Gospel-Homily for Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (2025)

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Plant Yourself at the Opportune Place Rather than Travel from One Disaster to Another.

According to Jeremiah, the prophet, a tree planted near running water will produce much fruit. What does he mean by the analogy?

Gabe de Guzman is one of the most sought-after dancers in the industry. The reason is that he adds tricks to his routines, such as head slides, back flips, helicopters, and bone breaks. He is a lot of fun to watch. When he was five years old, he won his first dance competition, and by the age of eighteen, he had bought a condo in LA and a Tesla. So they asked him, “How did you survive all of the teasing and the bullying in school as a male dancer? How did you survive the pressures of all of the competitions? How did you survive all of the failed backflips and head slides? This is what he said, “I surrounded myself with great mentors and teachers.” In other words, he planted himself smack in the middle of inspiration, encouragement, and support.

There is a great scene in the Book of Genesis where Adam and Eve were just married and had their honeymoon in paradise. It does not get any better than that. I hope they savored the moment. I hope they absorbed all the beauty of God’s creation in their souls. In other words, before they turn the page in their lives, before going to the next chapter of Genesis where they will meet the serpent, eat the forbidden fruit, banishment from the Garden of Eden, have one of their children killed by Cain, I hope they absorb the beauty in their soul from being with God in paradise. Here is the reason why. It took God a lot of work to create a paradise for the couple. The first two verses of Genesis describe the universe as a large hurricane over the ocean immersed in total darkness. God took this dangerous death zone and turned it into a garden. We humans prefer to move from one disaster to another while speeding through the most important moments. 

Last weekend, the Eagles won the Super Bowl. It takes years for a team to develop into a force that can win the Super Bowl. Five minutes after the win, there was talk of a repeat, a three-peat, eight rings to beat out Tom Brady and his seven rings. Can we instead enjoy the moment? Before the players all leave the team as free agents, can we just appreciate and take in what happened?

Here is the faith lesson of Jeremiah. Life is filled with ups and downs. A successful life is not on a journey through those ups and downs. A successful life is planting your tree at the right place at the right time, taking in all the graces and support of that moment. That is how you bear much fruit.