20160610 RUNNING AWAY FROM OUR FEARS
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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1 Kings
19:9,11-16 ©
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When Elijah reached
Horeb, the mountain of God, he went into the cave and spent the night in it.
Then he was told, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord.’ Then the
Lord himself went by. There came a mighty wind, so strong it tore the mountains
and shattered the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind.
After the wind came an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake came a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after
the fire there came the sound of a gentle breeze. And when Elijah heard this,
he covered his face with his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of
the cave. Then a voice came to him, which said, ‘What are you doing here,
Elijah?’ He replied, ‘I am filled with jealous zeal for the Lord of Hosts,
because the sons of Israel have deserted you, broken down your altars and put
your prophets to the sword. I am the only one left and they want to kill me.’
‘Go,’ the
Lord said, ‘go back by the same way to the wilderness of Damascus. You are to
go and anoint Hazael as king of Aram. You are to anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as
king of Israel, and to anoint Elisha son of Shaphat, of Abel Meholah, as
prophet to succeed you.’
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm
26:7-9,13-14 ©
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It is your face, O
Lord, that I seek.
O Lord, hear my voice
when I call;
have
mercy and answer.
Of you my heart has
spoken:
‘Seek his
face.’
It is your face, O
Lord, that I seek.
It is your face, O
Lord, that I seek;
hide not
your face.
Dismiss not your
servant in anger;
you have
been my help.
It is your face, O
Lord, that I seek.
I am sure I shall see
the Lord’s goodness
in the
land of the living.
Hope in him, hold
firm and take heart.
Hope in
the Lord!
It is your face, O
Lord, that I seek.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Jn10:27
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The sheep that belong
to me listen to my voice,
says the Lord,
I know them and they
follow me.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Ph2:15-16
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Alleluia, alleluia!
You will shine in the
world like bright stars
because you are
offering it the word of life.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 5:27-32 ©
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Jesus said to his
disciples, ‘You have learnt how it was said: You must not commit adultery.
But I say this to you: if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already
committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye should cause you to
sin, tear it out and throw it away; for it will do you less harm to lose one
part of you than to have your whole body thrown into hell. And if your right
hand should cause you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; for it will do you
less harm to lose one part of you than to have your whole body go to hell.
‘It
has also been said: Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a writ of
dismissal. But I say this to you: everyone who divorces his wife, except
for the case of fornication, makes her an adulteress; and anyone who marries a
divorced woman commits adultery.’
RUNNING
AWAY FROM OUR FEARS
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: [ 1 KINGS
19:9,11-16; MATTHEW 5:27-32 ]
We all have this defence
mechanism in our human DNA to run away from our enemies and our fears.
When we are successful and doing well, we are elated. But when trouble
knocks at our door, we panic and react by running away from the challenges
ahead of us. It was the case of the Jews during the time of Jesus and the
Israelites in the Old Testament. The teaching against adultery was directed at
the fickle mindedness of married couples. Instead of facing their sin of
lust, they found excuses to declare a divorce.
In the first reading,
Elijah was in this mode as well. He had just won a huge success and was
in high spirits when he defeated the 450 prophets of Baal and demonstrated the
power of God. After slaying them, he must have felt vindicated and took
delight in his triumph over them, having eliminated the false prophets and
purified the faith of Israel. But this taste of victory did not last
long, for when Queen Jezebel heard of it, she was furious and sent men to take
his life. As a result, the prophet Elijah had to flee for his life.
The sudden turn of fortune must have deflated his ego. He could overcome
450 false prophets but he had to run from a woman, and furthermore, a foreign
woman.
The
truth is that when we run away from our fears instead of confronting them, we
will destroy ourselves. How do we run away from our
fears?
Firstly, we blame others
for the situation we are in. Instead of doing an appraisal of ourselves,
we look for scapegoats. When the Lord asked Elijah, “’What are you doing
here, Elijah?’ He replied, ‘I am filled with jealous zeal for the Lord of
hosts, because the sons of Israel have deserted you, broken down your altars
and put your prophets to the sword. I am the only one left and they want to
kill me.’” He laid the blame on the sons of Israel and
Jezebel. As for himself, he was the only holy one among all the
people of Israel for he said, “I, I alone, am left as a prophet of the Lord,
while the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty.” Only he was
jealous for the House of the Lord! We, too, like to blame people, the
situation and the structure for our incompetence, our setbacks and the problems
we have caused. When confronted, we seek to justify ourselves and make
ourselves to be the innocent, good and blameless party.
Secondly, from self-denial,
he went into depression and despair. We read earlier that after a day’s
journey into the wilderness, he told the Lord, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take
away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” (1 kg
19:4) In the face of failure, he began to wallow in
self-pity. Rather than taking up the challenge of defeating the enemies
of God, he was playing the role of victim. Deep within himself, he was
angry with God that such a thing could happen to him when he was on the side of
God. He felt that God had abandoned him and so it was no longer
worthwhile working for God and His people. Hence, he asked for an early
exit from the struggles of life. How true for us too. When
things are going on well, we bask in our laurels. We are full of
zeal, excitement and passion. But when we meet with obstacles, the lack
of response, appreciation or failures, or worse, opposition, we want to give
up. We tender our resignation or ask to be transferred elsewhere.
That is why many are hopping from one ministry to another, one job to another,
one parish to another because the leopard cannot change its spots or its
territory!
What is needed is not to
run away from our fears and enemies but to confront our greatest enemy, which
is ourselves! We can either see ourselves as our best friend or our worst
enemy. How do we see ourselves? This is the crux of today’s
lesson. In the gospel, Jesus made it clear when He said, “If your right
eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you
to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.
And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It
is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go
into Gehenna.” Of course, we must avoid this literal interpretation.
The point underscored by the Lord is that if something is causing you to sin or
to run away from yourself, your false self, then we must confront our fears,
weaknesses and sins head on. The failure to do so will result in us going
to hell, both figuratively and literally.
How, then, do we confront
ourselves? We need to retreat like Elijah to the desert to face our
demons, like the Lord who was in the desert battling with the devil who sought
to surface the human desires of our Lord through the offer of food, power and
glory. And this battle must be fought alone. It is significant that
Elijah “got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to
Judah; he left his servant there.” (1 Kg 19:3) He did not
bring his servant with him into the wilderness but left him behind.
Indeed, if we want to face ourselves, we need to enter into the depths of our
hearts. We need total silence. External silence must be kept if we
were to hear the voice in our heart. If we cannot keep external silence,
we can never hear the real voice speaking to us deep in our hearts because the
noise and voices of the world will drown that inner voice.
Secondly, we need to face
our demons and fears not simply through self-introspection but to hear the
voice of God. Again, this was what Elijah did. When he
reached Mount Horeb, he sought the voice of the Lord, the Word of God. It
was clear that God did not choose to reveal Himself through signs and wonders
this time. He was not in the mighty wind, nor the earthquake or the
fire but in the sound of a gentle breeze. Some people only want to see
God in spectacular events, healings, miracles, concerts, showmanship, etc but
the truth is that God speaks loudest to us when He whispers into the ears of
our hearts. If we cannot hear or see God, it is because we are often
looking in the wrong places. It is in the gentle voice, in the silence of
our hearts, in the calmness of the environment, in the stillness after the
storm that God will reveal to us our true motives and who we really are, as He
did with Elijah.
And the question God will
ask us as He did with Elijah is, “What are you doing here?” In
other words, the Lord was helping Elijah to face the real fears and demons that
he was fleeing from. He blamed the people for his woes and the false
prophets. He assigned his predicament to the fact that he was the only
one faithful to the Lord. However, the Lord exposed his sin of arrogance
and presumption as coming from his pride. He was not the only one who was
filled with zeal for the Lord or the only one who remained true to the pristine
faith of Israel. Indeed, the Lord said, “Go, go back the same way to the
wilderness of Damascus. You are to go and anoint Hazael as king of Aram. You
are to anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king of Israel, and to anoint Elisha son of
Shaphat, of Abel Meholah, as prophet to succeed you.” There were
others who were also faithful to Yahweh. Indeed, the Lord added, “Whoever
escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill; and whoever escapes from the
sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill. Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel,
all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed
him.” (1 Kg 19:17f) So Elijah was not the only true prophet.
In our zeal, sometimes we think we are the savior of the world. We think we are
the only righteous one and the holy one of God! Most of us think so
highly of ourselves, failing to realize that we have fallen into the sin of
self-righteousness. Because we have an exaggerated appreciation of ourselves,
when we suffer, we feel that we are the victims and others are the
oppressors. We do not know that we also have our own inadequacies and are
responsible for the current predicament as well.
So today, the Lord is
telling us to face our fears and demons. We should not run away from them
or justify ourselves. In true humility, let us recognize that we are
prone to temptations, especially the sin of presumption. To overcome our
fears, we must see ourselves with the eyes and heart of God. How we see
ourselves will determine how we respond to others. A negative or false
understanding of self will lead to a corresponding distortion in the way we
look at the situation and at other people. The eyes and the hands work
together. What delight the eyes will cause the hands to obtain what is
seen. So it is important how we see because it also affects our hearts.
In the final analysis, the
most effective way to overcome evil and sin in our lives is to stop focusing on
ourselves. Elijah was focusing on himself under the pretext of focusing
on the people of Israel and the purity of the faith. The more we focus on
ourselves, our needs, our pride, our ego, the more we sin. To overcome
lust, one does not sit down and start thinking about our lust. All the
person has to do is to go out and do some good works so that he is distracted
from attending to his selfish needs or allowing the thought of lust to develop
in his mind and heart. We can overcome our fears and demons by good
works and good thoughts. Sadness and depression enter into our hearts
only because we are licking our wounds. But if we reach out in service
and in love; and fill our minds with noble thoughts, we will find peace and
true freedom. This is what St Paul exhorts us, “Finally, beloved,
whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure,
whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and
if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the
things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God
of peace will be with you.” (Phil 4:8f
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)
Written by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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