6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel Bullet Points (Luke 6:17, 20-26)

• Everybody seeks happiness but often we look for it in the wrong place. Some believe that one can be happy if he has lots of money; others believe that happiness is when you have what you want or do what you wish in life. But soon only to realize that happiness promised by money, prestige, and worldly allurements is fake and short-lived.
• In today’s Gospel, the Lord presents to us the 8 Beatitudes – a road map for anyone who seeks to attain true and lasting happiness – the kind of happiness that the world and everything in it cannot give.
• Take note that the beatitudes are reversals of the materialistic and worldly concepts of true happiness: 

1. While the Lord says: BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT, the world says: BLESSED ARE THE RICH.

2. While the Lord says: BLESSED ARE THOS WHO MOURN, the world says: BLESSED ARE THOSE HAVING FUN IN THE MALLS, DISCO, AND BEACH.

3. While the Lord says: BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL, the world says: BLESSED ARE THE POWERFUL.

4. While the Lord says: BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART, the world says: BLESSED ARE THE SEXY and SLIM IN BODY.

5. Where Jesus says: BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS, the world says: BLESSED ARE THE NEWSMAKERS.

6. And, where Jesus says: BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE PERSECUTED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS’ SAKE, the world says: BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO CAN AFFORD TO OFFER BRIBES for they can avoid persecution.

• The Beatitudes are prescriptions for happiness. It was St. Augustine who said that the Sermon on the Mount is the perfect standard of Christian life. If you live by this teaching of the Lord, then rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great.  Have a prayerful Sunday!