Gospel according to Saint Luke 6:17.20-26:

Jesus came down with the Twelve and stood on a stretch of level ground with a great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: “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. 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.”

祝你财富增多

Luis CASASUS President of the Idente Missionaries

Rome, February 16, 2025 | VI Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jer 17: 5-8; 1Cor 15: 12.16-20; Lk 6: 17.20-26

Zhù nǐ cáifù zēngduō. It is clearer for those of us who do not know Chinese: May your wealth increase. It is the traditional Chinese New Year greeting, which began last January 29. It is now celebrated in the Chinese zodiac the “year of the snake”.

Perhaps we should go deeper into this message, which wishes prosperity and seems to contrast with the first of the Beatitudes that Jesus presents to us today: Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. To make matters worse, Luke’s Gospel offers a less nuanced version than Matthew, who mentions the “poor in spirit”. Luke simply refers to “the poor”. Moreover, the Master uses the harshest words for the rich; he not only pronounces a blessing on the poor, but also casts a curse on the rich: Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation!

Who are the rich, who are the poor?

There is a fundamental distinction between poverty and destitution. All human beings have the right to have their basic needs met. The fact that millions of people in our world live in a state of destitution, where hunger and disease ravage entire nations, is a sin against humanity. Certainly, there is no blessing in this, nor can it ever be a cause for happiness. Whenever we deny our cloak to the naked or our food to the hungry, we sin, not only against the human person, but also against God himself.

But evangelical poverty is not the same as destitution. The destitute may feel that they are abandoned, but the poor are definitely not abandoned by God. Poverty is the state of simplicity, that is, the state of having only what one needs and the perfect use of the goods we possess, material or not; a central example of non-material goods is the time we have at our disposal. The value of evangelical poverty is so great that Francis of Assisi made of it an entire path of spiritual life.

There is no need to insist too much on the fact that the abundance of material goods, with or without greed, does not bring deep happiness. I remember in Mumbai, walking through a neighborhood where there were only plastic and cardboard shacks, seeing the touching smile of a couple watching their two children at play. A little later, I witnessed a heated argument between an elegantly dressed husband and wife, in front of their luxurious car, as they entered a mansion, which I imagine was their property, with a sour and unpleasant gesture.

Since the material and emotional misery in which many human beings live can lead to spiritual destitution, our Father and Founder tells us that we must try to alleviate all the possible evils that afflict humanity, especially the young, who are exploited, used and abandoned in a thousand ways.

—ooOoo—

But, returning to the typical desire of the Chinese culture in the New Year, that is, prosperity, we cannot remain in its most vulgar meaning, material wealth, but what Christ himself promises to the poor in spirit: They will be satisfied. This means that the Holy Spirit will find a way for us to live a full life, in which it becomes impossible for us to desire other things. The second part of each Beatitude comes to tell us: Do not seek, do not be anxious; God himself will grant you what you long for, but in a different way than you imagine and making you free from your anxieties to be happy.

In fact, if we reflect carefully, each of the Beatitudes signifies a distance from some tyrannical idol of this world: power, control of others, eliminating in some way those who contradict us, the longing for happiness free from suffering, using our flesh and the flesh of others as instruments of pleasure, being absolutely free from all opposition….

St. Luke begins his narrative by saying that Jesus raised his eyes towards his disciples, a gesture that signifies a request for the utmost attention, a declaration of something intimate that one wishes to share. As St. Ambrose says: What is it to lift up one’s eyes, but to reveal a light that was hidden? The Master teaches us with the Beatitudes how to integrate pain into our lives and how to detach ourselves from everything in order to have the joy of embracing every human being.

When Christ says that whoever does not renounce all his possessions cannot be his disciple, He is not simply setting a condition for working with Him; certainly the kingdom of heaven implies a continuous effort, but also a state of beatitude that cannot be achieved by attachment to judgments, desires and hunger for happiness. Even if we were capable of doing much good, it is enough to hold something back to feel, sooner or later, that we are literally stealing the lives of others.

One of the most memorable scenes in the 1993 Best Picture Oscar winner Schindler’s List comes at the end. Oscar Schindler, a German industrialist, protected the lives of over 1100 Jews during World War II by including them on his list of “essential workers” while producing defective ammunition for the Nazis. He looks around the factory at the people he saved and reflects: “If only I had made more money. I wasted so much money, you can’t imagine. … I didn’t make enough. This car. Why did I keep it? Ten people right there, ten more people. This brooch… two more people. At least one. One more person, for this. I could have gotten one more person, and I didn’t.

Poverty of spirit, whether or not united to material poverty, leads us to be convinced of our dependence on God. And, if we accept this truth, He chooses us to possess the kingdom of heaven. Otherwise, we will only be Christ’s sympathizers and rather individualistic, without realizing the opportunities that the Holy Spirit offers us to live as apostles.

It will happen to us like a Catholic lawyer who visited a fellow non-believer he had been with for twenty years who was dying in a hospital. Now that you are dying, don’t you think you should embrace the faith? His colleague replied: If your faith meant so little to you in life that you never spoke of it in twenty years, then surely it can mean very little in my death.

This is very different from what is conveyed, with or without words, by the life of a detached disciple far from his preferences.

So it happened to St. Anthony of Egypt (250-356), who lived as a hermit in the desert for many years. There he became so wise that many people came to him to consult him on spiritual matters. The story is told of three monks who used to visit Antony every year, and two of them used to ask him questions about their inner thoughts and the salvation of their souls; but the third always remained completely silent, without asking any questions. After a long time, Anthony said to him: Look, you have been in the habit of coming to me all this time, and yet you do not ask me any questions. And the other replied: Father, it is enough for me to look at you.

We find a touching case of material and spiritual poverty in the Old Testament.

It is about the widow of Zarephath (1Ki 17). Although she was impoverished, she gave greater priority to the kingdom of God than to her own needs, assisting with a loaf of bread, the only one she had, none other than a great prophet who was in distress. Then God blessed her selfless faithfulness with many more wonders than she could ever have imagined: a year of miraculous food and the raising of her son from the dead by Elijah.

Today is a good day to ask ourselves, you and I, what we need to let go of, what our selflessness lacks. The answer will surely not have to do with anything material, but rather with time, with our habits, with our instinct that leads us to “give lessons” to everyone, to have the last word in every conversation.

It is for this reason that our Father Founder presents Poverty, Chastity and Obedience in the Ascetical Examination as the first manifestations of Prayer, those that make possible a truly evangelical love, which we call Charity. Yes, living the Beatitudes, especially spiritual poverty, is the fruit of the action of the Holy Spirit, but it demands a sensitivity and a vigorous acceptance of what our Founder calls Stigma, a true mark on our spirit, which leads us to beg not to be so foolish as to separate ourselves for an instant from the Divine Persons.

I would like to conclude with a historical example, of an Italian nobleman who used his sensitivity only for his own glory, being incapable of appreciating the work of others, remaining attached to his opinions and putting up obstacles and difficulties with the sole desire to satisfy his ego.

When the great statue of David by the brilliant artist Michelangelo was first placed in the Piazza in Florence, all the people stood in silence, marveling at its noble majesty, all except one member of the lofty Soderinni family. This man looked at the statue from different points of view with a wise and critical air, and then suggested that the nose was a little too long.

The great sculptor listened quietly to the suggestion and, taking his chisel and mallet, placed a ladder against the statue to reach the face and climbed up, carrying some marble dust in his hand. Then he seemed to work carefully on the objectionable feature, as if changing it to suit his critic’s taste, dropping the marble dust as he worked. When he came down, Soderinni looked at the figure again, now from one point of view and then from another, finally expressing his full approval. His suggestion had been accepted, as he supposed, and he was satisfied.

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In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

Luis CASASUS

President