Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
Jer 17.5-8; Ps 1; II Cor 15.12, 16-20; Lk 6.17, 20-26
TODAY’S READINGS
Today’s Mass lections say something quite unique. Jeremiah, the Psalmist and Our Lord in the Gospel all say that to be BLESSED– to find true and eternal meaning and HAPPINESS – we must follow God’s way. If we follow the world’s way, our lives will be hollow, empty, and barren.
JEREMIAH SETS THE OPTIONS BEFORE YOU
Hebrew writing liked to present pairs of opposites to the reader. Today, prophet Jeremiah puts the dangers of following the world’s way in no uncertain terms: A curse on the man who puts his trust in man, who relies on the things of the flesh. Why a curse? Because once we start accepting the world’s standards, a corrosive process has set in and we begin to talk our way into compromise and acceptance.
JEREMIAH’ S WARNING
Jeremiah ponders on effects of worldliness on a person in this life: He is like dry scrub in the wastelands; if good comes he has no eyes for it. Even more devastating would be eternal separation from God. Yet Jeremiah warns of this – he knows it is possible for people to become blind and deaf to God’s call.
Sometimes, we allow sin to kill our conscience and run the risk of separation from God.
YOU MUST CHOOSE! SAYS THE PSALMIST
Today’s scripture readings is summed up in today’s Psalm. This very first psalm in the book of Psalms shows a clear choice to be made between following God’s way or putting our faith in world’s ways. To be happy and blessed, we must train ourselves to follow God’s way: and following the teachings of Our Lord within the Church will make our lives even happier.
THE BEATITUDES IN ST. LUKE’S GOSPEL
If we are to find the message of Our Lord distilled in one reading, this is it. The fact that most people find the Beatitudes warm and user-friendly shows just how wrapped up in worldliness we have become. For the gospel today contains both the assurance of blessedness but also a serious threat against the worldly.
THE TWO CONTRASTING CHOICES
Saint Luke reveals an edge of steel in the teaching of Our Lord on the mountain. Jesus has declared the poor, the hungry, the sorrowful, the persecuted to be precious to God. He has reassured those who feel lost, hopeless and marginalised that they are already known to God and they are offered a promise of eternal life and salvation: “Your reward will be great in heaven.”
BUT…
he also attacks head-on the idea that worldly success, wealth, power and popularity guarantee anything. These verses beginning “alas” or “woe to you”. are the curse or warning that balances the blessing. Saint Luke uses this literary form of good contrasted with bad to reveal God’s warning to us: our choice now has eternal consequences.
FROM CCC…
The Catechism describes these words of Jesus In the Beatitudes as the heart of the Gospel. It teaches us that true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement – however beneficial it may be…but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love. (para. 1723) This therefore reveals the goal of human existence, the ultimate end of human acts: God calls us to His own beatitude. (para. 1718)
THE DANGER IN WEALTH
Many now bow down to wealth for they measure happiness by wealth; and by wealth they measure respectability. Most of us spend far more time and effort in working for money than in working for our salvation. This may be a practical necessity, but once worldly gain has taken over from God as our goal in life, we are in grave danger. We can all too easily be the people to whom Our Lord says, “Alas for you.” We can all too quickly become the dry scrub in the wasteland.
TRUST IN GOD
Our Lord does not condemn wealth, full stomachs or laughter in themselves. But He warns in the most stringent possible way that we must not put our trust in any happiness they bring. Remember Jeremiah’s warning that those who trust in human things lose their eyes for good because worldly things bring worldly happiness they expose us to this risk of losing our true spiritual sight.
PRAYER FOR TRUE HAPPINESS
So today, let us pray for grace to be drawn ever closer to the beatitude of God Himself. May we be like the tree beside the waterside, our roots thrust into the stream of God’s grace, never ceasing to bear fruit. Aware that spiritually we are poor and hungry, may we be blessed by God now and forever.
Joseph
