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Catholic Scripture Study Series I CATHOLIC SCRIPTURE STUDY Catholic Scripture Study Notes written by Sister Marie Therese, are provided for the personal use of students during their active participa- tion and must not be loaned or given to others. SERIES I THE GOSPEL OF LUKE AND ACTS OF THE APOSTLES Lesson 10 Commentary Luke 6:17 – 7:50 Lesson 11 Questions Luke 8 – 9:50 JESUS BEGINS TO TEACH AND HEAL Luke 6:17 - 7:50 I. INTRODUCTION thew concentrates on in Chapters 5-7. Matthew speaks primarily of moral attitudes: “poor in spir- The gospel of Matthew shows this scene on a it,” “hungry for righteousness.” Luke is more con- mountain, since he emphasizes the new Law as crete: “you who are poor ... who hunger now.” replacing the Law of Sinai, but Luke’s Gentile audience would not have profited by that. Also, II. BEATITUDES: BLESSINGS, HAPPINESS Luke sees a mountain as the place of Jesus’ en- counter with the Father. On the plain He meets A. In Our Society. We might summarize by men and women, bringing to them the life of the saying there must be prosperity, comfort, popular- Father, returning often to the mountain where He ity, control of one’s life. The beatitudes may also brings to the Father those whom He has touched. have been as much of a shock for the original His role as mediator Luke shows by topographical hearers as for us! detail. This becomes clear when the chosen three are taken to the mountain of transfiguration and to B. In the Bible (Matthew 5:1-12, Luke the Mount of Olives. 6:17-49). We might get a clearer idea by seeing the passages in which Luke uses the word. In this scene the crowds are coming for two purposes: to hear and to be healed. It is a dynam- Luke 10:23 (Jesus to Disciples): “Happy the ic event in which Jesus’ power goes out to all who eyes that see what you see, for many prophets touch Him. The cures included being released and kings wanted to see what you see.” from unclean spirits, though the dialogue with them has been anticipated by Luke in 4:41, proba- Luke 11.27 (a woman in the crowd): “Happy bly to avoid allowing them to speak here where the womb that bore you. Jesus: “happier those the focus is on the Sermon on the mountain. who hear the word of God and keep it.” Luke’s form of the Sermon is shorter; he spreads through other chapters some of what Mat- ©Copyright, 1986-1987 Catholic Scripture Study, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Series I Lesson 10 Page 2 Luke 12:37 (Jesus): “Happy are those serv- ants whom the master finds awake when he B. The Poor in Spirit. Within this setting comes.” we hear Jesus speak to those who have come out to hear Him because they sense their need. Their Luke 23:29 (Jesus): “Happy the one who will realization is God’s gift, introducing them into be at the feast in the kingdom of God.” His kingdom (opposite from that of Satan - go back to the temptations of Christ to see the riches The literal meaning of the Hebrew word for He is offered, the poverty He chooses because He beatitude is “endowed by Yahweh.” It indicates a lives by the values of the Kingdom). The poor in gift of God that has already been received, as evi- spirit know that they cannot satisfy their own denced by the action or state described. A glance hunger; they seek God’s help because they cannot at the Beatitudes tells us that there are noticeable become resigned to the world’s agony. differences between a secularized idea of happi- ness and the one presented by the Gospel! The 4th Beatitude is especially concrete, sure- ly reflecting the situation in which Jesus’ follow- ers found themselves at the time the Gospel is written. They have good cause to remember that III. BEATITUDES IN LUKE’S GOSPEL Jesus spoke of their being hated, excluded, re- viled, defamed; that He Himself suffered these A. Rich and Poor. In Luke there are 21 ref- things; that He tells the disciples on the way to erences to the rich, all of them disparaging! (Mat- Emmaus - an exclusively Lucan narration - that thew has 1 and Mark 5). Luke has 8 references to the Messiah had to suffer these things and so enter poverty, supplemented by many to humility and into His glory. The word “exclude” used here has other related attitudes. The basic contrast between the meaning of “excommunicate.” For those rich and poor is between those who believe them- whose social, physical and spiritual needs had selves to be in total control of their lives, in con- been met in the community of the synagogue, and trast to those who “know their need for God.” The who were experiencing exclusion because of their problem for the rich, as Luke uses the term, is not decision to follow Jesus, the message was literally that they have possessions but that they hoard a God-send. their goods, probably thinking that they are God’s blessing on their own virtue! (Luke alone gives C. The Woes. As for the woes, Jesus does the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man; the par- not pronounce them as curses. He merely states able of the Pharisee and the Publican completes the fact that to be absorbed in pleasures, to be the picture.) self-satisfied, content with a social order that is unjust, to experience no yearning for the King- The common element in the quotations given dom, is to be in a state that is the opposite of on the previous page is an openness to receive blessedness. It is to have closed the door by which God’s gifts, to follow His plan, to let Him be God God’s grace enters. It is, a woeful state. How in one’s life. The Old Testament theme of the An- many today in a Christian era, are in that state? awim, the “Poor of Yahweh,” was an appropriate Do we invite them to experience our spiritual preparation for the Gospel. The scene of John’s riches? baptizing reflects the same theme: those who ask “What must we do?” stand over against the Phari- The Beatitudes are addressed to those for sees and scribes who come out to watch John and whom the power of Satan is already broken. They to judge him, not to receive from him (cf 16:19- are attitudes for a shared life, the exigencies of 31; 12:21; 21:3-4; 18:24-25; 12:22-34). freedom, the new Wisdom of the Kingdom. They Series I Lesson 10 Page 3 reflect God’s attitudes, flow from His inmost per- nounce his rights; and if we do uphold them in sonality, as reflected in the life of Jesus, To negate view of the common good, it should not be in a them would be to negate His life within us; but vengeful frame of mind.” whoever hears Jesus’ promise bids farewell to cer- Luke uses as climax of this passage the com- tainty in outward wealth, but also in spiritual mand to be “merciful as our heavenly Father is treasures of the Pharasaical kind. merciful”. Where Matthew had quoted “Be per- fect as your heavenly Father is perfect,” Luke IV. THE LIFE IN THE KINGDOM concretizes the form that perfection is to take. The mercy he calls for is proof of the restoration of A. Values of the Kingdom. From the Beat- that “image of God” in which man was created; it itudes Jesus moves into the conduct that must rejects Satan’s invitation to “be like gods.” Love flow from the blessings the believer has received. is to be given as freely as God gives it, and as Luke’s account of this is quite different from Mat- continuously. We are reminded of Luke’s gene- thew’s. He omits the indictment of “everyone alogy that takes Jesus back to “son of Adam, son who is angry with his brother,” the command to of God” (Luke 3:38). “pray for those who insult you...,” the command to “pluck out the eye” or “cut off the hand” that is Luke 6:37-42 moves from love of enemies to a cause of scandal. These are Semitic hyperbole love of the brethren. It is an insertion that appears that his Gentile listeners would not understand. only in Luke. Already there are echoes of the His focus is on the difference between what is ex- “Our Father” in the command to “forgive, and you pected of one formed to secular values such as to will be forgiven.” The golden rule has taken a love those who love you, do good to those who do new turn: We are to do to others as we want God good to you, lend to those who will repay. to do to us! We are to do it because He has al- ready done it to us, because He continues to do it Those who belong to the Kingdom are to love to us, because He enables us to do it to others. enemies, bless those who curse, pray for those One acts not so much to earn merit or anything who abuse them. They are to give to all who beg, else, but because this is God’s way of acting, and even to relinquish claim on what is taken away we are children of the Most High.
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