20190615
ADOLESCENTS
IN FAITH
15 JUNE, 2019,
Saturday, 10th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Green.
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First reading
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2 Corinthians 5:14-21 ©
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From now onwards we do not judge anyone
by the standards of the flesh
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The love of Christ overwhelms us when we
reflect that if one man has died for all, then all men should be dead; and the
reason he died for all was so that living men should live no longer for
themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life for them.
From
now onwards, therefore, we do not judge anyone by the standards of the flesh.
Even if we did once know Christ in the flesh, that is not how we know him now.
And for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has
gone, and now the new one is here. It is all God’s work. It was God who
reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on this
reconciliation. In other words, God in Christ was reconciling the world to
himself, not holding men’s faults against them, and he has entrusted to us the
news that they are reconciled. So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as
though God were appealing through us, and the appeal that we make in Christ’s
name is: be reconciled to God. For our sake God made the sinless one into sin,
so that in him we might become the goodness of God.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm
102(103):1-4,9-12 ©
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The Lord is compassion
and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
all my being, bless his holy
name.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
and never forget all his
blessings.
The Lord is compassion
and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy.
It is he who forgives all your guilt,
who heals every one of your
ills,
who redeems your life from the grave,
who crowns you with love and
compassion.
The Lord is compassion
and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy.
His wrath will come to an end;
he will not be angry for ever.
He does not treat us according to our sins
nor repay us according to our
faults.
The Lord is compassion
and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy.
For as the heavens are high above the
earth
so strong is his love for
those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west
so far does he remove our
sins.
The Lord is compassion
and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Ps118:18
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Open my eyes, O Lord, that I may consider
the wonders of your law.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Ps118:36,29
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Bend my heart to your will, O Lord,
and teach me your law.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 5:33-37 ©
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Do not swear: say 'Yes' if you mean Yes,
'No' if you mean No
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Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You have
learnt how it was said to our ancestors: You must not break your oath,
but must fulfil your oaths to the Lord. But I say this to you: do not
swear at all, either by heaven, since that is God’s throne; or by the earth,
since that is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, since that is the city of the
great king. Do not swear by your own head either, since you cannot turn a
single hair white or black. All you need say is “Yes” if you mean yes, “No” if
you mean no; anything more than this comes from the evil one.’
ADOLESCENTS IN
FAITH
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 2 COR 5:14-21; MT
5:33-37 ]
When St Paul says, “And for anyone who is
in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new
one is here.” Are we truly a new creation? We are
told that we are so, and feel like one especially after emerging from a retreat
or after a special encounter with the Lord. Yet the reality is that it
does not take long for us to fall back into sin, much as we struggle against
the temptation of the Evil One. But more often than not, we succumb
especially to the sin of the flesh and not just of the world. As a
consequence, we think that the conversion experience was merely a sentimental
one. It did not bring about the radical change of life that we hoped.
This desire for a
radical change of lifestyle, living a perfect life of holiness, seems to be the
demand of Jesus too for those who wish to follow Him. In the gospel, He expected His
disciples to live a life of integrity and holiness, without wavering or
compromising. He says, “All you need say is ‘Yes’ if you mean yes, ‘No’
if you mean no; anything more than this comes from the evil one.'” A true
Christian is one who is like Jesus who does not compromise the truth when it
comes to both teaching and particularly living. Jesus was a man who was
faithful to Himself and to His Father even unto death. No human being,
not even the religious leaders and political leaders, could make Him do things
against His conviction. Jesus was truly a man of integrity.
The fact that we are
required to take an oath implies that we cannot be trusted. Or rather, it is a recognition that
we are weak. We need the Oath to help us to be responsible for the truth
and also to give our fellowmen assurance of our fidelity. Yet we know
that vows and promises are often broken in spite of our good intentions.
This becomes a great scandal especially when a solemn oath is broken.
This prompted Jesus to say, “You have learnt how it was said to our ancestors:
You must not break your oath, but must fulfill your oaths to the Lord.
But I say this to you: do not swear at all, either by heaven, since that is
Gods throne; or by the earth, since that is his footstool; or by Jerusalem,
since that is the city of the great king.” Of course, it would be ideal
to be, and known to be, men of our word. However, the ideal remains
the ideal. We need structures and laws to help us reach the ideal.
The truth is that we are still on the way to the
ideal; the perfection of Christian life will take a life-long process.
We must realize that the promise of being a new creation is a reality and yet a
promise. It is something we can experience already but only as a
foretaste. Those times when we are able to live the life of Christ according to
His gospel values, we live out the new creation in us. But there will
also be times when we will fall back to our old ways, as the Old Adam keeps
resurrecting; since the Church teaches that concupiscence remains even after
our sins are forgiven. That is why, the growth to holiness is a
matter of making progress, and sometimes retrogress.
Growth in holiness is
likened to a young man in his adolescence. Those who are in this stage of adolescence
are often confused. They are searching for their identity. They are
not exactly adults but they are no longer children. They want
independence and freedom. At the same time, they do not know how to
handle freedom very well. Often, they make a mess of things, of their own
lives and of others’. Emotionally, they are confused as well, wanting to love
but often confused as to what is love. As a result, their friends and
loved ones get hurt. Sometimes, they are so contradictory in their
lifestyle and their needs that they confuse the adults too. They are
going through an identity crisis.
We, too, in our
spiritual life will also go through this roller coaster as well. This is the frustrating part of
wanting to be good. On one hand, we so desire to live the life of
Christ. We want to give our lives to the Lord. On the other hand,
we have our human needs for love, emotional and sexual needs; pleasure and
physical needs. After all, we are not pure spirit. So there is a
constant struggle of wanting to be disciplined and go beyond the earthly to the
spiritual, yet to repress our desires is even worse than to admit them.
For what is repressed will surface in ways beyond our control when the
situation permits it. Denying our human needs will not heal us and make
us whole.
What is important to
realize is that God does not expect us to achieve perfection overnight. St Paul wrote, “From now onwards,
therefore, we do not judge anyone by the standards of the flesh.” God is
patient with us. He allows us to make mistakes so that we can learn and
grow. Grace does not destroy nature. Even in sin, grace is
operative. That is why St Paul says, “Where sin increases, grace abounds
all the more.” (Rom 5:20) Life is
itself a pedagogy. Through mistakes and failures, we learn to grow and
become wiser and disciplined. Again, the letter to the Hebrews tells us
that the Lord disciplines those whom He loves. “My son, do not make light of
the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the
Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his
son.” (Heb 12:5-6; cf. Prov 3:11-12) Even Jesus, we read in
Hebrews, learnt obedience through suffering. “Son though he was, he
learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the
source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” (Heb 5:8-9)
Secondly, we must
remember that perfection in life is solely the work of God’s grace, not our
efforts. It
is Christ who makes us perfect, not by our own merits. So we must not
fall into pride because of impatience. Rather, in our endeavor to grow in
integrity and holiness, we must simply rely on His grace.
And when we fall into
sin, let us not be discouraged.
Precisely, the invitation to be reconciled is always given to us.
St Paul says, “In other words, God in Christ was reconciling the world to
himself, not holding men’s faults against them, and he has entrusted to us the
news that they are reconciled.” Let us turn to the Lord whenever we fail
and know that He is there ready to forgive us and raise us up to walk in the
right path again. Like the psalmist, we are called to remember that the
Lord is compassion and love. “The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger
and rich in mercy. It is he who forgives all your guilt, who heals every one of
your ills, who redeems your life from the grave, who crowns you with love and
compassion. His wrath will come to an end; he will not be angry forever. He
does not treat us according to our sins nor repay us according to our
faults.” So it is with this confidence in His everlasting and
unconditional love and mercy, that we can gradually heal our brokenness.
Although justification
and holiness is pure grace, we on our part must cooperate with His grace as
much as we can.
We must never go to the extreme of cheapening the cost of grace that Jesus won
for us. We must not take His grace for granted, as St Paul also warns us,
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By
no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”
(Rom 6:1-2) So let us take courage
and be full of hope. We must not allow the devil to make us fall into
despair just because we have not yet arrived at the fullness of a holy life.
“So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were appealing through
us, and the appeal that we make in Christ’s name is: be reconciled to
God. For our sake God made the sinless one into sin, so that in him we
might become the goodness of God.”
In humility, we turn to the Lord so that
encouraged by His love alone, we too can choose to die with Him and for
Him. “The love of Christ overwhelms us when we reflect that if one man
has died for all, then all men should be dead; and the reason he died for all
was so that living men should live no longer for themselves but for him who
died and was raised to life for them.”
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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