Homily: February 13, 2022, Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

 In the first reading we heard, “Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD.”

And then it continued with, “Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD.”

It is very clear, isn’t it? That those who turns away from God will be cursed and those who trusts in God will be blessed.

The gospel reading today is known as the beatitudes, in which our Lord Jesus also spelled out the curses and the blessings. But it seems much harder to accept what Jesus is teaching here. I too struggle with this. Let us try to understand it together.

We have been told that we came from God, and after this life, we will go back to God. For a long time, I questioned the rationale. Why create me to throw me into this difficult life just to bring me back to Him again? Why not just keep me with Him from the beginning and save me the trouble of going through this life?

This earthly life is not easy. I would describe it as dangerous. It is full of evil temptations and sinful distractions. If we are not careful, we will be cursed for eternity. It is full of hardships, pains and sufferings. If we make the wrong choices, life becomes harder and we suffer more. I am sure you all understand this because your life may not be easy at all.

Many of you made a tough decision to come to this country, leaving behind your home, family, friends. Life was not easy back then but you came with hope that things will be better here.

Yes, we live on this hope and believe that there are more opportunities here to make life better. But you still have worries, anxieties and struggles. So have I.

In today’s gospel, Jesus tells His disciples that those who are hungry, poor, weeping, insulted on His account are blessed.

By our normal human logic, we cannot understand this. We work hard in life not to be poor, not to be hungry, not to be weeping, not to be insulted. So why allow us to go through all of these?

Jesus does not lie so I believe what He says is true. Then what does He mean? Very simply, we are not created for this world. We are just passing through. And this passage is very important.

I love gardening and I learnt much about life by comparing it to the planting experience. God created seeds which contain everything needed for it to become fully alive and fulfil its purpose. But it must leave God its owner and be planted into the ground, into dirt. It will then break out of itself and the life contained in it will grow and develop into a big tree bearing more fruits or bloom into beautiful flowers and accomplish its full purpose of existence.

The comfort and security of staying with its owner will never make the seed fulfil its purpose, it remains just a seed.

Same for us. We are like the seeds, now planted in soil and are growing. We will grow well if we keep our focus on God, like the plants turning always to the sun. During this time on earth, we will experience the scorching sun and the harsh rains, the challenges in life. We just have to keep faithful and stay in the soil that God has planted us, we will bloom and bear fruit in His time.

For if God will clothe the grass in the fields, which is here today and gone tomorrow, will He not care for us His beloved children even more? In Matthew chapter 6 we are assured.

So, this life is not meant to be easy, not meant to last. This world is made for temporary living. We should not be attracted to its temporal attractions of physical comfort and material pleasures. These will distract us from God and if we turn away from Him, we will forget Him and be cut off. That is how we become cursed.

But our God does not forget us, He will continue to call us and remind us to stay on track in our journey back to Him, to remain simple and pure, to bloom and bear fruits that we are meant to produce. Fruits of love, faith, trust and goodness. When our life produces these fruits, we would have fulfilled our purpose, we would have become the image and likeness of God, the very purpose of our existence.

So my dear friends, whatever the situations we are in, hungry, poor, weeping or insulted, let us never lose sight of our God, because we are the blessed ones. Amen.