20150219 THE BASIS AND NATURE OF OUR HOPE
Mass
Readings today
Numbers
6 : 22-27
22
Yahweh spoke to Moses
and said,
24 May Yahweh
bless you and keep you.
25 May Yahweh
let his face shine on you and be gracious to you.
26 May Yahweh
show you his face and bring you peace."
27 This is how they must call down my name on the Israelites,
and then I shall bless them.'
James 4 : 13-15
13 Well
now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow, we are off to this or that town; we are
going to spend a year there, trading, and make some money.'
14 You
never know what will
happen tomorrow: you are no more than a mist that appears for a little while
and then disappears.
15 Instead of this, you should say, 'If it is the Lord's will,
we shall still be alive to do this or that.'
Gospel Matthew 6 : 31-34
31 So
do not worry; do not say, "What are we to eat? What are we to drink? What
are we to wear?"
32 It
is the gentiles
who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need
them all.
33 Set
your hearts on his kingdom first, and on God's saving justice, and all these
other things will
be given you as well.
34 So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will
take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.'
THE
BASIS AND NATURE OF OUR HOPE
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: NUMBER 6:22-27; JAMES 4:13-15; MATTHEW 6:31-34
Why do
we wish each other, “Happy New Year” at the beginning of every New Year? If we
do so, it is because it is our hope that each New Year would be better than the
previous one. That we celebrate New Year and other similar festivals
means that we are people of hope. To be human is to live in hope.
Without hope, one cannot truly live, for one has no reason to live. That
is why year after year, we continue to hope, even though many of our hopes have
been disappointed and unrealized. So if we have hope this coming Lunar
New Year, we must then ask what is the basis of our hope? Do we really
believe that our wish will come true? Or is it just only a hope and a
vain wish?
Those
who have faith in some god or deity hope that their god will be able to hear
and answer their prayers. For the Chinese, many of the practices
border on superstition rather than faith. There are many do’s and
dont’s that one must observe on Chinese New Year. For example, one must
wear everything new; one cannot sweep the floor lest you sweep the luck away;
one eats Yu Sheng so that there is abundance and growth for the New Year.
The
question is, does the observance of such practices really bring about the
desired outcomes? Do we really believe that if we religiously observe the
rules of the games, our happiness is guaranteed? More often than not,
we observe them out of fear, lest we incur bad luck or the wrath of the
gods. This is especially so for those who are non-believers of any
religion. What is the basis of their wish and hope, since there are no
gods to answer their prayers? Still as St James says, “The most you
should ever say is: “if it is the Lord’s will, we shall still be alive to do
this or that.”
What
about us Christians who celebrate New Year? Do we really believe that our
prayers will be answered? What is the basis for our hope? Is
our hope based on mere superstition or truly on God whom we believe can fulfill
His promises? What makes us so confident that our wishes can come
true? Why are we so sure that our God can give us happiness?
Right
from the outset, we must state that our confidence is due to our trust in
His Divine Providence. We know that God will be faithful to us just
as God has been faithful to the Israelites. Like the Israelites, we
believe that God as our heavenly Father protects and guides us. Earlier
on in the same chapter of today’s gospel, Jesus exhorted the disciples not to
worry because God the Father takes care of the grass, the flowers in the fields
and the birds in the air. Jesus tells us that if He looks after them,
surely He will look after us because we are worth more than the flowers in the
fields and the sparrows in the air.
However,
our confidence in the promises of God is not that He will give us all the
things we want in life. Rather, we are confident that He will
give us true happiness, peace and joy. Hence, Jesus urged His
disciples, “Do not worry; do not say, ‘what are we to eat? What are we to
drink? How are we to be clothed? It is the pagans who set their
hearts on all these things.” Our preoccupation therefore cannot be on
this world’s goods.
This is
not to say that earthly things are not important. They certainly are and
we need to have food, clothing and shelter to live. Hence, the assurance
of Jesus is that “Your heavenly father knows you need them all.” Note however
that Jesus speaks about the basics of life, namely, eating, drinking and
clothing. He is not saying that God will supply us all the luxuries in
life. For beyond all these needs, the extra things of life cannot
guarantee us happiness. So, God will fulfill all our needs, that
is the promise of Jesus, but not our desires and greed.
Still,
it is important that we see all things in life in perspective. Material
progress and fulfillment is to serve a greater goal, namely the realization of
the kingdom, the life of enduring happiness, joy and peace. This is
why Jesus exhorts us to set our “hearts in his kingdom first, and on his
righteousness”. To seek the kingdom of course is to seek God in our
lives, to be under His rule of love, truth and justice. To seek
righteousness is to seek justice. But Jesus is not speaking about a legal
justice. Rather He is speaking of a right relationship with God, which is
the basis of our relationship with others. Only when we are in
right relationship with God, and right relationship with people according to
their state of life and their relation with us, can we find true peace and
authentic love.
Like
the psalmist we must pray each morning, “fill us with your love, we shall exult
and rejoice all our days. Show forth your work to your servants; let your
glory shine on their children.” Within this context, we can understand
why in the blessing of Moses, he speaks about God shining His face on us and
uncovering His face to us. For by so doing, we come to experience His
graciousness and peace.
The consequence of
seeking the kingdom of God is that “all these other things” will be given to us
as well. This is
because when we are in right relationship with others, our love for each other
will empower us to share with others what we have. If the world is poor,
it is not because there is not sufficient food to go round but because the rich
are getting richer and the poor get poorer. But if all of us care about
relationship and love, then through sharing our resources, be it food or
talents, the world will always have more than enough food and things for all.
This promise of Jesus that
we will have all the other things could also be interpreted in the manner that
when we live the life of God, then we will have everything even when we have
nothing. For when we have the love of God in our hearts, we need so
little to be happy in life. Because we do not desire for anything in the
world except what is basic and essential to life, we have everything. If
we have joy, love and peace, what else do we need? All other things that
we have can only make our life more comfortable but not necessarily happier.
Hence material
attachment or any form of attachment, even human attachment is but an
indication of the lack of the love of God in our hearts. When God is
lacking, we begin to look for things and people to fulfill us. But like
St Paul and St James, when we have an experience of the depth of God’s love, we
want to be all things to all men. To be full or empty stomach; in plenty
or want is secondary. The invitation of Jesus in the gospel is to
adopt that spirit of poverty, that total openness to everything so that we need
not be a slave to anything or anyone. This life of freedom requires a
total dependence on God and trust in his love.
Concretely, this
surrender to God is to surrender ourselves to His will. And what is
His will if not for us to grow in holiness and grace each day so that we can
bask in His presence? It is immaterial whether we are rich or poor;
whether we have plenty or little. Rather, it is whether we strive for
personal sanctification, holiness and growth in our interior life. A
person who is filled with the heart of God will always find happiness in
whichever situation he finds himself. And this is what we Christians
should pray for during the Lunar New Year, namely, that God will bless us with
His grace and love so that with a deeper relationship with Him, we will find
that we need less and less things in life because we have Jesus in our hearts.
Hence, what is truly important for us to find real happiness in life is to
realize that God is everything in life.
With such a heart, then the
words of Jesus make sense to us, “So do not worry about tomorrow:
Tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its
own.” When we trust in God and His love, then we can afford to live
one day at a time. When we live the kingdom life, we begin to live
the life of today.
Indeed, it is said, “There
are two days in every week we should not worry about, two days that should be
kept free from fear and apprehension. One is yesterday, with its mistakes
and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains. Yesterday has
passed, forever beyond our control. All the money in the world cannot
bring back yesterday. We cannot undo a single act we performed. Nor can
we erase a single word we’ve said – yesterday is gone.
The other day we shouldn’t
worry about is tomorrow, with its impossible adversaries, its burden, its
hopeful promise and poor performance. Tomorrow is beyond our control.
Tomorrow’s sun will rise either in splendor or behind a mass of clouds – but it
will rise. And until it does, we have no stake in tomorrow, for it is yet
unborn.
This leaves only one day –
today. Any person can fight the battles of just one day. It is only
when we add the burdens of yesterday and tomorrow that we break down. It
is not the experience of today that drives people mad – it is the remorse of
bitterness for something that happened yesterday, and the dread of what
tomorrow may bring. Let us, therefore, live one day at a time!”
But we can come to this
realization as the psalmist tells us when we come to understand “the shortness
of our life.” Yes, if we were to “gain wisdom of heart”, we must reflect
on the unpredictability of life and our dependence on God, as James tells
us. Instead of relying on our stars, on our luck, or on our strength, we
are called to rely on God alone who can deliver us from our misery.
We are called to trust in the wisdom of God reflected in His will. Only
with this faith in God, can we be truly happy every day for we do not live in
anxiety, in fear or craving for endless desires for when we have God and His
love, we are at peace.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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