Homily 6th Sunday O.T. C SBC   2025
Lk 6:17-26
Jer 17:5-8
1 Cor 15:12.16-20

focus: The beatitudes prepare us to be followers of Christ.
function: We are called upon to make a choice, either for God or against.

2025 is a jubilee year of pilgrimage. During the last jubilee year in 2000, I went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. One of many lasting memories I have of this visit is our trip from Galilee down to Judea in the valley of the river Jordan. The land close to the river is fertile and often used for farming and gardening. Irrigation systems draw the water from the river and direct it to the fields,

where a great variety of crops are grown. But where the fields end and with them the irrigation, immediately the dry land begins, sometimes the desert. Hardly any plants grow there. Only where there is water, there is life.

In today’s first reading, the prophet Jeremiah uses an image that is taken from the everyday life of his listeners in the Jordan valley: A healthy tree with many green leaves stands by the river. It can grow even in the heat of summer; its roots always reach the water. On the other hand, out in the dry land there is a barren bush: It is dried out and lifeless, because it has no access to water.

Jeremiah points out how we can be either this way or that way. Growing, well nourished, confident even in times of drought or stress—that’s what we are when we trust in God and expect our happiness from God. Or: dried out, lifeless, with no leaves that could transform the sunlight with the water into growth – that’s what we are when we make our happiness dependent on human beings, their recognition, their praise, and their approval.

Two impressive images. Is Jeremiah is exaggerating? It is true, people who live a worldly life sometimes do have tremendous energy in pursuing their goals. But this is deceiving. Most people who live without faith will eventually reach a point when they realize that something essential is missing in their lives. The famous depth psychologist Carl Gustav Jung once remarked that among all the thousands of patients he met in the course of his career there wasn’t even one above the age of thirty-five whose problem wasn’t at the root a spiritual one.

So—why not sink in our roots by the water right away,by the One who said, whoever is thirsty, come to me and drink! “Whoever believes in me ...Rivers of living water will flow from within him” (Joh 7:38)?

In today’s gospel, the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus shows what coming to Him, living with Him means. First, it’s remarkable that Jesus, at least according to Luke’s account of this speech, went down to the people. He descended to them. He was at eye level with them. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, didn’t mind being where the people are, especially the poor, the sick and the downtrodden. And exactly these folks he calls blest: the poor, the hungry, those who are weeping, the rejected.

Why? Because they don’t rely, they can’t rely, on the consolations, the entertainment and the honor of this world! So, it isn’t surprising at all that those who responded enthusiastically to his message were largely the poor people of his time: peasants, craftsmen, fishermen, shepherds and even outcasts of society like tax collectors and prostitutes. These folks were ready to receive living water from him. Jesus is congratulating them: You are close to God. God’s love extends to you in a special way. You are already part of God’s kingdom

My sisters and brothers in Christ, in his beatitudes, Jesus tells us that God’s unconditional love extends especially to the poor and marginalized. He invites us to recommit ourselves to this God who is also our source of life.

The beatitudes are an invitation for us to make a choice, either for God or against: Do we truly place our hope in the God of Jesus Christ? Do we ask God in our daily prayer to guide us, and to show us what is really important in our life? Or do we still expect our happiness too much from the things that our modern world has to offer and from what other people think about us?

The beatitudes also raise the question of how we show our concern and solidarity to those people who are less well off. This includes for instance, as Pope Francis has reminded us this week, refugees and migrants who, “beset by persecution or necessity, are forced to leave their homeland, beloved family and dear friends for foreign lands.” (Letter->US Bishops)

The beatitudes are a radical and counter-cultural way of thinking and living. But they show us that wellspring, which, when we drink of it, quenches our deepest thirst and provides for us everything we need. AMEN.

~Fr. Thomas Leitner, OSB