20210918 PERSEVERANCE IN OUR FAITH
18 September, 2021, Saturday, 24th Week, Ordinary Time
First reading |
1 Timothy 6:13-16 © |
I put to you the duty of doing all that you have been told
Before God the source of all life and before Christ, who spoke up as a witness for the truth in front of Pontius Pilate, I put to you the duty of doing all that you have been told, with no faults or failures, until the Appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who at the due time will be revealed
by God, the blessed and only Ruler of all,
the King of kings and the Lord of lords,
who alone is immortal,
whose home is in inaccessible light,
whom no man has seen and no man is able to see:
to him be honour and everlasting power. Amen.
Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 99(100) © |
Come before the Lord, singing for joy.
Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing for joy.
Come before the Lord, singing for joy.
Know that he, the Lord, is God.
He made us, we belong to him,
we are his people, the sheep of his flock.
Come before the Lord, singing for joy.
Go within his gates, giving thanks.
Enter his courts with songs of praise.
Give thanks to him and bless his name.
Come before the Lord, singing for joy.
Indeed, how good is the Lord,
eternal his merciful love.
He is faithful from age to age.
Come before the Lord, singing for joy.
Gospel Acclamation | Ps118:18 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Open my eyes, O Lord, that I may consider
the wonders of your law.
Alleluia!
Or: | 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!
Gospel | Luke 8:4-15 © |
The parable of the sower
With a large crowd gathering and people from every town finding their way to him, Jesus used this parable:
‘A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell on the edge of the path and was trampled on; and the birds of the air ate it up. Some seed fell on rock, and when it came up it withered away, having no moisture. Some seed fell amongst thorns and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some seed fell into rich soil and grew and produced its crop a hundredfold.’ Saying this he cried, ‘Listen, anyone who has ears to hear!’
His disciples asked him what this parable might mean, and he said, ‘The mysteries of the kingdom of God are revealed to you; for the rest there are only parables, so that
they may see but not perceive,
listen but not understand.
‘This, then, is what the parable means: the seed is the word of God. Those on the edge of the path are people who have heard it, and then the devil comes and carries away the word from their hearts in case they should believe and be saved. Those on the rock are people who, when they first hear it, welcome the word with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of trial they give up. As for the part that fell into thorns, this is people who have heard, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries and riches and pleasures of life and do not reach maturity. As for the part in the rich soil, this is people with a noble and generous heart who have heard the word and take it to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance.’
PERSEVERANCE IN OUR FAITH
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 Tim 6:13-16; Ps 100:1-5; Lk 8:4-15 ]
In his letter to Timothy, St Paul charged him to carry out his duties and office faithfully, “doing all that you have been told, with no faults or failures.” And more than that, he brought in the Father and our Lord as witnesses, saying, “before God the source of all life and before Jesus Christ, who spoke up as a witness for the truth in front of Pontius Pilate.” Indeed, all of us are called to persevere in the faith that we have received, and to discharge it according to the state of life we are in and our vocation in the world. Whether we will be able to carry out our responsibilities, or even sustain our faith in time of trials and persecution, depends on how receptive we are to the Word of God.
The Parable of the Seed and the Sower focuses on the kind of soil we are with respect to the Word of God preached to us. Whilst the gift of salvation and the Word of God is free and given to all, symbolized by the “crowd” listening to the teaching of our Lord, the response to the gift is dependent on our docility and receptivity. God gives His gift to all who want it, but He does not impose His gift on us. So the real obstacle to salvation is not because we have not heard the Word, but we have not responded to His grace. St Paul wrote in Romans, “As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’ But not all have obeyed the good news; for Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our message?’ So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have; for ‘Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.'” (Rom 10:15-18) Then why is it that not all respond to the Word of God? This is because we all have different levels of receptivity as individuals and within the same individual, different receptivity at certain periods of our life.
There are those who are like the edge of the path. These are people who are hardened towards the Word of God. Like a path that has been trodden and the earth hardened over the years, so too these people, like the religious leaders during the time of our Lord, were deaf to the teaching of Christ. They are simply disinterested as they are consumed with themselves. Some are even hostile as they believe only in science and technology, which are their gods, and would not accept the Word of God or even God in their life. They are aggressive to anything that goes against their preferences. They want things their way and their demands and wants to be met. This is why the Lord said, “Those on the edge of the path are people who have heard it, and then the devil comes and carries away the word from their hearts in case they should believe and be saved.”
There are those who are like the rocky ground, when the seed “came up it withered away, having no moisture.” The rocky ground has a thin layer of soil over the rock. But because the roots do not grow deep enough, when the heat comes up they wither and die due to the lack of water and nutrients. Indeed, “those on the rock are people who, when they first hear it, welcome the word with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of trial they give up.” We have many so-called born-again Christians who have encountered the Lord in a miracle, a healing, a rally or during a retreat. They might have had some spiritual manifestations, visions or conviction of hearing God speaking to them in their heart. In their enthusiasm in encountering the love and mercy of God, they make all kinds of promises. But such emotional zeal does not last. As the days pass, their emotions die down and when they meet with trials and sufferings, they become bitter, resentful and again lose faith. This is not to say that faith does not include great emotional experiences. But an emotional faith in Christ cannot last long and would not withstand the test of time. After falling in love with God, the person must begin the task of deepening his or her faith through a discipline of prayer, study of the Word, ongoing formation and spiritual direction.
Then there are those seeds that fall among thorns “and the thorns grew with it and choked it.” These thorns, the Lord explained, are the “worries and riches and pleasures of life” that choke them along the way and prevent them from reaching maturity. Indeed, even though many of us sincerely love God and want to love Him and be faithful to Him, we are often torn between human love and God’s love. We are worried about our finances, our security, our acceptance by the world and our health. We are drawn by human relationships. We need love and to love. Our body seeks the sensual pleasures of the world. We desire comfort and physical love. As a consequence, we also become ambitious, selfish, competitive and envious of others. So our preoccupation with the world often clashes with our faith and values. These are the things that strangle our faith and eventually our faith dies because we have no time to nurture it. A divided heart that is overcome by our love for this world makes us unfit to serve God. As the Lord said, “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Mt 6:24)
Finally, if we are that fertile ground where the seed falls, then we are indeed blessed. “As for the part of the rich soil, this is people with a noble and generous heart who have heard the word and take it to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance.” These are those who welcome the Word of God with humility and joy, cherish and relish it, through constant study, prayer, reflection and sharing of the Word which give them the strength to overcome the temptations and trials of the world, to stay focused on the Lord. Indeed, these are the people who have found the secret to growth and maturity, which is to hear the Word and put it into practice. This was what the Lord said of His mother and brothers. “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” (Lk 8:21) This testimony of our Lord came as a conclusion to those who truly hear the Word of God. The truth is that upon hearing the Word of God, we must use it or lose it, do it or lose it. Without using the Word of God in our minds, thoughts and speech daily, we will lose it. Without putting into practice, we will also lose it.
At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave the analogy of the hearers and doers. “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell – and great was its fall!” (Mt 7:24-27)
Yet we must be careful not to fix ourselves permanently on one of these types of soil because this parable is speaking about the entire process of growth in life. Not all of us will immediately arrive at the level of a fertile soil and even for those who have arrived, it does not necessarily mean that they will remain fertile for the rest of their life. Spiritual growth is a like seed which takes time to germinate, to grow and to blossom. Those who seem to reject the gospel now will in time to come, in their later years, begin to see the wisdom and truth of the gospel and be converted. Those of us who are struggling against sin and the temptations of the world, the flesh and the Evil One will win some battles and lose some. But growth in holiness is a process and we must be patient with our growth and the growth of others.
In the final analysis, we must rely on His grace alone, as St Paul urges us. “Who at the due time will be revealed by God, the blessed and only Ruler of all, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who alone is immortal, whose home is in inaccessible light, whom no man has seen and no man is able to see: to him be honour and everlasting power. Amen.” Indeed, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, aware that we will eventually come to judgment, we should strive to be as faithful as we can to the gospel, always recognizing our weaknesses, but confident in His mercy and compassion for us. Aware that we are sinners, we must extend the same compassion and patience to others as well because we are all growing in grace.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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