20140730 PURIFYING OURSELVES TO BE THE TREASURE AND PEARL OF
THE KINGDOM
Reading 1, Jeremiah 15:10, 16-21
10 A disaster for me, mother, that you bore me to be a man of strife
and dissension for the whole country. I neither lend nor borrow, yet all of
them curse me.
16 When your words came, I devoured them: your word was my
delight and the joy of my heart; for I was called by your Name, Yahweh, God Sabaoth.
17 I never sat in the company of scoffers amusing myself;
with your hands on me I held myself aloof, since you had filled me with
indignation.
18 Why is my suffering continual, my wound incurable,
refusing to be healed? Truly, for me you are a deceptive stream with uncertain
waters!
19 To which Yahweh replied,
'If you repent, I shall restore you to plead before me. If you distinguish
between the precious and the base, you shall be as my own mouth. They will come back
to you, but you must not go back to them.
20 As far as these people are concerned, I shall make you
a fortified wall of bronze. They will fight
against you but will not
overcome you, because I am with you to save you and rescue you, Yahweh declares.
21 I shall rescue you from the clutches of the wicked and
redeem you from the grasp of the violent.'
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 59:2-3, 4, 10-11, 17, 18
3 Look at them, lurking to ambush me, violent men are
attacking me, for no fault, no sin of mine,
Yahweh,
4 for no guilt, they come running to take up position.
Wake up, stand by me and keep watch,
10 the God who loves me
faithfully is coming to meet me, God will let me
feast my eyes on those who lie in wait for me.
11 Do not annihilate them, or my people may forget; shake
them in your power, bring them low, Lord, our shield.
17 My strength, I will make music
for you, for my stronghold is God, the God who loves me
faithfully.
Gospel, Matthew 13:44-46
44 'The kingdom of Heaven is like
treasure hidden in a field which someone has found; he hides it again, goes off
in his joy, sells everything he owns and buys the field.
46 when he finds one of great value he goes and sells everything
he owns and buys it.
REFLECTION BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH ARCHBISHOP OF
SINGAPORE
PURIFYING OURSELVES TO BE THE TREASURE AND PEARL OF THE
KINGDOM
Everyone
seeks real happiness in life. Some find it by chance, just like the man who was working
in the field. Others find it through diligent searching, like the
merchant who found the pearl. But the response and the outcome are the
same; they paid for it with all that they had, and found great happiness.
In today’s first reading, Jeremiah too found his treasure through his intimate
encounter with God. He tasted the Word of God and as he devoured them, he
found great delight and joy. Indeed, whenever there is joy, happiness and
delight, there is the kingdom of God.
We too
are offered this same kingdom. We have also found our happiness in
coming to know Christ. He is the kingdom of God for us because we
have experienced His love and goodness. Technically speaking, we should
be very happy and joyful people. However, many of us do not radiate
this joy, in fact we live as if we are the most miserable people, having to
give up eating meat on Fridays, having to attend Mass on Sundays, not being
able to ‘live it up’ like the rest of the world. What is lacking, and why?
The
truth, I think, is because we have not given ourselves completely to the
treasure and the pearl yet, and thus the treasure and pearl which we have found
are still outside us and not within us. Happiness and joy in the world are
transient and cannot last very long. So the joy is short-lived.
This
was precisely how Jeremiah felt. In the first place we know that he was
quite reluctant to be the prophet of God. But having been touched by the
Word of God, he responded generously. But sometime into the ministry, he
discovered the harsh facts of being a prophet. As the so-called ‘Second
Confession’ of Jeremiah in today’s first reading shows us, he was filled with
disappointment and anger. He felt betrayed by his people and by God.
Instead of being appreciated, he was rejected by his friends, his own people
and his enemies. He found himself persecuted for speaking the truth for
their sake. He felt terribly misunderstood and his sufferings were
unbearable. For all these reasons, he cried out to God for the injustices
that he suffered. “Woe is me”, he said. In simple words, “I think I
have made the wrong choice.” He felt that life was not fair to
him. After all, he said, “I neither lend nor borrow” and thus
should not have earned any curses from others. And at the end of it all,
he felt like giving up and compromised his message with the people.
In
our inner struggles we, too, quite often feel like compromising our standards and our values just so
that we appear to be more acceptable to the world. When we are jeered at
for standing up for our Christian principles, or penalized for refusing to
participate in activities that compromise our Christian values, we say to
ourselves, “we have made the wrong choice. This is not what I bargained
for.” But the danger is that when we start compromising, then we will
surely lose our inner peace, joy and love. Sure, in living out our
ideals, we may be misunderstood and even condemned, but at least we are
vindicated within. This is what God promised Jeremiah and us, that if we
do not “go back to them”, that is, if we do not compromise with the world, then
He will be with us and they will not overcome us. In this way, God will
deliver us.
But how
will He vindicate us? When we change ourselves. Yes, the response
of God to Jeremiah was, “If you come back, I will take you back into my
service.” Jeremiah must be thinking, “It is not I who needs to change; it
is the people who need conversion.” But God said he must be converted
instead. What changes must Jeremiah make? He must not react to
the situation. Instead of being angry, he must “utter noble, not
despicable, thoughts”, and then he shall be God’s own mouth. He must
learn to accept failures and rejection in his ministry so that he can transcend
them and be like the bronze wall that fortifies him from his enemies.
Indeed,
Jeremiah’s struggles in his ministry is said to be the type of Christ’s passion
and ministry as well. It was through his struggles and fidelity to his
mission that God vindicated him in the end. That was what God wanted for
him, to be purified further until he became truly the prophet of God and the
sign of His presence.
Hence,
what we can learn from today’s scripture lessons is this: the real joy and
happiness of the kingdom does not lie in simply tasting the joy of the Lord
in prayer or in mere observance of our Christian obligations, since they remain
external to us. So long as the treasure and the beauty of the kingdom
remain on the external level, such joy and happiness will be taken away.
Instead, we must learn to transcend the people around us. We must
learn to accept failures, challenges and difficulties of life in stride.
Unless we learn to transcend our need to be appreciated and loved and accept
our sufferings, our peace and happiness will be determined by external factors.
Truly, the
real challenge is to transform ourselves into the treasure and pearl of God.
And this is done concretely when we begin to live out our faith and
courageously face our challenges each day. Through our struggles and
tribulations, we will be purified from within so that the real joy and peace
comes not from mere external appreciation or achievements but from interior
conviction and commitment.
We
must also pray for the grace to become the kingdom of God within us. Yes, when our joy and happiness
are no longer simply dependent on mere external realities; and when we no
longer worship a Christ who is outside of us, then perhaps we are a little
nearer to the real kingdom. For what is real kingdom if not to transform
ourselves into Christ? This is what Paul meant when he said, “It is no
longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” On that day when we can
say these same words with Paul convincingly, then we can also say that we have
come to be in touch with the kingdom within us, that kingdom which is the reign
of God’s love, peace and joy. This is the only lasting and true kingdom,
the real treasure that brings lasting happiness; and the real pearl that brings
the purest joy in our lives.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST
REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED
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