20140804 THE COURAGE TO SPEAK THE TRUTH
Reading 1, Jeremiah 28:1-17
1 That same year, at the beginning of the reign of
Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, the prophet Hananiah
son of Azzur, a Gibeonite, spoke as follows to Jeremiah in the Temple of Yahweh in the
presence of the priests and of all the people,
3 In exactly two years' time I shall
bring back all the vessels of the Temple of Yahweh which
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from here and carried off to Babylon.
4 And I shall also bring back Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim,
king of Judah and all the exiles of Judah who have gone to Babylon, Yahweh declares,
for I shall break the yoke of the king of Babylon." '
5 The prophet Jeremiah then replied to the prophet Hananiah
in front of the priests and all the people present in the Temple of
Yahweh.
6 'So be it!' the prophet Jeremiah said, 'May Yahweh do so!
May he fulfil the words that you have prophesied and
bring all the vessels of the Temple of Yahweh and all
the exiles back to this place from Babylon.
7 Listen carefully, however, to this word that I am now
going to say for you and all the people to hear:
8 From remote times, the prophets who preceded you and me prophesied war,
disaster and plague for many countries and for great kingdoms;
9 the prophet who
prophesies peace can be recognised as one truly sent by Yahweh only when
his word comes true.'
11 In front of all the people Hananiah then said, 'Yahweh
says this, "This is how, in exactly two years' time, I shall break the
yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and take it off the necks of all the
nations." ' At this, the prophet Jeremiah went away.
12 After the prophet Hananiah
had broken the yoke he had snatched off the prophet
Jeremiah's neck, the word of Yahweh came to
Jeremiah,
13 'Go to Hananiah and tell him this, "Yahweh says
this: You have broken the wooden yokes only to make iron yokes to replace them!
14 For Yahweh Sabaoth,
the God of Israel,
says this: An iron yoke is what I now lay on the necks of all these nations to
enslave them to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. (They will be enslaved
to him; I have even given him the wild animals.)" '
15 The prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah,
'Listen carefully, Hananiah: Yahweh has not
sent you; and thanks to you this people is now relying on what is false.
16 And so, Yahweh says
this, "I am going to send you off the face of the earth: you will die this
year (since you have preached rebellion against Yahweh)." '
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 119:29, 43, 79, 80, 95, 102
79 Let those who fear you rally to me, those who
understand your instructions.
80 My heart shall be faultless towards your will; then I
shall not be ashamed.
102 I do not turn aside from your judgements, because you
yourself have instructed me.
Gospel, Matthew 14:13-21
13 When Jesus received this news he withdrew by boat
to a lonely place where they could be by themselves. But the crowds heard of
this and, leaving the towns, went after him on foot.
14 So as he stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he
took pity on them and healed their sick.
15 When evening came, the disciples went to him and said,
'This is a lonely place, and time has slipped
by; so send the people away, and they can go to the villages to buy themselves
some food.'
16 Jesus replied, 'There is no need for them to go: give
them something to eat yourselves.'
17 But they answered, 'All we have with us is five loaves
and two fish.'
18 So he said, 'Bring them here to me.'
19 He gave orders that the people were to sit down on the
grass; then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven and said
the blessing. And breaking the loaves he handed them to his disciples, who gave
them to the crowds.
20 They all ate as much as they wanted, and they collected
the scraps left over, twelve baskets full.
21 Now about five thousand men had eaten, to say nothing of
women and children
THE
COURAGE TO SPEAK THE TRUTH
It is increasingly
difficult to proclaim the truth in today’s world. At least in the past,
whatever one said was only confined to those listeners around him or her.
But today, with advancement in technology and mass communication, whatever is
said is no longer confined to a particular group of people but inadvertently
reaches out to the world. It is no longer possible to send a private
message addressed to a select audience.
What is even more
difficult is that we are living in a world plagued by secularism and
relativism.
There is no sense of the Sacred or the presence of God. There are no
absolutes or any reference point where truth can be found. Instead of God
who is the foundation of truth and love, man has replaced God and made himself
the point of departure and judge of what is right or wrong. Objective
truth is replaced by subjective truth. Consequently, whatever one claims
to be the truth, or in possession of the truth, is being challenged.
It is not uncommon for focused
groups or ideological groups to come together to attack views that hinder their
interests and freedom. Those who hold different views are run down
mercilessly, even unscrupulously, via threats, intimidation, humiliation and
personal attacks. The minority voice speaks so loudly that it presents to
the world as if it is the majority voice. Consequently, the fear of being
attacked, discredited or humiliated has rendered many goodwill people and those
who know the truth to stay silent. Such is the reality of
life. We are all afraid of being attacked by our opponents who think
differently from us.
This was the case of
Jeremiah in the first reading. Against the false prophet, Hananiah, who
spoke what the people wanted to hear, Jeremiah remained firm in what the Lord
asked of him. He did not try to please his people by giving them a
message that would win favour with them. Hananiah the false prophet was
more concerned for his interests than that of the people. He misled the
people about what was going to happen to their kingdom, giving them false
hope. But Jeremiah was adamant. Twice, under fierce hostility and rejection,
he spoke the truth about the imminent fall of the kingdom.
Today, we are called to
be true prophets wherever we are, especially in our offices and the community
we belong to.
Are we true to our convictions or do we simply succumb to those who speak
louder than us? Are we so fearful of speaking the truth that we allow
falsehood to mislead us? If we are true prophets, then we must
speak what the Lord has placed in our hearts without compromise and without
being equivocal.
Of course, speaking the
truth means taking risks.
We might suffer martyrdom in the short term. Yet Jeremiah warns us that
we might gain momentarily but we will suffer in the long term, just like the
people during his time. By not being true to our beliefs and to
what the Lord has revealed to us, we will not only destroy those under our
charge but we will destroy ourselves too. “The prophet Jeremiah said to
the prophet Hananiah, ‘Listen carefully Hananiah: the Lord has not sent you;
and thanks to you this people are now relying on what is false. Hence –
the Lord says this, “I am going to throw you off the face of the earth: you are
going to die this year (since you have preached apostasy from the Lord).’ The
prophet Hananiah died the same year, in the seventh month.”
How, then, can we find courage?
Today the gospel gives us the direction. We are called to follow Jesus. In the
gospel, we read about the fate of John the Baptist. For being a
true and courageous prophet, he was put to death by King Herod under the
instigation of Herodias who was incensed at the reprimand of John the Baptist
for her adulterous affair. He was silenced by her.
Apparently, Jesus was filled with sadness when He heard of the tragic end of
His cousin. It was for this reason that He withdrew to a quiet
place where He could be alone to mourn the death of His cousin. “When
Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, he made the disciples get into
the boat, and go on ahead to the other side while he would send the crowds
away.” At the same time, He needed to take stock of His own ministry and
reckon the possibility of Him suffering the same fate for choosing to confront
the hypocrisy of the religious leaders.
To find courage and
direction, we need to spend time in solitude and in prayer. That was what Jesus did.
“After sending the crowds away he went up into the hills by himself to
pray.” Jesus must have found strength and courage from His heavenly
Father when He was at prayer. Alone in prayer, His Father must have
strengthened and assured Him of His presence, support and grace. And this
is true for all of us. If we fear the world and if we fear pain and
death, we remain un-free even though we are not hurt. But our hearts and
our conscience make us our own prisoners. More importantly, once assured
of God’s grace and power, we will be able to overcome all the trials and
difficulties ahead of us.
Indeed, this accounts for
the dramatic miraculous act of Jesus after spending time in prayer to His
Father. The gospel recounted that “when evening came, he was there alone,
while the boat, by now out on the lake, was battling with a heavy seas, for
there was a head-wind. In the fourth watch of the night he went towards
them, walking on the lake, and when the disciples saw him on the lake they were
terrified.” It was as if Jesus deliberately walked on the waters even
though it was choppy, cold, windy and treacherous. By walking on the
troubled waters, Jesus showed us that He was able to surmount all the
challenges and storms ahead of Him. He was not afraid for He knew
that with the help of His Father, He would transcend His enemies and even death
would not overcome Him. In other words, not only would He keep His
head above the waters but His whole body too! This came about only
after He spent time in prayer. Before that He was troubled by the
execution of His cousin. But after prayer, bravely, He battled the storms
in the seas.
And He is inviting us to
do the same. He is now walking with us. He says to us “Courage! It
is I! Do not be afraid.” He is not a ghost. Rather, our fears are the real
ghosts, figments of our own imagination. We need not be terrified like
the disciples but have faith in Jesus. Will we have confidence in
Him? Do we believe that Jesus will see us through? Or will we be
like St Peter who hesitated for a while. Half way across the waters
walking towards Jesus, “as soon as he felt the force of the wind, he took
fright and began to sink. ‘Lord! Save me!’ he cried. Jesus
put out his hand at once and held him. ‘Man of little faith,’ he said
‘why did you doubt?’” Indeed, man of little faith, we are! Why do
we doubt the fidelity of the Lord in protecting and defending us?
Just as the Father was faithful to Jesus and raised Him from the dead, the
Father will also defend us in the day of battle. All we need to do is to
welcome Jesus into our lives. Indeed, we read, “And as they got into the
boat the wind dropped. The men in the boat bowed down before him and
said, ‘Truly, you are the Son of God.’” When Jesus enters our boat and
when we enter with Him, all the storms in our hearts will cease. The
storms outside us might still be howling but there is deep peace and joy in our
hearts because we know that we have been true to ourselves and the will of
God. With the psalmist we pray, “Keep me from the way of error and teach
me your law. Do not take the word of truth from my mouth for I trust in
your decrees. Let your faithful turn to me, those who know your will. Let
my heart be blameless in your statutes lest I be ashamed. Though the wicked lie
in wait to destroy me yet I ponder your will. I have not turned from your
decrees; you yourself have taught me.” Amen.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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