20140807 THE FULL MEANING OF OUR LIFE AND FAITH IS UNFOLDED IN A
DEEPENING RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST
Reading 1, Jeremiah 31:31-34
31 'Look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares,
when I shall make a new covenant with the House of Israel (and the House of
Judah),
32 but not like the covenant I made with their ancestors
the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, a covenant which
they broke, even though I was their Master, Yahweh declares.
33 No, this is the covenant I shall make with the House of
Israel when those days have come, Yahweh declares.
Within them I shall plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I shall be
their God and they will be my
people.
34 There will be no
further need for everyone to teach neighbour or brother, saying, "Learn to
know Yahweh!" No, they will all know
me, from the least to the greatest, Yahweh declares,
since I shall forgive their guilt and never more call their sin to mind.'
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 51:12-13, 14-15, 18-19
12 Give me back the joy of your salvation, sustain in me a
generous spirit.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, God, God of my
salvation, and my tongue will acclaim
your saving justice.
19 Then you will delight in
upright sacrifices,-burnt offerings and
whole oblations -- and young bulls will be offered
on your altar.
Gospel, Matthew 16:13-23
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put
this question to his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of man is?'
14 And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.'
15 'But you,' he said, 'who do you say I am?'
17 Jesus replied, 'Simon son of Jonah, you are a blessed
man! Because it was no human agency that revealed this to you but my Father in
heaven.
18 So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my
community. And the gates of the underworld can never overpower it.
19 I will give you
the keys of the kingdom of Heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in
heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be loosed
in heaven.'
20 Then he gave the disciples strict orders not to say to
anyone that he was the Christ.
21 From then onwards Jesus began to make it clear to his
disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and
suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and to
be put to death and to be raised up on the third day.
22 Then, taking him aside, Peter started to rebuke him.
'Heaven preserve you, Lord,' he said, 'this must not happen to you.'
23 But he turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan! You
are an obstacle in my path, because you are thinking not as God thinks but
as human beings do.'
THE
FULL MEANING OF OUR LIFE AND FAITH IS UNFOLDED IN A DEEPENING RELATIONSHIP WITH
CHRIST
Answers to questions can
either be wrong or inadequate. But there are times in life when we might
be able to give the right answer but the wrong meaning or the wrong
explanation. This seems to be the case of those who attempted to answer
the question of Jesus’ identity in the gospel. To the outer circle of
Jesus’ disciples or even the crowd at large, Jesus was perceived to be some
kind of prophet, most probably as the eschatological prophet by many.
Yet, such regard, although
an honour to Jesus, fall short of His real identity. Thus, it was Peter
who came to the rescue of his fellow disciples when he declared unequivocally
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Such a confession evoked
a favourable response from Christ. Probably He might have been rather
consoled that at last, at least one of His disciples could come out with the
right answer. Unfortunately, Jesus discovered a little while later that
although Peter might have had the right answer, it does not necessarily mean
that he had the right meaning or the right understanding. His
understanding of messiahship was far from what and how Jesus understood His
messiahship to be. Indeed, Peter’s understanding of messiahship was the
thinking of man and not of God.
What is true of Peter and
the disciples is also true for us. Many of us do not really understand
the full implications of our actions in life. This is especially true
of our faith and certain things that we do in life. More often than not,
we just repeat what we have learnt from tradition, from our upbringing and our
culture. We confess our faith and practice our faith tradition and
culture without much understanding of what we are doing. Take the example
of our attendance at Mass. We attend Mass every week, yet how many of us
really understand the full implications of what we are celebrating.
Truly, even for myself as a priest, I am only beginning to grasp a little more
deeply the real meaning of the Eucharist, which I realize is quite
inexhaustible.
In other words, the point
that I wish to drive at is that there are many things in life that we do which
might be right or wrong, good or bad, yet the full significance of what we do
may not be realized by us until much later on in life. In other words, there
are things in life that we cannot grasp totally all at once. In
theology and scripture, we always speak about the difference between the
literal meaning of the text and the sensus plenior of the text given by
the Church. Indeed, although revelation is completed in Christ, the
Church is still grasping the depth of this revelation over the years. It
would be just too much for us to understand anything all at once. Yes,
the full meaning of life and faith is unfolded over time.
This is true also of the
Israelites in the first reading. In the context of the promise of the new
covenant during the exilic period, the Jews came to realize why the first
covenant failed; because they were being legalistic and narrow-minded and
nationalistic. It was only through their history, their struggles that
they understood deeper the real meaning of the covenant which is written not on
tablets, that is legalism, but in the hearts of men, namely, love and compassion.
Furthermore, it is a covenant that is given to all without exception, although
the Israelites were privileged to be the first recipients.
If that is so, does it
mean that we can do nothing with regard to our perception of God, life and
reality? In a certain sense, we can do nothing because the ability to
perceive the real significance of life and faith is a gift from God.
Indeed, that was why Jesus told Peter, “Blest are you, Simon son of John! No
mere man has revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.” So, indeed, perception
of life and faith is a free gift from God. But that does not
mean we can do nothing on our part. We can grow in understanding,
like Peter who did come to a mature understanding of his confession of Christ’s
messiahship in due course.
And how can one do
it? By following Peter and the disciples in their intimate relationship
with Christ. It was Peter’s close fellowship with Jesus and his
journeying with Him throughout his life, from His ministry to His passion,
death and resurrection that he could understand who Jesus really was. In
the same way too, when we go through our own passion and struggles,
reflecting on our own lives in relation to the life of Christ, we too
will come to a better understanding of our life and who Jesus is.
It will therefore be an ongoing journey in faith and purification.
This journey may be
difficult at times, but it is unavoidable. If not we might find
ourselves having the right answers but not living the answers. Then, we
would be like those who have very powerful computers but use them only to play
video games and so not make full use of the computers’ capacity.
Yes, we should be grateful, like Peter, to be given the Key to the Kingdom,
which is a pure gift from God. But we need to make use of that key to
unlock the treasures within. We need to make use of that key to get a
better grasp of the reality of life and faith. Perhaps the greatest
tragedy in life is to have the key but not use it. When that
happens we live on the superficial level.
A man asked his
friend. Before you were enlightened, what were you doing? Well, he
said, “I woke up in the morning, I went for my morning walk, then I took my
breakfast and then I went to work. I came back and then I relaxed, read
or watch television.” Then the man asked, “what did you do after your
enlightenment?” Well he said, “I wake up in the morning, I go for my
morning walk, then I take breakfast and then I go to work. After work, I
come back, take my dinner, then relax by reading or watching television.”
But the man retorted. That’s exactly the same things that you did before
you were enlightened! His friend replied, “Yes, I am doing the same
things but not in the same way or with the same frame of mind.”
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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