20160219 DIVINE JUSTICE IS A MATTER OF RELATIONSHIP, NOT DEEDS
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Violet.
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First reading
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Ezekiel 18:21-28
©
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Thus says the Lord:
‘If the
wicked man renounces all the sins he has committed, respects my laws and is
law-abiding and honest, he will certainly live; he will not die. All the sins
he committed will be forgotten from then on; he shall live because of the
integrity he has practised. What! Am I likely to take pleasure in the death of
a wicked man – it is the Lord who speaks – and not prefer to see him
renounce his wickedness and live?
‘But if
the upright man renounces his integrity, commits sin, copies the wicked man and
practises every kind of filth, is he to live? All the integrity he has
practised shall be forgotten from then on; but this is because he himself has
broken faith and committed sin, and for this he shall die. But you object,
“What the Lord does is unjust.” Listen, you House of Israel: is what I do
unjust? Is it not what you do that is unjust? When the upright man renounces
his integrity to commit sin and dies because of this, he dies because of the
evil that he himself has committed. When the sinner renounces sin to become
law-abiding and honest, he deserves to live. He has chosen to renounce all his
previous sins; he shall certainly live; he shall not die.’
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Psalm
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Psalm 129:1-8 ©
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If you, O Lord,
should mark our guilt, Lord, who would survive?
Out of the depths I
cry to you, O Lord,
Lord,
hear my voice!
O let your ears be
attentive
to the
voice of my pleading.
If you, O Lord,
should mark our guilt, Lord, who would survive?
If you, O Lord,
should mark our guilt,
Lord, who
would survive?
But with you is found
forgiveness:
for this
we revere you.
If you, O Lord,
should mark our guilt, Lord, who would survive?
My soul is waiting
for the Lord.
I count
on his word.
My soul is longing
for the Lord
more than
watchman for daybreak.
(Let the watchman
count on daybreak
and
Israel on the Lord.)
If you, O Lord,
should mark our guilt, Lord, who would survive?
Because with the Lord
there is mercy
and
fullness of redemption,
Israel indeed he will
redeem
from all
its iniquity.
If you, O Lord,
should mark our guilt, Lord, who would survive?
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Gospel
Acclamation
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cf.Amos5:14
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Praise to you, O
Christ, king of eternal glory!
Seek good and not
evil so that you may live,
and that the Lord God
of hosts may really be with you.
Praise to you, O
Christ, king of eternal glory!
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Or
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Ezk18:31
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Praise to you, O
Christ, king of eternal glory!
Shake off all your
sins – it is the Lord who speaks –
and make yourselves a
new heart and a new spirit.
Praise to you, O
Christ, king of eternal glory!
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Gospel
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Matthew 5:20-26 ©
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Jesus said to his
disciples, If your virtue goes no deeper than that of the scribes and
Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.
‘You
have learnt how it was said to our ancestors: You must not kill; and if
anyone does kill he must answer for it before the court. But I say this to you:
anyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it before the court; if a
man calls his brother “Fool” he will answer for it before the Sanhedrin; and if
a man calls him “Renegade” he will answer for it in hell fire. So then, if you
are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother
has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and
be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your
offering. Come to terms with your opponent in good time while you are still on
the way to the court with him, or he may hand you over to the judge and the
judge to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison. I tell you solemnly,
you will not get out till you have paid the last penny.’
DIVINE
JUSTICE IS A MATTER OF RELATIONSHIP, NOT DEEDS
Today’s
first reading from the prophet Ezekiel is a challenge to our human way of
understanding justice.
His thought is revolutionary and scandalizing, not just to his listeners but
even to the modern man who hears this message. Most of us can
wholeheartedly agree on the first instance that “If the wicked man renounces
all the sins he has committed, respects my laws and is law-abiding and honest,
he will certainly live; he will not die.” In itself, some might not
even accept that a sinner could have his sins forgotten without incurring
punishment as the Lord says, “All the sins he committed will be forgotten from
then on; he shall live because of the integrity he has practiced. What! Am I
likely to take pleasure in the death of a wicked man – it is the Lord who
speaks – and not prefer to see him renounce his wickedness and live?”
But
what was shocking to his audience was his prophecy that “if the upright man
renounces his integrity, commits sin, copies the wicked man and practices every
kind of filth, is he to live? All the integrity he has practiced shall be forgotten from then
on; but this is because he himself has broken faith and committed sin, and for
this he shall die.” Like them, we too may object and cry foul, “What the
Lord does is unjust.” How could a good man, who all his life loved God
and his fellowmen but at the end of his life gave up on God, be condemned to
eternal death? Surely the past deeds and merits of this good man should
be taken into account and not rendered void and useless!
In
other words, our measure of justice is merits and punishments. We are rewarded or punished
according to our good deeds or evil deeds. By so doing, we have reduced
the justice of God to human justice, which is based on the principle of what we
sow is what we reap. It is the same measure that the world uses, namely,
the Key Productivity Indicators (KPIs). So a worker is rewarded according
to what he or she brings into the company. The company is not interested
in his intentions or his character, or whether he is ethical, but it is
concerned only with profits at the end of the day, because that is what the
shareholders are interested in.
That is
precisely what Jesus is warning us about such superficial judgment and
assessment of people and their actions. He said, “If your virtue goes
no deeper than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the
kingdom of heaven.” Our judgment should not be based just on the actions
of a person but also the motives as well. At the end of the day, the real
measure of divine justice is not necessarily our merits, not on how much we do,
whether good or evil. It is ultimately concerned with right relationships
with God, self and others. The actions in themselves are not proofs that
we have a right and authentic relationship with God, self and others.
Like the Pharisees, we could be doing the right things for the wrong motives.
In the eyes of the world, such actions may appear good and noble, but only God
can know the real intentions of the person who does good. He might be
seeking for attention, glory, support, or even using them to buy people to gain
power and control. So KPIs do not mean much to God because He
judges the heart, not just the external actions or the outcomes.
Does
it mean that such good works or merits have no place in the life of a Christian
and are redundant? Not
at all! We are not denying the importance of good works or the gravity of
evil deeds that we do. What the gospel wants to underscore is that
these are at most, merely indicators of the heart of a person in his
relationship with God and with others, including himself. In
themselves, they do not mean much unless they are performed from the right motives
of selfless love and service. This is true for sinners. Without
exonerating their part in the sin, some keep falling into sin because of
circumstances and upbringing.
So
good works and evil deeds are mere indicators of how much the person is in love
with God, his neighbours and self. It shows the fundamental option of the person, what he is
choosing: God and others or self? Good works have its proper place in
Christian life, but at the end of the day, God is not going to weigh the scales
in judging us, to see how many good works we do and how many evil actions we
do. Love cannot be weighed and measured simply by good deeds.
In the civil courts, if mitigation is allowed, it is not that we hope the judge
will make right and be lenient in punishing the offender because he has done
good all his life. Rather, mentioning the person’s good deeds is
but a way to say that the person is not all that evil; that he does have a good
heart towards others and not as selfish as the offence indicates. This is
true in the way God judges us. Not a kind of extrinsic justice based on
facts but the judgement of God is the judgement of the heart, the depth of our
love for God, for others and for self; not what we do but how intense are our
relationships.
It
is for this reason that God is ever ready to forgive us when we sin. What
He wants is a restoration of relationship. This is what the responsorial psalm says, “If you,
O Lord, should mark our guilt, Lord, who would survive? But with you is found
forgiveness: for this we revere you. Because with the Lord there is mercy and
fullness of redemption, Israel indeed he will redeem from all its
iniquity.” He is not interested in our merits or our performance.
He is concerned with whether we are in deep relationship with Him and with
others. He measures us by the love we have for Him and for our
neighbours. As Ezekiel says, He desires us to live not just biologically
but to live the fullness of life and love.
This
principle is clearly illustrated in today’s gospel. Jesus goes beyond the superficial laws
of Moses. He says, “You have learnt how it was said to our ancestors: You
must not kill, and if anyone does kill he must answer for it before the court.
But I say this to you: anyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it
before the court; if a man calls his brother ‘Fool’ he will answer for it
before the Sanhedrin, and if a man calls him ‘Renegade’, he will answer for it
in hell fire.” For Jesus, it is not just killing that is wrong, but
when we are angry with our brothers, passing presumptuous judgement on them by
calling them “fool” or a “renegade”, we are equally at fault. In
the first instance the “fool” refers to one who is brainless or stupid.
This would be an act of contempt and arrogance. How often have we
criticize people, call them “stupid, idiot, etc.”! Contempt for
others who are less than us is pride and arrogance. It will only destroy a
person’s confidence. To call a brother “renegade” is even more
serious because we are calling a brother “fool”, not an intellectual fool but a
moral fool, that means, a sinner living an immoral life. By so doing, we
are destroying the person’s reputation. For Jesus, destroying and
tarnishing a person’s character and dignity is a very serious wrong.
So
for Jesus, anger has different degrees. It can be in the mind, then expressed in words of
contempt and it can even lead to killing. When a person is angry, he is
opening the door to greater sins. Whether he commits them actually or
not, by contemplating the evil action, that person has already given birth to
the thought or that anger in his heart. When the opportunity arises or when
tempted, or when not in a state of sobriety, he is likely to act on it.
The depth of our anger with our brothers and sisters in our hearts would be the
decisive judgment of the intensity of relationship we have with them. The
actions, if they happen, would be the expression of what is going on already
inside our minds and hearts.
Thus, Jesus
brings home the all-important consideration that justice means to be in right
and just relationship with God, others and self. “So then, if you are
bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has
something against you, leave your offering before the altar, go and be
reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your
offering.” In other words, what God wants is that we are in union with
Him and with our brothers and sisters. He wants us to be reconciled and
be in communion with Him and with our fellowmen. Divine justice will
forgive us for all our wrongs and mistakes we made, so long as we are ready to
be reconciled with God. But before we can be reconciled with God, Jesus
demands that we put right our relationships with our fellowmen.
There
is a warning that if we do not make right our relationships with God and with
our neighbours, we will only harm ourselves because the anger and resentment will be further
aggravated. It would no longer be merely hot anger that comes and goes
off as soon as the emotions are settled but it will become a smoldering anger,
one that relishes, nurtures and plots revenge. Hence, Jesus advises us,
“Come to terms with your opponent in good time while you are still on the way
to the court with him, or he may hand you over to the judge and judge to the
officer and you will be thrown into prison. I tell you solemnly, you will not
get out till you have paid the last penny.”
So
if we want to be given divine justice, let us first and foremost forgive those
who have hurt us.
If we repair our relationships with them, forgive them from our heart and seek
reconciliation with them, then God, who has already forgiven us, will ensure
that the grace of forgiveness we have received will have its full effects on
us. We will be set free from anger, hatred and most of all, from our
wounded memories which have a hold over us. Without forgiveness and a
right and just relationship with others, we will not have peace or joy in our
hearts.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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