Luke 6:20-26 Is There Ever A Dull Moment?

Luke 6:20-26  Is There Ever A Dull Moment?

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Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours…Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 

Life is amazing!  It is full of surprises.  But we often forget that the same surprise can be both good and bad; a blessing and a curse; sweet and bitter. 

Beauty is a gift.  But it is also a curse.  Wealth brings people together.  It can also keep them apart.  Love is joyful.  But it is also painful.  Poverty can be a blessing just as much as plenty can be a curse!  Friends can keep me all together.  But they can also tear me apart.  Being much talked about can quickly turn into being much gossiped about!

Is there ever a dull moment?

Sometimes it just feels like you can’t win!  I went to a birthday party and was surprised by the reaction of a seven-year-old when his uncle handed him a five dollar bill.  The child looked at it and then turned to him and said, “But I already have one!!!”   I thought to myself, “Boy, at that age, I may not have been able to add apples together, but I definitely knew how to add money together!”

It seems like there’s no winning, ever. 

How quickly peace can elude us.  How quickly a dark thought can invade us.   

Today’s Gospel paints an even bleaker picture of life.  If you are poor, then you are blessed.  If you are rich, then beware!  What is going on?  Is there ever a peaceful moment? 

There is.  But it takes faith.  It takes realism.  It takes preparation.  It takes vision.

The world took billions of years to establish itself.  And now that it has, it is gradually dying a slow and decaying death.  It took years for us to grow up. And now that we have, we are gradually dying a slow and decaying death.

Poverty is not an illness.  Misery is an illness.  And the miserable (Les Miserable) can be anyone:  King and peasant; young and old; rich and poor; beautiful and ugly; employed and unemployed. 

But no faithful are miserable.  A faithful person may be a poor person, rich person, young person, elderly person, beautiful person, ugly person, employed person, unemployed person.  But they are not a miserable person.   In fact, they are a loving person.

The reason why poverty is with us and is here to stay is the same reason why death is with us and is here to stay.  It is a part of the plan:  part creation, part sin, part life and part human.  It is a part of our falling down and growing up.  Think about it.  Why does the world give us a sense of beauty?  To watch it fade away?  Why is strength and health a thing to marvel at?  To experience weakness and illness?  Why does man begin to walk? To crawl again?  Why climb up a mountain if tomorrow I will be crawling out of bed!  Why does my body insist on being taken care of,  while at the same time making the necessary preparations to put itself to an end?  

Our world was created with both ends tying a knot and settling a score.  We are born into this world with nothing.  We die to this world empty handed.  We are placed in a womb.  We die and are placed in a hole. 

Yes, all things pass away, but not out of tragedy; rather, for an entirely different reason.  It is not to give birth to tragedy; it is to give birth to life and love.

Why is it that “We don’t know what we have until it is gone?”  Why must this be the prelude, the necessary opening act, to living and loving?  It doesn’t have to be!   But if I do not ever give myself, then I will never find myself.  Only if I give myself, will I find myself.  Only if I give myself, will I experience love.  Only when all “things” pass, will I witness heavenly things. 

When the music stops, why do we stop singing?  When the music stops, why do we stop dancing?  The lover does not wait for the beloved to love.  He does not wait for words of love before he gives a kiss.  The lover loves before the other.  Why give so much importance to what is given when I can give what must be given?  I do not need to have money to loved or loving.  I do not need to have music in order to sing a lullaby.  I do not need to be beautiful to be wonderful.   I do not need to be loved in order to love. 

The Lord came into the world to remind us of many things.  One being… that there is never a dull moment in life and love.