Martin Jumbam
Mother Church celebrates Sunday, February 25, 2017, as the Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year A. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “The Lord has been my strength; he has led me into freedom. He saved me because he loves me. Amen.”
The first reading, which is very short, comes from one of Isaiah’s poems welcoming the exiles back to the Promised Land. The prophet consoles God’s people with the assurance that God will never abandon them. No human agency for good or evil will ever separate God from the people he loves. God is presented as a tender mother and God’s people as infants whom he nurses. Even if a woman were to forget the baby at her breast, God’s assurance is: “I will never forget you”. This theme is echoed in the Gospel message where Matthew tells us that God knows our needs and does not abandon us. For any Christian, it is essential to remember that we are never entirely alone, forsaken or rejected because we can always turn back to God who cares for us. In the second reading, Saint Paul says that he and his co-workers should be considered ‘servants of Christ’ and administrators of the mysteries of God. The sublime calling of preachers makes them men who fulfill God’s plan of redemption, and they are answerable to God alone.
First Reading: Isaiah 49: 14-15.
Zion was saying, ‘The Lord has abandoned me, the Lord has forgotten me.’ Does a woman forget her baby at her breast, or fail to cherish the son of her womb? Yet even if these forget, I will never forget you.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
Chapter 49 of the prophecy of Isaiah deals with the release of God’s people from exile in Babylon on the orders of the Lord, the ruler of the world and of all nations. It sings of the restoration of Zion and the renewal of its people. The prophet is speaking to a disillusioned people who have just returned from exile. The initial enthusiasm that has accompanied them from exile is beginning to wane as they face the reality on the ground. Their efforts to rebuild Jerusalem and have a space for themselves in the new order is proving more difficult than originally thought. The inhabitants of the city who never left are not as welcoming as they had thought. There are still class differences, greed is plain for all to see and the majority of the returnees are experiencing poverty and are being exploited by those who had not gone into exile. The kind of Jerusalem the exiles had dreamed of has not come true.
That is when the prophet Isaiah steps in to dispel the discouragement taking root among the returnees and to raise their hopes by telling them of the Liberator God who will restore the holy city of Jerusalem and free its people from misery.
In this short passage, the prophet focuses attention on Zion, the city that pleases the Lord to which people will come from all over the world to settle and worship the only true God. He speaks in moving language of God’s love for his people which is an intense as the love of a mother who can never forget her children. This is one of the most beautiful metaphors in the Bible that describes God’s love for his people. Like a mother, God has borne mankind, and especially the chosen people, in his womb; he has given birth to it in pain, and has nourished and consoled it.
Saint John Paul II, commenting on this passage, says that “From the deep and original bond – indeed the unity – that links a mother to her child there springs a particular relationship to the child, a particular love. Of this love, one can say that it is completely gratuitous, not merited, and that in this aspect it constitutes an interior necessity. (…). This love, faithful and invincible thanks to the mysterious power of motherhood, is expressed in the Old Testament in various ways: as salvation from dangers, especially from enemies; also as forgiveness of sins (…) (Dives in misericordia, 52).
What message do I draw from this short reading? Simply that God never abandons us, his people. Even when we sin and misfortunes seem to overwhelm us, as it happened to God’s people in exile, God always comes looking for us, as he went looking for our first parents – Adam and Eve -- when they sinned (Gen 3: 8-11). No human agency for good or evil will ever separate God from the people he loves. May the Holy Spirit continue to guide us as we make our pilgrimage to the Lord’s house in heaven! Amen.
Second Reading: First Corinthians 4:1-5.
People must think of us as Christ’s servants, stewards entrusted with the mysteries of God. What is expected of stewards is that each one should be found worthy of his trust. Not that it makes the slightest difference to me whether you, or indeed any human tribunal, find me worthy or not. I will not even pass judgment on myself. True, my conscience does not reproach me at all, but that does not prove that I am acquitted; the Lord alone is my judge. There must be no passing of premature judgment. Leave that until the Lord comes: he will light up all that is hidden in the dark and reveal the secret intentions of men’s hearts. Then will be the time for each one to have whatever praise he deserves, from God.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
Part of the problem of the Church of Corinth has been the presence of several preachers of the Gospel, rivaling each other to recruit believers. Paul has to consider the position of these servants of Christ who, for the most part, are sowing seeds of disunity in the young Church. In this passage, he outlines the features of a good preacher. He must be the ‘servant of Christ’, the ‘steward of God’s mysteries’. The sublime calling of the preacher, which is to bring Christ to the world in fulfillment of God’s plan of redemption, makes him answerable to God alone. In no way is he accountable to the Corinthians. This puts Paul’s ministry beyond the grudges and petty arguments of everyday life.
Christ’ servant is the person to whom he has entrusted his property – his teaching and his sacraments, which he must protect and faithfully spread to others. To Paul, the basic qualification for being a servant or a steward of Christ is trustworthiness.
The Church has always applied these words of Saint Paul to the Christian priesthood. “The priest is the minister of Christ, an instrument, that is to say, in the hands of the divine Redeemer. He continues the work of the redemption in all its universality and divine efficacy, that work that wrought so marvelous a transformation in the world. Thus, the priest, as is said with good reason, is indeed ‘another Christ’, for, in some way he is himself a continuation of Christ. (…). A priest is appointed ‘steward of the mysteries of God’ (cf. 1 Cor 4:1) for the benefit of the members of the mystical body of Christ, since he is the ordinary minister of nearly all the sacraments – those channels through which the grace of the Saviour flows for the good of humanity” (Pius XI, Ad catholici sacerdotti).
In claiming that the Lord alone is judge, Saint Paul discourages his converts from passing judgment on others. The Master alone is the judge. This teaching applies to us as well. We should all put our talents to the service of the Lord and refrain from judging others unless we have some special position which obliges us to do so. Even if we do, the judgment we make will only be valid if it is in accord with the will of God.
Saint Paul also makes an examination of conscience and finds nothing to reproach himself for. We too should always take the time, especially in the evening, to review our day and examine our conscience, as Saint Ignatius of Loyola advises, to see what we did for Christ, what we are doing for Christ and what we should be doing for Christ. We then thank God for the good things that came into our lives; and ask for pardon for all our shortcomings.
Lord Jesus, grant that I may see you more clearly, love you more dearly and follow you more closely. Amen.
Gospel: Matthew 6:24-34.
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money. ‘That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it. Surely life means more than food, and the body more than clothing! Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are? Can any of you, for all his worrying, add one single cubit to his span of life? And why worry about clothing? Think of the flowers growing in the fields; they never have to work or spin; yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his regalia was robed like one of these. Now if that is how God clothes the grass in the field which is there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will he not much more look after you, you men of little faith? So do not worry; do not say, “What are we to eat? What are we to drink? How are we to be clothed?” It is the pagans who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all. Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on his righteousness, and all these other things will be given you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
V/ The Gospel of the Lord.
R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Comment
In the first reading of this Holy Mass, we hear how the Jewish people in exile are deeply worried, anxious and afraid because they believe that God has abandoned them to their own devices. But the prophet Isaiah addresses them and reassures them that even if a mother were to forget her baby at her breast, God would never forget them. God is presented as the tender, caring mother who could never abandon her children.
In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus speaking similar words of comfort: Do not be anxious; do not be afraid: “I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it” (Mt 6:25). This is a beautiful passage in which Jesus shows us the value of the ordinary things of life, and teaches us to put all our trust in God’s fatherly providence. Using simple examples and comparisons from everyday life – the birds of the air and the blooming flowers – he teaches us to abandon ourselves completely in God’s care.
This is, however, not an easy advice to follow. We live in an age of anxiety. Someone has said that we face three types of anxiety in our world today: social anxiety, religious anxiety and personal anxiety. Social anxiety comes from our fear of wars, terrorism and violence, job insecurity, among other things; religious anxiety comes from our concern about changes in the Church and the future of belief itself; personal anxiety comes from our worries about our families, our health, loneliness in society, etc.
Jesus tells us in this Gospel not to worry unnecessarily about what we are to eat, drink or wear. He gives a few examples of a worry-free life: the birds in the air and the flowers in the field that are taken care of by God. He is definitely not telling us that we can have a care-free life without a worry in the world. That would be unrealistic. He means we must rely more on God than on our capabilities. What he is against is an anxiety that consumes us, steals our energy and leaves us feeling completely abandoned by God, as the people of Israel felt in exile until the prophet Isaiah reminded them that God would never abandon them.
We too should put all our trust in God and not become slaves to material comforts. We should not let cares and worries weigh us down. We should cast them onto the Lord and he will take care of them for us. He puts these beautiful words in the mouth of his evangelist Matthew: “Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). He asks us to see beyond our real fears to a God who knows and values us. That is not easy, though. When we feel anxious, it is not easy to pay attention to anything other than our anxiety. Many are exhausted simply from coping with what life brings them; they feel they have no heart for God because they have nothing left to give. Christ asks us to place our anxieties in God’s care.
If there is one message we can take from this day’s Gospel message, it is our Lord’s exhortation to us to go about our daily lives without unnecessary worries. Jesus spoke those words not only to his listeners on that day on the mountain but to us as well. In a deeply personal way, he directs those words to you and me.
Let us pray: “Lord God, when I read your words, I realize that I am caught up in all sorts of worries. I worry, sometimes without being aware of it, about my family, my health, my security and safety in society. You are asking me to relax and trust in you and you will give me rest. I praise and thank you, Lord, for pledging to take care of me and my loved ones. Thank you for showing me the beautiful picture of the birds as they fly past my window. Thank you for the beauty of the flowers in my garden. Teach me to admire and respect the beauty of your creation and help me to make this passage of your Gospel come alive in me today and always. I make my prayer through Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit One God forever and ever. Amen.”
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