20180607
FIDELITY TO OUR VOCATION
07 JUNE, 2018, Thursday, 9th Week,
Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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2 Timothy 2:8-15 ©
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If we have died with Christ then we shall live with Christ
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Remember the Good News that I carry, ‘Jesus Christ risen from the
dead, sprung from the race of David’; it is on account of this that I have my
own hardships to bear, even to being chained like a criminal – but they
cannot chain up God’s news. So I bear it all for the sake of those who are
chosen, so that in the end they may have the salvation that is in Christ Jesus
and the eternal glory that comes with it.
Here is a
saying that you can rely on:
If we have died with him, then we shall live with him.
If we hold firm, then we shall reign with him.
If we disown him, then he will disown us.
We may be unfaithful, but he is always faithful,
for he cannot disown his own self.
Remind them of this; and tell them in the name of God that there
is to be no wrangling about words: all that this ever achieves is the
destruction of those who are listening. Do all you can to present yourself in
front of God as a man who has come through his trials, and a man who has no
cause to be ashamed of his life’s work and has kept a straight course with the
message of the truth.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 24(25):4-5,8-10,14 ©
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Lord, make me know your ways.
Lord, make me know your ways.
Lord, teach me your paths.
Make me walk in your truth, and teach me:
for you are God my saviour.
Lord, make me know your ways.
In you I hope all day long
The Lord is good and upright.
He shows the path to those who stray,
He guides the humble in the right path,
He teaches his way to the poor.
Lord, make me know your ways.
His ways are faithfulness and love
for those who keep his covenant and law.
The Lord’s friendship is for those who revere him;
to them he reveals his covenant.
Lord, make me know your ways.
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Gospel Acclamation
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cf.Jn6:63,68
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life;
you have the message of eternal life.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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cf.2Tim1:10
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Our Saviour Jesus Christ abolished death
and he has proclaimed life through the Good News.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 12:28-34 ©
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'You are not far from the kingdom of God'
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One of the scribes came up to Jesus and put a question to him,
‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’ Jesus replied, ‘This is the
first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must love the
Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and
with all your strength. The second is this: You must love your neighbour as
yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.’ The scribe said to him,
‘Well spoken, Master; what you have said is true: that he is one and there is
no other. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and
strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself, this is far more important
than any holocaust or sacrifice.’ Jesus, seeing how wisely he had spoken, said,
‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ And after that no one dared to
question him any more.
FIDELITY TO OUR VOCATION
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 2 Tim 2:8-15; Ps 25:4-5,8-10,14; Mark 12:28-34 ]
In today’s
secular world, it is increasingly difficult to stand up for Jesus and our
faith. We
can expect opposition from without and even from within. Many of us not
only fear to evangelize our faith, much less to stand up for our beliefs as
individuals or as members of Catholic organizations. We are cowed into
silence for fear of being criticized, labelled as conservative, out of touch or
have our reputation destroyed. Most of us try to speak in
politically correct language so that no one disagrees with us.
In the gospel
today, we are called to love God above all things with all our heart, soul and
strength. In the first reading, St Paul speaks of his fidelity to his
calling as an apostle of the Good News. Today, the call to fidelity is
more and more difficult because of the changing circumstances. With
economic mobility, couples are finding it a great challenge to be faithful to
their marriage vows. St Paul said, “Remind them of this; and tell them in
the name of God that there is to be no wrangling about words: all that this
ever achieves is the destruction of those who are listening.” We should not
engage in useless arguments or trying to twist the Word of God to suit us, like
the Devil who tempted Jesus. Rather, we need to be true to the Word
of God and the Good News we have received. Let us not contaminate the
purity of our faith.
St Paul is an
example of someone who stood by his faith in Christ through thick and think,
even unto death. Indeed, in the first reading we read that he was in chains when he
wrote to Timothy, “Remember the Good news that I carry, ‘Jesus Christ risen
from the dead, sprung from the race of David’; it is on account of this that I
have my own hardships to bear, even to being chained like a criminal.”
How inspiring are his words and conviction when he said, “But they cannot chain
up God’s news!” Even in prison, he remained not just firm in his faith but he
continued to spread the Good News through letters and visits. Regardless
of his limitations, he refused to allow time and situations to imprison the
Good News of Jesus Christ that he had been called to share. We too must
also find new ways to proclaim the gospel.
How, then,
can we remain faithful to our vows, not just in word but in spirit?
We must be motivated by the power of love and love alone. Indeed, where did St
Paul find his strength to share the Good News? Principally,
it was because of his personal encounter with the Risen Lord at Damascus.
It was this Good News of encountering the Risen Lord that made him ready to do
anything for the Lord, even to being chained up as a criminal. So the fundamental
pre-requisite for witnessing presumes that we are witnesses to the resurrection
of our Lord. If we have not yet encountered the power of the Risen Lord
in our lives, then it would very difficult to witness to Him.
Evangelization is the transmission and sharing of a person, not some ideology
or doctrines. Have we seen the power of God at work in our lives,
especially in our ministry?
Secondly,
arising from this experience, St Paul felt the personal love of Jesus in
allowing him to encounter Him. When he thought of what the Lord had done for him, he could
not but be filled with gratitude. He wrote, “For the love of Christ urges
us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have
died. And he died for all, so that those who live might
live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.” (2 Cor 5:14)
Indeed, when we truly reflect on His passion and death for us on the cross, then
we too will come to appreciate His love and sacrifices for us. Only
when we know His love for us, will we be ready to die for Him because we die
for those who love us.
What was
more, the Lord not only revealed Himself to the undeserving Saul but chose him
to be His apostle. He encountered His mercy. He wrote “I was violently
persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. But when God, who
had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased
to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles.” (Gal 1:15f)
For us too, are we grateful that we have been given the gift of faith?
Precisely, because we take our faith for granted and our vocation as if it is a
career we chose on our own, that we lack gratitude for God’s blessings.
Instead of seeing it as a great privilege, we view it as a duty and a chore!
This is the
command of our Lord, that we love God with all our heart, with all our soul,
with all our mind and with all our strength; and to love our neighbour as
ourselves.
This commandment is not new as it is taken from the books of Deuteronomy and
Leviticus. Indeed, this command to love God and our neighbours with our
entire being, mind, body and spirit appears to be, humanly speaking,
unreasonable and even impossible. But this is not the case because it
presupposes that we, like the Israelites, have encountered the power and mercy
of the Living God. We need to have our own Exodus Experience, which for
us Christians, is the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord, if we are to
obey this command of our Lord taken from Moses. Without first
experiencing the power of His resurrection and the love and mercy from His passion,
it would not be Good News for us but simply a message, inspiring as it is, but
not someone we can relate to.
St Paul
reminds us that only “If we hold firm, then we shall reign with him. If
we disown him, then he will disown us.” Indeed, we are obliged as disciples of
the Lord to be firm in our beliefs. By denying our beliefs, we will end
up disowning ourselves because we will lose our identity, focus and meaning in
life. We are what we are because of our beliefs and values. By
not standing up to our faith, we will lose everything that we stand for,
especially the future generations who will suffer the loss of truth and
values. By not being faithful to our vocation, by living a double life,
we will be unfaithful to ourselves. It is not God who will reject us but
we will reject ourselves because of the lack of integrity in our lives.
How do we
stand firm in our faith and remain faithful to the Lord? Firstly,
we must cultivate the right attitudes of faith flowing from His love and
mercy. We must renew our love for the Lord and His love for us. Without
this renewal and reappropriation of His love, we will not have the passion to
be identified with Jesus, because we identify ourselves with those whom we
love. St Paul strived to be as generous as the Lord was to
him. He expressed his grateful love by extending the Good News he had
been given to others. In other words, he obeyed the commandment of the
Lord to love his neighbours by sharing with them the Good News. He wrote,
“So I bear it all for the sake of those who are chosen, so that in the end they
may have the salvation that is in Christ Jesus and the eternal glory that comes
with it.”
Secondly, we
must cling on to God’s fidelity to us. St Paul assures us that He will be with us in our
struggles. He cited from a hymn that says, “If we have died with him,
then we shall live with him. If we hold firm, then we shall reign with
him. If we disown him, then he will disown us. We may be unfaithful, but
he is always faithful, for he cannot disown his own self.” In our times
of trial, we might feel like giving up. But thinking of how the Lord was
faithful to the end, we should find strength and courage. “Consider him
who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not
grow weary or lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet
resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” (cf Heb 12:2b-4)
The psalmist affirms His faithfulness when he prayed, “His ways are
faithfulness and love for those who keep his covenant and law. The Lord’s
friendship is for those who revere him; to them he reveals his covenant.”
Thirdly, we
need to constantly find strength and direction from the Lord in a world of
relativism, with so many voices clamoring to be heard. We need to be discerning and
watchful of the current trends and values that are being promoted in the world
and unconsciously adopted by Catholics because they are in the world.
More often than not, we Catholics subscribe to the values of the world simply
because we are influenced by the mass media, movies and our secular
friends. Like the psalmist, we need to turn to the Lord for direction
with the help of the authoritative teachers of the faith. “Lord, make me
know your ways. Lord, teach me your paths. Make me walk in your truth, and
teach me.”
Finally, let
us persevere by keeping our conscience pure and focused on our Lord. St Paul urges us, “Do
all you can to present yourself in front of God as a man who has come through
his trials, and a man who has no cause to be ashamed of his life’s work and has
kept a straight course with the message of the truth.” The author of
Hebrews wrote, “Let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so
closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” (Heb 12:2)
Let us keep our eyes on the Good News, that is, the passion, death and
resurrection of our Lord so that we keep remembering His love for us and how
through His resurrection, hatred is overcome by love and death by new life.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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