Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2-16-25
In the liturgy of the Mass, there comes the time where the congregation, together with the celebrant, prays the Our Father. We stand and with our arms and hands outstretched, we pray that prayer together. With arms outstretched and hands open, we take this particular stance to receive the blessings from God. With our palms held upward we are called to remind ourselves of our own poverty and our never-ending need for God’s blessings. In such a stance and prayer as this, we remind ourselves also of our relationship to all of creation. For all of creation is sustained and nurtured solely through loving care of our God.
In the gospel, Jesus extends his remarks to a large group of humanity, literally all of us. As the gospel says he stands on “level ground: with us. He is not above us where we cannot reach, but rather he stands level “on level ground with his disciples and a great crowd of people.” He speaks to those who are the “blessed” of the Father and he speaks to those
who will come under significant judgment, for their treatment of others and their attitude toward themselves as privileged persons (i.e., “the woes”). Many of his listeners, that day, were the poor of the world, people of little means and sustenance. Many there that day probably knew of significant loss in their lives to the extent that their grief was overwhelming ( i.e., widows and widowers, the penniless beggars, persons who were disabled). Many among those who heard his words that day knew what it was to be belittled, accounted as not important or abused at times because of their religious heritage. He also addresses, that day, those who considered themselves as the leadership, or as the people of importance, or those who were in power over others. To them he extends warnings that if they don’t change their attitudes and behavior towards the poor, the needy, the sorrowful, the abused, then they themselves will become such as those they abuse and mistreat.
Two thousand years later we hear these words read to us in this Sunday’s gospel. Do we see ourselves as part of those persons standing on the level ground with Jesus. Is there any group in his list of “the blessed” in which we see ourselves. Are we the needy, the abused, the grieving, the sick, the disabled, the imprisoned. Or our we, the powerful, the self-
sufficient, the ones in control over others, the ones Jesus spoke the “woes” to. In speaking to both groups Jesus is emphasizing the importance, the critical importance, that if we are to grow spiritually then we need always to develop and maintain our awareness of our absolute dependence on God. We depend upon God not only for the good things He
blesses us with, but more importantly for an awareness of His presence in our lives at alltimes. For many of us we have been hearing the words of the gospel about the blessings and woes since we were little children. Hearing them again we can take an intellectual stance and say to ourselves, “yes, yes, I heard this gospel many times.
” But maybe we haven’t really heard this message. “We are a very proud people are we not. We enjoy the image of
the self-made man or a self-reliant woman. And so, do we see our total dependence on God as two lines of poetry. One says, “I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.” The other says “Blest are the poor; the Kingdom of God is yours.” (One says, “I am sufficient in myself” and the other says, “I am utterly dependent on God” — and that’s
blessedness.) Yes, it is hard for us. And yet Jesus is telling us that the only way you and I can ultimately be whole and fulfilled persons is to go through this emptying of ourselves (i.e.empty hands raised heavenward) and placing ourselves at the mercy of the love and the grace of God. Life’s fulfillment begins when we are ready to admit truly to ourselves our
utter dependence on God. The man or woman who is poor in spirit, and who is ready to admit that to themselves, is truly blest with and will have an awareness of God’s care for them in their lives. This is the key, this first Beatitude, to the Sermon on the Mount. If you don’t hear this first word deep down, then you won’t hear that which follows”1
Sr. Dorothy, born in Dayton, Ohio, joined the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur out of high school and volunteered in 1966 to work in Brazil. Eventually she was drawn to the remote regions of the Amazon and the cause of poor farmers who were exploited and robbed by rich loggers and cattle barons. Well into her seventies, she trudged through mud and thick forests to attend prayer services and labor meetings. Her efforts on behalf of the farmers and the imperiled rain forest marked
her as an enemy by those who hired her assassins. On the morning of February 12, 2005, Sr. Dorothy Stang set off for a meeting of landless farmers. Along the muddy trail, her way was blocked by two hired gunmen who asked whether she carried any weapon. In reply she produced her Bible and began to read the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . Blessed are the peacemakers.” And then they shot her.2
I believe she was able to read these lines with full confidence and dependent reliance on her God. I believe she knew and trusted that she was not losing her life so much as she was surrendering her life to the One who gave her life and who promised to bring her to the fulfillment of life in His kingdom.
“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they
exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of
Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in
heaven.”(Luke 6:20-26)
Our Father………..give us this day, our daily bread
1. SundaySermons.org
2. Give Us This Day, Liturgical Press, Feb. 12, 202
