20210213 SECULARISM THE SCOURGE OF OUR TIME
13 February, 2021, Saturday, 5th Week, Ordinary Time
First reading | Genesis 3:9-24 © |
The expulsion from the Garden of Eden
The Lord God called to the man. ‘Where are you?’ he asked.
‘I heard the sound of you in the garden;’ he replied ‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’
‘Who told you that you were naked?’ he asked ‘Have you been eating of the tree I forbade you to eat?’
The man replied, ‘It was the woman you put with me; she gave me the fruit, and I ate it.’
Then the Lord God asked the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’
The woman replied, ‘The serpent tempted me and I ate.’
Then the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this,
‘Be accursed beyond all cattle,
all wild beasts.
You shall crawl on your belly and eat dust
every day of your life.
I will make you enemies of each other:
you and the woman,
your offspring and her offspring.
It will crush your head
and you will strike its heel.’
To the woman he said:
‘I will multiply your pains in childbearing,
you shall give birth to your children in pain.
Your yearning shall be for your husband,
yet he will lord it over you.’
To the man he said, ‘Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat,
‘Accursed be the soil because of you.
With suffering shall you get your food from it
every day of your life.
It shall yield you brambles and thistles,
and you shall eat wild plants.
With sweat on your brow
shall you eat your bread,
until you return to the soil,
as you were taken from it.
For dust you are
and to dust you shall return.’
The man named his wife ‘Eve’ because she was the mother of all those who live. The Lord God made clothes out of skins for the man and his wife, and they put them on. Then the Lord God said, ‘See, the man has become like one of us, with his knowledge of good and evil. He must not be allowed to stretch his hand out next and pick from the tree of life also, and eat some and live for ever.’ So the Lord God expelled him from the garden of Eden, to till the soil from which he had been taken. He banished the man, and in front of the garden of Eden he posted the cherubs, and the flame of a flashing sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 89(90):2-6,12-13 © |
O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
Before the mountains were born
or the earth or the world brought forth,
you are God, without beginning or end.
O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
You turn men back to dust
and say: ‘Go back, sons of men.’
To your eyes a thousand years
are like yesterday, come and gone,
no more than a watch in the night.
O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
You sweep men away like a dream,
like the grass which springs up in the morning.
In the morning it springs up and flowers:
by evening it withers and fades.
O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
Make us know the shortness of our life
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Lord, relent! Is your anger for ever?
Show pity to your servants.
O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
Gospel Acclamation | Mt4:4 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Man does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Mark 8:1-10 © |
The feeding of the four thousand
A great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat. So Jesus called his disciples to him and said to them, ‘I feel sorry for all these people; they have been with me for three days now and have nothing to eat. If I send them off home hungry they will collapse on the way; some have come a great distance.’ His disciples replied, ‘Where could anyone get bread to feed these people in a deserted place like this?’ He asked them, ‘How many loaves have you?’ ‘Seven’ they said. Then he instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and handed them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them among the crowd. They had a few small fish as well, and over these he said a blessing and ordered them to be distributed also. They ate as much as they wanted, and they collected seven basketfuls of the scraps left over. Now there had been about four thousand people. He sent them away and immediately, getting into the boat with his disciples, went to the region of Dalmanutha.
SECULARISM THE SCOURGE OF OUR TIME
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [GEN 3:9-24; PS 90:2-6,12-13; MARK 8:1-10]
Why is humanity and the world so divided today? The biblical response in no uncertain terms traces it to sin, which alienates man from God, and then man from each other. Sin begins with pride and a false sense of autonomy which is the reflection of the situation of humanity today. The educated, scientific and technological man is full of himself. He thinks that through his intellect and knowledge, he does not need God, and certainly not anyone, to advise him what is the right and good thing to do. He knows everything and if he does not know, he will find the answer sooner or later. This is why today humanity claims full freedom in exercising their choices. This is an age of relativism, especially moral relativism and individualism.
Man makes himself the center of the universe. Everything in this world is to serve him. Instead of being at the service of creation and humanity by being a good steward, he abuses his authority and uses creation and humanity to satisfy his desires. This is why we are facing an ecological crisis because of the way man abuses nature. Instead of helping creation to find fulfillment, he destroys creation to satisfy his selfish needs.
Instead of seeing nature as one with him, it is now seen as an enemy that he must subdue and overcome. “Accursed be the soil because of you. With suffering shall you get your food from it every day of your life. It shall yield you brambles and thistles, and you shall eat wild plants. With sweat on your brow shall you eat your bread, until you return to the soil, as you were taken from it. For dust you are and to dust you shall return.” Man is created from the dust of the earth. He is part of this created order but instead of recognizing that he shares this position with the rest of creation, he fights with it. The ecological crisis is nature’s way of fighting back against man for marring the beauty of God’s creation. This explains why creation is groaning also for liberation. St Paul wrote, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” (Rom 8:22f)
He asserted his authority over the woman. Before the Fall, man perceived the woman as his equal, calling her “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” and “they become one flesh”. Furthermore, “the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.” (cf Gn 2:23-25) But after the Fall, the man gave his wife a name and assumed authority over her, just as he named the animals, signifying his authority over them. To the woman, the Lord said, “Your yearning shall be for your husband, yet he will lord it over you.” After the Fall, this complementarity of relationship was reduced to one of male domination over women, which was not in the plan of God. What is even more degrading is that the woman was further depersonalized when she was defined in functional terms as a bearer of children. Indeed, in some countries a woman’s worth is determined by her capacity to bear children for her husband. The man no longer saw the woman as his equal, which should be the case according to God’s plan.
Man was created for fellowship and communion with the creatures of God and with his fellowmen, but now he is alienated from them. This alienation and perception of others as a threat to his happiness originated from his alienation from God. “The Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden;’ he replied ‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.'” God was looking for the man who was hiding from Him. There was no longer openness and trust. The man felt naked before the Lord and was ashamed of himself. He no longer trusted in God. He trusted in himself only. If we cannot trust God, how can we ever trust our fellowmen when they are just like us, sinful and selfish? Indeed, we all think of ourselves first and put ourselves before others. This is why there is ambition, competition because we see our fellowmen as a threat to our existence. As a consequence, man was driven out of paradise because he was cut off from God and could not live in communion with the rest of creation. “So, the Lord God expelled him from the garden of Eden, to till the soil from which he had been taken. He banished the man.”
The estrangement from God leads to the confusion of man. By hiding from God, man hides from himself. He does not know his identity and origin. Since he chose to hide from God, as Adam did behind the trees, man today seeks to stifle his conscience. He does not want to know the truth about himself. He is afraid of the truth and he lives in denial. This explains why we cannot correct anyone today because they will defend themselves aggressively. Although like Adam and Eve, we can seek to rationalize our guilt and blame others for our situation, we cannot run away from moral guilt committed against God and our fellowmen. When God asked Adam, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you been eating of the tree I forbade you to eat?’ The man replied, ‘It was the woman you put with me; she gave me the fruit, and I ate it.’ Then the Lord God asked the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman replied, ‘The serpent tempted me and I ate.'” Refusing to recognize our guilt, as relativism teaches us, does not exonerate us from guilt. The truth is, whether we acknowledge it or not, the voice of God cannot be silenced completely. He speaks in our conscience. Evading our responsibilities and shifting blame to others will only lead us to condemn ourselves even more. We might be able to hide from God’s presence but His voice will still cry out to us. We all have a moral conscience that tells us what is right or wrong.
Most of all, not recognizing that God is the ultimate end of us all, man is now frightened of death. Not knowing that God is his destiny and goal in life, he seeks to cling to this life on earth. He is most fearful of death, which for him is the end of everything. Those who live this life as if it is the only life fear death. This is why St Paul said the last enemy of man that Jesus came to destroy is death. (1 Cor 15:26) But death is more than just a physical end to life. The real death is a living death when we are put out of paradise. It is to live a life of fear and anxiety, bondage to sin, loss of true freedom, the toil of work, the pain of childbirth, in constant competition with our fellowmen and, most of all, being cut off from our fellowship with God. Instead of seeing creation as a blessing, we are now cursed instead.
But punishment and death are not the final answer to God’s creation. Even in our sinfulness and hopelessness, God promises us restoration and redemption. The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, ‘Be accursed beyond all cattle, all wild beasts. You shall crawl on your belly and eat dust every day of your life. I will make you enemies of each other: you and the woman, your offspring and her offspring. It will crush your head and you will strike its heel.'” Evil does not have the last word in creation. God’s victory over sin and His divine plan for humanity and creation will prevail. No matter how evil this world is and how corrupt humanity is, we do not fall into despair and lose hope. God assures us that through another woman, our Blessed Mother, a savior would be born to save the world. He comes to restore us to communion with His Father.
Indeed, in today’s multiplication of loaves for the Four Thousand, Jesus once again gave the people a foretaste of what was in store for them. Jesus has come to invite us to the heavenly banquet where there is full communion of hearts and minds. The bread that they ate anticipated His passion, death and resurrection when the Lord gave Himself in the Eucharist. Jesus has come to make us all one in communion with each other, sharing the same meal, so that Jews and Gentiles alike will be one with God and with each other. Once again, Jesus shows the proper use of authority over nature, for the common good of all.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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