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This Sunday we celebrate the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time. The readings challenge us to see past the circumstances of the world around us. Jeremiah urges us, to strive to place our trust in God who alone is trust-worthy. By doing so we become part of the "poor of God" who are declared blessed by Jesus and have as a reward the promise of resurrection that Paul argues for in the second reading. Much of this interior struggle involves making God's values and desires our own. This is accomplished only by complete surrender to Jesus and taking on the mind and heart of Christ which is expressed in the Gospel reading.

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First Reading: Jeremiah 17: 5-8

5 Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD. 6 He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, But stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth. 7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD. 8 He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.

NOTES on First Reading:

* 17:5-8 This is part of a small set of wisdom sayings that includes verses 8 to 11. The comparison of the just man with a green tree is common (Pss 52:10;Prov 3:18;11:13 and Sir 24:13ff). The opposition between trust in God and trust in Man is also a common Biblical idea (Pss 39:5; 117:8-9;145:3ff). The closest parallel to this section occurs in Psalm 1 where the same comparisons are drawn. It expresses the heart of true religion which is: "God is one's only true refuge."

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15: 12, 16-20

12 But if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? [13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then empty (too) is our preaching; empty, too, your faith. 15 Then we are also false witnesses to God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised.] 16 For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, 17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all. 20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

NOTES on Second Reading:

* The verses shown in brackets ([]) above are left out of the reading. I include them for the sake of completeness.

* 15:12 Paul is addressing a Corinthian error that denied the resurrection of the dead. They were apparently not able to see how bodily existence could continue after death and fell prey to a series of errors. Among them was a popular philosophy of the time that identified resurrection with the wisdom of God that transformed the soul. They were strongly influenced by the Greek view of anthropology which looked down on matter and considered the spiritual part of man to be good and worthy of continuing alone. These "spiritual" Corinthians seeing no need for a body and its corrupting influences were attracted to a the Gnostic way of thinking and denied the reality of a bodily resurrection.

* 15:12-19 Paul points out that denial of the resurrection (1 Cor 15:12) involves logical inconsistencies in their faith. The most basic one, which is stated twice (1 Cor 15:13,16), is that if there is no such thing as (bodily) resurrection, then it has not taken place even in Christ's case since Christ by His resurrection became the model and pattern of our own resurrection.

* 15:12 Paul now indicates the inconsistencies involved in denial of the resurrection while maintaining the other aspects of Christianity which the Corinthians were glad to accept such as salvation, spiritual gifts, the Holy Spirit in their midst, etc. The first such consequence of denying the resurrection of the body is that Christ could not have been raised since He is the model and established the pattern that His disciples will follow.

* 15:13-15 Even though the Lectionary leaves these verses out of the reading, I left them in for discussion purposes.

* 15:14 If the resurrection of Christ did not occur then Paul and the other apostles have preached in vain and wasted everyone's efforts and time.

* 15:15-18 They will have been guilty of misrepresenting God and the faith of the Corinthians is useless for without the resurrection there is no forgiveness of sins and no salvation. All of the spiritual gifts that the Corinthians treasure are illusions and they are deceiving themselves. Those who have died have really perished and there is no hope.

* 15:17-18 The consequences of denying the resurrection are very serious for the Corinthians. Without the resurrection both forgiveness of sins and salvation become merely an illusion, despite the Corinthians' strong convictions about and attraction to both teachings. Unless Christ is risen, their faith does not save and all is really lost in spite of their fine insight, wisdom and spiritual gifts.

* 15:20-27 Paul now states the wonderful implications of the Resurrection of Jesus from which flows our faith and hope for our own future resurrection. First fruits were given as an offering to God but they implied the consecration of the entire harvest. So it is with us. The resurrection of Christ will only be complete in its implications after the resurrection of all those who have followed Him.

Gospel Reading: Luke 6: 17, 20-26

17 And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground. A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon [18 came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured. 19 Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.] 20 And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. 21 Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. 22 Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way. 24 But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. 26 Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way."

NOTES on Gospel:

* 6:17 This verse carries on Luke's universality theme by telling us that not only Jews from Judea and Jerusalem, but even Gentiles from outside Palestine came to hear Jesus (see Luke 2:31-32; 3:6; 4:24-27).

* 6:18-19 These two verses are left out of the reading by the Lectionary. I left them in for completeness. These verses give us the reason that the great crowd of people came to hear Jesus. The first one says that they were hoping for healing and deliverance. The second says that they tried to touch Him because there was power in His presence to heal them of their illnesses and deliver them from the evil in their lives and that all were healed.

* 6:20-26 These verses form the introductory portion of the "Sermon on the Plain" (Luke 6:20-6:49) which is Luke's analogue to Matthew's "Sermon on the Mount" (Mt 5:1-7:27) and consist of a series of blessings and woes that address the real economic and social conditions faced by the people of that time and every time since (the poor-the rich; the hungry-the satisfied; those grieving-those laughing; the outcast-the socially acceptable). Matthew's version which is generally more familiar to most people emphasizes the religious and spiritual values of disciples in the kingdom inaugurated by Jesus ("poor in spirit," Matthew 5:5; "hunger and thirst for righteousness," Matthew 5:6). Luke is very much concerned with bodily problems and bodily expressions of faith and attitudes. His version may well seem overly harsh to our ears but Luke wants his message to hit hard and not to be overly spiritualized. In the sermon, the word, "blessed," extols the fortunate condition of those who are favored with the blessings of God; the woes, addressed as they are to the disciples of Jesus, threaten God's great dissatisfaction with those so blinded by their own present good fortune that they do not recognize and appreciate the real values of God's kingdom. The blessedness of the poor, the weeping, etc. does not stem from their sorrow but from their dependence on God expressed in their relationship with Jesus. It is this discipleship which makes them part of "God's favored poor". In all the blessings and woes, the present condition of the persons addressed will be reversed in the future, echoing the Canticle of Mary in Luke 1:46-55. Jesus came to turn the values of the secular world upside-down.

 

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Scripture Study for:

09/12/10

09/19/10

09/26/10

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Scripture text: New American Bible with revised New Testament copyright © 1986,1970, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine.
Commentary Sources:
  Vince Del Greco
  The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (1990) (Eds. Brown, Fitzmyer & Murphy)