SIXTH SUNDAY OF YEAR C
1ST Reading: Jeremiah 17: 5 – 8; 2nd Reading: 1 Cor. 15: 12. 16 – 20; Gospel: Luke 6: 17. 20 – 26
NOEL OGADIMMA ONYEULO
noeldominor@gmail.com (The Mercifier Outreach)
THEME: TRUST GOD, NOT CIRCUMSTANCES
Friends, today’s readings are anchored on the consequences of rejecting God and the judgement that follows. In the first reading, we see the prophet Jeremiah exhorting the Israelites on the need to trust in God amidst all circumstances. The book of Jeremiah is designed to show the exiles and the reasons for the captivity of Israelites. They were in Babylon, not because God has forgotten his promises to Israel, but because Israel has been unfaithful to God. The book also taught the captives to wait patiently for the seventy years to elapse and not to seek a quick release through military or political power, by trusting in other nations for deliverance. Finally, the book encouraged the captives that after their bondage, there would come a time of restoration and renewal under the new covenant. For Jeremiah, the Babylonian Exile was as a result of Israel disobedience, idolatry, immorality and rebellion against God. The people of Israel nursed a false sense of security and so were under the impression that just because the temple of the Lord was in the middle of Jerusalem, they were entrusted to trust in themselves and evil doings and at the same time ‘come and stand before me in this house which is called by my name (Jer. 7: 8- 10). This attitude is religious hypocrisy of the highest order! A first class sin crying to God for judgement! This necessitated the message of Jeremiah on God’s judgment on them. So, if they fail to repent from their sins and turn back to the Lord in pure heart and contrite spirit, disaster awaits them. According to the first reading, cursed is the man who placed his trust in man… and blessed is the man who placed his trust in the Lord. Our society is not unlike that confronted by Jeremiah. Are we guilty of forgetting the God we claim to worship? Is there a progressive deterioration of our moral fiber as we forget the one who gave us our resources in the first place? Unless this trend is reversed in our lives and communities, the consequences are unthinkable.
In the second reading, the point is made by St. Paul that the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ remains the beacon of hope for all who believe in Christ. For St. Paul, death is not the annihilation of human destiny neither is it the end of life. By this, St. Paul warns that not believing in the resurrecrion of Christ will only give way to incredulity on Christian faith which will eventually end up in self-help and idolatry. This is because the resurrection faith is a testimony of the Almightiness of God irrespective of circumstance; the Almightiness which the greatest enemy of man - death- cannot stop. Christ's victory over death is an exaltation of the human suffering. So, if Christ has power over the last enemy of man - putting an end to death and revealing the resurrection- there is no circumstance he cannot overcome for his people. Moreover, death played the same role as the destruction Jerusalem played for the Jews. So as the destruction of Jerusalem did not bring to the end of the Jewish world, so the death of Christ did not bring to the end of Christianity. Christ's death and resurrection became the seed of imperishable life and hope for all in different circumstances for all ages. For if God can raise Jesus Christ from the dead, there's no human condition he cannot intervene.
In the Gospel, the evangelist Luke is said to be writing for the Jews, gentiles and whole human race. It is an inclusive Gospel. The import of the number ‘12’ Apostles is a consolidation of a gospel to the Jews; the Disciples, a consolidation of a gospel for the gentiles and the great multitude of people, a consolidation of the relevance of the Gospel even to those who do not know or believe in Christ. So, we see in his Luke's gospel a consolation for all circumstances irrespective of time and generation. Jesus had a long struggle with a people who are determined to go their own way just like the Jews in the time of Jeremiah. And Jeremiah’s teaching and Pauline exhortation are parallel to the message of Jesus, which says ‘you cannot save yourself!’ You cannot engineer a solution to sin, or to your present problems, or save yourself from death!’ All we need is to trust patiently in God’s restoration and renewal at all circumstances; rich or poor, and not exaggerating the extent human help can lead us. For the Psalmist exhorts today: ‘Blessed the man who has placed his trust in the Lord… he is like a tree planted beside the flowing waters, that yield its fruit in due season, and whose leaves shall never fade; and all that he does shall prosper’.
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