20240228 UNAPPRECIATED SERVICE
28 February 2024, Wednesday, 2nd Week of Lent
First reading |
Jeremiah 18:18-20 © |
My enemies are digging a pit for me
‘Come on,’ they said, ‘let us concoct a plot against Jeremiah; the priest will not run short of instruction without him, nor the sage of advice, nor the prophet of the word. Come on, let us hit at him with his own tongue; let us listen carefully to every word he says.’
Listen to me, O Lord,
hear what my adversaries are saying.
Should evil be returned for good?
For they are digging a pit for me.
Remember how I stood in your presence
to plead on their behalf,
to turn your wrath away from them.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 30(31):5-6,14-16 © |
Save me in your love, O Lord.
Release me from the snares they have hidden
for you are my refuge, Lord.
Into your hands I commend my spirit.
It is you who will redeem me, Lord.
Save me in your love, O Lord.
I have heard the slander of the crowd,
fear is all around me,
as they plot together against me,
as they plan to take my life.
Save me in your love, O Lord.
But as for me, I trust in you, Lord;
I say: ‘You are my God.
My life is in your hands, deliver me
from the hands of those who hate me.’
Save me in your love, O Lord.
Gospel Acclamation | cf.Jn6:63,68 |
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life;
you have the message of eternal life.
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
Or: | Jn8:12 |
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
anyone who follows me will have the light of life.
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
Gospel |
Matthew 20:17-28 © |
They will condemn the Son of Man to death
Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, and on the way he took the Twelve to one side and said to them, ‘Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the pagans to be mocked and scourged and crucified; and on the third day he will rise again.’
Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came with her sons to make a request of him, and bowed low; and he said to her, ‘What is it you want?’ She said to him, ‘Promise that these two sons of mine may sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your kingdom.’ ‘You do not know what you are asking’ Jesus answered. ‘Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?’ They replied, ‘We can.’ ‘Very well,’ he said ‘you shall drink my cup, but as for seats at my right hand and my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted by my Father.’
When the other ten heard this they were indignant with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that among the pagans the rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you. No; anyone who wants to be great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’
UNAPPRECIATED SERVICE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [JER 18:18-20; PS 31:5-6,14-16; MT 20:17-28]
The reluctant prophet Jeremiah was called by God to save His people. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jer 1:5) But he never felt worthy or good enough to be His prophet, He replied, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” (Jer 1:6) This office entailed great sacrifice and suffering on his part. He was rejected not by his own people. Instead of being appreciative of his sincerity in wanting to save the nation from being destroyed by the Babylonians, they accused him of treason. They were seeking to find ways to eliminate him because of his discouraging words. They said, “Come on, let us concoct a plan against Jeremiah; the priest will not run short of instruction without him, nor the sage of advice, nor the prophet of the word. Come on, let us hit at him with his own tongue; let us listen carefully to every word he says.” Even his relatives were against him. “For even your kinsfolk and your own family, even they have dealt treacherously with you; they are in full cry after you.” (Jer 12:6)
We can therefore appreciate the laments of Jeremiah. “Listen to me Lord, hear what my adversaries are saying. Should evil be returned for good? For they are digging a pit for me. Remember how I stood in your presence to plead on their behalf, to turn your wrath away from them.” He was disillusioned that even though he was truly sincere in wanting to save his people, and he was speaking the Word of God to them as instructed, he received evil for good. He even prayed for them and interceded for God’s mercy on their behalf. Yet, they were seeking to kill him by throwing him into a pit to die. Isn’t this how many of us feel when we serve our people and our community? More so when this service is offered gratuitously. We are not paid for it even. At least, if we are paid, we might be willing to suffer for that price. But when we do it on a voluntary basis, and we are misunderstood, ridiculed, criticized and marginalized, we certainly feel very bitter and angry. When we meet with such ingrates and injustices, most of us would readily throw in the towel, since we get nothing out of our goodness but pain and rejection.
What is more, sometimes, we feel that God is not fair to us as well. We would expect God to be on our side. More so, if we have discerned that we are doing is in accord with His call to service. We give up our lucrative position in the world to serve the Church or some humanitarian organization. We thought we were being obedient to His will and willing to make that personal sacrifice for His cause. But God does not seem to bless our work. In fact, we feel very alone in what we do. We pray to Him but He does not seem to hear our prayers or take away our suffering. We wonder whether our discernment of His call was just an illusion, a dream, rather than a real calling. There are some who have left the Church and even give up their faith, because they feel bitter that they have been abandoned by God. So the conclusion is that all these about building community is not real and God does not exist.
But that was what Jesus went through in His own life and ministry as well. In the gospel, Jesus told His apostles, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” This was what happened to Him. He emptied Himself of His divinity to assume our humanity. He became a man and a servant of all. But He faced many oppositions to His ministry and His teaching. Though He did many good works, He was opposed by the religious authorities for breaking the law, and exposing the hypocrisy of the religious institutions and religious practices. As a consequence, they plotted to kill Him. He was arrested, scourged and put to death on the cross. At the cross, the Lord, like Jeremiah, also interceded for His enemies when He said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” (Lk 22:34)
On the cross too, Jesus cried out to His Father, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46) The Letter to the Hebrews describes this event even more poignantly, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death.” (Heb 5:7) Indeed, Jesus was a ransom for the salvation of us all, as St Peter wrote, “You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.” (1 Pt 1:18f)
Indeed, the calling to serve the Lord is not just to be a servant to all but a suffering servant. It is certainly not about power and positions, as the apostles thought. “You know that among the pagans the rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you. No; anyone who wants to be great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave.” We must be ready to drink the cup as the Lord asked His apostles. “Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?” They replied, “We can.” “Very well,” he said, “you shall drink my cup, but as for seats at my right hand and my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted by my Father.” To be at the service of Christ means that we must be ready to drink the cup of suffering, the cup of unappreciated service, the cup of being unjustly judged, the cup of being misunderstood, the cup of being ridiculed and humbled.
Why? Because this is the way of winning souls for Christ. This was why the Lord prophesied, “Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the pagans to be mocked and scourged and crucified; and on the third day he will rise again.” We have to suffer the passion and the cross to win over the hard-heartedness of evil people. We need to heal the world by our humility and selfless service, not by power and strength. St Peter urges us, “For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.’ When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Pt 3:19-25)
Indeed, when we are brought down by the world, God will raise us up, as St Paul wrote in the letter to the Philippians. “Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:9-11) Indeed, if we persevere, then God will show the power of His arms. The psalmist invites us to trust that God will vindicate us as He vindicated Jesus by raising Him from the dead. We need to commend our lives to Him, saying, “Save me in your love, O Lord. Release me from the snares they have hidden for you are my refuge, Lord. Into your hands I commend my spirit. It is you who will redeem me, Lord. But as for me, I trust in you, Lord; I say: ‘You are my God. My life is in your hands, deliver me from the hands of those who hate me.'”
The only glory we can seek for in serving the Lord is to share with Him the joy of conquering evil with goodness, hatred with love, death with life. This is the greatest reward of being the servant of God. To know that we have done good and walked in truth and love will give us the peace and joy the world cannot give. Truly, for those of us who feel like giving up doing good simply because we face oppositions and ingratitude, we must remember that we are not serving our fellowmen only but we are ultimately serving the cause of God. It is to God that we give an account of our lives and He will raise us up with Him in glory.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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