Homily: Rooted

Year C / Ordinary Time / Week 6 / Sunday

Readings: Jeremiah 17:5-8 / Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6 / 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20 / Luke 6:17, 20-26

Sisters and brothers, what does it take for someone to get through challenging, even trying, times and thrive?

In 2018, John Seow, a student of mine at St Joseph’s Institution, shared with parents how they could support their sons to do well for the O Level examinations. He spoke about exam strategies and teacher support, parents’ love and self-care. Then, surprisingly, he spoke about turning to God during the exams. He ended saying, “Pray, hope, and don't worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayer.”

For many present, this was key message of John’s sharing: we need to anchor ourselves, even better stay rooted, in God, no matter what.

The first reading invites us to also root ourselves in God. If you have walked along a river or stream you might have noticed how big, how leafy, how green the trees on its banks are. The prophet Jeremiah uses this image to describe the person who trusts in God: “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose hope in the Lord. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretch out its roots to the stream” (Jeremiah 17.5-8). 

Water is the secret to the tree’s growth, stability, and strength. Water makes it flourish. The trees thirst for it. 

We thirst for water too. Even more, we thirst for God.  Isn’t this why we come Sunday after Sunday to be nourished by God in Word and Eucharist? We turn to God to forgive our sins. We pray for God’s help in difficult times. Yes, we need God.

Jeremiah’s message insists that like the tree rooted in water, we too must always stay rooted in God if we want our life to be fruitful, our faith to flourish and our wellbeing safeguarded. Listen again to Jeremiah’s wisdom about the metaphor of the tree by running water for our Christian lives: “not fear when the heat come; its leaves are always green; in the year of drought he shows no distress, but still bears fruit.” 

I believe we all want to live like this. But are we immersing our lives in God’s life every day to live like this? Jeremiah's reaching about the tree insists we acknowledge that it is not enough to be with God once a week at Sunday Mass, pray when we need Him or reconcile with Him only at Lent or Advent.

Immersing ourselves in God every day is hard work but it is necessary. When challenges come or we think God doesn’t our prayers, we struggle to believe in God. When other attractions catch our fancy, fulfil our wants, and make us feel superior, we question why God and God’s ways are boring, unfulfilling and inferior. When there are more pleasurable things to do, we easily excuse ourselves from God.  

In these moments, we would be wise to recall Jeremiah’s words that “the tree fears not the heat when it comes” because its roots are securely in the water.

Don’t we want this same fearlessness when challenges and difficulties, sufferings and disappointments confront us? If we do, we must choose to root ourselves in God every day. We need to because He is our strength and hope. 

Prayer is one way to do this. The gospels describe the intimate relationship Jesus had with prayer. He always prays to God. He prays to God when He heals, does miracles, makes important decisions, even before He eats. Through prayer, He invites God into his life. Prayer enables Jesus to immerse himself in God. Do we?

We see the power of prayer in Jesus at Gethsemane. When Judas and the soldiers come to arrest Him by calling out for Jesus of Nazareth, he steps forward courageously and pronounces “I am He.” He has no fear doing this and entering His passion because His prayer binds Him to God. Having a daily prayer life with God does the same: it will form and shape us to be more and more like Jesus. 

This happens because in prayer we are gently broken in God’s loving hands and formed anew. In prayer, our laziness is broken, so we can go the extra mile. Our sinfulness is broken, so we can live better. Our self-centered plans are broken, so we can care for others more selflessly. Our hard hearts are especially broken to become tender and bighearted for everyone.

Most of all, it is in prayer that Jesus comes to know the love of God and live it selfless by serving everyone This is the source of his happiness. To be truly happy, you and I must also choose God and his sacrificial way of loving.

Jesus makes the same demand in the gospel reading. He offers us a choice. There are the Beatitudes, the ‘Happy indeed are those who…’ statement that call us to be happy by living in God’s ways. There are also the ‘Alas for you…” statements that can take us away from God if we fail to heed them.

As Christians, the choice is obvious. Be assured we can make that right choice because Jesus’ death and resurrection empower us to choose God and eternal life with God. This is St Paul’s hope-filled message today. 

This is indeed the long view we must keep in mind as Jesus’ disciples. John Seow knew this. He practiced it by keeping God at the center of his life even as he prepared and sat for his O Level examinations. His prayer life helped him do this. 

Let us do what John Seow did: strive to stay close to Jesus, especially in the heat of things not going right in our lives. When we do,  we need not fear because God is with us. Then, our lives will flourish like that fruitful tree by the flowing waters because He will prosper our lives. If you agree with me that this is how God loves us to give us life to the full, then, our response must simply be this — to stay rooted ourselves in Jesus.  Shall we?

Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart

Photo: seekingalpha.com