20190904
THE
DYNAMISM OF THE GOOD NEWS
04 SEPTEMBER,
2019, Wednesday, 22nd Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Green.
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First reading
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Colossians 1:1-8 ©
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The message of the truth has reached you
and is spreading all over the world
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From Paul, appointed by God to be an
apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy to the saints in
Colossae, our faithful brothers in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our
Father.
We
have never failed to remember you in our prayers and to give thanks for you to
God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ever since we heard about your faith
in Christ Jesus and the love that you show towards all the saints because of
the hope which is stored up for you in heaven. It is only recently that you heard
of this, when it was announced in the message of the truth. The Good News which
has reached you is spreading all over the world and producing the same results
as it has among you ever since the day when you heard about God’s grace and
understood what this really is. Epaphras, who taught you, is one of our closest
fellow workers and a faithful deputy for us as Christ’s servant, and it was he
who told us all about your love in the Spirit.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 51(52):10-11 ©
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I trust in the goodness
of God for ever and ever.
I am like a growing olive tree
in the house of God.
I trust in the goodness of God
for ever and ever.
I trust in the goodness
of God for ever and ever.
I will thank you for evermore;
for this is your doing.
I will proclaim that your name is good,
in the presence of your
friends.
I trust in the goodness
of God for ever and ever.
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Gospel Acclamation
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1P1:25
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The word of the Lord remains for ever:
What is this word?
It is the Good News that has been brought
to you.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Lk4:17
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The Lord has sent me to bring the good
news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Luke 4:38-44 ©
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He would not allow them to speak because
they knew he was the Christ
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Leaving the synagogue, Jesus went to
Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever and
they asked him to do something for her. Leaning over her he rebuked the fever
and it left her. And she immediately got up and began to wait on them.
At
sunset all those who had friends suffering from diseases of one kind or another
brought them to him, and laying his hands on each he cured them. Devils too
came out of many people, howling, ‘You are the Son of God.’ But he rebuked them
and would not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ.
When
daylight came he left the house and made his way to a lonely place. The crowds
went to look for him, and when they had caught up with him they wanted to
prevent him leaving them, but he answered, ‘I must proclaim the Good News of
the kingdom of God to the other towns too, because that is what I was sent to
do.’ And he continued his preaching in the synagogues of Judaea.
THE DYNAMISM OF
THE GOOD NEWS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ COL 1:1-8; LK 4:38-44 ]
The scripture lessons of today speak about the
Good News of God. Unfortunately, the fact is that today the Good News
we proclaim does not sound like good news. Not only in our preaching but
even in our lives, we reflect not only stale news but at times even bad
news. But stale news is a contradiction in terms. News, to be news,
must be new. If it is no longer new, then we can hardly call it
news. But it is not just news that we are called to proclaim, but the
Good News.
How is it that our Good
News has become stale or bad news? The reason given in today’s gospel is
simply this: we want to domesticate the good news of God. In the
gospel, the people wanted to keep Jesus all for themselves. So they tried
to prevent Him from leaving. Jesus must have been tempted to stay back in
the village where He had healed many people. He had indeed become very
popular and well-sought after. In fact, when things were going on so well
for Him, it would not have made sense for Him to leave the place. Yes,
Jesus must have felt the temptation to build His own kingdom. After all,
who would want to leave a place when one is loved, known, idolized and always
the center of attention?
There is a great temptation for us
today to domesticate the Good News by insisting that everything remains
unchanged. Indeed, in the world today there is tension between the
traditionalists and the progressives. On one hand, there are those who do
not want to see the Church changing to adapt to the new situations and the
demands of our time. They want the gospel to remain as it is and face the
danger of redundancy as the message no longer resonates with our people.
Truth of course cannot be changed, but we need to know whether we are holding
on to the truths or simply the facade. Truths need to be applied to new
situations because of new challenges. Truths need to be represented in a
new language and in a new context.
The demons, too, wanted
to domesticate the good news by
deceiving us into believing that we know Jesus when we do not. That
was why they proclaimed Jesus publicly as the Son of God. Of course Jesus
rebuked them. Why? One might wonder. Simply because Jesus
knew that if the people heard from the demons that He was the Son of God, they
would have been blinded from searching for Christ themselves. The people
would have deceived themselves into thinking that because they knew about His
origin, they also knew Him personally. Then they would not be bothered to
seek Jesus for a deeper relationship. It is just like those who have
attended some talks on prayer and leave the seminar thinking that they now know
all about centering prayer when in truth they have never even put it to
practice on their own. They have mistaken an intellectual knowledge of
God and prayer for personal knowledge. Indeed, for many of us who
have been long in the faith, we think we have heard everything and that there
is nothing more for us to learn. We are no longer docile, receptive and
teachable. There is a danger for those of us who studied too much
theology in thinking that we know much about God when our knowledge is mere
cerebral knowledge, a knowledge that does not even affect the way we live our
lives. When there is no radical conversion or integrity of life in
accordance with what we know or teach, then we should be wary of thinking that
we have the Good News.
How, then, can we preserve the Good News so that
it will always remain good and fresh? We can do so only if we
recognize that God and life are dynamic. Anything that is static is
dead. They are found only in the cemeteries and museums. Anything
that is alive is always dynamic. Therefore, we must avoid the danger of
settling down to our comfortable and set ways of living. This can
manifest itself in many ways. For example, many of us get used to the
routine of Church practices; the routine of parish life; the routine of prayer
life. Faith has become merely a culture, a way of life that we live
without thinking or understanding. We are doing what good Catholics must
do, observing all the customs and laws but often without understanding and
personal conviction. At other times, it could be the set ways of
thinking, the fixed ways of praying and understanding God in our lives; the
lack of courage to change, to take risks and to venture out.
Undoubtedly, it is less risky to maintain our status quo than to take up new
challenges in life. But the fact is that, when we settle for the
perpetuation of our status quo, we are settling for less in life. Life
will remain stagnant and there will be no growth.
On the other hand, those who do
not enslave God and enslave themselves to their comfort zones and are willing
to dance with the dynamism of life, will always find life alive. Take
the Christians in the first reading for example. They were really living
the Good News because they were in love with each other. Of course, love
is always creative and dynamic. That is why people in love are always
full of surprises. When we fall out of love, creativity also dies.
Indeed, Jesus was a man who was truly alive because He had this deep love for
His fellowmen. That was what motivated Him to move on and to declare in
no uncertain terms to those who wanted Him to stay that “To other towns I must
announce the good news of the reign of God, because that is why I was
sent.” Indeed, if Jesus had chosen to stay, and even if He had been of
use to the people there, it would have been more for Himself than for His
fellowmen.
For this reason, we need to let go. To
the extent that we are willing to let go of our security and our needs, to that
extent we will find life challenging and exciting. But we can let go
only if, like Jesus, we withdraw daily and often to re-examine our motives for
doing things. Prayer helps us to keep our perspectives right and prevent
us from settling down to our neat concepts about God and life and our daily
living. Indeed, when things are getting too comfortable for us, perhaps,
it is time for us to change. In a nutshell, the Good News can retain its
vigour and power only when we realize that we are pilgrims along the way.
Like Jesus, we must always move on in life, for that is the very nature of life
and our calling.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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