Commentary on the Gospel for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C
This Sunday’s Gospel presents us with the passage of the Beatitudes. But who are the blessed? Are they exceptionally holy people? Those who have performed miracles? Jesus’ teaching offers us a different vision: beatitude is not defined by an external state, but runs through the interior of each person.
Luke reveals something profound: the Beatitudes are a self-portrait of Jesus. To be blessed means to enter into the story of Christ, to share his way. In Luke’s version we find four promises and four warnings, a contrast that already marks a difference with Matthew’s account.
In this Gospel, Jesus does not speak from the mountain, but from a plain. However, before this moment, Luke mentions that Jesus had gone up the mountain to pray and choose his disciples. This detail is not minor: it recalls the scene at Sinai, when God sealed his covenant with his people. Now, in Jesus, this covenant is renewed, where God chooses his followers and they respond to his call.
But after the election comes the plain. This place has a symbolic meaning. In the life of faith, at the beginning there is enthusiasm, an initial fervor that sets the heart on fire. However, with time comes the stage of the plain, that period when the excitement dies down and faith becomes an act of decision. As in the journey of the people of Israel 
through the desert, it is there that faithfulness is tested, where one learns to trust.
This is where the great choice arises. When the initial passion fades and the path seems monotonous, the deepest part of the heart is put to the test. It is then that, as St. Therese said, we can say: “I do not know if I can say that I believe, but I want to believe”. Faith is not just a passing feeling, but a decision to remain.
The Beatitudes, in this sense, show us the true meaning of believing. It is not a promise of immediate success or of a life without difficulties. Believing implies dying and rising with Christ, entering into his story, assuming his destiny.
The Gospel reminds us that Jesus does not leave us alone on this journey. In the passage, it says: Καὶ καταβὰς μετ’ αὐτῶν ἔστη ἐπὶ τόπου πεδινοῦ (And going down with them, he stopped in a level place) (v. 17). This “with them” is key: Jesus descends to the plain, walks with his disciples, stays with them in the moments when faith seems to blur.
In this plain there are both Hebrews and pagans, people coming from different regions. This tells us that Jesus’ invitation is not exclusive to a people or an inherited tradition. Following him is a personal decision, not a custom handed down by family or environment.
Jesus does not promise an easy path, but he is clear about what it means to follow him. He does not sell illusions. The first beatitude begins with the words: ἐπάρας τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτοῦ εἰς τοὺς μαθητάς 
(lifting up his eyes to his disciples) (v. 20). This gesture is significant, because Jesus usually lifts up his eyes when addressing the Father. His gaze expresses the presence of the Holy Spirit, the bond of love between the Father and the Son.
Jesus looks at us with the same penetrating love with which he contemplates the Father. He invites us to participate in that relationship, to be part of the communion with God.
The word he uses for blessed is μακάριοι(makárioi), which in the Hellenistic world could refer to divinized beings. But in Gospel language, makários expresses a deeper happiness, distinct from superficial and immediate joys.
Jesus shows us that within us there are two levels: one, where we seek success, well-being and quick satisfactions; and another, deeper, where we experience true beatitude. The latter does not depend on external circumstances, but on an intimate communion with God, a state of soul that sustains us even in suffering.
This is the beatitude of which Jesus speaks: the certainty of his presence in our lives, the strength that allows us to overcome poverty, hunger and tears.
It is not about glorifying pain, but about discovering that even in the most difficult moments God is with us, guiding us towards resurrection.
It is not about glorifying pain, but about discovering that even in the most difficult moments God is with us, guiding us towards resurrection.Jesus also warns us about the possibility of taking another path: that of the false prophets. His “Woe to you!” is not a threat, but a warning full of sadness. It is the lament of one who sees his children turning away from the true path, the pain of seeing those who prefer to remain in the comfort of a life without a cross.
Luke’s Beatitudes are, at bottom, an invitation to freedom. They teach us not to live as slaves to the search for immediate pleasure, but to discover the greatest joy: that of walking with Christ. He is the true liberator, the one who accompanies us on the plain, in the trial, in the total surrender of our life.