20140809 BUILDING A KINGDOM PEOPLE WITH KINGDOM VALUES
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 9:8-9, 10-11, 12-13
12 Surely you, Yahweh, are from ancient times, my holy
God, who never dies! Yahweh, you have appointed him to execute judgement; O
Rock, you have set him firm to punish.
13 Your eyes are too pure to rest on evil, you cannot look
on at oppression. Why do you look on at those who play the traitor, why say
nothing while the wicked swallows someone more upright than himself?
14 Why treat people like fish of the sea, like gliding
creatures who have no leader?
15 They haul them all up on their hook, they catch them in
their net, they sweep them up in their dragnet and then make merry and rejoice.
16 And so they offer a sacrifice to
their net, and burn incense to their
dragnet, for by these they get a rich living and live off the fat of the land.
17 Are they to go on emptying their net unceasingly,
slaughtering the nations without pity?
1 I shall stand at my post, I shall station myself on my
watch-tower, watching to see what he will say to me,
what answer he will make to my
complaints.
2 Then Yahweh answered
me and said, 'Write the vision down, inscribe it on tablets to be easily read.
3 For the vision is for its appointed time, it hastens
towards its end and it will not lie;
although it may take some time, wait for it, for come it certainly will before too
long.
4 'You see, anyone whose heart is not upright will succumb,
but the upright will live
through faithfulness.'
12 for the avenger of blood does not forget them, he does
not ignore the cry of the afflicted.
13 Have pity on me, Yahweh, see my affliction, pull me
back from the gates of death,
Gospel, Matthew 17:14-20
15 'Lord,' he said, 'take pity on my son: he is demented
and in a wretched state; he is always falling into fire and into water.
16 I took him to your disciples and they were unable to
cure him.'
17 In reply, Jesus said, 'Faithless and perverse
generation! How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up
with you? Bring him here to me.'
19 Then the disciples came privately to Jesus. 'Why were
we unable to drive it out?' they asked.
20 He answered, 'Because you have so little faith. In truth I tell
you, if your faith is the
size of a mustard seed you will say to this
mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move;
nothing will be
impossible for you.'
BUILDING
A KINGDOM PEOPLE WITH KINGDOM VALUES
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: ISA 63:7-9; COL 3:12-17; LK 12:22-31
Singaporeans are often
labeled as Kia Su(afraid to lose) and Kia Si(afraid to die). In general,
we are considered a competitive people. I suppose, especially for us
Chinese, we have inherited the need to fight for survival from our predecessors
in China where they had to fight against poverty. The impression we give
therefore is that Singaporeans are interested only to make money. For the
individual Singaporean, success in life is measured by the four C’s, i.e
whether one owns a condominium, a credit card, a car and career.
Yes, we are not only obsessed with a high standard of living but we are also
concerned about saving face as well.
The pursuit of material
success in itself is not wrong. But it is not complete. The
question we need to ask ourselves is: can the meaning of life be reduced to
a question of material and personal success? If material success can
bring us happiness, then Singaporeans should be the happiest people in the
world. But the fact is that we are not. Our younger
generation who are enjoying all the luxuries of modern living should be the
happiest people but we know that they too are very frustrated, tensed and
unhappy. Why is that so? Because, as the gospel tells us, life
means more than food, and the body more than clothing. Indeed, it is
often remarked that Singaporeans are good at making a living but they do not
know how to live. The truth is that building an earthly kingdom cannot
satisfy the spirit of man. Man is not composed of matter only but spirit
as well. That is why his soul cannot be at rest until his spirit is
quenched.
Building an earthly
kingdom only will lead us to become a soulless nation. The constant threat of an
affluent society is that degeneration sets in when people live only on the
physical and material levels. People end up becoming rather
self-centered and concerned only for themselves. In fact, I am concerned
about our younger generation today who are so used to being served by maids and
their high class servants, i.e. their parents that they may not understand the
meaning of service anymore; that our younger generation is used to the luxuries
of life and getting whatever they ask for that they may not understand the
meaning of self-denial and poverty and compassion for the needy anymore.
Secondly building an
earthly kingdom only can never bring real peace to man. For the
simple reason that there is no end to building an earthly kingdom. There
is no end to human success and our human pursuits. We will never
have enough. Today, we have a five-room flat, tomorrow we want a
condominium, and then we want a big bungalow, and then we want to buy another
house in Australia or Malaysia. Consequently, we will always live
in anxiety, worry and always dissatisfied with life. The truth, as the
gospel tells us, is that many things in life are outside our
control. Only the birds and the plants seem to realize this and
that is why they are so happy because they do not worry but trust in divine
providence.
That does not mean that we
can be irresponsible and stop working all together. This is not the
point. The issue is that there is something more fundamental in
life we must seek, which the gospel tells us is the Kingdom of God. Jesus
warns us that it is the pagans of this world who seek only for the mundane
things that do not satisfy them. Rather, we must seek for the Kingdom
of God and all these other things will be given to us.
But what is the Kingdom of
God? Is it as attractive and fulfilling as the earthly Kingdom that we
are seeking? Unless it is so, we will not be interested to seek it.
So what is the Kingdom of God? To build the Kingdom of God means to build
a society of justice, love, peace and harmony. Concretely, it means that
nation building includes building the people as well. If our country is not to
degenerate, then we must build a nation of people who have character, people
who are imbued with kingdom values.
And what are these
values? They are
well enumerated by St. Paul in his letter to the Colossians. He speaks of
compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, gratitude
and most of all, love. Only when we have such values in our life
can our life be meaningful. Only a well-formed people, people who live an
integrated, balanced life can be happy. Such kind of people would
live less anxious lives, trusting in God while doing their best. There
will be less envy and competition but simply more love and harmony.
And the result of a loving
and a happy people is a responsible people. This is where material
progress comes in. When we are people filled with love and joy, then
we would want to bring more joy to our lives and others. This would
mean that we would want to alleviate what makes people suffer on the material
level. We would want to, if possible, make life more comfortable for
others. Building the earthly kingdom would then but be the expression of
ourselves and of our love for ourselves and our fellowmen. And we can be
sure that we will always be successful, and even if we have tried our best and
failed, we will not feel so miserable but accept them as realities of life and
the expression of the will of God. So let us not put the cart
before the horse. Of course, in theory, the building of people comes before the
building of the infrastructure of the country. But in practice, both
actually go hand in hand.
Now, how can we build a
Kingdom people with kingdom values? It is not possible without the grace of
God, nor without prayers. To seek first the Kingdom of God requires that we be
convinced of this reality. And this conviction can only come about
through prayer, as Paul tells us. In the second reading, we are told that
the wisdom of God can be found only when the message of Christ in all its richness
finds a home with us.
Today, while we celebrate
National Day, we can be very thankful that in spite of affluence, our people
have not yet degenerated to the point where personal freedom is exercised at
the expense of the community, where freedom is abused; where individualism is
mistaken for individuality. It is very heartening to know that there are
still many caring people today in spite of all that people think of us. I
have come across many people, doctors, nurses, professionals and ordinary people
who have offered their services and resources free for the underprivileged in
society. And what is most edifying is that they do all these without
trumpeting their good deeds. I believe these are the people who
truly know how to live. These are the people who live beyond the physical
level. These are the people who know how to love and care and in
sharing their lives with others, they find life for themselves.
Yes, these are the Kingdom people with kingdom values.
The scripture message today
is clear. While we rejoice, let us be thankful to God who provides us all
our needs. But if God has blessed us with material progress, it is
only to express His love for us. What is of utmost importance is that we
become His people living in His kingdom. So that God can say to
us as He did to the Israelites in the first reading, “Truly they are my people,
sons and daughters, and no rogues.”
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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