20241025 FOSTERING UNITY IN TRUTH AND LOVE
First reading | Ephesians 4:1-6 |
One Body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God
I, the prisoner in the Lord, implore you to lead a life worthy of your vocation. Bear with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness and patience. Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were called. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of all, over all, through all and within all.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 23(24):1-6 |
Such are the men who seek your face, O Lord.
The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness,
the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas;
on the waters he made it firm.
Such are the men who seek your face, O Lord.
Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
The man with clean hands and pure heart,
who desires not worthless things.
Such are the men who seek your face, O Lord.
He shall receive blessings from the Lord
and reward from the God who saves him.
Such are the men who seek him,
seek the face of the God of Jacob.
Such are the men who seek your face, O Lord.
Gospel Acclamation | Ps94:8 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Harden not your hearts today,
but listen to the voice of the Lord.
Alleluia!
Or: | Mt11:25 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are you, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth,
for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom
to mere children.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 12:54-59 |
Do you not know how to interpret these times?
Jesus said to the crowds: ‘When you see a cloud looming up in the west you say at once that rain is coming, and so it does. And when the wind is from the south you say it will be hot, and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the face of the earth and the sky. How is it you do not know how to interpret these times?
‘Why not judge for yourselves what is right? For example: when you go to court with your opponent, try to settle with him on the way, or he may drag you before the judge and the judge hand you over to the bailiff and the bailiff have you thrown into prison. I tell you, you will not get out till you have paid the very last penny.’
25 October 2024, Friday, 29th Week in Ordinary Time
FOSTERING UNITY IN TRUTH AND LOVE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [EPHESIANS 4:1-6; LUKE 12:54-59]
In the first reading, St Paul urges the Christians to preserve the unity of the Christian community. It is never easy to bring people together and make them live, work and collaborate in unity. People are all different, with different temperaments, expectations, levels of sensitivity, insecurities, spiritual life and background. There are bound to be misunderstanding and quarrels. This explains why the Lord at the end of His ministry prayed for the unity among His disciples. He knew very well that it would be a challenge to unite all of them, more so when the gospel reaches out to all the nations, where Christians come from different cultures, racial and religious backgrounds.
What, then, is the basis of the unity among Christians? Unity cannot be founded merely on the sociological level. This is why at the beginning of the Mass, the Celebrant does not greet the congregation, a “Good morning or good evening.” We are gathered together not because we share a common background because of our culture, language, profession or social status. We come together in the name of the Holy Trinity. Hence, the celebrant begins the Eucharistic celebration by signing the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy; and then give a Trinitarian greeting, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Christians are gathered together because of our common love for the Lord, just as the apostles who came from diverse professions and backgrounds were united together because of their common love for their master.
Indeed, St Paul reminds us that “there is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were called. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism” We are all members of the family of God and Christ’s disciples by virtue of our faith in Christ. We share a common faith, a common baptism and the “and one God who is Father of all, over all, through all and within all.” We must never think of ourselves as individuals but members of the one body of Christ. We have a responsibility towards every member of the community. This is what St John Paul II reminds us when he wrote the apostolic letter, “Novo Millennio Ineunte” when he exhorted us to cultivate a spirituality of communion which “indicates above all the heart’s contemplation of the mystery of the Trinity dwelling in us, and whose light we must also be able to see shining on the face of the brothers and sisters around us. A spirituality of communion also means an ability to think of our brothers and sisters in faith within the profound unity of the Mystical Body, and therefore as “those who are a part of me”. This makes us able to share their joys and sufferings, to sense their desires and attend to their needs, to offer them deep and genuine friendship. A spirituality of communion implies also the ability to see what is positive in others, to welcome it and prize it as a gift from God: not only as a gift for the brother or sister who has received it directly, but also as a “gift for me”. A spirituality of communion means, finally, to know how to “make room” for our brothers and sisters, bearing “each other’s burdens” (Gal 6:2) and resisting the selfish temptations which constantly beset us and provoke competition, careerism, distrust and jealousy. Let us have no illusions: unless we follow this spiritual path, external structures of communion will serve very little purpose.” (NMI 43)
So, if we love the Lord as we claim to, then we need to do all things to preserve the unity of the body of Christ. This is what St Paul exhorted the Christians in Ephesus to do. He said, “I, the prisoner in the Lord, implore you to lead a life worthy of your vocation.” What is this vocation if not to be Christians? St Paul is not speaking specifically here of the different vocations in life but primarily our calling to be Christ’s disciples. Indeed, the greatest and primary vocation for us is the call to be a true son and daughter of our Father in Christ. It is because of our unity in Christ that we are able to call God as our Father. All other vocations are derived from this primary vocation. We are called to live out our calling as Christ’s disciples and children of the same Father by the way we give ourselves in service to God and the community. Protecting the unity of the family is necessary if we are to be seen as God’s family.
The way to protect this unity is to put on Christ. Only when we are in Christ can we truly bring about unity in the family of God. We are called to look at each other the way Christ looks at us, particularly those who are poor, the marginalized and the recalcitrant. With Christ in our hearts, we will be able to embrace everyone, even when they are different from us because we put on love. Indeed, St Paul urges us to “bear with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness and patience.” This is what promoting unity entails. We must be selfless in whatever we do, not thinking about our interests or protecting our turf, like our positions, glory, honour and popularity, or even having material gains. We must be gentle and sensitive to those who are weak and get offended easily. This is particularly true in today’s culture when people are educated and hold positions in life. Gentleness and humility will win people over to our side even when they disagree with us. But when we are dogmatic, proud and arrogant, even if we speak the truth, it will not be heard. The truth must always be spoken in charity, that is, with gentleness, sensitivity and humility.
Finally, St Paul calls for patience when handling family members. Disunity in the family of God happens not only because we are insensitive and presumptuous, but because we lack tolerance and understanding of those struggling to fulfil the rules and laws of the Church or living up to the gospel. We tend to think that every Catholic in the Church is supposed to know what to do and are be able to do it. The truth is that we are all on different levels of spiritual growth, holiness and virtues, knowledge and temperament, education and background, professions and cultures. We must therefore seek to accommodate the very diverse members of the family of God. It is certainly a great challenge, but as St Paul said, if every one of us is in Christ, then we can do it, because of our common love for Him. He wrote, “Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together.” We do it not for ourselves only but to protect the name of Christ and the family of God. This is what we mean when we say in Lord’s Prayer, “Holy be your name!”
What we need, therefore, is to pray as St Paul did earlier on, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.” (Eph 3:14-17) Prayer is what will unite us together in the final analysis; not strategy, talks and programs. We can have all these but without prayer, as St John Paul II wrote, “They would become mechanisms without a soul, “masks” of communion rather than its means of expression and growth.”
Let us therefore read the signs of the time as the Lord reminded us in the gospel. “‘When you see a cloud looming up in the west you say at once that rain is coming, and so it does. And when the wind is from the south you say it will be hot, and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the face of the earth and the sky. How is it you do not know how to interpret these times?” What are these signs? St John Paul II said, “To make the Church the home and the school of communion: that is the great challenge facing us in the millennium which is now beginning, if we wish to be faithful to God’s plan and respond to the world’s deepest yearnings.” What the world needs most is a witness of love and unity in truth. We must be generous enough to give in to the larger interests of the Church and not insist on our own. We cannot afford to be parochial-minded in our approach to fellow Church members when exercising our authority in Church. We must always be thinking of the greater good of all, and living out of the gospel values before all other human rules.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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