20180215
LIFE AND PROSPERITY OR DEATH AND DISASTER
15 FEBRUARY, 2018, Thursday After Ash Wednesday
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Violet.
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First reading
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Deuteronomy 30:15-20 ©
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I set before you today life or death, blessing or curse
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Moses said to the people: ‘See, today I set before you life and
prosperity, death and disaster. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your
God that I enjoin on you today, if you love the Lord your God and follow his
ways, if you keep his commandments, his laws, his customs, you will live and
increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are
entering to make your own. But if your heart strays, if you refuse to listen,
if you let yourself be drawn into worshipping other gods and serving them, I
tell you today, you will most certainly perish; you will not live long in the
land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth
to witness against you today: I set before you life or death, blessing or
curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live, in the
love of the Lord your God, obeying his voice, clinging to him; for in this your
life consists, and on this depends your long stay in the land which the Lord
swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob he would give them.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 1:1-4,6 ©
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Happy the man who has placed his trust in the
Lord.
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.
Happy the man who has placed his trust in the
Lord.
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.
Happy the man who has placed his trust in the
Lord.
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.
Happy the man who has placed his trust in the
Lord.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Ps50:12,14
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Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
A pure heart create for me, O God,
and give me again the joy of your help.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
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Or
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Mt4:17
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Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Repent, says the Lord,
for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
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Gospel
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Luke 9:22-25 ©
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Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it
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Jesus said to his disciples:
‘The Son of
Man is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief
priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third
day.’
Then to all
he said:
‘If anyone
wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross
every day and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it;
but anyone who loses his life for my sake, that man will save it. What gain,
then, is it for a man to have won the whole world and to have lost or ruined
his very self?’
LIFE AND PROSPERITY OR DEATH AND DISASTER
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Dt 30:15-20; Ps 1:1-4,6; Lk 9:22-25 ]
Today, Moses
is offering us a choice, “See, today I set before you, life and prosperity,
death and disaster.” The choice is obvious. Unless we are not human beings, surely,
all of us would choose life and prosperity. No one would choose death and
disaster. We all desire to live and be filled with all the good things in
life. What we are most afraid of is suffering, privation and death.
Indeed, we are afraid and anxious of life precisely because what awaits us
seems to be unpredictable suffering and inevitable death. So the choice is not
an issue.
Similarly,
Jesus posed the same challenge to His disciples, “For anyone who
wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake,
that man will save it.” There is an irony in what Jesus is asking of
His disciples. To find life, we are called to die to self. Jesus
made it clear, “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce
himself and take up his cross every day and follow me.” A follower
of Christ must take up his cross daily and follow after Jesus. Of
Himself, the Lord prophesied, “The Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously,
to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to
death, and to be raised up on the third day.”
What is the
irony of life and death? Whilst all choose life, many end up in death. Conversely,
those who choose death end up in life. So the crux of our problem is not
whether we choose death or life because that choice is obvious. What
makes all the difference is the way we choose life. There are two ways to
choose life, one is apparent and the other is real. The difference is not
just the method but what we think life consists of. The objectives that
define our happiness will determine the methods that we use.
For the
worldly, choosing life is to choose the world, pleasure, success, fame and
power.
They think that life is theirs when they are enjoying the things of the world,
indulging in food, drinks and pleasure. They feel that success in life
means fame and prestige, when we are popular and people take notice of
us. They measure freedom in terms of power and control. Yet these
are the things that cause us to suffer death. Pleasures make us weak and
susceptible to losing control over ourselves. They make us more and more
attached to the passing things of this world, which are transient and cannot
bring us lasting happiness. Fame and power do not last as well and
they take away our freedom to be ourselves and be authentic. Any joy we
have therefore is a superficial joy, merely external, dependent on external
factors not coming from within.
True life is
not about pleasure, fame and power. It is about love and authentic
freedom. True joy in life is found when we are free to become what
the Lord is asking of us. True freedom is found when we transcend the
enticements of the things of this world, when they no longer have a hold over
us. True freedom is ours when our happiness is not determined by what
people think of us or whether we are in control over people’s life.
We can be said to be truly free, when we are free for love and for service.
To be able to have a heart of love, the heart of God that loves freely and
passionately without being concerned over one’s needs and interests is true
freedom. It makes us joyful and liberated. When we are no longer
restrained by the fear of pain, sacrifices and even death, then we are really
free and can live the adventure of life courageously. This is how all
great people live. Jesus lived this kind of life. He was
beyond the temptations of pleasure, glory and power which the Devil sought to
control Him. He was a man who lived entirely for His Father and for His
brothers and sisters.
How, then,
can we cultivate the freedom of our Lord to choose life and not death? The
answer is clear. A man must “renounce himself and take up his cross every day” and
follow Jesus. So there are three things we must do. Firstly,
renunciation of self. Secondly, take up our cross daily. Thirdly,
follow after Jesus.
Renunciation
of self means that we put God and others before us. It calls for the practice of
mortification, self-sacrifice and self-denial. One of the reasons why
souls are tepid and easily fall into sin is because they abandon the cross of
mortification and self-denial. One cannot make progress in interior life
without discipline and self-sacrifice. When we are absorbed in ourselves,
putting ourselves first in everything, it is but the worship of oneself.
When we make ourselves the center of everything, we are worshiping
ourselves. This was the warning of Moses to his people, “But if your
heart strays, if you refuse to listen, if you let yourself be drawn into
worshipping other gods and serving them, I tell you today, you will most
certainly perish; you will not live long in the land you are crossing the
Jordan to enter and possess.”
But does
renunciation of oneself make our lives miserable and sad because of privation? Renunciation of self
does not bring us pain rather than true joy because we are no longer dependent
on external factors and things to make us happy. A person who has the
ability to transcend himself will be able to transcend all the temptations of
the world. He will have a greater capacity to relate with others.
When our hearts are purified of the self and the worldly attachments, we can
love purer. It only makes us sad if we perform the act of renunciation
reluctantly. It is the lack of generosity and the love of God and others
that make renunciation painful. But when it is done out of love, it
brings joy. To know that we are sacrificing for someone whom we love,
even in the sacrifice and pain, we share the happiness of loving, the peace of
doing God’s will and sharing in the heart of God.
Secondly, we
are called to take up our cross daily. The way to
sanctification does not mean that we need to be crucified or undergo big trials
and challenges in life. Rather, it is the daily crosses of life that will
sanctify us. There is not a single day when we do not have to shoulder
our crosses. But let it be clear from the outset, that the daily crosses
are not so much the sufferings that come because of our selfishness, pride,
envy, greed and laziness. It does not come so much from our sin of
gluttony, lust and avarice. These are sins that come from within us and
they are not the daily crosses of life. Of course, they can still help us
to grow in holiness if we learn from the mistakes and the consequences of our
sin.
What are
these daily crosses if not the little inconveniences of life each day, at home,
in our offices and in our communities. The daily crosses come from the difficulties of daily life,
sickness, or the trials of care-giving, loneliness and abandonment, old age,
bereavement, failure, misunderstandings, ridicule and slander, being taken for
granted and at times, taken advantage of by our loved ones. Sometimes the
daily crosses come from people around us, the daily irritations and annoyances
of our irresponsible, impatient and judgmental colleagues and bosses, the
discomforts that come with service breakdowns or noise, heat or the tardiness
of our colleagues or family members in getting things done. If we accept
them positively as means to sanctify ourselves, then we can grow in patience,
in understanding, and we learn to let go of our pride and ego, wanting things
to turn out our way. Indeed, when we accept these crosses as they
come, we can grow in charity and in a nutshell, in holiness.
Many
Christians do not have joy in their daily life because they allow the daily
trials and inconvenience to affect them greatly. When things do not go
their way, they throw tantrums, they get angry and quarrel with others. They
create division in the house and in the office. They cannot let go but
must fight to win and prove themselves right. But if we accept our
crosses, big or small joyfully, it will produce in us a deep inner joy and peace
that no one can take away from us because it comes from within us.
Letting go brings us deep peace.
Finally, we
are called to follow after Jesus. In the words of Moses, it simply means
walking with Jesus, after Jesus and in Jesus. Moses shows us the way. He
said, “If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I enjoin on you
today, if you love the Lord your God and follow his ways, if you keep his
commandments, his laws, his customs, you will live and increase, and the Lord
your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to make your
own.” Obeying the Word of God, loving God and walking in His ways
by contemplating on His life will help us to find strength and inspiration to
keep on doing good even if opposed by others.
Clinging to
His love as our life is what will sustain us. This is what Moses instructed us.
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today: so that you and your
descendants may live in the love of the Lord your God, obeying his voice,
clinging to him; for in this your life consists, and on this depends your long
stay in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
he would give them.” Living in the Lord, from the Lord and with the
Lord is what life ultimately is all about. St Paul says, “None of us
lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the
Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we
die, we are the Lord’s.” (Rom 14:7f)
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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