TRUST IN GOD AT ALL TIMES

 

Homily for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Fr. Ugochukwu Ugwoke, ISch

Scriptural Texts: Jeremiah 17:5-8, 1 Corinthians 15:12. 16-20, Luke 6:17. 20-26

 

Our gospel reading of this 6^th Sunday from the gospel according to Luke is often called the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17.20-26). It is often compared to the longer Sermon on the Mount found in the gospel according to Matthew (Matthew 5:1-12). Both the Sermon on the Plain and that on the Mount have the same basic focus- the hopeful positivity of doing and being right with God. They contain lists of actions, attitudes, promises and woes to help keep us focused on God alone. The Beatitudes are a guide and framework for daily Christian living.

While Jesus taught on the mountain, to his disciples, in the gospel according to Matthew, the location of Jesus’ teaching in the gospel according to Luke is on a level ground, in the midst of the multitude. According to some biblical scholars, Luke did this in order to present Jesus’ authority in a different light. While the mountaintop signifies closeness to God, the plain represents closeness to human beings. Jesus is God among us. He is always with us, journeying with us in the moments of sickness, penury, hunger, thirst, loss, persecution and rejection. Jesus manifests himself as the God in whom we can put all our trust.

In addressing words of comfort to the poor, the hungry, those who weep and the persecuted, and words of warning to the rich, the self-satisfied, those who were used to the adulation of others, Jesus shows us that the gospel is indeed a double-edged sword. At times the gospel message will find expression in words of comfort; at other times it will come to expression in words that are very disturbing. As preachers and teachers, Jesus shows us that to reduce the message of the gospel to reassuring words of comfort alone is to distort it; likewise, to reduce it to a disturbing word of challenge is equally to distort it. The beatitudes and the woes that Jesus speaks in our gospel reading today are both integral to the gospel message, and both sets of words can be addressed to all of us at different times.

Dear friends, there are times in our life’s journey when we desperately need to know that when everything has been taken from us, whether it is our health, our wealth, our good name, our independence, the Lord is the one reality that cannot be taken from us, because he is especially close to the broken hearted, to those whose spirits are crushed (Psalm 34:18). Jesus has come as strength in our weakness, as life in our various deaths, and as both Jeremiah and the psalmist tell us in the first reading and the psalms, those who keep on trusting in him in spite of the dark situations around them, are like trees planted by the water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit (Jeremiah 17:7-8; Psalm 1:3-4)).

Also, there are other times in our lives when we need to hear the disturbing and tough side of the Lord’s gospel message. We can all get complacent; we can easily imagine that all is well with our little world, when, in reality, what we are doing, and sometimes what we are failing to do, is having damaging consequences for others. There are times when, in our dullness of spirit, we desperately need to hear the Lord’s wake up woes. Still, we should keep in mind that in all of the Lord’s words- the challenging and the comforting ones, they are spoken in love and their purpose is to make us live a good Christian life.