TAKING THE GRACE OF GOD FOR GRANTED

20160228 TAKING THE GRACE OF GOD FOR GRANTED

Readings at Mass

Liturgical Colour: Violet.

First reading

Exodus 3:1-8,13-15 ©

Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law priest of Midian. He led his flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the shape of a flame of fire, coming from the middle of a bush. Moses looked; there was the bush blazing but it was not being burnt up. ‘I must go and look at this strange sight,’ Moses said, ‘and see why the bush is not burnt.’ Now the Lord saw him go forward to look, and God called to him from the middle of the bush. ‘Moses, Moses!’ he said. ‘Here I am,’ Moses answered. ‘Come no nearer,’ he said. ‘Take off your shoes, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your fathers,’ he said, ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ At this Moses covered his face, afraid to look at God.

  And the Lord said, ‘I have seen the miserable state of my people in Egypt. I have heard their appeal to be free of their slave-drivers. Yes, I am well aware of their sufferings. I mean to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians and bring them up out of that land to a land rich and broad, a land where milk and honey flow, the home of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.’

  Then Moses said to God, ‘I am to go, then, to the sons of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you.” But if they ask me what his name is, what am I to tell them?’ And God said to Moses, ‘I Am who I Am. This’ he added ‘is what you must say to the sons of Israel: “I Am has sent me to you.”’ And God also said to Moses, ‘You are to say to the sons of Israel: “The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.” This is my name for all time; by this name I shall be invoked for all generations to come.’

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 102:1-4,6-8,11 ©

The Lord is compassion and love.

My soul, give thanks to the Lord

  all my being, bless his holy name.

My soul, give thanks to the Lord

  and never forget all his blessings.

The Lord is compassion and love.

It is he who forgives all your guilt,

  who heals every one of your ills,

who redeems your life from the grave,

  who crowns you with love and compassion,

The Lord is compassion and love.

The Lord does deeds of justice,

  gives judgement for all who are oppressed.

He made known his ways to Moses

  and his deeds to Israel’s sons.

The Lord is compassion and love.

The Lord is compassion and love,

  slow to anger and rich in mercy.

For as the heavens are high above the earth

  so strong is his love for those who fear him.

The Lord is compassion and love.

Second reading

1 Corinthians 10:1-6,10-12 ©

I want to remind you, brothers, how our fathers were all guided by a cloud above them and how they all passed through the sea. They were all baptised into Moses in this cloud and in this sea; all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink, since they all drank from the spiritual rock that followed them as they went, and that rock was Christ. In spite of this, most of them failed to please God and their corpses littered the desert.

  These things all happened as warnings for us, not to have the wicked lusts for forbidden things that they had. You must never complain: some of them did, and they were killed by the Destroyer.

  All this happened to them as a warning, and it was written down to be a lesson for us who are living at the end of the age. The man who thinks he is safe must be careful that he does not fall.

Gospel Acclamation

Mt4:17

Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!

Repent, says the Lord,

for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.

Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!

Gospel

Luke 13:1-9 ©

Some people arrived and told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with that of their sacrifices. At this he said to them, ‘Do you suppose these Galileans who suffered like that were greater sinners than any other Galileans? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen on whom the tower at Siloam fell and killed them? Do you suppose that they were more guilty than all the other people living in Jerusalem? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.’

  He told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it but found none. He said to the man who looked after the vineyard, “Look here, for three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and finding none. Cut it down: why should it be taking up the ground?” “Sir,” the man replied “leave it one more year and give me time to dig round it and manure it: it may bear fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.”’

TAKING THE GRACE OF GOD FOR GRANTED

SCRIPTURE READINGS: Ex 3:1-8, 13-15; Ps 102:1-4, 6-8, 11; 1Cor 10:1-6, 10-12; Lk 13:1-9

This is the Jubilee of mercy.  All the scripture readings of this Sunday proclaim the goodness, mercy, compassion and patience of God.  The text from the book of Exodus speaks of God’s identification with the misery and the cries of the Hebrews.  God said to Moses, “I have seen the miserable state of my people in Egypt. I have heard their appeal to be free of their slave-drivers. Yes, I am well aware of their sufferings.” Indeed, God is never oblivious or blind to our sufferings and struggles in life.   He feels with us and for us.   More than that, He wants to set us free from our misery, our slavery and our hopelessness.  He told Moses, “I mean to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians and bring them up out of that land to a land rich and broad, a land where milk and honey flow.”

Truly, this God of ours is a God of mercy and compassion.   His compassion goes beyond merely delivering us from our misery and suffering, He comes to free us from the cause of our misery, namely our sins.   The responsorial psalm speaks of the experience of the Israelites of God’s mercy and forgiveness.  “It is he who forgives all your guilt, who heals every one of your ills, who redeems your life from the grave, who crowns you with love and compassion.  The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy. For as the heavens are high above the earth so strong in his love for those who fear him.”

Yet He is a patient God.  He does not expect us to change immediately.  He waits for us like the man who had a barren fig tree that was not producing fruits.   When the man wanted to cut it down, the one looking after it said, “Sir, leave it one more year and give me time to dig round it and manure it: it may bear fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.”   So God is caring, forgiving and patient.   He understands our struggles and our limitations.  He does not expect us to be saints overnight.

In the light of our experience of God’s mercy and compassion, we must rejoice.  Indeed, Christianity is about celebration, about rejoicing.  What are the reasons for us to rejoice?  Simply because of His love and mercy for us!   A sad and hopeless Christian is a contradiction.  Authentic Christians are always positive, full of joy and live a liberated life.  How could it be that Christians are not joyful?  How did they lose their joy if they had it?

It all boils down to a complacent spiritual life.  The blessings of God are taken for granted and not valued.  They never consider the costs of God’s sacrifice of His only begotten Son for the salvation of the world.   They never give a thought to Christ’s suffering on the Cross, His passion and death.  The graces of God that they received have been reduced to cheap grace.  It is grace without conversion, grace without repentance, grace without fellowship, grace without commitment; grace without love.  Indeed, there is no transformation of life.  Weakness becomes an excuse for a mediocre Christian life.  This is what St Paul is warning us as he warned his fellow Christians of what happens if we take the grace of God for granted.   “I want to remind you, brothers, how our fathers were all guided by a cloud above them and how they all passed through the sea. They were all baptised into Moses in this cloud and in this sea; all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink, since they all drank from the spiritual rock that followed them as they went, and that rock was Christ. In spite of this, most of them failed to please God and their corpses littered the desert.”   So too, we might be baptized Christians and we might think we belong to the Church of Christ.  What is the use of belonging to His Church when we do not share in His life, love and in communion with our brothers and sisters?  A ritual baptism and a mediocre Catholic life cannot save us nor give life here on earth or in heaven!

The way to recover our faith in Christ is through thanksgiving.   Be grateful for what we have received.   We must give thanks for all that we have and are.  We give thanks especially for Christ who has taught us how to live a meaningful life.  We give thanks for His justice, compassion and forgiveness.

To give thanks is to show our gratitude not just in words and in worship.  It is to live a life in imitation of Christ.  Only when we live a transformed life, will others see the good works we do and give glory to God.  Grateful people express themselves by loving the person and doing things for the person who has loved them.  Without any offering to give to the Lord or a changed life, it clearly shows that we are not grateful.

Indeed, people without gratitude for God’s love in Christ either do not practice their faith or they do it slavishly more out of fear of God’s punishment than out of love for God. Their religious and spiritual life is but a routine, a set of rituals that they perform but they are all empty practices that do not touch the core of their being.  It is done perfunctorily and superficially.  At most their faith, if any, is but an intellectual knowledge of some doctrines taught to them.

To remain grateful to the Lord, what is necessary is to keep on going back to our memories of Christ’s love for us.  This is done through prayer and meditation and worship.  We need to renew our relationship with the Lord all the time, just as in human relationship.  Out of sight, out of mind!   If it is true with human relationship, it is even truer in our relationship with God.  This is what secularization seeks to do, to empty and sideline the sacred presence of God from our daily life.

Consequently, if we were to keep our joy alive sustained by a life of gratitude, we need to renew our personal relationship with God always.   We need to go back to the Burning Bush experience as Moses did.  Only by reliving our Burning Bush experience like St Paul in his Damascus experience, could we then keep our hope, courage and joy alive. Unless we come to appreciate in our heart, not just our head, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross not for us but for me and you, we will never be cut to the quick and feel grateful.

Thus, without constant prayer, worship, fellowship, and sharing the Word of God, we will eventually become distant from God and from His love.   We need to continue to contemplate on His passion, death and resurrection; then celebrate it in the Eucharist.  This is the common mistake of our Catholics.  They are weak when it comes to follow up after a Conversion Experience or in Christian discipleship.  Many are baptized and just remain converts.  Many are born again but died prematurely. We lack mentors and serious Christian discipleship to form and strengthen our Catholics in faith.  Indeed, we are called once again to stand on Holy Ground like Moses so that our experience of God’s love can be renewed and we can be fired up again.   

This joy that we have must be sustained by an evangelical life.  The only way to keep our experience is to share with others.  Like Moses we are called to announce the mercy and compassion of God to others.

Finally, there is a veiled warning that if we do not respond positively with joy and gratitude to what God has done for us through a life of prayer, discipleship and evangelization, we will lose whatever little we have.  God is patient with us but there will come a time of judgment like the Israelites.  We too can suffer the same fate as them and the Galileans like the fig tree if we do not bear fruit.  So before it is too late to regret, let us refocus our direction in life.  Let us take up the challenge of living authentic lives in joy, love and service, regardless of our state of life.  The whole world is holy ground and we must bring the joy of Christ to all.  Let us therefore not allow the love and joy of Christ we have received to die with us.   So, be joyful witnesses of life and love wherever you are and in whatever you do!

Written by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved