Greeting (See First Reading)
Blessing on you who recognize your poverty and therefore put
your trust in the Lord; blessing on you when the Lord is your hope. May the
grace of the Lord be always with you. R/ And also with you.
Introduction by the Celebrant
- Those
Whom God Makes Happy
People who have everything they need, or have what they
think they need, are not easily open to God, or even to other people. On the
other hand, people in difficulties are generally more open to others, receptive
to help and love from God and people, and, consequently, also more open to see
the needs of others and to help them; for they know from experience what it
means to be poor, troubled, sorrowing and dependent on others. Jesus asks of us
today to become people willing to feel our needs and to depend on God. Then we
will also be open to our neighbor, to receive and to give. We acknowledge our
poverty and dependence before Jesus.
- God
Is with the Poor
People who are clumsy and unfortunate, those who are
suffering and persecuted are assured by the Lord: Consider yourselves
fortunate, for I am with you! I will never abandon you. I will carry you, for
you are aware of your poverty and you trust in me. We ask the Lord to count us
among the poor who rely on him and to take us into his kingdom.
Penitential Act
Too often we are too self-satisfied to make room for God and
for people. We now ask the Lord and one another for forgiveness. (pause)
Lord Jesus, you became poor for our sake to make us rich
with your forgiveness and life: Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy. Jesus
Christ, you came to join us in our miseries to heal us and to bring us joy: Christ,
have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you make us hungry for enduring love to fill us
with your lasting happiness: Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Forgive us our weaknesses, Lord, and make us live for you
and for people. Lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.
Opening Prayer
Let us put our trust in God and hope everything from him on
account of Jesus, our risen Lord (pause)
God our Father, you appeal to us today through your Son to
choose freely and responsibly the kind of happiness that endures. Let the
gospel of your Son shock us into recognizing the emptiness and poverty of
material riches and human power and fill our poverty with the riches and
freedom of your truth, your love and justice, which you offer us through Jesus,
your risen Son and our Lord forever. R/ Amen.
First Reading (Jer 17:5-8): A Curse or a Blessing: Your
Choice!
Through the prophet, God asks his people to choose
between two ways: human ways or God’s way. Only God’s way leads to happiness.
Second Reading: If Christ Is Not Risen, Our Faith Is
Worthless
Christ rose from the dead. His resurrection is the pledge
that our sins are forgiven, that life is worthwhile, that we will rise with
him.
Gospel: Good for You... Alas for You...
Call yourself fortunate, says Luke, if you are poor and
rejected, for then you are still open to God. The self-satisfied are the ones
to be pitied, for they are not open to God’s future.
Intercessions (J. Feder, adapted)
Jesus had his own definition of who would be happy and who would
be pitied. Let us ask him that we may judge and live not by our standards but
by his, and let us say: R/ Lord, hear our prayer.
1. For
the poor, that the Lord may fulfill their expectations; for the satisfied, that
the Lord may change their hearts and make them capable of love, let us pray: R/
Lord, hear our prayer.
2. For
those who are hungry, that the Lord himself may give them the bread of eternal
life and inspire us to give them the bread of each day; and for those who are
now filled with themselves, that he may arouse their hunger and open them to
trust in him, let us pray: R/ Lord, hear our prayer.
3. For
those who now weep, that the Lord may console them with his love; and for those
who now laugh, that he may remind them of the seriousness of life and make them
capable of reflection, let us pray: R/ Lord, hear our prayer.
4. For
those who are hated, insulted, rejected, that the Lord may unite their
sufferings to his own; for those who are praised and flattered, that he may
wake them up from their self-complacency and reveal to them too the mystery of
his cross, let us pray: R/ Lord, hear our prayer.
Lord Jesus Christ, you wanted to experience the poverty, the
hunger, the suffering and the persecution that is the lot of many. Give us a
share in the newness of your own risen life, and let our lives proclaim the
happiness to which you call us, for you are our Lord forever. R/ Amen.
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord God, loving Father, in the poverty of our hearts you
give us your Son Jesus Christ as our food and drink of life. May he give us the
courage to place all our trust and hope in him, that we may follow him, not
blindly, but knowingly and deliberately on his way of loyalty and poverty, that
we may attain with him your happiness that lasts forever. R/ Amen.
Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer
Let us thank and praise the Father in heaven, for we know
that we are in his hands. In him we have life and true happiness.
Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer
With those who hunger for bread, for love and for happiness,
let us pray to the Father in heaven in the words taught us by his Son: R/ Our
Father...
Deliver Us
Deliver, us, Lord, from the curse of placing our trust in ourselves, our possessions, our plans, our own schemes for happiness. Instead, grant us the blessing of going your insecure ways, of living with our poverty and hungering for your love and truth, as we wait in joyful hope for the coming in glory of our risen Savior, Jesus Christ. R/ For the kingdom...
Invitation to Communion
This is our Lord who said: ”Happy are you who are poor; happy are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.” Happy indeed are we to be invited to the table of the Lord to be filled with his life and blessing. R/ Lord, I am not worthy...
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God, the words spoken to us today by Jesus your Son
are hard to hear and accept; they go against our mentality. Let your Son make
us wise with your own insight and wisdom and let him give us the courage to be
on the side of the poor and the suffering, that our human insufficiency may
attract the riches of your grace, which you offer us through Jesus Christ our
Lord. R/ Amen.
Blessing
Curse or blessing... Choose, said Jeremiah. Good for you... Alas for you, said Jesus through the evangelist Luke. Let us be aware of our own indigence, that before God, we are after all beggars who have to open our hands and to reach out to him for happiness that can last. May it not be alas or a curse, but may God bless you: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
May the Lord go with you
and fill your every need.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Commentary
Becoming Beatitudes
Read:
Jeremiah declares the cause of blessedness: absolute trust
in God. For Paul, the resurrection of Christ is the justification of our hope.
Jesus pronounces the Beatitudes of his Kingdom.
Reflect:
Unfortunately, many well-meaning Christians are obsessed
with the Ten Commandments, like the rich young man of Mk 10:17-22. They are
stuck with a God who is a fearsome judge who keeps an account of their dos and
don’ts. If only we could migrate to the beauty of the Beatitudes! This is not
to reject the Commandments. Whereas the Commandments are all about ‘doing,’ the
Beatitudes are all about our ‘being.’ The doing should spring from our being,
and not vice versa! This can only happen if we listen to the wisdom Jeremiah
shares today: “Blessed is the man who puts his trust in the Lord and whose
confidence is in him!” When we are rooted in the being of Christ by becoming
the Beatitudes, “the year of drought is no problem and [we] can always bear
fruit”—the dos and don’ts of the Commandments do not have to be forced; they
flow from our being.
Pray:
Make a short prayer out of each Beatitude.
Act:
Choose one of the Beatitudes to grow into, for this month. (Thus, choose for every month, hereafter.)
