Year A / Ordinary Time / Week 30 / Sunday

Readings: Malachi 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10 / Psalm: 131:1, 2, 3 / 1 Thessalonians 2:7b-9, 13 /  Matthew 23:1-12

“Believe what you read. Teach what you believe. Practise what you teach.”

I heard these words 11 years ago. Sean Cardinal O’Malley said them when presenting the Book of Gospels to me and my brother Jesuits at our diaconate ordination. The Gospels are the foundation of a deacon’s life and ministry. They are the word of life and love. From it, he draws inspiration to pray, study and preach. I learn very quickly that God’s Word cannot be proclaimed authentically just by standing in a pulpit, or even sitting in a chair; it is preached in the Christ-like actions of our lives. These words comforted and challenged me then, even now.

Comforted and challenged. I wonder if these are our feelings and thoughts as we encounter today’s readings. The themes of humility, respect for God, and authenticity in living the faith run through them. Malachi warns priests about failing in their duties. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus points out the gap between teaching and action among the religious leaders. They are also meant for us. Do they challenge us upon recognising the gaps in our own lives? The Responsorial Psalm Psalm and St Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians underscore a humble, sincere approach to faith. Don’t these comfort us who try to live like this?

Together, the readings push us to self-examination: are we living our Christian faith with integrity? They force us to consider whether we walk our talk as Christians, especially as we read the Scriptures, share its Good News with many and strive to practise what we teach them. Even more, what do they mean to you who serve so many in family and at work, in Church and the community? Yes, you may not be ordained like deacons but aren’t you already living out that spirit of service?

Jesus’ words do challenge. For some, they are uncomfortable to hear. Many, too demanding to live. Malachi’s message reinforces Jesus’ teaching: we must practise what we preach. 

Yet, both readings are truly Good News; they instruct us to live better. Jesus clearly teaches that who we are is defined by how we are with God and one another. Humility helps us know we are God’s own. So, we adore God. Compassion helps us live as God’s family. And so, we serve others. Love, only love, makes adoration and service possible. 

In the Mass that closed the recent Synod in Rome, Pope Francis pointed out that Jesus’ love for God and neighbour is “‘the principle and foundation’ from which everything begins ever anew.”* 

This must have surely surprised the Synod’s critics. They feared the Church abandoning her teachings. They predicted a divided Church. They scared people that the Church would be less moral and unholy. Instead, the Synod’s concluding message is this: “return to love, the love of God,” because His love changes everything for better, in God’s ways and for God’s salvation, for everyone.

It is in the love of God that the Synod seeks to renew the Church’s pastoral and missionary life. To do this, it calls us to return to the Church God wants for us, God’s people. Not a triumphant Church of power. Not a moralistic Church that judges who is in and who is out. Not a besieged Church that walls itself in from the world. Not a self-righteous Church disconnected from those struggling to live their Christian faith, oftentimes on its margins, or who have left.

For Pope Francis, the Church must be “the servant of all, the servant of the least of our brothers and sisters. A Church that never demands an attestation of ‘good behaviour,’ but welcomes, serves, loves, and forgives. A Church with open doors that is a haven of mercy.”* 

This kind of a Church hears the cries of the poor, cares for our neighbours and offers everyone God and his salvation. If it doesn’t, it is pharisaic. To drive home this point Pope Francis offers this reminder: “We may have plenty of good ideas to reform the Church, but let us remember: to adore God and to love our brothers and sisters with his love, that is the great and perennial reform.” His reminder must also be for you and me, and the lives we lead.

What is at stake for us and the Church is that there is more to living our Christian faith with integrity. Rather, let us live our faith fully, joyfully and with integrity for others and their continued spiritual and pastoral well-being. We must because they turn to us. We who are God’s assurance that the Church listens and cares for them. We who can be the face of Christ and reveal God’s mercy to forgive, reconcile and care for them. We who are the light of Christ, offering them hope that God’s church is indeed welcoming and inclusive, even as it is evangelising and missionary. Wise are we to remember God’s people as we live and serve. For who will we see in each of their faces but Christ, crying out to us to love and be loved?

We meet Jesus here. He serves us with his Word in the readings proclaimed. He serves us with his Body in the Eucharist at Communion. He gathers us here as his own; He calls us ‘friends.’ Indeed, from Jesus, our friend, we learn to serve with love, even sacrificially if we must like He did. Only when we value this friendship with Jesus, can you and I continue serving each other, and all, with that posture of a deacon. We must because deacons come as a friend in the Lord to care and love all they serve.

When those we serve experience the integrity of our faith in Jesus, they will understand that we can do what we do, like deacons do, because we also live out these words wholeheartedly: ‘‘Believe what we read, teach what we believe, practise what we teach.’’ And indeed we can because what we believe, proclaim and live is a who, the person of Jesus Christ himself.

Shall we?