VI week days mass reflection 24

12 – 17 FEBRUARY 2024: HOLY MASS REFLECTIONS 12 FEBRUARY 2024: JAMES 1. 1-11; MARK 8. 1-13   Focus: Still demand signs? Indicative: Many times the problem in faith-life is not the absence of God’s grace but the openness to see it, receive it and cooperate with it; it also requires a humble and trusting heart to understand God’s ways of acting   1.      In the gospel, the Pharisees demand Jesus for a sign from heaven. The purpose is not to strengthen their faith but only to test his power. Surely there were enough and more signs in the form of his teaching, preaching, and healing. 2.       His miracles were powerful signs of God’s mercy and power through him. In fact, he himself was the greatest sign of God’s presence, guidance, and power. They see all these signs but they refuse to accept them. 3.       What is the reason? We get the answer from the letter of St James in the first reading. It is because they lacked wisdom. They lacked that wisdom that makes them steadfast in their faith. Instead, they were doubting, double-minded, and unstable in their ways. 4.       They were like the waves of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. Their faith was so shallow like a flower of the grass that withers and passes away. How many today are like these Pharisees? Signs of God’s love, goodness, and holiness abound. His care, light, and power are abundant. 5.       But many just reject them because they are devoid of wisdom. They are double-minded and shallow. Like the waves, they are constantly driven and tossed by the winds of worldly allurements. Like the flowers of the grass, their beauty and joy are perishable and passing. 6.       Therefore, what are we to do? “Trust God and not test God”. We need not test God’s power and fidelity. We shall not test His concern by the mere granting of favours to us. We shall not test His power by the mere removal of all difficulties from our life. 7.       We shall not test His mercy by the mere healing of us always. Rather, we need to trust and surrender wholeheartedly. Let us trust Him even when things go wrong, even when we do not receive what we want. 8.        “See the signs and follow what they signify”. If only we are a little more open and humble, there are plenty of signs of God’s grace all around us. Signs are not necessarily miracles and healings alone. 9.       A sign is anything that signifies to us the ways of God. A sign is anything that indicates God’s grace and teaches us to be responsive and effective. In that way, even negative experiences like Corona, sickness, failure, persecution, et cetera also are signs. 10.   “Test your faith and bear testimony to it”. Our faith is tested by trials and adversities. Through our perseverance, we bear testimony to the depth of our faith. True faith does not seek exemption from afflictions as a sign of the power of faith. Rather, it accepts them and endures through them as a sign of its genuineness.   Imperative: In the name of the power of faith, let us not continue to put God to the test. Let us not reduce the quality of faith merely to the quantity and the number of favours received. Let us check and see whether we too are making the Lord sigh with a sense of disappointment and helplessness over our lack of receptivity   (Reflection 2)    Focus: External signs such as miracles and grand interventions may help faith but cannot generate faith or prove God's power   1.      As humans we are, many times our faith depends on seeing and experiencing concretely God's action and intervention. Accordingly, we wish that our intercessions for various needs are granted immediately. 2.      In other words, miracles and favours become the proof for the efficacy of our prayer, and also for the attention and care of God. In a way, we are unconsciously putting God to test, to prove His goodness and power by granting what we plead for. 3.      This is in fact the same mentality of people of Jesus' own time, who demanded signs from heaven. How foolish and unbelieving they were! There were already many miracles, so much preaching the gospel of God's love and mercy, comfort, and consolation. 4.      And more than all these, Jesus himself is the biggest sign. Therefore, what is needed is not to test God but trust; not asking God to prove His power but to prove our fidelity to Him through our perseverance. 5.      If we sincerely examine, many of us are no different from those Pharisees who demanded signs from heaven. It is not because they wanted to believe and confirm their belief, but rather they wanted to justify and disguise their unbelief. 6.      Are there not enough and more signs in our own times? Why do we want signs at all? What are actually signs meant for? Do we realize that primarily signs are meant to direct our focus and attention in the right direction? 7.      They are meant to comfort and strengthen us in the wrong times and ignite us with renewed courage and commitment. They are not to substitute but only to complement our responsibility. Many times, signs are demanded to shirk away from our responsibility. 8.      We will not need special signs. The greatest sign of God’s presence is charity, that is, to be a “keeper, a custodian of the other” as a brother and sister. Jealousy, violence, and destruction are countersigns.     Direction: If in every prayer, we only ask God to fulfil our desires and grant us favours, then why at all pray especially for God's will to be done?   13 FEBRUARY 2024: JAMES 1. 12-18; MARK 8. 14-21   Focus: Do you not yet understand? Indicative: Temptations and deceptions often torment us and all the time we are not able to surmount them. Therefore we must be ever conscious, cautious, and judicious   1.      The word of God today cautions us against the power and pressure of negative influences. In the first reading, St James warns us not to be tempted and deceived by the lures and enticements of our own desires. 2.      A gift is good and perfect if it comes from above, from God, and is stable and consistent. So whatever leads to evil, sin, and death, whatever rises merely from the desires, whatever comes only from below, and whatever is fluctuating and unstable, is dubious and evil. 3.      In the gospel, Jesus cautions his disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. The leaven of the Pharisees indicates their self-righteousness and hypocrisy. The leaven of Herod signifies his ruthless worldliness and power-seeking. 4.      Just as the leaven can ferment the whole dough, so also the wrong ways of the Pharisees and Herod can strongly exert a negative influence on his disciples 5.      Therefore, the disciples of Jesus must be deeply alert and attentive to sense any such evil influences that try to lure them and lead them astray. They must be conscious to discern such deceptive forces. 6.      In the light of Jesus’ warning, they must try to perceive and understand, have the eyes to see, and have the ears to hear. They shall not harden their hearts. Instead, they will keep them ever flexible and open to God’s power. 7.      Particularly, they shall constantly remind themselves of the many wonders that God has been doing and continues to do in their lives. Jesus asks them to remember the miraculous feeding of thousands with a few loaves and fish. 8.      In the same way, he is asking all his present disciples never to lose sight of God’s blessings and favours received without ceasing. They must always bear in mind that whenever God takes control of our life situations, there is full satisfaction and even surplus.   Imperative: Often the evil influences are too strong to counter. A strong evil influence can be fittingly countered only by a stronger good influence and that is from God. Therefore, allow yourself to be influenced and led by God and not by the evil    (Reflection 2)   Focus: Negative influences assail us at any time and all the time, and we need to be cautious about them 1.       This is our human predicament that is being constantly exposed to evil. All the more, in our own times, evil seems to be on a rampage. Exactly as in the time of Noah, we see that the wickedness of man is great on earth and all the thoughts seem to be thoroughly evil-oriented. 2.       In Jesus’ time too, there were the negative examples and the false influence of the Pharisees and scribes that shook true faith and misguided others. This is exactly the leaven of the Pharisees and that of Herod. 3.       We will never lack these wrong-footed influences, deviations, and distortions. Many are under false influences. Consequently, as Jesus reproaches in the gospel, hearts are hardened. Having eyes, many do not see and having ears, they do not hear. 4.       They easily forget the immense good that happens in their life. The disciples had already seen the miraculous power of Jesus when he fed the multitude with a few loaves and fish. Yet, they were much worried about lacking enough bread. In these aspects, they too fall into the same category as faithless Pharisees and Jews 5.       What then is the remedy? We should constantly lean on Jesus and remember his miracles which are powerful manifestations of his love for us. In the face of wrong influences and pressures against faith, we must cultivate the spirit of turning to God in surrender and perseverance. 6.       We must keep ourselves uncontaminated and righteous even amidst evil and misguided generations, with false leaders like the Pharisees and Herod.   Direction: What we must try is not so much avoiding all the negative influences, which is not at all possible. But rather, to resist them, and to persevere till the end, resting on Jesus   14 FEBRUARY 2024, ASH WEDNESDAY, JOEL 2. 12-18; 2 COR 5.20 – 6.2; MAT 6. 1-6, 16-18 Focus: Reflect, Repent, convert and live rightly! Indicative: Conversion is the constant invitation for us. Blessed are they who hearken to this call for a worthwhile life and live accordingly! 1.      Today we celebrate Ash Wednesday, a very unique day whereby we step into a new liturgical season. It is the holy season of Lent. Lent is very special in the life of the church and of many Christians. Not that the other seasons are not important. But lent makes a difference because of its very nature, the process and the purpose. 2.      Lent addresses directly our human fragility. It lays bare before us our vulnerability that is prone to fall. It reminds us of our basic transience. Ashes with which we are smeared today indicate this sense of earthly nothingness, perishability, and impermanence. This sense is quite explicit in the pronouncement, “From dust, you have come and unto dust, you shall return”. 3.      Thereby the holy lent urges us to focus our attention on our sinfulness that fails us in faith and charity. In Lent, there is a focused concern with sin and evil. But the purpose is not to feel guilty, melancholic, and discouraged. The purpose is essentially positive. It is to repent and return to the Lord. 4.      That is why in the first reading, God summons us through prophet Joel, “Rend your hearts and not your garments; return to me with all your heart”. In the second reading, in his first letter to the Corinthians, St Paul exhorts, “Be reconciled to God… so that we might become the righteousness of God”. 5.      How to tread this journey of repentance and conversion? In the gospel, Jesus takes our attention to the three fundamental means of our whole Christian living and growth. These are in fact the three Jewish pilastric practices. 6.      They are namely prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Jesus cautions us against hypocrisy in practising them. It is not to make a show or display one’s religiosity. All these should be done in a spirit of humility, and right intention. 7.      The purpose is to grow righteous in the sight of God and toward others. Accordingly, our prayers must help us to draw closer to God. Our fasting must help us to be more self-disciplined. Our almsgiving must deepen our sensitivity, fraternal responsibility and charity. Imperative: Behold, now is the favourable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. God will certainly listen to us and help us. For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; He will relent over disaster. He will reward us  (Reflection 2) 1.      Today is a very special day. We enter the season of Lent, a season of grace, a call for repentance and conversion. The reason is that our life, which is often failed, disordered, and disfigured because of sin and evil, can be remitted, rearranged, transformed, and elevated. Thus we can live a more beautiful, more tranquil, more joyful, and more pleasant life. 2.      Therefore this season is also a season of joy, This is not of sadness, as many think or imagine. Repentance and penitence are not signs of sadness, but the expressions of our awareness of sin, of our desire to make reparation and recuperation 3.      They are manifestations of our firmness to detach ourselves from everything that separates us from God, of our concrete effort to grow in faith and charity, and in sum, to enhance in a life of devotion and virtue. Therefore, when there is work and the increase of grace, there is certainly an increase in holy joy. 3. Today, the ashes we place on us indicate and teach us how we must spend these days of Lent 1) First of all, the ashes indicate our origin and our end: therefore the words are pronounced: you have come from dust, and you will go back into dust. God created us, He gave us this life, He breathed His own life inside us, He shaped us in his own image. So we must always have a deep and lively sense of gratitude, of dependence, of an inseparable bond, and then always try to grow in the spirit of trust and likeness. We must never forget our origins. But unfortunately, it happens in our days, that man neglects God and the spiritual side, because of development, material comfort, of human capacities. The world thinks it is self-sufficient and does not need God, and therefore tries to organize its life, throwing God out of the space of life. Truly a situation that reminds us and relives the time of the "tower of Babel". 2) We must always remember our end. Our goal is to re-go to God where we came from. Reaching our origin is the last point of this earthly journey. Therefore we must always recognize the transience of life on earth. Life on earth is only a limited duration. Everybody someday and in some way has to go away. The earthly life is like a journey, a pilgrimage, with a stabilized destination, with a destiny beyond. So we cannot attach ourselves to this world, we cannot behave like we are permanent on earth. As St Paul says to the Corinthians in his second letter in 5. 1, 9-10: when this dwelling of the body, the tent of earthly life, is destroyed, we all have an eternal home, prepared and made ready by God for each of us. On that day everyone must stand before the Lord for his judgment, and each one will be judged according to his good works and evils, according to the quality of his way of life. How many are foolish, living without any sense of responsibility and accountability? How miserable their fate will be! Those who refuse imperishable in preference to the perishable will certainly be rejected for the same imperishable. We reap what we sow! 3) The ashes also denote our weakness, our fragility, our human unworthiness. Without God, without His help, we are nothing like dust and ashes. Without the breath of His Spirit, we will be without life, without energy. This awareness must safeguard us against arrogance and unbridled autonomy, and grow in us the spirit of humility. 4) The ashes still indicate the state of annihilation. Nothing remains at the end. This fact must arise in us a profound spirit of detachment, of sacrifice. Be careful of too much attachment to things, to worldly profits, to great avarice. What is worth acquiring the whole world, but losing our soul? How much stupidity to cling to superficial things but to let go of the essential things! How much sadness to accumulate useless things but not obtain anything worthwhile! 4. The three pillars, that is, prayer, fasting, and charity, help us in this Lenten journey. Then let us begin our steps forward with confidence and firmness. (Reflection 3) Focus: Lent is a God-gifted time to be bent on God, to repent for evil, and to be intent on good. 1.      We step into the holy season of Lent. Let us entrust our whole journey of Lent to the loving guidance of the Lord, so that this time may be truly a duration of renewal. 2.      This is Ash Wednesday! What does this day of ashes signify? What do the ashes denote? In the practical sense, ashes indicate total annihilation and nothingness. Hence the expression: "gone/reduced to ashes". 3.      In the ordinary common religious sense, ashes denote sacrifice, renunciation, and detachment. Hence the expression: "I have nothing but ashes". 4.      In the biblical spiritual sense, ashes denote repentance and penance. We find in the Bible, applying ashes to atone, to repent, and to do penance. 5.      The day of the ashes, with the call, “from dust you have come, and unto dust, you shall return", or "repent and believe in the gospel", reminds us of the temporariness and transience of our earthly existence, and also our origin from God and our destiny to Him. Life is a temporary transit, we are due to God, we are his due, destined to reach him and be with him. 6.      Therefore, in this temporary and impermanent sojourn, toward our eternal destination, how to conduct our lives? With the spirit and lessons of the ashes positively. That is, in surrender to God, with a sense of nothingness; in attachment to God, with a sense of detachment; and in renewal and transformation, with a sense of repentance and penance. 7.      In the light of the gospel, to conduct and travel this journey, 3 acts are proposed as effective means: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. However, the insistence is not so much on the activity itself, i.e. prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, but rather on their purpose and end 8.      They are namely, love and intimacy with God; self-discipline and self-restraint; and concern and charity. Therefore, in love, let us grow close and surrendered to God; in renunciation, let us grow more disciplined and charitable; in renewal, let us grow more and more transformed!   Direction: Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are not merely religious practices, but are true means and testimonies of religious spirit and living.   15 FEBRUARY 2024: DEUT 30. 15-20; LUKE 9. 22-25   Focus: Strenuous but meritorious! Indicative: Know the ways of the Lord, and obey them; love the Lord and follow him. But, this is a strenuous and challenging path. But it is undoubtedly rewarding!   1.      Many people today possess many things. But there is one thing that is drastically lacking. That is wisdom. Wisdom is not mere intelligence and knowledge. It is the essential inner capacity to distinguish, discern, and decide 2.      It is between good and evil, blessing and curse, life and death, true God and false gods. It enables one to lose one’s life for the sake of the Lord instead of gaining and preserving it for the sake of the world. It realizes that it is no use to gain the whole world but lose one’s own self. 3.      Wisdom thus makes a fundamental option for God. It strives ever to obey God, love Him, cling to Him, walk in His ways, and keep His commandments, His statutes, and His rules. 4.      In the gospel, in Jesus’ own words, it would be a threefold way of life of a disciple: to deny the self, to take up the cross, and to follow the Lord. In fact, this triple path is the way of the cross. 5.      This is the way of the cross of the disciple which is actually the replica of the way of the cross of the Lord. The Lord’s suffering and death are the climax and summing up of an entire life of self-denial, cross-bearing, and doing God’s will. 6.      A follower of Christ has no other way except the way of the master. We must renounce all the self-centrism and self-interests; we must retrench all the layers of the ego, the false self. We must accept and bear patiently and perseveringly all our daily crosses and difficulties. We must constantly imitate the Lord in his virtues and mission with untiring zeal and commitment.   Imperative: Following the Lord is not an easy thing. It involves a lot of sacrifice and suffering. But it is not a futile task. It is very rewarding. The Lord will bless us abundantly   (Reflection 2)   Focus: To live a worthy life is to live in the spirit of wisdom; true wisdom consists of an essential choice between two sets of values   1.      The essence of a right and happy living is growing in wisdom. This wisdom shows us clearly how foolish it is to bother so much to gain the whole world but lose one's own precious soul, that is, lose the spiritual wealth and depth and authentic happiness. 2.      Wisdom also realizes that it is more worthwhile and beneficial to choose God, life, blessing, and holistic prosperity, in contrast to the world, death, curse, and doom. Then wisdom consistently pursues the path of these right choices. 3.      This is the way of wise choices that are laid down in concrete details in Deuteronomy: Love God, listen to Him, be loyal to Him, follow His commandments and walk His way. 4.      In the words of Jesus in the gospel, it is: deny self, take up the cross, and follow him. “Denying the self” is not self-rejection, but self-injection. This implies, on one hand, ejecting out all that is the false self, ego-swelling, and self-interests, and on the other hand, injecting into the self, the positive attitudes and pursuit of self-emptying and self-giving. 5.      “Take up the cross” does not mean to go about as burdened and crushed people under the weight of the cross of suffering. Rather, it means to accept our daily crosses of unfavourable and unpleasant situations, to bear patiently, lovingly, and trustingly loads of difficulties and challenges 6.      And “follow Jesus” means to walk constantly in his footsteps, to imitate his life and mission in the practice of virtues and values. In the words of Deuteronomy from the first reading, all these conditions of discipleship would mean: 7.      To obey the voice and commandments of God, by loving Him, by cleaving to Him, by walking in His ways, by keeping His commandments, statutes, and ordinances 8.      But all this struggle and fidelity is not a futile project. It is highly rewarding: God will bless abundantly.   Direction: There is no use in claiming and boasting about one's intelligence unless one makes the right choices and follows them   16 FEBRUARY 2024: ISAIAH 58. 1-9a; MATTHEW 9. 14-15   Focus: Piety to duty! Indicative: The practice of religious activities like prayers and fasting is very good and needed. But we must check and see whether they remain limited only to the domain of religion and piety or do they lead to a change of daily life   1.      Very often the religion of many is limited only to some religious practices. Their devotion is confined mainly to some pious prayers or proclamations. What they believe is not shown in how they live. What they profess is not lived in what they practice. 2.      What they proclaim is not testified in their real life. It is like the wedding guests who celebrate the feast but ignore the bridegroom who is the cause and centre of their celebration. Or it is like mourning at a wedding. 3.      Similarly, all our religious practices and activities will become empty and meaningless if they fail to take us closer to God and to others. Just as the whole wedding moments are directed toward and centred around the bridegroom, so also all the religious practices are oriented toward the Lord. They must take us into intimacy with him, to enjoy his presence, to celebrate life with him. 4.      The fault of the Israel people was this: they followed a dry and shallow religion. Their daily schedule was filled with bundles of practices but their hearts were empty of any real spirit of faith. They prayed, fasted, and gave alms. 5.      But they were estranged from God. They were self-blown and self-filling. They were indifferent and unconcerned toward others. They lacked humility, charity, and fidelity. They were self-righteous and complacent 6.      They were insensitive, ununderstanding, and unsympathetic. They were despising and offensive. They always rated themselves far above the other ordinary mortals. They were demanding and exacting toward people. But toward their own selves, they were lenient and self-indulgent. 7.      Further, the greatest deficiency in any religion is a lack of charity toward others. It is a failure to loosen the bonds of wickedness, and undo the straps of the yoke of injustice and oppression. 8.      It is to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless and clothe the naked. The right type of fasting (in fact all the religious observances) is to humble oneself, not to seek our own pleasure, not to quarrel and fight and hit.   imperative: There is an eager tendency in the present times either to do away with all the traditional practices like fasting, or not to connect them to real-life renewal   (Reflection 2)   Focus: All our religious practices gain their full meaning and merit when they are blended with good works   1.      Insistently, the Word of God makes it clear to us that our spiritual life and actual life should go together. They are not two separate and dissociated domains. Religious disciplines like Fasting become more pleasing to God and meritorious when they take us closer to God and others. 2.      The purpose and end of all our spiritual observances are twofold: one is, to enjoy the presence and closeness of Jesus, "the bridegroom"; the other is, to overflow the spirit of the religious practice into the practice of concrete duties of fraternity and acts of charity. 3.      Isaiah details some of these: act justly, set free the oppressed, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, etc. 4.      Therefore, there is no use in doing all religious practices without changing the concrete life. Why fast without giving up self-pleasure? Why fast, if we do not abstain from oppressing others? Why fast, if we do not refrain from quarrelling and fighting? Why fast, if one does not turn away from his wickedness? Why fast, if one does not grow humble? 5.      The point is not only concerning the particular practice of fasting. This applies to all our religious observances. God wants all our religious practices to lead us to a good living. They become means as well as expressions of a life of righteousness before God and toward others. 6.      Thus, when piety and fraternity, devotion and justice, when religiosity and integrity blend together, they will find God closer and pleased.   Direction: It is a mistake that some think the Word of God is downplaying and even substituting the practice of fasting with the practice of charitable acts. No. They are not substitutions but restitutions of the true spirit, extensions, completion, and perfection of the same.   17 FEBRUARY 2024: ISAIAH 58. 9c-14; LUKE 5. 27-32   Focus: God who never condemns! Indicative: The most consoling and encouraging feature of our God is that He is never judgmental or condemnatory. All that He wants is that we turn away from our sins and begin to follow Him   1.      The Lord calls Levi or Matthew in today’s gospel. It was something annoying and radical to call a tax collector to follow him. For as known, tax collectors were labelled and despised as sinners. It would certainly invite a lot of criticism and the Lord knew it. 2.      Yet, he goes ahead unperturbed. This call is in perfect tune with the very purpose of his coming to earth. He declares emphatically: “I have come not to call the righteous but the sinners to repentance”. 3.      This does not mean that one continues in the same state of sin. In a way, being sinful becomes a launching pad for soaring high. The Lord does not care much for our backgrounds or our credentials. 4.      All that matters the most is whether we hearken to his call and respond to him and follow him; whether we are willing to repent and change our life. This repentance and renewal consist in making a decisive transition, a shift from having sinned to becoming graced. 5.      Some of the details of this transition are well-marked in the first reading from the prophet Isaiah. On one hand, it is turning away from a life of sin. It would mean not going our own ways, not seeking our own pleasures, not talking idly; it would call for taking away the yoke of oppression and injustice, the accusing of others wickedly. 6.      On the other hand, it would commit us to care unselfishly for the hungry and the afflicted; to keep the Sabbath holy and honourable and delightful; to repair the breaches and to restore the strayed and scattered. 7.      Then, the results are marvellous. Our light will rise in the darkness; we shall be revitalized; we shall be like a watered garden, like a never-drying spring of water; our ancient ruins shall be rebuilt. The Lord will make us ride on the heights of the earth.   Imperative: A worthy living of our vocation means deep gratitude for the bounteous gift of it, a deep awareness of our sinfulness and unworthiness, and a constant striving to shift from sin to grace   (Reflection 2)   Focus: "Follow me!" - This call of the Lord never ceases. He calls us at any time, in any situation, especially when we are immersed in our ordinary works!   1.      Often we may pay heed to the voice and call of the Lord when we are free or in prayer and reflection. But the Lord's call continues to resound also in our busy moments, in those times when we are caught up with our preoccupations or duties. 2.      We need to reset and re-tune our ears to listen to Him. We need to repent and be healed because it is for this he came, to call us to repentance and to transform us with his healing touch. In the light of the first reading, His call to follow him implies… 3.      that we turn away from evil ways, we do not seek self-interests, abstain from oppression and malice, cling on to him, and abound in charity. Once we are loyal, then it is a totally different life: light will shine and spread in darkness, he will guide us, renew our strength with never-drying and ever-gushing springs of energy and vitality. 4.      The call and life of Levi (Matthew) is a vivid testimony of the Lord's work. It is very interesting that the Lord speaks of our sickness or sinfulness as a pre-condition or requirement for his call and mercy. 5.      He declares: It is not the healthy but the sick who need a doctor; I came to call the sinners and not the righteous. What does it tell us? First of all, we need not feel upset or lost because of our human fragility. It is not a matter of despising by the Lord. 6.      Rather, it becomes a kind of qualification to be graced by the Lord! Not that we feel happy in being sinners and so continue like that; rather, it only means that we need not despair and be depressed. 7.      This also makes us humble to accept our own sinful condition, and thus throw away all our false layers and disguises to appear righteous. Further, it instils in us a new hope to rise up to repent and to become a follower of the Lord. What we were before being called is not the matter. But, what we become after being called is the real and the only matter.   Direction: Our God is a God who resists and detests all labels and prejudices. He defends and dignifies Matthew. Can we too follow in his footsteps, rising above all disparities and discriminations?