LACK OF FRATERNAL COMMUNION AS THE OBSTACLE TO ETERNAL LIFE

20150817 LACK OF FRATERNAL COMMUNION AS THE OBSTACLE TO ETERNAL LIFE

Readings at Mass

First reading

Judges 2:11-19 ©

The sons of Israel did what displeases the Lord, and served the Baals. They deserted the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from the gods of the peoples round them. They bowed down to these; they provoked the Lord; they deserted the Lord to serve Baal and Astarte. Then the Lord’s anger flamed out against Israel. He handed them over to pillagers who plundered them; he delivered them to the enemies surrounding them, and they were not able to resist them. In every warlike venture, the hand of the Lord was there to foil them, as the Lord had warned, as the Lord had sworn to them. Thus he reduced them to dire distress.

  Then the Lord appointed judges for them, and rescued the men of Israel from the hands of their plunderers. But they would not listen to their judges. They prostituted themselves to other gods, and bowed down before these. Very quickly they left the path their ancestors had trodden in obedience to the orders of the Lord; they did not follow their example. When the Lord appointed judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and rescued them from the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived, for the Lord felt pity for them as they groaned under the iron grip of their oppressors. But once the judge was dead, they relapsed and behaved even worse than their ancestors. They followed other gods; they served them and bowed before them, and would not give up the practices and stubborn ways of their ancestors at all.

Psalm

Psalm 105:34-37,39-40,43-44 ©

O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.

They failed to destroy the peoples

  as the Lord had given command,

but instead they mingled with the nations

  and learned to act as they did.

O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.

They worshipped the idols of the nations

  and these became a snare to entrap them.

They even offered their own sons

  and their daughters in sacrifice to demons.

O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.

So they defiled themselves by their deeds

  and broke their marriage bond with the Lord

till his anger blazed against his people;

  he was filled with horror at his chosen ones.

O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.

Time after time he rescued them,

  but in their malice they dared to defy him.

In spite of this he paid heed to their distress,

  so often as he heard their cry.

O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.

Gospel Acclamation

Ps118:24

Alleluia, alleluia!

Train me, Lord, to observe your law,

to keep it with my heart.

Alleluia!

Or

Mt5:3

Alleluia, alleluia!

How happy are the poor in spirit:

theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Matthew 19:16-22 ©

There was a man who came to Jesus and asked, ‘Master, what good deed must I do to possess eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is one alone who is good. But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ He said, ‘Which?’ ‘These:’ Jesus replied ‘You must not kill. You must not commit adultery. You must not bring false witness. Honour your father and mother, and: you must love your neighbour as yourself.’ The young man said to him, ‘I have kept all these. What more do I need to do?’ Jesus said, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ But when the young man heard these words he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.

LACK OF FRATERNAL COMMUNION AS THE OBSTACLE TO ETERNAL LIFE

SCRIPTURE READINGS: JUDGES 2:11-19; MATTHEW 19:16-22

“Master, what good deed must I do to possess eternal life?”  We too ask the same question.  Like the rich young man in today’s gospel, we are happy but not really happy.  Why?  What is the obstacle that prevents us from attaining the fullness of life?

Like the young man, we think that the problem could be that we are not doing enough.  Like him, we ask the question, “What else must I do to attain eternal life?” The ironical answer that Jesus gave is, “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments”.  Clearly, this man believed he has kept all the commandments and thus he was clarifying with Jesus which commandments he might have omitted.  Again, Jesus spelt out the commandments which are found in the second part of the Decalogue, which deals with one’s duty towards our fellowman rather than our duty towards God, which is found in the first part of the Decalogue.

But precisely, in the young man’s understanding, he has fulfilled the laws of justice that are required of him towards his fellowmen.  Hence, his immediate response was, “I have kept all these.  What more I need to do?”  And so Jesus said, ’If you wish to be perfect, go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’“  Here we arrive at the crux of the matter.  Why did Jesus ask him to sell all that he owns and give to the poor?  The truth is that Jesus wanted him to realize that eternal life is not simply a question of doing things for people or even fulfilling the laws of justice.  More than that, eternal life is to be in communion with our fellow human beings. 

In other words, what Jesus is inviting the man to do is to keep a right relationship with his fellowmen.  Without communion with his fellowmen, there is no way to participate in the life of God, that is, eternal life, since the life of God is a life of giving, fidelity and compassion.  Such is the portrayal of God in the first reading when we read how God has been faithful to the Israelites even when they deserted Him for false gods because they did not know Him as Moses and Joshua did.  But time and again, God showed His forgiving love and mercy especially when He heard their groans “under the iron grip of their oppressors”.   Feeling with them, He would send judges, one after another to rescue them “from the hands of their plunderers.”  God was in communion with them even though they were not in communion with Him.  Thus, to observe the commandments is to worship God.  By so doing, we realize our communion with our fellowmen as well.

When we situate today’s gospel text with the gospel texts of the last two days, this emphasis on complete communion with our fellowmen becomes clearer.  Last Friday, the gospel spoke about the union and communion between husband and wife; then on Saturday, the text dealt with the importance of children and their attitude of trust in a relationship.  Today, Jesus is giving instructions to the young man who probably had not been faithful to his parents since he put the commandment of honouring one’s parents as the last in the series of commandments that he should observe.  In all these gospel texts, the question of communion and accessibility to each other is underscored.

Within this context, we can therefore understand why “when the young man heard these words he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth”.   If he went away sad, it was because he understood the words of Jesus clearly.  Although he might have fulfilled the legal requirements of the commandments, he had not gone to the extent of giving himself totally to others.  He continued to hold back from giving himself completely to others, thereby his love for his neighbour cannot be said to be perfect or godly. The implication therefore is that the rich young man did not love his neighbour as much as he loved himself.  The message that Jesus wanted to drive across is that if we truly love others, then we would want to be one with them.  We must identify with them in every way.  When others’ happiness is as important as ours, then we can claim that we have loved our neighbours.  Paradoxically, this is also the only way to really love ourselves.  This explains why this is the way to perfect ourselves and inherit the treasure in heaven, which is eternal life; the life of God.  Thus, to the extent we give ourselves to others in love, to that extent we share in the life of God.  

Consequently, the important lesson we need to learn from today’s liturgy is that so long as we are not in good relationship and in communion with our fellowmen or we do not give ourselves in love for them, it would be the primary obstacle that prevents us from attaining full union with God and from following Jesus.   Until and unless we practise justice and love, we cannot be in full communion with God.  Without truly loving ourselves in others, we cannot be free to follow Jesus and give our lives to Him.  Only by removing the obstacle of injustice in our lives, can we then be free to follow Jesus.  This explains why great importance is given to the Sacrament of Reconciliation for without it, the graces of God cannot flow to us.  Hence, the condition for following Jesus is that we must first give up whatever is an impediment to loving ourselves so that God’s love can reach us fully.

Consequently, if we are not truly happy, then we need to ask ourselves which area of our lives is hampering us from truly loving our fellowmen and to be in union with them.  Has money become the obstacle to unity, especially when we squabble over financial and material matters?  Have we become too attached to some people in our lives, that we are no longer free for His service?  Or have we by our unforgiveness blocked that channel of love from flowing out from us?  Our wealth or false gods could be certainly anyone of these.  We would have fallen into the same sin as the Israelites in the first reading so long as we allow these false gods to enslave us.

Thus, from today’s scripture readings, it is clear that the lack of love and communion with others will lead to the lack of love for oneself.    As a result, we will not only be sad like the rich young man who could not give up his wealth, his false god, but we will also suffer untold misery like the Israelites who continued to serve and worship false gods and “would not give up the practices and stubborn ways of their ancestors at all.”  The response is ours.  God wants us to share His life and be completely fulfilled.  But so long as we allow our attachment to some false gods to separate us from our fellowmen, we can never give ourselves fully to live the life of Jesus and share our lives with Him.  But if we do, then we will be able to share in His life of self-emptying love.

Written by The Most Rev William Goh

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore

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