Sunday the 16th of February 2025 - The Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jeremiah 17:5-8/ Ps 1/1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20/ Luke 6:17, 20-26

Are you happy? Do you feel blessed? In our world of consumerism, we are bombarded with things that promise to make our lives happier or more comfortable. We are conditioned to think that the more money we have, the more leisure time we have, the more things that we have, the happier we will be. This constant drive to have more money, more time, and more possessions is relentless in the world around us. Are these the things that make us feel truly happy, truly blessed?

Many years ago I knew a man who worried himself to death. He was wealthy and wanted for nothing in this world. He became so concerned about his life here that he had made up his mind to emigrate to America where he considered that his wealth and lifestyle would be better protected. It was while travelling on a plane, mid Atlantic, during his preparations to emigrate that he suffered a heart attack. His wealth and concerns for happiness in this life were suddenly rendered meaningless.

Jesus has a message of happiness, but it is a radical message, a message that challenges our worldly thinking. Jesus did not say blessed are those who are rich, blessed are those who have fine houses and expensive cars, blessed are those who eat fine foods in expensive restaurants. No Jesus pointed out those who we might think of as the least blessed in the world as those who are, in God’s eyes, the most blessed. The poor, the hungry, the sorrowful, the hated, excluded, and reviled. In stark contrast Jesus predicted despair and anguish on the rich, the well fed, the people enjoying their worldly life now, and gave a warning also about being spoken well of by the world.

The worldly view often blesses and looks up to the rich while looking down and despising the poor. Being poor can mean more than simply being short of money. We can be poor in spirit, recognising that we need and depend on God, not on ourselves and the world. Those who are seen to be rich have no sense of the need they have for God’s mercy; they rely on themselves and what the world provides. Poverty of spirit in this world can draw us to God because it can free us from a dependence on earthly power and control. The kingdom of God, that we are called to be citizens of, is not of this world and it exists outside of the norms and expectations of this world and its thinking. Jesus radically reverses our thinking from reliance on the passing things of this world so that we can look for the lasting things of the next

We find ourselves where we are by virtue of God’s bidding. If we live in a prosperous country and have good jobs, a good income, and a reasonably comfortable life, then we should be grateful to God for that. If we have plenty then we should seek ways of sharing our good fortune, our blessings, with others. We must rely entirely on God and not become dependent on ourselves or the world. The first reading and the psalm put it very well. If we trust in ourselves, in the counsel of the world, believing our good fortune and strength come from ourselves and the world we will not be blessed, we will be ultimately let down. We must put our trust in the Lord, rich or poor, hungry or well fed, sick or healthy, we must rely on God and not on ourselves. We can be like the shrub in the dessert, living in a parched land cut off from any support. Or we can be like the tree planted next to flowing stream, tapping into the abundant graces flowing from God, not fearing the heat of the evils around us, not anxious when things seem not to be going well, bearing fruit that will build up God’s kingdom around us, turning the dessert of a disbelieving world into a garden of Eden.

To be called blessed by God does not necessarily mean happiness in a worldly context. It means happiness in a much deeper sense than merely having a comfortable life now. It means a happy reassurance that we are living in God’s favour with his undivided attention. That knowledge will give us the blessed happiness that will carry us through any worldly disadvantages. We are valued and important because God created us in his image, and it is that image in which he knows and sees us. The image we are destined for rather than the earthly image that we see ourselves in.

We learn from Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth that our faith, our trust in God, comes from the resurrection of Jesus. This is the foundation of our belief, it is the basis of our faith, providing the hope we have for the future. Without the resurrection our faith is pointless, and we only have the passing things of this earthly life to rely on. If, as Paul says, ‘we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied’. Life here is short and can be full of suffering and torment and ultimately it will come to an end. Our hope is in an eternal existence, an existence in which the love we know here lasts for ever. This is the difference between worldly human thinking and divine heavenly thinking. There will be times when our faith can be severely tested, and faulters. It is only human to worry and have doubts, but through faith we will continue to trust and hope in God’s word.

It is foolish and short sighted to follow human or even evil guidance. We must put our faith in God, follow his guidance, no matter how radical it seems to be to the world, and live with God at the centre of all we do. This is the way to true lasting blessed happiness.

God Bless Brendan