20171109
CHURCH AS A LIFE-GIVING AND TRANSFORMING
MOTHER
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
EITHER:
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First
reading
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Ezekiel 47:1-2,8-9,12 ©
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The angel brought me to the entrance of the Temple, where a stream
came out from under the Temple threshold and flowed eastwards, since the Temple
faced east. The water flowed from under the right side of the Temple, south of
the altar. He took me out by the north gate and led me right round outside as
far as the outer east gate where the water flowed out on the right-hand side.
He said, ‘This water flows east down to the Arabah and to the sea; and flowing
into the sea it makes its waters wholesome. Wherever the river flows, all
living creatures teeming in it will live. Fish will be very plentiful, for
wherever the water goes it brings health, and life teems wherever the river
flows. Along the river, on either bank, will grow every kind of fruit tree with
leaves that never wither and fruit that never fails; they will bear new fruit
every month, because this water comes from the sanctuary. And their fruit will
be good to eat and the leaves medicinal.’
OR:
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Alternative
First reading
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1 Corinthians 3:9-11,16-17 ©
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You are God’s building. By the grace God gave me, I succeeded as
an architect and laid the foundations, on which someone else is doing the
building. Everyone doing the building must work carefully. For the foundation,
nobody can lay any other than the one which has already been laid, that is
Jesus Christ.
Didn’t you realise that you were God’s temple and that
the Spirit of God was living among you? If anybody should destroy the temple of
God, God will destroy him, because the temple of God is sacred; and you are
that temple.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 45(46):2-3,5-6,8-9 ©
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The waters of a river give joy to God’s city,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is for us a refuge and strength,
a helper close at hand, in time of distress,
so we shall not fear though the earth should rock,
though the mountains fall into the depths of the sea.
The waters of a river give joy to God’s city,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
The waters of a river give joy to God’s city,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within, it cannot be shaken;
God will help it at the dawning of the day.
The waters of a river give joy to God’s city,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
The Lord of hosts is with us:
the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
Come, consider the works of the Lord,
the redoubtable deeds he has done on the earth.
The waters of a river give joy to God’s city,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
When a Feast of the Lord falls on a weekday,
there is no reading after the Psalm and before the Gospel.
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Gospel Acclamation
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2Ch7:16
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Alleluia, alleluia!
I have chosen and consecrated this house, says the Lord,
for my name to be there forever.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John 2:13-22 ©
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Just before the Jewish Passover Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and in
the Temple he found people selling cattle and sheep and pigeons, and the money
changers sitting at their counters there. Making a whip out of some cord, he
drove them all out of the Temple, cattle and sheep as well, scattered the money
changers’ coins, knocked their tables over and said to the pigeon-sellers,
‘Take all this out of here and stop turning my Father’s house into a market.’
Then his disciples remembered the words of scripture: Zeal for your
house will devour me. The Jews intervened and said, ‘What sign can you
show us to justify what you have done?’ Jesus answered, ‘Destroy this
sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews replied, ‘It has
taken forty-six years to build this sanctuary: are you going to raise it up in
three days?’ But he was speaking of the sanctuary that was his body, and when
Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and
they believed the scripture and the words he had said.
CHURCH AS A LIFE-GIVING AND TRANSFORMING MOTHER
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ EZ 47:1-2, 8-9, 12; 1 COR 3:9-11, 16-17; JN 2:13-22 ]
St John
Lateran Basilica in Rome is the mother Church of all Catholics in the world. It is the Cathedral
of the Bishop of Rome. For this reason, this feast is celebrated universally
as we are all connected with the mother Church. All of us are in some
ways derived from and linked to the mother Church in Rome. It is to Rome
that we look for direction and inspiration. The mother Church is our
model in the way we build our local churches. It is the symbol of the
unity of the Church.
Of course, in
celebrating the Dedication of St John Lateran Basilica, we are commemorating
more than the dedication of a building. The Church is not so much a building but
the gathering of the People of God. This is what St Paul wrote to the
Corinthians, “You are God’s building. Didn’t you realise that you were God’s
temple and that the Spirit of God was living among you?” We make the
Church. As St Peter said, “like living stones be yourselves built into a
spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
As Church, we
are therefore called to be life-giving, as a mother is to all. The Church
is called Mother because like a mother, the Church gives birth to new children
of God in the sacrament of baptism. She nurtures the children of God
through the celebration of the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and
Reconciliation. She teaches and instructs her children in the Word
of God and schools them in the gospel way of life. She gives hope to
those who are hopeless and find life meaningless. She gives comfort to
those who feel abandoned and need encouragement and consolation.
This is the
picture that Ezekiel gave to us in the first reading with regard to the Temple
of Jerusalem. The river that flows out of the Temple gives life to
wherever the water flows. “Wherever the river flows, all living creatures
teeming in it will live. Fish will be very plentiful, for wherever the water
goes it brings health, and life teems wherever the river flows. Along the
river, on either bank, will grow every kind of fruit tree with leaves that
never wither and fruit that never fails; they will bear new fruit every month,
because this water comes from the sanctuary. And their fruit will be good to
eat and the leaves medicinal.”
The Church is
called to be life-giving even to the hopeless and those who are totally dead. We read that “this
water flows east down to the Arabah and to the sea; and flowing into the sea it
makes its waters wholesome.” Arabah is that hollow depression through
which the Jordan river flows from the Lake of Galilee to the Dead Sea. So
the prophet is assuring us that God can even give life to those who are
dead. This is the task of the Church, to give life to all, even those who
are dead in sin and most of all, eternal life.
The question
we are called to reflect is, whether our churches are life-giving today? Or do we
operate our Churches as mere institutions that are cold, unwelcoming,
legalistic and more like a dispensing machine than one that radiates a
personal touch, warmth, caring, hospitable, sensitive and accommodating.
In fact, the complaint from our people about our churches is that they are run
like a military institution. We go by the books. We are legalistic
and business-like in dealing with our people. The Church is seen not as a
mother whom we can find refuge and comfort but more like an organization that
provides services, and even that for a fee. Many are put off by the
calculative approach of churches towards their parishioners. Some are
scandalized by the way they are treated by church volunteers and workers who
are seen as rude, insensitive, authoritative and indifferent to the plight and
needs of the parishioners who seek help or for assistance.
More than
just providing a nice ambience and being welcoming, are our Churches providing
spiritual food and helping our people to grow spiritually and in knowledge of
their faith? Most of our parishioners come only for Sunday mass for an hour
each a week. That is all the time they give to God. And even then,
they come late, and they are distracted throughout the mass. They are not
disposed to pray devoutly or attentive to the homily. Of course, the
presider has an important role to play in the worship. Sometimes, he does
not prepare his homily well and people feel bored listening to the homily or at
times, they cannot hear what the preacher is saying. But our
churches need to go beyond just the celebration of the Eucharist and the
Sacraments; they need to provide on-going formation on all aspects of spiritual
life, whether it is prayer, doctrines, morals or helping them to grow as
persons and as a community.
If we fail to
be life-giving, than we are no better than the Jews that the Lord condemned in
the gospel. Instead of being a place of worship and encounter with God,
the Temple became a market place. No longer was it a place where people
could worship and be connected with Him. It became a place for rituals to be
performed, but the hearts of the people were far from God. The
authorities were more concerned with enriching themselves through the
sub-letting of services to the money-changers and those who sold animals for
the Temple sacrifice. They charged exorbitant prices for changing the
local currency, considered tainted, to the Temple coins; and also for the
animals which were considered acceptable for worship, as animals outside the
Temple were often disqualified for sacrifice because they were labelled as
defective.
Jesus came to
cleanse the Temple. “Making a whip out of some cord, he drove them all out of
the Temple, cattle and sheep as well, scattered the money-changers’ coins,
knocked their tables over and said to the pigeon-sellers, ‘Take all this out of
here and stop turning my Father’s house into a market’.” Today, Jesus
wants to cleanse His Church as well! It has degenerated from a House of
God to a House of thieves. We are not interested in serving and caring for
people, especially those who are poor, in trouble, in need of consolation,
healing, prayers and encouragement. We have no time to minister to
their needs. The truth is, no matter how great a structure we have, if
the lives of our people are not touched and moved by bringing them closer to
God through edifying worship and personal care for them, we have failed as
Church to be life-giving.
How can we
renew and restore the Church so that it can really become a Temple of God? St Paul gives us this
advice. “By the grace God gave me, I succeeded as an architect and laid
the foundations, on which someone else is doing the building. Everyone doing
the building must work carefully. For the foundation, nobody can lay any other
than the one which has already been laid, that is Jesus Christ.”
Christ must be our foundation stone. This is what St Peter also wrote,
“Come to him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen
and precious.” (1 Pt 2:4) It is to Jesus that we all must turn.
Our activities
and programs must be rooted in Jesus and in the gospel. Unless, we
are praying people, deeply connected with the Lord in prayer each day and
meditating on the Word of God daily, and further instructed in the faith
through bible and doctrinal study, sharing of the Word of God with our cell
group and joining the community in fellowship, we will not be able to build the
House of God. Our weakness is that we tend to be very active in Church
ministry, doing many projects, all apparently for the glory of God, but we do
not build the church in Christ and with the help of Christ. We do not
pray, discern and intercede for the projects undertaken. We use our
secular and corporate knowledge in carrying out the projects, often without a
Christian perspective and rooted in the compassion of our Lord. The
failure to be firstly praying people, or people schooled in Christ-like
virtues, is the cause of much division, resentment, in-fighting among church
leaders and members.
This is the
warning given by St Paul to those of us who seek to build God’s house without
Christ. “If anybody should destroy the temple of God, God will destroy him,
because the temple of God is sacred; and you are that temple.”
To build the
House of God, we must be like Jesus who was inclusive, and welcoming of the
poor, the sinners and the marginalized. He loved the poor and the
suffering. Jesus came for the sick not for the healthy. (cf Mk 2:17)
He put people first, before institution. He broke the laws when necessary
for the greater good of the people. In fact, His ministry was done mostly
outside of the synagogues and the Temple. His Church was the world,
wherever people were, who were lost like sheep without a shepherd, those who
were harassed and wounded. (cf Mt 9:36)
And this is because Jesus did not offer structures, rituals, things.
Jesus offered His entire being, body and soul for the service of His Father and
us, by dying for us. He allowed His Temple to be destroyed so that
He could raise it up on the third day. He gave us life and hope by
giving up His life for us in love, even unto death. Only that kind of
service is truly life-giving. All of us are called to imitate Jesus in
humble service, utter giving of oneself for the good of others. This is
what a life-giving Church is all about.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore
© All Rights Reserved
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