Forming Good Stewards - This week's gospel message

"Blessed are you ..." Luke 6:20-26

The passive tone of the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount in St. Matthew’s Gospel must be read in concert with the mandate to act in St. Luke’s version of the same event in his Sermon on the Plain. The words of Jesus in St. Luke are not only more forceful, but he adds the “woes” to those who fail or refuse to act. Rev. Abuna Elias Chacour is a Melkite Catholic priest who was born in Biram in Galilee (northern part of Israel). His family and fellow villagers were forced off their land and out of their homes by the Israelis. He speaks Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke. He translates the Beatitudes in a more pro-active way. He proposes that Jesus meant: “You who are poor—who seek justice—peacemakers—get up, go ahead, do something, about your poverty—justice—peace—and you will be blessed.”