Blessed Are You

Now during those days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. He came down with them and stood on a level 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 who were troubled 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.
Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.” Luke 6:12-26

Blessed Are You 

I see these faces of tender children

refugees and encamped for freedom

I see Jesus among the gentle and weeping

and know our greed has made us weak.

Our strength is in our beloved people

grandmother earth who has fed us well

grandfather sky who has watered and warmed

the generations yet unborn who need us now.

Our weakness is in our chosen blindness

our unwilling to see the crisis before us

our choosing comfort over community

choosing ease and looking the other way.

We will be blessed or cursed depending

on how we live this day, how we raise children

how we walk with others and love them

or how we turn a blind eye on their need.

I see the faces of tender weeping children

and see my babies, my children in their eyes

I see that we are all related and share so much

if  we will but open our eyes and see.