20141202 CHRIST AS OUR HOPE FOR A NEW WORLD AND NEW LIFE
Readings at Mass
|
First reading
|
Isaiah 11:1-10 ©
|
A shoot springs from
the stock of Jesse,
a scion thrusts from
his roots:
on him the spirit of
the Lord rests,
a spirit of wisdom
and insight,
a spirit of counsel
and power,
a spirit of knowledge
and of the fear of the Lord.
(The fear of the Lord
is his breath.)
He does not judge by
appearances,
he gives no verdict
on hearsay,
but judges the
wretched with integrity,
and with equity gives
a verdict for the poor of the land.
His word is a rod
that strikes the ruthless,
his sentences bring
death to the wicked.
Integrity is the
loincloth round his waist,
faithfulness the belt
about his hips.
The wolf lives with
the lamb,
the panther lies down
with the kid,
calf and lion feed
together,
with a little boy to
lead them.
The cow and the bear
make friends,
their young lie down
together.
The lion eats straw
like the ox.
The infant plays over
the cobra’s hole;
into the viper’s lair
the young child puts
his hand.
They do no hurt, no
harm,
on all my holy
mountain,
for the country is
filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters swell
the sea.
That day, the root of
Jesse
shall stand as a
signal to the peoples.
It will be sought out
by the nations
and its home will be
glorious.
|
Psalm
|
|
Psalm
71:1-2,7-8,12-13,17 ©
|
In his days
justice shall flourish, and peace till the moon fails.
O God, give your
judgement to the king,
to a
king’s son your justice,
that he may judge
your people in justice
and your
poor in right judgement.
In his days
justice shall flourish, and peace till the moon fails.
In his days justice
shall flourish
and peace
till the moon fails.
He shall rule from
sea to sea,
from the
Great River to earth’s bounds.
In his days
justice shall flourish, and peace till the moon fails.
For he shall save the
poor when they cry
and the
needy who are helpless.
He will have pity on
the weak
and save
the lives of the poor.
In his days justice
shall flourish, and peace till the moon fails.
May his name be
blessed for ever
and
endure like the sun.
Every tribe shall be
blessed in him,
all
nations bless his name.
In his days
justice shall flourish, and peace till the moon fails.
|
Gospel
Acclamation
|
Ps84:8
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Let us see, O Lord,
your mercy
and give us your
saving help.
Alleluia!
|
Or
|
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Behold, our Lord will
come with power
and will enlighten
the eyes of his servants.
Alleluia!
|
Gospel
|
Luke 10:21-24 ©
|
Filled with joy by
the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth,
for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to
mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has
been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the
Father, and who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses
to reveal him.’
Then
turning to his disciples he spoke to them in private, ‘Happy the eyes that see
what you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what
you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.’
CHRIST
AS OUR HOPE FOR A NEW WORLD AND NEW LIFE
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: : ISA 11:1-10; LK 10:21-24
We have
been receiving lots of bad news these days. There are wars, weather
calamities and earthquakes everywhere. The major economies of the world
are not in great shape. At home, property markets are plunging and food
prices are soaring. There are few safe havens for those who have money to park
their savings. Yes, we all know that times ahead can be difficult.
But financial problems aside, there are perhaps even more distressing
difficulties that we have, such as illnesses and emotional problems in relationship.
In the face of these difficulties, one cannot but feel gloomy about life and
the future ahead.
If we
are feeling this way, then we can empathize with the Israelites of the Southern
Kingdom of Judah. They too were feeling devastated and in despair.
They too wanted to give up all hope as the Northern Kingdom of Israel had
already been destroyed by the Assyrian Empire and Judah, the Southern Kingdom
of Israel, was also being invaded by the Assyrian Army. However, Isaiah assures
them they could not capture the holy city of Jerusalem which remains as the
stump of Israel. It is within this context that the prophet Isaiah
gave the people hope. Yes, he said, although Israel might have been
destroyed but a stock shall remain and from this stump, a shoot shall spring
from the stock of Jesse, a scion thrusts from his roots.
Indeed,
according to the Prophet, God will not abandon Israel. God is faithful to
Israel. From the stock that is left of Israel, God is going to raise
for them a new Davidic King who will be filled with His Spirit and His gifts,
namely, that of wisdom, insight, counsel, power, knowledge and fear of the
Lord. He would be the king who would restore peace and order in
Israel. On that day, there will be no more sufferings, no more
destruction as everyone, including animals, will live in peace with each other
as all will live in integrity and faithfulness, filled with the knowledge of
the Lord. Yes, this is the day that the prophet envisaged would come when
Israel would be ruled by such a king forever.
Now this
promise that was made to Israel is also made to all of us. In a
situation when we feel that our life is hopeless and there is no meaning, then
we can turn to Isaiah for consolation and strength. Today, the Church
during the beginning of the season of Advent too wants to give us hope.
We too will also overcome our problems. There is help on the way.
We should not give up hope. A day will come soon, when we will weather
the storms and find new life, peace and joy. We would be glorious in the
end so that there is no reason to give up in our struggles.
But is
this hope only a dream or a reality? Well, the scriptures make it
clear that this is certainly not a dream. In fact, this has already been
realized in Jesus. In the gospel, we are told that Jesus is the
fulfillment of the Messianic King that was expected in the Old Testament.
Jesus is the bud that sprang from the stock of Jesse. He is the king that
is filled with the Spirit of the Lord. Yes, Luke says, He is filled
with joy by the Holy Spirit. Not only is He filled with the Holy Spirit,
Jesus is shown to be the one who not only possesses power to heal the sick,
work miracles and exorcise the possessed; He is also the Wise one because He
knows the Father perfectly.
In
fact, He is the Wisdom of God in person because the Father reveals
everything to Him and entrusted everything to Him. For this reason, Jesus
could remind His disciples that they were truly very fortunate because “many
prophets and kings wanted to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what
you hear, and never heard it.” In other words, Jesus is saying that He is
the Messianic King anticipated for all generations and He is now in their
midst. The miracles that He worked in the power of the Spirit are signs
that He is the Emmanuel prophesied by Isaiah; the one the King of Judah should
have trusted instead of relying on his own powers.
For us
too, we are called to trust in Jesus as the One who would deliver us from
our miseries and sufferings. We must recognize that He is truly our
Saviour, the promised One of God. But for us to recognize Him as the Son
of the Father, it is not through intelligence and cleverness alone.
No! On the contrary, Jesus tells us that God reveals Himself only to
the humble, those who are children of God. If we remain proud, if we
are not humble enough to surrender, then we can never recognize Jesus nor
accept Him totally in our lives. Without a true humble submission and
acceptance of Jesus, He cannot reveal Himself to us in His full glory and
powers. We must give up our way of thinking, our way of rationalizing and
embrace the Emmanuel in our lives.
Because
if we do, then Jesus will work wonders in our lives. That was what
happened to the disciples. In fact, today’s gospel, to be fully grasped, must
be read within context. The prayer of Jesus in today’s gospel was in
response to the exuberance of the 70 disciples that Jesus sent on a missionary
journey earlier. Jesus wanted to share His powers and His Spirit with them,
just as Moses shared his prophetic spirit with his disciples. Jesus
wanted to give them the same powers of healing, exorcism and preaching as He
had. However, this is only possible if the disciples followed His
specific instructions.
What
were these? They were to “carry no purse, no bag, no sandals.”
Why? Shouldn’t they be at least materially prepared? Isn’t that
foolishness? Then what was the reason for the disciples to go
almost empty-handed? So that Jesus could work wonders and miracles in
their lives. In their nothingness and total dependence on God, His Father
could use them totally for the work of healing, preaching and
deliverance. The material deprivation was but a means to help them depend
totally on the power of God. So trusting in Jesus, the 70 disciples
went. And the disciples came back to report to Jesus the wonders, beyond
their imagination, that they had done, saying, “Lord, even the demons are
subject to us in your name!” Yes, the disciples of Jesus could not believe
that such powers are now given to them in Jesus.
Truly,
if that were so for Jesus, it is also true for us more than ever. Jesus,
who is Lord and King, the Resurrected One, can give us His Spirit more fully by
living and working in us. We too share the same power and authority
through Him by virtue of our baptism in the Spirit. We too have been
given the gifts of the Spirit to bring healing, peace, joy and harmony to our
land. We too have been given the Spirit to bring peace, righteousness and
joy to our people. We too can also bring counsel and reverence for the
Lord among our people so that all will live in His Kingdom of love.
Yes, the
Good News of a new reign of God’s love in our midst is real. But God
is not going to make Himself felt invisibly and directly. No, He is
going to make Himself present to us in the signs and works that we do.
So that others, seeing the good works of love that we do, will come to
recognize the presence and power of God that is still at work in our lives
today. Hence, it is important that we who have received these gifts
must manifest the incarnation of the Spirit of Jesus in our lives by
cheering the sad, helping the needy, consoling the sick, counselling the
troubled and enlightening the ignorant so that through our out-reach, they will
come to realize that God is near to them.
Finally,
Jesus told His disciples, what ultimately matters is not the gifts that He
had given to them either. This was because the disciples were
rejoicing that they even had the spirits under their control. No.
Jesus told His disciples: “do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject
to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” That is to
say, what is most important is not whether we are physically healed or not; or
whether we become rich or not; or whether we pass our exams or not.
These favours might be given to us by the Lord as He sees fit. What is
even more important is that with or without them, we can be happy in life.
To be able to be happy without the gifts is even a higher form of
spirituality. This means that we have conquered even the material
world. We live on the level of the transcendence even while not despising
the physical world. In this way, nothing can destroy us or take away our
happiness.
For
such a grace, Jesus reminded His disciples that it is important that they pray
for the gift of knowledge of the Father through the Son. The more we
come to know God personally, the more we come to understand His love and
providence for us; then we will never question God’s love anymore. We
will accept everything from Him and His will lovingly, for we know that what
happens to us is according to the Father’s wishes. In this way, the
promise of the fulfillment of eternal peace and joy by God through the Prophet
Isaiah is truly fulfilled in those who surrender themselves to Jesus, the
Messianic King. Yes, the new world is not a dream but already a reality
being completed in our days.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No comments:
Post a Comment