20180604
CONFIRMING AND STRENGTHENING GOD’S ELECTION
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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2 Peter 1:2-7 ©
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You will be able to share the divine nature if you add goodness
to your faith
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May you have more and more grace and peace as you come to know our
Lord more and more.
By his
divine power, he has given us all the things that we need for life and for true
devotion, bringing us to know God himself, who has called us by his own glory
and goodness. In making these gifts, he has given us the guarantee of something
very great and wonderful to come: through them you will be able to share the
divine nature and to escape corruption in a world that is sunk in vice. But to
attain this, you will have to do your utmost yourselves, adding goodness to the
faith that you have, understanding to your goodness, self-control to your
understanding, patience to your self-control, true devotion to your patience,
kindness towards your fellow men to your devotion, and, to this kindness, love.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 90(91):1-2,14-16 ©
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My God, in you I trust.
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
and abides in the shade of the Almighty
says to the Lord: ‘My refuge,
my stronghold, my God in whom I trust!’
My God, in you I trust.
His love he set on me, so I will rescue him;
protect him for he knows my name.
When he calls I shall answer: ‘I am with you.’
My God, in you I trust.
I will save him in distress and give him glory.
With length of life I will content him;
I shall let him see my saving power.
My God, in you I trust.
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Gospel Acclamation
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cf.Col3:16a,17
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Let the message of Christ, in all its richness,
find a home with you;
through him give thanks to God the Father.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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cf.Rv1:5
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Alleluia, alleluia!
You, O Christ, are the faithful witness,
the First-born from the dead;
you have loved us and have washed away our sins with your blood.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 12:1-12 ©
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They seized the beloved son, killed him and threw him out of the
vineyard
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Jesus began to speak to the chief priests, the scribes and the
elders in parables: ‘A man planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug out a
trough for the winepress and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and
went abroad. When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect
from them his share of the produce from the vineyard. But they seized the man,
thrashed him and sent him away empty-handed. Next he sent another servant to
them; him they beat about the head and treated shamefully. And he sent another
and him they killed; then a number of others, and they thrashed some and killed
the rest. He had still someone left: his beloved son. He sent him to them last
of all. “They will respect my son” he said. But those tenants said to each other,
“This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.”
So they seized him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. Now what
will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and make an end of the tenants
and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this text of scripture:
It was the stone rejected by the builders
that became the keystone.
This was the Lord’s doing
and it is wonderful to see?
And they would have liked to arrest him, because they realised
that the parable was aimed at them, but they were afraid of the crowds. So they
left him alone and went away.
04 JUNE, 2018, Monday, 9th Week,
Ordinary Time
CONFIRMING AND STRENGTHENING GOD’S ELECTION
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [2 PT 1:2-7; PS 91; MK 11:1-12
]
In the
parable of the Tenants, Israel was considered to be the vineyard of the
Lord. Israel was God’s chosen people. They were chosen not because
of any special merits but freely and graciously through God’s grace.
Moses reminded the people, “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the
Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all
the peoples that are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were
more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love upon you and
chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples; but it is because the
Lord loves you, and is keeping the oath which he swore to your fathers, that
the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the
house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” (Dt 7:6-8 cf Dt 14:2)
Unfortunately,
we read that the Israelites and the Jews did not live up to their calling to be
the instrument of God’s salvation to the world. They were chosen not
for themselves but so that the world might come to know that God is their
Lord. Instead, they were protective of their own interests. They
would not welcome others into their fold. The leaders looked after their
own interests rather than that of the community, especially the poor and the
widowed. Even when prophets were sent to remind them that they needed to
return the produce to the owner, they seized, thrashed, beat and killed them
and threw them out of the vineyard. They were greedy and unscrupulous to the
extent of killing God’s servants in order to have their ways.
As
Christians, we too have been chosen to be God’s people and His children through
our adoption in Christ. St Peter said a similar thing to the Christians, “Once you
were no people but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy
but now you have received mercy.” (1 Pt 2:10)
Like the Israelites, St Peter reminded us of our obligation arising from the
privileges we have received. “But you are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful
deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Pt 2:9)
In other
words, we need to justify our election and confirm that we are God’s children
by living the gospel life. Following our call, St Peter reminds us that we need
to live up to our calling. “Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous to
confirm your call and election, for if you do this you will never fall; so
there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Pt 1:10f)
St John exhorts us, “Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in
deed and in truth.” (1 Jn 3:18)
This is the
real mistake of many Christians, the failure to live out who they are and what
they are called to be. St John remarked, “Beloved, we are God’s children now; it
does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every one who thus hopes in him
purifies himself as he is pure.” (1 Jn 3:2f)
We preach so often that we are justified by faith through grace alone.
This is of course true and the foundation of Christian faith. However,
clinging to this cliché alone cannot save us. St James told his
community, “What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but
has not works? Can his faith save him? So faith by itself, if it has no works,
is dead. But some one will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me
your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You
believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe- and
shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish fellow, that faith apart
from works is barren?” (Jms 2:14,18-20) It is not enough to be
justified by God’s grace, we need to live the life of grace seen in good works.
So
justification by God is the beginning of the process of growing as children of
God.
This is certainly a privilege and a grace not by our own doing.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own
doing, it is the gift of God – not because of works, lest any man should
boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Eph 2:8-10)
We are given the grace to share in His divine nature. To think that we
are creatures and yet God has counted us worthy to share in His life and
love. St Paul said, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be
conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born
among many brethren. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those
whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also
glorified.” (Rom 8:29f)
What, then,
is required of us to demonstrate that we are justified if not by living a
justified life? We must cooperate with the grace of God and live a godly life. St Peter said, “But to
attain this, you will have to do your utmost yourselves, adding goodness,
self-control to your understanding, patience to your self-control, true
devotion to your patience, kindness towards your fellowmen to your devotion,
and, to this kindness, love.” It is important that we bear the fruits of
the Spirit if we claim to have the Spirit. “If we live by the Spirit, let us
also walk by the Spirit.” (Gal 5:25;
cf 5:16-24)
St Paul is a shining example of what it means to cooperate with the grace
of God. He wrote, “I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an
apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God
I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I
worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which
is with me.” (1 Cor 15:9f)
Not only are
we given this great calling to share in His life and love, we have also been
given the means to attain it. “In making these gifts, he has given us the guarantee of
something very great and wonderful to come: through them you will be able
to share the divine nature and to escape corruption in a world that is sunk in
vice.” God provides us the means to become who we are, God’s
children. What are these means?
Firstly, we
are called to make Christ as our cornerstone. “It was the stone rejected
by the builders that became the keystone. This was the Lord’s doing and it is
wonderful to see?” Christ is the rock of the Church’s faith expressed
through Peter. When Peter confessed Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son
of the living God”, Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For
flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and
the powers of death shall not prevail against it.” (Mt 16:16-19)
Only faith in Christ as the Son of God can help us to overcome all trials of
life. With the psalmist, we can then pray, “In you, my God, I place my
trust. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High and abides in the
shade of the Almighty says to the Lord: My refuge, my stronghold, my God in
whom I trust!’” Indeed, St Peter urges us in his first letter,
“Come to him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen
and precious; and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual
house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture, ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion
a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and he who believes in him will not
be put to shame.’” (1 Pt 2:4-6)
Secondly, we
must be reading the scripture to grow in knowledge and understanding. St Peter said, “May you have
more and more grace and peace as you come to know our Lord more and
more.” Grace and peace comes through our intimate knowledge of the Lord
through the studying, praying and sharing of scriptures. The Lord
challenged us when He said, “Have you not read this text of scripture?”
If we have, then our faith would remain firm and strong against all temptations
and doubts.
Finally, He
also gives us the power to grow in grace through the Sacraments. St Peter wrote, “By his
divine power, he has given us all the things that we need for life and for true
devotion, bringing us to know God himself, who has called us by his own glory
and goodness.” He gives us His Holy Spirit to grow in grace.
Indeed, the Holy Spirit as the gift of God is His grace given to us. This is
why the Holy Spirit is imparted especially through the celebration of the
Eucharist and the Sacraments. We must recall the words of St Peter earlier on
when he wrote, “Like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by
it you may grow up to salvation; for you have tasted the kindness of the
Lord.” (1 Pt 2:2f)
So through
these means, the Lord continues to empower us to live the life of the
Spirit. All we need is to make full use of them instead of being
complacent and taking our faith for granted. Otherwise, the Lord warns us, “Now
what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and make an end to
the tenants and give the vineyard to others.” If we do not value what we
have and make use of them, whether it is our gift of faith, privileges,
talents, resources and time, these will be taken away from us. Either we
grow through developing the gifts given to us or we become lazy and
inward-looking, destroying ourselves.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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