From the Gospel acclamation: “Rejoice and leap for joy! Your reward will be great in heaven.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 6:20-26)
“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. But 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.”
Every word of Jesus in the Gospel—whether Beatitudes or woes—enfolds those who experience hunger, poverty, sorrow, and persecution. And that is all of us. The experience of the Beatitudes is the way to the kingdom of God and the kingdom of God in its entirety.
What you promise, Lord, you don’t retract; in a world that leads to the empty promises of honor, pleasure, power, and wealth, the hope of your mercy in this life leads to the fulfillment of it in the next. Be with me today; help me live out the blessedness that the Beatitudes call me to.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.