20150818 THE REWARD OF THE KINGDOM
Readings at Mass
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First reading
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Judges 6:11-24 ©
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The angel of the Lord
came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah which belonged to Joash of Abiezer.
Gideon his son was threshing wheat inside the winepress to keep it hidden from
Midian, when the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘The Lord is with
you, valiant warrior!’ Gideon answered him, ‘Forgive me, my lord, but if the
Lord is with us, then why is it that all this is happening to us now? And where
are all the wonders our ancestors tell us of when they say, “Did not the Lord
bring us out of Egypt?” But now the Lord has deserted us; he has abandoned us
to Midian.’
At this
the Lord turned to him and said, ‘Go in the strength now upholding you, and you
will rescue Israel from the power of Midian. Do I not send you myself?’ Gideon
answered him, ‘Forgive me, my lord, but how can I deliver Israel? My clan, you
must know, is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least important in my
family.’ the Lord answered him, ‘I will be with you and you shall crush Midian
as though it were a single man.’ Gideon said to him, ‘If I have found favour in
your sight, give me a sign that it is you who speak to me. I beg you, do not go
away until I come back. I will bring you my offering and set it down before
you.’ And he answered, ‘I will stay until you return.’
Gideon
went away and prepared a young goat and made unleavened cakes with an ephah of
flour. He put the meat into a basket and the broth into a pot, then brought it
all to him under the terebinth. As he came near, the angel of the Lord said to
him, ‘Take the meat and unleavened cakes, put them on this rock and pour the
broth over them.’ Gideon did so. Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip
of the staff in his hand and touched the meat and unleavened cakes. Fire sprang
from the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened cakes, and the angel of the
Lord vanished before his eyes. Then Gideon knew this was the angel of the Lord,
and he said, ‘Alas, my Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!’
the Lord answered him, ‘Peace be with you; have no fear; you will not die.’
Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it The-Lord-is-Peace.
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Psalm
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Psalm 84:9,11-14
©
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The Lord speaks
peace to his people.
I will hear what the
Lord God has to say,
a voice
that speaks of peace,
peace for his people
and his friends
and those
who turn to him in their hearts.
The Lord speaks
peace to his people.
Mercy and
faithfulness have met;
justice
and peace have embraced.
Faithfulness shall
spring from the earth
and
justice look down from heaven.
The Lord speaks
peace to his people.
The Lord will make us
prosper
and our
earth shall yield its fruit.
Justice shall march
before him
and peace
shall follow his steps.
The Lord speaks
peace to his people.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Ps24:4,5
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Teach me your paths,
my God,
make me walk in your
truth.
Alleluia!
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Or
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2Co8:9
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus Christ was
rich,
but he became poor
for your sake,
to make you rich out
of his poverty.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 19:23-30
©
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Jesus said to his
disciples, ‘I tell you solemnly, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of heaven. Yes, I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to pass
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of
heaven.’ When the disciples heard this they were astonished. ‘Who can be saved,
then?’ they said. Jesus gazed at them. ‘For men’ he told them ‘this is
impossible; for God everything is possible.’
Then
Peter spoke. ‘What about us?’ he said to him ‘We have left everything and
followed you. What are we to have, then?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I tell you
solemnly, when all is made new and the Son of Man sits on his throne of glory,
you will yourselves sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.
And everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children
or land for the sake of my name will be repaid a hundred times over, and also
inherit eternal life.
‘Many
who are first will be last, and the last, first.’
THE
REWARD OF THE KINGDOM
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SCRIPTURE
READINGS: JDG 6:11-24;
MT 19:23-30
Many
people seek God for selfish interests. Many come to God so that they
might be blessed. To be blessed by God firstly, is to be blessed with
good health, prosperity, success, wealth, power; and then peace of mind, heart
etc. In some instances, the blessings of God are equated simply with
material success. It is therefore not surprising at all that the
disciples were dismayed when they heard Jesus saying that it is difficult for a
rich man to enter into the Kingdom of heaven. Such a statement
contradicts the Jewish belief that riches were a sign of God’s favour.
That is why, when the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and said, “The Lord
is with you”; Gideon replied “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened
to us? … the Lord has abandoned us and has delivered us to the power of the Midian.”
Hence,
the disciples were not happy with Jesus‘ remark on riches. It was really
scandalous. But Peter, the big mouthed disciple, tried to salvage the
situation. He too was not satisfied with Jesus’ remark. When he
turned to the Lord and said, “Here we have put everything aside to follow
you. What can we expect from it?” what he was saying is: “You mean
that we have followed you for nothing! Surely, there must be something
for us to look forward to. You cannot mean that we have taken leave of
our senses to follow you. You are surely just joking, just pulling our
legs.”
Now, in
order to understand the teaching of riches in today’s gospel, we must
understand why riches, more often than not, are a hindrance to our entry into
the Kingdom of God. For the truth is that when riches in any form
dominate our lives, be they material, intellect, abilities or talents, we tend
to become swellheaded and glory in what we have.
Then we
become attached to these things. We begin to believe that these are the
things that make us happy. Then we will use all means to achieve, to
compete and acquire all the wealth and power of this world, even if this is
done at the expense of others. We cling to them strongly and cannot let go for
fear that without them, our happiness would be taken away.
We will
also become less dependent on God’s graciousness as we become more self-reliant
and think that we can obtain all things simply by our human ingenuity and sheer
hard work. Of course, on our lips, we say that everything is due to His
grace. But deep in our hearts, we believe that we are the ones
responsible for whatever success we have attained in life. And when we no
longer refer everything to God, we become proud and insolent. In losing
God we will also lose our freedom, joy and happiness, because our riches have
in some ways become our gods.
What,
then, is the reward of the kingdom? The reward of the kingdom can be
summarized in the last line of today’s gospel: “Many who are first will
be last and the last shall be first.” That is to say, we will have
everything and yet nothing. In the first place, it would mean that
the reward of the Kingdom in the new age is to sit upon the throne with Jesus
and be named among the twelve judges. What does Jesus mean by this?
Surely, it cannot mean that we will become more powerful! Rather, we will
become lord of our lives. We will no longer be determined by wealth,
riches, success and prestige. Like Jesus, we will be totally free.
This is what God wanted for the Israelites too, in the first reading. In
fact, according to the Book of the Judges, the reason why God abandoned them
was because they abandoned God for the Canaanite gods of fertility, Baal and
Astarte. No, Jesus wants to free us from our slavery to the idols in our
lives.
In the
second place, it means that we will be blessed with many friends and yet none
is our friend in an exclusive manner. That is why, in a paradoxical way,
Jesus tells us that “everyone who has given up home, brothers or sisters,
father or mother, wife or children or property for my sake will receive many
times as much.” Why is this so? Because when we say that someone is
our friend, we tend to desire to possess him or her. The friendships that
most of us have experienced have always been possessive and stifling. Friends
always tend to control us. But true friendship, on the contrary is
liberating and all embracing. When we love someone, we will love them
unconditionally, regardless of their identity and status, what use they can be
to us or what they can give to us. In such a situation, we will see
everyone as our friend, our father, mother, brother and sister. Thus,
everyone is truly our friend and yet none is really ours because they do not
belong to us.
In the
third place, Jesus says we will also have many more times property and
prosperity than what we have now. But it is also true that none of
this property belongs to us. For this reason, the religious take the vow
of poverty. You own everything and yet you own nothing. Indeed, how
beautiful is the symbol and the truth of the vow of poverty!. Yes, when
we give our lives for others, people will pour gifts to us. They will
give us whatever we appeal for. We will become rich; materially, because
people will give us many things; personally, because we will develop our
potentials and virtues when we give ourselves to others. But at the same
time, we cannot say that the wealth, riches and talents we have belong to
us. This is because we are only stewards and trustees of God’s blessings.
God has given them all to us only because He wants us to discharge and expend
them for others who are in need. They are not meant for us to live
luxurious lives. They are meant for service and love. In that
sense, we therefore own nothing.
But what
we have said about the positive rewards must also be applied in the negative
things that we receive. Firstly, it means that we will also have
many worries and many difficulties. We will have difficulties like the
camel trying to enter the eye of the needle. Yes, people will come to us
with all sorts of problems and difficulties. When we have emptied ourselves of
our own selfish needs, we become available for others. Others’ worries
become our own. But at the same time, these worries are not ours really.
This is because we have transcended them. For this reason, we can also be
of help to those who are suffering and worrying too much about their
needs. We too can help them to transcend their myopic problems and narrow
concerns by teaching them to transcend their self-centered preoccupations.
Secondly,
we will also have many enemies because we proclaim the kingdom’s values.
Many people will not like us, nor like to listen to what we say. They
will find fault with us. And so we will be their enemies. But yet,
they are not our enemies. This is because we do not regard them as our
enemies. We regard them as the children of God, truly our brothers and sisters
in Christ. Even when we speak against them, it will not be out of malice but
out of fraternal concern. It would be out of love.
Yes,
the reward of the Kingdom is to have that freedom of having nothing and having
everything. Nothing is ours and yet everything is ours. The whole
creation has become ours but we do not possess it. Yes, the first and last
become nothing to us. It makes no difference. To be rich or to be
poor is the same. To be a success or a failure is the same. To have
friends or to have none is the same. Everything sought after is
surrendered to the Kingdom. By so doing, Jesus says, we will have
everlasting life. Now, what is eternal life if not the life of God?
Freedom in love and service is precisely what the life of God is all
about. When we arrive at this stage then we will understand the message
of the angel to Gideon: “The Lord is with you.” Indeed,
the Lord is with us whenever we live His life and His love. This is what
everlasting life is all about – the life of God. And a person who has God
does not need anything else.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh
Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Singapore
©
All Rights Reserved
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