20161020 THE PURIFYING FIRE OF LOVE
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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Ephesians
3:14-21 ©
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This is what I pray,
kneeling before the Father, from whom every family, whether spiritual or
natural, takes its name:
Out of
his infinite glory, may he give you the power through his Spirit for your
hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through
faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the
saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the
depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you
are filled with the utter fullness of God.
Glory be
to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or
imagine; glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in
Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm
32:1-2,4-5,11-12,18-19 ©
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The Lord fills the
earth with his love.
Ring out your joy to
the Lord, O you just;
for
praise is fitting for loyal hearts.
Give thanks to the
Lord upon the harp,
with a
ten-stringed lute sing him songs.
The Lord fills the
earth with his love.
For the word of the
Lord is faithful
and all
his works to be trusted.
The Lord loves
justice and right
and fills
the earth with his love.
The Lord fills the
earth with his love.
His own designs shall
stand for ever,
the plans
of his heart from age to age.
They are happy, whose
God is the Lord,
the
people he has chosen as his own.
The Lord fills the
earth with his love.
The Lord looks on
those who revere him,
on those
who hope in his love,
to rescue their souls
from death,
to keep
them alive in famine.
The Lord fills the
earth with his love.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Jn8:12
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Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the light of the
world, says the Lord;
anyone who follows me
will have the light of life.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Ph3:8-9
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Alleluia, alleluia!
I have accepted the
loss of everything
and I look on
everything as so much rubbish
if only I can have
Christ
and be given a place
in him.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Luke 12:49-53 ©
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Jesus said to his
disciples: ‘I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were
blazing already! There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great is my
distress till it is over!
‘Do you
suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.
For from now on a household of five will be divided: three against two and two
against three; the father divided against the son, son against father, mother
against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against
daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’
THE
PURIFYING FIRE OF LOVE
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: [ EPH 3:14-21; LK 12:49-53 ]
In the
gospel Jesus says, “Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on
earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” These words of Jesus
seem to contradict that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. In the letter of St
Paul to the Ephesians he says that Jesus “is the peace between us, and had made
the two into one and broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart ….
he came to bring the good news of peace, peace to you who were far away and
peace to those who were near at hand.” How could we then think of Jesus
bringing about division among us? What a paradoxical way for Jesus to
speak about His mission.
In order to understand why
He conceived His mission in this manner, we must know the nature of His
mission. “Jesus said, ‘I have come to bring fire to the earth and how I
wish it were blazing already! There is a baptism I must still receive,
and how great is my distress till it is over!” In these very words of Jesus, we
see the context of His mission. Baptism was that moment when He received
the mission from the Father. He described His mission in terms of fire and
baptism, both of which speak of cleansing and purification. Fire is
also a symbol of love. So both fire and baptism symbolize the purifying
work of Jesus. He had come to purify the world of sin, selfishness,
injustices, falsehood and evil. Jesus’ coming is the fulfillment of the
prophecy of Malachi when he said, “See, I will send my messenger, who will
prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to
his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says
the Lord Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when
he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will
sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine
them like gold and silver.” (Mal 3:1-3)
The mission of Jesus therefore entailed bringing about the fire of purifying
love. As such, inevitably, His presence, His message and actions would
bring about division because men will be forced to choose Him and His Kingdom
or Satan and his kingdom. There is no question of being neutral in the
face of this choice we have to make when confronted by the truth of Jesus.
Indeed,
when we speak of the purifying fire of love, we speak of justice and
truth. Love entails justice. Love also entails truth. The
reason why there is no real love and peace in the world is because the love of
the world perpetuates injustice, falsehoods and deceit. Love, in the
understanding of the world, is to say nice things about each other even if they
are wrong. Hypocrisy and falsehood is often masqueraded as love.
The world claims that what they are promoting is love. Euthanasia is done
out of love for the sick, elderly and those whose lives do not seem to have
value anymore. Abortion is done in the name of love because they do not
want the unwanted child to suffer. Causal sex is promoted in the name of
love since both can enjoy each other. Stem cell research involving
embryos is done for the sake of humanity. Divorce is advocated in the
name of love so that the couple can carry on with their lives.
But is this really done for
love or simply for the love of oneself? It is a selfish love of
self; not of the other. Euthanasia is practiced not because we do not
want the elderly and sick to suffer any more but because we do not want them to
be a nuisance and a hindrance to our freedom to do what we want. Everyone
wants to live. Love does not want separation regardless of the person’s
condition. Whether it is the patient or the caregivers, if we love, we
want to be with our loved ones forever. Euthanasia is practiced because
of the bankruptcy of love. Abortion too is not for the sake of the
unwanted baby but so that those who conceived the baby can continue to live
their lives without any commitment and responsibility. Every child that
is conceived in the womb of the mother desires to be loved and accepted.
Killing an innocent and helpless baby is not love. Free sex is not love
either, because love is more than mere pleasure gain from the body.
Unless there is love, sex is cheap. Sex merely for pleasure degrades the
person and his or her body, turning it to a thing to be used, manipulated and
discarded. Sex and the body are sacred because they are the means to
express intimacy and love. Hence, true love requires truth and justice.
Indeed,
the whole purpose of Christ’s message is to help us in purifying our love for
God. In a special way, it means that we need to be purified of our motive
for serving the Lord. It is good to examine ourselves deeply why many of
us are serving in Church or voluntary organizations. Do we really do it
for the love of God and His people? In truth, if we are not afraid to
confront the real motives of what we do, we will find that our motives are less
than noble. We join Church activities mostly because of what we can get
out of it. Often those who volunteer to serve the Lord never ask what the
Lord wants of them but what they like to do. So I join the choir because
I like to sing; not because I love God and I see my contribution as a means to evangelize.
Some join Church organizations because their friends are there; others because
of the benefits of being members, etc. It is necessary therefore for us
to always examine ourselves and be more conscious of the motives of what we do and
why we do. Spiritual maturity requires that we reflect deeper into the
reasons for what we have been doing or not doing. Through a conscious
awareness of our struggles and achievements, our weaknesses and strengths,
hopefully we be clearer as to which areas of our lives need to be sanctified
further.
Undoubtedly,
the purifying fire of love is painful due to the purification process.
Many of us are unable to accept criticisms from others. When we are
corrected by others, how often do we immediately react to defend
ourselves? Our ego makes us defensive and even retaliatory.
We are too proud to accept correction and we feel hurt when we receive a
negative comment. That is why the Christian message is not welcome in the
world. Today, the world is divided because of Christianity! We speak out
against the current relativistic, materialistic and individualistic trends in
the world. Not surprisingly, among all religions most hated by the world
is Catholicism because we act as the moral spokesman for the world in condemning
abortion, bioethical immorality, same sex union, etc. The world likes to
find fault with us and seeks to discredit the Church and her religious leaders
so that we cannot speak with credibility. News Media tend to report
negative things that come out of the Church but positive issues are not given
publicity because they are “boring.” For instance, the so- called
Vatican-leak by the Pope’s Butler was given so much coverage but nothing about
the Year of Faith, which had greater ramifications.
On the
other hand, because purification is a difficult process and people need time to
absorb the truth, it is important that we also speak the truth but do so with
love. Consequently, any correction must be carried out as a service of
love and for the sake of truth and justice. It must not be used, or even
seen as an instrument, to destroy the person but rather to purify, to correct
and to build the person up. It is important to search ourselves when we
correct others. Do we seek to point out people’s mistakes and errors in
order to feel good about ourselves and to humiliate people; or we do sincerely
highlight their mistakes to help them to become better for their own good and
not ours? If we are truly correcting purely out of love for the person, then
our correction will be done with compassion and sensitivity and always with
dignity. When we are harsh in our criticisms of others, most of the
time, they spring from anger, vindictiveness and pride. If there are no
self-interests involved, we would have been detached in offering fraternal
correction to others. In the case of Jesus, even when He was harsh with
the religious leaders, it was done out of love for them, never out of spite or
revenge.
Let us
therefore pray that we have the humility to accept criticisms positively, even
if we disagree with the judgment passed on us. As long as we understand
and see the judgment as a judgment in love, accepting correction should not be
too difficult. More often than not, pride blinds us from seeing others’
appraisal of us as God’s means to purify us in love. Hence, in the first
reading, St Paul exhorts us to found our love in His love, “Out of his infinite
glory, may he give you the power through his Spirit for your hidden self to
grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then,
planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints have strength
to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing
the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the
utter fullness of God.”
Love conquers all.
Without the love of God in us, we cannot render compassionate and yet truthful
judgment without fear or favour; and for those being judged, we cannot be open
and humble to accept the corrections given. But for those of us who
understand the power of God’s love, then indeed, St Paul says, “Glory be to him
whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine;
glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus
for ever and ever.” Truly, in the final analysis, only God’s love in us
can change us and transform us into integrated people and in the same love,
keep us all united in love for each other, helping us each to grow in holiness
and perfection in love and truth.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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