20160305 FIDELITY OF GOD’S LOVE VERSUS OUR SHORT-LIVED LOVE
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Violet.
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First reading
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Hosea 5:15-6:6 ©
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The Lord says this:
They will search for
me in their misery.
‘Come, let us return
to the Lord.
He has torn us to
pieces, but he will heal us;
he has struck us
down, but he will bandage our wounds;
after a day or two he
will bring us back to life,
on the third day he
will raise us
and we shall live in
his presence.
Let us set ourselves
to know the Lord;
that he will come is
as certain as the dawn
his judgement will
rise like the light,
he will come to us as
showers come,
like spring rains
watering the earth.’
What am I to do with
you, Ephraim?
What am I to do with
you, Judah?
This love of yours is
like a morning cloud,
like the dew that
quickly disappears.
This is why I have
torn them to pieces by the prophets,
why I slaughtered
them with the words from my mouth,
since what I want is
love, not sacrifice;
knowledge of God, not
holocausts.
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm
50:3-4,18-21 ©
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What I want is love,
not sacrifice.
Have mercy on me,
God, in your kindness.
In your
compassion blot out my offence.
O wash me more and
more from my guilt
and
cleanse me from my sin.
What I want is
love, not sacrifice.
For in sacrifice you
take no delight,
burnt offering
from me you would refuse,
my sacrifice, a
contrite spirit.
A
humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.
What I want is
love, not sacrifice.
In your goodness,
show favour to Zion:
rebuild
the walls of Jerusalem.
Then you will be
pleased with lawful sacrifice,
burnt
offerings wholly consumed.
What I want is
love, not sacrifice.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Ps94:8
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Glory and praise to
you, O Christ!
Harden not your
hearts today,
but listen to the
voice of the Lord.
Glory and praise to
you, O Christ!
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Gospel
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Luke 18:9-14 ©
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Jesus
spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being
virtuous and despised everyone else: ‘Two men went up to the Temple to pray,
one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood there and said
this prayer to himself, “I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust,
adulterous like the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this
tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get.” The tax
collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to
heaven; but he beat his breast and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”
This man, I tell you, went home again at rights with God; the other did not.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles
himself will be exalted.’
FIDELITY
OF GOD’S LOVE VERSUS OUR SHORT-LIVED LOVE
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: Hos 5:15-6:6;
Ps 50:
3-4, 18-21; Luke 18:9-14
When
God bemoaned with great disappointment, “What am I to do with you, Ephraim?
What am I to do with you, Judah? This love of yours is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that quickly disappears”, His experience of the instability of
human love is our experience as well. Not only is man not faithful to
God in love but even in our own lives, we are not faithful to each other.
It is a fact that most of our human relationships do not last. We see
many once deeply in love relationships now estranged. And even if they do
remain together, there is not much passion or excitement for each other.
Quite often, some are reduced to mere partners in marriage, or worse still,
intimate strangers.
Why
is our love for God and also for each other so short-lived? This is because of our fallen
nature. We simply lack the capacity for enduring love. Deep in our
hearts, we want to establish everlasting relationships, but to our
disappointment, such relationships do not last. If we cannot sustain human
relationships as St John says, how can we ever love God always?
The
truth is that being insecure as we are, our love tends to be conditional,
calculative and mutual. Such love is more akin to the prayer of the
Pharisee who came before God recounting all the good things he has done and his
virtues. Being conditional, love between human beings is more like
fulfilling a contract. We refrain from loving someone if we do not get a
positive response from that person, or when the person whom we love has nothing
to offer us. Since we are always seeking for our interests, we are easily
captivated by those whom we can derive some benefits from, whether materially,
emotionally, personally or even sexually. This accounts for the many
infidelities and betrayals in relationships.
If
that were true of human love, it is also applicable to our love for God. It is therefore not unexpected for
human beings to turn away from God because of material gain, prestige, power or
personal gain. For the sake of our friends too, we would even turn away
from God because our friends’ love is more tangible than God’s. As human
beings, we need to see, feel and touch. Thus, it is certainly quite a
tall order for man to love God whom He cannot see, and often cannot feel or touch.
The
good news is that God understands the heart of human beings. While human beings give up easily on
each other when the response is not forthcoming, God does not, for His love is
persevering, long suffering and faithful. He continues to love us even
when we betray Him for lesser loves and even for false gods. He knows the
division within the human heart and the confusion in our minds in the face of
temptation. He knows the struggles within us, of wanting to remain
faithful to His will and at the same time, the weakness of the human will and
the flesh.
But
just as He would not give up on Israel and Judah, so we can be sure that God
will not give up on us. God is patient with us for, as He declares in
the responsorial psalm, “It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice.” As the
prophet so confidently confessed, “Let us set ourselves to know the Lord; that
he will come is as certain as the dawn, he will come to us as showers come,
like spring rains watering the earth.”
But
that does not mean He is not hurt when we abandon Him. God who is love is surely a
thousand times more hurt than us when betrayed in love. He suffers even
more because the one who loves more is hurt more than the one who loves
less. No one hurts us as much as our closest friend, confidante, lover,
spouse and children. For the more we have given of ourselves, the more
vulnerable we are to getting hurt if the other party ever betrays our
love. Because God gives Himself totally without reserve to us, especially
in Jesus’ passion and death, He is most hurt when we spurn His love and mercy.
In the
light of God’s unconditional love for us, today, we are invited to turn back
to Him so that having received His love; we can in turn love Him and our
fellowmen with the love He has bestowed on us. How can this be
done? We only need to have a contrite heart and start loving Him.
Yes, as the psalmist knows, “For you are not pleased with sacrifices; should I
offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it. My sacrifice, O God, is a
contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not
spurn.” Yes, what God wants from us is not our sacrifices, whether
performed at the Temple by the Jews or good works done by the Pharisee.
All He desires is a contrite heart and the sacrifice of love by doing His holy
will.
To help
us to come back to Him, at times, the Lord allows us to suffer the misery of
our sins and the consequences of our infidelity to His laws and
commands. More often than not, we turn a deaf ear to His call to
repentance. This is what the prophet says, “Come, let us return to the
Lord. He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us; he has struck us down, but
he will bandage our wounds; after a day or two he will bring us back to life,
on the third day he will raise us and we shall live in his presence.” So
our sufferings, due to the consequences of our sins, should not be
misunderstood as punishment from God. Rather, they are graces given to us
for our conversion, lest a greater tragedy befalls us.
Nevertheless,
in spite of the many punishments that God inflicted on the people of Israel
because of their infidelities, God knows better than man that punishment is
not always the best means to help us come to realization. Indeed,
even if retribution from our sins does work, man is so forgetful and he will
quickly fall back to sin again.
That is
why God knows that the ultimate answer to man’s sincere repentance is to win
him over by love, not by fear or pain. Thus, the passion of Jesus on
the cross is the key to man’s repentance and conversion. By contemplating
His passion on the cross during this season of Lent, may we be moved to
appreciate His love for us so that with the same Spirit of Love given to us at
His resurrection, we will be able to love God and our fellowmen with His love,
a love that is enduring, passionate and in complete selflessness!
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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