Questions for reflection

As you slowly read this Gospel passage, allow its words to soak into your mind. You may want to light a candle to help you ponder the passage, reflect on the image above or on the words of Pope Francis below. You may even want to imagine you are on the level ground listening to Jesus inviting us to be blessed.

1. What is this passage saying to you?

2. As you ponder the Beatitudes, how do they make you feel? Which of them most caught your attention; most touched your heart; most challenged you; most comforted you? Is there anything in this passage that you found uncomfortable? Do you feel ‘blessed’ joyful? From where, from whom, does this joy come?

3. ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied..’ What are you hungry for? What will satisfy your needs? Do you know anyone who is hungry? How can you be a Pilgrim of Hope and bring God’s love to them?

4. ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you.’ Do you know someone who is marginalised? What can you do to help them feel included? Have you ever felt excluded or hated? Did you feel the love of God perhaps through someone unexpected?

5. ‘Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; ’ What brings you joy? What blessings can you give thanks to God for?

6. ‘But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.’ How do you treat your possessions? What disordered attachments keep you from the freedom of being a disciple of Jesus?

Pope Francis tells us:

The page from today’s Gospel invites us to reflect on the profound sense of having faith, which consists in our trusting completely in the Lord. It is about demolishing worldly idols in order to open our hearts to the true and living God. He alone can give our life that fullness so deeply desired and yet difficult to attain.

We are called to happiness, to be blessed, and we become so as of now, to the measure in which we place ourselves on the side of God, of his Kingdom, on the side of what is not ephemeral but rather endures for eternal life. We are happy if we acknowledge we are needy before God — and this is very important: “Lord, I need you” — and if, like him and with him, we are close to the poor, the suffering and the hungry. We too are like this before God: we are poor, suffering, we are hungry before God. Although we possess worldly goods, we experience joy when we do not idolize or sell our souls out to them, but are able to share them with our brothers and sisters. Today the liturgy invites us once again to question ourselves about this and to be truthful in our heart.