20160913 COMPASSION IS THE HEART OF THE MINISTRY
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
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First reading
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1 Corinthians
12:12-14,27-31 ©
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Just as a human body,
though it is made up of many parts, is a single unit because all these parts,
though many, make one body, so it is with Christ. In the one Spirit we were all
baptised, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as citizens, and one Spirit
was given to us all to drink.
Nor is
the body to be identified with any one of its many parts. Now you together are
Christ’s body; but each of you is a different part of it. In the Church, God
has given the first place to apostles, the second to prophets, the third to
teachers; after them, miracles, and after them the gift of healing; helpers,
good leaders, those with many languages. Are all of them apostles, or all of
them prophets, or all of them teachers? Do they all have the gift of miracles,
or all have the gift of healing? Do all speak strange languages, and all
interpret them? Be ambitious for the higher gifts.
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm 99:1-5 ©
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We are his people,
the sheep of his flock.
Cry out with joy to
the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the
Lord with gladness.
Come
before him, singing for joy.
We are his people,
the sheep of his flock.
Know that he, the
Lord, is God.
He made
us, we belong to him,
we are
his people, the sheep of his flock.
We are his people,
the sheep of his flock.
Go within his gates,
giving thanks.
Enter his
courts with songs of praise.
Give
thanks to him and bless his name.
We are his people,
the sheep of his flock.
Indeed, how good is
the Lord,
eternal
his merciful love.
He is
faithful from age to age.
We are his people,
the sheep of his flock.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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cf.2Tim1:10
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Our Saviour Jesus
Christ abolished death
and he has proclaimed
life through the Good News.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Lk7:16
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Alleluia, alleluia!
A great prophet has
appeared among us;
God has visited his
people.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Luke 7:11-17 ©
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Jesus went to a town
called Nain, accompanied by his disciples and a great number of people. When he
was near the gate of the town it happened that a dead man was being carried out
for burial, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a considerable
number of the townspeople were with her. When the Lord saw her he felt sorry
for her. ‘Do not cry’ he said. Then he went up and put his hand on the bier and
the bearers stood still, and he said, ‘Young man, I tell you to get up.’ And
the dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him to his mother.
Everyone was filled with awe and praised God saying, ‘A great prophet has
appeared among us; God has visited his people.’ And this opinion of him spread
throughout Judaea and all over the countryside.
COMPASSION
IS THE HEART OF THE MINISTRY
How can
we best serve the Lord in the ministry? What does it take to be truly
shepherds after the heart of Christ? Today, the scripture readings give
us the blueprint for fruitfulness in the ministry. Two essential factors
are necessary for us to be truly effective agents of Christ in the world.
We must be passionate shepherds after the heart of Christ and we must work
together in unity.
How, then, can we become
passionate shepherds after the heart of Christ? The opening prayer of the
Mass gives us the key to be ignited in our passion for the Lord’s
vineyard. The prayer says, “Look upon us, O God, creator and ruler of all
things, and, that we may feel the working of your mercy, grant that we may
serve you with all our heart.” In other words, we need to experience first the
compassionate love of God for us before we can be channels of His grace and
mercy. Being inspired by the compassion of Christ is what helps us to be
passionate and compassionate shepherds. St Paul himself writes that “For
the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for
all: therefore all have died. And he died for all, that those who live
might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was
raised.” (2 Cor 5:14f
)
)
The
gospel illustrates the compassionate love of God in Christ Jesus. We read
how Jesus felt sorry for the widow’s only son who had died and, without
hesitation, He reached out to her by raising and giving him back to her. The
words, “he felt sorry” are often repeated in the rest of the gospel as
well. Jesus was always moved by compassion, as in the case of the feeding
of the multitude. They too were like sheep without a
shepherd. When Jesus saw them, He was moved by their hunger for God
and so went about teaching them and then feeding them in their physical hunger
as well. (cf Mk 6:30-44
) Scholars tell us that whenever Jesus performed miracles,
it was never for His interests and benefits but solely out of compassion.
He never performed miracles to prove His identity, to refute His opponents or
to satisfy curiosity but simply as a response to the people’s cry for
help. Jesus truly has the heart of the good shepherd because He sees us as
the Father’s sheep without a shepherd. Hence, He was seen as the
visitation of God. He is the compassionate love of God in person.
) Scholars tell us that whenever Jesus performed miracles,
it was never for His interests and benefits but solely out of compassion.
He never performed miracles to prove His identity, to refute His opponents or
to satisfy curiosity but simply as a response to the people’s cry for
help. Jesus truly has the heart of the good shepherd because He sees us as
the Father’s sheep without a shepherd. Hence, He was seen as the
visitation of God. He is the compassionate love of God in person.
What is the source of
Jesus’s compassionate love? He loved because He was identified with His
Father’s love. Having experienced His Father’s love, He came to identify
Himself also with His Father’s love for humanity. As the responsorial
psalm says, we are the sheep of His flock. He felt the desire not only to
love us but to love us for the sake of His Father who loves us all. In
union with Him, He too loves us because we are His sheep.
Similarly,
if we are to be passionate and compassionate shepherds after the heart of
Christ, we must also be motivated by God’s love for us. If we desire to
serve in the ministry, it must be because, like St Paul, we are overwhelmed by
His love and mercy for us. We too must have been recipients of His
compassionate love before we can feel passionate in extending that love to
others. Only as a consequence can we then truly reach out to our
fellowmen, because Christ’s concern for them and God’s love in and through us
reaches out to them.
Our ministry must be
motivated by compassion, not by ambition; out of love for others and not to
prove ourselves: not to find our security but to give security to others.
St Augustine wrote, “If you cannot, like Paul, earn your living by the work of
your own hands, then by all means relieve your wants by accepting the milk that
your sheep provide; but never neglect the weaknesses and needs of your flock.
Do not seek to do well out of it, so that you appear to be proclaiming the
Gospel only because you need the money … So the means of living must be offered
only as an act of charity and accepted only out of necessity. The Gospel must
not be like something that is bought and sold, the price being the preachers’
livelihood. If you do sell it like that then you are cheapening a thing of
great value. Accept the relief of your wants from the people, but receive the
reward of your preaching from the Lord; for it is not right for the people to
reward their pastors for serving them in the gospel of love. Let the pastors
look for reward from the same source that the people look to for
salvation. Why are these pastors being rebuked? What is the charge
against them? It is that they take the milk and clothe themselves with the wool
but neglect the sheep from which these things come. They care not about
Christ’s interests, but their own.”
Indeed,
when I reflect on my pastoral involvements and the motivation of my vocation,
it is because of God’s compassion for me and my desire to extend this
compassion to others. It is for the love of God who has first loved me,
and the love for His people, that motivates me to keep on giving and
giving. Indeed, many times, I felt like giving up because it is so tiring
to be giving and giving all the time. Yet, I cannot stop giving simply
because I hear the cries of so many who are seeking God, longing to find His
love and mercy and to be nurtured by the Bread of life. Like the song, “Here
I am, Lord!” I too hear the cry of our people to be fed, nurtured and
healed. Every time when I hear how our people are frustrated and
disillusioned with life and with the Church, I cannot but feel sorry for them
as they are like sheep without a shepherd.
This,
then, is the reason why we, as labourers in the vineyard of the Lord, must work
together. Pope John Paul II never fails to reiterate that our mission is
communion and hence the mission must be accomplished in communion. The
harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. We need to
collaborate with each other to serve the people of God. We cannot do this
work alone as the demands are too overwhelming. Hence St Paul speaks of
the diversity of gifts for the building of the body of Christ. We are all
given different gifts to complement each other in the great work of building
the Church of Christ. We must not work alone, but together we can achieve
more. St Paul urges us, “Just as a human body, though it is made up
of many parts, is a single unit because all these parts, though many, make one
body, so it is with Christ …Now you together are Christ’s body; but each
of you is a different part of it.”
But before we can work
together and collaborate with each other, we must first become the
compassionate face of God to each other, not just with people whom we
serve. This is the acid test in examining whether we are serving
ourselves or others. If we truly want to be the compassion of God to
others, then we must reach out to each other and be compassionate in love to
each other. If we cannot feel with our close ones and those living with
us, how can we feel for people outside our circle of life? Compassion
must begin with our loved ones, spouse, children, parents, colleagues and
church members before we can extend to strangers. By becoming recipients of
God’s compassion through each other, we become one as well, because we
experience God’s love as real and concrete. Let us be the face of God’s
compassion to each other so that we see each other truly as brothers and
sisters who love each other sincerely. This bond we create among
ourselves will help us to support each other in the ministry. Together as
one in the love of Christ, we will truly become the Sacrament, the sign of
God’s love to the world, the visitation of God in their lives and truly, the
sign of love and unity for the whole human race.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights
Reserved
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