Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled. (Luke 6:21)

How strange these words must sound, then and now, to those who are truly hungry. And I can only imagine, since I don’t know what it’s like to truly be hungry. It is much safer to swerve into a spiritual reading of this passage. I also imagine that the hungry would consider themselves ‘downtrodden’ or ‘beaten’, but not ‘blessed’. Yet the blessing in each of these verses is because of the coming of God’s reign. When justice and right relationships prevail, the hungry will be filled.

What might seem like ‘magical thinking’ to young people needs to be unpacked. We each need to do the hard work, beginning with me and my relationships, where justice and right relationships flourish. The more each of us works in that direction, the closer God’s reign and the more each of us will be blessed.

Have a great week!
Patrick