20170223 REDISCOVERING OUR FAITH
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Red.
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First reading
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Ecclesiasticus
5:1-10 ©
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Do not give your
heart to your money,
or say,
‘With this I am self-sufficient.’
Do not be led by your
appetites and energy
to follow
the passions of your heart.
And do not say, ‘Who
has authority over me?’
for the
Lord will certainly be avenged on you.
Do not say, ‘I
sinned, and what happened to me?’
f or the Lord’s
forbearance is long.
Do not be so sure of
forgiveness
that you
add sin to sin.
And do not say, ‘His
compassion is great,
he will
forgive me my many sins’;
for with him are both
mercy and wrath,
and his
rage bears heavy on sinners.
Do not delay your
return to the Lord,
do not
put it off day after day;
for suddenly the
Lord’s wrath will blaze out,
and at
the time of vengeance you will be utterly destroyed.
Do not set your heart
on ill-gotten gains,
they will
be of no use to you on the day of disaster.
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm 1:1-4,6 ©
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Happy the man who
has placed his trust in the Lord.
Happy indeed is the
man
who
follows not the counsel of the wicked;
nor lingers in the
way of sinners
nor sits
in the company of scorners,
but whose delight is
the law of the Lord
and who
ponders his law day and night.
Happy the man who
has placed his trust in the Lord.
He is like a tree
that is planted
beside
the flowing waters,
that yields its fruit
in due season
and whose
leaves shall never fade;
and all
that he does shall prosper.
Happy the man who
has placed his trust in the Lord.
Not so are the
wicked, not so!
For they like
winnowed chaff
shall be
driven away by the wind.
for the Lord guards
the way of the just
but the
way of the wicked leads to doom.
Happy the man who
has placed his trust in the Lord.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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cf.Lk8:15
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are those
who,
with a noble and
generous heart,
take the word of God
to themselves
and yield a harvest
through their perseverance.
Alleluia!
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Or
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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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Gospel
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Mark 9:41-50 ©
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Jesus said to his
disciples, ‘If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink just because you belong
to Christ, then I tell you solemnly, he will most certainly not lose his
reward.
‘But
anyone who is an obstacle to bring down one of these little ones who have
faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone round his
neck. And if your hand should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for
you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into
the fire that cannot be put out. And if your foot should cause you to sin, cut
it off; it is better for you to enter into life lame, than to have two feet and
be thrown into hell. And if your eye should cause you to sin, tear it out; it
is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have
two eyes and be thrown into hell where their worm does not die nor their fire
go out. For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is a good thing, but if
salt has become insipid, how can you season it again? Have salt in yourselves
and be at peace with one another.’
REDISCOVERING
OUR FAITH
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: [ SIR 5:1-8; PS 1:1-4,6; MK 9:41-50]
Sirach says, “Do not delay
your return to the Lord; do not put it off day after day.” It is a fact that
many Catholics are not going to Church regularly and some have left the Church
for many years. Why are there so many Catholics lacking faith, zeal and
love for God and His Church? Why do Catholics leave the Church?
Instead of blaming them or condemning them, we need to look into ourselves and
understand the causes for people leaving the Church. Basically, we can
attribute the causes to two challenges, namely, spiritual and cultural.
On the spiritual front,
complacency in spiritual life causes many to succumb to a life of sin.
Many Catholics do not take discipleship seriously. They are baptized but they
are not striving every day to grow in discipleship by seeking to understand the
gospel and their faith; and to live out the life of Christ. There is a
dichotomy between faith and life. What they say and believe is not how
they live their lives. The reality is that there is no neutrality with
regard to choosing Christ or choosing the world. They begin with complacency
and indifference in spiritual life. But they will end up as enemies of
Christ because they need to find reasons to silence their conscience and
justify their self-centered and sinful lifestyles.
Gradually, they become
insensitive to sin. Those who live in darkness and in sin cannot see the
face of God or understand the light of truth. It is the repetition
of sins that make us numb. The most dangerous form of drugs today is one
that makes us unable to feel the guilt of sin anymore. Sirach warns us,
“Do not be led by your appetites and energy to follow the passions of your
heart.” Indeed, when we allow our hearts to be coarsened, after some
time, we will no longer feel the guilt of sin. This is true particularly
in the case of sin. We do not become rebels overnight but over time, through
numbing ourselves to sin.
Secondly, they place their
security in the wrong place, in money, power and status. As Sirach tells
us, many give their heart to money, worshipping the false gods in their
lives. Their security is not found in Christ but in money and
wealth. In their stupidity, they say, “With this I am
self-sufficient.” Indeed, those who spend their whole life chasing after
these transitory pursuits will come to realize how empty they are, if ever they
attain them. Such things cannot bring happiness. They are not the
goals but means if we use them wisely for love, service and relationships.
Thirdly, pride is another
factor that hinders people from listening to the Word of God. Many believe in
their own intelligence and reasoning. Like the humanists, their gods are
knowledge, science and technology. Many claim themselves to be agnostics
and freethinkers. Humanists make it clear they can solve all their
problems by themselves. There is no God. They trust no one; believe
in no one but themselves. Such people fail to realize their limitations
and constraints until they meet with tragedy, a business failure, a terminal
illness or a failed relationship. As Sirach warns us, “Do not say, ‘Who
has authority over me?’ for the Lord’s forbearance is long.” We are not
God! We are merely mortals. We are not indispensable in this world but
without God, nothing exists.
Finally, there is the
temptation to spiritual complacency by abusing the doctrine of salvation by
grace alone. Whilst it is true that we are justified by God’s mercy and
grace alone through faith in Him, and not by good works, it does not mean that
we can continue to sin further. Sirach exhorts us not to take the grace
of God in vain when he said, “Do not be so sure of forgiveness that you add sin
to sin. And do not say, ‘His compassion is great, he will forgive me my many
sins’.” If we are truly justified by faith in Christ, then our
faith would produce good works otherwise, we cannot say we have faith in
Him. (cf Jms 2:14)
So far, we have been
focusing on the spiritual complacency of Catholics. But it is not only
personal sin that causes many Catholics to lose faith. It has also to do
with the culture and the environment. In the gospel today, Jesus suggests
that “anyone who is an obstacle to bring down one of these little ones who have
faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone round his
neck.” Many people, especially the young, are unable to hear the truth
proclaimed to them because of the culture they are in. In a secularized
and relativistic culture, it is difficult to know what truth is anymore.
There are so many opinions that we are no better off deciding which one is
truly good. This society we live in is no longer homogenous, so much so
that we are paralyzed by so many views and choices. So we fall into
pragmatism, choosing what we think is best at a certain point of time.
The loss of faith is due to
a corresponding loss of social support from our brothers and sisters in the
faith. In the past, when society was homogenous, the whole community shared the
same culture and the same faith. It was easy to pass the values and the
Christian faith to the next generation. But in a secularized world, this is not
possible anymore. In a secular ambience, we need to respect the culture
and religions of others. The way to go about this is through
secularization. But it also means that gradually, sacred symbols are
removed from society, sometimes even from Catholic institutions. So much so
modern man can no longer sense the mystery of God in his daily life. So
what we have today is a fragmented faith and a growing insensitivity to the
sacred.
When the Sacred is no
longer present, what is left that is common to all are a materialistic culture
and a consumeristic society. When happiness in life is reduced to
sensuality, we forget that what truly brings happiness are the aesthetic and
affective needs of life. Many are not capable of authentic relationships
and communication of the heart. Friendship is reduced to sex and
pleasure. When we are just focused on indulging ourselves and satisfying our
bodies, we deafen ourselves to the cries of our heart and soul for the
spiritual needs of life, love, meaning and truth. That is why Jesus
advised us that whatever causes us to sin because of sinful and inordinate
pleasures or greed, is better cut off than for us to “go to hell, into the fire
that cannot be put out.” Life is more than just satisfying our sensual
needs. It has to do with the salvation of the mind and heart.
This is made worse by the
fact that there is a real dichotomy between faith and life. We do not have
mentors to help us to encounter God. Many parents are nominal
Catholics. Not only do they not have anything much to pass down to their
children in terms of faith, doctrines and morals; they are poor examples of
Christian life. Young people see so much hypocrisy in a religion where we say
and do one thing in Church but in daily life, we are anything but how Christ
would have conducted Himself in charity and in service. They become
cynical, skeptical and resentful, for what their parents say about God and what
they do in Church do not tally with their lives at home. Catholics who do
not live up to their faith are those that cause those with little faith,
including young people, to lose faith in God. We lack disciples because
there are no mentors in faith!
Indeed, disillusionment is
one of the main reasons for the loss of faith. Many Catholics are losing
trust in the Church because of the scandals and misconduct of priests and
religious leaders. They are disappointed with Church leadership.
They cannot accept the fact that religious leaders can be so unjust,
vindictive, callous and insensitive to their needs and feelings. When beliefs
are reduced to verbal declaration and not lived, then such faith cannot change
lives. Faith is reduced to routine practices and rituals. Such
faith is not attractive to the young person because it does not impact their
lives.
The Church is no longer
communicating effectively to the young. We are not resonating with their
cries and hunger. We are still using the archaic language to communicate
the love of God. Atheism arises quite often from a false image of
God. A faith that emphasizes laws and punishment no longer appeals to the
young. Many of the norms of the Church are considered implausible and
impossible to fulfill. Many are not convinced of some moral teachings of the
Church with respect to marriage, same sex union and divorce. The
explanations of the world seem more plausible and realistic. We need to
be able to explain the truth in ways that they can grasp. Repeating
doctrines alone and insisting on submission does not help much. They are
looking for a God that can understand their struggles, accept them for what
they are; and help them to live authentic and meaningful lives.
The key to overcome all
these is to insert our Catholics into community. What is needed is to
create loving and caring faith communities. Without belonging to a living faith
community, we cannot grow in faith. Unfortunately, many of our
communities are just superificial, social and cultural communities but not
faith communities. They do not share their faith, give testimony to God, or
pray and share the Word of God together. Unless it is a loving and faith
community, members will eventually drop out of the community when they find no
support. The irony is that many of our Catholics are alone in their
journey of faith.
Above all, we must help
them to regain their faith in Jesus and personal relationship with Him.
We must give them Jesus through the celebration of the sacraments, especially
the Eucharist and regular Sacrament of Reconcilation, through meaningful and
faith-filled worship and, most of all, through deeds of love. Only faith
in God and trust in His divine laws as precepts of right living can give us
true peace, happiness and joy in life. Only when Jesus is the center of
our life, can we find our focus and perspective.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights
Reserved
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