God Is Greater Than Our Hearts 天主比我們的心大

Seventeenth Ordinary Sunday, Year B
Theme: God Is Greater Than Our Hearts 天主比我們的心大

In previous miracles, in particular healing miracles, Jesus usually gave us the impression that the faith of people had saved them and that faith was able to trigger miracles (Mark 1:30, 40, 2:5, 5:34). Moreover, He seemed to make use of those miracles to teach the on-lookers the importance of faith as well. It seems that in our relationship with God, faith is all that counts. It sounds reasonable but the Lord is greater than our hearts (1 John 3:20). Our faith would never be able to constrain the movements of the Lord because He knows more than we do. He knows everything. He even responds to needs which we may not be aware of. The Lord excludes nobody, whether they believe in Him or not. Even if they were ungrateful, like the nine Jewish lepers (Luke 17:17), or they denied Him, the Lord would not take back His favour.

Today, we read of the famous miracle of five loaves and two fish which all the canonical gospels mention. John’s gospel appeared last and readers were already familiar with the story. Thus, John gave us eye-witness details not found in the other gospels. In fact, Mark and Luke were not on the spot and Matthew, though present, was like a needle in a haystack somewhere among the five thousand men. From John, we are able to take a glimpse of what actually happened in the “inner circle” of the Twelve.

First of all, we meet Philip who appeared very early to bring in Nathanael with the famous line, “Come and see” (John 1:46b) which he learnt from Jesus (1:39a). Philip appeared to be a quick learner and a very practical person. There was no need to debate about whether Jesus of Nazareth was the long awaited Messiah. Come and see for yourself to decide! Philip has shown the true spirit of evangelization. We do not rely on our eloquence to convince people to believe in the Lord. The Holy Spirit would do the job, not us.
In the story today, it is interesting to meditate why among the Twelve Jesus chose to test Philip, “He said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?’ He said this to test him” (6:5b-6a). Once again, Philip demonstrated his practical personality, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little bit” (6:7). It was good of him to know of human limitations. Philip was already better than many others whose egos are too big to admit their frailties. However, Jesus wanted Philip to go beyond being practical. This miracle should turn Philip’s world-view upside down. Out of love and not rationality, would the Lord provide for more than we need. Alas! It took John six decades of meditation to grasp the love of God. It would be unrealistic to expect Philip to learn quickly his lesson before the resurrection of his Master. The last time we meet Philip was during the Last Supper in which he requested Jesus to show the disciples the Father (14:8). He was still the direct and practical Philip. Here, Jesus made it clear to him and to all of us that we need to go beyond our limited conceptions, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (14:9). For Christians, the Blessed Trinity is a mystery which we struggle to comprehend and to love throughout our whole existence. Indeed, whoever does not acknowledge the Blessed Trinity, which human logic explains not, cannot claim to be a Christian. We need to go beyond to reach God.

Secondly, we meet Andrew who also appeared early in John’s gospel. It is believed that Andrew and John were the Baptist’s disciples and after the Baptist’s testimony, they followed Jesus. It was Andrew who brought in Simon Peter and Philip to follow Jesus (1:40, 43). From the Synoptic gospels, we conclude that Andrew did not belong to the “core-trio”: Peter, James and John. He probably belonged to the second tiers. It is because after Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, some Greeks approached Philip to express their intention to meet Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew about it. Only then did both of them go and tell Jesus (12:22). Andrew was eager to bring people to his Master to expand the fellowship. He brought in Simon Peter and Philip. In the story today, we find Andrew to be more pragmatic than Philip. While Philip did more calculations in his head, Andrew would look around for resources and solutions. It was Andrew who found the boy with five loaves and two fish (6:9). From Andrew we learn to be more spiritual. He teaches us not to shy from bringing our limitations in front of the Lord and God will take care of the rest. The Lord does not need to put Andrew to the test! As for the boy, we know nothing about his age and the reason why he carried five loaves and two fish with him among the crowd. The fish must have been cooked or roasted, otherwise people could not consume them on the spot. Perhaps, the boy was simply a hawker to make a few extra dollars for the family; or he brought the food to look for his family members in the crowd.

Among the Synoptic gospels, Matthew and Mark mentioned that when Jesus first saw the crowd, He was moved with compassion (Matthew 14:14, Mark 6:34). Though Luke does not say so, true to his theme of mercy, he shows Jesus’ compassion by mentioning Jesus’ healing of those who needed to be cured (Luke 9:11). What about John whose theme is God’s love. How does John show the Lord’s compassion in this miracle? I think two minor details might be applicable.
I would talk about the second detail first. After the people had eaten their fill, Jesus told the disciples to gather the fragments left over, “so that nothing will be wasted” (John 6:12). It was a pragmatic instruction because the disciples were travelling and those left over fragments would be good enough to be their viaticum, meaning a supply of provision for their journey. We can also speculate that the Twelve might give a few baskets of fragments to the boy to reward him for his generosity. Of course, this is insignificant in comparison to the feeding of five thousand people who did not ask for the food! Nobody grumbled because they did not expect to be fed! The Lord’s compassion is vividly demonstrated by this unrequested favour. He simply met the need of the crowd and did not expect them to thank Him. Here comes the first detail which seems irrelevant at first. John says at the beginning, “The Jewish feast of Passover was near” (6:4). What has the feast of Passover to do with this miracle of feeding the five thousand? When we pay attention to Jesus’ gestures in performing the miracle (6:11), we can immediately see its connection with the institution of the Sacrament of Holy Communion during the Last Supper. Jesus leaves behind His Body and Blood to feed the faithful before He offered Himself up as the true Paschal Lamb on the cross. John drops this hint to point to Jesus’ compassion on the pitiful conditions humanity is suffering.

Beloved brethren! The Lord is greater than our hearts. He provides for all our needs whether we are aware of them or not. His mercy endures forever. Amen.
God bless!

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Render To Caesar What Belongs To Caesar

Render To Caesar What Belongs To Caesar

by Deacon Alex Kwok

Catholics hold dual nationality. This is a reality beyond dispute. Catholics belong to the Kingdom of Heaven as well as the local state. Thus, we have to live with two different sets of laws, God’s laws as well as local laws. Each local government has her own legislature to define laws appropriate to the local living conditions. What about God’s laws? We can find God’s laws in the Bible which was nearly 2 millennia old. You and I are historical animals living in a particular time and space. Therefore, we need to adapt God’s laws to the living conditions of the present age. For example, the Torah which Moses wrote, requires that people should offer burnt offerings and sacrifices at the place God chooses as His dwelling place (Deuteronomy 12:11). During the time of kings, the place was the Jerusalem Temple which was destroyed in 70 A.D.

Nowadays, there is no Jerusalem Temple anymore and we do not offer burnt offerings because Jesus Christ is our perfect Paschal Lamb. Thus, the Church has a set of canon laws to help Catholics lead their lives in the modern world. We no longer observe Sabbath which celebrates God’s rest after Creation; but the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. To meet the need of Catholics living in commercial societies like Hong Kong, the Church sets up anticipatory Sunday masses for parishioners who need to work on Sundays etc.

The Catholic Church seems to be very conservative in matters of marriage, but it is for the spiritual good of the faithful. First of all, the Church has to acknowledge the validity of civil marriages of non-believers because marriage is a natural human right and it serves social functions such as settling inheritance disputes. But the Church sees the union as something more than ordinary social contracts. Marriage is a covenant because Christ takes the Church as His spouse. Therefore, matrimony is one of the seven sacraments. Thus, in order for Catholic marriages to be valid, the Church requires clergy to marry Catholic couple, a man and a woman, in a church. This is a clear example to demonstrate how Catholics have to observe two different sets of laws. The good Lord’s teaching is relevant here. When Pharisees and Herodians joined hand to trap Jesus, asking Him whether it was lawful to pay tax to Caesar, the good Lord gave us a crystal clear guideline: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s” (Mark 12:17). Beloved brethren! What things are NOT God’s?

Alas! People in power are more prone to playing God, grasping everything. Power blinds them so easily that they forget who the boss is. In secular terms, people vote them into office. They are mere stewards of the people they serve rather than being masters lording over the commoners. However, authority corrupts them so that they invest their efforts to fatten themselves instead of eradicating poverty; divert resources to build white elephant projects to prove themselves among world leaders instead of improving the living conditions of low-income families, creating more job opportunities for school leavers, enhancing the marketability of worker’s skills and guaranteeing basic health care for all etc.

Beloved brethren! Let us join the Pope to pray for political leaders in August. “For kings, and for all in authority; that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity” (1 Timothy 2:2). May God infuse the fear of the Lord in their mind and love in their hearts so that they work for integral human development and for the common good. May they turn their gaze to meet the needs of the poor and the unemployed. Amen.
God bless!

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Is Injustice Idolatry? 行不義與拜偶像無異

Sixteenth Ordinary Sunday, Year B
Theme: Is Injustice Idolatry? 行不義與拜偶像無異

In the first reading today, the Lord pronounced punishment on the bad shepherds/rulers of Judah who destroyed and scattered the flock of the Lord (Jeremiah 23:1). The Lord would take care to punish their evil deeds because they had not cared for the people whom the Lord had entrusted them (23:3). The Lord would raise up a righteous branch for David, meaning the Messiah, as king to reign and govern wisely (23:5). “This is the name to be given him: The Lord our justice” (23:6b). We may wonder what a good shepherd as demonstrated by Jesus “When He disembarked and saw the vast crowd, His heart was moved with pity for them for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things” (Mark 6:34), has to do with justice and why a good shepherd should be righteous! Thus, we need to read the entire previous chapter to know the context.

King Josiah was a good king of Judah because he restored Yahwist worship and destroyed Baalist altars and images throughout Jerusalem and Judah. Regrettably in his campaign against the Egyptian support of the collapsing Neo-Assyrian Empire, a stray arrow mortally wounded him in the battle at Megiddo (2 Chronicles 35:20-24). His sons did not follow the footsteps of their regal father to continue the religious reform King Josiah had started. The Lord says, “They have deserted their covenant with the LORD, their God, by worshipping and serving other gods” (Jeremiah 22:9). The Lord continued to enumerate their sins and pronounced His judgment. Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim, sons of Josiah, and Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, cared more about building beautiful palaces to prove themselves among kings (22:15), but set their eyes and hearts on nothing except their own gain, on shedding innocent blood and practicing oppression and extortion. They would die in exile (22:12, 26), and would be given the burial of a donkey beyond the gates of Jerusalem (22:19) and their descendants would never sit upon the throne of David to rule over Judah again (22:30)! Now, it is getting more complicated because not doing justice is equivalent to idolatry!

After reading Jeremiah 22, we may wonder what vainglory, self-fattening, oppressing the poor, extorting the rich and shedding innocent blood etc. have to do with idolatry, worshipping and serving other gods.
Let us meditate from another perspective. In the Sermon on the Mount, the first Beatitude says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Further down Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters … You cannot serve God and mammon” (6:24). Obviously, riches and wealth can be an obstacle between our relationship with God. In fact, between God and men, there are many obstacles preventing men from approaching God. Wealth is just one of those many obstacles, such as jealousy, lust, power and sloth etc. These capital vices boost our ego at the expense our neighbours. They tempt us to take advantages of those who cannot defend and speak for themselves. Meanwhile, we no longer feel that we need God who is becoming irrelevant in our modern world. With knowledge and technology, we are better able to control the world. God is less and less able to wreak havoc in our lives. Thus we rely less and less on His mercy. When we have wealth and power, instead of serving the people, we are able to lord over the people to fatten ourselves. We do not need God as a guiding principle in our daily encounter with other souls! There is no incentive to improve our relationship with the Lord and with our neighbour. That is to say, we can afford to lead a lazy life which is convenient and comfortable. In our spirit, we replace our Creator whom we are not able to control, with more controllable objects such as wealth and power which become idols that carry us further and further away from the Lord! In our deeds, not only do we marginalize the poor, but we also marginalize God. When we start oppressing the poor, shedding the blood of the innocent, we are actually oppressing God and shedding His blood (25:45) because the King is present in them! On the contrary, understanding that we are only stewards of what God entrusts us, when we make good use of our power to serve the poor, of our wealth to relieve the needy, we are doing the will of the Lord. How can we be far away from Him?

In this light, we see why the poor are blessed because they have nobody to turn to, not their relatives, nor their neighbour, nor the states but the Lord! Let us meditate on a particular group of poor people whose life may shed light on our understanding of the blessing of poverty. Among the poor, the elderly citizens are the most vulnerable, physically, emotionally and financially. There is only one direction for their health to go. Sooner or later, they will be unable to take care of themselves and have to rely on family members or care-takers at home or in the institutions. Are the elderly able to afford such a life style financially? With the advances in medical technology, we expect them to outlive the people they know and become lonely. Depression and dementia begin to emerge and the elderly will find it more and more difficult to communicate with the world outside. Beloved brethren! Remember that the elderly are our path finders. They go before us into uncharted waters where we will go in the future. Nowadays, our society is witnessing the rise of a fast ageing population. This is anticipated but we fail to attract the young to join the caring profession. Decades of prosperity and political uncertainty discourage young couples to give birth and raise children. The society is lacking economically active young people, not to mention attracting them to join the caring professions. The future of the aged is grim. Perhaps by then we have robotic caretakers. But I doubt whether computers are able to program human emotions into robots! In short, a gloomy future is awaiting our elderly citizens whom we will surely join! Technologically, intelligent machines are able to sustain our economy and solve our financial problems. But when there can only be robotic care-takers to meet our needs in old age, are we ready to live with it? Remember, spiritual life is not a luxury reserved for a small number of enlightened elites. All of us are entitled to a fulfilled life physically, emotionally, financially as well as spiritually.

Beloved brethren! It is wise to stay poor in spirit. Then we don’t need to prove anything to others because the Lord has promised us the kingdom of heaven. We don’t need to worry about tomorrow because the Lord will provide. Helping people reconcile with their Creator is our only mission and successes or failures should not be our concern. It is God’s concern. Stand by the disadvantaged and advocate the rights of the needy. We will travel light and have nothing to rely on but we’ll have everything we need to accomplish our missions. The Father’s will be done on earth. Amen.
God bless!

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Can the Church Be Poor? 教會能夠貧窮嗎?

Fifteenth Ordinary Sunday, Year B
Theme: Can the Church Be Poor? 教會能夠貧窮嗎?

The gospel reading today reminds us of the importance of interpreting the scriptures in context. It is always unfruitful to argue on the messages conveyed in a piece of short prooftext. For example, the passage today reads, "He summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits" (Mark 6:7). The passage follows Jesus' being rejected in Nazareth. Then Jesus turned His attention to other towns which were waiting to be redeemed. So, He sent the Apostles as forerunners to prepare the ground for evangelization. At the end of the story, Mark wrote, "So they went off to preach repentance. They drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them" (6:12-13). Why did the Twelve do more things than instructed, viz. to preach repentance and to anoint the sick? A few verses before, Jesus gave them authority over unclean spirits. Had Jesus given them the authority to preach? What about anointing the sick? In short, had the Twelve abused the authority delegated them? This question is meaningful because when we look at the history of the Church, we see a lot of scandals and abuses by the clergy. They had done things which they were not supposed to do. Could we hold the Twelve accountable because they started doing things they were not instructed to do?

We don't need to be creative in order to answer the accusation. It is because at the beginning of His public ministry, Jesus proclaimed, "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel" (1:15). Since the Master had already started the proclamation of repentance, His Apostles should be doing similar if not the same things. Furthermore, the Lord had performed a lot of healing miracles. His Apostles should be doing the same as well. But a more conspicuous point was the use of anointment for healing. Unlike the Lord who is able to perform healing miracles without any tools, the Apostles healed in a sacramental manner with the outward sign of anointment. With the considerations above, we cannot jump to the conclusion that the Twelve had abused the authority Jesus gave them.

In fact, the Church exists in history. She grows and develops in time. Therefore, she has to adapt her words and deeds to speak to peoples of different generations. For example, we would find Jesus' teaching on wives divorcing husbands impossible in a purely Jewish context, "And if she divorces her husband and marries another she commits adultery" (12:12). Jesus was supposed to be answering challenges from the Pharisees. How would it be possible for a Jewish woman to divorce her husband? Since Mark wrote for Christians in Rome, here is an adaption to the Roman context which Jesus would not disagree.

No matter how much the world has changed throughout the generations, there must be something unique and defining in God's modus operandi as well as the Church's. For example, God loves to do spectacular things with a small number of underdogs, like the story of Rahab, who helped bringing down Jericho in the book of Joshua; Gideon's 300 men defeating 135,000 Midian army in the book of Judges and the well-known mortal combat between David and Goliath in the book of 1 Samuel. But nowadays, the Church is no longer an underdog and she is big. Why is she different?

Well, she is the embodiment of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is true that she started small but in the end, she will be big because she will be one, holy, catholic and apostolic. She will include all peoples, tongues and nations etc. Jesus mentions this in the parable of the Mustard Seed. What about Jesus' instructions today? It seems that poverty should be one of the characteristics of the Apostolic Church because Jesus says, "He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick—no food, no sack, no money in their belts" (6:8). This instruction is consistent with the well-known MO of God because He wants His agents to understand that their works are the works of God. Their successes and failures do not depend on the merits and virtues of the agents but the mercy of God. Therefore, investing more manpower, money, technology and time may not result in more conversions. On the contrary, the agents should be grateful to be called into action to extend the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

The Church is not God. She is visible and earthly, thus has to obey physical laws. In order to remain big, she has to be rich. There is an overhead to maintain a huge organization on earth! Look at the Catholic Church today. She is big with a membership of roughly 1.4 billion. By any standard, she is also very rich. Is she adapting herself to the modern world by becoming rich? Indeed, the overhead of maintaining the hierarchy and various levels of curia is huge. In order to get so many people connected, the Church needs to consume a lot of resources. Just imagine what it takes for a pope to announce 2025 to be a Jubilee Year, say granting plenary indulgence to whoever recites ten Hail Mary's, using the traditional way of sending out heralds to different parts of the globe! We rely on the mass media to pass the message around. In fact, the Church is lagging behind in deploying Information Technology to process and transmit her social teachings and biblical messages to reach God's People through different social media platforms. Instead she has been busy defending her social and moral doctrines against challenges posed by those modern technologies. From this point of view, it seems that the Church can only be inevitably rich in order to proclaim the good news of reconciliation.

How did the Church become rich in the first place? It came from the trust of the believers. Many parishioners were either busy or rich but lazy. They trusted the clergy and the religious to do charitable works for them. As a logistic centre, the Church is doing a beneficent service to the society by channelling necessities to where they are needed most. Traditionally, the Church has been doing a lot of alms-giving and social works before governments set up their social services departments. Just as Jesus has commented, "You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me" (John 12:8). The Church continues her charity works and education works even after the states have started running theirs. She does not detach from her past achievements.

Being big necessarily makes the Church rich and she has become legal targets of compensation. In the last few decades, people uncovered more and more Church scandals, including sexual, financial and aboriginal ones etc. Many dioceses are bankrupted. This is just one among many troubles which richness brings to the People of God! From the gospel text today, we know that the Lord wants the Apostles, thus the Church they build to be poor. Two thousand years ago, the Church could afford to be poor because Christians were a minority. It is no longer true today. The question becomes whether the Church could remain big and poor at the same time?

Perhaps we should learn from the poor among us. Not to mention other forms of poverty, the homeless alone are everywhere, not just in underdeveloped regions. They are many because the development of modern societies is driving more and more people into poverty. But how do they manage to survive? They have no plan for tomorrow and live faithfully to the teaching of the Lord's Prayer. They pray to the Father for their daily bread. What about us? Therefore, true to her social teachings and the spirit of the gospel, the Church can sell all she has and give the proceeds to the poor. After all, the Church should not be the owner of her buildings and treasures in the first place. She is only a steward or trustee of all the generous donors!

Where should she start? Where can she find buyers? I think the Vatican should be the last because it is the centre of communion. We may start with the richer churches in the developed countries. I'm sure many Protestant churches are happy and capable to buy out the buildings and treasures of the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, Vatican will start downsizing when local churches start selling out. Catholic organizations NOT under the direct jurisdiction of Vatican, such as Catholic universities and Caritas etc. may continue their operations. After settling all the legal technicalities, each local church joins the poor of their country. Live among them and serve them. Make them the People of God! Do not worry about tomorrow. God will provide!

Beloved brethren! If you deem this proposal too wild, be prepared for more surprises from God. Amen.
God bless!

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Too Good To Be True 無咁大隻蛤乸隨街跳

Fourteenth Ordinary Sunday, Year B
Theme: Too Good To Be True 無咁大隻蛤乸隨街跳

It is hard for modern people to believe in God. Not only have they been baptized by STEAM curriculum, they enjoy feeding on fake news, rumours and secular values which are flooding the social media in the present age. But modern people are not stupid. In order to protect themselves from scams, they adopt a cynical attitude towards everything. They don’t believe that there is free lunch in this world. There must be strings attached in every offer, there is no commitment in relationships and job security is a myth etc. It is not easy to loosen their prejudices and to earn their trust. Indeed, it is more difficult to convince them to believe in Jesus nowadays than in earlier ages. If calling out to God is any indicator of faith in the Lord, no wonder Jesus lamented, “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8)

Let us begin our meditation with the first reading today taken from the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel had been a priest before the Babylonians suppressed the Judean rebellion in 597 BC. Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king deported the Judean king and his family, members of the upper class, priests and able-bodied males to Babylon to minimize the opportunity of future rebellions. This was the first exile and ten years later came the Babylonian Captivity before which, God called Ezekiel to become a prophet in Babylon and we read of his call today in the first reading. His prophetic ministry was not popular because during this period of time, he was rebuking the idolatry and unfaithfulness of the Israelites. For example, the slaughter of idolaters in Ezekiel 9. When Judah was totally conquered and exiled, Ezekiel changed his tone and began delivering prophecies of consolation, for example the vision of dry bones in Ezekiel 37.

Like the call of Isaiah, the call of Ezekiel began with visions of the glory of God (Ezekiel 1) from which the Swiss author, Eric Von Däniken drew inspiration to write his 1968 best-seller “Chariots of the Gods”. In the text we read today, God brings us down to earth! Don’t assume that my glory and my authority would make your job as my spokesman any easier! I respect the autonomy of rebellious people because without freedom, men would not be able to actualize their potential. “But my people did not listen to my words; Israel would not submit to me. So I thrust them away to the hardness of their heart; Let them walk in their own machinations” (Psalms 81:12-13). In other words, I would not force them to believe in you and thus believe in me. I am not ambitious. You don’t need to be eloquent or convincing. You simply add, “Thus says the LORD God” (Ezekiel 2:4b) at the end of your proclamation and you have done your job! I simply want them to know that I have kept my promise and have sent spokesmen to them, “And whether they hear or resist --- they are a rebellious house --- they shall know that a prophet has been among them” (2:5). When they are condemned on the Judgment Day, they only have themselves to blame! Don’t be discouraged if they don’t heed your exhortations. “You are not the one they are rejecting. They are rejecting me as their king” (1 Samuel 8:7b). Of course, God would also make use of Gentile nations to chasten them so as to ensure that at least a remnant would care about their relationship with Him.

When Jesus returned to Nazareth with His disciples, His folks had already heard of the miracles He had previously performed, viz. exorcisms and healings but not the miracle of five loaves and two fish. In short, Jesus was already famous among his fellow kindred. The gang of disciples would definitely boost His image among His folks in Nazareth. Therefore, when Jesus began to teach in the synagogue, many were astonished and said, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty needs are wrought by his hands” (Mark 6:2b)! As the aphorism goes, “Familiarity breeds contempt”. They took offence at Him when people of Nazareth recalled, “Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” (6:3) For some old folks who had seen Him grow up from infancy, they thought they had known Jesus through and through. What good could one expect from a carpenter? His siblings had not been outstanding nor had become some powerful celebrities themselves; nor had had connections with princes! What a big contrast there was with the story of the bleeding woman we read of last week! How could we blame them for their lack of faith? Even Jesus’ own first disciples questioned whether anything good could come from Nazareth (John 1:16). To a certain extent, when the people of Nazareth took offence at Jesus, they were only reflecting their own self-image: Nothing good/great could come from Nazareth! We should feel sorry for them instead of blaming them. Because of their lack of faith, Jesus was not able to perform any mighty deed there and He was amazed at their lack of faith (Mark 6:5-6)! In other words, Jesus was amazed at His inability to work miracles!

Similar things are happening for a totally different reason. As the aphorism goes, “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely”. It was true that many of them were corrupt and self-fattening in the Middle Age. During the Reformation, Protestants rejected the clergy because popes, bishops and even priests enjoyed unrestrained authority. Protestants reformed their hierarchy by removing the office of priests whose main duty was to offer sacrifices but retained the pastoral role of ministers instead. Without priests, Protestants gave up consecrating bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus to offer up as a sacrifice to the Father. Therefore, their theology insisted on the memorial aspect of the Holy Communion and rejected the real presence of the Son of God in it by quoting “Do this in memory of me” (Luke 22:19c). In defence, Catholic theologians insisted on the first half of the same verse, “This is my body, which will be given for you …” (22:19b). The Catholic Church believes that Jesus is the Son of God. He speaks and things come into existence. If we reject Jesus’ presence in the bread, we doubt His divinity. Then, we cannot claim to be Christians.

Alas! Their zeal of reformation to remove corruption had blinded the Protestants of the importance of faith in God over man’s integrity and virtues. They rejected the teaching authority of the Church in matters of faith and moral. Instead, Protestants claimed that all believers were equal in authority because of the Holy Spirit. Every believer was able to interpret the Bible, not needing the Magisterium to approve. Therefore, they insisted on “Sola Scriptura” to reject the teaching office of the Catholic Church! They also insisted on “Sola Fide” to reject works of mercy for justification and therefore selling indulgence was wrong.
How can they uphold “Sola Fide” when they failed to accept the words of Jesus to make bread as His body and wine His blood! Jesus would be very much amazed at their lack of faith in His divinity and their inconsistence in reasoning. We should feel sorry for them because without priests, Protestant churches do not have sacraments except Baptism and Matrimony which do not need ecclesiastic ministers. Without the real presence of Jesus in their Holy Communion, Eucharistic miracles would never happen there!

In 1905, Max Weber was able to trace the rise of the spirit of Capitalism to Protestant ethics. I am afraid they are also the breeding ground of modern Scientism which demystifies all articles of faith. There would be no need of a God in rendering truth about reality and the world! It is too good to be true for God to reconcile sinners to Himself in Christ, not counting our trespasses against us (2 Corinthians 5:19)! In ridding the Church of corruption, Protestants shut God out as well. Instead of strengthening faith in the Lord, Reformation ushered in cynicism. Martin Luther and the other reformists had successfully thrown the baby out with the bathwater.
Beloved brethren! God has sent prophets among us to tell us the message of reconciliation. It is a sign of God’s love towards humanity. Don’t hesitate! Embrace it! Amen.
God bless!

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