20250226 OUR ATTITUDE TOWARDS THOSE WHO HAVE IMPERFECT FAITH IN CHRIST
26 February 2025, Wednesday, 7th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
Ecclesiasticus 4:12-22 |
Whoever loves wisdom loves life
Wisdom brings up her own sons,
and cares for those who seek her.
Whoever loves her loves life,
those who wait on her early will be filled with happiness.
Whoever holds her close will inherit honour,
and wherever he walks the Lord will bless him.
Those who serve her minister to the Holy One,
and the Lord loves those who love her.
Whoever obeys her judges aright,
and whoever pays attention to her dwells secure.
If he trusts himself to her he will inherit her,
and his descendants will remain in possession of her;
for though she takes him at first through winding ways,
bringing fear and faintness on him,
plaguing him with her discipline until she can trust him,
and testing him with her ordeals,
in the end she will lead him back to the straight road
and reveal her secrets to him.
If he wanders away she will abandon him,
and hand him over to his fate.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 118(119):165,168,171-172,174-175 |
The lovers of your law have great peace, O Lord.
The lovers of your law have great peace;
they never stumble.
I obey your precepts and your will;
all that I do is before you.
The lovers of your law have great peace, O Lord.
Let my lips proclaim your praise
because you teach me your statutes.
Let my tongue sing your promise
for your commands are just.
The lovers of your law have great peace, O Lord.
Lord, I long for your saving help
and your law is my delight.
Give life to my soul that I may praise you.
Let your decrees give me help.
The lovers of your law have great peace, O Lord.
Gospel Acclamation | Jn14:6 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, says the Lord;
No one can come to the Father except through me.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Mark 9:38-40 |
You must not stop anyone from working miracles in my name
John said to Jesus, ‘Master, we saw a man who is not one of us casting out devils in your name; and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him.’ But Jesus said, ‘You must not stop him: no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us.’
OUR ATTITUDE TOWARDS THOSE WHO HAVE IMPERFECT FAITH IN CHRIST
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Ecclesiasticus 4:12-22; Mk 9:38-40 ]
Today’s scripture readings challenge us to adopt a positive outlook towards those who have an imperfect faith in Christ.
In the gospel, we have an example of how Jesus dealt with those who have imperfect faith in Him. The gospel tells us of an instance when there were people using His name to work miracles. Of course, the disciples of Jesus were unhappy because they did not belong to their group officially. Thus, they wanted Jesus to forbid them from using His name. The response of Jesus was that so long as they are not against us, they are for us.
In other words, while they did not have a real relationship with Him, they were certainly doing good works in His name. Now, Jesus was not a leader who sought popularity and followers. It was not absolutely essential whether these people were officially His disciples or not. What was important for Jesus was that they were living the Kingdom life. By doing good works they were implicitly living the gospel values of the Kingdom. This means that they too had accepted Him. If that was the attitude of Jesus towards those who had imperfect faith in Him, then we must ask ourselves what kind of attitude we should adopt towards people of goodwill who profess different religions.
One thing is certain, we must realize that so long as people live in goodwill and seek the truth, they have in their own ways sought for Jesus. This is affirmed in today’s first reading as well. The reading from the book of Sirach tells us that those who seek wisdom will find life. Indeed, it is the lack of wisdom, or in the words of Buddha, ignorance, that causes us misery in life. To be enlightened in the truth is to find life itself. For it is wisdom (which is distinct from knowledge) that sets us free, since wisdom is an existential and total experience of truth.
And of course, as Christians, we know that Jesus as the Logos is the Wisdom of God. What was poetically illustrated in the Old Testament as an activity of God is now seen as incarnated in Jesus Himself. Consequently, all others who seek truth and wisdom have come to know Christ even though it is not explicit.
However, this imperfect faith must also be extended to us Christians. The truth is that people come to Jesus for different reasons. People make use of Jesus for their immediate and temporal ends. Some even make use of Jesus to justify their status and the established institutions. Such faith in Jesus is surely imperfect as well. These people no less than non-believers, need also to purify their faith.
Hence, for us as Christians, since it is our faith that Christ is Lord and God and therefore also the Wisdom of God, it is necessary that, first and foremost, we must seek Him deeper in our own ways. We must search deeper into Christ so that we can share in His wisdom and live an enlightened life of truth and love. We cannot presume that we have reached the fullness of truth yet, even though we know the way which is through Jesus, the truth and the life.
Indeed, our service to people of imperfect faith, be they of other faiths or Christians, presupposes that we ourselves have deepened our own faith in Jesus. Unless we have come to know Him personally, it is impossible to share Jesus with others. However, when we ourselves come to know Him intimately, and share in His vision of life, creation and reality and God, we will also be able to share confidently what we have found in Christ with others. Our task as Christians, therefore, is to deepen our own faith in Christ first, so that we can lead others, whether Christians or not, to a more perfect faith in Christ explicitly or at least implicitly by living the kingdom life more deeply.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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