In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus gives his first major sermon, which we heard today, not from the top of a mountain. In fact, St. Luke tells us that Jesus came down from the mountain, and taught his disciples and this large group of people on a stretch of level ground. This passage of Luke’s Gospel is known as Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain, and is delivered immediately after spending a night in prayer and naming the 12 apostles.
In this sermon, the Lord teaches us how to live in such a way on this earthly plain, that leads to the joy of heaven. The path to lasting joy, he indicates, is the life of faith, one in which we place our trust in God rather than in money, in pleasure, in entertainment or in the esteem of others.
Whereas Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount features eight aspects of the path to beatitude, in the Sermon on the Plain, the Lord offers four beatitudes contrasted with for “woes” or warnings.
In contrasting the four beatitudes with the four woes, the Lord contrasts the way that leads to holiness and heaven with the way that leads to perdition.
And the path of beatitude is a serious business, which is why the Luke introduces this sermon by telling us, “ Jesus raised his eyes toward his disciples,” In other words, Jesus looks each of us straight in the eyes as he gives us this teaching. It’s like a scene in the movie where the action stops and the main character stops and looks directly into the camera to explain what is really going on.
So let’s look closely at these four contrasts.
Firstly, the Lord contrasts “Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours,” with “Woe to you are rich, for you have received your consolation.” This was a revolutionary teaching and still is one today: earthly riches are not necessarily a sign that you are blessed by God, nor that you are on the road to heaven. Riches cannot buy you real happiness, and they certainly cannot buy you eternal life; you cannot buy your way into heaven. So, a life bent on obtaining riches is a misguided life. We must never, never, never allow the pursuit of riches keep us from cultivating holiness.
The second contrast is “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied,” versus, “Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry.”
There are people who make earthly pleasure their highest good. They live to satiate their bodily appetites to the detriment of their souls. Those who are physically full without Christ are spiritually starving to death.
The Christian, rather, is to hunger and thirst for holiness more than for bread and water—to hunger for God and the things of God.
Fulton Sheen used to say that there are two philosophies of life: The pagan philosophy is first the feast, then the fast. The Christian philosophy is first the fast, then the feast. Pagan seek to enjoy the goods of the earth now, but are deprived of what is truly substantial. Christians practice fasting, and self-control of our bodily appetites, so that we may feast in the eternal banquet of heaven.
For a culture bent on instant gratification this is a difficult teaching. But if we don’t learn how to say “no” to some appetites we may find ourselves indulging in what is forbidden and deadly to our souls.
Next the Lord contrasts “Blessed are you who are now weeping for you will laugh” with “Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep.”
There are many today who go from earthly diversion to earthly diversion, party to party, who don’t take life seriously because they claim they’re living for the present moment, as if that’s the most important thing in life. But in reality, they are trying to escape from reality, trying to insulate themselves from sadness and suffering as much as they can. They don’t realize that there will be a time when the music will stop, and poor choices catch up to you, not to mention having to come face to face with the eternal judge and being required to give an account of our use and waste of our earthly time and treasure.
Rather, the Christian, instead of running away from sorrow, fear, and death, we face these things with courage, faith and hope. There is power and grace when we unite our sufferings with Christ. There is heavenly consolation when we allow ourselves to weep with His blessed mother, or like St. Monica offer up our tears for the conversion of our misguided family members.
Lastly, the Lord contrast “Blessed are you when people hate you, … exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man” with “Woe to you when all speak well of you.”
Many people find it unbearable when people don’t like them. Social pressures are among the most driving forces in our culture. So when Jesus says, you will be hated by all because of me, some people, even Christians, say, fine, I’m not going to let anyone know that I follow Jesus, especially if my Christianity would affect my professional or social standing.
The Lord presents us, here with a choice: will you live for pleasing God or pleasing man? Will you be a prophet or will you persecute prophets?
And this is a very serious choice—the most serious. Because this word “woe”—“woe to you” is a warning. Jesus is warning us that there are consequences for rejecting his teaching here. He doesn’t say, “it’s preferable if you are poor in spirit, but I understand, no big deal, it’s of no consequence if you ignore this stuff, live your best life as your feelings dictate them.” That’s the world talking. That’s the world perverting the Christian message. Living only for the earthly feast will mean exclusion from the heavenly one.
So, how can we take the Lord’s teaching today to heart? The Catechism recommends making an examination of conscience based on the beatitudes. That means reading through the Sermon on the Mount or the Sermon on the plan and asking yourselves questions related to these truths: “have I sought after earthly riches to the detriment of heavenly ones? Have I pursued sinful pleasures instead of practicing temperance, chastity, moderation? Have I given into diversions instead of bringing my wounds and difficulties to God? Have I hungered and thirsted for doing what’s right, working to right the injustices that I perpetuated or participated in? Have I retreated in fear when it was my time to witness to Christ?”
Jesus looks us in the eyes, he looks into our heart and speaks these words of truth, that we may follow the way he has tread before us. We do well to consider all those things we should fast from, restrict, and restrain, in order to walk more faithfully the path of beatitude for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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