20190524
PRESERVING
THE UNITY OF THE COMMUNITY IN TRUTH AND LOVE
24 MAY, 2019,
Friday, 5th Week of Easter
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
White.
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First reading
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Acts 15:22-31 ©
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It has been decided by the Holy Spirit
and by us not to burden you beyond these essentials
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The apostles and elders decided to choose
delegates to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; the whole church concurred
with this. They chose Judas known as Barsabbas and Silas, both leading men in
the brotherhood, and gave them this letter to take with them:
‘The
apostles and elders, your brothers, send greetings to the brothers of pagan
birth in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. We hear that some of our members have
disturbed you with their demands and have unsettled your minds. They acted
without any authority from us; and so we have decided unanimously to elect
delegates and to send them to you with Barnabas and Paul, men we highly respect
who have dedicated their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Accordingly we are sending you Judas and Silas, who will confirm by word of
mouth what we have written in this letter. It has been decided by the Holy
Spirit and by ourselves not to saddle you with any burden beyond these
essentials: you are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols; from blood, from
the meat of strangled animals and from fornication. Avoid these, and you will
do what is right. Farewell.’
The
party left and went down to Antioch, where they summoned the whole community
and delivered the letter. The community read it and were delighted with the
encouragement it gave them.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 56(57):8-12 ©
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I will thank you, Lord,
among the peoples.
or
Alleluia!
My heart is ready, O God,
my heart is ready.
I will sing, I will sing your
praise.
Awake, my soul,
awake, lyre and harp,
I will awake the dawn.
I will thank you, Lord,
among the peoples.
or
Alleluia!
I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples,
among the nations I will
praise you
for your love reaches to the heavens
and your truth to the skies.
O God, arise above the heavens;
may your glory shine on earth!
I will thank you, Lord,
among the peoples.
or
Alleluia!
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Gospel Acclamation
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Jn10:27
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The sheep that belong to me listen to my
voice,
says the Lord,
I know them and they follow me.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Jn15:15
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Alleluia, alleluia!
I call you friends, says the Lord,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John 15:12-17 ©
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What I command you is to love one
another
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Jesus said to his disciples:
‘This is my commandment:
love one another,
as I have loved you.
A man can have no greater love
than to lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends,
if you do what I command you.
I shall not call you servants any more,
because a servant does not know
his master’s business;
I call you friends,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.
You did not choose me:
no, I chose you;
and I commissioned you
to go out and to bear fruit,
fruit that will last;
and then the Father will give you
anything you ask him in my name.
What I command you is to love one
another.’
PRESERVING THE
UNITY OF THE COMMUNITY IN TRUTH AND LOVE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ ACTS 15: 22-31; JN 15:12-17 ]
In the gospel, we read that Jesus’
will was that His disciples be a community of love. Jesus told the
disciples, “This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved
you.” Indeed, St Teresa of Avila says the heart of the Church is love.
Love, of course, is more than a word or a feeling. Love
calls for self-sacrifice. As Jesus said, “A man can have no greater
love than to lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus did not simply teach
this truth but demonstrated it.
But how can this love be concretely
applied in daily life, especially in the various communities we move
among, such as our families, church and social communities? It is easy
for us to say that we are ready to give up our lives for others. However,
if we cannot lay down our lives for fellow members of our community, our
proximate neighbors, how can we ever lay down our lives genuinely for people we
do not know?
The biggest challenge in community
life is trying to preserve the unity of the community when members
come from diverse and pluralistic backgrounds. Quite often, the unity of
the community is threatened by differences in opinions and approaches.
This is true in every community, even in religious communities.
Often, each group believes strongly and sincerely that they are simply
being faithful to the truth, and so refuse to compromise. Indeed, the
greatest difficulty is surrendering our wishes to the community, or to
authority.
How then can we live out
the commandment of love in such a situation? Should we compromise the truth in order to
accommodate the other party? Would that be love without fidelity to the
truth? Or should we be faithful to the truth, even unto death, without
any compromise whatsoever? Yet we know that there can be no love if there
is no truth, and that truth is always love. How, then, do we reconcile
truth and love?
Today, we learn from the
primitive Christians how they preserved unity in the community in the face of
dilemma. There was the
need on one hand to maintain the truth of what Paul was preaching; that
salvation is through faith in Christ alone and not through the laws. On
the other hand, the Jewish Christians were brought up in the Laws, and for them
to abandon the laws would be to betray the thousand years of tradition and
customs they had inherited.
Hence, a compromise was reached,
but not at all costs. It is good to take note that only the
essentials were retained, and the rest were optional. They said, “It has
been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to saddle you with any
burden beyond these essentials: you are to abstain from food sacrificed to
idols; from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from fornication.
Avoid these, and you will do what is right. Farewell.'”
In other words, they applied the
principle of St Augustine which says “in essentials, unity; in
non-essentials, diversity and in all things charity.” So we must
distinguish whether the values or principles we are trying to promote in the
community are essentials or peripherals. We must allow diversity in community
and not expect everyone to be in the same mold, so long as core values and
principles are respected.
Of course, the most important
principle is charity, which underpins the other two previously mentioned.
Indeed, the early Christians were able to come to a compromise only because
charity took precedence above everything else. The Gentile Christians
were willing to compromise by observing certain Jewish dietary rules even
though these were not necessary for salvation. Out of respect and deference
to the sensitivity of the Jews, they obeyed the rules accordingly. So
too, the Jewish Christians were willing to accommodate them by not insisting
that others observed their long cherished mosaic laws.
We too, in community
life must live
accordingly. We must place charity above everything else. That
is to say, we must do everything out of love for the other person. We
must not put our likes or preferences before others. Rather, we must see
how we can accommodate and compromise with each other. Of course,
we are not speaking of matters pertaining to conscience and faith or of vital
importance. In this way, we can truly say that we are willing to love in
the truth, faithful to the truth and ready to compromise and accommodate out of
compassion and love for matters that are not rooted in truths but in customs
and preferences. This is concrete dying for others in community living.
But this charity of
putting the good of the community and its unity before one’s preferences,
customs and convictions can only come from the Holy Spirit through prayer. Indeed the early Christians always
lived in the consciousness of the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so they were
able to discern clearly that their decision was made in union with Him, He
being the principle, soul and cause of the unity in the Church. We too
must always pray to the Holy Spirit for this unity, lest in our community
deliberations we make false compromises resulting in a pseudo-unity that is
superficial, or take up hardened positions that result in splitting the members
of the community. Our decisions cannot be mere human consensus or
dictated by strong individuals but rather guided by the Holy Spirit.
Charity must come from Christ who sends us His Spirit so that we can love one
another as He has loved us.
In this way, we will bear the fruits of the Spirit in
community life. There will be joy, peace and harmony, which will also
bear fruits in our life, and result in the growth of the community as well in
membership and in faith. Indeed, we read, “the party left and went down to
Antioch, where they summoned the whole community and delivered the letter. The
community read it and was delighted with the encouragement it gave them.”
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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