One consensus among the developed countries of the world is ‘to save the natural environment.' Now is a time of environmentalism. But it is not simple to define environmentalism with a few words or a sentence because of its vast spectrums of ideas and practices. For some people, this issue turns into spiritual movements of nature worship. In the meantime, industries approach this issue as an energy problem – an endeavour for renewable energy sources. Policymakers devise and impose regulations to control pollution and wastes. Activists campaign for population control. In sum, all of them are looking for new solutions to satisfy human demand for consumption at a sustainable level.

But this attempt faces at least two serious questions. First, who can control the human demand for consumption? Second, who decides a sustainable level of consumption?

Our contemporary world relies its existence on consumption. Under this pandemic, we hear the word, essential, much more often than before. Mostly what do we call essential? Mostly they are related to consumption, either products or services. Consumption itself is what is essential. Not human survival but the survival of money and the market is what matters.

Is consumption a living organism? No. Its soul is human greed. If we do not tame this greed, this beast of consumption will continue devouring God’s creation. Greed does not know satisfaction.  Any kind of environmentalism would not be successful unless it addresses the control of human greed. God created order and harmony in the universe and nature. But greed itself is chaotic and disordered. There cannot be a ‘green deal’ for a world of greedy consumption. God creates. Greed only consumes.

As far as we trace the human history, our generation lives in a much more artificial environment than any previous generations. And now, this pandemic forces us to live in a virtual space of electronics. Nevertheless, we also witness the high tide of nature worship, mostly in the Western hemisphere. There is broad but loose solidarity of many forms of nature-worship spirituality, philosophy, movements, activisms, and political parties. Many Christians also subscribe to nature worship and participate in it in various ways. It is not easy to define nature worship because there are so many ideas and attitudes or practices. But we can observe that its followers presume the existence of a soul or spirit that enlivens nature as one organic body. Therefore, they worship Mother Nature or Mother Universe. In a sense, it is a form of animism – a belief that lifeless things also have souls. Nature or the universe is its origin and autonomously governs itself. Man is merely a tenant on earth. Meanwhile, nature worship is also a type of pantheism – a belief that the universe or nature is identical with divinity. Then, man is also divine as a part of the divine organism of the universe or nature.

However, the very first chapter of the Book of Genesis plainly shows us how foreign to nature worship spirituality the Judeo-Christian revelation is. The Bible teaches God created the universe and nature. It makes clear that the universe or nature did not evolve by its own force. God created it with a purpose. What is it? Genesis expresses it in this way: “God saw that it was good.” As the meaning of the word ‘universe’ itself implies, God created the world for ‘order’ and ‘harmony’ that reflect God’s nature. The ‘good’ implies much more than just feeling a pleasure. It reveals the goodness of the Lord. The universe and nature exist to reflect God’s goodness. The purpose of nature and the universe is to give praise to God’s goodness.

Some people stop at the beauty and order of the universe and nature and start worshipping them. But the Book of Genesis invites us to see beyond the beauty and peace. Genesis teaches us the purpose of all creation. God created us to reflect his goodness. And he wants to call us ‘good’. That is why he created us.

When we purchase furniture that requires assembly, we should carefully follow its assembly order. Otherwise, you may have to disassemble all of it and start all over again. When we buy electronic appliances, we read their instructions for proper setup. Otherwise, we may not enjoy their features we have paid for. Now, once having finished the assembly or setup, how many of us keep reading the instruction? Some people throw them away in the garbage. Of course, it is not a good idea to discard instructions. They will be useful for maintenance, reset, or repair. However, we do not read instruction manuals for entertainment. They are written to assist us to build, operate, maintain, or repair. They are useful but secondary in the sense that they exist for something else.

Now, what about the Bible?  What about the words of the Lord? What about the Good News? Do you think they are a kind of instruction manual? Do we read them to live a more meaningful life? Or for a holy life? Or for a successful life? Do you think the Bible exists for something such as holiness, blessing, accomplishment, or peace? In a simple way, do you use the Bible? Do you use the Gospel for something you like and enjoy?

Jesus healed lots of people. He also drove out many demons. People looked for him so that he would cure all their diseases and demonic possessions. But Jesus did not say healing was his purpose. He said, “Let us go to the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for this what I came out to do.” His ministry or ultimately his coming to this world was to bring the Gospel.

But I like to remind you that Jesus is the Word of God. He is not a messenger. He is the message itself. When we hear his message, we encounter Jesus. Christ Jesus is the revelation of God the Father. Reading or listening to the Gospel, we are before the presence of the Lord. As Jesus declared the kingdom of God was near when we share the message of the Gospel, the kingdom of heaven is among us. 

In his first Letter to the Corinthians, St Paul says he gave up his right to an apostle’s compensations for ministry. Why? It is because his proclamation of the Gospel is his reward. He does not preach the Gospel for another reward. The proclamation of the Gospel is his obligation and only reward. Why? It is because he is with the Lord as he preaches the Gospel. To be with the Lord is an apostle’s reward. An apostle does not look for comfort, peace, pleasure, wealth, fame, or power. He is content with being with Christ in his Gospel. An apostle cannot stop preaching the Gospel because he always remains in Christ.

Therefore, we cannot close the Bible and leave it on the dusty bookshelf. We might feel tempted to use the Word of God for a so-call critical cause for humanity in this world. Christ called Christians to be the salt and light of the world. But Christ was not telling us to complete his kingdom in this world. His kingdom does not belong to this world. And remember, as Job says, that this life is only a breath. We want to remain in Christ in eternity. Let us open the Bible. And be with and in the Lord. It is our only reward.

Have you met people who very often say like these? “Oh, the Lord helped me today finish early my work.” “I couldn’t stand the person without the Holy Spirit’s assistance.” “I was upset yesterday, but Jesus heard my prayer and gave me peace in my heart.” And so on. These people seem to find the Lord in every event. And they attribute all their successes, accomplishments, and delights to the Lord. It seems that the presence or providence of God explains everything for them. But a man of reason and science might feel aversion to these people and despise them as naïve and gullible simpletons. He believes reason and science can explain or will explain all phenomena. For him, religion remains a primitive method to explain the world and man, though it is a highly complex mental work of symbols and rituals.

To Which group do you find yourself close to or belong? Even if I always practised the faith, I wanted to analyze the world with reason and science. I scorned pious people for their presumed ignorance of science and naïve hopefulness.

But from some time on, I slowly recognized it as a divine gift to perceive the Lord’s presence in our daily life and the world. It is a superior way to understand life and the world because only the Lord’s presence and his providence can reveal the ultimate purposes of all human and natural phenomena. Then, we understand their meanings. Modern man has gathered much scientific knowledge of man and the world. But he finds his heart empty of meaning and falls into depression. He can explain life phenomena on the molecular level. However, he cannot find the purpose of life and asks for euthanasia when pains overwhelm him.

“Through Jesus Christ, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.” The Letter to the Hebrews invites us to give praise to the Lord. How can we offer praise unless we find our life meaningful? And how can we find our life truly meaningful unless we see the purpose of life? And how can we recognize the purpose of life unless we see our life with the eye of the Lord? And how can we share the eye of the Lord unless we recognize his presence in our life?

I pray that my Lord removes the blind of my human pride and reveals his presence so that I may praise him with a joyful heart.

The martyrdom of St John the Baptist presents how sins are interwoven and eventually bring about the shedding of innocent blood. And today’s reading from the Letter to the Hebrews makes comments on the sins that resulted in the Saint’s martyrdom.

King Herod took his brother’s wife Herodias while his brother Philip was alive. Why? Because of a beautiful or tearful romance? No, it was their wanton desire for flesh, which the Letter to the Hebrews condemns. “Let marriage be held in honour by all, and the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.” If someone still has a doubt of a biblical basis for the Church’s condemnation of all kinds of immoral and illicit sexual behaviours, this passage of the Letter to the Hebrews clears such a doubt.

But was it only lust that attracted Herod and Herodias to each other? The Romans appointed Herod as a ruler of Galilee and Perea. Noticing this opportunity, Herodias abandoned her husband Philip for a more powerful and richer man. Herodias herself was a royal family. Philip and Herod were her paternal uncles. For Herod, Herodias could secure more inheritance of the royal wealth. Herod’s political and financial calculation made it easy to desire his niece. He also abandoned his first wife from Arabia for Herodias. The Letter to the Hebrews warns us of the love of money and advises us to be content with poverty. Jesus told his disciples they could not serve money and God at the same time. St Paul calls greed the root of all evil.

While the Letter to the Hebrews encourages us to be hospitable to strangers, Herod serves his political friends only at his birthday banquet. The Letter to the Hebrews asks us to remember the imprisoned for their safety as unjust and arbitrary incarceration was common in ancient times. On the opposite, Herod silenced St John the Baptist by throwing him into a dungeon. He might have highly regarded St John the Baptist, but he certainly did not want to listen to the truth.

Now, all these sins compounded one another and finally grabbed an opportunity for a more terrible crime. The bitter anger of Herodias against the Baptist was looking for murder. Her daughter’s sensual dance before Herod roused him to making an irrevocable promise. And the Baptist’s head ended up on a platter.

You can find most of the capital sins in this story: pride, lust, greed, anger, envy, gluttony, and sloth. Pride disregards the truth. Lust paralyzes the reason. Greed ignores God. Envy kills the good. Gluttony loses temperance. Spiritual sloth gives Satan a chance. 

I wonder if you carefully read or listened to the first reading from the Letter to the Hebrews today. The letter makes a comparison between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. Mount Sinai symbolizes the Old Covenant God made with Israel when he brought them out of Egypt. On the other hand, Mount Zion points to the New Covenant that a new people of God received through the blood of Christ Jesus.

The Letter to the Hebrews also shows a difference between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. Although God is the same, the God of the Old Covenant was so fearful to approach, while the God of the New Covenant celebrates together with his angels and saints and accepts all the faithful in his city. Mount Sinai was covered with “a blazing fire, darkness, gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them”. On the opposite, Mount Zion is the living God’s city, filled with the festal gathering of innumerable angels, the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and the spirits of the righteous, with the presence of God the judge of all and Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant. This heavenly Jerusalem is sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb of God, which redeems all sins of man.

This comparison prompts us to the images of the sacrifices of the Old Covenant and the New One. Smoke, blood, and fear would fill the Temple of the Old Covenant. But light and joy fill the New Jerusalem. What is this new sacrifice? It is nothing but the Holy Mass!

Finally, the people of God may approach God without fear of death. But behold, countless hosts of angels and the assembly of all saints make a presence at the Mass. God and his only begotten Son reveal themselves to his people in the bloodless sacrifice for the redemption of humanity. All heaven and earth are summoned at the Mass.

Nevertheless, do we recognize its indescribable greatness and unfathomable profundity? Most times I do not see this glory at the sanctuary. The Mass becomes a daily routine without the feeling of awe and adoration. Although Christ comes to me in his flesh and blood in the Eucharist, often I look for him in somewhere ‘more meaningful’. Am I blind? Where else will I find a more genuine religious encounter?

I pray that the Lord remove my blindness so that I may see his glory at the sacrifice of the Mass. And I also pray that our fasting of attending the Mass during this pandemic may intensify our desire for Jesus, who gives his flesh and blood in this heavenly Jerusalem of the Eucharist.

Many Christian speakers on social media are concerned about the future of Christianity after the pandemic. Once virtual services and group gatherings become a norm and take roots in the faithful’s behaviours, gathering them again inside the Church might be difficult. Compounded with an individualistic and pluralistic atmosphere within the Church, some might find it meaningless to practise faith in the liturgy, by devotions, or within a community, and fall away from the Church. Religion or faith might be reduced to a social media channel or a cable TV station. It might become one option among many forms of entertainment.

Now, this pandemic may push young people farther away from the Church. All catechism classes or faith development programs have been closed indefinitely. I see fewer and fewer families bringing their children for Communion at the parish parking. If non-gathering restrictions go on for a while and the fear for the virus persists for a long time, can we expect our children and grandchildren to ask us to bring them to church when the pandemic is over?

It seems true the Christian faith is in crisis under this pandemic. Or we should rather say that our crisis has now another turn, for this crisis of faith began a long time ago. The decline of church attendance is not news. After WWII and especially since the 1960s, practising Catholics have steadily declined. The number of priestly and religious vocation plummeted. Many religious orders and communities are disappearing. So many local parishes don’t have resident clergy now.

I wonder if you agree with the word ‘crisis’ I used to describe the situation of the Church. I have a reservation to call this situation a crisis. Many of us are indeed in crises of falling into deeper sinfulness in our times’ confusion. But the Christian faith itself never suffers degradation because the Lord is always faithful. I like to call our situation a ‘trial’ or ‘purification’. Or you may view it as God’s chastisement or discipline against our unfaithfulness all these years. The letter to the Hebrews reminds us today, “Beloved, in your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” It continues, “the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts. Endure trials for the sake of discipline...Now disciplines seem painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

My brethren, it is time for discipline. Only faithful ones will spiritually survive this pandemic. Keep your ears open to the words of the Lord. Teach your children the faith you received from the Church. Pastors cannot replace you. Let us gather our strength. When we ask for it, the Lord will gladly grant what we need for this trial. It’s not a crisis. It is an opportunity to grow and mature in the Lord.

When God of Moses brought the last disaster to Egyptians, all the firstborn males, either human or animal, were killed. Only Hebrews avoided the divine punishment by the blood of lambs on their doorposts. They had to redeem their firstborn males by the sacrifice of the lambs. It became a part of the Jewish ritual laws. Jewish parents redeemed their firstborn sons at the Temple after 40 days of birth. Thus, this presenting a firstborn male child means receiving them back by sacrifice.

Another name of this day is the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. All mothers who have given birth to a male child were considered ritually unclean for 40 days and had to purify themselves at the Temple in Jerusalem. The Blessed Virgin also followed this law.

Now, either Jesus or Mary didn’t have to follow these ritual laws. First, Jesus himself was the redemptive sacrifice for all humanity from sins. Second, the Blessed Virgin Mary kept her perpetual virginity at the conception of Jesus and at her giving birth to him as well. She never became ritually unclean by blood.

Nevertheless, both of them showed their solidarity with their people. They didn’t claim their prestige or privilege or status but bore the burden of life with the poor. The sacrifice of a pair of doves was for the poor people. The regular offering was a lamb.

This day also celebrates the world day for consecrated life. Members of religious orders and communities renew their vows today. The clergy should also refresh their dedication to the Lord this day. As the Son of God and his Mother shared all human burdens, the clergy and the religious should not be afraid of bearing them. The more closely united to Jesus a priest or religious becomes, the more willingly he will share the burdens of life.

Have you seen people with demonic oppression or possession? I have not yet seen it personally. But many of us probably saw movies about demonic possession or exorcism. Movies usually do not focus on the nature of demonic possession or oppression. They highlight paranormal struggles and fights or horrible and frightening fates of characters to keep your attention.

On the other hand, in today’s gospel, we can see what happens in demonic possession. The Gerasenes demoniac is alive. But he lives among the dead away from his people. He is alive bodily but dead spiritually and socially. In the meantime, no one can restrain him. No human power can overwhelm him. No one can help him. In other words, there is no human cure for demonic oppression or possession. When a person’s illness has a supernatural origin, there is no human cure. Lastly, in movies, we see many victims harmed by demoniacs. But in reality, the true victims are the demoniacs oppressed or possessed by demons. The Gerasenes demoniac howls night and day with agony and bruises himself with stones.

Genuine demonic oppression and possession are still found in our times although we don’t see them often. Then, Satan and his demons became lazy and inactive in modern times? I don’t think so. Spiritually dead people are all over. So many people do not think about the afterlife. They live as if they have no spirit, chasing only after pleasure and wealth. Although we stay to ourselves we are so well connected by electronic and virtual means, so many people feel alone and have broken relationships. Too many divorces and single-parent homes are around us. Meanwhile, in our times we see so many addictions at a personal level and so many large-scale exploitations at the society level. Scientific theories or psychology cannot comprehensively explain these personal and social evils. If they could, these evils should have gone by now. As we see all around us, there are still too many victims of Satan’s lies. We cannot but admit that many evils are beyond human power. Evil is not merely human or natural but also demonic and supernatural.

We need the Stronger One. Only Christ Jesus can overpower Satan and his demons as he demonstrates in today’s gospel. Satan is diligent and steadfast in luring man with his ever-new lies. We still find many demoniacs around us. I should examine first myself if I subscribe to any of Satan’s lies and his false promises.

During this pandemic and under many shutdowns and lock-downs, you might have encountered many more prophecies than ever before through social media and other online platforms. Some interpret this pandemic as God’s wrath. Some translate this pandemic into a part of the signs of the end time. You have probably come across at least a couple of prophecies about the Antichrist or terrible disasters, insurrections, or a mass apostasy in the Church. When we hear these prophecies, the first thing rising in our minds is these questions: ‘Is that true?’ ‘Can it be true?’ ‘Will it happen soon?’

From the very beginning of the Church, prophets have been among Christians. St Paul lists prophecy among the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Church. As we hear in the first reading of this Sunday, the God of the Old Testament foretold the Prophet's coming through the mouth of Moses. And St Mark’s gospel presents Jesus as that true Prophet in the gospel. Then, the question is how to tell who are true Christian prophets.

The answer hides in Christ Jesus. He is the Prophet who reveals God and his will. The reason Christ Jesus is the True Prophet comes from his conformity to his heavenly Father in the knowledge and will. The more closely united to God a prophet is, the more accurately he will deliver God’s plan. Precisely because God the Son is in perfect union with God the Father, he is the Prophet, the perfect Revelation of God.

When God the Son became man, he opened a way for us to become like him through his humanity. This is how Christians become prophets. Christian prophets are different from the Old Testament prophets. The Old Testament prophets received visions or voices from heaven or angels. On the other hand, Christian prophets become prophets by joining themselves to Christ Jesus. This joining to Christ often means a life of suffering. Can you find any prophet-saint who lived a so-called good life? As far as I research, they all lived lives of penance, enduring much suffering. Some of them encountered the Blessed Virgin Mary, and she urged them to actively join the suffering of her Son to prevent or prepare for God’s impending chastisements. Their conformity to Christ comes first before their prophetic messages. Their unity with Christ reveals how true their prophecies are. Thus, it is critical to see who the purported prophet is.

Do we have any prophet-saint who specified when or where their prophecies would occur? Can you find a true prophet who didn’t urge us to repent and do our penance? Christian prophets proclaim fundamentally the same message of Christ. It is to live according to the will of the heavenly Father by repentance and love for others. And we exercise this message by becoming like Christ Jesus in daily life through perseverance and suffering. In other words, all Christians share the office of the prophet.

Whenever I encounter a credible prophecy, it makes me examine myself. And it admonishes me to conform myself and my life to Christ, not tomorrow or in five years or when another epidemic spreads, but this day. Christ’s prophecy is not for tomorrow but this moment.