20190706
HAS
THE BRIDEGROOM BEEN TAKEN AWAY?
06 JULY, 2019,
Saturday, 13th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Green.
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First reading
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Genesis 27:1-5,15-29 ©
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Jacob obtains Isaac's blessing by fraud
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Isaac had grown old, and his eyes were so
weak that he could no longer see. He summoned his elder son Esau, ‘My son!’ he
said to him, and the latter answered, ‘I am here.’ Then he said, ‘See, I am old
and do not know when I may die. Now take your weapons, your quiver and bow; go
out into the country and hunt me some game. Make me the kind of savoury I like
and bring it to me, so that I may eat, and give you my blessing before I die.’
Rebekah
happened to be listening while Isaac was talking to his son Esau. So when Esau
went into the country to hunt game for his father, Rebekah took her elder son
Esau’s best clothes, which she had in the house, and dressed her younger son
Jacob in them, covering his arms and the smooth part of his neck with the skins
of the kids. Then she handed the savoury and the bread she had made to her son
Jacob.
He
presented himself before his father and said, ‘Father.’ ‘I am here;’ was the
reply ‘who are you, my son?’ Jacob said to his father, ‘I am Esau your
first-born; I have done as you told me. Please get up and take your place and
eat the game I have brought and then give me your blessing.’ Isaac said to his
son, ‘How quickly you found it, my son!’ ‘It was the Lord your God’ he answered
‘who put it in my path.’ Isaac said to Jacob, ‘Come here, then, and let me
touch you, my son, to know if you are my son Esau or not.’ Jacob came close to
his father Isaac, who touched him and said, ‘The voice is Jacob’s voice but the
arms are the arms of Esau!’ He did not recognise him, for his arms were hairy
like his brother Esau’s, and so he blessed him. He said, ‘Are you really my son
Esau?’ And he replied, ‘I am.’ Isaac said, ‘Bring it here that I may eat the
game my son has brought, and so may give you my blessing.’ He brought it to him
and he ate; he offered him wine, and he drank. His father Isaac said to him,
‘Come closer, and kiss me, my son.’ He went closer and kissed his father, who
smelled the smell of his clothes.
He
blessed him, saying:
‘Yes, the smell of my son
is like the smell of a fertile field
blessed by the Lord.
May God give you
dew from heaven,
and the richness of the earth,
abundance of grain and wine!
May nations serve you
and peoples bow down before you!
Be master of your brothers;
may the sons of your mother bow down before
you!
Cursed be he who curses you;
blessed be he who blesses you!’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 134(135):1-6 ©
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Praise the Lord, for the
Lord is good.
or
Alleluia!
Praise the name of the Lord,
praise him, servants of the
Lord,
who stand in the house of the Lord
in the courts of the house of
our God.
Praise the Lord, for the
Lord is good.
or
Alleluia!
Praise the Lord for the Lord is good.
Sing a psalm to his name for
he is loving.
For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself
and Israel for his own
possession.
Praise the Lord, for the
Lord is good.
or
Alleluia!
For I know the Lord is great,
that our Lord is high above
all gods.
The Lord does whatever he wills,
in heaven, on earth, in the
seas.
Praise the Lord, for the
Lord is good.
or
Alleluia!
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Gospel Acclamation
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Ps118:135
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Let your face shine on your servant,
and teach me your decrees.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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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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Gospel
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Matthew 9:14-17 ©
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When the bridegroom is taken from them,
then they will fast
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John’s disciples came to him and said,
‘Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?’ Jesus
replied, ‘Surely the bridegroom’s attendants would never think of mourning as
long as the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come for the
bridegroom to be taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a
piece of unshrunken cloth on to an old cloak, because the patch pulls away from
the cloak and the tear gets worse. Nor do people put new wine into old
wineskins; if they do, the skins burst, the wine runs out, and the skins are
lost. No; they put new wine into fresh skins and both are preserved.’
HAS THE
BRIDEGROOM BEEN TAKEN AWAY?
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Gn 27:1-5. 15-29; Ps 135:1-6; Mt 9:14-17]
The Church’s
relationship with the Lord is often portrayed as a marriage, a romance between Jesus and the
Church. Jesus is the bridegroom and the Church is His bride. When
we think of a wedding, sentiments of joy, celebration, laughter, love,
friendship and union are expressed. So, if the bridegroom is with the
Church, then we must be full of life, love and passion for Jesus and the Good
News. The Church must be a vibrant, evangelistic and missionary
Church. We must be alive with the Good News and reaching out with joy and
passion to others.
But are our Catholic
communities manifesting the joys and life of a wedding celebration? The truth is that in many Catholic
communities, the church only has elderly people attending the services.
There is no life and sometimes even hardly any activities. The young are
missing from the life of the parishes. Mass attendance is poor.
Homilies are boring. Some of the services seem more like a funeral
service than a wedding. Indeed, many of our parishes, even if they appear
to be alive, are maintenance churches. They are contented with a large
attendance of worshippers, but in truth hardly 10% are active in the Catholic
community. And out of this 10 %, their faith is weak and shallow, without
real formation in spiritual life and sound doctrines, and evangelical
zeal. It gives the impression that it is alive, just like the case of
Isaac who thought that Jacob was his son Esau, simply because he smelt the
clothes of Esau and felt his hairy arms. It is just a show, a
deception. Yet, this is the truth in many of our parishes as well.
This is the irony of the
Catholic Church. Her strength has become her liability. The Catholic Church is more than 2000
years old. She is the oldest institution in the world. Over the
years, she has established herself all over the world, present in every
land. Over the years, the institution has grown to serve the universal
Church of 1.2 billion Catholics. Over the years, the liturgy has
developed, structures, offices and organizations have been established and some
renewed. Layers and layers of tradition have developed in the
Church. Many of these institutions have been fossilized and change
becomes very difficult because of the size and traditions that have been
entrenched in the cultures of our people. As a result, we have become
complacent. The Church appears to be more interested in preserving the
traditions, the institutions and the structures rather than being evangelical
minded. Those in charge of such institutions often get sucked into the
system and are conditioned to maintain the status quo.
Indeed, like Isaac, we
have unfortunately lost our vision.
“Isaac had grown old, and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer
see.” We are myopic and we are blind to the urgency to renew the
Church. We are contented with where we are. At the present moment,
it is true that our churches are packed, which again is a deception because
many of them are migrants. Many of our young people have left the Church
after confirmation. Our Catholic schools are losing favour with our own
Catholics because some feel that they lack both the quality, not just in academic
performance but also in Catholic ethos and spirituality. Our conversion
rate hovers at around 1200 a year when we have 373,000 Catholics. But we
are quite happy because the Sunday collections are more than enough to maintain
the parish. There are programs to keep the parishioners occupied.
The services and needs of the parish are well taken care of by workers or
volunteers in the Church. But is the Catholic population alive in the
faith? Are they active? Are we producing more priestly and religious
vocations, the sign of a community of faith? Are we reaching out to those
who are seeking to find meaning and salvation in Christ? The danger is
that if we do not realize the urgency of renewal and change, then one day the
bridegroom will be taken away and we will find the Church redundant.
So what must be done to
renew the Church and rediscover her evangelical zeal? In the
gospel, Jesus made it clear. We need new wine and new wineskins.
What the Church badly needs is a renewal of the hearts of our people.
They need the new wine! We
need to renew their spirit and their love for the Lord. This is the first
thing that needs to be done. Some of our parishes are trying to help
their people to encounter the Lord more deeply through a lively participation
of the Eucharist and renewal programs. The fact remains that very few
parishioners register for such programs, maybe a couple of hundreds, even for
big parishes; some less than 50. Most are Sunday Catholics. They
are happy to come to church every Sunday for regular maintenance and live their
life as usual after mass, without bringing the gospel life into their place of
work and their families and social life.
That is why I am
convinced that the future of the Church lies in the new evangelical movements. Renewal is coming from those in the
charismatic renewal, retreat centers, spirituality centers, the
Neo-Catechumenate, the Young communities such as the Office of Young People and
Jesus Youth, renewal movements such as Couples for Christ, El Shaddai, social
and charitable organizations under the umbrella of Caritas and Charis.
These organizations are new and are free from the burden of structures and
traditions. They are open to change and can adapt to the times.
Only when people have been touched by the Spirit of God, will they be filled
with zeal and passion to spread the Good News. Through these renewal
movements, the parish can then be rejuvenated. At least some of them who
have encountered the Lord deeply and been through a conversion experience, can
start the process of injecting new life into our parishes.
However, renewal of the hearts of our
people is not enough unless the structures and institutions are changed as
well. The Church needs to be courageous in revising her Canon
Laws and the way the Church is structured. It is still too hierarchical,
bureaucratic, dominated by the clergy and elderly priests and religious, so
much so she lacks vibrancy and evangelical zeal. Without greater
participation of the laity and the women in decision-making and theological
contribution, the Church will soon become outdated, irrelevant and marginalized
by the world. Changes are being made by Pope Francis, but it has been
slow going because of resistance from the establishment. Unfortunately,
some of these new evangelical movements are also already old! Some have
allowed their traditions to stifle their growth because they failed to pass on
their encounters with Christ to the younger generations. Those new
movements whose leaders are not willing to move out and let the younger
generation come in will also eventually be fossilized like the rest of the
churches.
Indeed, new wine in new
wineskins, otherwise, “the skins
burst, the wine runs out, and the skins are lost. No; they put new wine
into fresh skins and both are preserved.” The zeal of the young people
and those renewed will be stifled by the fossilized establishment which are not
open to change and new ideas because of pride and insecurity. It is the
same too when we try to put “a piece of unshrunken cloth on to an old cloak
because the patch pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse.”
Without a radical change of the heart and the institutions, we will be back to
square one.
Perhaps God is allowing
the scandals in the Church among the hierarchy to bring the Church down so as
to rebuild it.
The sins of the clergy will help our priests, bishops and cardinals to come
down from their high horses, just like Jacob and his mother Rebekah who cheated
Isaac, were punished for their dishonest acts. Jacob had to leave his
mother and flee to Haran to take refuge from Esau who wanted to kill him.
It took him 20 years to be reconciled with Esau. (cf Gen 33:1-4) So too, when the bridegroom
is taken away from us, then we will fast. “Surely the bridegroom’s attendants
would never think of mourning as long as the bridegroom is still with
them? But the time will come for the bridegroom to be taken away from
them, and then they will fast.” The time has come for the clergy and the
people of God to fast and put on sackcloth so that there will be a renewal of
hearts followed by a renewal of structures and institutions before the Church
can rise in glory again.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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