A Recipe for Trusting
If you’ve ever watched “The Great British Baking Show,” you know that the show’s contestants rely on their skills, knowledge and recipes to create the perfect cake. So too can we rely on the skills, knowledge and “recipes" we learn from Christ as we strive to live a perfect Christian life.
In this Sunday’s readings we first encounter Jeremiah (17:5-8), who focuses on the importance of trusting in God rather than humans. Those who trust in God, Jeremiah tells us, are blessed and thrive. In contrast, he tells us that those who put their trust first in humans are cursed and destined to not prosper, likened to “a barren bush in the desert ... stand[ing] in a lava waste.” Because such people trust foremost in their own abilities and capabilities, they end up with spiritual emptiness and unrest. But those who instead place their trust in God receive stability and blessings and are described as one “like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches its roots to the stream ... its leaves stay green in the year of drought,” continuously bearing spiritual fruit. We also hear this same message in the responsorial psalm: “Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked … he is like a tree planting near running water … yields its fruit in due season ... whatever he does, prospers.”
Luke's Gospel (6:17, 20-26) gives us Jesus teaching on discipleship to a diverse crowd gathered from Judea, Jerusalem, and the coastal regions of Tyre and Sidon. Having just selected His twelve apostles, Jesus addresses the multitude, offering four blessings and four corresponding woes. Luke presents an apparent paradox: poverty, hunger, weeping and persecution are presented as blessings, while wealth, pleasure and worldly honor are cautioned against. This reveals God's perspective on true happiness and holiness, emphasizing that following Christ often requires embracing self-denial, accepting one's cross, and seeking healing and wisdom.
Jesus did not condemn the rich or well-off, nor did he mandate material poverty or suffering. Instead, Jesus gives us the recipe — the steps and actions we must take to get beyond such limitations and to fully trust in God. In this Jubilee Year of Hope, let us follow Christ’s recipe to grow in holiness and follow him toward our ultimate goal: the establishment of God's kingdom in our hearts.
–Thuy-nga Casey
Send Us Forth are reflections written by St. Matthew parishioners and friends.