6th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

 

ENTRANCE ANTIPHON

Lord, be my rock of safety, the stronghold that saves me. For the honour of your name, lead me and guide me.

PENITENTIAL RITE

Today’s liturgy of the word instills in us a deep sense of trust in the Lord. Those who trust in the Lord are called blessed while those who trust in man and human resources are called cursed. To which group do I belong? (Pause.)

I confess to almighty God, and to you my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault (all strike their breast) in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do; and I ask blessed Mary ever virgin, all the angels and saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.

Glory to God in the highest,/and peace to his people on earth./Lord God, heavenly King,/almighty God and Father,/we worship you,/we give you thanks,/we praise you for your glory./Lord Jesus Christ,/only Son of the Father,/Lord God, Lamb of God,/you take away the sin of the world:/have mercy on us;/you are seated at the right hand of the Father,/receive our prayer./For you alone are the Holy One,/you alone are the Lord,/you alone are the Most High,/Jesus Christ,/with the Holy Spirit,/in the glory of God the Father./Amen.

OPENING PRAYER

Let us pray. God our Father, you have promised to remain for ever with those who do what is just and right. Help us to live in your presence. We ask this…

FIRST READING

(Blessed is the person who trusts in the Lord.)

A reading from the book of Jeremiah

( 17:5-8)

Thus says the Lord: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land." "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit."

This is the Word of the Lord

PSALM (1)

Response: Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.

Happy indeed is the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked; nor lingers in the way of sinners nor sits in the company of scorners, but whose delight is the law of the Lord and who ponders his law day and night. R.

He is like a tree that is planted beside the flowing waters, that yields its fruit in due season and whose leaves shall never fade; and all that he does shall prosper. R.

Not so are the wicked, not so! For they like winnowed chaff shall be driven away by the wind. For the Lord guards the way of the just but the way of the wicked leads to doom. R.

SECOND READING

(The resurrection of Jesus confirms our faith and reinforces our hope.)

A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians

(15:12, 16-20)

If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

This is the Word of the Lord

ACCLAMATION Jn 6 :51

Alleluia, alleluia! I am the living bread which has come down from heaven, says the Lord. Any one who eats this bread will live for ever. Alleluia!

GOSPEL

(The beatitudes are the attitudes of those who trust in the Lord.)

A reading from the holy Gospel according to St Luke (6:17, 20-26)

Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. "Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. "Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. "Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. "But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation. "Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. "Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. "Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets."

This is the Gospel of the Lord

I believe in God,/the Father Almighty,/ Creator of heaven and earth./I believe in Jesus Christ,/his only Son, our Lord./He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit/and born of the Virgin Mary./He suffered under Pontius Pilate,/was crucified, died, and was buried./He descended to the dead./On the third day he rose again./He ascended into Heaven,/and is seated at the right hand of the Father./He will come again to judge the living and the dead./I believe in the Holy Spirit,/the Holy Catholic Church,/the communion of saints,/the forgiveness of sins,/the resurrection of the body,/and the life everlasting./Amen.

PRAYER OF THE FAITHFUL

Cel: Dear brothers and sisters, happy are those who trust in the Lord. Let us give expression to our trust in God by confidently bringing before him all our needs and the needs of all our dear and near ones. Our response: Father, listen to your children.

1. Father, increase the trust of Pope John Paul II, all bishops, priests and religious that they may become more effective in their ministry. R.

2. We pray for our youth who are very much attracted by the worldly values. Lord, send your Spirit of wisdom on them to distinguish what is permanent from the passing. R.

3. Let us pray for those who are struggling with their trust in the Lord and those who find it hard to trust in God and man. R.

4. We pray for those who died, trusting in the Lord. Father bring to fulfilment their trust and grant them eternal joy and peace. R.

(Pause to pray for other intentions.)

Cel: We thank you Father for being so good to us and thus inspiring trust in you. With your help may we live confidently in good as well as bad times. We ask this…

PRAYER OVER THE GIFTS

Lord, we make this offering in obedience to your word. May it cleanse and renew us, and lead us to our eternal reward. We ask this…

PREFACE (P 34)

Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks.

In you we live and move and have our being . Each day you show us a Father’s love; your Holy Spirit, dwelling within us, gives us on earth the hope of unending joy.

Your gift of the Spirit, who raised Jesus from the dead, is the foretaste and promise of the paschal feast of heaven.

With thankful praise, in company with the angels, we glorify the wonders of your power.

COMMUNION ANTIPHON

They ate and were filled; the Lord gave them what they wanted: they were not deprived of their desire.

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION

Lord, you give us food from heaven. May we always hunger for the bread of life. We ask this…

LITURGY AND LIFE

Bernardone and Francis, father and son, are in a furious confrontation. It is a clash of values; it is a fiery conflict of interests. It is a struggle each one of us has to undergo not just once but again and again. It is to decide in whom I trust ultimately. God or wealth. From the stalwarts like Abraham our father in faith to the poor widow with her simple mite many men and women have shown us in what they trust. When Francis tore off his last piece of dress and flung it at his father and walked off naked he had for the first time the freedom to say: "Our Father in heaven not my father, Pietro Bernardone." The more detached we are from worldly things the freer we are for God. Bernardone had all his property with him, no one to claim anything from him and with none to share anything. He had the absolute ownership of his vast fortune. But who was freer in spirit: Bernardone the rich merchant or Francis the penniless mendicant? In what or whom each of them put his trust? Who was closer to the spirit of the beatitudes? Who was a better Christian?

There is neither merit in being poor nor guilt in being rich. Poverty doesn’t beatify anyone nor does wealth condemn anyone. What matters is where is our heart. Jesus taught us where our treasure is there is our heart. Bernardone had his heart in his possessions. They held him captive, made him blind to his relationship with his only son. If he were not so much attached to his wealth he would have been more close to his son. Indeed blessed are the poor.

Blessed are the poor, for instead of closing in oneself, true poverty opens to other, higher realities, above all to God. Biblical poverty is childlike dependence on God. Poverty instils trust in God. Happy are those who trust in the Lord, teaches us the word of God again and again. Poverty generates a yearning for God. It is more dynamic than wealth. Riches deaden our spiritual faculties while poverty fine tunes the heart and makes us more sensitive. Riches bewitches while poverty liberates. Wealth has an uncanny capacity to entangle us in this worldly realities while poverty lifts us to heavenly realities.

Those with inordinate hunger for positions of power and authority are also rich. They don’t rely on God. Their heart is not with God but with power and prestige. They believe more in manipulation and diplomacy than in divine providence.

* * *

The best commentary on Jesus’ sermon is Jesus’ own life. Jesus did not live his life as if God blessed him; he lived out his life in the constant awareness that God did indeed bless him. In the course of that life he experienced poverty, not only the poverty of deprivation, but the poverty of standing alone against the crowds, the poverty of total reliance on his Father. He experienced hunger, not just hunger that can be answered by bread, but also the hunger that can only be satisfied by doing what is right. He was no stranger to being held up as a clown for the amusement of all; he knew the experience of rejection, betrayal, and abandonment.

Jesus experienced all this in the course of his mission; it wasn’t adopted as some precious theological posture. It was the outcome of a life dedicated to God.

– Denis McBride

* * *

If I had money, I would trust in money, but without it I trust only in God.

– Bl. Marija Petkovic

 

 

February 2004

 CALENDAR 

Psalter week 2

16/Mon (G) Jm 1:1-11; Ps 118; Mk 8:11-13

17/Tue (G) or Seven Holy Founders of the Order of Servites

Jm 1:12-18; Ps 93; Mk 8:14-21

18/Wed (G) Jm 1:19-27; Ps 14; Mk 8:22-26

19/Thu (G) Jm 2:1-9; Ps 33; Mk 8:27-33

20/Fri (G) Jm 2:14-24, 26; Ps 111; Mk 8:34 – 9:1

21/Sat (G/W/W) or St Peter Damien bp & dr or Mass of our Lady on Saturday

Jm 3:1-10; Ps 11; Mk 9:2-13

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