Everything between last week’s reading and today’s reading (Lk 5:12-6:16) is found in Matthew and Mark as well, and is read in other years (see Year B, Sixth through Ninth Sundays; Year A, Tenth and Eleventh Sundays). The sermon on the plain of Luke’s Gospel (6:17-49) is roughly comparable to Matthew’s sermon on the mount (Mt 5-7). Each author arranges Jesus’ teachings in a way that reflects the basic requirements of the kingdom of God according to his view. Although both insist on a radically new way of thinking and living, Luke is unique in his emphasis on absolute poverty. Note that the blessings focus on various aspects of poverty, while the curses concern the fate of the rich (vv 24-26) who are equated with false prophets, blind to realities beyond this world’s goods.

This passage repeats a favorite theme of the Hebrew Scriptures: the human person (or the nation) stands at a fork in the road and chooses which way to take, the way of good or the way of evil. The way of good, difficult as it may be, leads to life. The way of evil, attractive as it may be, leads only to death. The root of this distinction of the two ways goes back to the very origin of the Israelites as a nation in the covenant, expressed in Dt 30:15-20; see also Dt 11:26-=32 and chapter 28.

This psalm, based in large portion on the above passage from Jeremiah, forms the introduction to the entire collection of psalms, setting the theme of the two ways that will be developed by the rest of the book. Response: "Happy are they who hope in the Lord" (Ps 40:5).

The Corinthian Christians had no doubt that Jesus had been raised from the dead. As we have seen, their difficulty lay in connecting his risen life with their own destiny. They were blinded by their own preconceived ideas of a "perfect" afterlife being totally spiritual, and saw no necessity for the body — to them a hindrance and imperfection — to take part in eternal happiness. Paul’s way of answering this problem was to emphasize that salvation itself is victory over bodily death, and if our bodies do not rise to life again, we are not saved. Insofar as Jesus has shared our human nature, his resurrection is the pattern and the cause of our own. Be sure to read carefully all of chapter 15. (See also the Second Reading for the Solemnity of Christ the King, Year A; and the Solemnity of the Assumption.)

1. What connection does the way of Christian living proposed in Luke’s Gospel have with eternal life and our final resurrection?

2. In the light of what Paul says about the resurrection, do you think the expression "to save one’s soul" is adequate or appropriate to describe the goal of the Christian life?