20191015
ARE
YOU ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL?
15 OCTOBER,
2019, Tuesday, 28th Week, Ordinary Time
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First reading
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Romans 1:16-25 ©
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I am not ashamed of the Good News: it is
the power of God saving all who have faith – Jews first, but Greeks as
well – since this is what reveals the justice of God to us: it shows how
faith leads to faith, or as scripture says: The upright man finds life
through faith.
The anger of God is being
revealed from heaven against all the impiety and depravity of men who keep
truth imprisoned in their wickedness. For what can be known about God is
perfectly plain to them since God himself has made it plain. Ever since God
created the world his everlasting power and deity – however
invisible – have been there for the mind to see in the things he has made.
That is why such people are without excuse: they knew God and yet refused to
honour him as God or to thank him; instead, they made nonsense out of logic and
their empty minds were darkened. The more they called themselves philosophers,
the more stupid they grew, until they exchanged the glory of
the immortal God for a worthless imitation, for the image of
mortal man, of birds, of quadrupeds and reptiles. That is why God left them to
their filthy enjoyments and the practices with which they dishonour their own
bodies, since they have given up divine truth for a lie and have worshipped and
served creatures instead of the creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen!
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 18(19):2-5 ©
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The heavens proclaim the
glory of God.
The heavens proclaim the glory of God,
and the firmament shows forth
the work of his hands.
Day unto day takes up the story
and night unto night makes
known the message.
The heavens proclaim the
glory of God.
No speech, no word, no voice is heard
yet their span extends through
all the earth,
their words to the utmost
bounds of the world.
The heavens proclaim the
glory of God.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Ps118:135
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Let your face shine on your servant,
and teach me your decrees.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Heb4:12
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The word of God is something alive and
active:
it can judge secret emotions and thoughts.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Luke 11:37-41 ©
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Jesus had just finished speaking when a
Pharisee invited him to dine at his house. He went in and sat down at the
table. The Pharisee saw this and was surprised that he had not first washed
before the meal. But the Lord said to him, ‘Oh, you Pharisees! You clean the
outside of cup and plate, while inside yourselves you are filled with extortion
and wickedness. Fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside too?
Instead, give alms from what you have and then indeed everything will be clean
for you.’
ARE YOU ASHAMED
OF THE GOSPEL?
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Rom 1:16-25; Ps 18:2-5; Lk 11:37-41 ]
St Paul in the first reading declared
without compromise saying, “I am not ashamed of the Good News: it is the power
of God saving all who have faith.” Indeed, without fear or favour, St Paul proclaimed the
gospel in and out of season. Before the Sanhedrin and governors, he
proclaimed the gospel faithfully. This is because it is God who called
him to do so. “If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground
for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not
proclaim the gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16)
What about us? Are we ashamed of the
gospel? The truth
is that we are. We are very apologetic with regard to our faith. This
is why we dare not even let others know that we are Catholics. We hide
our faith from others for fear that we will be ridiculed or rejected or frowned
upon. We even sheepishly apologise to non-Catholics for our
Christian claim that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, that He is the
Saviour of the World and the Son of God or for our moral teachings about
marriage and sacredness of life. In the context of inter-religious
dialogue and a growing plurality in religions, it is seen as diplomatically
incorrect to claim supremacy of one’s faith. In the secular world, it not
right to speak about our faith in God. If we do bring God into our lives
or decision-making especially in moral decisions, we are regarded as
superstitious, silly, ignorant and naïve. Intelligent people do not need
God and do not make reference to God because there is no God but
ourselves. Decisions are based on human reasoning because we know best
and we can solve all the problems in this world. Everything can be
resolved by science and technology. God is redundant in this
technological world.
We are also ashamed for subscribing to the
values of the gospel. Believers today are also embarrassed to justify an
ethical way of living based on our beliefs in God. We are diffident to speak
about morality in a world of relativism when there are no absolutes, no truth
because all things are relative and good and true for a time but not for
eternity. Things and values change with time. What is considered
wrong in the past is accepted as permissible today. In a word, morality
no longer exists in this world. There is no such things or values as
right or wrong, good or bad. It is about consensus and pragmatism.
If people vote for something, then it is good. There is no objectivity in
truth but merely subjective. It is a world of amorality when the
conscience is dead.
This is precisely what St Paul is warning
us today in the first reading. He made it clear that this refusal to
accept the reality of God is rooted in the sin of impiety. “The anger of God is being
revealed from heaven against all the impiety and depravity of men who keep the
truth imprisoned in their wickedness. For what can be known about God is
perfectly plain to them since God himself has made it plain. Ever since
God created the world his everlasting power and deity – however invisible –
have been there for the mind to see in the things he has made.” Indeed,
if we are humble enough, we see the presence of God in created realities.
The psalmist declares, “The heavens proclaim the glory of God, and the
firmament shows forth the work of his hands. Day unto day takes up the
story and night unto night makes known the message. No speech, no word,
no voice is heard yet their span extends through all the earth, their words to
the utmost bounds of the world.” Hence, St Paul concludes, “such people
are without excuse: they knew God and yet refused to honour him as God or to
thank him; instead, they made nonsense out of logic and their empty minds were
darkened.”
In contrast, the world is not ashamed of
making themselves gods in place of the true God. Those who do not worship
God end up worshipping and glorifying themselves. They become the point of reference for
everything. This explains why everyone in the world claims absolute
freedom, to do whatever they want because this is their life, and they decide
what is good for them. The idolatry that is to be condemned is not the
worship of statues as these are just symbol of man’s desires and
aspirations. Statues cannot harm them because the “idols are silver and
gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do
not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They
have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; they make no sound in their
throats. Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in
them.” (Ps 115:4-8)
The world is also not ashamed to worship
their bodies. When we
do not worship God, we end up worshipping creatures and the created things of
this world. “The more they called themselves philosophers the more
stupid they grew, until they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for a worthless
imitation, for the image of mortal man, of birds, of quadrupeds and
reptiles. That is why God left them to their filthy enjoyments and the
practices with which they dishonour their own bodies, since they have given up
divine truth for a lie and have worshipped and served creatures instead of the
creator, who is blessed for ever, Amen!” Worldly people are only
concerned about enjoyment, pleasure, satisfying their sensuality and their
needs. They fail to realise that the body is passing and beauty
does not lies in the body but in the heart. They worship their bodies
forgetting that their spirit is hungry.
The world is not even abashed to commit
lustful activities. St
Paul speaks of the lust of our hearts when we transfer our worship of God to
the worship of man. “For this reason God gave them up to degrading
passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in
the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were
consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men
and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.” (Rom 1:26-27) Of course, today, the world
cannot accept that homosexual relationship is not within the plan of God.
Lust have overcome us. It is not that same sex friendship is a sin
because we have the example of a platonic, faithful and selfless love between
David and Jonathan. Yet both of them were also married and have children
of their own. It is when the relationship becomes lustful that goes
against the plan of God’s creation. The irony of it all is that the world
is not ashamed of the sins of infidelity, pornography, and homosexuality.
They even like to boast of it, the number of men and women they slept with, the
sex adventures they had, engaging in orgies and sex parades. They are
proud of what they are doing. St Paul wrote, “They know God’s decree, that
those who practice such things deserve to die – yet they not only do them but
even applaud others who practice them.” (Rom 1:32)
Consequently, when man worships himself
and created things instead of acknowledging Him, “God gave them up to a debased
mind and to things that should not be done. They were filled with
every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent,
haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, foolish,
faithless, heartless, ruthless.” (Rom 1:29-31) When there is no fear or
respect for God, he fears no one. He gets involved in all kinds of crimes
and sins especially sexual offences because his mind are is corrupted.
Indeed, the world is getting from bad to worse. Unfortunately, human
progress is not the same as technological progress. The human person has become
more uncivilised, more selfish and inward looking, not knowing what truth is
and what true and lasting love is anymore. He is only concerned about
himself and about finding comfort in this life.
Indeed, what is needed today is the
reformation of the mind and heart.
This is what the Lord is saying in today’s gospel when He criticized the
Pharisees for putting up a show and living a hypocritical life. “You
clean the outside of cup and plate, while inside yourselves you are filled with
extortion and wickedness. Fools! Did not he who made the outside make the
inside too?” We are more concerned about how people look at us not who we
really are. We pretend to be good and holy but inside us, we are full of
evil. Many of us are living a double life. What we say in public is
not what we do in our lives or what we feel or think. We present
ourselves as good for others to see. Jesus said, “It is what comes out of
a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that
evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice,
wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All
these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mk 7:20-23)
At the end of the day, how we know we love
God is whether we love our brothers and sisters. This was why the Lord said, “Give
alms from what you have and then indeed everything will be clean for
you.” If we practice charity and almsgiving, thinking and caring about
other’s needs and interests rather than our own, we will not manipulate people
including their bodies for our selfish pleasures. We will do all things
out of pure love and service to humanity. True love must be pure, without
selfish motives and given freely and without conditions. When we
live in truth and in love, we have nothing to be ashamed of.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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