02 August 2013, Friday, 17th Week, Ordinary Time THE CREDENTIALS OF A MINISTER RESTS ON THE PRIMACY OF GRACE EXPERIENCED THROUGH PRAYER SCRIPTURE READINGS: Lv 23:1, 4-11,15-16; 27,34-37; Mt 13:54-58 Quite often when we are invited to give talks, we are asked for our CV, that is, our curriculum vitae. People would like to know our credentials so as to establish our authority as a speaker. Although some of us fight shy of glorifying ourselves, yet, because people do not know us, they need to rely on external criteria to assess the credibility and authenticity of what we are teaching. What then are our credentials as ministers of the gospel? Can we simply rely on our institutional credentials, that is, for priests, the sacrament of Holy Orders; for lay people, their academic theological and religious degrees or even years of experience in Church ministry? Or are we simply disciples witnessing to the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ? When we look at Jesus in today’s gospel, He did not seem to have any credentials. Indeed, we know that Jesus was neither a priest nor a theologian, as He did not belong to any school; or a teacher, although out of respect and deference for Him, His disciples called Him “rabbi.” So strictly speaking, He could not even be recognized as a doctor of law or of religion. He was more an itinerant preacher, perceived as a founder of a new sect based on His personal experience of God. Not surprisingly therefore, when Jesus taught the people in their synagogue, “they were astonished and said, ‘Where did this man get his wisdom and these miraculous powers?” They could not believe that Jesus could teach and speak in such an authoritative and commanding manner. They were not only astounded at the obvious impact of Jesus’ teaching but also more astonished when they recounted that He was only the son of a carpenter! And so after the spectacular speech of Jesus, their minds began to play on them. It was very difficult for them to accept Jesus based on what He said rather than where He came from and where He studied. Whilst they were impressed in their hearts, their minds doubted. Of course, jealousy and pride had much to play in their rejection of Jesus. They argued, “This is the carpenter’s son, surely? Is not his mother the women called Mary and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Jude? His sisters, too, are they not all here with us? So where did the man get it all?’ And they would not accept him.” Because the external credentials of Jesus were not impressive, they did not trust in Jesus and they could not accept His words. Instead of examining what Jesus taught and judging the truth of His words, they focused on His external qualifications. This is understandable, as they did not know Jesus personally. The irony is that they thought they knew Him when they did not. The only knowledge they had of Jesus was just some bio-data about Him. As a result, no miracles were worked, because they were not open to the grace of God in Jesus. They did not trust Him. This resulted in their loss, for Jesus said to them, “A prophet is only despised in his own country and in his own house.” And the evangelist remarked, “and he did not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith.” The question that we need to ask is the same question they asked, “So where did the man get it all?” His credentials did not come from external authority but from within. It was an inner authority based on His personal encounter with the Father. Thus He spoke from the depth of this encounter, from His heart, His personal experience of the Father. So, what He said could not but be the truth and the wisdom of God! His authority ultimately rested on His relationship with the Father. It is clear that such inner authority could only come from prayer and contemplation. Similarly for us, without prayer and intimacy with the Father, we will never have the inner authority to speak as though from the Father, just as Jesus did. Consequently, without a personal faith in Jesus, our pastoral planning will be self-reliant; dependent on own our resources, energy and ingenuity. Indeed, how many of us rely on grace in our pastoral projects? Often we forget, or do not realize, that success is not dependent on us alone, even if our cooperation is necessary. Instead of allowing Jesus to work miracles in our lives, we use our human effort alone. Hence, the success of our ministry is meager. The lack of faith in Jesus is due to a lack of understanding of Jesus. Ultimately, it springs from a weak relationship with Him. This explains why the relatives and townsfolk of Jesus could not accept Him. The problem with the contemporaries of Jesus was that they only knew the Jesus of history and His external credentials. They did not know His personal identity, which requires faith. Only faith can enable them to see and confess in Jesus’ divinity. Faith is not reducible to logic. Faith requires reason, but once reason has established the reasonableness of faith, that is, the preambles of faith, then we must make the leap of faith, just as the disciples did. Only faith can lead us to a deeper knowledge of Jesus, which comes through prayer and contemplation. If without faith no miracles can be worked, it also means that there is a deep relationship between prayer and grace. Without prayer, we will be without faith. Without faith in Him, God cannot work miracles in our lives and allow His grace to operate in us. Through prayer we gain a deeper knowledge of the Lord. How then can we deepen our faith and our relationship with the Lord? The first reading tells us that it is through the celebration of festivals and rituals that the people would come to experience the love and mercy of God. From the Book of Leviticus, we read of the institution of the celebrations of the Passover at spring, followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Pentecost or of Weeks. The Feast of Atonement was celebrated in autumn. These celebrations were important to commemorate and remember their relationship with the Lord. Unfortunately, though important and relevant, the rituals, when practised without recalling the original meaning of the celebrations and detached from the experiences of their forefathers, no longer evoked their relationship with God. It became merely a performance, not a reliving of their relationship with God. We, too, can fall into the same trap of routine prayers and a ritualistic relationship with the Lord. Although it is true that the power of miracles comes from prayer, which in turn strengthens the encounter and the relationship, yet many of us are like the Israelites celebrating the liturgy in a perfunctory manner. We say our prayers and celebrate the sacraments without a direct awareness of what we are doing and to whom we are praying. Without a personal faith and purposeful attention to the meaning of what we are celebrating, we are in danger of being satisfied with a superficial relationship with the Lord. Such a shallow knowledge of Him, grounded more in study than in personal experience, will deprive us of the experience of His power at work in us. And the truth is that unless we experience the power of miracles, we will rely less and less on His grace. Only reliance on the grace of God will lead us to have a deeper faith in Him. Only then, will we know the power of God. That this is the case is underscored by the late Pope John Paul II in his apostolic letter “Novo Millennio Ineunte” when he spoke of the importance of the primacy of grace that comes from our contemplation of the face of Christ for the work of mission and evangelization. WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV MSGR WILLIAM GOH ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ___________________________ Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart. - See more at: csctr.net/reflections/?utm_source=CSC+Weekly+Update&utm_campaign=c994f45e4b-Weekly_Update_13_19_May_20135_13_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b56cc50263-c994f45e4b-273542365#sthash.wijVL804.dpuf
Posted on: Thu, 01 Aug 2013 23:19:03 +0000
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