February 17, 2019

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Jeremiah 17: 5-8; 1 Corinthians 15: 12, 16-20; Luke 6: 17, 20-26
Am I really free? Can I do what I want to do?
Am I obligated to follow certain ways of living? Are wealth, status, comfort, pleasure and approval
the most important aspects of my life? Do the unpleasant parts of life: poverty, grief, hunger and
rejection turn out to be unimportant? Everyone needs security; it is a given. Does my understanding
of security corresponds with God’s? Christian life is all about: prayer, acts of charity and the
sacramental life. How am I doing living this way? Where does opposition come in my life to this
program? When have I been criticized, rejected or persecuted for my faith? How did I feel? Did I
know that God was present?
Do I realize that making the right choices has been a policy that has kept me in tune with God’s plan
for my life and salvation with Him?
Jeremiah’s passage presents two very different scenes before the people. They have to make
choices. The right choice should seem to be obvious. It didn’t seem that way to the people.
Jeremiah was trying to get the leaders to avoid making an enormous mistake. Israel was surrounded
by enemy nations who were strong and constantly threatened to obliterate God’s people militarily.
This is true even today. The leaders were huddled together trying to come up with a plan that would
work. This plan revolved around making an alliance with a strong country that could protect them.
Things haven’t changed down through the centuries. Jeremiah was challenging the people: “Thus
says the Lord: ‘Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart
turns away from the Lord.’” The people are hoping that an alliance with Egypt will rescue them from
the powerful Babylonian empire. Jeremiah counters with the question, ‘Do you trust in the Lord,
your God who loves you, cares for you and has delivered you from slavery in Egypt nine centuries
ago?’ The second scene shows a tree whose roots are well watered and will survive in heat or
drought. This tree represents people that trusts in the Lord. St. Teresa of Avila frequently used the
expression of being near water that is life giving, God giving. Are the people looking to God’s
agenda, His plan or their own? Again, good questions for today?
Paul is writing to the Corinthians. As a whole they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.
Doesn’t God reward good living? When harm comes to people, doesn’t that mean God is the source
of this harm because the people were being bad? Isn’t death the end? Isn’t life all about living?
Maybe God is a fairy tale? I’m sure this thought has passed through our minds at different times.
Paul tells them and us to look at Jesus’ life; look at His death and most especially His resurrection.
Paul presents an either/or position: “If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among
you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if
Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain…” Why did Jesus come at all? His Resurrection has both
human and divine ramifications. Dead people do not come back to life. Jesus did…this means we
who believe can share in the resurrection, in life after death forever with God in heaven. Those who
have fallen asleep will wake to eternal life.
In Matthew’s gospel we have the Sermon on the Mount which consists of chapters 4 - 6. Luke’s
counterpart is called the Sermon on the Plain from Chapter 6: 20-49. As Matthew’s version is
central to his gospel so is Luke’s to his gospel. We will be hearing this chapter for the next three
weeks, ending just before Lent begins. Matthew is writing for his Jewish audience, Luke for a
mostly gentile audience and he concentrates on concrete economic and faith problems his
communities are experiencing . In both Matthew and Luke the emphasis is on Jesus’ command to
love. Both place the ‘sermon’ early in Jesus’ ministry, but they follow different arrangements due to
their audience. Both start with the ‘Beatitudes’ with Luke’s version giving four ‘beatitudes’ followed
by four ‘woes’. Matthew starts with ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ and Luke starts with ‘Blessed
are you who are poor.’ This makes it much more concrete addressing people who are economically
poor. He follows this by referring to the hungry, the weeping, those who are hated and suffer evil on
account of believing in Jesus, the Son of God. All of the beatitudes are about reversal of fortunes.
For the one whose fortune is lost, look what it leads to: blessings, happiness forever in heaven; as
does those whose life has been blessed and shares their blessings helping and loving all the
individuals God sends them. We see this in Luke’s woes which clearly address those who are
prospering now but are doing so at the expense of the poor, hurting and marginalized. Those who
are enjoying life to the fullest are reminded that their luxury is only temporary; life is as good as it
gets. This will not last because it gives a totally false sense of prosperity. They have the opportunity
and necessity to respond to those who are poor and marginalized, which was Jesus’ constant theme.
Jesus really had a different set of priorities. He explains what leads to ‘woes’ as riches…having a
full stomach…laughing…popularity. Today we call these ‘the American dream.’ Jesus says that
those who are poor, hungry, who weep and are hated and persecuted leads to a different dream: the
kingdom of God’s great reward in heaven. God’s ways are not the ways of the world. God’s love for
all is paramount. What keeps me from loving as Jesus exemplified and taught every moment of His
life? Msgr Chet Michael constantly taught that the three major sin direction in each person’s life is
Pride…Possession…Pleasure. (Fr. Richard Rohr adds Prestige.) The opposite Christian response
signifying true Christian living is Sacrifice…Generosity…Fasting… and perpetual Awareness and
Kindness. How am I living as a true, committed follower of Jesus’ way?
So I reflect on:
• Where do I place my trust?
• When has trust in God surprised me and even blessed me? Do I ever share these as part of my
faith story?
• When have I felt torn between trusting in human beings and trusting in God? Who or what drew
me back to the life-giving waters of God?
• When have I felt all dried-up, unable to offer anything to anyone? What helped me discover the
healing in giving and caring?
• Am I comfortable being poor and dependent on God?
Sacred Space 2019 states
“I try to see which beatitude touches me today, whether because it helps me rejoice in God’s gifts to me or
because I feel a resistance in my heart. I pray for a listening heart.
When my heart is breaking because of the misery of so many today, I must not think that Got has forgotten
them. Instead I thank God that for them the best is yet to come, and I ask to be included among them, at least
as someone who cares about them.”