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RECEIVING THE GRACE OF GOD IN VAIN

SCRIPTURE READINGS: EX 2:1-15; MT 11:20-24

“Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.” These words of Jesus must have been uttered from a wounded and sorrowful heart. We can imagine how Jesus must have felt in His ministry. St John captured it so poignantly when he wrote “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” (Jn 1;11) Jesus who loved His people so much and who came for them even instructed His disciples “not to go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.” (Mt 10:5f)

This ingratitude was similarly reflected in the case of the Hebrew who was bullying his fellowman. When Moses tried to reconcile the rift between his two countrymen, instead of being seen as a peacemaker, the man who was in the wrong accused Moses of trying to control him. In his vindictiveness, he exposed Moses for killing the Egyptian. This caused Moses to suffer the wrath of Pharaoh and as a result he had to flee from Egypt to take refuge in the land of Midian. Again we have a case of returning evil for a good deed done. Moses meant well for his countrymen but instead of being grateful to Moses, his countryman’s selfishness took the better part of him.

I am sure many of us can feel with Jesus and Moses, for we too are often rejected by the very people whom we love. We make sacrifices for them. We try to provide them with whatever they need. We go out of our way to help them in every way we can. We give in to their demands, sometimes even when such requests are unreasonable. And yet, in spite of all we do, what we receive in return is not just ingratitude but fault-finding as well, even when we are not obliged to do what we did for them. What is even more discouraging is that for all the good we do, instead of becoming better persons, they become lazier, irresponsible, ungrateful and demanding.

The failure to respond to grace is the gist of today’s gospel. The scripture readings invite us to consider the graces that we have received from God. Like the Chosen People of God, we fail to take cognizance of the many wonderful graces we have received from Him with respect to our faith, life, health, material sufficiency, loved ones and friends. Miracles are happening all around us every day and yet we are so blind to the wondrous works that God is doing for us and with us. We fail to see these as signs from God, tokens of His love and mercy for us.

Instead, most of us take God and His graces for granted. In Singapore, we are so fortunate in that there are ample avenues for those of us who are serious about deepening our faith. We have the daily Eucharist celebrated at our parishes, and as if these are not near enough, we even have the Eucharist brought to the vicinity of our work place. We have plenty of Adoration chapels open for us to pray in comfort. There is even one, the Perpetual Adoration Chapel at CSC, which is open 24 hours throughout the year. For those of us who are internet savvy, there are plenty of websites that offer scripture reflections for the day. In terms of faith formation, we have talks, seminars and retreats in the parishes and our retreat houses. And if we need community, there are neighbourhood groups and numerous movements and organizations to join, according to the charisms God has bestowed us with. But how many of us avail of these resources? More importantly, how many of us are making full use of the graces given to us so that we can deepen our faith and grow in charity for ourselves and for each other?

Not only do we take God and our faith for granted, we take our loved ones for granted as well. It is ironical that we are more grateful to strangers and acquaintances who help us with small favours now and then, rather than to our friends and loved ones who spend much time and resources on us. The love and kindness shown to us by our spouse and intimate friends seem to be something owed to us and not perceived as graces given to us. When we take people for granted, especially those who are close to us, we do not grow in our love for them. We are not appreciative because what is supposedly a gift from their goodness is seen as a right due to us.

Finally, most of us have received the blessings of God in vain. God has blessed us with talents, wealth, health, career and success, yet we do not use our resources to help others, to contribute to the Church and society. Instead of using what the Lord has blessed us with for the good of humanity, we use them only for ourselves. Worse still are those who use their talents and resources for evil purposes, to manipulate others, to acquire more power and wealth for themselves.

If we have received the grace of God in vain, there will be serious repercussions. Jesus has this to say to us, “And still, I tell you that it will not go as hard on Judgment day with Tyre and Sidon as with you. And as for you, Capernaum, did you want to be exalted as high as heaven? You shall be thrown down to hell. For if the miracles done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have been standing yet. And still, I tell you that it will not go as hard as the land of Sodom on Judgement day as with you.” In warning them about the imminent judgment, He was not saying that God is a vindictive and merciless God. On the contrary, Jesus was trying to express the lamentation of God who could not bear to see the self-destruction of His people. The truth is that what we sow will be what we reap. The disastrous consequences will be brought upon by ourselves. For failing to use the graces of God responsibly and gratefully, we will cause ourselves and even our innocent loved ones to be destroyed by our sins.

Today, we are called to be responsible like Moses in the first reading. It was by grace that Moses’ life was saved by Pharaoh’s daughter. It was by grace that he was given all the privileges of being brought up in the palace, given a good education and upbringing. We can be certain that Moses did not take all his blessings for granted. He knew that it was his God who endowed him with all that he had and all that he was. He also knew that what he had received was not meant for himself but for his people. So when his fellow Hebrew was ill treated, he stood up for him, even to the extent of taking an Egyptian’s life while defending the rights of a slave!

So if we feel that we have not been gracious and responsible for the graces we have received, let us repent from such an attitude. As Jesus rightly said, if only others had received what we have received, they would have changed so much for the better than us. Aren’t we better than Jesus’ contemporaries? Like the Chosen People of God, we were slaves like them in Egypt. They were nobody. Yet God had chosen them, a motley crowd of slaves, to be His own people. He chose them not because they were wise and powerful but because they were sinners and slaves. God too has blessed us, for without His blessings, we would not be where we are today. Let us repent of our selfish and heartless attitudes towards His love for us and the love mediated to us by the people in our lives. Otherwise, we will only live to regret when these blessings are taken away from us.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh