20240612 SINCERE COMMITMENT TO GOD
12 June 2024, Wednesday, 10th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
1 Kings 18:20-39 |
Elijah vanquishes the priests of Baal
Ahab called all Israel together and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah stepped out in front of all the people. ‘How long’ he said ‘do you mean to hobble first on one leg then on the other? If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.’ But the people never said a word. Elijah then said to them, ‘I, I alone, am left as a prophet of the Lord, while the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty. Let two bulls be given us; let them choose one for themselves, dismember it and lay it on the wood, but not set fire to it. I in my turn will prepare the other bull, but not set fire to it. You must call on the name of your god, and I shall call on the name of mine; the god who answers with fire, is God indeed.’ The people all answered, ‘Agreed!’ Elijah then said to the prophets of Baal, ‘Choose one bull and begin, for there are more of you. Call on the name of your god but light no fire.’ They took the bull and prepared it, and from morning to midday they called on the name of Baal. ‘O Baal, answer us!’ they cried, but there was no voice, no answer, as they performed their hobbling dance round the altar they had made. Midday came, and Elijah mocked them. ‘Call louder,’ he said ‘for he is a god: he is preoccupied or he is busy, or he has gone on a journey; perhaps he is asleep and will wake up.’ So they shouted louder and gashed themselves, as their custom was, with swords and spears until the blood flowed down them. Midday passed, and they ranted on until the time the offering is presented; but there was no voice, no answer, no attention given to them.
Then Elijah said to all the people, ‘Come closer to me’, and all the people came closer to him. He repaired the altar of the Lord which had been broken down. Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, ‘Israel shall be your name’, and built an altar in the name of the Lord. Round the altar he dug a trench of a size to hold two measures of seed. He then arranged the wood, dismembered the bull, and laid it on the wood. Then he said, ‘Fill four jars with water and pour it on the holocaust and on the wood’; this they did. He said, ‘Do it a second time’; they did it a second time. He said, ‘Do it a third time’; they did it a third time. The water flowed round the altar and the trench itself was full of water. At the time when the offering is presented, Elijah the prophet stepped forward. ‘O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel,’ he said ‘let them know today that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, that I have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, the Lord, are God and are winning back their hearts.’
Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the holocaust and wood and licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this they fell on their faces. ‘The Lord is God,’ they cried, ‘the Lord is God.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 15(16):1-2,4-5,8,11 |
Save me, Lord, I take refuge in you.
Preserve me, God, I take refuge in you.
I say to the Lord: ‘You are my God.’
Save me, Lord, I take refuge in you.
Those who choose other gods increase their sorrows.
Never will I offer their offerings of blood.
Never will I take their name upon my lips.
Save me, Lord, I take refuge in you.
O Lord, it is you who are my portion and cup;
it is you yourself who are my prize.
I keep the Lord ever in my sight:
since he is at my right hand, I shall stand firm.
Save me, Lord, I take refuge in you.
You will show me the path of life,
the fullness of joy in your presence,
at your right hand happiness for ever.
Save me, Lord, I take refuge in you.
Gospel Acclamation | Ps118:27 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Make me grasp the way of your precepts,
and I will muse on your wonders.
Alleluia!
Or: | Ps24:4,5 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Teach me your paths, my God,
make me walk in your truth.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Matthew 5:17-19 |
I have not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to complete them
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved. Therefore, the man who infringes even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of heaven; but the man who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven.’
SINCERE COMMITMENT TO GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 Kings 18:20-39; Ps 16:1-2,4-5,8,11; Mt 5:17-19]
The crux of today’s scripture reading is the call to commitment. The prerequisite of commitment is that we must decide who we want to believe. This was the problem of the Israelites during the time of the prophet Elijah. Elijah of course believed only in the God of Israel. He had no tolerance for false gods, which were the cause of the moral decadence among the Israelites, resulting in social disorder and disunity in the country. As the psalmist says, “Those who choose other gods increase their sorrows. Never will I offer their offerings of blood. Never will I take their name upon my lips.” He felt called to protect Israel by bringing the people back to the true God. He was proud of his commitment to Yahweh, as he declared openly, “I, I alone, am left as a prophet of the Lord, while the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty.”
The people were living in the midst of foreign gods, thanks, or no thanks, to King Ahab for marrying foreign wives who brought with them their Philistine gods and religious practices. They were confused over which God was the true God. They had no real conviction. As a consequence, they were, as the prophet Elijah accused them of, limping between worshipping Yahweh and the Philistine gods. They wanted the best of both worlds. Hence, he called on the people to decide who wanted to follow. He threw down the gauntlet, saying, “How long, do you mean to hobble first on one leg then on the other? If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.” However, we are told “the people never said a word.” They did not want to decide. They were either ignorant, or lacked conviction, or sought to have the best of the gods, whoever favours them.
Ironically, the prophets of Baal appeared to be genuinely sincere, although they believed in the gods of the Philistines. Indeed, we must salute them for their convictions even if they believed wrongly, out of ignorance. Morally, it was right that they should follow their conscience, even if their conscience was either uninformed, or erroneously inculpable. Indeed, we see their conviction expressed in the way they took up the challenge of the Prophet Elijah in calling upon their god, Baal, to prove himself that he was the true god by sending fire to burn up the holocausts on the wood. However, shout as they did, calling upon his name, “there was no voice, no answer, as they performed their hobbling dance round the altar they had made.” When their cries failed to reach Baal, “they shouted louder and gashed themselves, as their custom was, with swords and spears until the blood flowed down them. Midday passed, and they ranted on until the time the offering is presented; but there was no voice, no answer, no attention given to them.” Indeed, compared to the people of Israel, and especially King Ahab, they were at least sincere in their choice of Baal.
Of course, Elijah demonstrated to them that the God of Israel was the true God, for we read that in spite of pouring water over the holocaust and the wood a few times, until “the water flowed round the altar and the trench itself was full of water”, when he called upon the name of the Lord, “the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the holocaust and wood and licked up the water in the trench.” To underscore that the God of Israel was a faithful God, he deliberately constructed the altar with twelve stones to symbolize the twelve tribes of Israel. And when he prayed, he appealed to the “God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel.” He said, “let them know today that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, that I have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, Lord are God and are winning back their hearts.” The Lord answered his prayers, “Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the holocaust and wood and licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this they fell on their faces. ‘The Lord is God,’ they cried, ‘the Lord is God.'” With the psalmist, we say, “You will show me the path of life, the fullness of joy in your presence, at your right-hand happiness forever.”
In the gospel, again, there is a similar challenge to be committed to the Lord. This commitment, as the Jews understood it, is to be committed to the Law. What is this Law? It could simply be obedience to the Decalogue. But the Law could also refer to the Pentateuch, the Five Books of Moses, which were instructions to the community based on the Decalogue. By the time of Jesus, it also referred to the Scribal and oral laws as well, the specific interpretation and application of the Torah in the life of the people. As a result, it was extremely burdensome for someone to live a life of holiness because one was expected to observe every law, including all the oral traditions. So much so, the spirit of the law was soon forgotten, only the observance of the laws was practised.
So Jesus made it clear that fidelity to the Law must go beyond mere observance of the letter of the law, but to live out the interior spirit of the laws. Jesus said to His disciples: “Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved.” Indeed, unlike the religious leaders who thought of Jesus as a deviant, a lawbreaker, Jesus strove to be totally committed to the law in spirit and in truth. For our Lord, commitment to the Law means taking the laws seriously and observing them not just according to the letter but the interior spirit. This means that observance of the law is not for show, to prove that we are righteous or better than others, or having a holier than thou attitude.
Rather, there is only one law, which is the law of charity, compassion, love and devotion to God and to our fellowmen. This explains why Jesus summed up the law in two phrases. “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mk 12:20-31) This is true commitment to the Lord.
Unfortunately, some of the religious leaders behaved in a similar way the Israelites conducted themselves before God. Although their lips and actions professed their love for the Law, they were motivated by pride, self-righteousness, honour and position. They were not motivated by the love of God or love for their neighbours. They picked and chose those laws that were to their benefit, and explained away those that they could not accept. That explains why they were heartless and lacking compassion for fellow sinners. They despised and condemned them. Charity and humility were lacking. Hence, in a subtle way, they were also involved in idolatrous worship. They worshipped themselves, their status and their apparent holiness.
However, those who do not observe the laws and teach others to do so are no better. Jesus warns us, “Therefore, the man who infringes even one of the least commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of heaven; but the man who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven.” We must take care that we do not behave like the Israelites or the religious leaders during the time of Jesus, selecting those commandments we agree with and rejecting those that we do not. To be faithful to the Lord means that we do not choose what we like, or observe only those that we agree with. If the Lord is God, then it means that we will accept all the teachings of the Lord without exception. Even if such teachings are difficult, then like Peter and the apostles who said to the Lord, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” (Jn 6:68f)
Finally, Jesus has a warning for teachers and those of us who are guardians of the young. Those of us who twist and turn the teaching of the gospel to suit our preferences will have a greater punishment because we mislead our people in living the truth of the gospel. As leaders, we must be true to the gospel teaching, not compromise the teaching of our Lord in any way or dilute them to fit into today’s world, just to be popular and accepted.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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