20141016 THE DANGERS OF LIVING IN SELF-DECEPTION
First
reading
Ephesians
1:1-10 ©
From
Paul, appointed by God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, to the saints who are
faithful to Christ Jesus. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed
be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who
has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ.
Before
the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ,
to
be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence,
determining
that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ
for
his own kind purposes,
to
make us praise the glory of his grace,
his
free gift to us in the Beloved,
in
whom, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins.
Such
is the richness of the grace
which
he has showered on us
in
all wisdom and insight.
He
has let us know the mystery of his purpose,
the
hidden plan he so kindly made in Christ from the beginning
to
act upon when the times had run their course to the end:
that
he would bring everything together under Christ, as head,
everything
in the heavens and everything on earth.
Psalm Psalm 97:1-6 ©
The
Lord has shown his salvation.
Sing
a new song to the Lord
for he has worked wonders.
His
right hand and his holy arm
have brought salvation.
The
Lord has shown his salvation.
The
Lord has made known his salvation;
has shown his justice to the nations.
He
has remembered his truth and love
for the house of Israel.
The
Lord has shown his salvation.
All
the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
Shout
to the Lord, all the earth,
ring out your joy.
The
Lord has shown his salvation.
Sing
psalms to the Lord with the harp
with the sound of music.
With
trumpets and the sound of the horn
acclaim the King, the Lord.
The
Lord has shown his salvation.
Gospel
Acclamation Ps110:7,8
Alleluia,
alleluia!
Your
precepts, O Lord, are all of them sure;
they
stand firm for ever and ever.
Alleluia!
Or Jn14:6
Alleluia,
alleluia!
I
am the Way, the Truth and the Life, says the Lord;
No
one can come to the Father except through me.
Alleluia!
Gospel Luke 11:47-54 ©
Jesus
said:
‘Alas for you who build the tombs of the
prophets, the men your ancestors killed! In this way you both witness what your
ancestors did and approve it; they did the killing, you do the building.
‘And that is why the Wisdom of God said, “I
will send them prophets and apostles; some they will slaughter and persecute,
so that this generation will have to answer for every prophet’s blood that has
been shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the
blood of Zechariah, who was murdered between the altar and the sanctuary.” Yes,
I tell you, this generation will have to answer for it all.
‘Alas for you lawyers who have taken away the
key of knowledge! You have not gone in yourselves, and have prevented others
going in who wanted to.’
When he left the house, the scribes and the
Pharisees began a furious attack on him and tried to force answers from him on innumerable
questions, setting traps to catch him out in something he might say.
THE
DANGERS OF LIVING IN SELF-DECEPTION
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: EPH 1:1-10; LK 11:47-54
http://www.universalis.com/20141016/mass.htm
In the first reading, St
Paul speaks about the cosmic plan of God that all things are
recapitulated under Christ’s headship. In Jesus Christ, we know that we have
all been predestined for life with God and for love. St Paul wrote, ”Before
the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless,
and to live through love in his presence, determining that we should become his
adopted sons, through Jesus Christ for his own kind purposes, to make us praise
the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved.” In other
words, we have been chosen to share in the image and likeness of Christ.
He has freed us from our sins. “Through his blood, we gain our
freedom, the forgiveness of our sins.” Unfortunately, man has failed to respond
to this lofty calling of God. Man prefers to be less than man.
In rejecting the blessings from God, especially the invitation to share in the
life of His Son, man has made himself his own master instead of accepting the
Lordship of Christ. This situation is brought about by many factors. The
gospel of today highlights to us three possible factors for the state
that we are in.
Firstly, because of his pride, man pretends
to know what he does not know. As the cliché goes, the greatest fool
is the fool who does not know that he is a fool. This was the case of the
scribes in today’s gospel. They knew little about the true nature of God
and His divine plan for us. All they knew was a legalistic understanding
of the Torah. The Word of God had become merely the words of man.
They overlaid layer upon layer of interpretation on the original words of God
so much so that one could not see the core of the message anymore. In the
end, not only were the scribes further away from the truth but so were those
who relied on them. The God of the Covenant had been reduced to a God of the
Law.
The question we need to
confront ourselves today is, how much do we really know about God and life?
This is particularly pertinent to those of us who teach the Word of God,
whether at Church, in schools or at home. We speak in such a manner as to
give the impression that we know so much about God, life and truth. In a
way, it is true. We may know a lot about all these matters. But all
these are knowledge which has come to us from study, books and talks we
hear. And now we are just parroting everything that others have said or
written. We are not saying anything out of our own personal experience or
personal discovery. What we say are merely beautiful words, ideas and
promises which we ourselves have never even tested or experienced. This
can be dangerous, because if we are merely repeating ideas and doctrines, we
could be misrepresenting the living Word of God which must be applied to
situations in order for it to come alive. Consequently, we could end up
mistaking the reality of the matter and misleading others as well, giving them
false hopes and goals which are unattainable, since we ourselves have not
attained them.
In truth, we must say that we
cannot really teach anything without having experienced it for ourselves.
Unless we are praying people, we cannot teach others how to pray; unless we are
really living authentic lives, we cannot lead others to live authentically; and
unless we have experienced Jesus personally as our saviour and Lord, we cannot
really proclaim Him as such. A good master must necessarily first be a
good disciple; and a good evangelist necessarily must have been a close
companion of Jesus. This is what Jesus wanted to warn us when He
condemned the scribes saying, “Alas for you lawyers who have taken away the key
of knowledge! You have not gone in yourselves, and have prevented others going
in who wanted to.” So, pretending to have knowledge when we do not have is the
first obstacle to growth. Not only do we fool others, but the last person
we fool is none other than ourselves.
The second obstacle highlighted by Jesus is the
conspiracy of a cover-up. It is bad enough to pretend that we know
what we do not know. What is even worse is when we try to cover up our
lack of knowledge of God, of self and the world. This was precisely what
the Pharisees were doing. Jesus denounced them for their attempts to hide
the truth from themselves and from others. By building the tombs of the
prophets whom their fathers murdered, they were trying to appease their guilty
conscience. Indeed, by covering up the truth, we make ourselves
accomplices to the crime as Jesus remarked, “Alas for you who build the tombs
of the prophets, the men your ancestors killed! In this way you both witness
what your ancestors did and approve it; they did the killing, you do the
building.” But this is not the way to authenticity. Because
in covering up, they would never come to confront themselves as they really were.
One perpetuates the crime by pretending that everything is okay. What is
said about the Pharisees is equally applicable to us. Very often, we try
to protect ourselves by covering up our mistakes, blaming them on others;
justifying ourselves, or making light of them. Very often too, we remain silent
when others are unjustly treated. Worse still, when we even try to
justify their unjust actions!
But that is not all.
Pretense and cover-up are not the most difficult obstacles to life. The
ultimate obstacle is when we try to silence those times when God tries to reach
out to us; to unveil the truth to us. But like the Pharisees and
their forefathers, we even kill the prophets whom God sends to help us to
achieve authenticity, simply because we cannot accept the harsh truths about
ourselves as exposed by the prophets. Yes, quite often, we try to silence
those who are in a position to expose our dishonesty, mistakes and our sinister
motives. We perceive our critics to be our enemies who are out to kill us.
Yet, the truth is that truth cannot kill us; it is untruth that can really kill
us. The truth always sets us free. But when the stark reality of
truth is swept under the carpet, there is no way to know the extent of the mess
within us.
Yes, the denunciations of
Jesus against the Jewish leaders of His days are applicable to us all. If
those under our care are lost and misguided, it is because we ourselves have
perpetuated the sins of the Jewish leaders. We must humbly
admit that we too are the blind guides whom Jesus was condemning in the
gospel. Woe to us indeed, if we do not humble ourselves to recognize our
pride, cowardice and insincerity that have lead us to this sad
situation. We can overcome our fear and hypocrisy if only we are
ready to “live through love in His presence.” Let us pray that we
be more receptive to His love, divine wisdom and plan for us. Only when
we recognize “the richness of the grace which he has showered on us in all
wisdom and insight” and how “He has let us know the mystery of his purpose, the
hidden plan he so kindly made in Christ from the beginning to act upon when the
times had run their course to the end”, then we will be able to truly reveal
His plan to others as well.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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