20240215 LIFE AND PROSPERITY OR DEATH AND DISASTER
15 February 2024, Ash Thursday
First reading |
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 © |
I set before you today life or death, blessing or curse
Moses said to the people: ‘See, today I set before you life and prosperity, death and disaster. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I enjoin on you today, if you love the Lord your God and follow his ways, if you keep his commandments, his laws, his customs, you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to make your own. But if your heart strays, if you refuse to listen, if you let yourself be drawn into worshipping other gods and serving them, I tell you today, you will most certainly perish; you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today: I set before you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live, in the love of the Lord your God, obeying his voice, clinging to him; for in this your life consists, and on this depends your long stay in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob he would give them.’
Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 1:1-4,6 © |
Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.
Happy indeed is the man
who follows not the counsel of the wicked;
nor lingers in the way of sinners
nor sits in the company of scorners,
but whose delight is the law of the Lord
and who ponders his law day and night.
Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.
He is like a tree that is planted
beside the flowing waters,
that yields its fruit in due season
and whose leaves shall never fade;
and all that he does shall prosper.
Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.
Not so are the wicked, not so!
For they like winnowed chaff
shall be driven away by the wind:
for the Lord guards the way of the just
but the way of the wicked leads to doom.
Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.
Gospel Acclamation | Ps50:12,14 |
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
A pure heart create for me, O God,
and give me again the joy of your help.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Or: | Mt4:17 |
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Repent, says the Lord,
for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Gospel | Luke 9:22-25 © |
Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘The Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day.’
Then to all he said:
‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, that man will save it. What gain, then, is it for a man to have won the whole world and to have lost or ruined his very self?’
LIFE AND PROSPERITY OR DEATH AND DISASTER
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Dt 30:15-20; Ps 1:1-4,6; Lk 9:22-25]
Moses, in addressing the people, said, “See, today I set before you, life and prosperity, death and disaster.” One does not need to consider which option to take because it is obvious that none of us would choose death and disaster. We all desire to live forever and also be given all the luxuries of life without worrying about our material needs. So why is that choice offered to us? The real problem lies in how we understand life and prosperity, and consequently, the means to acquire them would be different. So we need to begin by asking, what do we mean to have life and prosperity? We must define our goals clearly so that we are on the same page because the same words have different meanings for different people.
For most people, life means longevity, good health and security. But for more worldly people, life means to be able to enjoy themselves, have all the pleasures of life, travel the world, freedom to do what they like. Happiness is equated with plenty of material things, enjoyment and with no responsibilities and worries. But this is an illusion. We are not merely animals without a soul and mind. We need more than food and pleasure. We need to exercise our body, mind and heart. We must be thinking, and creative in the way we live our life. We need to make ourselves useful to others, otherwise life becomes meaningless. We must keep our body healthy by exercising, eating moderately and healthily. We also need healthy and loving relationships. We need to love and be loved. Most of all, those who search deep enough know that they need God to find peace and fulfilment in their lives because nothing in this world can give us complete happiness. Our hearts, as St Augustine says after a long search for peace, can find rest only in God.
To help us live a life that is truly meaningful and fulfilling, God has given us His commandments; not to restrict the dynamism of life but to help us to be focused on our ultimate goal in life, which is happiness. Moses said to the people, “If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I enjoin on you today, if you love the Lord your God and follow his ways, if you keep his commandments, his laws, his customs, you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to make your own.” The Decalogue remains until today the principles of life in our relationship with God and with our neighbours. It provides us the parameters for how one should conduct himself or herself so as not to cause harm to ourselves and our neighbours, because one cannot protect his peace and security if our neighbours are not given the same respect and security.
Again, the call to observe the commandments is not God wanting to impose His laws on us and exact obedience to Him at all costs. Obedience is rendered to the commandments not out of fear or compulsion. Obedience always implies that we have heard His Word, understood them, and see the truth of what God is asking of us, which is ultimately for our good. When obedience is given without understanding, it leads to resentment and anger. We think that God is a policeman and an unreasonable law-giver who wants to make our life miserable, waiting to punish us when we fail and go against Him. In truth, most sufferings in life are due to the consequences of our sins. The penalties that we suffer can be restricted to the individual, or at times it can also affect the larger community and even the environment, depriving it of peace, harmony and security. So true obedience is the result of hearing the Word of God with faith, confidence and love. St Paul would later in his letters speak about the obedience of faith.
However, faith in the Word of God, in His commandments, is rooted in love. When there is love, there is always trust. Love cannot thrive or be sustained without trust. This explains why the commandments, the Decalogue, were given only after they were delivered from Egypt – after God had demonstrated His love for them. They bear witness to His works of power in the Ten Plagues, His guiding them in the desert by the Pillar of Light in the night and the Pillar of Cloud in the day. Moses reminded the people, “It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you – for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery.” (Dt 7:7f)
Conversely, if we do not follow His commandments, it would be to our destruction. Moses warned of the outcome for those who reject His commandments. “But if your heart strays, if you refuse to listen, if you let yourself be drawn into worshipping other gods and serving them, I tell you today, you will most certainly perish; you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.” Indeed, if we become ignorant and choose to live our life selfishly, reducing ourselves to mere material beings, living for oneself, indulging in the pleasures of life excessively, cheating to acquire more wealth, manipulating to acquire power, seeking fame and glory, oppressing the weak and the vulnerable, indifferent to the sufferings and miseries of others around us, then such false gods will possess us and take away our happiness. We will find ourselves destroying our health, lacking true and authentic relationships in life, emptiness of heart, meaninglessness in life, and most of all, creating enemies and competitors robbing us of our peace, joy and security.
In today’s gospel, Jesus shows us the way to life. His path to life seems to contradict the conventional way of finding life and happiness. He said, “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, that man will save it.” What does it mean to lose one’s life to find it? In simple terms, it means that life is ours only when we use it for others. In the final analysis, what brings us the greatest joy in life is meaning. This meaning is love and service. It is in relationships that are genuine, sincere, true, supportive and encouraging that we find happiness. But aside from relationships, we also need to feel with the rest of humanity, those who are suffering, and be able to make a difference in their lives by alleviating their pains and struggles. By sharing the joys, aspirations and struggles of our fellowmen, we become more human and humane. And being human is what makes us happy.
This explains why it is necessary to renounce ourselves to find life. We remember how Peter renounced Jesus in the gospel when Jesus spoke about His imminent passion and death after he proudly declared that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Then at His trial, Peter renounced Jesus saying, “I do not know Him!” Renunciation means that we do not know our identity. So to find ourselves, Jesus said that we must forget ourselves so that we can enter into the lives of others. We must be like Mary, forgetful of herself, and not put ourselves as the centre of our life but to put others as the focus. When we are immersed in the lives of others, we become alive because we share in their lives.
Hence, today, we have been given the key to life and true prosperity, which means a holistic and meaningful life lived in self-control and in humble service. Let us take the advice of the psalmist, “Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord. Happy indeed is the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked; nor lingers in the way of sinners, but whose delight is the law of the Lord and who ponders his law day and night. He is like a tree that is planted beside the flowing waters, that yields its fruit in due season and whose leaves shall never fade; and all that he does shall prosper.” The Lord is challenging us to live fully. “What gain, then, is it for a man to have the whole world and to have lost or ruined his very self?”
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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