GETTING ONE’S PRIORITIES RIGHT

20150924 GETTING ONE’S PRIORITIES RIGHT

Readings at Mass

First reading

Haggai 1:1-8 ©

In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord was addressed through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, high commissioner of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as follows, ‘The Lord of Hosts says this, “This people says: The time has not yet come to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. (And the word of the Lord was addressed through the prophet Haggai, as follows:) Is this a time for you to live in your panelled houses, when this House lies in ruins? So now, the Lord of Hosts says this: Reflect carefully how things have gone for you. You have sown much and harvested little; you eat but never have enough, drink but never have your fill, put on clothes but do not feel warm. The wage earner gets his wages only to put them in a purse riddled with holes. So go to the hill country, fetch wood, and rebuild the House: I shall then take pleasure in it, and be glorified there, says the Lord.”’

Psalm

Psalm 149:1-6,9 ©

The Lord takes delight in his people.

or

Alleluia!

Sing a new song to the Lord,

  his praise in the assembly of the faithful.

Let Israel rejoice in its Maker,

  let Zion’s sons exult in their king.

The Lord takes delight in his people.

or

Alleluia!

Let them praise his name with dancing

  and make music with timbrel and harp.

For the Lord takes delight in his people.

  He crowns the poor with salvation.

The Lord takes delight in his people.

or

Alleluia!

Let the faithful rejoice in their glory,

  shout for joy and take their rest.

Let the praise of God be on their lips:

  this honour is for all his faithful.

The Lord takes delight in his people.

or

Alleluia!

Gospel Acclamation

Ps118:18

Alleluia, alleluia!

Open my eyes, O Lord, that I may consider

the wonders of your law.

Alleluia!

Or

Jn14:6

Alleluia, alleluia!

I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, says the Lord;

No one can come to the Father except through me.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Luke 9:7-9 ©

Herod the tetrarch had heard about all that was being done by Jesus; and he was puzzled, because some people were saying that John had risen from the dead, others that Elijah had reappeared, still others that one of the ancient prophets had come back to life. But Herod said, ‘John? I beheaded him. So who is this I hear such reports about?’ And he was anxious to see Jesus.

GETTING ONE’S PRIORITIES RIGHT

SCRIPTURE READINGS: HAGGAI 1:1-8; LK 9:7-9

We are all very busy and occupied with activities from morning until night.  Some of us do not even have sufficient time for sleep or even to take our meals.  No wonder, each day and year passes so quickly that before we know it, we have reached our old age and we have not yet begun to live!  And this becomes problematic because we are just drifting along in life, or rather, being pushed from one thing to another, whether it is our concern for our work, business, health, family or even Church involvement.  Such a life can hardly be said to be a happy life.  In fact, the outcome will be more a life that is hectic, disorientated and frustrated. That is what the prophet said to the Jews who returned from exile in Babylon: “You have sown much and harvested little; you eat but never have enough, drink but never have your fill, put on clothes but do not feel warm.  The wage earner gets his wages only to put them in a purse riddled with holes.”  In a word, we are doing so many things, and at the end of the day, our lives are no better.

And what is the reason for our lack of focus?  We fail to prioritize our values and concerns in life.  It is true that we all have many things to do.  Some are urgent but not important.  Some are important but not urgent.  Some are both urgent and important.  This was the case with the Jews.  They did not get their priorities right.  Instead of completing the task assigned by God to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem, they were slow and unenthusiastic.  After 15 years, nothing much was accomplished except for the altar.  Instead of putting the House of God first before theirs, they were more concerned about building and beautifying their own houses.  Should we be surprised?  How many of us put the House of God, the Church, before our own?  We spend most of our time and money renovating our houses than building the Church of God.  We spend our resources and time indulging in our pet hobbies rather than being concerned with the work of God.

The truth is that if God is not the most important value and person in our lives, then all other values that we hold would be competing for each other without any reference point for us to gauge which one is more essential.  Secondly, it also means that we cannot find unity in all that we do, resulting in a fragmented life.  We live without focus and meaning.  Life is reduced to activities without having any direction.  These are the consequences of not putting God as the foremost priority in what we do. That is why in both the Old and New Testaments, the exhortation is always the same: “The Lord our God is the one Lord. You shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.”  This is an injunction placed upon every Jew until today, for Moses said, “Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”  (Dt 6:7-9)  But the Jews who returned from exile forgot to obey this command.  They neglected the Temple and the presence of God symbolized by the Temple.

When we focus on things and the pursuits of this world, we will forever remain dissatisfied.  This world can never satisfy us, because it is transient and illusive.  Regardless of whatever power, status or wealth we have, we are never fulfilled.  Man pursues one thing after another, hoping to find happiness, but the moment he attains it, he loses interest.  Such meaningless pursuit can also happen in relationships.  Sometimes, men regard women as trophies to be conquered and won in life.  They would spend all their time pursuing a woman, but the moment the woman is “caught” by the man, he loses interest in her and starts pursuing something else, be it career, money, power or even another woman, so as to boost his ego and his feeling of being powerful.  But deep within, he feels empty, disillusioned and insecure.  What is it that can truly satisfy our hearts?

But if we place God above all other things, then whatever else we do can take its direction from this vantage point.  Hence, it is of great importance for us not to neglect our spiritual life, irrespective of how busy we are in our work, family responsibilities and Church involvements.  If we only take care of our physical and material needs, we will be living the life of an animal.  Even if we pay attention to our emotional needs, without a strong spiritual life, because of our insecurity, our relationships will become clingy and possessive, resulting in mutual manipulation of each other’s body and feelings.  Eventually, both will hurt each other and the relationship will turn sour.  So God is the one who can provide us all that we need.

For this reason, God challenged His people, asking how they could live in luxury when His house was in ruins. “Is this a time for you to live in your paneled houses, when this House lies in ruins?”  When God’s house is in ruins, how much worse will ours be?  External beauty cannot take the place of the beauty of the heart of the person.  By attending to the superficial and neglecting his essential needs, especially his spiritual needs, man will destroy himself because he is no longer available to the blessings of God.  When his interior life is in disorder, it will be seen in all the other dimensions of his life.  This was certainly the case for Herod.  He too did not get his priorities right.  When does one fail to get his priorities right? What would be the factors that can prevent a person from doing the right thing?

Firstly, we are told that there is the temptation of finding security from men.  Herod placed the importance of his approval rating among men above how God would rate him.  If he had put God as the first person in His life, he would not have ended in a mess, and most of all, live with an accusing conscience day and night, simply because he listened to Herodias rather than to his conscience.  He knew what he should do, but because of his lack of relationship with God, he went against his conscience, whether it was with regard to his adultery with Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, or with John the Baptist’s execution.  His conscience became dull and then dead when he could not distinguish between right from wrong, or he was lacking in the will to do the right thing.  From today’s gospel, we can be certain that he was continually being haunted by the death of John the Baptist.  Well, some of us too, measure our security and self-esteem by our popularity, checking how many people access our Facebook, where we stand in opinion polls, the number of friends we have, etc.

Secondly, it could be due to fear.  If we are more concerned with our job than our family, it is because we feel that without lots of money the family cannot be happy.  So the husband and wife could be working day and night to strengthen their careers at the expense of their interpersonal relationship, or that with their children.  Similarly too, some parents think that giving their children that extra edge in education or personal development is the most important, even to the extent of depriving their children of religious education and participation in Church activities.  Little do they know that being the brightest does not mean having the right values of honesty, filial piety and above all, integrity!.  So too was the case of the Jews.  When they returned from Babylon in 538 BC to rebuild the Temple, they faced lots of opposition from their enemies.  This caused them to become discouraged.  As a result, they stopped work on the Temple for over 15 years.  What we should fear is the Lord, for the book of Proverbs says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Prov 1:7)

What about us? “So now, the Lord of hosts says this: Reflect carefully how things have gone for you.”  Today, the Lord invites us to confront the ghosts in our lives that hinder us from giving priority to Him and also to the most important things in our lives.  If we, like Judah, are living with confused priorities, then it is urgent that we take time to reflect on what are those things that really matter to us so that we can give the time and attention to them.  Otherwise, we will only regret when we come to the end of our lives, realizing that we have done all the wrong things, abandoning God, our spouse, our children and our friends.  We might be successful and famous, but we will be all alone with no one who really loves us and cares for us.

Indeed, let us learn to live a holistic and balanced lifestyle.  Such a lifestyle is not possible unless we trust in Him.  If we surrender our lives to the Lord, He will look after us and help us to live rightly.  We need not fear, for if He gives us the task, He will give us the means and the strength to accomplish our responsibilities. We must therefore stop making excuses for failing to give time to God and to our spouse and family members. All other things must be subordinated to the love of God, including our family.  When we make other priorities more important than giving glory and honour to God, we will create more problems for ourselves.  Then, like King Herod, the guilt of our past will come back to haunt us.  So let us pray for the wisdom and courage to get our priorities straight and set our hearts to do the right things, the important things, first.

Written by The Most Rev William Goh

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore

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