February 16th, 2025 - Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Everybody wants to be happy and stay happy. The readings this Sunday give us the blueprint for true and lasting happiness.  Jeremiah puts it poetically: if you seek happiness in pleasing God and in being faithful to the Lord, you will be like a tree planted close to a stream of water, a tree whose leaves never fade, a tree that bears much fruit season after season. St. Luke’s version of the beatitudes gives us a winning formula for achieving happiness: be empty enough for God to fill you; be hungry for holiness instead of instant satisfaction; be hopeful in times of suffering or disappointment. Here is the recipe for happiness that will take us from here to eternity: if we rely on the grace of Christ, our Lord and Savior, we will have an inner joy and a peace that no one and nothing can take from us.