The Universal Church celebrates Sunday, February 13, 2022 as the sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C. In the entrance antiphon we pray, “Be my protector, O God, a mighty stronghold to save me. For you are my rock, my stronghold! Lead me, guide me, for the sake of your name. Amen.”
The first reading is from the book of Jeremiah, who lived through one of the most troubled periods of the ancient Near East as he witnessed the fall of Assyria and the rising of Babylon. In the midst of this turmoil, the kingdom of Judah, came to its downfall by resisting this overwhelming force of history. In this reading, Jeremiah pronounces as blessed those people who trust in God rather than in their own human devices.
The second reading is from Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. It continues the teaching we heard last week on the resurrection of the dead. The meaningfulness of Christian life hangs on the resurrection of Christ. St. Paul addresses those of his converts of Corinth who claim that there is no such thing as resurrection from the dead.
In the Gospel, Jesus spends the night in prayer on the mountain after which he calls his disciples to Him and chooses twelve of them, whom He calls apostles: He then comes down the mountain with them and delivers the sermon on the plain which is our reading for today.
First Reading: Jeremiah 17:5-8
Thus says the Lord: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse -- who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.
Comment
Two Sundays ago, (4th Sunday) we met the prophet Jeremiah and what I said then is worth repeating. He is the second of the Major Prophets of the Bible, the first being Isaiah, the third Ezekiel and the fourth Daniel. Jeremiah lived in the last decades of the kingdom of Judah – a very important period, since it saw the collapse of the Assyrian empire, the rebirth of the Babylonian empire and the complete disappearance of the kingdom of Judah with the deportation of its leading families to Babylon.
The African Bible tells me that Jeremiah lived in Judah when the forces of King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem in 587 BC and deported its inhabitants to Babylon. Jeremiah was well placed to see all these events and was familiar with the conditions in Judah after the deportation. He was born into a priestly family and received his prophetic mission from God round about the year 626 BC, while still a young man. During his long ministry that lasted over forty years, Jeremiah never tired of reminding his people of their covenant obligations and warning the incompetent leaders that their infidelity would bring down God’s anger and punishment on the whole land. Even though he was a peaceful man, Jeremiah was constantly in conflict with his people, kings, priests and false prophets, even suffering imprisonment in the process, but he was not afraid because he knew that he was only doing God’s work.
In this day’s reading, Jeremiah offers the gathered assembly the contrast between the way of the wicked and the way of the just, by comparing a stunted shrub to a well-watered tree. Jeremiah prophesies doom for those who trust in human ways rather than in the divine will. Some church scholars believe that Jeremiah delivered this message to the rulers of Judah as he warned King Zedekiah not to enter into an alliance with Egypt against the Babylonians. When his advice was ignored, the prophet used the image of the barren bush in the desert to portray the folly and futility of trusting in human allies. His prediction in Jeremiah 17:4 was realized in fewer than ten years: “You will relinquish your hold on your heritage which I have given you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land that you knew not.”
For those who cling to the will of God and are faithful to the covenant relationship, the figure of the fruitful tree holds out great hope. Those whose hearts are firmly rooted in the ways of God will be able to withstand the heat and remain green and endure the drought and still bear fruit. They are rooted in God, who provides a steady source of strength and sustenance. On any given day, the manner in which each of us exercises our freedom of choice will also determine whether we shall bring upon ourselves and our world blessings or curses.
Second Reading: 1 Cor. 15:12, 16-20
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ -- whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.
Comment
As we saw in last Sunday’s second reading from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, his converts of Corinth are having a hard time grasping the notion of the resurrection from the dead. This is a belief with which the Greeks are unfamiliar but for Paul, the rejection of the resurrection from the dead is a very serious attack on the whole foundation of our faith. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most essential doctrine of the Christian faith; without it, our faith is vain. It is the very core of our faith as it is so clearly stated in our Catholic Creed. Paul continues his defence of the resurrection of Christ in this day’s passage. He says: “If Christ has not been raised, then your believing is useless.”
Today’s passage represents a portion of Paul’s attempt to correct the Corinthian’s erroneous thinking and allay their doubts. Written ca. 53-54 C.E. this text is among the earliest doctrinal presentations of resurrection theology.
Paul is well aware that his Greek converts to Christ had formerly embraced a philosophy that denigrated the body as a burdensome mortal prison from which the superior mind and spirit longed to be released. To them, bodily glorification is inconceivable; death is not viewed as a passage of a risen person (body and soul) to fuller life but merely as a means of freeing the soul from the prison of the body. While some Corinthian Christians exercise a certain selectivity as regards the gospel, accepting some doctrines and rejecting others, especially the resurrection, others claim that their participation in the sacraments affords them a spiritual experience that supersedes the resurrection.
Paul argues that if his readers reject the notion of their own resurrection, they are in effect denying the resurrection of Jesus and undermining the central tenet of the Christian faith. To reject the Christ event, i.e., the passion, death, and glorification of Jesus is to reject the gift of salvation and the very means by which God effects the forgiveness of sins and the reconciliation of sinners. To do so is to admit that sin, evil and death continue to reign supreme. Faith is futile; hope is in vain. As Paul says, “If our hopes in Christ are limited to this life only, we are the most pitiable of people” (v. 19).
Then, in an effort to redirect their thinking and to raise it from philosophy to faith, Paul challenges the Corinthians to accept Christ as the “first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (v. 20). A Jewish cultic term, first-fruits was that portion of the harvest which was offered to God in thanksgiving and as a sign that the rest of the harvest to come was also being consecrated. Jesus, risen in glory, as the first-fruits from the dead, is a pledge and a promise that the whole “harvest” of humankind will follow his lead to everlasting life.
As we reflect on this reading, let us also examine our own belief in the resurrection of Jesus and in our own resurrection at the end of time.
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia! Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom to mere children. Alleluia!”
Gospel: Luke 6: 17, 20-26.
Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. Then he looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. "Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. "But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. "Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. "Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. "Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
Comment
Today's gospel reading is the beginning of what is often called the Sermon on the Plain. We find a parallel to this passage in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5:1-7,11). As these titles suggest, there are differences and similarities between these gospel readings.
When spoken from the mountaintop in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus is speaking with the authority and voice of God, the mountaintop being a symbol of closeness to God. Those who ascend the mountain see God and speak for God; recall the story of Moses and the Ten Commandments. In Luke’s gospel passage of this day, Jesus teaches on level ground, alongside the disciples and the crowd. Luke presents Jesus' authority in a different light. He is God among us.
Another distinction found in Luke's version is the audience. Luke's Sermon on the Plain is addressed to Jesus' disciples, although in the presence of the crowd; Matthew's Sermon on the Mount is addressed to the crowd. The form of the Beatitudes found in Luke's and Matthew's Gospel is not unique to Jesus. Beatitudes are found in the Old Testament, such as in the Psalms and in Wisdom literature. They are a way to teach about who will find favor with God. The word blessed in this context might be translated as “happy,” “fortunate,” or “favored.”
As we listen to this Gospel, the Beatitudes sound strange to our ears. Those who are poor, hungry, weeping, or persecuted are called blessed. This is, indeed, a Gospel of reversals. Those often thought to have been forgotten by God are called blessed. Those who are satisfied with temporal and material things and whose base of security is firmly rooted in existential gratifications are enjoying their blessed reward here and now. When their fortunes are ultimately reversed, these will find, much to their woe, that their future blessedness has already been squandered away.
Today Luke’s declarations of “blessedness” and his ominous “woes” offer us a choice between two ways. One way sees life’s journey and all its bumps and potholes as a place to meet God, as a venue where God’s power can be welcomed. The other way plots a path for destruction; the way of self-centeredness and self-promotion at the expense of others leads nowhere.
Luke warns that riches, possessions, laughter, reputation are not things that we can depend upon as sources of eternal happiness. They not only fail to deliver on their promise; our misplaced trust in them will lead to our demise. The ultimate peril is in misidentifying the source of our eternal happiness.
The Beatitudes are a framework for Christian living. Our vocation as Christians is not to be first in this world, but rather to be first in the eyes of God. We are challenged to examine our present situation in the context of our ultimate horizon, the Kingdom of God. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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