20170805 THE VISION OF GOD FOR HUMANITY
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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Leviticus 25:1,8-17 ©
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The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai. He said:
‘You are to
count seven weeks of years – seven times seven years, that is to say a
period of seven weeks of years, forty-nine years. And on the tenth day of the
seventh month you shall sound the trumpet; on the Day of Atonement you shall
sound the trumpet throughout the land. You will declare this fiftieth year
sacred and proclaim the liberation of all the inhabitants of the land. This is
to be a jubilee for you; each of you will return to his ancestral home, each to
his own clan. This fiftieth year is to be a jubilee year for you: you will not
sow, you will not harvest the ungathered corn, you will not gather from the
untrimmed vine. The jubilee is to be a holy thing to you, you will eat what
comes from the fields.
‘In this
year of jubilee each of you is to return to his ancestral home. If you buy or
sell with your neighbour, let no one wrong his brother. If you buy from your
neighbour, this must take into account the number of years since the jubilee:
according to the number of productive years he will fix the price. The greater
the number of years, the higher shall be the price demanded; the less the
number of years, the greater the reduction; for what he is selling you is a
certain number of harvests. Let none of you wrong his neighbour, but fear your God;
I am the Lord your God.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 66(67):2-3,5,7-8 ©
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Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the
peoples praise you.
O God, be gracious and bless us
and let your face shed its light upon us.
So will your ways be known upon earth
and all nations learn your saving help.
Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the
peoples praise you.
Let the nations be glad and exult
for you rule the world with justice.
With fairness you rule the peoples,
you guide the nations on earth.
Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the
peoples praise you.
The earth has yielded its fruit
for God, our God, has blessed us.
May God still give us his blessing
till the ends of the earth revere him.
Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the
peoples praise you.
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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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Mt5:10
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Happy those who are persecuted
in the cause of right,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 14:1-12 ©
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Herod the tetrarch heard about the reputation of Jesus, and said
to his court, ‘This is John the Baptist himself; he has risen from the dead,
and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.’
Now it was
Herod who had arrested John, chained him up and put him in prison because of
Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. For John had told him, ‘It is against the
Law for you to have her.’ He had wanted to kill him but was afraid of the
people, who regarded John as a prophet. Then, during the celebrations for
Herod’s birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company, and so
delighted Herod that he promised on oath to give her anything she asked.
Prompted by her mother she said, ‘Give me John the Baptist’s head, here, on a
dish.’ The king was distressed but, thinking of the oaths he had sworn and of
his guests, he ordered it to be given her, and sent and had John beheaded in
the prison. The head was brought in on a dish and given to the girl, who took
it to her mother. John’s disciples came and took the body and buried it; then
they went off to tell Jesus.
THE VISION OF GOD FOR HUMANITY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ LEV 25:1, 8-17; MT 14:1-12]
What is the
vision of God for humanity in His plan of salvation? God wants us to share in His
love and life. This entails that we are in communion with Him and in
communion with the human family. He desires that humanity live in true
brotherhood, in unity based on the principles of love, justice and equality.
This magnificent plan of God unfolds itself in the establishment of the People
of God, the constitution of Israel as a nation. In order to preserve the
harmonious relationship between Israel and God and among themselves, God gave
them a set of laws which we call the Mosaic Laws.
Among these
laws, one of the most important is that of the Jubilee law.
Every seventh year was a sabbatical year and at the end of every seven
sabbatical years there was a year of jubilee. Hence, the Jubilee year
comes every fifty years. According to this jubilee tradition, all debts
were to be forgiven. Slaves were set free and land sold in repayment of a
debt must be returned to its original owner (Lev 25:23-28).
In this way, justice and equality among all inhabitants was restored.
This Jubilee
tradition with respect to the regulation of land and social relationships
appears to be merely a pragmatic means of keeping social order. Yet
the basis of such a social program is rooted not so much in humanitarian
concerns but a theological reality, namely, that God is the ultimate owner
of the land. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God.” (Lev 25:38)
Whatever we have in this world does not belong to us but to God who is the
master. We are merely stewards of God’s gifts and God’s creation.
God loves all His people and He does not want anyone of us to be poor or be in
servitude. Hence, He wants to re-establish the right social relationships
and proper economic order among His people.
Jesus’
proclamation of the Kingdom message is certainly in line with the spirit of
this Jubilee Tradition. He began His ministry in the power of the
Spirit in the background of the Jubilee Tradition, like all the
prophets before Him, including John the Baptist, who was the last in the line
of the Old Testament prophets. At Nazareth where He inaugurated His
ministry, He deliberately cited from Isaiah 61:1-2 which
says, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he
has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim
the year of the Lord’s favour …” (Lk 4:18-19)
What are the
implications of this message for us all? In the first place, it means
that we cannot dissociate the spiritual message of the Kingdom of God
from the social, political and economic dimensions of the gospel. Although
the gospel does not offer a blueprint for how we should implement social or
political policies, it does give us the principles of how society should be
governed according to the spiritual values of the gospel, which is based on
compassion, equality and justice. The first reading reminds us that we
must be fair in our dealings with our brothers and sisters. These fundamental
values are underpinned by a theological understanding that every human person
is a child of God and therefore must be given his rightful dignity.
Social justice and human rights are rooted in the fact that man is created in
God’s image and likeness.
Secondly, it
follows that we are not living an authentic Christian life if we are purely
contented with a spiritual and liturgical life. Just attending
mass and saying prayers, and even reading the Word of God alone, does not make
us a true Christian. When our spiritual life is dichotomized from the
concrete practice of Christian love and charity towards our neighbours, that
kind of faith is self-centered and individualistic, since it bears no fruits in
love and service. In the final analysis, we will be judged by whether we
love our brothers and sisters, for as St John says, “for those who do not love
a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not
seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must
love their brothers and sisters also. ” (1 Jn 4:20f)
Thirdly, it
shows that Christian charity is not based solely on humanitarianism,
that is, compassion for our fellowmen, but on the very fact that all the goods
we have belong to God and that we are all equally His sons and daughters. We
are only stewards of God’s gifts, whether it is with regard to wealth, power
and resources. So whatever God has given to us, we must be ready to share
our goods with others, especially those who are marginalized and poor. The poor
too, are entitled to enjoy the goods of the earth.
Consequently,
being a true disciple of the Lord requires that we follow the examples of Jesus
and John the Baptist in speaking out for the poor and championing the
cause of the weak and the voiceless. To be a voice for the truth and
for what is right of course is a prophetic role that few are ready to assume
and are courageous enough to undertake. To carry out such a role presumes
that we ourselves are living an authentic life of justice and a life of
poverty. When we speak in favour of the weak in society and expose the
corruption of those in power, we can be certain that we will face tremendous
opposition and persecution. We could even be stripped of our own wealth,
power, livelihood, and face harm and threats to our life as well as that of our
family’s. This was true in the case of Jesus and John the Baptist.
As we read in today’s gospel, the price of truth is death and martyrdom.
But is there
really a choice? We can behave like King Herod who was indecisive in the
face of truth. He allowed his selfishness, pride and lust to control the way he
acted. He was afraid of facing the truth about himself. On one
hand, he felt inspired listening to John the Baptist, but on the other hand, he
could not obey the Word of God. As a consequence, he lived in guilt all
his life and was haunted by his bad conscience, especially in his cowardly act
of putting John the Baptist to death in order to please Herodias and his
audience and to protect his pride. When we are in a position to use our
power, authority, status or influence to put things right, but fail to do so,
we would certainly have failed in our duty to be God’s prophet. Our
conscience will eventually catch up with us and we will live in regret and
guilt like King Herod.
Or would we
allow ourselves, like Herodias’ daughter, to be used as a pawn by selfish
people to do their evil deeds? Some of us may not be in a position of power or
influence, but we can easily succumb to those in power and authority. For
fear of earning their wrath or falling out of their favour, we suck up to them
and cooperate with them in their wrongdoings and acts of injustice. This
is particularly true of subordinates who, for fear of losing their livelihood
or the desire for promotion, shrink from voicing their disapproval of dishonest
and unscrupulous means used by their superiors to secure business contracts or
have their projects approved. By cooperating with them, we too become
accomplices to their crimes.
Worse still, if
we allow ourselves to become a Herodias; whose heart was so filled with anger,
resentment, bitterness and vindictiveness that she would stop at
nothing to spew her venom. She was the chief protagonist in the plot to
put John the Baptist away permanently. Only a person who has become so
evil could scheme not only to have the Baptist beheaded but to have his head on
a plate, and to even instigate her daughter to cooperate with her in her
heinous crime. Some of us who are so absorbed by power, possessed by
greed and lust, enslaved by anger and revenge, would do anything to destroy our
enemies and those who are against us, even when we know they speak the truth.
Today, let
us follow the footsteps of our Lord and John the Baptist. They died
for the values espoused by the Law, particularly by the Jubilee Year. We,
too, must pray for courage, integrity and wisdom. The prophet Micah asked, “O
man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and
to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God!” (Mic 6:8)
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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