20221220 THE THIN LINE BETWEEN FAITH AND PRUDENCE
20 December, 2022, Tuesday, 4th Week of Advent
First reading | Isaiah 7:10-14 © |
The maiden is with child
The Lord spoke to Ahaz and said, ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above.’ ‘No,’ Ahaz answered ‘I will not put the Lord to the test.’
Then Isaiah said:
‘Listen now, House of David:
are you not satisfied with trying the patience of men
without trying the patience of my God, too?
The Lord himself, therefore,
will give you a sign.
It is this: the maiden is with child
and will soon give birth to a son
whom she will call Immanuel,
a name which means “God-is-with-us.”’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 23(24):1-6 © |
Let the Lord enter! He is the king of glory.
The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness,
the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas;
on the waters he made it firm.
Let the Lord enter! He is the king of glory.
Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
The man with clean hands and pure heart,
who desires not worthless things.
Let the Lord enter! He is the king of glory.
He shall receive blessings from the Lord
and reward from the God who saves him.
Such are the men who seek him,
seek the face of the God of Jacob.
Let the Lord enter! He is the king of glory.
Gospel Acclamation |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Emmanuel,
our king and lawgiver,
come and save us,
Lord our God.
Alleluia!
Or: |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Key of David, who open the gates of the eternal kingdom,
come to liberate from prison
the captive who lives in darkness.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 1:26-38 © |
'I am the handmaid of the Lord'
The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her, ‘Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.’ ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’ And the angel left her.
THE THIN LINE BETWEEN FAITH AND PRUDENCE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ISAIAH 7:10-14; LUKE 1:26-38]
Salvation of humanity begins by faith. What pleases God is faith. As the letter to the Hebrews says, “without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Heb 11:6) It was “by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was.” (Heb 11:8) Indeed, St Paul urges us to “walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Cor 5:7)
In the gospel, we have Mary who is a woman of faith. Without her faith in God, she would not have responded the way she did. Salvation of humanity would have been thwarted as the world awaited the response of Mary to be the mother of the savior. Yet, we can imagine the dilemma that Mary faced in agreeing to be the mother of our Lord Jesus. In the first place, her life was, so to speak, nicely arranged. She was betrothed to Joseph and she was looking forward to an ordinary family life like all other women. With this invitation from God, her whole life was upset. Her life could never be “normal” again. Secondly, who would believe her story that God had spoken to her and, more incredible still, to be the mother of the Messiah. Her being made pregnant by the Holy Spirit would have been too far-fetched a claim. All her folks would think she had gone crazy. Least of all, she could not expect Joseph to believe her story. Thirdly, if found to be expecting a child out of wedlock, she could be stoned for committing the sin of adultery. Even if not, who would accept her? If the parents were to drive her and the child out of the house, she would have to live as a beggar and even as a prostitute. No man was going to accept her as his wife.
Yet, against all the odds, the doubts and the fears of the future, Mary obeyed the Lord without hesitation. She said to the Lord, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it happen to me as you have said.” She submitted to God’s will knowing very well that the journey ahead of her would be difficult, uncertain and precarious. Yet she surrendered her entire life to the Lord. She considered herself as the servant and the handmaid of the Lord. He did not know how and what the future would hold, but she trusted in the Lord’s plan for her.
At the same time, Mary must have found consolation that the Lord had indeed been gracious to her in calling her to be the Mother of the Savior. She was a lowly servant residing in Nazareth. She was young, a lady and poor. Yet the Lord chose her, not because she was intelligent, great or talented. God’s choice is always the poor. Indeed, when we read the growth of the early church, we see that this has always been the Lord’s way. Jesus chose His twelve apostles mostly from the uneducated and even the uncouth. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they wondered; and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13) Yet Jesus empowered them to be used mightily by God. St Paul writing to the Corinthians said, “For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth; but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” (1 Cor 1:26-29)
Indeed, the greatness about the Christian faith is that the Church and the salvation of humanity is not the work of man but the work of God. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” (Zech 4:6) For this reason, we cannot rely on our human strength and reasoning alone. We are called to put our faith and trust in the Lord.
The question is whether we have the same kind of faith that Abraham, Mary and the apostles had. Although we claim to be believers in God, like Ahaz, the King of Judah, we do not believe in the power and wisdom of God. We rely on our human ingenuity. We trust in our own human reasoning. The question of faith is replaced by logical thinking and calculated risks. We no longer trust that this Church is a divine institution and that Jesus is in charge of the Church. We allow our corporate thinking to influence the way we run our churches and activities. We think that it is technique, music, eloquence and organization that will ensure success in our programs, including our worship services. Today, more and more is placed on techniques and human effort rather than allowing the grace of God to work in and through us. It is hard to tell whether the fruits of our success is the work of God or just our human ingenuity which any secular organization employing the same method would bring about the same results. One wonders whether it is autosuggestion or the power of God at work.
This was the case of King Ahaz. He was threatened by the alliance between the King of Aram (Syria) and the King of Israel as they sought to conquer Judah. We can imagine his fears and anxiety. Consequently, he needed to find a way to withstand the onslaught of his enemies. What he planned was humanly speaking, a logical step to take. But the prophet Isaiah assured him that Judah would not be conquered: “Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint.” (Isa 7:4) because the Lord said, “It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.” (Isa 7:7) “Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken to pieces so that it will no longer be a people.” (Isa 7:8) And yet, King Ahaz did not have faith in the Lord.
King Ahaz remained defiant of the Lord and stubborn in following his calculated plans to protect his kingdom by building an alliance with the King of Assyria. Then Isaiah told the king to ask God for a sign to confirm his prophecy. “Ask the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above.” Ahaz replied, “No, I will not put the Lord to the test.” He refused not because he had faith in God but because he did not want to know the truth and he was not ready to follow the ways of the Lord. He wanted to take things into his own hands and use his military skills to overcome the threat to his country. Nevertheless, the Lord gave the sign of a young woman who gave birth to a son, called Emmanuel. “For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.” (Isa 7:15f)
What about us? Do we not do the same thing as King Ahaz? We prefer to take the way of human logic which we call “prudence” in making our decisions. If the Church were to act according to prudence, she would never have been born. The apostles would have been foolish to go out to preach the gospel when Christ their Lord had failed. The Christians of all ages would not have been martyred if they were prudent enough to escape persecution. There would have been no Christianity in Europe, in the Far East, in Korea or China. We do not trust that our Lord would provide. We keep on saving more money than we need for ourselves or even in our churches. Do we believe that the Lord will provide? Do we trust in His divine providence that if it is the Lord’s will, then He will make it happen? But in truth, we rely on our own plans because we feel more secure. To trust in God and in the unseen is too scary for us. We dare not surrender our lives and our plans to Him, walking by faith, not by sight.
To us all, the same indictment is made of us. Isaiah said: “Listen now, House of David: are you not satisfied with trying the patience of men without trying the patience of my God, too?” Does it mean that we are to be imprudent? That is not what faith means. It means that we bring everything to prayer and listen to what God is saying to us, like Mary in her discerning spirit of prayer. After all that reasoning and thinking, we must turn to the Lord and ask Him what He wills of us and not what we think is the best thing or the safest course of action to take. Upon listening to the Lord, we must then act on what He tells us, even if it goes beyond logic. Our decisions cannot be made through discussion alone but on the Word of God. Faith is to obey His word even when it is absurd and incomprehensible, for God is faithful.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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