Thursday, 25 June 2015

THE WONDERS OF GOD ARE BEYOND MAN’S IMAGINATION

20150626 THE WONDERS OF GOD ARE BEYOND MAN’S IMAGINATION
Readings at Mass

First reading
Genesis 17:1,9-10,15-22 ©
When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘I am El Shaddai. Bear yourself blameless in my presence, and I will make a Covenant between myself and you. You on your part shall maintain my Covenant, yourself and your descendants after you, generation after generation. Now this is my Covenant which you are to maintain between myself and you, and your descendants after you: all your males must be circumcised.’
  God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah. I will bless her and moreover give you a son by her. I will bless her and nations shall come out of her; kings of peoples shall descend from her.’ Abraham bowed to the ground, and he laughed, thinking to himself, ‘Is a child to be born to a man one hundred years old, and will Sarah have a child at the age of ninety?’ Abraham said to God, ‘Oh, let Ishmael live in your presence!’ But God replied, ‘No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son whom you are to name Isaac. With him I will establish my Covenant, a Covenant in perpetuity, to be his God and the God of his descendants after him. For Ishmael too I grant you your request: I bless him and I will make him fruitful and greatly increased in numbers. He shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. But my Covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear you at this time next year.’ When he had finished speaking to Abraham God went up from him.

Psalm
Psalm 127:1-5 ©
Indeed the man shall be blessed, the man who fears the Lord.
O blessed are those who fear the Lord
  and walk in his ways!
By the labour of your hands you shall eat.
  You will be happy and prosper.
Indeed the man shall be blessed, the man who fears the Lord.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
  in the heart of your house;
your children like shoots of the olive,
  around your table.
Indeed the man shall be blessed, the man who fears the Lord.
Indeed thus shall be blessed
  the man who fears the Lord.
May the Lord bless you from Zion
  all the days of your life!
Indeed the man shall be blessed, the man who fears the Lord.

Gospel Acclamation
Ps144:13
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Lord is faithful in all his words
and loving in all his deeds.
Alleluia!
Or
Mt8:17
Alleluia, alleluia!
He took our sicknesses away,
and carried our diseases for us.
Alleluia!

Gospel
Matthew 8:1-4 ©
After Jesus had come down from the mountain large crowds followed him. A leper now came up and bowed low in front of him. ‘Sir,’ he said ‘if you want to, you can cure me.’ Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and said, ‘Of course I want to! Be cured!’ And his leprosy was cured at once. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Mind you do not tell anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest and make the offering prescribed by Moses, as evidence for them.’


THE WONDERS OF GOD ARE BEYOND MAN’S IMAGINATION

SCRIPTURE READINGS: GN 17:1. 9-10. 15-22; MT 8:1-4
Do you believe in miracles?  Can God do the impossible?  Although in theory, most would claim they do, yet in truth, many of us doubt that miracles can happen to us.  We are no better than Abraham.  He too found it ridiculous to believe that a miracle was possible.  Instead of responding with gratitude and thanksgiving that God was going to do a wonderful thing in his life by granting him a child at the age of a hundred, it was too good to be true.  We read, that with respect however, “Abraham bowed to the ground, and he laughed, thinking to himself, ‘Is a child to be born to a man one hundred years old, and will Sarah have a child at the age of ninety?’”   Truly, even when we are healed of a sickness and chosen for a position, we remain skeptical and diffident that the miracle has really taken place.  Few claim the promise of being healed by the Lord but continue to doubt Him.
Again, we read that Abraham, still not understanding fully the promise of God, suggested his own way to solve the problem of the barrenness of Sarah.  He thought he knew better.  He wanted God to save his son, Ishmael, the son born to the slave girl.  Abraham was being realistic that the only way for him to have descendants was through Ishmael rather than a promised son who still cannot be seen.  This is the same way we respond to the power of God at work in our lives.  We delineate how He should solve our problem or difficulty.  We trust more in our human wisdom than the wisdom of God.  We do not walk by faith but by sight. It is said that true “faith is dead to doubt, dumb to discouragement, and blind to impossibilities.”
Yet God often has greater plans beyond our finite and narrow concerns.  He knows what is best for us.  Indeed, God has already found a backdoor blessing for Ishmael.  God does not accomplish His plans at the expense of another.  He knew that regardless of the fact that Ishmael was born of a woman slave, he remained the son of Abraham.  Hence, understandably, Abraham felt for his son.  This explains why Abraham pleaded for Ishmael.  Of course, it was his fault in the first place for being impatient with the unfolding of God’s promise to give him descendants.  Instead of waiting for the Lord to act, he and Sarah took things into their own hands, and caused all the family squabbles as a result of the birth of Ishmael.  It only caused Sarah to be more insecure and jealous, and the slave to be superior and arrogant.  God in His wisdom knows how to make right things that are wrong.  He had it all planned.  He assured Abraham thus, “I bless him and I will make him fruitful and greatly increased in numbers.  He shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation.”   We could very well learn from this lesson not to be impatient with God.  We must wait patiently for God to reveal His plan to us.  He knows our concerns and needs.  We must trust Him to act in His own time and in the way He knows best.  Otherwise, we will only hinder His divine plan and cause more unnecessary evil upon ourselves.
Yet in all these, Abraham learned the ultimate meaning of faith, which is to trust in God and surrender his life completely to Him.  Against all improbability, he submitted to the divine plan of God for him.  Though he could not fully grasp the plan of God, he surrendered.  This is what the Lord requires of him and of us all.  He said, “Bear yourself blameless in my presence. ‘You shall maintain my Covenant, yourself and your descendants after you, generation after generation.  Now this is my Covenant which you are to maintain between myself and you, and your descendants after you:  all your males must be circumcised.”  This is affirmed in the responsorial psalm, “Indeed the man shall be blessed, the man who fears the Lord. O blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways! By the labour of your hands you shall eat. You will be happy and prosper.”  Abraham feared God, that is, he had reverence and trust in God.  God rewarded Him by making Him the Father of faith and the chosen people of God.  Through Him, God would accomplish His plan for humanity.  “But my Covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear you at this time next year.”
This same faith is expressed by the leper in today’s gospel as well. He came to Jesus and said, “’Sir,’ he said, ‘if you want to, you can cure me.’”  He knew that all things were possible to Jesus.  He never doubted Jesus’ power to heal.  This is the positive aspect of His faith.  This perhaps is true for us as well.  We do not doubt that God has the power to heal.  Otherwise, He would not be God.   It is for this reason that we pray to Him for divine healing, assistance and protection.  But the more important question is whether He wants to heal!
The answer in today’s gospel is an unquestionable and resounding YES!  He wants to heal.  He comes to save.  This was Jesus’ reply to the leper, “Of course I want to!  Be cured!”  One of the reasons why our prayer is often weak is because we doubt His mercy and His desire to heal and defend us.  We do not have the confidence that Jesus would be interested in our request.  The truth is that He is very concerned. It is significant that St Matthew’s gospel Sermon on the Mount is followed by a series of Ten Miracles.  It was his way of demonstrating that the kingdom of God that Jesus preached earlier would now be brought to fulfillment.  Jesus, in other words, would be the One to fulfill the promises of the Old Testament regarding the Messiah.
Jesus’ healing of the leper however was more than just a healing miracle.  It was Matthew’s intention to underscore God’s intention to reach out to the poor, the marginalized and the outcast, especially the untouchables.  Jesus came for all those who are excluded from society, those who are abandoned and rejected by society.  Lepers represent those who are suffering alienation and loneliness from their rejection by the community.  They were literally the living dead.  For such people, the Lord comes to reconcile them into the community.  We, too, can be confident that God wants to heal us, especially the physical and emotional traumas in our lives that result in us being cut off from the community we belong.  He wants to restore us back to fullness of life by healing us physically, emotionally and psychologically.
But for this to happen, we must be available for spiritual healing.  It was necessary therefore for the leper who was healed to be instructed to show himself to the priest and “make the offering prescribed by Moses, as evidence for them.”  This presentation before the priest of course was meant to certify a person to be fit for reintegration into the community.  It was done both for hygienic and spiritual reasons too.  So too, before we can be healed, we need to present ourselves to the Lord for healing, especially of our sins.  One could ask how the leper, who was a beggar and out of work, could make the sacrifice prescribed by Moses?  Yet the truth is that in the offering of the sacrifice, it is but a way of giving back to the healed leper, his dignity once again.  By praising and thanking God, his recovery and healing process is completed.  Otherwise, he would remain emotionally and psychologically wounded still.
To expedite this process, Jesus, in healing the leper, made a very brave and daring gesture by touching him. “Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him … And his leprosy was cured at once.”  At the end of the day, we all need the personal touch.  We are not pure spirits but with a body.  So being touched is part of the healing process. To be loved, accepted and embraced by our fellowmen is to reaffirm that we are the one Body of Christ.  Touching people genuinely, especially giving them a loving and warm hug, is a great way of showing that we love and we care.  A touch can do much more than what pills and medication can do.  By touching, we remove all barriers to our fellowmen. This explains why Jesus took the courage to touch the leper and we read that he was healed immediately.  For this reason too, the way of releasing divine power and grace in the church is the laying on of hands.  Through the human touch, God’s grace comes to us in a human way.  We too are called today to strengthen faith in those who need healing.  Through our personal touch, care, love, gentleness and compassion, they too can be helped to be open to God’s grace and mercy.  Let us strengthen each other in faith, for only faith alone is pleasing to God.


Written by The Most Rev William Goh
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore

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