SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

1. Years ago, while I was helping my mother to do dishes, I noticed these words on the dish cloth. Life's two alternatives. Do not worry, there are only two alternatives in life.
Either you are Healthy or you are sick.
If you are healthy there is no need to worry.
If you are sick there are two alternatives. Either you get better or you die.
If you get better there is there is no need to worry.
If you die there are two alternatives.
If you go to heaven, there is no need to worry.
If you go to hell, you will be shaking hands with so many famous persons, you won't have time to worry.
Now do not waste your time on the logic or the theology of that dishcloth.  Just remember the two alternatives.



2. In all our readings today, including the Responsorial psalm we have two alternatives. Jeremiah gives us two alternatives. We are either cursed or blessed. We are cursed if we put our trust in human power, in human promises, in human ingenuity. And this is not because men and women are evil or bad, but because human beings are open to failure, to go back on promises and commitments. However we are blessed if we put our trust in Yahweh who is all powerful and does not go back on a Word once given, on a promise once made. Jeremiah compares the Blessed one to a tree which flourishes near a running stream. While the one who is cursed is like a Bush in the wilderness.

Scholars have said this passage may probably be a later addition. It fits more likely in the Book of Wisdom or the Book of Proverbs. The reason being that Jeremiah only spoke in political terms and called the kings to walk in the path of the Lord. While others say that like the tale on the dish cloth, this passage of Jeremiah found its place in today's liturgy not so much for its content, but because of its form: the balance between a Curse and a Blessing will find a parallel in the Gospel's four Blessings and four Woes.

3. The reponsorial psalm likewise is an echo of the "tree that flourishes near running waters." however instead of the Bush that is dried up in the wilderness, the Psalm refers to a graphic scene among in the middle east. The women who separate the husks of grain from the grain itself. The husks are allowed to blow away as useless in the wind. They are blown away because they ae cursed, because they are valueless - unlike the grain that is solid, and is preserved and is blessed.

3a Paul too give us the alternatives of belief in the Resurrection which makes us blessed - or if we doubt, then we are cursed and we remain in our sins. However, I will not dwell on that, because it is worthy of a whole meditation in itself.

4. When we come to the Gospel, we have three preliminary notes:

1: Luke's Sets of Blessing and Woes are a part of the sermon on a Plain, not like Matthew's which belonged to the famous Sermon on the Mount. Luke is at the crossroads - with crowds gathered around in an everyday setting. It is not a teaching setting with the majesty of the mountain of Matthew.

2. Matthew speaks of the crowd. Jesus is a rabbi teaching the multitude. In Luke however, Jesus is addressing only his Disciples. He is putting the alternatives to them. Either a Blessing or a Curse.

3. Jesus apparently is not concerned whether the Disciples are rich or poor, laughing or weeping, hungry or full, well spoken or evil spoken of - that will follow when they have made a choice of the alternatives.

5. In the set of Blessings and Woes, at first sight it might seem as if it is a social programme, it would be good for our parish social ministry to tackle. It is not a blessing of the poor because they are poor. Poverty in itself is an evil. Nor is Jesus condemning the rich because they have riches .  In itself - riches or poverty are indifferent entities. Once we have riches or we are poor - leads to an attitude in our relationship with God.  The poor are Blessed, because they naturally turn to God who is the source of all blessings, and abundance. There is a Woe to the rich not because they do not share their wealth, but because there is a tendency to be content with their wealth and not go beyond - to the One who is the source of all blessings, and abundance.

St. Ignatius in the Spiritual Exercises that he wrote, speaks of indifference to things of this earth - or "to use all things in so far as" they work to my salvation, they work towards the Greater Glory of God.

6. Our challenge here is to have our cake and eat it too. We can do this when we channel the two alternatives not as two opposites or opposing ideas, but to harmonize them into one. We can see this on this Valentine Day's weekend in the gifts we give : do we give the Chocolates and Roses because we hope to get something in return? - that is the way every ad and every commercial seems to suggest. There is always a suggestive wink or a leer. Or do we give these gifts - just because of the sheer joy in giving to someone worthy of our love and admiration. Now if this is our attitude towards God - in the way we pray, in the way we praise, in the Rosaries we say, in the candles we light. Then we are truly Blessed. We can have all the wealth and laughter and cakes in the world - because it does not show us as self sufficient - but rather as turning to God who is the source of all goodness and blessing. Having said that there is no need to spell out the alternative, because there is none. Once we have that attitude to God we will find that our dealings with our fellow men and women, and in the goods of the earth will also be in balance and harmony. Who could ask for anything more.