Perhaps I should start with a fact of what I have been doing whenever I celebrate a funeral Mass. I usually wear a black chasuble. I am, by no means, the only one who wears black. The common colour associated with funerals is purple. In some cases, white is being used because it is the colour of the Resurrection. Using white sends the message that death is but a doorway to the Resurrection. White highlights the Resurrection and downplays death. But it reveals how jaundiced our view of the Resurrection can be because a poorer parishioner will never receive the honour of a white chasuble. It is reserved to those who are ranked or have status, like for example a bishop or a priest!
Black is depressing and it does not inspire hope. It is almost like a condemnation of the person who has just died. Could it be that the rush to “resurrect” a person is indicative of our quick—fix society or instant—gratification mentality? After all, the flick of a switch carries with it the expectation of immediacy. Hence, post death, we expect the person to be in heaven.
What we may fail to appreciate is that black respects the notion of God’s mercy and justice and this is supported by the Catholic teaching on purgatory. The 1st Reading in counselling the wise man to emulate God stresses this point about God’s compassion and that He never judges hastily. Thus, what truly symbolises God’s absolute mercy and perfect justice is the idea of purgation. There has to be a final cleansing of human imperfections and the analogy is like rolling out the red carpet because a dignitary is coming but in the case of purgation, it is more personal and interior like “taking a shower” in preparation for going out on a date or for an intimate encounter. Though souls may die in God’s friendship, they could still be tainted by remnants of sins. Hence, the inevitable necessity of purification for even as God’s mercy beckons us to Himself, God’s justice holds us accountable for our sins.
Contrary to common conception, purgatory is not as punitive as it is restorative. It is not an act of reproach as it is a gesture of respect for God’s holiness and a reminder not to commit the sin of presumption. We should not presume a person commended or condemned, exalted or exiled. Rather, we acknowledge the mystery of God’s mercy at work as we patiently wait for it to be completed.
This brings us to the Gospel and the Kingdom. If we have been too quick to judge a person by canonising him or her to be in heaven, perhaps we should also be slow in condemning him or her. The Kingdom here on earth sees wheat and weed growing together. While we may be impatient for God’s Kingdom to be fully established here on earth, Jesus instead preached that its full realisation will only come at the end of time. Hence to have a bit more faith in the process of God’s Kingdom coming to fruition.
Of course, we want to control the final outcome because hidden within us are control freaks but that is not because we have a pretension to great power. We are threatened by chaos and uncertainty and as part of our instinct to survive, we like to ensure a positive outcome. That is largely who we are. Of course, history has also been shaped by those who are tempted to be God and not even to be like God. Dictators, Communists and Socialists all have this grand vision of life and they believe that their vision alone holds the key to a perfection which can never be achieved in this lifetime.
The Gospel this Sunday encompasses three parables. The longer one does give an impression that both evil and good can co-exist. What is more? The current geopolitical and economic scenario is not encouraging. The price of crude oil is volatile and as such, the situation might just amplify our need to be in control. All these miss the point of the other two parables.
A tiny amount of yeast can leaven an entire batch of dough. A small mustard seed can grow into a big shrub. What these symbolise is how a little can actually achieve a lot. The temptation is always to try to accomplish and complete the Kingdom as if it were ours by right. Sometimes, in our hubris, we might even believe that a better world is our gift to God. Just like those who built the Tower of Babel.
But the Kingdom will always be in the process of completion. Its final manifestation will never be experienced while we are on the way except when the world ends. The grand scheme of creating a perfect world can never succeedthough it must remain a desire, much like the retreating horizon that we will never arrive at. Any attempt to complete and make perfect the world will end in human misery.
What is left for us is to be the yeast that leavens the dough or the shrub that puts out branches so that birds can shelter. The world is messy and we all instinctively know that. Look at our country with its hopeless corruption. Maybe when we cannot change the world, not from a want of desire or effort, but because its perfection is God’s gift to us, then we might do well to be a part of the process towards perfection through whatever effort we can contribute. No matter how small. Since we cannot have a perfect realisation of the Kingdom, perhaps we should strive not to be a problem in its fulfilment. That will take, for many of us, an entire lifetime for we fall, we rise, we fall, we rise. Why? In our hearts we have wheat and weed. In this pathway to the dawning of the Kingdomthe 1st Reading assures us that God is perfectly just because He is merciful. He is also profoundly merciful because He is just.
