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Contemplating today's Gospel

Today's Gospel + homily (in 300 words)

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
View 1st Reading and Psalm
1st Reading (Jer 17:5-8): Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord. 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. Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. 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.
Responsorial Psalm: 1
R/. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked, nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, but delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night.

He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers.

Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. For the Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes.
2nd Reading (1Cor 15:12.16-20): Brothers and sisters: If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Versicle before the Gospel (Lk 6:23ab): Alleluia. Rejoice and be glad; your reward will be great in heaven. Alleluia.
Gospel text (Lk 6:17.20-26): Jesus came down with the Twelve and stood on a stretch of level ground with 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. And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. 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. 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. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

“Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!”

Fr. Enric RIBAS i Baciana (Barcelona, Spain)

Today, we review again the “beatitudes” and the “misfortunes: “Blessed are you when people hate you (…) on account of the Son of Man. (…) But woe to you who laugh now, (…) for you will grieve and weep.” (Lk 6: 22-26). Fidelity to Christ and to his Gospel may make us to be rejected, insulted by the media, and hated, as those who crucified him hated Christ. Some may think this is due to lack of faith, but maybe, after all, is just lack of reasoning. Indeed, it seems our world refuses to think or be free. We are immersed in a lust for pleasure and riches; immersed in consumables; blinded by the libertarian indoctrination full of vain and empty words, which darken our personal standards and values and scorns the Church's and Christ's teachings, which is the only line of thinking that, right now, truly goes up stream. But, in spite of this, the Lord-Jesus still encourages us: “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. 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.” (Lk 6:22-23).

Saint John Paul II, in the encyclical Fides et Ratio, wrote: “Faith impels reason to leave its isolation and to advocate gladly for what is beautiful, good and true.” The Christian experience, in its saints, shows us the truth of the Gospel and of these words from Holy Father. Confronting a world that indulges in vice and selfishness as the only source of happiness, Jesus shows us another way: the happiness of the Kingdom of God, which our world finds so difficult to assume to the point of hating and rejecting it. Christians, in the midst of all temptations that this “easy life” offers, know the only way is the love Christ has shown for us in the Cross, the way of fidelity to the Father. We know that difficulties should not discourage us. If we truly seek our Lord, “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy” (cf. Lk 6:23).


Thoughts on Today's Gospel

  • “Mercy wants you to be merciful; justice wants you to be just. In this way the Creator will appear in his own creature, and the image of God may shine in the mirror of the human heart.” (Saint Leo the Great)

  • “The Sermon on the Mount is addressed to the entire world, the entire present and future, and can be understood only by following Jesus and accompanying Him on his journey.” (Benedict XVI).

  • “The beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the love of God above all else (…)” (Catechism Of The Catholic Church, Nº 1723)