20170127 IMPERCEPTIBLE WORKING OF GRACE THROUGH FAITH IN GOD
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
|
First reading
|
|
Hebrews 10:32-39
©
|
Remember all the
sufferings that you had to meet after you received the light, in earlier days;
sometimes by being yourselves publicly exposed to insults and violence, and
sometimes as associates of others who were treated in the same way. For you not
only shared in the sufferings of those who were in prison, but you happily
accepted being stripped of your belongings, knowing that you owned something
that was better and lasting. Be as confident now, then, since the reward is so
great. You will need endurance to do God’s will and gain what he has promised.
Only a little
while now, a very little while,
and the one that
is coming will have come; he will not delay.
The righteous man
will live by faith,
but if he draws
back, my soul will take no pleasure in him.
You and I are not the
sort of people who draw back, and are lost by it; we are the sort who keep
faithful until our souls are saved.
|
Responsorial
Psalm
|
|
Psalm
36(37):3-6,23-24,39-40 ©
|
The salvation of
the just comes from the Lord.
If you trust in the
Lord and do good,
then you
will live in the land and be secure.
If you find your
delight in the Lord,
he will
grant your heart’s desire.
The salvation of
the just comes from the Lord.
Commit your life to
the Lord,
trust in
him and he will act,
so that your justice
breaks forth like the light,
your
cause like the noon-day sun.
The salvation of
the just comes from the Lord.
The Lord guides the
steps of a man
and makes
safe the path of one he loves.
Though he stumble he
shall never fall
for the
Lord holds him by the hand.
The salvation of
the just comes from the Lord.
The salvation of the
just comes from the Lord,
their
stronghold in time of distress.
The Lord helps them
and delivers them
and saves
them: for their refuge is in him.
The salvation of
the just comes from the Lord.
|
Gospel
Acclamation
|
Ps118:27
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Make me grasp the way
of your precepts,
and I will muse on
your wonders.
Alleluia!
|
Or
|
Mt11:25
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are you,
Father,
Lord of heaven and
earth,
for revealing the
mysteries of the kingdom
to mere children.
Alleluia!
|
Gospel
|
Mark 4:26-34 ©
|
Jesus said to the
crowds, ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man throws seed on the
land. Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting
and growing; how, he does not know. Of its own accord the land produces first
the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the crop is
ready, he loses no time: he starts to reap because the harvest has come.’
He also
said, ‘What can we say the kingdom of God is like? What parable can we find for
it? It is like a mustard seed which at the time of its sowing in the soil is
the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet once it is sown it grows into the
biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the
air can shelter in its shade.’
Using
many parables like these, he spoke the word to them, so far as they were
capable of understanding it. He would not speak to them except in parables, but
he explained everything to his disciples when they were alone.
IMPERCEPTIBLE
WORKING OF GRACE THROUGH FAITH IN GOD
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: [ 2
HEB 10:32-39; MARK 4:26-34 ]
What does it mean to be a
priest of Jesus Christ? The first duty of a priest is to offer worship
and sacrifice. As Catholics we do this as Church, particularly through the celebration
of the Eucharist and the Liturgy of the hours; and as individuals, through
personal prayer, community worship and intercessory prayer.
But it
is not sufficient to pray and intercede for humanity, because Christ our High
Priest was both priest and victim, the lamb of sacrifice. Unlike the
priests of the Old Testament, He offered Himself as a sacrifice for our
salvation instead of an animal. Thus, just to celebrate the Mass and
remain as mere observers of Christ’s sacrifice at the altar does not make us
truly priests of Jesus Christ. We must interiorize the sacrifice of the
Mass by living out the Eucharist in our daily life by making ourselves bread
broken for others and having our blood poured out for the love of humanity.
That
was what the early Christians did. St Paul’s letter to the Hebrews was
most probably written to encourage the Jewish converts to Christianity who,
perhaps with sadness, gave up their old ritualistic form of sacrifice, and who
perhaps were also feeling discouraged as they were ostracized by their own
community. Following such an inspiring exposition on the priesthood
of Jesus Christ, the author then challenged the converted Jews to be faithful
to Christ in times of persecution and trials. He told them, “Remember all
the sufferings that you had to meet after you received the light, in earlier
days: sometimes by being yourselves publicly exposed to insults and violence,
and sometimes as associates of others who were treated in the same way. For you
not only shared in the sufferings of those who were in prison, but you happily
accepted being stripped of your belongings.”
We, too, have our own
trials in seeking to be faithful to our Christian values. Whenever we try to
live up to our Christian values, especially with regard to marriage, sexuality
and the dignity of life, we will come under the onslaught of the world.
This is also true, especially in the corporate world where the bottom line is
profits, not ethics; the survival of the fittest, not compassion, competition,
rather than cooperation. How many of us would choose our faith over our
job; Christ over mammon? Considering how the early Christians and even
saints until the Middle Ages suffered for their faith, we will realize how
shallow our faith is today! They suffered violence, rejection,
marginalization, deprivation and even death because of their fidelity to
Christ. Very few of us would be willing to sacrifice our status or position in
the world for our Faith. In the face of suffering and threat of imprisonment
or privation, many of us would succumb to the pressure of society because we
are not willing to give up our comforts in life. Yes, the early
Christians, as the letter of Hebrews remarked, were “not the sort of people who
draw back, and are lost by it; we are the sort who keep faithful until our
souls are saved.”
So what gave them the
courage to remain committed to Christ and their faith? Firstly, they were
inspired by Christ’s sacrificial suffering. Contemplating on Christ’s
solidarity with them in their sufferings, especially on the cross, enabled the
Christians to endure the cross even to the point of death, as Jesus did.
That Jesus was both priest and victim, must have moved the early Christians to
lay down their lives too for the Lord. How could we not be stirred
to do the same if we knew that someone had died for us? The problem is
that we only believe that Christ died for us either as a remote historical
fact, or the “us” does not really include “me.” But if someone were
to save you from death by giving up a kidney for you or risked his life or even
his job to save you, your gratitude towards this person would most probably be
for life!
Secondly,
it was their faith in the fidelity of God to us, His faithful children.
They could give all their trust in God only because God showed Himself to be
faithful in Jesus Christ, especially in being offered up as a sacrifice for
us. As the first reading says, “The righteous man will live by faith, but
if he draws back, my soul will take no pleasure in him.” They knew that God is
faithful. Just as the Father raised Jesus to be our Eternal High Priest,
we can be confident of God’s fidelity to us. Such was the faith of the
psalmist when he prayed, “The salvation of the just comes from the Lord. Trust
in the Lord and do good, that you may dwell in the land and be fed in
security. Take delight in the Lord, and he will grant you your heart’s
requests. Commit to the Lord your way; trust in him, and he will act. He will
make justice dawn for you like the light; bright as the noonday shall be your
vindication.”
We, too, must come to
realize that the Lord is the Only One who can grant our request. And He
is faithful to us, provided we trust Him enough to deliver what we ask.
Again the psalmist says, “The salvation of the just is from the Lord; he is
their refuge in time of distress. And the Lord helps them and delivers them; he
delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in
him.” God is our deliverer and our saviour. Unless we trust that He
is such, we will not turn to Him for help in times of distress and need.
We will not believe that He could and would actually render His aid to us and
defend us.
Thirdly,
they were courageous in their allegiance to Christ because of Christ’s
promises. Owing to Christ’s entrance into the Heavenly Sanctuary
and raised to the right hand of the Father, the early Christians knew their
destiny. Indeed, as the author said, “knowing that you owned something
that was better and lasting. Be as confident now, then, since the reward is so
great. You will need endurance to do God’s will and gain what he has promised.”
This endurance comes when we are certain of what the Lord has in store for
us. If our allegiance to Christ is weak today, it is perhaps because many
of us only live for this world, thinking that this world is all we have and
that we are going to live here for a long time. The truth is “A thousand
years in your sight are like yesterday that has passed; like a short watch
in the night. When you take them away, they will be nothing but a
dream; like the grass that sprouts in the morning: in the morning it grows
and flowers, in the evening it withers and dries.” (Ps 90:4-6) If only
we realize the shortness of life and that our real home is somewhere else then,
perhaps, we will begin to live not just for this life but for life everlasting.
The
truth is that many of us have not arrived at this level of faith in
Christ. We need not be diffident if we are still far from the level of
faith of our fathers. We must remember that they too grew in faith over
time. They too were tested, purified and strengthened in their
faith. It was a gradual process, and often mysterious and unpredictable
due to the graciousness of God’s grace at work in their lives. Hence, we
must be patient and learn to rely on the workings of grace. This is what
the two parables in the gospel want to teach us.
Like the mustard seed, we
cannot imagine how our fidelity to our faith will impact others around and
after us. No one would have thought how the Church of Christ that began
with a few disciples would now be a world religion with over a billion
believers. The martyrs who died for the faith never imagined then that
their blood would be the seed of the Church. This is what the kingdom of
God is like. “It is like a mustard seed which at the time of its sowing
in the soil is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet once it is sown it
grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the
birds of the air can shelter in its shade.”
Finally, let us entrust all
things to the Lord in faith. We might not understand how the Lord
works, like the parable of the man who “throws seed on the land. Night and day,
while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he
does not know. Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the
ear, then the full grain in the ear.” So long as we have done our best,
let us not be too hard on ourselves. God does not look for perfection but
compassion, not for success but fidelity, not for the externals but the
intention. Having done what we could with the graces given to us, we can
hand over all that we do to the Lord who will use them and transform them for
His greater glory.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights
Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment