Faithfully Yours

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle C
Jer 17:5-8
1 Cor 15: 12, 16-20
Lk 6:17, 20-26

Today we hear blessings and curses. Perfect readings for Valentine’s Day!

Wait a minute! Valentine’s Day is all about love. Warm fuzzy, gushy, slobbering, flowers and chocolates, diamonds and hearts and cupids flying about…love. Not a lot of that stuff to be found in today’s readings, so how are they all about Valentine’s Day? Because love isn’t about all those things. Love isn’t always warm and fuzzy, is it? Love isn’t about romance. Love is all about trust.

In our first reading we hear: "Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings..." And, "Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord." Jeremiah is not bringing curses and blessings down upon us. He is simply stating the truth. If you trust in human beings alone you will find curses. If you trust in God you will find blessings. Why? Well, we have to look at what trust is, first. What does it mean to trust somebody or something? When you say you trust someone, what are you assuming about them? You are assuming that they will do what they say they’ll do. You expect them not to betray you. You expect them to be faithful to you and to their promises.

Trust is all about fidelity, and fidelity is all about love, so love is all about trust.

We’re entering the wedding season here in the mountains. Just as Valentine’s Day isn’t about the candy and flowers and jewelry, a wedding isn’t about the dress or the flowers or the music or the reception. A wedding is about the vows the man and woman give to each other. And they’re really quite simple. The bride and groom simply say to each other, “I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love and honor you all the days of my life”. The symbol of marriage is the wedding ring. When the couple exchange rings, each says to the other, “Take this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” We don’t promise that we’ll give each other a big house, or fancy cars, or fine jewelry. We don’t promise that we’ll always be happy and like each other. We don’t even promise to squeeze the toothpaste tube from the end. We only promise to be faithful to each other. And we do it in the name of the triune God who is the greatest, perfect example of faithfulness.

Fidelity has no strings attached. No matter what the future brings, we pledge ourselves to be faithful. Blessed are you who are poor. Because at some time you will be poor. Even if your portfolio is great, you will be lacking something you need. Love, security, fulfillment. Blessed are you when you are hungry. Well you will be hungry sometime in your life. Hungry for food, hungry for God, hungry for companionship. Blessed are you who mourn. And you will mourn. The loss of a parent, or a spouse, or a friend, or a job, or an opportunity. Blessed are you when people hate you, or exclude you or insult or denounce you. Because if you are living your Christian commitment they will. During these times we need to be faithful to each other, but most of all, we need to know that, even though we will fail in our fidelity, our God is always faithful to us, no matter what.

I'd like to tell you about a man who had a beautiful trust in God. It is Valentine story because it's about how he found his wife. It happened back in 1920, long before on-line dating services. What the man did was place an ad in a newspaper. This is what the ad said:

"Middle-ranking civil servant, single, Catholic, 43, immaculate past, from the country, is looking for a good Catholic, pure girl who can cook well, tackle all household chores, with a talent for sewing and homemaking, with a view to marriage as soon as possible. Fortune desirable but not a precondition."

A woman named Maria Peintner answered the ad. She was 36 years old, a trained cook and the illegitimate daughter of a baker. She did not have a fortune, but even so, they married four months later. In spite of their somewhat advanced years they had three children - two boys and a girl. The youngest child received the same name as his father: Joseph Ratzinger. He is better known today as Pope Benedict XVI.


After his election, someone dug up the "wife-wanted" ad and showed it to the new pope. The pope, of course, smiled. He knew that his parents gave a beautiful testimony to married love. Pope Benedict would speak often about that love. In fact, his first encyclical is entitled, "God is Love," and it describes marriage as the pre-eminent image and example of God's love for us.

God is the model for married love, and a marriage is the perfect model for God’s love. God is relationship; Father, Son and Spirit, therefore, love cannot exist by itself. It must occur in relationship, and it cannot be fulfilled unless it is given away. Jesus himself described his love for the church as that of a bridegroom for his bride. The ancient Hebrews often spoke of God’s love in terms of romantic love. God’s love for us is that personal, that romantic, that devoted. Each time we speak to each other in words like this we are also describing God’s love for us.

If a person gets up into their mid-thirties (or forties) and they have not found that special someone, they can feel life has passed them by, maybe even that God has forgotten them. That was not the case with Joseph and Maria Ratzinger. From all we know, they were people of deep faith in God. Joseph placed that ad trusting that God would send his life partner his way. And Maria answered that ad trusting that she would not be rejected because of her background and circumstances. Because of their trust in God, they had an admirable marriage and deeply united family.

The important point here is trust in the Lord. In a few days we are going to begin a holy season that emphasizes trust in the Lord. The Church encourages us to sacrifice some of things that are most important to us: food, time and money. We sacrifice food by some form of voluntary fasting, for example, giving up deserts. We sacrifice time by giving a greater portion of our day to prayer. We sacrifice money by almsgiving - by orderings our finances to God's glory and the needs of the poor. You will hear more about this on Wednesday - and next Sunday, the First Sunday of Lent. All of our Lenten practices have one purpose - to increase our trust in the Lord. We force ourselves to give up what we think we need in order to focus ourselves on that trust.


None of us know what the future will bring. We know there will be hunger and plenty, sorrow and laughter, hatred and acceptance. We don’t know when or in what quantity. But we know one thing for sure. That God hungers and feasts with us, laughs and cries with us, feels our humiliation and accepts us for who we are. He knows this because he chose to share in our humanity. He took our weaknesses upon himself and gives us his glory in return.

And he always will. Faithfully.