Did Jesus give a sermon on the flatland and another on a hill? He might have, but my guess is that He did not. If He did, what He said on the plain and on the mount would have been consistent. He is after all, part of the Holy Trinity and any part of God is necessarily perfect. [1] Inconsistency is imperfect, and cannot be a product of perfection. However, the Gospels with respect to who are blessed are inconsistent. Therefore, they cannot both be right.
I believe that one of the two sermons, the one allegedly given by Jesus on the plain, cannot be the words of Christ. This flawed sermon is part of the Gospel of Luke which claimed that Jesus said, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." [2] Assuming that the translation is accurate, the words cannot be more clear. The poor, meaning those who are impecunious, unemployed and unemployable, who lack the basic necessities of life such as clothing, shelter, sufficient food, water and medication, are blessed. I cannot imagine any indigent who cannot find work, who is homeless, hungry, drug-addicted, and sick, with no family or loved ones to care for him, would consider himself blessed. And I do not believe that all who live in a state of poverty in this life, with no spiritual connection with God, will enter Heaven in the next by default.
To enter Heaven, one needs salvation, and in order to have
salvation, one needs to have a relationship with God, directly by prayer or indirectly by the prayer of others [3], and the Blessed Virgin Mary's intercessions, all of which would have to go through Jesus Christ. [4] Economic deprivation alone, according to the Gospel of Luke, is therefore an insufficient condition to enter Heaven.
Why then did the author of Luke's gospel make this claim? Was he a politician trying to quell an uprising of the poor at the time by telling a lie in the form of a "feel-good" statement with no spiritual value? If he was not, then what was the point for making a false connection between one's static economic status in this life to an eternity with God in Heaven?
Perhaps the author of Luke's gospel made a mistake, heard it wrong, remembered it wrong, written it down wrong or had been distracted and did not hear or write down the rest of it, namely, the words "in spirit." Or maybe St. Luke was hard of hearing and missed those two words when Jesus' voice trailed off after Jesus said "Blessed are you who are poor ..." If Luke 6:20 was written by someone other than St. Luke, then the possible reasons as to why it was written that way would be too numerous to list.
In contrast, the Gospel of Matthew claimed that Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." [5] By eliminating all the economics and social inequalities in the word poor, perfection is achieved, for it is poverty in spirit, not the lack of money, that leads one to Heaven.
So what exactly does poverty in spirit mean? It means humility. Only in humility will one be able to pray properly, will then God be able to hear the prayers and answer them, and will one be able to thank God properly.
Preaching about economic poverty, about income inequality in a papal outfit or some religious garb has nothing to do with poverty in spirit but everything to do with their lack of understanding of poverty in spirit. Their sermons ought to tell the world that it is not the poor people that are blessed and are destined to enter Heaven; it is that people are not poor enough in spirit to be blessed to enter Heaven.
[1] If a sermon is perfect, there can be no other version.
[2] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+6%3A20&version=NIV
[3] The Fatima prayer (Latin): Domine Iesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra, salva nos ab igne inferni,
perduc in caelum omnes animas, praesertim eas, quae misericordiae tuae
maxime indigent.
[4] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14:6
[5] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5:3
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