Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
“Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!”
Today, we review again the “beatitudes” and the “misfortunes: “Blessed are you when people hate you (…) on account of the Son of Man. (…) But woe to you who laugh now, (…) for you will grieve and weep.” (Lk 6: 22-26). Fidelity to Christ and to his Gospel may make us to be rejected, insulted by the media, and hated, as those who crucified him hated Christ. Some may think this is due to lack of faith, but maybe, after all, is just lack of reasoning. Indeed, it seems our world refuses to think or be free. We are immersed in a lust for pleasure and riches; immersed in consumables; blinded by the libertarian indoctrination full of vain and empty words, which darken our personal standards and values and scorns the Church's and Christ's teachings, which is the only line of thinking that, right now, truly goes up stream. But, in spite of this, the Lord-Jesus still encourages us: “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.” (Lk 6:22-23).
Saint John Paul II, in the encyclical Fides et Ratio, wrote: “Faith impels reason to leave its isolation and to advocate gladly for what is beautiful, good and true.” The Christian experience, in its saints, shows us the truth of the Gospel and of these words from Holy Father. Confronting a world that indulges in vice and selfishness as the only source of happiness, Jesus shows us another way: the happiness of the Kingdom of God, which our world finds so difficult to assume to the point of hating and rejecting it. Christians, in the midst of all temptations that this “easy life” offers, know the only way is the love Christ has shown for us in the Cross, the way of fidelity to the Father. We know that difficulties should not discourage us. If we truly seek our Lord, “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy” (cf. Lk 6:23).