“And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.”
Looking at his disciples, he said: blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God — Luke's Beatitudes are in the second person (you, not they as in Matthew), addressed directly to the disciples in the presence of the crowd. Blessed are you who are poor: the poor (ptōchoi, the economically destitute) are the recipients of the kingdom — not as a spiritual metaphor but as the literal description of the disciples' condition. Yours is the kingdom of God: present tense, already given.
Church Fathers on Luke 6:20
After the ordination of the Apostles, the Savior directed His disciples to the newness of the evangelical life.
But being about to utter His divine oracles, He begins to rise higher; although He stood in a low place, yet as it is said, He lifted up his eyes. What is lifting up the eyes, but to disclose a more hidden light?
And although He speaks in a general way to all, yet more especially He lifts up His eyes on His disciples; for it follows, on his disciples, that to those who receive the word listening attentively with the heart, He might reveal more fully the light of its deep meaning.
Read all 23 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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