Ever Ancient Ever New

Fifth Sunday of Easter Year C

I felt really old the other day. It started as a casual conversation with one of my altar servers. He was speaking of a teacher in school and describing his exploits with this particular educationist who seemed bent on making his life miserable. I then ventured to ask, “How old is she?” He replied without hesitation, “She’s old!” “Oh, how old is old?” I pressed further. “She’s thirty something,” was the answer that took me by surprise. “She’s thirty and she’s old?” I immediately felt ancient – a living fossil. You feel old when people around you start calling you “uncle” or begin to stand up to offer you their seats.  

We “ancients,” who still haven’t resign ourselves to our new found status, often look for novelty, hoping to find therein the elusive fountain of youth or the elixir of immortality. Novelty is alluring. Well, that’s actually an understatement. Novelty is addictive. We get excited quite easily over new things and most new things catch our interest for a while. But it never lasts. Eventually, we end up getting bored of people, of activities, of ideas, of things and even of religion. The new always promises to surpass the old - and let’s face it, there is always a thrill when we get that new smart phone, or tablet or those new clothes. But, just like everything else, the new quickly becomes old, and so novelty creates an inexhaustible desire. Married couples look for new partners, religious brothers and sisters look for new relationships, priests look for new pasture, congregations look for new leadership.

In today’s gospel, Jesus also promises a different kind of ‘novelty,’ a novelty that will never grow old – “I give you a new commandment: love one another; just as I have loved you, you must also love one another.” For many of us, the commandment of love has become so familiar to the point of being treated contemptuously. It’s almost impossible for us in this day and age to appreciate its ‘newness.’ What is so new about this commandment? Loving each other is not a new command per se. It was already there in the Old Testament (Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”). So, what is the novelty in today’s gospel passage? Pope Emeritus Benedict sheds light on the mystery: “This commandment has become new because Jesus makes a very important addition to it: “just as I have loved you, you must also love one another.” What is new is precisely this “loving as Jesus loved.” All our living is preceded by his love and refers to this love, it fits into this love and is achieved precisely through this love… Jesus gave himself to us as a model and source of love a boundless, universal love that could transform all negative circumstances and all obstacles into opportunities to progress in love.”

Thus the principal reason why the commandment is ‘new’ is, evidently, the standard by which one was to ‘love one another’: “as I have loved you.” The new commandment of the Johannine community does not mean the love command itself, but the criteria by which the community will judge that love. No longer does the believer love neighbour as oneself. Neither is it loving oneself, as the late Whitney Houston would claim. Love of self, perhaps the most important benchmark by which we humans judge many things, will need to step aside for something far greater. Self-love no longer becomes the criterion but Jesus’ love for us. Jesus sets himself as the new norm and measure of Christian love. He himself loved ‘to the end’. Therefore to love one another as he loved is to give oneself wholly and fully here and now to the other. So it is in this totality of self-sacrifice and self-giving that the new element in the commandment of love is to be found.

So, the real secret of staying young and sprightly, of always remaining “new” until the very end, is that we must embrace Christ. Without Him, all things will risk becoming old news and a fading echo. All our human efforts at loving will eventually suffer the fate of growing old, becoming fossilised; and we eventually grow bored and tired, leaving us empty and desolate. But there is one particular manner of loving which secures eternal youthfulness – it is to love as Christ did. To love to the point of being able to give up our happiness, our dreams, our likes, and even our lives for it. This is the love of Christ that we will never wither, grow old, or be subjected to aging. Surprise, serendipity, youthfulness permeates the gospel newness of this kind of love. This is a “new” that will always remain “new” until the very end.

The world and all its inhabitants grow old without God. But in Him, the world remains ever young. The second reading, taken from the sublimely beautiful ending of the Book of Apocalypse, preceded by frightening images of destruction, affirms this very truth. It describes the End as a Great Wedding Feast, the union of Heaven and Earth, Christ and His Church, the Lord descending upon and choosing to dwell within the Heavenly City of Jerusalem. This is the New Commandment perfectly realised. This text underlies the major conviction of this book that however long or however arduous the struggle, good will never be overcome by evil. The world that has grown old with sin will be renewed. At the heart of the new heavens and earth, the key reason for the cessation of sorrow, evil, hunger, thirst and pain is the fact of God’s presence. God dwells with His people. He makes His home with them. Because of God’s dwelling among His people, all creation experiences the truth of these words. “Now I am making the whole of creation new!”

The ability to make things new again, even better than the original creation is a prerogative of God. Man, despite all his wondrous innovations and novel ideas, is incapable of inventing a newness that will last. Immortality eludes him. Only, God can guarantee this. This is because, as St Augustine wrote, God is “Beauty ever ancient ever new.” God is ever new, He never ages for He is eternal. Moreover, because He is infinite, we will never cease seeing new insights of his beauty and magnificence; for all eternity we will never be bored. All those who participate in the life of God would also experience this ever new-ness. Thus the Church, the Bride of Christ, after two thousand years, and in spite of all the insults hurled at her that she is ancient, hagged and no longer relevant, is no less young and beautiful than she was at first. We are always discovering new depth and new ways of presenting the timeless, unchanging deposit of faith revealed by Christ. The Church's teaching is always fresh.

Now not only the Church as a whole but each one of us, her members, is in contact with God. We share in the life of grace, the divine life of the One who never ages. We walk in newness of life, following a new commandment, destined to sing a new song of praise to God forevermore. That is why as we mature in the Christian life, we become like children - more innocent, more joyful, more simple, more vigorous and full of life. It is chiefly in mercy that God makes us new.  Mercy covers over our sins. If sin makes us old, it is the mercy of God’s grace that restores us and give us a royal make-over.

So, out with the old; in with the new! Out with sin and with all of its damaging effects. Disease and death - no more! Fightings and fears, troubles and tears - no more! False substitutes in the form of human innovations and novelty – no more! All these belong to the old order of things, and they are on their way out. This old world is passing away, but, my friends, there is a whole new world coming! You can count on it! For our Lord has given us his word: “Now I am making the whole of creation new!”

Pleasing others is not our Vocation

Fourth Sunday of Easter Year C

It may not be a good thing nor convincing to start off a sales pitch by expounding the limitations of your product. But this is no ordinary pitch. It’s meant for the choir. Let’s face it - being a Christian can be disheartening to say the least, ‘suicidal’ at worst. How many Christians have suffered, are subjected to violence, injustice, betrayal, deceit and even murder as a result of their faith? It is not easy to faithfully live a Christian life in a world that promotes contrary values. Often, it feels almost impossible to be Christian, to be counter-cultural; to be honest in a society that thrives on subterfuge; to be clean in business and politics where playing dirty is the rule of the game; to be merciful when the world is out to exact more than just a pound of flesh from you. Most people would simply resign themselves to these situations and just go with the flow: “That’s how things work.” It is possible to be a Christian and survive in today’s world?

Almost two millennia ago, a newly married woman of good family and upbringing by the name of Perpetua had no difficulty answering in the affirmative and I suppose, if given another opportunity, she would do the very same today. She was about 22 years old and still nursing an infant son when she was exposed as a Christian and condemned to die. In her own account, she spoke of how her father attempted to persuade her to renounce her faith. She pointed to a pot of water closed by and said, “Father, do you see this vase here, for example, or water-pot or whatever?” “Yes, I do”, he said. And this young martyr told him: “Could it be called by any other name than hat it is?”  And he said: “No”. “Well, so too I cannot be called anything other than what I am, a Christian.”

Today’s readings reassures us that we can and we must continue to live and give witness to our Christian vocation, even though the world seems to be against us. Fidelity to God comes before succumbing to the popular notion of conforming to the mainstream. Our vocation is to please God and not win the approval of men. In the first reading, the enemies of Paul and Barnabas spread lies about them and opposed them and finally got them expelled from town. But the reading ends on a surprisingly heartening note, with a curious remark: “the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.” Instead of becoming despondent, the disciples remained resolute in their defiance of the larger culture and they did so with much joy. They understood that they were the real winners in this story and that those who opposed them and the gospel were the real losers. They were convinced that they would be vindicated in the end.

And this is exactly what takes place in the second reading. Here, we witness the fortune of those who have suffered or even died for the sake of the gospel. They are those who in this world went through sufferings, persecutions and gave their lives for their brothers like the Lamb. They were viewed by the world as losers, but in the eyes of God, they were the real victors. As a reward for remaining faithful, they will no longer experience suffering, hunger or thirst because the Lamb will be their shepherd and will lead them to springs of living water.

Christians are not called to make everyone happy. This is not our vocation. In any event, it is impossible to make everyone happy. Bishop Athanasius Schneider tells his priest: “It is quite insignificant to be popular or unpopular. For every member of the clergy, their first interest should be to be popular in the eyes of God and not in the eyes of today or of the powerful... Popularity is false… Great saints of the Church, such as Thomas More and John Fisher, rejected popularity… those today who are worried about the popularity of the mass media and public opinion… will be remembered as cowards and not as heroes of the Faith.”

Therefore the criterion is not whether our actions meet with the approval of others but rather that we remain faithful to God and His dictates. In a myriad and cacophony of noises, there is only one voice that matters – it is the voice of the Good Shepherd, who promises us: “The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life; they will never be lost and no one will ever steal them from me.”

Jesus’ promise invites us to declare ourselves for Him before others with courage, overcoming our need for mere human respect and honour, whilst braving insults, rejection and even persecution. We may be misunderstood, contradicted, made the object of derision and hatred. But remember that we have been called to bear witness to Christ. We can bear witness to Him wherever we are, whether in our family, at work, among friends, or school. We can do it without having to stand on pillboxes on street corners as we shout his name! We do it gently and simply first of all through our behaviour, through the integrity of our lives, through our purity, through our detachment from money and ambition, through our participation in the joys and sufferings of others, through our mutual love and unity.

But we acknowledge Jesus not only through a positive witness of life, living peaceably with others in society, but also by fulfilling our prophetic role to be salt of the earth and light of the world. The latter is far more difficult than the former. We live in a world that has grown intolerant with the Church’s intolerance of its sinful ways, an intolerance rooted not in bigotry but in love and mercy. We are reminded by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen that tolerance is never extended to error or sin but rather to persons. Today, no one wants to be reminded of the disordered nature of their choices and life decisions. Thus if someone chooses to divorce his wife and marries another, he does not want to hear the gospel reminder that comes from the lips of the Lord Himself, that he is now committing adultery. Or if a man chooses to formalise his relationship with another man in a way that is sanctioned by the State, he would certainly feel judged to be reminded that this is not “marriage” even if the State chooses to call it so, it is the sin of “sodomy.”

The problem is that it is no longer fashionable nor acceptable to call a spade a spade. But that should never be a problem for us Christians. St Perpetua’s rhetorical question remains equally relevant today, “Could it be called by any other name than what it is?” We must always remember that it is mercy and not the lack of it to call a sinner to repentance, for in doing so, we are calling him to face to Truth about himself and God. And the Truth is the only thing that is capable of setting us free. The Shepherd does not and will never lie to His sheep.

Perhaps someone will ask us why we act the way we do, why we choose chastity over lust, why we choose simplicity over extravagance, why we choose obedience over individualistic disobedience, and why we are so serene in a world that is so fraught with tension. We will then answer with humility and sincerity using those words were first uttered by a twenty two year old girl who went to her martyrdom. “I am a Christian. I am a Catholic. I cannot be called by any other name.” We listen, we obey, and we follow only the voice of the Good Shepherd, no other. So let’s go ahead to bear witness to Him with courage even in the midst of trials, even at the cost of our lives. The reward that awaits us is well worth it; it is heaven, the eternally green pastures where He will lead us to, where we will no longer experience hunger or thirst.

让祂掌管我们的生命

丙年复活期第三主日

如果我们审查自己不快乐的根源，如果我们仔细地看看自己的忿怒和不耐烦情绪背后的原因，就会发觉大家都有一个共同的特性，那就是有操纵的欲望。

打从一出世开始，每一个人都奋力操纵自己的生命、周遭的环境、甚至身边所有的人。婴儿哭闹是为了要得到父母的喂食或让自己有安全感。随着年龄的增长，他学会新的方法来控制所面对的情况，如发脾气、尖叫、不听从指示或甚至讨好他人以便得到回报。成年人也一样，我们已学会多种技巧来操纵他人，那就是通过自己言行来达到目的。我们要别人改变，但当他们没有作出改变时，我们就感到沮丧和生气。我们要么就对他们喊叫，不然就对他们不理不睬。

我们要掌控自己的生命和命运。我们要操纵孩子的生命，要为他们选择最好的工作和最佳的配偶。我们甚至要通过我们的祈祷和补赎来操纵天主。

然而事实上，我们并不能掌控，也不由得我们掌控，且永远也无法掌控。唯有天主能掌控一切，我们必须让天主来掌管我们和他人的生命。

耶稣曾对伯多禄说过：“你年少时，自己束上腰，任意往来。”伯多禄听了这话，以为他可以掌控自己的生命。当他开始跟随耶稣，他以为他得对这个决定完全负责。然而，当面对耶稣被捕后的三次不认主，他的自主意识被粉碎了。他灰心丧志，并感到自己如同一个失败者，于是他决定重操所擅长的工作——捕鱼。他还是以为自己可掌控一切。然而，即使是这项工作，也没有成果，因为他未能捕获任何鱼。只有在耶稣的协助下，他才成功地捕获鱼。

我们也是一样，绝对不能太过自我。可别以为只靠自己的能力就会成就一切。我们也不应该太高傲，以为能凭自己掌控生命及未来。事实上，我们并不能掌控一切，越早认清这一点，对我们就更好。千万不要忘记：我们需要天主的恩宠和力量，我们所做的一切都是藉着天主的恩宠成就的。

这就是成为耶稣门徒的真正意义。我们应该随时为主人服务，应该听从耶稣并随时承行天主的旨意，而不是我们的意愿。我们蒙召去跟随耶稣，并把整个生命交托在祂手中，让祂掌管我们的生命。

在这台弥撒中，让我们祈求天主恩赐圣宠，让我们能够放下——放下要掌控自己和他人的需要，放下要操纵天主和自己命运的欲望。