20140901 PROCLAMATION OF CHRIST CRUCIFIED AS THE GOOD NEWS IN THE
POWER OF THE SPIRIT
Reading 1, First Corinthians 2:1-5
1 Now when I came to you, brothers, I did not come with
any brilliance of oratory or wise argument to announce to you the mystery of God.
2 I was resolved that the only knowledge I would have while I was with you was knowledge of Jesus, and of him as the crucified Christ.
3 I came among you in weakness, in fear and great
trembling
4 and what I spoke and proclaimed was not meant to
convince by philosophical argument, but to demonstrate the convincing power of
the Spirit,
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 119:97, 98, 99, 100, 101,
102
97 How I love your Law! I ponder it all day long.
98 You make me wiser than my enemies by your commandment
which is mine for ever.
99 I am wiser than all my teachers because I ponder your
instructions.
100 I have more understanding than the aged because I keep
your precepts.
101 I restrain my foot from evil paths to keep your word.
102 I do not turn aside from your judgements, because you
yourself have instructed me.
Gospel, Luke 4:16-30
16 He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and
went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read,
17 and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it
is written:
18 The spirit of the Lord is on me, for he has anointed me to bring the good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to proclaim
liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord.
20 He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the
assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him.
21 Then he began to speak to them, 'This text is being
fulfilled today even while you are listening.'
22 And he won the approval of all, and they were
astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips. They said, 'This is
Joseph's son, surely?'
23 But he replied, 'No doubt you will quote me the saying, "Physician, heal
yourself," and tell me, "We have heard all that happened in
Capernaum, do the same here in your own country." '
25 'There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in
Elijah's day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great
famine raged throughout the land,
26 but Elijah was not sent to any one of these: he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a town in Sidonia.
27 And in the prophet Elisha's time there were many suffering from virulent skin-diseases in
Israel, but none of these was cured -- only Naaman the Syrian.'
28 When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged.
29 They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the
town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on,
intending to throw him off the cliff,
30 but he passed straight through the crowd and walked away.
PROCLAMATION
OF CHRIST CRUCIFIED AS THE GOOD NEWS IN THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: 1 COR 2:1-5; LK 4:16-30
http://www.universalis.com/20140901/mass.htm
Today, we begin the reading
of the gospel taken from St Luke the evangelist. It begins with the
inauguration of the ministry of Jesus, which is spelt out in terms of
bringing the Good News to the poor and in terms of liberation. He is
called to give hope to the marginalized and the poor; and to set the captives
free from all that prevents them from living the fullness of life.
As followers of Christ, how
are we to continue this mission that Jesus has begun? Very often, many
good believers make the sincere mistake of either reducing the
proclamation of the gospel to the salvation of souls, or reducing it merely to
a programme for liberation movements. The truth is that Jesus has come to
bring real liberation to everyone, not simply political, spiritual or social
liberation but total liberation. The gospel must permeate every area of
human life, whether it is spiritual, social, political or economic.
How then is this
proclamation to be realized? In today’s second reading, St Paul says he
came to proclaim the Crucified Christ. He said, “Brothers, when I
came to you, it was not with any show of oratory or philosophy, but simply to
tell you what God had guaranteed. During my stay with you, the only
knowledge I claimed to have was about Jesus, and only about him as the
crucified Christ.”
Why did he not speak
about liberation like Jesus did? For St Paul, social justice and reaching out to the poor
presupposes faith in Christ crucified. This is true also in terms of spiritual
liberation from sin. For this reason, Pope Benedict in his first
encyclical, “God is love”, underscores that unconditional love for others
presupposes a prior experience of God’s unconditional and total love.
Consequently, St Paul makes
the kergyma his preaching. The proclamation of Christ crucified speaks on
the self-emptying love of the Father and the Son in the mutual
kenosis. The Father delivered His only Son to sinners to be put to death
and the Son surrendered Himself to the Father’s will for the love of the world.
Of course, to the Jews who
were looking for a glorious and triumphant saviour, a crucified messiah was a
scandal to them. Yet, they failed to see that such is the wisdom of
God, not the wisdom of man. For real power is not the wealth and
worldly power that the wisdom of the world proclaims; it is not even
knowledge! Rather, real power is the power of love. Only love can
conquer the hearts of men, not worldly powers nor intellectual power.
What would have made St
Paul, himself a great scholar of scriptures, to take this unconventional
approach? It was his personal experience of the love of God in
Jesus. Indeed, it was his conversion experience at Damascus that
changed his whole mindset. This is implied in the statement, “During my
stay with you, the only knowledge I claimed to have was about Jesus, and only
about him as the crucified Christ.” Before that, he relied only on his
knowledge and will-power to know God and obey the laws. He was
self-righteous and judgmental. But after the encounter with Jesus and
hearing him say, “Why are you persecuting me?” he came to realize the love and
mercy of Christ crucified. Furthermore, when he recognized that Christ
had chosen him to be an apostle of the gospel, in spite of his past, he was
certainly, even more humbled by that experience.
As he said earlier, “…at
the time when you were called: how many of you were wise in the ordinary
sense of the word, how many were influential people, or came from noble
families? No, it was to shame the wise that God chose what is foolish by human
reckoning, and to shame what is strong that he chose what is weak by human
reckoning; those whom the world thinks common and contemptible are the ones
that God has chosen – those who are nothing at all to show up those who
are everything.” (1 Cor 1:26-31). Truly, he came to realize that the
gospel has power only because it is not the work of man but the work of God.
What does this mean for us
all? Firstly, it means that in proclaiming the gospel today, proclaiming
Christ crucified means that we need to teach a life of renunciation and
poverty as Christ commanded us.
The gospel has lost its
power today because we are depending too much on worldly wisdom and power,
focusing more on branding, marketing, techniques, arguments and planning,
rather than on the power that comes from God. This is not to say that
such planning or employment of the modern means of communication is not necessary
in proclaiming the gospel. What needs to be underscored is our reliance
on the Lord above all.
At the same time, we are
no longer living lives of contradiction. Our lifestyle is no
different from those of non-Christians. We must once again recover the
secret of the proclamation of the gospel which is to live our life in the
shadow of the cross. Jesus refused to play according to the rules of
His people, who wanted Him to prove His worth through power and glory.
Instead, He came for the poor and lived among the poor. Concretely, this
means that we cannot carry out our Christian ministry without the cross.
We must be ready to suffer for the truth which we are called to proclaim.
We must be ready to be ridiculed, slandered and misunderstood in trying to
proclaim the gospel. It is said that no one throws stones at barren
trees! Hence, we must carry the cross because we are invited to
live a life of integrity, compassion, charity and love.
Like Jesus who refused to bow
to pressure to perform miracles in order to prove Himself, we too must pray
for courage to be different. We must remind ourselves that we are called
to proclaim God’s love and mercy and not to boost our ego or to bask in our
glory. Indeed, how many of us dare to challenge the complacency of the
faith and love of our fellow Christians? We must avoid the unconscious
desire for popularity, fame, glory and power, especially at the workplace, and
in the social circles we move in.
For this to be possible, we
need to follow the same path as Jesus and Paul did, which is to exercise our
Christian mission in the power of the Spirit. Jesus prefaced His call
by declaring, “The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed
me.” St Paul too said, “Far from relying on any power of my speeches and
the sermons that I gave, there were none of the arguments that belong to
philosophy; only a demonstration of the power of the Spirit. And I did
this so that your faith should not depend on human philosophy but on the power
of God.” Being in touch with the Spirit of God therefore is the key to
power in our proclamation of the gospel in our lives.
Accordingly, we need to pray
for this encounter with the Spirit by meditating on the Word of God, like
the Psalmist who said, “How I love your law, O Lord! It is my meditation
all the day. Your command has made me wiser than my enemies, for it is
ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers when your decrees
are my meditation.” Yes, when the word of God abides in us, then the Father
and his Son will dwell in us through the Holy Spirit. Only then can we
proclaim his Word, the Good News of liberation with the power of the Spirit.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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