[stephenkhoo]

HOLINESS IS CONSISTENCY TO ONE’S CALLING
SCRIPTURE READINGS: COL 1:15-20; LK 5: 33-39

Christianity has often been misunderstood. Instead of being seen as Good News, it is perceived as bad news. For many people, being Christian equates with being robbed of joy and happiness in life, because of the stress on prayer, fasting, repentance and obedience to the commandments. But such a view of Christianity would be contrary to the sentiments expressed in the responsorial psalm. The refrain invites us to “come before the Lord, singing for joy.”

The truth is that Christian faith seeks to give man the fullness of joy and authentic life. Certainly, fasting, prayer and obedience to the commandments are part of Christian life. As Jesus says, “’Surely you cannot make the bridegroom’s attendants fast while the bridegroom is still with them? The time will come … for the bridegroom to be taken away from them; that will be the time” when we will fast. In other words, if the cross and suffering is part of Christian life, it is in order that we can live authentic lives. By fasting we come to know and appreciate the goodness of life and thirst for God; through suffering, we come to realize that God is absent in our lives because of our sins. So the suffering of a Christian is not meant to deprive him of life. Rather it is meant to help him to seek for the life of God.

The implication is that there is no dichotomy between faith and life. One of the reasons for unbelief in the world today is the separation between faith and life. What is required of us is to promote a unity of life between faith and Christian living. Indeed, holiness is simply to live in wholesomeness. Holiness is not just praying the whole day but manifesting in our lives a unity between our faith in God and in the lives we live. It is to live a life of moderation and a balanced holistic lifestyle that brings about a unity of mind and body, soul and spirit. Holiness is to take care of our heart as much as our mind, our body and spiritual needs. Everything must be in the right proportion so that there is a unity of life. This unity of life in a special way must find itself manifested in a life of integrity.

The parables of Jesus in today’s gospel precisely seek to underscore the importance of this unity of life. The parables of the bridegroom, the cloak and the wineskin are all meant to convey the importance of living an integrated life. Holiness demands that we live a life of integrity, which is simply a life of consistency. In whatever we do, we must be consistent with our calling and our state of life. It would be inconsistent and therefore a lack of integration if we try to use “a piece from an old cloak to put it on a new cloak”, as we would not only have “torn the new one, but the piece taken from the new will not match the old.” So too, it would be lacking in integrity if we put “new wine into old skins” because if we do, “the new wine will burst the skins and then run out, and the skins will be lost.” Hence, the truth is “new wine must be put into fresh skins.” When there is a lack of unity in what we do, we not only appear to be inconsistent but we destroy ourselves and others around us. This emphasis on consistency and unity is well summed up in the last line of Jesus’ saying, “’Nobody who has been drinking old wine wants new. ’The old is good’ He says.” This is obvious. Drinking the old wine before the new wine would result in bad taste.

Consistency, lest it be misunderstood, does not mean rigidity. It does not mean being changeless, doing the same thing all the time, everywhere. On the contrary, consistency requires us to be adaptable to the times and situations. We must not be misfits in life. This would require us to be aware of the changing needs and demands of life. If Christianity has become irrelevant, it is because it has failed to respond to the changing situations of life. Faith divorced from the reality of the world will make it redundant.

Consequently, today, we are called to examine whether we are living a life of consistency befitting our vocation and position in life. Every vocation has its distinctive spirituality because of the differing demands with respect to time, position, influence and authority. We must ask therefore whether our lifestyle reflects our personal vocation. Whether we are priests, Christian leaders, directors, managers or workers, we are called to be exemplary in the way we carry out our duties. But life is not so compartmentalized between ‘being’ and ‘doing’. The world today attempts to separate ‘being’ from ‘doing’. There are many people in public life, whether government officials or those in authority in the corporate world, who do not command respect by the values and principles they live by, but by the value and revenue they can bring to the economy or the company. Such a separation between ‘being’ and ‘doing’ results in a dichotomy between what we do and who we are. In truth, if what we do does not flow from who we are, then what we do is mere performance and might even be deceptive. In divorcing the person’s ‘being’ from his ‘doing’, we are implying that inconsistency does not cause harm to the person.

The truth is that the price of living an inconsistent life is not just that we cause scandal to believers and make some of them lose faith in God, but ultimately we will lose faith as well. So long as we live a life that is not agreeable with our state of life, we cannot be happy and cannot find peace within. How can we when we are divided within, both in heart and mind? So true happiness and peace can only be ours when what we believe and how we live are in agreement. Thus, if we are priests, then we must live our priesthood to the fullest, if we are married, then we must live our married state to the fullest. It is applicable to the functions we hold as well. If we are holding the position of a leader, then we must be faithful to our office, just as parents must be faithful to their responsibility to their children. Infidelity to our state of life or our office will result in interior disharmony and gradual self-destruction through disintegration.

Today, we have Jesus as our exemplar of what it means to live a consistent life, a life of unity. In the first reading the hymn praises Jesus for being “the image of the unseen God and the first-born of all creation.” If Jesus could be the image of His Father, it was only because He was true to His divine sonship and therefore able to reflect the heart and love of His Father. If “God wanted all perfection to be found” in Jesus and “and all things to be reconciled through him and for him”, it is because in the life of Jesus, He showed Himself to be always consistent and faithful to His calling and divine nature. Jesus was so free that He could be what He truly is and not be someone other than Himself. The perfection of Jesus lay in His total fidelity to Himself and His vocation, even unto death.

Let us therefore find encouragement and inspiration from Jesus, the first born in every way, so that we can truly live our lives in such a way that is always consistent with what we believe, what we say and teach and the responsibilities that have been entrusted to us. In this way, we too will manifest ourselves truly to be the body of Christ, with Him as the head of the Church.