Faith

My word is heard – Saturday, First week of Lent – Deuteronomy 26:16-19/Matthew 5:43-48

If a Catholic were to recall the day of their confirmation, even if they received the sacrament at 15 years, at best they would recall a few snatches of the day. I can’t recall a thing except the late Bishop Longinus Pereira who seemed very scary at the time and of course, Fr Jude Pereira, whose catechesis is perhaps what fostered a vocation.

The text from Deuteronomy which is the first reading at today’s liturgy, is to my mind, a text worthy of the liturgy for the sacrament of confirmation. At present, we can choose from texts taken from the prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel or Joel. But this text to my mind is special, apt for young people and suited for the understanding of the reception of the sacrament.

Deuteronomy can be read as if Moses is throwing the law book at you. Yes, it does make for tedious reading and like any 120-year-old man it seems like he is rambling on and on about the same things. Well, Moses may have been 120 years old but he was not rambling or repetitive; he was concerned.

Moses had led the people out of Israel and no sooner did they experience freedom from Pharaoh than they rebelled against God in a bid to win freedom from Him. They had experienced the power of God who ravaged the land of Egypt with seven plagues to humble Pharaoh into submission and set his people free. Yet, at the first opportunity, they attempted to break free from the God who had set them free. God had enough of their shenanigans and he was determined that this generation was not going to see the promised land. As a result, they rambled for forty years in the wilderness.

Deuteronomy 4:1 has Moses addressing (and it is a very long address spanning 16 odd chapters) the next generation of Israelites who perhaps were born in the wilderness or too young to participate in the sins of their parents at Mt Sinai. This is their confirmation day! Yes, they were chosen by God but now they had to say their yes to Him and this they had to do before they crossed the Jordan into Canaan, the land “flowing with milk and honey.” (26:9)

Deuteronomy, by its very Greek name, means the second law. It is not that God wrote a new law for this new generation of Israelites but rather Moses reminds them of the law previously given and explains it again to this new generation. This was the law that was previously given to their forefathers at Sinai (Exodus) and now that this new generation had reached the crossing into the promised land, they had to make a free choice to accept this covenantal relationship that God offered them. This is exactly what we do at confirmation. The seal of the Holy Spirit is the seal of the covenantal relationship that every baptized catholic chooses to make for themselves at an age of reason; a seal that accepts God as their Lord and accepts his statutes and ordinances (all of them).

Many may read this book or for that matter may see the Christian life as too tedious. Deuteronomy itself is like a thousand ‘do this and don’t do that’. We must understand the mind of God as communicated to this new generation of Israelites on the threshold of entering the promised land.

The law was not given to them to burden them as much as it was given to them to set them apart. The text of today reminds us of the words of God, “Today the Lord has obtained YOUR agreement; to be his treasured people, as he promised you, and to keep his commandments, for him to set you high above the nations that he has made, in praise and in fame and in honour and for you to be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.”(26:18-19).

God did not want us to be burdened with the law but to stand apart because we follow the law. He wanted the new generation of Israelites to be set apart from the seven nations that formed the region of Canaan. Confirmation is the setting apart of a young generation of Catholics who chose FREELY to ratify this covenant made at their Baptism with God. It is the entering into the promised land which ironically has not just seven nations but thousands of conflicting views. It is a sacrament that relies on the Holy Spirit to stand apart in a world that is falling apart. Confirmation is not a slavish following of a book of laws or a restrictive life but rather a free choice to become a soldier in God’s army where ‘the enemy’ is a crafty and devious adversary and the battle against him is real.

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God’s amnesty scheme? Friday, 1st Week of Lent – Ezekiel 18:21-28/Matthew 5:20-26

When you first read Ezekiel 18:21-28 it seems like a spiritual amnesty scheme has been announced and it reads very well in the context of Lent. Just as the Income Tax Department (IRS), from time to time has an amnesty scheme; pay your tax with no penalty of jail time or else face the heat, this text too sounds at first like God’s spiritual amnesty. The text itself says, “IF the wicked man RENOUNCES ALL the sins he has committed, RESPECTS (all) my laws and is law-abiding and honest, then he will live.” But read this text in its larger context and it reads rather differently.

This is an argument that God and the exiles of Babylon seem to be having. The people’s point of view, while not recorded, is answered by God in his defence arguments. What seems to set God off is recorded in Ezekiel 18:1 where the third generation of exiles seem to think that their suffering is due to their parent’s fault; so why should they suffer? They propagate their victim spirituality in a neatly crafted proverb. “The parents have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”

God does not buy into this argument. The parents of these exiles indeed brought the wrath of God and their exile into Babylon by their sinful behaviour but that does not mean that God is vengeful enough to make several generations suffer. God categorically states in today’s text that ‘he does not take pleasure in the death of even the wicked man.’ So clearly, the exiles in Babylon had to man up and take responsibility for their actions (which they cleary did not want to)

God is emphatic; you are responsible for your spiritual life. If a wicked person renounces his wickedness and embraces God he is saved. This is an offer for all of this Lent. Yet when “an upright person renounces integrity, commits sin, copies the wicked and practices every kind of filth (all God’s words used here) all the integrity he practiced is forgotten from then on.

So let me put this in a very clear illustration. Assume your parents have cheated their relatives of the ancestral property. They appropriated by forgery or trickery the family property. This is a grievous sin and is purely their sin. However, this sin does not and cannot pass down to you. Let us now assume that they have passed away and, in these years, you have lived a good, honest and wonderful Christian life. Now that they have passed on, they have willed you this property which YOU KNOW has been fraudulently obtained. The teaching is clear. Upto now you are blameless, their sin is not your sin. However, the day you accept that which you know is fraudulently inherited or rather usurped, even though it is willed to you, that is the day you renounce your uprightness and integrity, you become a participant of the sins of your family, you copy the wicked.

In the Gospel of Matthew, God does not want us to accept mediocrity; he wants us to be the best. Do not kill we are told and many of us do not commit murder but then again slander and calumny come so easy to us. The season of Lent IS DEMANDING but then again no one forces you to accept it, Christ did not! Remember he said, “If you wish to be my disciple….take up your cross.”

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God is not your slot machine-Thursday of the first week in Lent – Esther 4:17/ Matthew 7:7-12

When you read this text, “ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it shall be opened to you” it seems like one has just accessed a code to a secret Christian wish list site. Now that you have logged in, leave your wish list and sit back. Your wishes are going to tumble into your lap like a Las Vegas slot machine.

As ridiculous as this may seem it ironically is read by Christians the way they want. This verse apparently, seems for many Christians, the blank cheque they long for. Yet there has been a lot of desperate asking that was not met. So how do we approach this text?

Firstly, this text is part of a larger teaching. Jesus is on the Mount of Beatitudes teaching what has come to be known as the Sermon on the Mount. The teaching of Jesus focuses largely on prayer. He has told us that we must pray (6:7) and has told us that we should not pray like the Gentiles who heap up many words (6:8). He then gives us an important piece of information which many of us have failed to see; he says, “your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” He then gave us a prayer and allowed us to God Abba. He taught us how to structure prayer into praise and then petition (6:9-14). He clearly instructed us not to worry about our lives or what we are to eat and drink (6:25) and reiterated it in 6:31 and again in 6:34. (Just in case you were still not paying attention)

It is in this context that he now tells us to ask, seek and knock. Interestingly, he places three components; ask, seek and knock and not just the one that we conveniently read. This is what the prosperity gospel preachers do. This is not what Christ said.

Asking is not a wish list you type into your phone and hit send. It is a life of prayer, a life of conversation with God. Asking leads us to seek the will of God; His will, His kingdom. Seeking here is not a treasure hunt, as if God has left clues in the Bible. (Sadly, many do this) Seeking is a patient looking and not some frantic 911 call to God on speed dial when I need him (Many of us don’t want him usually.) We are not called to seek him for what we want, rather we seek him to understand if our asking is in line with his will. Finally, we are called to knock and this calls for humility. You have to go to him; to God. YOU have to do it. You have to ask to be admitted into his presence so that your petition may be placed before him. Others could do it for you (intercessory prayer) but then again you are not paralyzed like the man let down from the roof.

The scripture text of today tells us that the heavenly father gives good things to those who ask. God WILL NOT give us what is bad for us. He knows our needs (Matthew 6:8) yet he does not care for our greed.

In the first reading, Queen Esther, now the wife of the King of Persia is petitioned by her uncle to plead to the king against an unjustly motivated edict that will see all the Jews put to death. Esther is afraid for her life. To go into the presence of the King without being summoned would be certain death. Yet Esther knows that the lives of her people hang in the balance. We are told Esther prayed and fasted for three days and then went to the King who welcomed her, listened to her, accepted her petition and gave victory to Esther and the Jews.

The next time you want to ask so that you may receive, first seek and knock and for good measure try fasting and praying for three days like Queen Esther.

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40 days more and you will die! -Wednesday, 1st Week in Lent – Jonah 3:1-10/ Luke 11:29-32

What if the Holy Father, on Ash Wednesday revealed a message from God, ‘Forty days more and the world will be destroyed.’ I think that particular season of Lent would be one that nobody would have ever experienced before. Churches would be packed like sardines in a can, Zomato would go out of business, the fashion industry would take a hit and with it the travel industry, the stocks of ashes and sackcloth would soar and priests would be as exhausted as doctors and nurses were during covid; exhausted from the thousands of penitents who wanted to make sure every little sin, including the ones ‘they previously could not remember’ were confessed, now in the most ‘annoying’ detail.

The truth is, that for the large majority of Catholics, this is a season that no longer has any reason. Even the average Sunday-going catholic may just decide to give the essentials of this season a miss and flirt around the peripheries of a few Lenten disciplines. Yet, there is but one thing that is asked for this season which is repentance; the rest are just expressions of joy of being loved and forgiven. Yet the evidence is right before you; the confessionals are empty and stand on your head all you want in Lent, but you still won’t make it to the borders of the pearly gates.

Nineveh was told that they would be destroyed in forty days and they went nuts with their repentance. So, get this right, this was not some devout city of God; this was no Jerusalem. These were people who belonged to a bloodthirsty race. It was the Assyrians with their capital in Nineveh took the Northern Kingdom into exile in 721 BC; they took God’s chosen race and marched thousands from their homeland hooked to their mouths. This was prophesied by Amos in 4:2 and it came to pass.

To this hated nation, God decided to show his mercy and Jonah the prophet could not wrap his head around God’s ‘madness’. We are told in today’s text that the word of God came to Jonah a second time. This was a disobedient prophet who when sent on this mission the first time, attempted to take a slow boat to Tarshish and then preferred to be thrown into the sea than complete God’s mission. Now, we are told in 3:1 that this reluctant prophet ‘obeyed God.’ Did he?

The evidence from the text tells us he did not. So, why was Jonah so mulish? While Jonah admits in 4:2 that he knew that God at his core was merciful and he would forgive the enemies of Jonah’s people if they repented, he perhaps was not ready to accept that his ego too had taken a beating. The only source outside the book of Jonah that tells us about this prophet is 2 Kings 14:23-27. It tells us that Jonah prophesied to the Northern Kingdom a message of restoration and hope even when he knew the sinful patterns of abuse, injustice, and idolatry that his people lived in. He was a misplaced nationalist. Now, God had destroyed his people, and taken them away to exile and now his very God wanted to offer mercy to the enemy. God’s sense of humour should not be lost on us; he chose this misplaced nationalist, Jonah, to go to the very enemy to proclaim repentance.

Much to Jonah’s frustration Nineveh repented. Now let us not make this repentance seem to be lighthearted even though the narrative may seem lighthearted. It is odd to think of animals and flocks wearing sackcloth and ashes and hence easy to dismiss the most important part of this narrative. This was not a long fist-thumping homily of repentance that Jonah preached. Five words in Hebrew or eleven in the English language was all it took for true repentance to kick in. No one ate, there was no fancy dress, they prayed and they renounced evil and said “God only knows if he will relent.” At the end of all of this, a nation that did not know Yahweh took a chance on him and repented.

Let me draw this to a close. We are told in scripture that “God saw their effort to renounce their evil behaviour.” Did they change and grow angelic wings? I don’t think so! But they TRIED (words from scripture) and God saw how much they did and he RELENTED

Lesson learnt? If not…see you next lent!

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Let my words be few – Tuesday, 1st Week in Lent – Isaiah 55:10-11/ Matthew 6:7-15

Isaiah 55 was written at the end of the Babylonian exile. In 586 BC the Israelites were taken into captivity. Two generations spanning seventy years have passed and now through a twist of fate, Persia defeats Babylon in 538 BC. The Persian king Cyrus, decreed the return of the Jews to their homeland in Jerusalem. Ironically, there seemed to be a muted rejoicing. Why were the Jews not happy?

The seventy years in exile had taken its natural toll on the people. While they spoke of their homeland many did not want to return to Jerusalem. By now they had intermarried, integrated into Babylonian society, had jobs and homes and were permitted under Babylonian rule to freely practice their faith. The cities of Mesopotamia where the Israelites had settled were leading cities in the world order; they were rich in commerce, culture and trade. So, the logical response would be, ‘Why go back’?

The journey to Jerusalem would not be a cake walk and while they would have to survive an arduous journey, greeting them back home would be arid soil and ruins of their city and temple. They would have to build homes and cities. Jerusalem would have to be walled and the land tilled. It is for this reason that chapters 40-55 of the prophet Isaiah are written; God exhorts the people to return home and he laces this with promises for they are told that the desert would bloom.

To many, these words of God may seem like a honey trap. But God is no smooth talker. He walks the talk and his words are words of promise. ‘The word from his mouth does not return empty but shall accomplish that which he has purposed.’ (Isaiah 55:11)

Notice that God not only keeps his promise but his words are few. And that takes us to the Gospel of today. Jesus exhorts his disciples not to babble like the pagans. God is not deaf; he does not need bells to be rung. Just as God made his plea, his prayer and promise to the people of Israel so too must we. Our pleas, prayers and promises must be sincere and heartfelt and not a show for the world. Many words need not necessarily get his attention.

It is for this reason that Christ teaches his disciples how to pray. He says, “Pray like this.” The Lord’s Prayer is unique in its simplicity but powerful in its content. Its simplicity is marked in the fact that it constitutes just praise for God and petition for our needs but it is powerful because it gave us the privilege to call God, ‘Abba.’ The children of God who could never utter God’s name now enter into a relationship with him through prayer.

The Our Father has been said for 2000 years. There is an unbroken chain from Jesus to the apostles to the martyrs, to the saints to you and me. When you say that prayer today remember the promises God made to you, remember the simplicity with which you can approach him, and remember that you are linked to Jesus through an unbroken chain of simple yet powerful words.

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