The Secret to Be the Greatest 做最大的秘訣

The Twenty-Fifth Ordinary Sunday, Year B
Theme: The Secret to Be the Greatest 做最大的秘訣

Due to time constrains, it is regrettable that we only hear excerpts of the Bible on Sunday celebrations. Without knowing a fuller context, the congregation would wonder why such and such things would happen. Take the first reading of today as an example. We appreciate the efforts of compilers in the Liturgical Commission for making the readings more assessable to the congregation. However, their choice of wording in this case is questionable. It starts like this, “The wicked say: Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us …” (Wisdom 2:12a). The compilers added “The wicked say” to summarize the previous eleven verses! I wonder what those people have done to deserve a “wicked” label? I looked up the text and found that they were rich and powerful people who did not find any meaningful purposes in life. They lamented that death was the only certainty. There was no remedy for their dying. Their births were by chance and their deaths left nothing behind. In between, their lives passed away like the traces of a cloud. Therefore, they chose to enjoy good things such as costly wine and perfumes. How can you criticize people for holding such kind of worldview and leading such kind of affluent life style, which they can afford? All of us are free to choose and to act when we do not harm other people, aren’t we?

The more morally offending thing comes next. In modern jargon, not only was their life style unsustainable but they were also abusing the environment, “Let no meadow be free from our wantonness; everywhere let us leave tokens of our merriment, for this is our portion, and this is our lot” (2:9). I am not sure whether ancient people would be offended because it was very unlikely that they knew of any sorts of pollution with which modern people are familiar. Perhaps what in our eyes are pollutions, such as cattle dung left in the open, were actually chemical free fertilizers. It was part of their environmental protection wisdom! Nowadays, we know that it is definitely unethical to be so irresponsible in damaging the environment, a home common to all humanity now and in the future. But we don’t label those people “wicked”, do we? In fact, the author of Wisdom only describes them as “not thinking rightly” (2:1). People do not think rightly for many reasons. For example, ignorance, lack of education, too busy to make the ends meet etc. As long as the damages done do not harm other people’s lives, labelling those people “wicked” is polemic. Of course, the wicked do not think rightly when they benefit themselves at the expenses of other people. Sometimes, circumstances force people to choose a lesser evil. Therefore, even the righteous may choose a relatively wicked path in order to prevent an even greater evil from happening. Life is truly complex.

When we read further, ethics dictates that those people deserved to be labelled wicked, “Let us oppress the righteous poor; let us neither spare the widow nor revere the aged for hair grown white with time. But let our strength be our norm of righteousness; for weakness proves itself useless” (2:10-11). Indeed, “might makes right” is a wicked principle because we are doing harm to those who are unable to defend themselves. People who approach life and organize it in accordance to this principle are wicked because the law of the jungle reduces us into beasts. As Christians, we do not see the world as a battle field of zero-sum games. “Either you die or I live” is a law only tyrants would lay down. No! God is not a tyrant. His law is instead “Either you live or I die” and He actually dies so that we may live! As Christians, we look for opportunities to create win-win situations. Thus we defend the rights of the voiceless, advocate for the needs of the socially marginalized and opt for the poor etc. Though we inevitably become enemies of the “wicked”, we choose not to label them “wicked” in order to leave dialogues open in the future. If we are true disciples of Jesus, we should also follow the Master’s instructions not to pass judgment on the others (Matthew 7:1). This is what the Master means when after the first Prediction of His Passion, He told the crowd, His disciples and therefore us, to deny ourselves, carry our crosses and follow Him (Mark 8:34).

Jesus knew that His disciples needed more intensive coaching. So, after Jesus had shown the glory of resurrection to the three core disciples on a high mountain, He taught the Twelve again about the imminent Passion a second time. Obviously the disciples had not learnt the lesson yet because on the way, they were arguing about who was the greatest (9:34). Old habits die hard. The Twelve were adults and adult students are known to be hard to teach because modifying mind-sets demands Herculean efforts on the part of adult learners. Jesus is a teacher exemplar on a par with Confucius. His communication skills are superb and His teachings are deep, to say the least. Jesus does not condemn their ambition to be great because such an ambition is a powerful motivator to help people do good in face of difficulties and obstacles. Instead, He passes on to them the secret recipe to become great! “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all” (9:35b). Alas! Many people make use of authority in the wrong way. They abuse authority to herd wealth and benefits for themselves instead of exercising authority to do good for the people who gave them authority in the first place. Stewards, instead of properly discharging their role as servants, have become masters. The awareness of being a servant prevents state officials from lording over the commoners. Such an awareness would urge them to go into ghettoes to experience and to survey the real situations. Then those officials would not draw up impracticable policies inside air-conditioned offices.

Jesus knew that this teaching, like that of the Bread of Life, had been too deep for the Twelve and to the rest of all to receive (John 6:66), He further reinforced our learning by placing a child in their midst and putting His arms around it (Mark 9:6), saying “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” (9:37). Wasn’t Jesus trying to teach us how to be great? One wonders what a child has to do with greatness. Be careful! Jesus was not teaching us to receive the Kingdom of Heaven with simplicity like a child. No. That would take another occasion (10:15). See how fondly Jesus embraced the child, revealing the modus operandi of God: God loves to do big things through underdogs such as Jael who drove a peg through the temple of Sisera (Judges 4:21) and David who embedded a pebble in the forehead of Goliath (1 Samuel 17:49)! Jesus is telling us to learn from Him. Don’t weary ourselves with pomp and ceremony and cracking a nut with a sledgehammer! Those big shows only serve human vanity and contribute little to the success of a mission. Instead it is a waste of resources. God’s way is the best because it is the most efficient and effective to get things done! The most essential thing is to do God’s will, namely to love God and therefore love the needy. This is the proper way to exercise authority bestowed on us, and thus to become great. Otherwise, people would lament how the mighty have fallen (2 Samuel 1:25, 27)!

Beloved brethren! Let us follow the successful example of St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta to do small things with great love. We are surely on the right path! Amen.
God bless!

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