Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
1) Jer 17:5-8
Psalm 1:1-4, 6
2) 1 Cor 15:12, 16-20
Gospel: Lk 6:17, 20-26
Our first reading begins: “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord” (Jer 17:5). God’s word confronts us with a sharp either/or.
Either put your trust in God or put it in anything else. To trust God is to entrust your whole life to him. So there is no trust in God and.
Trust in God is not a matter of trusting in God and in my investments
trusting God and my beautiful body
my handsome body
not God and my wife, parents, siblings
not God and my network of friends
colleagues
comrades in arms
sisterhood
but God
just God
period.
Trusting God is not God and my gifts and talents
not God and my ability to keep on keeping on
not God and my knack for scoping out situations and seeing my way forward
not God and my intuitions and insights
not God and my sports trophies
professional awards
community recognitions
Bronze Stars
not God and my high-salary job
not God and my guns
not God and my degrees.
It is not trust God and all the good things I’ve done
all the people I’ve helped
not God and the great kids I raised
not God and all I’ve accomplished
but God
only God
because in the end
my life is in the hands of God
God alone.
It is a blessing to see this.
But I can trust God only if God helps me.
I do trust you, Lord.
Help my lack of trust!
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Perrotta is the editor and an author of the “Six Weeks With the Bible” series, teaches part time at Siena Heights University and leads Holy Land pilgrimages. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.