PRIEST: Jesus is the Prophet of the Poor – the Voice of the Voiceless. We hear this morning Luke’s version of the Beatitudes – the Blessings of the Kingdom. But if the Poor are blessed and the world is to change to raise up the poor, then the world of the rich must radically change! Jesus’ Kingdom turns the world’s order of things upside down! Are we going to be ‘turning the world upside down’? Are we going to stand with Jesus where he is … among the poor, powerless and voiceless? What a challenge to the Church – what a challenge to you and me!
READER: When we trust in our own power and possessions
rather than trust in the foolish wisdom of Jesus
LORD HAVE MERCY…
For resisting the challenge to be truly identified with Jesus
who identifies with the struggles of the Poor
CHRIST HAVE MERCY…
When the words of our Church speak of Option for the Poor
but our own life-style and the way we use our energy as a parish
belie the fine words
LORD HAVE MERCY…
PRIEST: May the God who saved the poor of Israel bring us mercy;
May Jesus born into the poverty of Bethlehem and Galilee
share with us liberating compassion and strong justice;
May the Holy Spirit who renews the face of the earth
by turning the world upside down, renew us with forgiveness
and bring all the world to everlasting life…
AMEN!