For centuries, many people have admired the Beatitudes. This doesn't mean that they try to live them, but you don't find many people bad-mouthing the Beatitudes. However, Luke's Beatitudes are extra-hard to take. They could even surface a negative attitude and elicit a less than polite reaction. Luke's Beatitudes are not addressed to "them" but to "you." He has four Beatitudes instead of eight, and then he gives four Woes to drive home the radical, prophetic challenge of his four Beatitudes. Luke is "in the face" of the rich, the full, the laughing, and the popular (see Lk 6:24-26). Tell someone who's laughing that he is going to weep (Lk 6:25). Announce to someone who's reveling in her popularity that she is similar to the false prophets of old (Lk 6:26). If Luke's Beatitudes don't make us hot or cold toward Jesus (see Rv 3:16), we must be spiritually asleep or dead (see Rv 3:1).

Sometimes a bad attitude towards the Beatitudes is better than a polite dismissal of them. The cold have a better chance of becoming hot than do the lukewarm. Live the Beatitudes or, if you insist, strongly reject them, but please don't give them lip-service (see Mt 15:8).

Rescript:  †Most Reverend Joseph R. Binzer, Auxiliary Bishop, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, February 4, 2013

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