Tuesday, 23 December 2014

20140729 LIVING A LIFE THAT NEVER DIES REQUIRES RECOGNIZING THE PRIMACY OF GOD’S LOVE OVER THE RESPONSE OF FAITH

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
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, 'Give me something to drink.'
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?'
13 Jesus replied: Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again;
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.'
16 'Go and call your husband,' said Jesus to her, 'and come back here.'


19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother.
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,
22 but even now I know that God will grant whatever you ask of him.'
23 Jesus said to her, 'Your brother will rise again.'
24 Martha said, 'I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.'
25 Jesus said: I am the resurrection. Anyone who believes in me, even though that person dies, will live,
26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?
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  
SCRIPTURE READINGS: 1 Jn 4:7-16; Jn 11:19-27
http://www.universalis.com/20140729/mass.1.htm
“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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