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PERFECTION
IN CHRISTIAN LIFE IS EXPRESSED IN MERCY
16 MARCH, 2019,
Saturday, 1st Week of Lent
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Violet.
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First reading
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Deuteronomy 26:16-19 ©
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You will be a people consecrated to the
Lord
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Moses said to the people: ‘The Lord your
God today commands you to observe these laws and customs; you must keep and
observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.
‘You
have today made this declaration about the Lord: that he will be your God, but
only if you follow his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, his
ordinances, and listen to his voice. And the Lord has today made this
declaration about you: that you will be his very own people as he promised you,
but only if you keep all his commandments; then for praise and renown and
honour he will set you high above all the nations he has made, and you will be
a people consecrated to the Lord, as he promised.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm
118(119):1-2,4-5,7-8 ©
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They are happy who
follow God’s law!
They are happy whose life is blameless,
who follow God’s law!
They are happy who do his will,
seeking him with all their
hearts.
They are happy who
follow God’s law!
You have laid down your precepts
to be obeyed with care.
May my footsteps be firm
to obey your statutes.
They are happy who
follow God’s law!
I will thank you with an upright heart
as I learn your decrees.
I will obey your statutes;
do not forsake me.
They are happy who
follow God’s law!
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Gospel Acclamation
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cf.Lk8:15
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Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Blessed are those who,
with a noble and generous heart,
take the word of God to themselves
and yield a harvest through their
perseverance.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
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Or:
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2Co6:2
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Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Now is the favourable time:
this is the day of salvation.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
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Gospel
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Matthew 5:43-48 ©
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Pray for those who persecute you
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Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You have
learnt how it was said: You must love your neighbour and hate your
enemy. But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you; in this way you will be sons of your Father in heaven, for he
causes his sun to rise on bad men as well as good, and his rain to fall on
honest and dishonest men alike. For if you love those who love you, what right
have you to claim any credit? Even the tax collectors do as much, do they not?
And if you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything
exceptional? Even the pagans do as much, do they not? You must therefore be
perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.’
PERFECTION IN
CHRISTIAN LIFE IS EXPRESSED IN MERCY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ DT 26, 16-19; PS 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8; MT 5:43-48 ]
In the first reading, Moses told the
people: “The Lord your God today commands you to observe these laws and
customs; you must keep and observe them with all your heart and with all your
soul.” To belong to the People of God, all that they needed to
do was to observe all the commandments and customs with all their heart, soul
and might. (cf Dt 6:5)
Why should we obey the
commandments? Firstly, they demonstrate the wisdom of God. These commandments were meant to
guide the people to live a righteous life so that there would be harmony among
the peoples. By so doing, Moses said, “this will show your wisdom and
discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say,
‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’ For what other
great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever
we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and
ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you
today?” (Dt 4:6-8) Those
who do not obey the Word of God or use the Bible for guidance in their moral
and daily life are those who pay lip service to the Word of God. St Paul
makes it clear “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient,
equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim 3:16f) The fact that many of us
pick and choose those parts of the scripture that we agree with and ignore the
rest that we do not agree with shows that we believe in ourselves and not the
Word of God.
Secondly, obedience is
the concrete manifestation of acknowledging God as our Lord. “You have today made this
declaration about the Lord; that he will be your God, but only if you follow
his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and listen to
his voice.” Obedience is always the expression of love and trust. When we
obey, it should never be out of fear or obligation. Rather it should be an act
of love for one who loves us. This is what Jesus Himself said, “I do as
the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the
Father.” (Jn 14:31) Indeed,
God does not command obedience from us before He first shows us His love.
If the Lord could command the Israelites to obey the commandments, it was
because He had shown and demonstrated His love and power in delivering them
from the hands of the Egyptians. “You have seen what I did to the
Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to
myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you
shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole
earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy
nation.” (Ex 19:4-6)
Thirdly, obedience to
the laws makes us His people. “The
Lord has today made this declaration about you; that you will be his very own
people as he promised you, but only if you keep all his commandments.”
When we live a life of integrity and honour, when we live a harmonious and
peaceful life, we show ourselves to be the People of God and “then for praise
and renown and honour he will set you high above all the nations he has made,
and you will be a people consecrated to the Lord, as he had promised.”
Israel was chosen to be a model nation, a people that lived under the laws of
God so that they could “live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the
God of your ancestors, is giving you.” It is to our benefit that we
observe the laws of God.
Yet in spite of the
beauty of the laws of God, it is practically impossible to keep them perfectly. The law is good but it does not
mean we will be able to keep them perfectly just because we know that it is
good. The truth remains that we are weak and we have a wounded nature
because of the sin of our ancestors, which is perpetuated in us. We know
that the law is good and yet because of human selfishness, weakness and fear,
we break the commandments.
That is why the laws
cannot save us. They are written on tablets, not on our hearts. They can only point us to what is
right and wrong but they cannot give us the capacity to do them. We find
ourselves incapable of resisting temptations. Even when we try to observe
them, we fall into the sin of pride and ego. Either we become
self-righteous, thinking that we are better than others, or we live double
lives, appearing to be good and holy before others. Indeed, many of us
are hypocritical in the way we live because we are so concerned about what
people think of us rather than what God thinks of us.
What is needed is
therefore the mercy and grace of God rather than perfection in observing the laws. It was on account of knowing the
love and mercy of God in Christ’s passion and resurrection that St Paul got the
strength to do good and to die to self rather than seeking to find perfection
through the laws. He wrote, “More than that, I regard everything as loss
because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I
have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order
that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of
my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the
righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power
of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in
his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
(Phil 3:8-11)
This is what the gospel
wants to underscore as well. When the Lord said, “You must therefore be
perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect”, He is not expecting us to
live a life without sin and imperfection. This would be an impossible demand on
us. But Jesus expects us at least to practice compassion and forgiveness
to those who are weak and have sinned against us. He said, “You
have learnt how it was said: You must love your neighbour and hate your enemy.
But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute
you.” This is what perfection consists of, loving our neighbours
including our enemies by caring for them and by praying for them.
We are called to forgive them the way our Lord did when He was on the cross, by
excusing and praying for us. “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what
they are doing.” (Lk 23:34) In this
way, we show ourselves to be truly sons and daughters of God because we reflect
the goodness of God, because “He causes the sun to rise on bad men as well as
good, and his rain to fall on honest and dishonest men alike.” God’s love
is for all, regardless of whether we are bad or good.
Indeed, if we do not
show our love to all regardless of who they are, then we cannot claim ourselves
to be God’s children since we do not acknowledge others as such because we do not
treat them accordingly.
Jesus said, “For if you love those who love you, what right have you to claim
any credit? Even the tax collectors do as much, do they not? And if you save
your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional? Even the
pagans do as much, do they not?” So being a Christian is not caring for
fellow Christians only. This is exclusivity and elitism. Most
Catholic celebrations are within and among their own members. Do we take
the trouble to invite those who are non-Christians to our functions so that
they could come to know the Lord’s love through us? A Christian
must be outgoing and reaching out to others. Unfortunately, this does not
seem to be the case in many of our churches and church organizations. We
are in danger of isolating ourselves from the larger community. This is
not the kind of evangelical and missionary spirit that a Catholic should have.
Of course, this does not
mean to say the laws are irrelevant. They remain our guide in living a life of
wisdom and discernment.
The psalmist is right to say, “They are happy whose life is blameless, who
follow God’s law! They are happy who do his will, seeking him with all
their hearts. You have laid down your precepts to be obeyed with care.
May my footsteps be firm to obey your statutes.” But we observe
them not in a slavish manner. We must observe them with wisdom and
understanding, with love and compassion, without falling into legalism and
self-righteousness on one hand; or be laxed and lawless on the other hand.
Christian perfection ultimately is to live the law of love and
compassion. “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one
who loves another has fulfilled the law.”
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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