20141201 FAITH IN JESUS AS THE HOPE AND MESSIAH OF THE WORLD
Readings at Mass
First reading
|
Isaiah 2:1-5 ©
|
The vision of Isaiah
son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
In the days to come
the mountain of the
Temple of the Lord
shall tower above the
mountains
and be lifted higher
than the hills.
All the nations will
stream to it,
peoples without
number will come to it; and they will say:
‘Come,
let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the
Temple of the God of Jacob
that he
may teach us his ways
so that
we may walk in his paths;
since the
Law will go out from Zion,
and the
oracle of the Lord from Jerusalem.’
He will wield
authority over the nations
and adjudicate
between many peoples;
these will hammer
their swords into ploughshares,
their spears into
sickles.
Nation will not lift
sword against nation,
there will be no more
training for war.
O House of Jacob,
come,
let us walk in the
light of the Lord.
Psalm
|
Psalm
121:1-2,4-5,6-9 ©
|
I rejoiced when I
heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’
I rejoiced when I
heard them say:
‘Let us
go to God’s house.’
And now our feet are
standing
within
your gates, O Jerusalem.
I rejoiced when I
heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’
It is there that the
tribes go up,
the
tribes of the Lord.
For Israel’s law it
is,
there to
praise the Lord’s name.
There were set the
thrones of judgement
of the
house of David.
I rejoiced when I
heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’
For the peace of
Jerusalem pray:
‘Peace be
to your homes!
May peace reign in
your walls,
in your
palaces, peace!’
I rejoiced when I
heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’
For love of my
brethren and friends
I say:
‘Peace upon you!’
For love of the house
of the Lord
I will
ask for your good.
I rejoiced when I
heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’
Gospel
Acclamation
|
cf.Ps79:4
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Alleluia, alleluia!
God of hosts, bring
us back:
let your face shine
on us and we shall be saved.
Alleluia!
Gospel
|
Matthew 8:5-11 ©
|
When Jesus went into
Capernaum a centurion came up and pleaded with him. ‘Sir,’ he said ‘my servant
is lying at home paralysed, and in great pain.’ ‘I will come myself and cure
him’ said Jesus. The centurion replied, ‘Sir, I am not worthy to have you under
my roof; just give the word and my servant will be cured. For I am under
authority myself, and have soldiers under me; and I say to one man: Go, and he
goes; to another: Come here, and he comes; to my servant: Do this, and he does
it.’ When Jesus heard this he was astonished and said to those following him,
‘I tell you solemnly, nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this. And I
tell you that many will come from east and west to take their places with
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven.’
FAITH
IN JESUS AS THE HOPE AND MESSIAH OF THE WORLD
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: : ISA 2:1-5; MT 8:5-11
The
beginning of anything is always filled with hope. This is true in the
case of one who starts a new career or of one who starts a new family. Hope
begins whenever a new child is born; whenever a new situation develops.
Yes, hope is everywhere. This is particularly true for the Church as well
as she begins the first weekday of the new liturgical year. Thus it
is only appropriate that this message of hope resounds in the Church at the
beginning of the liturgical year.
Hope is
vital for everything in life. In fact, a person who lives without hope is
one who is already as good as dead. Without hope, one lives an
unenthusiastic life; a kind of shadowy existence, resigned to life and
fate. For those who find such kind of life meaningless and disheartening,
they might even attempt suicide. That is why hope enables one to go on
living. Hope is radically different from resignation, which is but a
defeatist attitude towards life. Hope enables us to look forward and
struggle through our crosses each day, knowing that life continues to be
meaningful even in hopeless situations.
In
Advent we celebrate this hope, the hope of Israel, the hope of the world and
our hope. Like all humankind, we all hope for a new heaven and a new
earth. The scripture readings assure us that the hope of Israel having
all nations streaming to the mountain of Yahweh, God’s holy city, Jerusalem
would be fulfilled. In the gospel, we see how Jesus was not only the
realization of the hope of the people of Israel but for all, including the
Gentiles, symbolized by the Centurion. He is the Messiah we are waiting
for.
But
what make us so confident to believe that His messianism is different from all
others. There are many kinds of messiahs in the world. They can offer us
social, political and economic freedom. Yet, these so called messiahs
have never been able to fulfill the thirst of man. The reality is that
many people have been disappointed. One after another, they
collapse. So how can we be so sure that Jesus would be the Hope for all?
Perhaps,
the question which we are asking is what kind of hope does Jesus give us?
Unlike all the other earthly messiahs, the messiahship of Jesus rests not on
human strength and ingenuity. It comes from God Himself. His power
comes from His union with God. Thus, our hope for a renewal is not a hope
that simply comes from human strength. Such hope therefore is certain.
Secondly,
the hope we are speaking about is not simply wishful thinking. That would
be to live in illusion. We could be accused of living in a utopian dream
or building castles in the air. No, Christian hope is real because it is
based on Jesus Himself. In Jesus, we see how God is coming to
heal and redeem the world. In Jesus, we see how the love of God extends
beyond all boundaries. In Jesus, the love of God is concretized in His
words and actions.
Jesus
indeed, as the centurion says, is one who has authority. His word is
creative and brings to fruition whatever is said. Jesus indeed is the
Word made flesh. Jesus is the testimony of God’s love for us.
Consequently, because of Jesus, we know that our hope is grounded and
not based on some figment of our imagination.
But how
can this hope be realized now in our lives? The gospel tells us that
the fundamental requirement is that we must have faith in the person of
Jesus. This means that we are called to open our hearts to Him. We
are called to experience the being of Jesus, not simply hear His words.
We are called to fall in love with Him so to speak. This is the kind of faith
that the centurion had. For this reason, he believed even before Jesus
acted. Thus Jesus was able to exercise His power of love through
him. Yes, faith is the first step towards realizing this hope.
Indeed, faith and hope are almost synonymous. Yet it is faith that
transcends hope. While hope is not certain, Faith is certain
because Jesus is the fulfillment of our hopes.
Then
again, we must not be too superstitious to think that faith in Jesus is simply
a blind trust in Him. No doubt, it is an invitation to surrender
ourselves to Jesus but more than that, it is to trust in His words and His
promises. Of course, faith in Jesus’ words will come naturally once
we open our beings to the person of Jesus. When we are touched by Him,
our minds will also be open to what He wants to share with us. We will
then be receptive to His vision and His dream for humanity. Of course,
the dream of Jesus is not simply a dream but dream that has come true and will
come true in its fullness when we live out that dream in our lives. For
that to happen, we must trust in Jesus and His words as true.
Of
course, it is not simply trust but we must test out the words of Jesus in our
lives. And we do this by living out His commands, or rather the
rules of life that He has lived and now shared with us. This is
absolutely necessary. As the first reading tells us, faith requires that
we climb the mountain of the Lord to the Holy Temple so that God can instruct
us in His ways. Faith in Jesus therefore means that we want to learn from
Jesus how to live our lives; how to understand the meaning of life; how to see
life. Yes it is at the Holy Mountain, Jerusalem, that is, at prayer with
Jesus and in Jesus, that God will help us to judge situations and to walk in
His light as the Prophet Isaiah tells us.
Now when
we begin to share the heart of Jesus in His compassion and love for all, and
acquire the mind of Jesus to see things with the eyes of God, then hope is
immediately realized before us. We need not even wait until the end
of time or at a certain time to experience the reality of this hope because
with the eyes of Jesus, we will see God and His goodness everywhere. We
will see His love even in our loneliness since we are drawn to Him in prayer;
we will see His strength, especially in our sickness, we will feel His
consolation in moments of our desolation when our friends abandon us; and we
will see His face in the midst of poverty, among the unloved and
abandoned. Indeed, to see God especially in difficult and
unpleasant situations is to find God among the hopeless. This is the
height of our experience of God as hope.
Yes,
Advent celebrates the coming of the Lord. The Lord has come. He
will come again at Christmas in a special way and definitively at the end of
time. But at Advent, we want to say that He is coming at every moment
– the moment when we walk in His way, and in His light – that moment when we
experience deep peace and joy. Now where can peace and joy come from if
not from God Himself? This then is the peace and joy that Jesus
promised us, the peace and joy that the world cannot give. Yes, we have
hope and this hope is real when it is a hope founded in Christ. This hope
can be realized once we give ourselves in faith to Jesus and immerse ourselves
in His life and love and work.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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