Wednesday Of the Twenty-Third Week In Ordinary Time
Happiness in Christ’s Way, Not the World’s
Liturgical Cycle: C | Lectionary Cycle: I
Introduction
The Christian who has been baptized has received a new life from God and is a new person, re-created in Christ. What we are now we have received. From now on we must live not in our merely human world of thought and action, but in the new world of Christ. This is not easy to do. This new life in Christ is to be rebuilt constantly. It is a task that never ends.
Luke is the only evangelist coming from paganism – a world of slavery, fear and oppression, and of moral license. He is so struck by the fact that Christ had a place for the poor and for marginal people, for whom nobody cared in his milieu, that this concern of Christ is one of the major emphases in his gospel, particularly in its social aspects. For example, he says, not like Matthew, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” but “Blessed are you, the poor. Woe to you, the rich…”
Opening Prayer
Lord, God of the rich and the poor,
let the message of Jesus your Son
strike us and shake us up
from our certainties and securities.
Indeed, may we use our riches
of mind and heart and faith and goods
in the service of the poor,
our power for the benefit of others,
our abundance to be shared
and to get us out of our self-satisfaction,
our happiness to console
and bring your joy, not ours.
Make us poor in pride, hungry for justice,
weeping for the evil we have caused.
And let people insult us
when we do not live up to the gospel
of Jesus Christ our Lord.
First Reading
So then, if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your mind on the things above, not on earthly things.
For you have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is your life, appears, you also will appear with him in glory.
Christian Praxis
Therefore, eliminate what is earthly in your life, such as immorality, impurity, inordinate passions, wicked desires, and greed, which is a form of idol worship. Christian Praxis
These are the things that provoke God’s anger.
For a time, you followed this way and lived in disorder.
Well then, reject all of that: anger, evil intentions, malice; and let no abusive words come from your lips
Do not lie to one another. You have been stripped of the old self and its way of thinking;
to put on the new self, which is being renewed and aims to reach perfect knowledge and the likeness of its Creator.
There is no distinction between Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, foreigner, slave or free—for Christ is all and in all.
Responsorial Psalm
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your Kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
Making known to men your might
and the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
Your Kingdom is a Kingdom for all ages,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
R. The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.
Alleluia Verse
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Rejoice and leap for joy!
Your reward will be great in heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Raising his eyes towards his disciples, Jesus said:
“Fortunate are you who are poor,
for the kingdom of God is yours.
Fortunate are you
who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
Fortunate are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for a great reward is kept for you in heaven. Remember, that is how the ancestors of the people treated the prophets.
But alas for you
who have wealth,
for you have been comforted now.
Alas for you who are full,
will go hungry.
Alas for you, who laugh now,
for you will mourn and weep.
Alas for you when people speak well of you, for that is how the ancestors of the people treated the false prophets.
Love for Enemies
Jesus said to his disciples:
Prayers of the Faithful
– For the poor, that God may fill their expectations; for the satisfied, that God may change their hearts and make them capable of sharing, we pray:
– For those who are hungry, that the Lord himself may give them the bread of life and inspire us to give them the bread of every day, we pray:
– For those who now weep, that the Lord may console them with his love; for those who now laugh, that he may remind them of the seriousness of life and make them capable of reflection, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
God, with bread and wine
we celebrate the death and suffering
of your Son Jesus Christ.
Teach us here, by his example,
that sickness and pain make sense,
that even death is a seed of life.
In humility and with shame
we accept this insight, Lord,
and ask you to let it inspire us.
May we accept it also
as a hard but saving reality,
by which we try to live, in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
you let the Word of your Son upset us,
but this eucharist gives us the strength
to take his word with open hearts and minds.
Let our riches in any form
not satisfy us but others,
that there may be room in us for hope.
Let us feel the weight of our limitations,
that we may keep hungering
for love and justice and freedom.
Give us tears to weep
that we have not dared to be
your sign of contradiction in this world.
Bless us, Lord, that we may praise and bless you
and your Son, now and forever.
Blessing
Blessed are you… What God wants is our happiness. He leaves us free: we are the ones to choose what we do with our lives. May God give you the right insight and bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Luke 6: 20-26
Happiness in Christ’s way, not the world’s
The Beatitudes are not gentle words meant to soothe; they are like flashes of lightning, breaking into our lives with power and urgency. Both in Matthew and Luke, Jesus begins His great sermon with these startling proclamations: “Blessed are the poor… Woe to the rich.” What a shock! How upside down this sounds compared to the world’s way of thinking.
The Gospel confronts us with a choice: Do we want happiness according to the world, or according to Christ? The world says, “Blessed are the strong, the wealthy, the comfortable.” But Jesus proclaims, “Blessed are you who hunger now, who weep now, who are persecuted for my sake.” This is not mere poetry—it is a revolution of the heart. It is a call to live differently.
Jesus is clear: if we give our whole energy to chasing wealth, status, and pleasure, we may succeed—but that is all we will ever have. “You have had it,” He warns. Nothing remains for eternity. But if we set our hearts on Him—on fidelity, on mercy, on truth—we may face struggle, we may be misunderstood, but we will have joy that no one can take away.
The saints understood this. They often lived poor in the world’s eyes, but rich in faith, free in spirit, radiant in joy. As St. Paul reminds us, “This slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor 4:17).
The Beatitudes ask us: What kind of happiness do we seek? The world’s passing comfort—or the eternal joy of Christ? To follow Jesus is to risk trouble, but it is also to find the deep peace that only He can give. Blessed indeed are those who choose His way.