20210109 BE ON YOUR GUARD AGAINST FALSE GODS
09 January, 2021, Saturday After Epiphany
1John 5:14-21
14 And this is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him. 16 If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God* will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin which is mortal; I do not say that one is to pray for that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal.
18 We know that any one born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.
19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one.
20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, to know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
Psalms 149:1-6,9
1 Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the faithful!
2 Let Israel be glad in his Maker,
let the sons of Zion rejoice in their King!
3 Let them praise his name with dancing,
making melody to him with timbrel and lyre!
4 For the Lord takes pleasure in his people;
he adorns the humble with victory.
5 Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy on their couches.
6 Let the high praises of God be in their throats
and two-edged swords in their hands,
9 to execute on them the judgment written!
This is glory for all his faithful ones.
Praise the Lord!
John 3:22-30
22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the land of Judea; there he remained with them and baptized. 23 John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people came and were baptized. 24 For John had not yet been put in prison.
25 Now a discussion arose between John’s disciples and a Jew over purifying. 26 And they came to John, and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, here he is, baptizing, and all are going to him.” 27 John answered, “No one can receive anything except what is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. 29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice; therefore this joy of mine is now full. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”*
BE ON YOUR GUARD AGAINST FALSE GODS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 JOHN 5:14-21; PSALM 149:1-6,9; JOHN 3:22-30]
“Be on your guard against false gods.” This is the final exhortation of St John’s letter to his Christian community. Worshipping false gods will lead us to our destruction and that of our loved ones. False gods come in different ways and are often deceptive, masquerading as good and nice to have. This is why we need to be on guard against the false gods in our lives. What are these false gods?
The most obvious false god is the world. Seeking wealth, power, glory and fame, has made many us waste our entire life pursuing them at the expense of life, love and meaningful relationships. We have been deceived into believing that such things can give us real happiness when we have seen so many rich people, powerful people and celebrities so starved of love and life. They might have everything in the world and are served by everyone, but they lack real friends who truly care, the joy of being in touch with the sufferings and struggles of the ordinary people, the joy of uplifting the poor and suffering, and most of all, the peace and restfulness when we rest in God’s love.
The second obvious false god is the flesh. We desire comfort and pleasures. This is natural because we are human beings with a body. But often, we forget that we have a soul. Happiness in life is more than having our bodies satisfied by food and sex, our minds need to be fed with truth and our hearts be filled with love. Unfortunately, we focus so much on the luxuries of life and the pleasures of sex that we forget that the flesh is to mediate the love of God in a tangible way. We should use our body to communicate love, care and understanding so that we will also be in communion of heart and mind.
The most insidious false god is the worship of self. The sin of impiety is the ultimate sin, according to St Paul. He wrote, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened.” (Rom 1:18-21) By worshipping ourselves, we have committed the deadly sin that St John spoke about. What is this deadly sin if not the worship of ourselves, our intellect and our achievements. Indeed, the greatest sin in the world is a hostile secularism that is opposed to God and all religions. The world trusts only in reason, science, technology and in themselves. They fail to recognize that God is the author of creation and all that we have and are come from Him alone.
The sin of impiety is a deadly sin because it cuts us from God. It is the sin of blasphemy, a denial of the truth of God. St John wrote about this deadly sin which he said, “there is a sin that is death, and I will not say that you must pray about that.” The reason is simply because when a person falls into the sin of impiety, he is totally cut off from God. He has become an enemy of God. Such a person can no longer pray to God because his mind and heart are possessed by the Evil One. They are numbed to God, overcome by their pride and selfishness. They cannot pray for themselves but we can still pray for them, that God will give them sufficient grace to turn back to Him. St John says, “We are quite confident that if we ask the Son of God for anything, and it is in accordance with his will, he will hear us; and, knowing that whatever we may ask, he hears us, we know that we have been granted what we ask of him.” So those who have left the Church and sold themselves to the devil and his minions, consumed by the world, living a life of immorality and selfishness, will destroy themselves. There is no peace.
But it does not mean that our sinful attachment to the world and to our flesh need not be taken seriously. St John writes, “If anybody sees his brother commit a sin that is not a deadly sin, he has only to pray, and God will give life to the sinner. Every kind of wrong-doing is sin, but not all sin is deadly.” The Church has always distinguished between mortal, serious and venial sins. For venial sins, committed out of weakness, they can be forgiven through repentance, prayers and reception of Holy Communion. For mortal sins, they can only be forgiven through confession of sins, repentance and prayers and the Eucharist. But we must take care that we do not allow our venial and serious sins to lead us to mortal sin, the deadly sin of rejection of God in our lives. We must be on guard against all sins, regardless whether it is venial or serious sins because sin, like yeast, will grow from strength to strength and then cloud our minds and our hearts until we are immune to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
Yet, the gospel also reminds us that there is another sin which so-called virtuous people must be on guard. What is this sin of the virtuous? Firstly, it is the sin of jealousy. This was the temptation of the disciples of John the Baptist and that of the Jewish leaders. We can understand where the disciples of John the Baptist were coming from. They had been following him. He was a great prophet who spoke the truth without mincing his words. He was true to God, lived an austere life, of mortification and penance in the desert. He had gained many followers. But with the coming of Jesus, his popularity was compromised and some of his disciples were following Jesus instead. So they were jealous of Jesus and His growing popularity. They were unhappy that Jesus was now baptizing as well. The evangelist made a clarification later. “It was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized.” (Jn 4:2) Still they were concerned that they were losing disciples to Jesus.
Jealousy among religious leaders is so common. It is difficult to admit but many religious leaders, clerical or lay, feel jealous when others are doing a better job than they. They feel jealous of their success, achievements and popularity. Instead of rejoicing that people are brought to the Lord, they tried to put down others. Indeed, religious leaders often forget, unlike John the Baptist, that their task is to bring people to Jesus, the Bridegroom. “You yourselves can bear me out: I said: I myself am not the Christ; I am the one who has been sent in front of him. The bride is only for the bridegroom; and yet the bridegroom’s friend, who stands there and listens, is glad when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. This same joy I feel, and now it is complete. He must grow greater, I must grow smaller.” If we are truly proclaiming the Good News and not ourselves, we should rejoice that others are being brought to Christ by someone else. After all, John the Baptist also reminds us, “A man can lay claim only to what is given him from heaven.” If God wants to use us, we must be available. But if He chooses someone else, we should not be jealous for Christ is the bridegroom and the Church is His bride. We are just the best man leading others to Him. When that is done, we must disappear from the scene so that others will be focused on Him.
The second sin of the virtuous is theological pride. Quite often, theologians and pastors clash over interpretations of scripture and doctrines. We all feel that we know more and that our interpretation is the correct one. How often theologians and pastors spend hours splitting hairs on theological and doctrinal viewpoints and neglecting the more important task of giving hope to people, uplifting lives and healing hearts. This was the case of John the Baptist’s disciples who not only were concerned about Jesus’ baptizing but also that he did not fast. (cf Mt 9:12) Again, Jesus asked us to see the bigger picture. “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” (Mt 9:15)
Our mission is to bring people to the bridegroom. This is done when, like John the Baptist, we allow Jesus to fill us with His love and His mind. The only way to overcome all sins is to let God live in us. “We know that we belong to God, but the whole world lies in the power of the Evil One. We know, too, that the Son of God has come, and has given us the power to know the true God. We are in the true God, as we are in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God, this is eternal life.” So when we decrease, God will increase in us. His Spirit will enable us to overcome all sins and all the idols of our lives. This is what John said, “We know that anyone who has been begotten by God does not sin, because the begotten Son of God protects him, and the Evil One does not touch him.” Faith in Jesus and keeping an intimate relationship with Him is the key to overcoming the temptations of the Evil One.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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