20160310 ACCEPTING WOUNDED MEMBERS IN OUR COMMUNITY
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Violet.
First reading
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Exodus 32:7-14 ©
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The Lord spoke to
Moses, ‘Go down now, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have
apostatised. They have been quick to leave the way I marked out for them; they
have made themselves a calf of molten metal and have worshipped it and offered
it sacrifice. “Here is your God, Israel,” they have cried “who brought you up
from the land of Egypt!”’ the Lord said to Moses, ‘I can see how headstrong
these people are! Leave me, now, my wrath shall blaze out against them and
devour them; of you, however, I will make a great nation.’
But Moses
pleaded with the Lord his God. ‘Lord,’ he said ‘why should your wrath blaze out
against this people of yours whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with arm
outstretched and mighty hand? Why let the Egyptians say, “Ah, it was in treachery
that he brought them out, to do them to death in the mountains and wipe them
off the face of the earth”? Leave your burning wrath; relent and do not bring
this disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, your servants
to whom by your own self you swore and made this promise: I will make your
offspring as many as the stars of heaven, and all this land which I promised I
will give to your descendants, and it shall be their heritage for ever.’
So the
Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.
Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm 105:19-23 ©
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O Lord, remember
me out of the love you have for your people.
They fashioned a calf
at Horeb
and
worshipped an image of metal,
exchanging the God
who was their glory
for the
image of a bull that eats grass.
O Lord, remember
me out of the love you have for your people.
They forgot the God
who was their saviour,
who had
done such great things in Egypt,
such portents in the
land of Ham,
such
marvels at the Red Sea.
O Lord, remember
me out of the love you have for your people.
For this he said he
would destroy them,
but
Moses, the man he had chosen,
stood in the breach
before him,
to turn
back his anger from destruction.
O Lord, remember
me out of the love you have for your people.
Gospel
Acclamation
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cf.Jn6:63,68
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Glory to you, O
Christ, you are the Word of God!
Your words are
spirit, Lord, and they are life;
you have the message
of eternal life.
Glory to you, O
Christ, you are the Word of God!
Or
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Jn3:16
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Glory to you, O
Christ, you are the Word of God!
God loved the world
so much that he gave his only Son:
everyone who believes
in him has eternal life.
Glory to you, O
Christ, you are the Word of God!
Gospel
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John 5:31-47 ©
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Jesus said to the
Jews:
‘Were I to testify on
my own behalf,
my testimony would
not be valid;
but there is another
witness who can speak on my behalf,
and I know that his
testimony is valid.
You sent messengers
to John,
and he gave his
testimony to the truth:
not that I depend on human
testimony;
no, it is for your
salvation that I speak of this.
John was a lamp
alight and shining
and for a time you
were content to enjoy the light that he gave.
But my testimony is
greater than John’s:
the works my Father
has given me to carry out,
these same works of
mine testify
that the Father has
sent me.
Besides, the Father
who sent me
bears witness to me
himself.
You have never heard
his voice,
you have never seen
his shape,
and his word finds no
home in you
because you do not
believe in the one he has sent.
‘You study the
scriptures,
believing that in
them you have eternal life;
now these same
scriptures testify to me,
and yet you refuse to
come to me for life!
As for human
approval, this means nothing to me.
Besides, I know you
too well: you have no love of God in you.
I have come in the
name of my Father
and you refuse to
accept me;
if someone else comes
in his own name
you will accept him.
How can you believe,
since you look to one
another for approval
and are not concerned
with the approval that
comes from the one God?
Do not imagine that I
am going to accuse you before the Father:
you place your hopes
on Moses,
and Moses will be
your accuser.
If you really
believed him
you would believe me
too,
since it was I that
he was writing about;
but if you refuse to
believe what he wrote,
how
can you believe what I say?’
ACCEPTING
WOUNDED MEMBERS IN OUR COMMUNITY
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: Exodus 32:7-14;
John 5:31-47
We
are a wounded community of sinners. Even though we have been baptized and given a new birth in
Christ, the residues of sin and our past are not totally taken away. So
we should not be surprised that within the Christian community, there are still
many wounded members in need of healing. We should not be scandalized to
find the reality of sin and division brought upon by selfishness and pride in
our community, even though we might have experienced the love and mercy of God.
This
was certainly the case of the Israelites. They, too, had just been liberated from
the slavery of the Egyptians by the mighty hand of God. However, in spite
of their new found freedom, they quickly became disgruntled over the fact that
they were not having a good life in the desert. In the face of suffering
and inconvenience, they began to become nostalgic of the good old days in
Egypt. How quickly in the face of difficulties, one forgets the
sufferings from one’s previous predicament. We begin to grumble and
complain, finding a scapegoat to blame for our unhappiness. So, too, the
Israelites became ungrateful towards God and Moses, His representative.
They blamed Him for their woes.
Apparently,
God was very disappointed with them, for He said to Moses,
“Go
down now, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have apostatised.
They have been quick to leave the way I marked out for them; they have made
themselves a calf of molten metal and have worshipped it and offered it
sacrifice.” How short-lived their love and devotion to God in spite of
the many miracles and wonders they saw with their own eyes, when God protected
them from the Egyptian Army. As the psalmist says, “They forgot the God
who had saved them, who had done great deeds in Egypt, wondrous deeds in the
land of Ham, terrible things at the Red Sea.” But are we better? After a
God-experience, we, too, also so quickly apostatized and abandoned Him for
false gods that we have created for ourselves. The calf of molten metal can
very well symbolise all our worldly pursuit of things and attachment to our
opinions, status and people.
So in
our community, even though it might be a Christian community of born-again
Christians, let us not be disillusioned if we find that there are many
members who, although serving God and their fellow brothers and sisters, carry
with them their molten calf. They still remain attached to their
sins. Some have become self-righteous and live under the illusion that
they are a super-class of Catholics, better than the others. As a consequence,
there is much division within the community. In every Christian community
and organization, we will disagree and quite often, we might hurt each other by
words and actions, consciously and unconsciously. This is because we are
wounded and still in the process of seeking healing. Wounds do not get
healed immediately but gradually, through prayer, time and understanding.
We must therefore learn to accept each other.
The
complaint of God to Moses appears more to be a projection of Moses’ impatience
of his people than of God’s actual anger with the people. Our God is a merciful God,
patient and forgiving. This is what God revealed to Moses about Himself
when He said, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to
anger, abounding in love and faithfulness maintaining love to thousands, and
forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. (Ex 34:6)
More likely, it was Moses projecting his own anger towards them. Many
times, Moses cried out to God in frustration over the rebellious and demanding
people who only knew how to complain instead of being grateful. As a
result we read that Moses was always tempted to quit in the face of such
ingrates, especially when they grumbled that they had no food, water, meat
etc. Endless requests led Moses to call it quits. Indeed, Moses called
them stiff-necked and headstrong!
Well,
we might also follow the same path as well in the face of difficult people in
our community and organization. How often have we also felt like quitting!
Otherwise, if we do not remove ourselves, we remove others. This is the
easiest way to solve problems in our community apparently, getting rid of those
difficult people whom we find problematic to work with. This has always
been the way most people deal with wounded members in their community, by
forcing them to resign through pressure. Instead of attending to their
wounds, we seek to rid of them. This would be a great mistake. Wasn’t this
expressed by God, through Moses when He said, “Leave me now, my wrath shall
blaze out against them and devour them; of you, however, I will make a great
nation.”
That is
why Moses told God to relent, or rather, in truth God was telling Moses to be
patient because underlying the wounds of each person is much goodness, love
and beauty. When Moses said to God, “Remember Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, your servants to whom by your own self you swore and made this promise:
I will make your offspring as many as the stars of heaven, and all this land
which I promised I will give to your descendants, and it shall be their
heritage for ever”, he was actually speaking about the potentials of the so
called stiff-necked race. So, too, if we are able to be patient and heal
the pains of our wounded members, they will also become great leaders, just as
what happened to St Peter and St Paul. They became great apostles only
through their sins and the healing of their wounds by the forgiveness and compassion
of the Lord.
As for
ourselves, like Jesus in the gospel, we must realize that even when we are
rejected or misunderstood for doing good, we have God on our side.
As Jesus reminds us, perhaps our anger with the bruised members of our
community arises more out of their rejection of us. Perhaps we want to
seek human approval rather than God’s. Jesus gives us the key to
remaining loving and patient when He said, “As for human approval, this means
nothing to me. Besides, I know you too well: you have no love of God in
you.” If there is true love in our hearts for God, we would also have
true love for all the wounded and hurting members in our community, seeing them
not as nuisance and trouble makers but people seeking love and acceptance and
desperate for healing.
We
should remind ourselves that we come to each other in the name of the Father
and of Jesus.
Like John, we are called to be “a lamp alight and shining” for the wounded to
see the love of God. God will ultimately be our witness to what we
do. Because they are wounded “have never heard his voice … seen his
shape”, they do not believe in Him. Our task, therefore, is
to make God real so that when they see us, they will believe in Him. God
will be proven by the same works we do for and with the Father, as in the case
of Jesus. This is what Jesus said, “But my testimony is greater than
John’s: the works my Father has given me to carry out, these same works of mine
testify that the Father has sent me. Besides, the Father who sent me bears witness
to me himself.” So let us be contented and seek the approval of God.
Finally,
in our frustrations in handling such difficult people in our midst, we only
need to cry out to God for mercy, “Remember us, O Lord, as you favor
your people.” We can be sure that God will give us the grace to
deal with the challenges we face in helping the lepers in our community to
become integrated. Like Moses, if we intercede for them, God will hear us
and heal them through us by softening our hearts and opening their hearts to
us.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore
© All Rights Reserved
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