Tuesday, 28 November 2017

THE SIN OF SACRILEGE

20171129 THE SIN OF SACRILEGE

Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour: Green.

First reading
Daniel 5:1-6,13-14,16-17,23-28 ©
King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for his noblemen; a thousand of them attended, and he drank wine in company with this thousand. As he sipped his wine, Belshazzar gave orders for the gold and silver vessels to be brought which his father Nebuchadnezzar had looted from the sanctuary in Jerusalem, so that the king, his noblemen, his wives and his singing women could drink out of them. The gold and silver vessels looted from the sanctuary of the Temple of God in Jerusalem were brought in, and the king, his noblemen, his wives and his singing women drank out of them. They drank their wine and praised their gods of gold and silver, of bronze and iron, of wood and stone. Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared, and began to write on the plaster of the palace wall, directly behind the lamp-stand; and the king could see the hand as it wrote. The king turned pale with alarm: his thigh-joints went slack and his knees began to knock.
  Daniel was brought into the king’s presence; the king said to Daniel, ‘Are you the Daniel who was one of the Judaean exiles brought by my father the king from Judah? I am told that the spirit of God Most Holy lives in you, and that you are known for your perception, intelligence and marvellous wisdom. As I am told that you are able to give interpretations and to unravel difficult problems, if you can read the writing and tell me what it means, you shall be dressed in purple, and have a chain of gold put round your neck, and be third in rank in the kingdom.’
  Then Daniel spoke up in the presence of the king. ‘Keep your gifts for yourself,’ he said ‘and give your rewards to others. I will read the writing to the king without them, and tell him what it means. You have defied the Lord of heaven, you have had the vessels from his Temple brought to you, and you, your noblemen, your wives and your singing women have drunk your wine out of them. You have praised gods of gold and silver, of bronze and iron, of wood and stone, which cannot either see, hear or understand; but you have given no glory to the God who holds your breath and all your fortunes in his hands. That is why he has sent the hand which, by itself, has written these words. The writing reads: MeneMeneTekel and Parsin. The meaning of the words is this: Mene: God has measured your sovereignty and put an end to it; Tekel: you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting; Parsin: your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.’

Responsorial Psalm
Daniel 3:62-67 ©
Sun and moon! bless the Lord.
  Give glory and eternal praise to him!
Stars of heaven! bless the Lord.
  Give glory and eternal praise to him!
Showers and dews! all bless the Lord.
  Give glory and eternal praise to him!
Winds! all bless the Lord.
  Give glory and eternal praise to him!
Fire and heat! bless the Lord.
  Give glory and eternal praise to him!
Cold and heat! bless the Lord.
  Give glory and eternal praise to him!

Gospel Acclamation
Lk21:36
Alleluia, alleluia!
Stay awake, praying at all times
for the strength to stand with confidence
before the Son of Man.
Alleluia!
Or
Rv2:10
Alleluia, alleluia!
Even if you have to die, says the Lord,
keep faithful, and I will give you
the crown of life.
Alleluia!

Gospel
Luke 21:12-19 ©
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Men will seize you and persecute you; they will hand you over to the synagogues and to imprisonment, and bring you before kings and governors because of my name – and that will be your opportunity to bear witness. Keep this carefully in mind: you are not to prepare your defence, because I myself shall give you an eloquence and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relations and friends; and some of you will be put to death. You will be hated by all men on account of my name, but not a hair of your head will be lost. Your endurance will win you your lives.’


THE SIN OF SACRILEGE

SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Dn 5:1-613-1416-1723-28Dn 3:62-67Lk 21:12-19 ]
After a long 44-year reign under King Nebuchadnezzar, the Kingdom of Babylon began the road to decadence.  The kings after him were self-serving and ill-disciplined.  They cared little for the people and were ruthless.  Though the empire lasted another 22 years, these were marked by revolutions and assassinations, culminating in the reign of King Belshazzar who served as a co-regent with his father, King Nabonidus.
How did the kingdom come to lose its glory?  We are told that the last straw that broke the Kingdom was King Belshazzar’s sin of sacrilege. He dishonoured the one true God not only by not rendering Him worship but he went to the extent of taking the sacred vessels from the Temple and drinking from them in honour of the pagan deities.   Desecrating the sacred vessels was an audacious and deliberate defiance, insult and mockery of God.  The judgment of God through Daniel was this, “You have defied the Lord of heaven, you have had the vessels from his Temple brought to you, and you, your noblemen, your wives and your singing women have drunk your wine out of them.  You have praised gods of gold and silver, of bronze and iron, of wood and stone, which cannot either see, hear or understand; but you have given no glory to the God who holds your breath and all your fortunes in his hands.”
How did he come to such a state where he lost all respect for the Sacred?  The truth is that the writing is all on the wall.  No one can come to such a state of contempt for God unless he or she had allowed himself or herself to be gradually consumed by sin and evil.  The truth is that no one becomes an incorrigible sinner overnight.  It begins slowly, first with neglect of God by not praying; then leading to indifference, and finally to hostility.   This was the case of King Belshazzar.   He never learnt from the humbling experience of his father, King Nebuchadnezzar.  His father was proud and arrogant and hardened with pride.  He was eventually stripped of his glory and deposed from his throne.  He was driven away to live like an animal.  This, Daniel reminded King Belshazzar. (cf Dn 3:18-21)
Yet, he allowed himself to be tempted by the sin of the world, by the desire for glory and power.  When he became powerful, he thought the world of himself.  He became proud and arrogant.  He had no respect for man nor even God.  When a man falls into the sin of pride, there is the beginning of his fall. “Pride goes before destruction,and a haughty spirit before a fall.”  (Prv 16:18)  “Everyone who is arrogant is an abomination to the Lord;be assured, he will not go unpunished.”  (Prv 16:5)  “The proud one shall stumble and fall,  with none to raise him up.” (Jer 50:32)
Secondly, he was consumed by the sin of the flesh.  This is the sin of sacrilege against one’s body, which is the Temple of the Holy Spirit.   “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”  (1 Cor 6:19f)  King Belshazzar was eating and drinking excessively.  When we take too much alcohol, we lose control over our reasoning.  We become irrational and say and do the wrong things.   That could be the reason for his action with regard to the sacred vessels.  He was no longer in control of himself.  The sin of gluttony and alcoholism will lead to womanizing and the sin of lust because the biological and animal nature of the person will be unleashed without self-control.  A man who engages and indulges himself with food, drink, wine and women will become lazy and irresponsible to his duties.
Indeed, overwhelmed by our sins and desires, pride and cravings, our conscience will become numb.  People do not lose their faith in God overnight.  Secularization is a process that took place since the 18th century.  Today, we are  seeing the full impact of how humanistic ideologies, which have led to the stripping of God from public life in Europe, have caused the Christians to gradually lose faith in God.  It has led to relativism and materialism.  Those of us in Asia and Africa are just beginning to suffer the impact of secularization.  If we do not arrest it, we will also become humanistic, agnostic and skeptical, like in Europe where Christianity is dying.  This is true on the personal level as well.  The punishment for sin is to commit more sins.  Blindness will lead to greater blindness.  Pride will lead to a false understanding and estimation of oneself and one’s opinions.
The result is judgement and punishment. As for the King, the Lord said, “Mene, Mene, Tekel and Parsin: The meaning of the words is this: Mene: God has measured your sovereignty and put an end to it; Tekel: you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting; Parsin: your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.”  In other words, the days of the king had been numbered because he was tested but found to be wanting, not just by God but by the people as well.  Historically, when the Persians and Medes came in, they were welcomed by the people who swung open the gates to welcome the Medo-Persian army without putting any resistance because they were fed up with the Babylonian king.  It seems only Belshazzar was killed.  Cyrus later entered the city and was hailed as their liberator from the oppression of Nabonidus and Belshazzar.
If we are not careful, because of our negligence and indifference to the spiritual and the sacred, the Devil will conquer us easily.  Allowing the sin of the world and flesh to overtake us is to fall into the trap of the Evil One.  Indeed, instead of using the gifts that the Lord has given to us for service and doing good, many of us use them for evil.  This is particularly tragic when we use things consecrated and offered to God for our selfish purpose, whether it is with regard to the use of Church buildings, financial donations or gifts.
So what is the way to avoid falling into the sin of sacrilege and the consequent self-destruction? The gospel calls us to be faithful and persevering to the end.  Jesus assures us, “Your endurance will win you your lives.”  With the psalmist, we are called to give glory and praise to God.  Like the prophet Daniel, we must do the right thing.  When he was offered gold and power, he was disinterested.  He was not motivated by the pursuit of wealth, luxury, power or honour.  What he was called to do was to speak the truth for all in obedience to the Word of God.  He told the king, “Keep your gifts for yourself  and give your rewards to others.  I will read the writing to the king without them, and tell him what it means.”  We must admire the courage of Daniel for in those days, a harbinger of bad news would be executed by the king.  Yet, Daniel did not mince his words and spoke the truth to him exactly as God had revealed to him.   This is what Jesus is asking of us, His disciples, when He said, “Men will seize you and persecute you; they will hand you over to the synagogues and to imprisonment, and bring you before kings and governors because of my name – and that will be your opportunity to bear witness.”
However, we do not do it alone by our own strength.  He promises us the Holy Spirit so that we have the courage and wisdom to do the right things.  “Keep this carefully in mind: you are not to prepare your defence, because I myself shall give you an eloquence and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to resist or contradict.”  How is the Holy Spirit given to us, if not when we keep our spiritual life strong through constant personal prayer, meditating on the Word of God, sharing the Word with our fellow Catholics and praying with each other so that we are strengthened by each other.  Most of all, we need to find grace and strength through worship, the celebration of the sacraments, especially of the Eucharist and Reconciliation.  In the Eucharist, we are nurtured by the Word and His Love.
Finally, it is in Christian witnessing by living a good Catholic life and through evangelizing that we remain strong in our faith.  Through a constant awareness that we are called to be good examples and role models to others, we become more conscious of how we should conduct ourselves in daily life.  Besides being a witness, we are to share the Good News with others so that in evangelizing others, we also evangelize ourselves.  Our faith will become reinforced as we share what Christ has done for us and what we are doing for Him and how we are living our lives for the service of humanity and the glory of God.

Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved


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