20190929 HEALING
A HEARTLESS HEART BY CURING THE SIN OF INDIFFERENCE
29 SEPTEMBER,
2019, Sunday, 26th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Green.
|
First reading
|
Amos 6:1,4-7 ©
|
The almighty Lord says this:
Woe to those ensconced so snugly in Zion
and to those who feel so safe on the
mountain of Samaria,
those famous men of this first of nations
to whom the House of Israel goes as
client.
Lying on ivory beds
and sprawling on their divans,
they dine on lambs from the flock,
and stall-fattened veal;
they bawl to the sound of the harp,
they invent new instruments of music like
David,
they drink wine by the bowlful,
and use the finest oil for anointing
themselves,
but about the ruin of Joseph they do not
care at all.
That is why they will be the first to be
exiled;
the sprawlers’ revelry is over.
|
Responsorial Psalm
|
|
Psalm 145(146):7-10 ©
|
My soul, give praise to
the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
It is the Lord who keeps faith for ever,
who is just to those who are
oppressed.
It is he who gives bread to the hungry,
the Lord, who sets prisoners
free.
My soul, give praise to
the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
It is the Lord who gives sight to the
blind,
who raises up those who are
bowed down.
It is the Lord who loves the just,
the Lord, who protects the
stranger.
My soul, give praise to
the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
The Lord upholds the widow and orphan
but thwarts the path of the
wicked.
The Lord will reign for ever,
Zion’s God, from age to age.
My soul, give praise to
the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
|
Second reading
|
|
1 Timothy 6:11-16 ©
|
As a man dedicated to God, you must aim to
be saintly and religious, filled with faith and love, patient and gentle. Fight
the good fight of the faith and win for yourself the eternal life to which you
were called when you made your profession and spoke up for the truth in front
of many witnesses. Now, before God the source of all life and before Christ,
who spoke up as a witness for the truth in front of Pontius Pilate, I put to
you the duty of doing all that you have been told, with no faults or failures,
until the Appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who at the due time will be revealed
by God, the blessed and only Ruler of all,
the King of kings and the Lord of lords,
who alone is immortal,
whose home is in inaccessible light,
whom no man has seen and no man is able to
see:
to him be honour and everlasting power.
Amen.
|
Gospel Acclamation
|
Jn10:27
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
The sheep that belong to me listen to my
voice,
says the Lord,
I know them and they follow me.
Alleluia!
|
Or:
|
2Co8:9
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus Christ was rich,
but he became poor for your sake,
to make you rich out of his poverty.
Alleluia!
|
Gospel
|
Luke 16:19-31 ©
|
Jesus said to the Pharisees: ‘There was a
rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently
every day. And at his gate there lay a poor man called Lazarus, covered with
sores, who longed to fill himself with the scraps that fell from the rich man’s
table. Dogs even came and licked his sores. Now the poor man died and was
carried away by the angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and
was buried.
‘In
his torment in Hades he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off with Lazarus
in his bosom. So he cried out, “Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to dip
the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these
flames.” “My son,” Abraham replied “remember that during your life good things
came your way, just as bad things came the way of Lazarus. Now he is being
comforted here while you are in agony. But that is not all: between us and you
a great gulf has been fixed, to stop anyone, if he wanted to, crossing from our
side to yours, and to stop any crossing from your side to ours.”
‘The
rich man replied, “Father, I beg you then to send Lazarus to my father’s house,
since I have five brothers, to give them warning so that they do not come to
this place of torment too.” “They have Moses and the prophets,” said Abraham
“let them listen to them.” “Ah no, father Abraham,” said the rich man “but if
someone comes to them from the dead, they will repent.” Then Abraham said to
him, “If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not
be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.”’
HEALING A
HEARTLESS HEART BY CURING THE SIN OF INDIFFERENCE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ AMOS 6:1.4-7; 1 TIMOTHY 6:11-16; LUKE 16:19-31 ]
When we are in pain, it is only natural to
focus on that area that is hurting. So when people come for
healing, they seek an immediate relief from their pain, be it physical,
emotional, psychological or spiritual. Yet, if we focus too much on the
symptoms and fail to deal with the root of our pains, we might find ourselves
seeking healing again and again. Much of our brokenness in life
and pain are caused by the sin of indifference or negligence.
Consequently, it is
important that we pay attention to what the scripture readings of today is
warning us, namely, the sin of indifference. We read in the gospel reading that the rich
man was sent to hell at the end of his life. We are not told that he did
anything wrong. In fact he did nothing towards anyone. That
was his sin! He did nothing. His was a sin of omission that arose
from indifference to what was happening around him. He was
apparently enjoying himself, oblivious to the poor outside his gate.
Truly, when we look at our lives,
it is also our indifference and complacency that has led us to where we are
today. We are but suffering the consequences of our
negligence, either towards ourselves or towards our neighbours and,
most of all, towards God. If our health is poor today, isn’t it because
we have never taken good care of our body? We either ate too much and
unhealthily, or did not have sufficient rest, overworking our body to the point
of breakdown. If our lives are in disorder and in a mess today, isn’t it
because we have not been responsible in the duties and responsibilities
entrusted to us, whether at work or at home? As a result, there is disharmony
in our relationships. Many beautiful relationships have broken down due to the
lack of integrity, sincerity, honesty, fidelity and genuine concern for each
other, or simply because we have taken each other for granted, especially our
spouse and even our siblings. When there is neglect, feelings for each
other die. Love is lost. Without love, there is indifference, which is
the cause of misunderstandings because we no longer feel with each other
anymore.
Indeed, whether it is with respect to our
health, relationships or responsibility, we are now facing the penalty for our
indifference. The worst negligence, and the root cause of our
problems, is in our spiritual life. When we lose contact with God,
and God is out of our lives, this is where all our problems begin. Dives
did not remember God when he was on earth. He was absorbed in a life of
pleasure. Similarly, the Israelites were deaf to God’s call to repentance
and the need to exercise justice. We are no different from them. In
spite of the challenges that come from the Word of God, we are indifferent to
the sins in our personal life and that of society. We have desensitized
ourselves to sin, especially in the perfunctory reception of the
sacraments. Things are not right in society but we could not care less
whether society is losing its moral values of right and wrong.
The danger of
indifference is that it eventually leads to complacency then hostility. None of us become sinners overnight.
None of us commit major offences against our fellowmen or crimes against
society overnight. It all begins with the sin of negligence. A
person loses his bearing, firstly by neglecting his prayer life and then his
sacramental life. Eventually, he will stop going for worship, receiving
the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. No longer listening to
God’s Word, he runs his own life. As God becomes more and more absent
from his life, materialism takes over. He falls into the seductive ways
of a worldly lifestyle offered by Satan. Eventually, he thinks that he is
self-sufficient, like Dives. He becomes even cynical of God and supplants
the place of God, believing that he is formidable. A time will come when
he will even speak against God, mock and ridicule the notion that God exists at
all. This is what is happening in the world today, when atheists are no
longer contented with the rejection of God,but want to eliminate all religions
from public life. Oblivious to the needs of his fellowmen and to the
presence of God, he indulges himself with the things of the world. The
more materialistic he is, the more empty his life becomes, especially when he
makes all sorts of attempts to satisfy the vacuum in his heart fail.
Instead of looking towards God, he commits more immoral actions.
And of course, there is a
forewarning as well. God warned the Israelites, “Woe to those
ensconced so snugly in Zion and to those who feel so safe on the mountain of
Samaria … they will be the first to be exiled; the sprawlers revelry is
over.” Unfortunately Dives learnt this, albeit too late, when he was in
hell.
We too, if we are
unrepentant, will eventually destroy ourselves, our loved ones and families in
the process. When
things fail, be it our business, work, health or family, it might be too late
to regret, like Dives. We will become so bitter with life because when
the reversal of fortunes comes, we would not be able to accept them. We
close our hearts to others and to God. So before things get worse, we
must reflect on our sin of omission. We must never think that the sin of
commission is greater than the sin of omission. In fact the failure to do
good, or to fulfill our responsibilities in life, can be a greater sin than
doing evil. Today, we must awaken our conscience and our sensitivity to
our sins, so that God and His Word can speak to our hearts.
Yes, we are called to imitate
Lazarus in his devotion to God. Although in the gospel,
there is no mention of the good that Lazarus had done, yet his very name means
“God is my help.” Despite his suffering and his wants, Lazarus placed his
total trust in God. This explains why he was given a name, but not the
rich man. In other words, the parable wants us to realize that
because he trusted in God, he was noticed by God and therefore given
recognition. He might be insignificant in the eyes of the world and
before the rich man, but God surely noticed him. This is what the
Psalmist also experienced in his life when he testified, “Blessed he who keeps
faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry. The
Lord sets captives free. The Lord gives sight to the blind. The Lord raises up
those who were bowed down; the Lord loves the just. The Lord protects
strangers.”
For this reason, we are invited to
imitate St Paul in living a holy and saintly life. To prevent
ourselves from falling into sin and suffering the consequences of our neglect,
we must, as St Paul exhorted, “I put to you the duty of doing all that you have
been told, with no faults or failures, until the Appearing of our Lord Jesus
Christ.” Yes, Christian life is an ongoing spiritual warfare against sin
and complacency. Thus, we must “fight the good fight of the faith and win
for yourself the eternal life to which you were called.” St Paul urged
Timothy, “As a man dedicated to God, you must aim to be saintly and religious,
filled with faith and love, patient and gentle.” The only way to avoid
falling into a state of emptiness is to strengthen our relationship with
God. Otherwise, we will fall easily into sin and the deeper we fall into
sin, we will eventually lose our taste for God and for His Word.
More importantly, we must remember that we
live not only for this world but for eternity. Life on earth is short
and eternity is eternal! We must therefore not be short-sighted
like Dives. How we live today will determine how we live tomorrow,
and after our life on this earth. If not, we will regret when we die
because we have not lived and loved. Hell is for those who are unable to
love either God, his fellowmen and of course, himself. The rich man, by
closing his heart and eyes to his neigbours, did not have the capacity to love
and to receive love. Yes, the truth is that you cannot take your
riches, powers and glories into heaven. The only things you can take to
heaven are those that you give away!
In the final analysis, happiness
and fulfillment in life is when we live for God and for others. To
be isolated from our fellowmen is to live a life of loneliness. We cannot
reduce ourselves to living an animal life, a life of self-indulgence and one
that only satisfies our body but not our spirit. Created in the image and
likeness of God, we are made for relationship and for love. Only in love,
does man find himself.
The rich man lost his
opportunity, although
as the gospel says, he had all the warnings. What about
you? You too have the Word of God, and better still, Christ the
Lord Himself to teach you the way to life. You have been
given the sacraments, the teachings of Christ, the Church as teacher to guide
you and the Christian community to support you. How have you made use of
the grace that God has given to you? How do you want to live your
life? What and where do you want to give your time, resources and
heart? Where your heart is, there is your treasure! So if you give
your attention only to your self-interests and your needs, you would not be
able to share in the life and love of God. The question is whether we
will hearken to His call and His Word.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment