Thursday, 12 September 2019

PRINCIPLES FOR RIGHT LIVING

20190910 PRINCIPLES FOR RIGHT LIVING


10 SEPTEMBER, 2019, Tuesday, 23rd Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour: Green.


First reading
Colossians 2:6-15 ©

The Lord has brought you to life with him
You must live your whole life according to the Christ you have received – Jesus the Lord; you must be rooted in him and built on him and held firm by the faith you have been taught, and full of thanksgiving.
  Make sure that no one traps you and deprives you of your freedom by some second-hand, empty, rational philosophy based on the principles of this world instead of on Christ.
  In his body lives the fullness of divinity, and in him you too find your own fulfilment, in the one who is the head of every Sovereignty and Power.
  In him you have been circumcised, with a circumcision not performed by human hand, but by the complete stripping of your body of flesh. This is circumcision according to Christ. You have been buried with him, when you were baptised; and by baptism, too, you have been raised up with him through your belief in the power of God who raised him from the dead. You were dead, because you were sinners and had not been circumcised: he has brought you to life with him, he has forgiven us all our sins.
  He has overridden the Law, and cancelled every record of the debt that we had to pay; he has done away with it by nailing it to the cross; and so he got rid of the Sovereignties and the Powers, and paraded them in public, behind him in his triumphal procession.


Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 144(145):1-2,8-11 ©
How good is the Lord to all.
I will give you glory, O God my king,
  I will bless your name for ever.
I will bless you day after day
  and praise your name for ever.
How good is the Lord to all.
The Lord is kind and full of compassion,
  slow to anger, abounding in love.
How good is the Lord to all,
  compassionate to all his creatures.
How good is the Lord to all.
All your creatures shall thank you, O Lord,
  and your friends shall repeat their blessing.
They shall speak of the glory of your reign
  and declare your might, O God.
How good is the Lord to all.


Gospel Acclamation
Ph2:15-16
Alleluia, alleluia!
You will shine in the world like bright stars
because you are offering it the word of life.
Alleluia!
Or:
cf.Jn15:16
Alleluia, alleluia!
I chose you from the world
to go out and bear fruit,
fruit that will last,
says the Lord.
Alleluia!


Gospel
Luke 6:12-19 ©

Jesus chooses his twelve apostles
Jesus went out into the hills to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them ‘apostles’: Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.
  He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and from Jerusalem and from the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured, and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all.


PRINCIPLES FOR RIGHT LIVING


SCRIPTURE READINGS: [  Col 2:6-15Ps145:1-2,8-11Lk 6:12-19 ]
Today with mass media, internet and social media, we are swarmed with many philosophies of life.  All are arguing using human philosophy to establish the truth of their claims.  With relativism, the situation is more confusing as all views of life are held to be true only for a time, or for the person who subscribes to it.  Truth is no longer absolute because according to relativism, truth is always changing.  Of course, ironically, we add that relativism proclaims itself as the absolute truth and principle of looking at life.
Unfortunately, even our Catholics are following the philosophies of the world and drawing out the principles for right living from the relativistic, individualistic, hedonistic, self-centered, materialistic values of the world.   Although they claim themselves to be Christians and Catholic, the doctrines they hold, their perspectives of life, of God, of human anthropology, of morality, of marriage, family and life belong to that of the philosophy of the world, contrary to what is taught by Christ in the gospel.  This is why St Paul wrote, “Make sure that no one traps you and deprives you of your freedom by some second-hand, empty, rational philosophy based on the principles of this world instead of on Christ.”
Indeed, the principles for authentic and right living cannot be based on the wisdom and philosophies of the world.  For us “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”  (1 Cor 1:24) It is on this basis that we revere Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life.  (cf Jn 14:6)  Hence, St Paul writes, “In his body lives the fullness of divinity.”  Christ as a man is truly God.  In Him, God is present.  That explains why Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”  (Jn 14:6f)  We know that Jesus is divine because of His passion and resurrection.  For in the resurrection, He was raised to life by the Father to be seated at His right hand in the Ascension.  “Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  (Phil 2:9-11)  Consequently, He is “the head of every Sovereignty and Power.”  This is the basis for Peter’s declaration before the council, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”  (Acts 4:12)
Only this firm faith in Christ as the Lord can help us to overcome the gates of hell. The Lord said to Peter after he confessed in Him as “the Messiah, the Son of the Living God”, “I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  (Mt 16: 16,18f)  Faith in Jesus as the Son of the Living God is what will keep us from the snares and empty philosophy and wisdom of the world.
This faith in Christ, however, is not reducible to a Christian philosophy.  In other words, faith in Christ is more than just an intellectual faith, a set of doctrines systematically expounded.  This is where the other danger lies.  Some Catholics like to engage themselves in the study of philosophy, scripture and theology.  It is certainly useful and important as part of our growth in faith so that the principles of faith are well founded on truth and not just mere speculation or subjective understanding of Christ.  But if our faith is merely on the intellectual level, it will not stand in the face of competing philosophies and arguments as all philosophies have their own premise.  Most of all, a mere intellectual faith will be challenged and defeated in the face of suffering, pain and tragedy.  This is because faith remains a rational philosophy.
Christian Faith is fundamentally a personal relationship with Christ even though it does not exclude a systematic coherent treatment of Christian beliefs which we call Christian philosophy and Christian theology.  This is what Pope Benedict asserted in his first pontifical encyclical, “God is Love.”  He said, “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”  (Deus Caritas Est, 1)  It is our personal relationship with Christ that makes Christ alive in us.  Hence, St Paul exhorted the Christians, “You must live your whole life according to the Christ you have received – Jesus the Lord; you must be rooted to him and built on him and held firm by the faith you have been taught, and full of thanksgiving.”
Christian Faith is to let Christ live in us in His Spirit.  It is to die to ourselves and live the life of Christ.  Writing to the Galatians, St Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  (Gal 2:19f)  When we allow Christ to live in us through baptism, which is dying to our self, our will, our worldly thinking and worldly wisdom, but subscribe to the gospel that He has taught us, we find life to the fullest.  St Paul wrote, “In him you have been circumcised, with circumcision not performed by human hand, but by the complete stripping of your body and flesh.  This is circumcision according to Christ.  You have been buried with him, when you were baptised; and by baptism, too, you have been raised up with him through your belief in the power of God who raised him from the dead.  You were dead, because you were sinners and had not been circumcised: he has brought you to life with him, he has forgiven us all our sins.”
Indeed, we cannot rely on the false wisdom of the world.  If Jesus were to rely only on human logic, it would be foolish of Him to choose those twelve men as His apostles.  Peter was an impetuous man, not fit to be a leader of the apostolic college.  Like the rest of the apostles, he denied and abandoned Jesus in His hour of need.  Judas the Zealot was a revolutionary who believed in military and armed violence. Judas Iscariot was not only a traitor but a thief.   James and John were following Jesus for personal and political gains.  Matthew was a tax-collector.  Thomas was a doubter.  Nathaniel was skeptical.  By all counts, they were ordinary and uneducated men!  How could they be His apostles?
Yet the Lord chose them not simply through logical thinking but most of all in and through prayer.  We read that “Jesus went out into the hills to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.  When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them.”  The decision was made in the context of prayer, intense contemplation and listening to His Father’s direction.  As St Paul wrote, “Consider your own call, brothers and sisters; not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;  God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”  (1 Cor 1:26-30)  God is able to see more than human beings can see.  God knows that with His Spirit and power, they would be able to be transformed and do great things for Him.
In the same Spirit that exuded from Him, Christ was able to reach out and heal many.  “He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and from Jerusalem and from the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases.  People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured, and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all.”  Science would debunk the possibility of miracles but faith knows that we are finite and nothing is impossible to God for those who believe in Him.  (Lk 13745)  So let draw our faith and the principles of authentic living from Christ and in His Spirit; not from the world.


Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved


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