20191218
INTERIOR
SILENCE A PRE-REQUISITE IN MAKING CRITICAL DECISIONS
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Violet.
|
First reading
|
Jeremiah 23:5-8 ©
|
I will raise a virtuous Branch for David
See,
the days are coming – it is the Lord who speaks –
when
I will raise a virtuous Branch for David,
who
will reign as true king and be wise,
practising
honesty and integrity in the land.
In
his days Judah will be saved
and
Israel dwell in confidence.
And
this is the name he will be called:
The-Lord-our-integrity.
So, then, the
days are coming – it is the Lord who speaks – when people will no
longer say, “As the Lord lives who brought the sons of Israel out of the land
of Egypt!” but, “As the Lord lives who led back and brought home the
descendants of the House of Israel out of the land of the North and from all
the countries to which he had dispersed them, to live on their own soil.”
|
Responsorial
Psalm
|
|
Psalm 71(72):1-2,12-13,18-19 ©
|
In
his days justice shall flourish, and peace until the moon fails.
O
God, give your judgement to the king,
to
a king’s son your justice,
that
he may judge your people in justice
and
your poor in right judgement.
In
his days justice shall flourish, and peace until the moon fails.
For
he shall save the poor when they cry
and
the needy who are helpless.
He
will have pity on the weak
and
save the lives of the poor.
In
his days justice shall flourish, and peace until the moon fails.
Blessed
be the Lord, God of Israel,
who
alone works wonders,
ever
blessed his glorious name.
Let
his glory fill the earth.
Amen!
Amen!
In
his days justice shall flourish, and peace until the moon fails.
|
Gospel
Acclamation
|
Alleluia,
alleluia!
Ruler
of the House of Israel,
who
gave the law to Moses on Sinai,
come
and save us with outstretched arm.
Alleluia!
|
Gospel
|
Matthew 1:18-24 ©
|
How Jesus Christ came to be born
This is how Jesus
Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before
they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy
Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her
publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do
this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph
son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has
conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and
you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from
their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord
through the prophet:
The
virgin will conceive and give birth to a son
and
they will call him Emmanuel,
a name which
means ‘God-is-with-us.’ When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord
had told him to do: he took his wife to his home.
18 December,
2019, Wednesday, 3rd Week of Advent
INTERIOR SILENCE
A PRE-REQUISITE IN MAKING CRITICAL DECISIONS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [JER 23:5-8; MATTHEW
1:18-24 ]
In the gospel, Joseph
was presented with an unfathomable challenge when he found Mary, already
betrothed to him, was with child. We can imagine what went on in the mind of
Joseph. What was happening? Could Mary have betrayed him?
Could it truly be a divine intervention and a work of the Holy Spirit as Mary
told him? But it was totally unheard of – a woman conceiving a child
without a man! It was simply too far-fetched and no one would ever
believe in Mary or even in him. They would be ridiculed. So we can
appreciate the confusion of Joseph when he heard that Mary had conceived by the
power of the Holy Spirit. However, the conundrum was just an aspect of the
struggle that Joseph had to deal with.
There was the other
practical consideration of what to do with Mary. The gospel tells us that
Joseph was a just man. He
did not want to accuse Mary wrongly. But at the same time, how could he
prove that her child was conceived by the Holy Spirit? To surrender her
to the law and have her charged for adultery would not be just because he had
no proof that she betrayed him. On the other hand, he had no way to prove
that the child was truly from God. True to his sense of justice, the
evangelist wrote, “her husband Joseph, being a man of honour and wanting to
spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally.” In this way, she
would be saved from being stoned to death. She would be given time to
prove and verify the truth of what she claimed as a divine intervention.
We, too, often face
challenges in life, perhaps not to the extent of absurdity and ridiculousness
as that which Joseph was confronted with. But we have our fair share of feeling
betrayed by our loved ones, friends, colleagues and business partners. In
such difficult moments, we often react with anger, disbelief and fear.
How could someone whom we love so much betray us? How could my spouse
betray my love? How could my good friend betray my trust? Or how
could our friends and children cheat us of our retirement funds in our old
age? It is unthinkable that they could be so heartless. In our
state of anger and rage, we may be tempted to retaliate or withdraw into
ourselves and fall into depression or even mutilate ourselves.
Today, we are called to
imitate Joseph, a man who was always interiorly recollected. We never hear him speak in the
gospel. He was always praying, dreaming and contemplating. He was a
man who thought through his problems, bringing them to God in prayer. He
was not just as a just man, but calm, level-headed, somber, and never reactive
or retaliatory. It was in his nature to want to find the best solution
for all. Even for those who hurt him, he would want to save their dignity
and find a way out for them so that they would not be condemned and have no
opportunity to repent. He did not allow himself to fall into the sin of
presumption or that of self-righteousness. This is only possible
because he was a man of prayer and contemplation. Before he acted, he
would make time to pray and bring the issue to the Lord.
We, too, must also do
likewise. What we see in the world today is people reacting to everything
they see, or hear, or read.
They do not take time to pause, reflect and contemplate on what they heard,
read or saw, and to discern whether it is true or charitable. We do not
try to understand the emotions that go through in our heart. Are we
reacting out of our fears, our past conditioning, our prejudices, our hurts and
old wounds? Or are we acting to bring greater goodness out of it, to be
healers, reconcilers and encouragers. When we simply react without
thinking and self-awareness, it shows that we are no better than those who
acted wrongly. Our judgement and comments, especially when they are made
publicly must be judiciously stated so that we will be seen to be objective,
fair, reasonable, charitable, just and uplifting. We should not become
another problem to a problem. Indeed, are we a solution or a problem?
This was what Joseph did. He was a solution to the
problem. Because he brought the matter to the Lord, “the angel of the
Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be
afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her
by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus,
because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ Now all this
took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet: The
virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, a
name which means ‘God-is-with-us’.” The Lord clarified the mystery for
him and confirmed the words of Mary. The Lord revealed to Joseph how the
child would be the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament. He
was given to understand through divine revelation how the child would be the
Messiah and the King of David.
Upon hearing what the
Lord said to him in the dream, when he woke up “he did what the angel of the
Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home.” Once he knew the will of God, Joseph did
not hesitate or delay in acting. Until then, he was still deliberating
and weighing the course of action he should take. We can take a page from
him as well on his decisiveness. When he was clear that it was God’s
will, he carried out His will without delay and whole-heartedly. It was
not about his interest or his misgivings and apprehensions or anxiety about the
future. Obedience to God’s will is the way to walk the path of truth and
love.
We often fail because of
fickle-mindedness. Sometimes
we know from indications that it is the Lord’s will for us. We pray for
all the signs and these have been given. We ask for confirmation and the
Lord sends people to confirm our decision. But the fear of the future,
the sacrifices, the uncertainties and the challenges ahead, restrain us from
moving forward. We delay and delay until our heart is again numbed by the
demands and distractions of the world. In other words, we have not yet
woken up from our dream and our calling in life. For failing to be honest
in seeking God’s will and being singular-minded in carrying out His will, we
will cause ourselves to lose our peace and joy. Only in living a life of
integrity like Joseph and Mary, will we find true peace. The Lord comes
to restore us to wholeness as the Prophet Jeremiah said, “See, the days are
coming – it is the Lord who speaks – when I will raise a virtuous Branch for
David, who will reign as true king and be wise, practising honesty and
integrity in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel dwell
in confidence. And this is the name he will be called: The
Lord-our-integrity.”
Indeed, as we approach
Christmas, many of us are so busy with Christmas preparations, at least the material ones, the
decorations, the Christmas tree, shopping for gifts and attending Christmas
functions and parties. So much so, Christmas is a season that tires us
out, draining us of our energy rather than filling us with peace, love and
joy. We must not forget to enter into the silence of the Christmas night
when the little baby was born in the manger, unknown and unrecognized. It
was in the silence of the night that His birth was announced by the angels to
poor uneducated and uncouth shepherds in the fields. We need to make room
for Him in our hearts by withdrawing from the hurly burly of the world into the
silence of God. He wants to refresh us with His love, joy and peace
as we listen to Him and feel Him in our being. He wants to enlighten us
so that we can come to understand our challenges in perspective and so bring
courage, hope, confidence and renewed zeal.
Only then, with His
peace and joy in our hearts, can we reach out to others, not just to our friends and loved ones but
to the poor, the lonely and those who are hungry and abandoned. The
psalmist says, “In his days justice shall flourish, and peace until the moon
fails. For he shall save the poor when they cry and the needy who are helpless.
He will have pity on the weak and save the lives of the poor.” We are
called to go forth, bearing His presence in us through our presence and our
presents. In this way, we too will conceive Jesus in our hearts and we
become the Emmanuel of God to others as we reach out to touch lives. Through
our love and kindness, those who meet us will hopefully say, “God is with us!”
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment