20141105 ALL VOCATIONS MUST HAVE A MISSIONARY
SPIRITUALITY
First
reading
Philippians
2:12-18 ©
My
dear friends, continue to do as I tell you, as you always have; not only as you
did when I was there with you, but even more now that I am no longer there; and
work for your salvation ‘in fear and trembling.’ It is God, for his own loving
purpose, who puts both the will and the action into you. Do all that has to be
done without complaining or arguing and then you will be innocent and genuine,
perfect children of God among a deceitful and underhand brood, and you will
shine in the world like bright stars because you are offering it the word of
life. This would give me something to be proud of for the Day of Christ, and
would mean that I had not run in the race and exhausted myself for nothing. And
then, if my blood has to be shed as part of your own sacrifice and
offering-which is your faith I shall still be happy and rejoice with all of
you, and you must be just as happy and rejoice with me.
Psalm
Psalm
26:1,4,13-14 ©
The
Lord is my light and my help.
The
Lord is my light and my help;
whom shall I fear?
The
Lord is the stronghold of my life;
before whom shall I shrink?
The
Lord is my light and my help.
There
is one thing I ask of the Lord,
for this I long,
to
live in the house of the Lord,
all the days of my life,
to
savour the sweetness of the Lord,
to behold his temple.
The
Lord is my light and my help.
I
am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness
in the land of the living.
Hope
in him, hold firm and take heart.
Hope in the Lord!
The
Lord is my light and my help.
Gospel
Acclamation Ps118:88
Alleluia,
alleluia!
Because
of your love give me life,
and
I will do your will.
Alleluia!
Or 1P4:14
Alleluia,
alleluia!
It
is a blessing for you
when
they insult you for bearing the name of Christ,
for
the Spirit of God rests on you.
Alleluia!
Gospel Luke 14:25-33 ©
Great
crowds accompanied Jesus on his way and he turned and spoke to them. ‘If any
man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers,
sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple. Anyone who does
not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
‘And indeed, which of you here, intending to
build a tower, would not first sit down and work out the cost to see if he had
enough to complete it? Otherwise, if he laid the foundation and then found
himself unable to finish the work, the onlookers would all start making fun of
him and saying, “Here is a man who started to build and was unable to finish.”
Or again, what king marching to war against another king would not first sit
down and consider whether with ten thousand men he could stand up to the other
who advanced against him with twenty thousand? If not, then while the other
king was still a long way off, he would send envoys to sue for peace. So in the
same way, none of you can be my disciple unless he gives up all his
possessions.’
ALL
VOCATIONS MUST HAVE A MISSIONARY SPIRITUALITY
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: PHIL 2:12-18; LK 14:25-33
St Paul’s
exhortation to work for our salvation in fear and trembling is a reminder for
us to take our vocation on earth seriously. We are all called to
fulfill God’s loving purpose for us. Hence, it is important, as St Paul
urges us, to “do all that has to be done without complaining or arguing.”
By being fully committed to God’s will for us, we will “be innocent and
genuine, perfect children of God,” shining “in the world like bright
stars.” Of course, St Paul’s appeal is addressed to all Christians.
But for us who are involved in Church ministry, this challenge is given to us
in a special way.
How then, within the
context of our vocation, can we truly work for our salvation? The answer is found in the life
of St Paul himself. Today, he offers us as a living example of what it
means, particularly as witnesses of Christ, to be the bright stars of God in
the world. For us as mature Christians, our experience of salvation is
not reducible to living a Christian life. But more than what is required
of any Christian, we are called to make our vocation as an instrument for our
own salvation. St Paul’s total and zealous commitment to the apostolate
even to the extent of offering his life as a libation for us, illustrates what
it means to work out our salvation. Thus, the theme of today’s scripture
lessons for us is clear: we will only find our salvation to the extent that we
are totally committed to our vocation, bearing in mind that all vocations seek
to bring Christ to the world either directly or indirectly. A missionary
spirituality therefore is implied in all vocations, since every vocation is at
the service of the mission of the Church.
But before we can truly
live this missionary spirit and commitment, there is one important prerequisite. Namely this: that we follow
Jesus to His passion. This is the context of today’s gospel. St
Luke tells us that Jesus was on His way when He spoke to the crowd about the
cost of discipleship. Any scripture scholar would immediately recognize
that the phrase “on his way” refers to Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, the place
of His passion, death and resurrection. It was with this in mind that
Luke had Jesus saying to His disciples that anyone who does not carry His cross
and come after Him cannot be His disciple. This means that even before we
can follow Jesus in His mission, we must first and foremost crucify ourselves
and carry our own crosses. What is this cross if not the cross of obedience to
our calling in accordance with the Father’s will for us, just as Jesus
submitted in obedience to His Father’s will.
So how do we carry our
own crosses?
Firstly, we are told that we must give up all our possessions.
Truly, our attachment to our possessions is one of the greatest obstacles in
giving ourselves fully to the mission of Jesus. Possessions here would
include material possessions, physical comfort; and even our will, pride and
egoism. This giving up of possessions is manifested on two levels.
For those who already have
plenty of possessions, giving up means to empty oneself of our possessions.
This can prove to be extremely difficult if we are wealthy and smart. To
surrender our possessions, including our pride, is certainly no easy
task. The truth is that very often we hinder the mission of Christ because
we lack that missionary spirit. We fall into complacency and become too
attached to a particular ministry, office or position in life. We are so
settled into a particular job or ministry that we remain contented to do the
same thing all over again each day without creativity and vision. We can be so
comfortably settled down to our routine that we become complacent and
stereotyped in the way we serve the Lord. As a consequence, we do not
take risks to venture into new areas of service to the Lord. On the other
hand, by clinging to our office and position, we hinder new blood from taking
over.
However, giving up our
possessions is equally applicable to those who do not have them yet.
We must not only think that the call to give up our possessions only refers to
those who are rich and talented. This is because those who still have not
acquired these possessions are equally attached to them, at least in their
minds and hearts. Being deprived of material goods or talents, we can
hanker for them to the extent that we can forget about our mission as
well. Yes, some of us who have been deprived of attention, love and
material luxuries can be tempted to use ministry or our position in the Church
to boost our low-self esteem or even to use them for personal gains.
But giving up our
possessions in the final analysis is not the most difficult cross to
carry. Nay, it is the cross of attachment to our loved ones.
In this respect, we have gone beyond mere physical or material satisfaction to
the desires of the heart. It is our attachment to our loved ones that is
perhaps the real obstacle in giving ourselves completely to the mission of our
Lord. It is important to recall once again what Jesus said, “If any man
comes to me, without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers,
sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple.” We note
that the call to “hate” is made in reference to our immediate family
members. Why did He restrict to family members only and not include our
friends? This is because “family love” normally is a possessive love.
In commanding us to hate
our family members, it is Jesus’ poetic way of warning us that we cannot be
free for His mission if we have attachment in love at the expense of our
love for God. Unconsciously, we can love our friends or children or
spouse in such a way that they take the place of God in our lives. They
become our idols, since our whole life is focused on them and them alone. So we
would, for the love of our friends, skip mass on Sunday or compromise our time
for prayer just so that we can chat with them or go out with them. For
the love of our friends, we often compromise our Christian values, especially
when it comes to sexual purity, integrity and honesty. How often have we
read of a man or woman stealing money from their workplace in order to satisfy
the demands of their lovers? Many parents worship their children by
putting them first before God. In their desire for them to succeed in
school, they even agree to take them out of catechism or Sunday religious
classes or allow them to indulge in unwholesome activities.
Consequently, today, Jesus
is challenging us to accept the demands of discipleship and the apostolate.
Before we reply in the affirmative, He warns us to consider the costs carefully.
Yes, like the King who recognized that he would not be able to overcome his
more powerful opponent and thus sought reconciliation, we, too, must ask
ourselves sincerely whether we are ready to pay the price for being witnesses
of Jesus imposed on us by virtue of our baptism.
Otherwise, we might have to
pay a bigger price for our lack of sincerity and commitment. Our
conscience would haunt us when we fail to live up to our faith and
responsibilities in life, or when we fall short of our calling, mission, and
vocation. Many parents often regret that they did not give themselves
generously to their spouse or their children. As a result, Christ is made
less known in the world. If the kingdom of Christ is still not yet
established, it is because we have failed to be living examples of Christian
life. Without holiness in the lives of Christians, the gospel continues
to lack that power, dynamism and living testimony that can touch the hearts of
all humankind.
But if we are faithful to
our vocation not only in fact but in spirit as well, then we will share the
happiness and absolute freedom and joy of Mother Teresa, St Francis of Assisi
and St Paul. Hence, today, Jesus is inviting us once again to
consider whether we have this missionary spirit in us. Until we have
that, we cannot say with St Paul that we are willing to offer ourselves as a
sacrifice for the love of God and for His people. Yet, in spite of our
limitations and failures in our fidelity to the mission, let us continue to have
hope and not be discouraged.
For St Paul acknowledges
that for all that he was for his people, it was only possible because of
God. As he reminds us, “it is God, for his own loving purpose, who put
both the will and the action into you.” Salvation and the work of salvation
is ultimately the work of God. It is totally His grace. We only
need to pray that we will co-operate with His grace more generously each day so
that His grace will bear fruit in us so that we can offer the Word of life both
to ourselves and to others more fully.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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