HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY 23RD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME B
1COR 7:25-31; LUKE 6:20-26
The pursuit of happiness is one important thing that is common to everyone. However, true happiness should distinguish us as Christians from the world. The world seems to oppose the reality of true happiness in content. The world's happiness contradicts the happiness Jesus Christ puts before us in the Gospel. Today’s gospel talks about the beatitudes, there are eight beatitudes Jesus gives in Mathew and four in Luke.
Let us therefore examine the beatitudes. Jesus instructs his disciples in the paradoxical blessedness of poverty, hunger, sorrow, and persecution, which contradict our natural expectations. Blessed are those who are poor, hungry, weeping, hated, excluded, insulted, and denounced because, in poverty, we recognize God’s reign; in hunger, His providence; in sorrow, true happiness; and in persecution, true joy. Experiencing these miseries opens the way for us to receive the true riches, food, comfort and acceptance we find only in His love and His presence here and in His Kingdom forever. The Beatitudes are commands for how we should live, and what we should do. What makes one blessed is not simply poverty or hunger or sadness or suffering for one’s Faith, but commitment to Jesus and His spirit of sharing.
Dear brothers and sisters, we need to respond to the challenges of the Beatitudes in our daily lives. Millions are starving, persecuted, homeless, and leading hopeless lives. When we reach out to help them, we are living out the Beatitudes. In addition, Jesus tells us that we are serving him in these suffering people. We are also loving our neighbours as Jesus loves us. That is why we are told that we will be judged based on our acts of mercy and charity (Mt 25:31-46).
2) Let us also remember that each time we reach out to help the people who are needy, sick, and/or oppressed, we give them the experience of God’s love for them.
3) Just as the Apostles were called to minister to society’s untouchables, so all Christians are called to minister to the untouchables, the discriminated against and the marginalized in our modern society, that they may meet God’s love in human flesh.
PAX VOBIS
Catholic Diocese of Ilorin, Kwara State,
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