Third Sunday before Lent
“He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people...”
Overview
Third Sunday before Lent
Both of our readings (Jeremiah 17:5-10, Luke 6:17-26) today imagine a great reversal: the hungry are now full, the rich are now poor, the bottom is now the top, and the top is now the bottom. I can see that such a vision can be helpful: it may give comfort to those who have little with the promise of future plenty, and it may prick the consciences of those who have more to make that future happen. One thing it does is to undermine the common view (then and now) that we are responsible for our own fate, that we deserve what we get; if we are poor or in trouble we only have ourselves to blame, whereas if we enjoy security and plenty we must have earned it. I am still left uncomfortable with the idea that anyone should be on top or anyone on the bottom, and this may be where the Beatitudes are leading us: should there be a top and a bottom? Would it be possible to imagine a world in which there are no rich or poor, no powerful or powerless? What would such a world look like? What do we need to do to stand with Jesus “on a level place”?
FIRST READING
Jeremiah 17:5-10
Thus says the Lord:
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
and make mere flesh their strength,
whose hearts turn away from the Lord.
They shall be like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see when relief comes.
They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.
The heart is devious above all else;
it is perverse—
who can understand it?
I the Lord test the mind
and search the heart,
to give to all according to their ways,
according to the fruit of their doings.
GOSPEL
Luke 6:17-26
He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
“But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
“Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
