20150609 FIDELITY TO OUR CHRISTIAN IDENTITY
Readings at Mass
First reading
|
2 Corinthians
1:18-22 ©
|
I swear by God’s
truth, there is no Yes and No about what we say to you. The Son of God, the
Christ Jesus that we proclaimed among you – I mean Silvanus and Timothy
and I – was never Yes and No: with him it was always Yes, and however many
the promises God made, the Yes to them all is in him. That is why it is
‘through him’ that we answer Amen to the praise of God. Remember it is God
himself who assures us all, and you, of our standing in Christ, and has
anointed us, marking us with his seal and giving us the pledge, the Spirit,
that we carry in our hearts.
Psalm
|
Psalm
118:129-133,135 ©
|
Let your face
shine on your servant.
Your will is
wonderful indeed;
therefore
I obey it.
The unfolding of your
word gives light
and
teaches the simple.
Let your face
shine on your servant.
I open my mouth and I
sigh
as I
yearn for your commands.
Turn and show me your
mercy;
show
justice to your friends.
Let your face
shine on your servant.
Let my steps be
guided by your promise;
let no
evil rule me.
Let your face shine
on your servant
and teach
me your decrees.
Let your face
shine on your servant.
Gospel
Acclamation
|
Ph2:15-16
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
You will shine in the
world like bright stars
because you are
offering it the word of life.
Alleluia!
Or
|
Mt5:16
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Your light must shine
in the sight of men,
so that, seeing your
good works,
they may give the
praise to your Father in heaven.
Alleluia!
Gospel
|
Matthew 5:13-16 ©
|
Jesus said to his
disciples, ‘You are the salt of the earth. But if salt becomes tasteless, what
can make it salty again? It is good for nothing, and can only be thrown out to
be trampled underfoot by men.
‘You
are the light of the world. A city built on a hill-top cannot be hidden. No one
lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it
shines for everyone in the house. In the same way your light must shine in the
sight of men, so that, seeing your good works, they may give the praise to your
Father in heaven.’
FIDELITY
TO OUR CHRISTIAN IDENTITY
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: 2 Cor 1:18-22;
Ps 118:129-133,135; Mt 5:13-16
In the
gospel, we are called to be salt of the earth and light of the
world. We do not become Christian simply for our salvation but for
the salvation of the whole world. As Christians, we are called to
evangelize and to mission. Sharing the faith is an obligation of
all Christians because the nature of the Church is missionary.
How can
we be effective evangelizers of Christ? In the first place, we must
avoid being secularized by the world. To be salt of the earth means that
we are to protect ourselves from being contaminated by the world with its
selfish and negative values of life. To be salted with the gospel means
that we will use the gospel as a weapon to fight against moral decadence.
This is all the more important today because we are allowing the world, rather
than the gospel, to dictate to us the values of life. Sadly, even though
many call themselves Catholics, they no longer subscribe or obey the Word of
God in their lives, especially in the areas of morality, in marriage, family
life or in bioethics. Many Catholics are not taking direction from the
magisterium with regard to ethics and morality but according to what the world
says.
Jesus
warns us not to hide the light we have received. “You are the light of
the world. A city built on a hill-top cannot be hidden. No one
lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it
shines for everyone in the house.” We hide the light when we are reticent
about our being known as Christians. We hide the light when we do
not speak out for the truth, for justice and for Jesus. Some of us just
follow the crowd, secularized by the world instead of being a beacon to
society. Often, Catholics are quiet instead of speaking up and helping
society to understand the truth about life and love. The worst of
course are those who not only dim the light by living a sinful life but deny the
light because they never practice their faith.
Positively,
to be salt of the earth is to show that we make a difference in the lives of
our people, contributing positively to society in the promotion of life,
fostering love and unity in the world. Like salt, we are to enrich the
lives of our fellowmen by adding flavor to their lives. We can
influence them positively by sharing with them the gospel that offers us the
fullness of life. This is done not only through words but by our examples.
Through our conduct and Christian living, we are to give glory to God, “so
that, seeing your good works, they may give the praise to your Father in
heaven.”
To be
the light of the world is to enlighten others about our beliefs. We must
be ready to give an account for our belief in Christ. It is our duty to
help the world understand what we believe and why we believe. In the work
of the New Evangelization, it is not sufficient to present or explain our faith
to the world but we must do it in a way that is beautiful, attractive and
relevant. Through our good works, examples and our teaching, the world
can then come to appreciate our faith in Christ.
To help
us to be faithful to our calling as Christ’s salt and light of the world, we
must imitate Christ’s fidelity to His Father, His mission and to us. He was
faithful to His mission until death. He remained faithful to us in the
Church and when He interceded for us. That is why St Paul called him the
Great “Amen.” St John wrote, “The words of the Amen, the faithful and
true witness, the origin of God’s creation.” (Rev 3:14) To address
Jesus our great Amen is to say that we trust Him completely in His promises,
His love and mercy for us. St Paul, when accused of being unfaithful and
untrustworthy, claimed his worthiness from Christ Himself. He said that
he had been faithful to Christ.
Indeed,
without fidelity to Christ and the gospel, we cannot proclaim the Good News
effectively. Whether we like it or not, the credibility of the message is
linked to the credibility of the messenger. In Jesus, the message and the
person are one. Jesus is the Word of God in person. What Jesus said
is who He is. There is no dichotomy between His words and His actions.
This is what St Paul meant when he said, “I swear by God’s truth, there is no
Yes and No about what we say to you. The Son of God, the Christ Jesus
that we proclaimed among you – I mean Silvanus and Timothy and I – was never
Yes and No: with him it was always Yes, and however many the promises God made,
the Yes to them all is in him.” Christ was faithful to Himself and He was
always trustworthy. In the same way too, St Paul defended his actions and
accusations that he was not reliable or unfaithful to the promises he had
made. It is therefore of utmost importance that if we were to be accepted
as true messengers of God and believed in our words, then in our conduct and
words, we must not make empty promises or say things that we do not do or cannot
do. Otherwise, if we are not trusted, they will not trust our message as
well. To be an effective witness, we must walk the talk and not just
talk.
What is
the secret of their fidelity to their vocation? They knew their
identity. Through the Holy Spirit, St Paul says, we also know our
identity. He wrote, “Remember it is God himself who assures us all, and you, of
our standing in Christ, and has anointed us marking us with his seal and giving
us the pledge, the Spirit, that we carry in our hearts.” Indeed, if the
fervor for evangelization is lost, it is because we have lost the consciousness
of our identity as the disciples of Christ and the sons and daughters of our
Heavenly Father. If we are like St Paul who spoke of being sealed with
the mark of Christ, then we will know that we belong to Christ and He is our
master. Not only do we belong to Christ but we also share in the
foretaste of the benefits of being His adopted brothers and sisters. As
Christians, because of the Holy Spirit, we already have a share of our
experience as sons and daughters of God.
The
truth is that if we belong to Christ, then we must identify ourselves as His
faithful servant. Who is not proud to let the world know who he belongs
to? Won’t a person be proud to let the world know if the Pope were his
relative? We want the world to know that we are related to someone
important and famous. How is it that as Catholics we do not seem to want
the world to know that we are Christians? Like what Christ said, we want to
hide the lamp. So if we are afraid to let Jesus be known in us or
that we are related to Jesus, we are no better than Peter who denied Christ
three times before the cock crew.
That is
why, with the psalmist, we must pray, “Let your face shine on your
servant. Your will is wonderful indeed; therefore I obey it. The
unfolding of your word gives light and teaches the simple. Let my steps be
guided by your promise; let no evil rule me. Let your face shine on your
servant and teach me your decrees.”
Finally,
there is also a warning to those who have lost their saltiness or stow the lamp
away. In the book of Revelation, the Lord says, “I know your works;
you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or
hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am
about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Rev 3:15f) Indeed,
if we do not grow, we must be stunted. So it is important that we be more
mindful of the need to withdraw and pray so that we can recover our Christian
experience of sonship and the experience of Christ. Otherwise, we will
see our families and country trampled on as Jesus said, “It is good for
nothing, and can only be thrown out to be trampled underfoot by men.”
Indeed, when we allow the ungodly values of society to replace the values of
the gospel, we will eventually be trampled upon by the world, and we lose our
direction in life. Today, many Catholics would subscribe to euthanasia,
abortion, surrogate motherhood and same sex union even though these practices
blatantly go against the teachings of the scriptures. By so doing, it
would be a matter of time when our families and marriage institution become
desacralized. Indeed, then we will say that advocating such values would
be a defeat for humanity.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh
Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Singapore
© All Rights Reserved
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