20190717 ENCOUNTERING GOD WHO IS OUR FATHER
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour: Green.
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First reading
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The burning bush
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Moses was
looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, priest of Midian. He led
his flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of
God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the shape of a flame of
fire, coming from the middle of a bush. Moses looked; there was the bush
blazing but it was not being burnt up. ‘I must go and look at this strange
sight,’ Moses said, ‘and see why the bush is not burnt.’
Now the Lord saw him go forward to look, and God
called to him from the middle of the bush. ‘Moses, Moses!’ he said. ‘Here I
am,’ Moses answered. ‘Come no nearer,’ he said. ‘Take off your shoes, for the
place on which you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your fathers,’ he
said, ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ At this Moses
covered his face, afraid to look at God.
And the Lord said, ‘The cry of the sons of Israel has
come to me, and I have witnessed the way in which the Egyptians oppress them,
so come, I send you to Pharaoh to bring the sons of Israel, my people, out of
Egypt.’
Moses said to God, ‘Who am I to go to Pharaoh and
bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?’ ‘I shall be with you,’ was the answer
‘and this is the sign by which you shall know that it is I who have sent you...
After you have led the people out of Egypt, you are to offer worship to God on
this mountain.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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The Lord is
compassion and love.
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.
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.
The Lord does
deeds of justice,
gives
judgement for all who are oppressed.
He made known
his ways to Moses
and
his deeds to Israel’s sons.
The Lord is
compassion and love.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Mt11:25
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Alleluia,
alleluia!
Blessed are you,
Father,
Lord of heaven
and earth,,
for revealing
the mysteries of the kingdom
to mere
children.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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You have hidden these
things from the wise and revealed them to little children
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Jesus exclaimed,
‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from
the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father,
for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by
my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the
Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’
17 JULY, 2019, Wednesday, 15th Week, Ordinary Time
ENCOUNTERING GOD WHO IS OUR FATHER
Why do some
people believe in God and others do not? Why is it that some of the brightest and
most intelligent people are God-fearing and others are not? Why is it
that some believers are more passionate in their faith than others? It
all boils down to one’s encounter with the living God. How we encounter
God will determine how we relate to Him. This is true even in daily
life. We relate to different persons differently, depending on how they
respond to us. If they are friendly and disarming, we will also respond
with warmth and allow ourselves to be vulnerable to them. So, too, in our
relationship with God.
What, then,
prevents a person from encountering God? Firstly, many of us are
distracted by our worldly commitments. We are so focused on our work and ambition that we fail to
see the presence of God in our daily lives. We go on with our day-to-day
activities, giving our heart and soul to them, meeting all kinds of people
daily in our work, and yet fail to see God’s presence in what we do and who we
meet. The truth is that as the angel told Moses, “Take off your shoes,
for the place on which you stand is holy ground.” The whole of creation
is filled with the presence of God. If we pay attention to what is
happening around us, the people we meet and speak with, the work we do, we
would also see the face of God. And that was what happened to
Moses. He encountered God not through some planned activity but in the
course of his daily work, looking after the sheep of Jethro. He did
not seem to be an exceptionally holy and pious man, always at prayer. He
was an ordinary person like any of us. He fled from Egypt and settled
down in Midian. He was just minding the flock of Jethro, his
father-in-law, priest of Midian, doing his work quietly. He was not seeking
a God-experience or expecting a personal revelation from God. Whilst
tending the sheep, “the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the shape of a
flame of fire, coming from the middle of a bush.”
Secondly,
many cannot encounter God because of a false image of God as a result of their
upbringing. Our parents, particularly our earthly fathers, are images of God
as our Father. But many of our earthly fathers are imperfect as models of
our heavenly Father. Some fathers are impatient, harsh, selfish and irresponsible.
So if our earthly image of our parents is negative, then our relationship with
our heavenly Father is marked with distrust, anger, fear, suspicion,
resentment, and distancing. It is difficult to conceive of a heavenly Father
that looks after us when our earthly father is tyrannical, impulsive and
capricious in his dealings with us. We tend to project on God what we
experience in this life.
In contrast, Jesus’ relationship
with God is one of a Father-Son relationship. He calls God, “Abba” or
daddy in the most intimate terms. He prayed to His Father like a Son who
trusts in His Father’s love and providence. That was how He prayed in
today’s gospel. He exclaimed, “I bless you Father, Lord of heaven and of
earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing
them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to
do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows
the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and
those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Jesus knows the Father
intimately and personally. He understands the heart and mind of His
Father. For that reason, He is identified with Him in every way,
especially in His love for His people.
Thirdly, many
people lose faith in God when they experience trials and challenges without the
support of anyone. They feel that God is not with them and God does not care
for them. If that were so, there is no reason to believe in God. In
truth, God is always encountered when we experience His mercy and compassion
whenever we call to Him. Conversely, it is when we are in a state of
helplessness and desperation that we are driven to come to Him because we know
that we can no longer help ourselves. It is when we surrender in faith to
God’s mercy and wisdom that we come to know the love of God. This was how
the psalmist’s faith was founded. “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. 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 does deeds of justice, gives judgement
for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses and his deeds
to Israel’s sons.” Indeed, when Moses was in doubt about his ability, he
heard God saying, “I shall be with you and this is the sign by which you shall
know that it is I who have sent you.”
This was
clearly the case of Moses when he encountered God’s mercy and love. It was at
Mount Horeb that the Lord revealed Himself to Moses as the God of his Father,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He encountered
God as the merciful and compassionate one. This was because the Lord said to
him, “And now the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me, and I have
witnessed the way in which the Egyptians oppress them, so come, I send you to
Pharaoh to bring the sons of Israel, my people, out of Egypt.” For Moses,
God was truly “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast
love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” (Ex 34:6f) As a consequence of this
encounter, his life was changed radically. He was not just transformed
but was liberated from his fears of the Egyptians. Instead, he felt the
call of the Lord for him to liberate his people from slavery.
Fourthly, the
greatest obstacle in coming to encounter God is always our pride. We have
the intellectual pride of the atheist and the agnostic. There are some people who
are so full of themselves and proud of their intellect and knowledge that they
think they can solve all the problems and mysteries of this world. They
would not believe in anything that they cannot understand, and that is why they
believe very little since we do not understand most things in life. They
expect God to measure Himself according to their finite and limited mind.
They lack the humility to recognize that the mystery of life is beyond human
capacity to comprehend and to manage. This, unfortunately, is the
arrogance of the modern world. The human person has extolled himself so
highly that he believes he knows everything and he knows best. He does
not need any God or revelation to guide his life.
But there is
also another kind of subtle pride which is that of the religious. One would think that
religious people encounter God, which is not always the case. There are
some religious people, clerical or lay, who have no personal experience of God
because their faith in God is purely an intellectual conception of God.
They study the scripture, the history of the Church, the traditions, the
different theological interpretations, but it is all cerebral knowledge.
They also think they know a lot about God and His wisdom and His ways, but in
reality, they have never experienced Him. They have not much time to
relate to Him. They are afraid to waste time in prayer and in
silence. They are always reading, thinking, writing and teaching about
God. They can produce all kinds of beautiful theology about God and yet
have no real personal relationship with Him.
This is why the
Lord in the gospel said, “I bless you Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for
hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere
children.”
Only those of us who, like little children, can submit in faith and in trust to
our Father, believing in Him and trusting in His wisdom and providence, can
truly encounter His love and care for us. Humility is the gateway to
understanding God and His ways because we are docile and vulnerable.
Humility makes us aware of our finiteness, dependence on Him and our
inadequacies. So the only way to come to God is by having a humble heart
and an open mind. Without humility, pride would stand in the way.
Pride will lead us to sin and the consequences of sin, which harden our heart
further in our relationship with God.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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