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Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

February 16, 2025

Fr. John Colacino C.PP.S.

Introit

Collect

O God, who teach us that you abide
in hearts that are just and true,
grant that we may be so fashioned by your grace
as to become a dwelling pleasing to you.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Reading Jer 17:5-8

Thus says the Lord: “Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. 6 They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. 7 “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 8 They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. This tree shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.”

Responsorial Psalm 1:1-2,3,4,6

R/. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

Second Reading 1 Cor 15:12,16-20

If Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. 17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. 19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.

Alleluia Lk 6:23

Gospel Lk 6:17,20-26

Jesus came down with the twelve and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 20 Then Jesus looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22 Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. 24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. 26 Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.”

Catena Nova

There is the poverty of the average person's life, who is unnoticed by the world. It is the poverty of the commonplace. There is nothing heroic about it; it is the poverty of the common lot, devoid of ecstasy. Jesus was poor in this way. He was no model figure for humanists, no great artist or statesman, no diffident genius. He was a frighteningly simple man, whose only talent was to do good.… Christ did not “identify” with misery or “choose” it; it was his lot. That is the only way we really taste misery, for it has its own inscrutable laws. … With nothing of his own to provide security, the wretched man has only hope – the virtue so quickly misunderstood by the secure and rich. They confuse it with shallow optimism and a childish trust in life, whereas hope emerges in the shattering experience of living “despite all hope” (Rom. 4:18). (Johannes B. Metz)

All of you who feel heavily the weight of the cross, you who are poor and abandoned, you who weep, you who are persecuted for justice, you who are ignored, you the unknown victims of suffering, take courage. You are the preferred children of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of hope, happiness and life. You are the brothers and sisters of the suffering Christ, and with him, if you wish, you are saving the world. This is the Christian science of suffering, the only one which gives peace. Know that you are not alone, separated, abandoned, or useless. You have been called by Christ and are his living and transparent image. (Pope St. Paul VI)

What we would like to do is change the world--make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended them to do. And, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, the poor, of the destitute--the rights of the worthy and the unworthy poor, in other words--we can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world. We repeat, there is nothing we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as our friend. (Dorothy Day)

So long as there are poor, I am poor, So long as there are prisons, I am a prisoner, So long as there are sick, I am weak, So long as there is ignorance, I must learn the truth, So long as there is hate, I must love, So long as there is hunger, I am famished. Such is the identification Our Divine Lord would have us make with all whom He made in love and for love. (Ven. Fulton Sheen)

The poor are wonderful people. They have their own dignity, which we can easily see. Usually the poor are not known, and therefore one is not able to discover their dignity. But the poor have above all great courage to lead the life they lead. They are forced to live like that; poverty has been imposed on them. We choose poverty; they are forced to accept it. (St. Teresa of Kolkata)

I have a dream, God says. Please help Me to realize it. It is a dream of a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness, its alienation and disharmony are changed into their glorious counterparts, when there will be more laughter, joy, and peace, where there will be justice and goodness and compassion and love and caring and sharing. I have a dream that swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, that My children will know that they are members of one family, the human family, God's family, My family. (Desmond Tutu)

Jesus’ Beatitudes are a decisive message which urges us not to place our trust in material and fleeting things, not to seek happiness by following smoke vendors — who are often vendors of death — experts in illusion. We should not follow them because they are unable to give us hope. May the Lord help us open our eyes to acquire a more penetrating view of reality, to heal the chronic shortsightedness with which the worldly spirit infects us. With his paradoxical Word he stirs us and enables us to recognize what truly enriches us, satisfies us, gives us joy and dignity; in other words, what truly gives meaning and fullness to our lives. (Pope Francis)

Homily

I love when liturgical providence is self-evident. As if the Word of God were speaking to directly about current events. For example, unjustly detained and deported immigrants; women, children, the elderly, the poor losing health care or access to health-related information; drug costs suddenly rising and medical research disappearing; people who will suffer or die due to "paused" federal assistance; foreign aid recipients who can no longer expect assistance from the American people; Palestinians threatened with ethnic cleansing as if genocidal retribution weren't enough; people unexpectedly unemployment or denied social advancement due to specious arguments against inclusion policies which are nothing more than racist efforts to eliminate hard-won minority rights meant to promote a "great society" rapidly losing any claim to greatness. I could go on. All this while politicians spout half-baked references to Augustine and Aquinas about how to ration love or, worse, how much more they've come to believe in God while urging us to "bring religion back. Let's bring God back into our lives."

But whose religion I might ask? Is it the religion of Luke's "Sermon on the Plain" with its promise to the poor that the Kingdom of God is theirs? Or to the hungry that they will be satisfied? Or to the weeping that they will laugh? Or to the hated and the excluded and the insulted and those denounced as evil for following Jesus that their reward will be great in heaven?

Or is it the religion of the rich who have received their consolation? Or of those who are filled now but who will grow hungry? Or of those who laugh now but who will grieve and weep? Or of those who are spoken well of now but who are the heirs of false prophets?

So then whose religion is it we need back in our lives? One more like Jeremiah's? Or more like the one whose followers he called "cursed" for trusting in human beings, for seeking their strength in flesh, whose hearts turn away from the LORD like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, but stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth? (cf. I). Is that the religion we need more of? One less like Paul's and more like those whose hope [is] for this life only (cf. II)? Whose religion are we talking about?

And I can't help asking these questions which, I hope, you realize are rhetorical — not when Luke confronts me today with his list of people Jesus called blessed and people who might well think instead, "Woe is me." I also can't help thinking how so many of the people affected by those policies I mentioned are my fellow Catholics, members of the Body of Christ. And even if they weren't, they're still entitled to the rights and the dignity of people make in the image and likeness of God. Which also makes me wonder how a prominent member of the hierarchy could inform us that the faith of the person calling for more religion in American society "is stirring" and how he "takes his Christian faith seriously."

Making me ask, "Which Christian faith exactly?" The faith the government promises to "eradicate" bias against, ensuring "any unlawful and improper conduct, policies, or practices that target Christians are identified, terminated, and rectified?” Which Christians are we talking about? All Christians? Or just Christians higher up on the pecking "order of love?" Does it include even the pope who wrote this week to the nation's bishops:

The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality. At the same time, one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival. That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness….

Thus, all the Christian faithful and people of good will are called upon to consider the legitimacy of norms and public policies in the light of the dignity of the person and his or her fundamental rights, not vice versa….

Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups….

I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of good will, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters. With charity and clarity we are all called to live in solidarity and fraternity, to build bridges that bring us ever closer together, to avoid walls of ignominy and to learn to give our lives as Jesus Christ gave his for the salvation of all. (February 10, 2025)

So while there might be Christians among billionaires, oligarchs, corporate lobbyists, techno bros, and well-connected courtiers of the reigning powers — I prefer the company of people like Francis who seems more in tune with the Gospel providence gives us this Sunday as we gather at the Lord’s Table to be fed on heavenly delights...longing for that food by which we truly live (cf. Prayer after Communion). The same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Intercessions (Joe Milner; The Sunday Website)

For the Church: that the power of Christ’s resurrection may give us vision and perspective for our lives and the courage to live for God each day.

For all who are persecuted or suffering for their faith: that they may have the strength to bear the burdens of the day and be convincing witnesses of the new life given by God.

For an end to violence and the exploitation of the poor: that God will raise up those who are exploited in slave-like working conditions or caught in human trafficking and heal their wounds, and lead them to a new life.

For all who are grieving: that those who have lost loved ones, their health, employment, or freedom may know the presence of God who wipes away all tears and who brings light into every darkness.

For national leaders: that God will give them wisdom in addressing the issues that challenge society, free them from self-reliance, and inspire them to work for the common good.

For all who work in literacy programs: that they may continue their efforts to educate and empower those who are deprived of full participation in our society

For refugees and asylum-seekers: that God will lead them to places of safety and help them to build new lives in communities that will welcome their gifts and talents.

For all who are burdened by the power of nature: that God will relieve their suffering, give them courage, and help them find the assistance that they need.

For the protection and renewal of the earth: that God will inspire and guide us as we strive to be good stewards of the air, land, and water which God has given to us.

For all who are suffering: that God will guide the homeless to shelter, the hungry to food, and the abused to places of safety.

For all who are sick: that God will restore the sick to health, help all to get good sleep, and strengthen all who are for the sick.

O God, who alone can satisfy our deepest hungers, protect us from the lure of wealth and power; move our hearts to seek first your kingdom, that ours may be the security and joy of those who place their trust in you. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. (ICEL; 1998)

Offertory Chant

Offertory Hymn

If in this life only we hope in Christ,

we are of all men most miserable.

But now is Christ risen from the dead

and become the first-fruits of them that slept.

For since by man came death,

by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam, all die,

even so in Christ shall be made alive.

But every man in his own order:

Christ, the first-fruits;

afterwards they that are Christ’s, at his coming.

Communion Antiphon

Closing Hymn (Graham Kendrick)

Beauty for brokenness Hope for despair Lord, in your suffering This is our prayer Bread for the children Justice, joy, peace Sunrise to sunset Your kingdom increase!

Shelter for fragile lives Cures for their ills Work for the craftsman Trade for their skills Land for the dispossessed Rights for the weak Voices to plead the cause Of those who can't speak

God of the poor Friend of the weak Give us compassion we pray Melt our cold hearts Let tears fall like rain Come, change our love From a spark to a flame

Refuge from cruel wars Havens from fear Cities for sanctuary Freedoms to share Peace to the killing-fields Scorched earth to green Christ for the bitterness His cross for the pain

Rest for the ravaged earth Oceans and streams Plundered and poisoned Our future, our dreams Lord, end our madness Carelessness, greed Make us content with The things that we need

Lighten our darkness Breathe on this flame Until your justice Burns brightly again Until the nations Learn of your ways Seek your salvation And bring you their praise.

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