Gaudete et Exsultate! Rejoice and Be Glad!

                “Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,” is the easiest way to summarize the first half of Sunday’s readings (Jer 17:7).  However, it leaves us wondering, “why?”  Why should we trust in the Lord?  Why should all of our hope rest in Him?  Thankfully, the Gospel Acclamation tells us why!  “Rejoice and be glad; your reward will be great in heaven!” (Lk 6:23).  If we trust fully in the Lord, we will be rewarded immensely in heaven.

                In the reading from the Prophet Jeremiah, the differences between the one who trusts in himself and the one who trusts in God is clearly laid out.  We hear that the man who trust in himself, in the world, is closed off from God.  His “… heart turns away from the Lord,” and he is focused not on God but on himself (Jer 17:5).  In drawing the image of a “barren bush in the desert,” we are shown that our true strength, our life, comes from God and not human desires (Jer 17:6).  For if we could sustain ourselves with our own desires, we would find a wellspring of inspiration within us to keep us full of life and hope.  That is not possible without the joy and exultation God brings to those who trust in Him.  Without the joy and exultation that comes from God, we quickly find ourselves drying up and withering away.

                In juxtaposition to the barren bush, the man who places all of his hope and trust in the Lord finds unending joy, support, and life.  That man “is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream” (Jer 17:8).  By trusting in the Lord, we are able to plant our roots deep in our faith and find strength and nourishment both in times of abundance and in times of trial.  Because our trust and hope have been placed in something eternal, it cannot be dried up when life throws us a curveball.  It is God that provides the waters of life for us to sink our roots in and find comfort, hope, peace, and joy.

                Just as we find our nourishment for our journey in life in God, we know that by trusting in the Lord we will rise to eternal life with Christ.  St. Paul warns the Corinthians about only trusting in the Lord for things in this life on earth.  We hear him tell them, “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all,” because the true source of our hope and trust should be in Christ and His resurrection.  In our baptism, we are immersed in the waters of life and united to Christ’s death and resurrection (cf Romans 6:3-8).  It is through those waters in which we sink our roots, our trust, that we are born to eternal life.

                Jesus Himself tells us in the Gospel of Luke that it is not enough to just have that trust inside our heart; it must manifest itself in how we live.  We hear Jesus say, “Blessed are you who are poor … who are hungry … who are now weeping … when people hate you,” and it is at first jarring (Luke 6:20-22).  Typically, those states of being are not something associated with being blessed or joyful.  Jesus continues to knock us out of our comfort zone when He tells us, “But woe to you who are rich … who are filled now ... who laugh now … when all speak well of you” (Luke 6:24-26).  It is again not typical to think of those as something to be woeful.  Jesus, however, is speaking to something deeper than it first appears.

                In His exhortation, Jesus is reminding us where to place our trust and hope.  If we are satisfied with the things of the world and the state of our life right now, our focus is not on Him and our heart has turned away from God.  Jesus is reminding us to continually place our trust in Him, even if we are hungry or weeping.  He is asking us to place our hope in Him, even if we are poor or persecuted.  Jesus is calling us to cast off the desires of this world and fully trust in His plan.  He is calling us to not be satisfied with the desires of the flesh and the allurements of the world.  He is calling us to stretch out our roots to Him and to draw strength from our hope in His resurrection.  He is showing us why we should trust in Him.  For if we do, Jesus tells us, “rejoice and be glad; your reward will be great in heaven” (Lk 6:23)!