20151028 ZEAL MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY GRACE
Readings at Mass
First reading
|
Ephesians
2:19-22 ©
|
You are no longer
aliens or foreign visitors: you are citizens like all the saints, and part of
God’s household. You are part of a building that has the apostles and prophets
for its foundations, and Christ Jesus himself for its main cornerstone. As
every structure is aligned on him, all grow into one holy temple in the Lord;
and you too, in him, are being built into a house where God lives, in the
Spirit.
Psalm
|
Psalm 18:2-5 ©
|
Their word goes
forth through all the earth.
The heavens proclaim
the glory of God,
and the
firmament shows forth the work of his hands.
Day unto day takes up
the story
and night
unto night makes known the message.
Their word goes
forth through all the earth.
No speech, no word,
no voice is heard
yet their
span extends through all the earth,
their
words to the utmost bounds of the world.
Their word goes
forth through all the earth.
Gospel
Acclamation
|
cf.Te Deum
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
We praise you, O God,
we acknowledge you to
be the Lord.
The glorious company
of the apostles praise you, O Lord.
Alleluia!
Gospel
|
Luke 6:12-16 ©
|
Jesus
went out into the hills to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.
When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he
called them ‘apostles’: Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew;
James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon
called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.
ZEAL
MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY GRACE
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: EPH 2:19-22;
LK 6:12-19
We know
very little about the two apostles, Simon and Jude. They are listed as the 10th
and 11th apostles, just before Judas Iscariot. All we know
about them is that Simon comes from Cana and is called the Zealot. He was
certainly nationalistic and a revolutionary fighting to establish Israel as a
political and religious state, free from the domination of the Romans. As
for Jude Thaddeus, he is mentioned in John’s gospel when he asked Jesus the
reason why he showed himself only to them and not to the world. Other
than this reference to him, we have no information about him, as scholars tell
us that the letter of Jude is not written by him. Nevertheless, tradition
has cultivated a special devotion to him as the patron saint for the hopeless.
Perhaps, this could be due to the fact that St Jude, who is also called Judas,
is confused with Judas Iscariot who fell into despair and committed suicide.
It is
interesting to note that Judas Iscariot was mentioned immediately after the two
of them. Perhaps, in Judas we see the characters clearer, namely, that of
zeal and the need for grace. Judas, as we know in scripture, was
very impatient with Jesus. Some scholars suggest that he wanted Jesus to
act quickly to bring about the establishment of the kingdom. To provoke
Jesus into acting, he betrayed Jesus to his enemies. At the same time,
when his plan failed, Judas fell into hopelessness. He could not forgive
himself.
So what
we can learn from these two apostles is that of the need for zeal and grace to
work together. We are called to imitate St Simon in his conviction, zeal
and passion in changing the status quo and restoring the kingdom of
Israel. Certainly, we must be zealous in our ministry and be
passionate about it. However, we must be careful that we do not become
over ambitious, taking things into our own hands and try to bring about change
by force.
Indeed,
this is the temptation of Church leaders, clerical or lay. Quite often,
they are impatient with those in authority for not taking action fast enough.
At the other end of the spectrum, there are leaders who cannot wait for people
to adapt to the new situation. They can act harshly and rashly, hurting
those who are struggling to adapt to change. When we act in this manner,
we are relying too much on our own strength. We fail to realize that hard
work alone is not sufficient to bring about the kingdom. Using force is
counterproductive. We need to rely on the power of grace, that is,
prayers, compassion and patient dialogue to win hearts and minds.
Indeed,
in the gospel today, we see Jesus coming down from the mountain after spending
a whole night in prayer and then selecting his twelve apostles.
Objectively speaking, it seems that He did not make a good choice. The
twelve people He chose were, in human reckoning, of dubious character and
simply cannot work together. In fact, they were always fighting among
themselves. But after the resurrection, after encountering the mercy of
Christ whom they abandoned, they were willing to give up their lives for Jesus
and be humble in service.
This is
true of many of our Church leaders. Many of them are bright and
intelligent but they get overly self-confident and arrogant. They look
down on others and are too proud to listen to other opinions. On the other
hand, they are opinionated and want everyone to agree with them. Often,
they are ambitious and manipulative. They always want the limelight and
to be the best. Ironically, there are others who are not so intelligent
and talented but they have a good heart. Such people, although
lacking in talents and in theological knowledge, often touch more lives and
change more hearts than the supposedly eloquent, talented and influential
people. Clearly, in them we see the power of God’s grace at work in their
lives. God shows His power in human weakness.
Hence,
today, we need not feel hopeless like Judas Iscariot when things do not turn
out the way we desire, or when our plans and ideas are rejected. We must
continue with the zeal of Simon the Zealot, work hard and continue to find
opportunities to share our plans and knowledge. When the time is right,
God will use them accordingly. In the meantime, we need to pray to Jude
Thaddeus so that we will always rely on grace and never give up hope.
We must pray for patience for His grace to work. The spread
of the Good News is ultimately the work of the Holy Spirit.
So let
us pray like Jesus. We are called in the first place to make Jesus as our
foundation stone on which to build our ministry. Being with Jesus and
being intimate with Him comes before everything else in the ministry and in our
apostolate. Everything else is secondary. Our first calling is to
be with Jesus. Indeed, because Jesus spent time with God alone, “power
came out of him” that cured them all. Only with faith in Jesus through
prayer can we persevere, especially when we are under trials or when things do
not turn out the way we want them to. Through our union with Him and in
Him, we “are being built into a house where God lives, in the Spirit.”
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh
Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Singapore
©
All Rights Reserved
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