The next group Jesus’ says are blessed, peaceful, and saved are those who mourn. Jesus says we will be comforted. This is speaking about all those who are suffering in our world today and there are many.[4] That Christianity is about comfort shouldn’t be a surprise to us. Of Course, when congregation members are Promoted to Glory I am often blessed to be able to be with their family, grieve alongside them, offering whatever comfort I can. And I am often reminded around Christmas time of the power of God to comfort those who mourn. I often receive Christmas cards, emails, and comments from people whose relatives’ funerals I have officiated telling me how much they have appreciated the comfort received during the memorial and how they draw on the Lord’s comfort now at Christmas time, in the absence of their loved ones. Of course this is a blessing from the Lord, for there is no comfort that I can possibly offer apart from Him. In the Kingdom, blessed, peaceful, and saved are those who mourn for they are comforted.
Matthew 26:11 (Mark 14:7, John 12:8) Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 15:11 in saying, “the poor will always be with you” As this is the case, Ignacio Ellacuria says, in essence, the great salvific task is to evangelize the poor so that out of their poverty they may attain the spirit necessary first to escape their indulgence and oppression, second to put an end to oppressive structures, and third to be used to inaugurate a new heaven and a new earth, where sharing trumps accumulating and where there is time to hear and enjoy God’s voice in the heart of the material world and in the heart of human history. [3] I think that is very important. We need to evangelize the poor. We know what the word evangelize means, right? It comes from the Greek word ‘euangelion’, which means ‘good message’ or ‘good news’. [4] We need to share the good news with the poor. Jesus, as recorded in Luke 4:18, in his very early sermon in the synagogue in his very own hometown quoted the prophet Isaia...
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