20190921 BUILDING UP THE
UNITY OF THE CHURCH PRESUPPOSES THAT WE BUILD UP THE INDIVIDUAL FIRST
21 SEPTEMBER,
2019, Saturday, St Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour: Red.
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First reading
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Ephesians 4:1-7,11-13 ©
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I, the prisoner in the Lord, implore you
to lead a life worthy of your vocation. Bear with one another charitably, in
complete selflessness, gentleness and patience. Do all you can to preserve the
unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one Body,
one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you
were called. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is
Father of all, over all, through all and within all.
Each
one of us, however, has been given his own share of grace, given as Christ
allotted it. To some, his gift was that they should be apostles; to some,
prophets; to some, evangelists; to some, pastors and teachers; so that the
saints together make a unity in the work of service, building up the body of
Christ. In this way we are all to come to unity in our faith and in our
knowledge of the Son of God, until we become the perfect Man, fully mature with
the fullness of Christ himself.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 18(19):2-5 ©
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Their word goes forth
through all the earth.
The heavens proclaim the glory of God,
and the firmament shows forth
the work of his hands.
Day unto day takes up the story
and night unto night makes
known the message.
Their word goes forth
through all the earth.
No speech, no word, no voice is heard
yet their span extends through
all the earth,
their words to the utmost
bounds of the world.
Their word goes forth
through all the earth.
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Gospel Acclamation
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cf.Te Deum
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Alleluia, alleluia!
We praise you, O God,
we acknowledge you to be the Lord.
The glorious company of the apostles
praise you, O Lord.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 9:9-13 ©
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As Jesus was walking on, he saw a man
named Matthew sitting by the customs house, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’
And he got up and followed him.
While
he was at dinner in the house it happened that a number of tax collectors and
sinners came to sit at the table with Jesus and his disciples. When the
Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your master eat with
tax collectors and sinners?’ When he heard this he replied, ‘It is not the
healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. Go and learn the meaning of the
words: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. And indeed I did not come to call
the virtuous, but sinners.’
BUILDING UP THE
UNITY OF THE CHURCH PRESUPPOSES THAT WE BUILD UP THE INDIVIDUAL FIRST
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [EPHESIANS 4:1-7, 11-13; MATTHEW 9:9-13]
Today, we celebrate the feast of St
Matthew, an apostle and evangelist. In celebrating his feast as an apostle, we
also celebrate the unity of the Church. This explains why in the
Creed, we profess that we believe “in one, holy, catholic and apostolic
Church.” Apostolicity is one of the criteria to ensure that the Church is
truly in union with Christ in faith expressed in doctrines and morals.
The Church cannot be one if not for the fact of the apostolic succession to
ensure orthodoxy of beliefs, since bishops, who are successors of the apostles,
always act as a college, never as individuals but always in collegiality.
Preserving the unity of
the Church is what St Paul
urges us in the first reading when he wrote, “There is one Body, one Spirit,
just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were called.
There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of all,
over all, through all and within all.” The unity of the Church is
critical since we are called to be the sign and sacrament of unity for the
whole human race. This is the consequence of calling God our Father and
our common baptism in Christ. If God is the Father of us all, then we need to
live as a family and treat everyone as our brothers and sisters. This
union with each other of course is the consequence of sharing the one faith and
one baptism. The Eucharist, which is Christ’s personal presence and also
of His Church, reinforces and strengthens the bond of unity among Christians.
The failure of unity is
the cause of the ineffectiveness of the mission of the Church to the world
today. Because of
disunity among Christians and within the Church itself, we have become a
counter sign. Regardless of what Christians speak about Christ and His
love and the spirit of unity, our division is the biggest scandal to
faith. Non-Christians find it a contradiction that we proclaim so much
about God’s love and forgiveness in Christ but we do not love and forgive each
other in the Church. What is even more painful is that within the
Catholic Church, diocese, parish or organization, there is division.
Disagreement over doctrines, morals and pastoral approaches are dividing us and
making us vulnerable to external attacks on the Church. The world and those
critical of the Church will fuel and exaggerate the division among Christians
or Catholics. What is more insidious is that those professing to be Catholics
are destroying the Church from within or secretly undermining the Church by
advocating doctrines and views contrary to what the Church holds, e,g.
abortion, same sex union, divorce, etc. Unity in the Church is so crucial for
the work of evangelization that Jesus’ last prayer before His death was a
prayer for unity among Christians.
But we cannot speak
about the unity of Christ’s body if we do not attend to the individuals. When we study the division within the
Church, we will realize that it is due to the Church being constituted of
wounded and broken individuals. Although professing the faith, many are
struggling to live an integrated life, reconciling faith with their daily
life. Even though some may serve in Church ministries, they are still
very much infantile in faith, in knowledge and understanding, and worst of all,
still very much emotionally wounded, insecure and suffering from low
self-esteem and anxiety. When we have so many of such people, it is not
surprising that within the Christian community, like that of the early Church,
there are quarrels, misunderstandings, friction and anger. In truth, they
are still very much in need of healing and restoration, in spite of the fact
that they have encountered the mercy and love of the Lord. They are goodwill
people and sincerely want to live a good life, but many are still too attached
to the world and under the bondage of their past.
That is why Jesus came
for the individual sinner.
He came to call Matthew the Tax-collector. He came for the weak, the sick
and the sinner. That was the pointed response to the complaints of the
Pharisees when they asked His disciples, “Why does your master eat with tax
collectors and sinners?’ When he heard this he replied, ‘It is not the healthy
who need the doctor, but the sick. Go and learn the meaning of the words: What
I want is mercy, not sacrifice. And indeed I did not come to call the virtuous,
but sinners.'” The Church cannot be for those who are only healthy, strong,
integrated and mature. If that were the case, there is no need for the
Church. She is called to be a beacon and hope for the hopeless, the sick,
the sinner and the wounded. She is called to be shepherd for the lost
sheep, the wounded, the strayed and the weak sheep. To expect the
Christian community to be devoid of squabbles and tensions is to think that we
all have arrived at sainthood.
Consequently, we must
consider whether we are reaching out to individuals who need help. To speak of the Church as the body
of Christ should not make us impersonal and so communitarian that we forget
that the community is constituted of individuals. We need to minister to
those who still seek reconciliation within oneself, with God and with
others. Isn’t this what St Paul is urging us when he wrote, “In this way
we are all to come to unity in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of
God, until we become the perfect Man, fully mature with the fullness of Christ
himself”?
How do we go about
it? As
the responsorial psalm says, “their message goes out through all the earth.” What
does it mean to say that His message goes out to all the earth? Who is
this ‘all’? Not the world but Christians; we cannot be sent as apostles to the
world if we do not form our Church members to be integrated people and
faith-filled Christians and apostles. So, to celebrate this feast means that we
are to reach out to the many Matthews that need conversion, healing and
growth. This was the reason why Jesus accepted the invitation to dine
with Matthew. He wanted to show and demonstrate His love and acceptance
of sinners and also to let Matthew know that He cared for him as a
person. As Christians, we need to make available to fellow disciples the
healing and reconciliation that they need, so that together we can arrive at
perfect manhood to Christ.
This entails that we provide
ongoing formation and ministering to the members of the Church. Our
task is to help all to become spiritually mature by offering a holistic healing
that touches the mind and heart. This task would demand that our Catholics be
formed intellectually in the faith, in doctrines and morals; be given spiritual
formation in prayer and discernment; in human formation, so that they can
understand the mechanics of emotional growth and relationships; and finally,
pastoral and missionary formation, both in knowledge and skills.
Unfortunately, many of our faithful are quite contented with the basic
knowledge gained when they underwent the Rite of Christian Initiation.
Most think that once they are baptized they are full-fledged adult and mature
Christians. In truth they are still infantile in the faith. They
are contented with a Sunday mass and think it is the only growth for them in
their faith. Hence, Catholics must realize that they need ongoing
formation. Growing in faith is a lifelong process and one cannot stop in faith
formation. There is no such thing as graduation in faith formation.
As a result, newly baptized Catholics or immature Catholics inevitably cause
problems to others or are easily hurt by the sins and weaknesses of fellow
members when they join Church organizations. More tragic still, is that
they become bitter and lose faith completely, first in their fellow Christians,
then ultimately in Christ as well. Faith formation, therefore, must be ongoing
and deal with all the areas of formation that help a person to achieve
integrity in life. We seek to create a culture and spirituality of
communion based on compassion, mutual respect and appreciation of each
other. We want to arrive at what St Paul wrote about what a Christian
community should be, “Bear with one another charitably, in complete
selflessness, gentleness and patience. Do all you can to preserve the unity of
the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. “
Consequently, as Church, St Paul exhorts
us all to make appropriate use of the charisms and talents that the
Spirit has given to us for the building, formation, growth and ministering of
the community. We cannot keep the gifts for ourselves. Whatever
we have received are meant for the building of the community. The stark
setback of the Catholic Church is that our laity is not forthcoming with their
talents in building the community of faith. We have so many Catholics who
are so gifted and successful in their corporate life, but they are not utilizing
their gifts to help the Church to grow and to extend Christ’s kingdom. Of
course, this also has a lot to do with Church leadership because we fail to
encourage, inculcate and tap their resources.
Once again, let us take heed of the
exhortation of St Paul when he said, “I, the prisoner in the Lord, implore you
to lead a life worthy of your vocation.” As members of the
Body of Christ, we have a common Christian vocation, vision and mission to grow
in holiness, build up each other through love and encouragement with a view to
bringing the rest of humanity to come to know Christ and His love through
us. Let us be truly like St Matthew, an apostle and evangelist to
the world, through our deeds and words. But let us begin wherever we are,
in our homes, offices and parish community.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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