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 ©
|
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 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 2:6-15; Ps145:1-2,8-11; Lk 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 1; 37, 45) 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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