20171013
PUTTING THE
INTERIOR HOUSE IN ORDER
Joel 1:13-15Revised
Standard Version (RSV)
A Call to Repentance and Prayer
13 Gird
on sackcloth and lament, O priests,
wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
O ministers of my God!
Because cereal offering and drink offering
are withheld from the house of your God.
wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
O ministers of my God!
Because cereal offering and drink offering
are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Sanctify
a fast,
call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God;
and cry to the Lord.
call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God;
and cry to the Lord.
15 Alas
for the day!
For the day of the Lord is near,
and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
For the day of the Lord is near,
and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
Joel 2:1-2Revised Standard Version (RSV)
2 Blow the
trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near,
2 a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
a great and powerful people;
their like has never been from of old,
nor will be again after them
through the years of all generations.
sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near,
2 a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
a great and powerful people;
their like has never been from of old,
nor will be again after them
through the years of all generations.
Luke 11:15-26New
International Version (NIV)
15 But
some of them said, “By Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he is driving out
demons.”16 Others tested him by asking for a sign from
heaven.
17 Jesus
knew their thoughts and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against
itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. 18 If
Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this
because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebul.19 Now
if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your followers drive them out?
So then, they will be your judges. 20 But if I
drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has
come upon you.
21 “When
a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. 22 But
when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in
which the man trusted and divides up his plunder.
23 “Whoever
is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
24 “When
an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest
and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ 25 When
it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. 26 Then
it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in
and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the
first.”
PUTTING THE INTERIOR HOUSE IN ORDER
In the first reading from prophet Joel, we hear the call to
repentance. “Priests, put on sackcloth and
lament. Ministers of the altar, wail.” By so doing, the prophet was
inviting Israel, especially the religious and political leaders, to put their
house in order. This call is addressed in a special way to priests, but
also to the whole Church. This is the same message of Pope Francis when he
wrote the encyclical, “The joy of the gospel”, calling the whole church to
ongoing conversion, a prerequisite for the mission of the Church.
This same message resounds in today’s gospel when Jesus invites us to
examine the state of our interior life. Whilst
we might not be possessed by Beelzebul, the prince of devils, our lives are not
in order as well. For most of us, our real inner struggle is to live a
consistent lifestyle befitting our calling as Christians. The truth is that
many of us are living in a divided house. There is a contradiction
between faith and life; ministry and life. What we believe and what we
teach is not how we live.
The warning of Jesus in living such a life is that
we will collapse sooner or later. Our hypocrisy will be exposed.
“Every kingdom divided against itself is heading for ruin, and a household
divided against itself collapses. So too with Satan: if he is divided
against himself, how can his kingdom stand?” Indeed, by failing to live
the gospel life, we would ultimately hurt ourselves. Living a
hypocritical life might deceive others but we know we cannot deceive
ourselves. Realizing that we are not what we should be will make us sad
and unsettled. Living a double life cripples us from enjoying a life of
authentic freedom.
Hence, it is important today to examine what Christ wants us to do as
Church. Vatican II presents ecclesial conversion as
openness to a personal renewal of faith in Jesus Christ, which would impact
one’s moral life as well as the structures of the Church. “Every renewal
of the Church is essentially grounded in an increase of fidelity to her own
calling. Christ summons the Church to continual reformation as she sojourns
here on earth. The Church is always in need of this, in so far as she is an
institution of men here on earth.” (Unitatis Reintegratio, no 6.)
Indeed, there is a need to take growth in holiness seriously as
Catholics. Holiness of life is not for some
extraordinary heroes but is a calling for all. St Theresa of the Child
Jesus tells us that holiness is to live an ordinary life in an extraordinary
way. We do not have to do great things but small things in a great
way. Pope St John Paul II wrote in the Apostolic Letter, Novo Millennio
Inenunte, “First of all, I have no hesitation in saying that all pastoral
initiatives must be set in relation to holiness. But the gift in turn
becomes a task, which must shape the whole of Christian life.”
It is a duty which concerns not only certain Christians as all “are
called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity.
It would be a contradiction to settle for a life of mediocrity, marked by
a minimalist ethic and a shallow religiosity.” (NMI, no 30) So the
first conversion is a call to holiness of life, the perfection of charity
according to our circumstances.
Secondly, we must focus on cultivating a Spirituality of communion.
Unless we live in communion with each other, we cannot speak of mission since
our mission is communion. It would be a contradiction to proclaim
the gospel if Catholics cannot live in communion with each other. “By
this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one
another.” (Jn 13:35). The Church is called to be a
sign and sacrament of unity with God and the whole human race. Division
among Christians and within the Catholic Church is a source of scandal to the
proclamation of the gospel.
The call to communion presupposes that we live a life of communion by
living in love with each other. Pope St John Paul II
proposes that a spirituality of communion “indicates above all the heart’s
contemplation of the mystery of the Trinity dwelling in us, and whose light we
must also be able to see shining on the face of the brothers and sisters around
us. A spirituality of communion also means an ability to think of our brothers
and sisters in faith within the profound unity of the Mystical Body, and
therefore as ‘those who are a part of me’. This makes us able to share their
joys and sufferings, to sense their desires and attend to their needs, to offer
them deep and genuine friendship. A spirituality of communion implies also the
ability to see what is positive in others, to welcome it and prize it as a gift
from God: not only as a gift for the brother or sister who has received it
directly, but also as a ‘gift for me’. A spirituality of communion means,
finally, to know how to ‘make room’ for our brothers and sisters, bearing ‘each
other’s burdens’ (cf Gal 6:2) and resisting the selfish temptations
which constantly beset us and provoke competition, careerism, distrust and
jealousy.” (NMI, 43)
Only when we change our selfish and self-centered attitudes towards our
fellow Catholics, can we then focus on the change and updating of the
structures of communion. Pope St John Paul II warns us, “Let us
have no illusions: unless we follow this spiritual path, external structures of
communion will serve very little purpose. They would become mechanisms without
a soul, “masks” of communion rather than its means of expression and
growth.’ (NMI No. 43) Without this interior disposition, we will
not have the humility and the appreciation of the structures of communion; Pope
and bishops, bishops and priests, priests and laity, clergy and religious; and
all the councils, committees, organizations, associations, ecclesial movements
in the Church.
All of us are called to be for each other and work with each other for
the greater good of the Church and the spread of the gospel. It
is this parochial-mindedness, of protecting one’s turf and enriching one’s
organization at the expense of the larger body that causes much division and
competition in the life of the Church. The irony is that the laity
and non-Catholics see us as one Church. If anything happens or a scandal
is caused by a Catholic organization or even a person of standing, the whole
image of the Catholic Church is tarnished and put in question. But in
reality, many of our Catholic organizations and even parishes work as if they
are not connected or responsible to the local Church or the universal Church.
It is this unhealthy competition among ourselves as Catholics that cause the
mission of the Church to be compromised because it leads to disunity, jealousy
and division.
Finally, there is still yet another pitfall that the call to conversion
is warning us, namely, the sin of complacency.
Even though some of us might live good lives, it might not mean that our house
is in order. The temptation to complacency will lead to minimalism and
indifference. The longer we are as Catholics or in an organization, there
is always that danger of us falling into mediocrity due to routine, repetition
and boredom. When creativity and enthusiasm is lacking, boredom will lead
us to other sins. We will try to find other means to fill our emptiness,
restlessness and sadness. Without enthusiasm and motivation, we will lose
our zeal for the gospel. Complacency always springs from neglect in our
prayer life, in the regular celebration of the sacraments of the Eucharist and
Reconciliation, and daily contemplation on the Word of God; and living a life
of communion with fellow Catholics.
This explains why Jesus warns us through the story of the
unclean spirit who invited seven other spirits to live in the man who had
tidied his house. Putting our house in order is not sufficient to
live a life of faith. We must be proactive. We cannot simply just
sit and wait for things to happen. Rather, we must use our ingenuity to
find new ways to proclaim the gospel and reach out to people. Indeed,
Jesus makes it clear “He who is not with me is against me; and he who does not
gather with me scatters.” Either we are actively for Jesus or against
Him. Our faith in Christ cannot be that of indifference or
complacency. Being complacent about our faith in itself a
counter-witness. More than just a counter-witness, it means that we
are in danger of losing our faith because the temptations of the world and the
falsehood of the world will draw us away from our faith in the Lord.
Conversely, we evangelize ourselves by evangelizing others.
Today, we must consciously pray to Jesus who is the strong man who can
help us to overcome our sins. For Jesus assures us, “So long
as a strong man fully armed guards his own palace, his goods are
undisturbed.” We must therefore turn to Jesus who can heal us of our
wounds and forgive our sins. We must rely on Jesus who will help us to
remain faithful to our calling. Only through Jesus could we find true
peace and joy. The battle against Satan and his works cannot simply be
fought using our human effort but by the grace of God.
Let us take heed of the invitation to conversion by putting our house in
order. But unlike the Israelites, we do not do so
simply because we are fearful of the judgment of the coming of the day of the
Lord. For us Christians, the Day of the Lord is as near to us as the
moment we welcome the Lord into our house and invite Him to put our house in
order. For us, then, the day of the Lord is not a day of judgment but a
day of liberation for authenticity of life and love. When the Lord enters
into our life, we will be filled with joy and peace.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh,
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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