[stephenkhoo]

Scripture Reflection

09 February 2014, 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

DOING GOOD WORKS FOR THE GREATER GLORY OF THE FATHER

SCRIPTURE READINGS: IS 58:7-10; 1 COR 2:1-5; MT 5:13-16http://www.universalis.com/20140209/mass.htm“…our light must shine in the sight of men, so that, seeing your good works, they may give the praise to your Father in heaven.”  These words were spoken to the disciples of Jesus, which would therefore include all Christians today.  We all know that we are all called to be witnesses of Christ in our lives.  In the words of today’s gospel, we are told to be the salt and the light of the world.  And the first reading of today, delineates concretely how one can be the light of the world, namely, through almsgiving, consideration for the poor, hungry and oppressed.  When we practise charity, Isaiah tells us then our “light will rise in the darkness and your shadows become like noon.”But quite often, we forget the other part of the exhortation of Jesus.  He said that others, seeing our good works, might give praise to the Fatherin heaven.  The fact is that many of us, when doing good works, do so to bring glory and honour to oneself.  More often than not, we get very annoyed and angry when our services are not given due recognition.  Most of us expect some kind of gratitude and acknowledgement, or even public acknowledgement of our supposedly generosity.  When we adopt this kind of attitude, are we not subtly doing good works for ourselves under the pretext of doing it for God or for others?Yes, good works are truly good only when they are offered selflessly.  This is the gist of today’s gospel reading.  When Jesus called us to be the salt and the light of the world, He was not only calling us to be His witnesses of love and life to the world, but He wanted us to do it in a selfless manner.  After all, the very elements that Jesus used to illustrate our calling are self-explanatory.  We all know, for example, that salt is never used for itself or by itself.  We do not take salt on its own but always with something else, most of the time as a food condiment.  So to be the salt of the world is to be unselfishly used for others, so much so that the focus of attention will not be on us but on those who use us.  Similarly, the nature of light has the same characteristic.   Light is never for itself, as Jesus says.  Indeed, no one lights a lamp to put in under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the house.  The nature of light is to focus on others not on itself.In other words, both salt and light are meant to give life and light to the world.  They are not meant for themselves as such.  Salt is used to add flavour to food; light is given so that others might see.  To be the salt and the light of the world simply means that we are called to add colour and flavour to the world; and to bring light and truth to the world which lives in falsehood and darkness – but always done in such a way that the attention would not be focused on us.How can one do that?  We might say that we cannot help being conscious of the fact that we are doing a good work.  Some of us might also say that we cannot but expect some acknowledgement of gratitude.  If we are still very much conscious of what we do, or we feel the need for acknowledgement, then it is simply because we are doing good works from mere human effort.  In other words, the good works do not originate from within us but are produced by our mind.  It does not come from the purity of the heart.  For this reason, such good works are always manipulated to increase our ego.  Such love requires great human effort and human strength.However, this will not be so for someone who is filled with the love of God.  Such a person will not be doing good works out of a rational conviction but simply because it is in his nature to love.   If he does good works, it is because he is so filled with God’s love that he cannot contain God’s love within himself and so it flows out from him like the light and the salt.   Now such love needs no recognition since the person is sharing that love out of his bounty and not out of any obligation or compulsion.  His love, like God’s, is an overflowing love.  It is an effortless love which requires not human strength but from a divine power.  It is like that city which is built on a hill-top and therefore cannot be hidden.For this reason, an altruistic kind of love is possible only when we are filled with God’s love.  This is the case with Paul in today’s second reading.  He told the people of Corinthians, that what he had to say was not some rational philosophical arguments but his personal experience of Jesus, the crucified Christ.  It is this experience of the Crucified Christ that gave him the power of the Spirit of the same Crucified but now Risen Christ.In simple words, what he meant was that because he had experienced the over-powering love of God in the crucified and risen Lord, he now has the strength and power to share that good news and love with others.  Indeed, he concluded by saying, our faith should not depend on human philosophy but on the power of God.  Applying it to our lives of good works, it means that our good works should not spring from mere human calculation of what we can get in return but we must simply give from the depths of our hearts – hearts which have been touched by the love of God – hearts which cannot contain that love and must let it flow out naturally like a well that is overflowing.Yes, altruistic and selfless love is only possible for those who have been touched by the love of God.  This is a pre-requisite.  If not even good works can be another form of self-centered love.  Now if we find that we do not yet have this kind of love, today’s gospel gives us hope.If we are that tasteless salt, how can we be salty again so that we can be truly the salt of the earth, not for ourselves but for the good of others and the greater glory of the Father?  The answer is clear.  We need to be salted with the love of God in Jesus.  Like Paul, we need to come to Jesus often, to contemplate on His love for us in prayer, in meditation, in Christian fellowship, so that that love which is latent in us will start flowing out from us again.And that love will flow from us spontaneously, because we no longer act from ourselves but from Christ within us.   To be salted with Christ is to become Christ ourselves.  To be salted with Christ is to become the salt; to be lighted by Christ is to become the light and the torch.   Indeed, this is what Jesus is asking us to do.  He never said that we should use salt to add spice into the lives of our fellow human beings, nor use a torch to light up the lives of those who live in darkness.  Nay, He said that we be the salt and we be the light. When the disciple asked his master: “What’s the difference between knowledge and enlightenment?”  The master replied: “When you have knowledge you use a torch to show the way.  When you are enlightened you become a torch.”Hence, only and until we become the salt and the light like Christ Himself is, then and only then will the good works that we do flow from the divine love within us.   Only that kind of selfless love can lead people to praise the Father in heaven and not us, for in seeing the good works, they will recognize that all goodness comes from God.  Yes, only a selfless love can really touch people.And when it happens, we will find great joy in life, not because people will recognize us for doing good works but because we see them alive in love and living in the light.   In the final analysis, no one is deprived of love and life.  Whether it is the giver or the receiver, all experience life and love.  In that sense, being the giver or receiver is irrelevant.  What is important is that all of us experience the love and goodness that comes from the Father in ways sometimes which we are not aware of.Are we the salt or are we using salt to salt the world; are we the torch or are we using a torch to light up the world?  Unless, we are salt and torch, all that we do and say will not lead humankind to give praise to the Father when they see our good works.      - See more at: http://www.csctr.net/reflections/#sthash.4hLpXCtU.dpuf