Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Happy Valentine’s Day Monday! And February 13 is World Marriage Sunday! It has been said that there are two great days in a person's life: the day we are born, and the day we discover why. For many people, the "why" is a relationship. The Bible is full of relationship stories: with God and with one another.

A quick question: how many will watch the Super Bowl? Since the Bucs are not in the game, I’m considering the advice of humorist Andy Rooney: find something you don't like about one team, and cheer for the other team. Once I was stuck in the LA airport, so I’m cheering for Cincinnati.

 The word of God today takes us back to the sixth Century before Jesus.  Jeremiah contrasts those who trust in God against those who trust simply in their own resources, e. g., money or power. We have a choice:  trust in God's unconditional love for us and flourish like a tree beside water; or stick to your own resources and become like a barren bush in the wasteland.

But that may not be always so easy. Do we trust in God's love for us, especially when what is happening is the opposite of what we want?

 Paul in his letter to the Christian community at Corinth in Greece speaks about our future. Paul proclaimed the good news: Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, is the protype of our future. And just as God transfigured the earthly Jesus into a new kind of spiritual embodiment.  So too will God transfigure us. For the Christian, in death there is an indescribable life beyond this earthly life.

 Paul challenges us to never forget our purpose, the "why" in our life:  to be in relationship with God and our fellow human beings forever.

In the Gospel, Jesus describes blessings and also woes. Blessed are they who acknowledge with gratitude their total dependency upon God; who seek God in their daily lives; and who try to do the right thing in all decisions. Let them rejoice! Heaven will be theirs.

 And the woes? Woe to those who have “so much” and yet do nothing for the needy, the hungry, the sick and dying.

 As I reflect on Jeremiah, Paul and Jesus, and the obstacles they overcame, I think of how often they prayed to God. Yet God seemed sometimes so silent.

 Yes, it’s not always easy to trust in God. We pray for one thing or another and find silence. We’re ill or someone we love has cancer; we feel insecure about our job; we become anxious about our children; we pray for peace in our families; we ask that a wrong be righted. And God seems so silent.

 We may even feel like giving up on God or thinking negatively about ourselves: “I’m no good” and so forth.  So how deal with unanswered prayers?

 I invite us to enter the silence as something we sometimes need. Try not to get “bogged down” in negative feelings but rise above them by reflecting on faith themes:

First,   let’s re-examine our image of God. Some people think of God only as a judge who rewards good and punishes evil. However, the bible offers a collage of God-images.

A walking companion in Genesis.

A passionate debater in Job.

An anxious parent and a comforting mother in Isaiah. A forgiving father in the Gospels.

And so, what is our image of God? Remember that God is our ever-faithful companion in our lives.

Second, remember God’s providence or care for us. How often the ancient Hebrews forgot the wonders God worked for them. Like a skilled pickpocket, God is present in many different ways. We don’t always know he’s there until later. He may seem absent, but our faith says he’s in our midst.

Third, don’t stay angry with God. In his novel The Town Beyond the Wall, holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel describes the anger of a concentration camp inmate who said: I shake my fist at God; it’s my way of saying God is there, he exists…That shout became his prayer.

Prophets and saints have often argued with God. But we ultimately have to let go of our anger and move forward with our lives; otherwise, anger will poison our relationships. Remember the prayer: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Lastly, know that you are in good company. Many have known the deafening silence of God. Jesus prayed for deliverance in Gethsemane. The point: keep praying. God’s ultimate purpose is to satisfy our deepest longings in an indescribable life beyond this earthly life.

 We might think of our prayers for one thing or another, and then remember God’s care for us in the past and his continuing care, despite disappointments we may experience now.

 The great 16^th century Spanish mystic Teresa of Avila, gives us a perspective when she wrote this:

Let nothing disturb you;

Let nothing dismay you;

all things pass;

God never changes;

they who have God find they lack nothing:

God alone suffices for us.