20220717 BURNT-UP OR BURNT-OUT
17 July, 2022, Sunday, 16th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading | Genesis 18:1-10 © |
'Next year your wife Sarah will have a son'
The Lord appeared to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre while he was sitting by the entrance of the tent during the hottest part of the day. He looked up, and there he saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them, and bowed to the ground. ‘My lord,’ he said ‘I beg you, if I find favour with you, kindly do not pass your servant by. A little water shall be brought; you shall wash your feet and lie down under the tree. Let me fetch a little bread and you shall refresh yourselves before going further. That is why you have come in your servant’s direction.’ They replied, ‘Do as you say.’
Abraham hastened to the tent to find Sarah.’ ‘Hurry,’ he said ‘knead three bushels of flour and make loaves.’ Then running to the cattle Abraham took a fine and tender calf and gave it to the servant, who hurried to prepare it. Then taking cream, milk and the calf he had prepared, he laid all before them, and they ate while he remained standing near them under the tree.
‘Where is your wife Sarah?’ they asked him. ‘She is in the tent’ he replied. Then his guest said, ‘I shall visit you again next year without fail, and your wife will then have a son.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 14(15):2-5 © |
The just will live in the presence of the Lord.
Lord, who shall dwell on your holy mountain?
He who walks without fault;
he who acts with justice
and speaks the truth from his heart;
he who does not slander with his tongue.
The just will live in the presence of the Lord.
He who does no wrong to his brother,
who casts no slur on his neighbour,
who holds the godless in disdain,
but honours those who fear the Lord.
The just will live in the presence of the Lord.
He who keeps his pledge, come what may;
who takes no interest on a loan
and accepts no bribes against the innocent.
Such a man will stand firm for ever.
The just will live in the presence of the Lord.
Second reading |
Colossians 1:24-28 © |
A mystery hidden for generations has been revealed to God's saints
It makes me happy to suffer for you, as I am suffering now, and in my own body to do what I can to make up all that has still to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church. I became the servant of the Church when God made me responsible for delivering God’s message to you, the message which was a mystery hidden for generations and centuries and has now been revealed to his saints. It was God’s purpose to reveal it to them and to show all the rich glory of this mystery to pagans. The mystery is Christ among you, your hope of glory: this is the Christ we proclaim, this is the wisdom in which we thoroughly train everyone and instruct everyone, to make them all perfect in Christ.
Gospel Acclamation | cf.Ac16:14 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Open our heart, O Lord,
to accept the words of your Son.
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 10:38-42 © |
Martha works; Mary listens
Jesus came to a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, who sat down at the Lord’s feet and listened to him speaking. Now Martha who was distracted with all the serving said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do the serving all by myself? Please tell her to help me.’ But the Lord answered: ‘Martha, Martha,’ he said ‘you worry and fret about so many things, and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part; it is not to be taken from her.’
BURNT-UP OR BURNT-OUT
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Gen 18:1-10; Ps 15:2-5; Col 1:24-28; Lk 10:38-42]
We are called to serve the Lord in various capacities. Each of us according to our calling and vocation in life is responsible to bring the gospel to all nations. Regardless of whatever vocation or work we are called to do, it is about revealing God and His plan to humanity. St Paul himself wrote, “I became the servant of the Church when God made me responsible for delivering God’s message to you, the message which was a mystery hidden for generations and centuries and has now been revealed to his saints. It was God’s purpose to reveal it to them and to show all the rich glory of this mystery to pagans.”
How do we reveal His plan? One way is by the love and hospitality we extend to others. This was the case with Abraham and Martha. They served the Lord by welcoming every guest as they would welcome the Lord. We have the example of the gracious hospitality of Abraham who happily welcomed the three men who stood near his tent. “He looked up, and there he saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them, and bowed to the ground. ‘My lord’, he said, ‘I beg you, if I find favour with you, kindly do not pass your servant by.” For Abraham, to welcome the guests, even though they were strangers, was a great privilege. In spite of his wealth, Abraham remained a gracious, humble and grateful person. Not only did he welcome the strangers, but he went through great trouble to insist they stayed with him, had proper rest and a sumptuous meal. Although he did not know that they were the Lord’s messengers, he accorded them the same welcome as he would have done for God’s messengers.
Martha also showed her hospitality to our Lord. She was busy making our Lord’s stay with them comfortable and preparing for Him a good meal. But her good intention backfired as she became irritable and edgy, having to deal with so much work. So much so, she began to feel annoyed that Mary was quietly sitting at the Lord’s feet listening to Him when there was so much to be done. She was judgmental and felt that Mary was not doing the right thing and so expected our Lord to support her displeasure over Mary. She said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do the serving all by myself? Please tell her to help me.”
But the response of the Lord to Martha’s complaint was not one of condemnation, either of her busyness looking after His needs or of Mary choosing to sit at His feet conversing and listening to Him. Jesus was certainly not saying that Martha was wrong in being so engrossed in her active service, but that Mary “has chosen the better part; it is not to be taken from her.” In other words, whilst what Martha was doing was indeed commendable, Mary chose what was better, both for herself and for our Lord. Mary chose intimacy with our Lord over active ministry whereas Martha chose active ministry over intimacy with our Lord.
Certainly, we must state in no uncertain terms that working for the Lord is an important aspect of demonstrating our love for Him. Faith and words without action are dead. True love for God must be expressed in our apostolate, if not, at least in the way we conduct our lives serving our brothers and sisters humbly and unselfishly. So there is no question of denigrating the importance of good works, apostolate in the church and serving in church ministry. All these activities are good and commendable. But it is important that we ask the fundamental question of whether we are doing the work for God or doing the work of God. If we are doing the work for God, then God becomes our debtor. We are the ones who are helping our Lord and therefore God owes us His blessings on our family, career and work. Not only do we become demanding, but we begin to act as if we are the creditors, and people must be grateful to us. We begin to push our weight around, commanding people to do things under our bidding, as if they owe us much. This was the case of Martha reacting to Mary’s choice of sitting at the feet of our Lord.
When we work for God, in truth, we work more for ourselves. We take pride in our ability to do so much for God and for the community. It is about us and our ego. As a consequence, we do not take failures and setbacks easily. It is about performance. Some, to prove themselves, are overworked and get burnt out because of the need to perform. The signs of being burnout are irritability, impatience, judgmentalism, the lack of joy in our ministry, the lack of interpersonal relationships, the lack of intimacy with God and quiet time with the Lord. Those of us who are active in ministry must be conscious of these signs and symptoms so that we slow down and re-orientate ourselves before we destroy others.
This is why the gospel today asks us to choose the better part so that we can find the strength to do His work with joy and calmness. What we need is first to be loved by God and to find rest in His bosom. Jesus in the gospel invites us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Mt 11:28f) We need to rest on the bosom of Jesus just as John did. Only in Christ, do we find the consolation, peace and security that is necessary for us to think through our plans quietly and clearly. Bathed in His love, we will be energized to go out and share His love with others, not as a duty and obligation but an overflowing of the love and joy of God in us.
Secondly, it is important that we cultivate good and healthy friendships as well. Even Jesus needed to have a close circle of apostles to share His dream, His struggles, joy and sadness. Beyond close confreres, He also had personal friends like Lazarus, Mary and Martha. It is also important for us to cultivate different levels and groups of friends to sustain our strength in life. We need friends to listen to us, to feel with us and to journey with us. We will not fall into depression in times of trials and sufferings if we have good friends and colleagues to support us. Of course, friends are not perfect. They have their own weaknesses as well. This is why we cannot be waiting to find a perfect friend. We need to take risks in friendship and most of all, always forgive when we fail each other at times.
Thirdly, we must find time to rest and take good care of our health. Life is not merely about work and achieving our ambition. Those of us who do not know how to take a rest to pray or exercise or recreate will destroy all that we seek to do. Even Jesus told His disciples after their mission to “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest … because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat.” (Mk 6:30f) Some of us forget that being available to others presupposes that we learn to take care of ourselves first. If we are not responsible for our health, if we do not eat properly or do our physical exercises regularly, we are not treating our body with respect since our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God with your bodies.” (1 Cor 6:19f) St Paul gives a sobering warning, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.” (1 Cor 3:16f)
Finally, to keep ourselves at peace, we must walk with a clear conscience before God and before man. We must keep our focus always on the Lord, not on ourselves, not on our performance, not on our glory, not on our needs but always for His greater glory. As the psalmist prayed, “Lord, who shall dwell on your holy mountain? He who walks without fault; he who acts with justice and speaks the truth from his heart; he who does not slander with his tongue. He who does no wrong to his brother, who casts no slur on his neighbour, who holds the godless in disdain, but honours those who fear the Lord.” Walking in the way of the Lord, in love and humble service, we will find great joy and peace in whatever we do. We will no longer be afraid of failures and rejection because we allow God’s will to prevail. “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Mt 6:33)
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment