6th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Feb. 11, 2001
Jer 17: 5-8Ps 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).
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