Homily for 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
6th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Feb. 11, 2001

Jer 17: 5-8
Ps 1
Luke 6: 17, 20-26
St. Joseph, Passaic, N.J.

“Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord” (Jer 17: 5).

Jeremiah certainly knew not to trust human beings—at least not kings, nobles, courtiers, and priests:  people of power, influence, and wealth, the people who accused him of treason, flogged him, put him in stocks, imprisoned him, threw him into a dry well, and constantly threatened his life.  He could have been speaking for himself instead of the Lord.

But he was speaking for the Lord.  With all that he endured for the Lord, you have to wonder that he persevered, continued to prophesy.  He did say he couldn’t help it, the Lord’s word burned like fire inside him (20:9).  Even so, he must have been convinced of what he preached:  that the Lord is the only source of blessing, and if we put our trust in human beings we’re very foolish, cursed even.

The Lord’s curse is not on the wealthy and the powerful as such, but on those who trust in wealth and power and turn away from the Lord, those “who follow the counsel of the wicked, walk in the way of sinners, and sit in the company of the insolent” (Ps 1:1).

In the gospel we have St. Luke’s version of the Beatitudes.  In contrast with St. Matthew’s edition of these blessings, Luke’s blessing of the poor is absolute, without qualification:  “Blessed are you who are poor” (6:20).  Matthew recorded, instead, the more familiar “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (5:3), allowing that the wealthy and powerful could be humble and lowly—which experience shows us is possible but unusual; and that the really poor could be as greedy and corrupt as anyone else—which, also, sadly, experience confirms for us.

Joshua tree: Joshua Tree National Forest

Even more noteworthy is that with Jesus’ blessings Luke records a set of curses lacking in Matthew’s version—one curse or “woe” for each blessing:  woe to the rich, woe to the satisfied, woe to those who laugh, woe to those who are praised (6:24-26).  We are meant to connect these woes with the curse uttered by Jeremiah:  “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord.”  If those who are high and mighty in this world are not “barren bushes in the desert” or “salt and empty wastes” in human eyes, it may be that they are so in divine eyes, and their eternity will be barren and empty.  One example:  When certain retired justices of the Supreme Court have died in the last five years, the media have sung their praises as champions of our civil liberties; the major newspapers and the news magazine gave their passing multi-page coverage and lavished them with glory.  I don’t know their heart of hearts; I don’t know how their consciences stood before God.  But God the author of life looks upon their championship of “a woman’s right to choose” to kill her baby in the womb rather differently than the media do.  We can only pray that their eternity isn’t being spent reflecting upon Jesus’ words:  “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way” (Luke 6:26).  “Cursed is the one … whose heart turns away from the Lord,” whether in the name of power or of greed or of ideological fashion, whether we are people of power and influence, or ordinary folks.

An example from the lives of the saints:  One day Don Bosco went to the priest responsible for the house’s financial matters, Fr. Rua, with some urgent bills and asked what was on hand to pay them.  Fr. Rua said there wasn’t much because in 2 weeks a really big debt had to be paid, and he was holding his little cash for that.  Don Bosco rejoined:  “It is sheer folly to neglect debts which we can pay today so as to meet those which will fall due two weeks from now….  Earmarking money for future needs closes the door to Divine Providence.”  When we rely on ourselves, “God holds back” (BM 14:80-81).  Don Bosco taught us to trust in the Lord, to hope in the Lord; and the Lord will water us, keep us green, make us fruitful (cf. Jer 17:8).  So Fr. Rua paid the immediate bills and left the later one to Providence.  The biographers don’t tell us how Providence came thru on that later one, but there are so many anecdotes about other financial crises to suggest we needn’t worry about it.

Or about the assorted decisions and crises in our own lives, whether they’re material or spiritual or moral.  Do I waste psychic energy on matters I have no control over?  Do I bring all my concerns—material, spiritual, or moral—to the Lord, completely open to whatever he wants?  How do I plan for my family—the number of children, their education, our retirement?  How involved should I be with my community? in the local, state, or national political process, in decisions being made for me and all of us about health care, education, child care, care for the elderly, public safety, crime and punishment, public housing and other welfare issues, abortion, the environment, arms control, investment in the Third World, refugees from war and famine?  How do I spend or invest money?  How do I handle serious illness, face possible death?  Do I do what is right today, and not worry about tomorrow?

The message from Jeremiah, Ps 1, Luke and everywhere else in Scripture is not to trust in human resources, human ways of weighing the balances, human wisdom, human power—but in God.  When we’re reviewing the general direction of our lives; when we’re faced with a major decision of any kind—we’re not to ask ourselves only what Pres. Bush or Alan Greenspan thinks about the subject; or the academic community or a Gallup poll; or Wall St. or 9 out of 10 doctors.  We must also ask, and weigh in especially, what our sacred scriptures say, what the long Christian tradition says, what our heavenly Father is speaking to our hearts at prayer.

Like Jeremiah, are we willing to speak what God tells us to speak, to do what God tells us to do, regardless of what other people think or say?  “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man” (Luke 6:22).  Last month a magazine published by a New York homosexual organization included in its review of 2000 cheers for the passing of Card. O’Connor.  But when the cardinal died, God didn’t judge his soul on the basis of editorials for or against him in The New York Times or the opinions of NARAL or various homosexual organizations, or, for that matter, of our military services or the unions or the police department—groups that were very friendly to the cardinal.  The cardinal was judged, as you and I will be, on how he preached and lived out the Gospel of Jesus Christ, according to his and our respective vocations.

Are we willing to hear what Jesus says about wealth, and share what we have with the less fortunate:  our material resources, our time, our talent, ourselves?  Do we delight in God’s law, in his scriptures, in time spent with him in prayer?  “The Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes” (Ps 1:6).  Our hope is not in this life, but in eternal life:  “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all” (1 Cor 15:19).  So we live in this life and use this world’s goods and treat our brothers and sisters with our eyes, and our hearts, on a greater prize:  eternal life in Christ Jesus.  “Behold, your reward will be great in heaven” (Luke 6:23).