20180418
LIVING WITH THE TENSION OF CHANGE AND GROWTH
18 APRIL, 2018, Wednesday, 3rd Week of Easter
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
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First reading
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Acts 8:1-8 ©
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They went from place to place, preaching the Good News
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That day a bitter persecution started against the church in
Jerusalem, and everyone except the apostles fled to the country districts of
Judaea and Samaria.
There were
some devout people, however, who buried Stephen and made great mourning for
him.
Saul then
worked for the total destruction of the Church; he went from house to house
arresting both men and women and sending them to prison.
Those who
had escaped went from place to place preaching the Good News. One of them was
Philip who went to a Samaritan town and proclaimed the Christ to them. The
people united in welcoming the message Philip preached, either because they had
heard of the miracles he worked or because they saw them for themselves. There
were, for example, unclean spirits that came shrieking out of many who were
possessed, and several paralytics and cripples were cured. As a result there
was great rejoicing in that town.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 65(66):1-7 ©
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Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.
or
Alleluia!
Cry out with joy to God all the earth,
O sing to the glory of his name.
O render him glorious praise.
Say to God: ‘How tremendous your deeds!
Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.
or
Alleluia!
Because of the greatness of your strength
your enemies cringe before you.
Before you all the earth shall bow;
shall sing to you, sing to your name!’
Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.
or
Alleluia!
Come and see the works of God,
tremendous his deeds among men.
He turned the sea into dry land,
they passed through the river dry-shod.
Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.
or
Alleluia!
Let our joy then be in him;
he rules for ever by his might.
His eyes keep watch over the nations:
let rebels not rise against him.
Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.
or
Alleluia!
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Gospel Acclamation
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Jn10:27
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice,
says the Lord,
I know them and they follow me.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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cf.Jn6:40
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Alleluia, alleluia!
It is my Father’s will, says the Lord,
that whoever believes in the Son shall have eternal life,
and that I shall raise him up on the last day.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John 6:35-40 ©
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It is my Father's will that whoever sees the Son should have
eternal life
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Jesus said to the crowd:
‘I am the bread of life.
He who comes to me will never be hungry;
he who believes in me will never thirst.
But, as I have told you,
you can see me and still you do not believe.
All that the Father gives me will come to me,
and whoever comes to me I shall not turn him away;
because I have come from heaven, not to do my own will,
but to do the will of the one who sent me.
Now the will of him who sent me
is that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me,
and that I should raise it up on the last day.
Yes, it is my Father’s will
that whoever sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal
life,
and that I shall raise him up on the last day.’
LIVING WITH THE TENSION OF CHANGE AND GROWTH
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ ACTS 8:1-8; PSALM 66:1-7; JOHN 6:35-40 ]
We are all
creatures of habit. We like routine. We live a robotic life, doing the same
old thing day in and day out. In this way, we do not have to expand
much of our energy or use our brain. We just drift through life
each day, living in our comfort zone. We do not like change because
change involves adaptation. It means going through the pain of
adjustment. We resist change unless the changes we are making promise to
make our life more comfortable and pleasant. The sacrifice of
change must commensurate with the results of change.
But the
reality is that nothing remains static. Things are changing even if we do not want to
change. Even in our personal life, there will be deaths and new
born babies. We all get older each day. Our needs and likes change
with age and time. There will be departures of our loved ones.
There will be new additions to the family. Our career will change.
We will get married. Businesses and managements often change. So
there is no way to prevent change from taking place. Nothing is static
but everything is dynamic. We are not independent but inter-dependent. So
when people and situations change, we will have to change to meet the new
challenges.
This is true
of the development of the Church as well. The early Church was rather
complacent, living as a loving community. They were quite contented to
have the Church grow within Palestine, particularly in Jerusalem. But
then their security was threatened by the Jewish leaders. In the first
place, the early Christians challenged the Jewish religious and cultural
institutions and unsettled them. Hence, they reacted by persecuting
them. After the martyrdom of Stephen, “a bitter persecution started
against the church in Jerusalem. Saul then worked for the total
destruction of the Church; he went from house to house arresting both men and
women and sending them to prison.”
Because of
the persecution, they were forced to move out of Jerusalem. St Luke noted that “everyone
except the apostles fled to the country districts of Judaea and Samaria. Those
who had escaped went from place to place preaching the Good News. One of them
was Philip who went to a Samaritan town and proclaimed the Christ to
them.” So the persecution caused the Church in Jerusalem to move out to
other parts of Palestine to spread the Good News. This was the indirect
positive effect of the persecution. Instead of stifling and suppressing
the new Christian religion, it unwittingly forced them to move out to proclaim
the Good News to other places. They found new
communities. Indeed, if the early Christians had not been
persecuted, and had Judaism accommodated the Christians, the early Church could
have become just another sect within Judaism. The Church would not
have become Catholic or universal. This is the irony of life.
Without tensions, opposition and new challenges, we cannot grow.
Today,
persecution of the Church is no less intense. Perhaps we are more civil and we do not
kill each other, although violence still erupts and exist in some
countries. But generally, the persecution of the Church is subtler in
terms of discrimination, suppression or marginalization. However,
the persecution is not just directly from outside of the Church but from within
as the Church seeks to be relevant to modern society. As a result of
globalization and technological advancement, the world has changed so radically
over the last 100 years. Technology has changed the lifestyle and
demands of our people. Today, we have to grapple with global migration,
mass media, and changing cultures. Questions that our forefathers
did not have to grapple with, such as cloning, euthanasia, in-vitro
fertilization, sex change, and other bioethical issues. Lifestyles
too have changed dramatically in our times because of the confluence of
cultures, religions and races. This has resulted in transculturation,
tolerance, assimilation and acceptance of the different traditions and
customs. Family life has also changed. We no longer stay in
the same place throughout our lives with three generations living under the
same roof. The nature of the family, the composition, the role of women,
the upbringing of children, the understanding of marriage and same-sex
relationships – all these have changed.
In a changing
world, either we take flight or fight or engage in dialogue. Flight would only make the
Church outdated and out of sync with the modern times. Fight would make
the Church an enemy of the world. Forcing the world to adapt to us would
be a losing battle in this age of globalization. Indeed, the Popes since
Vatican II understood this need for the Church to engage the world. If we
just stay in our enclave, we will lose the world entirely. Since John
XXIII, the Church has sought to engage the world and dialogue with the world on
issues that are of common concern, especially in the areas of morality, justice
and peace.
Pope Francis
of course took on a more radical course in transforming the Church from a
distant, cold, institutional Church into a more humane, compassionate and
benevolent Church, especially towards the poor, the sick, the marginalized, women
and those who are not in full communion with the Church, the divorced, those in
same-sex relationships, non-Catholic Christians, other religions and the
humanists. His personal touch with the poor, sensitivity to the
sufferings of the people, victims of child abuse and his warmth and affectivity
in meeting and dealing with people also have breached the distance between the
Petrine Office and the People of God. Together with the Council of
Cardinals, called G-9, the Holy Father is making institutional and structural
changes to the time immemorial traditions and structures of the Church,
especially with regard to the position of women and the authority of the
bishops.
His
pontificate is certainly unsettling to those who are not ready for so many
changes, but for those who feel that the Church has been too regimental,
doctrinal-based and lacking compassion and synergy with the world, it is a
fresh wind.
Pope Francis advocates a greater compassion for those who are divorced and
remarried who are barred from receiving Holy Communion; and the pastoral
recommendations in dealing with such marriages in Amoris Laetitia has caused
much controversy. Besides this, he has unsettled many with the changes he
made to the washing of feet on Holy Thursday to include women and even
non-Catholics, celebrating a wedding spontaneously in mid-flight, saying that
he does not judge those with have same sex orientation, etc. Certainly,
there are tensions and even confusion on the ground as to what is the teaching
and direction of the Church towards these issues which were then so clear until
Pope Francis came into office. Before him, orthodoxy held the Church
together. But today, it seems pragmatism leads the way. Doctrines
are being compromised to reach out to those who do not “qualify” to be full
members of the Church. So today, the battles are being fought in the
Church between the dogmatists and the pragmatists, between orthodoxy and
practice, idealists and the realists. This tension is inevitable for us
to arrive at orthopraxis, that is, the right relationship between orthodoxy and
practice.
Whilst this
ideological and doctrinal battle is being fought, in the final analysis, what
is of vital importance is to bring Jesus to the people. At the end of the
day, what changes a person’s thinking and belief is not so much an intellectual
conversion but a conversion of the heart. We are more feeling than
thinking people. Ideologists can change their views overnight but heartfelt
relationships take time to build and even to break. Indeed, in the early
Church we see that people were converted not so much by intellectual discourse
on the validity of Christianity in comparison to Judaism but it was by the
miracles and signs that the apostles performed, as in the case of Philip’s
ministry to the Samaritans.
That is why
Jesus in the gospel said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will
never be hungry; he who believes in me will never thirst. But, as I have told
you, you can see me and still you do not believe.” Just by seeing Him we
will not have faith unless we have a personal relationship with Him. When
we relate with Him with our heart, mind and body, we will come to appreciate
His teaching and be touched by His love for us. So what is needed is
relationship first. It is not to say that doctrines do not matter.
Truth matters because love is built on truth. But we need to win over our
people with love before we can lead them to a deeper understanding of the truth
of love. Doctrines cannot change lives unless we have a prior
relationship with Jesus and are reading the scriptures with faith and
love. This is what the Lord affirms, “Yes, it is my Father’s will that
whoever sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and that I
shall raise him up on the last day.”
So the
present thrust is to bring all to Jesus, to encounter His merciful love and
compassion so that falling in love with Jesus, they would be brought to a
deeper understanding of their faith, through study of scriptures and
faith. Unless we have a common love for Jesus, there is no way for us to
discern together in the spirit to find the right way to understand and
communicate the tenets of Christ’s teachings to all. The modern
generation needs to feel that they are loved, accepted and embraced
unconditionally before they have the trust to dialogue with the Church.
Unless people believe in Jesus, we cannot proclaim the truths of the gospel
because it will fall on skeptical ears and hearts.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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