20150203 STRIVING FOR PERFECTION IN HOLINESS
Readings at Mass
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First reading
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Hebrews 12:1-4 ©
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With so many
witnesses in a great cloud on every side of us, we too, then, should throw off
everything that hinders us, especially the sin that clings so easily, and keep
running steadily in the race we have started. Let us not lose sight of Jesus,
who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection: for the sake of the joy
which was still in the future, he endured the cross, disregarding the
shamefulness of it, and from now on has taken his place at the right of
God’s throne. Think of the way he stood such opposition from sinners and then
you will not give up for want of courage. In the fight against sin, you have
not yet had to keep fighting to the point of death.
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Psalm
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Psalm
21:26-28,30-32 ©
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They shall praise
you, Lord, those who seek you.
My vows I will pay
before those who fear him.
The poor
shall eat and shall have their fill.
They shall praise the
Lord, those who seek him.
May their
hearts live for ever and ever!
They shall praise
you, Lord, those who seek you.
All the earth shall
remember and return to the Lord,
all
families of the nations worship before him;
They shall worship
him, all the mighty of the earth;
before
him shall bow all who go down to the dust.
They shall praise
you, Lord, those who seek you.
And my soul shall
live for him, my children serve him.
They
shall tell of the Lord to generations yet to come,
declare his
faithfulness to peoples yet unborn:
‘These
things the Lord has done.’
They shall praise
you, Lord, those who seek you.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Jn14:6
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Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the Way, the
Truth and the Life, says the Lord;
No one can come to
the Father except through me.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Mt8:17
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Alleluia, alleluia!
He took our
sicknesses away,
and carried our
diseases for us.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 5:21-43 ©
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When Jesus had
crossed in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered round him and he
stayed by the lakeside. Then one of the synagogue officials came up, Jairus by
name, and seeing him, fell at his feet and pleaded with him earnestly, saying,
‘My little daughter is desperately sick. Do come and lay your hands on her to
make her better and save her life.’ Jesus went with him and a large crowd
followed him; they were pressing all round him.
Now there
was a woman who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years; after long
and painful treatment under various doctors, she spent all she had without
being any the better for it, in fact, she was getting worse. She had heard
about Jesus, and she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his cloak.
‘If I can touch even his clothes,’ she had told herself ‘I shall be well
again.’ And the source of the bleeding dried up instantly, and she felt in
herself that she was cured of her complaint. Immediately aware that power had
gone out from him, Jesus turned round in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my
clothes?’ His disciples said to him, ‘You see how the crowd is pressing round
you and yet you say, “Who touched me?”’ But he continued to look all round to
see who had done it. Then the woman came forward, frightened and trembling
because she knew what had happened to her, and she fell at his feet and told
him the whole truth. ‘My daughter,’ he said ‘your faith has restored you to
health; go in peace and be free from your complaint.’
While
he was still speaking some people arrived from the house of the synagogue
official to say, ‘Your daughter is dead: why put the Master to any further
trouble?’ But Jesus had overheard this remark of theirs and he said to the
official, ‘Do not be afraid; only have faith.’ And he allowed no one to go with
him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. So they came to the
official’s house and Jesus noticed all the commotion, with people weeping and
wailing unrestrainedly. He went in and said to them, ‘Why all this commotion
and crying? The child is not dead, but asleep.’ But they laughed at him. So he
turned them all out and, taking with him the child’s father and mother and his
own companions, he went into the place where the child lay. And taking the
child by the hand he said to her, ‘Talitha, kum!’ which means, ‘Little girl, I
tell you to get up.’ The little girl got up at once and began to walk about,
for she was twelve years old. At this they were overcome with astonishment, and
he ordered them strictly not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give
her something to eat.
STRIVING
FOR PERFECTION IN HOLINESS
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: HEB 12:1-4; MK 5:21-43
We
certainly desire to grow in holiness and perfection. Yet we know
how weak we are. We find ourselves unable to overcome our sinfulness and
weaknesses. Sin continues to cling to us easily, as the author of Hebrews
noted. The more we try to run away from sin, the more sin runs after
us. Indeed, sometimes because we keep falling into the same sin again and
again, we feel like giving up.
This
anxiety is understandable, and a human reaction in the face of resistance to
change. We all doubt whether any spiritual conversion can truly last, even if
such a conversion experience is given to us. We feel diffident that the
troubles and challenges of life will lead us to sin again. Most of all,
we wonder whether we can be faithful to our spiritual life, especially in
spending time with the Lord in prayer. But the gospel and the first reading
tell us “do not fear.” How can we overcome our fear?
Firstly,
we must cultivate the right and positive attitudes towards life, suffering and
ourselves. The most important among such attitudes is faith. We
must surrender ourselves in faith, like the woman in the
gospel. “She had heard about Jesus, and she came up behind him
through the crowd and touched his clock. ‘If I can touch even his
clothes,’ she had told herself ‘I shall be well again.’ And the source of
bleeding dried up instantly, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her
complaint.” So it is this desire to touch Jesus and be touched by Him in
a personal relationship of trust and intimacy that will strengthen us.
For most of us, the danger is that our relationship with Jesus remains at the
cerebral level and never goes deeper to that of intimacy. Indeed, faith is
presupposed. If the woman was healed, it was because she surrendered
herself to Jesus. She was commended for her faith in Jesus, “’My
daughter,’ he said ‘your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be
free from your complaint.’” But if we allow ourselves to be loved by
Jesus, then we too will, like the woman, experience the healing power coming
out of Jesus.
Secondly,
we must be focused on our goal, which is to grow in holiness and share the life
of the kingdom. As Hebrews reminds us, “For the sake of the joy which was
still in the future, he endured the cross, disregarding the shamefulness of it,
and from now on has taken his place at the right of God’s throne.” We,
too, must think of the joy ahead so that we do not become discouraged in
the face of difficulties. We must be motivated by the vision before
us. If we do not keep our vision in sight, we would focus so much on our
present sorrows that we forget the reasons for our sacrifices.
Thirdly,
we must adopt a courageous and persevering attitude of hope, like the
woman. “Now there was a woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve
years…She had heard about Jesus, and she came up behind him through the crowd
and touched his clock.” Indeed, the woman never gave up hope in
spite of the fact that she had spent almost all her money on doctors. She
could have given up, cursed God and fallen into despair. But she
did not. She knew that even if through ordinary means she could not be
healed, then surely God would not fail her. And of course, she was proven
right.
Conversely,
we must avoid the negative attitudes towards life. The crowd did
not have faith in Jesus. In fact, “some people arrived from the house of
the synagogue official to say, ‘your daughter is dead: why put the master to
any further trouble?’” Yes, they lost hope. They gave up so
easily even when Jesus who “overheard this remark of theirs” … “said to the
official, ‘Do not be afraid; only have faith.’“ Indeed, we must be alert
to the wet blankets around us. Quite often we too fall into that kind of
attitude, “why bother, we can never make it.” This is true in the case of
our sins. We fall into sin again and we say to ourselves, we can never
conquer this particular weakness of ours. So we give up trying, like the
crowd. We must know that this is the strategy which the devil uses to discourage
us so that we give up trying. The devil wants us to rely on our effort,
rather than on Jesus, to overcome our sinfulness. Actually, what is
needed is faith in Jesus who will help us to overcome our weakness, rather than
looking at our misery, which will only make us feel more rotten and result in
us hating ourselves.
However,
what is even more destructive than the lack of faith is being cynical about
life, healing, conversion and holiness. We think that all are hypocrites
and no one is sincere in wanting to change their lives, since we continue to
see the same sins and weaknesses in others and in ourselves. Instead of
trusting in Jesus, our lack of faith becomes cynicism. Wasn’t the
behaviour of the people towards Jesus cynical when Jesus “came to the official’s
house and Jesus noticed all the commotion, with people weeping and wailing
unrestrainedly.”? When He went in and said to them: “’Why all this
commotion and crying? The child is not dead, but asleep.’ But they
laughed at him.” This is the height of unbelief. Sorrow and pain
had turned into anger and resentment.
Today,
if we find ourselves lacking faith and trust, then we must find consolation and
strength from the clouds of witnesses around us. This was the
exhortation of the author of Hebrews. He said, “with so many witnesses in
a great cloud on every side of us, we too, then, should throw off everything
that hinders us, especially the sin that clings so easily, and keep running
steadily in the race we have started.” Indeed, as Church, we are surrounded
by the saints in heaven and saints on earth to help us in this journey.
The saints
in heaven can be a great source of inspiration in our spiritual life and
ministry. The fact that so many saints have been canonized is in order
that we can look to them for inspiration and for assistance. So important
are they that the calendar of the Church commemorates the saints in the liturgy
so that reading their writings, examining their lives and asking for their
intercession, we will also grow in grace and holiness.
But it
is not enough to pray to the saints in heaven. We must also look to the saints
on earth. All Christians in the early Church were called saints
because we are called to be different from the rest of the people in the
world. Such saints are all around us. They could be our fellow
brothers and sister friends, colleagues and priests, because they inspire us in
some aspects of their lives, be it prayer, virtues, ministry or charisms.
We only need to open our eyes to see their goodness and recognize the gifts
that God has given to them.
Hence,
we are called to encourage each other in our spiritual life. In
the spirituality of communion, we, who are saints in Christ, must support and
encourage each other and not be wet blankets in our growth towards
perfection. We must affirm each other and not be too quick to point out
others’ mistakes, sometimes more out of spite or revenge than sincerely wanting
to help the other person to grow in sanctity and perfection. Of course, we must
not go to the other extreme of offering false encouragement. That would
be deceiving the other person also.
In the
light of what has been said, we must therefore cultivate those positive
attitudes from the saints, especially from Christ. Truly, we are called to
contemplate on the passion and resurrection of Jesus so that we can find
strength and courage. Like the saints, we must “keep running steadily in
the race we have started. Let us not lose sight of Jesus, who leads us in
our faith and brings it to perfection.” So keeping faith in Jesus
is the fundamental attitude we should bear in mind. All must carry the
cross and give ourselves to Christ unto death, keeping Him in sight and the joy
that awaits us.
So let
us never become discouraged, especially when we meet with failure in Christian
living. Instead, with humility and trust, let us surrender ourselves to
Jesus who has won the victory over sin and is now our throne of
grace. And if this is still not sufficient to spur us on to persevere,
then Hebrews tells us, “In the fight against sin, you have not yet had to keep fighting
to the point of death.“ So, we should never give up hope. We
must never say “die” until we have suffered as much as Jesus has
suffered. Until we suffer unto death and have given the last drop of our
blood, we must continue to fight the good fight until the last.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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