20240124 FRUITLESS MINISTRY
24 January 2024, Wednesday, 3rd Week in Ordinary Time
First reading | 2 Samuel 7:4-17 © |
'Your house and sovereignty will stand secure'
The word of the Lord came to Nathan:
‘Go and tell my servant David, “Thus the Lord speaks: Are you the man to build me a house to dwell in? I have never stayed in a house from the day I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until today, but have always led a wanderer’s life in a tent. In all my journeying with the whole people of Israel, did I say to any one of the judges of Israel, whom I had appointed as shepherds of Israel my people: Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” This is what you must say to my servant David, “The Lord of Hosts says this: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be leader of my people Israel; I have been with you on all your expeditions; I have cut off all your enemies before you. I will give you fame as great as the fame of the greatest on earth. I will provide a place for my people Israel; I will plant them there and they shall dwell in that place and never be disturbed again; nor shall the wicked continue to oppress them as they did, in the days when I appointed judges over my people Israel; I will give them rest from all their enemies. The Lord will make you great; the Lord will make you a House. And when your days are ended and you are laid to rest with your ancestors, I will preserve the offspring of your body after you and make his sovereignty secure. (It is he who shall build a house for my name, and I will make his royal throne secure for ever.) I will be a father to him and he a son to me; if he does evil, I will punish him with the rod such as men use, with strokes such as mankind gives. Yet I will not withdraw my favour from him, as I withdrew it from your predecessor. Your House and your sovereignty will always stand secure before me and your throne be established for ever.”’
Nathan related all these words to David and this whole revelation.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 88(89):4-5,27-30 © |
I will keep my love for him always.
I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant:
I will establish your dynasty for ever
and set up your throne through all ages.
I will keep my love for him always.
He will say to me: You are my father,
my God, the rock who saves me.
And I will make him my first-born,
the highest of the kings of the earth.
I will keep my love for him always.
I will keep my love for him always;
with him my covenant shall last.
I will establish his dynasty for ever,
make his throne endure as the heavens.
I will keep my love for him always.
Gospel Acclamation | 1S3:9,Jn6:68 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Speak, Lord, your servant is listening:
you have the message of eternal life.
Alleluia!
Or: |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The seed is the word of God, Christ the sower;
whoever finds this seed will remain for ever.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Mark 4:1-20 © |
The parable of the sower
Jesus began to teach by the lakeside, but such a huge crowd gathered round him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there. The people were all along the shore, at the water’s edge. He taught them many things in parables, and in the course of his teaching he said to them, ‘Listen! Imagine a sower going out to sow. Now it happened that, as he sowed, some of the seed fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some seed fell on rocky ground where it found little soil and sprang up straightaway, because there was no depth of earth; and when the sun came up it was scorched and, not having any roots, it withered away. Some seed fell into thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no crop. And some seeds fell into rich soil and, growing tall and strong, produced crop; and yielded thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.’ And he said, ‘Listen, anyone who has ears to hear!’
When he was alone, the Twelve, together with the others who formed his company, asked what the parables meant. He told them, ‘The secret of the kingdom of God is given to you, but to those who are outside everything comes in parables, so that they may see and see again, but not perceive; may hear and hear again, but not understand; otherwise they might be converted and be forgiven.’
He said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables? What the sower is sowing is the word. Those on the edge of the path where the word is sown are people who have no sooner heard it than Satan comes and carries away the word that was sown in them. Similarly, those who receive the seed on patches of rock are people who, when first they hear the word, welcome it at once with joy. But they have no root in them, they do not last; should some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, they fall away at once. Then there are others who receive the seed in thorns. These have heard the word, but the worries of this world, the lure of riches and all the other passions come in to choke the word, and so it produces nothing. And there are those who have received the seed in rich soil: they hear the word and accept it and yield a harvest, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’
FRUITLESS MINISTRY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [2 Samuel 7:4-17; Mark 4:1-20]
How many of us with good intentions in serving in a Church ministry or a non-governmental organization give up doing good because of the many oppositions we face? Doing good and helping people, ministering to them, is always fulfilling. But it is the human politics that makes such service frustrating and disappointing. There will always be people blocking our way when we seek to do good and help others. They will reject our message and our goodwill. But it is also inevitable that we will have differences in views. When we face such a situation, we want to give up because we feel our efforts and sacrifices have been in vain as we do not see the fruits of what we do.
Jesus in the gospel also faced much rejection from the religious authorities. The entire chapter 3 of Mark’s gospel, which we have been reading the past few days, highlighted the challenges posed by the authorities to Jesus’ ministry. They were watching Him closely, what He taught in the Synagogue, what He did, especially on the Sabbath, and the company He mixed with. He was unwelcomed in the Synagogue. Even His own family rejected Him and believed He was insane, as charged by His opponents. What did our Lord do?
Instead of allowing the unnecessary conflicts to paralyze His ministry right from the start, He brought the gospel to those who were willing to receive Him. Instead of proclaiming the gospel in the synagogues, He preached by the seaside at the Lake of Galilee and in open fields and plains. He brought the gospel to where the people were. Instead of waiting for them to return to God, He brought God’s word to them, where they were. Jesus never allowed constraints and hostile situations to prevent Him from doing good. When one path is blocked, He looked for another path. So too for us. When we face obstacles and challenges in ministry and service, we must be creative and look for other ways to spread the Good News. We must not exhaust ourselves fighting with our enemies, leaving us with little energy to do good for others.
Not only did Jesus change strategy in terms of location but He also changed His way of teaching, using parables. This is because parables are rooted in the daily activities and events of ordinary life where everyone could easily identify with them. Parables seek to elicit experience. Through the experience, those who have not encountered God could relate easily with the God-experience that Jesus wanted to convey. It is a more effective way of communicating the Good News, not just in words but in images. By allowing the people to participate in the experience, they came to appreciate the truth of Jesus’ teachings. But most of all, the parables do not moralize directly but invite the listeners to draw for themselves the conclusions and lessons to apply to their own situation. It calls for further reflection and participation. Otherwise, when the Word of God is merely communicated through a rational explanation, it remains abstract, rigid and unattractive. Even when we hear and understand the Word of God, it does not last because it just stays in our minds and not interiorized and embraced in our hearts.
Yet, after all that is said and done, we must remember that the grace of God requires human cooperation. We can be the best teacher, have the best technique in teaching and delivery of a subject, provide the best ambience and environment, yet what we say still falls on deaf ears. This is something beyond our control. We can only do our part but if the listeners do not respond, there is nothing much we can do except to pray for them. This was why the Parable of the Sower was told to His disciples. Lest they get discouraged at the lack of response in their future ministry, Jesus warned them that they should expect different levels of reception to the Word of God.
This happens because of various factors influencing the person who hears the Word of God. How docile the person is to the Word of God depends on how he manages the challenges he is faced with, from the temptations of the world, the snares of the Evil One, and his physical, emotional and spiritual health, his upbringing, friends and religious encounters. All these factors coming together will determine how receptive we are to the Word of God. This explains why the Word of God bears different quality and quantity of fruits when it is sown. The retreat master at a retreat impacts his listeners differently, even though all hear the same talks.
Indeed, St Paul also posed this question in his letter to the Romans, “But not all have obeyed the good news; for Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our message?’ So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have; for ‘Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.’ Again, I ask, did Israel not understand? But of Israel he says, ‘All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.'” (Rom 10:16, 17, 21) Just like those seeds that fell on the edge of the path, “the birds came and ate it up.” They did not pay attention to the grace of God given to them or the Word preached to them. “Some seed fell on rocky ground where it found little soil and sprang up straightaway, because there was no depth of earth; and when the sun came up it was scorched and, not having any roots, it withered away.” They are those who do not form themselves further in the faith that they have received. They take their faith for granted and eventually lose the little they have. Finally, “some seed fell into thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no crop.” Not only are these nominal Christians, but even priests, religious and fervent Catholics, if not alert to His grace, can be tempted by the world and by the Evil One because they are attracted to the pleasures, glory and power the world gives.
This was the similar experience of our Lord in His ministry when He paraphrased a quote from the prophet Isaiah, “The secret of the kingdom of God is given to you, but to those who are outside everything comes in parables, so that they may see and see again, but not understand; otherwise they might be converted and be forgiven.” (cf Isa 6:9f) The meaning and the context of this citation is that Jesus continued to proclaim the truth even though the people were hardened to His message. Jesus tells us that we must never give up hope and never stop proclaiming the Gospel. He reminds us that we are just like the Sower who sowed the seeds on different types of soil. We must expect different levels of reception and should not be discouraged just because not all appreciate what we say or what we do. We cannot please everyone or convince everyone. But just because only a few responded, that should not deter us from doing good. Even when the seed falls on fertile soil, there are different depths of responses. “And some seed fell into rich soil and, growing tall and strong, produced crop; and yielded thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.” As preachers of the Word, we must be content that we are obedient to God’s call for us to proclaim the gospel. The success of our ministry depends on grace alone.
Today, in the first reading, God promised fidelity to David. David thought he could build a House for the Lord but the Lord reminded David that He was the benefactor. There was nothing David could do to repay Him for the achievements and success he had. It was all the Lord’s doing and not his. “The Lord of hosts says this: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be leader of my people Israel; I have been with you on all your expeditions; I have cut off all your enemies before you. I will give you fame as great as the fame of the greatest on earth. I will provide a place for my people Israel; I will give them rest from all their enemies. The Lord will make you great; the Lord will make you a House.” The psalmist says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” (Ps 127:1) So let us be faithful to what the Lord asks of us, be obedient to His will, and labour in His vineyard regardless of success or failure. We must be patient in extending the Kingdom of God. As St Teresa of Calcutta always reminds us, we are called to be faithful, not successful. We will leave the results into the hands of God. We should be at peace, knowing that we have been faithful to Him.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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