Mark’s Gospel at the
beginning makes it clear that Jesus Christ IS the Son of God and unlike the
other Gospels that established credentials either before creation or in time
through the Infancy Narratives, he gets straight down to the business of
proclaiming the good news of the same Jesus Christ the Lord.
We live, for all intents
purposes, in a world where money can buy just about anything and yet it is a
world which is markedly joyless. In this worry weary world, what is so good
about Jesus Christ? How can He be good news when we face before us, brokenness,
misery and loneliness? Nonetheless, before we dismiss the Gospel as irrelevant,
both the Prophet Isaiah and John the Baptist give us a vision of how this news
is good.
Isaiah consoled the
people by recalling them to how God would bind the wounds of those whose sins have
been forgiven. John recalled those who came in repentance to wait for the only
One who could baptise with the Holy Spirit.
We are presented with
this vision of a future world which, if we think about it, is one which calls
us to make ourselves ready for it. In short, this vision will not come to
fruition if we are not prepared for it. Again, in a world of silver platters
where we expect all good things to be served on, this sounds like a little
letdown. Perhaps, our idea of good fun may help illuminate our attitude towards
gratuity. For us, fun means as little effort as possible with the maximum return
in pleasure. When something is given free, we believe that we are entitled to
it without any effort. In other words, God’s gratuitous gift is not as free as
it seems. The truth is, grace may be given freely but it will never violate our
freedom to accept or reject it.
In that way, the vision
proposed by both Isaiah and John the Baptist is not without our effort. We have
a part to play which is why John the Baptist said, “Make straight your path”.
Today, we are encouraged
to prepare the way so that God’s vision of a world which He can recognise and in
we can flourish may come true. It requires that we change so that the world can
change. It is about conversion. But change is not easy.
You remember the Catholic
Business Fraternity drive last week or so? They were trying to get more
Catholics to register so that Catholic businesses can reach the wider Catholic
audience. Firstly, the way I said it made it sound ghettoish. Secondly, I did
mention, whilst promoting the drive last week, that I tend to give my business
to Catholics. Usually, I am partial to ours as the Teochews would say, “Ka ti
nang”… “Our own people”. Consider it a weakness which I easily give into.
Now, this happened two
years ago. I was on the way back to Maranatha Retreat House because I had come
down for a wedding. It was along Jalan Kuching and the road was jammed. A car
behind me on my left tried to switch lanes and as it did, I braked because the
cars in front braked. Consequently, the switching-lane car rammed into me. I
pulled aside and when I got out of the car, I saw the ubiquitous rosary hanging
from the usual rear-view mirror. I was relieved and I was actually willing to
forget the whole thing. Catholic-Catholic… but, the two men who got out of
their car, were confrontational and they blamed me for their carelessness. In
fact, they sounded threatening. That time, I told myself, “To hell with you”
and told them that it would be better if we settled it by making our respective
police reports. They did not show up at the police station and I subsequently
made a claim against their insurance.
What is the moral here?
Jesus did say in Matthew 5:46ff: For if you love those who love you, what right
have you to claim any credit? Even tax collectors do as much, do they not? You
must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.
The vision of the world
proposed by Isaiah and John requires that much change. But, we are unwilling
to. It is a way of behaviour that goes a mile or even more further. When I
think about the incident, I am not proud of it. We forgive even when people
cannot forgive us. We love when people cannot love us.[1] Our change cannot be
merely reciprocal in the sense that we react to people. Our standards must be
Christ’s.
When we think that it is
only our efforts that can bring about such a conversion, then we would have
failed. The standard has been set by Christ and therefore the grace will be His
to supply. As I have said it before, hope is eschatological in the sense that
it is always one step ahead of us. That is why we celebrate Advent every year.
The cycle reminds us that conversion is not an event. It is like you go for
confession and voila you will not sin again? No, the minute you step out of the
confessional, you see someone you do not like, you sin… It is a journey and a
process. Nevertheless, St Peter exhorts us to continue to live saintly lives. As
we change ourselves, we hope, we pray and we wait for God to make true what we
on our own cannot achieve.
[1]There is a nuance here which
is important. I am not advocating that you sit down and allow, for example,
your fundamental rights as citizens are taken away. I am referring to my sense
of “revenge”. Have you ever experience “unequal” forgiveness? You want to
forgive and move on but the other party refuses. And you become righteously
angry that he or she refuses. It is that kind of revenge or anger….
