20200817 PERFECTION OF LOVE
17 August, 2020, Monday, 20th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour: Green.
First reading |
Ezekiel 24:15-24 © |
The Lord will profane his sanctuary
The word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows, ‘Son of man, I am about to deprive you suddenly of the delight of your eyes. But you are not to lament, not to weep, not to let your tears run down. Groan in silence, do not go into mourning for the dead, knot your turban round your head, put your sandals on your feet, do not cover your beard, do not eat common bread.’ I told this to the people in the morning, and my wife died in the evening, and the next morning I did as I had been ordered.
The people then said to me, ‘Are you not going to explain what meaning these actions have for us?’
I replied, ‘The word of the Lord has been addressed to me as follows, “Say to the House of Israel: The Lord says this. I am about to profane my sanctuary, the pride of your strength, the delight of your eyes, the passion of your souls. Those of your sons and daughters whom you have left behind will fall by the sword. And you are to do as I have done; you must not cover your beards or eat common bread; you must keep your turbans on your heads and your sandals on your feet; you must not lament or weep. You shall waste away owing to your sins and groan among yourselves. Ezekiel is to be a sign for you. You are to do just as he has done. And when this happens, you will learn that I am the Lord.”’
Responsorial Psalm |
Deuteronomy 32:18-21 © |
You forget the God who fathered you.
You forget the Rock who begot you,
unmindful now of the God who fathered you.
The Lord has seen this, and in his anger
cast off his sons and his daughters.
You forget the God who fathered you.
‘I shall hide my face from them,’ he says
‘and see what becomes of them.
For they are a deceitful brood,
children with no loyalty in them.
You forget the God who fathered you.
‘They have roused me to jealousy with what is no god,
they have angered me with their beings of nothing;
I, then, will rouse them to jealousy with what is no people,
I will anger them with an empty-headed nation.’
You forget the God who fathered you.
Gospel Acclamation | Ps118:24 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Train me, Lord, to observe your law,
to keep it with my heart.
Alleluia!
Or: | Mt5:3 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
How happy are the poor in spirit:
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Alleluia!
Gospel |
Matthew 19:16-22 © |
If you wish to be perfect, go and sell what you own
There was a man who came to Jesus and asked, ‘Master, what good deed must I do to possess eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is one alone who is good. But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ He said, ‘Which?’ ‘These:’ Jesus replied ‘You must not kill. You must not commit adultery. You must not bring false witness. Honour your father and mother,and: you must love your neighbour as yourself.’ The young man said to him, ‘I have kept all these. What more do I need to do?’ Jesus said, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ But when the young man heard these words he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.
PERFECTION OF LOVE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [EZEKIEL 24:15-24; MATTHEW 19:16-22 ]
Like the young “man who came to Jesus and asked, ‘Master, what good deed must I do to possess eternal life’, we too ask this same question. We can be rich and successful like the rich man. We might feel that we have done many good deeds in our life. We have been loving and caring towards our family and loved ones. Yet, like this man, we feel that something is missing in our life. We are not at ease. We are not truly happy or satisfied. Like the woman at the well in Samaria (Jn 4), we yearn for living water. When “Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.'” (Jn 4:13-15)
How is it that our lives are empty in spite of the fact that, like the rich man, we have apparently fulfilled all the commandments of the Lord? Jesus told the rich man that if he wished to enter into life, “keep the commandments.” Jesus listed out six of the commandments that dealt with his relationship with his fellowmen and ended with the commandment on honouring his parents, reversing the order of the Decalogue. Confidently and proudly, he said, “I have kept all these. What more do I need to do?” So too we might feel that we have done our part for our loved ones, society and church. Even with all the church involvement and service in ministries and in NGOs, we are still unfulfilled. We are still feeling empty and incomplete.
Right from the outset, we must be clear of what is eternal life if we want to attain it. How to find eternal life presupposes that we know the goal we are seeking. The truth is that many of us are not aware of what eternal life is all about. Most of us think that eternal life is what we call “heaven”; a place where we will go to when we die. To gain entry into heaven, at the Gate of St Peter, the Lord will assess whether we have passed the criteria for entry into heaven. The norms that that we must show would include a good report card of the good deeds we have done, a righteous and holy life, committed no serious sins and have rendered worship of God, keeping the Sabbath holy. So heaven, in the mind of many Catholics, is a place we go to and once we are in heaven, we will be secure and live happily ever after. Eternal life for many people means everlasting life.
Whilst such a concept of heaven and eternal life is not entirely wrong, it is inadequate and can even be misleading. Heaven is not so much a place but more a state of being. Eternal life is not merely a life without end but a sharing of the life of God. Therefore, heaven and eternal life simply means that the love of God is in us, and we share and live His life in love, justice, charity and forgiveness. To gain entry into eternal life or heaven is not a question of acquiring a trophy as in a competition, or getting into a place as in acquiring citizenship or receiving our graduation as in the university. Rather, it depends on how much we are living the life of God intensely. The more we share in His life and love, in His heart of compassion, selfless and humble service, generosity and forgiveness, the greater is our participation in the life of God. Heaven is not a territory dividing us from purgatory and hell. Rather, it means that our life is wholly in God and with God. This is what heaven is all about. When the life of God is in us, and His love remains in our hearts, we will always be filled with joy, meaning and happiness. This joy is ours when we reach out to our fellowmen, sharing in their joys and sorrows, being one with them, journeying with them. The joy of intense relationship and intimacy with God and with our brothers and sisters is what gives us life.
Unfortunately, the rich young man was not ready for such total sharing in the life and love of God. The Lord told him, “If you wish to be perfect, go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” However, “when the young man heard these words he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.” Indeed, right from the start, this man was not serious in being a disciple of our Lord. He was not intending to follow Him. He addressed, Jesus as “master” instead of the title, “Lord” as He would normally be called in Matthew’s gospel. Secondly, the fact that Jesus listed the last of commandments in terms of honouring one’s parents, he could be guilty of using the “Corban” law to avoid looking after his parents by pretending to “consecrate” everything he had to God. Thirdly, he was in truth not just lacking love for his neighours but he was disobedient to the first commandment of loving God above all other things. His attachment was to his wealth rather than to God. He placed his security not in God but in his possessions. He loved himself more than he loved his fellowmen. This explains why he went away sad because he could not share in the life and love of God. He was not able to surrender his wealth, his attachments and his life to God and his fellowmen.
Today, we have the example of Ezekiel in the first reading. He is the exemplar of one who was faithful to God and who loved his fellowmen before himself and even his loved ones. The Lord told the prophet that his beloved wife, the delight of his eyes would be suddenly taken away from her. As if this news would not have broken his heart, he was not allowed to grieve for her. The Lord said, “But you are not to lament, not to weep, not to let your tears run down. Groan in silence, do not go into mourning for the dead, knot your turban round your head, put your sandals on your feet, do not cover your beard, do not eat common bread.” If we were Ezekiel, we must be so disheartened and broken. It seems the Lord was asking too much from him. How could we restrain someone from mourning the loss of his loved ones? Mourning and bereavement is part of the process of coming to terms with our losses. So we can feel with and for Ezekiel when his wife died suddenly.
However, Ezekiel remained faithful and obedient to God. He carried out what the Lord instructed. Ezekiel put aside his own suffering and sorrow to attend to the Lord’s command for him to instruct his people who were about to suffer a national tragedy many times worse than his own personal tragedy. Already in exile in Babylon, through this prophecy in action, the Lord told the people to prepare to receive news about the total destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem. “I am about to profane my sanctuary, the pride of your souls. Those of your sons and daughters whom you have left behind will fall by the sword.” When it happens, their grief would be inconsolable. Instead of grieving the loss of their children and the Temple, they should be repenting of their sins. “You shall waste away owing to your sins and groan among yourselves. Ezekiel is to be a sign for you. You are to do just as he has done. And when this happens, you will learn that I am the Lord.” They need to learn!
Such is the perfect love that Ezekiel had for God and for his people. He allowed God to use his personal tragedy, his suffering and loss to help prepare his people to meet a greater tragedy ahead of them. Indeed, when we suffer, we can lament and pity ourselves for what we are going through. We can lick our wounds and complain to people about our pains. Not so for Ezekiel. He transcended his pain and sought to do God’s will, using that pain and personal misfortune as a lesson for the others. Truly, when we use our sufferings for the good of others, we can say that we have loved perfectly. This was what the Lord said to the women. “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.” (Lk 23:28) “But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.” (Isa 53:5) St Peter exhorts us, “the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.” (2 Cor 1:4)
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved. The contents of this page may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission from the Archbishop’s Office. This includes extracts, quotations, and summaries.
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