20190307
THE
PARADOX OF LIFE AND DEATH, PROSPERITY AND ADVERSITY
07 MARCH, 2019,
Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Violet.
|
First reading
|
|
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 ©
|
|
I set before you today life or death,
blessing or curse
|
Moses said to the people: ‘See, today I
set before you life and prosperity, death and disaster. If you obey the
commandments of the Lord your God that I enjoin on you today, if you love the
Lord your God and follow his ways, if you keep his commandments, his laws, his
customs, you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in
the land which you are entering to make your own. But if your heart strays, if
you refuse to listen, if you let yourself be drawn into worshipping other gods
and serving them, I tell you today, you will most certainly perish; you will
not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I
call heaven and earth to witness against you today: I set before you life or
death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants
may live, in the love of the Lord your God, obeying his voice, clinging to him;
for in this your life consists, and on this depends your long stay in the land
which the Lord swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob he would give
them.’
|
Responsorial Psalm
|
Psalm 1:1-4,6 ©
|
Happy the man who has
placed his trust in the Lord.
Happy indeed is the man
who follows not the counsel of
the wicked;
nor lingers in the way of sinners
nor sits in the company of
scorners,
but whose delight is the law of the Lord
and who ponders his law day
and night.
Happy the man who has
placed his trust in the Lord.
He is like a tree that is planted
beside the flowing waters,
that yields its fruit in due season
and whose leaves shall never
fade;
and all that he does shall
prosper.
Happy the man who has
placed his trust in the Lord.
Not so are the wicked, not so!
For they like winnowed chaff
shall be driven away by the
wind:
for the Lord guards the way of the just
but the way of the wicked
leads to doom.
Happy the man who has
placed his trust in the Lord.
|
Gospel Acclamation
|
Ps50:12,14
|
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
A pure heart create for me, O God,
and give me again the joy of your help.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
|
Or:
|
Mt4:17
|
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Repent, says the Lord,
for the kingdom of heaven is close at
hand.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
|
Gospel
|
Luke 9:22-25 ©
|
|
Whoever loses his life for my sake will
save it
|
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘The
Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and
chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the
third day.’
Then
to all he said:
‘If
anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his
cross every day and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose
it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, that man will save it. What
gain, then, is it for a man to have won the whole world and to have lost or
ruined his very self?’
THE PARADOX OF
LIFE AND DEATH, PROSPERITY AND ADVERSITY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Dt 30:15-20; Ps 1:1-4,6; Lk 9:22-25 ]
“Moses said to the
people, ‘See, today I set before you, life and prosperity, death and disaster.”
The choice that we all want to make is obvious, namely, life and
prosperity. Who
loves death? We all want to live forever. What man fears most is death
because it means the end of everything. It means departure from this
earth forever and especially from our loved ones. Most of all, for those
who have no faith in life after death, it means annihilation and
disaster. “In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their
departure was thought to be a disaster, and their going from us to be their
destruction.” (Wisdom 3:2f)
Not only do we fear
death, we fear suffering as well. We all desire to prosper and to live a good
life. In the Old Testament, prosperity was seen to be blessings from God
for those who live a good and honest life. The idea of retribution in the
next life was not yet fully developed and so all rewards were thought to be
given in this life. This was the presumption of Moses. He made this
promise to them. “If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that
I enjoin on you today, if you love the Lord your God and follow his ways, if
you keep his commandments, his laws, his customs, you will live and increase,
and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to make
your own.” The psalmist echoes this view when he prayed, “Happy indeed is
the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked; nor lingers in the way of
sinners nor sits in the company of scorners, but whose delight is the law of
the Lord and who ponders his law day and night. He is like a tree that is
planted beside the flowing waters, that yields its fruit in due season and
whose leaves shall never fade; and all that he does shall prosper.”
However, such notions of
life and prosperity seem to be contradicted by the Lord. He reversed the
meaning of life and death, prosperity and adversity. In the gospel, Jesus said, “If anyone
wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross
every day and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose
it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, that man will save it.”
Indeed, this reversal of values shocked and scandalized the apostles.
They took quite some time to grasp what the Lord was teaching them. After
the revelation of Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah of God (cf Lk 9:20), the Lord followed up with the first
prophecy of His imminent suffering and death. “The Son of Man is destined
to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and
scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day.” Of
course, Peter was totally scandalized. Reacting almost immediately,
“Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord!
This must never happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get
behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your
mind not on divine things but on human things.” (Mt 16:22f)
Like it or not, even
faith believers thrive on this notion of earthly retribution. The good
are rewarded on this earth and the bad are condemned to suffering. Even today, we have a brand of Christians
that believe in the prosperity gospel. They teach that those who have
faith in God, do good works and live a good life, will be blessed by the Lord
with wealth, success, fame, power, glory and all the things that this world can
give. Isn’t this what the Devil also tempted the Lord with at the
beginning of His ministry? “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and
showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said
to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship
me.'” (Mt 4:8) We must not forget that the disciples
were shocked beyond words when the Lord said, “Children, how hard it is to
enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye
of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. They were
greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?'” (Mk 10:24f)
This explains why many
so-called disciples of Christ have left the Church because their prayers were
not answered. Many
of them were supposedly good Christians, active in church ministry. But
they became angry with God because their loved ones were taken away from them
through death or divorce. Some feel that God has betrayed them because
they failed in their business or in their studies. He was not there to
help them to achieve success and glory. Then again, some become bitter
with God because of illness. Even today, we expect God’s blessings for
the good and virtuous life that we live.
Yet, the truth is that
what seems to bring life can actually cause death. Prosperity and
blessings is a double-edged sword. If we are not careful, we will allow
prosperity and our self-indulgence to make us weak. We become overly
dependent on the good things of life. We live a life of comfort, plenty,
and leisure. Our life each day is about enjoying oneself, pampering
our body and wasting away our time. When we become obsessed with
ourselves and a slave to a life of self-indulgence, we will be completely devastated
when one day our health, our wealth, our loved ones and our comforts are taken
away. We cannot cope with the change of lifestyle demanded of us.
We become miserable and fall into depression.
In some cases, the
desire for prosperity, wealth and power can lead a person to do evil things. One’s greed and envy could lead to
stealing, cheating and killing. One sin leads to another. Those who
have plenty of money might seek to control and buy up peoples’ loyalty and
friendship. They are always fearful of losing their wealth and
power. They live in constant fear of losing their popularity or afraid
that their evil deeds will surface one day. So they become slaves to the
world, without any real friends. Although they seem to be mighty, yet they are
the most insecure people in this world. They might appear to have
everything they want, but they lack love and sincerity of their friends.
This is what the psalmist says, “Not so are the wicked, not so! For they
like winnowed chaff shall be driven away by the wind … the way of the wicked
leads to doom.” Moses warned the people, “But if your heart strays, if
you refuse to listen, if you let yourself be drawn into worshipping other gods
and serving them, I tell you today, you will most certainly perish; you will
not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.” In
other words, as the Lord asked of us, “What gain, then, is it for a man to have
the whole world and to have lost or ruined his very self?”
For this reason, the
Lord’s antidote to death and adversity is to die to death and adversity. The way to overcome our fear of our
enemies is to face them directly, subdue them and destroy them. This is
the way of our Lord. Hence, he chose to go to Jerusalem to face His
passion and death on the cross. He prepared the disciples by announcing
His imminent death and resurrection. “The last enemy to be destroyed is
death.” (1 Cor 15:26) This is
what we declare at mass when we proclaim the mystery of faith, “Dying He
destroyed our death; Rising He restored our life.” Unless we
overcome the fear of death, we cannot remove the sting that hinders us from
letting go. “‘Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death is your victory?
Where, O death is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin
is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our
Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor 15:55-57)
Hence, if we want to
find life and true freedom, we must begin to die to small deaths by self-denial
and carrying our crosses in life with cheerfulness and acceptance of God’s
will. Through
self-renunciation, we become freer from things so that we can be free for
people. When we can adapt and be contented like St Paul, we are always
joyful. (cf Phil 4:11-13) Through
the carrying of our daily cross, we grow in strength, in appreciation for what
we have, in empathy for those who suffer and most of all, through the hardships
of our trials in life, we become stronger, better and more grateful for God and
for all the people who come to our assistance. So, “let us run with
perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer
and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right
hand of the throne of God.” (Heb 12:1-3)
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment