20151003 THE JOY AND REWARDS OF THE MINISTRY
Readings at Mass
|
First reading
|
|
Baruch
4:5-12,27-29 ©
|
Take courage, my
people,
constant reminder of
Israel.
You were sold to the
nations,
but not for
extermination.
You provoked God;
and so were delivered
to your enemies,
since you had angered
your creator
by offering
sacrifices to demons, not to God.
You had forgotten the
eternal God who reared you.
You had also grieved
Jerusalem who nursed you,
for when she saw the
anger fall on you
from God, she said:
Listen, you
neighbours of Zion:
God has sent me great
sorrow.
I have seen my sons
and daughters taken into captivity,
to which they have
been sentenced by the Eternal.
I had reared them
joyfully;
in tears, in sorrow,
I watched them go away.
Do not, any of you,
exult over me,
a widow, deserted by
so many;
I suffer loneliness
because of the sins of my own children,
who turned away from
the Law of God.
Take courage, my
children, call on God:
he who brought
disaster on you will remember you.
As by your will you
first strayed away from God,
so now turn back and
search for him ten times as hard;
for as he brought
down those disasters on you,
so will he rescue you
and give you eternal joy.
|
Psalm
|
Psalm 68:33-37 ©
|
The Lord listens
to the needy.
The poor when they
see it will be glad
and
God-seeking hearts will revive;
for the Lord listens
to the needy
and does
not spurn his servants in their chains.
Let the heavens and
the earth give him praise,
the sea
and all its living creatures.
The Lord listens
to the needy.
For God will bring
help to Zion
and
rebuild the cities of Judah
and men
shall dwell there in possession.
The sons of his
servants shall inherit it;
those who
love his name shall dwell there.
The Lord listens
to the needy.
|
Gospel
Acclamation
|
Mt11:25
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are you,
Father,
Lord of heaven and
earth,
for revealing the
mysteries of the kingdom
to mere children.
Alleluia!
|
Gospel
|
Luke 10:17-24 ©
|
The seventy-two came
back rejoicing. ‘Lord,’ they said ‘even the devils submit to us when we use
your name.’ He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
Yes, I have given you power to tread underfoot serpents and scorpions and the
whole strength of the enemy; nothing shall ever hurt you. Yet do not rejoice
that the spirits submit to you; rejoice rather that your names are written in
heaven.’
It was
then that, filled with joy by the Holy Spirit, he said, ‘I bless you, Father,
Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the
clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it
pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one
knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son
and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’
Then
turning to his disciples he spoke to them in private, ‘Happy the eyes that see
what you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what
you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.’
THE JOY
AND REWARDS OF THE MINISTRY
|
|
What is
the challenge of the ministry? We are called to share in the mission of
Christ of restoring Israel back to God. Our ministry is fundamentally the
ministry of reconciliation. This is what St Paul wrote, “All this is from
God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not
counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of
reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were
making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled
to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:18-21)
In the
first reading, we read of the consequences of the infidelities of Israel and
also the encouraging words to repent. Like a mother, Jerusalem consoled
her unfaithful children in exile and invited them to repent so that God will
restore their fortunes. She says, “Take courage, my children, call on
God: he who brought disaster on you will remember you. As by your will you
first strayed away from God, so now turn back and search for him ten times as
hard; for as he brought down those disasters on you, so will he rescue you and
give you eternal joy.” Indeed, we must give hope and encouragement
to sinners to return to God with all their heart and soul.
As
Christ’s co-workers, we, too, are called to preach the message of repentance
and conversion. Like Jesus we are called to proclaim the Father’s
unconditional love and mercy. Indeed, what most people need to hear is
that God has forgiven their sins. Forgiveness of sins and the
unconditional love of God is the basic proclamation of the gospel. That
is why St Paul wrote, “As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s
grace in vain. For he says, ‘In the time of my favor I heard
you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the
time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor 6:1f) With the psalmist we must
assure those who have abandoned God that God has not abandoned them. “The
Lord listens to the needy. For God will bring help to Zion and rebuild the
cities of Judah and men shall dwell there in possession. The sons of his servants
shall inherit it; those who love his name shall dwell there.” God will restore
our sonship and bring us back to His dwelling place. Our people
need to hear the message of hope in order to find strength to come back to God.
How can
we bring about this work of reconciliation? It begins with
compassion. This is the origin of our ministry. In the first
reading, we can feel the pain and sorrows of the prophet Baruch who cried for
his sinful and rebellious people. We can feel the pain of the prophet who
saw his people suffering in exile, just like any parent who sees his child
going the wrong way. Truly, the greatest sorrow of parents is to see
their children taking the wrong path and unable to do anything to assist
them. The prophet expressed his grief in these words. “God has sent
me great sorrow. I have seen my sons and daughters taken into captivity, to
which they have been sentenced by the Eternal. I had reared them joyfully; in
tears, in sorrow, I watched them go away. Do not, any of you, exult over me, a
widow, deserted by so many; I suffer loneliness because of the sins of my own
children, who turned away from the Law of God.” Before we undertake the
ministry of reconciliation, we must do it not out of self-righteousness but out
of empathy and mercy for those who are suffering on account of their sins and
rejection of God who is their creator and source of life.
This is
then followed by an examination of conscience. He enumerated the sins of
his people and brought them to consciousness, lest they forgot why they were
suffering. He said, “You were sold to the nations, but not for
extermination. Your provoked God; and so were delivered to your enemies, since
you had angered your creator by offering sacrifices to demons, not to God. You
had forgotten the eternal God who reared you.” Unless sinners are
aware of their sins and wrongdoings, they tend to assign blame to God and to
others. No repentance is possible unless they first come to awareness of
their role in causing hurts to others and as a consequence are paying the price
of the effects of their sins.
However,
the prophet not only appealed to their conscience but he also appealed to their
hearts. He said, “You had also grieved Jerusalem who nursed you, for when
she saw the anger fall on you from God.” Quite often, people will not be
transformed and converted simply by having their mistakes pointed out to
them. More importantly, we need to appeal to the goodness of their
hearts. If people do not change because of pride, they will listen to our
cries of appeals.
Yet the
proclamation of the gospel is always accompanied by signs, namely healing, be
it spiritual, physical or inner healing and exorcism. For this reason,
Jesus sent out the disciples to heal and to deliver those under the clutches of
the Evil One. “The seventy-two came back rejoicing. ‘Lord,’ they said ‘even the
devils submit to us when we use your name.’” In this way the Lordship of
Christ is seen and faith in Jesus as the Son of the Father is
strengthened. Such manifestations of the presence of the Risen Lord are
still present today. Proclamation of the Good News must be concretely
experienced by those who give themselves to Jesus by being set free from their
slavery to sins and fear. Otherwise, the Good News lack power, as
they would be mere words alone. Truly, the Israelites could sing
praises to God only because they experienced the mercy of God. The
psalmist wrote, “The poor when they see it will be glad and God-seeking hearts
will revive; for the Lord listens to the needy and does not spurn his servants
in their chains.”
Yet the
greatest joy in our ministry must not rest on these external signs of God’s
power over evil. In fact, when the seventy-two came back rejoicing saying,
“Lord, even the devils submit to us when we use your name.” Like
the apostles, sometimes we can get carried away by our success in the ministry,
especially when we see that people are touched by our ministering or when we
see miracles happening in our midst. This is egoism! The desire to
have power and control over others is the wrong motive for the ministry.
Instead, Jesus tells us “I watched Satan fall like lightening from
heaven. Yes. I have given you power to tread underfoot serpents and
scorpions and the whole strength of the enemy; nothing shall ever hurt you. Yet
do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you; rejoice rather that your names
are written in heaven.”
How are
our names written in heaven? Firstly, we save our souls as we grow in
holiness through our faith in Him and demonstrated in a life of service and
love. Indeed, more importantly is that in the process of proclaiming repentance
and conversion we ourselves are converted. How does this take place? When
we witness the goodness and power of God in the lives of our people through our
ministry! For this reason, those of us who serve the Lord are rewarded
more abundantly than what we give. This is true for those of us who are
involved in healing ministry, in teaching and ministering. The greatest
joy is not just seeing those whom we minister healed, enlightened and liberated
but that we in the process have our faith strengthened as we see how loving and
merciful our God is who will even make use of us, His poor and unworthy
servants to do His work.
Yet the
greatest seeing is not the miracles or even the joy of seeing them converted
but to know Jesus, as the Son of the Father, comes for our salvation when we
acknowledge Him as the Son of the Father. Hence Jesus remarked to His
disciples, “Happy the eyes that see, for I tell you that many prophets and
kings wanted to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and
never heard it.” Truly, for us to recognize the love of the Father who
revealed His love to us in the Son’s paschal mystery is a far greater reward anyone
can get.
Indeed
the greatest joy of Jesus is His intimacy with His Father. We, too,
should rejoice in our conviction and faith in Jesus through the ministry of
reconciliation and healing. The more we serve the Lord in this ministry
and seeing His love and power manifested in the lives of these people, we can
truly vouch that Jesus indeed is the Lord and the Son of the compassionate
Father. Through Jesus too we share in His intimacy with His Father.
Through Jesus we share in the Trinitarian life. That is why our greatest
joy as the disciples of Jesus is not just in working for the Lord, but the
privilege of being intimate with the Lord through the celebration of the
Liturgy, especially the Eucharist, and being with His people in service and
love.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh
Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Singapore
© All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment