20180906
INTELLECTUAL PRIDE IS
THE DOWNFALL OF HUMANITY
06 SEPTEMBER,
2018, Thursday, 22nd Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Green.
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First reading
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1 Corinthians 3:18-23 ©
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The wisdom of the world is foolishness
to God
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Make no mistake about it: if any one of
you thinks of himself as wise, in the ordinary sense of the word, then he must
learn to be a fool before he really can be wise. Why? Because the wisdom of
this world is foolishness to God. As scripture says: The Lord knows
wise men’s thoughts: he knows how useless they are; or again: God
is not convinced by the arguments of the wise. So there is nothing to
boast about in anything human: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life and
death, the present and the future, are all your servants; but you belong to
Christ and Christ belongs to God.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 23(24):1-6 ©
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The Lord’s is the earth
and its fullness.
The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness,
the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas;
on the waters he made it firm.
The Lord’s is the earth
and its fullness.
Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy
place?
The man with clean hands and pure heart,
who desires not worthless
things.
The Lord’s is the earth
and its fullness.
He shall receive blessings from the Lord
and reward from the God who
saves him.
Such are the men who seek him,
seek the face of the God of
Jacob.
The Lord’s is the earth
and its fullness.
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Gospel Acclamation
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cf.2Thess2:14
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Through the Good News God called us
to share the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Mt4:19
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Follow me, says the Lord,
and I will make you into fishers of men.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Luke 5:1-11 ©
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They left everything and followed him
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Jesus was standing one day by the Lake of
Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God,
when he caught sight of two boats close to the bank. The fishermen had gone out
of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats – it was
Simon’s – and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat
down and taught the crowds from the boat.
When
he had finished speaking he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water and pay out
your nets for a catch.’ ‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we worked hard all night long
and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.’ And when they
had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to
tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help
them; when these came, they filled the two boats to sinking point.
When
Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I
am a sinful man.’ For he and all his companions were completely overcome by the
catch they had made; so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were
Simon’s partners. But Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is
men you will catch.’ Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left
everything and followed him.
INTELLECTUAL PRIDE IS THE DOWNFALL OF
HUMANITY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 1 CORINTHIANS 3:18-23; LUKE 5:1-11 ]
The greatness of man in
creation is recognized throughout the scriptures. The psalmist sings praise to God,
saying, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon
and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are
mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made
them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory
and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your
hands; you put everything under their feet.” (Ps 8:3-6) Indeed, this is what it means to be
created in the image and likeness of God, sharing in His knowledge and His
love. “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of
God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Gn 1:27)
However, the gift of
knowledge is a double-edged sword. It
causes man to think more highly of himself than he actually is. This
is what St Paul wrote in the first reading. “Make no mistake about it: if any
one of you thinks of himself as wise, in the ordinary sense of the word, then
he must learn to be a fool before he really can be wise.” This temptation
to intellectual pride was present since the foundation of the world. In
the book of Genesis, God told Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the
garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Gn 2:16f) But he did not take heed of
God’s command. By eating, man was deprived of his innocence and from then
on he had to make a choice between good and evil.
This temptation to
intellectual pride, human knowledge and human wisdom grew in propensity. The story of the Tower of Babel is yet
another expression of original sin, which is the sin of pride leading to
disobedience. They said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower
that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves;
otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (cf Gn 11:1-9) In our days, this is
expressed in atheism, humanism and relativism. There are many people in
the world who believe only in themselves and in their knowledge. They think
that scientific and technological knowledge alone can save the world.
They reduce everything to reason and empirical proofs. There is no God
and there are no absolutes. By so doing, they proclaim themselves as gods
and relativism as the absolute truth!
Such people, St Paul
says, are foolish. “The
wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and
wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what
may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to
them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his
eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from
what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although
they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but
their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Rom 1:18-21)
This is not to dismiss
the relevance and important role of reason. Pope John Paul II in his encyclical, Fides e
Ratio wrote about how revelation completes the work of reason. “From
the teaching of the two Vatican Councils there also emerges a genuinely novel
consideration for philosophical learning. Revelation has set within history a
point of reference which cannot be ignored if the mystery of human life is to
be known. Yet this knowledge refers constantly to the mystery of God which
the human mind cannot exhaust but can only receive and embrace in faith.
Between these two poles, reason has its own specific field in which it can
enquire and understand, restricted only by its finiteness before the infinite
mystery of God. Revelation therefore introduces into our history a universal
and ultimate truth which stirs the human mind to ceaseless effort; indeed, it
impels reason continually to extend the range of its knowledge until it senses
that it has done all in its power, leaving no stone unturned.” (Fides et
Ratio, 14)
Pope John Paul also
cited from the previous Council’s teaching. “The First Vatican Council
teaches, then, that the truth attained by philosophy and the truth of
Revelation are neither identical nor mutually exclusive: ‘There exists a twofold order of
knowledge, distinct not only as regards their source, but also as regards their
object. With regard to the source, because we know in one by natural reason, in
the other by divine faith. With regard to the object, because besides those
things which natural reason can attain, there are proposed for our belief
mysteries hidden in God which, unless they are divinely revealed, cannot be
known’. Based upon God’s testimony and enjoying the supernatural
assistance of grace, faith is of an order other than philosophical knowledge
which depends upon sense perception and experience and which advances by the
light of the intellect alone. Philosophy and the sciences function within the
order of natural reason; while faith, enlightened and guided by the Spirit,
recognizes in the message of salvation the ‘fullness of grace and truth’
(cf. Jn 1:14) which God has willed to reveal
in history and definitively through his Son, Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Jn 5:9; Jn 5:31-32).” (Fides et Ratio, 9)
Indeed, St Peter in
today’s gospel shows how the wisdom of God transcends the wisdom of man. As a fisherman by profession, he knew from
knowledge and experience where to catch fish. And so when the Lord
instructed him to “put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch”,
the immediate reaction of Peter was, “Master…we worked hard all night long and
caught nothing.” It was as if Peter was saying to Jesus that he had
already tried his best using whatever knowledge he had as an experienced
fisherman. In other words, he did not need someone who is a carpenter to
teach him how and where to fish. However, out of respect for the Lord on
one hand, and on the other, perhaps, to prove Him wrong, Peter said, “but if
you say so, I will pay out the nets.”
And lo and behold, “when
they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began
to tear, so they signalled to
their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they
filled the two boats to sinking point.” It was unbelievable and
unimaginable for the fishermen, especially Peter who thought he knew everything
about fishing. He thought he could show off to Jesus his knowledge and
that he knew better than he did. But when he saw the miraculous catch, he
realized his deep secret pride that wanted to prove Him wrong. It turned out
that he was the foolish one instead. Rather than trusting in the power of
God, he relied on human and worldly wisdom.
Realizing his mistake
and pride, he humbled himself before the Lord. “He fell at the knees of Jesus
saying, ‘Leave me Lord; I am a sinful man.’ For he and all his companions
were completely overcome by the catch they had made; so also were James and
John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners.” Why did he call
himself a sinful man, were it not for the fact that he was too presumptuous in
his knowledge? Before the Lord, he knew that he had misjudged Him.
Jesus was the presence of God, the power of God and divine wisdom. On
that account, we read that when the Lord said to Simon, “‘Do not be afraid; from
now on it is men you will catch.’ Then, bringing their boats back to
land, they left everything and followed him.” After encountering the
divine wisdom and power of Christ, Peter and his friends no longer followed
their own intellectual reasoning and knowledge; instead, they left everything
behind and followed the Lord. From then on, they took direction from
Jesus. Obedience is always the outcome of faith.
Indeed, St Paul himself
came to the realization that human knowledge alone cannot grasp the mystery of
life “Because the
wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As scripture says: The Lord
knows wise men’s thoughts: he knows how useless they are: or again: God is not
convinced by the arguments of the wise. So there is nothing to boast
about in anything human.” Earlier on, St Paul wrote, “For God’s
foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than
human strength.” (1 Cor 1:25) It
behooves us therefore to remain humble before God and the mystery of life.
In the final analysis,
our trust in not in man but in God.
Even when we admire people in our lives, especially those who are wise and
intelligent, let us not forget that their wisdom and knowledge come from
God. As St Paul reminds us, “So there is nothing to boast about in
anything human: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life and death, the present
and the future, are all your servants; but you belong to Christ and Christ
belongs to God.” Everything we have and what we are belong to all and for
the service of all. This is because all of us and all that we have
ultimately belong to God. With the psalmist, we exclaim, “The Lord’s is
the earth and its fullness, the world and all its peoples. It is he who
set it on the seas; on the waters he made it firm.”
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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