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(16th Feb 2025) Homily for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

READ: (Jer 17: 5-8; 1Cor 12, 16-20; Lk 6: 17, 20-26)

REFLECT: Blessedness is the blessing of God…

My dear friends, we are in the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. We all know that blessedness is a state or a condition of being in God’s favour. I am sure, God is favourable to everyone who seeks him.  It does not matter good or bad, sinner or saint, if one calls out and seeks God’s favour and blessings, God opens wide his arms and blesses us richly and abundantly. That’s the grandeur of God and generosity of his blessings. God’s blessings can make us holy, worthy and can give safety and security as well. There is nothing greater than receiving blessings of God. We can be without many things like money, mobile, machines, etc and not blessings of God because it is God’s blessings that make us obtain everything. All the more, the Catholic Church has a category called saints, who we venerate and look up as models of faith and holiness. They all lived their life in their own human situations and responded to divine call accordingly and happily. So shall be our call as human beings, Christians, religious, we need to respond our call joyfully and spontaneously. So based on the liturgy of the word of God, I would like to share three points of reflection.

1.      Trusting in God is a blessing:

We all of us develop trust in life to have strong bond and relationship with God or others. But in all sincerity when we look, we find that we don’t trust all. We trust, the most we love, who are most reliable and whom we know well and who we believe that he or she will be there for us all the time. All the more, for us Catholics, trusting in God is indeed a blessing because it is a foundational aspect of faith and it fosters our growth in faith. Therefore, trusting in God expresses our total and whole-hearted surrender and faithfulness to God’s will. It is a realization that God is present with us through the thick and thin of our lives. We believe that God always loves and cares for us and trusting in God involves gives us a realization that God provides us all that we need, even when things or situations are different, difficult or unclear, uncertain or ambiguous.

Indeed, this so called ‘trust in God’ is a blessing because it boosts, provides opportunity to share and be open to others, and helps us to rejoice in life. but more than anyone in the world God loves us more, gives us more and saves us from all evil things therefore, more than anybody in the world, it is better to trust in God. That’s what we would read from the first reading of the day from prophet Jeremiah, “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings and seeks his strength in flesh and turns away from God. He is like a barren bush in the desert….Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord… he is like the one who planted besides waters, the leaves stay green and tree bears fruit in plenty.” Yes, we all need to know where our stand is today, whether we trust in God or human beings or we trust in God or goods and commodities of the world.

Today when we analyze from the practical point of view on trusting in God, we find that it offers individuals a sense of peace and grace to withstand on faith that we profess and practice everyday. In times of doubt and uncertainty, knowing that trusting in God can be of great help, we let go of unnecessary worries and anxieties of the present and future scope of life. Such a trust in God reduces anxiety and enhances one’s ability to handle life’s challenges, that there is nothing we can control but God is there, beyond our human power and control. That’s the source of strength and support for those who believe and trust in God.

Today although life is mixture of both difficulties and delights, there are times, when life becomes difficult by personal loss of health and focus or social  pressures from outside that challenges and changes our perspectives. However, at this pressing need, trusting in God helps us to find comfort and consolation in God. All the more, the conviction that suffering is not permanent and suffering has its gain; that suffering is part of a larger purpose or plan of God, enables us to find the way through hardships with hope and perseverance. Thus, trusting in God provides an anchor to grow in personal growth and faith, self-awareness and God-awareness, creating and contributing to a healthier relationship and a more balanced approach to life.

As Pope Francis would point out rightly, “But much of how we invest them depends on our trust in the Lord, which frees our hearts, makes us active and creative in goodness. Trust frees; fear paralyzes. Fear blocks; trust unblocks our abilities. And it gladdens the heart of the Father, who rejoices at seeing his children who do not fear him, but who love him.” Yes, trust in God is generated among us because we love God. When we love God, God always blesses us richly beyond our human capacity. So let us trust in God at all times and obtain God’s blessings in our lives.

2.      Hoping in resurrection is a blessing

We are aware that, for us Catholics, the resurrection of Jesus is not merely a historical event rather it has a theological significance and promise to all those who believe in Christ. We know that the Resurrection of Christ, a central doctrine of us Christian and it gives us great hope and joy to find meaning in life. We believe that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead on the third day after his Crucifixion, death and through the victory over death and we all believers would subsequently share in his victory over sin and death and obtain eternal life. Therefore, we are called to believe not only in the concept of resurrection but also believe in the resurrection of Jesus, which gives us tremendous hope and manifold blessings.

In the gospel of John, we hear Jesus saying to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies,” (Jn 11:25). Yes, true indeed, God has given a gift in and through Jesus that after our death we would live forever. Therefore, our life is not hopeless rather it is hopeful towards the future we journey on, provided we believe in God and believe in the resurrection of Jesus. That’s what we hear from the second reading from St. Paul’s letter to First Corinthians, “Believe that you are raised from the dead and there is resurrection of life from the dead.” So we witness here that Jesus stands as a sure hope of resurrection for all of us, because, he lived, suffered, died and was raised and now living. Jesus becomes the first example to hope for resurrection and eternal life.

I would perhaps say that hoping in resurrection is a blessing for us because we live a new life in the Lord; resurrection of life is a blessing because we renew our lives in Jesus to the full; resurrection is a blessing because God does not wish us to die rather wishes that we live forever and carry on the imprint of his image on earth to become living images of God’s love and mercy. Thus, hope in resurrection gives a preview or foretaste of eternal life, making us aware that just as Jesus was raised to life eternal, so also we who follow Jesus will have eternal life, provided we believe in Jesus and in the resurrection of Jesus. However, from the practical point of view, the hope of resurrection can have profound meaning on how we could approach life, death, and how we live day-to-day. It would also give comfort to people, who believe in life after death that there is comfort in knowing that death is not an end but rather a transition to renewed life in God.

Today, we all need to accept the fact that Christianity exists because of the resurrection of Jesus. For resurrection of Jesus gave us hope, victory over death and joy to live life on earth in the Lord. That’s what Pope Francis would say that “the resurrection of Jesus is not just a “happy ending” but is an event that “changes our lives completely and forever.” So let’s live in the hope of resurrection of life and obtain a blessing of eternal life.

3.      Living the beatitudes is a blessing:

Living the Beatitudes is a blessing would mean that when we follow the teachings of the Beatitudes and avoid woes presented by Jesus, which has spiritual and practical benefits to our living. Because, the teaching of Jesus in the gospel of Luke presents before us the blessings that we need to follow and the woes that we need to detach. They directly affect our lives and enable us to transform life behaviorally and attitudinally for better living as Christians and children of God. Perhaps, we could even say that beatitudes reflect the kingdom values and living according to the beatitudes brings blessings, reward and satisfaction in life. We can be sure that living the Beatitudes is a blessing, because they are the path to spiritual transformation that enables us to be one with the Kingdom of God. The Beatitudes provide comfort, hope and peace, in times of suffering and pain. All the more, when we make the Beatitudes as part of our daily living, we grow in virtue, we become more Christ-like and help one another to obtain the blessings of God to be one with God at all times.

However, today’s gospel reading is not from the Gospel of Matthew rather Luke’s Gospel. In the Gospel of Matthew, we have only beatitudes but in the gospel of Luke, we have both blessings and woes. The gospel of Luke presents before us how life can be wonderful and how life can be woeful. Life is wonderful and blissful to the poor because God will make them part of the kingdom; Life is wonderful and blissful to the hungry for God will satisfy them; life will be wonderful and blissful to the crying for God will make them rejoice; Life will be wonderful and blissful to us when people hate us as we work on account of son of God, because God will reward and love. Life is woeful and awful to the rich because they are attached to wealth; life is woeful and awful to those who have full or fully filled because they don’t share with others; life is woeful and awful to the laughing, because they don’t recognize others worth; life is woeful and awful to those who speak well only at the face value for they are not genuine in reality of life. So the gospel reading presents before us a format or guide-sheet to live our lives more meaningfully authentically.

Very beautifully Pope Francis speaks of what beatitudes and anti-beatitudes can do, “Beatitudes are the ticket, the guide sheet for our life, so as to avoid getting lost and losing ourselves and anti-beatitudes as Luke mentions four woes. They make us take a wrong turn and end up life badly.” Yes, we need to live the beatitudes, so that our lives can be wonderful when we avoid living the anti-beatitudes of life. Today we have forgotten or have ignored the practical perspectives of beatitudes offer us. If we look at the beatitudes a little more deeper, it gives us peace, helping us to overcome challenges and crisis; enables us to be more compassionate, loving, forgiving and generous in fulfilling and living a meaningful life; inspires others and has to a greater extent an impact on others; above all, beatitudes make us obtain satisfaction and happiness in life. So let us live the beatitudes of life that would enhance life and leave behind all woes of life that could hamper life as Christians and as children of God.

That’s why someone has very aptly said, “Blessedness is not a mere feeling of happiness rather it is a state of being well off and with a deep and abiding reason to rejoice. So let us have deep trust in God, hope in Jesus for resurrection and live beatitudes as part of life to be blessed and a blessing to one another. May God bless us to be blessed in his sight and a blessing to all in the world.

RESPOND:

Do we believe that trusting in God is a blessing for me and for others?

Do we believe that hoping in resurrection is a blessing for all?

Do we believe that living the beatitudes is a blessing regardless of who, what and how we are?

Let us believe that trusting in God, hoping resurrection and living the beatitudes is a blessing and be blessing to everyone we meet in our daily lives. Amen.

Fr. Ramesh George MSFS