20150601
NEVER GROW TIRED OF DOING WHAT IS RIGHT AND GOOD
Readings at Mass
First reading
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Tobit 1:3,2:1-8 ©
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I, Tobit, have walked
in paths of truth and in good works all the days of my life. I have given much
in alms to my brothers and fellow countrymen, exiled like me to Nineveh in the
country of Assyria.
In the
reign of Esarhaddon I returned home, and my wife Anna was restored to me with
my son Tobias. At our feast of Pentecost (the feast of Weeks) there was a good
dinner. I took my place for the meal; the table was brought to me and various
dishes were brought. Then I said to my son Tobias, ‘Go, my child, and seek out
some poor, loyal-hearted man among our brothers exiled in Nineveh, and bring
him to share my meal. I will wait until you come back, my child.’ So Tobias
went out to look for some poor man among our brothers, but he came back again
and said, ‘Father!’ I answered, ‘What is it, my child?’ He went on, ‘Father,
one of our nation has just been murdered; he has been strangled and then thrown
down in the market place; he is there still.’ I sprang up at once, left my meal
untouched, took the man from the market place and laid him in one of my rooms,
waiting until sunset to bury him. I came in again and washed myself and ate my
bread in sorrow, remembering the words of the prophet Amos concerning Bethel:
Your feasts will be
turned to mourning,
and all your songs to
lamentation.
And I wept. When the
sun was down, I went and dug a grave and buried him. My neighbours laughed and
said, ‘See! He is not afraid any more.’ (You must remember that a price had
been set on my head earlier for this very thing.) ‘The time before this he had
to flee, yet here he is, beginning to bury the dead again.’
Psalm
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Psalm
111:1-2,3-6 ©
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Happy the man who
fears the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
Happy the man who
fears the Lord,
who takes
delight in all his commands.
His sons will be
powerful on earth;
the
children of the upright are blessed.
Happy the man who
fears the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
his
justice stands firm for ever.
He is a light in the
darkness for the upright:
he is
generous, merciful and just.
Happy the man who
fears the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
The good man takes
pity and lends,
he
conducts his affairs with honour.
The just man will
never waver:
he will
be remembered for ever.
Happy the man who
fears the Lord.
or
Alleluia!
Gospel
Acclamation
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cf.Col3:16a,17
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Let the message of
Christ, in all its richness,
find a home with you;
through him give
thanks to God the Father.
Alleluia!
Or
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cf.Rv1:5
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Alleluia, alleluia!
You, O Christ, are
the faithful witness,
the First-born from
the dead;
you have loved us and
have washed away our sins with your blood.
Alleluia!
Gospel
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Mark 12:1-12 ©
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Jesus went on to
speak to the chief priests, the scribes and the elders in parables: ‘A man
planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug out a trough for the winepress and
built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went abroad. When the time
came, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them his share of the
produce from the vineyard. But they seized the man, thrashed him and sent him
away empty-handed. Next he sent another servant to them; him they beat about
the head and treated shamefully. And he sent another and him they killed; then
a number of others, and they thrashed some and killed the rest. He had still
someone left: his beloved son. He sent him to them last of all. “They will
respect my son” he said. But those tenants said to each other, “This is the
heir. Come on, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” So they
seized him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. Now what will the
owner of the vineyard do? He will come and make an end of the tenants and give
the vineyard to others. Have you not read this text of scripture:
It was the stone
rejected by the builders
that became the
keystone.
This was the Lord’s
doing
and it is wonderful
to see?
And
they would have liked to arrest him, because they realised that the parable was
aimed at them, but they were afraid of the crowds. So they left him alone and
went away.
NEVER
GROW TIRED OF DOING WHAT IS RIGHT AND GOOD
|
Today’s
first reading is so inspiring for all of us. What is most exemplary about
Tobit is his commitment to doing what is right. His mission statement is
spelt out in his introduction, “I, Tobit, have walked in paths of truth and in
good works all the days of my life. I have given much in alms to my
brothers and fellow countrymen, exiled like me to Nineveh in the country of
Assyria.”
Certainly,
most of us cannot compare with him in his faith in God, his generosity and
compassion for his fellowmen. He shared his food with the poor. He
put the needs of his compatriots before his own. When he heard that one
of them was murdered, he left his food behind immediately, and brought the dead
man to his house for burial in the evening. He did so even at the risk of
getting into trouble with the law again. Furthermore, he remained firm in
helping others in need, even when his neighbours and his loved ones, including
his wife, passed sarcastic remarks about him. He persevered in doing good even
though he suffered misfortune for such acts, as in the case of his being
blinded by the droppings of the pigeons. In all these trials and
difficulties, he never complained against God or cursed Him.
In
contrast, the gospel tells us that the Jewish religious leaders only thought of
their interests and protecting their position and status. They were greedy in
spite of the generosity of God in choosing them. In His kindness and
compassion, God sent prophets to help them come to realization of their
sinfulness. Instead, they saw God’s messengers as a threat to their
status quo and had them killed. So blinded were they by their selfishness
that they even murdered God’s only personal representative, His only Son!
What
about us? Do we always do what is right and good? Are we better
than the Jewish leaders when it comes to being courageous in doing the right
thing? How often have we shrunk from doing good, doing what is right, or
speaking the truth, because of fear of what others might say or how they would
react? We too want to protect our convenience and interests. Such
instances abound in community living, at the workplace, even in the family and
in the parish. We dare not act when we see scandals committed before our
eyes, because it may bring us trouble. We dare not speak the truth for
fear that we may be challenged. We refrain from doing good because others
might question our motives, or we fear being taken advantage of. We want
to remain as the nice guy who offends no one at all costs, compromising even
our principles so as to please others.
What is
the secret of Tobit’s firmness in doing the right thing? He was a
man who feared God and observed His commandments. But this fear of
God must not be understood wrongly. This fear of God was not one of
servitude but of admiration, awe and reverence. For Tobit, having encountered
this powerful and merciful God, he could not but be grateful to Him. He
knew that his position as an administrator to the king was due to God’s
blessings. Unlike the Jewish leaders, he felt that having been blessed by
God, he should use his wealth, good fortune and position to help his weaker and
poorer brothers.
Consequently,
it must be noted that his compassion for his fellow brothers was motivated by
the prior experience of God’s merciful love for him. He was grateful to
God and he manifested that gratitude by using his blessings to bless
others. What about us? Are we grateful to God for His blessings and are
we willing to repay His kindness by being generous with others, using our
talents and skills for the service of our weaker brothers and sisters?
Not to do so would be to behave like the Jewish religious leaders who not only
did not pay their rent for the use of the vineyard but were greedy and even
manipulative. God gives us gifts, whether personal talents or wealth, not
for ourselves only but so that we can be good stewards of His by distributing
His gifts to others.
What
then is the key to cultivating the courage to do good and the right thing, in
the footsteps of Tobit? We too must fear God, awed by His love and mercy for
us. Our compassion for our brothers and sisters must not be simply an
outflow of humanistic love, which is limiting, but rather, we must be moved by
our own experience of God’s compassion for us. Unless we come to realize
that all we have, our health, our talents, our work and wealth come from Him
alone, we will tend to think that we deserve them for ourselves because of our
hard work.
Hence,
we contemplate on the mercy and love of God as reflected in the person of Jesus
Christ. St John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict encourage us to
contemplate on the face of Christ. Only through the contemplation of His
humanity and divinity, as the Apostolic letter Novo Millennio Ineunte reminds
us, can we come to understand the heart and love of God for us. Only
through contemplating His passion, death and resurrection, can we know the
power of love and forgiveness. Yes, we must not be so foolish as to place
our efforts in love and service on ourselves, but we must find them in Christ
who is the awesomeness of God’s presence for us. Jesus, who was rich
became poor for our sake, is our cornerstone of righteous, courageous and
victorious living.
To contemplate
on His face would also require us to contemplate on the Eucharist as well, for
it is in the Eucharist that we see both the face of Christ’s humanity and
divinity. For in the Eucharist, Jesus, truly divine and human, is present
in the bread and wine. It is the means by which we continue to relive His
passion, death and resurrection. Indeed, in the Eucharist, the heart of
God’s love is found. For this reason too, after the celebration of the
Feast of Corpus Christi, the Church follows up immediately with the celebration
of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. Both feasts which are rooted in the
humanity and divinity of Jesus, present to us the love of God, which is the
basis for our fear and reverence for Him, and the source of our power to love
our neighbours.
Let us
follow Mother Teresa in love and service, especially her secret of spending an
hour or more before the Lord, present in the Eucharist each day, so that we can
consecrate our day and our apostolate and activities to the Lord. Only He
can give us the strength to purify our motives in service. Only He can
give us the patience, courage, humility and perseverance to do good even when
we are ridiculed and misunderstood.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh
Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Singapore
© All Rights Reserved
