20150815 RE-MEMBERING : AFFIRMING AND BEING AFFIRMED
Joshua
24 : 14-29
14 'So
now, fear Yahweh
and serve him truly and sincerely; banish the gods whom your ancestors served
beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve Yahweh.
15 But
if serving Yahweh
seems a bad thing to you, today you must make up your minds whom you do mean to
serve, whether the gods whom your ancestors served beyond the River, or the gods
of the Amorites in whose country you are now living. As regards my family and
me, we shall serve Yahweh.'
17
Yahweh our God
was the one who brought us and our ancestors here from Egypt, from the place of
slave-labour, who worked those great wonders before our eyes and who kept us
safe all along the way we travelled and among all the peoples through whom we
passed.
18 And Yahweh
has driven all the nations out for us, including the Amorites who used to live
in the country. We too shall serve Yahweh, for he is our God.'
19
Joshua then said to the people, 'You will
not be able to serve Yahweh, since he is a holy God, he is a jealous God
who will
not tolerate either your misdeeds or your sins.
20 If
you desert
Yahweh
and serve the foreigners' gods, he will
turn and maltreat you anew and, in spite of having been good
to you in the past, will
destroy you.'
21 The
people replied to Joshua, 'No! Yahweh
is the one we mean to serve.'
22 Joshua
then said to the people, 'You are witnesses to yourselves that you have chosen
Yahweh, to serve him.' They replied, 'Witnesses we are!'
23
'Then banish the foreign gods which you have with you and give your allegiance
to Yahweh, God
of Israel!'
24 The
people replied to Joshua, 'Yahweh our God
is the one whom we shall serve; his voice we shall obey!'
25 That
day Joshua
made a covenant for the people; he laid down a statute and ordinance for them
at Shechem.
26
Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law
of God. He then took a large stone and set it up there, under the oak tree in
Yahweh's sanctuary.
27
Joshua then said to all the people, 'Look, this stone will
be a witness
to us, since it has heard all the words that Yahweh
has spoken to us: it will
be a witness
against you, in case you should deny your God.'
28
Joshua then dismissed the people, every one to his own heritage.
29 After this, Joshua son of Nun, servant
of Yahweh, died; he was a hundred and ten years old.
Matthew 19 : 13-15
13 Then
people brought little children
to him, for him to lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples scolded them,
14 but Jesus said, 'Let the
little children
alone, and do not stop them from coming to me; for it is to such as these that
the kingdom of Heaven
belongs.'
15 Then he laid his hands on them and went on his way.
RE-MEMBERING:
AFFIRMING AND BEING AFFIRMED
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SCRIPTURE
READINGS: JOSHUA 24:14-29;
MT 19:13-15
Most of
us have very short memories. We forget very easily the blessings that God has
given to us. We forget the talents we have; the success we have had; the
love that people have given to us. Ironically, we tend to have long memories of
unpleasant events in our lives, as when people hurt us either with their words
or actions; or when we meet with failures and setbacks. Yes, we remember
bad things, but good things are easily forgotten. When unpleasant things
happen to us, we blame God and accuse Him of abandoning us. How often
too, in relationships, because of a mistake or a betrayal, we forget so quickly
all the good times we have had, the sacrifices our friend or loved one has done
for us. On account of one mistake, we want to break the relationship completely.
Although it is true that those whom we love hurt us most when they fail us, yet
we forget that we are not perfect in love and sometimes because of selfishness
and fear, we might not be able to love perfectly. In a nutshell, we forget who
we are and that we are loved.
Whatever
it is, memory points to the fact that remembering is essential to life.
It is when we remember that we stay connected within ourselves and with
others. To remember is to re-member our fragmented self. To
remember the values of our culture, our country and our faith makes us members
of the community. In forgetting, we dis-member ourselves from the community;
whether it is our social or faith community. But most of all, we lose our
integrated-ness. However, it is not just simply remembering that is
important to life, but how and what we remember. How then should we remember?
By affirming and being affirmed.
It is a
fact of life that we need to be constantly affirmed that we are loved and that
we are somebody. That is why people need to be told constantly that they are
loved. This also explains why Jesus in the gospel today prayed over the
children and affirmed them in the love of God. By so doing, Jesus is also
relaying the message that regardless of age, whether we are one day old or 100
years old, we need to be reassured of our importance and dignity. We need
to be told explicitly that we are loved, and we also need to experience it
physically. Many peoples’ talents and potential have not been tapped, simply because
parents, educators and leaders did not affirm them sufficiently to help them
become conscious of their strengths and work further on them.
This
same need to be affirmed in love by our fellow human beings and by God is also
seen in today’s first reading from Joshua, where we read of the renewal of the
Covenant at Shechem. Joshua belonged to the second generation of leadership
after the great Moses. The people too would have belonged to the newer
generation and could have forgotten the great portents that God worked during
the days of Moses. Consequently, it was necessary for Joshua to reassure
and remind them of God’s love for them if they were to continue to be faithful
to Yahweh. Thus, we have the recital of God’s great works for the
Israelites. Joshua took pains to go through the history of salvation,
beginning from Abraham through the Exodus and arriving at the Promised
Land. He reminded them of the great works performed by God: “Was it not
the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors out of the land of Egypt, the
house of slavery, who worked those great wonders before our eyes and preserved
us all along the way we travelled and among all the peoples through whom we
journeyed?” More importantly, Joshua also wanted to reiterate that these
works of God were still happening in their midst. Hence Joshua, knowing
that his time to depart was near, called for a renewal of the Covenant with
Yahweh so that they would never forget the power of Yahweh and His love for
them when he was no longer around.
The need
to be affirmed, however, is only part of the whole process of remembering. We
also need to reaffirm our love for others as well. In this case, we have
Joshua and the people reaffirming and recommitting themselves to the
Covenant. In this act of reaffirmation, they relived their original
calling, their identity and their relationship with Yahweh. Hence, Joshua
called for a decisive response to Yahweh’s love for them. He told the
people, “’Fear the Lord and serve him perfectly and sincerely; put away the
gods that your ancestors served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the
Lord. But if you will not serve the Lord, choose today whom you wish to serve,
whether the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River, or the gods of
the Amorites in whose land you are now living. As for me and my House, we serve
the Lord.” And when the people replied, “we too will serve the
Lord, for he is our God”, Joshua reiterated the seriousness of the commitment
and the demands of that decision they made, failing which, evil and harm will
fall upon them. So solemn was this commitment that Joshua had the
covenant marked by a stone saying, “See! This stone shall be a witness against
us because it has heard all the words that the Lord has spoken to us: it shall
be a witness against you in case you deny your God.”
Consequently,
from today’s scripture readings, we must realize that reaffirming our love for
others and for God is a necessary element of an integrated growth in our lives.
When we reaffirm our love for God and for others, not only do we remember who
we are and what we are called to do but we also help them to realize their
goodness as well. By reaffirming our love for God every day, we are
reminded of His enduring and faithful love for us in the past and in the
present. Remembering how He has loved us gives us the confidence to go
through our trials and tribulations without falling into despair. This is
also true in human relationships. By affirming the goodness in our
brothers and sisters, we draw out the strength in them, helping them to
appreciate and love themselves. The truth is that when they love
themselves, then their love for us will become more genuine, since one cannot
give what he has not got. And indeed, we have so much beauty to affirm in
each other. In spite of our human imperfections, we must be objective and
honest enough to realize that human beings by nature have more goodness than
evil. Most of us are generally loving and good people. Instead of
focusing on the imperfections we find in others, a wider analysis of them
cannot but awaken us to the store of positive qualities in them, which
certainly outweigh their weaknesses.
Of
course, whilst affirming each other on the social, intellectual and personal
level is surely important, there is also a need for us to be affirmed by God
and to reaffirm our commitment to Him. Unless, we are affirmed by God that we
are loved by Him, it would be impossible to love ourselves; and consequently if
we cannot see any goodness in us, we will not be able to see goodness in others
either. Hence, we must avail ourselves of those occasions when we
allow God to affirm us either in prayer, meditation or in Christian fellowship
and especially during a retreat.
This
need to remember and be affirmed in love finds its privileged place in the
liturgical celebrations, especially when we pray the Liturgy of the Hours or
when we celebrate Mass. This is because in the liturgy, we bring the needs of
our fellow human beings to mind; we affirm our love for them and their goodness
before God. At the same time, we also hear God’s consoling words of mercy
and forgiveness and experience His encouraging and healing love for us.
This remembering reaches its climax in the celebration of the Eucharist.
For in celebrating the memorial of the Lord’s Supper, we are once again
reminded of His love for us in the past, in the present and in the
future. With this memory of Him and His love, we are now empowered to
love in that same manner and we are able to affirm others even when they are
apparently unlovable in the eyes of the world. But with the eyes of God
and with the eyes of Christ, we see everyone as loveable, unique and important,
just as Jesus regarded the children with love in the gospel.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh
Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Singapore
©
All Rights Reserved
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