20140729
LIVING A LIFE THAT NEVER
DIES REQUIRES RECOGNIZING THE PRIMACY OF GOD’S LOVE OVER THE RESPONSE OF FAITH
First Reading Jeremiah 14 :17-22
17"You shall say to them this word: `Let my eyes
run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease, for the virgin
daughter of my people is smitten with a great wound, with a very grievous blow.
18If I go out into the field, behold, those slain by the sword! And if I
enter the city, behold, the diseases of famine! For both prophet and priest ply
their trade through the land, and have no knowledge.'" 19Hast thou
utterly rejected Judah? Does thy soul loathe Zion? Why hast thou smitten us so
that there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; for a
time of healing, but behold, terror. 20We acknowledge our wickedness, O
LORD, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against thee. 21Do
not spurn us, for thy name's sake; do not dishonor thy glorious throne;
remember and do not break thy covenant with us. 22Are there any among
the false gods of the nations that can bring rain? Or can the heavens give
showers? Art thou not he, O LORD our God? We set our hope on thee, for thou
doest all these things.
Responsorial Psalm
(Psalms 79 : 8,9, 11 and 13)
Psalms
79:8-9, 11, 13
8Do not remember against us
the iniquities of our forefathers; let thy compassion come speedily to meet us,
for we are brought very low. 9Help us, O God of our salvation, for the
glory of thy name; deliver us, and forgive our sins, for thy name's sake! 11Let
the groans of the prisoners come before thee; according to thy great power
preserve those doomed to die! 13Then we thy people, the flock of thy
pasture, will give thanks to thee for ever; from generation to generation we
will recount thy praise.
Gospel, John 4:7-16, 11:19-27
8 His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
9 The Samaritan woman said to
him, 'You are a Jew. How is it that you ask me, a Samaritan, for something to
drink?' -- Jews, of course, do not associate with Samaritans.
10 Jesus replied to her: If you only knew what God is offering
and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me something to drink,' you would
have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water.
11 'You have no bucket, sir,' she answered, 'and the well
is deep: how do you get this living water?
12 Are you a greater man than our
father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his sons and
his cattle?'
14 but no one who drinks the water that I shall give will ever be
thirsty again: the water that I shall give will become a
spring of water within, welling up for eternal life.
15 'Sir,' said the woman, 'give me some of that water, so
that I may never be thirsty or come here again to draw water.'
20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house.
21 Martha said to Jesus, 'Lord, if you had been here, my
brother would not have died,
25 Jesus said: I am the resurrection. Anyone who believes
in me, even though that person dies, will live,
27 'Yes, Lord,' she said, 'I believe that you are the
Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.'
LIVING
A LIFE THAT NEVER DIES REQUIRES RECOGNIZING THE PRIMACY OF GOD’S LOVE OVER THE
RESPONSE OF FAITH
“Jesus said: ‘I am the
resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies
he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you
believe this?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ,
the Son of God, the one who has come into this world.’” Faith in the
resurrection does not require faith in Jesus’ divinity.
However, faith in Jesus as
the Son of Christ is necessary if we were to believe in a life that never
ends. For this is what Jesus promised Martha, “Whoever lives and
believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’” Jesus comes to give
us life now. Jesus is not saying that He has merely come to assure us of
a life after death. Rather, He is saying that faith in Him will ensure
that life is lived to the fullest here and now.
But what does it mean for a
man to live in such a way that he never dies? Death and sickness
in John’s gospel are symbols of sin and alienation. To live a life that
is eternal means to live a life of love in union with God and with our
fellowman. Such a life would be a sharing of the life of God. In
death, this life continues, hence we can never die, whether in this life or in
the next. This is what John says, “God is love and anyone who lives in love
lives in God, and God lives in him.” Indeed, it is the way of love, the
way of a clear conscience or, as the Psalmist tells us, a man with clean hands
and pure heart, that man finds peace and joy. Yes, John says, “We can
know that we are living in him and he is living in us because he lets us share
his Spirit.”
But the question is, how
can we love like God and share in His spirit? More often than not, we
are more like Martha, egoistic even in love and service. Like her, we are
more concerned about ourselves. We are worried as to how people view us
and thus we seek to impress them. Egoistic service is often masqueraded as love.
So in order to love genuinely, the way God loves us, it then presupposes that
we understand and experience the unconditional love of God. Without the
prior love of God, we cannot love like Him. Hence, John says, “this is
the love I mean: not our love for God, but God’s love for us.”
Where is this love
concretely found? John
tells us, “God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world his only
Son so that we could have life through him … when he sent his Son to be the
sacrifice that takes our sins away.” So Jesus is the revelation of the
love of God in person. But in order to believe that Jesus is the
revelation of God’s love, we must first recognize His divinity.
Necessarily, the confession of Jesus as the resurrection and the life is
necessary to vindicate His divinity and establish Him as the Life-giver.
Without confessing in Jesus’ divinity, then we will not be able to speak of
Jesus as the revelation of God’s person. Thus the focus is not a life
after death. The purpose of John’s gospel is that we might believe in
Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and in believing, we find eternal life.
The Passion reveals the depth of God’s love and mercy whereas the resurrection
reveals Jesus’ divine Sonship.
Thus, only when we experience
the love of God in the person of Jesus, especially in His death and
resurrection, then this love is no longer an abstract knowledge but a
historical reality. Only such an experience will empower us to love like
Him. Consequently, John said, “Since God has loved us so much, we too should
love one another … since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten
by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God,
because God is love.”
This primacy of God’s love
is portrayed in Mary and Martha in the gospel. Mary understood the necessity
of experiencing the love of God in person before doing anything.
Thus, Mary sat waiting for Jesus. She did not rush out of the funeral
wake to welcome Jesus. She knew that the initiative of love must come
from Jesus. Indeed, we also know that when Jesus raised Lazarus from the
dead, He said, “Come out.” In other words, Lazarus who was dead in sin
required the invitation from God in love before he could respond.
Unfortunately, Martha
never learnt her lesson. She was busy as usual and rushed out from
the funeral wake in order to confront Jesus who came too late to heal her
brother. She was not called but acted on her own.
What is the lesson
we can draw from this episode? Namely this; we must be like Mary who was actively
open to love. If she continued sitting instead of welcoming Jesus, it was
because she knew that even if her brother died, he lived forever. Mary
herself was living the life of God, eternal life. She did not make a
distinction between this life and the next. She lived as if she would
never die and if she died, she knew her life would continue. Martha
however, who failed to hear the liberating call of Jesus, placed her trust more
on herself than on the love of God.
Yet, today’s celebration
is one of hope. We are more like Martha than Mary. Thus, Martha
is our hope rather than Mary. It is significant to note that Mary was not
accepted as a saint; unless this same Mary was Mary Magdalene whose feast we
celebrated last Thursday. Whatever the case, if the early Church
canonized Martha as a saint, it was because she is meant to be our hope.
Like her, we will also be able to make the confession of Christ as the Son of
God, and as the Resurrection and the Life with conviction one day.
This happens when we
discover through grace that it is not we who love God, but God who loves us
first. Our task is simply to accept this love. That this love is
accepted will be manifested in our unconditional love for others. In this
way, the promise of Jesus of sharing in His spirit and life already in this
life will be fulfilled. Hence, we live a life that never dies.
Through our celebration of the Eucharist, we experience His love coming to us
in a real and personal way, when we receive His body and blood made possible by
the Incarnation and the Resurrection.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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