20170128 BUILDING A DREAM FOR TOMORROW
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
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First reading
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Hebrews
11:1-2,8-19 ©
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Only faith can
guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the
realities that at present remain unseen. It was for faith that our ancestors
were commended.
It was by
faith that Abraham obeyed the call to set out for a country that was the
inheritance given to him and his descendants, and that he set out without
knowing where he was going. By faith he arrived, as a foreigner, in the
Promised Land, and lived there as if in a strange country, with Isaac and
Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. They lived there in tents
while he looked forward to a city founded, designed and built by God.
It was
equally by faith that Sarah, in spite of being past the age, was made able to
conceive, because she believed that he who had made the promise would be
faithful to it. Because of this, there came from one man, and one who was
already as good as dead himself, more descendants than could be counted, as
many as the stars of heaven or the grains of sand on the seashore.
All these
died in faith, before receiving any of the things that had been promised, but
they saw them in the far distance and welcomed them, recognising that they were
only strangers and nomads on earth. People who use such terms about themselves
make it quite plain that they are in search of their real homeland. They can
hardly have meant the country they came from, since they had the opportunity to
go back to it; but in fact they were longing for a better homeland, their
heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, since
he has founded the city for them.
It was by
faith that Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac. He offered to
sacrifice his only son even though the promises had been made to him and he had
been told: It is through Isaac that your name will be carried on. He was
confident that God had the power even to raise the dead; and so, figuratively
speaking, he was given back Isaac from the dead.
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Luke 1:69-75 ©
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Blessed be the
Lord, the God of Israel! He has visited his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up for
us a mighty saviour
in the
house of David his servant,
as he promised by the
lips of holy men,
those who
were his prophets from of old.
Blessed be the
Lord, the God of Israel! He has visited his people and redeemed them.
A saviour who would
free us from our foes,
from the
hands of all who hate us.
So his love for our
fathers is fulfilled
and his
holy covenant remembered.
Blessed be the
Lord, the God of Israel! He has visited his people and redeemed them.
He swore to Abraham
our father
to grant
us that free from fear,
and saved
from the hands of our foes,
we might serve him in
holiness and justice
all the
days of our life in his presence.
Blessed be the
Lord, the God of Israel! He has visited his people and redeemed them.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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cf.Ps26:11
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Instruct me, Lord, in
your way;
on an even path lead
me.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Jn3:16
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Alleluia, alleluia!
God loved the world
so much that he gave his only Son:
everyone who believes
in him has eternal life.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 4:35-41 ©
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With the coming of
evening, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Let us cross over to the other side.’
And leaving the crowd behind they took him, just as he was, in the boat; and
there were other boats with him. Then it began to blow a gale and the waves
were breaking into the boat so that it was almost swamped. But he was in the
stern, his head on the cushion, asleep. They woke him and said to him, ‘Master,
do you not care? We are going down!’ And he woke up and rebuked the wind and
said to the sea, ‘Quiet now! Be calm!’ And the wind dropped, and all was calm
again. Then he said to them, ‘Why are you so frightened? How is it that you
have no faith?’ They were filled with awe and said to one another, ‘Who can
this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him.’
BUILDING
A DREAM FOR TOMORROW
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: [ HEB 11:1-2,8-19; LUKE 1:69-75; MARK 4:35-41 ]
To be a leader we must have
a dream. We are what we are today because of the dreams of our
forefathers. Without their dreams, Singapore would not be what it is
today. The future is born out of dreams. Science and
technology are born from dreams of what life could be. No
development or advancement is possible without starting out as a dream.
That is why we should be forever grateful for the sacrifices of our
forefathers, community and religious leaders in daring to dream for Singapore.
In the first reading,
Abraham also had a dream. He had a vision of building a new humanity, a
new community, and a nation of believers in God where there is unity, progress
and happiness. In truth, Abraham did not have to move out of his
comfortable niche in the city of Ur to the Promised Land. He was rich and
well off with many flocks of cattle and sheep. Most of all, he was
already old and could have retired to enjoy life instead of moving to another
land without any guarantees. Indeed, if we were him, we would have stayed
put and left the future to the next generation.
But the truth is that a
great leader never builds a dream for himself or even for his own family.
A true leader builds a dream for his people and for the people of
tomorrow. This is the hallmark of a true leader who is selfless and
visionary. A good leader seeks to build a better life and future for the
next generation. He might not get to enjoy the fruits of his labour, but
it does not matter. What matters is that the future generations would
benefit from his sacrifices and labour. In fact, Abraham never saw the
fulfillment of the promise. But still, the promise was partially
fulfilled when Sarah at the ripe old age of 91 and Abraham in his 100 gave
birth to Isaac. He did it for the future generations to come.
But this is also true of
Moses, our Lord and St Paul who only saw the beginning of the fulfillment of
their dreams. Moses also did not enter the Promised Land but only had
sight of it when the Lord asked him to ascend to Mount Nebo. (Dt 34:1-3) Jesus also did
not see the fulfillment of His dream except the birth of the nascent primitive
Church, the beginning of a New Community of grace and love. St Paul too
was conscious that in building the Church for the Gentiles, it would take time
but he was patient. Like the rest of the apostles, he too would not have
been able to see how the Church grew from strength to strength. St Paul
wrote, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it
grow.” (1 Cor 3:6)
So it does not matter whether we benefit in the end. What is important is
that we are giving hope and a future to humanity.
What is your dream for your
community, for the Church and for Singapore? In the final analysis, we
all have this dream of building a community of love. This too was the
dream of Abraham and our Lord. Jesus came to build a community of love,
the family of God united in Him. What we need most today is to strengthen
our community, our family, our church community, a cohesive society and a
united world. In the heart of every person is a desire for a community
where there is peace, love and unity.
This is the greatest
challenge today in the face of secularism and relativism. Without God,
without absolute values, it is difficult to align everyone together. The
ideology of relativism makes it impossible for anyone to agree to anything that
is true since no one is right. This explains why relationships are very
fragile today. They are not built on truth or on lasting love. When
we cannot agree on fundamentals, we cannot build any real unity. When society
cannot agree on a set of core values, then it would be impossible to build any
community, much less a lasting community. If Singapore is still
relatively united and peaceful it is because our forefathers had it right in
putting our common values in the Singapore Pledge. Indeed, looking at the
situation of the world today, we see how fragile peace and unity is. When
countries are not ruled by righteous, inclusive, honest leaders with integrity,
the nation will suffer. St Thomas says, “Happiness is secured through
virtue; it is a good attained by man’s own will.”
A case in point is the
question of marriage and family. What we have today are very superficial
relationships, even in marriage. Many of our marriages do not last
because the foundation for strong marriages such as total love, faithful love,
fruitful and sacrificial love are not considered non-negotiable values.
Those of us who are in the know are aware of the difficulties the Church is
struggling with the issue of marriage and family, particularly in trying to
apply the practical and pastoral approaches of Amoris Laetitia. There are
two camps, one is the need to hold on to the absolute norms and the other is to
show the compassion of God. The decision on how we approach marriage, divorce
and sexuality would also have implications for how we see the Sacrament of the
Eucharist as well. Is it a reward for good behavior or an antidote for
the weak? If we say the latter, it also compromises the symbol of the
Eucharist as a sign of perfect unity.
As Christians, how do we
want to build our dream? We need a strong foundation, that is
Christ. If our dreams are not built on Christ, our dreams will
fail. All dreams must come from God if they are to succeed. Abraham
built his dream based on the promise of God. “Know certainly that your
descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve
them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom
they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great
possessions.” (Gn 15:13f)
So as leaders, before we start visioning for society and our peoples, we need
to pray and see God’s plan for us all.
This is the lesson of
today’s gospel as well. Unless our life is founded on Christ, when we
meet the storms of life, we will not be able to withstand the onslaughts.
We will lose faith easily. Indeed, many of us have big dreams but when
faced with difficulties, like the apostles who were buffeted by the storm, they
began to panic. With Christ as the center of our lives, we will be able
to rise up to any challenge and any storm. If not, when our dreams are
challenged or things do not go the way we want, we will get confused and
anxious. This was the case for Abraham when he became anxious that Sarah
could not conceive a son for him. So in his impatience, he took Hagar, his
maid to conceive for him a son whom they named Ismael. As a consequence,
it brought division to the family. So long as we have faith, we can
overcome all things. “Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope
for, or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen.”
Consequently, the question
that is posed to us today is whether we know Christ in our lives. After Jesus
calmed the storm, “They were filled with awe and said to one another, ‘Who can
this be? Even the wind and sea obey him.’” Unless we affirm that Jesus is
our Lord, we will not have faith in Him to guide us and protect us from harm
and danger. St Thomas said, “If, then, you are looking for the way by
which you should go, take Christ, because He Himself is the way.” Who
Jesus is to us will determine how we will respond to Him and how much faith we
have in Him. Faith depends on trust and relationship. If we know
Jesus well, we will learn to trust Him. If we confess that Jesus is the
Son of God, then we can accept the Bible and the Magisterium as preserving the
deposit of faith found in scripture and tradition.
Yet, we must not be
shortsighted. As the first reading reminds us, our homeland is ultimately
in heaven. We are in transition. We must also recognize the law of
gradualness. We might not accept the gradualness of the law but we must
realize that many are still not there yet. This calls for
compassion. “They lived there in tents while he looked forward to a city
founded, designed and built by God.” The author said, “People who use
such terms about themselves make it quite plain that they are in search of
their real homeland. They can hardly have meant the country they came from,
since they had the opportunity to go back to it; but in fact they were longing
for a better homeland, their heavenly homeland.” So what we experience on
earth is just a foretaste of what we will arrive at in heaven when love is
complete and the community is lasting. It is in the New City of Jerusalem
when we all become one in Christ in the communion of Saints.
In the final analysis, in
spite of the turmoil caused by scandals and differing views in the Church, we
must not feel discouraged. The gospel assures us that Jesus is in charge
of the Church. The boat is a symbol of the Church and though Jesus might
appear to be sleeping in the stern of the boat, in truth, He is fully aware of
how the Church is buffeted by the storms and the winds of life. Against
all these threats, the Lord will keep the Church safe. All we need is to
have faith. He has protected this Church for the last 2000 years and He
will fulfill His promise to be with the Church until the end of
time. Moreover, through all these struggles and challenges, the
Church will come out purified and stronger and more relevant to the
world. Christ is the anchor and our hope. As the author of
Hebrews says, “God had the power even to raise the dead; and so, figuratively
speaking, he was given Isaac back from the dead.” He too will raise the
Church to greater heights in time to come.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights
Reserved
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