6^th Sunday C, 2007.

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Jeremiah was born 650 BC nr Jerusalem

in the kingdom of Judah. At that time

the Chaldeans were creating an empire

and they ruled Palestine as well.

When Jeremiah was 50 years old king Nebuchadnezzar

captured Jerusalem and deported many people.

Jeremiah fled to Egypt and died there.

In this 1^st reading we get a collection of wise sayings:

it is better to draw on God’s wisdom than on human wisdom.

Psalm no. 1 imparts the same advice. It is an invitation to discover the law of the Lord and to live by it.

As you know there are 150 psalms in the Bible.

The 1^st is an invitation live by the Law of the Lord

and the 150^th is the happy testimony of some one

who has done so.

Some Christians rejected the idea of the resurrection.

St. Paul –in the second reading-says that it’s pointless

to be a Christian without believing in the resurrection.

Jesus has offered us much more that a way of life here on earth.

The Gospel is a strange reading.

It says that our material condition will be reversed,

that those who are happy now will be sad later;

those who have enough to eat now will go hungry

and those who are respected will be despised.

Why?

There are many of us here today who eat well,

laugh when we can and are not despised by any one.

Should we be worried that will have to pay dearly

for our present condition?

Where does our loving Father in heaven

and our loving brother Jesus fits into all this?

One can see this sermon of Jesus as words of consolation

to the ‘have-not’s, that they are not forgotten

and they can expect better times at least after death.

But why be so harsh on those who now have things?

I think Jesus must be speaking to those

who are blind to the needs of others,

who ignore the hungry, the sorrowful and the persecuted;

those who will not lift a finger to easy the burden

on other people’s shoulders

but just live to enjoy their own good fortune.

It may happen that we get jolted out of our happy state

to urge us to move up higher, to a higher state of being

where we find pleasure in the practice of the commandment: ‘love thy neighbour!’

Jesus likened Christian life to that of a bush that is pruned regularly. We suffer setbacks, we lose what we have gained but we can start afresh until we learn how to act lovingly and with respect towards ourselves, our neighbour and God.

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