20200331
YOU
WILL DIE IN YOUR SINS
31 March, 2020, Tuesday, 5th
Week in Lent
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Violet.
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First reading
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Numbers 21:4-9 ©
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If anyone was bitten by a serpent, he looked up at the bronze
serpent and lived
The Israelites
left Mount Hor by the road to the Sea of Suph, to skirt the land of Edom. On
the way the people lost patience. They spoke against God and against Moses,
‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt to die in this wilderness? For there is
neither bread nor water here; we are sick of this unsatisfying food.’
At
this God sent fiery serpents among the people; their bite brought death to many
in Israel. The people came and said to Moses, ‘We have sinned by speaking
against the Lord and against you. Intercede for us with the Lord to save us
from these serpents.’ Moses interceded for the people, and the Lord answered
him, ‘Make a fiery serpent and put it on a standard. If anyone is bitten and
looks at it, he shall live.’ So Moses fashioned a bronze serpent which he put
on a standard, and if anyone was bitten by a serpent, he looked at the bronze
serpent and lived.
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm 101(102):2-3,16-21 ©
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O
Lord, listen to my prayer and let my cry for help reach you.
O
Lord, listen to my prayer
and
let my cry for help reach you.
Do
not hide your face from me
in
the day of my distress.
Turn
your ear towards me
and
answer me quickly when I call.
O
Lord, listen to my prayer and let my cry for help reach you.
The
nations shall fear the name of the Lord
and
all the earth’s kings your glory,
when
the Lord shall build up Zion again
and
appear in all his glory.
Then
he will turn to the prayers of the helpless;
he
will not despise their prayers.
O
Lord, listen to my prayer and let my cry for help reach you.
Let
this be written for ages to come
that
a people yet unborn may praise the Lord;
for
the Lord leaned down from his sanctuary on high.
He
looked down from heaven to the earth
that
he might hear the groans of the prisoners
and
free those condemned to die.
O
Lord, listen to my prayer and let my cry for help reach you.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Jn8:12
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Praise
to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
I am
the light of the world, says the Lord;
whoever
follows me will have the light of life.
Praise
to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
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Or:
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Praise
to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
The
seed is the word of God, Christ the sower;
whoever
finds this seed will remain for ever.
Praise
to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
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Gospel
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John 8:21-30 ©
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When you have lifted up the Son of Man then you will know that I
am He
Jesus said to the
Pharisees:
‘I am
going away;
you
will look for me
and
you will die in your sin.
Where
I am going, you cannot come.’
The Jews said to
one another, ‘Will he kill himself? Is that what he means by saying, “Where I
am going, you cannot come”?’ Jesus went on:
‘You
are from below; I am from above.
You
are of this world; I am not of this world.
I
have told you already:
You
will die in your sins.
Yes,
if you do not believe that I am He,
you
will die in your sins.’
So
they said to him, ‘Who are you?’ Jesus answered:
‘What
I have told you from the outset.
About
you I have much to say
and
much to condemn;
but
the one who sent me is truthful,
and
what I have learnt from him
I
declare to the world.’
They
failed to understand that he was talking to them about the Father. So Jesus
said:
‘When
you have lifted up the Son of Man,
then
you will know that I am He
and
that I do nothing of myself:
what
the Father has taught me is what I preach;
he
who sent me is with me,
and
has not left me to myself,
for I
always do what pleases him.’
As he was saying
this, many came to believe in him.
YOU WILL DIE IN
YOUR SINS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ NUMBERS
21:4-9; PS 102:2-3, 16-21; JOHN
8:21-30]
The Lord in today’s gospel warns us, “You
will die in your sins. Yes, if you do not believe that I am He, you
will die in your sins.” What does it mean to die in our sins? Sin
is always destructive. Sin takes away our freedom because we become
addicted to the pleasures of life. Sin is blindness because we cannot see
what is truly good for our happiness, peace and well-being. We are
deceived by the temptations of the world. We pursue those things
presented to us as happiness by the world, namely, power, status, wealth and
fame. So sin causes us to lose our true freedom and the grace to
live a life of joy and peace.
Indeed, the death that
Jesus speaks about is not just physical death. It is the death of the soul.
Most of all, it is eternal death. It means to live merely on the sensual
level in such a way that we destroy our health, our inter-personal relationships
and our interior peace. As St Paul reminds us, “Now the works of the
flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry,
sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions,
envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I
warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of
God.” (Gal 5:19-21)
This was what happened
to the Israelites in the first reading. They preferred the pleasures of
life to freedom. They
were complaining and grumbling, rebelling against Moses and God. They
lost patience and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt to die in this
wilderness? For there is neither bread nor water here; we are sick of this
unsatisfying food.” How short was their memory! They were
lamenting when they were slaves in Egypt. Having been set free, they were
now complaining that they did not have the luxuries of life. “If only we
had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by
the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this
wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
Secondly, they were
disobedient to the commandments of the Lord given to them at Mt Sinai. “They did not keep God’s covenant,
but refused to walk according to his law.” (Ps 78:10)
“They sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the
desert.” (Ps 78:17) “Yet they tested the Most High God, and
rebelled against him. They did not observe his decrees, but turned
away and were faithless like their ancestors; they twisted like a treacherous
bow.” (Ps 78:56f) Sometimes the world thinks that we are
silly to believe in such a thing as sin or that sin even exists. In a
world of relativism and agnosticism, the world has no conscience and is unable
to distinguish between what is right and wrong. We see division,
breakdown of family life and marriages, more dysfunctional people, violence and
mass killing, increase in the number of abortions, suicide and euthanasia,
greater promiscuity, pornography and sexual offences, drugs consumption, the
great disparity between the poor and the rich; climate warming, protectionism
and international disputes and wars. Yet, few would admit to the
consequences of following the values propounded by the world.
Thirdly, it is because
we fail to remember the wonders and deeds of God. We are always complaining about our
problems instead of being grateful for all the other problems we do not
have. We have forgotten the marvels and the power of God, and all that He
had done for us. This was why Israel rebelled against God. “They
forgot what he had done and the miracles that he had shown them.” (Ps 78:11)
“In spite of all this they still sinned; they did not believe in his
wonders.” (Ps 78:32) Indeed, they easily forgot how the Lord
delivered them. “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I
bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” (Ex 19:4)
“When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard
labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors;
the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our
oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand
and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and
wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land
flowing with milk and honey.” (Dt 26:6-9)
Forgetfulness leads to
ingratitude and consciousness of His love and power. When that happens, we turn to false
gods. Is this not what secularism wants believers to end up in? It
is the devil’s subtle approach to make us lose our faith in God and supplant
Him with ourselves by worshipping the things of this world. Just
like the Israelites who asked Aaron to make for them the golden calf to replace
the absent God when they tired of waiting for Moses to come down from the
Mountain. So too, when we feel that God is not present in our lives, we
begin to worship ourselves as if we are gods, as if the world came from us and
we have the power to transform it according to our intelligence and knowledge.
This is sheer arrogance coming from the blindness of pride and
self-sufficiency.
Jesus’ coming is to lead
us back to His Father. He wants us to know that His Father is love so
that we will once again have confidence in Him and in His Divine
providence. “What
I have told you from the outset. About you I have much to say and much to
condemn; but the one who sent me is truthful, and what I have learnt from him I
declare to the world.” However, “they failed to understand that he was
talking to them about the Father.” The Jews, although seeking to observe
the laws, had forgotten that the laws were not the ends in themselves but were
given by God so that they could live a life of love for Him and their
fellowmen. The laws could not save them, only God’s love
could. So Jesus’ coming is to reveal to us God’s love and
compassion for us and His forgiveness of our sins, provided we are ready to
repent of our sinful and ignorant way of life.
However, we are so deep
in our sins and blinded by them. Therefore, the Lord uses the
consequences of our sins to help us come to realize our folly. Through the consequences of our sins, the
Lord invites us to reflect on our lifestyle and come to understand that such a
sinful way of life is destructive to our family and relationships and health.
So to help the Israelites to find healing from their sins, the Lord
told Moses to “make a fiery serpent and put it on a standard. If anyone is
bitten and looks at it, he shall live.” By contemplating on the serpent,
they were reminded of their foolishness and the consequence of death if they
continued in their sinful ways. Indeed, we read that it was in his hunger
that the Prodigal Son turned back to his Father. “He would gladly have filled
himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him
anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s
hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of
hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father,
I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be
called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.'” (Lk
15:16-19) It is significant that in his suffering, he remembered also the
Father’s unconditional love.
Today, for us
Christians, what Moses used to heal his people was but a foreshadowing of how
Christ the Son of God would save us all. The serpent erected on the pole had a hidden
meaning that was only revealed by Christ at His passion, death and
resurrection. Jesus said: “When you have lifted up the Son of Man,
then you will know that I am He and that I do nothing of myself: what the
Father has taught me is what I preach; he who sent me is with me, and has not
left me to myself, for I always do what pleases him.” Indeed, by
contemplating on the suffering and death of Jesus crucified innocently for us,
we come to understand the tragic consequences of sin. But by contemplating
on the cross, we also see the unconditional love and mercy of God which gives
us courage and confidence to turn to Him for pardon and forgiveness. Most
of all, by contemplating on His rising from the dead in His resurrection, we
know that God’s love and power triumph over sin, hatred and death. With
Christ, who is the Son of God, and one with the Father, we know now that God
wants us to share in His life and love. We no longer have to depend on
ourselves alone but on His love and the power of His Spirit to empower us to
live a life of love freed from sin.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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