20190819
SEEKING
TRUE FREEDOM AND JOY IN LIFE
19 AUGUST, 2019,
Monday, 20th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Green.
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First reading
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Judges 2:11-19 ©
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The Lord appoints judges to rescue the
men of Israel
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The sons of Israel did what displeases the
Lord, and served the Baals. They deserted the Lord, the God of their ancestors,
who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from the
gods of the peoples round them. They bowed down to these; they provoked the
Lord; they deserted the Lord to serve Baal and Astarte. Then the Lord’s anger
flamed out against Israel. He handed them over to pillagers who plundered them;
he delivered them to the enemies surrounding them, and they were not able to
resist them. In every warlike venture, the hand of the Lord was there to foil
them, as the Lord had warned, as the Lord had sworn to them. Thus he reduced
them to dire distress.
Then
the Lord appointed judges for them, and rescued the men of Israel from the
hands of their plunderers. But they would not listen to their judges. They
prostituted themselves to other gods, and bowed down before these. Very quickly
they left the path their ancestors had trodden in obedience to the orders of
the Lord; they did not follow their example. When the Lord appointed judges for
them, the Lord was with the judge and rescued them from the hands of their
enemies as long as the judge lived, for the Lord felt pity for them as they
groaned under the iron grip of their oppressors. But once the judge was dead,
they relapsed and behaved even worse than their ancestors. They followed other
gods; they served them and bowed before them, and would not give up the
practices and stubborn ways of their ancestors at all.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm
105(106):34-37,39-40,43-44 ©
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O Lord, remember me out
of the love you have for your people.
They failed to destroy the peoples
as the Lord had given command,
but instead they mingled with the nations
and learned to act as they
did.
O Lord, remember me out
of the love you have for your people.
They worshipped the idols of the nations
and these became a snare to
entrap them.
They even offered their own sons
and their daughters in
sacrifice to demons.
O Lord, remember me out
of the love you have for your people.
So they defiled themselves by their deeds
and broke their marriage bond
with the Lord
till his anger blazed against his people;
he was filled with horror at
his chosen ones.
O Lord, remember me out
of the love you have for your people.
Time after time he rescued them,
but in their malice they dared
to defy him.
In spite of this he paid heed to their
distress,
so often as he heard their
cry.
O Lord, remember me out
of the love you have for your people.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Ps118:24
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Train me, Lord, to observe your law,
to keep it with my heart.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Mt5:3
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Alleluia, alleluia!
How happy are the poor in spirit:
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 19:16-22 ©
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If you wish to be perfect, go and sell
what you own
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There was a man who came to Jesus and
asked, ‘Master, what good deed must I do to possess eternal life?’ Jesus said
to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is one alone who is good.
But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ He said, ‘Which?’
‘These:’ Jesus replied ‘You must not kill. You must not commit
adultery. You must not bring false witness. Honour your father and mother,and: you
must love your neighbour as yourself.’ The young man said to him, ‘I
have kept all these. What more do I need to do?’ Jesus said, ‘If you wish to be
perfect, go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will
have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ But when the young man heard
these words he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.
SEEKING TRUE
FREEDOM AND JOY IN LIFE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Jdg 2:11-19; Ps 106:34-37, 39-40, 43-44; Mt 19:16-22 ]
God created us with the
gift of freedom.
This is the greatest gift that God gave to His angels and to us. No other
creature enjoys the same freedom that we have. That is why intrinsic to
man’s happiness and joy is freedom. Without freedom, life has no
meaning. What is the use of living in a King’s palace when we are cut off
from the world even if we have everything we want to eat and enjoy in the
palace? Pleasures and comforts alone cannot give us true
happiness. Indeed, often people envy those who are rich, famous and
powerful. They live in places where there is high security. No one
can simply go and visit them. They cannot walk freely among the
people. They cannot do anything they like but are restricted because they
need privacy and security. Most of all, they need to please their fans
and their benefactors and their followers all the time for fear that they will
lose popularity and their support.
This was the case of the
sons of Israel in the first reading. Having settled down in Canaan, very
quickly, they forgot the God who liberated them from the slavery of the Egyptians, taught
them detachment and to place their trust in God who looked after them in the
desert for forty years. Instead, “the sons of Israel did what displeases
the Lord and served the Baals. They deserted the Lord, the God of their
ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other
gods from the gods of the peoples round them. They bowed down to these;
they provoked the Lord; they deserted the Lord to serve Baal and
Astarte.” By worshipping these gods, they subjected themselves to
superstitious beliefs. They enslaved themselves to these foreign gods out of
fear that they would be punished. Hence, they worshipped Baal and Astarte
because they were the god and goddess of fertility. They believed in them
more than Yahweh whom they thought was only a trek-God that moved with the
nomads in the desert. By selling themselves to the gods of the
Canaanites, they also imbibed their culture and values that were materialistic
and inward-looking, went against the Ten Commandments which they received from
God through Moses, and all the other laws as well to guide them in living a
harmonious and just life.
As a consequence, they
became weak, disunited and lacked focus. Being in disarray, and without living as
the People of God, they were susceptible to the natives living there. The
consequence of their sins was anthropomorphically expressed in terms of God’s
anger against them. “Then the Lord’s anger flamed out against
Israel. He handed them over to pillagers who plundered them; he delivered
them to the enemies surrounding them, and they were not able to resist
them. In every warlike venture, the hand of the Lord was there to foil
them, as the Lord had warned, as the Lord had sworn to them. Thus he
reduced them to dire distress.”
But they never learnt
their lessons throughout their history. Even when God showed them mercy and sent
them judges to rescue them, “yet once the judge was dead, they relapsed and
behaved even worse than their ancestors. They followed other gods; they
served them and bowed before them, and would not give up the practices and
stubborn ways of their ancestors at all.” Indeed, man never learns
from his mistakes. This is the folly of man. We continue to repeat
the mistakes our ancestors had made. Today, we continue to be slaves to
our passion for the things of this world, for fame and glory. We seek
money, power and pleasures. We are addicted to the sin of lust promoted
by pornography and a promiscuous lifestyle by society. We are slaves of
greed that leads to gambling and cheating. We are not able to discipline
ourselves in our sensual appetite. We fall into the sin of gluttony,
eating irresponsibly and unhealthily, putting on weight and destroying our
bodies. We are proud and easily angered by petty issues and are easily
affected by the opinions of others, often reacting to them rather than acting
with objectivity and firmness. And so in truth, we have lost our freedom.
But there is another
kind of freedom that is not exactly free – obeying the laws as given by
God. This
was what the rich man apparently sought to do. He said to Jesus, “Master,
what good deed must I do to possess eternal life?” Jesus said to
him, “‘If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ He said,
‘Which?’ ‘These,’ Jesus replied, ‘You must not kill. You must not commit
adultery. You must not steal. You must not bring false
witness. Honour your father and mother, and: You must love your neighbour
as yourself.’ The young man said to him ‘I have kept all these.
What more do I need to do?'” This young man seems to have done all that
the law required. He had fulfilled the laws but yet there was emptiness
in his heart. Something was lacking. Something was missing.
Indeed, we have many
so-called good Catholics who live according to the laws of God and of the
Church. They go to Church every
Sunday, say their prayers, fulfill their obligations, donate some money to the
Church and to the poor, and may even be involved in church ministries. Yet,
they are unhappy, irritable, quarrelsome and divisive wherever they are.
They seem to have no life. Being a Catholic is a chore, a duty and an
obligation. It is like those couples who are married but are without
love. At most they co-exist amicably, or sometimes, live in cold war,
each living their own life. Such a marriage, although faithful to the vow
of indissolubility, does not live out the spirit of marriage as a Sacrament of
God’s love. This was precisely the case of the young man. He was
meticulously observing all the commandments. But his life was
empty. He tried to do what the Law required but there was no
happiness, no joy because there was no real freedom.
In such a context, the
Lord offers us real freedom. The
Lord said to the young man, “If you wish to be perfect, go and sell what you
own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then
come, follow me.” Jesus was inviting the man to let go of his attachments
in life. It was his attachment to the laws and to his wealth that
prevented him from living an authentic life of freedom. We read that
“when the young man heard these words he went away sad, for he was a man of
great wealth.” Any form of attachment, whether it is wealth, lifestyle,
status, pleasures or people, or even fear of God’s punishment will prevent us
from true freedom and joy. In fact, so long as we are attached to
something or someone other than God, we are being controlled by what we
possess. All our decisions are made not from the perspective of ultimate
freedom and joy but from pragmatic needs here and now. We do not
live courageously but are only responding. So the question we need to ask is,
if we want perfect joy, what is preventing us from being truly free?
True freedom is not
simply the freedom to do what we like, but what we do must be life-giving both
to ourselves and to others. When we act and live in such a way that is detrimental
to our well-being or that of our fellowmen, it is not a real exercise of
freedom but a form of slavery instead. Freedom must be used for love and
service. For in loving and serving others freely, we find great joy and
peace. The money and resources that God has blessed us with belong to Him
and not to us. We are only stewards of His blessings. Only those
who live freely like Jesus, trusting in divine providence and using His life
for the service of God and love of His fellowmen, are truly free. So the
Lord told the rich young man, “come, follow me!” This is the childlike
trust the Lord is asking of us. (cf Mt 19:13-15)
Following Jesus is the
key to true freedom and joy in life. This is the secret of living. Jesus
did not live for Himself. Jesus did not obey the Laws out of fear.
On the contrary, He came to perfect the laws by living out the spirit of the
laws, which is the spirit of love. He did not merely observe some rules.
The laws are to be obeyed because they are guidelines to love and
charity. All of us are called to share in this freedom according to our
state of life. That is why some have chosen, as Jesus said earlier, to be
eunuchs for the kingdom of God. (Mt 19:12) Some have given up their lives
to be priests, religious and even lay missionaries for the love of Christ and
His people. They live in great joy and freedom because they can give their
lives totally for God’s people without any attachment to what they have.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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