20150508 PRESERVING THE UNITY OF THE COMMUNITY IN TRUTH AND LOVE

20150508 PRESERVING THE UNITY OF THE COMMUNITY IN TRUTH AND LOVE

Readings at Mass

First reading

Acts 15:22-31 ©

The apostles and elders decided to choose delegates to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; the whole church concurred with this. They chose Judas known as Barsabbas and Silas, both leading men in the brotherhood, and gave them this letter to take with them:

  ‘The apostles and elders, your brothers, send greetings to the brothers of pagan birth in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. We hear that some of our members have disturbed you with their demands and have unsettled your minds. They acted without any authority from us; and so we have decided unanimously to elect delegates and to send them to you with Barnabas and Paul, men we highly respect who have dedicated their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accordingly we are sending you Judas and Silas, who will confirm by word of mouth what we have written in this letter. It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to saddle you with any burden beyond these essentials: you are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols; from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from fornication. Avoid these, and you will do what is right. Farewell.’

  The party left and went down to Antioch, where they summoned the whole community and delivered the letter. The community read it and were delighted with the encouragement it gave them.

Psalm

Psalm 56:8-12 ©

I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples.

or

Alleluia!

My heart is ready, O God,

  my heart is ready.

  I will sing, I will sing your praise.

Awake, my soul,

  awake, lyre and harp,

  I will awake the dawn.

I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples.

or

Alleluia!

I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples,

  among the nations I will praise you

for your love reaches to the heavens

  and your truth to the skies.

O God, arise above the heavens;

  may your glory shine on earth!

I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples.

or

Alleluia!

Gospel Acclamation

Jn10:27

Alleluia, alleluia!

The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice,

says the Lord,

I know them and they follow me.

Alleluia!

Or

Jn15:15

Alleluia, alleluia!

I call you friends, says the Lord,

because I have made known to you

everything I have learnt from my Father.

Alleluia!

Gospel

John 15:12-17 ©

Jesus said to his disciples:

‘This is my commandment:

love one another,

as I have loved you.

A man can have no greater love

than to lay down his life for his friends.

You are my friends,

if you do what I command you.

I shall not call you servants any more,

because a servant does not know

his master’s business;

I call you friends,

because I have made known to you

everything I have learnt from my Father.

You did not choose me:

no, I chose you;

and I commissioned you

to go out and to bear fruit,

fruit that will last;

and then the Father will give you

anything you ask him in my name.

What I command you is to love one another.’

PRESERVING THE UNITY OF THE COMMUNITY IN TRUTH AND LOVE

SCRIPTURE READINGS: ACTS 15: 22-31; JN 15:12-17

In the gospel, we read that Jesus’ will was that His disciples be a community of love.  Jesus told the disciples, “This is my commandment:  love one another, as I have loved you.”  Indeed, St Teresa of Avila says the heart of the Church is love.

Love of course is more than a word or a feeling. Love calls for self-sacrifice.  As Jesus said, “A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus did not simply teach this truth but demonstrated it.

But how can this love be concretely applied in daily life, especially in the various communities we move among, such as our families, church and social communities?  It is easy for us to say that we are ready to give up our lives for others.  However, if we cannot lay down our lives for fellow members of our community, our proximate neighbors, how can we ever lay down our lives genuinely for people we do not know?

The biggest challenge in community life is trying to preserve the unity of the community, when members come from diverse and pluralistic backgrounds.  Quite often, the unity of the community is threatened by differences in opinions and approaches.   This is true in every community, even in religious communities.  Often, each group believes strongly and sincerely that they are simply being faithful to the truth, and so refuse to compromise.   Indeed, the greatest difficulty is surrendering our wishes to the community, or to authority.

How then can we live out the commandment of love in such a situation?  Should we compromise the truth in order to accommodate the other party? Would that be love without fidelity to the truth?  Or should we be faithful to the truth, even unto death, without any compromise whatsoever?  Yet we know that there can be no love if there was no truth; and that truth is always love.  How then do we reconcile truth and love?

Today, we learn from the primitive Christians how they preserved unity in the community in the face of dilemma.  There was the need on one hand to maintain the truth of what Paul was preaching; that salvation is through faith in Christ alone and not through the laws.  On the other hand, the Jewish Christians were brought up in the Laws, and for them to abandon the laws would be to betray the thousand years of tradition and customs they had inherited.

Hence, a compromise was reached, but not at all costs.  It is good to take note that only the essentials were retained, and the rest were optional.  They said, “It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to saddle you with any burden beyond these essentials: you are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols; from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from fornication. Avoid these, and you will do what is right. Farewell.’”

In other words, they were applying the principle of St Augustine which says “in essentials, unity; in non-essentials, diversity and in all things charity.”  So we must distinguish whether the values or principles we are trying to promote in the community are essentials or peripherals.  We must allow diversity in community and not expect everyone to be in the same mold, so long as core values and principles are respected.

Of course the most important principle is charity, which underpins the other two previously mentioned.  Indeed, the early Christians were able to come to a compromise only because charity took precedence above everything else.  The Gentile Christians were willing to compromise by observing certain Jewish dietary rules even though these were not necessary for salvation.  Out of respect and deference to the sensitivity of the Jews, they obeyed the rules accordingly.  So too, the Jewish Christians were willing to accommodate them by not insisting that others observed their long cherished mosaic laws.

We, too, in community life must live accordingly.   We must place charity above everything else.  That is to say, we must do everything out of love for the other person.  We must not put our likes or preferences before others.  Rather, we must see how we can accommodate and compromise with each other.   Of course, we are not speaking of matters pertaining to conscience and faith or of vital importance.  In this way, we can truly say that we are willing to love in the truth, being faithful to the truth and ready to compromise and accommodate out of compassion and love for matters that are not rooted in truths but in customs and preferences.  This is concrete dying for others in community living.

But this charity of putting the good of the community and its unity before one’s preferences, customs and convictions can only come from the Holy Spirit through prayer.  Indeed the early Christians always lived in the consciousness of the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so they were able to discern clearly that their decision was made in union with Him, He being the principle, soul and cause of the unity in the Church. We too must always pray to the Holy Spirit for this unity, lest in our community deliberations we make false compromises resulting in a pseudo unity that is superficial, or take up hardened positions that result in splitting the members of the community.  Our decisions cannot be mere human consensus or dictated by strong individuals but rather guided by the Holy Spirit.  Charity must come from Christ who sends us His Spirit so that we can love one another as He has loved us.

In this way we will bear the fruits of the Spirit in community life.  There will be joy, peace and harmony, which will also bear fruits in our life, and result in the growth of the community as well in membership and in faith. Indeed, we read, “’the party left and went down to Antioch, where they summoned the whole community and delivered the letter. The community read it and was delighted with the encouragement it gave them.”

Written by The Most Rev William Goh

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore

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