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 6^th Sunday, Year C: Homily by Fr Isaac Chima

Theme: The blessedness of trusting in God.

Readings:  Jer. 17:5-8; I Cor 15:12.16-20; Lk 6:17.20-26

Dear friends in Christ, in this Holy Mass of the 6^th 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 a relationship is as good as dead.

Since we are social animals, people who need the other to survive, trusting the other and ourselves is also one of the keys to a stable relationship. When we trust the other, we give room for 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 total trust in human strengths and in other human beings. Total reliance on human beings has led many people to disappointments and the fear to trust again. But 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 in our abilities, in our human strength, and in 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? This reading, however, is not saying that trusting in God is 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 Matthew’s 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 of the beatitudes, 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 focus 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 and sustains.

In the second reading of today, St. Paul also hints at 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