20180223
DIVINE JUSTICE IS A MATTER OF RELATIONSHIP,
NOT DEEDS
23 FEBRUARY, 2018, Friday, 1st Week, Lent
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Violet.
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First reading
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Ezekiel 18:21-28 ©
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I prefer to see the wicked man renounce his wickedness and live
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Thus says the Lord:
‘If the
wicked man renounces all the sins he has committed, respects my laws and is
law-abiding and honest, he will certainly live; he will not die. All the sins
he committed will be forgotten from then on; he shall live because of the
integrity he has practised. What! Am I likely to take pleasure in the death of
a wicked man – it is the Lord who speaks – and not prefer to see him
renounce his wickedness and live?
‘But if the
upright man renounces his integrity, commits sin, copies the wicked man and practises
every kind of filth, is he to live? All the integrity he has practised shall be
forgotten from then on; but this is because he himself has broken faith and
committed sin, and for this he shall die. But you object, “What the Lord does
is unjust.” Listen, you House of Israel: is what I do unjust? Is it not what
you do that is unjust? When the upright man renounces his integrity to commit
sin and dies because of this, he dies because of the evil that he himself has
committed. When the sinner renounces sin to become law-abiding and honest, he
deserves to live. He has chosen to renounce all his previous sins; he shall
certainly live; he shall not die.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 129(130) ©
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If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt, Lord, who
would survive?
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord,
Lord, hear my voice!
O let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleading.
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt, Lord, who
would survive?
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,
Lord, who would survive?
But with you is found forgiveness:
for this we revere you.
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt, Lord, who
would survive?
My soul is waiting for the Lord.
I count on his word.
My soul is longing for the Lord
more than watchman for daybreak.
(Let the watchman count on daybreak
and Israel on the Lord.)
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt, Lord, who
would survive?
Because with the Lord there is mercy
and fullness of redemption,
Israel indeed he will redeem
from all its iniquity.
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt, Lord, who
would survive?
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Gospel Acclamation
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cf.Amos5:14
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Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
Seek good and not evil so that you may live,
and that the Lord God of hosts may really be with you.
Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
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Or
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Ezk18:31
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Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
Shake off all your sins – it is the Lord who speaks –
and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.
Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
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Gospel
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Matthew 5:20-26 ©
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Anyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it
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Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If your virtue goes no deeper than
that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of
heaven.
‘You have
learnt how it was said to our ancestors: You must not kill; and if
anyone does kill he must answer for it before the court. But I say this to you:
anyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it before the court; if a
man calls his brother “Fool” he will answer for it before the Sanhedrin; and if
a man calls him “Renegade” he will answer for it in hell fire. So then, if you
are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother
has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and
be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your
offering. Come to terms with your opponent in good time while you are still on
the way to the court with him, or he may hand you over to the judge and the
judge to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison. I tell you solemnly,
you will not get out till you have paid the last penny.’
DIVINE JUSTICE IS A MATTER OF RELATIONSHIP, NOT DEEDS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ EZEKIEL 18:21-28; PS 130:1-8; MT 5:20-26 ]
Today’s first
reading from the prophet Ezekiel is a challenge to our human way of
understanding justice. His thought is revolutionary and scandalizing, not just to
his listeners but even to the modern man who hears this message. Most of
us can wholeheartedly agree in the first instance that “If the wicked man
renounces all the sins he has committed, respects my laws and is law-abiding
and honest, he will certainly live; he will not die.” In itself,
some might not even accept that a sinner could have his sins forgotten without
incurring punishment as the Lord says, “All the sins he committed will be
forgotten from then on; he shall live because of the integrity he has practiced.
What! Am I likely to take pleasure in the death of a wicked man – it is the
Lord who speaks – and not prefer to see him renounce his wickedness and live?”
But what was
shocking to his audience was his prophecy that “if the upright man renounces his
integrity, commits sin, copies the wicked man and practices every kind of
filth, is he to live? All the integrity he has practiced shall be forgotten from
then on; but this is because he himself has broken faith and committed sin, and
for this he shall die.” Like them, we too may object and cry foul, “What
the Lord does is unjust.” How could a good man, who all his life loved
God and his fellowmen but at the end of his life gave up on God, be condemned
to eternal death? Surely the past deeds and merits of this good man
should be taken into account and not rendered void and useless!
In other
words, our measure of justice is based on merits and punishments. We are rewarded or
punished according to our good deeds or evil deeds. By so doing, we have
reduced the justice of God to human justice, which is based on the principle of
what we sow is what we reap. It is the same measure that the world uses,
namely, the Key Productivity Indicators (KPIs). So a worker is rewarded
according to what he or she brings into the company. The company is not
interested in his intentions or his character, or whether he is ethical, but it
is concerned only with profits at the end of the day, because that is what the
shareholders are interested in.
That is
precisely what Jesus is warning us about such superficial judgment and
assessment of people and their actions. He said, “If your virtue
goes no deeper than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into
the kingdom of heaven.” Our judgment should not be based just on the
actions of a person but also the motives as well. At the end of the day,
the real measure of divine justice is not necessarily our merits, not how much
we do, whether good or evil. It is ultimately concerned with right
relationships with God, self and others. The actions in themselves are not
proofs that we have a right and authentic relationship with God, self and
others. Like the Pharisees, we could be doing the right things for the
wrong motives. In the eyes of the world, such actions may appear good and
noble, but only God can know the real intentions of the person who does
good. He might be seeking for attention, glory, support, or even using
them to buy people to gain power and control. So KPIs do not mean
much to God because He judges the heart, not just the external actions or the
outcomes.
Does it mean
that such good works or merits have no place in the life of a Christian and are
redundant? Not at all! We are not denying the importance of good
works or the gravity of evil deeds that we do. What the gospel wants to
underscore is that these are at most, merely indicators of the heart of a
person in his relationship with God and with others, including
himself. In themselves, they do not mean much, unless they are
performed from the right motives of selfless love and service. This is
true for sinners. Without exonerating their part in the sin, some keep falling
into sin because of circumstances and upbringing.
So good works
and evil deeds are mere indicators of how much the person is in love with God,
his neighbours and self. It shows the fundamental option of the person, what he is
choosing: God and others or self? Good works have its proper place in
Christian life, but at the end of the day, God is not going to weigh the scales
in judging us, to see how many good works we do and how many evil actions we
do. Love cannot be weighed and measured simply by good deeds.
In the civil courts, if mitigation is allowed, it is not that we hope the judge
will make right and be lenient in punishing the offender because he has done
good all his life. Rather, mentioning the person’s good deeds is
but a way to say that the person is not all that evil; that he does have a good
heart towards others and not as selfish as the offence indicates. This is
true in the way God judges us. Not a kind of extrinsic justice based on
facts but the judgement of God is the judgement of the heart, the depth of our
love for God, for others and for self; not what we do but how intense our
relationships are.
It is for
this reason that God is ever ready to forgive us when we sin. What He
wants is a restoration of relationship. This is what the responsorial psalm
says, “If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt, Lord, who would survive? But with
you is found forgiveness: for this we revere you. Because with the Lord there
is mercy and fullness of redemption, Israel indeed he will redeem from all its
iniquity.” He is not interested in our merits or our performance.
He is concerned with whether we are in deep relationship with Him and with
others. He measures us by the love we have for Him and for our
neighbours. As Ezekiel says, He desires us to live not just biologically
but to live the fullness of life and love.
This
principle is clearly illustrated in today’s gospel. Jesus goes beyond the
superficial laws of Moses. He says, “You have learnt how it was said to
our ancestors: You must not kill, and if anyone does kill he must answer for it
before the court. But I say this to you: anyone who is angry with his brother
will answer for it before the court; if a man calls his brother ‘Fool’ he will
answer for it before the Sanhedrin, and if a man calls him ‘Renegade’, he will
answer for it in hell fire.” For Jesus, it is not just killing that
is wrong, but when we are angry with our brothers, pass presumptuous judgement
on them by calling them “fool” or a “renegade”, we are equally at
fault. In the first instance, the “fool” refers to one who is
brainless or stupid. This would be an act of contempt and
arrogance. How often have we criticized people, call them “stupid,
idiot”, etc. Contempt for others who are less than us is pride and
arrogance. It will only destroy a person’s confidence. To call a
brother “renegade” is even more serious because we are calling a brother
“fool”, not an intellectual fool but a moral fool, that means, a sinner living
an immoral life. By so doing, we are destroying the person’s
reputation. For Jesus, destroying and tarnishing a person’s character and
dignity is a very serious wrong.
So for Jesus,
anger has different degrees. It can be in the mind, then expressed in words of contempt
and it can even lead to killing. When a person is angry, he is opening
the door to greater sins. Whether he commits them actually or not, by
contemplating the evil action, that person has already given birth to the
thought or that anger in his heart. When the opportunity arises or when
tempted, or when not in a state of sobriety, he is likely to act on it.
The depth of our anger with our brothers and sisters in our hearts would be the
decisive judgment of the intensity of relationship we have with them. The
actions, if they happen, would be the expression of what is going on already
inside our minds and hearts.
Thus, Jesus
brings home the all-important consideration that justice means to be in right
and just relationship with God, others and self. “So then, if you are
bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has
something against you, leave your offering before the altar, go and be
reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your
offering.” In other words, what God wants is that we are in union with
Him and with our brothers and sisters. He wants us to be reconciled and
be in communion with Him and with our fellowmen. Divine justice will
forgive us for all our wrongs and mistakes we made, so long as we are ready to
be reconciled with God. But before we can be reconciled with God, Jesus
demands that we put right our relationships with our fellowmen.
There is a
warning that if we do not make right our relationships with God and with our
neighbours, we will only harm ourselves because the anger and resentment will be
further aggravated. It would no longer be merely hot anger that comes and
goes off as soon as the emotions are settled, but it will become a smoldering
anger, one that relishes, nurtures and plots revenge. Hence, Jesus
advises us, “Come to terms with your opponent in good time while you are still
on the way to the court with him, or he may hand you over to the judge and
judge to the officer and you will be thrown into prison. I tell you solemnly,
you will not get out till you have paid the last penny.”
So if we want
to be given divine justice, let us first and foremost forgive those who have
hurt us.
If we repair our relationships with them, forgive them from our heart and seek
reconciliation with them, then God, who has already forgiven us, will ensure
that the grace of forgiveness we have received will have its full effects on
us. We will be set free from anger, hatred and most of all, from our
wounded memories which have a hold over us. Without forgiveness and a
right and just relationship with others, we will not have peace or joy in our
hearts.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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