Sunday Reading Reflections:

February 14, 2010
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reading 1 Reflection:

We can tell from Jeremiah's opening complaint today that the leaders of Judah had become corrupt. The people had again wandered away from God. Jeremiah warns that it is useless to place our trust in anyone "whose heart turns away from the Lord."

If we do so, we are "cursed." But if we place our trust and hope in the Lord, we will be like trees growing near a stream. Because their roots are watered by the stream, they bear fruit even in time of drought. That is the blessing Jeremiah prays all of us will experience.

Reading 2 Reflection:

Paul, too, has a complaint today. He is upset with those Christians of Corinth who no longer believe in the resurrection of the dead. He lets them know that they are way off base. If they do not believe in the resurrection, their faith is not worth a wooden nickel.

Gospel Reflection:

You might have noticed that this gospel reading sounds very similar to Matthew's account of the eight beatitudes in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. In Luke's account today, Jesus names four categories of people who are "blest." They are: the poor who place their trust in God; those who hunger for God and God's reign; those who weep because there is so much suffering and evil in the world; and those who are persecuted because they live their faith.

Jesus then names four categories of people who will suffer misery because they do not put their trust in God. They are: the rich; the well-fed; the uncaring; and those who are accepted because they live by the world's values instead of the gospel. These people have woes because they may forget that we must all be dependent on God and not on things.