20140704 THE RICH AND SINNERS HUNGER FOR TRUTH AND FOR
LOVE
SCRIPTURE READINGS:
AMOS 8:4-6, 9-12;
4
Listen to this, you who crush the needy and reduce the oppressed to nothing,
5 you
who say, 'When will New Moon be
over so that we can sell our corn, and Sabbath, so that we can market our
wheat? Then, we can make the bushel-measure smaller and the shekel-weight
bigger, by fraudulently tampering with the scales.
6 We
can buy up the weak for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals, and even get
a price for the sweepings of th 9 'On that Day- declares the Lord Yahweh- I
shall make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I
shall turn your festivals into mourning and all your singing into lamentation;
I shall make you all wear sacking round your waists and have all your heads
shaved. I shall make it like the mourning for an only child, and it will end like
the bitterest of days.
11 'The
days are coming- declares the Lord Yahweh-
when I shall send a famine on the country, not hunger for food, not thirst for
water, but famine for hearing Yahweh's word.
12 People will stagger
from sea to sea, will wander from
the north to the east, searching for Yahweh's word, but will not find
it. e wheat.'
9 As Jesus was walking on from there he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said
to him, 'Follow me.' And he got up and followed him.
10 Now
while he was at table in the house it happened that a number of tax collectors
and sinners came to sit at the table with Jesus and his disciples.
11 When
the Pharisees saw
this, they said to his disciples, 'Why does your master eat with tax collectors
and sinners?'
12 When
he heard this he replied, 'It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the
sick.
13 Go and learn the meaning of the words: Mercy is what
pleases me, not sacrifice. And indeed I came to call not the upright, but
sinners.'
Quite
often when we look at worldly people who are successful and powerful in
society, we feel a sense of injustice. We wonder how it is that
people who are dishonest, insincere, manipulative and selfish seem to have the
best things in life, whereas we are who honest, God-fearing and moralistic
people seem to be disadvantaged. The unjust people get richer and more
powerful each day whilst we get poorer.
This
precisely was the situation during the time of Amos. The rich were taking
advantage of the poor. The traders, merchants and the rich were trampling
“on the needy” and the powerful were suppressing “the poor people of the
country.” Using dishonest means such as “lowering the bushel, raising the
shekel,” “swindling and tampering with the scales” they “bought up the poor for
money, or a pair of sandals, and get a price even for the sweepings of the
wheat.”
What
is said of the people during the time of Amos is also applicable to the tax
collectors and sinners in today’s gospel. The reason why tax-collectors were hated by the
people was not simply because they worked for the Romans, their colonialist,
but because they cheated on the tax to enrich themselves. So they too
became rich at the expense of the poor. Certainly we can presume as well,
that the sinners were having a good time. They must have been indulging
themselves with all the immoral activities, satisfying their passions and greed.
Yet, even
though such rich, powerful and successful people appear to be happy in
life, they are really not necessarily so. They only appear to be
happy and enjoying life, but deep within, they experience great
emptiness. That is why Amos prophesied, “That day – I will make the sun
go down at noon … I am going to turn your feasts into funerals, all your
singing into lamentation … I will make it a mourning like the mourning for an
only son, as long as it lasts it will be a day of bitterness.” But most
of all, Prophet Amos rightly diagnosed the real emptiness in their lives, for
they will suffer famine, “a famine not of bread, a drought not of water but of
hearing the word of the Lord.” Yes, “they will stagger from sea to sea,
wander from north to east, seeking the word of the Lord and failing to find
it.”
Truly, the
rich and powerful are those who are really in famine and hungry. For
riches and power cannot fulfill a person. As the responsorial psalm tells
us, “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the
mouth of God.” Truly, “they are happy who do his will, seeking him with
all their hearts.” For our soul “is ever consumed in longing for your decrees …
I long for your precepts … in your justice, give me life.” Indeed, the
stomachs of the rich are full but their souls are hungry; the knowledge of the
powerful is great but truth is missing. So the rich are hungry for
truth. Only truth can set them free. This was the case of the
tax collectors as well. But what was lacking in the Pharisees?
Although they had the truth, they lacked love in their hearts.
They were intolerant of the sinners. They had not understood the words of
the Prophet, “What I want is mercy, not sacrifice.” Consequently, they
too were hungry.
It was
precisely for such people that Jesus came, both for the sinners and the
Pharisees. He came not for the healthy but the sick; not for the
righteous but for the sinners. To us who are feeling the emptiness of
life, even though we live affluent lives, the Lord wants to give us more than
what we think can truly satisfy us. He has come to show us the way to
life by offering us the Word of God, which is truth; and Himself as the
incarnation of God’s Word by being the love and compassion of God. Only a
life of freedom in truth and love can enrich us with the love of God. By
following Him in truth and love, we find life. Thus, we must appropriate
the words of the acclamation for ourselves today by praying, “Teach me your
paths, my God, make me walk in your truth.”
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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