Luke 6:20-26

           It gets better

20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 "Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. "Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. 22 "Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. 24 "But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 "Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. "Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. 26 "Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

          I would like to paraphrase Tevia from Fiddler on the Roof, 'God, if money is a curse, may you strike me down and may I never recover!'  Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Yes indeed.

         I noted some time ago my trips to the mountains in the Dominican Republic and how poor the people are. They have virtually nothing,  except..... they are a happy and deeply faithful people. The notion of keeping up with the Jones hasn't afflicted them yet. In the local world that you and I live in, where happiness is equated with 'things' and keeping up appearances, we can't seem to figure out what makes us truly happy.  We are lucky if we figure it out in our lifetime.

         This is one area where gays have a leg up. While most in our community do have some semblance of money (the gay demographic), we know deep inside that true happiness comes from just being who we are.  A generalization for sure but pretty much on target.

         As it turns out from this reading we seem to be many of the things that Jesus is speaking of in this sermon though. We hunger (for freedom and equality), we are hated, excluded and reviled. 

         So in addition to the fact that we know what happiness is, we are even more blessed in Jesus' eyes for how we are treated, excluded, reviled and our names are cast as evil.

          If gays seem so happy, it may be because we know what happiness is and because we have the sly knowledge that, according to Jesus, we shall have the last laugh as we inherit the riches of heaven.

         Of course getting into heaven might be a wee bit more complicated than that. We do have to live a good life in all that entails but we have a great start. Knowing who you are, accepting it and loving it makes for a truly happen person, it gets better and you will find true happiness.