[stephenkhoo]

Scripture Reflections
Monday, 27 February, 2012, 1st Week of Lent
CHRISTIAN HOLINESS IS THE PERFECTION OF CHARITY

SCRIPTURE READINGS: LV 19:1-2, 11-18; MT 25:31-46

The first four days of Lent last week were meant to provide us with the general orientation of how Lent is to be lived. Beginning from this week, the Church continues to elaborate the different themes of Lent.

Today’s scripture readings remind us that the primary purpose of Lent is to call us to holiness. The word of the Lord spoken to Moses andIsrael surely also applies to us when God said, “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. But what is holiness? The truth is that holiness is often mistaken in terms of ritual purity or religious piety.

What is significant is that holiness is not interpreted ritually as one would expect from the Book of Leviticus, which, as the handbook for the priests and Levites, outlines their duties in worship and serves as a guidebook for holy living for the Hebrews. Indeed, the etymology of the word “holiness” is to be set apart from others and be ritually pure. This explains why during the time of Jesus, holiness was seen in terms of observance of rituals and customs. It was a spirituality that was based on external piety rather than of the heart. The Jewish religious leaders, particularly the Pharisees and the scribes were paying more attention to the meticulous and precise fulfillment of the laws and customs than caring for the spirit behind these traditions.

Secondly, holiness is measured not in terms of piety and prayers. Most of us tend to confuse holiness with piety. Certainly both are related, but they are not identical. Piety is the expression of one’s love and devotion for someone. In this case, it is our devotion to God. As human beings, constituted of body and soul, we need to express our heartfelt love for the Lord through acts of piety, like, kneeling, prostrating, bowing, etc. Gestures and tokens are signs of our love for another person. Similarly, prayers are vocal communication of one’s interior spirit and love for God. So piety is necessary and a great aid to holiness. Without piety, there cannot be genuine holiness, but piety without charity would not be holiness or true piety.

For this reason, the book of Leviticus, which is particularly concerned that Israel be a nation and a people of holiness, underscores that holiness is more than just the worship of God, the offer of sacrifices and observation of purity laws, but also the horizontal aspect of worship as well, which is in the way we relate to others, such as family responsibilities, sexual conduct and the different forms of relationships in society. This is rather surprising because after commanding the people to seek holiness, Moses gave them a long list of don’ts. All these laws govern the way they should relate with their neighbours. There is no mention of prayer and worship. Holiness was spelt out in terms of social justice. Stealing, cheating, exploiting, robbing, short-changing, revenge, favouritism, cursing, obstruction of justice, passing judgement, slandering, bearing hatred and grudges against others are seen as falling short of holiness. This is a timely reminder lest in our Lenten exercises, we might separate faith from life, truth from love, God from others, prayers from actions, devotion from love.

However, for the Hebrews, justice and charity are extended principally to their fellowmen, wholly excluding those foreigners and slaves who live with them. Even then, the laws governing relations are based more on justice than charity. That is why the commandments given to the people tend to be negative in formulation. They inform the people what they cannot do, but they do not proactively encourage the people to do what they should do. Observance of the commandments can make one fall into having a minimalistic attitude and, worst of all, into complacent, smug and self-righteous behavior.

In the gospel, Jesus’ understanding of justice and charity extends beyond His own kind but is to be given to all. Furthermore, Jesus does not speak so much of justice but charity, which must be extended to all, regardless of race and religion, as in the Good Samaritan parable or in today’s parable of the final judgment. It is not enough to do justice but one must also exercise charity as well. Holiness is therefore not even reducible to doing justice, but going beyond the fulfillment of obligations to compassion and love.

In the same vein, Pope Benedict in his encyclical, “God is Love”, makes it clear that justice is primarily the duty of the state, not of the Church. The state seeks to ensure that her citizens are treated fairly and justly with no discrimination whatever. The Church speaks of justice only because sometimes the state fails in her responsibility. However, even when there is justice in a state, charity will always be needed in every society, for compassion is something that only an individual can give and which is not through monetary means. People need love and compassion, not just material provisions alone. It is not what is given to those in need that is important, but how we show them our love and compassion. When giving is done in a condescending manner, we rob our recipients of their dignity and make them feel even more unloved. For this reason, the Church is called to the exercise of charity, since this cannot be provided by the state. In the light of this, it is clear that holiness cannot be confined to the exercise and promotion of justice.

Indeed, the norm for the final judgment, according to Jesus, consists of how much we have loved the least of our brothers. Why is this so? This is because heaven is sharing in the life of God and this is a life of love. Consequently, if we were to enter heaven, we must have a heart like Jesus the Good Shepherd. Indeed, this is the way Jesus the Good Shepherd has loved us.

Since holiness is to share in God’s life and holiness, which is His love for all, we must be careful that we also do not reduce holiness to mere social work or humanism. This is what the Holy Father reminds us of in his encyclical. For us, charity springs from the love of God in us and our love for Him. We assist the poor not because of mere human compassion, but because we see Christ present in all men, since He has assumed our humanity, especially in the poor. We want them to encounter the love of Christ in and through us.

From this perspective, Christian charity is different from social work because there is a spiritual dimension to our work of charity. Our purpose is not only material help, but also to help them see the love of God through us. We are interested in their physical and material well-being, but in their spiritual welfare as well. In the final analysis, no matter how much material assistance we give, it can never be enough, for man’s greed is like an abyss. Even if he has the best food and accommodation, he might still not be happy. Only God can give him the ultimate joy and satisfaction in life. At any rate, the destiny of man is not just living a good life on earth, but our real home is in heaven. Hence we must conclude that Christian holiness is also missionary and social, because it seeks to bring people into God’s love and so become one family of God. It seeks to bring all to share in the life of God on earth and in heaven.

That being so, participation in God’s holiness requires that we pray so that we can be one with God in love and peace. Christian holiness finds its source in Christ’s love for us. Sustained by that love, we share this same love with others. Without being filled with Christ’s love, we cannot do what Jesus is asking of us. Only a deep love for Christ will give us the spiritual eyes to see that in so far as we do it to “one of the least of these”, we do it to Jesus and conversely, if we fail to do it, we have neglected to do it to Jesus, for Jesus is identified with every person, especially, the poor and lonely. These are found not only outside the walls of our house. Most likely, that least person could be your elderly parent, your spouse, your children, your domestic helper or your friend. The tragedy is that many of us are helping people everywhere and in distant lands, but we neglect our very own loved ones in our backyard!

Finally, in both scripture readings, the practice of justice and charity are mentioned not in an abstract sense, but concretely in terms of commitment to our neighbours. In the same vein, Jesus gave concrete examples of what charity is, namely, visiting the sick, those in prison, feeding the poor, etc. This is important, lest we fall into this abstract way of loving. Like Linus in the Peanuts series, he said, “I love mankind but it is people whom I cannot stand.” True justice and charity must be concretely lived in our daily lives according to the situation we live in.

We must ask ourselves how we can exercise justice and charity. Justice demands that we are responsible in whatever work and assignments we have been given. Unless we are responsible in our duties, we cannot speak of charity. Once that is done, when we are going beyond our duties especially in contribution to the community, then we are exercising charity. Of course, our works of charity cannot be simply extended to the community at large, but to individual brothers and sisters of God’s family as well. Let us consider how we can concretely exercise more charity in our daily lives today.