20220210 ADULTERATION OF THE FAITH THROUGH MIXED MARRIAGES
10 February, 2022, Thursday, Week 5 in Ordinary Time
First reading | 1 Kings 11:4-13 © |
For the sake of my servant David, I will leave you one tribe
When Solomon grew old his wives swayed his heart to other gods; and his heart was not wholly with the Lord his God as his father David’s had been. Solomon became a follower of Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and of Milcom, the Ammonite abomination. He did what was displeasing to the Lord, and was not a wholehearted follower of the Lord, as his father David had been. Then it was that Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the god of Moab on the mountain to the east of Jerusalem, and to Milcom the god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrifice to their gods.
The Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from the Lord the God of Israel who had twice appeared to him and who had then forbidden him to follow other gods; but he did not carry out the Lord’s order. The Lord therefore said to Solomon, ‘Since you behave like this and do not keep my covenant or the laws I laid down for you, I will most surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants. For your father David’s sake, however, I will not do this during your lifetime, but will tear it out of your son’s hands. Even so, I will not tear the whole kingdom from him. For the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen, I will leave your son one tribe.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 105(106):3-4,35-37,40 © |
O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.
They are happy who do what is right,
who at all times do what is just.
O Lord, remember me
out of the love you have for your people.
O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.
But instead they mingled with the nations
and learned to act as they did.
They worshipped the idols of the nations
and these became a snare to entrap them.
O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.
They even offered their own sons
and their daughters in sacrifice to demons,
till his anger blazed against his people;
he was filled with horror at his chosen ones.
O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.
Gospel Acclamation | Ps144:13 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Lord is faithful in all his words
and loving in all his deeds.
Alleluia!
Or: | Jm1:21 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Accept and submit to the word
which has been planted in you
and can save your souls.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Mark 7:24-30 © |
The astuteness of the Syro-Phoenician woman
Jesus left Gennesaret and set out for the territory of Tyre. There he went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, but he could not pass unrecognised. A woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him straightaway and came and fell at his feet. Now the woman was a pagan, by birth a Syrophoenician, and she begged him to cast the devil out of her daughter. And he said to her, ‘The children should be fed first, because it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs.’ But she spoke up: ‘Ah yes, sir,’ she replied ‘but the house-dogs under the table can eat the children’s scraps.’ And he said to her, ‘For saying this, you may go home happy: the devil has gone out of your daughter.’ So she went off to her home and found the child lying on the bed and the devil gone.
ADULTERATION OF THE FAITH THROUGH MIXED MARRIAGES
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 Kgs 11:4-13; Ps 106:3-4,35-37,40; Mk 7:24-30]
Israel was living among pagan neighbours, worshipping deities that they believed could help them to ensure fertility and good weather for cultivation. They worshipped Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians to protect their flocks and crops. When they settled in Canaan, Israel’s forefathers who were nomads now became agriculturalists. Consequently, the temptation to turn to the deities of the Canaanites was always there. Moses was aware that this could happen and warned them right from the start to be faithful to Yahweh. He gave them strict laws to follow so that their faith in Yahweh might not be adulterated by the pagan practices and worship. King David passed on the constant advice of Moses to his son. “Keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn.” (1 Kg 2:3)
Alas, we read that in the beginning of his reign, Solomon was faithful and devoted to the Lord. But over time, he lost his focus. He brought in many foreign wives and with them brought their gods. Initially, Solomon built the Temple of the Lord in a high place so that it would be prominent and hinder the building of pagan sanctuaries. But as he grew old, the book of Kings noted, “his wives swayed his heart to other gods; and his heart was not wholly with the Lord his God as his father David’s had been. Solomon became a follower of Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians. He did what was displeasing to the Lord, and was not a wholehearted follower of the Lord, as his father David had been.” He even “built a high place for Chemosh the god of Moab on the mountain to the east of Jerusalem, and to Milcom the god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrifice to their gods.” The pristine faith of Israel was compromised with the influx of foreign women, especially the foreign wives of Solomon, leading to an adulteration of his faith in God.
“The Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from the Lord the God of Israel who had twice appeared to him and who had forbidden him to follow other gods; but he did not carry the Lord’s order.” As a consequence, the Lord said to Solomon, “Since you behave like this and do not keep my covenant or the laws I laid down for you, I will most surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants. For your father David’s sake, however, I will not do this during your lifetime, but will tear it out of your son’s hands. Even so, I will not tear the whole kingdom from him. For the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen, I will leave your son one tribe.”
The question that confronts us today is, how can we keep our faith pure and pristine when we are living in a world of unclean lips and a multi-religious and multi-cultural society. The world is no longer isolated but is globally connected. With social media and global communication, even a virus, such as omicron, can affect the whole world in just a couple of months. To not associate with people of other beliefs and culture would be even more difficult. Besides, it would create more misunderstanding, hostility and can even cause break-ups in family life, in work and society. So we are in a different setting today.
Yet, precisely, this is also the reason why religions and cultures are changing and adapting to the new situation as well. If we want to remain pure by isolating from others other than people of our own race, culture and religious beliefs, we will have very few friends. It is impossible to survive in today’s terms. So religion is forced to be more flexible and realistic, and at times make compromises. Even for Catholics, at one time, the Church did not allow mixed marriages, or marriage with non-Catholics. This was to protect the faith of the family.
But with people, including women, working in the world and no longer just staying at home, their interactions with society will lead to personal and intimate relationships even with those of other races, cultures and religious beliefs. So it is no longer possible to withhold permission for mixed marriages because the Catholic party will eventually leave the Church if he or she is cut off because of a marriage not recognized by the Church. Of course, the downside is that the faith of the family is often watered down and compromised when the non-Catholic parent is not supportive of the faith. Children are confused and divided. Values imparted to them would no longer be Catholic. Sometimes parents disagree over religion and children are in a dilemma. Eventually, their children stop going to church as well and remain agnostic so that they do not have to take sides. At any rate, when religion divides the family, then secularism seems to be the best answer.
Regardless, whether we allow or do not allow mixed marriage, depending on the faith of the Catholic party and the openness of the non-Catholic party, like Solomon and his foreign wives, there will be a gradual weakening of the faith. This cannot be helped. It will lead to adulteration and compromises. There is often illicit inculturation of religious practices and beliefs. Sometimes, to please both parties, some fall into syncretism, which is to include some of the different religious practices. So much so the pristine faith is lost and faith is weakened. This is what is happening in the world today. It has affected all religions including Catholicism. And everyone is affected because we all live in this common world, including religious leaders.
Trying to find the right pastoral approach to deal with the challenges is indeed difficult. We are dealing with a society that seeks convenience and pragmatism. Most are no longer concerned with objective truths but more with subjective needs, here and now. It is a world of doctrinal and moral relativism, and people would embrace anything that makes sense and help them to survive for now. People no longer live for the future and certainly not for the next life. With moral relativism, the fear of sinning against God or breaking His commandments is no longer felt deeply. People subscribe to what they like or feel good about.
So how do we adjust to the times and yet remain faithful and firm to our faith? The gospel gives us some basic principles to judge what cannot be compromised and what could. In the gospel, Jesus was clear that His mission was directed primarily at the Jews. When He instructed the Twelve apostles or the Seventy-two, He specifically mentioned, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Mt 10:5f) In today’s story of the Syro-phoenician woman, a pagan, begged our Lord to cast the devil out of her daughter. But the Lord said to her, “The children should be fed first, because it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs.” Jesus seems to exclude the Gentiles and pagans from His mission. But this was only because Jesus was forming the Jews to bring the gospel to all the nations. It was Jesus’ hope that the Jews, upon their conversion, would then be the light in the world. It was not because Jesus was excluding the Gentiles from the gospel. In fact, after the resurrection, the Lord commanded the apostles to go and make disciples of all nations. (Mt 28:19)
In changing context, the application of the principle changes as well. So too we have seen how Jesus reframed the way the Sabbath Law should be applied and the observance of ritual purity. So what is important with regard to our doctrinal and moral response to new situations, is that we must maintain the fundamental principles of our faith in God and our central beliefs in our Lord Jesus Christ and His Church, and the basic moral laws, for example, the sanctity of life, the indissolubility of marriage. However, it is also critical that we do not just observe the laws slavishly but to ask ourselves how we are keeping the intent and the spirit of the fundamental laws given by God. At the end of the day, what is required of us is a good sense of pastoral outreach, guided by the spirit of the laws. Otherwise, we also fall into relativism and create more confusion among our faithful.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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