The blessedness of trusting in God.
Readings: 1st:
Jer. 17:5-8; Ps: 1:1-6; 2nd: I
Cor 15:12.16-20; Gosp. Lk 6:17.20-26
Dear friends in Christ, in this Holy Mass of
the 6th Sunday of the year, the Church invites us to re-examine our
relationship with God once again to know the level of trust we have in this God
of ours. The church also informs us that we are totally safe when we place our
trust in God and in His Son Jesus Christ. Truly speaking, trust is always one
of the basic factors of every true relationship. Whenever trust is lacking in a
relationship, such relationship is as good as dead.
Since we are social animals, people who need
the other to survive, trusting the other and ourselves also is one of the keys
to a stable relationship. When we trust the other, we give room to a healthy
relationship. Trust is a firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of
someone or something. So, to trust is to establish a relationship with the
reality that is trusted. Furthermore, when one trusts in himself, he challenges
himself to rise beyond the ordinary. However, trust is a very delicate thing,
and it has always been a big risk putting a total trust in human strengths and
in other human beings. Total reliance on human beings has led many people to
disappointments and a total feeling of lack of trust.
Therefore, today, the church reminds us that we
have a friend who is more than just a friend, a friend who is reliable and
cannot fail those who trust in Him, a friend in whose company we do not have to
be afraid of betrayal of trust. This friend is God.
To draw our attention to this friend, the
church gives us the readings of today which made comparisons between the fate
of those who trust in God and those who trust in human beings or their own abilities
alone.
Today’s first reading from the
book of Jeremiah reminds us of the consequences of trusting solely on our
abilities, on our human strength and on human beings. It says, “Cursed is the
one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart
turns away from the Lord.” “But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord. He is like the tree planted by the waterside; it does
not cease to bear fruits”. This reading simply reminds us of the risk we face
when we cede the place of God in our lives to human beings, and what we stand
to gain when we hand over our life, our plans and our purposes to God. This
reading challenges us to ask ourselves this crucial question: In what or in
whom have I put my trust? Is it in God, in Man or in material things? However,
trusting in God is not a call to stop believing in what we can do for
ourselves, rather, it is a call to recognize that it is God who sustains,
confirms and blesses our ways and efforts.
To place one’s trust in God is a
great source of blessing and interior joy. For this reason, the psalmist reminds
us that: “Those who trust in the Lord are like mount Zion that can never be
shaken” (Ps 125:1) In the same line, the psalm of today gives a very wonderful
description of the blessings that come to those who put their trust in God. It
says: Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. He is like a tree
planted along streams of water, which bears fruit in his time: his leaves do
not wither, and everything he does is successful.
The gospel of today presents us
St Luke’s version of the beatitudes. Beatitudes means blessedness. The gospel
of St Matthew has another version of the beatitudes. We may have noticed that
while that of St Matthew is called the Sermon on the mount, Luke’s version was
given on the plain, and could be called the Sermon on the plain. Luke’s and Matthews
versions of the beatitudes present little differences in number and style. But we
are not going to dwell on those variations here.
So, in his own version, Luke
pronounced certain groups of people as blessed and some others as accursed. He
said: blessed are the poor, the hungry, those who cry and those who are
persecuted for the sake of Christ. These categories of people Luke pronounced
as blessed are the opposites of those the world believes to be actually happy
and fortunate. One may then wonder why Luke chose to pronounce such people as
blessed. The reason is that Luke believes that material poverty leads to
greater detachment from the things of this world, thereby allowing people to
attach themselves to spiritual values, and then focusing only on God. This
takes us back to the topic of trust in God as proposed by Jeremiah in the first
reading. So, the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and the persecuted are blessed
because God is their only Hope for survival, they put their entire trust in
God.
Luke, then, affirms that material
riches and success can lead people to trust only in themselves, refusing to
acknowledge God’s providence and grace. In that case, Luke announced woes to
those who have no place for God in their success stories, those who have ceded
the place of God to human beings and material possessions. They are indeed
accursed for not believing that it is God who provides.
In the second reading of today, St
Paul also hints on the theme of trust in God. He urged Christians not to allow
their faith and hope to end in this world and in material things, but that the
reality of the resurrection of Christ should be their conviction that there exists
a life after this worldly existence. If there is life after this world, we
should, then, be filled with trust and hope in God who will raise us on the
last day and reward us with eternal bliss in heaven.
Peace be with you
Happy Sunday to you
Fr. Isaac Chinemerem Chima
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