20140825 MATURITY IN FAITH REQUIRES PRUDENCE AND
SINCERITY
Reading 1, Second Thessalonians 1:1-5, 11-12
1 Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, to the Church in Thessalonica
which is in God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ
3 We must always thank God for you,
brothers; quite rightly, because your faith is growing
so wonderfully and the mutual love that each one of you has for all never stops
increasing.
4 Among the churches of God we take
special pride in you for
your perseverance and faith under all
the persecutions and hardships you have to bear.
5 It all shows that God's judgement is just, so that you
may be found worthy of the kingdom of God; it is for the sake of this that you
are suffering now.
11 In view of this we also pray continually that our God will make you
worthy of his call, and by his power fulfil all your desires for goodness, and
complete all that you have been doing through faith;
12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in
him, by the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 96:1-2, 2-3, 4-5
1 Sing a new song to Yahweh! Sing to Yahweh, all the
earth!
4 Great is Yahweh, worthy of all praise, more awesome than
any of the gods.
Gospel, Matthew 23:13-22
13 'Alas for you, scribes and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut up the kingdom of Heaven in
people's faces, neither going in yourselves nor allowing others to go who want
to.
14
15 'Alas for you, scribes and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over sea and land to make a single
proselyte, and anyone who becomes one you make twice as fit for hell as you are.
16 'Alas for you, blind guides! You say, "If anyone
swears by the Temple, it has no force; but anyone who swears by the gold of the
Temple is
bound."
17 Fools and blind! For which is of greater value, the gold
or the Temple that
makes the gold sacred?
18 Again, "If anyone swears by the altar it has no
force; but anyone who swears by the offering on the altar, is bound."
19 You blind men! For which is of greater worth, the
offering or the altar that makes the offering sacred?
20 Therefore, someone who swears by the altar is swearing
by that and by everything on it.
22 And someone who swears by heaven is
swearing by the throne of God and by the
One who is seated there.
MATURITY
IN FAITH REQUIRES PRUDENCE AND SINCERITY
In the first reading, we
have St Paul complimenting and encouraging the Christians at Thessalonika
for the growing faith and love that they had for each other in spite of the
persecutions they had to face. We know from the letter that the
Christians were not trained theologians. In fact, this second letter was
written because they seemed to have misunderstood the nature of Christ’s second
coming. All the same, their faith was alive and fervor intense.
In contrast, we have the
scribes and Pharisees in the gospel. These are supposedly to be well
trained theologians in scripture and theology. But they had replaced
faith with the observance of the laws. They were legalistic and
rubricists. Worse still, some had no intention to serve the Lord but were
using their knowledge to circumvent the laws so that they could continue doing
their own thing without illegally breaking the laws.
This glaring contrast
between the fervour of the early Christians and the institutionalized faith of
the scribes and Pharisees reflects the ongoing tension in the Church
between the people of simple faith and the supposedly trained
theologians. Some of our laity in their simple faith in God have
been given special encounters with the Lord. Although knowing very little
theology or the principles of liturgical laws, they nevertheless manifest a
deep love for God, as seen in their devotion to prayers, the Word of God, love
for the Eucharist and their service to the Church and the poor.
In contrast, we have those
who have studied or know some theology and who insist on the strict observance
of the laws. Some are so particular about the rubrics and other rules
in the Church that they stifle the spirit of the liturgy, making it dry and
unappealing, reducing the faith to a list of moral behaviours. Indeed,
some so-called educated Catholics who, because of their intellectual knowledge
of the faith, despise the simple faith of those who encounter God
through devotions, praise and worship, healings and miracles. Whilst not wrong,
they tend to reduce faith simply to the teaching of right conduct, moral
behaviour, promoting civic consciousness and social justice, leaving out the
importance of a deepening prayer life, a personal relationship with God and the
experience of His love.
At the other spectrum, we
have liberal Catholics who consider the laws of the Church useless and do not
take them seriously. They ignore or regard the laws of the Church,
whether it comes to rubrics or disciplinary laws, as if they are above the
laws. Indeed, sometimes the principle of epikeia, that is the spirit of
the law, is applied almost to anything, so that like the Jews, they could
circumvent the laws.
Like the scribes and
Pharisees, they rationalize every law in such a way that it works in their
favour. For example, they say, “If a man swears by the Temple, it has
no force; but if a man swears by the gold of the Temple, he is bound.” Or
else, they reasoned, “If a man swears by the altar it has no force; but if a
man swears by the offering that is on the altar, he is bound.” Yes,
those of us who know something about theology or the laws often would
manipulate the laws in such a way so that we can find a loophole to exempt
ourselves from the laws that are not in our favour or liking. We are not
sincere in wanting to observe the spirit of the laws. The truth is that
we might be able to circumvent the laws, but God reads our intentions and our
hearts. We can deceive men, but we cannot deceive our conscience and
certainly not God, who knows how devious our hearts are.
How then should we view
the laws in our lives? The issue is whether we are more concerned that we obey the laws
or that we exercise maturity in making decisions. A person who follows
the rules and plays safe is not necessarily a good Catholic or a mature
person. His observance of the laws is not based on his conviction, but on
fear and approval. He lacks the maturity to judge prudently how the laws
should be applied and observed. As a result, he can be too rigid and
non-compromising in the application of the laws to the extent that he could
kill the spirit of the law.
On the other hand, if we treat
the laws of the Church too lightly, we can fall into pride and arrogance,
as if the laws are only meant for the naïve and the uneducated people.
Some intellectuals take pride in their intellect and deem that such laws do not
apply to them as they have apparently transcended the laws. Sometimes,
there seems to be two sets of laws. Indeed, many supposedly religious
people do not take the law of penance on Fridays seriously, or the hour of fast
before reception of Holy Communion. We teach others one thing but
we exempt ourselves from them. Jesus’ woes against the scribes and
Pharisees could very well apply to such people when He said, “You who shut up
the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces, neither going in yourselves nor allowing
others to go in who want to.”
Although there is no clear
solution to this ongoing tension between fidelity to the laws and the need for
adaptation; in the final analysis, we must, as St Paul urges, consider in
whatever we do, whether we glorify God by our actions and our words. He
praises the Thessalonians saying, “We feel we must be continually thanking God
for you, brothers; quite rightly, because your faith is growing so wonderfully
and the love that you have for one another never stops increasing; and among
the churches of God we can take special pride in you for your constancy and
faith under all the persecutions and troubles you have to bear. “ So
whether we are legalists, rubricists or liberals, can we say that more people
have been brought closer to God both in faith, in love and in truth or are
brought further away by the observance or non-observance of the laws? I
believe the underlying principle is that everything we do must be done
sincerely for the greater glory of God, for the greater good of the faith of
the people of God, and not for the sake of individual preference or personal
convenience. Truly, with St Paul, we pray that through our faith and love,
“the name of our Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified in you and you in him, by
the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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