4th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Deu 18:15-20
1 Cor 7:32-35
Mk 1:21-28
I say this only to help you, not to put a halter around your neck, but simply to make sure that everything is as it should be, and that you give your undivided attention to the Lord.
When I was in my teens and early adulthood, I went through a phase (okay I went through many, many phases, but so did almost everyone) where I would listen to Bob Marley and the Wailers on repeat. One of the songs, “Redemption Song”, was a particular favourite. A line in the song struck me as very significant, “How long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look?” Of course, at that time, I had not applied it to this passage from Corinthians, nor any of the readings for today, or any day, for that matter. But now, while reading through these passages, this line popped back into my head.
Today’s first reading tells of a prophet sent by God. The responsorial psalm exhorts us not to harden our hearts to God’s voice. The second reading warns us — yes, it is a warning — about the voice of the world calling to us and drowning out God’s voice. The Gospel acclamation mentions a people in darkness — is this us, who have chosen to ignore God? And finally, the Gospel itself gives us an account of Jesus himself, shocking the people around him with a new message, and new style, and a new authority. Basically, today’s readings present to us the motif of heeding a message…or suffering the consequences. Sounds preachy? But of course, preachers preach!
We do not like to be told what to do. I was very surprised when my then 10-year old started calling me “bruh” instead of “mummy”. But that was nothing compared to my utter shock when my 6-year old said, “you cannot control what I do!” Flabbergasted, I simply replied, “Yes I can because you are a child. Both you and your sister are children and don’t know enough to make important decisions for yourselves.” This is the fine balancing act we have to deal with when trying to raise confident children who think for themselves — set firm boundaries, and let them stumble around within those boundaries and figure things out. Now apply this to us grownups. We don’t like to be bossed around, nor told we are wrong. But sometimes, we do need that nudge or even a shove in the right direction, because unbeknownst to us, we had been heading towards the edge of the cliff.
Messengers often get the short end of the stick, and we can see examples of this all around us. How many receptionists, wait staff, shop assistants, front-liners have been subject to verbal, and even physical abuse, by irate customers who did not like hearing “No”? How many times have middlemen been ignored or rudely shut down because someone felt that “they don’t know anything” and demanded to see the manager? How often do people get offended by what Father is saying from the pulpit, and they brush him off because, “What does Father know? He is not married and he doesn’t have children!”
There are many of our brethren who choose to ignore priests, to ignore church teaching in general, because they think the church is outdated, patriarchal, and clueless about life today. But here is a double standard. Even as we are not always open to heeding all advice, many of us have no qualms heeding advice if it comes from an expert — a secular expert — that is. We have experts telling us about bonding with our children even before they are born! Yes, why not? But you know what, our Archbishop also said that bonding with your child needs to start before birth, but how many are willing to heed his words over a parenting expert’s? And remember what the Church said about the humanity of unborn children? Let’s dismiss that as outdated religious hokum until a secular expert brings up prenatal bonding, prenatal health, prenatal anything — now they are children in the womb.
We are quick to listen to expert advice from divorce lawyers about how to strengthen marriages and prevent a relationship breakdown. But do we question if that lawyer has been through a divorce? Do we ask if our therapist has ever been through trauma? Is your oncologist undergoing cancer treatment? How can we be so sure these experts truly know anything if they have not personally experienced it? I’m not saying to ignore expert advice. Expert advice is good advice, even if it is secondhand experience. And this is no different from advice from priests. As confessors and counsellors, they have heard and seen it all, even if they have not experienced it (some of them may have, though). They know what behaviours work; they also know what behaviours destroy. And they are warning us against destructive behaviours. And we had better listen. If we think Father’s tone is too harsh, maybe we should try listening to him from the start and stop our destructive behaviours, so he doesn’t have to keep nagging and scolding us.
Even our pope is not immune to being shot down as a messenger. When the world assumes that the Pope is endorsing liberal progressive ideas, they laud him. When the Pope puts his foot down on the non-negotiables of our faith — abortion, eugenics, euthanasia, a culture of death — the same worldly crowd rushes to condemn him. Many messengers of good news are shot down because they are seen to be raining on peoples’ parades. Do we stand aside and let them be run over this way?
A few nights ago, during our family prayer, the prayer of petition was for people to be stronger in their convictions. Brothers and sisters, we are people of faith. This does not make us perfect nor immune to sin. As people of faith, we are loved by the Father. We are strengthened by his grace and mercy. Let us, first of all, live our Christian lives with conviction as we heed the word of God. Then, let us stand together with the messengers of the Good News — as pillars of support, to echo their message, to show ourselves as examples.
Jesus was not merely a messenger. He was also The Message. In a world which tells us to ignore God and focus on ourselves, let us live by the example he has set for us.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Felicia Zou)
Prayer: Dear Lord, we pray for the courage to turn back to You when we have strayed. We pray for those who despair, that they may find hope in You. We pray for those chosen to be the messengers of Your Good News, that they be sustained with your strength.
Thanksgiving: Dear Lord, we thank You for Your unending love and patience for us, even when we fall so many times.
OXYGEN 
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