God Turns Evil Into Good天主化腐朽為神奇

Fifteen Ordinary Sunday, Year C
Theme: God Turns Evil Into Good天主化腐朽為神奇

God is God because He turns evil into good. Without His continuous sustention, I’m afraid the known universe would have degraded to chaos long long time ago! We were created in the image of God and are creatures only. The best we are capable of doing is to preserve and develop what has been given us. We have to accept the reality that we’re not the Creator and are unable to make something out of nothing. Regrettably, when humanity has lost their original graces, in other words, when the Original Sin contaminates everybody without exception, we’re making a mess out of God’s creation. Most of the time, we turn good into bad and from bad into evil!

For example, God gave us intelligence and rationality. We might make use of them to discover God, His wonders and His love. Moreover, we might make use of them to improve our lives, to modify our living environment so that we’re able to enjoy greater convenience and to generate more wealth. Not only are our scientific and technological achievements getting better but we are also able to breakthrough limitations, sending probes into the outer space and men to the moon or editing our own genes. Our life-expectancy is lengthening and we’re exterminating previously incurable diseases etc. However, while we’re enjoying our convenience and prosperity, we do so at the expense of our environment. We’re choking and suffocating our Mother Earth with our pollutions. Unfortunately, there is a price to pay, not by ourselves but by people living down-streams, namely our neighbour next-door and our children of future generations!

A Chinese aphorism goes like this, “To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short 過猶不及” (The Analects, Xian Jin). We have a tendency to overdo. Take the example of the first miracle of Jesus at Cana. “Jesus told the servers, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ So they filled them to the brim.” (John 2:7) Jesus didn’t tell them to fill the jars to the brim, did Jesus? I could imagine Jesus shaking His head in disbelief how lack of faith people were! While Jesus stayed there, surely He would continue to multiply the wine whenever it ran short even if all those jars were half-filled in the beginning! Of course the servers had no idea what Jesus was capable of doing. Therefore, it was understandable that they filled the jars as fully as possible. Who could blame them for overdoing?

But let’s consider one more example. God gave us the Mosaic laws as guidelines for our daily life. He expects us to make use of the Ten Commandments to find our way back to Him. However, instead of using the Law to help us do good, the enemies of Jesus made use of the Law to pass judgment on Jesus, accusing Him of curing the sick on Sabbath! They turned the Law into a weapon for condemning people instead of building up people. Nowadays, we see similar things happening in the Catholic Church. Haven’t you heard of the arguments AGAINST receiving the Holy Communion in hands? Some Catholics insist that such a manner is impious and even blasphemous! They have forgotten Jesus’ teachings in various gospel passages, such as Matthew 7:1 and John 4:23. In short, we were created in the image of God and we enjoy playing God and passing judgment on others. In so doing, we overstep our being creatures! Let’s bear in mind that there’s a price to pay when people overdo. For example, God allowed the Assyrians to chasten the idolatrous Israelites (Isaiah 10:6). Yet the Assyrians overdid and were in turn punished by God (10:12).

On the other hand, God came to turn useful the messes created by us. For example, out of greed or perhaps ambition, Caesar Augustus decreed a census (Luke 2:1). God made use of this ‘evil’ to fulfil a prophecy: That the Saviour would be born in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:6). Moreover, astrology had always been an ‘evil’ in the eyes of the Jews but God made use of it to lead the Magi from the East to seek the newly born Jewish king! The adoration of the Magi opened the mind of Jewish Christians to accept Gentiles into the Church. Of course the path was not a smooth one. The Apostles had to convoke a Jerusalem Council to settle the issue (Acts 15). In Church history, the Reformation was an unlucky and evil event no matter which side you’re on. Many people were killed in wars between the Catholic countries and Protestant countries. Within Catholic countries, many Protestants were martyred and vice versa. However, without Reformation, the Catholic Church would have remained complacent and European. She would have continued enjoying her security in a comfort zone built up in previous centuries. Peoples in the America’s, Africa and the Far East might not have the opportunity to listen to the liberating gospel of Jesus! Of course, the missionary history is not free from scandals. Reading these stories, how can we not be humble before our Creator?

Humility is always in short supply. Take a look at the gospel story today. A scholar of the Law stood up to test Jesus (Luke 10:25)! In his eyes, Jesus was an enemy and this hostility blinded the scholar of the true identity of Jesus, the supreme Giver and Teacher of the Law! Despite this, Jesus turns this challenge into a teaching occasion and leaves behind the famous parable of the Good Samaritan for our benefit! With this parable, Jesus hopes to save the scholar from his egocentrism. It is wrong to ask “Who is my neighbour?” (10:28) because all of us are our brothers’ keepers (Genesis 4:19). We should put on their shoes and feel from their perspective. “Who is the neighbour to the robbers’ victim?” (Luke 10:36) is the right question to ask. Jesus has demonstrated it well. He had compassion on the scholar and was able to see and feel from the scholar’s intention, how eagar the scholar wanted to trap Him. With compassion for all humanity, whether they are likeable or unlikeable, Jesus was able to jump out of the box to help the scholar turn around. Jesus did not reason with the scholar in logic and words alone. He won the scholar over by showing the scholar compassion, just like the good Samaritan who showed compassion to the injured enemy. Jesus teaches in words and deeds.

Brethren! Learn from Jesus. Have compassion on even unlikeable people. We’ll never overdo to have compassion on the others. Even if we’re incapable of following Jesus’ exemplar, at least we should heed the advice of St. Paul, “Have the same regard for one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly; do not be wise in your own estimation. Do not repay anyone evil for evil; be concerned for what is noble in the sight of all. If possible, on your part, live at peace with all.” (Romans 12:16-18)
God bless!
2019 Reflection
Picture Credit: wikipedia