Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Also Read: Mass Readings for 16 February 2025 Sunday Reflection by Maryanne – 16 February 2025
Introduction
The combination of readings this week gives a unique presentation of the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. They do not do so in the way one would expect, but present
Faith
The first reading today comes from Jeremiah and presents faith in a negative light. I do not mean by this that Jeremiah presents faith as a bad thing of course, but where one should not have “trust.” Of those Jeremiah includes humans apart from God. This is a negative view of human nature, which one could understand Jeremiah having when one considers his experiences as a prophet. He contrasts this with the blessedness one experiences when they trust in the Lord. This is not a prosperity message that Jeremiah is giving. Again, look at where trust in the Lord got him in his ministry. Yet, he still tells us to trust in God because this is the only One in whom our hope can lie.
Hope
For the Psalm, we repeat the phrase “Blessed are they that hope in the Lord.” So many of the Psalms are about looking forward beyond the immediate difficulties of God’s people. These are always applicable because God’s people will always experience hardships in life and always look forward to the promise of the Resurrection, as St. Paul describes in the Second Reading from 1 Corinthians 15. This describes the general resurrection that we profess in the Creed every Sunday. This Resurrection will participate in the Body of Christ, who is God Incarnate, whose nature if Love itself.
Charity
For the Gospel reading, Jesus presents to us the new law of love that is meant to form Christian action. Bringing together one’s trust in God from the First Reading and the hope that is promised in the Psalm and Second Reading, the Christian is meant to participate in the charity to which both faith and hope are ordered. The way that one does this is by living the Beatitudes as Jesus presents them here in Luke as well as Matthew. Through our participation in charity in this life, we receive a glimpse of the Resurrection promised to us in the next.
