Sixth Sunday Feb 11^th, 2007

Jeremiah 17: 5-8  Psalm: 1   1. Cor. 15:12,16-20  Luke 6:17,20-26

Theme: Blessed are you..

1. In India, a gardener was drawing water in the old fashioned way from a well and carrying the water in two pots. These hung from a yoke which he carried on his shoulders. One of the pots unfortunately had developed a leak - and by the time the gardener reached the house, it was only half full. So the pot said to the master, “Master, pots are very cheap to buy. Why don’t you discard me, and buy a new pot because I only manage to carry half the water you draw from the well.” and the Master said to the pot, “Do you see all those beautiful flowers on the edge of the path? They give joy and pleasure to every one who comes to the Landowner’s house. Visitors comment on the beauty of the garden. Well, I draw water the whole day long, but have no time to water those flowers, but I keep you because as I walk up the path, the water that leaks from you gives life to these flowers. Without you there would only be dried weeds.” You are precious and useful to me. Blessed are you because you are a CRACKED POT.

2. We have a lot of blessings in our Gospel and the reading from Jeremiah today. Blessed are the Poor, Blessed are the hungry, Blessed are those who weep. Blessed are those who are despised. Can you imagine if I were to go to a meeting with the CEOs of the big companies like IBM, Pharmaceuticals, Bell Canada, Rogers TV and told them that they would be Blessed, they would be fortunate if they were Poor, Hungry, Mournful and Despised. They surely would think I am a Cracked Pot. They would think I am

  one brick short of a load,

 a house with all the lights on, but no one inside

 an elevator that does not go all the way to the top floor.

Whatever way you want to phrase it, they would definitely not want to listen to me or to my philosophy or theology.

3.  On the face of it, Jesus seems to be the same. According to the Jewish tradition, being poor was a punishment for sins. A sign of blessing was a table of plenty, filled with rich food and fine wines. A person who was hungry was cursed. Now Jesus was a Jew of good standing. He was also a Rabbi who spoke with authority, unlike the Scribes and Pharisees. It would seem strange that Jesus would not follow the wisdom of his people. But Jesus was a true Jew, he was simply repeating what Jeremiah said in the first reading. Although it was a blessing to have riches, food in plenty, to be rejoicing and laughing - one could not and should not put their trust in these material possessions. These followed when one put one’s Trust in the Lord.

 The comparison of Jeremiah is vivid. Those who put their trust in the Lord were like a tree that was evergreen because it was near life giving water - similar to the flowers of the Gardener with his Cracked Pot. The alternative was a dried up, unproductive Bush.

4.  Jesus did not bless Poverty or Hunger or Misery or being Despised in themselves. These were evils that were to be eradicated.

a. Jesus was referring to the Poverty of people who had everything or spent their lives desiring material things. Things would satisfy for a moment and then leave us empty. We know that from experience: we have an I-pod with 2 Megs, we want one with 40 Megs, when we get that we want with a greater capacity. Now we are not satisfied with computers, cars, electronic gadgets, we want them with all the bells and whistles.

b. Jesus was referring to a hunger for truth and justice, a hunger for a balance and proportion in how we use the Earth that has been entrusted to us, a hunger for equal rights of those who are marginalized in our society: the single parent, the teenager, the voiceless, the new immigrant, the refugee.

c. Jesus was referring to those who Weep - for the broken marriage, the child or grandchild that goes astray or does not practise the faith, for the killings in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Israel, Sudan, Ethiopia, for the children who are abused, for the trafficking in women.

5. These Poor, Hungry, Weepers are the Cracked Pots of the world that are despised and ridiculed. On the Cross, Jesus handed his good friend John to his mother... and said, “Son behold your mother.”

 Today as we celebrate our Parish Feast: Our Lady of Lourdes, we see Mary reaching out to the broken in heart and broken in body.

 Today, the Church has declared this feast as a Day to pray : to hunger, to weep for those who are not with us - because they are homebound, bed ridden, in hospital or in a nursing home and in palliative care.

 Today we celebrate in a special way the men and women, religious sisters and brothers who work silently and with regularity - visiting the sick, taking them communion, comforting them, assuring them that they are not forgotten.

6. In my life, I have been blessed to have visited thrice the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in Tarbes, France. Once as a seminarian while I studied in London England, and twice as a chaplain on a tour group. It was important to spend long years in studying Theology, but it was as important to see this faith lived out as people prayed at the Rock of Masabielle, as people bathed in the water with faith, as people reached out and helped the infirm. There I saw the poor being enriched, the hungry being filled, those who weep beginning to laugh with hope and joy. There was just one response that I made, and that was the Psalm we said today in Response: HAPPY ARE THEY WHO HOPE IN THE LORD. And from that followed the natural sequence: “this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad.