C Cycle – 6^th Sunday in Ordinary Time 25

Jer. 17:5-8

As I meditated on the words of the prophet Jeremiah, a vivid memory from my childhood came to me.  I was attempting to do something, but I kept failing to accomplish that task.  My father was watching me and as I failed again, he came over to me and offered to help me.  My response to him was to reject his help as I boldly proclaimed, “I can do this by myself.”  I kept failing and my father just looked at me shaking his head and walked away.  Eventually, I did ask him for help and in a matter of minutes I could accomplish what I could not do without his help.

Jeremiah, speaking to the Israelites during their exile, said “cursed are those who seek strength in the flesh.  He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season but stands in a lava waste.”  Our human nature compels us to be independent.  It motivates us to “do it by ourselves.” That impulse is also evident in how we live our faith.  We maintain control over what we do when we do it and how we do it.  We are like Martha, busy with things which we believe enhances our faith or compels us to keep doing things we believe are pleasing to God. 

We do not take the time to allow what God has given us to help us, to guide us or to accomplish the very things God has gifted us to accomplish.  Instead, like Marth, we decide what we believe God desires of us. Only to discover we have become busy with doing things but missing the opportunity to discover what Jesus wants to do within us.  We fail to learn the lessons Jesus came to reveal to us – we do not have to do anything to be pleasing to God.  We are pleasing to God, so much so that He sent Jesus to provide the means for us to experience God’s love. 

Our problem is we ignore the gift of Jesus. We ignore the gift of the Holy Spirit. We ignore the lessons given to us by God. Ou human nature fights against depending on anything or anyone.  We believe we can overcome anything because we do not want to admit we fall short of what God desires. That human flaw keeps us standing apart from God instead of allowing the Spirit to guide us and mold us. We have failed to learn the lesson of the Pharisees, who by their disciplined lives obeyed all six hundred and fifteen laws. While we cannot keep the ten commandments much less all the other requirements, we believe are the keys to being righteous before God.

We should heed the words of Jeremiah and acknowledge we do depend on our own self discipline as we attempt to make God pleased with us.  We fail to understand the words of God telling us how trusting in ourselves leads us away from God instead of toward God. Listen to God speaking through the prophet Ezekiel about trusting in our ability to please Him, “…he (who) so trusts in his righteousness … commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered (Ez.33:13).  Paul the Apostle boasted about his credentials as a Pharisee learned that lesson on the road to Damascus.  He later wrote in his letter to the Romans “there is none righteous, not one” (Rom. :10).   Yet we live our lives ignoring those lessons and fail to surrender ourselves to the Lord, who will mold us, shape us and purify us. We should be encouraged by the scriptures and take them to heart for they are God speaking the truth to us. 

Today’s second reading from Paul’s letter to the Corinthian’s speaks of the importance of believing Christ not only died for our sins, but He rose from the dead so we too could share eternal life with God.  It is the resurrection of Christ that is our source of hope. Paul says if He has not been raised then our hope is in vain. We do believe in Christ’s resurrection, and we will profess it very soon in the Creed.  But are the words we profess to believe lived out in our lives?  If they are then our actions would be like Martha’s sister Mary desiring to absorb all Jesus has to say to us.   

We must like her, allow the words of Jesus to touch our hearts and then allow them to be the source of our faith.  It is not what we do externally, but it is how much we allow our faith to internally change us and sustain us. Can we, like Peter, step out of the boat, walk on water? Can we maintain our contact with Jesus, so we do not sink.  Can we live by faith instead of allowing our doubt in God’s goodness to motivate us. 

It takes a belief in God’s goodness to allow the blessings Jesus tells us about in the Beatitudes to sustain us. None of us desires to live in poverty, or to be hungry, or to be despised and hated by others.  There is none of us who would willingly embrace losing a spouse or a child, or to be hated and excluded by others.  Yet life often causes those things to happen in our lives and God is reminding us He is always there in the midst of all that pain and suffering.  

It is easier to rely on God during those times of pain if we have learned the lessons given to us by God through the Prophet Jeremiah and the apostle Paul. During those moments.  We can depend on the God given gifts of Christ and the Holy Spirit to strengthen us and to guide us.  We need in all circumstances to become totally dependent on their guidance and less dependent on ourselves.