IEMELIF
Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6
Jer 17:5-8
1 Cor 15:12, 16-20
Lk 6:17, 20-26
Jesus is found unapologetically stern in the Gospel lectionary reading today. I think Jesus doesn’t mean to portray an image of a cute Messiah nor an image of a friendly laughing Savior. In this passage, Jesus is dead serious.
After coming from visitations in communities, where he performed exorcisms and healing miracles, Jesus next speech states a manifesto of his political position. Perhaps he is triggered by physical exhaustion that comes from immersing in the situation of the poor and oppressed. After seeing them suffer, he was compelled to take side. He said blessed are the poor, the hungry, and those who are weeping now. This proclamation of blessedness to marginalized and suffering is comforting and, in a way, romantic. The proceeding statements are uncomforting and seemingly un-Christian. He said woe to the rich, the full now, and those who are laughing now. Jesus could have stopped his speech at part where he proclaimed the blessedness of the poor, but he went on lambasting the rich, without apologies. Perhaps, Jesus is showing to us a more nuanced way of being a disciple: It is not enough to receive the blessings, discipleship is more complete if we also advocate and become an ally to the poor and the oppressed by exposing the richness of the rich, the full, and the laughing now. Advocating for the poor requires the rebuke to the rich. An overemphasis on the poor may sound like they are the one to blame for their poverty. Rebuking the rich is also a part of the process.
Luke, the Gospel writer, has tendencies to distinguished between Jesus’ friends and enemies. In some other parts of the Gospel of Luke, he distinguished the rich man from the wound-laden Lazarus who eats the breadcrumbs falling from the rich man’s table. He also described the difficulty of a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, likening it to a camel entering a needle’s hole. Luke understands Jesus to be clear of who his friends are and who are his enemies. His depiction of Jesus is far from the reconciliatory Jesus that we would like to imagine.
What was Luke’s intention in portraying a seemingly a stern, hardliner Jesus? We may find answers by looking who are Luke’s intended audience. Luke’s intended audience, apparently and according to scholars (MacDonald 2003 2015, Alexander 2007) are the learned and the affluent in the society, evidenced by the fact that Luke addressed the Gospel to a man named Theophilus, probably a man schooled in exclusive education institutions. The stories that distinguished who Jesus’ friends and enemies is not to wage a killing spree against the rich, but an invitation to change one’s values. His speech has the effect of empowering the poor. Jesus is calling the rich to be converted, by giving a portion of their fortune to the poor.
The Duterte administration has been a cradle of the corrupt and the thieves. They have provided safe haven for those who accumulated a lot but stern to the working class people and the peasants. Remember Pharmally, remember ABS CBN’s closure, remember the selling of West Philippine Sea to Chinese government? Also, do you remember his hesitance to regularize workers, and do you remember him allowing imports of agricultural products to the detriment of farmers interests, and do you remember who were the victims of drug war? Clearly, he considered the poor Filipino people his enemies and rich his friends.
We Christians participate in national election as part of our democratic privilege and responsibility. We are told today who our enemies and friends are. Certainly Jesus sides with the poor and the oppressed in history. Unless the rich man had a change of mind and gave a portion of his wealth to the poor, and stand in solidarity with the poor, I think we know who our enemies are. At this time of intense climate of politicization, our task as Filipino Christians is to both to drumbeat the concerns that matter to the poor putting high in electoral agenda, and also to expose the real colors of those who pretend to stand with the poor. By doing this we declare the blessedness of the poor and the misery of the rich, that they may be pushed to conversion. 
Balik-Tanaw is a group blog of Promotion of Church People’s Response. The Lectionary Gospel reflection is an invitation for meditation, contemplation, and action. As we nurture our faith by committing ourselves to journey with the people, we also wish to nourish the perspective coming from the point of view of hope and struggle of the people. It is our constant longing that even as crisis intensifies, the faithful will continue to strengthen their commitment to love God and our neighbor by being one with the people in their dreams and aspirations. The Title of the Lectionary Reflection would be Balik –Tanaw , isang PAGNINILAY . It is about looking back (balik) or revisiting the narratives and stories from the Biblical text and seeing ,reading, and reflecting on these with the current context (tanaw).
