6th Sunday of Epiphany
First Reading: Jeremiah 17:5-10
Psalm Reading: Psalm 1
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Gospel Reading: Luke 6:19-26
Homily by Fr. Erel Villanueva
True blessedness comes a from a yielded heart.
Our Gospel talks to us about true blessedness. True blessedness comes from a yielded heart to God. A yielded, submissive, and surrendered heart trusts and obeys God.
Blessedness is a state of having divine joy and perfect happiness that comes from God. This is His promise to those who trust Him. But how come not everyone is experiencing this blessedness even when we were confessing that we are “blessed to be a blessing.” This all boils down to our submission to God’s will.
We are praying for peace, unity, and other things, but as long we are not submitted to God, it will be difficult for us to receive it. We just enjoy the outcome / result but we don’t do what we’re supposed to do.
We should develop a yielded heart by faith and and do it through His grace. We can’t do it by ourselves. First, we must decide to submit to God knowing that away from Him, we can do nothing. We are doomed to failure without His guidance for His ways are higher than ours. It is a daily dying to ourselves and willingness to put God first.
Second, we must submit to the dealings of the Holy Spirit in us who is our sanctifier. There are times God would allow circumstances in our lives due to the hardness of our hearts. We should realize that our sufficiency is in Him and not ourselves. Jesus is the true example of a yielded heart. Our salvation became true to us because He submitted to the will of the Father. He said, “Not my will but your will shall be done.”
God is looking for a contrite and broken (humble spirit) and this is our loving sacrifice that God will not despise – letting God have His way in us.
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