Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 16, 2025

2025 Feb 16 SUN: SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Jer 17: 5-8/ Ps 1: 1-2. 3. 4. 6 (40: 5a)/ 1 Cor 15: 12. 16-20/ Lk 6: 17. 20-26 We know that in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus at the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount gives us eight or maybe nine depending on how you count them, eight or nine beatitudes. They are promises that people are going to be happy in unexpected ways. We remember the first one, "Blest are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God."  Well, we turn to Luke's Gospel and this is called the Sermon on the Plain. It says there that they're on a level stretch of ground. And it's interesting that Luke has Jesus proclaiming four beatitudes and four woes. And you know I've been in the habit recently of referring to people to whom I believe the woes reply -- [rather,] to whom the woes refer. But to some extent every one of us has sold out to one of these things that Jesus warns are woeful. We trust in wealth and we trust in not missing very many meals. And instead of developing a genuine sorrow, we do try to treat life as a joke. And we rely on people speaking well of us. So we need to consider how we are to be among the people who enjoy the beatitudes, the people who are blessed. We have a hint from the first reading and the Psalm today. Jeremiah talks about the need for a tree or some other plant not to be just out in some salt and empty lava waste. Instead that plant must rely upon a steady source of water. And this is the same thing we just sang about in Psalm number one. We know that we cannot rely upon ourselves. We must be rooted in the God who has given us all things and who is calling us to fullness of life, to eternal life, to heavenly life. We know we can do this because, because Jesus is risen from the dead.  And we hear this truth proclaimed effectively by St. Paul. He is responding to people who they probably have gotten their Christianity mixed up with some other philosophy. And there are some who are saying there is no resurrection from the dead. And St. Paul says you have to get rid of that idea. The faith stands or falls on the fact of Jesus' resurrection, or not. We come together on the day of resurrection every Sunday to celebrate the fact that Jesus did die for us and he had to die before he could rise. He died for all of us. He is risen for all of us. We take this to heart and we are happy to reevaluate the things that bring us true happiness.