20141107 THE REAL ENEMIES OF THE CROSS ARE FROM WITHIN THE
CHURCH
First
reading
Philippians
3:17-4:1 ©
My
brothers, be united in following my rule of life. Take as your models everybody
who is already doing this and study them as you used to study us. I have told
you often, and I repeat it today with tears, there are many who are behaving as
the enemies of the cross of Christ. They are destined to be lost. They make
foods into their god and they are proudest of something they ought to think
shameful; the things they think important are earthly things. For us, our
homeland is in heaven, and from heaven comes the saviour we are waiting for,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and he will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours
into copies of his glorious body. He will do that by the same power with which
he can subdue the whole universe.
So then, my brothers and dear friends, do not
give way but remain faithful in the Lord. I miss you very much, dear friends;
you are my joy and my crown.
Psalm Psalm 121:1-5 ©
I
rejoiced when I heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’
I
rejoiced when I heard them say:
‘Let us go to God’s house.’
And
now our feet are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem.
I
rejoiced when I heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’
Jerusalem
is built as a city
strongly compact.
It
is there that the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord.
I
rejoiced when I heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’
For
Israel’s law it is,
there to praise the Lord’s name.
There
were set the thrones of judgement
of the house of David.
I
rejoiced when I heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’
Gospel
Acclamation 2Co5:19
Alleluia,
alleluia!
God
in Christ was reconciling the world to himself,
and
he has entrusted to us the news that they are reconciled.
Alleluia!
Or 1Jn2:5
Alleluia,
alleluia!
Whenever
anyone obeys what Christ has said,
God’s
love comes to perfection in him.
Alleluia!
Gospel Luke 16:1-8 ©
Jesus
said to his disciples, ‘There was a rich man and he had a steward denounced to
him for being wasteful with his property. He called for the man and said, “What
is this I hear about you? Draw me up an account of your stewardship because you
are not to be my steward any longer.” Then the steward said to himself, “Now
that my master is taking the stewardship from me, what am I to do? Dig? I am
not strong enough. Go begging? I should be too ashamed. Ah, I know what I will
do to make sure that when I am dismissed from office there will be some to
welcome me into their homes.”
Then he called his master’s debtors one by
one. To the first he said, “How much do you owe my master?” “One hundred
measures of oil” was the reply. The steward said, “Here, take your bond; sit
down straight away and write fifty.” To another he said, “And you, sir, how
much do you owe?” “One hundred measures of wheat” was the reply. The steward
said, “Here, take your bond and write eighty.”
‘The master praised the dishonest steward for
his astuteness. For the children of this world are more astute in dealing with
their own kind than are the children of light.’
THE
REAL ENEMIES OF THE CROSS ARE FROM WITHIN THE CHURCH
SCRIPTURE
READINGS:PHIL 3:17-4:1; LK 16:1-8
The Church
has many enemies. This is inevitable, because the values promoted by the
Church are at odds with the world. As the proclaimer of truth and morality, the
Church necessarily courts detractors, because it hampers their interests.
More than ever, the world is against the Church because we promote the culture
of life, whilst the world promotes the culture of death; we foster
authentic love, the world promotes sensual passion; we encourage family and
fidelity in marriages, they think in terms of individualism and love without
commitment; we seek justice and true freedom over oneself, they surrender
themselves to their passions and desires in the name of freedom.
But the
greatest enemies of the Church are from within. These are more
insidious than the ones outside, because they are wolves disguised as
sheep. They are the real destructive forces, because they are cooperating
with Satan to destroy the Church. This was the case of the dishonest
steward who cheated his master. When our enemies are from within, it is
more difficult to deal with them, for quite often they conceal themselves as
our friends and allies.
Indeed,
if our enemies appear to have the upper hand in discrediting the Church as the
moral spokesman of the world today, it is because of our failure as
Catholics and Christians. Beginning with our Church leaders, we have
betrayed the Church by our sins, especially sexual sins and the lack of
integrity. Our dishonesty, greed and lavish lifestyles have made our witnessing
to the gospel questionable. We live contradictory lives and quite often
adopt values openly opposed to the Church.
What is
even more disconcerting is that we justify ourselves for our immoral actions.
This was the situation of the Christians in Philippi. They were living
idolatrous, gluttonous and immoral lives, and distorting the Christian faith to
justify their actions. These so called Christians were probably Gnostics;
heretics who were influenced by a dualistic philosophy that preached the
separation of spirit and matter. According to them, spirit and matter are two
principles of life. Spirit is good whilst matter is evil. As the
world is evil, so is the body, since they are created out of matter, which is
evil. If matter is evil and the body is evil, then no matter what they
did with the body, it would remain evil. That being the case, man could
do what he liked with his body, since the body would not be saved, but only the
soul. Hence, they justified gluttony, drunkenness, adultery and
homosexuality based on this principle.
Following
from this same principle, another group of Gnostic Christians derived a philosophy
of hedonism, which is to live a life of pleasure. They argued that
man could not be complete until he had experienced everything that life had to
offer, both good and bad. The world today is subscribing to this belief
in a new way. It is saying that we must experience everything in life,
including all manner of sex, drugs, etc, or we are not complete. For this
reason, St Paul condemned them saying, “they make foods into their god and they
are proudest of something they ought to think shameful; the things they think
important are earthly things.”
Perhaps
today we do not justify our sinfulness in the way the Gnostic Christians in St
Paul’s day did, but we nevertheless try to justify our immoral and
materialistic way of life by invoking the principle of Christian liberty.
We argue that Christ has come to set us free from the laws. Unlike the
Jews who were slaves to the laws and traditions, Christians have perfect
liberty to do whatever they like. So Christian liberty has become the
license to do everything, including giving in to our lust and passions.
We
further justify our immoral living by appealing to the doctrine of grace.
We claim that the grace of God covers every sin and the love of God is so great
that God would forgive all sins. Therefore we can continue sinning because when
sin increases, grace abounds all the more! The all-forgiving grace of God
will rescue us regardless of our sins. So there is no need to worry or
live in guilt and fear because God forgives all and all will be saved.
Indeed,
this doctrine of cheap grace has become the cause of destruction of
many. The doctrine of justification by faith alone on the grace of God
has misled many into sinning, thinking that good works and a good life are not
necessary for salvation. This is being overly presumptuous of God’s love
and mercy. Whilst we hold that justification is the work of God’s grace
in us and not by our good works, yet, without good works, it clearly shows that
we have not received His grace, otherwise our lives would have been like His.
Today,
we are reminded to be faithful to our Christian way of life. We must
realize that our infidelity to the gospel will hurt first and foremost,
ourselves. By living such immoral lives, worshipping pleasures, food, sex,
money or power, we will eventually be consumed by them. Greed, whether
for money, pleasure or power, will eventually enslave us. Happiness is
ultimately found not by living a sensual or self-centered life but living the
life of Christ. But most of all, St Paul appealed to his fellow
Christians, and to all of us, that by living a life of self-indulgence and sin,
we will also destroy the House of God because we “are behaving as the
enemies of the cross of Christ.” By our sins and failures, we make the
Church, and ultimately Christ, less credible to the world.
Hence,
today, we are invited to imitate St Paul. He said, “My brothers,
be united in following my rule of life. Take as your models everybody who is
already doing this and study them as you used to study us.” He exhorts us
to “remain faithful in the Lord.” Yes, if we are to overcome the
temptations of the world, we must stand fast in the Lord. Only
with Christ can we resist the seductions of temptation and the weakness of
cowardice. Indeed, we must keep company with the Lord. Very often,
it is because of wrong company that we fall into sin. When we are with
people who are worldly, our resistance to temptation is weakened. So the
only way to avoid falling into sin is to walk with the Lord, avoid harmful
friendships, strengthen ourselves through penance and prayer, recollecting
ourselves regularly and feel His presence around and about us.
Let us
have the heart of St Paul when he said, “dear friends; you are my joy
and my crown.” St Paul never ceased to appeal to his fellow Christians to
turn back to the Lord so as to avoid self-destruction and ruin their lives on
earth and eternally. There is no greater joy in this life than to bring
back to God our fellow brothers and sisters who have strayed from the
truth. We do this by example; living the life of Christ according to the
gospel. Unless we are credible witnesses of the gospel life, no amount of
preaching and teaching is going to convert our hearers and unbelievers to the
Lord.
Finally,
we are called to be like the dishonest steward in his creativity in cultivating
friendship and securing a place for himself after his dismissal. We too, must
use the opportunities and resources the Lord has given to us to live the life
of grace and so prepare for eternal life as St Paul reminds us, “for us, our
homeland is in heaven, and from heaven comes the saviour we are waiting for,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and he will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours
onto copies of his glorious body.”
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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