During my childhood, our poor family ate simple food. We would only experience a semblance of luxury when we would have our annual Christmas shopping trip on the 24th of December, as the Christmas bonus of my father as a company guard would only be given on that day.
Our poverty was evident. We would eat hotdogs, grapes and apples only once a year. Even a single apple would be divided into four, and we would have two pieces of grapes each for Noche Buena.
We were poor, but we never knew what poverty meant. We were happy and our house was always filled with boisterous laughter. Growing up, I realized, through the words of my parents, that while we were really poor, the Lord provided for our spiritual, emotional and physical needs.
Our Gospel (Luke 6:20-26) today reminds us of the same message: “Blessed are you who are poor, hungry, weeping; when people hate you, insult you and denounce you.” How in the world can the poor, the weeping, the hated and insulted be considered blessed in the midst of their misery? They are blessed because they have nothing and no one to turn to except the Lord. And what stronghold can be any sturdier than what the Lord offers — the Kingdom to the poor, satisfaction to the hungry, laughter for the weeping?
On the other hand, while the Gospel says, “Woe to you who are rich... who are filled now... who laugh now,” it has to be clear that God does not condemn the rich. It’s surely not true that they are hell-bound. This part of the Gospel refers to those who, in spite of their privileged and happy life, do not know how to share their abundance and excesses with others.
To be blessed is to accept misery, believing that God will one day make their sufferings vanish and give them heavenly rewards. Those who have been blessed and fail to recognize the needs of others, those who attribute their fortune to sheer personal egoistic competence, sadly won’t share the blessings that the lowly will receive from God.
Blessed are the poor and lowly. They have God. Only God.
REFLECTION QUESTION: Why do you consider yourself blessed?
