20231120 FOSTERING UNITY IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD
20 November 2023, Monday, 33rd Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
1 Maccabees 1:10-15,41-43,54-57,62-64 © |
The persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes
There grew a sinful offshoot, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of King Antiochus; once a hostage in Rome, he became king in the one hundred and thirty-seventh year of the kingdom of the Greeks. It was then that there emerged from Israel a set of renegades who led many people astray. ‘Come,’ they said ‘let us reach an understanding with the pagans surrounding us, for since we separated ourselves from them many misfortunes have overtaken us.’ This proposal proved acceptable, and a number of the people eagerly approached the king, who authorised them to practise the pagan observances. So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, such as the pagans have, disguised their circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant, submitting to the heathen rule as willing slaves of impiety.
Then the king issued a proclamation to his whole kingdom that all were to become a single people, each renouncing his particular customs. All the pagans conformed to the king’s decree, and many Israelites chose to accept his religion, sacrificing to idols and profaning the sabbath. The king erected the abomination of desolation above the altar; and altars were built in the surrounding towns of Judah and incense offered at the doors of houses and in the streets. Any books of the Law that came to light were torn up and burned. Whenever anyone was discovered possessing a copy of the covenant or practising the Law, the king’s decree sentenced him to death.
Yet there were many in Israel who stood firm and found the courage to refuse unclean food. They chose death rather than contamination by such fare or profanation of the holy covenant, and they were executed. It was a dreadful wrath that visited Israel.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 118(119):53,61,134,150,155,158 © |
Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your will.
I am seized with indignation at the wicked
who forsake your law.
Though the nets of the wicked ensnared me
I remembered your law.
Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your will.
Redeem me from man’s oppression
and I will keep your precepts.
Those who harm me unjustly draw near;
they are far from your law.
Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your will.
Salvation is far from the wicked
who are heedless of your statutes.
I look at the faithless with disgust;
they ignore your promise.
Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your will.
Gospel Acclamation | Jn8:12 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
anyone who follows me will have the light of life.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 18:35-43 © |
'Son of David, have pity on me'
As Jesus drew near to Jericho there was a blind man sitting at the side of the road begging. When he heard the crowd going past he asked what it was all about, and they told him that Jesus the Nazarene was passing by. So he called out, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.’ The people in front scolded him and told him to keep quiet, but he shouted all the louder, ‘Son of David, have pity on me.’ Jesus stopped and ordered them to bring the man to him, and when he came up, asked him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ ‘Sir,’ he replied ‘let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Receive your sight. Your faith has saved you.’ And instantly his sight returned and he followed him praising God, and all the people who saw it gave praise to God for what had happened.
FOSTERING UNITY IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 MAC 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-64; Ps 119:53, 61, 134, 150, 155, 158; Lk 18:35-43]
Unity and peace among peoples are among the most important aspirations of every person and community. We desire to live in a place and a community where there is fraternal love, concern and charity towards each other. Without peace, there can be no security, progress and a future for humanity. But this world is getting more and more divided in spite of globalization, mass media and migration.
What is the real cause of the lack of unity among peoples? It is the wrong or narrow perception of seeing unity as uniformity. In the ancient world, where people were of the same tribe, sharing the same culture and same faith, unity was synonymous with uniformity. The community set the rules and if one wanted to be part of that community, he or she had to abide by the rules. However, today, with globalization and mass migration, the world is no longer very homogenous. More and more people of different cultures, races, languages and faiths are living in the same place. As such, unity cannot be based simply on uniformity. Unity must be founded on diversity. The failure to recognize this principle is the cause of much division and quarrels among peoples in the world. This was the case of the Jews and the pagan King, Antiochus, in today’s first reading.
It is natural for any King or leader to want to protect the unity of the nation or the organization he heads. This is the primary task of any leader, whether of a country, a religion or an organization. Promoting peace and security is the task of the government primarily. Without unity, the country cannot move forward as one. There will be division, fighting and disorder. The economy cannot take off and people will always live in suspicion of their neighbours.
The mistake comes about when we think that unity means uniformity, and we try to impose our faith, values and culture on others. Oftentimes religions, governments and leaders attempt to use force to have everyone adopt the same culture, faith and values so that there is unity. Such attempts were done in the ancient world. They thought that it was the way to preserve the unity of the peoples. That was what King Antiochus sought to do. “Then the king issued a proclamation to his whole kingdom that all were to become a single people, each renouncing his particular customs. All the pagans conformed to the king’s decree, and many Israelites chose to accept his religion, sacrificing to idols and profaning the Sabbath.” This is the mistake of narrow-minded and insecure leaders who are afraid of diversity.
When faith and values are imposed, there is bound to be a negative reaction, resulting in persecution, retaliation and destruction of lives. Such enforcement might give an apparent unity in the country but the people will live in fear, resentment and anger. Any unity would only be a facile unity. It would be a matter of time before the people would revolt. There would be no real conversion of heart and mind. The values, culture and faith would not be subscribed personally by those who disagree.
Unfortunately, those who are weak in their faith, culture or values, succumb easily to such coercive and covert pressures from the institution and from society. Such people have no values to protect or promote. They are pragmatic and choose whatever favours them. This is the outcome of secularisation.
The failure to preserve one’s identity will result in the loss of culture and values. By giving up one’s practices and values for the sake of uniformity, the community will be impoverished further. If we do not protect our culture and faith, we have nothing distinctive to offer to the community. This is where those who insist that unity is based on uniformity fail to realize that unity is stronger when it is based on diversity. We are, afterall, not robots coming out of a factory.
Today, we are called to learn from the lessons of the past. The only way to promote unity today is to promote the principle of unity in diversity. We can no longer exclude others who are different from living their own way of life. Their faith and culture might be quite different from ours, but they too should be given the freedom to practice their faith and live out their culture. Such diverse cultures and faith need not divide us if we expand our horizon in looking at people who are different from us.
Right from the outset, we must state clearly that Faith must be distinguished from culture even though it is expressed in and through one’s culture. Faith presupposes a personal encounter with the Sacred, and flowing from such an encounter, we express our love and devotion to God accordingly, using cultural expressions to convey our sentiments and values of our faith. Consequently, the expressions of faith will vary from culture to culture. This is the Catholicity of the Church; all members sharing one faith, one baptism and one Lord but celebrating our common love for the Lord in different ways.
Secondly, faith presupposes a personal encounter and a religious experience, without which it is just a set of practices, rituals and customs. This means that it is not productive to impose faith on others when they do not have a personal encounter with the Sacred. Just by observing the rules will not change the heart. That is why religion cannot be imposed but can only be shared and offered as a gift. Without a personal experience of God, religion can become another ideology rather than a true communion with the Lord.
Thirdly, human culture is the way we express our common values and identity. This might include faith values but not confined to faith alone. Most of these are universal human values such as filial piety, respect, devotion and common identity expressed in customs, attire and dressing. Some of the cultural expressions could be adopted even by others and are also consistent with our Faith values as well.
When we see religion and culture from this perspective, then the second principle of unity is that we must foster what is common among the different religions and cultures. We must be proactive in appreciating what is good, holy and noble in other’s faith and culture. In recognizing the goodness in the faith of others and the values being promoted, our own faith and values are reinforced and strengthened. So people with diverse faith and culture should not be seen as threats to us but they can enrich our lives.
But it also means that we are honest with our beliefs and values. We need to recognize and acknowledge our differences. We all have our sensitivity to some issues. Because we experience the Sacred differently and how God works in our lives, our views of God will necessarily be coloured by our experiences. In such situations, we need to articulate our views clearly without condemning others who think differently. But we should be able to acknowledge our differences even whilst we want to reinforce what is common among ourselves.
The third principle of unity is that we need to engage each other in the triple dialogue. Dialogue is the key to a better understanding and appreciation of each other’s position and where we are coming from. We should not be afraid of dialogue if we all seek the truth. This dialogue takes place on three levels. Firstly, we should have a dialogue of life. This is where we share our culture and our common love for humanity, in helping the poor and being involved in works of charity. Through sharing our culture and values, we can inspire and edify each other as well. The second level of dialogue is the dialogue of faith. This dialogue should begin with the sharing of faith experiences and encounters. This is a non-threatening approach because it is a personal sharing. One can either listen in faith or simply be polite even when we doubt. For those who are trained in theology, they could then find some less controversial doctrines that they could discuss freely.
Finally, we need to be strong and persevere in building unity. Like the blind man in the gospel, we must desire to see the truth about ourselves. When Jesus asked him, “‘What do you want me to do for you?’ ‘Sir,’ he replied ‘let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Receive your sight. Your faith has saved you.'” Unlike those disciples following Jesus who thought that they knew Jesus, it took a blind man to confess faith in Him. “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.” So like the blind man, we must resist attempts to destroy unity because of fanaticism, narrow-mindedness, intolerance and pride. Let us not allow the Lord to pass us by without our coming to meet Him. Only when we see so much goodness in other religions and cultures, can we then together praise God and follow Him.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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