What Prevents Us From Doing God’s Will?甚麼阻止我們承行主旨？

Twenty-Sixth Ordinary Sunday, Year A
Theme: What Prevents Us From Doing God’s Will?甚麼阻止我們承行主旨？

Life in modern societies demands us to be multi-tasking. Our schedules are filled up and we engage ouorselves in doing several tasks at the same time. Some tasks demand less attention and efforts while others demand more. We have to be able to allocate our own resources in a flexible way to deal with all kinds of contingencies. We are able to achieve this life style thanks to the advances in Information Technology. With a mobile phone in hand, we are able to chair work meetings, to do financial transactions, to rectify legal deals and to write up business proposals on the go! It is not a fairy tale but is actually happening these days in a commercial city like Hong Kong. We would feel unfulfilled if we are not assigned challenging tasks to outperform our colleagues. Now, will you question the dedication and loyalty of those multi-taskers? No, you won’t and surely bosses admire and value their efficiency too. But what about our God, the ultimate boss?

Superficially, God is also a multi-tasker. Doesn’t He need to hear the prayers of millions of people at the same moment? But our God is free from time-constrains because He moves around freely in the time dimension! Therefore by nature, God is a perfect multi-tasker! For us humanity, we are confined within a certain span of time and space, in short, we exist in history. Since the Fall of our First Parents, we’ve lost our Original Graces and have to struggle to survive in this world which is contaminated by our sins. Since we were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26), we are by nature multi-taskers as well. The problem is we are doing a lot of contradictory things at the same time, viz. we try to persevere in pursuing the salvation of our souls but at the same time, we continue to commit sins. In the word of St. Paul, “all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Further down he continues, “What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate” (7:15)! Seeing that we are incapable of pulling ourselves up again, instead of wiping us out, God decides to redeem us. He took the initiative to save us and reveals His loving intention throughout the history of a Chosen People which is an amazing story. Yes, He befriended Abraham and his offsprings to channel His saving graces to all peoples on earth. To show His fidelity, He established covenants with the offsprings of Abraham and renewed those covenants at different times to extend their validity. Later, kings were assigned to be custodians of those covenants. When kings failed, God spoke through the prophets.

Before the Incarnation of the Son of God, the most crucial covenant was the Sinai Covenant in which God gave the Chosen People the Ten Commandments. God says in the First Commandment, “For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their ancestors’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 20:5b). Therefore deep down the psyche of the Israelites, there was a conviction that children would be punished for the sins committed by parents. For example, in the story of Jesus’ healing of the man born blind, the disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2) We should not blame the Israelites for not paying attention to the whole context of the First Commandment. They ignore the following statement, namely, “but showing love down to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:6)! It is well-known that there is no sentence structure in the Hebrew language to express comparison. Israelites used opposites to express comparison. Instead of saying “A is bigger than B”, Israelites would say, “B is small and A is big”. Similarly, Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). Of course God and money are both essential for our survival, growth, development as well as salvation. Our attitude towards them is a matter of “loving” them to different degrees and not some hate/love dichotomy.

Reading the First Commandment in this light, we will understand that the loving God would reveal less of His love to those who love Him less and more to the righteous who love Him more. His so called “punishments” are meant to turn sinners back to the right path. He only needs three to four generations to accomplish this task of adjustment. In the story of the Great Deluge, God showed that He is willing to give humanity a second chance. In subsequent stories of Patriarchs, Judges and kings of the Chosen People, the merciful Lord demonstrated that He is willing to give humanity a third chance, a fourth and a fifth etc. But doesn’t this sound too complicated? In fact it is. To make this complex idea more easily accessible, religious authorities simplify the revelation of the First Commandment to describe a righteous God who punishes the wicked and rewards the righteous. Common people can understand this easily. Furthermore, on a pedagogical level, the way the First Commandment is phrased exhorts parents to act righteously because their children would also be punished for their sins! It is a good strategy to warn people to avoid commiting sins! However, such an oversimplification brings in one drawback, namely people would easily become self-righteous. It is easy to find faults with others but not oneself. Worse, self-righteous people are eager to see justice done, namely to ensure that those “sinners” in their eyes, such as tax-collectors and prostitutes were condemned instead of being forgiven!

But life cannot be as simple as such. Oversimplication is self-defeating on a logical level as well. If God punishes a child who is innocent, then God is not righteous because He punishes the guilty as well as the innocent indiscriminately. Since God is righteous, He will not punish a child who is innocent. Then, God would not be able to honour His pledge in the Sinai Covenant that He would punish evildoers to the third and fourth generation! In other words, God puts Himself in a dilemma because His word could not be trusted. He would not be faithful as He claims in the Bible! Alas! We have to wait until a Saint Paul to state that no child is innocent since all have lost the glory of God (Romans 3:23)! It is genuinely not easy to harmonize the mercy of God with His righteousness. In fact, if we read the word of God literally, we are looking for trouble!

In order to rectify the misguided understanding of the Jews, God spoke through Ezekiel to confirm again that He is merciful. Previously, the prophet says, “Do I find pleasure in the death of the wicked --- oracle of the Lord God? Do I not rejoice when they turn from their evil way and live?” (Ezekiel 18:23) Based on their oversimplified understanding of God’s righteousness, the Israelites complained. In today’s first reading, it is eye-catching to read that God challenges the Israelites twice, “Is it my way that is unfair/not fair? Are not your ways unfair/not fair?” (18:25, 29) What is the “your ways” that God challenged? It is the oversimplified version of righteousness, namely self-righteousness and eagerness to see sinners condemned and punished. Further down, the merciful Lord warns them, “Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, all of you according to your ways --- oracle of the Lord God” (18:30a)! Had God really followed the Israelite way of fairness to ensure that sinners are condemned and punished, none of the self-righteous would have stood a chance. What they needed is God’s mercy and forgiveness so that they might turn from their evil way and live!

Indeed, the readings of the past few weeks follow a theme of humility. Why do we find it impossible to forgive people seventy times seven? It is because of our self-righteousness. We are not humble enough to confess our shortcomings. Why do we find the landowner unfair to pay all workers the same wage? It is because of our self-righteousness and vainglory. We are not humble enough to “regard others as more important than ourselves” (Philippians 2:3b). In this second reading today, St. Paul exhorts us to follow the exemplar set up by the merciful Lord Jesus Christ.

Beloved brethren! Let us follow Christ’s exemplar to empty ourselves and be humble (2:7-8). Otherwise, we’ll not be able to obey and do the Father’s will as the second son illustrated (Matthew 21:30)! Amen and God bless!

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2020 Reflection
Picture Credit: rapidstartleadership.com