20141023 TRUE PEACE IS BORN OF OUR INTERIOR STRUGGLES IN
CHRIST
First
reading
Ephesians
3:14-21 ©
This
is what I pray, kneeling before the Father, from whom every family, whether
spiritual or natural, takes its name:
Out of his infinite glory, may he give you
the power through his Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong, so that
Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and
built on love, you will with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth
and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ,
which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God.
Glory be to him whose power, working in us,
can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory be to him from
generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever.
Amen.
Psalm
Psalm
32:1-2,4-5,11-12,18-19 ©
The
Lord fills the earth with his love.
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.
The
Lord fills the earth with his love.
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.
The
Lord fills the earth with his love.
His
own designs shall stand for ever,
the plans of his heart from age to age.
They
are happy, whose God is the Lord,
the people he has chosen as his own.
The
Lord fills the earth with his love.
The
Lord looks on those who revere him,
on those who hope in his love,
to
rescue their souls from death,
to keep them alive in famine.
The
Lord fills the earth with his love.
Gospel
Acclamation Jn8:12
Alleluia,
alleluia!
I
am the light of the world, says the Lord;
anyone
who follows me will have the light of life.
Alleluia!
Or Ph3:8-9
Alleluia,
alleluia!
I
have accepted the loss of everything
and
I look on everything as so much rubbish
if
only I can have Christ
and
be given a place in him.
Alleluia!
Gospel Luke 12:49-53 ©
Jesus
said to his disciples: ‘I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish
it were blazing already! There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great
is my distress till it is over!
‘Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace
on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on a household of
five will be divided: three against two and two against three; the father
divided against the son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter
against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law against
mother-in-law.’
TRUE
PEACE IS BORN OF OUR INTERIOR STRUGGLES IN CHRIST
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: EPH 3:14-21; LK 12:49-53
All of
us seek for peace in life. But what is peace? Peace is the
English equivalent of the Hebrew word Shalom. For the
Hebrews, shalom signifies a material and spiritual state of individual and
communal well-being. To live in peace is to be whole and complete.
One is no longer divided within oneself, or with God, or with his
fellowmen. It implies salvation, reunification, wholeness shared with God, with
others, and with the cosmos. This is the peace that we are called
to share and to receive.
If this
is what true peace is all about, perhaps we need to ask ourselves, what kind
of peace do we have? Can we really say that we are really at peace
deep within ourselves and therefore also at peace with others and the whole
cosmos? The reality is that what we have is not real peace but mere
pacification.
Take
our personal life for example. Some of us know that our personal life is
not that upright. We do things that we know are not wholesome. It
could be over-indulgence in food, sleep, or certain hobbies and activities that
are detrimental to our well-being. Or we could be unscrupulous in our
dealings with others, making use of people, manipulating them for our
self-interest and selfish needs. Perhaps, it is not what we do but how we
think. Deep in our hearts, some of us might feel envious of others.
Jealousy will lead one to become malicious and revengeful. In a word, we
are deeply unhappy within ourselves; we are restless and discontented. The
psalmist makes it clear that only the just and the upright is blessed and at
peace “For upright is the word of the Lord, and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right; of the kindness of the Lord the earth is full.”
If we
recognise these feelings in us, we can at least try to overcome our weaknesses
and make ourselves available for healing and growth. But the greater
tragedy is that many of us try to justify our actions and our thoughts.
We dare not look into our real self and see ourselves for what we really
are. When others criticize us, we become extremely defensive. We
find it so difficult to admit our imperfect motives for the things that we do,
even when doing good works. In this way, we suppress our conscience and
continue living life the way we do. Yes, pacification is simply another
word of self-justification.
Pacification is often
mistaken for peace and unity with our fellow human beings. Very often, we know that
things are not right in our relationships, but under the pretext of keeping the
peace, we sweep everything under the carpet, or hide the skeletons in the
closet. We practice so-called ‘peaceful co-existence’. We say nice things
to each other, but bad things about others; we appear to be warm and friendly;
we put on cosmetic smiles. Thus, when others look at us, they think
everyone is happy, loving, carefree and at peace. But beneath all this
apparent calm, deep resentment, anger and hatred are simmering, just waiting
for an opportune time to erupt. Then we will show our true colours; the
real self, emerge. For the time being however, we try to be numb to the
negative feelings buried within us. Isn’t this the kind of peace that the
world is promoting? This is the kind of peace that Jesus condemns.
What then is the real
peace that comes from Christ? It is not a peace that is born of escapism or cowardice. True
peace is born of anguish and division. Yes, so says Jesus in today’s
gospel, “I have come to light a fire on the earth! What anguish I feel
till it is over.” And he continues, “Do you think that I have come to
establish peace on the earth? … the contrary is true, I have come for
division” Peace is not something that comes without much struggle.
In fact it is a life-long battle, a war that is fought more from within than
from without. What then are these struggles before real peace can be
born?
Firstly, real peace
comes from an inner struggle to remain true to ourselves. This
entails personal conversion, purification and self-dying. This is what
Jesus meant when He spoke about igniting the fire on the earth, the baptism and
anguish that He had to undergo. We, too, must be ready to be purified by the
fire of truth and the fire of love. Only this fire can burn away the
falsehood and self-deception in us. To go through this fire is to go
through the waters of baptism, of death to oneself so that the new self can be
born in the Spirit. Purifying our motives that spring from self-love to
philanthropic to godly love takes courage and humility. And even having
recognized our imperfect motives for loving and serving people, we still have
to contend with the lack of capacity to do the right thing. For those of us who
are not ready to confront ourselves, our insecurities, our lack of self-love,
there can be no possibility for real growth. But once we allow ourselves
to be purged, painful though it may be, true liberation, joy and peace will
await us at the end of this journey.
Secondly, real peace can
only come about when we are ready to contend with the struggles that come
from speaking the truth, even publicly. Of course, when we speak the
truth, there will be division. Hence, Jesus said that He had come not to
bring peace but division. Why? Because in the face of truth, there
are only two sides to take, either we are for, or against. Those who stay
on the side of falsehood can be expected to use every means to protect
themselves and their interests by suppressing the truth. On the other
hand, those who desire true peace must seek to establish the truth. Since
peace is the fruit of justice, we must struggle to overcome the objective
causes of divisiveness and injustice. Until falsehood is destroyed, one
cannot expect true peace to be born.
The courage to undergo
interior self-renewal and to speak the truth requires, first and foremost, that we be
strengthened by the Spirit, as Paul tells us in the first reading.
This Spirit of truth and courage can only come about through our faith in
God; a faith that gives us access to the height, depth, breath and length
of God’s love. Without such an experience, we will lack the moral courage
to undergo this purification process.
Like St Paul, the work of
purification and the courage to be true to ourselves must come from a deep
interior prayer life whereby one gets in touch with oneself and also with the
love of God. St Paul reminds us that only in humble and reflective prayer
before the Father can the hidden self grow in grace and strength. Yes,
“Out of his infinite glory, may he give you the power through his Spirit for
your hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through
faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the
saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the
depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you
are filled with the utter fullness of God.”
When we are filled with the
fullness of God’s love, then we would want to do everything, even at the price
of our own lives, to work for the common good of our fellowmen, because we will
see that we are all members of the one big family with God as our Father.
Only with this realization and experience of God’s love, can one be empowered
to undertake such a selfless and noble task. Human effort alone cannot
bring out this interior and social renewal. Only the love of God can
make it happen. With God in us, we can then be certain that His “power,
working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory be to
him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever
and ever. Amen.”
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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