Laetare Sunday, Year B
Theme: Enjoy To Forget Worries 樂以忘憂
As an ex-school-teacher for nearly four decades, studying has become my second nature and Confucius my fundamental role model. Don’t get me wrong, as a Catholic, no human being can replace Jesus Christ in my heart.
People enjoy doing many different things and what people enjoy doing is a matter of personal choice. In time, people may discover that they are able to find joy and/or serenity by remaining in a certain state of existence. Confucius and I found joy in studying. Of course, joys and worries are twins. One does not exist without the other party. Once I was racking my brain in pain to come up with a phrase that best described myself to engrave it on a rock seal, the following quote from The Analects popped up, “Learning without satiety and instructing others without being wearied 學而不厭，誨人不倦” (The Analects, Shur Er #2). More than relieving me of the pain, this experience thrilled me and enlightened me. The following quotes from the same source show us what joy and worries Confucius found in studying. He says, “Virtues without proper cultivation, what is learnt without thorough discussions, after gaining knowledge of what is right without moving towards it and not being able to change what is not good are my worries 德之不修，學之不講，聞義不能徙，不善不能改，是吾憂也” （#3）, “With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow; I find joy in the midst of these things飯疏食飲水，曲肱而枕之，樂亦在其中矣” （#16）. “He is simply a man who in his eager pursuit of knowledge forgets his food, who in the joy of its attainment forgets his sorrows, and who does not perceive that old age is coming on其為人也，發憤忘食，樂以忘憂，不知老之將至” (#19). Though Confucius did not have the opportunity to know Christ in person, his moral teachings are on a par with Christianity. I would say Confucius has led an admirably fulfilled life. What more can one expect from life?
In order to redeem the fallen humanity, God called Abraham the ancestor of the Israelites to enter into a covenant with him and Abraham responded faithfully. Through the line of Judah, one of the tribes of this Chosen People, God would send the Messiah-Redeemer to save all the peoples on earth. The LORD God is faithful to the covenant and no matter how rebellious the descendants of Abraham have been He shall keep His promise at all costs. In the unfolding of this Salvation History, the Chosen People were tempted to take shortcuts to gain power and prosperity. They worshipped idols and injustice against the underprivileged was rampant. Thus, the LORD God sent messengers to warn them and lastly made use of external powers to chasten them. Through another hand, the LORD God liberated them again and this is how the Second Book of Chronicles ends, “Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me all the kingdoms on the earth. He has also charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. All among you, therefore, who belong to His people, may their God be with them; let them go up” (36:23). After spending fifty (seventy if we include an earlier partial exile) suffering years of Babylonian Captivity, the Jews were joyous at last.
Those who returned home should have been second generation Jews that were born in Babylon. However, would they pick up Babylonian idolatry, like their slave-ancestors in Egypt did? Thanks to the Pharisees who helped them re-define their identity as God’s Chosen People and preserve the purity of their blood, those returned Jews must have learnt a painful lesson and would not practise idolatry any more. However, history keeps repeating itself. Did not the LORD God make the liberated Israelites spend forty years in the wilderness to cleanse them of idolatry picked up in Egypt? The generation that entered the Promised Land was supposed not to practise idolatry and yet what worried Confucius snowballed to be a nightmare in time. God’s Chosen People has not put in sufficent effort to learn and avoid disasters! Had God not been faithful and intervented, the tribe of Judah would have vanished from human history like the rest of the 12 Tribes of Israel! The responsorial Psalm today is a lamentation showing the sorrows of captives in great contrast to the joys of those who were able to return to their homeland. Boney M’s “Rivers of Babylon” popularized this psalm in the 1970’s.
The Chinese culture is rather discreet in talking about intimacy and love. Unlike the Greeks who have three different words to talk about love, the Chinese do not have a comparable vocabulary. If Confucius has an area to improve, perhaps intimacy can be one of the candidates. Yet he preferred spending his remaining energy in studying I-Ching! “If some years were added to my life, I would give fifty to the study of I-Ching, and then I might come to be without great faults 加我數年，五十以學易，可以無大過矣” (The Analects, Shur Er #17). This was his choice and I am sure the Son of God would respect. Alas! Learning is good but no human effort nor standing on shoulders of giants is sufficient to lift a person up high enough to leave the present deplorable state we are in. In fact, whatever one tiny step we achieve through technological advances, we are pushed two steps back by the consequences caused by human greed and ambition. We have witnessed this drama repeatedly since the Age of Enlightenment! How sacarstic! Perhaps we have put our faith in the wrong place. Between the love of God and wealth as well as power provided by Mammon, Jesus advises us to choose wisely (Matthew 6:24). Regrettably, most people choose the latter. As usual, the LORD God shall not give up. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16). Confucius would not be able to believe in Jesus Christ in his life time. But I know that the LORD God has granted Confucius eternal life because “Whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God” (3:21).
Beloved brethren! Who can accuse Confucius for not living the truth? Not even the Accuser! I hope that we have not put our faith in a better tomorrow away yet. In time of the present difficulties, namely not upholding righteousness, flexing mighty muscles to prove themselves right, hardening of hearts to see the innocent in Gaza perish etc., let us put our hope in the mercy and love of the LORD God to persevere until the end. Meanwhile, continue to learn and enjoy humility of the Lord (Matthew 11:29) to ease our worries. Amen.
God bless!
2021 Reflection
Picture Credit: kknews.cc
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