GOD ALONE.

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February 13, 2022
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time - C.

READINGS: Jer 17:5-8; Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6; 1 Cor 15:12,16-20; Lk 6:17, 20-26.

“Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.” (Lk 6:23)

A Sicilian proverb says: “Who serves God, fears nothing.” And a Scottish proverb adds: “Have God and have All.”

No other but God. No treasure but God. No refuge but God. No hope but God. That is what it means to have God in one's life. Those who truly belong to God find in him their protection, stronghold, refuge, and strength. Though humanly they might seem weak and poor, they have the greatest riches that fills all heart, God alone.

Meditating on today's readings, came to my mind these words of St. Teresa of Avila: "God alone suffices." She said it as a beautiful prayer: "Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you, all things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices." And sure enough, life and events teach us that nothing, no treasure, no possession, no power is greater than God. He alone truly suffices. We should not set our trust in material possessions, neither in man's power but in God alone.

Through the Prophet Jeremiah, the Lord warns us: "Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh..." He tells us that, blessed instead, is he who trusts in the Lord, who has no other hope but God.

We spend our lives worrying and running for security in material possessions and hoping for safety in human power. But still, we are never rich enough nor saved by what we possess. God alone is the solution. Thus, the Psalmist can sing: "Blessed are they who hope in the Lord."

Taking the same tune, the Gospel comes with a list of blessings and curses. The Beatitudes are the vade-mecum and the core of a fulfilled life. It is the life according to Christ and even the life of Christ himself. The Lord Jesus, giving them today, teaches us the shortcut to happiness. And as a double-faced coin, the counterpart of the happiness the Lord brings will be the curses to which many people expose themselves when they refuse to hope in God alone. He who has God, even though he may be materially poor, even though he might hunger, weep, be hated, be forsaken, denounced, he will always find a great reason for the perfect joy.

On the other hand, when man trusts more in material possession and worldliness, he opens himself to curses. Thus, the Lord says: "alas for you who are rich... Alas for you who have your fill now... Alas for you who laugh now... Alas when the world speaks well of you..." For, because of their riches, their fill, and all that surrounds their life, they have no time for God, no time for the brother in need, and they turn into indifference and self-centeredness. Riches, when it is not set as secondary in one's life, it turns into a substitute of God. Many, unfortunately, worship more their possessions than they adore God. So alas! In their lives, it is no longer God alone, but God with money or even sometimes, God after the money. They fall into the idolatry of material possessions, thinking that their salvation will come from what they have. In so doing, they forget the primacy of the Lord.

There is one thing we should always get right: God does not oppose our riches. God does not hate the rich. Instead, it is the worship of the riches that turns man away from God.

We live in a hedonistic and materialistic world where people think all that matters is the present and their today's possessions and pleasure. The motto of many is the epicurean way of life: the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the chief good. In popular parlance, epicureanism thus means devotion to pleasure, comfort, and high living, with a certain nicety of style. It can be resumed in one sentence: Eat and feast today. Tomorrow you will be dead. What matters, therefore, is the 'today'. No hope in tomorrow. Consequently, no faith or hope for a Resurrection. Paul in the second reading warns, "how can some be saying that there is no resurrection of the dead?" If that is so, then what about Jesus? And what about our faith in the Resurrection?

The hope in the life after this present life is what shapes our present and leads us to set firmly our trust in God. If there was no Resurrection, then no need of discipline, of self-restraint, of faith... Life would be, live today, die tomorrow. We would all better be epicurean and enjoy the hedonism made of pleasure, pleasure, pleasure... But no! There is life after the present life. The future belongs to Christ. God alone suffices, not your material possessions. It cannot save you but God can.


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