20170116 SOLIDARITY IN WEAKNESS AND IN GRACE
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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Hebrews 5:1-10 ©
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Every high priest has
been taken out of mankind and is appointed to act for men in their relations
with God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins; and so he can sympathise with
those who are ignorant or uncertain because he too lives in the limitations of
weakness. That is why he has to make sin offerings for himself as well as for
the people. No one takes this honour on himself, but each one is called by God,
as Aaron was. Nor did Christ give himself the glory of becoming high priest,
but he had it from the one who said to him: You are my son, today I have
become your father, and in another text: You are a priest of the order
of Melchizedek, and for ever. During his life on earth, he offered up
prayer and entreaty, aloud and in silent tears, to the one who had the power to
save him out of death, and he submitted so humbly that his prayer was heard.
Although he was Son, he learnt to obey through suffering; but having been made
perfect, he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation and was
acclaimed by God with the title of high priest of the order of Melchizedek.
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm
109(110):1-4 ©
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You are a priest
for ever, a priest like Melchizedek of old.
The Lord’s revelation
to my Master:
‘Sit on
my right:
your foes
I will put beneath your feet.’
You are a priest
for ever, a priest like Melchizedek of old.
The Lord will wield
from Zion
your
sceptre of power:
rule in
the midst of all your foes.
You are a priest
for ever, a priest like Melchizedek of old.
A prince from the day
of your birth
on the
holy mountains;
from the
womb before the dawn I begot you.
You are a priest
for ever, a priest like Melchizedek of old.
The Lord has sworn an
oath he will not change.
‘You are
a priest for ever,
a priest
like Melchizedek of old.’
You are a priest
for ever, a priest like Melchizedek of old.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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cf.1Th2:13
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Accept God’s message
for what it really is:
God’s message, and
not some human thinking.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Heb4:12
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The word of God is
something alive and active:
it can judge secret
emotions and thoughts.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 2:18-22 ©
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One
day when John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, some people came to
Jesus and said to him, ‘Why is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of
the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?’ Jesus replied, ‘Surely the
bridegroom’s attendants would never think of fasting while the bridegroom is
still with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they could not
think of fasting. But the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away
from them, and then, on that day, they will fast. No one sews a piece of
unshrunken cloth on an old cloak; if he does, the patch pulls away from it, the
new from the old, and the tear gets worse. And nobody puts new wine into old
wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and
the skins too. No! New wine, fresh skins!’
SOLIDARITY
IN WEAKNESS AND IN GRACE
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: [ HEB 5:1-10; PS 110:1-4; MK 2:18-22 ]
There are two extreme
groups of people in the Church and in the world. Obviously, the first
group belongs to the category of sinners. They may or may not know that
they are sinners. Those who do not, continue to sin. Some are
relativists, who are not conscious of what is right or wrong. Others are
aware that what they do is wrong. Most are aware that hurting others,
whether bodily, sexually or physically is wrong. There are those who
destroy the reputation of others, infringe on their rights or take away their
property. Some are regretful. Yet they feel unable to overcome
their tendency to evil and selfishness. They condemn themselves and think
that they are beyond reach. As a result, they stay out of the Church
because they think that God condemns them and, at any rate, they are not worthy
to come to Church because they would then be hypocrites.
The other extreme group of
people are those who seek to be righteous. Within this group, there are
those who genuinely seek to be faithful to the truth and the precepts of God.
We must not think that all the Pharisees and scribes during the time of Jesus
were hypocrites and insincere. Indeed, many of them who have been brought
up with the importance and the sacredness of the law as given by God to Moses
sought to observe the laws as faithfully as possible. So we must not
think that those who seek to be true to the laws are condemned by the Lord.
The danger is that those
who are so passionate about the Laws of God and the Church, in wanting to be
faithful to the laws, may become proud and egoistic. They may become
self-righteous, judgmental and despise those who fail to keep the laws as
faithfully as they do. When that happens, they condemn others. They
are fault finding, like the Pharisees and the scribes who were more focused on
catching those who sinned than being attentive to their own sinfulness.
Some of them can spend hours quibbling over the interpretation of the laws when
people are suffering. So much so, sometimes Catholicism is seen to be too
bureaucratic and distant from the lives of our people. It is perceived as
theoretical and impersonal in its response to the struggles of our people in
their moral life, especially in the areas of sexuality and marriage.
Christianity appears to be
a joy killer. Some were alarmed that Jesus and His disciples did not
fast. They asked Jesus, “Why is it that John’s disciples and the
disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?” In truth,
Christianity seeks to give life, not death; freedom not slavery. Jesus
and the disciples were eating and drinking. They were people who
celebrate life. There is nothing wrong with celebrating life and love,
provided it is truly life and love. Jesus replied, “Surely the
bridegroom’s attendants would never think of fasting while the bridegroom is
still with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they could not
think of fasting.” Fasting only becomes a necessity when we are not
living an authentic life of love and giving. We are called to fast not
just from food but from evil, injustices, and falsehood. So the real
fasting is to abstain from our sinful and immoral activities. Physical fasting
is but a discipline to remind ourselves of the need to fight against sin and
the disorientation of our human will. We need to seek truth and love.
But then where do we draw
the line between justice and mercy; truth and love? On one hand, we are
obliged to observe the objective laws. St. John Paul II’s encyclical
Veritatis Splendor, 79 declared the existence of absolute moral norms that
prohibit intrinsically evil acts that are binding without exceptions. On the
other hand, there is the compassionate approach of Pope Francis in Amoris
Laetitia when he wrote, “The Church possesses a solid body of reflection
concerning mitigating factors and situations. Hence it is can no longer simply
be said that all those in any ‘irregular’ situation are living in a state of
mortal sin and are deprived of sanctifying grace. More is involved here than
mere ignorance of the rule. A subject may know full well the rule, yet have
great difficulty in understanding ‘its inherent values’, or be in a concrete
situation which does not allow him or her to act differently and decide
otherwise without further sin.” (AL, 301)
Right from the outset, we
must reassert the fundamental principle of Jesus in today’s gospel when He
spoke of the need for integrity and consistency. He said, “And nobody
puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins,
and the wine is lost and the skins too. No! New wine, fresh skins!” It is
important that we should hold fast to the teaching of Scripture and Tradition
with respect to the objective norms of the moral law. We cannot
compromise on the truth.
We have no authority to
change the teachings of the Church either. It is not for individuals to
change the moral teachings of the Church as they are based on scripture and
tradition. The letter of Hebrews reminds us all, including the
authorities of the Church that we are not the legislator of the laws but God
Himself. We are only the servants of the Church and of
Christ. We are chosen by God’s grace and leaders must be faithful
to their call as they are accountable to God. “No one takes this honour on
himself, but each one is called by God, as Aaron was. Nor did Christ give
himself the glory of becoming high priest, but he had it from the one who said
to him: You are my son, today I have become your father, and in another text:
You are a priest of the order of Melchizedek, and forever.”
Nevertheless, whilst
holding to the absolute norms and objective truths, we must also exercise
tolerance and compassion with those who are not able to arrive at the absolute
norms. In many ways, Christianity remains an ideal for us to reach.
We all fall short of the laws and the commandments in many ways. None of
us live out the laws completely or perfectly. We are all sinners.
This is a fact that must be acknowledged and recognized. We should not
pretend to be holy when we are not. Pope Francis wrote, “Yet conscience
can do more than recognize that a given situation does not correspond
objectively to the overall demands of the Gospel. It can also recognize with
sincerity and honesty what for now is the most generous response which can be
given to God, and come to see with a certain moral security that it is what God
himself is asking amid the concrete complexity of one’s limits, while yet not
fully the objective ideal.” (AL, 303) This is not giving blanket
approval to a conscience that goes against the moral absolute norms that
prohibits intrinsically evil acts.
In order to show
compassion, mercy, understanding and tolerance to those who fail to be true to
the teachings of Christ, we must learn to identity with them in their struggles
and sinfulness. This is what the letter to the Hebrews also said, “Every
high priest has been taken out of mankind and is appointed to act for men in
their relations with God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins; and so he can
sympathise with those who are ignorant or uncertain because he too lives in the
limitations of weakness. That is why he has to make sin offerings for himself
as well as for the people.” We must be compassionate because we are
all in the same journey from guilt to grace, slavery to the Promised
Land. Being conscious of our own sins keeps us humble and compassionate
with fellow sinners. We must avoid hypocrisy, thinking that we are
perfect and holy. Whilst circumstances can mitigate moral responsibility,
yet we must reiterate that “circumstances or intentions can never transform an
act intrinsically evil by virtue of its object into an act ‘subjectively’ good
or defensible as a choice.” (VS, 81)
Today, we are called to
follow the example of Jesus. He led us by example and by obedience to the
will of God. Like Jesus, we must seek to align our will with the will of
God, difficult though it may be. We need to pray for docility to the Word of
God and for the strength to do His will. We must form our conscience
according to the mind of Christ and the Church based on Scripture and
Tradition. Only the truth can set us free. At the same time, we
recognize that moral responsibility is mitigated by other factors such as “by
ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and other
psychological or social factors.” (CCC, 1735) This is where
compassion is required. We need to enlighten them and help them to find
strength to do His will.
This can only be done
through the grace of God given through prayer. Even Jesus prayed
fervently for the grace to do the Father’s will. “During his life on
earth, he offered up prayer and entreaty, aloud and in silent tears, to the one
who had the power to save him out of death, and he submitted so humbly that his
prayer was heard.” For those of us who are living in irregular situations
or unable to overcome our sins and addictions, let us turn to God for mercy and
pardon. Let us acknowledge in all humility that we need to change but at
the same time, let us beg from Him the grace, courage, strength and
determination to do the right thing. With God on our side, like the
Messiah, we will be victorious over evil.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights
Reserved
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