20210731 PROMOTING INTEGRAL ECOLOGY IS UNDERPINNED BY FAITH IN GOD
31 July, 2021, Saturday, 17th Week, Ordinary Time
First reading |
Leviticus 25:1,8-17 © |
The law of the jubilee year
The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai. He said:
‘You are to count seven weeks of years – seven times seven years, that is to say a period of seven weeks of years, forty-nine years. And on the tenth day of the seventh month you shall sound the trumpet; on the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout the land. You will declare this fiftieth year sacred and proclaim the liberation of all the inhabitants of the land. This is to be a jubilee for you; each of you will return to his ancestral home, each to his own clan. This fiftieth year is to be a jubilee year for you: you will not sow, you will not harvest the ungathered corn, you will not gather from the untrimmed vine. The jubilee is to be a holy thing to you, you will eat what comes from the fields.
‘In this year of jubilee each of you is to return to his ancestral home. If you buy or sell with your neighbour, let no one wrong his brother. If you buy from your neighbour, this must take into account the number of years since the jubilee: according to the number of productive years he will fix the price. The greater the number of years, the higher shall be the price demanded; the less the number of years, the greater the reduction; for what he is selling you is a certain number of harvests. Let none of you wrong his neighbour, but fear your God; I am the Lord your God.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 66(67):2-3,5,7-8 © |
Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you.
O God, be gracious and bless us
and let your face shed its light upon us.
So will your ways be known upon earth
and all nations learn your saving help.
Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you.
Let the nations be glad and exult
for you rule the world with justice.
With fairness you rule the peoples,
you guide the nations on earth.
Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you.
The earth has yielded its fruit
for God, our God, has blessed us.
May God still give us his blessing
till the ends of the earth revere him.
Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you.
Gospel Acclamation | cf.Lk8:15 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are those who,
with a noble and generous heart,
take the word of God to themselves
and yield a harvest through their perseverance.
Alleluia!
Or: | Mt5:10 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Happy those who are persecuted
in the cause of right,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Matthew 14:1-12 © |
The beheading of John the Baptist
Herod the tetrarch heard about the reputation of Jesus, and said to his court, ‘This is John the Baptist himself; he has risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.’
Now it was Herod who had arrested John, chained him up and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. For John had told him, ‘It is against the Law for you to have her.’ He had wanted to kill him but was afraid of the people, who regarded John as a prophet. Then, during the celebrations for Herod’s birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company, and so delighted Herod that he promised on oath to give her anything she asked. Prompted by her mother she said, ‘Give me John the Baptist’s head, here, on a dish.’ The king was distressed but, thinking of the oaths he had sworn and of his guests, he ordered it to be given her, and sent and had John beheaded in the prison. The head was brought in on a dish and given to the girl, who took it to her mother. John’s disciples came and took the body and buried it; then they went off to tell Jesus.
PROMOTING INTEGRAL ECOLOGY IS UNDERPINNED BY FAITH IN GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [LEV 25:1. 8-17; PS 67:2-3,5,7-8; MT 14:1-12 ]
Today, nations all over the world are articulating the threats to planet earth because of environmental abuses. There is so much talk and discussion on how we should protect the environment and the planet by taking care of the eco-systems. The world is asking industries to move towards using green and clean energy instead of burning up the world’s resources and avoid polluting the world. All these measures are well and good and should be supported by all for the sustenance and continuity of this planet, otherwise, when nature is not respected, we will experience growing climate warming, destruction of animals, wild life and sea creatures, and freak weather, such as heat wave, extreme cold weather, flooding and typhoons.
Yet, they do not go far enough. Sustenance of planet earth is not just about man’s relationship with the environment, with plants and animals. This is only one narrow aspect of ecology. Ecology must also deal with right relationships among nations, peoples in each country and community, workers and employers; family and marriage. The world is hypocritical. It is not willing to take active and significant steps to protect creation and would spend billions of dollars amassing armaments, nuclear weapons, starting wars, destroying lives, property and nature. We are blind to the greed and selfishness of industries and big multi-national corporation who are the main culprit in exploiting poorer countries of their natural resources to enrich rich countries further.
Although the planet belongs to all of humanity, how could the world be blind to the fact that the 10% of the rich countries enjoy 90% of the world resources? There is an unequal distribution of wealth and resources. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Even during this pandemic, only the rich countries could get all their citizens vaccinated whereas for the poorer countries, not even 5% of their population. On the family front, we do not protect the right relationship of family life and marriage. When we start redefining gender, marriage and family, the ecology of human relationships become dysfunctional. What we are seeing today is the fragmentation of the family and fragile relationships in marriage. Children are confused and are dysfunctional. But society is blind to the fact that the bedrock of the nation is the strengthening of family life and strong marriages. So what is destroying the planet would not just be the abuse of the environment but international and inter-human relationships.
It is very significant that the call to integral ecology was already pre-empted four thousand years ago. It is not new because humanity has always seen the need to protect the environment, which includes man’s inter-personal relationship with each other, right relationship with other nations, and most of all, right relationship with God. Indeed, both scripture readings today underscore the importance of the ecology, not just of the environment and natural resources, but also that of property, human relationships and respect for the sacredness of marriage and family life.
The Books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus lay down the rules for an integral and holistic ecology between man and creation, man and man, man and God. Only in this way, the Promised Land would be truly a land flowing with milk and honey, the people would make progress, and there would be peace, harmony and justice in the land. Failure to observe the laws laid down by Moses, whether those governing relationships with the earth, or their neighbours, or with God, or liturgical laws would cause the community to lose its focus, direction and eventually, the family and community would be destroyed because of greed, selfishness, cheating and injustices. A harmonious ecology with everyone and everything brings unity.
Today’s first reading underscores the importance of protecting the natural resources of the earth and the environment. Moses had commanded the people to ensure that the land “observe a sabbath for the Lord.” (Lev 25:2) “Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.” (Lev 25:2-4) Indeed, the Sabbath was not just imposed on man who is called to rest on the seventh day from work so that he could regain his focus, his energy, what is really essential to him, namely, relationship with his family and the community, and most of all with God. Work and making oneself rich in this world’s goods are not the goal of life. So too for the land as well. It needs to lie fallow for a year to be renewed so that they could continue to supply nutrients to the crops. Otherwise, the yield would get poorer each passing year as it becomes less and less fertile. Indiscriminate farming and deforestation have a great part to play in climate warming today.
But Moses also called for a Jubilee Year at every 50th year, that is, after seven cycles of seven years. On this Jubilee year, everything would be restored to its original situation or owner. Specifically, with regard to the earth and the environment, there would be two consecutive years where no farming was allowed. “You will not sow, you will not harvest the ungathered corn, you will not gather from the untrimmed vine. The jubilee is to be a holy thing to you, you will eat what comes from the fields.” All would just eat what “comes from the fields.” But the Jubilee was not just a year of liberation for the land, but to “all the inhabitants of the land.” Moses said, “on the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet through-out the land. You will declare this fiftieth year sacred and proclaim the liberation of all the inhabitants of the land. This is to be a jubilee for you; each of you will return to his ancestral home, each to his own clan.” All property would be restored to the original owner of the family, especially when their property was mortgaged or sold to pay their debts. This was particularly so for widows whose husbands had died and they have no source of income. And when the money was not enough to pay off the debts, they would also sell themselves to work for the landlord who bought over their land. But during the Jubilee Year, their land would be restored to them and they would be released from all their debts.
Whether the people of Israel did observe these wise laws laid down for them or not would depend on whether they had a right relationship with God. When Moses commanded them to observe the Sabbath Law, not just for themselves but for the land, it presupposed that they were fully aware that the earth and their land belonged to God. He is the owner of the land, and what we have come from Him, and it is only on lease. This is why right relationship with God underpins our conviction and will to protect not just creation and environmental ecology but human networks as well in all its different levels. Otherwise, there would be serious consequences.
Indeed, this was the case of King Herod in the gospel who failed to respect the ecology with God and his marriage. He did not listen to the Prophet who spoke the words of God. Instead, like many secularists who are too proud to submit themselves to the Creator, Herod went against the ecology of family and marriage life. Unfaithful to the Law of Moses regarding marriage, he divorced his wife and married Herodias, the wife of his brother, Philip. It was incest because Herodias was the niece of both. By divorcing his own wife, he incurred the wrath of his father-in-law, King Aretas who made war with Herod. Under the influence of Herodias, Herod committed murder against John the Baptist. Instigated by Herodias, he asked Rome to give him the title “king”, but instead was banished to Gaul where he languished in exile until his death. This would be true for all of humanity if we do not learn from the lessons that God taught Israel and King Herod. If we do not respect the ecology of creation, of the environment, nature will unleash its wrath on us all. If we do not respect God’s creation of human beings, as man and woman, called to be good stewards of God’s creation and to multiply, the world would become extinct as there would be fewer and fewer people left.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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