Putting Patriots to The Test

Twenty Fifth Ordinary Sunday, Year B
Theme: Putting Patriots to The Test

內容敏感，惟有祇寫英文。望為見諒。
Without exception, all human beings want to play God whenever opportunity arises. It’s all too natural because after all “God created them in his own image … and commanded them to … subdue the earth and have dominion over … every living thing that move upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:27-28) Therefore, it is understandable that whenever occasion arises, in particular when technologies and sciences are becoming more and more powerful and intrusive, human beings cross the line easily and attempt to have dominion over every living thing on earch and even over God, the ultimate author of life! That’s also the reason why it was possible for Satan to seduce Jesus to throw himself down from the parapet of the Temple (Matthew 4:5-6, Luke 4:9-11). Then the Son of God passed a judgment that such an act was actually putting God to the test (Matthew 4:7, Luke 4:12)! Satan might be the first creature to tempt the Son of God but it is surely not the last one to tempt Jesus. The Jewish authorities also challenged the Messianic identity of Jesus, demanding him to show them a sign from heaven (Matthew 16:1, Mark 8:11, Luke 11:16). They ignored all the miracles which Jesus had previously performed. They demanded specific tests, “a sign from heaven”, a failure to deliver which would demonstrate that Jesus was not the Messiah they had been waiting for! To a certain extent, these Jewish authorities were “control freaks”. They even wanted to have God under their control! Perhaps being a “control freak” is a pre-requisite to be a powerful person. Otherwise, he would fall somewhere along the path to absolute authority.

Nowadays, we see many “control freaks” in governments all over the world, especially totalitarian ones. Standing in the shadow of the north, the government of this island on the southern border has very few options in hand. The north demanded “rule by patriots”, which is absolutely reasonable and I totally agree because I cannot think of any acceptable objections to oppose this demand. But regrettably, the polling on Sunday reveals that there are only 4380 patriots on this island with a population of 7.5 million. How lamentable! How is it possible for a cosmopolitan city to have only 0.06% of her population patriotic? What a shame to the mandarins!

Probably all people in power are over cautious to the point of becoming paranoid to some degree. Perhaps they perceive that out there, many people are waiting in line to take over their positions or even to concoct overthrowing them. Thus they prefer harsh practices safeguarding their own security, the security of the island and even the security in the north. In enforcing justice, they ignore the basic legal principle of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, arresting people even students, freezing their assets, disqualifying councillors, disbanding organizations and setting quotas on the number of qualified voters etc. I think the root of such practices goes to the ambiguity of the meaning of “patriots”! The concept is elusive and it is next to impossible to pin it down.

First of all, it is an axiom that being patriotic cannot be digital, i.e. either 0 or 1. There must be different degrees of patriotism. On one hand, there must be people who are eager to betray their own country for their own interests and on the other, people who are willing to die defending their own country. Needless to say, there must be people in-between who love and even sacrifice for their own country in ways appropriate and possible for them.
Then, is being patriotic psychological or physical? It must be both. In order to prove a crime, the court of law needs to prove both a guilty act and a guilty mind of the suspect. Since it is both psychological and physical, are there any standardized patriotic tests like I.Q. tests and physical fitness tests to measure how patriotic a person is? Perhaps there are in the west, but to the best of my knowledge, such tests have not yet been designed for Chinese! Then how do mandarins pass judgment on who is patriotic and who is not? Could it only be subjective or political? If it could only be subjective, how convincing could their judgment be? If it could only be political, the mandarins are creating more and more enemies. Why? It is because with harsh practices, the mandarins are denying 99.94% of the population the opportunity to prove their patriotism. For the mandarins, like their Jewish counterparts in the gospels, there are only a few ways acceptable to them to prove one’s patriotism: one has never voiced any opposition on the social media to government policies, has no connections whatsoever with foreign countries and is not an agent for foreign organizations etc. I wonder how it would be possible for international NGOs and the Catholic Church to continue serving the needy on this island in the near future. As mentioned before, patriotism is a spectrum of attitudes and actions. When people are denied the patriotism appropriate for their stations, they could become disappointed, indifferent, uncooperative or even furious. Aren’t the mandarins pitching themselves against the commoners, creating enemies and not making friends?

In contrast, our Lord Jesus Christ reminds us to serve the needy. Take for example what he teaches in the gospel today. After making Peter the Prince of the Apostles, the Rock on which He would build the Church, the apostles were discussing who was the greatest μείζων (Mark 9:34). Then Jesus patiently teaches, “If anyone wishes to be first πρῶτος, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all” (9:35). Obviously, the apostles’ focus is wrong. They discuss greatness and probably in their minds they were fantasizing the honour and glory that go hand in hand with greatness. Jesus corrects them and steers their attention to being the first, being in the forefront to serve and consequently proving themselves deserve honour and glory. Whom should we serve? In order to achieve honour and glory, the shortcut to which is to serve the great ones, the people in power. No, Jesus illustrates further. We should serve the little ones, the needy and the poor because in doing so, we are serving the greatest of all --- God Himself. Jesus made a vivid illustration. He placed a child “in their midst, and putting his arms around it and he said to them, ‘Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me’” (9:36-37). This teaching agrees with what Jesus teaches in the Parable of Last Judgment “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40) and “What you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me” (25:45). Therefore, the Church has always opts for the poor in whom she learns to see the Lord. In other words, God sends the poor to preach the gospel to us! Woe to you mandarins if you despise and reject the poor and make them your enemies!

Will the Church stand up to speak for the poor? She has to because it is her mission to evangelize, in particular to the powerful. The Church cannot deny the powerful of salvation. She cannot withhold God’s mercy from them. If the powerful rejects, will the Church overthrow the powerful? No! As I have said before, God reserves vengeance for Himself (Isaiah 63:4, Romans 12:19). The Church should not play God! Jesus teaches us to tolerate the evil in the Sermon on the Mount instead of fighting back (Matthew 5:38-44) which is God’s job, not the Church’s.

At the moment, the mandarins open and play the patriotic game in a lousy manner. They have not reached the middle game yet. There are two more elections to do and the end game is nowhere in sight. Let’s be patient. Don’t lose faith. Continue to serve the Lord among the poor who is our hope. Pray for the mandarins so that they are able to focus on being the first instead of being the greatest, to serve the people instead of the powerful minority in the north. If “they do not keep God before them” (Psalm 54:5) God’s will be done. The Lord sustains my life (54:6).
God bless!
Picture credit: The Logical Indian, chess.com
2015 Homily