THE DYNAMISM OF THE GOOD NEWS

20150902 THE DYNAMISM OF THE GOOD NEWS

Readings at Mass

First reading

1 Thessalonians 5:1-6,9-11 ©

You will not be expecting us to write anything to you, brothers, about ‘times and seasons’, since you know very well that the Day of the Lord is going to come like a thief in the night. It is when people are saying, ‘How quiet and peaceful it is’ that the worst suddenly happens, as suddenly as labour pains come on a pregnant woman; and there will be no way for anybody to evade it.

  But it is not as if you live in the dark, my brothers, for that Day to overtake you like a thief. No, you are all sons of light and sons of the day: we do not belong to the night or to darkness, so we should not go on sleeping, as everyone else does, but stay wide awake and sober. God never meant us to experience the Retribution, but to win salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that, alive or dead, we should still live united to him. So give encouragement to each other, and keep strengthening one another, as you do already.

Psalm

Psalm 26:1,4,13-14 ©

I am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living.

The Lord is my light and my help;

  whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life;

  before whom shall I shrink?

I am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living.

There is one thing I ask of the Lord,

  for this I long,

to live in the house of the Lord,

  all the days of my life,

to savour the sweetness of the Lord,

  to behold his temple.

I am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living.

I am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness

  in the land of the living.

Hope in him, hold firm and take heart.

  Hope in the Lord!

I am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living.

Gospel Acclamation

Heb4:12

Alleluia, alleluia!

The word of God is something alive and active:

it can judge secret emotions and thoughts.

Alleluia!

Or

Lk7:16

Alleluia, alleluia!

A great prophet has appeared among us;

God has visited his people.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Luke 4:31-37 ©

Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath. And his teaching made a deep impression on them because he spoke with authority.

  In the synagogue there was a man who was possessed by the spirit of an unclean devil, and it shouted at the top of its voice, ‘Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus said sharply, ‘Be quiet! Come out of him!’ And the devil, throwing the man down in front of everyone, went out of him without hurting him at all. Astonishment seized them and they were all saying to one another, ‘What teaching! He gives orders to unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out.’ And reports of him went all through the surrounding countryside.

THE DYNAMISM OF THE GOOD NEWS

SCRIPTURE READINGS: Col 1:1-8; Lk 4:38-44

The scripture lessons of today speak about the Good News of God.  Unfortunately, the fact is that today the Good News we proclaim does not sound like good news.  Not only in our preaching but even in our lives, we reflect not only stale news but even at times bad news.  But stale news is a contradiction in terms.  News, to be news, must be new.  If it is no longer new, then we can hardly call it news.  But it is not just news that we are called to proclaim, but the Good News.

How is it that our Good News has become stale or bad news?  The reason given in today’s gospel is simply this:  we want to domesticate the good news of God.  In the gospel, the people wanted to keep Jesus all for themselves.  So they tried to prevent Him from leaving.   Jesus must have been tempted to stay back in the village where He had healed many people.  He had indeed become very popular and well-sought after.  In fact, when things were going on so well for Him, it would not have made sense for Him to leave the place.  Yes, Jesus must have felt the temptation to build His own kingdom.  After all, who would want to leave a place when one is loved, known, idolized and always the center of attention?

There is a great temptation for us today to domesticate the Good News by insisting that everything remain unchanged.  Indeed, in the world today there is an opposition between the traditionalists and the progressives.  On one hand, there are those who do not want to see the Church changing to adapt to the new situations and the demands of our time.  They want the gospel to remain as it is and face the danger of redundancy as the message no longer resonates with our people.  Truth of course cannot be changed, but we need to know whether we are holding on to the truths or simply the facade.  Truths need to be applied to new situations because of new challenges.  Truths need to be represented in a new language and in a new context.

The demons too wanted to domesticate the good news by deceiving us into believing that we know Jesus when we do not.  That was why they proclaimed Jesus publicly as the Son of God.  Of course, Jesus rebuked them.  Why?  One might wonder.  Simply because Jesus knew that if the people heard from the demons that He was the Son of God, they would have been blinded from searching for Christ themselves.  The people would have deceived themselves into thinking that because they knew about His origin, they also knew Him personally.  Then they would not be bothered to seek Jesus for a deeper relationship.  It is just like those who have attended some talks on prayer and leave the seminar thinking that they now know all about centering prayer when in truth they have never even put it to practice on their own.  They have mistaken an intellectual knowledge of God and prayer for personal knowledge.   Indeed, for many of us who have been long in the faith, we think we have heard everything and that there is nothing more for us to learn.  We are no longer docile, receptive and teachable.   Those of us who study too much theology have a danger of thinking that we know much about God when our knowledge is mere cerebral knowledge, a knowledge that does not even affect the way we live our lives.  When there is no radical conversion or integrity of life in accordance with what we know or teach then we should be wary of thinking that we have the Good News.

How, then, can we preserve the Good News so that it will always remain good and fresh?  We can do so only if we recognize that God and life are dynamic.  Anything that is static is dead.  They are found only in the cemeteries and museums.  Anything that is alive is always dynamic.  Therefore, we must avoid the danger of settling down to our comfortable and set ways of living.  This can manifest itself in many ways.  For example, many of us get used to the routine of Church practices; the routine of parish life; the routine of prayer life.  Faith has become merely a culture, a way of life that we live without thinking or understanding.  We are doing what good Catholics must do, observing all the customs and laws but often without understanding and personal conviction.  At other times, it could be the set ways of thinking, the fixed ways of praying and understanding God in our lives; the lack of courage to change, to take risks and to venture out.   Undoubtedly, it is less risky to maintain our status quo than to take up new challenges in life.  But the fact is that, when we settle for a perpetuation of our status quo, we are settling for less in life.  Life will remain stagnant and there will be no growth.

On the other hand, those who do not enslave God and enslave themselves to their comfort zones and are willing to dance with the dynamism of life, will always find life alive.  Take the Christians in the first reading for example.  They were really living the Good News because they were in love with each other.  Of course, love is always creative and dynamic.  That is why people in love are always full of surprises.  When we fall out of love, creativity also dies.  Indeed, Jesus was a man who was truly alive because He had this deep love for His fellowmen.  That was what motivated Him to move on and to declare in no uncertain terms to those who wanted Him to stay that “To other towns I must announce the good news of the reign of God, because that is why I was sent.”  Indeed, if Jesus had chosen to stay, and even if He had been of use to the people there, it would have been more for Himself than for His fellowmen.

For this reason, we need to let go.  To the extent that we are willing to let go of our security and our needs, to that extent we will find life challenging and exciting.  But we can let go only if, like Jesus, we withdraw daily and often to re-examine our motives for doing things.  Prayer helps us to keep our perspectives right and prevent us from settling down to our neat concepts about God and life and our daily living.  Indeed, when things are getting too comfortable for us, perhaps, it is time for us to change.  In a nutshell, the Good News can retain its vigour and power only when we realize that we are pilgrims along the way.  Like Jesus, we must always move on in life, for that is the very nature of life and our calling.

Written by The Most Rev William Goh

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore

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