20180706
REACHING OUT TO THE UNCHURCHED
06 JULY, 2018, Friday, 13th Week,
Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
First reading
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Amos 8:4-6,9-12 ©
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A famine not of bread, but of hearing the word of the Lord
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Listen to this, you who trample on the needy
and try to suppress the poor people of the country,
you who say, ‘When will New Moon be over
so that we can sell our corn,
and sabbath, so that we can market our wheat?
Then by lowering the bushel, raising the shekel,
by swindling and tampering with the scales,
we can buy up the poor for money,
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and get a price even for the sweepings of the wheat.’
That day – it is the Lord who speaks –
I will make the sun go down at noon,
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
I am going to turn your feasts into funerals,
all your singing into lamentation;
I will have your loins all in sackcloth,
your heads all shaved.
I will make it a mourning like the mourning for an only son,
as long as it lasts it will be like a day of bitterness.
See what days are coming – it is the Lord who speaks –
days when I will bring famine on the country,
a famine not of bread, a drought not of water,
but of hearing the word of the Lord.
They will stagger from sea to sea,
wander from north to east,
seeking the word of the Lord
and failing to find it.
Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 118(119):2,10,20,30,40,131 ©
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Man does not live on bread alone but on every
word that comes from the mouth of God.
They are happy who do his will,
seeking him with all their hearts,
I have sought you with all my heart;
let me not stray from your commands.
Man does not live on bread alone but on every
word that comes from the mouth of God.
My soul is ever consumed
as I long for your decrees.
I have chosen the way of truth
with your decrees before me.
Man does not live on bread alone but on every
word that comes from the mouth of God.
See, I long for your precepts;
then in your justice, give me life.
I open my mouth and I sigh
as I yearn for your commands.
Man does not live on bread alone but on every
word that comes from the mouth of God.
Gospel Acclamation
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Ps24:4,5
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Teach me your paths, my God,
make me walk in your truth.
Alleluia!
Or:
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Mt11:28
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened,
and I will give you rest, says the Lord.
Alleluia!
Gospel
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Matthew 9:9-13 ©
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It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick
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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.’
REACHING OUT TO THE UNCHURCHED
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Amos 8:4-12; Psalm 119; Mt 9:9-13 ]
When the
Pharisees asked Jesus’ disciples, “Why does your master eat with tax collectors
and sinners?” Jesus 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 mission of Jesus is clearly one of mercy. How is this
mission of mercy expressed? It is not just words or preaching
alone. This is the real weakness of our church. We preach the
message of mercy as a doctrine and as a truth, but the way we conduct ourselves
with respect to our fellowmen is anything but merciful. We are
indifferent to those who suffer injustices, the wounded, the elderly, the sick
and the poor. We are judgemental of sinners; we ostracize them and lack
compassion for the situation they are in. We exclude them from our
communities as if they are lepers, and we are afraid even to be seen with them.
Indeed, some
of us behave like the Israelites during the time of the prophet Amos. There was
a dichotomy between belief and practice. They were apparently
observing all the rituals required of them. In the eyes of the public,
they appeared to be good people. But after the rituals, they cheated and
oppressed the poor. When doing business, they employed dishonest
means. Instead of showing mercy to the poor, they cheated those who were
most vulnerable. Love of God was not expressed in their love for their
neighbours. How can we profess to love God when we do not share His love
for all peoples whom He considered His children? We attend masses and
devotions, be involved in church activities and serve in church organizations,
but when we lack compassion for those who are weak and those who have failed in
Christian life, we are no better than the Israelites.
In today’s
gospel, Jesus challenges us to go beyond talking about mercy to making mercy a
reality. This mercy is expressed concretely in two ways, healing the
sick and proclaiming forgiveness to sinners. Jesus was very focused in
His mission. His only desire was to heal lives, deliver those under the
bondage of the Evil One and reconcile sinners with God. He did not sit in
His office or wait at the synagogue for the sick and sinners to come. He
went out to the marginalized and those who were on the fringes. He walked
among them and lived and ate with them. He made Himself available to
all. We read how Jesus healed all the sick who were brought to Him and
set free all those under bondage. “That evening they brought to him many
who were possessed with demons; and he cast out the spirits with a word, and
cured all who were sick. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the
prophet Isaiah, ‘He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.’” (Mt 8:16f)
In our case, we wait for people to knock at our doors before we offer
help. We expect people to come to us instead of us reaching out to them.
Indeed,
earlier in Chapter 8, we read about the healing ministry of Jesus, which was
one of reaching out. When the leper came to Him, the Lord did not simply heal
him, but He did the most unexpected thing; He stretched out His hand and
touched him and said, “I choose to. Be healed.” (Mt 8:3)
It was an act of welcoming the untouchables. The man was healed not just
physically but emotionally, knowing that he was accepted and embraced as a
human being, not a thing to be shunned. Next, when the Centurion, a
non-Jew, came to Him for help in healing his servant who was dying, Jesus
spontaneously, without concern that He might be contaminated ritually, made to
go to the house. But the centurion was thoughtful not to compromise
Jesus’ position as a rabbi. It was Jesus’ inclusivity and willingness to
risk His reputation and “religious purity” that won the faith of the Centurion.
What is
significant in both cases in today’s gospel is that Jesus had no qualms about
making Himself unclean or inviting gossip that He broke the ritual laws of
cleanliness and religious propriety. His reputation was at
stake. Unlike the religious leaders of the day, Jesus had no reservations
about dining with the tax collectors and sinners. He called Matthew, a
tax-collector, to be His disciple and even attended a meal hosted by him with
his friends in the trade. Jesus felt that the only way to bring them back
was to be in touch with them rather than distance Himself from them.
The truth is
that we tend to only mix with fellow Christians and the righteous ones. The rich mix with the rich,
the educated with the educated. We like to be seen with Cardinals,
bishops, priests and religious. But few like to be seen with the
divorcees, the sickly, the depressed and sinners. How many of us,
supposedly upright and righteous people, would want to be seen mixing with
dishonest people, prostitutes, drug addicts and ex-convicts? We would shy
from even being associated with them because of fear for our reputation.
Haven’t we heard our parents and friends telling us to avoid certain people
because they are of no good character? Perhaps, if we are weak Catholics
and prone to sin, we should avoid mixing with them lest we are badly
influenced. But if we claim to be strong in our faith, then all the more
we should be out there influencing them and winning them over to Christ and the
gospel.
For this
reason, our message of mercy is hypocritical. We only talk about reaching
out to sinners and the poor, but we remain within our own circle of friends,
comfortable with our ministry members or the cell group we belong to. We
are building enclaves, not reaching out and bringing new members to the
Church. And even if we bring in new members, they are people who are not
really in need of Christ. They are respectable people, not the
outcasts. They are people we like and who will not cause us
trouble. But we will avoid those who have plenty of issues in life, those
who are nasty, resentful and vindictive.
The Church is
often inward-looking. We are only concerned about those who come to church and donate to
our cause. We only pay attention to those who help the church or are
involved in our programs. But with those who are uninvolved, the wounded,
the broken, the sick, the marginalized, the gays and lesbians, the divorced,
those who left the Church because they have been hurt by Church leaders, we do
not bother to reach out to them. We are so concerned about those
complacent Catholics that remain unconverted when there are thousands outside
the Church waiting to hear the Good News and be touched by His welcoming love
and healing grace.
Jesus showed
us the way to reach out to sinners and to give them hope. We are called to
reach out to the sick and sinners. We are to give people hope. We
must not protect ourselves for fear that reaching out will compromise our
reputation and breach our comfort zones. This is what Pope Francis is
doing in promoting the gospel of mercy, which is the concrete application of
Pope Emeritus’ gospel of love. He sought to bring the Church into the
world and not hide in the safety and confines of the Vatican Walls. He
came out of the Vatican palace to be with the poor and the ordinary people.
Gone are the days when we expect sinners to come back to Church. There
are some who would return but the majority are outside or have left the Church,
bitter with the establishment, especially the leaders whom they find
hypocritical.
We too must
reach out to those outside the Church, and bring the gospel to those who are in
need, and the unreached. We need to support programs like Landings, those ministering
outside the Church confines, like bringing the gospel to the malls and the
tertiary institutions, the prisons and hospitals, the poor and the needy. The
ministry to the unchurched is where the souls for Christ are to be found.
Those in the Church are either saved or unconverted. They are mostly
complacent Catholics who are quite happy to be nominal Catholics. In
spite of all our preaching, how many of our lukewarm Catholics are converted to
active Catholics? But if we reach out to those who are hopeless, those
finding meaning and purpose in life, those who are lost and broken; if we
can get them to know Jesus, their conversion would be radical and they will be
the best missionaries and evangelists for Christ after their conversion.
The new arena
of evangelization is in the market place, where our people are today, in our
offices, in the pubs and in the shopping centers. How many will venture
into such unknown and dangerous areas to market the Good News as Jesus did when
He ate and drank with tax-collectors and mixed with prostitutes? How many
of us would be willing to take a page from St Paul who was a man for all
seasons? (1 Cor 9:20-23)
Indeed, we
are all called to be doctors of souls. A doctor does not distance himself from
his patients. He has to come into contact with his patients. Only then
can he be of help to them. This explains why Jesus was always found among
the poor, the uneducated, the common and ordinary people; not among the
Establishment. We too must be present in the sufferings of others. Our
task is to call them back to walk in the truth. Indeed, we must teach
them what the psalmist has taught us, “Man does not live on bread alone but on
every word that comes from the mouth of God. They are happy who do his
will, seeking him with all their hearts, I have sought you with all my heart;
let me not stray from your commands. My soul is ever consumed as I long
for your decrees. I have chosen the way of truth with your decrees before
me. See, I long for your precepts; then in your justice, give me
life. I open my mouth and I sigh as I yearn for your commands.” But
they cannot see the beauty of God’s word until they come to encounter His love
and mercy in and through us.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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