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Scripture Reflections
Monday 15 July, 2012, 15th Week,Ordinary Time
TRUE WORSHIP OF GOD IS EXPRESSED IN A LIFE OF JUSTICE AND CHARITY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: ISA 1:10-17; MT 10:34-11:1

Religion is often narrowly defined as the worship of God or deities. It is seen as a matter of offering worship to God, appeasing Him with sacrificial offerings, because of His jealousy and vindictiveness. If God is seen in this manner, our relationship with Him is one of fear and domination. On the contrary, the God of the Christians is a humble, compassionate and forgiving God. He is patient and awaits our repentance.

Unfortunately, whilst this is what Christianity officially proclaims, it is not how many Catholics live their relationship with God. Many think that practising the Catholic Faith is simply a matter of observing some laws and obligations. Their Faith is thus reduced to one of performaning works so that they can feel justified before God. How else how do we explain the irony of the lives they live – on the one hand involving themselves in all manner of Church worship and good works, but on the other hand treating their fellow human beings with scant respect, justice and charity. Some would not think twice about abusing their authority to manipulate people for their personal interests, ill-treating their workers, or even pressurizing their employees to commit fraud and dishonesty for the company.

This dichotomy between faith and life is abhorrent to the Lord. Without mincing his words, the Prophet Isaiah condemned those who on one hand were careful in observing their religious duties but on the other hand, do evil and practise social injustices. The Lord spurns sacrifices from those who do not have pure hearts and clean hands: “I am sick of holocausts of rams and the fat of calves. The blood of bulls and of goats revolts me. When you come to present yourselves before me, who asked you to trample over my courts? Bring me your worthless offerings no more, the smoke of them fills me with disgust.”

It is no accident that Christianity was originally called the Way in the early Church. Christian Faith is a way of life. The love and worship of God cannot be dissociated with a life of charity and justice. In the gospel, Jesus teaches us that living a life based on truth and love is the kind of sacrifice that really pleases the Lord. What does it take to live such a life?

Firstly, we must live a life of justice. But there can be no justice unless there is charity. God, through Isaiah, demands that before we offer worship to Him, we must not do wrong, “Cease to do evil. Learn to do good, search for justice, help the oppressed, be just to the orphan, plead for the widow.” To be an authentic Christian, we must not use religion and worship to mask our failure to exercise justice and respect for others. We measure our Christian growth in maturity not by our involvement in Church or even how many hours we pray, but by the degree to which we have grown in virtues especially of faith, hope and charity.

Secondly, we are called to live a life of truth. Living such a life is not easy because whoever lives in truth will be a threat to those who want to live in falsehood and in selfishness. We all know that in many instances, we are called to compromise our values because the company requires us to engage in practices that go against our conscience, failing which we run the risk of losing our job or overlooked in a promotion. We should not be surprised, as Jesus has already forewarned us, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to earth: it is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword.”

But what is even more difficult to tolerate is when our loved ones are against us because we chose to do the right thing. Did not Jesus explicitly say, “A man’s enemies will be those of his own household?” Jesus was most probably speaking from His own experience of being rejected by His own family and relatives when He said, “I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” In our own lives, we have seen how often siblings or parents fight each other, even to the extent of going to court, over the care of their elderly, or some inheritance. Many parents too are often left in a quandary when they see their grown up children living immoral lives and yet, lack the courage to speak up for fear of losing that relationship. This is true also of friends. In order not to sour relationships, we continue to keep a blind eye on each other. Yet, how can we ignore Jesus’ declaration that “anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who prefers son or daughter to me is not worthy of me”?

However, even if we have strived to live a life of justice and truth, our Christian responsibility does not end here. We must also be ready to act on behalf of the poor, the needy and the oppressed according to our capacity. It is not enough to do good and refrain from evil, but we have a duty to be the voice of the weak and voiceless of society. Whilst it is true that the just ordering of society is primarily the work of the State, Pope Benedict in his encyclical, God is love, writes, “at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice. She has to play her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which always demands sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper. A just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the Church. Yet the promotion of justice through efforts to bring about openness of mind and will to the demands of the common good is something which concerns the Church deeply.” It is here that the Church has an indirect duty to “contribute to the purification of reason and to the reawakening of those moral forces without which just structures are neither established nor prove effective in the long run.”

As Church, we cannot take part in politics, but the lay faithful as individual Christians have a duty to contribute to the development of society, the formation of policies, the promotion of good values and building a just and humane culture that favours life. As citizens of the State, they “are called to take part in public life in a personal capacity. So they cannot relinquish their participation in the many different economic, social, legislative, administrative and cultural areas, which are intended to promote organically and institutionally the common good.” Once again, by so doing, we run the risk of antagonizing those who are against our values especially in the area of marriage, bioethics and business ethics. However, Jesus’ demand for discipleship is clear, “Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.”

How can we find the courage to be prophets and champions of social justice and advocates of life? What is the key to Justice and Charity? It is to be identified with Jesus in His solidarity with every man and woman. In the gospel, Jesus identified Himself with those in need, with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those in prison. Accordingly, we must take the words of Jesus to heart when He said, “As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). When we see everyone in Christ, then we will recognize everyone as a child of God whom the Father loves as much as He loves us. Without which, a person is only seen as another individual, a creature but not as a person and a child of God who needs love, compassion, understanding and kindness just like you and I.

Written by Rev. Fr. William Goh