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Scripture Reflections
Tuesday, 25 September, 2012, 25th Week, Ordinary Time
TRUE KINSHIP LIES IN SHARING THE LIFE OF GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Prv 21:1-6, 10-13; Luke 8:19-21

Yesterday’s gospel ended with Jesus warning us, “So take care how you hear; for anyone who has will be given more; from anyone who has not, even what he thinks he has will be taken away.” Of course, the conclusion of this text is to be seen in relation to the text on Saturday which was on the parable of the Sower. The invitation to hear the Word of God today finds its fulfillment in the person of Mary and the brothers of Jesus. St Luke, quite different from Matthew and Mark, presents Mary as the exemplar and model of those who listen to the Word of God and put it into practice.

This is further illustrated in today’s gospel when Jesus discounted the importance of physical and biological connection. This may rattle those of us who place great emphasis on physical and biological relationships, especially to persons of some social standing. Yet, the gospel makes it clear that the kind of relationship that is truly salvific is not of a physical or biological kind but a relationship of the spirit. This debunking of physical relationship is highlighted in the fact that Jesus was separated from His mother and His brothers physically “because of the crowd.” And this is further reiterated when He apparently discounted His biological relationship with them when He was informed that His mother and brothers were looking for Him.

Instead, He praised them saying, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice.” In these words, Jesus pointed out that what was special in His relationship with His mother and brothers was not the biological connection but the sharing of the same spirit of hearing the Word and putting it into practice. This singling out of His mother and brothers as hearers and doers of the Word is St Luke’s way of giving honour to Jesus’ relatives, especially the fact that He placed this episode as a conclusion his discourse on the parable of the Sower and the Seed.

In order to understand the full import and basis of this spiritual relationship, it is important for us to understand the nature of Jesus’ own relationship with His Father. Certainly, Jesus by nature is the only begotten Son of the Father, sharing in His divinity. But how do we know that Jesus is truly the Son of God if not for the fact that He lived His earthly life in such a way that it was an expression of the Father in person. Such a life demanded that Jesus lived a life that was always docile to the Father’s Word, identifying Himself with the Father; and then carrying out what the Father wanted; making the Father’s will His own as well. Indeed, it was because of His intimate relationship with the Father in terms of His ‘willing’ and ‘loving’, that we know from introspection that Jesus is truly the Word of God, the Son of the Father, since He is the self-communication of the Father in person. Hence, when we listen to the Word and put it into practice, then we are doing what Jesus had always done. Consequently in Jesus we, too, also share the life of the Father; thereby all of us become truly the spiritual relatives of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is this level of relationship that is salvific and which transcends every other form of human relationship. It is a relationship of love and union.

The next consideration is to clarify the nature of this hearing and doing. We must be careful not to be mistaken and reduce this hearing and doing to an external hearing and obedience. For if we reduce the nature of hearing and doing to a simple obedience to the Word of God, then such a doing will not be truly salvific. This was the way the Jewish religious leaders lived out the Torah. They heard the Word and practised it literally according to the demands of the Word. Yes, like the psalmist, obedience to the commands of the law enables us to live a blameless life. Yet, they were not liberated nor saved, as they became haughty and proud. By emphasizing too much on our human effort in carrying out the Word of God, we become proud and egoistic.

Thus, when Jesus praised Mary and His cousins as models of the hearers of the Word and living it out in their lives, the emphasis was not placed on carrying out the Word but on hearing, on their docility. Only when we have heard the Word clearly, can we then do what the Word wants of us. If not, a blind obedience to the Word would make our lives burdensome. This does not mean that it is not important to act virtuously and with justice, as the book of proverbs exhorts us. However, as another proverb says, “A man’s conduct may strike him as upright, the Lord, however, weighs the heart.” In other words, obedience to the Word alone is not sufficient unless such good works is the work of God done in and through us.

Indeed, today’s gospel apparent emphasis on doing the Word of God must be accompanied by the other dimension of allowing the Word to act in us. This was Mary’s response to the angel’s invitation when she said, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” Indeed, Jesus Himself was pure receptivity of the Father. So what is even more important is to be so disposed to God’s Word that God acts in our lives. So when Jesus spoke of hearing and doing the Word, what is to be underscored is our comprehension of the Word through our docility; so that having understood it deeply, the Word acts in our lives. We must remember that we are called to be that rich soil of the parable of the Sower, that is, a disposition open to the work of God’s grace in our lives so that God can produce a rich harvest in us. The original meaning of the Parable of the Sower when told by Jesus is to teach us that everything is the grace of God. Where the seed is sown is dependent on grace since some fall on the wayside, some on rocks and some on fertile ground. What is critical is those that those that fell on fertile soil brought about great harvest. But all this is the result of God’s grace. Indeed, as the book of Proverbs exhorts us, “like flowing water is the heart of the king in the hand of the Lord, who turns it where he pleases.” Hence, we are called to be like the flowing waters, receptive to the direction of the Lord in our lives.

Right hearing therefore implies interiorizing and understanding the inner meaning of the Word. If not, there is a danger that obedience to the Word might be a mere act of the will and our human effort and not the grace of God. But as the preceding parable tells us, the fruit of the Word of God is the result of grace. It is the grace of God that the Word is sown, and it is grace that brings about the effect of that Word, but man must cooperate by being docile to that Word. But the stress remains on the power of the Word of God acting in and through us. What is required of us is docility and humility.

Within this context, the tendency of most Catholics is that they prefer putting the Word of God into practice than to first listen to the word. Catholics like to serve in Church and voluntary organizations but few see the need to be formed in the Word and to pray. Most of our Church members have hardly any formation or prayer life. The emphasis is on how to serve at the altar, how to read at the lectern, how to teach the children, etc. Any formation is limited to pastoral skills rather than the formation of the person’s spiritual life and growth in understanding of His faith. Precisely, because of this wrong emphasis, we have many Catholics serving in the Church with wounds unhealed and still immature in their faith, causing much division in their organization or easily hurt by the imperfections of their fellow members.

What is needed to be done is to give formation of faith and spiritual life to our Church members before we can speak of service to the Church and to the world. Without deepening their love for the Word in prayer and in study, the grace of God cannot work on them. It is not enough to put the Word of God into practice. Rather, we should allow the Word of God to act in and through us. Let us pray therefore for this grace so that like Mary, we can truly be hearers of the Word, meditating and pondering over it so that it can truly bear fruits of love and justice in our lives.

Written by Rev. Fr. William Goh
Spiritual Director, Catholic Spirituality Centre (CSC)
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Best Practices of Daily Scripture Reflections – By Fr William Goh

Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Monday, 24 September, 2012, 25th Week, Ordinary Time
BEING TRANSPARENT IN LIFE IS TO LIVE IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: PROVERBS 3:27-34; LUKE 8:16-18

What do we mean when we say God sees and knows all things; that there is nothing we can hide from the Lord; that there is nothing we can keep from the Lord, even our secret thoughts and plans? On one hand, such thoughts can scare us, as if God is our heavenly supervisor, waiting to catch us for doing something wrong. If this were true, we will all be nervous wrecks living in fear and trepidation. Without freedom, how can we ever be happy? Surely, we do not want someone hovering around us and spying on us? We would be so stressed and stifled.

Of course, this is not what is intended when we say that God knows all things, sees all things and hears all things. What we mean is that His providential rule protects and guards us all day. He is present to us both in the world and intimately in our hearts. God does not “see or hear” for He has no eyes or ears since He is pure Spirit, but He is the most intimate reality in our lives for without Him, we cannot exist. As St Paul says, “There is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.” (1 Cor 8:6) When we speak of God’s pervading presence, we mean His Divine providence that holds everything in existence.

So how does the presence of God give us true freedom and happiness? Only because He is in us and if we are conscious of His presence, we can then live a life of true freedom since it is a life lived in the wisdom of God. Indeed, if God knows even our deepest secrets, it is because God lives in us. By creating us according to His own image, we share in the intellect and will of God for His Spirit lives in our hearts.

Consequently, we know that God lives in us because He has planted His light in us, which we call the intellect. This truth in us guides us in our lives so that we live in the light. This guiding principle within our being is our conscience. So, our conscience is that light or lamp that God has given to each one of us. Through the use of our conscience, we radiate the goodness and light of God in our lives. For this reason, we cannot try to hide this light or lamp since God has given us this light. As Jesus said, “No one lights a lamp to cover it with a bowl or put it under a bed … one puts it on a lamp-stand so that people may see the light when they come in.” Hence this light is given to all of us.

But the reality is that often, we try to hide that light and prevent the light of God from shining through us. We want to live in the dark. Our lives are not transparent. As the book of Proverbs reminds us – some of us are not sincere in our relationships with others. We plot harm against our neighbour and “pick a groundless quarrel” with others. We are selfish but we do not admit it, instead we tell our neighbour who comes to us for help to “Go away. Come another time! I will give it to you tomorrow” even though we could have helped them there and then. The fact that we try to hide our sins means that we are embarrassed and ashamed about what we are doing. Otherwise, we can live our lives openly, like a book for people to read. We know that we are committing evil when we are afraid that our crimes and wrongdoings will be discovered one day.

Our conscience will trouble us. Of course, we can try to rationalize our thoughts and actions, but we know that our conscience will continue to prick and haunt us day and night no matter how much we try to suppress or rationalize our actions. For this reason, we do not find peace and happiness because we cannot live with guilt and fear. We know that our lives are not right. Even though we try to hide our past and wrongdoings, there will be some point in our life where we feel we must reveal to someone. Indeed, today’s gospel tells us that there is nothing that is hidden, nothing secret that would neither be made clear nor “be known and brought to light.” And even if it is not revealed and we carry our secrets to our grave, we might not be able to live in peace. By not being sincere and transparent, we will only destroy ourselves.

But what is even more insidious is that by not living in the light, we begin to live more and more in darkness. As a result of living in the dark for too long, we cannot see the light anymore. We prefer darkness to the light even though we hate our darkness. We all fear the dark by nature. But because we are so blinded by the evil in us, we do not even realize that we are living in the dark. Indeed, sin multiplies itself. We become more manipulative, cunning and devious. Sin darkens our minds to the truth so much so that we can no longer distinguish right from wrong.

Thus Jesus cautions us, “Take care how you hear, for anyone who has will be given more; from anyone who has not, even what he thinks he has will be taken away.” In other words, by persisting to live in the dark, we reinforce our negative behaviour until we totally obscure the light in us. What is evil becomes normal; what is selfishness becomes justice; what is untrue becomes self-preservation. So we lose even the little light that we had at the beginning. And great will be the sufferings that such persons have to suffer.

Hence, today we are called to be like the just man who lives in the presence of the Lord. He is one who “walks without fault; he who acts with justice and speaks the truth from his heart; he who does not slander with his tongue.” Such a man “dwells on God’s holy mountain” and “will stand for ever.” This is the man who is truly free and liberated. He does not need to hide anything in life. He lives in the open because he has nothing to hide. Such a man has no fear of darkness as well, not even evil spirits, because he knows that no evil can harm him since his heart is goodness and he knows that God is with the just man.

But who can always live such a righteous life as dictated by the psalmist? That being the case, none of us will be able to enter the mountain of God. We know that we are all sinners and none of us can pass a single day without sinning in thought, word or even in deed. In recognizing our human frailties, instead of feeling fearful of the Lord and anxious that He will condemn us, we should instead turn to Him who is the All Compassionate One for forgiveness.

For those of us who have sinned against the Lord and our fellowmen, the Lord is inviting us to come to Him and unload all our fears and guilt. He said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) St James also wrote, “Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. … Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (James 5:13-16) The Sacrament of Reconciliation and Sacrament of Anointing are two of the most beautiful gifts Christ has bequeathed to His Church. These two sacraments of healing are powerful means of healing the mind, heart and body of the sinners. By revealing and uploading his or her sins, the Lord uses the ministry of the priest to release all his or her guilt, setting the person free to experience the peace of God. In the final analysis, only through His grace alone can we live a holy and righteous life.

However, if we want to receive His grace, we must cooperate with the Lord. We must take heed of Jesus’ warning about how we listen to the Word of God. Today’s gospel text is linked to last Saturday’s gospel on the Parable of the Sower and the Seed. What is needed for us is to be attentive to the Word of God, and let the Word continue to give us light and enlighten our minds and our conscience. In this way, we will not allow our human selfishness and blindness to hide the truth from us. Unless we give ourselves to prayer and meditation on the Word of God, it would certainly be difficult to live and walk in the light and dwell on the holy mountain of God. Through prayer and contemplation on the Word of God, His presence will become conscious in us since Jesus promised us, “If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23). The indwelling of the Trinity gives us the strength to resist sin and temptation and so enables us to “act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly” with the Lord (Micah 6:8).