Blessed is the poor blind beggar
in the back of Church no one
sees
(In my reflections of how we have changed from a society of opportunity to one of greed, about the Archdiocese of Milwaukee taking money intended for the poor and putting it into an endowment fund and the teaching of killing and violence at Marquette University, a Catholic Jesuit school reminds me of a talk I gave some years ago as part of earning my Masters Degree in Pastoral Studies from the University of Loyola in Chicago. I made the talk tonight into a written essay below. I still need to get it edited by the Director of Modifications for the nonviolentcow.org and perhaps cleared by the Director of Pastoral Studies for this web page, but for now here it is.)
“We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it; and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” (1 John 1:1–4).
This statement describes a very real encounter with Jesus: seeing, hearing, touching Jesus. This statement is most fascinating in light of the fact that scripture scholars tell us that it probably was not written by John but by his disciples. These disciples probably had not even met the “historical Jesus.” Yet they felt the presence of Jesus so strongly that they could write with confidence that they are sharing a Jesus they heard, saw and touched so that “their joy may be complete.”
St. Ignatius in the Spiritual Exercises offers us a method of prayer in which we apply to our prayer our five senses of the body and the imagination: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. He asks us to experience scenes in the life of Jesus with our senses. Thus we experience the presence of Jesus.
Our life, as followers of the Jesus flows from a personal experience of his living presence. For the early Christians a sensuous experience of Jesus was made easier, since they lived in the land, time period and cultural system in which the ‘historical’ Jesus was present.
In the times of St. Ignatius of Loyola this challenge to directly experience Jesus with the senses was also perhaps easier. People in the 16th century had very earthly images of Jesus. Jesus and his followers, the saints, were very real to them. This is evidenced in their architecture, statures, relics, devotions and religious art works.
In our day and age we might have images of holy persons we have known and touched, people like Dorothy Day or Mother Theresa or someone in our personal lives. However, we have a difficult time imaging Jesus as someone we hear, touch, see, smell and feel. Yet in our day much ink has been spilled on who the “historical Jesus” really was— what did he say or not say, what he did or did not do, the cultural and physical environment of 1st Century Palestine.
Despite all this scholarship, discussion and debate as Christian peoples in the USA we seem to be no closer to experiencing with our senses the living Jesus than the homeless beggar who sits in
back of Gesu church on a cold day seeking warmth.
In this reflection I will use my study of the “historical Jesus” so we can glimpse with our senses who Jesus is. Specifically I will focus on some of the of the wisdom sayings of Jesus that we called “Beatitudes.” If we can really ‘know’ these sayings, experience them with our senses; perhaps we can better understand our own call as followers of the way of Jesus.
Our story begins around 28 AD in a small town called Capernaum in the hill country of Galilee. It is summer and the weather is hot and dry. Capernaum sits on the shores of Sea of Galilee in northern Palestine. This town of less than a 1000 people consists of small stone and mud brick houses, marketplace and a synagogue. Capernaum is surrounded by rolling hills some of which are being farmed, some left for grazing sheep and some others lined with olive trees. For some of you that have been to Holy Rosary in South Dakota the hills surrounding the mission are somewhat like the hills around Capernaum.
Although Capernaum was a small town, like Nazareth, it seems to have been a significant place. Like other towns of Galilee it had been Hellenized and open to the influences of the many cultures that had occupied and surrounded it. It was a stop on the main trade route in the Middle East. This brought travelers not only from Egypt in the south but from Hindu India in the distant East. A detachment of Roman soldiers had been assigned there. It had a tax office where Matthew seemed to work before he was called to be a disciple.
This part of Israel had been conquered for over 700 years since the times of the Kings, first by the Assyrians, Babylonians, than the Persians and Greeks and finally now the Romans. Although these peoples had been suppressed for so many years there was deep sense of nationhood remaining with them. They understood themselves to be the chosen people of God, a nation that had faced death at the Red Sea only to rise again on the other side. A nation that God had promised, if they kept the Lord’s laws and ways, would one day prosper over all other nations.
In Capernaum, the majority of people were peasants. They lived a subsistence existence. They were barely able to support family, animals and social obligations. Majority of them toiled the land on small plots, giving two thirds of their annual crop to support the upper class. Some survived by fishing or being artisans as Jesus seems to have been before his public life. If they were lucky they made a living barely able to support family and social obligations. If they were not luckily, disease and debt forced them into a lower class of people. By our standards they were poor, but by the standards of the time being born of the peasant class was the norm. Being a peasant was a hereditary condition and there was a little chance of improving your status.
Peasants were beholding to a very small upper class of patrons. In this class were the rulers and governors who made up only 1 per cent of the population but owned at least half of the land. Also in this class were the priests who owned land and controlled the deeply embedded religious life of the people.
Merchant, military generals and aristocratic bureaucrats enjoyed the lifestyle of this upper class. They were rich and powerful. They controlled the economy of Capernaum, the land, commerce, government, laws and the religious and social and political conditions that governed the daily life of peasants. Peasants were clients, who were very dependent on their relationship to this patron class for survival.
This small but very powerful class was rich. In a culture of very limited goods anyone who had much more than others as they did had to do so at the expense of others. The rich had to use or we may say exploit the peasants to keep and increase their wealth. In the Gospels when the “rich” are talked about as a group quite often we can substitute in our culture the word “greedy.”
Another sizable minority in Jesus’ time would have been called the “poor.” Poor was not so much a description of economic status, although the very bottom of economic scale were considered “poor, but a description for those that were not important to the function of the society or social outcast. The poor were in the very first place beggars. They were the sick and disabled, the blind, deaf, lepers, mentally ill or as the culture of times would had considered “possessed.” They were people who could not work for a living and without a relative willing or able to support them. They were the widows and orphans who were dependent on almsgiving and the Temple treasury. They were frequently hungry or thirsty but, unlike millions today, they seldom starved. The other classes of society, peasant and upper class, were obligated to take care of the poor. The principle suffering of the poor, then as now, was shame and disgrace. Poor people had no standing in a culture were hard work and position of power were a signs of honor and respect. The poor were ‘nobodies’, what we today would call marginalized people. Each town, like Capernaum, had its share of these people who lived off the charity of other groups.
Also considered in the “poor” class were those in despicable professions. They were the social outcast, the sinners, thieves, tax collectors, usurers, prostitutes and gamblers These people were a nuisance to society and were also considered nobodies and shameful.
This categorization not only applied to all individuals but to the class as a whole. For example all rich men were not greedy but the group was cast that way. This is hard for us to understand since in our culture we identify ourselves primarily as individuals. In the culture of the 1st century Palestine people primarily considered themselves as part of their group. Their identity was embedded in the group. What other people thought of your group not you as an individual, defined who you were. These groups, one’s family or political class, were the axis of power or the abuse of power.
Into this town of Capernaum came a man name Jesus, an ordinary peasant. He was an older person, about 30 years old, which was the average life span for male of that time. From the thousands of painting of Jesus you may have a physical image of him. His appearance was that of practicing Jew of the time: long hair, probably a beard and most likely curling side-locks. His clothes were those that everybody wore: a cloak without seam that had four tassels of wool at the corners. And on his feet He wore sandals, as did most of his companions.
Jesus grew up and had lived most of his life in another town of Galilee, Nazareth, similar to Carpenaum that also had been Hellenized. With his family he would have participated in the practices of “common Judaism. He would have learned the stories, hymns and prayers of the Jewish traditions. Like Jews of his time Jesus was taught a deep respect for the traditions and laws of Israel and the religious leaders, scribes and priest. He probably learned his father Joseph’s trade and was a woodworker before embarking on his spiritual quest, perhaps following John the Baptist at first and then after John’s imprisonment setting off on his own.
When we meet him in Capernaum he already is an itinerant preacher, who spoke to whoever who listen and at times in the local synagogues. Capernaum seems to be his home base when he was traveling the hills of Galilee. It was there that he found many of his first followers, the brothers Peter and Andrew and the Zebedee brothers James and John. They were local men who made their living by fishing the Sea of Galilee and exchanging their fish for other necessary foods and items of survival. Having others followers was not uncommon in this time. In a patronage society when your identity is so much with your group following a leader in-group was a common experience. There were other itinerant preachers who had disciples following them.
One of the followers Jesus seems to pick up in Capernaum was a tax collector, one of the rich and infamous. That was unusual. Taxpayers were despicable persons to the Jews. They made their money exploiting Jewish, people, the ultimate sinners. Not only did he called one to be his follower Jesus actually shared meals with them, something you only did with those of your own class, certainly not with these tax collections and others sinners.
Besides being a preacher Jesus was known as a healer. When he is in Capernaum he seeks out the poor and social outcast. The poorest of the poor, as mentioned before, included the ill, those with leprosy, blind, mentally ill and other incurable disease of the times By Jewish law and Roman Greece cultural values, one was not to touch them and to stay away from these unclean people. In 1st century Palestine illness and disease was a direct result of sin, the poor person own sin or that of their parents or family. Disease made one a social outcast, a beggar, an unclean spirit. These people were social repugnant, ugly to look at, sickly, smelling, desperate, no social manors. This reminds means of a scene from the movie about Dorothy Day. It is the early life Catholic Worker house of Hospitality. Her own community rebels against the ugliness and disruption of some of their guest. Drunks are disrupting the place, vomiting on the floors, are smelly. Prostitutes and derelicts are coming all times at the night. They wanted house rules governing who was accepted. Dorothy agonize her over response but says she sees Jesus in all these people and cannot turn any, no many how ugly they were at any time. Jesus not only touched these people he identified with them. To them Jesus brought new hope. He was a healer. There are more stories of Jesus healing people than of any other person in Jewish history.
In his time there was no medical establishment or treatment for the peasants and poor therefore had not much hope of any recovery. The only hope was with the priest or faith healers. The priest of the temple dispenses alms and offer prayers for the people to God for forgiveness of sins, the cause of the disease or illness. However if you had no money, no status in society, and were really just a ‘nobody’ that route was not very the way to cure your affliction. The other route was to seek a faith healer---someone who seemed to have the power to heal. To these poor Jesus was such a faith healer. He had compassion on them and they believed possessed the authority to cure them.
Many of these ‘miracles ‘ were performed in and around r Capernaum: a man possessed by devil, a paralytic who sins were forgiven as well as being healed, lepers, many of the sick and possess to the town and latter in our story it is in Capernaum that Jairius of the synagogue daughter was raised from the dead. I am not going to enter into the historical debate if Jesus was healing by intervening in the physical world or in the through intervention in the social world. However all would agree that the healing power of Jesus along with his teaching authority is what brought so many to Jesus. Right before the Beatitudes in Luke Gospel it: says: “He came down with them and stood on a lively place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases: and those troubles with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. Throughout the Gospels, the healing power of Jesus flows from touching him. A similar passage appears in Matthew right before the Beatitudes. Jesus showed compassion and healed many with his touch even when he had to contradict laws of the day governing touching the unclean and or healing on the Sabbath. And unlike other faith healers or priest of the day Jesus expected nothing in return.
One cure may illustrate this point about how Jesus was a different kind of healer and prepare us for our meditation. One of Jesus’ early healing at Capernaum was at Simon Peter’s house. Simon’s mother-in -law had been ill with a high fever. Jesus visited this house and took the woman by her hand and lifted her up. She immediately felt better and started to show her gratitude by preparing dinner for him and his followers. Word quickly spread and soon there were all types of people with various disease and illness as well those considered possessed by demons seeking him out. It was evening and he laid hands each one of them and cured them. Clearly this was a gifted person with special powers. In a patronage society this ability to heal people gave you and your kin, in this case Peter’s household a special status in society and was to be used for personal and family gain.
However, the next day in the morning Jesus was off by himself in the nearby hills of Capernaum. Disciples went looking for him. They begged him to return to Peter’s house where others were gathering to hear him and for his healing. Jesus refused. He spoke of moving on to the next town.
In many ways Jesus of Nazareth was an ordinary layman of the time. In the Social structure of the time he and his followers possessed no religious credentials or power bases. However when the opportunity to create and to bestow special status on his family and friends or himself arose, he refused it. As often is the case in the Gospel Jesus rejected the culture values of day and refused to use his gifts to establish a place of honor and respect in the society for himself, his family or his disciples.
This story points to the paradox that is at the heart of the story of Jesus and the Christian faith. Jesus was powerful in his healing, yet chooses to be with the weak and powerless. Jesus could move people, calm storms yet died as a common criminal of the day. He was an ordinary education yet a brilliant teacher. He was the Son of God yet preached and practiced a radical egalitarianism where all were equal and there was no discrimination and distinction between persons. It is easy to see how his preaching and practiced clashed with the cultural norms and values of the day just as it would today. Recently I have wondered if Jesus lived in today culture what prison would be in and for what crimes.
Now I would like to take a few minutes out and actually do a meditation with you on part of the Sermon on the Mount using some of this understanding of the “historical Jesus”. Take a few minutes to quite your mind, be aware of your surroundings, the chair, relax breathe deeply and put yourself in a listening mode.
Imagine yourself at the edge of the city of Capernaum. On a nearby towing hill you spot Jesus sitting and talking to a small group of men and women, some of his followers. You are not the only one that spots Jesus. Others in town see Jesus and the word quickly spreads, that Jesus, the teacher, the one who healed so many at Simon’s house was back. Many come out and start climbing the hill toward Jesus. You climb with them. We notice many are the poor of the village, weak and blind beggars. Some are bent over, some need to be helped up the hill, others grab on to people who are acting crazy and possessed and drag them up the hill. A few of the upper class, merchants and priest from the synagogue tag along out of curiosity in the back of the crowd.
As we and the crowd draw closer to Jesus, we notice Jesus stops speaking to his disciples. He and his disciples welcome us from the town, and make room for us in the circle seated around Jesus. After all are seated and settled Jesus looks out over the now large group gathered around him and reaches over and touches one of the old and scared blind beggars seated next to him. We hear him say: “Blessed are you, beggars, the disease and dying, all those who are rejected and despised. You are innocent and not to be blamed for you state of life. In you and in your complete dependence on others is to be found the spirit of the Lord and the Kingdom of Heaven.
Than we see Jesus turned to a middle-aged woman seated with her two small children clothing in ragged wear on his other side. Her worn face is full of grief. We all know she had just lost her husband, her sole means of support. She was now forced to live off the alms from temple to sustain her life and that of her children. Her honor of being independent and self-sufficient was now turned into the shame of being dependent on others. Jesus puts his arms around her and the children and looking at them he says: “How honored are you. You who have become the least in this society, at the mercy of others, you are now the first in this, my Way of living. You who now mourn and weep will find confront and joy.
Now he looks over to group of his followers, Simon Peter, his wife and children and mother-in-law and other friends seated nearby. We know these people to be peasants like Jesus, seeking out a daily substance as farmers or fisherman. They were barely able to make ends meet. When they left their fishing boats to follow Jesus, or gave some food to another needy person they were taking food and substance from their own families. Jesus says to them. You who now hunger will be satisfied. When you go hungry and without to give to others and to follow me you are blessed and will receive your fill in so many ways you must trust me that this will be.
Jesus, than, looks down the hill to the few upper classes that have followed the crowd up the hill and are its edge. Jesus stands points at them and raising his voice so they can hear he says: “You who are greedy, that make your fortune off of labor and misfortune of others have already received your reward. You turn a blind eye to those in need. You ignored them and treat them like they are worthless. In my Kingdom you will be last, you will be the hungry and those who mourn and weep; you might fulfill your obligations in terms of almsgiving but you do not really know these others. You keep to yourself, dining and socializing within your own class. Just as you do not really know these people you do not really know me.
Let us quietly come back from our imaginations and return to our reflection. In the story on the Sermon on the Mound Jesus goes on to describe his Kingdom, the Way of Life, the values he preaches. He describe this new way of living in terms of the Law they all knew and understood. He turned upside down many of the values and the attitudes of the time toward woman, toward one’s enemies, toward anger, prayer, hard work, judging others. And naturally following his words he demonstrates acts of compassion, healing the lame and blind, forgiving sins or sharing with what little he and his disciples had with those in need, comforting the sick and dying. After preaching and healing, Jesus asks we leave him alone. He goes off to pray. We are left to ponder his words.
Looking back with the eyes of history at the meaning of this event it is easy to understand how this message of Jesus left the community leaders and the power brokers of his day feeling very uncomfortable. However, we see that many that heard and even enthusiastically embraced his message did not really understand it. By the time of his death many had abandoned him and even his own disciples did not really understand what was happening. The message of Jesus, this ordinary layperson was so radically what we would now call counter culture. Hearing and watching Jesus, the itinerant preacher and healer, the champion of the poor and the outcast was not so difficult. But living it was. What he preached was hard and seemed impossible to do in his day as well as it seem to be in our day.
Also looking at this event in hindsight we remember many more sayings and actions in the Gospel in which Jesus explains this sermon. Is it not throughout the Gospel that Jesus is identifying with the weak, the powerless and lowest in Society? Did he not take actions and practice what he preached even to the point of being jailed and suffering the death of a common criminal. How many times did he tell us, that although he came for all peoples his mission was primarily to the outcast and rejects of society? Did he not tell us over and over again how the low and humble were blessed and called to wedding feast when so many of the guest made excuses for now showing up. Did he not say to the rich young man to go sell what he had, share it with the needy and follower him. This message of Jesus was and is a very difficult message to hear but it is very clear and direct.
We must remember that the message of Jesus was directed to the nation and groups of people. It was directed at times to his followers, the leaders of the Jewish faith, the poor and outcast, not only to individuals in the group but more significantly to the group as a whole. In our day it is directed to our state and federal governments, our parishes and associations. As members of these various groups the groups are told to incorporate these Gospel values in to structure. The parable that Jesus used that best illustrates how nation and groups are to practice the beatitudes is the parables on the Judgment of Nations, which we find in the 25th chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew. He tells this parable right before the leaders of the nation plot to eliminate him and his message. It is the last judgment, the coming of the full Kingdom of God and all nations and groups are gathered before the Lord. In the parable the ultimate leader, Son of Man, the Messiah, acts like a shepherd separating the sheep and goats. Both sheep’s and goats were valued animals in this culture. The division to the lord’s right or left was not on what type of animal it was, sheep and goats. The nations that are blessed and inherit the Kingdom are the nations or societies that are structured to provide food and clothing for those in need, hunger, deal humanly with those in prison, and take care the sick and dying, provide adequate housing for all. “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these members of my family you did it to me.” The societies that do not do this are condemned “For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you, did not visit me.” When the state or Federal governments or other groups we are part of do not make this choice for the needy, preferential option for the poor as we would say, all of us who participate in this choice are turning away from the Lord. At than at end of the parable the Leader of all nations tells the nations: “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these you did not do it to me.” Too often we are quick to interpret this parable as directed to individuals where in reality it is addressed to nations, groups, organizations and churches, like our parishes.
Jesus was very political although he never specifically condemned the Roman Empire. Jesus condemned all nations, leaders of the nations, all people that were part of system that allow people to go hungry or homeless, that showed anger and resentment but not compassion to its poor, sinners and despised, not practicing the radical new ways of life. He praises us when we as a nation or group do practice his values and Way.
To a nation whose self-identity was with the group this was a difficult message to hear, as it is with us. This man from Nazareth, the itinerant traveling healer and preacher, dare to criticize even condemn his own people. We can too easily spiritualize Jesus’ message and value system or use it as an individual standard. But people in the time of historical Jesus heard it as message to be practice by each group and nations and we too must hear the message as members of State, County or Church.
How do we practice this statement today? How do you connect this historical Jesus, see hear touch his real presence today with our promise of simplicity? How are we as a community meeting this challenge of Jesus to be one of the weak and needy in our culture? How are we as a church or community responding to these values of Jesus when they clash with the surrounding culture and value system? When we hear or read the news do we hear and see the message of Jesus. Seeing, tasting, hearing, smelling and most of all touching the historical Jesus, the one who lives now is the simplest way to truly understand what it means to be a follower of the Way of Jesus.
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