20140705 THE COURAGE TO WELCOME THE NEW
SCRIPTURE READINGS:
AMOS 9:11-15;
11 On
that Day, I shall rebuild the tottering hut of David, make good the gaps in
it, restore its ruins and rebuild it as it was in the days of old,
12 for
them to be master of what is left of Edom and of all the nations once called
mine -Yahweh declares, and he will perform it.
13 The
days are coming- declares Yahweh- when the ploughman will tread on
the heels of the reaper, and the treader of grapes on the heels of the sower of
seed, and the mountains will run with
new wine and the hills all flow with it.
14 I
shall restore the fortunes of my people Israel; they will rebuild the
ruined cities and live in them, they will plant
vineyards and drink their wine, they will lay out
gardens and eat their produce.
15 And I shall plant them in their own soil and they will never be
uprooted again from the country which I have given them, declares Yahweh, your
God.
14 Then
John's disciples came to him and said, 'Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast,
but your disciples do not?'
15
Jesus replied, 'Surely the bridegroom's attendants cannot mourn as long as the
bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come when
the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
16 No
one puts a piece of unshrunken cloth onto an old cloak, because the patch pulls
away from the cloak and the tear gets worse.
17 Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins;
otherwise, the skins burst, the wine runs out, and the skins are lost. No; they
put new wine in fresh skins and both are preserved.'
We
are a contradiction to ourselves. On one hand, we desire a better life, a brighter future,
greater advancement in our career or organization, a healthier lifestyle and
greater unity and love in the family. But on the other hand, we are
not willing to undertake the necessary changes to bring about our intended
goals. Indeed, today’s scripture readings deal with the question of
welcoming the new in our lives.
What
does it take to welcome the new possibilities in our lives? In
uncompromising terms, the gospel makes it clear that we must change. Jesus said, “No one
puts a piece of unshrunken cloth on to an old cloak, because the patch pulls
away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. Nor do people put new wine into
old wineskins; if they do, the skins burst, the wine runs out, and the skins
are lost. No; they put new wine into fresh skins and both are preserved.” In
other words, we must be ready to adapt to new situations by putting on a new
heart and a new mindset. So long as we are controlled by our past
experiences and fixed agenda, there is no way to think out of the box to
welcome new ways of doing things. Even when good ideas or opportunities
are presented to us, our old and fixated mindset based on past experiences,
especially negative encounters, will make us pour cold water on such
initiatives.
Such
a conservative, dogmatic and hardline stance is the cause of great frustration
in organizations.
It stifles creativity and enthusiasm. One of the most important factors
why our youth groups never truly grow in strength and in number is because the
older generation wants to control them and dare not take risks in allowing them
to explore and grow. We do not give them our support, which is more than
just verbal support. It must be seen in our confidence in them and then
backed up by financial, moral and material support. To find new ways of
extending the gospel message requires us to think beyond traditional methods in
reaching out to our young people. Proclaiming the gospel always demands
risks, as it did in the time of Jesus and the early Church.
For
this reason, if we desire to live beyond the narrow confines of the past and
make progress, we must be ready to adapt and change to the needs of our
time. This is what Jesus meant when He told us that new wine must be
put into new wineskins, otherwise the new skins would not be elastic enough to
hold the newly fermented wine, resulting in tear. So too if our hearts
and minds are already so fixated in our old ways of seeing things and doing
things, we cannot truly be receptive to new ideas or changes that are necessary
to breathe fresh air into our families, churches and organizations.
The
first reading from the prophet Amos assures us that our lives can be
made new again if we are ready for change. Often, we are like the
Israelites who gave up on themselves, thinking that they were doomed.
Indeed, the prophet Amos for the most part of the book painted a bleak picture
of Israel’s future because of their sins of idolatry, rebellion and social
injustice. He warned them that great calamities would befall them as a
result of their sins. But that did not mean that all was gone and
that Israel would be extinguished from the face of the earth. On the
contrary, there is hope. God would not give up on them. He
continued to hope that they would repent and change. Regardless of how
often the people sinned, God always invited them to return to Him. Never
once did God give up hope in us in spite of the infidelities of humanity.
Whether it was the sin of Adam and Eve, of the contemporaries of Noah, or the
sins of the kings, particularly King David and during the reign of those evil
kings ruling the divided Israel, God would send prophets, one after another,
like Amos to urge them to repentance.
For
this reason, none of us must ever think that there is no future for us.
None of us must ever think that all hope is gone and that we are destined to
live this miserable, unfulfilling and aimless life. This would be
allowing ourselves to fall into the trap of the Evil One who seeks to
discourage us and lead us to despair. He wants us to give up and be
resigned to our past. He wants us to condemn ourselves to our past so
that when we give up hope in God and therefore the future, we will ultimately
give up hope in ourselves. But for God, there is always hope and the
future is in His hands. This is what Jesus wants to remind us. He
told the Pharisees, “Surely the bridegroom’s attendants would never think of
mourning as long as the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come
for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
Jesus is here in our midst. As the bridegroom, He has come to give us the
new wine of the Spirit. He has come to pour forth the love of God into
our hearts. By His death on the cross, He confirms that there is no sin
that God will not forgive unless we do not wish to be forgiven.
But
more than just forgiving us, God wants to restore us. In the
first reading, the newness is spoken in terms of restoration. But is
change simply a restoration, as implied in the first reading from the
Prophet Amos? We must not mistake that newness is a mere restoration of
the past. That would be living in nostalgic times and cannot be said to
be entirely new. This is precisely what some radical traditionalists in
the Church desire; that we go back to the good old days. Many Catholics
misunderstood Pope Benedict’s revision of the New Roman Missal and restoration
of the Tridentine Mass as an intent to go back to the old ways. This is
far from the truth. The restoration is to go back to the pristine reality
of things. It is not so much returning to the past as going back to the
original intention and plan of God which was never fulfilled. What God
intended for Adam and Eve, the paradise envisaged by God, did not happen
because of sin. Similarly, what God intended for the Israelites to be a
covenant community, living in justice, compassion and love, also did not
materialize.
With
Christ’s coming, He intends to go even beyond restoration to completion.
He came to make us all sons and daughters of His Father through Him in the Holy
Spirit. He wants us to have a share in the fullness of His life. He
wants to give us the peace that comes from a just life based on truth and
compassion as mentioned by the psalmist. This is the eternal peace that
the world cannot give. By giving us the new wine of His Spirit, we will
be truly made new, becoming a new creation in Christ as St Paul says, “We are
God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the
beginning he had meant us to live it.” (Eph 2:10)
For
this new life to come about, the condition that remains for us today is our
readiness to embrace change. We must live by faith, not by sight.
St Paul wrote, “We are always full of confidence, then, when we remember that
to live in the body means to be exiled from the Lord going as we do by faith
and not by sight - we are full confidence, I say, and actually want to be
exiled from the body and make our home with the Lord.” (2 Cor 5:6-8). He
also wrote, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive
words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might
not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” (1 Cor 2: 5)
The
element of surprise calls for courage to abandon the safe ways of doing things
that bring about predictable results. We must go beyond the mere performance
of the laws, as the disciples of John the Baptist and the religious leaders
did. They felt safe and justified before God by complying with the laws
handed down to them. Rather, we must go back to the spirit of the
observance of the laws, which is to make ourselves available to the grace of
God that is given to a heart of love. For us concretely, we must mourn,
because often Jesus the Bridegroom is no longer seen or experienced in our
churches, communities, organizations and family. When we mourn His
absence from our lives, then through prayer and fasting, we will learn humility
and find the courage to let the Spirit lead us beyond our human
calculation. Are we ready to let go and let the Spirit of God lead
us to greener pastures?
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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