s law disguised as serving the good of society by accumulating power and control for themselves. Jesus did not say “all roads lead to heaven”. He came to show us the way, his plan of salvation and we are wise to listen and to follow.
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