20160823 MEANING AS THE KEY TO MAINTAINING A HEALTHY TENSION
BETWEEN TRADITIONALISTS AND PROGRESSIVES
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
|
First reading
|
|
2 Thessalonians
2:1-3,14-17 ©
|
To turn, brothers, to
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we shall all be gathered round him:
please do not get excited too soon or alarmed by any prediction or rumour or
any letter claiming to come from us, implying that the Day of the Lord has
already arrived. Never let anyone deceive you in this way.
It cannot
happen until the Great Revolt has taken place and the Rebel, the Lost One, has
appeared. Through the Good News that we brought he called you to this so that
you should share the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Stand firm, then,
brothers, and keep the traditions that we taught you, whether by word of mouth
or by letter. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father who has given
us his love and, through his grace, such inexhaustible comfort and such sure
hope, comfort you and strengthen you in everything good that you do or say.
|
Responsorial
Psalm
|
Psalm 95:10-13 ©
|
The Lord comes to
rule the earth.
Proclaim to the
nations: ‘God is king.’
The world
he made firm in its place;
he will
judge the peoples in fairness.
The Lord comes to
rule the earth.
Let the heavens
rejoice and earth be glad,
let the
sea and all within it thunder praise,
let the land and all
it bears rejoice,
all the
trees of the wood shout for joy
at the presence of
the Lord for he comes,
he comes
to rule the earth.
The Lord comes to
rule the earth.
With justice he will
rule the world,
he will
judge the peoples with his truth.
The Lord comes to
rule the earth.
|
Gospel
Acclamation
|
cf.Ac16:14
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Open our heart, O
Lord,
to accept the words
of your Son.
Alleluia!
|
Or
|
Heb4:12
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
The word of God is
something alive and active:
it can judge secret
emotions and thoughts.
Alleluia!
|
Gospel
|
|
Matthew 23:23-26
©
|
Jesus said, ‘Alas for
you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who pay your tithe of mint and
dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law –
justice, mercy, good faith! These you should have practised, without neglecting
the others. You blind guides! Straining out gnats and swallowing camels!
‘Alas
for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who clean the outside of
cup and dish and leave the inside full of extortion and intemperance. Blind
Pharisee! Clean the inside of cup and dish first so that the outside may become
clean as well.’
MEANING
AS THE KEY TO MAINTAINING A HEALTHY TENSION BETWEEN TRADITIONALISTS AND
PROGRESSIVES
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: [ 2TH
2:1-3; 14-17; MT 23:23-26]
In any
community, be it a religious or lay community, there will always be two groups
of people whom we label them as traditionalists, conservatives or progressives
and reformists. Traditionalists are normally perceived as those who hold
on to traditions and are not open to change. Progressives are those who
have no sentiments for tradition and are always coming up with new ideas and
innovation. Such labeling of course is not quite justified because it
implies that belonging to either camp is wrong and therefore one must opt to be
a moderate. But who is a moderate? Is he one who has no values of
his own and therefore makes a compromise between the traditionalists and the
radicals? If that were the case, then being a moderate is equally not
something to be desired. In fact, a moderate appears to be someone
without backbone.
Consequently,
one must go beyond the tendency to label people. Even if we identify
ourselves as belonging to one of the three groups mentioned, it is important to
realize that the tension between the so-called traditionalists and progressives
is in fact very healthy in any community. Indeed, if the traditionalists stick
to tradition as the end in itself, they will be fossilized and left
behind. On the other hand, if progressives innovate without serious
consideration of the past, they can end up in superficiality. Hence, in the
final analysis, it is not whether one is a traditionalist, a progressive or a
moderate, but it is a matter of the eternal and universal values that we
uphold. For this reason, the conflict between the traditionalists and
progressives can be useful in focusing on the fundamental issues that
apparently divide them.
This
indeed seems to be position of the early Church who inherited the stance from
Jesus Himself. Of course, a cursory reading of the gospel might give us
the impression that Jesus was against tradition. On the contrary, how could be
it be so? Sociologically speaking, life cannot be lived without some forms of
tradition. Society creates traditions. Society creates a pattern of
living in such a way that people can understand each other and relate with each
other through customs and symbols. In fact Jesus Himself continued to
observe the Jewish religious festivals. He Himself gave the tradition of
praying the Lord’s Prayer and the memorial meal. The early Church also had many
traditions, such as the Eucharistic celebration and the observance of memorial
for the dead martyrs and especially of going to the tomb of Jesus to
commemorate His death and resurrection. For this reason, St Paul urged
the Thessalonians, “Stand firm, brothers, and keep the traditions that we
taught you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.” Hence, traditions are
necessary for any community to thrive. There can be no community without
traditions.
Thus,
the problem is not with traditions. It is a question of meaning and
values. For traditionalists the traditions become the end in
themselves. This was why Jesus indicted the Pharisees, not because of
their traditions but because they failed to be conscious of what the traditions
sought to mediate, and to live up to the values implied in those traditions.
This is
particularly pertinent with regard to the question of tithes and taxes.
Instead of seeing taxes and tithes as an expression of our gratitude to God who
gives us all that is good and as the means to bring about a more just and
equitable society, they manipulated the requirements of these laws so that they
could soothe their conscience and evade taxes. Indeed, the measure to gauge
whether we have fulfilled the laws is not a question of whether we have
fulfilled the letter of the laws but whether we have fulfilled the fundamental
values intended by the laws.
As with
the observation of the laws, the same forgetfulness and wrong motives exist in
the observation of the traditions. Here, Jesus referred to the custom of
purification of the dishes. Again, cleanliness is certainly important not
only for hygiene reasons but it also manifests the interior disposition of a
person. That is why it is often used as a sign of purity of the heart of
a person. It is a symbol of orderliness, discipline and
self-control. Untidiness in a person could be reflective of the lack of
discipline in one’s life. However, cleanliness is not everything. The
Pharisees were more careful about the rules of purification and cleanliness
than about the purification of their minds and hearts. Homemakers are
quite often upset over the untidiness of the family members. In their
well-intentioned desire to keep the house clean and neat, they can become
overly obsessed. Furthermore, with the constant nagging and grumbling,
resulting in endless quarrels, the peace and unity of the house is often lost
at the expense of cleanliness.
Truly,
the ultimate focus of our problem lies in the question of preserving the
values. This must always be the aim at all times. The way
traditions and customs is kept is secondary. What is vital is that no
matter what we do, we are imparting correct values; those that promote justice,
love, unity and truth. Most of all, we must seek for the absolute and higher
values of life. This is the crux of the theme of today’s liturgy.
Hence,
when traditions no longer mediate the values intended, there is a need to
re-educate the community or modify the traditions so that the meaning is
retained. So traditions can change and if they do not change,
re-education is necessary for traditions to serve their purpose. Some
form of education is indispensable for customs to be always relevant. In
fact, if some traditions are perceived to be irrelevant, it could be due to the
lack of education and formation.
If that
is so, this also means that new traditions are not necessarily better than the
old ones because unwittingly, new traditions can change the fundamental meaning
and values of a community to their detriment. Hence, we must be
critical both of old and new traditions. We must not easily be deceived
into adopting new ones simply out of novelty and popularity. At the same time,
we cannot dogmatically hold on to old traditions without considering their
relevance for our times.
With
this framework in mind, we can now reevaluate more objectively the traditions
of the Church. With regard to customs and rules, we must be discerning
whether by changing some rules we are abandoning the values that are being
promoted. In other words, we must consider whether adopting new rules or
new ways of doing things truly promote zeal for the mission and communion with
God and the Christian community to which we belong.
What is
true for traditions is also important for our liturgical celebrations as
well. We must be careful and discerning about the rubrics of
liturgy. Before we innovate the liturgy, we must have a real appreciation
of the liturgy, especially the theological meaning behind the liturgical rules,
formulas and signs. An imprudent way of modifying the liturgy can lead to
an impoverished liturgy. In the attempt to be relevant, we can dilute the
richness of what the liturgy intends to convey.
In
conclusion, therefore, let us not quarrel and squabble over rules and
traditions. We can disagree on the means but we must concur on the values
of the Kingdom. What is imperative is that we preserve the values
imparted to us in the gospel and make progress in justice, love and truth.
Regardless,
there is only one common goal that matters in the end. As the first
reading urges us, we must keep in mind that the ultimate focus of our
traditions is simply to serve the all-important goal of every Christian, which
is to share in the “glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In our journey and
aspiration to share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must not be too
burdened by fear of unworthiness, like the Thessalonians. We must
surrender ourselves in faith and trust in the Lord as St Paul urged the
Thessalonians, for “our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father who have
given us his love and, through his grace, such inexhaustible comfort and sure
hope, comfort you and strengthen you in everything that you do or say.”
No comments:
Post a Comment