6th Sunday In Ordinary Time – Year C
Jer 17:5-8
Thus says the LORD:
Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings,
who seeks his strength in flesh,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He is like a barren bush in the desert
that enjoys no change of season,
but stands in a lava waste,
a salt and empty earth.
Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
whose hope is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted beside the waters
that stretches out its roots to the stream:
it fears not the heat when it comes;
its leaves stay green;
in the year of drought it shows no distress,
but still bears fruit.
Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6
(40:5a) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked,
nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
but delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
that yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
1 Cor 15:12, 16-20
Brothers and sisters:
If Christ is preached as raised from the dead,
how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?
If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised,
and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain;
you are still in your sins.
Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ,
we are the most pitiable people of all.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Lk 6:17, 20-26
Jesus came down with the twelve
and stood on a stretch of level ground
with a great crowd of his disciples
and a large number of the people
from all Judea and Jerusalem
and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.
And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for the kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.
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.
For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.
But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are filled now,
for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will grieve and weep.
Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for their ancestors treated the false
prophets in this way.”
February 6 we celebrate the St. Paul MIki and twenty-five companions who were martyred at Nagasaki in Japan in 1597. The Emperor of Japan believed them to be enemies of the state. Some accounts suggest that a Spanish ship captain in order to get back his stranded ship from the Emperor, denounced the Japenese Christians as foreign insurrectionists, apparently in an effort to curry favour with the Emperor. Whatever the circumstances, St. Paul Miki and the others were crucified, dying in the manner that our Lord suffered and died. They considered it an honour. Here’s an excerpt from a commonly quoted account of their deaths;
The crosses were set in place. Father Pasio and Father Rodriguez took turns encouraging the victims. Their steadfast behavior was wonderful to see. The Father Bursar stood motionless, his eyes turned heavenward. Brother Martin gave thanks to God’s goodness by singing psalms. Again and again he repeated: “Into your hands, Lord, I entrust my life”. Brother Francis Branco also thanked God in a loud voice. Brother Gonsalvo in a very loud voice kept saying the Our Father and Hail Mary.
Our brother, Paul Miki, saw himself standing now in the noblest pulpit he had ever filled. To his “congregation” he began by proclaiming himself a Japanese and a Jesuit. He was dying for the Gospel he preached. He gave thanks to God for this wonderful blessing and he ended his “sermon” with these words: “As I come to this supreme moment of my life, I am sure none of you would suppose I want to deceive you. And so I tell you plainly: there is no way to be saved except the Christian way. My religion teaches me to pardon my enemies and all who have offended me. I do gladly pardon the Emperor and all who have sought my death. I beg them to seek baptism and be Christians themselves”.
Then he looked at his comrades and began to encourage them in their final struggle. Joy glowed in all their faces, and in Louis’ most of all. When a Christian in the crowd cried out to him that he would soon be in heaven, his hands, his whole body strained upward with such joy that every eye was fixed on him.
Anthony, hanging at Louis’ side, looked toward heaven and called upon the holy names – “Jesus, Mary!” He began to sing a psalm: “Praise the Lord, you children!” (He learned it in catechism class in Nagasaki. They take care there to teach the children some psalms to help them learn their catechism).
Others kept repeating “Jesus, Mary!” Their faces were serene. Some of them even took to urging the people standing by to live worthy Christian lives. In these and other ways they showed their readiness to die.
Then, according to Japanese custom, the four executioners began to unsheathe their spears. At this dreadful sight, all the Christians cried out, “Jesus, Mary!” And the storm of anguished weeping then rose to batter the very skies. The executioners killed them one by one. One thrust of the spear, then a second blow. It was over in a very short time.
Over the centuries Christians have persecuted and martyred for the faith. If we look at Jesus’ words of the gospel today, “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.” He knew then that this would happen. In fact, he points out that the same thing happened to the prophets of old before Jesus came to earth.
There is a simple plain fact that we must recognize. The only way that the world will like us is if we go along with them. There have been long periods of great peace, usually because the kings and queens of the land were Catholic and the people were not only allowed but encouraged to practice the Catholic faith. But as we have seen, those kingdoms were either attacked from outside, or became corrupt from the inside; or usually a combination of the two and in the end the practice of our faith has encountered hardship, persecution and sometimes martyrdom.
In recent times, from the beginning of the American experiment with Constitutional self-government and the movements all over the world toward democratically elected governments, we have come to believe that the answer to all of the problems of religious freedom have been solved. In fact, there are those who have praised democracy to the point that they have put it before the worship of God. They think that it is the solution to man’s problems.
Let us be absolutely clear. There is no system of government that is the solution to the problems of mankind. We have had a good run at democracy and it is not dead yet. But what we have forgotten is that the ingredient that made it work and still does, although it is fading, is the moral and spiritual character of the people who make it work. As a society gets further and further from God democracy reflects that fact and becomes increasingly less democratic and more and more Autocratic.
This is not a lesson in political theory. It should be as plain as the noses on our faces. We can never put our faith in a political system, no matter how great we think it is. We can never put our faith in a political party, no matter how great we think it is. And we can never give over our responsibilities to follow the command of our Lord Jesus Christ to any state or government. Regardless of what the state does for or against it’s people, we must remember that our responsibility is to the commands of Jesus, to first love God with all our hearts and then to love our neighbour as ourself. We must live and proclaim Jesus Christ.
Already, we have seen instances in our own society wherein Catholic bishops and priests are taken before civil tribunals for standing firm for the teachings of Jesus Christ. This is possibly only a beginning. If large numbers of the people of our nation return to faith in Jesus Christ we may well see a reversal of the trend. We need to pray to God to give us that. But it may not happen. That is up to God who speaks to the hearts of men. We are required to live it and speak it. That’s all.
There is no compromise that will stop those that hate Jesus Christ. If we belong to him they will hate us too. If we try to compromise it only compromises us and our own faith. They do not become like us through negotiation; we just become like them and endanger our own salvation. They will become like us only through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus tells us that there will be great reward for those of us who persevere. When it is easy to be a Christian we tend to get slack. When there is opposition we must be stronger, and know our faith better, love Jesus all the more and cling to him. He will win out in the end, even though it seems we are losing the battle. We need to remember that when we face persecution, mild or severe, it is not unusual, and when we do all in the name of Jesus, he sees it, makes note of it and remembers us on the last day.
The reading from Jeremiah and the Psalm both lead up to exactly what Jesus is saying in the gospel. He doesn’t just remind us of the rewards of being faithful, he also warns against that compromise with the world; “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.” We are called to be salt and light in this world but we cannot compromise with it. If we find that we are being praised by the secular world, we should search our conscience, for it is quite possible that we have fallen into compromise.
St. Paul Miki and Companions, pray for us.
Increasing in Him,
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