Homily for the
6th Sunday of Ordinary
Time
Feb. 13, 2022
Collect
Jer 17: 5-8
Ps 1: 1-4, 6
1 Cor 15: 12, 16-20
Luke 6: 17, 20-26
St. Joseph, N.R.
Assumption, Bronx
Blessed Sacrament, N.R.
“O God, you abide in hearts that are just and
true. Grant that we may be so fashioned
by your grace as to become a dwelling pleasing to you” (Collect).
The readings and the responsorial psalm today offer us a set of contrasts: between someone who trusts in human beings (or in himself) and someone who trusts in the Lord (Jer 17:5-8); between the wicked person and the one who delights in the law of the Lord (Ps 1:1-4,6); between one who believes in the resurrection and one who doesn’t (1 Cor 15:12,16-20); between those who are poor, suffering, or persecuted for Christ’s name and those who have all the satisfactions of this life but care not for Christ (Luke 6:20-26).
In that context, we prayed in the Collect—the formal name for our opening prayer—that God fashion our hearts, shape our hearts, fill our hearts with an appreciation of and practice of his justice and truth. It’s God’s grace alone that can do that, that can keep us faithful to the law of the Lord day and nite (Ps 1:2), that can strengthen our often faltering hearts to keep their trust in Christ as our Redeemer, firmly planted like a tree beside a stream of water, as both Jeremiah (17:8) and the psalm (1:3) say. It’s God’s grace alone that enables us to believe that Christ has been raised from the dead (1 Cor 15:12), obtaining for us who belong to him the forgiveness of our sins (cf. 15:17) and the promise of being raised up ourselves to live alongside Jesus.
St. Paul makes the point that if there is no
resurrection of men and women, then Christ can’t have been raised from the
dead, and our supposed faith is worthless:
“we are the most pitiable people of all” (15:19), living lives based on
empty hope, on eternal nothingness. Then
we might as well strive to live among those upon whom Christ pronounces
“woe”: the rich, the fat and comfortable,
those whom the world praises (Luke 6:24-26).
Our hearts want to believe that there is life
beyond death, that this is true; that God rewards the just and punishes the
wicked; that God really is faithful to men and women who try to practice
virtue, who pursue and live truth. If we
do our best to seek truth and practice justice (live virtuously), then our
hearts will please God and he’ll dwell in us—the life of grace, the gateway to
eternal life.
Last Wednesday the Holy Father spoke about
death. In his weekly public audiences, he’s
been meditating upon St. Joseph for several months, and he came to Joseph’s
death, accompanied by Jesus and Mary.
With them at his side, Joseph had no reason to fear death, and neither
do we. If Jesus is truly raised from the
dead, then our own death is only a transition from one form of living to
another. In the Mass for deceased
Christians, we note that for God’s faithful, “life is changed not ended, and,
when this earthly dwelling turns to dust, an eternal dwelling is made ready for
them in heaven” (Preface I for the Dead).
Pope Francis said: “It is only through faith in resurrection
that we can face the abyss of death without being overwhelmed by fear, because ‘the
true light that illuminates the mystery of death comes from the resurrection of
Christ.’ Thinking about death in the light of the mystery of Christ helps us to
look at all life through fresh eyes.”[1] There’s nothing to fear when God’s dwelling
in our hearts, when Christ is at our side.
Christians, therefore, welcome death but
don’t hurry it along; they welcome death but don’t administer it by euthanasia
or assisted suicide, which are sins of despair, sins of whose who seek their
strength in flesh, whose hearts turn away from the Lord, as Jeremiah says (17:5). Christians place their hope in the Lord. We hope in life after death. We look forward to a great reward in heaven,
as Jesus says (cf. Luke 6:23), because we live the truth that God is in charge
of our lives, in charge of our eternal destiny—and in Christ Jesus he redeems
all who are his own.
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