20170617 ADOLESCENTS IN FAITH
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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2 Corinthians 5:14-21 ©
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The love of Christ overwhelms us when we reflect that if one man
has died for all, then all men should be dead; and the reason he died for all
was so that living men should live no longer for themselves, but for him who
died and was raised to life for them.
From now
onwards, therefore, we do not judge anyone by the standards of the flesh. Even
if we did once know Christ in the flesh, that is not how we know him now. And
for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone,
and now the new one is here. It is all God’s work. It was God who reconciled us
to himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on this
reconciliation. In other words, God in Christ was reconciling the world to
himself, not holding men’s faults against them, and he has entrusted to us the
news that they are reconciled. So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as
though God were appealing through us, and the appeal that we make in Christ’s
name is: be reconciled to God. For our sake God made the sinless one into sin,
so that in him we might become the goodness of God.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 102(103):1-4,9-12 ©
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The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger
and rich in mercy.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
all my being, bless his holy name.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
and never forget all his blessings.
The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger
and rich in mercy.
It is he who forgives all your guilt,
who heals every one of your ills,
who redeems your life from the grave,
who crowns you with love and compassion.
The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger
and rich in mercy.
His wrath will come to an end;
he will not be angry for ever.
He does not treat us according to our sins
nor repay us according to our faults.
The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger
and rich in mercy.
For as the heavens are high above the earth
so strong is his love for those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west
so far does he remove our sins.
The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger
and rich in mercy.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Ps118:18
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Open my eyes, O Lord, that I may consider
the wonders of your law.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Ps118:36,29
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Bend my heart to your will, O Lord,
and teach me your law.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 5:33-37 ©
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Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You have learnt how it was said to
our ancestors: You must not break your oath, but must fulfil your oaths
to the Lord. But I say this to you: do not swear at all, either by
heaven, since that is God’s throne; or by the earth, since that is his
footstool; or by Jerusalem, since that is the city of the great king. Do not
swear by your own head either, since you cannot turn a single hair white or
black. All you need say is “Yes” if you mean yes, “No” if you mean no; anything
more than this comes from the evil one.’
ADOLESCENTS IN FAITH
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 2 Cor 5:14-21; Mt 5:33-37]
When St Paul
says, “And for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old
creation has gone, and now the new one is here.” Are we truly a
new creation? We are told that we are so, and feel like one
especially after emerging from a retreat or after a special encounter with the
Lord. Yet the reality is that it does not take long for us to fall back
into sin, much as we struggle against the temptation of the Evil One. But
more often than not, we succumb especially to the sin of the flesh and not just
of the world. As a consequence, we think that the conversion experience
was merely a sentimental one. It did not bring about the radical change
of life that we hoped.
This desire for a
radical change of lifestyle, living a perfect life of holiness, seems to be
the demand of Jesus too for those who wish to follow Him. In the gospel,
He expected His disciples to live a life of integrity and holiness, without
wavering or compromising. He says, “All you need say is ‘Yes’ if you mean
yes, ‘No’ if you mean no; anything more than this comes from the evil
one.’” A true Christian is one who is like Jesus who does not compromise
the truth when it comes to both teaching and particularly living. Jesus
was a man who was faithful to Himself and to His Father even unto death.
No human being, not even the religious leaders and political leaders, could
make Him do things against His conviction. Jesus was truly a man of
integrity.
The fact that
we are required to take oath means to imply that we cannot be trusted. Or rather, it is a
recognition that we are weak. We need the Oath to help us to be
responsible to the truth and also to give our fellowmen assurance of our
fidelity. Yet we know that vows and promises are often broken in spite of
the good intentions. This becomes a great scandal especially when a
solemn oath is broken. This prompted Jesus to say, “You have learnt how
it was said to our ancestors: You must not break your oath, but must fulfil
your oaths to the Lord. But I say this to you: do not swear at all,
either by heaven, since that is Gods throne; or by the earth, since that is his
footstool; or by Jerusalem, since that is the city of the great king.“ Of
course, it would be the ideal to be and be known that we are men of our
word. However, the ideal remains the ideal. We need
structures and laws to help us reach the ideal.
The truth is
that we are still on the way to the ideal; the perfection of Christian
life will take a life-long process. We must realize that the promise
of being a new creation is a reality and yet a promise. It is something
we can experience already but only as a foretaste. Those times when we are able
to live the life of Christ according to His gospel values, we are living out
the new creation in us. But there will also be times when we will fall
back to our old ways, as the Old Adam keeps resurrecting, since the Church
teaches that concupiscence remains even after our sins are
forgiven. That is why the growth to holiness is a matter of making
progress and sometimes retrogressing.
Growth in
holiness is likened to a young man in his adolescence. Those who are in the stage
of adolescence are often confused. They are searching for their
identity. They are not exactly adults but they are no longer
children. They want independence and freedom. At the same time,
they do not know how to handle freedom very well. Often they make a mess
of things, of their own lives and of others’. Emotionally, they are confused as
well, wanting to love but often confused as to what is love. As a result,
their friends and loved ones get hurt. Sometimes, they are so contradictory
in their lifestyle and their needs that they confuse the adults too. They
are going through identity crisis.
We, too, in
our spiritual life will also go through this roller coaster as well. This is the
frustrating part of wanting to be good. On one hand, we so desire to live
the life of Christ. We want to give our lives to the Lord. On the
other hand, we have our human needs for love, emotional and sexual needs;
pleasure and physical needs. After all, we are not pure spirit. So
there is a constant struggle of wanting to be disciplined and go beyond the
earthly to the spiritual, yet to repress our desires is even worse than to
admit them. For what is repressed will surface in ways beyond our control
when the situation permits it. Denying our human needs will not heal us
and make us whole.
What is
important to realize is that God does not expect us to achieve
perfection overnight. St Paul wrote, “From now onwards, therefore, we
do not judge anyone by the standards of the flesh.” God is patient with
us. He allows us to make mistakes so that we can learn and grow.
Grace does not destroy nature. Even in sin, grace is
operative. That is why St Paul says, “Where sin increases, grace abounds
all the more.” (Rom 5:20) Life is itself is a pedagogy. Through
mistakes and failures, we learn to grow and become wiser and disciplined.
Again, the letter to the Hebrews tells us that the Lord disciplines those whom
He loves. “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose
heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and
he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” (Heb 12:5-6;
cf. Prov 3:11-12)
Even Jesus, we read in Hebrews, learnt obedience through suffering. “Son
though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made
perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”
(Heb 5:8-9)
Secondly, we
must remember that perfection in life is solely the work of God’s
grace, not our efforts. It is Christ who makes us perfect, not
by our own merits. So we must not fall into pride because of
impatience. Rather, in our endeavor to grow in integrity and holiness, we
must simply rely on His grace.
And when we fall
into sin, let us not be discouraged. Precisely, the invitation to
be reconciled is always given to us. St Paul says, “In other words,
God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, not holding men’s faults
against them, and he has entrusted to us the news that they are reconciled.”
Let us turn to the Lord whenever we fail and know that He is there ready to
forgive us and raise us up to walk in the right path again. Like the
psalmist, we are called to remember that the Lord is compassion and love. “The
Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy. It is he who
forgives all your guilt, who heals every one of your ills, who redeems your
life from the grave, who crowns you with love and compassion. His wrath will
come to an end; he will not be angry forever. He does not treat us according to
our sins nor repay us according to our faults.” So it is with this
confidence in His everlasting and unconditional love and mercy, that we can
gradually heal our brokenness.
Although
justification and holiness is pure grace, we on our part must cooperate with
His grace as much as we can. We must never go to the extreme of
cheapening the cost of grace that Jesus won for us. We must not take
His grace for granted, as St Paul also warns us, “What shall we say, then?
Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those
who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Rom 6:1-2)
So let us take courage and be full of hope. We must not allow the devil
to make us fall into despair just because we have not yet arrived at the
fullness of a holy life. “So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God
were appealing through us, and the appeal that we make in Christ’s name is:
be reconciled to God. For our sake God made the sinless one into sin, so
that in him we might become the goodness of God.”
In humility, we
turn to the Lord so that encouraged by His love alone, we too can choose to die
with Him and for Him. “The love of Christ overwhelms us when we reflect
that if one man has died for all, then all men should be dead; and the reason
he died for all was so that living men should live no longer for themselves but
for him who died and was raised to life for them.”
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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