20250212 FREEDOM AND PARTICIPATION IN GOD’S PLAN FOR HUMANITY
12 February 2025, Wednesday, 5th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
Genesis 2:4-9,15-17 |
The Lord God fashioned man out of dust
At the time when the Lord God made earth and heaven there was as yet no wild bush on the earth nor had any wild plant yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth, nor was there any man to till the soil. However, a flood was rising from the earth and watering all the surface of the soil. The Lord God fashioned man of dust from the soil. Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thus man became a living being.
The Lord God planted a garden in Eden which is in the east, and there he put the man he had fashioned. The Lord God caused to spring up from the soil every kind of tree, enticing to look at and good to eat, with the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden. The Lord God took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and take care of it. Then the Lord God gave the man this admonition, ‘You may eat indeed of all the trees in the garden. Nevertheless of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 103(104):1-2,27-30 |
Bless the Lord, my soul!
Bless the Lord, my soul!
Lord God, how great you are,
clothed in majesty and glory,
wrapped in light as in a robe!
Bless the Lord, my soul!
All of these look to you
to give them their food in due season.
You give it, they gather it up:
you open your hand, they have their fill.
Bless the Lord, my soul!
You take back your spirit, they die,
returning to the dust from which they came.
You send forth your spirit, they are created;
and you renew the face of the earth.
Bless the Lord, my soul!
Gospel Acclamation | cf.2Tim1:10 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Our Saviour Jesus Christ abolished death
and he has proclaimed life through the Good News.
Alleluia!
Or: | Jn17:17 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Your word is truth, O Lord:
consecrate us in the truth.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Mark 7:14-23 |
It is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean
Jesus called the people to him and said, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean. If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to this.’
When he had gone back into the house, away from the crowd, his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, ‘Do you not understand either? Can you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot make him unclean, because it does not go into his heart but through his stomach and passes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he pronounced all foods clean.) And he went on, ‘It is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean. For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean.’
FREEDOM AND PARTICIPATION IN GOD’S PLAN FOR HUMANITY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [GEN 2:4-9, 15-17; PS 104:1-2, 27-30; MARK 7:14-23]
What it the ultimate cause of division in marriage and family life? It is ultimately Man’s failure to understand himself, his calling and his responsibility. The first reading from the book of Genesis gives us the background to the fundamental call of Man. Firstly, in the creation account, we read that it was the Lord who formed Man. The garden serves as a context for human life. God formed man out of the earth with his own hands. This underscores why the human body must be taken seriously. Human life is embodied life. We need to render honour and respect to our human body. This is particularly true in our understanding of sexuality and marriage. St Paul in Corinth affirms our sexuality, and stresses the mutuality and complementarity of the marriage relationship.
The human person, therefore, has a great dignity because he shares in the life of God. As the responsorial psalm says, “Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord God, how great you are, clothed in majesty and glory, wrapped in light as in a robe! All of these look to you to give them their food in due season. You give it, they gather it up: you open your hand, they have their fill. You take back your spirit, they die, returning to the dust from which they came. You send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the earth.” This sharing of God’s life also means to share in the work of God by cultivating the garden, and in a creative way just as God created man. Human creativity mirrors the creativity of God. We are called to protect the beauty of God’s creation symbolized by the garden. Creation is not just a place of utility but beauty as well.
Man is given the freedom to protect the beauty of creation, the beauty of human relationship, especially marriage. Placing Man at the centre of life in the garden where the tree of life and the true of the knowledge of good and evil brings out the fact that Man himself cannot be at the centre. The freedom of human life and for human life is found in God alone. God is the one who dictates our freedom and our happiness. The tree of knowledge stands as a symbol of life given by God. Man is not God. He is not the centre. He must therefore not try to be God by keeping himself out of the centre. When we try to overstep our boundary, we lose our focus. The tree in the centre of the Garden reminds us that moral boundaries are given for our good. When human beings try to be God and establish his own boundaries, he makes a mess of his own life and destroys his happiness. This is what is happening in the world today, when the world tries to rewrite the identity and origin of human beings, his or her gender, the meaning of marriage and family. The cause of much confusion in marriage and family today is a consequence of Man choosing to make himself the centre of the universe, supplanting the place of God. This is why human fulfilment cannot be found when we try to assert our human autonomy and seek knowledge and meaning outside the limits set by God in creation. On the contrary, we found our fulfillment in our relationship with God by caring for His garden and protecting the beauty of creation and human relationships.
This is where we are called to exercise our freedom responsibly. The creation account opens us up to one of the paradoxes of human freedom. Today, the world seeks freedom in itself instead of in God. When freedom is exercised without self-control, it leads to licentiousness. Instead of liberating us, we become slaves to our desires. This is what the Lord meant in today’s gospel when He remarked, “It is what comes out of someone that makes that person unclean. For it is from within, from the heart, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within and make a person unclean.” In a similar vein, St Paul warned the Galatians, “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Gal 5:19-21)
So when the world wants to do things its own way, making itself the reference point of what is right and wrong, dictating our gender from a personal point of view and not biological reference, or abusing the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, and the obligation to procreation, humanity becomes disordered. There will be serious repercussions on the wellbeing of mankind, the unity of the family, holistic formation and most of all, the obligation to grow humanity through procreation within marriage. Man does not appreciate the commandments of God. He sees them as restrictive when they are meant to give us life and protect our well-being. If a fish is liberated from its water, it will not survive for long in its new-found freedom. For the fish to thrive, it must be on the basis of what creation has created it to be. So, too, for the human person. When we go against the boundaries set by the Word of God and refuse to submit in obedience to the Word of life, we destroy ourselves. Man’s happiness and personal freedom can only be exercised within the law of God, just like the fish in the water. God gives us the laws of creation, including the law of marriage and family to protect us and guarantee our freedom, life and growth; not to make us feel unfulfilled and disoriented. Unfortunately, the world does not see that this total disregard for the laws of God and the boundaries He sets for creation and human beings has caused humanity to lose its direction, focus, and many are living in confusion!
How do we come back to the origins of creation and align ourselves to the divine plan of God for creation and humanity? We find the answer by seeking true knowledge in God. True knowledge is not what science proposes – a detached understanding of the world. All knowledge is a personal knowledge which must include the intellect, the will and the heart. Without a personal knowledge, there is no real participation. We must not deceive ourselves into thinking that we are God standing over and above the world when in fact we are part of this world because we are shaped from the soil of the ground. Although, because we also share in the life of God, created in His image and likeness, we are also able to transcend it through the God-given powers of perception and reason. So, true knowledge is knowledge by participation, and in this case, participation in the knowledge of God through obedience to His commands. This obedience is not a slavish kind of obedience but that of a child – not coerced but freely given. Only those who make Christ as our Wisdom by allowing God to live in us, can come to appreciate the truths and divine logic of creation, life, marriage and family.
Consequently, in our proposals about sexuality, marriage, family in the face of an aggressive promotion of transgenderism, same-sex union, and an extreme emphasis of diversity, equality and inclusivity (DEI), we are not being faithful to the wisdom of the Word of God. We should not be proposing solutions based on the personal preferences of what the world likes and wants. We should not bow down to the pressure of the world to make the Church give up her constant beliefs in the true meaning of sexuality, marriage and family. We should not allow any compromise except what the bible permits. We must be true to the Word of God and submit in obedience to His divine plan for humanity.
It is true that some traditions can change, as when the Lord, with His death, ended the hygienic restrictions founded on the Mosaic law. The Jews had strict observances on ritual and social obligations concerning food and diet. In the light of Christ’s death and resurrection, ceremonial laws which were meant to help the Jews understand the importance of living a life of purity were abandoned. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, the purity of life is observed when we live the moral laws, not externally, but in terms of the standards set up by Jesus. It is the interior motive that determines our purity, as the Lord said, “Nothing that goes into someone from outside can make that person unclean; it is the things that come out of someone that make that person unclean.” Let us therefore seek the truth in the Word of God and live by it. Only by living within the framework of God’s plan for marriage and family, can humanity make true progress in the world.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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