20240802 OVER-FAMILIARITY AB OBSTACLE TO FAITH
02 August 2024, Friday, 17th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading | Jeremiah 26:1-9 |
Jeremiah preaches in the Temple of the Lord and is threatened with death
At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word was addressed to Jeremiah by the Lord, ‘The Lord says this: Stand in the court of the Temple of the Lord. To all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the Temple of the Lord you must speak all the words I have commanded you to tell them; do not omit one syllable. Perhaps they will listen and each turn from his evil way: if so, I shall relent and not bring the disaster on them which I intended for their misdeeds. Say to them, “The Lord says this: If you will not listen to me by following my Law which I put before you, by paying attention to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send so persistently to you, without your ever listening to them, I will treat this Temple as I treated Shiloh, and make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.”’
The priests and prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah say these words in the Temple of the Lord. When Jeremiah had finished saying everything that the Lord had ordered him to say to all the people, the priests and prophets seized hold of him and said, ‘You shall die! Why have you made this prophecy in the name of the Lord, “This Temple will be like Shiloh, and this city will be desolate, and uninhabited”?’ And the people were all crowding round Jeremiah in the Temple of the Lord.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 68(69):5,8-10,14 |
In your great love, answer me, O God.
More numerous than the hairs on my head
are those who hate me without cause.
Those who attack me with lies
are too much for my strength.
How can I restore
what I have never stolen?
In your great love, answer me, O God.
It is for you that I suffer taunts,
that shame covers my face,
that I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my own mother’s sons.
I burn with zeal for your house
and taunts against you fall on me.
In your great love, answer me, O God.
This is my prayer to you,
my prayer for your favour.
In your great love, answer me, O God,
with your help that never fails.
In your great love, answer me, O God.
Gospel Acclamation | cf.1Th2:13 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Accept God’s message for what it really is:
God’s message, and not some human thinking.
Alleluia!
Or: | 1P1:25 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The word of the Lord remains for ever:
What is this word?
It is the Good News that has been brought to you.
Alleluia!
Gospel |
Matthew 13:54-58 |
A prophet is only despised in his own country
Coming to his home town, Jesus taught the people in their synagogue in such a way that they were astonished and said, ‘Where did the man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? This is the carpenter’s son, surely? Is not his mother the woman called Mary, and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Jude? His sisters, too, are they not all here with us? So where did the man get it all?’ And they would not accept him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is only despised in his own country and in his own house’, and he did not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
OVER-FAMILIARITY AB OBSTACLE TO FAITH
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Jer 26:1-9; Mt 13:54-58]
The theme of today’s scripture readings is on the danger of over-familiarity. This is the greatest obstacle to faith. When we are over-familiar with people, especially with the Sacred, there is a real danger that we will take them for granted, and the consciousness of what we are doing is forgotten because of routine. This is true especially for Catholics who say the traditional formula prayers, especially the Rosary or even the Mass that we participate in. We recite them without paying attention to what we say, and we do not pray with our hearts. This is why, we can say the prayer and within seconds, we forget whether that prayer has been recited. For this reason, such routine prayers do not strengthen our faith or change our lives.
The same applies to rituals as well. We tend to follow the rituals and gestures without interiorizing what we do. We go through the motions in a perfunctory manner. Whether it is kneeling or making the Sign of the Cross, or even receiving Holy Communion, we do so spontaneously without consciousness. This is also true for priests, particularly because we celebrate the rituals and especially the Eucharist so often that we just “perform” them without thinking or calling to mind consciously what we pray and what we are doing when we celebrate the Mass or the sacraments. This is the downside of being a professional minister of the gospel. We can celebrate the rituals without any feeling, emotion or personal conviction of what we are doing.
This explains why the most difficult people to change or to convert are cradle Catholics and priests and religious, including those active in Church ministry. We think we know everything already. We have heard it before and therefore even when the message is repeated in a new way, we are not listening it anew. We continue to live in the past and have fossilized our knowledge about our faith. We are not willing to learn new things, perhaps because of pride, arrogance, ignorance or plain laziness. Indeed, it is much easier to convert non-Catholics who are searching for God and for peace in their lives than Catholics. It is a great irony because we spend so much time preaching to the unconverted converted. With that time, we could bring more non-Catholics to come to know Christ.
Indeed, this was the frustration of our Lord when He reprimanded the people for their lack of faith. When the scribes and Pharisees, the professional religious of the day, said to Him, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” He answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here! The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here!” (Mt 12:39-42) Jesus was greater than Jonah and Solomon. The pagans were more receptive to the gospel, the Word of God, than the Israelites, the Jews and His own townsfolk.
Isn’t this the case for Jeremiah as well? Jeremiah was a reluctant prophet. Because he was obedient to the Lord’s call, he took up the task. But he found himself preaching to an unconverted nation. For more than forty years of his life, he sought to get his people to repent, lest disaster strikes the country. But they rejected his message. Instead of responding with humility and repentance, they continued to disobey the commandments of the Lord. Such was the futile efforts of Jeremiah. Not only did they reject his message, they sought to imprison him and put him to death. As a consequence, we could hear the emotional sorrow of Jeremiah for his rebellious countrymen. (cf Jer 12:1-4)
What we read today is the second phase of Jeremiah’s ministry. Since the preaching of repentance was rejected, Jeremiah was forced to warn them of a time of doom and destruction. He prophesied that Jerusalem, the Temple of God would be reduced to ruins like the Temple of Shiloh which was once the dwelling place of the Lord. The officials accused him of treason because his message was demoralizing for the people of Israel. He was accused of not being a credible prophet. We can imagine the hurts and disappointments of Jeremiah who loved his people. He would eventually be imprisoned and almost killed, if not for the king’s intervention.
What happened to Jeremiah also happened to our Lord. He went back to His hometown. But we are told that His own relatives and townsfolk rejected Him. They were initially impressed by His words of wisdom. But over-familiarity set in. They began to doubt His credentials. After all, they knew Him from young and He was an ordinary boy like the rest. They could not believe that this young man could now speak with so much confidence and even perform miracles. It was hard to believe in Him, as they knew His family and relatives. “They were astonished and said, ‘Where did the man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? This is the carpenter’s son, surely? Is not his mother the woman called Mary, and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Jude? His sisters, too, are they not all here with us? So where did the man get it all?’ And they would not accept him.”
The poignant remark of Jesus became a classic phrase today when someone is not accepted by his peers. The Lord said, “‘A prophet is only despised in his own country and in his own house’, and he did not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith.” Prejudice and over-familiarity prevented them for accepting Jesus. This is so true of us as well. We do not listen to our preachers, but when someone comes from abroad, we tend to make a fuss of them. Perhaps, we think that we are as good as them. Our ego prevents us from recognizing the goodness and talents in our own brothers and sisters. Perhaps, we also have our prejudices because of some negative encounters we had with those we know. We close our minds to all that the person has to say, simply because we have been hurt by him or her before. We are no longer objective. We cannot dissociate the person from the message. But in the case of Jesus, His message was identified with His person. Yet, His people also could not accept Him. This is a real tragedy.
The truth is that God comes to us in an incarnational way. The kingdom of God comes in human lowliness. This explains why the Second Person of the Holy Trinity assumed our humanity. He was stripped of all His divine majesty and became a servant to all. Instead of succumbing to the temptations of the Evil One to proclaim the message using His divine power to change stone to bread, or to perform a spectacular jump from the top of the pinnacle, or using power and glory (cf Mt 4:1-11), Jesus came as a humble servant to reveal the mercy and love of God. He avoided any triumphalist actions. Indeed, He arrived at Jerusalem on a donkey. He was stripped and put to death on the cross.
Unfortunately, today, we have exalted Jesus so much that we have forgotten that the gospel can only be proclaimed in human lowliness. Our churches are well equipped and even glorious. In many parts of the world, Christianity is a very established institution with lots of political support from the government and the public. We are used to being treated with privileges, including our priests and religious, that we forget how to serve with humility, gratitude and compassion. We have forgotten that the God we worship has taken flesh in a little body in history, in a particular space and time. We have lost the Jesus of Nazareth and only worship Christ the Lord. Indeed, in a triumphant church, we lose our personal faith in the Lord. We rely on tradition and offices, but we no longer have a personal relationship with Him. We have reduced faith to a mere religion with practices and customs. When we lack trust and openness to a person, faith is lacking. Without a real relationship, there is no faith. Faith implies trust and that comes about when we have a relationship with someone. We need to rediscover our faith in the Lord who comes to us in the ordinary ways of our life.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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