A Homily – The Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

First Reading - Jeremiah 17:5-8 ©

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 1:1-4,6 ©

Second Reading - 1 Corinthians 15:12,16-20 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 11:25

The Gospel of Luke 6:17, 20-26 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 God, the creator of the universe; God made the whole of creation and all who live in it free.

 God knows the things we do, and God knows our reasons for doing it. God understands our experience even as we understand it ourselves, and God, being God the infinite and the eternal, God does not sit in judgement like a human handing out rewards and punishments.

 The prophet errs in depicting God this way.

 Do not look to God to give you things. Do not look to God to punish your adversaries; God does not prefer you to them, or any one person over another...God loves all people equally.

 Therefore, look to your-self, look to your own means to build communities of sharing, communities of love, communities that are strong and enduring because they are just and merciful.

 Be mindful.

 The psalmist was also mistaken; therefore, know this:

 To be wise and good, is wise and good.

 There is no reward for the pursuit of wisdom and goodness, not in this world; if you follow the way, walking humbly with a spirit of compassion and mercy, you may in fact become wise and experience some portion of goodness, but material blessings are transitory and never the function of the divine will.

 Some who are good will prosper, some who are not good will also prosper, this is the truth. All of us present of a mix of both qualities, we are each sinner and saint, it is the human condition. And so is it true and has always been understood that some who are wicked will suffer, but not all, and some who are good will suffer with them, all of which occurs at the intersection of human will, what each of us wills for ourselves (and others), and the vicissitudes of chance.

This is the nature of reality, as it was expressed in The Book of Ecclesiastes, which states that God makes the rain to fall on the just and unjust alike…meaning for this truth to be a point of comfort insofar as it helps us to reconcile ourselves with the world.

 Understand this.

 A person who has lived a good life is not unqualifiedly good, just as a person who has lived a wicked life is not unqualifiedly wicked.

 In every person there is the potential for change and conversion; this is a core conviction of the believing community. There is always the potential for change, for a turning toward or a turning away from justice and goodness, from the divine and from grace. A person can change at any time, or swing like a pendulum, or spin out of control.

 It is another core conviction of the believing community that God, in God’s infinite wisdom, has established a path for the salvation of everyone, ensuring the same destiny for all of God’s children. God has shown us the way by which we may slip the bondage of the world and dwell with the divine in eternity.

 This is human destiny.

 Consider the teaching of the apostle, and be mindful, because he is fond of circular arguments, some of which do not serve him well. Today’s reading begins in this circular way; Paul insists that Christ must be raised from the dead or his faith, and the faith of Christians everywhere is in vain, and that because the faith of Christians everywhere is not in vain, we must believe that there is a resurrection, and the risen of Christ is the proof of it.

 This is not a rational argument, as such it is a disservice to the Word of God, the divine Logos, the rational nature of the triune God.

 Set the introduction of this argument aside, because it has no bearing on the main point of the passage, which is this:

 The apostle believed that sin and death enter the world at a single point in time, followed by another singularity which brings sin and death to an end.

 Adam causes the fall, Christ causes its restoration.

 Paul insists that the scope of their work must at least be equal. More importantly, Paul argues, the scope of Adam’s failure cannot exceed the scope of Christ’s success, because the intrinsic value of Adam’s work is necessarily finite, while the intrinsic value of Christ’s work is infinite.

 Know this.

 The teachings of Jesus cannot be treated like a shell game, though they often are, and have been since the beginning, as Matthew’s Gospel illustrates. At the root of this error is the human condition, and because the church is a human institution it reflects our deepest faults; this is unfortunate, yet predictable.

 The way is not a long con, neither is it a bait and switch; the way is a simple teaching whose precepts cannot be controlled or owned by any one person or group of people.

 God is hiding nothing from us; God does not obfuscate anything. The truth is an open secret, it is there for anyone to see, people bear witness to it through the quality of the lives they live..

 The wise and the powerful, the learned and the clever, the weak and the meek, everyone has access to the same truth, to the knowledge of God, of justice, of hope and love. We know this because we know that God dwells within each and every one of us, speaking to us and guiding us…no matter how poorly we listen.

 Who are the wise and powerful, who are the learned and the clever, who are the faithful and childlike? In every generation you will see a new group labeling the preceding generation as out of touch, blind, privileged, in the dark and corrupt.

 It is an endless cycle, the ignorant accusing the ignorant of being ignorant, changing the players but never changing the game, and the truth remains the same; if you wish to live in grace:

 Love justice, be merciful, do good, serve God.

 Serve God through the loving service you provide to one another: to your family, to your friend, to your neighbor, to the stranger, even to your enemy.

 Be mindful.

 Just because a person may be wise and powerful, learned and clever, or a child of the church, does not mean they recognize the truth when they see it, or act upon it when they do.

 It is not your station in society, it is not how other people regard you, it is not the titles you have earned, or the ways that you have been marginalized that give us the tell on how you will fulfill the calling to follow Jesus if and when you do.

 What matters is what is in your heart, what matters is your willingness to trust in the content of your hope, it matters if you are able to extend your hopes beyond yourself so that they include every person you encounter; fair or foul, good or ill.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today, Jesus teaching us the way, a prescription for good living.

 Understand this, happiness does not lie in poverty, but the poor have an easier time finding it, because the wealthy walk through the world with a divided heart, seeking to guard their possessions from threats, both real and imagined.

 Whereas the impoverished, which is to say, those living in an economy of scarcity, bond with one another so that they may face the world together, providing for each other what the other lacks. They form a common purpose for the common good. This is the way, through such communitarianism cultivate grace, and the world becomes a garden through which we come to paradise.

 When you have known hunger, you will be satisfied with the simplest of morsels; a cup of water, a serving of broth, a piece of bread. People who are hungry live by faith and do not often have time for the kind of malaise referred to as spiritual hunger, unless of course they have lost hope.

 Spiritual hunger belongs to the glutton, to those who have never experienced want or need. The proud and gluttonous will reject a bountiful table, and reject the companionship they might find there, if the meal has not been prepared to their “standards”, or if they perceive the company to be ill-kempt, uncouth or unclean.  

 Be mindful of your sorrows, they will come to end. That much is certain. Joy follows sorrow, as the sun follows the moon; joy too will wax and wane, will come and go, will.

 In this world all things and states of being are impermanent.

 If you are to take pride in anything, take pride in this:

 Take pride when you are reviled for speaking the truth, hated for serving something greater than yourself. Take pride in those things, but do not let pride lead you to vanity. Rather, be joyful in your service, good work is its own reward.

First Reading - Jeremiah 17:5-8 ©

A Blessing on the Man Who Puts His Trust in the Lord

The Lord says this:

‘A curse on the man who puts his trust in man, who relies on things of flesh, whose heart turns from the Lord.

He is like dry scrub in the wastelands: if good comes, he has no eyes for it, he settles in the parched places of the wilderness, a salt land, uninhabited.

‘A blessing on the man who puts his trust in the Lord, with the Lord for his hope.

He is like a tree by the waterside that thrusts its roots to the stream: when the heat comes it feels no alarm, its foliage stays green; it has no worries in a year of drought, and never ceases to bear fruit.’

 

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 1:1-4,6 ©

Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.

Happy indeed is the man

  who follows not the counsel of the wicked;

nor lingers in the way of sinners

  nor sits in the company of scorners,

but whose delight is the law of the Lord

  and who ponders his law day and night.

Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.

He is like a tree that is planted

  beside the flowing waters,

that yields its fruit in due season

  and whose leaves shall never fade;

  and all that he does shall prosper.

Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.

Not so are the wicked, not so!

For they like winnowed chaff

  shall be driven away by the wind:

for the Lord guards the way of the just

  but the way of the wicked leads to doom.

Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.

 

Second Reading - 1 Corinthians 15:12,16-20 ©

If Christ Has Not Been Raised, You Are Still in Your Sins

If Christ raised from the dead is what has been preached, how can some of you be saying that there is no resurrection of the dead? For if the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, you are still in your sins. And what is more serious, all who have died in Christ have perished. If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we are the most unfortunate of all people.

But Christ has in fact been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 11:25

Alleluia, alleluia!

Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom

to mere children.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Luke 6:23

Alleluia, alleluia!

Rejoice and be glad:

your reward will be great in heaven.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Luke – 6:17,20-26 ©

Happy Are You Who Are Poor, Who Are Hungry, Who Weep

Jesus came down with the Twelve and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and from Jerusalem and from the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. Then fixing his eyes on his disciples he said:

‘How happy are you who are poor: yours is the kingdom of God. Happy you who are hungry now: you shall be satisfied.

Happy you who weep now: you shall laugh.

Happy are you when people hate you, drive you out, abuse you, denounce your name as criminal, on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice when that day comes and dance for joy, for then your reward will be great in heaven. This was the way their ancestors treated the prophets.

‘But alas for you who are rich: you are having your consolation now.

Alas for you who have your fill now: you shall go hungry.

Alas for you who laugh now: you shall mourn and weep.

‘Alas for you when the world speaks well of you! This was the way their ancestors treated the false prophets.’

 

A Homily – The Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)