08 OCTOBER,
2019, Tuesday, 27th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Green.
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First reading
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Jonah 3:1-10 ©
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The word of the Lord was addressed to
Jonah: ‘Up!’ he said ‘Go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to them as I
told you to.’ Jonah set out and went to Nineveh in obedience to the word of the
Lord. Now Nineveh was a city great beyond compare: it took three days to cross
it. Jonah went on into the city, making a day’s journey. He preached in these
words, ‘Only forty days more and Nineveh is going to be destroyed.’ And the
people of Nineveh believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth,
from the greatest to the least. The news reached the king of Nineveh, who rose
from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes. A
proclamation was then promulgated throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and
his ministers, as follows: ‘Men and beasts, herds and flocks, are to taste
nothing; they must not eat, they must not drink water. All are to put on
sackcloth and call on God with all their might; and let everyone renounce his
evil behaviour and the wicked things he has done. Who knows if God will not
change his mind and relent, if he will not renounce his burning wrath, so that
we do not perish?’ God saw their efforts to renounce their evil behaviour, and
God relented: he did not inflict on them the disaster which he had threatened.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 129(130):1-4,7-8 ©
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If you, O Lord, should
mark our guilt: Lord, who would survive?
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord,
Lord, hear my voice!
O let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleading.
If you, O Lord, should
mark our guilt: Lord, who would survive?
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,
Lord, who would survive?
But with you is found forgiveness:
for this we revere you.
If you, O Lord, should
mark our guilt: Lord, who would survive?
Because with the Lord there is mercy
and fullness of redemption,
Israel indeed he will redeem
from all its iniquity.
If you, O Lord, should
mark our guilt: Lord, who would survive?
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Gospel Acclamation
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Jn15:15
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Alleluia, alleluia!
I call you friends, says the Lord,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Lk11:28
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Happy are those
who hear the word of God
and keep it.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Luke 10:38-42 ©
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Jesus came to a village, and a woman named
Martha welcomed him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, who sat down
at the Lord’s feet and listened to him speaking. Now Martha who was distracted
with all the serving said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me
to do the serving all by myself? Please tell her to help me.’ But the Lord
answered: ‘Martha, Martha,’ he said ‘you worry and fret about so many things,
and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part;
it is not to be taken from her.’
REACHING OUT TO
OUR ENEMIES IN MERCY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Jonah 3:1-10; Ps 130:1-4,7-8; Lk 10:38-42]
It is a normal reaction
to condemn our enemies or those who have done us wrong. Our instinctive response is to wish
our enemies evil and harm. We rejoice to see them fall and suffer because
of the harm they have done to us. This revengeful attitude towards our
foe is ingrained in many of us. We want to seek justice and retribution
against those who have hurt us. This was the way Jonah precisely felt in
the first reading. When God instructed him earlier on to go to Nineveh to
preach repentance to the inhabitants of 120,000, he sought to get away from the
Lord and headed the opposite direction instead towards Tarshish in Spain.
It was simply too much for Jonah to bring himself to preach to the enemies of
Israel, much less to pray for their conversion. Rather, in the mind of
Jonah, for all the harsh and cruel sufferings that the Assyrians had caused to
Israel, they all deserved to be burnt and destroyed.
Isn’t that the way we
also react, not just towards people who have sinned against us but even to
people who have done wrong? Today, we are faced with social media policing people
who commit crimes or have done something inappropriate or wrong. When we
read the comments of people condemning the act, most of these comments lack
charity. In fact, most are reactive, nasty, judgmental, ruthless and
merciless. It is not wrong to condemn a sin or an evil deed, but to
condemn the sinner is quite a different story because we do not know all the
circumstances surrounding the incident and least of all, the circumstances the
offender grew up in. People are quick to pass judgments and use the most
uncharitable words to destroy the sinner, to push him against the wall, leaving
him no chance to return or to repent.
Indeed, how often in the
scripture Jesus reminds us that before we judge others, we must first examine
ourselves to see whether we are free from all sins. “Judge not, that you not be
judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the
measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck
that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own
eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of
your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first
take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the
speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Mt 7:1-5) And to the woman who was caught
committing adultery, the Lord said, “Let him who is without sin among you be
the first to throw a stone at her.” (Jn 8:7)
Yet it is very difficult
for us even if we wish to reach out to our enemies in love and compassion. When our hearts are hurt and
wounded, we cannot feel the pain of our enemies. We can only feel our own
pains. That was how Jonah felt. He could not bring himself to see his
enemies repent and be saved from destruction. In fact, he was hoping that
they would be destroyed by God. But then God insisted that Jonah went to
Nineveh to call them to repentance. Reluctantly and out of obedience and
gratitude to God who saved him from drowning when his ship capsized, he went to
the great city of Nineveh. Although we read that “Now Nineveh was a city
great beyond compare: it took three days to cross it”, “Jonah went on into the
city, making a day’s journey. He preached in these words, ‘Only forty
days more and Nineveh is going to be destroyed.'”
It was a half-hearted
mission. We can be sure
that he did not preach with the same earnestness and conviction he would had
done for his own people Israel. He was just obeying God’s order to
preach. Instead of taking three days, he just did it in one day.
And even then, he was hoping that the people would resist the message of
repentance and his words would eventually be proven true when the city would be
destroyed. This is precisely what we do as well when asked to love our
enemies and help them. We will do the minimum and in a perfunctorily
manner without any compassion or mercy simply because it is our duty.
But to Jonah’s
astonishment, bafflement and chagrin, the people from the king to the least of
the citizens repented.
“The people of Nineveh believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and put on
sackcloth from the greatest to the least. The news reached the king of
Nineveh, who rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth and sat
down in the ashes. A proclamation was them promulgated throughout Nineveh,
by decree of the king and his ministers, as follows: ‘Men and beasts, herds and
flocks, are to taste nothing; they must not eat, they must not drink
water. All are to put on sackcloth and call on God with all their might;
and let everyone renounce his evil behaviour and the wicked things he has
done.” They believed and as a consequence, the tragedy was skirted. “God
saw their efforts to renounce their evil behaviour. And God relented: he did
not inflict on them the disaster which he had threatened.”
Of course, Jonah was not
happy. In fact, he was angry with God. He was terribly displeased with God. How
could God help his enemies and save them? He said, “O Lord! Is not
this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to
Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from
punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is
better for me to die than to live.” (Jonah 4:23) We, too, will also be angry with
God whenever we see God blessing our enemies. When we see that some evil
men are prospering we feel cheated. Our human understanding of justice
tells us that the evil should be punished and the good rewarded. Some of
us harbor deep resentment against God because we feel that God is not fair to
us. He appears to bless the wicked and the selfish people and allow the
poor to suffer injustice and poverty.
Yet the truth is that
God loves both sinners and saints. He wants to save us all. We are His
children. Jesus taught us, “Love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for
he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the
righteous and on the unrighteous.” (Mt 5:44f) In fact, those who are evil and
sinful require more grace than those who are already living a righteous
life. If they live an evil, vindictive, selfish and self-centered life,
it is because they are ignorant. They do not know what they are
doing. They have been deceived by Satan. They are blinded by their
past, by their wounds and hurts that make them aggressive and intolerant of
others, unforgiving and lacking compassion. That was why God sent Jonah
to the Ninevites. They, too, needed salvation and to hear the Good
News. Their repentance will eventually make them friends of Israel
instead of being cruel towards them.
So like Jonah, if we
cannot use our heart to love our enemies, then we should use our will to do
what is good and right.
Even if we are still hurting inside because of what they have done to us, we
must rise above our pain and see them as Christ would see them, sinners who are
sick and need the doctor. We must endeavor to do good to them even if
what we do is not spontaneous unlike doing good to those whom we love.
Still, God will make use of our meagre efforts and goodwill to change
lives. Indeed, even though Jonah preached half-heartedly, the people
repented. It is not about what we can do but what God can do with us and
through us. We must not think that our achievements are all the result of
our efforts and ingenuity. It is the Lord who opened the hearts of the
Ninevites to hear the Word of God. So we too must do what we can to reach
out to our enemies, help them when they ask, and most of all, pray for their
conversion and enlightenment.
We cannot do this unless
we take a page from Mary who sat at the feet of our Lord listening intently to
Him. She was basking
in His love, in His word and in intimacy. This was where she found
strength and courage. We must avoid being like Martha who was hurriedly
doing many things for the Lord, anxious in wanting to please Him but ended up
impatient, angry and resentful. The Lord asked us to choose the better
part, which is to spend time with Him so that we will learn to let go of our
plans, our will, our ideas, our judgment and simply surrender ourselves, all
that we do, in accordance with God’s will and plans for us.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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