20240819 INTERIOR FREEDOM
19 August 2024, Monday, 20th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
Ezekiel 24:15-24 |
The Lord will profane his sanctuary
The word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows, ‘Son of man, I am about to deprive you suddenly of the delight of your eyes. But you are not to lament, not to weep, not to let your tears run down. Groan in silence, do not go into mourning for the dead, knot your turban round your head, put your sandals on your feet, do not cover your beard, do not eat common bread.’ I told this to the people in the morning, and my wife died in the evening, and the next morning I did as I had been ordered.
The people then said to me, ‘Are you not going to explain what meaning these actions have for us?’
I replied, ‘The word of the Lord has been addressed to me as follows, “Say to the House of Israel: The Lord says this. I am about to profane my sanctuary, the pride of your strength, the delight of your eyes, the passion of your souls. Those of your sons and daughters whom you have left behind will fall by the sword. And you are to do as I have done; you must not cover your beards or eat common bread; you must keep your turbans on your heads and your sandals on your feet; you must not lament or weep. You shall waste away owing to your sins and groan among yourselves. Ezekiel is to be a sign for you. You are to do just as he has done. And when this happens, you will learn that I am the Lord.”’
Responsorial Psalm |
Deuteronomy 32:18-21 |
You forget the God who fathered you.
You forget the Rock who begot you,
unmindful now of the God who fathered you.
The Lord has seen this, and in his anger
cast off his sons and his daughters.
You forget the God who fathered you.
‘I shall hide my face from them,’ he says
‘and see what becomes of them.
For they are a deceitful brood,
children with no loyalty in them.
You forget the God who fathered you.
‘They have roused me to jealousy with what is no god,
they have angered me with their beings of nothing;
I, then, will rouse them to jealousy with what is no people,
I will anger them with an empty-headed nation.’
You forget the God who fathered you.
Gospel Acclamation | Ps118:34 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Train me, Lord, to observe your law,
to keep it with my heart.
Alleluia!
Or: | Mt5:3 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
How happy are the poor in spirit:
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Alleluia!
Gospel |
Matthew 19:16-22 |
If you wish to be perfect, go and sell what you own
There was a man who came to Jesus and asked, ‘Master, what good deed must I do to possess eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is one alone who is good. But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ He said, ‘Which?’ ‘These:’ Jesus replied ‘You must not kill. You must not commit adultery. You must not bring false witness. Honour your father and mother,and: you must love your neighbour as yourself.’ The young man said to him, ‘I have kept all these. What more do I need to do?’ Jesus said, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ But when the young man heard these words he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.
INTERIOR FREEDOM
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [EZEKIEL 24:15-24; MATTHEW 19:16-22]
Are you really happy in life? Why are you not really happy? What is preventing you from being truly happy? Why are you feeling incomplete? What is missing in your life? Many of us are like the rich young man in today’s gospel. We seem to have everything in life and yet there is a sense of emptiness and lack of fulfilment. We have a good job, a successful career, a good family, sufficient savings and some wealth, good health and yet, deep in our hearts there is this uneasy vacuum. The rich young man too, had everything, as he was very wealthy. Apparently his wealth did not make him happy. Hence, in desperation, he turned to Jesus, whom he regarded as good, that is, one, who has the fullness of life, and asked, “Master, what good deed must I do to possess eternal life.”
And Jesus, like a good teacher and master, went through the checklist with him. He asked him whether he had kept the commandments. “You must not kill. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not bring false witness. Honour your father and mother.” It is significant that the commandments that Jesus selected were those that concern human relationships. They deal with justice towards our neighbours. However, He did interpolate with another one, which is “you must love your neighbour as yourself.” On all counts, the rich young man passed the test. He said, “I have kept all these. What more do I need to do?” Yet he was still not happy.
What was the real issue? The underlying cause of his unhappiness was that he was not as generous as he thought he was. The Lord challenged him, “If you wish to be perfect, go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” We read, that “when the young man heard these words he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.” What was Jesus trying to drive at? Is the possession of wealth the cause of unhappiness in life? Surely not! Happiness and fulfilment is not directly related to our wealth. It has to do with interior freedom, of how we make use of our wealth and whether we are attached to them.
The man was unable to dispossess himself of his wealth for Jesus. He was running from the truth about himself, his lack of interior freedom. His wealth was the real idol that controlled his happiness. What he did and how he acted was determined by his wealth. In other words, Jesus exposed his hypocrisy by making him realize that God is not the ultimate prize and treasure of his life. In other words, although he fulfilled the second part of the Decalogue in being just in his dealings with his neighbours, he did not put God as the ultimate centre in his life. God was secondary to his wealth. To leave everything and follow Jesus is to give total allegiance and commitment to the Lord. With regard to the question of the greatest commandment, Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mk 12:29)
The real question is not about selling everything and giving to the poor. This of course could be true if that is what the Lord requires of you. But He does not demand this from all except those whom He has given a special mission, like those in religious life. You need to be responsible with your wealth and use them wisely according to your vocation in life and to those whom the Lord asks you to care for, your family, workers, the poor in your midst. So the command to sell everything and give to the poor is not to be interpreted directly except for those who have been called to that vocation.
The defining factor is whether we have put God as the first and most important reality in our lives. Is the Lord our all and to whom we give our total devotion and commitment? Unless He is, then the other illusive and transient things of life will replace Him. So the wealth that Jesus is speaking about is not merely material wealth. It concerns anything on this earth that are our gods. We can make idols out of our spouse, children, career, status, money and all the vices in life. When we love our spouse and children more than we love God, then we have made them the gods of our lives. Who is God if not the one who controls us and one whom we give ourselves totally? So if you make your loved ones your everything, then aren’t you worshipping them?
In saying this, we do not mean it is wrong to love your family and your career even. We should indeed give our whole hearted attention to our responsibilities in life. But in all that we do or think or decide, we must give glory to God above all things. So in loving our loved ones and our neighbours, in using our wealth, talents and resources, do we use them for the glory of God and the service of God and humanity? Are we interiorly free to use our talents and resources, even to giving up our loved ones for the greater glory of God? In fact, the more we love God, the more free and unconditional would be the way we love others. In loving God perfectly, we love others perfectly as well. So the root of our unhappiness is that, like the rich young man we are not interiorly free to love God.
The consequence of not loving God above all things is that we will also not be able to love our neighbours wholeheartedly and unconditionally. This is because we will measure everything we do by what we can get out of them. We will have conscious or unconscious motives that are self-seeking, whether for appreciation, recognition, love or honour. True love for neighbour must spring from our love for God. This is why the love of God is the first and greatest commandment. “The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mk 12:31)
This explains why in Ignatian contemplation and the discernment process, St Ignatius invites us to begin by interiorizing the principle and foundation of the whole practice. He wrote, “Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. And the other things on the face of the earth are created for man and that they may help him in prosecuting the end for which he is created. From this it follows that man is to use them as much as they help him on to his end, and ought to rid himself of them so far as they hinder him as to it. For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things in all that is allowed to the choice of our free will and is not prohibited to it; so that, on our part, we want not health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honour rather than dishonour, long rather than short life, and so in all the rest; desiring and choosing only what is most conducive for us to the end for which we are created.”
Similarly, priests and religious are expected to observe the evangelical counsels of poverty, obedience and celibacy for the sake of the gospel. They are called evangelical counsels because they dispose a person to do everything for the glory of God and to dispose of everything he so she possesses, whether material or intellectual for the service of God. This would at times require the surrender of the will through obedience, detachment from particular loves through chastity and celibacy; and detachment from things through the spirit of poverty. In this way, such a person could be totally committed to the love and service of God.
In the first reading, we have the exemplary example of Ezekiel who gave his whole life to God. He was not just a prophet in words but in deeds. When the Lord told Ezekiel that his wife would soon die and he was not to mourn for her, Ezekiel obeyed without resistance. It was similar to the situation when the prophet Hosea was asked to marry an adulterous woman. (cf Hosea 3;1ff) It must have been extremely difficult for them. Yet, they did what the Lord asked of them without hesitation and complaint.
For them, service and obedience to God must be total. Yet they obeyed for the sake of the greater glory of God. They knew that God would make use of their unfortunate situations to be a sign to the others. God wanted Ezekiel’s action to warn the rest of Israel the crisis ahead of them because of their sins. They would soon be destroyed and exiled. They would lose everything, even their loved ones. Instead of mourning their loss, they should use the occasion to repent of their sins of idolatry, the worship of false gods, of money, wealth; the corollary of which is injustice and the lack of concern for the poor. So the misfortune of Ezekiel was meant to be of service to the people of Israel.
The secret to finding true happiness in life is to be interiorly free like Jesus for the love and service of God and our fellowmen. But love of God must come first before all else. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mt 6:21) Only by loving God above all things, can we love our neighbour as ourselves. So happiness is ours when we use all we have wisely for the greater glory of God, the service of our fellowmen. In the final analysis, it is not even doing things for God and for others. That is why eternal life is not a matter of obeying commandments or doing things but being with and being loving. It is being in a loving relationship with God and with our fellowmen. This loving relationship is of course at times expressed in doing things for each other, but it must include being with and for each other, and not just doing things for the other.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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