2025 Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Published: February 16, 2025

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor preached the following homily at the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Little Rock on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, and St. Mary Church in North Little Rock on Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025.

Bishop Taylor

We in English have a lot of homonyms, words that sound the same but are spelled differently, one of which is wō. 

The first wō, w-o-e means disaster; the second wō, w-h-o-a means stop, and in the case of this set of homonyms, there’s a connection between the two. If you heed the second you’ll avoid the first. Say you’re riding a horse really fast and suddenly see that you’re headed for a cliff. It’s up to you to choose which wō you want: disaster – the woe of going over the cliff, or whoa as in get this horse to stop.

In today’s Gospel, we have Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, in which Jesus pairs each promised blessing with a woe, a threat of disaster. The purpose of his woes is to get us to see that those who pursue the four pernicious Ps (power, possessions, pleasure and prestige) are headed for disaster, and if they don’t get their horse to stop — whoa — they’ll soon end up in a world of woe. 

And notice: Many things that we consider unfortunate are — from the perspective of eternity, the Kingdom of God — in fact, blessings because they can teach us to put our trust in God, whose will always prevails in the end. Conversely, many things that we consider desirable are in fact very dangerous because they tempt us to put our trust in the things of this world, which always fail in the end.

So, 

• Blessed are the poor: If you depend on God for everything, you will prosper in his kingdom. But woe to the rich. You’ve already got all that’s coming to you.
• Blessed are the hungry: You will be satisfied in the kingdom, where God provides for all our needs. But woe to you if you fill yourself with worldly things that can never really satisfy for long. Your true hungers will never be met.
• Blessed are those who weep, who lament the sorry state of this world and the tragedies that are part of human life: human brokenness, suffering of any sort. Your tears will turn to joy in God’s kingdom of love, justice and peace. But woe to you if you live a superficial life, taking your delight in the empty pleasures of this world alone. You can’t take any of it with you. Soon the tables will be turned and your suffering will begin and never come to an end.
• Blessed are you when people criticize you for doing what you believe is right: God’s goodness and truth will prevail in the end. Satan, the prince of lies, can turn the whole world against us for a time — like he did against Jesus — get people to hate us, exclude us, insult us, make it look like we’re the bad guys. He treats all the saints that way. But Satan will not prevail. 

What will it be for you? The futile and ultimately self-destructive pursuit of power, possessions, pleasure and prestige?

Or: Whoa! Stop this horse headed for hell, Lord, and help me put all my trust in your providence, goodness and truth? In that case, despite whatever you might have to suffer as the price of faithfulness — poverty, hunger, sadness or rejection — Rejoice, behold your reward will be great in heaven.