20231010 GRACE OR EFFORT
10 October 2023, Tuesday, 27th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading | Jonah 3:1-10 © |
The Ninevites repent, and God spares them
The word of the Lord was addressed to Jonah: ‘Up!’ he said ‘Go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to them as I told you to.’ Jonah set out and went to Nineveh in obedience to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was a city great beyond compare: it took three days to cross it. Jonah went on into the city, making a day’s journey. He preached in these words, ‘Only forty days more and Nineveh is going to be destroyed.’ And the people of Nineveh believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least. The news reached the king of Nineveh, who rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes. A proclamation was then promulgated throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his ministers, as follows: ‘Men and beasts, herds and flocks, are to taste nothing; they must not eat, they must not drink water. All are to put on sackcloth and call on God with all their might; and let everyone renounce his evil behaviour and the wicked things he has done. Who knows if God will not change his mind and relent, if he will not renounce his burning wrath, so that we do not perish?’ God saw their efforts to renounce their evil behaviour, and God relented: he did not inflict on them the disaster which he had threatened.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 129(130):1-4,7-8 © |
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt: Lord, who would survive?
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord,
Lord, hear my voice!
O let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleading.
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt: Lord, who would survive?
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,
Lord, who would survive?
But with you is found forgiveness:
for this we revere you.
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt: Lord, who would survive?
Because with the Lord there is mercy
and fullness of redemption,
Israel indeed he will redeem
from all its iniquity.
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt: Lord, who would survive?
Gospel Acclamation | Jn15:15 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I call you friends, says the Lord,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.
Alleluia!
Or: | Lk11:28 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Happy are those
who hear the word of God
and keep it.
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.’
GRACE OR EFFORT
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Jon 3:1-10; Ps 130:1-4,7-8; Lk 10:38-42]
It is natural for man to desire to be in control. We want to manage our own lives. This has always been the temptation of man since the beginning of creation. Adam and Eve wanted to be like God, to take charge of their lives instead of trusting in Him. The story of the Tower of Babel is another attempt to reach the sky without God. Today, secularism and humanism advocate total autonomy of man from God. Hence, it is the world of relativism and total dependence on science and technology.
In the scripture readings today, Jonah and Martha are representatives of those who want to have full control over their lives. Jonah wanted things his own way and refused to cooperate with God’s plan for the Ninevites. He wanted the inhabitants to be punished and be brought to justice. Martha, too, was a control freak, like most of us. She wanted to control Mary in the way she served Jesus. She demanded that Jesus reprimand her for not helping her in the cooking and serving. She insisted that Jesus should be cared for according to her liking.
She was totally insensitive to her guest. Most likely, Jesus was in a pensive mood because of the imminent events ahead of Him; His passion and death. What He wanted most was a listening ear, someone who could feel with Him in His loneliness and fears. All He wanted was a simple meal and to rest in the comfort of His close friends. He did not want to be bothered with any elaborate meal or entertainment. He wanted some quiet time with His intimate friends whom He could share His thoughts and feelings. Instead of being of service, her service ironically became self-serving!
When it comes to the question of control, more so is the tendency when one is in charge or is a superior. Martha, who was the elder sister, must have felt the necessity to take the lead. She was ambitious. Hence, she was giving all the instructions because she did not want to appear to be a failure or inadequate in front of her guest. She wanted to offer the best hospitality. So she was annoyed and irritated when Mary left her to do everything while she sat before the Lord listening to Him and enjoying His company. As superiors, we too often want to be successful in what we do, whether in our projects or the way we organize things. But very often, we control our subordinates too much and restrict their creativity. We tend to micro manage and hinder them from exercising their resourcefulness. This is because we have no real confidence in them and we think that under our control, everything will turn out well.
What, then, is the lesson of today’s scripture readings? The truth is that God is in control. Everything is the work of His grace. Good works alone, or human effort, cannot change the world or bring about transformation or ensure success. In the case of Jonah, he hardly completed a third of the journey when all the people repented, including the King and his officials. Just a day’s preaching, and what more, a message of doom, and all “the people of Nineveh believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least.” When the king heard of it, “he rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in the ashes.” A proclamation by the king was then promulgated throughout Nineveh ordering everyone to fast, put on sackcloth, petition for God’s mercy and to renounce their evil way of life. What an irony indeed! Even all the prophets’ tireless preaching did not manage to change the Israelites, but in just one day of preaching, Jonah could bring the whole city to repentance and conversion. Surely, this could not be the work of Jonah but the grace of God that touched the hearts of the people and the leaders to receive the message of repentance and salvation.
Rightly, conversion is the work of God and the Holy Spirit. Jesus remarked, “The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here.” We are only instruments. Just because we can articulate well and preach well, it does not translate to conversion of hearts. They might hear and feel enlightened and even inspired, but their hearts are not cut to the quick. Only the Holy Spirit can do it. This is true in all that we do. It does not mean that intense planning and meetings and efforts alone can bring about success.
Jesus told Martha that Mary had chosen the better part. 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.” What we must do is to listen to Jesus first, His plans, His desires before we undertake any plans in life. Without listening to what He wants from us, we will end up like Martha, serving Him according to what we like and not what He wants. This becomes self-serving. When we do not care for people the way they want to be cared for, this is serving ourselves under the guise of serving others. It will do them no good and they will not be pleased with our assistance.
This was the case of Jonah even when he eventually obeyed to preach the message of repentance. He did it reluctantly because deep in his heart, he did not want the people to repent. He wanted to keep the love of God for himself and his people. But God desired otherwise. He did not understand the heart of God. He loves all His creatures. Just as He showed mercy to Jonah, He, too, wanted to show mercy to the Ninevites. And indeed, “God saw their efforts to renounce their evil behaviour. And God relented: he did not inflict on them the disaster which he had threatened.” The responsorial psalm speaks of God’s mercy and forgiveness to those who repent. “Because with the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption, Israel indeed he will redeem from all its iniquity.”
More than just inquiring what Jesus wants from us, we need to find strength to do what He asks of us. Sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to Him, basking in His unconditional love and mercy is the way to be renewed in love and zeal for the people of God. Intimacy with the Lord is the basis for working with the Lord. For this reason, making prayer the top priority in our lives at the beginning of a new day is critical for anyone who is serious in working for the Lord. Without putting prayer as the first engagement of the day, everything we do will be without focus, and wrongly motivated by pride, egoism, fear, ambition and anxiety. Without intimacy with Him, we become edgy, distracted, lose focus, irritable, impatient, angry and resentful, like Martha. This explains why Martha was so distracted, which was manifested in her complaints. She certainly did not present herself as a happy and joyful host but one who is impatient, restless and nervous. She was not serving the Lord or paying attention to Him per se but to herself, thinking of her generosity and how much she was doing for the Lord and how well she had done. It was not about Jesus but about herself. When that happens, it means that we have not put Jesus at the centre of our lives. If Jesus were the centre of our lives and all that we do, success does not matter. What matters is whether we are doing the will of God and surrendering our lives and our work to Him.
In the final analysis, it is not a question of being a contemplative or an activist. Both are serving God in their own ways. One is not higher than the other. It is not wrong to be a Mary or a Martha. Rather, we all need to be a Mary and a Martha. The real problem is that most of us tend to be more of a Martha than Mary. We are agitated and always wanting to take control of our lives. We spend more time working and planning our projects with little time if at all to pray before the Lord and to discuss with Him our plans. We tend to be doers, not listeners. By not spending time with the Lord in prayer, we are saying that we do not believe in the primacy of grace. We think that it is our efforts that bring about success. We only pay lip service to God that He is the One who makes all things well. Pray, work, pray!
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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