20160115 THE UNCONDITIONAL LOVE OF GOD
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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1 Samuel
8:4-7,10-22 ©
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All the elders of
Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. ‘Look,’ they said to him
‘you are old, and your sons do not follow your ways. So give us a king to rule
over us, like the other nations.’ It displeased Samuel that they should say,
‘Let us have a king to rule us’, so he prayed to the Lord. But the Lord said to
Samuel, ‘Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for it is
not you they have rejected; they have rejected me from ruling over them.’
All that
the Lord had said Samuel repeated to the people who were asking him for a king
He said, ‘These will be the rights of the king who is to reign over you. He
will take your sons and assign them to his chariotry and cavalry, and they will
run in front of his chariot. He will use them as leaders of a thousand and
leaders of fifty; he will make them plough his ploughland and harvest his
harvest and make his weapons of war and the gear for his chariots. He will also
take your daughters as perfumers, cooks and bakers. He will take the best of
your fields, of your vineyards and olive groves and give them to his officials.
He will tithe your crops and vineyards to provide for his eunuchs and his
officials. He will take the best of your manservants and maidservants, of your
cattle and your donkeys, and make them work for him. He will tithe your flocks,
and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry
out on account of the king you have chosen for yourselves, but on that day God
will not answer you.’
The
people refused to listen to the words of Samuel. They said, ‘No! We want a
king, so that we in our turn can be like the other nations; our king shall rule
us and be our leader and fight our battles.’ Samuel listened to all that the
people had to say and repeated it in the ears of the Lord. The Lord then said
to Samuel, ‘Obey their voice and give them a king.’
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Psalm
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Psalm 88:16-19 ©
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I will sing for
ever of your love, O Lord.
Happy the people who
acclaim such a king,
who walk,
O Lord, in the light of your face,
who find their joy
every day in your name,
who make
your justice the source of their bliss.
I will sing for
ever of your love, O Lord.
For you, O Lord, are
the glory of their strength;
by your
favour it is that our might is exalted;
for our ruler is in
the keeping of the Lord;
our king
in the keeping of the Holy One of Israel.
I will sing for
ever of your love, O Lord.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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cf.Ep1:17,18
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Alleluia, alleluia!
May the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ
enlighten the eyes of
our mind,
so that we can see
what hope his call holds for us.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Lk7:16
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Alleluia, alleluia!
A great prophet has
appeared among us;
God has visited his
people.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 2:1-12 ©
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When Jesus returned
to Capernaum, word went round that he was back; and so many people collected
that there was no room left, even in front of the door. He was preaching the
word to them when some people came bringing him a paralytic carried by four
men, but as the crowd made it impossible to get the man to him, they stripped
the roof over the place where Jesus was; and when they had made an opening,
they lowered the stretcher on which the paralytic lay. Seeing their faith,
Jesus said to the paralytic, ‘My child, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some
scribes were sitting there, and they thought to themselves, ‘How can this man
talk like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God?’ Jesus,
inwardly aware that this was what they were thinking, said to them, ‘Why do you
have these thoughts in your hearts? Which of these is easier: to say to the
paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven” or to say, “Get up, pick up your stretcher
and walk”? But to prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to
forgive sins,’ – he turned to the paralytic – ‘I order you: get up,
pick up your stretcher, and go off home.’ And the man got up, picked up his
stretcher at once and walked out in front of everyone, so that they were all
astounded and praised God saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this.’
THE
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE OF GOD
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: 1 SM 8:4-7, 10-22; MK 2:1-12
Today’s
scripture readings speak to us of the incomprehensible love of God, a
love that has no limits even in the face of man’s rejection of His love.
In the first reading, one cannot but be struck by the patience and liberating
love of God. We can love in two ways. We can love in a protective
manner or in a liberating manner.
The
first form of love is more akin to human love. Our love for our loved ones
tends to be overly protective. It is normal for us to love in such a
way that we will do all we can to prevent our loved ones from suffering.
Parents are often protective of their children for fear that they might get
hurt because of their folly. Friends are defensive of their friends and
would do anything to ensure that they are unharmed. Protective love is
not wrong of course, but it is an imperfect love. More often than not, at
the bottom of this form of love, is the fear of hurting ourselves more than
just loving our loved ones. Because we are so attached to our loved ones,
when they suffer, we suffer even more, especially emotionally. Hence, by
shielding them from harm, we protect ourselves as well.
This
was precisely how Samuel the prophet felt for his people. Samuel loved his people and he
did not want them to do anything detrimental to themselves. He was
displeased that the people wanted to have an earthly king like other nations
instead of accepting Yahweh as their only king. In spite of his
objections, warnings and discouragement, the people refused to listen to him
and insisted on having their king. He eventually gave in to their demand,
only because the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that
they say to you, for it is not you they have rejected; they have rejected me
from ruling over them.” His love is akin to parental love for their
children, or children’s love for their elderly parents.
However,
God’s love goes beyond a protective love. God loves us not for
Himself but for us. His love is totally free. God’s love can be
defined as freedom-in-love. He allows us to choose our way of responding
to His love. He only invites but He does not impose His wishes and will
on us. This kind of love allows us to be free and to make mistakes in our
decisions. His love can accommodate our failures and betrayals of His
love. This does not mean that our sufferings do not affect Him. On
the contrary, our sins hurt Him more deeply than ourselves. But He
prefers that we choose Him freely than be coerced into loving Him out of fear.
The
reality is that human beings learn how to love through life experiences and
events. This is the pedagogy of growth and formation in
love. We are not born perfect. We grow in perfection through
obedience to the Word of God. But such obedience is not something we
arrive at in a single day or year. Holiness is a life-long process and
often as a result of the sins we commit.
The
question is, can we accept that this is the necessary way to growth? Can we accept our
mistakes? Can we accept the mistakes of others? If we do, then we
can start life afresh and we will learn how to accept others, regardless of the
mistakes and sins they have committed. The problem is that many of
us are unable to accept our fallen nature and our failures in life. We
tend to condemn ourselves and also as a consequence condemn others as well,
since they are often a mirror of who we are.
It is
within this context that today’s gospel gives us the fuller picture of the
incomprehensible love of God. The miracle of the healing of the
paralytic underscores the fact that God always forgives us. The paralytic
lay in bed because he could not forgive himself and his past. He was
crippled by his past. He could not accept the fact that he was a
sinner. Hence, before Jesus could heal Him, He rendered to Him the
unconditional forgiveness of God.
Of
course, we must remember that the price of forgiveness for God is a heavy
one to pay. God had to empty Himself of His divinity, become man in
Jesus, then empty Himself again a second time by being a slave unto
death. Indeed, such is the love of God that He was even ready to pay the
cost of our sins by taking upon Himself our sins in His body on the
cross. We are the ones who sinned, but He chose to be condemned on our
behalf. Isn’t this a great mystery of God’s love? He would suffer
in our stead rather than punish us or stop us from going our ways, simply
because He wants us to know that He loves us, regardless of how we feel about
Him or what we do.
This
unconditional love of God reminds me of a TV serial which I watched by chance. There
is the story of a father who had a very spoilt daughter. She was
arrogant, demanding, materialistic, disrespectful, and sharp with her tongue,
self-centered, thoughtless in her words and most of all,
incorrigible. She got married and within a month, both of them were
divorced. In order not to make her parents worried or rather angry with
her, she left quietly to another town to work as a nurse. There she had
to work hard to make a living as it was a poor, rural village. She had to
put up with a fellow nurse who was exactly a mirror of herself.
Naturally, both being mirrors of each other, could not tolerate each other!
They were always bickering and arguing.
As a
consequence, she was tempted to leave for another place but the old doctor was
a very good man. He was very generous with his poor patients, often not
charging them because they could not afford to pay. This doctor, upon discovering
that she wanted to run away, encouraged her to stay, partly because she was
pregnant and also partly because she needed to reform and purify herself.
The doctor was able to make her stay because he shared with her that before he
became known as a good and great doctor, he himself made many mistakes in his
life. As a result, he hurt many people, including his loved ones, his
parents, wife and children. So if he was a good doctor now, it was
because he was atoning for his past sins and mistakes. He had changed for
the better.
Finally,
when the father found out where she was, he came to visit her. Initially,
he wanted to bring her back. But she was adamant in remaining behind
because of pride and also because she wanted to learn to be independent.
So he did not want to force her to come back with him.
When
the wife demanded why he never dragged her home, he replied that she needed the
time there to come to know herself and discover herself, for it was only
through the hardships she was going through that she could learn humility,
sensitivity, gentleness, compassion, love, generosity, and patience. This
was possible, not just because of the goodness of the old doctor or the
sufferings of the patients, but also through the fellow nurse who was showing
her exactly the kind of person she truly was like.
Isn’t
this the case with us too? We are not perfect. No one is born a
saint. We become saints. This process of perfection must come
through trials, sufferings and purification. But we can go through all
these pains because we know that God always loves us and forgives us. He
does not condemn us but only hopes that we come to self-realization and
repentance. The moment we repent, we are on His side and we will find
true peace, happiness and freedom. Such is the love and patience, the
compassion and mercy of God for us in helping us to grow in maturity in love.
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