Homily for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

To Whom Does Your Heart Belong?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, February 16, 2025

For someone with no keen sense of the spiritual life, the words we hear today from Prophet Jeremiah are deeply negative, deeply troubling and deeply gloomy. But for a spiritual alert person, they are very profound articulations. In our first reading taken from the seventeenth chapter of his book, we hear, “Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord” (Jeremiah 17:5). Are we being told to not trust any human being? Not even our parents, brothers, sisters, close friends, priests, staff in the office? Does it mean that married people should not trust themselves? Does it mean that parents should not trust their children and vice versa? Not so fast! Aside from family members, we certainly have met people who are indeed trustworthy; people whose yes are yes and whose no are no. We have friends and colleagues at work that have proven to be reliable and worthy of trust. So, there are human beings out there who can be trusted. But the Bible is laying a curse on anyone who trusts in human beings. What does it mean? 

As human beings, we surely have other interests in life like sports, entertainment, local, national and international politics, geography, nature, economy, science, world affairs etc. We have passion for this, and passion for that. As we live our daily life, we can be preoccupied with a lot of different things. No doubt, we can trust in human beings who have shown themselves trustworthy. You can trust that your bosom friend will not betray you. You can trust that the contract you signed with a company will be honored. I can trust that my parishioners in St. Bridget are with me. But that is not what prophet Jeremiah is speaking about today. When the Bible talks about the heart, as Jeremiah does, he says, “whose heart turns away from the Lord,” he means the deepest center of one’s life and activity. By heart, the Bible means the core, the organizing principle of someone’s entire life. Prophet Jeremiah is speaking about the allegiance of our heart. That core of you, that deepest organizing center of you, to whom does it belong to? To whom does your core, your heart belong? If it belongs to any human being, if it belongs to anything in this material world, Jeremiah says you are in a very bad spiritual space. 

Sisters and brothers, do not see the words of Jeremiah as a rejection of the human person, or the rejection of matter, or the rejection of the world. That’s not what it is. Biblical people do not see the material world as evil. They loved the world; they have nothing against the flesh. They understood it as God’s creature and God’s gift. In our tradition, nature reflects the glory, power and awesomeness of God. Created things glorify God who loved them into existence. So, biblical people do not see nature as intrinsically evil. They are not Platonists or Puritans. In the Bible, Genesis 1:31 says, “God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good” (1:31). So, the world is good. But our heart does not belong to anything in this world. The core and the deepest principle of our life must belong to God alone. After that, the rest of our life must align with God’s will. That means your friendships, your relationships, your business interests, your politics, your entertainment interests, your scientific interests, your attitude to food and drink, all of it, and everything you could possibly do in this world must surrender to God’s will and purposes. If your heart truly belongs to God, then you will never refuse forgiveness. If your heart belongs to God, you will never be resentful. If your heart belongs to God alone, you will not keep malice. If your heart belongs to God alone, you cannot turn a blind eye to the suffering and misfortune of others. If your heart truly belongs to God alone, you cannot be cold to cruelty and wickedness being meted upon another person. If your heart truly belongs to Jesus, the organizing principle of your life will be compassion, and nothing more. But if your heart is divided, which means to some degree, your heart belongs to God and also belongs to other things, you will basically be equating your love for God and your love for other things. It means your heart does not belong to God totally. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).  To be pure of heart is to be single-hearted. It means your heart belongs uniquely and entirely to God. It means nothing in this world competes with the Lord in your life. Whenever the choice is between coming to church or staying home to do other things, you choose coming to Mass. If your heart belongs entirely to God, and all your other interests find their place around that great organizing center, then you are a saint. This is exactly what the prophet Jeremiah is saying to us today. 

May God bless you and give you his peace!