Scriptual Reflection
DAILY READINGS - 16TH FEBRUARY 2025.

Daily Readings

February 16, 2025

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Reading I

Jeremiah (17:5-8)

 

Thus says the LORD, cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, 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.”

 

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 & 6

 

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

 

Blessed indeed is the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the path with sinners, nor abides in the company of scorners, but whose delight is the law of the LORD, and who ponders his law day and night.

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

Not so are the wicked, not so! For they, like winnowed chaff, shall be driven away by the wind. For the LORD knows the way of the just, but the way of the wicked will perish.

 

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

 

 

Reading II

1 Corinthians (15:1-11,12,16-20)

 

Brethren, if Christ is proclaimed 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, not even Christ has been raised. And 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 in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

 

ACCLAMATION

Alleluia. Alleluia.   (Lk 6:23ab)

 

Rejoice and leap for joy, says the Lord, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. Alleluia.

 

Gospel

Luke (6:17,20-26)

 

At that time: 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 who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn 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 who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”

 

Reflection

 

The First Reading from Prophet Jeremiah has a series of wisdom sayings which make a contrast between the righteous and the wicked. The contrast between the man who is cursed and the one who is blessed is made in terms of what they trust in: human abilities or Divine. The one who bears the curse is like a tree in the dry, salt lands where no good is ever experienced. The one who bears the blessing is the opposite: he is like a tree transplanted by water, its roots by the stream, its foliage green, thriving in drought and always bearing fruit. In the Bible the green tree stands as a metaphor for righteous persons. On the other hand, the tree in the harsh conditions is the perfect image of the wicked. In the Second Reading, Paul argues for the resurrection of Jesus. Paul says that Jesus appeared one time to more than five hundred people most of whom are still alive. For Paul to deny the resurrection of the dead is equal to denying the resurrection of Jesus. The Lucan beatitudes and woes are a carefully constructed set, each woe contrasting with one of the beatitudes. The first three beatitudes are also to be interpreted as a set. The poor, the hungry, and the weeping are not three different groups of people but three descriptions of a single group. Because they are destitute, they are also hungry and weeping. The fourth beatitude, to be sure, stands out, for it is much longer than the others and refers to persecuted followers of Christ. The initial beatitude is to the poor. Declaring someone happy, contented, blessed, or fortunate was common in the ancient world. Being blessed refers to a sense of inner happiness at good fortune. The “poor” in the Lucan beatitudes means the economically needy, for they are hungry and are contrasted with those who are rich and full. The second and third beatitudes deal with some of the consequences of being among the poor. The paring of the poor and the hungry is not surprising, since there is ample precedent for it in the OT. In fact, the hungry, like the poor, are often addressed in comforting terms in the OT. The reference is not so much to physical filling with food as it is to spiritual satisfaction at being received by God and welcomed as one of his children. The imagery is of the satisfaction that comes from being present at God’s banquet table. From the condition of the poor, Jesus turns in the third beatitude to the response their position brings now, weeping. Again, as with the previous beatitude, the contrast is between what is lacking now and how that is reversed in the future. The same spiritual perspective of relying on God’s work fills this beatitude. Fortunately, that pain is reversed into eschatological joy. In the Lucan text, the emphasis is on God’s total acceptance of the one who currently weeps.

Source: The Sunday Liturgy.

 

St Onesimus, Martyr (- c.90)

 

St Onesimus, a pagan, was a slave in the household of the wealthy Philemon. Converted by St Paul, Philemon had become a close friend of Paul’s; thus, when Philemon moved to the city of Colossae, his new home was chosen as a meeting place for Christian worship.

 

One day, Onesimus, apparently in fear of being punished for some act of negligence or dishonesty, had escaped to Rome where he came in contact with Paul who was suffering his first imprisonment in Rome. After due instruction in the faith, Paul baptized him. Onesimus for his part, true to his name, proved so very “useful” that Paul took a great liking to him and wanted to keep him as a helper. However, he was conscious of the fact that as a slave, Onesimus would first have to make restitution to his former master. And so, Paul sent him back to Philemon with the famed “Epistle” to the latter, pleading with him like a father for his spiritual son, entreating him to accept Onesimus “no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a brother, beloved especially to me, but even more so to you, as a man in the Lord. So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would me” (Phlm 16-18).

 

Philemon, upon receiving the letter, acceded to the great Apostle’s request with true Christian generosity and charity, and he even surpassed it by not only pardoning but even freeing his former slave and sending him back to Rome, where he is supposed to have assisted Paul for some time, and then returned to the East with him after his release. Tradition also has it that Onesimus in later years became Bishop of Berrhoea in Macedonia, and there suffered martyrdom.

 

Reflection: “My son, give me your heart: and let your eyes keep to my ways” (Prov 23:26).

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