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| The Prophet Jeremiah |
(Sixth Sunday of the
Year (C): This homily was given on February 17, 2019 at St. Pius X Church,
Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.
Read Jeremiah 17:5-8; Psalm 1:1-6; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 6:17-26.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Sixth Sunday 2019]
“Blessed is the one who
trusts in the Lord.”
The prophet Jeremiah tells us this in today’s first
reading. But, as he himself would
certainly attest, trusting in God is easier said than done! Jeremiah suffered a great deal during his
life because he told the people of Israel the truth, and they did not want to
hear it! Consequently, even though he
consistently reaffirmed his faith in God and in God’s power to deliver him, he
did have a few moments when he was driven to the brink of despair. In chapter 21 of his book, for example, he
cries out, “Cursed be the day on which I
was born. May the day my mother gave me
birth never be blessed! Cursed be the
man who brought news to my father, saying, ‘A child, a son, has been born to
you!’ . . . Why did I come forth from the womb, to see sorrow and pain, to end
my days in shame?” (Jeremiah 21:
14-15, 18)
In preparation for this homily, I reflected on the reasons
why we, like Jeremiah, might have difficulty trusting in God. And it didn’t take long for several reasons
to come to mind! Now please do not
misunderstand: these are not excuses for failing to trust in the Lord, but they
are factors that must be dealt with—and overcome—if we do want to put our trust
in him.
The first is: the
dissenting voices around us….
“Why do you pray?
It’s a waste of time. God’s never
done anything for me!”
“You believe the piece of bread you get in church is the
Body of Christ?! You’ve got to be
kidding!”
“If God is so good, why does he allow me to suffer?”
These are the voices of the skeptics—and there are many of
them in today’s world! If we want to
trust in God, we’ve somehow got to deal with these negative messages, such that
they don’t destroy our faith.
St. Paul understood the destructive power of these dissenting
voices very well, which is why he wrote the words we heard in today’s second
reading from 1 Corinthians 15! Paul says
there: “If Christ is preached as raised
from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection from the
dead?” Apparently, in Corinth, some
skeptics were denying the dogma of the bodily resurrection, and this was
undermining the faith of sincere believers.
St. Paul knew he had to confront this problem head on—which he did in
the verses read to us a few minutes ago.
Another reason why it may be difficult for us to trust in
the Lord: our own personal experience of
disappointment and betrayal. If
we have been deeply hurt by another human being in whom we once put our trust—a
visible human being such as a spouse, a close friend or a co-worker—how much
more difficult will it be for us to trust an invisible God?
Or how a about our
own present circumstances? These
also can undermine trust. For example,
Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “Blessed are you who are poor . . . blessed are
you who are now hungry . . . blessed are you who are now weeping. . . blessed
are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and
denounce your name as evil.” The
implication there is that we will be blessed in these difficult circumstances
if we trust in God and allow his grace to work in our hearts. But, let’s face it, the experience of poverty
or hunger or sorrow or persecution can make trusting in God very difficult.
So can false
expectations, which come from not knowing our catholic faith. If we mistakenly think that God has promised
us heaven on earth; if we are under the false impression that once we take our
faith seriously all our crosses will disappear, then we will have a great deal
of trouble trusting God when things go wrong for us. We’ll say, “Why should I trust you,
Lord? I’ve tried to do the right
thing—I’ve tried to do it your way—and I’ve still ended up with suffering and
heartache.” At that point, we will need
a brief Catechism lesson, where we’ll learn about our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, who never did anything
wrong, but still ended up with the biggest Cross of all!
And then we have the
failures of those who profess to be followers of Christ. These also can undermine our trust in God:
the sins of priests and ministers, which people in the media love to throw in
our faces; the sins of relatives, friends, and others who claim to be
Christian.
Or how about our own
sins? These also weaken our trust
in God, because they distance us from him.
And, in the case of mortal sin, they actually destroy the life of God
within us!
Those are just some of the reasons why trusting in the Lord
can be extremely difficult. But notice I
say “difficult,” not “impossible!”
Which leads us to consider the reasons why we should trust in the Lord in spite of
the many difficulties and challenges.
These reasons I would say fall into two categories: the “objective” and the “subjective.”
The objective reasons for trusting in the Lord are the
reasons we hear about in the Word of God: that is to say, in the Sacred
Scriptures and in the authoritative teachings of the Church. There we are promised great blessings, not
only in eternity, but also here
and now, if we put our trust in
God. Jeremiah speaks of some of these
temporal blessings in today’s first reading (which is one of my favorite
passages in the Bible). He says, “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.” God doesn’t promise us “heaven on earth” if
we trust him, but he does promise to give us whatever we need to cope
successfully with our crosses, and the grace to grow spiritually in the
process. Yes, there will be times of
“heat” and “drought”—those we can expect in this life whether we are the worst
sinner or the greatest saint—but if we put our trust in the Lord we will bear
“good fruit” even in those bad times.
That, I would say, is very good news, and a great motivation to trust!
And then there’s this text from Proverbs 3 (again, one of
my favorites): “Trust in the Lord with
all your heart, on your own intelligence rely not; in all your ways be mindful
of him, and he will make your paths straight.” God promises to guide us and shepherd us (in
good times and bad) if we put our faith and trust in him. More good news!
Which brings us to the subjective reasons for trusting in
the Lord. These would include the
experiences of people we know (or know of) who have successfully overcome all
the obstacles and put their trust in God.
I think, for example, of my own mother, who said to me on her deathbed,
“God is in control.” I will never, ever
forget those words. As she was lying
there, dying of cancer, she reaffirmed her deep trust in God; and that, I
believe, gave her an incredible strength and peace in the final moments of her
life. Whenever I think back on that
expression of her trust, I am
inspired to place my confidence in
God.
And finally, we should think of those times in our own
personal history when we made the decision to trust in the Lord and experienced
his special strength and help. Those
thoughts about the past can (and should) motivate us to trust God NOW! Our prayer should be, “Lord I know what you
did for me when I trusted you back then; I believe you’ll also give me whatever
I need today, in the situation I’m facing right now!”
Which leads to my final point: we must pray! Ultimately the ability to trust is a gift
from God. We can have the best possible
objective and subjective reasons to trust in the Lord—we still need the grace
of God for it to happen. Remember the
prayer of St. Faustina? That’s one we
should say often: “Jesus, I trust in you.”
Say it after you receive the Eucharist today and go back to
your pew to commune with the Lord; say it when you pray at home; say it when
you’re driving your car; say it when you’re putting away the groceries; say it constantly—believing that God will
answer your prayer, and give you the grace you need to trust in him.
