20240308 NOT FAR FROM THE KINGDOM OF GOD
08 March 2024, Friday, 3rd Week of Lent
First reading | Hosea 14:2-10 © |
A call to conversion and promise of safety
The Lord says this:
Israel, come back to the Lord your God;
your iniquity was the cause of your downfall.
Provide yourself with words
and come back to the Lord.
Say to him, ‘Take all iniquity away
so that we may have happiness again
and offer you our words of praise.
Assyria cannot save us,
we will not ride horses any more,
or say, “Our God!” to what our own hands have made,
for you are the one in whom orphans find compassion.’
– I will heal their disloyalty,
I will love them with all my heart,
for my anger has turned from them.
I will fall like dew on Israel.
He shall bloom like the lily,
and thrust out roots like the poplar,
his shoots will spread far;
he will have the beauty of the olive
and the fragrance of Lebanon.
They will come back to live in my shade;
they will grow corn that flourishes,
they will cultivate vines
as renowned as the wine of Helbon.
What has Ephraim to do with idols any more
when it is I who hear his prayer and care for him?
I am like a cypress ever green,
all your fruitfulness comes from me.
Let the wise man understand these words.
Let the intelligent man grasp their meaning.
For the ways of the Lord are straight,
and virtuous men walk in them,
but sinners stumble.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 80(81):6,8-11,14,17 © |
I am the Lord your God: listen to my warning.
A voice I did not know said to me:
‘I freed your shoulder from the burden;
your hands were freed from the load.
You called in distress and I saved you.
I am the Lord your God: listen to my warning.
‘I answered, concealed in the storm cloud;
at the waters of Meribah I tested you.
Listen, my people, to my warning.
O Israel, if only you would heed!
I am the Lord your God: listen to my warning.
‘Let there be no foreign god among you,
no worship of an alien god.
I am the Lord your God,
who brought you from the land of Egypt.
I am the Lord your God: listen to my warning.
‘O that my people would heed me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
But Israel I would feed with finest wheat
and fill them with honey from the rock.’
I am the Lord your God: listen to my warning.
Gospel Acclamation |
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
The seed is the word of God, Christ the sower;
whoever finds this seed will remain for ever.
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 | Mark 12:28-34 © |
'You are not far from the kingdom of God'
One of the scribes came up to Jesus and put a question to him, ‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’ Jesus replied, ‘This is the first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.’ The scribe said to him, ‘Well spoken, Master; what you have said is true: that he is one and there is no other. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself, this is far more important than any holocaust or sacrifice.’ Jesus, seeing how wisely he had spoken, said, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ And after that no one dared to question him any more.
NOT FAR FROM THE KINGDOM OF GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [HOSEA 14:2-10; PS 81:6,8-11,14,17; MARK 12:28-34]
As we come almost to the end of the first half of the Season of Lent, the gospel invites us to ask ourselves, how far are we still from the Kingdom of God. To answer this question, we must seek to understand the remark of Jesus when He said to the scribe after he affirmed the answer of our Lord, “Well spoken, Master; what you have said is true: that he is one and there is no other. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself, this is far more important than any holocaust of sacrifice.” Jesus, seeing how wisely he had spoken, said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
So why did Jesus say that he was not far from the Kingdom of God? This is because the scribe has understood what it means to be in the kingdom of God. Firstly, we must love God with all our heart. Why the heart? Because the heart is the centre of the human person. It goes beyond his mind, his thinking and his reasoning. It also encompasses his feelings, emotion, passion and will. It is where the mind and the will meet. A decision that comes from the heart is, in the final analysis, an intuitive perception and a personal conviction that transcends mere reason alone. In other words, the heart is our innermost being, where our conviction lies. We make a commitment not with our lips or even with our intellect but with the heart. Verbal and intellectual commitment does not mean anything unless it is seen in the way we act. Love is not what you say but what you do.
So, we can be like the scribes where they were more concerned with religious expressions. They were models of those who loved God, but Jesus saw through their hearts that they were worshipping themselves, their position and their glory. So, too, we can appear religious, offering our services to the church, engage in ministry, but we are seeking for attention, for recognition, special privileges and honour. We must be sincere in examining our motives for service. Will we still serve the church and care for the poor if we are not noticed in doing good?
So, any renewal of life must start from the heart. It is the heart that a new creation can be born. We must ask where our heart is. This was the same question that God confronted Israel. Do they truly believe in Him, or believe in their own gods? “Assyria cannot save us, we will not ride horses any more, or say, ‘Our god!’ to what our own hands have made, for you are the one in whom orphans find compassion.” From the heart comes evil or goodness. This is what the Lord said earlier. (Mk 7:21f) With the psalmist we must pray, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” (Ps 51:10) Ezekiel prophesied, “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.” (Ezk 36:26f)
Secondly, we must love God with all our soul. What is this soul if not the will of the person? In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” (Mt 26:38 NIV) The soul is where Christ suffered His real passion. He was overwhelmed by His sorrow, not so much by the physical passion ahead of Him but by the anticipated separation from His Father because He was carrying the weight of the sin of the world upon Himself. At the cross, He cried out to the Father, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:45) This was the same reason why He advised the disciples, “Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mt 26:41) Unless we are consumed by our love for God, we will not be able to undergo the trials ahead of us. Loving God with our soul is to love God with our whole being.
Thirdly, we are not far from the Kingdom of God if we seek to love God with our mind, that is, with our understanding. Whilst what matters is the heart, yet our relationship with God is not totally blind. It is true that we can never grasp the mystery of God, but that does not mean that our relationship with Him can be reduced to a purely emotional experience. This would lead to a capricious subjective relationship and the outcome can be destructive to harmony. This is why when we fall in love with someone, we will need to gradually come to understand the person so that our relationship is one of heart and mind as well. If our faith in God were to grow, then it requires that we understand Him as much as we feel Him. We need to study and acquire our knowledge of God through scriptures and theology.
Fourthly, we know we are near to the Kingdom of God if we use our strength to love Him as well. This means perseverance in our relationship with Him. In any relationship, we need to give our energy, time, resources and attention to each other. Most relationships that begin well break down after marriage, simply because the couple took each other for granted. They do not communicate or make time for each other. So, to love Him with our strength means using whatever resources we have to strengthen this relationship. One cannot expect any relationship to grow by itself without investing ourselves in the relationship.
However, we are nearer to the Kingdom of God only if we also love our neighbour as ourselves. To be in the kingdom of God means living a life of charity and cultivating good relationships with our fellowmen, helping the weak and vulnerable, living a life of justice and compassion. We do not do unto others what we do not want them to do unto us as well. Our neighbour must extend beyond our loved ones. Caring for our loved ones is only the first stage of loving our neighbour. True love for neighbour, in Jesus’ understanding, is anyone who is in need. The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37) is the classic illustration of who our neighbour is, which goes even beyond simply helping the poor and the suffering but even our enemies. After telling the parable, the Lord asked the scribe, “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” He was not able to even admit that “the one” was the Samaritan! Charity is the expression of a living faith because if God is in us, we will act with Him and like Him.
But so far, we have not yet reached the Kingdom of God, even though we may be near. What does it take to enter the Kingdom of God? Above all, it requires that we encounter His love and mercy. Before we can love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbour as ourselves, we must first encounter His love and mercy deeply and unconditionally. So long as we have not yet been struck by His unconditional love and mercy, we are still outside the kingdom of God. Although the scribe had understood correctly the fundamental commandments that sum up the Law, which is love of God and neighbour, he had not yet experienced God’s unconditional love. And this is true for us all as well. We might be well versed in scripture and theology. We might be raised in a Catholic family, studied in a Catholic school, and be involved in church activity. We might be active in church ministry and even attend daily Mass and prayers. And yet, we have never encounter God deeply in our lives. In other words, we have not yet been struck by grace.
We can never understand why and how we can love God with all our being unless we understand that God does not love some parts of us only. He loves us entirely. He cares for us, body, soul and spirit. He cares for all whom we love as well. He cares for the entire humanity and creation. God loves us so entirely, as expressed in the giving of His Son to us to die on the cross. So, to love God means that we are to love Him with all we have and are. To love God means that we love all that He loves. So, we might have all the right answers to enter the Kingdom, but unless we take that step to welcome Jesus into our lives, we will at best be only near the Kingdom, but still not yet in the kingdom.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment