September 9
Blessed Are The Poor
Today's Gospel: Luke
6:20-26
“Looking at his
disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of
God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you
who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, when
they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the
Son of Man.
“Rejoice in that
day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how
their ancestors treated the prophets. “But woe to you who are rich, for you
have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you
will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to
you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated
the false prophets.”
Reflection:
I was going to
open with something else entirely, but this line kept pulling at me instead:
have you ever really been hungry? Not the growl of a skipped lunch, not a fast
you chose on your own terms. I mean a hunger that has nothing to do with food
at all, the kind Jesus is naming when He calls the hungry and the weeping
"blessed." That word doesn't make sense until you've felt it.
Now turn it over
and spin it around. (Sometimes my writing reflects my joy.) Have you ever
hungered for the Lord so much that you couldn't sit still, had to open your
Bible, get to Mass, sit in Adoration for hours, tell someone, anyone, about
Jesus? That hunger overflows into joy, because what you are hungry for is a
Person, and He actually satisfies that craving. This is what "poverty of
spirit" means to me: not deprivation but rather making room for Jesus.
Clearing space in your life so Jesus alone fills it, so He becomes the treasure
you actually can't live without. Our strength comes from His Word and His Love.
The real poverty, the kind that brings sorrow, is when I let my time, my one,
unrepeatable life, drift away from Him. This is why I don’t let the things of
this world distract me, because in the end it’s only there to veer me away from
my life’s true focus: Jesus.
Fr. Mullally used
to tell me, often, "Jim, you need interests outside of your faith."
And every time, I'd push back. Our Lord, Our Lady, and the Rosary, that's not a
hobby for me. That's my whole life, that’s all I live and breathe, and I love it.
Think about an athlete training for the biggest game of their life, up before
dawn running the extra miles, watching what they eat, studying the film. But
for me it's not about a game. It's about the day I have to stand before the
Lord. I don't know when that day is coming, and I can't reschedule it. So, I
want to be ready. I want to be in shape spiritually, and that means giving my
time and energy to Him every single day, so that whenever that appointment
comes, I'm ready.
So, fellow
athletes of the soul: this training isn't for someday; it's happening now,
today, in the ordinary hour in front of you. We don't get to schedule when the
appointment comes. What is your soul actually hungry for right now, and are you
letting anything smaller convince you it's enough?
Rosary Man Jim
🌹
Freely given. Freely shared.
