20131207 REMOVING WHAT HINDERS CHRIST FROM COMING INTO OUR
HEARTS
Readings at Mass
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First reading
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Isaiah
40:1-5,9-11 ©
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‘Console my people,
console them’
says your God.
‘Speak to the heart
of Jerusalem
and call to her
that her time of
service is ended,
that her sin is
atoned for,
that she has received
from the hand of the Lord
double punishment for
all her crimes.’
A voice cries,
‘Prepare in the wilderness
a way for the Lord.
Make a straight
highway for our God
across the desert.
Let every valley be filled
in,
every mountain and
hill be laid low.
Let every cliff
become a plain,
and the ridges a
valley;
then the glory of the
Lord shall be revealed
and all mankind shall
see it;
for the mouth of the
Lord has spoken.’
Go up on a high
mountain,
joyful messenger to
Zion.
Shout with a loud
voice,
joyful messenger to
Jerusalem.
Shout without fear,
say to the towns of
Judah,
‘Here is your God.’
Here is the Lord
coming with power,
his arm subduing all
things to him.
The prize of his
victory is with him,
his trophies all go
before him.
He is like a shepherd
feeding his flock,
gathering lambs in
his arms,
holding them against
his breast
and leading to their
rest the mother ewes.
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Psalm
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Psalm 84:9-14 ©
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Let us see, O
Lord, your mercy, and give us your saving help.
I will hear what the
Lord God has to say,
a voice
that speaks of peace,
peace for
his people.
His help is near for
those who fear him
and his
glory will dwell in our land.
Let us see, O
Lord, your mercy, and give us your saving help.
Mercy and faithfulness
have met;
justice
and peace have embraced.
Faithfulness shall
spring from the earth
and
justice look down from heaven.
Let us see, O
Lord, your mercy, and give us your saving help.
The Lord will make us
prosper
and our
earth shall yield its fruit.
Justice shall march
before him
and peace
shall follow his steps.
Let us see, O
Lord, your mercy, and give us your saving help.
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Second reading
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2 Peter 3:8-14 ©
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There is one thing,
my friends, that you must never forget: that with the Lord, ‘a day’ can mean a
thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord is not being slow
to carry out his promises, as anybody else might be called slow; but he is
being patient with you all, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody to be
brought to change his ways. The Day of the Lord will come like a thief, and
then with a roar the sky will vanish, the elements will catch fire and fall
apart, the earth and all that it contains will be burnt up.
Since everything
is coming to an end like this, you should be living holy and saintly lives
while you wait and long for the Day of God to come, when the sky will dissolve
in flames and the elements melt in the heat. What we are waiting for is what he
promised: the new heavens and new earth, the place where righteousness will be
at home. So then, my friends, while you are waiting, do your best to live lives
without spot or stain so that he will find you at peace.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Lk3:4,6
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Prepare a way for the
Lord,
make his paths
straight,
and all mankind shall
see the salvation of God.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 1:1-8 ©
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The beginning of the
Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is written in the book of the
prophet Isaiah:
Look, I am going to
send my messenger before you;
he will prepare your
way.
A voice cries in the
wilderness:
Prepare a way for the
Lord, make his paths straight.
and
so it was that John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a
baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. All Judaea and all the
people of Jerusalem made their way to him, and as they were baptised by him in
the river Jordan they confessed their sins. John wore a garment of camel-skin,
and he lived on locusts and wild honey. In the course of his preaching he said,
‘Someone is following me, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not
fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals. I have baptised you with
water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.’
REMOVING
WHAT HINDERS CHRIST FROM COMING INTO OUR HEARTS
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: : ISA 40:1-5, 9-11; 2 Pt 3:18-14; Mk 1:1-8
Is your life empty? Are you feeling sad and
unfulfilled? Is there something bothering you? Is your life full of
problems, which you cannot resolve? If you feel this way, then you can identify
yourselves with the Israelites in exile in Babylon. Like them we feel
that we are in the wilderness of life. With the fall of Jerusalem, they
lost their kingship, their kingdom and their temple. Everything was in
ruins.
In that state of affairs, we
cannot but feel that God has abandoned us. We wonder how long God
will forsake us in our misery. We imagine that God is punishing us for
our sins. The reality is not that God has abandoned us but we have
abandoned him.
However the Good News of
today is that God wants to us to know that He is love and mercy. The
justice of God is His mercy. There is no other justice that God knows but to be
merciful. He is not only merciful but also faithful to us. God, as the
psalmist tells us, wants to speak to us the word of peace. Thus, He sent
the prophets to encourage us, “Console my people, console them, says your God.
Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call to her.” Indeed, like the
psalmist, we can be confident that “his help is near for those who fear him and
his glory will dwell in our land.”
Ironically, it is when
we feel most empty that God is most near to us. If we feel this sense
of emptiness, it is a great blessing from the Lord. In that
purposelessness, the Lord is actually trying to speak to us. Indeed, as
in the case of the Israelites and that of John the Baptist, it is in the wilderness
of our hearts that God will speak to us.
Yes, we are called to
follow John the Baptist and the Israelites to the desert to listen to His
voice so that we can find new direction and hope in life. For
it is only in the desert of life that we can feel His absence. For when
we are alone, the voice of God speaks loudest. Indeed, there are some
people who are frightened of silence, of being alone. They always want
company and want to be involved in activities to kill the voice of God in
them. They do not want to face their selves. Yet, in their
activities, deep within them, they feel empty and unfulfilled.
This escapist attitude
explains why many of us are hoping for another reprieve at Christmas. Yet
there is a real danger. Some of us are going to use this Christmas
festive season to drown our sorrows in life. We go shopping, camps,
vacation, merry making, etc. Many of us would be so busy doing all these
things that we would not be able to find time for prayer or even celebrate the
Sacrament of reconciliation. Aren’t all these distractions from the real
task of looking into ourselves and seeing what the real problems in our lives
are? Isn’t all these so-called Christmas preparations ways to escape from
confronting ourselves?
So how can we welcome
Christ, which is the real gift of God at Christmas? How does
He awake us from our insensitivity to His presence? What is required of
us to find a new life? We only need to make our hearts ready for
Christ. Only Christ can fill our emptiness. Only God can make us
rest in Him.
Thus, both Isaiah and John
the Baptist invite us to look at the crooked roads, valley, mountain and hill
in our lives. Yes, we must look into ourselves and ask what is it that
is making the spirit of God cry in our hearts. We must ask ourselves
what is really upsetting our peace in life. What could these valleys and
mountains be?
Perhaps, the mountain in
our lives is our pride. We are suffering from a broken relationship
because we are too proud to ask for forgiveness. Perhaps, our
relationships are wrong and inappropriate, hence the guilt in our lives.
The valley in our lives could be due to the fact that we suffer low self-esteem
and we have become resentful or jealous of our colleagues and those who seem to
be fairing much better than us. And even when we are suffering from
financial difficulties, some of us are living beyond our means, borrowing money
from others in order to splurge on ourselves and not for the essential needs of
the family. Maybe, we are walking a crooked road because of dishonesty in
our work. Most of all, many of us have no time for God. If we are
in this situation, certainly we cannot expect to find our hearts at rest.
Yes, we must repent and
turn back. Repentance however should not be understood simply in a
moral sense. It is not simply giving up sins and the ways of the
world. More importantly, we are called to give a genuine response of
love.
The starting point of
the Good news and the call for conversion is that God loves us in Jesus. It is not primarily
about morality but love; not about human behaviour but God’s initiative; not
about us in Jesus. It is not God’s punishment but His love.
Of course, holiness and a life of integrity are essential in Christian life,
but it presupposes a prior experience of God’s love in our lives. What is
this love that we are called to encounter? It is the Holy Spirit.
It is the Spirit of Christ coming to live in our hearts. Yes, the
Good News is not simply that God wants to give us things and His blessings but
He wants to give us His Holy Spirit.
The tragedy is that we
are asking for less when God wants to give us more. We are seeking for gifts at
Christmas. We are hoping to be invited for parties and dinners. All
these certainly can mediate to us the love of God. But there is nothing
greater than to experience the peace and love of Jesus in our hearts. To
be baptized with the Holy Spirit is to be given a personal experience of God’s
love for us.
That is what Isaiah meant
when he spoke of the Lord coming with power to strengthen our weary
hearts. The Lord could come in power, yet He came as a shepherd because
His power is love.
Once we experience the
joy of His love, then
like Peter, we can begin to realize that there is more to life than our
immediate gratification. We begin to realize that this earth is
passing. Once we realize this, we will not cling on to earthly
things. There are more important things in life than making money, making
a name for ourselves and winning all the time.
Hence, St Peter urges us
to focus on what truly lasts. Yes, we must seek for the real
things in life. What is this real thing if not, “the new heavens and new
earth, the place where righteousness will be at home.” It is the fruits
of love, peace and joy; it is justice, right relationship and love that
ultimately matter. We are called to treasure relationships and
friendship. Love is what counts in the end. We are called to learn
how to love. Instead of winning we are invited to help others to
win. Instead of making money for ourselves, we should be thinking of how
to help the poor to make some money for themselves. Instead of making a
name for ourselves, we should be thinking of helping others without seeking for
credit except for the glory of God. In this way, we will always at peace.
Yes, let us take heed of
the exhortation of the author of the second reading, “So then, my friends,
while you are waiting, do your best to live lives without spot or stain so that
he will find you at peace.” In other words, we are called to insert
ourselves into the paschal mystery. Like John the Baptist, we too are
called to make our way to Christ by confessing our sins and being baptized with
His love. Baptism of course is our insertion into the paschal mystery, the
whole Christ-event.
We who have received His
Spirit of love are
called to be like Jesus in His Incarnation and passion, to empty ourselves
in love and service for others. In this way, we will find the joy of
Christmas because Christ would have truly been born in our hearts. But
all these would be possible only if we follow Isaiah and John the Baptist into
the wilderness, our emptiness to discover the voice of peace that the Lord
wants us to hear.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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