20210221 REPENT AND BELIEVE IN THE GOOD NEWS
21 February, 2021, 1st Sunday of Lent
First reading | Genesis 9:8-15 © |
'There shall be no flood to destroy the earth again'
God spoke to Noah and his sons, ‘See, I establish my Covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; also with every living creature to be found with you, birds, cattle and every wild beast with you: everything that came out of the ark, everything that lives on the earth. I establish my Covenant with you: no thing of flesh shall be swept away again by the waters of the flood. There shall be no flood to destroy the earth again.’
God said, ‘Here is the sign of the Covenant I make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all generations: I set my bow in the clouds and it shall be a sign of the Covenant between me and the earth. When I gather the clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I will recall the Covenant between myself and you and every living creature of every kind. And so the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all things of flesh.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 24(25):4-6,7b-9 © |
Your ways, Lord, are faithfulness and love for those who keep your covenant.
Lord, make me know your ways.
Lord, teach me your paths.
Make me walk in your truth, and teach me:
for you are God my saviour.
Your ways, Lord, are faithfulness and love for those who keep your covenant.
Remember your mercy, Lord,
and the love you have shown from of old.
In your love remember me,
because of your goodness, O Lord.
Your ways, Lord, are faithfulness and love for those who keep your covenant.
The Lord is good and upright.
He shows the path to those who stray,
He guides the humble in the right path,
He teaches his way to the poor.
Your ways, Lord, are faithfulness and love for those who keep your covenant.
Second reading | 1 Peter 3:18-22 © |
The water on which the Ark floated is a type of the baptism which saves you now
Christ himself, innocent though he was, died once for sins, died for the guilty, to lead us to God. In the body he was put to death, in the spirit he was raised to life, and, in the spirit, he went to preach to the spirits in prison. Now it was long ago, when Noah was still building that ark which saved only a small group of eight people ‘by water’, and when God was still waiting patiently, that these spirits refused to believe. That water is a type of the baptism which saves you now, and which is not the washing off of physical dirt but a pledge made to God from a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has entered heaven and is at God’s right hand, now that he has made the angels and Dominations and Powers his subjects.
Gospel Acclamation | Mt4:4 |
Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
Man does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory!
Gospel | Mark 1:12-15 © |
Jesus was tempted by Satan, and the angels looked after him
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness and he remained there for forty days, and was tempted by Satan. He was with the wild beasts, and the angels looked after him.
After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee. There he proclaimed the Good News from God. ‘The time has come’ he said ‘and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.’
REPENT AND BELIEVE IN THE GOOD NEWS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Genesis 9:8-15; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:12-15]
On this First Sunday of Lent, the liturgy sets out the purpose and objective of Lent, which is to prepare us for the Feast of Easter when we will renew our baptismal commitment to the Lord and for those Catechumens who will be baptized. The first reading from the book of Genesis tells us the story of Noah when God allowed the flood to wash away the sins of the people so that humanity could have a new beginning. God then made a covenant with all of creation, humanity and all living things that He would not destroy them again. The sign of this Covenant was the rainbow, a sign of hope and God’s mercy for sinful humanity. Noah’s rescue from the flood was but a type of Christ, as St Peter in the second reading explains. He said, “Now it was long ago, when Noah was still building that ark which saved only a small group of eight people ‘by water’, and when God was still waiting patiently, that these spirits refused to believe. That water is a type of the baptism which saves you now.” Christian baptism is therefore the anti-type or the fulfillment of what was symbolically foreshadowed in Noah’s covenant.
However, baptism is more than “the washing off of physical dirt but a pledge made to God from a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has entered heaven and is at God’s right hand, now that he has made the angels and Dominations and Powers his subjects.” Baptism is our commitment to our Lord Jesus Christ by sharing in His passion, death and resurrection. It is more than just mere external cleansing. Rather, it is an act of commitment to die to self, to our sins and rise with Him to a new life of grace. Baptism, therefore, is a sacrament, an outward sign of an inward grace given to us by God to live out the life of Christ. In baptism, we put on Christ and become a new creation, a child of God.
Hence, the prerequisite for baptism is repentance. In the gospel, Jesus began His ministry by inviting us to “Repent, and believe the Good News.” This was the second formula we used during Ash Wednesday for the imposition of ashes. However, the call to repentance today is often met with great indifference or even rejection.
Firstly, it does not sound like good news. Today, people want to hear things that are pleasing to their ears. They do not like to be criticized or to be told that what they are doing is wrong or not good enough. They want to hear affirmation, that they are all right, that they are doing well and they are good. The Good News that people want to hear is to endorse their lifestyle and confirm their philosophy of life. In an age of relativism and rationalism, no one wants to be told that their view of life is wrong. If we do not agree with them, it means that we are wrong. This is why few preachers today preach on morality because people do not like to hear. They will write in to condemn us for being negative and moralistic. Most preachers today preach on hope, a better life and a greater future; things that people like to hear.
Secondly, there can be no true repentance when we do not acknowledge our sins. The world does not know sin anymore. We are getting numb to sin because in our minds, we are not too sure what we do is wrong anyway. Maybe in the early days people were uneducated and they were ignorant. They just followed blindly. But with a more educated population, we justify and rationalize what we do and make something immoral to be moral. And the irony is that even moral teachings are changing all the time so much so our people are confused. As the relativists say, we never know what is truth. There is no objective and permanent truth but only relative truth which changes with time and culture. So the word “sin” does not impact us anymore and we feel no guilt and remorse, after all, the world says it is alright.
Thirdly, we have a very shallow understanding of repentance. For many Catholics, repentance is simply going for the Sacrament of confession to confess all their sins. But there is no need to change our life. We ask for pardon so that we can continue to sin. We do not make any effort to give up our sinful way of life. We make use of the Sacrament of Confession to resolve our guilt. But this is not repentance. For others, repentance means going to Mass more frequently, saying their prayers and doing some good works. Just because we have performed our rituals and the requirements of the Church, going through them in a functional and routine manner, we consider that as repentance.
On the contrary, repentance means a total change of direction in life. To repent means to turn away from our sins. It is a 180 degree change of life. It is not just changing our actions but our attitudes to life, to others and to God. It is more than just shedding tears for our past life but a real and sincere desire to change our life because we are contrite and remorseful of our past. We can only repent when we see that our lifestyle is contrary to our desire for real happiness, which can only be found in God and in walking the way of truth and love. Repentance requires humility and a real recognition of the gravity of our sinful life. This explains why many of us go for confession and yet there is no real change in life, because we are not truly contrite and even if we are, it is out of guilt and not a true realization that what we are doing is hurting us and our loved ones and God.
However, when we speak of repentance negatively as turning away from our current way of life, many of us are fearful that we might lose the little joys and pleasures that we have. This is why many of us are reluctant to turn to God because we fear that being a true Catholic would mean taking joy and fun out of our life. Perhaps, we see this in some of our so-called good Catholics. They are judgmental and self-righteous and live in strait jackets. They do not seem to have life in them.
More positively, repentance is not so much a turning away from. Rather, it is to turn towards God and the Good News. This explains why the Lord began His ministry by saying, “The time has come and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.” In the understanding of our Lord, the primary meaning of repentance is to believe in the Good News, which is the love and mercy of God. It is to believe that God has come to rule His Kingdom so that there will be peace, love and unity, where division and wars would be no more. Indeed, the mention of Jesus in the wilderness, living in harmony with the wild animals, is an indication that the Messianic time has come. Jesus, therefore, was not asking the people to turn away from sin but to turn towards the Good News.
Of course, the turning to God and the Good News means at the same time, a turning away from sin. We cannot choose God and mammon at the same time. We either live in the light or in darkness. We cannot say we want to love God and hate our neighbors at the same time. This is the consequence of choosing God, truth and love. When we turn to the Good News, we are free from the old way of life. This is why we should not pressurize people to change, or condemn them simply because they are ignorant and they have not found the Good News. Repentance therefore is the first step towards faith. When repentance is lacking, faith is lacking too. Only those who have handed their lives to God can believe.
The best way to help people to repent is to introduce them to our Lord. We must help them fall in love with Him and when they encounter His unconditional love and mercy, they will believe in His word, His teaching and the Scriptures. Then they will change, not because they have to, but because they want to. We must help them to experience victory over evil, just as Jesus did when He was battling with Satan in the wilderness and throughout His ministry by uniting ourselves with Him. Only those who have faith in our Lord and trust in Him will be able to leave everything like the disciples of our Lord and follow after Him. Faith is more than reason. Faith includes trust. Reason requires understanding but trust can happen even without the light of evidence. Trust, unlike reason, simply requires an act of the will.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment