Do We Find the Beatitudes in Poverty, Hunger, and Persecution?

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-19)

Reflecting these words from Paul’s teaching, we often eagerly express our gratitude and praise to God for the blessings we receive from Him at our faith-sharing group meeting. Usually, participants of such a group meeting say things like, “I thank and praise God for a speedy recovery from my surgery last week”….”I praise the Lord and give thanks to Him for the pay raise I got”.

Sure, these are great to express to God, giving due credit to Him for all the blessings that they have received and enjoyed.  But, how many of these eager Christians profess with confidence, “I thank you and praise you, Lord, for keeping me your beloved ‘poor’!”….”I praise and thank you, Lord, for a gift of the challenge in my life!”

Being poor …having difficulties in life is a blessing?

This sounds counterintuitive? It sure is countercultural to the worldly view of blessing, as we tend to see such things as “curses”.  But, contrary to what the world sees, Jesus sees them as blessings and calls us to rejoice over challenges in life.

The Gospel reading for the 6^th Sunday in Ordinary Time on Cycle C, Luke 6:17, 20-26, is about the “shorter” version of Jesus’ teaching on the beatitudes, which means “being blessed” in plural. Its singular form “beatitude” (blessedness) is derived from Vulgate Latin word, “beati”.

Beati pauperes, quia vestrum est regnum Dei.  Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God (Luke 6:20).

Whether in Matthew’s extensive version on the beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12) or in Luke’s brief version (Luke 6:20-23), there is no where Jesus says things like, “Blessed are those who enjoy pay raises”, “Blessed are you, who got recovered from illness”.  Instead, he says,

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God (v20).
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled (v21).
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh (v21).
Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man (v22).

Then, Jesus says:

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets  (v23).

Those who live in poverty, those who are hungry, perhaps, because of poverty, and those who weep, and those who are victims of hatred and, perhaps, persecution, are blessed and called to rejoice?  This teaching  make no sense in light of “happiness” that the world teaches, doesn’t it?  And, what I observe in many faith-sharing meetings rather reflects worldly teaching on “happiness” but not really Jesus’ teaching on the beatitudes in Luke’s Gospel.

Though those who are eager to express their gratitude and praises to God for having received what they wanted may not admit, what I see here is something like what social psychologists call “Dunning-Kruger effect”, which is ignorance of their own ignorance. When we have the Dunning-Kruger effect, we are at risk of losing humility. At the same time, this phenomenon reflects our tendency to love God rather conditionally, based on our own desires. We love God and give thanks to Him with our praises whenever we can attribute gaining what we want to God’s providence. But, what if we simply received poverty, hunger, and hatred, as a result of our prayer and faith, instead?  Will we still thank God and praise Him even though all we have is any of these in the list of the beatitudes in Luke 6:20-22 and still rejoice (Luke 6:23)?

Yes, we can, as long as we keep the unquenchable Spirit, namely, the Holy Spirit.
So, the question in order to truly rejoice over our beatitudes with our gratitude and praise, especially when the world is totally against us, is: Are we filled and empowered with the Holy Spirit, the unquenchable Spirit?

To really appreciate Luke’s version on Jesus’ teaching of the beatitudes, we need to focus on our faith, not the worldly teaching.  For this, we really need to tap into the unquenchable Holy Spirit.

The first reading for the 6^th Sunday to be echoed by the Gospel reading, Luke 6:20-26, is taken from Jeremiah 17:5-8. It begins with these words of warning from God:

Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord (Jeremiah 17:5).

But, God Himself told Jeremiah, His messenger:

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.
They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream.

It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit (Jeremiah 17:7-8).

There is a contrast between trusting in the mortal (namely, trusting in what the world teaches) and trusting in God. In the eyes of God, according to Jeremiah, the former is foolishness leading to curses, while the latter to God’s beatitudes.

Trusting in God and His providence is what faith is.  The New Testament Greek word for faith, πίστις (pistis), literally means trust. And, faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:9). Therefore, keeping ourselves filled with the unquenchable Holy Spirit, enables us to keep our faith in God – trusting God always in order to rejoice over the beatitudes in our poverty, hunger, and persecution.

This is Lord’s call on us to grow in faith so that we can be like St. Ignatius of Loyola, whose prayer says:

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,

my memory, my understanding,

and my entire will,

All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.

To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.

Give me only your love and your grace,

that is enough for me.

Given the below prayer of Swami Vivekananda, a Hindu monk, Jesus’s teaching of the beatitudes, as written in Luke’s Gospel is not just for Christians but to any person of faith – not in the mortal but the immortal being, whether they necessarily call this being God or not.

When I asked God for strength

He gave me difficult situations to face

When I asked God for brain and brown

He gave me puzzles in life to solve

When I asked God for happiness

He showed me some unhappy people

When I asked God for wealth

He showed me how to work hard

When I asked God for favors

He showed me opportunities to work hard

When I asked God for peace

He showed me how to help others

God gave me nothing I wanted

He gave me everything I needed.

To rejoice over our beatitudes, we must recognize the truth that God always blesses us with what we need but not necessarily what we want or what we asked for out of our desires. 

Now, do we have faith in God that God always blesses us with what we need?

Let the unquenchable Holy Spirit fill us for the gift of faith for the beatitudes so that our thanksgiving and praise to God, as we rejoice over the beatitudes even in our poverty, hunger, and persecution.

Let Christ Jesus, not the world, guide our view in finding blessings - grace of God - in our lives.