20141017 OVERCOMING FEAR BY RECOGNIZING WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST

20141017 OVERCOMING FEAR BY RECOGNIZING WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST  

First reading

Ephesians 1:11-14 ©

It is in Christ that we were claimed as God’s own,

chosen from the beginning,

under the predetermined plan of the one who guides all things

as he decides by his own will;

chosen to be,

for his greater glory,

the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came.

Now you too, in him,

have heard the message of the truth and the good news of your salvation,

and have believed it;

and you too have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise,

the pledge of our inheritance

which brings freedom for those whom God has taken for his own, to make his glory praised.

Psalm

Psalm 32:1-2,4-5,12-13 ©

Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.

Ring out your joy to the Lord, O you just;

  for praise is fitting for loyal hearts.

Give thanks to the Lord upon the harp,

  with a ten-stringed lute sing him songs.

Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.

For the word of the Lord is faithful

  and all his works to be trusted.

The Lord loves justice and right

  and fills the earth with his love.

Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.

They are happy, whose God is the Lord,

  the people he has chosen as his own.

From the heavens the Lord looks forth,

  he sees all the children of men.

Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.

Gospel Acclamation           cf.Ps18:9

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your words gladden the heart, O Lord,

they give light to the eyes.

Alleluia!

Or        Ps32:22

Alleluia, alleluia!

May your love be upon us, O Lord,

as we place all our hope in you.

Alleluia!

Gospel           Luke 12:1-7 ©

The people had gathered in their thousands so that they were treading on one another. And Jesus began to speak, first of all to his disciples. ‘Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees – that is, their hypocrisy. Everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. For this reason, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in hidden places will be proclaimed on the housetops.

  ‘To you my friends I say: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. I will tell you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has the power to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Can you not buy five sparrows for two pennies? And yet not one is forgotten in God’s sight. Why, every hair on your head has been counted. There is no need to be afraid: you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.’

OVERCOMING FEAR BY RECOGNIZING WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST  

SCRIPTURE READINGS: EPH 1:11-14; LK 12:1-7
http://www.universalis.com/20141017/mass.htm

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus warns us, “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees – that is, their hypocrisy.”   This warning is as relevant to us today as much as it was to the Pharisees in Jesus’ time.

What is hypocrisy?  It is to pretend to be what we are not.  So, we put on make-up to cover up our defects. We dress up in expensive designers’ clothes, even though we can ill-afford them; we drive big cars and live in big houses, even though we can hardly keep up with the loans, which are just as huge, just so that others will think we are doing very well in life.  We want people to think well of us, so that they might have confidence in us.  Indeed, the world is so easily impressed by what it sees.  We choose to be deceived by each other, even though we know that what we see often does not reflect the reality.

Rightly so, hypocrisy is described as the “yeast of the Pharisees.”  This is because when we are dishonest and insincere, we have to be vigilant in covering our tracks with more lies and dishonesty in order to preserve our cover.  Because hypocrisy is so insidious, a day will come when we begin to think that the world of illusion and make-belief is the real world.  We begin to believe we are that kind of person when we are not.  This will lead us further and further away from our true selves.  We silence the voice of God and the voice of truth in our hearts.

So what is the real reason for hypocrisy?  It is fear.  We are afraid to reveal our true selves because we are afraid that people might not like us as we are. We fear rejection.  But the irony is that fear breeds further fear because we know that sooner or later someone would blow our cover. As Jesus warns us “Everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear.  For this reason, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in hidden places will be proclaimed on the housetops.”

The truth is that fear and hypocrisy will destroy the soul.  What is this soul if not our mind?  So when Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more … fear him who, after he has killed, has the power to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him”, He is not saying that God will send us to hell.  Rather, we will put ourselves in hell, not only in this world but also in the next, because living in fear is no less than living in hell. Those who suffer from depression or obsession will know how such torments of the mind can literally drive them crazy. Thus, a hypocrite might externally look happy, but deep within, he is constantly seized by fear.

Of course, the greatest fear is to lose our loved ones, or rather, that no one will love us when they come to know the real us.  Thus, all the other fears are secondary, since these are rooted in the fear of losing our loved ones.  If we fear losing our spouse, friends, job, status, wealth or health, it boils down to the fact that we fear we might not be loved, which would be to lose everything.  Such fear if not resolved in this life will be even more intensely felt after death, when we are no longer bound by our mortal bodies. The thought that such fear will continue into the next life should therefore cause us to desire to break free from such crippling fear.

So to overcome hypocrisy, we must first overcome fear. Since hypocrisy springs from the fear of rejection, the fear of being unloved and unaccepted, this insecurity can only be overcome by the healing love of God for us.  Thus, Jesus assures us, “Can you not buy five sparrows for two pennies? And yet not one is forgotten in God’s sight.  Why, every hair on your head has been counted.  There is no need to be afraid: you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.’”   Yes, we are precious in the eyes of God.  Sparrows are worthless in the eyes of the world.  That we are worth more than hundreds of sparrows and that every hair on our head has been counted means that God attends to each of us personally and individually.

How do we know this for certain?  St Paul says, “Now you too, in him, have heard the message of the truth and the good news of your salvation, and have believed it; and you too have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise, the pledge of our inheritance which brings freedom for those whom God has taken for his own, to make his glory praised.”  Indeed, those of us who have a personal experience of the Holy Spirit in our lives have encountered His personal love for us.  The consequence of such healing love of God, whether through a personal encounter of God in prayer or in the sacrament of reconciliation, is fundamentally the experience of freedom because we experience ourselves as lovable.  So it is the love of God that can deliver us from our fear, insecurity and the need to act in a hypocritical manner.

We must never think that we are nobody or that we are insignificant.  What is important is not what others think of us but what we think of ourselves.  And what is even more important is not what we think of ourselves but what God thinks of us.  We must seek to be pleasing to God, not to men.  And the Good News that St Paul tells us is that even though we are sinners, God has counted us worthy.  Isn’t this what St Paul also wrote, “It is in Christ that we were claimed as God’s own, chosen from the beginning, under the predetermined plan of the one who guides all things as he decides by his own will; chosen to be, for his greater glory.”  Our response to the scripture reading is “Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.”  Indeed, we are God’s chosen, His very own!  How could we ever think that God does not care for us, or want to punish us, or want us to suffer?

So if God has chosen us for His greater glory, then we can let go of our fear and start to live an authentic life.  We can simply be ourselves and love ourselves for what we are.  At the same time, we know that we have much to learn, grow and be purified.  But we can accept ourselves for we know that growth is an ongoing process. We must be patient. And because we can accept our strengths and weaknesses, in the same way, we will accept others’ strengths and weaknesses as well.  When we are true to ourselves, what does it mean?  It means that we truly love ourselves the way God loves us.  This is what we mean when we tell someone, “Enjoy yourself.”  In other words, enjoy your company and live authentically by simply being yourself and yet open to growth.

However being loved by God and learning how to accept ourselves is but just the beginning of recovering our true identity as the sons and daughters of God.  If we are God’s chosen and His own, then we too must extend the same love we have received, this unconditional love and mercy of God to our fellow brothers and sisters who find themselves also unlovable and do not realize how much God also loves them as His own.  Through our unconditional love for them, we too can help them to open themselves up to the love of God either directly in prayer or through human kindness and friendship.   Love begets love.  As we have received God’s love, we, who in turn give this love, will in return grow to become the really Chosen Ones of God, a reflection of His love.

WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED