20150320 LOVING EVEN WHEN MISUNDERSTOOD PRESUMES A REAL KNOWLEDGE
OF SELF, OTHERS AND UNION WITH GOD
Readings at Mass
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First reading
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Wisdom 2:1,12-22
©
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The godless say to
themselves, with their misguided reasoning:
‘Our life is short
and dreary,
nor is there any
relief when man’s end comes,
nor is anyone known
who can give release from Hades.
Let us lie in wait
for the virtuous man, since he annoys us
and opposes our way
of life,
reproaches us for our
breaches of the law
and accuses us of
playing false to our upbringing.
He claims to have
knowledge of God,
and calls himself a
son of the Lord.
Before us he stands,
a reproof to our way of thinking,
the very sight of him
weighs our spirits down;
his way of life is
not like other men’s,
the paths he treads
are unfamiliar.
In his opinion we are
counterfeit;
he holds aloof from
our doings as though from filth;
he proclaims the
final end of the virtuous as happy
and boasts of having
God for his father.
Let us see if what he
says is true,
let us observe what
kind of end he himself will have.
If the virtuous man
is God’s son, God will take his part
and rescue him from
the clutches of his enemies.
Let us test him with
cruelty and with torture,
and thus explore this
gentleness of his
and put his endurance
to the proof.
Let us condemn him to
a shameful death
since he will be
looked after – we have his word for it.’
This is the way they
reason, but they are misled,
their malice makes
them blind.
They do not know the
hidden things of God,
they have no hope
that holiness will be rewarded,
they can see no
reward for blameless souls.
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Psalm
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Psalm
33:16,18,19-21,23 ©
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The Lord is close
to the broken-hearted.
The Lord turns his
face against the wicked
to
destroy their remembrance from the earth.
They call and the
Lord hears
and
rescues them in all their distress.
The Lord is close
to the broken-hearted.
The Lord is close to
the broken-hearted;
those
whose spirit is crushed he will save.
Many are the trials
of the just man
but from
them all the Lord will rescue him.
The Lord is close
to the broken-hearted.
He will keep guard
over all his bones,
not one
of his bones shall be broken.
The Lord ransoms the
souls of his servants.
Those who
hide in him shall not be condemned.
The Lord is close
to the broken-hearted.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Joel2:12-13
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Praise to you, O
Christ, king of eternal glory!
Now, now – it is
the Lord who speaks –
come back to me with
all your heart,
for I am all
tenderness and compassion.
Praise to you, O
Christ, king of eternal glory!
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Or
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Mt4:4
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Praise to you, O
Christ, king of eternal glory!
Man does not live on
bread alone,
but on every word
that comes from the mouth of God.
Praise to you, O
Christ, king of eternal glory!
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Gospel
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John
7:1-2,10,25-30 ©
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Jesus stayed in
Galilee; he could not stay in Judaea, because the Jews were out to kill him.
As the
Jewish feast of Tabernacles drew near, However, after his brothers had left for
the festival, he went up as well, but quite privately, without drawing
attention to himself. Meanwhile some of the people of Jerusalem were saying,
‘Isn’t this the man they want to kill? And here he is, speaking freely, and
they have nothing to say to him! Can it be true the authorities have made up
their minds that he is the Christ? Yet we all know where he comes from, but
when the Christ appears no one will know where he comes from.
Then, as
Jesus taught in the Temple, he cried out:
‘Yes, you know me
and you know where I
came from.
Yet I have not come
of myself:
no, there is one who
sent me
and I really come
from him,
and you do not know
him,
but I know him
because I have come from him
and it was he who
sent me.’
They would have
arrested him then, but because his time had not yet come no one laid a hand on
him.
LOVING
EVEN WHEN MISUNDERSTOOD PRESUMES A REAL KNOWLEDGE OF SELF, OTHERS AND UNION
WITH GOD
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: WISD 2:1, 12-22; JN 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
Lent is
an invitation to conversion. “Repent and believe the Good News” is one of
the dominant themes of Lent. However, repentance is more than mere
turning away from sins. It is requires that we believe the Good
News and that we become the Good News in our lives. This is an even
greater challenge than conquering our sinfulness. Certainly, being able
to overcome our sinful attitudes and habits and all the temptations of the
world can be said to be already a big step. But this is not enough.
We must do good.
But the
irony of it all is that doing good brings us more sufferings than
doing evil. Doing good invites even more opposition. We know this
is especially true in our families, our communities and even in the Church.
Quite often, there is an unhealthy competition among members to be better than
others, perhaps, of the need to gain acceptance. At times such
competition can get ugly when members try to put each other down, especially
those who are doing well or are popular and are loved for their good works and
compassion. Instead of being happy for us and giving us more
encouragement, they impute our good works with ulterior motives. But
perhaps, more often than not, by living a good and virtuous life, we are a
reproof to others’ way of thinking and thus prick their conscience. Whatever
the reasons, the fact remains that we are denigrated when they try to live the
gospel life.
If we
have to pay the consequences for our foolish actions, we can easily
accept. This is because our sins ultimately destroy others and us.
But to suffer because we do good, this is a very difficult matter. Why
should the good suffer? This is the question most people ask. If
doing good causes us to suffer, we might as well do nothing at all. Or
better still, do evil and enjoy the benefits. Indeed, this is the
reaction of many apparently good people in the face of evils. Yes, many
of us feel like giving up doing good because we are misunderstood.
This is tragic because very often good and noble ideas and intentions are
destroyed.
This
precisely was the case of the prophets and of Jesus in today’s scripture
readings. The book of wisdom says that a true son of the Lord will be met
with opposition when he tries to live a virtuous life. We are also
told that we must persevere in doing good even when we are rejected by
others. Like the prophets and especially Jesus in today’s gospel, we
must remain faithful to who we are and what we are called to do. In a
special way during this season of Lent, we are to join Jesus as the suffering
Messiah. In spite of being condemned by the authorities and misunderstood
by many, Jesus remained defiant and unmoved in His convictions and in His
mission. How? What is the key to our fidelity to goodness and to
God?
Firstly, we are told that Jesus knew His
origin. He knew that He was from God and that He came from Him.
It was His mystical union with the Father that allowed Him to be aware of His
true identity. He knew His Father and His Father’s love. He knew
that His Father was close to the broken-hearted. Indeed, Jesus must have
found great consolation in knowing that at least the Father knew Him and
understood Him even when the world did not know Him and His origin. It
was His union with His Father that gave Jesus the strength. Indeed, as St
Francis said so often, “love is not loved.”
Secondly, Jesus knew
Himself.
This is the corollary of knowing the Father. He knew that He was the Son
of God. Hence, He was called to express the being of the Father as
son. Hence, Jesus fulfils what the first reading tells us about what it
means to be a true son of God. He was one who is virtuous and knows God
well. As such, He cannot but be a reproach to others simply by
living out His sonship, by being Himself. For people in the world who do
not want to live a virtuous life will immediately recognize that they are not
sons or daughters of God when they compare themselves and their lives with the
way Jesus lived His life.
Thirdly, Jesus knew His
mission. He knew
that the Father had sent Him. He had been sent by the Father to represent
Him in love, in truth, and in life. It is this conviction that gave Jesus
the strength to remain true to Himself. Because the mission came
from the Father, He remained faithful to His beliefs. Yes, if He were
faithful to His mission, it was not because He wanted to draw attention to
Himself but He wanted the Father’s love to be known and experienced.
As a result of His
self-knowledge both
of Himself and His origin, Jesus could also at the same time be compassionate
with those of who were still ignorant. Jesus did not condemn His
enemies because He understood that they were ignorant and fearful. Pride,
fear and ignorance are the reasons that make us blind to the goodness in
others. As the book of Wisdom says, Jesus would see us as unable to see
“the hidden things of God” because we are misguided in our reasoning.
In such situations, Jesus
was able to remain faithful to Himself even when His very being was a reproach
to those who were evil. But what is important is that He did not condemn
them. Instead, Jesus also exercised prudence by not getting
Himself killed at an inappropriate time. It was important for Jesus too
that His death be according to God’s time and that He not take things into His
own hands. We too, in our despair and suffering, should never take things
into our own hands but we should try to continue to do good without causing too
much hostility, and even if that hostility cannot be totally eliminated.
With Jesus we must be bold enough to be different from the wicked; aloof from
things depraved; and courageous in living our lives according to His truth even
if such a way of life will result in rejection and in our being misunderstood.
In the final analysis, we must surrender our lives to God and know that God
will ultimately empower us to triumph over evil.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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