20180610
SHARING IN GOD’S LIFE THROUGH HIS WISDOM AND
HIS WILL
10 JUNE, 2018, Sunday, 10th Week,
Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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Genesis 3:9-15 ©
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'I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid'
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The Lord God called to the man after he had eaten of the tree.
‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden;’ he replied
‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’ ‘Who told you that you were
naked?’ he asked ‘Have you been eating of the tree I forbade you to eat?’ The
man replied, ‘It was the woman you put with me; she gave me the fruit, and I
ate it.’ Then the Lord God asked the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The
woman replied, ‘The serpent tempted me and I ate.’
Then the Lord
God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this,
‘Be accursed beyond all cattle,
all wild beasts.
You shall crawl on your belly and eat dust
every day of your life.
I will make you enemies of each other:
you and the woman,
your offspring and her offspring.
It will crush your head
and you will strike its heel.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 129(130) ©
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With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of
redemption.
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.
With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of
redemption.
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,
Lord, who would survive?
But with you is found forgiveness:
for this we revere you.
With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of
redemption.
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.)
With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of
redemption.
Because with the Lord there is mercy
and fullness of redemption,
Israel indeed he will redeem
from all its iniquity.
With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of
redemption.
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Second reading
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2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 ©
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We are being trained to carry the weight of eternal glory
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As we have the same spirit of faith that is mentioned in
scripture – I believed,
and therefore I spoke – we too believe and therefore we too speak,
knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus to life will raise us with Jesus in
our turn, and put us by his side and you with us. You see, all this is for your
benefit, so that the more grace is multiplied among people, the more
thanksgiving there will be, to the glory of God.
That is why
there is no weakening on our part, and instead, though this outer man of ours
may be falling into decay, the inner man is renewed day by day. Yes, the
troubles which are soon over, though they weigh little, train us for the
carrying of a weight of eternal glory which is out of all proportion to them.
And so we have no eyes for things that are visible, but only for things that
are invisible; for visible things last only for a time, and the invisible
things are eternal.
For we know
that when the tent that we live in on earth is folded up, there is a house
built by God for us, an everlasting home not made by human hands, in the
heavens.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Jn14:23
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Alleluia, alleluia!
If anyone loves me he will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we shall come to him.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Jn12:31,32
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Now the prince of this world is to be overthrown,
says the Lord.
And when I am lifted up from the earth,
I shall draw all men to myself.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 3:20-35 ©
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A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand
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Jesus went home with his disciples, and such a crowd collected
that they could not even have a meal. When his relatives heard of this, they
set out to take charge of him, convinced he was out of his mind.
The scribes
who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, ‘Beelzebul is in him’ and, ‘It is
through the prince of devils that he casts devils out.’ So he called them to
him and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom
is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot last. And if a household is
divided against itself, that household can never stand. Now if Satan has
rebelled against himself and is divided, he cannot stand either – it is
the end of him. But no one can make his way into a strong man’s house and
burgle his property unless he has tied up the strong man first. Only then can
he burgle his house.
‘I tell you
solemnly, all men’s sins will be forgiven, and all their blasphemies; but let
anyone blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and he will never have forgiveness: he
is guilty of an eternal sin.’ This was because they were saying, ‘An unclean
spirit is in him.’
His mother
and brothers now arrived and, standing outside, sent in a message asking for
him. A crowd was sitting round him at the time the message was passed to him,
‘Your mother and brothers and sisters are outside asking for you.’ He replied,
‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking round at those sitting in a
circle about him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does
the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother.
SHARING IN GOD’S LIFE THROUGH HIS WISDOM AND HIS WILL
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ GN 3:9-15; 2 COR 4:13-5:1; MK 3:20-35 ]
Of all questions
we have in life, only two are really important: namely, where did we come from?
And what is our purpose in life? These two questions are answered
clearly in the opening chapter of Genesis. Firstly, we all come from God,
whom we acknowledge as our creator. Secondly, we are all created
for intimacy with God, which is a sharing in His life. This
invitation to intimacy with God is anthropomorphically portrayed in the
dialogal relationship between God and Adam in the garden of Eden. Yes,
such is the privilege of man.
But what
does it mean to share in His life? Concretely, this
necessarily entails a sharing of His mind and will; or if you like, His knowledge
and love; or His wisdom and compassion. In other words,
when we share in the knowledge and wisdom of God, we will also come to share in
His will, which is His love. Hence, knowing and willing in unity with God
is to share in God’s being and life. Conversely, the failure to share in
His knowledge results in man’s will being at variance with His will.
Indeed, the
mistake of our first Parents is our mistake as well. It is an existential
and historical fact that man is not interested in sharing in God’s knowledge
and thus is always fighting against God’s will. Like Adam and
Eve, we do not seek to grow in the knowledge of God through our intimacy with
Him. Instead, we seek consort with the serpent, listening to
him and trusting in his wisdom, which is that of the world’s. Like
our first parents, we are fooled into believing that the knowledge of the world
symbolized in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, is the way to
life. Indeed, if God forbade Adam And Eve to eat the fruit of the Tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, it was because they would think like the world
and become more ignorant instead. By seeking to understand life not
through the wisdom of God but their own ways, Adam and Eve were relying on
their own human knowledge and self-will.
The truth is
that the wisdom of the world is foolishness to God. The ways
of the world cannot lead us to see beyond the immediate and the
superficial. Indeed, this is what Paul is cautioning us. For those
who are unspiritual, they can only see the visible and tangible things which
are temporal and passing. But for those who are spiritual, they possess
the eyes of God and see the eternal, the invisible, things beyond the
apparent. Indeed, the foolishness of Adam and Eve is illustrative of such
worldly ignorance.
But what
is the root of such ignorance? It originates from pride.
It is pride that leads us to have a false and exaggerated understanding of
ourselves. It is pride that caused the downfall of our first parents.
Such deep pride is symbolically portrayed in two ways. Firstly,
they did not trust in God’s wisdom and therefore disobeyed His will.
Secondly, in their embarassment in their nakedness before God. Pride
prevented them from being open to God and surrendering themselves to Him.
Now they had to hide themselves, their real selves before God. This loss of
authenticity, inner conviction and fidelity to oneself is underscored by our
first parents’ refusal to acknowledge their ignorance and faults. Instead
of taking responsibility for their lack of discernment and trust, they tried to
justify themselves. Adam blamed Eve; and Eve pushed the blame to the
serpent. Since then, man has always been exonerating himself and putting
on masks to run away from reality, living in self-deception.
The scripture
readings today invite us to put our trust in the wisdom and plan of God for us
in our lives.
Instead of relying on ourselves and our own limited understanding of what is
truly good for us, we are called to be open to the greater wisdom of God and to
surrender our lives to Him. This wisdom of God is expressed in His will
for us. In the words of Jesus, doing the will of God is sharing in the
wisdom of God.
Thus, for those
who trust in His wisdom, they become truly the sons and daughers of
God. For what could be more intimate in any relationship than a
sharing of heart and mind. It is no wonder that Jesus declared that those
who had this spiritual relationship with Him, sharing in His vision and life,
were His family members. Doing God’s will is the sure sign that we share
in His wisdom and love; and therefore share in His life. This entitles us to be
recognized as truly sharing in God’s image and likeness.
Conversely, those
who do not do the will of God, even though they might be physically related to
Jesus, are far from the kingdom of God. Such was the irony of the
relatives of Jesus. We are told that they were convinced that Jesus was
out of His mind. They were closed to Jesus. Some even accused Him
of having an unclean spirit in Him. This is a danger we can well afford
to pay attention to if we do not want to fall into the same category of Jesus’
relatives. Not to be open to Him tantamounts to rejecting the Holy Spirit
who is the wisdom of God. And such a sin cannot be forgiven since God
cannot force us to accept His invitation if we are closed to the truth.
Hence, for such a person, he or she cannot share in the life of God.
The
consequences of living a life apart from the life of God are far-reaching. In the first place,
one cannot find real satisfaction and contentment in life. This lack of
contentment arises from our inner division. There is now a constant struggle
between good and evil; wisdom and falsehood within us. Torn between the
good and bad spirits, one cannot expect to find peace and calmness. Such
interior division will then be manifested in our lack of orientation in
life. We lose our center, become impatient, selfish and angry towards
others. This is the divided kingdom that Jesus was speaking about in
today’s gospel. Such kingdom is destined to fall. Is there
a way out?
There are two
ways that we can go about it. The first way is the hard way. But we will also arrive at
the kingdom of God. In this way, one struggles to do the will of
God. Of course, this is often an uphill task. We will have to go
through the agony in the garden with Jesus. For it is in the garden that we
try to streamline our will with God’s will. This struggle is necessary and
almost inevitable. But as St Paul tells us in the second reading, it is a
necessary stage of growing in faith. Nevertheless this interior
struggle will result in the destruction of the outer man of ours so that the
inner man is renewed day by day. As we wrestle within ourselves, surrendering
our fears to the Lord, we will come to realize that this tent which we had
mistaken for a palace would be folded up.
When that
happens we have arrived at the stage of wisdom. This is the stage when
we, as Paul says, become a house which is not only built up by God but also His
dwelling place, since God lives in us. Such a person already lives a
resurrected life in this present life. He becomes truly a happy person
since he sees his whole life as a life of thanksgiving and glory to God in all
that he does according to how God had planned for him. He can therefore
live without much undue anxiety. Instead he lives in peace, love and
contentment and self-surrender.
But one need not
go through such a difficult path to attain the wisdom of God. There
is an easier way – the way of love. It is the way of intimacy.
In love and intimacy, one comes to a real understanding of the person.
Love brings about an understanding of both the heart and mind. Such
intimacy creates trust and faith. Truly, if many of us find it difficult
to do the will of God, it is simply the lack of understanding of His plan and
trust in His wisdom because of the lack of intimacy with the Lord. For
this reason, we must go back to the original plan of creation, which is to have
a constant dialogue with the Lord.
Indeed, it was
Paul’s personal relationship with Jesus that enabled him to trust in Him.
It was his intimacy with Jesus that gave him the faith to trust and surrender
himself to Jesus and God’s providence. For Paul, his experience of the
risen Lord was enough to convince him that God’s wisdom is beyond man’s
imagination; and that death and suffering cannot triumph over the plan of
God. His wisdom is found even in the cross. If that was so for
Jesus, it must also be for us.
Yes, we
too are called to surrender ourselves to the plan of God. We are
called to have a real intimacy with Jesus so that we can see life through His
perspective. This is the paradigm shift that is required for us to see
the wisdom of God’s plan for us so that doing His will is not a burden but
rather a most liberating and life-giving thing to do. This is the kind of faith
which Jesus exhorts us to cultivate in today’s gospel. With such a faith
no one and nothing can break us. We will always stand tall no
matter in good times or in bad times, for we know God’s wisdom and love is
expressed in His will.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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