[stephenkhoo]

Scripture Reflections
Tuesday, 05 June, 2012, 9th Week, Ordinary Time
HOLINESS IS EXPRESSED IN UNITY OF LIFE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: 2 PT 3:11-15. 17-18; MK 12:13-17

The scripture readings give the impression that faith is separated from life. The first reading speaks of a new heaven and a new earth. When the Day of God comes, “the sky will dissolve in flames and the element melts in the heat.” In the gospel too when put in a dilemma, Jesus got out of the situation by declaring, “Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar – and to God what belongs to God.” Again, there seems to be a clear separation between religion and politics.

This separation between faith and life would be a gross misunderstanding of what the Word of God is saying. If religion has nothing to do with this earth and this life, then God is redundant. When God has nothing to do with our lives, the next question is, why then do we bother with Him at all? The believer lives a compartmentalised life. His faith is lived only in Church. This leads to a life of hypocrisy. He is a “Christian” when he is in Church and a “pagan” when he is in the world and at his work place or in the world of pleasure. Faith seems reduced to mere sentimentalism or at most a cultural practice. Eventually, God is redundant. There is no consciousness of God in his daily life. He is forgotten and all decisions are made without reference to him.

Indeed, this strict separation is the cause of the many problems we are facing in society today. When secularization is taken to the extreme, it is no longer neutral but takes an aggressively hostile stance towards all religions especially Christianity. In recent times, it has taken on a subtle approach by introducing amoral values into society. In a world when God is no longer accepted and no absolute truths exist, man has taken upon himself to decide what is right and wrong. Without any point of reference, when relativism is the basis of values, it is a matter of who speaks louder than others. So the world today relies much on the media hype, publicity and impression. Whoever gets better publicity will get the popularity vote.

The truth is that faith has to do with every aspect of one’s life, both individual and in society. Faith must permeate every dimension of our life. Indeed, one of the reasons for the loss of faith is because of an impoverished lifestyle and disillusionment caused especially by those who supposedly are active in Church. We are living in a time of tension, change and a loss of equilibrium and points of reference. Today, the authority of leadership has collapsed, not just in the corporate or political world but even in the religious world. Much criticism is leveled at the Church and the God we proclaim.

In the New Evangelization, Catholics are called to express their faith in a new way and most of all, to proclaim the Gospel that speaks to all cultures. The New Evangelization demands that we proclaim to a culture that is increasingly secular and has lost the capacity to listen to the gospel. It is not just a question of secularization but it is also anti-Christian, anti-religious and anti-clerical. Secularism is not just denying belief in God or the practice of religion, but fostering a culture where God is totally obliterated from both personal and public life. The other five areas that the gospel must permeate are, namely, migration and globalization, social communication, the economy, particularly the disproportionate distribution of wealth and resources, scientific and technological research that fail to respect God and the dignity of life and finally, the civic and political life, in particular the promotion of justice, peace and freedom. If Christianity is to be relevant, it must be shown that the gospel is effective in changing the cultures of the world to one that is more humane, compassionate and united. It must reach out to the poor, the migrants and those in public life. It must guide the proper use of the media and the place of science and technology.

Clearly, therefore the Church wants to reinforce the importance of the unity of life when we speak about living a life of holiness. It would be a grave mistake to think that we are holy simply because we spend time in prayer, attend daily mass, read the bible and are involved in Church activities. Holiness is a matter of a lifestyle that is centered on Christ and the gospel. Everything the person does, the values he holds, the attitudes he has towards life and people, marriage, family, study, work, entertainment and pleasure are all rooted in the values of the gospel. So the life of faith and one’s daily life has no separation even if there is a distinction. It is true that the new heaven and new earth is distinct from this present one. It is not totally unrelated as there is continuity. This explains why St Peter urged the Christians to use the time whilst waiting to “live lives without spot or stain so that he will find you at peace. Think of our Lord’s patience as your opportunity to be saved.” What we do here on this earth will have implications for us in the next.

This is equally true with respect to religion and politics. Pope Benedict in his encyclical “God is Love” reiterates this when he wrote, “Fundamental to Christianity is the distinction between what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God (cf. Mt 22:21), in other words, the distinction between Church and State, or, as the Second Vatican Council puts it, the autonomy of the temporal sphere….The two spheres are distinct, yet always interrelated. Justice is both the aim and the intrinsic criterion of all politics. Here politics and faith meet. Faith by its specific nature is an encounter with the living God – an encounter opening up new horizons extending beyond the sphere of reason. But it is also a purifying force for reason itself. From God’s standpoint, faith liberates reason from its blind spots and therefore helps it to be ever more fully itself. Faith enables reason to do its work more effectively and to see its proper object more clearly.” (No 28)

Vatican II’s Constitution in the Modern World sums up this unity of life and faith aptly when it teaches, “We do not know the time for the consummation of the earth and of humanity, nor do we know how all things will be transformed. As deformed by sin, the shape of this world will pass away; but we are taught that God is preparing a new dwelling place and a new earth where justice will abide, and whose blessedness will answer and surpass all the longings for peace which spring up in the human heart. Then, with death overcome, the sons of God will be raised up in Christ, and what was sown in weakness and corruption will be invested with incorruptibility. Enduring with charity and its fruits, all that creation which God made on man’s account will be unchained from the bondage of vanity. Therefore, while we are warned that it profits a man nothing if he gains the whole world and lose himself, the expectation of a new earth must not weaken but rather stimulate our concern for cultivating this one. For here grows the body of a new human family, a body which even now is able to give some kind of foreshadowing of the new age. Hence, while earthly progress must be carefully distinguished from the growth of Christ’s kingdom, to the extent that the former can contribute to the better ordering of human society, it is of vital concern to the Kingdom of God. For after we have obeyed the Lord, and in His Spirit nurtured on earth the values of human dignity, brotherhood and freedom, and indeed all the good fruits of our nature and enterprise, we will find them again, but freed of stain, burnished and transfigured, when Christ hands over to the Father: “a kingdom eternal and universal, a kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, love and peace.” On this earth that Kingdom is already present in mystery. When the Lord returns it will be brought into full flower. (GS 39)

In the light of what the scripture and the Church are saying, it is therefore vital that holiness presumes we are growing in the Lord. St Peter’s admonition is to be taken seriously. “You have been warned about this, my friends; be careful not to get carried away by the errors of unprincipled people, from the firm ground that you are standing on. Instead, go on growing in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ.” There is no way to live out the gospel in our daily life as Jesus demands of us, unless we are rooted in Christ and transformed by Him. Without being nurtured by His Word and the Eucharist, we can never become Christ in our minds and in our hearts.