20190726
SEEING
THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD FROM A FRESH PERSPECTIVE
26 JULY, 2019,
Friday, 16th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
White.
These are the readings
for the feria
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First reading
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Exodus 20:1-17 ©
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The Law given at Sinai
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God spoke all these words. He said, ‘I am
the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
slavery.
‘You
shall have no gods except me.
‘You
shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven or
on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to
them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God and I punish the
father’s fault in the sons, the grandsons, and the great-grandsons of those who
hate me; but I show kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my
commandments.
‘You
shall not utter the name of the Lord your God to misuse it, for the Lord will
not leave unpunished the man who utters his name to misuse it.
‘Remember
the sabbath day and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your
work, but the seventh day is a sabbath for the Lord your God. You shall do no
work that day, neither you nor your son nor your daughter nor your servants,
men or women, nor your animals nor the stranger who lives with you. For in six
days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that these
hold, but on the seventh day he rested; that is why the Lord has blessed the
sabbath day and made it sacred.
‘Honour
your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that
the Lord your God has given to you.
‘You
shall not kill.
‘You
shall not commit adultery.
‘You
shall not steal.
‘You
shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
‘You
shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s
wife, or his servant, man or woman, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that
is his.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 18(19):8-11 ©
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Lord, you have the
message of eternal life.
The law of the Lord is perfect,
it revives the soul.
The rule of the Lord is to be trusted,
it gives wisdom to the simple.
Lord, you have the
message of eternal life.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
they gladden the heart.
The command of the Lord is clear,
it gives light to the eyes.
Lord, you have the
message of eternal life.
The fear of the Lord is holy,
abiding for ever.
The decrees of the Lord are truth
and all of them just.
Lord, you have the
message of eternal life.
They are more to be desired than gold,
than the purest of gold
and sweeter are they than honey,
than honey from the comb.
Lord, you have the
message of eternal life.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Jm1:21
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Accept and submit to the word
which has been planted in you
and can save your souls.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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cf.Lk8:15
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are those who,
with a noble and generous heart,
take the word of God to themselves
and yield a harvest through their
perseverance.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 13:18-23 ©
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The man who hears the word and understands it yields
a rich harvest
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Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You are to
hear the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom
without understanding, the evil one comes and carries off what was sown in his
heart: this is the man who received the seed on the edge of the path. The one
who received it on patches of rock is the man who hears the word and welcomes
it at once with joy. But he has no root in him, he does not last; let some
trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, and he falls away at
once. The one who received the seed in thorns is the man who hears the word,
but the worries of this world and the lure of riches choke the word and so he
produces nothing. And the one who received the seed in rich soil is the man who
hears the word and understands it; he is the one who yields a harvest and
produces now a hundredfold, now sixty, now thirty.’
SEEING THE
COMMANDMENTS OF GOD FROM A FRESH PERSPECTIVE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Ex 20:1-17; Ps 19:8-11; Mt 13:18-23 ]
How many of us like to
live under rules and regulations? The truth is that deep within us, because of the
sin of pride and ignorance, many of us, like Adam and Eve, rebel against God
and His commandments. Our first parents exemplified all of us in their
relationship with God. They wanted to have things their way. They
wanted complete autonomy and freedom from submitting to anyone including
God. Hence, there is this hostility sometimes hidden in our hearts when
we read about the commandments of God because we feel that God is taking away
our freedom and happiness in life.
This is primarily
because we lack understanding of the commandments given to us. This is
what the Lord said about those seeds that fell on the pathway. “When anyone hears the word of
the kingdom without understanding, the evil one comes and carries off what was
sown in his heart; this is the man who received the seed on the edge of the
path.” In truth the commands of God are not meant to take away life
and love and freedom. They are meant to give us total freedom. This
is the irony of the commandments of God. This is why Moses told the
people, “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the
blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am
commanding you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments
of the Lord your God, but turn from the way that I am commanding you
today, to follow other gods that you have not known.” (Dt 11:26-28)
The responsorial psalm
articulates this truth when we prayed, “Lord,
you have the message of eternal life. The law of the Lord is perfect,
it revives the soul. The rule of the Lord is to be trusted, it gives
wisdom to the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, they gladden the
heart. The command of the Lord is clear, it gives light to the
eyes.” How do the Ten Commandments give us life?
In the first place, when
God commanded the people saying, “You shall have no gods except me. You shall not make yourself a carved
image or any likeness of anything in heaven or earth beneath or in the waters
under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them” He wanted to
protect the people from making anything on this earth as the absolute in their
life. The truth is that the things of this world are temporal and cannot
last. To worship any creature is to make that creature or thing as the
absolute. The truth is, what we worship, we become. And so when we
worship money, then mammon controls our lives. When we worship our spouse
or our fiancé, we make him or her our God. This can be disastrous when
the person has to leave us either through death, illness or a departure.
When we are slaves to the world, it defeats what God desires for His people
since He is the One who brought the people “out of the house of slavery.”
When God said, “I the Lord your God am a jealous God” it does not mean that He
is jealous in the way we are jealous of others but that He sought to protect
our interests and our freedom from being enslaved to anything that cannot last
and is transient.
Secondly, when God
commanded the people to keep the Sabbath holy, it was for the sake of man so that we know
that ultimately, it is God who provides and we are just asked to cooperate with
His grace. “For six days you shall labour and do all your work,
but the seventh day is a sabbath for the Lord your God.” It was not because God
needed us to worship Him, but so that we will take a break from work instead of
making our work our god, serving our ambition to the detriment of our health,
family life and relationships. It is also to free us from undue anxiety
over our future.
As St James says, “Come now, you who say,
‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there,
doing business and making money.’ Yet you do not even know what
tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a
little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the
Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.'” (Jms 4:13-15)
Instead of relying on himself, man must turn to God and acknowledge Him as the
Lord of their lives in worship and thanksgiving.
Thirdly, when it comes
to relationship with people, God wants us to act justly tempered with
compassion. In
the first place, God told the people that they must honour their parents so
they “may have a long life in the land” that the Lord has given to us.
The failure to respect our parents and to look after them in their old age is
the cause of division in the household. Our parents have much to teach us
with respect to living a good life. They have the experience of life
behind them. Failure to listen to their wisdom will cause us to repeat
the same mistakes in life. Most of all, when we do not honour our
parents, then our children will do the same to us as well. We would be
abandoned by our children when we grow old because they will copy our bad
examples in the way we look after our parents.
Finally, there is
temptation to covet, whether it is someone else’s wife or property. “You shall not commit
adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your
neighbour. You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not
covet your neighbour’s wife, or his servant, man or woman, or his ox, or his
donkey, or anything that is his.” Stealing and coveting often leads to
jealousy, envy, cheating and even killing. When we steal and take things
that are not ours, we cause disorder in society. The truth is that greed
cannot be satisfied. We crave for one thing after another. A person
who is angry, envious, greedy and lustful cannot find peace and joy in his
life.
However, understanding
the beauty of the commandments does not mean that we can obey them. Unfortunately, living a moral life
requires more than merely understanding and knowledge of ethics and
morality. Many people understand the meaning of the laws but yet cannot
live them out. Otherwise, all doctors will be the healthiest people in
the world, all police officers and lawyers would be people with the greatest
integrity. And all priests and religious would be canonized! Yet
sadly, some of the worst crooks and sinners are found among all these
categories.
This is because of both
external and internal factors. In the gospel, the Lord spoke about those
seeds that fell on rocky ground and among thorns. “The one who received it on patches
of rock is the man who hears the word and welcomes it at once with joy.
But he has no root in him, he does not last; let some trial come, or some
persecution on account of the word, and he falls away at once. The one
who received the seed on thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries
of this world and the lure of riches choke the word and so he produces
nothing.” On one hand, we are challenged by the trials of life, the
oppositions and the difficulties of living up to the commandments because of
external factors. Living in a secularized society, it is difficult to
live a life of faith because of so many temptations and negative influence.
On the other hand, we
are also weak because of our own constitution as a result of original sin. We inherit a wounded nature, one
that is susceptible to temptations because of concupiscence, a disorder of the
will and darkness of the intellect, fear of pain and most of all, of
death. This makes us fearful of our life. This explains why our
body succumbs to the temptations of the flesh, seeking comfort and
pleasures. Because we are fearful of pain and especially the pain of
death, we seek to prolong and defend our lives against our enemies and those
who are our competitors. This makes us defensive of ourselves and the
temptation to covet more and more.
Hence, just
understanding the commandments is not enough for us not to break the
laws. This
is because the laws are written on tablets. What is needed is for the
laws to be written in our hearts. The prophet Ezekiel says, “a new
heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will
remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I
will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful
to observe my ordinances.” (Ez 36:26f) So what we need beyond the
laws is the Spirit of God. This is the ground that the Lord said of “the
one who received the seed in rich soil … who hears the word and understands it;
he is the one who yields a harvest and produces now a hundredfold, now sixty,
now thirty.” So whilst Moses gave us the laws, only Jesus can give
us the grace of the Holy Spirit. “From his fullness we have all received,
grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth
came through Jesus Christ.” (Jn 1:16f)
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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