20140827 COMPASSION FOR OTHERS BY BEING TRUE TO
OURSELVES
Reading 1, Second Thessalonians 3:6-10, 16-18
6 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we urge you, brothers, to keep
away from any of the brothers who lives an undisciplined life, not in
accordance with the tradition you received from us.
7 You know how you should take us as your model: we were
not undisciplined when we were with you,
8 nor did we ever accept food from anyone without paying
for it; no, we worked with unsparing energy, night and day, so as not to be a
burden on any of you.
9 This was not because we had no right to be, but
in order to make ourselves a model for you to imitate.
10 We urged you when we were with you not to let anyone
eat who refused to work.
16 May the Lord of peace
himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with you
all.
17 This greeting is in my own hand-PAUL. It is the mark of genuineness in every letter; this
is my own writing.
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 128:1-2, 4-5
1 [Song of Ascents] How blessed are all who fear Yahweh,
who walk in his ways!
4 Such are the blessings that fall on those who fear
Yahweh.
Gospel, Matthew 23:27-32
27 'Alas for you, scribes and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look handsome on
the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of
corruption.
28 In just the same way, from the outside you look
upright, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and
lawlessness.
29 'Alas for you, scribes and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build the sepulchres of the prophets and
decorate the tombs of the upright,
30 saying, "We would never have joined in shedding
the blood of the prophets, had we lived in our ancestors' day."
31 So! Your own evidence tells against you! You are the children of those who murdered the prophets!
32 Very well then, finish off the work that your ancestors
began.
COMPASSION
FOR OTHERS BY BEING TRUE TO OURSELVES
When we read the gospel
readings these past few days, we cannot but be taken aback by the harsh
words that Jesus reserved for the scribes and Pharisees. This
does not seem to be the Jesus we know; one who is compassionate, forgiving and
reassuring to sinners and the weak. So how can we explain the no-holds
barred reprimands of Jesus? I believe His apparent callous words were
meant to wake up His listeners, in this case, the scribes and the
Pharisees. To understand the real concern of Jesus, we must understand
the relationship between the two indictments against them.
Firstly, Jesus denounced
them for their hypocrisy. He labeled them as “whitewashed tombs” that
look beautiful and impressive on the outside but inside full of bones,
corruption and filth. Yes, the Jewish religious leaders appeared good and
holy people to others but their own lives were not in order. But was this
the real reason that Jesus condemned them? The truth is that very few of
us would be able to say that the condemnation of Jesus does not apply to
us. All of us are hypocrites in some ways. We observe the rituals
and attend the sacraments regularly, but we know that we are far from being
what we should be. We have our skeletons hidden behind our “holier than
thou” front. But we know ourselves better. Does it mean therefore
that we should stop going to church and practicing our faith since we are
hypocrites in some ways?
The truth is that Jesus
is not so much condemning the Jewish leaders and us for our hypocrisy
but for our lack of awareness of the state that we are in. The
greatest sin in life is not to have sinned but to sin and yet not know about
it. For when we are ignorant, there is no possibility for growth.
But if we are aware of our sinfulness, then correction is at least
possible. As a result of our lack of self-awareness, we become
judgmental and self-righteous. This co-related sin is an even greater
sin than simply being hypocritical. Hence, if Jesus reacted strongly to
the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders, it was because their inability to
recognize their hypocrisy had led them to be judgmental of others, making them
at the same time, self-righteous people, disdaining fellow sinners.
Indeed, this is what the
second indictment is all about. The Jewish leaders could not see
themselves as sinners. They thought that they were very holy and good
people. Such blindness to their own sinfulness is demonstrated by their
thinking that they would not have killed the prophets of God the way their
forefathers did. Yes, they passed judgment on their ancestors and thought
that they would be exonerated and different from them. In other words,
like us, they were saying, “Not me! How can I? ”. But we know very well,
they would be the very people who would also crucify Jesus. What is true
for them is also true for us. Very often we pass remarks and judgments on
others, especially priests, when they fail in their Christian virtues. We
criticize and denigrate them and say, “How can?” And we say to ourselves,
“I will never do such a thing.” But we must be careful because we might
have to eat up our words. This is because very often, the mistakes of
those whom we criticize will be the same mistakes that we will make in the
future. It is an irony in life that those whom we condemn for the way
they manage the affairs of the Church or their lives would be the very way we
will live our lives when we are put into similar situations. It is easy
to condemn others when we are not in their shoes, but when we are facing the
same problems; we might not even be able to handle them half as well as they
do.
But this
self-righteousness would not have happened if only we recognize our own
weaknesses. We need to admit to ourselves that we are hypocrites as
much as others are. It is not for us to be judge over others, condemning
what others are doing or not doing. More importantly, we must be judge of
ourselves. It is sufficient that we try to purify our own lives instead
of trying to purify the lives of others. For when we look at our sins,
especially our past and hidden sins and weaknesses, we find that we are no
better than others. The only difference perhaps sometimes is that their
sins have been exposed whereas ours are still hidden, although there is no
guarantee that they will not be made known one day. Hence, it behooves us
to be humble instead and confront our own sinfulness. This is what St
Paul is advising us in today’s reading. The Thessalonians were running
away from their responsibilities in life by focusing on the second coming of
Christ. Instead of making themselves useful, they were idle, gossiping
and creating trouble. We too must not run away from our own inadequacies
by focusing on others’ weaknesses. Let us deal with our own problems
instead of gossiping about the failures of others.
This means that we must
try to be true to ourselves as much as we can. Precisely today, we
are challenged to be like St Paul. He was certainly a man who was true to
himself. He did not simply follow the traditions of his fathers but he
interiorized them as well. He was no hypocrite because we know that St
Paul was always very much aware of his sinful past and his current conflicts in
trying to live the life of Christ. But at the same time, St Paul tried to
set a good example. In today’s second reading, we are told of how Paul
laboured for his own bread on top of his service to the people so that he might
not be a burden to his people. St Paul is one who could say with
confidence, we “make ourselves an example for you to follow.” We too
therefore must strive to imitate St Paul’s example of fidelity to self with
the help of the grace of God.
And if we have done our
best, then like St Paul, we should not feel too worried or depressed simply
because we fail to be always true to ourselves and to know that now and
then we live hypocritical lives. What is important is that we have tried.
God only expects us to give our best and not that we need to be perfect.
Even then, even in our hypocrisy, our actions and words are not totally
useless. Even if we are whitewashed tombs, it does not mean that
whitewashed tombs have no purpose at all. For in the time of Christ, the
tombs were whitewashed so as to alert the pilgrims who were on their way to
Jerusalem. In this way, they could avoid stepping on the tombs
accidentally and not risk getting themselves contaminated, which would make
them unclean to perform the rites at the temple. Similarly, even in our
hypocrisy, there will be some people who will be inspired by our external lives
even if we fail to live up entirely to what we say and believe in.
And even if one day they find out the truth about us, they also can learn to
avoid the mistakes that we made. So, being whitewashed tombs is not
necessarily all together bad.
Truly, what is important
is that we know who we are and are making attempts to cleanse the interior of
our tombs. In this way, we will not fall into the greater sins of
self-righteousness and being judgmental. When we try to live our lives
according to the gospel and even if we have failed, people will be
compassionate with us because we have been compassionate with them. So
let us beware if we like to condemn our fellow Christians, especially our
leaders, for their infidelities and weaknesses, because if they find out that
we ourselves are also not living in the truth or behaving in an even worse
manner, they will not only not forgive us but will denounce us as the real
hypocrites of our time.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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