Doing what you say. Saying what you Do

Twenty Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

The Malays have a saying: “bikin tak serupa cakap, cakap tak serupa bikin.” Translated into English this could probably mean: not doing what you say, not saying what you do. Most people, I imagine, can think of an occasion when they’ve said one thing but done another. This seems to be the kind of thing St James is talking about in today’s second reading. He gives the example of someone who sees people in need and expresses the wish that they be fed and clothed, but without actually doing anything about it. This kind of behaviour prompts the question, “Did he really mean it?” This example from the Letter of St James, of course, is not only meant to make us think about the particular moral case: it is also an illustration of his main point about what it means to have faith.

“Faith is like that: if good works do not go with it, it is quite dead.” St James is saying that faith without deeds is just the same as a tree without fruit, it is useless and might as well be dead. Of course, we all know that it is not the fruit that keeps the tree alive. However, the tree which does not yield fruit is as if it were dead. If you operated a fruit orchard that had a non-fruit bearing tree, you would most likely decide to cut it down. Likewise, the authenticity of our faith can only be proved by concrete actions, by our readiness to walk the talk, to live out what we express to be our faith. If we truly believe in the value of our product, we would stake our entire career, our entire lives on it.

But then the gospel passage takes it up another notch. If faith without works is dead, then a confession of faith without embracing the cross would similarly be a vacuous statement without true worth. The gospel story starts off with St Peter’s famous profession of faith in Jesus as the Christ. He is right in stating this Truth. This indeed is the central tenet of what, as a result, we call Christianity. But such a statement would soon prove to be weak and baseless. Not because of any inadequacy on the part of the theological formulation, for Jesus is indeed the Christ, but on Peter’s failure to match his confession with the affirmation of accepting Christ’s mission and ultimately his own mission as a disciple. Christian faith, if it is genuine, motivates the entire person. Simply to believe that a few of the Church’s teachings are true is no Christian accomplishment. One’s entire life must answer God’s call. This is what St Peter fails to understand even when he utters one of the most profound truths in the gospels.

The depth of Peter’s understanding and his willingness to translate his words into action would soon be tested. Immediately after the confession, Our Lord then tells His disciples that the Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously and even to be put to death. Not for a moment did Peter think that the Lord was playing with words. He started to rebuke Jesus. The Greek word suggests a formula that is used by exorcists to exorcise the possessed. Jesus’ announcement is close to madness. He must be possessed.  Far from telling Peter to calm down and not be so literal, Our Lord in turn rebuked him savagely, “Get behind me, Satan! Because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.” When Jesus tells Peter to “get behind” Him, He is in fact telling Peter to resume his position as a disciple, for the things of God can be learnt only when one falls in behind the Lord and walks along His way, the way that leads to suffering, death, and the rising to new life. Any other way is not God’s way. Peter must allow God to take the lead and not assume to give directions to God. For only Satan would dare to be so presumptuous.

And what is more, such a disciple would have to be one who was prepared to be rejected even as Jesus would be. Jesus warned them that in loyalty to Him, there would be renunciations for them to make and crosses for them to carry. They would need to have the courage of their conviction, and in so doing they would transcend all the hostility that might be thrown at them. Faith without good works would truly be lifeless unless it bears fruit in the willingness to embrace the cross. “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.” This is one of, if not, the most crucial statements in the whole of the Gospels. It forces us to ask ourselves how much it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. A profession of faith may be a good start but it is this selfless renunciation and taking up of the cross to follow Jesus, to imitate Him, that would truly define us as a disciple, as a Christian.

The Lord therefore lays down three conditions for loyal discipleship – these are the “good works” that do not precede faith but rather are the fruits and consequences of authentic faith.

The first condition is to renounce self or self-denial. To deny oneself means to take oneself out of the centre of the picture and selflessly placing oneself at the service of Jesus and the good news. Although this has perennially been difficult, it is incredibly hard today in our modern culture of entitlement. Denying self requires us to give up anything that we would want or seek, that would hinder our doing the will of God. This does not mean that, if we want something, it is necessarily wrong. It means we must take our wants and desires down from the throne and place Jesus and His will as the governing power in our lives. It’s humbly acknowledging that it isn’t about us, it was never about us, but always about God.

The second condition is taking up our cross. When we are told to take up our cross, notice that it’s our cross and not Jesus’ cross or someone else’s cross, so it’ll look different than someone else’s. Our own cross is unique to us. St Luke adds “take up your cross daily” (Luke 9:23). This is not necessarily a physical death as Jesus died for us (though such might be required), but a daily total sacrifice of self to do the will of Jesus. Many think this means bearing burdens, suffering hardships or just having a tough day. These are hardly crosses and we would risk trivialising the actual demand of Christ. Carrying the cross is not having the washing machine break down, getting a flat tire, having someone take your parking space, or putting up with an annoying spouse. The context of Jesus saying that we must take up our cross is suffering for His name’s sake. It has nothing to do with everything going wrong, but being willing to suffer shame, humiliation, ridicule and persecution for the sake of our Lord.

Finally, we have the Lord issue His almost familiar invitation “follow me.” It’s not just optional. It is an imperative command. The first two conditions prepare the way for the third: a continuous and sustained fidelity to Jesus, a following of Him by acceptance of His way of Life. The Greek word for “follow” suggests more than just physical movement of trailing behind the other. It calls for a complete imitation – to be “another” Christ. Coming after the mention of the cross, this demand means that the disciple must follow our Lord to the point of laying down life itself, the ultimate degree of self-denial. Our Lord bore a cross and we too must willingly bear ours to follow Him. But as we all know how the story turned out, we must follow Him not only into death but also the resurrection, to the attainment of true life, eternal life.

So let us profess and proclaim the gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Faith of our Fathers, not just with our great doctrines, not just with the clarity of our creedal formulas, but by dying to the images of power that hold us captive, dying to our delusional sense of entitlement and then taking up our crosses for His sake and thereafter follow Him wherever He wishes to take us. Risking all, including our lives on Jesus’ promise that this is the only way we will find true life.  This then would be the most powerful testimony that our faith is quite alive and not dead!

Ephphatha!

Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

Have you ever found yourself in a shouting match where your opponent and you have tried, without much success, to silence the other? So many words are exchanged but few registers. Whatever reasonable arguments that may be put forward are drowned out by the noise of each other’s voice competing in ascending crescendo. It’s hard to make sense of anything, when our hearts and minds are closed, even as our ears are assaulted by the noise coming from the other.  The art of active listening, of really hearing one another, is already difficult to learn, hard to do, under ordinary circumstances. It’s almost impossible in the heat of the argument. Wouldn't it be amazing if right when we were in the middle of an argument (right before you slam the phone receiver down or stomp out of the room), we could scream: “EPHPHATHA!”?

This is what the Lord spoke to the man who was deaf and mute in today’s gospel. EPHPHATHA! It’s the kind of word that makes a professional elocutionist take pause. It’s the Aramaic imperative verb meaning “Open up!” It’s the sort of thing you might shout at the government officer after the counter has closed, or the sort of thing you might do when your son or daughter slams the door of their bedroom in your face or Ali Baba would shout in front of the robbers’ cave if he spoke Aramaic. Many times, we want to be heard, and rightly so. One of the most terrible experiences we can have while talking with others is the realisation that they are not listening, that they are distracted, that they are not that interested in what we have to say. The greater tragedy is when we have little awareness of our own deafness to the other’s cry.

But this is the word we all need to hear from the Lord today, EPHPHATHA! Be opened! What needs to be opened? Well, just like the dumb and mute person in today’s gospel, our deafness would not be evident unless someone highlights it to us. Often, the word comes with much shock and a great deal more resistance. “What is there to be opened?” “I’m okay!” “It is you with the problem, not me!”  How many times have we heard from friends and even foes something unpleasant about ourselves, even though we know it is true? Perhaps, in that moment, we are disconcerted, angry or saddened by what we hear; upon reflexion, though, we come to understand and realise the truth in what has been said. But we are just too proud to admit it.

Yes, we all need to hear that healing, sometimes consoling but often painfully challenging word, “EPHPHATHA” “Open up!” It’s more than just our ears or eyes. Yes, our senses need to be opened but more importantly what needs to be opened are our hearts. Because real listening is more than picking up soundwaves and real seeing is more than perceiving light through our eyes. They also require an openness of heart to digest and accept the truth of what we perceive.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI tells us that the word “Ephphatha” sums up the entire mission of Christ. He explained that the closure of the deaf and mute man, his isolation does not solely depend on the sense organs. There is an inner closing, which covers the deepest core of the person, the “heart.” That is why Jesus came to “open” to liberate, to enable us to fully live our relationship with God and with others. Because humanity is inwardly deaf and mute as a result of sin, God became man in the person of Christ so that we “become able to hear the voice of God, the voice of love speaking to our heart, and learn to speak in the language of love.”

Ephphatha! – Be open. Jesus is telling us the same healing word right now. We might not be physically mute or deaf, but one can also experience deafness and muteness on different levels: deaf to the call of forgiveness and reconciliation from those people who might have hurt and wronged us; deaf to the cries and agonies of the poor, the homeless, the refugee and the migrant; deaf or indifference to the teachings of the Church that might be challenging and hard to follow; or probably playing deaf when our teachers and parents ask us to do something for our own good; or deaf to the valid complaints of our spouse. The list can go on and on.

If a man does not want to hear the word of God, then he is spiritually deaf. There are people who think they have heard it all before. Like the deaf man, we are trapped in our own little world. We cannot get out. Nor do we really want to get out. We tune out God’s voice so that we can continue to live in sin with our boyfriend or girlfriend or if we’re married, with the other man or woman. We turn a deaf ear to God’s peace so we can walk in the door after work ready for a fight with our spouse. We close our ears to God’s love and mercy so that our hearts are filled with resentment and revenge. We turn a blind eye to the beauty of God’s creation so that we may complain about whatever piddly annoyance that aggravates us. We fail to see God’s overarching will for our lives so we are consumed with worry and doubt. We are so nearsighted looking only at the trinkets of this world that we miss out on the treasures of the world to come.

Thank God the Lord continues to pry open our enclosed hearts. He still continues to whisper and even shouts into our ears blocked up with the earwax of sin, “Ephphatha!” “Open Up.” Through your baptism, now you can hear, now you can speak. Your ears have been opened to hear the voice of the Lord. Your tongue has been loosened to praise your Saviour for what He has done for you. Your heart has been healed. Your soul has been saved.

Since the Lord has opened up our spiritual senses through the gift of baptism and the sacraments, may our parish be ready to open its heart and doors to welcome the stranger, the outcast, the sick, the downtrodden, the hungry, the poor, the migrant, or in the words of our Archbishop, “the lost, the last, the least and the little.” May this congregation bear witness to the love of God at work in and through us for the healing and redemption of the world. Let our community open wide our arms, wide enough to hug, to heal, and to hold on to those who are slipping away. Being open to  what  God  is  doing  in each  of us  personally and as a community,  and  being  open  to where  God  is  calling  this faith family means moving out beyond the walls of this Church, to bring the good news of Christ to others and to serve where we are called to serve. It means connecting more deeply with the needs of our neighbours. It means opening our hearts even when they’re breaking. It means opening our minds, even when we disagree. It means opening our arms even when they’re too full with the demands of life already.

God knows, even if we don’t, how much we all need healing. When our hearts are closed and our world has shrunken, our Lord enters into our lives with His love. All we are asked to do is to allow Him to enter into our hearts, to say to us: “Be opened”. Being open will challenge and stretch us. And what the Lord has opened, let us never shut again. And if we find our hearts shut by the burden of sin and indifference, let us pray to the Lord who made the deaf hear, the blind see, and the lame walk: “Pry Open our hearts O Lord. Push, pull, stretch, bend, or twist any way you can to open us. Open us to share the gifts you have given us, and to the deep yearning to share them gladly and boldly. Open us to initiate the exchange of forgiveness, to risk a new beginning free of past grievances, and to find the gifts of a larger love and a deeper peace.  Open us so that we may be born anew in the fullness of your image, the  fullness  of  a  just  and  joyful  human  community,  and  the  fullness  of  your kingdom of love peace and justice. Amen.”

Sacred Tradition is not man made

Twenty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

I’ve often heard this accusation, “The Catholic Church is full of man-made rules.” “Where in the Bible does it say that the Sabbath should be moved to Sunday, that we can’t eat meat on Fridays, that abortion is wrong, that two men can't get married (to each other), that I have to confess my sins to a priest, that we must go to Mass every Sunday, that a woman can't be a priest? Didn't the Catholic Church just make all of this stuff up? That's the problem with the Catholic Church: It's too concerned with man-made rules, and not with what Christ actually taught.” The surprising thing is that this is often expressed not by Catholic-bashing Protestants, but strangely (or perhaps, not so strangely) by Catholics themselves. The corollary to this is that if these are “man-made rules”, then there is no need to follow them. You can dispense with them as how Christ dispensed with the man-made rules and traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees in today’s gospel passage. Interesting argument but seriously flawed.

Yes, it is correct to state that many of these rules are man-made, Christ made them and Christ was fully human. It was Christ Himself who instituted the Eucharist: “Do this in memory of Me”, He said at the Last Supper. “Go therefore and baptise”, He said, and it was He who included the Trinitarian baptismal formula in the rite. Our Lord was the master of creating traditions! But let us not forget this little, often ignored, seldom stressed point – Christ was also fully divine – He was fully God. So, no, though there are man-made rules in the Church just like any human organisation and society, and these rules can technically be changed and have changed over the centuries, there are fundamentally certain rules set in stone, on an unbreakable and indissoluble “stone”, precisely because God is the author, and man isn’t.

Alright, given the fact that divine laws can’t be changed except by God, how about all the disciplines, canon law, rules and liturgical rubrics of the Church? Aren’t these man-made? Well, just because they are “man-made” doesn’t necessarily empty them of value. Traffic laws, statutory laws, municipal by-laws, school regulations, association rules would equally fall under the same category of being “man-made.” Can you imagine a society or a world that totally departs from any law or regulation and everyone is allowed to make decisions, behave, and act upon their own whims and fancies? If you’ve ever watched one of those apocalyptic movies of a dystopian world in the not too distant future, you will have your answer. We will soon descend into a society of anarchy, lawlessness, violence, where justice is merely an illusion and “might is right.” The reason for this is because none of us are as sinless as the Son of God or His Immaculately Conceived Mother. Laws are not meant to curtail and restrict our freedom. They are meant to ensure that our rights as well as the rights of others are protected so that true freedom may be enjoyed.

In fact, man-made traditions, mark our daily lives. Every morning, it’s the same ritual for millions of people: have a shower, get dressed, pour a cup of coffee, eat breakfast, brush teeth, etc. Human life is marked by all sorts of  “traditions”, whether it is setting up a Christmas tree, giving out red packets on Chinese New Year, having a cake and blowing out the candles, or celebrating with a meal. Ritualism, whether it’s pagan or religious, seems to mark the life of human activity in every culture, whether it is that of neighbourhood families, or that of the Church. Why? Because symbols are a language unto themselves; they carry a meaning that conveys something deeper, whether it is love, danger, memory, or mystery.

That is why it is often surprising to hear both Catholics and non-Catholics condemn Catholic traditions, claiming these are merely “human traditions” that Christ Himself condemned. But did He? Well, frankly, He does seem to say so in today’s gospel passage as He condemned the practices of the Pharisees: “The worship they offer me is worthless, the doctrines they teach are only human regulations. You put aside the commandment of God to cling to human traditions.”  For the detractors of the Church’s man-made traditions, it doesn’t get any clearer than this! But a more careful examination of Christ’s words indicate that He was not condemning human tradition, but those who place human traditions, laws, or demands before true worship of God and His will expressed in the commandments. The problem wasn’t “human traditions” but specifically “human traditions” that obscure the priority of worship and God.

Man was made to worship God; it's in our very nature to do so. Every other human activity should either flow from this or should rank second to this. This is what liturgical rubrics hope to achieve. Detailed instructions for both the priest and the congregation are intended to ensure that God is ultimately worshipped and glorified in the liturgy, and not man who is to be entertained. In other words, all these “man-made” rules of the Church which, to some of us, doesn’t seem to be what Christ taught, actually flow from the heart of Christ's teaching. Christ gave us the Church to teach and to guide us; she does so, in part, by teaching us to know God, to love Him and serve Him and through all these, be united with Him in Paradise forever. But when we substitute our own will for this most basic aspect of our humanity, we don't simply fail to do what we ought; we take a step backward and obscure the image of God.

Church rules are not just plucked out of thin air by “a bunch of celibate old men wearing dresses at the Vatican”, they are not just arbitrary as if these joyless old men wanted to kill spontaneity or make life miserable for the rest of us. And just because some of these celibate old men have been guilty of departing from those rules, does not absolve the rest of us from following those rules. These rules are given to us because the Church is our parent, she is both Mother and Teacher, guided, as Christ said she would be, by the Holy Spirit—not simply for her own good, but for ours. And so, like any mother, she tells us what to do. We may resent this as condescending. We may refuse to accept whatever reasoning the Church gives us. But at the end of the day, she guides us through these rules, disciplines and teachings because She truly cares and loves us and wishes us to arrive at the safe harbor of Paradise.

It is often very convenient to denounce Catholic tradition as “man-made” or “human tradition” just because we don’t like it. The hypocrisy of such an accusation is often lost on those who supplant the Church’s tradition, rules and rubrics, with their own interpretation and version. The sexual abuse controversy raging in the Church is the result of choosing to depart from those rules, disciplines and teachings. By covering up the abuse, bishops and heads of seminaries have substituted worldly standards of non-judgmental tolerance for Christ’s “hard” teachings about sexual morality.This is the real truth. When we ignore or reject the rules of the Church, we are merely replacing them with our own “human traditions.”  In fact, we are putting “aside the commandment of God to cling to human traditions.” It is not those who keep the rules but those who flagrantly break the rules that are the modern day Pharisees condemned by the Lord in today’s gospel.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that Sacred Tradition, rather than a set of “man-made rules” or “human traditions” is “the living memorial of God’s Word.” Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI explains that Sacred Tradition “is not the transmission of things or words, an assortment of lifeless objects; (but) it is the living stream that links us to the origins, the living stream in which those origins are ever present.”  Therefore, we should be putting aside our own arrogant personal thoughts and opinions, rather than God’s commandments, and come to acknowledge that it is not stupidity but humility to listen to the voice of the Church because as St Ambrose reminds us, “the Church shines not with her own light, but with the light of Christ. Her light is drawn from the Sun of Justice, so that she can exclaim: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me’ (Gal 2:20).