20140731 A NEW LIFE WITH GOD ENTAILS
ACCEPTING OUR PAST AND BEING OPEN TO NEW POSSIBILITIES
Reading 1, Jeremiah 18:1-6
2 'Get up and make your way down to the potter's house,
and there I shall tell you what I have to say.'
3 So I went down to the potter's house; and there he was,
working at the wheel.
4 But the vessel he was making came out wrong, as may
happen with clay when a potter is at work. So he began again and shaped it into
another vessel, as he thought fit.
6 'House of Israel, can I not do to you what this potter
does? Yahweh demands.
Yes, like clay in the potter's hand, so you are in mine, House of Israel.
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 146:1-2, 2-4, 5-6
1 Alleluia! Praise Yahweh, my soul!
3 Do not put your trust in princes, in any child of Adam,
who has no power to save.
4 When his spirit goes
forth he returns to the earth, on that very day all his plans come to nothing.
Gospel, Matthew 13:47-53
47 'Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like a
dragnet that is cast in the sea and brings in a haul of all kinds of fish.
48 When it is full, the fishermen bring it ashore; then,
sitting down, they collect the good ones in
baskets and throw away those that are no use.
49 This is how it will be at the
end of time: the angels will appear and
separate the wicked from the upright,
51 'Have you understood all these?' They said, 'Yes.'
52 And he said to them, 'Well then, every scribe who
becomes a disciple of the
kingdom of Heaven is like a
householder who brings out from his storeroom new things as well as old.'
A
NEW LIFE WITH GOD ENTAILS ACCEPTING OUR PAST AND BEING OPEN TO NEW
POSSIBILITIES
What is most consoling
about today’s scripture passages is that none of us, no matter who we are,
is doomed. Until the day of reckoning comes, as the parable of the
dragnet tells us, this is a time of grace. Indeed, both readings speak
about the possibility of change and conversion so long as we are still alive.
They are not concerned with judgement. God who is patient with the
Israelites in their fidelity is also patient with us.
But what is even more
encouraging about today’s scripture message is that the change that is
envisaged will happen in such a way that it does not do violence to our
natural process of growth. God is gentle with us even when He invites
us to conversion. Indeed, the new life that God wants to give us
would basically be derived from the old. That is what the parable of the
potter and the clay meant to tell us. Like the potter who uses the same
clay to re-mould the pots that he is dissatisfied with, so too God will use
all our weaknesses, mistakes and limitations for our personal growth in grace.
Indeed, our sins and limitations would be the very means by which God will
re-mould us into His likeness.
Consequently, we who are
struggling to remain faithful to God and to the gospel life need not despair,
especially when we find that the strength to change is rather weak, or when we
find that we have an ugly past. For many of us, we find it difficult to
thank God for our past, especially our broken past. Indeed many of us
find it difficult to thank God for our weaknesses, especially in our struggles
to be true to ourselves. Most of us would rather hate and hide our past
than admit them.
However, the scripture
readings today want to remind us that we need not be ashamed of our past.
To deny our past will not help us to be whole and to be healed. What is
not exposed cannot be healed. Hence, the only way when true healing can
take place is when we accept our past with gratitude and thankfulness.
Let the past be the instruments of God’s purification for us in our endeavour
to find the truth. Indeed, our weaknesses and failures would be the very
means by which God will bring us to realization and true conversion. Even
sins, although abhorred by God, can be transformed into powerful means of
grace.
But that is not all.
The gospel also says that we must be like the learned scribe who brings
from his storeroom both the new and the old. It is not enough to dwell
on our past, even if we can accept it with gratitude. Equally
important is that we must also be open to what is being offered to us. We
must be open to the new possibilities for change. We must be open to
the new movements of the Spirit in our institutions and in the world.
But there is an implicit
warning here as well. Just as not everything that is old should be
discarded, conversely, we must realize that not everything that is new is
necessarily good and from the Spirit. This is where it calls for
discernment. What is old can actually be new if we perceive the reality
of it. And what is new is, more often than not, actually old; simply old
ideas in new packaging. Consequently, newness or oldness is not a reality
in themselves, but they are always clothed in various ways according to the
epoch of our day. Reality cannot be new, neither can reality be old.
Reality is always as it is. But the way we perceive reality can be new.
Thus, the fullness of
life would basically be a life that is carved from the old and in view of the
potential life ahead of us. In the blending of the old and the new,
we find life. In the blending of the old and the new, we see reality as
it is. Yes, between our inherited tradition and the progressive
theologies, our faith grows and becomes dynamic and renewed. Life
is never of the past or even of the future. Life is lived only in the present
– but a present that is born of the past and from the future revealed to us by
Christ.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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