20170904
AN INCLUSIVE MISSION OF RESTORATION
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 ©
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We want you to be quite certain, brothers, about those who have
died, to make sure that you do not grieve about them, like the other people who
have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that it will be
the same for those who have died in Jesus: God will bring them with him. We can
tell you this from the Lord’s own teaching, that any of us who are left alive
until the Lord’s coming will not have any advantage over those who have died.
At the trumpet of God, the voice of the archangel will call out the command and
the Lord himself will come down from heaven; those who have died in Christ will
be the first to rise, and then those of us who are still alive will be taken up
in the clouds, together with them; to meet the Lord in the air. So we shall
stay with the Lord for ever. With such thoughts as these you should comfort one
another.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 95(96):1,3-5,11-13 ©
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The Lord comes to rule the earth.
O sing a new song to the Lord,
sing to the Lord all the earth.
tell among the nations his glory
and his wonders among all the peoples.
The Lord comes to rule the earth.
The Lord is great and worthy of praise,
to be feared above all gods;
the gods of the heathens are naught.
It was the Lord who made the heavens,
The Lord comes to rule the earth.
Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad,
let the sea and all within it thunder praise,
let the land and all it bears rejoice,
all the trees of the wood shout for joy
at the presence of the Lord for he comes,
he comes to rule the earth.
The Lord comes to rule the earth.
With justice he will rule the world,
he will judge the peoples with his truth.
The Lord comes to rule the earth.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Jn8:12
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Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
anyone who follows me will have the light of life.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Lk4:18
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The Lord has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Luke 4:16-30 ©
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Jesus came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into
the synagogue on the sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read and
they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found
the place where it is written:
The spirit of the Lord has been given to me,
for he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives
and to the blind new sight,
to set the downtrodden free,
to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.
He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and
sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to
speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’ And he
won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that
came from his lips. They said, ‘This is Joseph’s son, surely?’
But he
replied, ‘No doubt you will quote me the saying, “Physician, heal yourself” and
tell me, “We have heard all that happened in Capernaum, do the same here in
your own countryside.”’
And he went
on, ‘I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.
‘There were
many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah’s day, when heaven remained
shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the
land, but Elijah was not sent to any one of these: he was sent to a widow at
Zarephath, a Sidonian town. And in the prophet Elisha’s time there were many
lepers in Israel, but none of these was cured, except the Syrian, Naaman.’
When they
heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They sprang to their feet and
hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their
town was built on, intending to throw him down the cliff, but he slipped through
the crowd and walked away.
AN INCLUSIVE MISSION OF RESTORATION
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 Th 4:13-18; Ps 96:1,3-5,11-13; Lk 4:16-30 ]
What is
Christianity? Is it a religion? Christianity is not a religion if we reduce Christianity to
a worship of God, a religion reducible to rituals, sacraments and
worship. Indeed, Catholicism often is seen as synonymous with elaborate
rites, sacraments, the celebration of the Eucharist and devotions to Mary and
the Saints. Christianity does not exclude all these but Christianity is
more.
Christianity
is basically a message of salvation. It is the Good News of
freedom and restoration of both the individual and the community; and the
entire cosmos. That is why it is called the Good News, the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus came to bring us the message of redemption.
He outlined His mission by citing the text from the Suffering Servant of
Isaiah. “The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed
me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, and to proclaim liberty
to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to
proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.”
Clearly,
Jesus saw His mission in the light of the Jubilee tradition of Israel. On every 50th year,
all the debts were cancelled and all slaves would be freed. It would be a
day of restoration of the rights and dignity of every human person that had
been enslaved or deprived of his land and property. Such was the mind of
Jesus when He began His mission. He was intent in liberating His people
from all forms of captivity, whether it was social, physical or
spiritual. Indeed, he had come “to proclaim liberty to captives and to
the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year
of favour.” His task was to free people from their captivity, which made
them lose hope in life. Indeed, we do not find Jesus worshipping
always in the Temple or in the synagogues. He would of course go to
Jerusalem once a year for His annual pilgrimage. Initially, He was
teaching in the synagogues but soon, He was not welcomed and His pulpit was at
the shore of the sea, on the hills and in the houses of people and along the
road. Jesus was very much with the people from day to night, reaching out
to them and offering them true freedom, liberation and restoration.
So was Christ
a social revolutionary? Did He intend to change the status quo of society? His message
certainly has effect on the social dimension of society. He came to
restore the equilibrium of society. He sought to remove the barriers
between men and women, the rich and the poor, the clergy and the laity, saints
and sinners. St Paul wrote, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no
longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are
one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s
offspring, heirs according to the promise.” (Gal 3:28f)
He proclaimed the Good News to the poor, those who were marginalized in
society, the outcasts and the rejected. But Christ was not a
revolutionary in terms of social revolutionaries today. He had no plans
to overthrow the authorities and no strategy to bring about a revolution.
It was just an expression of His love and compassion for humanity.
Again, was
Christ just a miracle worker and a healer? Proclaiming the Good News
entails the concrete expression of God’s love and mercy. The message of
the Good News was not just words but also acts of mercy. So Jesus healed
the sick, cured the blind and the lame, cast out demons, restored the lepers
back to society and even raised the dead. Jesus’ mission included the
working of miracles, especially that of healing. The message of the Good
News extends beyond the social dimension of man. It includes the healing
of the body, the mind and the spirit. Jesus was not just concerned
about society as a whole, unlike communism inspired by Marxist ideology. He was
attentive to the individual.
But Jesus did
not come to heal just the body; He came to give us life to the fullest. He came to offer us
spiritual reconciliation. He came to forgive our sins as in the
paralytic, the adulterous woman, Peter and the apostles who abandoned Him. He
ate and drank with sinners. He offered the dignity of the tax-collectors
like Matthew and Zacchaeus. He gave them a new vision and a new
mission. He taught them that life is more than just on this earth but of
the life that is to come.
Hence, Jesus
also spoke to them about God and His kingdom. All that He did and said were to convey
the message of the Father’s love for all. The kingdom that Jesus
proclaimed was not a political kingdom in terms of territory but a kingdom of
the heart. It is the kingdom of love, justice and peace for all men and
women. All are called to share the life and love of the kingdom of
God. Jesus envisaged a world where all men and women are equal and live
in justice, love and compassion for each other. This is what the psalmist
says, “The Lord is great and worthy of praise, to be feared above all gods; the
gods of the heathens are naught. It was the Lord who made the
heavens. Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad. Shout for joy
at the presence of the Lord for he comes, he comes to rule the earth. With
justice he will rule the world, he will judge the peoples with his truth.”
For this
reason, His kingdom message is inclusive of all. It is an integrated
message that has impact on every dimension of life, social, political,
personal, physical and spiritual. Jesus was neither a social reformer,
nor a faith-healer per se, nor a political revolutionary, not even a priest in
the Jewish understanding of one who offered rituals and sacrifices. But
at the same time, He encompasses all these dimensions of life. His
mission and message is inclusive of all realities of life. Nothing is
excluded from His mission. His message is a holistic message and His
mission extends to all human beings and every area of the human life.
This is in
direct contrast to the attitude of the Jews in His time. They were
exclusivists. In the first place, they could not accept the proclamation
of Jesus because He was too familiar with them. They said, “This is Joseph’s
son surely?” Indeed, this is also true with us. When a
preacher comes from afar we would listen to him attentively. But with our
own kind, we would not pay any attention. That was why Jesus said, “No
doubt you will quote me the saying, ‘Physician, heal yourself’ and tell me, ‘We
have heard all that happened in Capernaum, do the same here in your
countryside.’ I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own
country.” They could not accept that Jesus could be the prophet that the
message of Isaiah would be fulfilled. Jesus said to them at the end of
the reading, “’This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’
And he won the approval of them all, and they were astonished by the gracious
words that came from his lips.”
What incensed
them most was the inclusive attitude that Jesus had towards the non-Jews. For the Jews, the
non-Jews were sinners and outside the ambit of God’s love and salvation.
But Jesus said to them that “there were many widows in Israel” in Elijah’s time
when “a great famine raged throughout the land, but Elijah was not sent to
anyone of these: he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a Sidonian town.”
Similarly, “in the prophet Elisha’s time there were many lepers in
Israel, but none of these was cured, except the Syrian, Naaman.” We read
that “when they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They
sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to
the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him down the
cliff.” For the Jews, their narrow mindedness, their pride and
selfishness prevented them from entering into the universal kingdom of love and
unity.
Indeed, the
message of Christianity is so inclusive even of those who are dead. As Christians we do
not believe in death but those who die before us are sleeping in the Lord
waiting to resurrect with the rest at the end of time. Our body, which is
separated in death, will be reunited with our soul. Christianity does not
believe in the permanent dissolution of the body. St Paul wrote, “We want
you to be quite certain, brothers, about those who have died, to make sure that
you do not grieve about them, like the other people who have no hope. We
believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that it will be the same for those
who have died in Jesus: God will bring them with him.”
Indeed, a Christian lives in hope, a sure hope of fullness of life here on
earth and eternal life in heaven. “Those who have died in Christ will be
the first to rise, and then those of us who are still alive will be taken up in
the clouds, together with them, to meet the Lord in the air. So we shall
stay with the Lord for ever. With such thoughts as these you should
comfort one another.” Indeed, St Paul also wrote, “We do not live
to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the
Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we
die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so
that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” (Rom 14:7-9)
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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