The First Beatitude in Luke: A Hard Teaching

Certain passages throughout the four Gospels contain blessings and warnings that bring Jesus’ teaching into sharp focus. These passages are known as “Beatitudes,” a genre made famous in Jesus’ teaching from Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 5:1-12). “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3). Sometimes, as in this Sunday’s Gospel, the blessings are complimented by a set of “woes” in the form of a warning. “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation” (Lk 6:24). If you dig a little deeper, throughout the Old Testament and New Testament, wisdom literature is filled with these concise blessings or warnings. In this Sunday’s readings, the first reading, psalm and Gospel passage highlight these “woes” and “blessings.”

The phrase “blessed are” can be tricky. The Hebrew and Greek words that underlie the phrase can also be translated “happy,” “lucky,” “fortunate” and even “congratulations.” For example, Mt 5:3 could also be translated: “Congratulations if you are poor in spirit, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.” When one keeps this richness of meaning in mind during a slow and prayerful read, one can discover a world of wisdom and mystery about the kingdom of God. 

This Sunday’s psalm, for example, begins with a beatitude. “Blessed the man who does not sit in the company of the insolent, but delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night” (Ps 1:1-2). You might think that the opposite of keeping company with the wicked would be to spend time with pious people or to surround yourself with better people. The first psalm, however, suggests that the antithesis of surrounding yourself with sinners and their poor counsel is to surround yourself with the words of Scripture that communicate the presence of God. This does not exclude seeking the good counsel of wise people, but the emphasis in this passage is to go right to the source of wisdom, the very presence of God discovered through meditating on the sacred word. 

In this Sunday’s Gospel, some of the beatitudes listed correlate with an opposite outcome. The second one, for example, begins “Blessed are you who are now hungry,” followed by its resolution, “for you will be satisfied” (Lk 6:21). The subsequent beatitude follows a similar pattern, “Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.” This is not the case, however, with the blessed ones who are poor now. They do not become rich, but will inherit the kingdom of God (Lk 6:20). 

This presents a mystery. Why is the situation of the poor not corrected with riches? Is it to avoid false hope that the poor will never break out of their poverty? Or, are all the broken hearted (those who hunger and weep) meant to be satisfied later in the kingdom of God? Jesus’ teaching subverts the human desire to be satisfied immediately. The teaching suggests that those who suffer now are not far from the presence of God, who never forgets them. In the wisdom of this beatitude, the structures of human society that create poverty are not only rooted in a maldistribution of material goods but also in alienation, from God and from each other. In Jesus’ mind, the poor have an easier time breaking out of the worldly illusions that provide only material comfort. The kingdom of God is primarily a place of intimacy with God; material realities flow from that mystical union. But this kingdom is open to all believers. In Luke’s Gospel, the poor show the way to a mystery that all are invited to enter.