Happy day under the Maternal Gaze of the B.V. of Lourdes.

Commentary on the readings for the VI Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C [16 February 2025].

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us.

*First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah (17, 5 - 8)

 The prophet Jeremiah begins solemnly: "Thus says the Lord" to warn that what we are about to hear is important and serious because it is the "Lord" - that is, the very God of the Sinai Covenant - who says: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man". Here, however, two questions arise: can God curse man? And why and in what sense is trusting a man wrong? There is no doubt about it: God cannot curse us, and the Hebrew expression translated 'cursed' in the prophets is 'arur' (אָרוּר), which appears frequently in the Hebrew Bible, and its meaning is not to be understood as a direct action of God cursing, but rather as a declaration of the state of ruin or disgrace into which those who turn away from Him fall. It is therefore a prophetic warning and 'cursed is the man who trusts in man' does not indicate an active action of God, but a warning of this kind: if you choose to trust only in men and not in God, you put yourself in a situation of insecurity and failure. In the biblical mentality, God is the source of life and blessing (berakha), and turning away from Him automatically leads to 'arur (ruin, barrenness, failure). So when the prophets use 'curse', they are saying: 'Beware, this road leads to your destruction'. It is not God who casts a curse as an arbitrary punishment, but it is a spiritual law: when you stray from the source of living water (God), you inevitably find yourself in the drought of the desert. Regarding the second question concerning man trusting in man, should we mistrust one another? Certainly not, because God wants mankind to become one, and therefore any distrust between men goes against his plan of love.  This is about those who turn away from God and trust, i.e. have faith in man. The key word is trusts/has "faith", a very strong term that indicates relying, leaning absolutely on men, as one does on a rock. Without God all security is fragile and one becomes like a shrub in the desert without water doomed to die. The message is clear: if you turn away from God you become spiritually dry and unstable, like a bush in the desert, whereas if you trust, have faith, your life will be like a tree that remains green because it has its roots in water.  It is easy to understand the importance of water for a people walking in the desert, and Jeremiah speaks from experience having before his eyes the road from Jerusalem to Jericho in a desert that is completely dry for much of the year. It only renews and flourishes with the spring rains, and so, drawing on examples and images from the daily lives of his listeners, the prophet offers wise advice on the spiritual life. Faith, then, is the foundation: trusting in God is like rooting oneself in a secure rock (Mt 7:24-25). Making life dependent only on human realities such as power, success, money, relationships, leads to becoming fragile. Moreover, placing one's faith in God does not spare you from difficulties and problems, but gives you the strength to overcome every obstacle. And so every day the believer is called upon to choose: to rely only on himself and live in fear, or to root his life in God and face the storms of existence without losing heart.

One note: Jeremiah is probably denouncing the two fatal errors/sins of kings, religious leaders and the entire people: idolatry and covenants. With regard to idolatry, many have introduced into Israel various idolatrous cults and offered sacrifices to idols, and Jeremiah stigmatises this: "My people have forgotten me in order to burn offerings to those who are nothing." ( 18,15). As for alliances, the prophet criticises the policy of the kings who, instead of counting on God's protection, multiplied diplomatic manoeuvres, allying themselves from time to time with each of the powers of the Middle East, gaining only war and misfortune. Such was the case with Sedecia who, relying on diplomatic manoeuvres and his military might, went bankrupt with massacres, humiliation for himself and the people (Gr 39:1-10).

*Responsorial Psalm (1) 

This psalm, the first one, very short where every detail is significant, constitutes the interpretative key of the whole Psalter and was chosen to introduce the prayer of Israel. It opens with this word: Blessed!  "Blessed is the man who does not enter into the council of the wicked, does not remain in the way of sinners, and is not in the company of the arrogant". The word 'blessed' in the Bible comes from the Hebrew 'ashré', which expresses a state of happiness and deep contentment, a condition of blessing and inner peace that God grants to those who live according to his will. This concept is similar to 'shalom', which indicates deep and complete peace. One who avoids negative influences and finds joy in the law of the Lord, meditating on it constantly, is compared to a tree planted along streams of water, which produces fruit at the right time and whose leaves do not wither. The psalmist understood that God wants our happiness, and this is the most important thing he wanted to tell us from the beginning. To understand the meaning of the word blessed in the Bible, we have to think of the felicitations exchanged on festive occasions wishing joy and prosperity. The expression 'blessed' etymologically means to recognise him as happy and to rejoice with him; it is first and foremost a statement (you are happy), but it is also a wish, an encouragement to grow in happiness every day. It is like saying: you are on the right path, continue to be happy. The biblical term 'blessed' ultimately expresses a double dimension: ascertainment and encouragement. For this reason, many scholars, such as André Chouraqui, translate blessed as 'on the way', an image that invites us to consider human history as a long journey, during which people are continually called upon to choose the road that leads to true happiness. 

A few notes to better enter the Word:

1. In the few verses of the psalm, we find a particular insistence on the word way: "way of sinners...way of the righteous...way of the wicked" and the theme of the two ways emerges: the right way and the wrong way, good and evil. The image is clear: our life is like a crossroads, where we have to decide which direction to take. If we take the right path, each step will bring us closer to the goal; if we choose the wrong direction, each step will take us further and further away from the goal.  The whole of biblical Revelation is meant to show humanity the path to happiness that God desires for us, and for this reason it offers many signs such as the expressions blessed/unhappy or happy/unhappy that are indicators of the path. When Jeremiah in the First Reading says "Cursed is the man who trusts in man... or Isaiah proclaims "Woe to those who enact iniquitous laws" (10:1), they are not judging or condemning people definitively, but are sounding an alarm, like someone shouting to warn a passer-by of the danger of a ravine. On the contrary, expressions such as 'Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord' (Jer 17:7) or 'Blessed is the man who does not enter into the council of sinners' (Ps 1) are an encouragement: you are on the right path!

2. The theme of the two ways reminds us that we are free and the desire for happiness is inscribed in every man's heart, but we often go in the wrong direction and God's law is nothing but a guide for our freedom, a help to choose the right way. Israel knows that the Torah is a gift from God, a sign of his desire for our happiness, and therefore "his law meditates day and night".

3. When the psalm speaks of the righteous and the wicked, it refers to behaviour, not to people because there are no perfectly righteous or completely wicked men and in truth both tendencies coexist within us. Every effort to listen to the Word of God is a step on the path to true goodness. That is why the psalm says: "Blessed is the man who finds his joy in the law of the Lord".  Finally, we understand that the very literary construction of the psalm emphasises the importance of the right choice: in fact, the psalm is not symmetrical and contrasts two attitudes, that of the righteous and that of sinners, but devotes most of its time to describing the happiness of the righteous to tell us that what deserves attention is the good, not the evil. This psalm is therefore an invitation to consciously choose the path of faithfulness to God, and it is no coincidence that the psalter begins with this very word: Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord!  

* Second Reading from the First Epistle of St Paul to the Corinthians (15:12 - 20)

We understand better what St Paul wants to tell us if we think of the funeral of a Christian whose ritual includes three 'signs' of high symbolic value. Firstly, the Paschal Candle beside the coffin burns throughout the celebration as a reminder of the presence of the risen Christ alive among us. In the farewell rite following the Mass, the celebrant and, according to some customs, also the faithful sprinkle the body of the deceased with blessed water to commemorate Baptism. In addition, the celebrant incenses the coffin and this for the Christians of the first centuries was a very daring gesture because in the Roman Empire incense was burnt in front of the statues of the gods and it seemed out of place to incense a lifeless human body reduced to nothing. But this gesture is very eloquent because a Christian, from his Baptism, is a temple of the Holy Spirit as St Paul reminds us, and by forgetting this, one ends up losing the sign and value of the resurrection of bodies. The Christians of Corinth, and perhaps quite a few today, even if they believe in the resurrection of Christ, struggle to draw the consequence that for Paul is self-evident: if Christ is risen, we too shall rise. And to explain this truth of faith to us, he proceeds in two stages. First he reaffirms that Jesus is truly risen and then he draws the consequences. Since Christ's resurrection is the foundation of the Christian faith, Paul affirms that "unless Christ is risen, vain is your faith".  Indeed, if one does not believe in Christ's resurrection, the edifice of Christian faith collapses: a risk that every community runs. Let us ask ourselves: do all Catholics believe in Christ's resurrection and our resurrection? 

From this premise, St Paul draws the following argument: since Christ is risen and many have seen him alive and can bear witness to him, he is indeed the Saviour of the world and all that he said and promised is true. Through baptism we have become a temple of the Spirit and this means that the Spirit lives in us, but if the Spirit of love is the opposite of sin, sin being a lack of love for God and others, the Holy Spirit frees us from sin and we are, like Christ, inhabited by the Spirit of God, so we shall rise like him. What has been the temple of the Spirit can be transformed, but cannot be destroyed. Biological death destroys our body, but Jesus will resurrect it. 

Notes to better understand the text

1.The apostle adds "Christ is risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have died". In the Greek text the term used means firstfruits in the sense of the beginning of a long series. In the Old Testament, the firstfruits were the first fruits of the earth that marked the beginning of the harvest. To say that Jesus is risen as the "firstfruits of those who died" is to affirm that he is the elder brother of mankind, the first born, as Paul says elsewhere: "He is the head of the body... He is the beginning, the firstborn of those who rise from the dead, so that he may have the preeminence over all things..." (Col 1:18).

2. Ultimately, we must always return to God's merciful plan, which is to reunite all mankind in Jesus Christ as we read in the Epistle to the Ephesians (cf. Eph 1:9-10). And God certainly did not plan to reunite the dead, but the living, and Jesus explained in his discussion with the Sadducees: "As for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what has been said to you by God: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living" (Mt 22:31-32).

3. There is one aspect of the mystery of the Incarnation that must not be forgotten: God takes our humanity, our body, seriously because the Word became flesh, becoming in every way similar to men, so similar that his destiny became ours: if he rose, we too shall rise. Christ's resurrection is therefore not only the happy epilogue of his personal story but the dawn of humanity's victory over death. Death is no longer a wall, but a door - and we enter it behind him. Hence the irreconcilability of the Christian faith with any idea of reincarnation. The dignity of the human being goes so far: even if our body is sometimes fragile and marked by suffering, God never treats it as something to be thrown away and replaced; our person is a whole. It may happen that we despise ourselves, but in God's eyes, we are each unique and irreplaceable. Our whole being is called to live forever beside Him.

*From the Gospel according to Luke ( 6, 17......26)

In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah exhorted us not to rely on ourselves and material goods, but to rest our lives on God. The Gospel of the Beatitudes goes much further by stating: Blessed are you poor who put your trust in God, for he will fill you with his riches. But who are the poor according to the gospel? The term poor in the Old Testament has no connection with the bank account because in the biblical sense (anawim) poor are those who have neither a haughty heart nor a haughty look, called 'the backward-looking': they are the little ones, the humble, who, never satiated and complacent, feel that they lack something and for this very reason God can fill them. The prophets alternate in their preaching the stern and threatening tone when the people go astray and pursue wrong values, with the encouraging and consoling one when they go through moments of suffering and despair. Jesus tries to educate the disciples and the crowd by taking up the double language of the prophet in the first reading. Jeremiah says: you who put your trust in material riches, in your social position, you who are well regarded, soon they will no longer envy you, and for this you are not on the right path. If you were, you would not be so rich and so well regarded. A true prophet exposes himself to the risk of not being liked, and Jesus knows this well. A true prophet has neither the time nor the worry to accumulate money or look after his image. These four Beatitudes perfectly capture Jesus who is so poor that he had no stone on which to lay his head and died in total abandonment; he is the one who mourned the death of his friend Lazarus and knew anguish in the Garden of Olives, he mourned the fate of Jerusalem; he was hungry and thirsty in the desert and dramatically on the cross; he is the one who was despised, slandered, persecuted and finally eliminated in the name of the principles of the law and therefore of what was considered the true religion. In these Beatitudes, the promise of the Resurrection looms large and a sense of gratitude to God emerges because Jesus wants us to understand with what loving gaze the Father surrounds us, knowing that victory is already certain. He thus reveals to us God's gaze, his mercy: and we know that 'mercy' etymologically means bowels quivering with compassion. Ultimately, this is the message: man's gaze is quite different from God's; human admiration often runs the risk of mistaking the object of its enthusiasm and is directed towards the rich, the satiated, the privileged in life. God's gaze is quite different: "A poor man cries out, the Lord hears him," says the Psalm, and "A sorrowful and humiliated heart, you, O God, do not despise" (Ps 50/51). Isaiah even goes so far as to say: 'In the suffering that crushes his servant, God loves him with a love of predilection' (Isaiah 53:10). The poor, the persecuted, those who hunger and weep, God bows down to them with a predilection: not because of their merit, but because of their very condition. And so Jesus opens our eyes to another dimension of happiness: true happiness is God's gaze upon us. Certain of this gaze of God, the poor, those who weep, those who hunger, will find the strength to take their destiny into their own hands. 

A note to better enter the Word: 

I recall that André Chouraqui states that the word 'blessed' also means 'on the way'. He cites the example of the people led by Moses who found the strength to face the long march in the desert in the certainty of God's constant presence. Once again, the contrast between beatitudes and curses does not divide humanity into two distinct groups: on the one hand those who deserve words of comfort, on the other those who deserve only reproaches. All of us, depending on the moments in our lives, can find ourselves in one or the other group. And to each of us Christ says: "On the way ... you will be filled, comforted, rejoice and exult".  All this was already present in the language of the Old Testament to describe the happiness that the Messiah would bring. The disciples knew these expressions well and immediately understood what Jesus was announcing to them: You who came out of the crowd to follow me, did not do so to gather honours or riches, but you made the right choice, because you recognised the Messiah in me.

Short Commentary:

*First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah (17:5 - 8)

 The prophet Jeremiah begins solemnly: "Thus says the Lord" to warn us that what we are about to hear is important and serious because it is the "Lord" - that is, the very God of the Sinai Covenant - who says: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man". Here, however, two questions arise: can God curse man? And why and in what sense is trusting a man wrong? There is no doubt about it: God cannot curse us, and the Hebrew expression often appears in the Bible and its meaning is not to be understood as a direct action of God cursing, but rather as a declaration of the state of ruin or disgrace into which those who turn away from Him fall. It is therefore a prophetic warning and 'cursed is the man who trusts in man' does not indicate an active action of God, but a warning of this kind: if you choose to trust only in men and not in God, you put yourself in a situation of insecurity and failure. So when the prophets use 'curse', they are saying: 'Beware, this road leads to your destruction'. It is not God who issues a curse as an arbitrary punishment, but it is a spiritual law: when you stray from the source of living water (God), you inevitably find yourself in a desert drought. Regarding the second question concerning man trusting in man, should we mistrust one another? Certainly not, because God wants mankind to become one, and therefore any distrust between men goes against his plan of love.  Here it is a question of those who turn away from God and trust, that is, put all their trust in man, leaning absolutely on men. Without God all security is fragile and one becomes like a shrub in the desert without water doomed to die. The message is clear: if you turn away from God you become spiritually dry and unstable, like a bush in the desert, while if you trust, have faith, your life will be like a tree that remains green because it has its roots in water. Faith therefore is the foundation: trusting in God is like being rooted in a secure rock (Mt 7:24-25). Making life dependent only on human realities such as power, success, money, relationships, leads to becoming fragile. Moreover, placing one's faith in God does not spare you from difficulties and problems, but gives you the strength to overcome every obstacle. And so every day The believer is called to choose: to rely only on himself and live in fear, or to root his life in God and face the storms of existence without losing heart.

*Responsorial Psalm (1) 

This psalm, the first one, very short where every detail is significant, constitutes the interpretative key of the whole Psalter and was chosen to introduce the prayer of Israel. It opens with this word: Blessed!  "Blessed is the man who does not enter into the council of the wicked, does not remain in the way of sinners, and is not in the company of the arrogant". The term 'blessed' in the Bible expresses a state of happiness and deep contentment, a condition of blessing and inner peace that God grants to those who live according to his will. This concept is similar to 'shalom', which indicates deep and complete peace. One who avoids negative influences and finds joy in the law of the Lord, meditating on it constantly, is compared to a tree planted along streams of water, which produces fruit at the right time and whose leaves do not wither. The psalmist understood that God wants our happiness, and this is the most important thing he wanted to tell us from the beginning. To understand the meaning of the word blessed in the Bible, we have to think of the felicitations exchanged on festive occasions wishing joy and prosperity. The expression 'blessed' etymologically means to recognise him as happy and to rejoice with him; it is first and foremost a statement (you are happy), but it is also a wish, an encouragement to grow in happiness every day. It is like saying: you are on the right path, continue to be happy. The biblical term 'blessed' ultimately expresses a twofold dimension: ascertainment and encouragement.

* Second Reading from the First Epistle of St Paul to the Corinthians (15:12 - 20)

We understand better what St Paul wants to tell us if we think of the funeral of a Christian whose ritual includes three 'signs' of high symbolic value. Firstly, the Paschal Candle beside the coffin burns throughout the celebration as a reminder of the presence of the risen Christ alive among us. In the farewell rite following the Mass, the celebrant and, according to some customs, also the faithful sprinkle the body of the deceased with blessed water to commemorate Baptism. In addition, the celebrant incenses the coffin and this for the Christians of the first centuries was a very daring gesture because in the Roman Empire incense was burnt in front of the statues of the gods and it seemed out of place to incense a lifeless human body reduced to nothing. But this gesture is very eloquent because a Christian, from his Baptism, is a temple of the Holy Spirit, as St Paul reminds us, and by forgetting this, one ends up losing the sign and value of the resurrection of bodies. The Christians of Corinth, and perhaps quite a few today, even if they believe in the resurrection of Christ, struggle to draw the consequence that for Paul is self-evident: if Christ is risen, we too shall rise. And to explain this truth of faith to us, he proceeds in two stages. First he reaffirms that Jesus is truly risen and then he draws the consequences. Since Christ's resurrection is the foundation of the Christian faith.  In truth, if one does not believe in the resurrection of Christ, the edifice of the Christian faith collapses: a risk that every community runs. Let us ask ourselves: do all Catholics believe in Christ's resurrection and our resurrection?  From this premise, St Paul draws the conclusion that, if through baptism we are, like Christ, indwelt by the Spirit of God, we will rise like him. Biological death destroys our body, but Jesus will resurrect it. 

*From the Gospel according to Luke ( 6, 17......26)

 In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah exhorted us not to trust in ourselves and material goods, but to rest our lives on God. The Gospel of the Beatitudes goes much further by stating: Blessed are you poor who put your trust in God, for he will fill you with his riches. But who are the poor according to the gospel? The term poor in the Old Testament has no connection with the bank account because in the biblical sense (anawim) poor are those who have neither a haughty heart nor a haughty look, called 'the backward-looking': they are the little ones, the humble, who, never satiated and complacent, feel that they lack something and for this very reason God can fill them. The prophets alternate in their preaching the stern and threatening tone when the people go astray and pursue wrong values, with the encouraging and consoling one when they go through moments of suffering and despair. These four Beatitudes perfectly portray Jesus who is so poor that he had no stone on which to lay his head and died in total abandonment; he is the one who mourned the death of his friend Lazarus and knew anguish in the Garden of Olives, he mourned the fate of Jerusalem; he was hungry and thirsty in the desert and dramatically on the cross; he is the one who was despised, slandered, persecuted and finally eliminated in the name of the principles of the law and therefore of what was considered the true religion. In these Beatitudes, the promise of the Resurrection looms large and a sense of gratitude to God emerges because Jesus wants us to understand with what loving gaze the Father surrounds us, knowing that victory is already certain. He thus reveals to us God's gaze, his mercy. Man's gaze is quite different from God's; human admiration often runs the risk of mistaking the object of its enthusiasm and is directed towards the rich, the satiated, the privileged in life. God's gaze is quite different: 'A poor man cries out, the Lord hears him,' says the Psalm, and 'A sorrowful and humiliated heart, you, O God, do not despise' (Ps 50/51). And so Jesus opens our eyes to another dimension of happiness: true happiness is God's gaze upon us. Certain of this gaze of God, the poor, those who weep, those who hunger, will find the strength to take their destiny into their own hands.