20180115
THE VIRTUE OF OBEDIENCE
15 JANUARY, 2018, Monday, 2nd Week, Ordinary Time
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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1 Samuel 15:16-23 ©
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Samuel said to Saul, ‘Stop! Let me tell you what the Lord said to
me last night.’ Saul said, ‘Tell me.’ Samuel continued, ‘Small as you may be in
your own eyes, are you not head of the tribes of Israel? the Lord has anointed
you king over Israel. The Lord sent you on a mission and said to you, “Go, put
these sinners, the Amalekites, under the ban and make war on them until they
are exterminated.” Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you
fall on the booty and do what is displeasing to the Lord?’ Saul replied to
Samuel, ‘But I did obey the voice of the Lord. I went on the mission which the
Lord gave me; I brought back Agag king of the Amalekites; I put the Amalekites
under the ban. From the booty the people took the best sheep and oxen of what
was under the ban to sacrifice them to the Lord your God in Gilgal.’ But Samuel
replied:
‘Is the pleasure of the Lord in holocausts and sacrifices
or in obedience to the voice of the Lord?
Yes, obedience is better than sacrifice,
submissiveness better than the fat of rams.
Rebellion is a sin of sorcery,
presumption a crime of teraphim.
‘Since you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you
as king.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 49(50):8-9,16-17,21,23 ©
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I will show God’s salvation to the upright.
‘I find no fault with your sacrifices,
your offerings are always before me.
I do not ask more bullocks from your farms,
nor goats from among your herds.
I will show God’s salvation to the upright.
‘But how can you recite my commandments
and take my covenant on your lips,
you who despise my law
and throw my words to the winds,
I will show God’s salvation to the upright.
‘You do this, and should I keep silence?
Do you think that I am like you?
A sacrifice of thanksgiving honours me
and I will show God’s salvation to the upright.’
I will show God’s salvation to the upright.
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Gospel Acclamation
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cf.1Th2:13
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Accept God’s message for what it really is:
God’s message, and not some human thinking.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Heb4:12
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The word of God is something alive and active:
it can judge secret emotions and thoughts.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 2:18-22 ©
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One day when John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, some
people came to Jesus and said to him, ‘Why is it that John’s disciples and the
disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?’ Jesus replied,
‘Surely the bridegroom’s attendants would never think of fasting while the
bridegroom is still with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them,
they could not think of fasting. But the time will come for the bridegroom to
be taken away from them, and then, on that day, they will fast. No one sews a
piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak; if he does, the patch pulls away
from it, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. And nobody puts new
wine into old wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the
wine is lost and the skins too. No! New wine, fresh skins!’
THE VIRTUE OF OBEDIENCE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 1 SAMUEL
15:16-23; PS 50:8-9, 16-17, 21, 23; MARK 2:18-22
]
In today’s
world, obedience has become an outdated virtue, not just in the secular world
but even in religious life. In the ancient days, obedience was presumed. Children
obeyed their parents without any argument, subordinates obeyed their bosses
submissively, priests and religious obeyed their superiors without
question. But this seems to be something of the past. Today,
very few render total obedience to those in authority. Superiors are
being challenged for every decision they make; and if their subordinates
disagree, they rebel and continue to do things their own way.
Indeed,
because of pervasive mass communications and increased literacy, people are
exposed to information and knowledge overload. Individuals are often at a
loss to decide for themselves what is good or bad, right or wrong, true or
false, so much so that one dares to claim that he or she has the truth because
there are many arguments to every position. Hence, today the prevailing
attitude is relativism, because we cannot agree on anything.
We all have
our reasons for disobeying authority and the laws. In the first reading,
Saul broke the law of God requiring them to kill all their enemies, so that
evil would not spread to the younger generation through their adoption of the
practices of their pagan neighbours. But Saul was presumptuous and
rebellious. He did not carry out what the Lord asked of him.
Instead, he rationalized his decision to keep the booty and the King of the
Amalekites. He said, “I put the Amalekites under the ban. From the booty
the people took the best sheep and oxen of what was under the ban to sacrifice
them to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” On the surface, what Saul did seem
to be honourable. In his reasoning, whether rightly or wrongly motivated,
it seemed that what he did was good. According to him, he did it
for the greater glory of God, not for himself.
In the
gospel, Jesus did not seem to be a very obedient man either, breaking the Sabbath Law
when He deemed it necessary! He too had his reasons for
breaking the laws and customs of His days. He healed on the Sabbath
because He felt that the work of compassion was more urgent than observing the
Laws. (cf Mk 3:1-6) He even touched the lepers and healed them,
risking spiritual contamination and thereby making Himself unclean. (cf Mt 8:3)
He defended the disciples for plucking corn on the Sabbath. (cf Mt 12:1-8)
He defended the disciples who broke tradition by not washing their hands before
eating. (Cf Mt 15:1-9) His disciples did not fast, unlike John’s
disciples and the Pharisees.
But the
scripture is very clear about the importance of obedience. “Is the pleasure of the Lord
in holocausts and sacrifices or in obedience to the voice of the Lord?
Yes, obedience is better than sacrifice, submissiveness better than the fat of
rams.” Samuel said, “Rebellion is a sin of sorcery, presumption a crime
of teraphim.” Disobedience is an act of rebellion against authority, and
in the case of Saul, against God. It is sinful because rebellion springs
from pride and self-will. It is also a sin of idolatry; worshipping
and thinking highly of ourselves. More often than not, we rebel for selfish
interests rather than for the good of others. In the case of Saul,
he broke the law because he wanted to seek the approval of man rather than
God. Indeed, when confronted, he confessed, “I have sinned; for I have
transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I
feared the people and obeyed their voice.” (1 Sm 15:24)
Disobedience
is the first of many sins. It leads to other sins such as envy, greed and anger.
We know that the first sin of Adam and Eve was the sin of disobedience.
Because of their disobedience, not only did they forfeit the preternatural
gifts but they caused their descendants to forfeit them as well.
From the sin of disobedience, they became ashamed of their own nakedness,
because love turned to lust. Then the sin of envy crept in, leading Cain
to kill his brother Abel. From then on, more and more evil were committed
because men saw each other as competitors and enemies rather than brothers and
sisters. Indeed, the whole history of Israel was a history of disobedience to
the commandments of God. As a consequence, they suffered the wrath of
God. In the case of Saul, his kingship was taken away from him. By
rejecting the Word of God, God also rejected Saul. Samuel pronounced the
judgement, “Since you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you
as king.”
Is there a
contradiction in the two events narrated in the gospel? What is the
difference between the disobedience of Jesus and that of Saul? In the case of Jesus,
when He broke the laws, it was never for His own interests but purely out of
charity and justice. He was living out the spirit of the laws, which were
enacted to protect the people from evil and selfishness. He wanted
the people to go beyond the mere observance of the laws. The truth is
that mere observance of the laws does not mean that the intention of the laws
are fulfilled. Indeed, the Jewish leaders who obeyed the laws were no
better than the Saul because they too sought the approval of men, not of
God. They observed the laws so that they would appear to be holy and
righteous before others. They did not observe the laws for the glory of
God nor for the good of their fellowmen, but in order to prove that they were
holier and better than the ordinary Jew who could not keep the laws
meticulously because their occupations prevented them from doing so.
So the answer
to whether we can disobey the laws or not lies in the question of integrity. Jesus came to teach
us real obedience, which is to be true to the spirit of the laws. Hence,
the response of Jesus to fasting was clear, “as long as they have the
bridegroom with them, they could not think of fasting. But the time will come
for the bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then, on that day, they will
fast.” In other words, does observance of the laws serve a good purpose?
Fasting is to help one yearn for the presence of God when His absence is
felt. It is for cultivating inner discipline so that we will be freed of
attachment to things of this world and so help us to focus on the
spiritual. Most of all, fasting is for repentance of sins. The
purpose of fasting is not for slimming purposes, to look good in the eyes of
others or to impress others of our holiness. On the contrary, Jesus said,
“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they
disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. But
when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting
may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father
who sees in secret will reward you.” (Mt 6:16-18)
In the final
analysis, we must combine both principles of obedience to the laws of God with
the spirit in which obedience is carried out. Jesus was not teaching us to disobey
God. He Himself was obedient unto death. He taught us to obey the
Word of God and to do His will at all times. So whilst we must maintain
the importance of rendering obedience to the Word, we must be discerning as to
what is His will and how we should apply the laws within context. This
calls for maturity in the work of discernment. Hence, Jesus exhorts us to
be consistent in what we do and say. “No one sews a piece of unshrunken
cloth on an old cloak; if he does, the patch pulls away from it, the new from
the old, and the tear gets worse. And nobody puts new wine into old wineskins;
if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins
too. No! New wine, fresh skins!”
Of course,
there is also the danger that we can be tempted to justify and rationalize our
actions, like
Saul who deceived himself into thinking that he was serving God when in fact he
was afraid of losing his men’s approval. So we too can compromise the
truths of the gospel, the laws of God and His Church so that we can gain men’s
approval. This is where the danger lies. Many of us today, like
Saul, use the name of God to justify our selfish and self-centered
actions. We rationalize what we want to do because such actions benefit
us and not truly for the glory of God and His people. When we do that,
let us remember the warning of Samuel, “presumption (is) a crime of teraphim.”
We must
remain open and humble before the Word of God if we are not to be
over-confident of ourselves. Discernment is an art and we need to learn it before we can
confidently claim that we are observing the spirit of the laws. Many who
are not tuned to the Lord often make false and supercilious claims that they
are acting in obedience to the spirit of the gospel and not in blind obedience
when disobeying the laws. In truth, arrogance is worse than blind obedience!
“But how can you recite my commandments and take my covenant on your lips, you
who despise my law and throw my words to the winds. You do this, and
should I keep silence? Do you think that I am like you? A sacrifice of
thanksgiving honours me and I will show God’s salvation to the upright.”
Let us sincerely search our hearts and our motives before we dare to say that
we have gone beyond blind obedience. Let us walk the way of truth and
love in obedience to the Word of God.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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