20231125 LIVING IN REGRET
25 November 2023, Saturday, 33rd Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
1 Maccabees 6:1-13 © |
'I remember the wrong I did in Jerusalem'
King Antiochus was making his way across the upper provinces; he had heard that in Persia there was a city called Elymais, renowned for its riches, its silver and gold, and its very wealthy temple containing golden armour, breastplates and weapons, left there by Alexander son of Philip, the king of Macedon, the first to reign over the Greeks. He therefore went and attempted to take the city and pillage it, but without success, since the citizens learnt of his intention, and offered him a stiff resistance, whereupon he turned about and retreated, disconsolate, in the direction of Babylon. But while he was still in Persia news reached him that the armies that had invaded the land of Judah had been defeated, and that Lysias in particular had advanced in massive strength, only to be forced to turn and flee before the Jews; these had been strengthened by the acquisition of arms, supplies and abundant spoils from the armies they had cut to pieces; they had overthrown the abomination he had erected over the altar in Jerusalem, and had encircled the sanctuary with high walls as in the past, and had fortified Bethzur, one of his cities. When the king heard this news he was amazed and profoundly shaken; he threw himself on his bed and fell into a lethargy from acute disappointment, because things had not turned out for him as he had planned. And there he remained for many days, subject to deep and recurrent fits of melancholy, until he understood that he was dying. Then summoning all his Friends, he said to them, ‘Sleep evades my eyes, and my heart is cowed by anxiety. I have been asking myself how I could have come to such a pitch of distress, so great a flood as that which now engulfs me – I who was so generous and well-loved in my heyday. But now I remember the wrong I did in Jerusalem when I seized all the vessels of silver and gold there, and ordered the extermination of the inhabitants of Judah for no reason at all. This, I am convinced, is why these misfortunes have overtaken me, and why I am dying of melancholy in a foreign land.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 9A(9):2-4,6,16,19 © |
I will rejoice in your saving help, O Lord.
I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart;
I will recount all your wonders.
I will rejoice in you and be glad,
and sing psalms to your name, O Most High.
I will rejoice in your saving help, O Lord.
See how my enemies turn back,
how they stumble and perish before you.
You have checked the nations, destroyed the wicked;
you have wiped out their name for ever and ever.
I will rejoice in your saving help, O Lord.
The nations have fallen in the pit which they made,
their feet caught in the snare they laid;
for the needy shall not always be forgotten
nor the hopes of the poor be in vain.
I will rejoice in your saving help, O Lord.
Gospel Acclamation | 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!
Or: | cf.2Tim1:10 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Our Saviour Jesus Christ abolished death
and he has proclaimed life through the Good News.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 20:27-40 © |
In God all men are alive
Some Sadducees – those who say that there is no resurrection – approached Jesus and they put this question to him, ‘Master, we have it from Moses in writing, that if a man’s married brother dies childless, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother. Well then, there were seven brothers. The first, having married a wife, died childless. The second and then the third married the widow. And the same with all seven, they died leaving no children. Finally the woman herself died. Now, at the resurrection, to which of them will she be wife since she had been married to all seven?’
Jesus replied, ‘The children of this world take wives and husbands, but those who are judged worthy of a place in the other world and in the resurrection from the dead do not marry because they can no longer die, for they are the same as the angels, and being children of the resurrection they are sons of God. And Moses himself implies that the dead rise again, in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all men are in fact alive.’
Some scribes then spoke up. ‘Well put, Master’ they said – because they would not dare to ask him any more questions.
LIVING IN REGRET
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 MC 6:1-13; PS 9:2-4,6,16,19; LK 20:27-40]
This evening we will celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. As we approach the end of the liturgical year, the Church invites us to reflect on the meaning of life and death. This is the theme in both scripture readings. The reflection on life and death is important so that we will not live a life of regret. Indeed, the greatest tragedy of life is to realize that we have not truly lived. It is within this context that we are called to ask ourselves how we are living and what would be the consequences of how we live.
In the gospel today, the theological debate about the after-life between Jesus and the Sadducees brought out one very important point. This is regarding the continuity and discontinuity between this life and the next. The next life is certainly quite different from this life on earth because we would be living the resurrected life, which is like that of the life of the angels. Jesus said “those who are judged worthy of a place in the other world…do not marry because they can no longer die, for they are the same as the angels, and being children of the resurrection they are sons of God.” Yet, there is certainly continuity because we will be able to recognize each other. After all, Jesus tells us that God is a God of the living not of the dead.
This truth is brought out in a very concrete way in the first reading which tells us of the sad and tragic end of the life of King Antiochus. He had spent all his time conquering territories for himself, like Alexander the Great. He was a powerful king. He had no fear of man nor even of God. He was unscrupulous and godless even to the extent of desecrating the temple of Jerusalem, destroying the sacred religion of the Jews and exterminating them. He thought he was all mighty and invincible. However, when he faced unexpected failure and defeat, he fell into depression and discouragement. The humiliation that he suffered must have broken his inner strength and his will to live. He realized that he was not so great after all. “When the king heard this news he was amazed and profoundly shaken; he threw himself on his bed and fell into a lethargy from acute disappointment, because things had not turned out for him as he had planned. And there he remained for many days, subject to deep and recurrent fits of melancholy, until he understood that he was dying.”
What was the cause of his imminent death? Looking back at his life, he realized how wrong he was and how arrogant he had become. With that, he came to realize that perhaps his misfortunes were the outcome of his evil actions. His past began to catch up with him. He was depressed unto death. He said, “Sleep evades my eyes, and my heart is cowed by anxiety. I have been asking myself how I could have come to such a pitch of distress, so great a flood as that which now engulfs me – I who was so generous and well-loved in my heyday. But now I remember the wrong I did in Jerusalem when I seized all the vessels of silver and gold there, and ordered the extermination of the inhabitants of Judah for no reason at all. This, I am convinced, is why these misfortunes have overtaken me, and why I am dying of melancholy in a foreign land.” He could not forgive himself for thinking that he was greater than God. Now at his deathbed, sick and forlorn, he came to realize his nothingness.
What lessons can we learn from King Antiochus? Firstly, the discontinuity is seen in the fact that this life is temporary and everything is transient. We are pilgrims passing through. We carry nothing from this earth to the next life. For this reason we must not be too attached to our achievements and wealth. What we have will one day be taken from us. Yes, today, we may be holding high office. We may be a doctor, lawyer, even President of a country. We may be very dynamic and popular with people. We may be able to preach eloquently, teach well and be seen as a great and inspiring teacher and leader, but tomorrow we will be just like everyone else, old and sickly. When we can no longer perform anymore, then very few people would recognize us. We would be placed in the Aged Home and die an insignificant death. This is life. This is the harsh truth that King Antiochus had to face. That is why we must not cling on to all these transient things. All these will pass. When we are at our deathbed or when we are struggling to keep ourselves alive, all these do not really matter. How true! At death, we are all equal. God restores all things and all of us to equality at death. It is the antidote to the injustice and inequality of this world. Indeed, in the next life, Jesus said, there is no distinction among us but all will be one.
Secondly, we can learn from Antiochus, for what we did yesterday will continue to have its effects on us today. This is the issue of continuity. What we did in our past life, we can pretend that they did not happen. We can repress our past, especially our unpleasant memories. But later on in life, all the evil that we have done in the past will come back to haunt us. Indeed, in my ministry I have seen many old people who are unable to confess sins which they committed years ago because of fear and shame. But their sins continue to haunt and frighten them so long as they keep them in their hearts. They are not at peace with themselves because they are not at peace with God and their fellowmen. I have seen so many sad and tragic deaths because even in their dying moments, they still could not let go of those people who have hurt them. They continue to nurse grudges in their hearts instead of allowing the past to be past. This was certainly the case of Antiochus. In his case, he could not forgive himself. He died a painful death. We cannot escape the fact that our present is the result of our past. Some of us in our quiet moments or at death bed will recall our past evil deeds. How often have we looked back and regretted that we have not done more or lived rightly. We wish we had lived our lives differently.
For this reason, we must re-examine the way we live. We can be so busy with our lives, so caught up in our pursuits. We work hard to achieve more and more. We seek to accumulate our wealth, money, property and assets. We spend so much time fighting and quarreling with people, taking revenge, plotting and manipulating to win every argument and case. We suffer stress and high blood pressure and hypertension in vain. At the end of the day, we wonder how well we have lived. Some of us never get to enjoy our wealth. What we have are given to unworthy beneficiaries. They will inherit our property and most of the time, squander away our hard earned money. At the end of the day, we wonder whether we have done the right thing and lived the best way.
The truth is that our happiness in life has to do with how we live our lives. If we have lived our lives generously and honestly, then we have nothing to fear at the end of our journey. We will be able to die in peace, knowing that we have done all that we possibly could. We will die without regrets. Whether we have been successful or not does not really matter in the end. In fact, all earthly success, power and wealth become meaningless at the point of death. What is important is whether we have been true to our conscience and our responsibility to God and our fellow human beings. Only if we have a clear conscience, knowing that we have given ourselves totally to God and to our fellow human beings, can we depart from this world freely and happily. But it is still not too late. We still can repent whilst we are still alive. Instead of living a life of regrets, it is never too late to change the course of our direction in life. We should ask for forgiveness both for ourselves and for others.
We live the life of tomorrow today. In fact such a life is already a foretaste of the resurrected life. This is because such a life is already a transformed life. It is a life that is radically different from our earthly life since, as Jesus tells us, we will live forever and become like angels. For the resurrected life to be truly ours, we must of course live a life that is truly pleasing to God, a life that our forefathers in faith lived. Indeed, unless we truly live, God cannot be our Lord of Life since He is the Lord of the living not of the dead. Those who fail to live their lives to the fullest will only resurrect unto death, not unto life.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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