20170723 EMBRACING IMPERFECTIONS IN THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
|
First reading
|
|
Wisdom 12:13,16-19 ©
|
There is no god, other than you, who cares for every thing,
to whom you might have to prove that you never judged unjustly;
Your justice has its source in strength,
your sovereignty over all makes you lenient to all.
You show your strength when your sovereign power is questioned
and you expose the insolence of those who know it;
but, disposing of such strength, you are mild in judgement,
you govern us with great lenience,
for you have only to will, and your power is there.
By acting thus you have taught a lesson to your people
how the virtuous man must be kindly to his fellow men,
and you have given your sons the good hope
that after sin you will grant repentance.
|
Responsorial Psalm
|
|
Psalm 85(86):5-6,9-10,15-16 ©
|
O Lord, you are good and forgiving.
O Lord, you are good and forgiving,
full of love to all who call.
Give heed, O Lord, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my voice.
O Lord, you are good and forgiving.
All the nations shall come to adore you
and glorify your name, O Lord:
for you are great and do marvellous deeds,
you who alone are God.
O Lord, you are good and forgiving.
But you, God of mercy and compassion,
slow to anger, O Lord,
abounding in love and truth,
turn and take pity on me.
O Lord, you are good and forgiving.
|
Second reading
|
Romans 8:26-27 ©
|
The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot
choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea
in a way that could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in
our hearts knows perfectly well what he means, and that the pleas of the saints
expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God.
|
Gospel Acclamation
|
cf.Ep1:17,18
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
enlighten the eyes of our mind,
so that we can see what hope his call holds for us.
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!
EITHER:
|
Gospel
|
|
Matthew 13:24-43 ©
|
|
Let
them both grow till the harvest
|
Jesus put another parable before the crowds: ‘The kingdom of
heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While
everybody was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel all among the wheat, and made
off. When the new wheat sprouted and ripened, the darnel appeared as well. The
owner’s servants went to him and said, “Sir, was it not good seed that you
sowed in your field? If so, where does the darnel come from?” “Some enemy has
done this” he answered. And the servants said, “Do you want us to go and weed
it out?” But he said, “No, because when you weed out the darnel you might pull
up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time
I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to
be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn.”’
He put another
parable before them: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man
took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it
has grown it is the biggest shrub of all and becomes a tree so that the birds
of the air come and shelter in its branches.’
He told them
another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like the yeast a woman took and
mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through.’
In all this
Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables; indeed, he would never speak to them
except in parables. This was to fulfil the prophecy:
I will speak to you in parables
and expound things hidden since the foundation of the world.
Then, leaving the crowds, he went to the house; and his disciples
came to him and said, ‘Explain the parable about the darnel in the field to
us.’ He said in reply, ‘The sower of the good seed is the Son of Man. The field
is the world; the good seed is the subjects of the kingdom; the darnel, the
subjects of the evil one; the enemy who sowed them, the devil; the harvest is
the end of the world; the reapers are the angels. Well then, just as the darnel
is gathered up and burnt in the fire, so it will be at the end of time. The Son
of Man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all things
that provoke offences and all who do evil, and throw them into the blazing
furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. Then the virtuous
will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Listen, anyone who has
ears!’
OR:
|
Alternative
Gospel
|
|
Matthew 13:24-30 ©
|
|
Let
them both grow till the harvest
|
Jesus put another parable before the crowds: ‘The kingdom of
heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While
everybody was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel all among the wheat, and made
off. When the new wheat sprouted and ripened, the darnel appeared as well. The
owner’s servants went to him and said, “Sir, was it not good seed that you
sowed in your field? If so, where does the darnel come from?” “Some enemy has
done this” he answered. And the servants said, “Do you want us to go and weed
it out?” But he said, “No, because when you weed out the darnel you might pull
up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time
I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to
be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn.”’
EMBRACING IMPERFECTIONS IN THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ WIS 12:13,16-19, PS 85:5-6,9-10,15-16; ROM 8:26-27, MT 13:24-43 OR MT 13:24-30]
The Church is
supposed to be the budding of the Kingdom of God. All of us are called
to holiness of life. The early Christians called themselves saints of
God. Indeed, the Church is called to be different from the rest of the
world. We are called to be the sacrament of Jesus in the world, the
sacrament of love and unity. Unfortunately, many who join the Church fail
to realize that although the Church aspires to be the community of saints, we
are still pilgrims on earth. The Church is both a community of saints and
sinners. We have not yet arrived but are on the way to the fullness of
life in the heavenly kingdom.
As such, the
Church, being a pilgrim church on the way to perfection, must learn to
accommodate the sinfulness of her members and the imperfections of community
life and the institution at large. Failure to realize this reality will
cause much disillusionment, disappointment, anger and resentment against the
Church. Indeed, many Catholics labour under the false notion that all
Catholics are perfect, holy, loving, considerate, kind, giving, gentle,
compassionate, forgiving, etc. And when they find that their
brothers and sisters, and most of all, the Church leaders, laity or clergy or
religious are not manifesting the compassion and love of our Lord, they are
easily scandalized. They are shocked that Catholics are not behaving in the way
Christ asks of us in the gospel. As a result, many leave the Church and
join other churches or other religions, or give up on God completely.
The irony of
such a reaction is that all other Catholics seem not to be good enough, except
themselves. Often, such people who are judgmental, intolerant of others’
weaknesses, whims and fancies, dissatisfied with the institutions, condemning
everyone else except themselves, fall into the sin of presumption. We are
quick at passing sweeping judgements on the actions of others without trying to
understand the person, his struggles, his constraints, circumstances and
limitations. The truth is that no one is perfect and we cannot expect
others to live up to our standards when we ourselves have failed miserably as
Catholics, if not in the particular area we are not pleased about, surely in
other areas of our life.
St Paul and
James warned us about the foolishness of pronouncing judgement on others
instead of leaving the judgement to God. (Cf. 1 Cor 4:3-5;
Jms 4:11f) In fact, if we are not careful, we can become the enemy itself
who would be sowing darnel among the wheat. When we judge, condemn and
criticize others destructively, we are destroying them and also the
community. Instead of promoting unity through compassion, understanding
and patient meditation, we circulate on social media the sins and imperfections
of others and the community or the organization. This is tantamount to helping
the Evil One to sow seeds of division in the community. We should be
sowing good seeds; not making the situation worse than it already is.
Today, we
take the cue from the scripture readings as to how we should see the
imperfections of community, whether at church, in our homes or in our offices. Unless we integrate
such stark realities in our lives, we will end up destroyed by the evils that
we hate. Those of us who cannot accept the sins and imperfections of the
members of the community will end up frustrated, resentful and even
vindictive. This is particularly true when we belong to a religious
order, or any closely knit Catholic cell group or organization. By
embracing both the strength and weaknesses of the individuals and the organization,
we can grow as individuals and as a community to be more like Christ. We
must remember that grace is also at work in disgrace.
For this
reason, Jesus told the disciples the parable of the Darnel and the Wheat. This was what the
servants said to the master. “Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in
your field? If so, where does the darnel come from? Do you want us to go and
weed it out?” This is unfortunately the impatience reflected in every
Christian community. As the bishop, I receive countless letters of
complaint against priests and fellow Catholics; even from non-Catholics.
All express anger, disappointment and disenchantment with what is happening in
the Church, the conduct of both the lay faithful and the Church leaders.
They write to me, expecting and even demanding that I exercise my juridical
authority to immediately weed out such people from the Church. They hope
that I will shame them publicly, make them lose face and discredit them.
Most are not seeking to help those who are wayward in their Catholic way of
life but to see them punished, humiliated and excommunicated. There is so
much lack of charity, compassion, forgiveness and tolerance among Catholics.
Clearly the
gospel tells us that we should allow good and evil to co-exist. We should
not be in a hurry to weed out all those who fail and have shortcomings. The master said, “No,
because when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it. Let
them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time I shall say to the
reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then
gather the wheat into my barn.” In other words, we must allow sin and
grace to co-exist. If we are intolerant and impatient, not only might we
lose all the sinners but we might even hamper the growth of those who are
seeking holiness of life.
The truth is
that we all grow through our weaknesses and our strengths. It is through our
interaction with others that we learn to discover more about ourselves, our
likes, attitudes, fears, inadequacies and our charisms and potentials as
well. Only through difficult situation are we challenged to our
limits. This is just like the trees in the forest. They all strive
against each other to seek sunlight. Even the creepers in the forest know
how to find their way to the top. So we must take fellow Catholics as
spiritual benefactors, helping us to purify our faith and our love for God and
for humanity. Instead of seeing them as obstacles to our faith, we must
see them as persons allowed by God to test us in generosity, in forgiveness, in
mercy and in patience. Instead of marginalizing them, we must be ready to
continue to reach out to them in humility and love in spite of their hostility
towards us.
In the first
reading, we read how God manifests His mercy and love for all. Although He is a God
of justice, He cares for all and is just to all. “There is no God, other
than you, who cares for everything, to whom you might have to prove that you
never judged unjustly. Your justice has its source in strength, your
sovereignty over all makes you lenient to all.” This is how God has taught us
to exercise love and mercy. The author says, “By acting thus you have
taught a lesson to your people how the virtuous man must be kindly to his
fellow men, and you have given your sons the good hope that after sin you will
grant repentance.” So we must not give up on others because they fail in
their Christian life. Rather, recognizing our own failures and
imperfections, we must also grant them the same mercy and compassion that God
has for us in our sinfulness.
Most of all,
we must pray in our weakness. This is what St Paul urges the Christian
community.
“The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words
in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that
could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in our hearts knows
perfectly well what he means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the
Spirit are according to the mind of God.” Only prayer can change
lives. Only prayer can give us the patience, the magnanimity and power to
forgive those who have hurt us or failed us. When we face such nasty
parishioners or uninspiring priests in our lives, rather than condemning them,
we must pray for them earnestly. We have no right to correct them if we have
not yet prayed for them.
If we follow
this principle, then indeed, in its own time, the Kingdom of God will flourish.
This is the promise of Jesus in the parable of the mustard seed and the dough. “The kingdom of heaven
is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field. It is the
smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the biggest shrub of all
and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and shelter in its
branches.” Indeed, with perseverance we will see the full flowering of
the tree. So let us be good dough doing our little part and our best to
contribute to the growth of the community and our personal life. Instead
of seeking to marginalize and exclude those who are not living a good Christian
life, we must show mercy and compassion. No one should be excluded from
the Church, the divorced, those with same-sex attraction, the addicts,
etc. We must welcome them to the Church and help them to experience the
unconditional love and mercy of Jesus through us. God will heal them
through us. We only need to be docile to the Lord and allow Him to make
use of us.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment