20150625
DOING THE WORK OF GOD IS DIFFERENT FROM DOING THE
WORK FOR GOD
Readings at Mass
First reading
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Genesis
16:1-12,15-16 ©
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Abram’s wife Sarai
had borne him no child, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. So
Sarai said to Abram, ‘Listen, now! Since the Lord has kept me from having
children, go to my slave-girl. Perhaps I shall get children through her.’ Abram
agreed to what Sarai had said.
Thus
after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan for ten years Sarai took Hagar her
Egyptian slave-girl and gave her to Abram as his wife. He went to Hagar and she
conceived. And once she knew she had conceived, her mistress counted for
nothing in her eyes. Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘May this insult to me come home
to you! It was I who put my slave-girl into your arms but now she knows that
she has conceived, I count for nothing in her eyes. Let the Lord judge between
me and you.’ ‘Very well,’ Abram said to Sarai ‘your slave-girl is at your
disposal. Treat her as you think fit.’ Sarai accordingly treated her so badly
that she ran away from her.
The angel
of the Lord met her near a spring in the wilderness, the spring that is on the
road to Shur. He said, ‘Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from,
and where are you going?’ ‘I am running away from my mistress Sarai’ she
replied. The angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Go back to your mistress and
submit to her.’ The angel of the Lord said to her, ‘I will make your
descendants too numerous to be counted.’ Then the angel of the Lord said to
her:
‘Now you have
conceived, and you will bear a son,
and you shall name
him Ishmael,
for the Lord has
heard your cries of distress.
A wild-ass of a man
he will be,
against every man,
and every man against him,
setting himself to
defy all his brothers.’
Hagar bore Abram a
son, and Abram gave to the son that Hagar bore the name Ishmael. Abram was
eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
Psalm
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Psalm 105:1-5 ©
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O give thanks to
the Lord for he is good.
or
Alleluia!
O give thanks to the
Lord for he is good;
for his
love endures for ever.
Who can tell the
Lord’s mighty deeds?
Who can
recount all his praise?
O give thanks to
the Lord for he is good.
or
Alleluia!
They are happy who do
what is right,
who at
all times do what is just.
O Lord, remember me
out of
the love you have for your people.
O give thanks to
the Lord for he is good.
or
Alleluia!
Come to me, Lord,
with your help
that I
may see the joy of your chosen ones
and may rejoice in
the gladness of your nation
and share
the glory of your people.
O give thanks to
the Lord for he is good.
or
Alleluia!
Gospel
Acclamation
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Heb4:12
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The word of God is
something alive and active:
it can judge secret
emotions and thoughts.
Alleluia!
Or
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Jn14:23
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Alleluia, alleluia!
If anyone loves me he
will keep my word,
and my Father will
love him,
and we shall come to
him.
Alleluia!
Gospel
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Matthew 7:21-29 ©
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Jesus said to his
disciples, ‘It is not those who say to me, “Lord, Lord,” who will enter the
kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven.
When the day comes many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in
your name, cast out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?” Then
I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; away from me, you
evil men!
‘Therefore,
everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a
sensible man who built his house on rock. Rain came down, floods rose, gales
blew and hurled themselves against that house, and it did not fall: it was
founded on rock. But everyone who listens to these words of mine and does not
act on them will be like a stupid man who built his house on sand. Rain came
down, floods rose, gales blew and struck that house, and it fell; and what a
fall it had!’
Jesus
had now finished what he wanted to say, and his teaching made a deep impression
on the people because he taught them with authority, and not like their own
scribes.
DOING THE WORK OF GOD IS DIFFERENT
FROM DOING THE WORK FOR GOD
|
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: GN 16:1-12.
15-16 (OR>< 6-12.
15-16); MT 7:21-29
Jesus
said to His disciples, “It is not those who say to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ who will enter
the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in
heaven.” What does it mean to do the will of the Father? Very
often, when we think of doing the Father’s will, we tend to see it from the
perspective of one taking the active role rather than God taking the active
role. On the contrary, to do the Father’s will is to allow His will to be
done! This might seem confusing to our conventional understanding of doing
God’s will.
As a
consequence, we are not able to distinguish between doing the work of God and
doing the work for God. Truly, we have many goodwill people who believe
sincerely that by doing the work of God, they are doing the will of
God. This is particularly true of activists in Church or social organizations.
They champion projects within the Church and without. They spend much
time organizing activities for the Christian community, for the work of
evangelization and for the poor and the marginalized. Certainly, such
initiatives are truly praiseworthy. Yet perhaps, some of these works
might not be the work of God, since they were inspired by man, and not
God. Otherwise, why would those who say, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy
in your name, cast out demons in your name, work miracles in your name?” be
given the response by the Lord, “I have never known you; away from me, you evil
man!”
In
order to distinguish between the will of God, which is the work of God,
and the will of man, which is the work for God (when we are doing
something objectively good), we can turn to the life of Jesus and Mary to
understand what it means to do God’s will. It is significant that when
Mary was called by the angel to be the mother of God, her reply was, “let what
you said be done to me.” (Lk 1:38).
So it was Mary who was taking the passive role and the Lord was taking the
active role. To do God’s will was to allow God to do to her what He
willed. Similarly at the incarnation, Jesus was also passive to the
working of the Holy Spirit, since it was the Holy Spirit that made it possible
for Jesus to be incarnated. Hence, in the letter of Hebrews, Jesus was
quoted as saying, “God, here I am, I am coming to obey your will.” (Heb 10:7 cf Ps 40:7). And again in the
letter of St Paul to the Philippians, we read that Christ “emptied himself to
assume the condition of a slave.” (Phil 2:7)
In
other words, to do God’s will is to allow His will to take its effects on and
in us. Isn’t this what we pray in the Lord’s Prayer when we say, “Your
kingdom come, your will be done”? Just as the Kingdom is a gift from God and
can only come from Him, to do His will is to allow His will to act on us so
that His kingdom would come into our lives. At any rate, the kingdom of
God simply means God reigns in our hearts and in our lives. So to do
God’s will is to allow Him to reign in us, to be our Lord and God, to be the
one in charge of our lives. This happens when we allow His grace to work
in and through us. Only then can we truly claim that whatever we do is
truly the work of God. Otherwise, if it is our effort, then at most we can say
is that it is our work for God but not the work of God.
This
precisely was the case of Abram and his wife, Sarai. Instead of allowing
God to fulfill His promises made to them in His own time and according to His
divine wisdom and plan, they could not wait. They were impatient and
wanted to take things into their own hands. So desperate for a child, they
followed the custom of their day to have a surrogate child through a
slave. In taking control of the situation by having Hagar bear the child
for Abram, they caused jealousy to come between Sarai and Hagar. This
caused further division in the family and ended with Sarai abusing Hagar.
God
certainly did not approve of Abram and Sarai’s action. Instead of taking
Abram’s side, God promised Hagar that He would protect her and the child: “I
will make your descendants too numerous to be counted.” But this would be
at a price because the angel also prophesied; “Now you have conceived, and you
will bear a son, and you shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your
cries of distress. A wild-ass of a man he will be, against every man, and every
man against him, setting himself to defy all his brothers.” Regrettably,
until today, there is grave suspicion between the Arabs, who are Ishmael’s
descendents and the Jews, who belong to Isaac’s descendents. Thus, the
sin of Abram and Sarai was a costly mistake, taking its toll on their
descendents till this day, just because they preempted God by taking things
into their own hands.
Indeed,
such is the reality too in all families. Most of our most bitter quarrels
are fought between and within families, not much different from the Arabs and
the Jews who are actually brothers. Within the family, spouses hurt each
other by their harsh words and actions, especially their infidelity to each
other. Parents too treat their children without respect and sensitivity
to their feelings, venting their anger on them and abusing their authority over
them. Siblings, often because of rivalry and competition for their
parents’ love, hate each other. Within the Church, fellow Catholics and
ministry members hurt each other through unkind words and actions; gossiping,
judging, favouritism and discrimination.
Still,
there is no reason to give up hope. We can redeem ourselves by allowing
the grace of God to work in us. We must remember that we are one family
and one body in Christ. We have the Eucharist, the Body of Christ to
bring us all into communion with each other. We must receive the Eucharist
regularly because the Eucharist is both a healing and a nourishing sacrament of
divine love. To receive the Eucharist is to receive the greatest gift of
God to us and to allow God to work in us through the Holy Spirit.
Of
course, to allow the grace of God to work in us, we must be salted with the
Word of God. That is why Jesus exhorts us to build our house upon solid
rock. He said, “everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock. Rain came down,
floods rose, gales blew and hurled themselves against the house, and it did not
fall: it was founded on rock.” To act on them is to let the Word of God
take root in us so that His Spirit will act through us. To act on the
Word is to cooperate with His grace by allowing the Spirit to work in our
lives. We are called to walk in the Spirit, as St Paul exhorts us: “Since
the Spirit is our life, let us be directed by the Spirit.” (Gal 5:25) Let us not
be impatient but allow the Spirit to take control of our lives so that whatever
we do will indeed be the work of God and not our work for Him.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh
Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Singapore
©
All Rights Reserved
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