Sixth Sunday After The Epiphany

Sunday, 16 February 2025

NOTES ON THE READINGS

The Old Testament – Jeremiah 17:5-10

Jeremiah, and the people of Judah in the 6th century BC, find themselves in the prelude and beginning of one of the most traumatic episodes in their history: the Babylonian exile. This event is a true test of faith, as God’s blessing and his promises (land) vanish before the triumph of his enemies; it seems that their gods are mightier than YHWH, for the holy temple has been razed to the ground, the end of the age of kings has come, and the promised land – achieved after a long wait under slavery in Egypt – taken away. This Sunday’s text is part of the block where God’s sadness at the people’s unfaithfulness and the people’s lament at the inevitable destruction and death are set out.

The reference to the bush and the desert, and the contrast with the leafy tree, on the bank of a river, which bears fruit, is a clear reference to the desert that the people were living in at the time and the dryness of feeling God far from them.

The Psalm – 1

The New Testament – 1 Corinthians 15:12-20

Paul, a prisoner in Ephesus, responds to some concerns raised by the Corinthian community. Within the nascent Church – in the second half of the first century – there were different ways of understanding Christ and his teaching, causing confusion among them: “I pray that all of you may always be in agreement and that there may be no divisions among you”. Jewish beliefs in some of them remain strongly rooted, such as that the dead are not raised (Sadducees), but also Greek paganism makes it difficult to fully understand the message of the Gospel (those who also question the resurrection). The proof of the resurrection is that Christ is risen, which is the center of our faith; and if Christ is risen, all who are united to him will also be risen. If the resurrection is a lie then Christ is not risen and our faith is meaningless.

V.20 cannot be understood on its own, it needs v.21, for it is comparing Christ with Adam: through Adam comes death (the beginning of death) while through Christ comes resurrection (the beginning of life).

The Gospel – Luke 6:17-26

The parallel of the Beatitudes is found in the Gospel of Matthew with some significant differences (it is understood that both are based on Source Q ). One such difference is the mountain (mountain really), for while in Matthew Jesus goes up and pronounces them, in Luke he comes down from it and then says them. But both refer to the mountain and a new social order, which takes us back to Moses and the “old” social order (Jesus comes from talking about old and new wineskins and the meaning of the Sabbath), vs. the new Law on behalf of this new Moses. After going up the mountain to pray (like Moses), with the 12 chosen ones (new people) Jesus comes down with the beatitudes (new law) and the “woes”, no longer for Israel but for all peoples. It is about his programme, his proposal for the Kingdom, the way for those who want to follow him.

His audience marks the recipients of the gospel: the poor, the marginalized, the excluded; there are his apostles, other followers, pagans, the sick, the possessed. It is worth noting the differences with Matthew’s Beatitudes, for Luke’s deal with more material, vital aspects: physical poverty and hunger; while Matthew’s are more ethical-spiritual.

The “woes” also differ from Matthew who does not have them. They are laments – or calls to conversion – for those who deify the trivial and have vainglory, ambition, selfishness at the center of their lives.

SERMON OUTLINE

It must have been devastating for Jeremiah’s people to witness the end of an era (of kings, temple, promised land) and to be thrown into the desert and a strange land. It should not be difficult for us to empathize with this reality, especially given the similar situations we live in: fires that devastate cities, floods that wipe out populations, dry land that forces migration (a billion climate migrants are expected by this century), etc We find ourselves in the situation of Jeremiah and his people, we see the end of an era before our eyes, we see the desert at our window.

Jeremiah’s people understood that they had lost their way, that they had turned their backs on the Lord and thus on his favor (Jer). Turning away from God hardens the heart, deteriorating relationships with others and with creation (Jer). When our actions are aligned with God’s will, our relationship with our environment can only be one of life (Psalm 1 and cf. Jr). It is undeniable that the wilderness we are passing through and the loss of Earth-Creation are the result of our choices (Jr)

The Beatitudes are the new law given to humanity by the new Moses coming down from the mountain (mount reallly). This new law is not only ethical or spiritual (as in Matthew) but physical and tangible: “Blessed are the poor…. Blessed are those who are hungry…” (Lk), because for God the physical and sensitive drama of the most vulnerable is also important. What do we gain by having pious people who destroy the body? Likewise, what is the value of so many dreams and ethical-spiritual projects if there is no world in which to realize them?

God loves the world because it is his loving work, in him he became incarnate and redeemed it; hence his denunciation, the “woes”, which deal with those who are slaves of power, consumption, selfishness; They are the ones who bring hunger, death, scarcity, suffering on the poor and the other creatures of the Lord, they close the borders so that the poor do not reach them. How sad to see so many rich, powerful, political leaders, businessmen printing devastation on their own home, the Earth, and on the poorest!

As a Church we are left with the task of calling for unity ( 1 Corinthians ) and continuing to persevere in hope despite the signs and efforts of death that loom over the earth and the poorest of the poor.

RESPOND: See above.

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

SECTION FIVE: ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

Climate migrants:  https: 
Eucharistic Prayer C