20171214
SELFLESS DEVOTION TO OUR DREAMS
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Violet.
First reading
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Isaiah 48:17-19 ©
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Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is good for you,
I lead you in the way that you must go.
If only you had been alert to my commandments,
your happiness would have been like a river,
your integrity like the waves of the sea.
Your children would have been numbered like the sand,
your descendants as many as its grains.
Never would your name have been cut off or blotted out before me.
Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 1:1-4,6 ©
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Anyone who follows you, O Lord, will have the
light of life.
Happy indeed is the man
who follows not the counsel of the wicked;
nor lingers in the way of sinners
nor sits in the company of scorners,
but whose delight is the law of the Lord
and who ponders his law day and night.
Anyone who follows you, O Lord, will have the
light of life.
He is like a tree that is planted
beside the flowing waters,
that yields its fruit in due season
and whose leaves shall never fade;
and all that he does shall prosper.
Anyone who follows you, O Lord, will have the
light of life.
Not so are the wicked, not so!
For they like winnowed chaff
shall be driven away by the wind.
for the Lord guards the way of the just
but the way of the wicked leads to doom.
Anyone who follows you, O Lord, will have the
light of life.
Gospel Acclamation
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Alleluia, alleluia!
See, the king, the Lord of the world, will come.
He will free us from the yoke of our bondage.
Alleluia!
Or
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The Lord will come, go out to meet him.
Great is his beginning and his reign will have no end.
Alleluia!
Gospel
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Matthew 11:11-15 ©
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11 Truly I tell you,
among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the
Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12
From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been
subjected to violence,[a] and violent people have been raiding it. 13 For all
the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 14 And if you are willing to
accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. 15 Whoever has ears, let them
hear.
14 DECEMBER, 2017, Thursday, 2nd Week of Advent
SELFLESS DEVOTION TO OUR DREAMS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ IS 41:13-20; PS 145:1,9-13; MT 11:11-15 ]
We all dream
dreams. Dreams are what motivate us to live fully and purposefully. Without dreams, life
becomes a drudgery and a routine. Israel too, had a dream. They
dreamt of a land that was fertile, with trees, plants and crops growing, where
waters flowed in the rivers; where wilderness became a lake. There was
food and plenty. We too have our dreams for the family, the church and
society. Our dreams are not much different from theirs because we all
desire peace, prosperity and unity.
But when we
embark on making our dreams into reality, we cannot but feel diffident. Can our dreams be
realized? Who are we to accomplish our dreams? Like the Israelites, we
feel inadequate and unworthy. This too was the same feeling of all great
leaders. When Moses was called by the Lord, he also said, “Who am I that
I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” (Ex 3:11)
Gideon too expressed a similar sentiment when he was asked to deliver Israel
from the Midianites. “Pray, Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Behold, my
clan is the weakest in Manas′seh, and I am the least in my family.” (Jdg 6:15)
The prophet Isaiah when asked replied, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a
man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for
my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isa 6:5)
This is where
we fail to realize that we cannot fulfill the plans of God on our own strength
but by the strength that comes from Him. Hence, the Lord assured
Israel, “For I, the Lord, your God, I am holding you by the right hand; I tell
you, ‘Do not be afraid, I will help you’. Do not be afraid, Jacob, poor worm,
Israel, puny mite.’ I will help you – it is the Lord who speaks – the
Holy One of Israel is your redeemer.” It was the same promise to the
leaders and prophets of Israel. To Moses, God said, “But I will be with
you; and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have
brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this
mountain.” (Ex 3:12) To Gideon, the Lord said, “But I will be with
you, and you shall smite the Mid′ianites as one man.” (Jdg 6:16)
But the
assurance of God’s blessings and divine protection does not mean it will be
easy.
Jesus said, “Since John the Baptist came, up to this present time, the
kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence and the violent are taking it
by storm.” In other words, we will face challenges to our
plans. There will be opposition. At times, things can get ugly.
There can be lawsuits and our enemies may seek to disrupt our plans because
their interests are compromised. We may become a threat to their status
quo. People resist change as it means their having to be inconvenienced
and they may have to change their lifestyle and routine. This was
the case of John the Baptist. The religious leaders knew that he was a
prophet of God, perhaps even the Elijah who was to come again to prepare for
the coming of the Messiah. But they were not ready. Indeed, Jesus affirmed
this truth when He said, “Because it was towards John that all the prophecies
of the prophets and of the Law were leading; and he, if you will believe me, is
the Elijah who was to return. If anyone has ears to hear, let him
listen!” John the Baptist was the one to prepare for the coming of the
Messiah. He was the Elijah promised to the people. He was the
fulfillment of the prophet Malachi when he said, “Behold, I will send you
Eli′jah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he
will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to
their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse.” (Mal 4:5f)
And John the Baptist did precisely that. He called the people to
repentance and prepared them for the coming of the Messiah by baptizing them
for the forgiveness of sins. However, he was rejected by the religious
leaders as he threatened their position in society and the privileges that came
with their position.
That is why
Jesus tells us that we must be equally strong to resist the opposition of the
world.
We must show ourselves to be stronger than the resistance of the world.
St John the Baptist was not afraid of suffering for the truth. He was not
afraid of poverty or martyrdom. He spoke according to his conscience even
in front of Herod and his adulterous wife, Herodias. He did not mince his
words. He was not afraid to be embarrassed and misunderstood. Like
John the Baptist, we too must be strong. We must be ready to face
persecution and being misunderstood. We can be sure that even if we do
good and have no vested interests, there will be fake news distorting the truth
and accusing us of intentions or things that we are not guilty of. Today,
in the light of social media, fake news are often being passed around as truth,
poisoning the minds of those who are naive and innocent.
Most of all,
we must be selfless in whatever we do, even in making our dreams come true. This is because
those who dream dreams often do not live in them. We do not dream dreams
for ourselves but for the future of our children, church and humanity.
Consequently, those who initiate the dream seldom live to see the dream fully
realized; perhaps with God’s grace, only partially. But precisely, such
dreamers are truly working for the glory of God and the good of their people
because they are not the beneficiaries. Not only do they not get to enjoy
the fruits of their labour but they are not even there to get the glory.
This is what distinguishes career from vocation; ambition from mission.
This was what
the Lord said of John the Baptist. “I tell you solemnly, of all the children born of
women, a greater than John the Baptist has never been seen; yet the least in
the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is.” John the Baptist was
only a forerunner of the Messiah. His role was to prepare the bride to
receive the bridegroom. He was not the bride but only a friend of the
bridegroom. He was not the Word but only the voice of God. He said,
“I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the
Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (Jn 1:23)
“He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to
untie.” (Jn 1:27) John the Baptist was martyred just as Jesus
began His ministry. He was not able to see the fullness of God’s love and
mercy revealed in Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. He was only
given a foretaste of the coming of God’s kingdom. Jesus told the
disciples of John, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive
their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the
dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” (Mt 11:4f)
This too is
true of all leaders. True leaders will sow the seed for tomorrow. They do not ask,
“What is there in it for me?”, as do worldly leaders. But true leaders
ask, “what can I do for my people, my church and my country?” St Paul
said to the quarrelsome Corinthians, “What then is Apol′los? What is Paul?
Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted,
Apol′los watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who
waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who
waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor. For
we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” (1 Cor 3:5-9)
Good and selfless leaders are not concerned about reward and glory. They
are concerned about serving God and the people. This was also the case of
Moses. He did not enter the Promised Land that He led his people
into. The Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have
let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” (Dt 34:4)
Indeed, in
the final analysis, it does not matter whether we are the ones who will
complete the dream, or whether someone else does. What is of utmost importance
is that we must persevere in building the dream that God has planted in
us. We are called to do our part and leave the rest to God. The
full flowering might not come in our time. We could be called simply to lay the
foundation, as John the Baptist did for Jesus. So let us be content to
play our role and leave success to God alone. Indeed, “How good is the
Lord to all!”
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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