Eleventh Ordinary Sunday, Year B
Theme: The MO of God 天主的工作模式
God is a mystery (Isaiah 40:12-14). If somebody claims that he understands God, he must be either a liar or God Himself. Luckily, we have a Bible from which we are able to glimpse of what God has done. Hence, we are able to draw some tentative hypotheses of what His will is. However, we have to be prepared to meet surprises.
For example, we know that God is righteous. Hence we expect Him to punish the wicked and reward the good. In reality, we see a lot of good people suffer for no obvious reasons while many wicked go unpunished and even become prosperous! How can a righteous God allow wicked people to flourish? We can only console ourselves by believing that God is merciful and that He is patiently waiting for the wicked to repent (Ezekiel 18:32). Some theologians even claim that God’s might is manifested not in earth-shaking miracles but in His forgiving our sins, not counting our trespasses against us (2 Corinthians 5:19)!
Nowadays, we are better equipped to handle the problem of why good people suffer. What Job was not able to understand, Jesus has made it clear. In Old Testament morality, a person suffered what he had done wrong. God punished him for his faults and wickedness. Therefore, when his friends came to console him, Job found that they were actually trying to explain away his sufferings with his sins. Nowadays, we see more clearly that people, in particular social outcasts and the poor, suffer from exploitations and prejudices not of their own faults. Moreover, Jesus has set us an example of submitting obediently to the will of the Father and suffering injustice quietly. In so doing, we have become Christ’s ambassadors of reconciliation (5:20)! We may even receive the glorious crown of martyrdom etc. Thus, if you complain, especially about the disappointing performance of the clergy, then you are not Christian enough!
When you complain about not having done enough and begin to lose faith in the ecclesial ministers, contemplating the action of leaving the Church, it shows that you do not know God enough all these years you have spent in the Church. The Church is probably not the right place for you to find God thus leaving the Church is probably an appropriate and prudent action. Why do I jump to this conclusion? It is because after spending so many years in the Church, you do not know the modus operandi of God! You do not know that God likes to do small and quiet things. I do not blame you for this failure because even Elijah the legendary great prophet who appeared with Moses in Jesus’ Transfiguration (Mark 9:4) knew no better. After inciting the Israelites to kill 450 Baal prophets on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:40), Elijah fled for his life and hid in a cave on Mount Horeb. God told Elijah to go out and meet Him. Elijah expected to see God in a strong and violent wind but the Lord was not in the wind; in an earthquake; in fire etc. but no. After the fire came a light silent sound and God was there (19:12)! As I have said earlier, God does not manifest His might in earth-shaking fanfares but in simple and uninteresting forgiveness. This is the MO of Yahweh.
To be fair, allow me to give another example so that there are two witnesses to prove the truth of my thesis. When Midian, Amalek and the Kedemites raised an army of 135,000 to bring the Israelites on their knees, Gideon was only able to raise 32,000 Israelites to resist. Instead, God selected only 300 (Judges 7:6) to defeat the united invaders “lest Israel vaunt itself against me and say, ‘My own power saved me’” (7:2)! This is the reasoning of Yahweh who would make use of a selected few and work through them to do big things in our eyes.
In the gospel passage today, we hear of two parables of the Kingdom of Heaven from Mark 4. Earlier in the chapter, Jesus told us the famous Parable of the Sower, teaching us about the different receptivity of the human hearts towards the good news. Some dismiss it outright. Some feel good hearing it but the gospel fails to take root in their hearts. They give up when persecutions come. Some know that the gospel is good and important but there are other worries competing for attention. The gospel message fails to bear fruits. Lastly, not only do they listen but they also put the gospel message into practice. Consequently, they bear fruit, winning people over to return to God. The Parable of the Sower is significant because it is the only parable Jesus explains.
We hear the next two parables of the Kingdom of God today. Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God is a mystery. It grows not by human will and human efforts but grows in its own way, God’s way! “And the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear” (Mark 4:27b-28). Don’t worry. It develops and grows naturally and would not disrupt our expectation suddenly. Again we see God’s MO, “lest Israel vaunt itself against me”. Of course we participate in building up the Kingdom of God but we should not attribute its growth and successes to our efforts. Rather, we should be grateful because God has given us the opportunity to participate in His salvation project. Seeing the gradual development of the Kingdom of God as embodied by the Church is beneficial to our understanding of God’s will too! The parable of the Mustard Seed also echoes a similar sentiment. On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended and gave birth to the Church of 120 members. On the first day of her existence, 3000 more souls joined the Church. She started off truly as small as a mustard seed. After nearly two millennia, she still survives and her membership has reached nearly 1.4 billion, comparable to the population of the PRC! Her history is chequered but we are certain that God’s hand has been guiding her all along. Her end is nowhere in sight because the God she upholds and worships is eternal.
To be candid, all of us have a tendency to play God because we lack confidence. We need to do something to prove ourselves and our worth. Many people spend a lot of time and energy to do charitable work in front of the cameras. Are they doing it for the glory of God (Matthew 5:16) or for their personal vainglory (Mark 12:38-39)? Others lack confidence in the commoners and become “control freaks”, turning the government into a police state to nip rebellions in the bud. Like many modern parents who wrongly believe that a good head-start will guarantee successes in the future, some fill up the schedule of their children with all kinds of tutorials and courses so that their children would be able to defeat all potential rivals! Obviously all of them have put the wrong foot forward because between being and doing, they have bet on the wrong horse. It is a life-long inferiority complex that they are struggling with. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the younger son also wrongly believed that by working as a servant, he would be able to obtain the forgiveness of the father (Luke 15:19). In fact, the father cares more about the restoration of the sonship of this lost son (15:22) than what he had done in the past and would do in the future! In other words, God cares more about our being than about our doing.
Beloved brethren! We were created in the image of God. Have faith in our Lord. He loves those who are humble in heart and invites us to learn from Him (Matthew 11:29). We have lost sight of God’s MO and wrongly believe that our efforts earn us salvation. We are wrong all the time. Let us stop to meditate the mercy of the Father and enter into His rest. Amen. God bless!
Picture Credit: selliliar.live
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