Commentary
Sunday, 2/17/2019, Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Where Is Your Trust?
First Reading Commentary: Jeremiah 17:5-8
What are you worth? Or, shall I ask, what do you think that you are worth? If you answer, “Nothing,” you are correct. But why do you say, “Nothing” and why is that the correct answer?
The subject of Jeremiah’s message today is all about the fact that we are nothing and the reason why we are nothing. No matter how much we have acquired in life in both material and/or non-material possessions, we are worth nothing.
We may hold the highest and most coveted position in society or government. We may be viewed by others as the wisest person to have ever lived. We may have wealth beyond measure. We may be considered to be the most beautiful person alive. So what? None of that matters because we can’t take it with us and all of it put together is still: nothing.
We exist because God breathed life into us. We are what we are because God blessed us with the ability to be what we are. We have what we have because God blessed us with the ability to acquire it. All of that is true because God made all things meaning that everything that exists, physical and non-physical, exists only because God commanded it. And, if we only consider our five senses in considering God’s creation, we are missing out on God, Himself.
We know that Jesus was one hundred percent human as well as one hundred percent divine. Therefore, we know that Jesus, in His humanity, experienced everything that we experience in life. Think about that! Jesus experienced His own creation in every way imaginable. Therefore, Jesus experienced all of our emotions as well.
Two weeks ago, St. Paul told us that the most important thing that we can have is love. Like everything else, God created love and the most beautiful thing about love is that God is love and God wants to share His love with us.
Jerimiah gives us a prophecy of the Woes in today’s Gospel by telling us that we are cursed if we trust human beings, seek strength in the flesh and turn our hearts away from the LORD. The worst of these is turning our hearts away from the LORD. Why? Because in His love, God is full of mercy and compassion which is why the Son gave us Confession. Thing is, one who has turned their heart from God has no interest in confessing and therefore cannot be forgiven. No matter what the sin, it can be forgiven but only if one’s heart is with the LORD.
Jeremiah goes on to tell us that we are blessed if we trust in the LORD and if our hope is the LORD. This is a prophecy of the Beatitudes given to us by Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount. We hear Luke’s account of the Beatitudes in today’s Gospel.
Jesus promised the Kingdom of Heaven when He delivered the Beatitudes to us. The LORD promised His Kingdom of Heaven in the second half of today’s prophecy from Jeremiah—Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD. In the end, the choice is ours. We can be cursed because we turn away from God’s love or we can be blessed—made happy beyond imagination forever because we trust in the LORD—love.
Believe and Follow
Second Reading Commentary: 1 Corinthians 15: 12, 16-20
The Corinthians saw the physical body as a prison for the spirit and therefore did not believe in resurrection because being risen from the dead would be the same as having one’s spirit imprisoned forever. This was the reason why the Corinthians had difficulty with accepting the Resurrection of Christ and it is the Resurrection which is the center of today’s message from St. Paul.
In essence, Paul argues that if we are not raised from the dead, Christ has not been raised and if Christ has not been raised, our faith is in vain. Everything that we believe in as Christians is centered around the life, death and Resurrection of Christ. Without these truths about Christ, there can be no Eucharist or any other sacrament. There can be Kingdom of God or heaven for us to look forward to and Paul gives us the reason: we will still be in our sins.
If we are to have eternal peace and enjoy a life of complete happiness with God in heaven, we must be forgiven for the sins that we commit in this life. We will not be forgiven if we do not believe that God will forgive us and without faith, we cannot share in the Resurrection of Christ.
All of this means that if we call ourselves believers in Christ but refuse to accept the Resurrection, what we call faith will die when we die to this life. Our spirits will not be able to enjoy the blessings of the next life because we do not believe in it and that disbelief will result in our eternal damnation.
That is what Paul was telling the Corinthians and us when he said that if they hoped in Christ only in this life that they/we would be the most pitiable people of all. In other words, they/we would be inadequate and therefore deserving of pity.
Does this mean that God will have pity on us and allow us to be in His Kingdom anyway? Knowing that God is all-merciful and all-forgiving, one could argue: yes. But here is the problem with that argument: It is all about the faith. Once again, if there is no faith, there is no forgiveness and therefore no mercy.
But Christians know that Christ has risen and He is the Light for us to follow on our journey through this life into the next. Christ came to be that Light and fulfill His desire of leading us to Him in heaven. It is up to us to believe and follow.
Don’t Shoot the Messenger
Gospel Commentary: Luke 6:17, 20-26
Today’s gospel is Luke’s account of the Sermon on the Mount, the Third Luminous Mystery of the Rosary, where Jesus gave the Beatitudes to the crowds in Matthew 5:1-12 together with the Woes that Jesus gave the Pharisees in Matthew 23:6-33. Luke gives a brief paraphrase of the two different addresses of Jesus and presents them as one address which means that Jesus may have delivered the Woes more than once. In any case, Luke says the same thing after the last Beatitude and the Woes: “For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.”
In delivering his message in this way, Luke is warning us that we better look beyond the Beatitudes and the Woes and be careful not to make the mistake of ridiculing and persecuting those who preach God’s Word. Consider this: You cannot say that you are a believer in God and His Word if you reject the one who has been sent by God to bring His Word to you. In other words, don’t shoot the messenger.
There is another warning from Luke which is also consistent with today’s prophecy from Jeremiah. Luke is warning us not to believe in the one who is preaching the Word but rather, believe in the One who sent the Word. We hold someone in high regard for any number of many reasons but when we allow our respect for that person to evolve into having faith in that person, we find ourselves being consumed with a faith which is false. When that happens, we fall victim to the deadly sin of pride and find ourselves catering to false prophets or becoming a false prophet ourselves.
Let’s switch gears because Jesus never wants us to focus our attention on negative thoughts. Jesus wants us to be aware of the dangers associated with a lack of or misdirection of faith but Jesus wants us to focus our attention on the rewards of placing all of our faith in Him. That is what the Beatitudes are all about.
The Beatitudes fulfill the promises made to the chosen people since Abraham and are our pathway to the Kingdom of Heaven. They go beyond the Commandments. As you read the Beatitudes, notice how they relate to the two Greatest Commandments: Love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength; you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Mark 12:30-31. If you follow the Beatitudes, you will obey the two Greatest Commandments and if you obey them, you will obey all, of the Ten Commandments.
In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”
Each of the Beatitudes can be linked to at least one of the two Greatest Commandments which tell us what to do and how to live our lives. The Beatitudes go deeper than the Commandments and are all about the reward, the Kingdom of Heaven. It does not get any better than that!
