Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.… But woe to you that are rich,
for you have received your consolation” (Luke 6:20, 24).
The Beatitudes present us with a whole way of life, a new way of living in the world. It
is the way of the anawim of the Old Testament, the blessed poor who lived only for God.
They are the true blessed ones. Jesus tells us that the rich who live a luxurious life are
cursed, for they have had their consolation in the pleasures of the flesh and of the body,
in worldly pleasures. “But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your
consolation” (Luke 6:24). “Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matt. 19:23-24).
It is better to be among the poor of this world who live only for God. “Blessed
are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20). If we are not poor by birth,
we can still accept Jesus’ invitation to become poor by voluntarily renouncing the world
and its pleasures for the sake of the kingdom of God. This is the call to perfection, to
renounce the pleasures of the world for the sake of the kingdom of God.
To the rich young man, Jesus said, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you
possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me”
(Matt. 19:21). The rich glutton, “who feasted sumptuously every day” (Luke 16:19),
heard in hell (where he went after death) that he has already had his consolation in the
luxurious life he led on earth (Luke 16:25). “Son, remember that you in your lifetime
received your good things” (Luke 16:25).
Now is the time to decide. Will you live in the future for God or for yourself?
Will you live a radical life of evangelical poverty, or will you continue living a life of
worldly pleasure? Will you accept Jesus’ invitation to be one of the anawim who live
only for him, or will you have your consolation here below in the pleasures of the world?
Jesus invites us to a new way of living, to be one of the poor of Yahweh, to accept
evangelical poverty and renounce the world and its pleasures to have our consolation in
him and in the kingdom. St. Paul invites us to live a risen life in the risen Christ and seek
the things that are above, not those of the world. “If then you have been raised with
Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col. 3:1-2). He
also warns us not to be like many who “live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end
is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on
earthly things” (Phil. 3:18-19)
BIBLE FACTS - A blog that tells about the facts in the bible and gives inspirational quotes
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Blessed Are the Poor
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