20190213
EXERCISING
OUR FREEDOM FREELY
13 FEBRUARY,
2019, Wednesday, 5th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Green.
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First reading
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Genesis 2:4-9,15-17 ©
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The Lord God fashioned man out of dust
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At the time when the Lord God made earth
and heaven there was as yet no wild bush on the earth nor had any wild plant
yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth, nor was there
any man to till the soil. However, a flood was rising from the earth and
watering all the surface of the soil. The Lord God fashioned man of dust from
the soil. Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thus man
became a living being.
The
Lord God planted a garden in Eden which is in the east, and there he put the
man he had fashioned. The Lord God caused to spring up from the soil every kind
of tree, enticing to look at and good to eat, with the tree of life and the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden. The Lord
God took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and take
care of it. Then the Lord God gave the man this admonition, ‘You may eat indeed
of all the trees in the garden. Nevertheless of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall most
surely die.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm
103(104):1-2,27-30 ©
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Bless the Lord, my soul!
Bless the Lord, my soul!
Lord God, how great you are,
clothed in majesty and glory,
wrapped in light as in a robe!
Bless the Lord, my soul!
All of these look to you
to give them their food in due
season.
You give it, they gather it up:
you open your hand, they have
their fill.
Bless the Lord, my soul!
You take back your spirit, they die,
returning to the dust from
which they came.
You send forth your spirit, they are
created;
and you renew the face of the
earth.
Bless the Lord, my soul!
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Gospel Acclamation
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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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Or:
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Jn17:17
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Your word is truth, O Lord:
consecrate us in the truth.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 7:14-23 ©
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It is what comes out of a man that makes
him unclean
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Jesus called the people to him and said,
‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into a man from
outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make
him unclean. If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to this.’
When
he had gone back into the house, away from the crowd, his disciples questioned
him about the parable. He said to them, ‘Do you not understand either? Can you
not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot make him unclean, because
it does not go into his heart but through his stomach and passes out into the
sewer?’ (Thus he pronounced all foods clean.) And he went on, ‘It is what comes
out of a man that makes him unclean. For it is from within, from men’s hearts,
that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice,
malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things
come from within and make a man unclean.’
EXERCISING OUR
FREEDOM FREELY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [GEN 2:4-9, 15-17; PS 104:1-2, 27-30; MARK 7:14-23 ]
One of the greatest
gifts given to humanity by God is freedom. This is what the first reading
tells us through the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. “Yahweh God took the man and settled him in
the garden of Eden to cultivate and take care of it. Then Yahweh God gave the
man this command, ‘You are free to eat of all the trees in the garden. But of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat; for the day you
eat of that, you are doomed to die.'” In giving us our freedom, we
participate in the freedom of God and in His authority to rule over
creation. Man as the highest of His creation, made in His image and
likeness is bestowed with the power to rule. However, the authority to rule
presupposes that we exercise our freedom freely. Many people in the world
want to have authority, but they do so for the power to control others and use
them for their interests. However, we cannot exercise authority over
others unless we are in control of ourselves.
This is why we need to
clarify the meaning of freedom. What is freedom? Freedom is firstly the faculty to
choose. This is the basic meaning of freedom. To choose presupposes
we have intellect and will, knowledge and the desire. Nevertheless, this
would be a narrow understanding of freedom. This is precisely what the
world claims over those who have religions. According to them, those who
are believers of religions have to subscribe to the rules and doctrines of
their faith. However, for freethinkers and secularists, they are completely
free to decide what they like to do. Using their own limited knowledge
and understanding, they choose what they think is good for them.
That being the case, there is no real freedom because the true meaning of
freedom is the ability to determine for ourselves in such a way that we make
decisions for our ultimate good and happiness, both for ourselves and for
others. When we lack knowledge, our decision would be flawed because the
freedom is not exercised freely. This is the fundamental flow of relativism.
This ideology deprives anyone from making real choices in life, knowingly and
freely.
Worse still are those
who advocate freedom as the license to do anything they want, even at the
expense of justice, love and truth. Does
freedom allow us to destroy people’s character and reputation? Does
freedom allow us to kill anyone we do not like? Does freedom mean we can
cheat and do others harm? In fact, if we are using our freedom to do
evil, that is, acting contrary to the law of justice, love and truth, that is
slavery. When we are addicted to pornography, lust, smoking and
alcoholism, we are slaves because we cannot say “no’ to them. When
we are controlled by greed, envy, gluttony or anger, we are not
free. Freedom therefore means that we can always choose what is
truly good for us and for others.
Yet, we all know that in
reality, we are not free because we lack the power to act justly. We do not exercise our freedom
rightly in truth and in love. Jesus said to the Jews, “‘If you continue
in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and
the truth will make you free.’ They answered him, We are descendants of
Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You
will be made free’? Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who
commits sin is a slave to sin.” (Jn 8:31-34) Like the Jews, we know we
are not free because of our sins. The fact that we sin, means that we are
not free. Even St Paul after his conversion experienced this struggle
within himself, between doing good and evil. He wrote, “For we know that
the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin.
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the
very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the
law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells
within me.” (Rom 7:14-17)
What is the reason for
our incapacity to do the right thing? This is what the doctrine of
Original Sin seeks to explain. We must go back to the beginning. By virtue of the fact that we belong to
humanity, which we trace to the first man (Adam), we share in his fallen nature
of not exercising the freedom to choose rightly. He was disobedient
because he did not believe or trust in God. He chose to trust in
himself. It was the sin of pride that led to disobedience when Adam chose
to rely on himself rather than on God. This is what the story of the fall
seeks to illustrate. We who share in his human nature too suffer the
weakness of ignorance, pride and disobedience as well.
Therefore, if we sin, it
is because, as St Paul diagnosed, sin dwells in us. This truth is reiterated in today’s gospel
when Jesus declared, “It is what comes out of someone that makes that person
unclean. For it is from within, from the heart, that evil intentions emerge:
fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy,
slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a person
unclean.” The Prophet Jeremiah remarked, “The heart is devious above all
else; it is perverse – who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9) So our incapacity to
choose what is right always, is because our hearts are contaminated. Most
of the time we are ignorant, and even if we know what should be done, we lack
the will to do the right thing. This is what the sin of concupiscence is all
about, the lack of power over our will. This is what the Lord warns us
when He too struggled against evil in the Garden of Gethsemane. “Keep
awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit
indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mk 14:38)
Secondly, we sin also
because of the bad examples we inherit from others, especially those who
brought us up.
This is the second aspect of Original Sin, the sin of imitation. We are
individuals inserted into a community. Whether we like it or not, the
“culture” of the community affects the way we live. Our values, our
desires and our interests are very much determined by the community we live
in. The community can influence us for good or for evil. Today, in a
secular culture, where values such as consumerism, materialism, hedonism,
promiscuity, individualism and relativism are promoted, we cannot but be sucked
into the system as well. So our choices in life are conditioned not just
by the DNA we inherit from our parents but also from the DNA of the community.
Thirdly, we sin because
of selfishness and fear of death. We want to protect ourselves and so we would
destroy others and make use of them for our own advantage because we are afraid
to suffer, be deprived or be rejected by people. We want to be free from
all physical sufferings and emotional pain that come from loneliness and low
self-esteem. We try hard to impress people and to look good.
Unfortunately, we often put up a show and we use devious means to present
ourselves to the world that we are successful and capable. Nevertheless,
our unscrupulous means are just waiting to be exposed. Otherwise, if we
are the ones who have been cheated and hurt, then there is the deep desire to
take revenge and recover our losses. We want to attack our enemies
and destroy them as well.
How, then, can we
overcome this inability to choose rightly? On our own strength, we cannot.
We depend on the victory given to us in our Lord Jesus Christ. St
Paul exclaimed, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of
death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7:25f) If we want to exercise our
freedom in truth and in love, in full understanding and control of our will, we
can only do it with Jesus and with His power given to us in the Holy Spirit.
“Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the
flesh. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the
Spirit.” (Gal 5:16, 25) This Spirit has been given to us at
baptism. Through the sacrament of baptism, we have been inserted into
Christ and the body of Christ, the Church, the community of grace. What
is required of us to live in grace and in perfect freedom is to continue to
allow the Spirit of God to rule our lives.
So let us welcome the
gift of the Spirit and His grace through the reception of the Eucharist, the
Sacrament of reconciliation, the Word of God and most of all, in prayer, both
individual and community prayer.
Unless we avail ourselves of the grace of God that comes to us through the
means provided by the Church, we will not be able to resist the temptations of
the Evil One. Only the Word of God can enlighten us in the truth and His
love can motivate us to do good and not evil.
We must be careful that
we do not just live our faith externally like the Jews in today’s gospel when
the Lord warned them, “Can’t
you see that nothing that goes into someone from outside can make that person
unclean, because it goes not into the heart but into the stomach and passes
into the sewer?” However, if it is not food but words, pictures and
values, we must be careful because what we consume will be what we
produce. “Nothing that goes into someone from outside can make that
person unclean; it is the things that come out of someone that make that person
unclean.” Indeed, in another place, the Lord warns us, “Then pay
attention to how you listen; for to those who have, more will be given; and
from those who do not have, even what they seem to have will be taken away.” (Lk 8:18)
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights
Reserved
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