20141024 HOLINESS FOR MISSION IN COMMUNION
First
reading Ephesians 4:1-6 ©
I,
the prisoner in the Lord, implore you to lead a life worthy of your vocation.
Bear with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness and
patience. Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that
binds you together. There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called
into one and the same hope when you were called. There is one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, and one God who is Father of all, over all, through all and within
all.
Psalm Psalm 23:1-6 ©
Such
are the men who seek your face, O Lord.
The
Lord’s is the earth and its fullness,
the world and all its peoples.
It
is he who set it on the seas;
on the waters he made it firm.
Such
are the men who seek your face, O Lord.
Who
shall climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
The
man with clean hands and pure heart,
who desires not worthless things.
Such
are the men who seek your face, O Lord.
He
shall receive blessings from the Lord
and reward from the God who saves him.
Such
are the men who seek him,
seek the face of the God of Jacob.
Such
are the men who seek your face, O Lord.
Gospel
Acclamation Ps94:8
Alleluia,
alleluia!
Harden
not your hearts today,
but
listen to the voice of the Lord.
Alleluia!
Or Mt11:25
Alleluia,
alleluia!
Blessed
are you, Father,
Lord
of heaven and earth,
for
revealing the mysteries of the kingdom
to
mere children.
Alleluia!
Gospel Luke 12:54-59 ©
Jesus
said to the crowds, ‘When you see a cloud looming up in the west you say at
once that rain is coming, and so it does. And when the wind is from the south
you say it will be hot, and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the
face of the earth and the sky. How is it you do not know how to interpret these
times?
‘Why not judge for yourselves what is right?
For example: when you go to court with your opponent, try to settle with him on
the way, or he may drag you before the judge and the judge hand you over to the
bailiff and the bailiff have you thrown into prison. I tell you, you will not get
out till you have paid the very last penny.’
HOLINESS
FOR MISSION IN COMMUNION
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: EPH 4:1-6; LK 12:54-59
We are
all looking for meaning in life. Meaning, however, is found when
there is a sense of identity and purpose in what we do. Because doing
follows from being, what we do becomes meaningful only when the ‘doing’ flows
from the ‘being’. It is within this context that we are invited to
examine our vocation in life; not in the sense of specific vocations, such as
motherhood, a career, or a life option, but rather, the fundamental vocation of
every person. This must first be clarified if we are to be faithful to St
Paul’s exhortation, “I…implore you to lead a life worthy of your vocation.”
What is a vocation? It is a calling. Fundamentally,
vocation is a calling from God to a relationship with Him in love. In
this relationship, every person is invited to discover oneself and one’s own
calling to love God in others. Thus, every life is a vocation, and the
personal vocation of every believer is to respond to this call to love freely
and generously, in trust, thereby co‑operating in the building up of the Church.
So the fundamental
vocation of every Christian is the call to holiness. Holiness is an
invitation to share in the life of Christ, which is a life of love.
Hence, St Paul, having urged us to be faithful to our vocation, articulates how
we are to live out this vocation: “Bear with one another charitably, in
complete selflessness, gentleness and patience.” This life of holiness is also
spelt out in the responsorial psalm. Indeed, “Who can ascend the mountain
of the Lord?
or who
may stand in his holy place? He whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.” The call to holiness is thus an expression
of the mystery of the Church. It is called ‘mystery’ because the
invitation to a relationship with God is a gift, a gratuitous calling. It
is called “mystery” also because we become the sacrament of Jesus by making
Christ known in our lives.
Consequently
holiness is not an end in itself. Holiness is for the purpose of
communicating our communion with the Lord to others. Holiness is
therefore for the sake of building communion. For this reason,
holiness is our common vocation to communion and unity within the Church (ad
intra mission). Thus, St Paul says, “Do all you can to preserve the unity
of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one Body,
one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were
called.”
It is
only when there is unity and communion among ourselves, flowing from our
communion with the Trinity, that we can speak of the mission ad extra to
the world. For the Church is essentially missionary in nature, being
called to be the sign and sacrament of unity and love for the human race.
Accordingly, communion with the Trinity is the basis of mission. Mission
springs from, and is the fruit of, communion with the Father through the Son in
the Spirit.
Our
mission is communion, bringing everyone into communion with the Holy Trinity
and with each other. If the nature of our mission is communion,
necessarily this mission must be accomplished in communion. Otherwise, it would
be a mockery not only of what we seek to do, but a contradiction to the
vocation of the Church. If we are not in communion, obviously we cannot
lead others into communion! So by living a life of communion, as St Paul
said, “There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of
all, over all, through all and within all”, our witnessing becomes credible.
Thus,
we see a close relationship with regard to the one vocation expressed in
three different levels. We have a vocation to holiness, a vocation to
build communion within the Church, and the vocation of mission to the
world. But all these three dimensions of the one vocation are
inter-related. Holiness is for communion and communion is for
mission. Accordingly, we see the church as mystery, communion and
mission.
In the
gospel, Jesus said, “When you see a cloud looming up in the west you say at
once that rain is coming, and so it does. And when the wind is from the
south you say it will be hot, and it is. Hypocrites! You know how
to interpret the face of the earth and the sky. How is it you do not know
how to interpret these times?” In other words, we must be ready to study
the signs of the time. In the third millennium, what prevails is just
the opposite of what we promote. Instead of mystery, the world promotes
banality. Everything must be proven, tangible, seen, touched and felt. It
promotes materialism so that the Sacred is not felt. Instead of unity and
communion, the world promotes individualism in the name of uniqueness and
individuality. Instead of mission, the world lives aimless lives without
lasting goals. In other words, none of us have anything really worthwhile
to offer to humanity.
Christ however is our
sign. He reveals
to us the Trinitarian love of God. He is our peace and
reconciliation. When He was baptized at Mount Tabor, the cloud descended
over Him. Jesus was a man filled with the Spirit of God, a man deep in
communion with God, so much so that He called God His ‘Abba Father’. It
was this experience of the holiness of God through the Holy Spirit in His life
and His communion with the Father that empowered Him to go out in mission to
reconcile the world to God and humankind with each other.
Consequently, it is
necessary that we be open to conversion and reconciliation. We
must seek to be reconciled with our fellow brothers and sisters, especially
those who are our fellow collaborators and workers in the ministry. If
the greatest scandal of Christianity is the division among Christians, the
greatest scandal in our own church is the division among church members, especially
ministry members. He who cannot live and work in peace with his brothers
and sisters will be working against the mission of communion. He who
cannot forgive his brothers and sisters and accept their failings, cannot
expect God to work wonders in and through his ministry, regardless of how
eloquent or talented he might be. This is implied in Jesus’ teaching when He
said, “when you go to court with your opponent, try to settle with him on the
way, or he may drag you before the judge and the judge hand your over to the
bailiff and the bailiff have you thrown into prison.” Indeed,
we must try to repair the disunity in our lives through reconciliation, whether
it is with God or with our fellow human beings.
Yes, regardless of which
vocation we choose, we must deepen our relationship with the Lord so that we
will always be grateful for having been chosen by the Lord. In the
experience of mystery, we will live out our communion with the Father by living
in communion with our fellow Christians so that, together, we can accomplish
the mission in communion and the mission for communion. Only the Lord can
reconcile us by enabling us to forgive, accept each other and love each other
in Him. Only when we can live and work in unity, will others be able to see the
face of God in us and declare with the psalmist that truly, “The Lord’s are the
earth and its fullness; the world and those who dwell in it.”
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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