Wilbert Gobbo

The Lukan Beatific Vision (Lk 6:20-23): Its Implications for Evangelical Mission Today Wilbert Gobbo

The ?beatitudes? (Lk 6:20-23) reflect a ?startling strangeness?. ?The Lukan Beatific Vision,? reflects on the ?beatific paradox,? namely that the seemingly ?human tragedy? is ?exclaimed? and ?affirmed? to be ?divine comedy.? It intends to give not only a version of the Lukan beatitudes, which is author-centred (behind the text) and text-centred (within the text), but also a reader-centred (in front of the text) version. It aims at giving an exegetical analysis of Luke 6:20-23 and a critical examination of the implication of the Lukan beatific vision in mission in the third millennium. Why do we write on the beatitudes? If the Sermon on the Plain (Lk 6:17-49) is considered to be the "essence" of Christianity, then according to William Barclay, ?the beatitudes are the essence of the essence of the Christian way of life.? Beatitudes represent the Gospel in miniature. They are, ?the? Good News and hence, at the heart of the mission of Jesus Christ. Missio Dei is about proclaiming and living the beatitudes. It is very difficult to conceive the mission of God outside the proclamation of love of the last, the least and the lost of the society.