February 16, 2025, noon Mass, By Fr. Robert Chiesa SJ
Homily of the 6th Sunday C
February 16, 2025, noon Mass
I would like to start with the first reading, from the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah utters a curse on the man who puts his trust in things human and turns away from the Lord. "Cursing" someone sounds very unchristian to us. Maybe we can say "How unhappy, how sad the person is who gets buried in worldly affairs and loses all sense of God's word and God's love."
And the opposite: "How happy, how blessed are those who put all their trust in the Lord!" They are like deeply rooted green trees bearing fruit at the proper time. This idea is taken up again in the Psalm we just recited. Those who are rooted in the Lord shall bear fruit and prosper in all they do. But the wicked will be blown away like dry leaves in the wind. "For the Lord guards the way of the just, but the way of the wicked leads to doom."
This helps us enter into the gospel for today. Let's enter through the back door, as it were, and begin from those final statements of "Woe to you!"—How unhappy, you who are rich! Be warned! You have your consolation now. And you who have your fill now, you shall go hungry. You who laugh away your days in superficial merriment and entertainment, you shall mourn and weep. And woe to you when the world speaks well of you and you are praised by all. Will you be praised in the end by the Lord?
The Lord Jesus warns those who trust only in their own wealth and power and social status because they find their consolation and satisfaction in these "things" rather than in Jesus and his awareness of the needs of the poor people at whose expense the wealthy have gained their riches. Jesus is not saying that it is bad to be rich. He is simply noticing what the accumulation of riches has done to the wealthy people he sees around him. They are closed in on themselves and are unaware of the needy people around them. This is happening now in my own country. The flow of foreign aid has been frozen, leaving many children to die of starvation. Funding for medical research has been cut off, hindering the development of means to prevent any coming epidemic.
God has always been concerned about social justice, about seeing that everyone receives fair treatment, equal opportunities, and a reasonable share in the nation's prosperity. There is no doubt that real physical poverty and real hatred and persecution of Christians were a daily reality for the people Luke was writing his gospel. Jesus calls them "blessed." He congratulates them because God loves them and is right there in their midst in the person of Jesus, who shares their poverty, their hunger, their sorrow, and persecution.
Someone said, "If I am attacked, I'd rather be shot and killed than shoot and kill someone to defend myself." Jesus seems to be saying "It's better to be poor and hungry than to be rich and have a full stomach at the expense of others. It is better to be laughed at and slandered for being truly Christian than to be honored and celebrated for having risen to the top by stepping on those who got in your way. One Filipino bishop I heard complained about how the rich countries have become richer by exploiting the natural resources or the cheap labor of poorer countries. Jesus reminds us that God is on the side of social justice.
So when Jesus says "Blessed are you who are poor, you who are hungry, you who mourn, you who are persecuted," he is not uttering a blessing on misfortune. He is not saying that poverty, hunger, grief, and public resentment are something good, something to be desired. He is looking directly at the poor people gathered around him and says that the advantage belongs to those who approach the kingdom of God with the greatest need and the greatest capacity to appreciate its values, undisturbed by attachments to worldly goods, excessive concern for the body, self-indulgent joy, or flattery and inordinate desire for human glory.
Those with no power or riches but trust completely in God are first in the kingdom of God, both in this life and in the life to come. St Paul assures us about this in his letter to the Corinthians that we have been reading every week. To paraphrase Paul, I would say that if our hopes are only for ourselves and for this life only, we are the unhappiest of all people. And to paraphrase Jesus: Blessed are those who, though poor and hungry themselves, make an effort to help and feed others. Blessed are those who, because they know sorrow and ill-treatment by others, can console and strengthen those who mourn or are sidelined by society.
I urge you to be aware of the blessings you have received so as to bring God's goodness to others. Let us strive in whatever way we can to reduce poverty and not to rest until we can extend the blessings of food housing and education to everyone, especially to those who are now in greatest need.
By Fr. Robert Chiesa SJ