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)
