20150627 ARE YOU JADED IN YOUR FAITH?
Readings at Mass
First reading
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Genesis 18:1-15 ©
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The Lord appeared to
Abraham at the Oak of Mamre while he was sitting by the entrance of the tent
during the hottest part of the day. He looked up, and there he saw three men
standing near him. As soon as he saw them he ran from the entrance of the tent
to meet them, and bowed to the ground. ‘My lord,’ he said ‘I beg you, if I find
favour with you, kindly do not pass your servant by. A little water shall be
brought; you shall wash your feet and lie down under the tree. Let me fetch a
little bread and you shall refresh yourselves before going further. That is why
you have come in your servant’s direction.’ They replied, ‘Do as you say.’
Abraham
hastened to the tent to find Sarah.’ ‘Hurry,’ he said ‘knead three bushels of
flour and make loaves.’ Then running to the cattle Abraham took a fine and
tender calf and gave it to the servant, who hurried to prepare it. Then taking
cream, milk and the calf he had prepared, he laid all before them, and they ate
while he remained standing near them under the tree.
‘Where is
your wife Sarah?’ they asked him. ‘She is in the tent’ he replied. Then his
guest said, ‘I shall visit you again next year without fail, and your wife will
then have a son.’ Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.
Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well on in years, and Sarah had ceased to have
her monthly periods. So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, ‘Now that I am past
the age of child-bearing, and my husband is an old man, is pleasure to come my
way again!’ But the Lord asked Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say, “Am I
really going to have a child now that I am old?” Is anything too wonderful for
the Lord? At the same time next year I shall visit you again and Sarah will
have a son.’ ‘I did not laugh’ Sarah said, lying because she was afraid. But he
replied, ‘Oh yes, you did laugh.’
Canticle
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Luke
1:46-50,53-55 ©
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The Lord
remembered his mercy.
My soul glorifies the
Lord,
my spirit
rejoices in God, my Saviour.
The Lord
remembered his mercy.
He looks on his
servant in her nothingness;
henceforth
all ages will call me blessed.
The Almighty works
marvels for me.
Holy his
name!
The Lord
remembered his mercy.
His mercy is from age
to age,
on those
who fear him.
He fills the starving
with good things,
sends the
rich away empty.
The Lord
remembered his mercy.
He protects Israel,
his servant,
remembering
his mercy,
the mercy promised to
our fathers,
to
Abraham and his sons for ever.
The Lord
remembered his mercy.
Gospel
Acclamation
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cf.2Tim1:10
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Our Saviour Jesus
Christ abolished death
and he has proclaimed
life through the Good News.
Alleluia!
Or
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Mt8:17
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Alleluia, alleluia!
He took our
sicknesses away,
and carried our
diseases for us.
Alleluia!
Gospel
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Matthew 8:5-17 ©
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When Jesus went into
Capernaum a centurion came up and pleaded with him. ‘Sir,’ he said ‘my servant
is lying at home paralysed, and in great pain.’ ‘I will come myself and cure
him’ said Jesus. The centurion replied, ‘Sir, I am not worthy to have you under
my roof; just give the word and my servant will be cured. For I am under
authority myself, and have soldiers under me; and I say to one man: Go, and he
goes; to another: Come here, and he comes; to my servant: Do this, and he does
it.’ When Jesus heard this he was astonished and said to those following him,
‘I tell you solemnly, nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this. And I
tell you that many will come from east and west to take their places with
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven; but the
subjects of the kingdom will be turned out into the dark, where there will be
weeping and grinding of teeth.’ And to the centurion Jesus said, ‘Go back,
then; you have believed, so let this be done for you.’ And the servant was
cured at that moment.
And going
into Peter’s house Jesus found Peter’s mother-in-law in bed with fever. He
touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on
him.
That
evening they brought him many who were possessed by devils. He cast out the
spirits with a word and cured all who were sick. This was to fulfil the
prophecy of Isaiah:
He
took our sicknesses away and carried our diseases for us.
ARE YOU
JADED IN YOUR FAITH?
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: GN 18:1-15;
MT 8:5-17
Many of
us are jaded in our faith. We could be attending daily mass, praying the
Office and involved in Church activities, yet we feel that God is so far
away. Quite often, we do not know whether He is real, whether He truly
cares and loves us.
Why are
we jaded? This happens when we become sterile in our faith. It
could be due to our disappointment with God for not fulfilling His
promises. Or it could be that we feel He does not care. For most of
us, we have become ritualistic in the practice of the faith, fulfilling obligations
out of fear or simply a duty that we must do. Routine practice of the
faith kills our dynamic relationship with God. All of us are tempted to
be contented with a perfunctory observance of the faith, whether in prayer or
even when participating in the liturgy, Mass or Divine Office. Being jaded in
the faith will also affect our interpersonal relationships.
In
today’s first reading, Sarah was jaded too. She was losing patience with
God, after waiting so long for a child, and had apparently lost hope of the
promise ever being fulfilled. She became cynical that such a thing could
happen at all. In a nutshell, she had lost faith in God. This was certainly the
case with the Jewish religious leaders as well. Instead of actively
searching for the arrival of the Messiah, they were more contented with
preserving the institutions, especially the religious practices, rather than
focusing on their relationship with God.
This
was not the case with Abram however. He never lost faith in God. On the
contrary, he was always alert to the visitation of the Lord. So when the
Lord came in the form of three men, he immediately invited them to his house
and gave them a warm hospitality, making them feel comfortable and providing
them with a sumptuous meal. He recognized them as coming from the
Lord. As a consequence, he was reassured by them that the Lord would
fulfill His promise of posterity to by giving him a child borne of Sarah.
Similarly,
the people during the time of Jesus, except the Jewish leaders ironically, saw
Him as the visitation of God. In Jesus, they saw the love and compassion of the
Father. He was one of compassion and mercy, reflecting the tender love of
the Father as encountered by Moses when God revealed Himself as “The Lord, the
compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and
faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness,
rebellion and sin.” (Exodus 34:6)
In the healing ministry of Jesus, we read how Jesus welcomed and healed all the
sick. Besides restoring Peter’s mother-in-law back to health, he “cast
out the spirits with a word and cured all who were sick.” The evangelist
considered the work of Jesus as the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, “He
took our sicknesses away and carried our diseases for us. (cf. Isa 53:4)
However,
none could match the faith of the Centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant
who was sick and most probably dying. Although a pagan and a non-Jew and
someone with authority, he humbled himself to approach Jesus. So great was his
faith in Jesus’ authority to heal that when Jesus wanted to go to his house to
cure his servant, he told Jesus, “Sir, I am not worthy to have you under my
roof; just give the word and my servant will be cured.” The centurion
counted himself unworthy for a Jew, and especially for a prophet of God, to
enter his house. He had such great confidence in Jesus’ healing power to
heal merely by His word and command. In other words, he confessed in
Jesus as being truly from God, since God’s word is always efficacious.
Yes, if
we want to encounter the Lord, we must not under-estimate the power of the Lord
and His mercy for us. The Lord is challenging us as He did with Sarah
when she was cynical about the power of God. She was laughing at the
prospect of her giving birth in her old age. Yes, throughout the
scriptures, the Lord said the same thing over and over again. The Lord
assured Moses of His assistance when they were fighting with their
enemies. He said, “Is the Lord’s arm too short? You will now see whether
or not what I say will come true for you.” (Nm 11:3) Similarly,
Isaiah reassured his people, “Behold the hand of the Lord is not shortened that
it cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear.” (Isa 50:2; 59:1) Truly, to
those who have faith nothing is impossible!
Indeed,
this is the kind of living faith that is required of us. Faith in Christ
and recognition of Him as the visitation of God brings healing in us.
With this faith, God will come to live in our hearts. Isn’t this
our experience at Mass during the communion rite when we say, “Lord, I am not
worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul
shall be healed.”? How great is our God who not only wants to heal us but
to live in us!
With
faith too, we see the Lord visiting us in the doctors, friends and in the
events of our daily life. God is always visiting us through our
fellowmen. The real problem is that we fail to see God working in and through
people whom we encounter each day. Everyone is a potential instrument of
God’s visitation. And everyone is equally a recipient of His visit to
us. But without faith, we cannot see the ordinary and sometimes even the
extra-ordinary events in life when God comes to affirm us of His love and mercy
for Him. So we must never think that God has not visited us each day; it
is rather because we fail to recognize Him coming to us – as a friend who
encourages and advises us; our family members and loved ones who give us His
love and intimacy; our fellow colleagues who challenge us to grow and realize
our potential; and even our enemies, including impersonal ones, such as
illnesses, misfortunes and misunderstandings, to purify our love and strengthen
our faith in Him.
Remember
the story about the man who claimed to have faith in God but was unable to
recognize Him when God came to save him? Caught in a flood, he prayed
fervently to God to save him. God sent a boatman to rescue him, but he
refused, saying that God would come to rescue him. Then as the level of
the flood grew higher, he climbed to the top of his roof. This time God
sent a helicopter to rescue him, but he declined, because he was waiting for
God to rescue him. As a result, he drowned. Upon seeing God, he
complained to Him that He did not save him. God reprimanded him instead for
rejecting His help that came through the various people He sent to help him.
Indeed,
the Lord comes to us in so many ways, through nature, persons, and events and
in our daily activities. Do you have the eyes of faith to recognize His
coming, the same eyes that enabled Abram, the prophets and the centurion to see
Him? If we find our faith lacking, it is because we have a fixated mind, like
the Jewish leaders who were simply too proud or too cowardly, to allow God to
surprise us. So let us keep ourselves alert to the visitation of God by
not simply reading the scriptures but to read it anew from different
perspectives; and to keep ourselves connected with Jesus through our personal
relationship with Him in prayer and worship.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh
Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Singapore
©
All Rights Reserved
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