Texts taken from the Missalette “On Your Word” January-February 2022
6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
2nd week of the Psalter
FIRST READING
From the book of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 17:5-8)
Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, turning his heart away from the Lord. He is like a tamarisk in the wasteland; he does not see when prosperity comes, he dwells in parched places in the desert, in a land of salt, where no one can live. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted beside water, sending out its roots toward the stream; it does not fear when heat comes, its leaves remain green, in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.”
Reflection on the first reading
We are brought into the valley of decision; before us two paths open: the human and the divine. If we take the first, it means that we place all our trust in our own thinking, deny all transcendence, and do the things we want and think are right. If we take the second, we decide instead always to do the will of Another, to prefer God's way of acting to our own, and we recognize ourselves as children of the Father. The first path is called atheism, the second faith. Denying God is very easy: we need only place total trust in human achievements, in science, and in atheistic philosophical thought. Affirming God means making everything revolve around him and being content with everything, provided that the Lord is in us and with us; it means receiving everything from God's hands and never complaining. But ultimately, the substance is always the same, and it is answering the question: to whom do you want to belong, whose do you want to be? There is no third way: either God's or the devil's. This is what Jeremiah meant for his contemporaries, but it applies to everyone, even today.
SECOND READING
From the first letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (1 Cor 15:12, 16-20)
Brothers and sisters, if Christ is proclaimed as risen from the dead, how can some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised; but if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Reflection on the second reading
The sentence from Saint Paul that we read today in the first letter to the Corinthians is one of the most important in the entire New Testament concerning Christian spirituality: “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (v. 19). Our life in the Holy Spirit, our belonging to Christ, is not ordered toward the things of this earthly reality, because everything passes, is consumed, and ends: even this earth of ours, to which we are so attached, will end and be destroyed, along with all human works. What remains, instead, is the kingdom of God, eternal life, and the life of communion in Paradise. Everything we do here on earth has significance for eternal life: nothing we live in love is lost, because the risen Christ gives eternity to our human acts. Everything is lost, however, if it is done for our own glory, because it is empty glory destined to end. This, then, is Christian spirituality: to make all our choices for God and with God; in this way, we will die to ourselves in order to rise again each day with him.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to Luke (Lk 6:17, 20-26)
At that time, Jesus came down with the Twelve and stood on a level place. There was a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And he lifted up his eyes toward his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For so their fathers did to the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all people speak well of you. For so their fathers did to the false prophets.”
Reflection on the Gospel of the day
The Beatitudes in Luke's Gospel follow the line of the dualism we encountered in the first reading from the prophet Jeremiah: either black or white, either blessed or full of woes, either God's or the devil's. Generally, we would like there to be a third central zone, a place of rest that is neither too much of God nor of the evil one; a neutral zone where we can settle down, decide for ourselves, be holy but not too holy, have a few minor passions and at the same time not want to belong entirely to the evil one. Unfortunately, this central gray area does not exist at all. In fact, the Fathers of the Church say that in the spiritual life one is never standing still, which means that if one does not move forward, one moves backward. The central zone is in fact mediocrity, and this word is not found in the Gospel. To belong to Christ means to be heroes of faith, to be consumed by the fire of charity, to have a living hope, to be, in a word, blessed, even when external circumstances involve suffering or difficulty. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and only the violent seize it. The violent are those who love without measure, without regard for anything else, without setting limits.
