Thursday, 25 June 2015

DOING THE WORK OF GOD IS DIFFERENT FROM DOING THE WORK FOR GOD

20150625 DOING THE WORK OF GOD IS DIFFERENT FROM DOING THE WORK FOR GOD
Readings at Mass

First reading
Genesis 16:1-12,15-16 ©
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
Psalm 105:1-5 ©
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
Heb4:12
Alleluia, alleluia!
The word of God is something alive and active:
it can judge secret emotions and thoughts.
Alleluia!
Or
Jn14:23
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
Matthew 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. 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
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