20150103
PLAYING SECOND FIDDLE
Readings at Mass
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First reading
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1 John 2:29-3:6 ©
|
You know that God is
righteous –
then you must
recognise that everyone whose life is righteous
has been begotten by
him.
Think of the love
that the Father has lavished on us,
by letting us be
called God’s children;
and that is what we
are.
Because the world
refused to acknowledge him,
therefore it does not
acknowledge us.
My dear people, we
are already the children of God
but what we are to be
in the future has not yet been revealed;
all we know is, that
when it is revealed
we shall be like him
because we shall see
him as he really is.
Surely everyone who
entertains this hope
must purify himself,
must try to be as pure as Christ.
Anyone who sins at
all
breaks the law,
because to sin is to
break the law.
Now you know that he
appeared in order to abolish sin,
and that in him there
is no sin;
anyone who lives in
God does not sin,
and anyone who sins
has never seen him or
known him.
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Psalm
|
Psalm 97:1,3-6 ©
|
All the ends of
the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Sing a new song to
the Lord
for he
has worked wonders.
His right hand and
his holy arm
have
brought salvation.
All the ends of
the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
All the ends of the
earth have seen
the
salvation of our God.
Shout to the Lord,
all the earth,
ring out
your joy.
All the ends of
the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Sing psalms to the
Lord with the harp
with the
sound of music.
With trumpets and the
sound of the horn
acclaim
the King, the Lord.
All the ends of
the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
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Gospel
Acclamation
|
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
A hallowed day has
dawned upon us.
Come, you nations,
worship the Lord,
for today a great
light has shone down upon the earth.
Alleluia!
|
Or
|
Jn1:14,12
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The Word became
flesh, and dwelt among us.
To all who received
him he gave power to become children of God.
Alleluia!
|
Or
|
Heb1:1-2
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Alleluia, alleluia!
At various times in
the past
and in various
different ways,
God spoke to our
ancestors through the prophets;
but in our own time,
the last days,
he has spoken to us
through his Son.
Alleluia!
|
Gospel
|
John 1:29-34 ©
|
Seeing Jesus coming
towards him, John said, ‘Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin
of the world. This is the one I spoke of when I said: A man is coming after me
who ranks before me because he existed before me. I did not know him myself,
and yet it was to reveal him to Israel that I came baptising with water.’ John
also declared, ‘I saw the Spirit coming down on him from heaven like a dove and
resting on him. I did not know him myself, but he who sent me to baptise with
water had said to me, “The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and rest is
the one who is going to baptise with the Holy Spirit.” Yes, I have seen and I
am the witness that he is the Chosen One of God.’
PLAYING
SECOND FIDDLE
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: 1 JN 2:29–3:6; PSALM 97; JOHN 1:29-34
We are
still drawing out the full implications of the Incarnation of our Lord.
What does it mean to celebrate Christmas in a real way? What is the
spiritual dimension of the Christmas celebration? Have we paid attention
to the religious meaning of the celebration more than we have to the material
and social aspects of this celebration? To enable us to be rooted in the real
Christmas which the Church is celebrating unlike that of the world, the liturgy
of the Church draws on the writings of St John, particularly because He gives
us a profound theology of the Word made flesh. His writings are the
fruits of his prolonged meditation on what it means for God to assume our
humanity in the person of Christ.
We can
be certain that Christmas has not been celebrated if we are merely celebrating
His birth 2000 years ago. The purpose of Christ’s coming is to bring
about our own rebirth into God. As the patristic Fathers would often
say, “Christ becomes man so that man can become god.” So Christ’s coming is in
order to make it possible that we be reborn in Him in the Holy Spirit so that
we too can come to share in the life of God.
This
entails knowing Christ, for without Christ, we cannot know God. Not only
do we do not know God, but we do not know that God is our Father and that we
are His children. We will never know how much love “the Father has
lavished on us, by letting us be called God’s children.” And what is
amazing is that St John says, “and that is what we are”. We are nothing
less than God’s children. In Christ we are the adopted sons and daughters
of God. “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into
fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption.” (Rom 8:15) Just to
know that we are God’s children has given us back our identity and
dignity. So we are no more slaves of Satan, the Father of lies, and we
are no more slaves of our passion, fears and greed. In Christ we have
found our freedom as God’s children.
And this is possible
only with the Holy Spirit that is given to those who receive Christ, since the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of
Christ. Hence, St John the Baptist, the precursor of our Lord declared,
“Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” Not only
does Jesus take away our sins and bring about our reconciliation with His
Father by offering Himself as a living sacrifice for us on the cross,
manifesting His Father’s mercy and love, He “is the one who is going to baptize
with the Holy Spirit.” So Christmas is Christmas only when Christ is born
in our hearts in the Holy Spirit. The real Christmas crib is not the one
we behold in the Church but the one that lives in our hearts. If Christ
is in our hearts, then we will have joy, peace and love. Otherwise, we
only celebrate the Christ outside us, forgetting that He wants to live in our
hearts. An external Christ cannot give us true joy and peace. So
long as our hearts are full of anger, unforgiveness, hatred, greed, lust, pride
and envy, how can we say that we know Christ or that Christ is born!
In the words of St John, without
living a holy life, we cannot be said to have known the Lord, much less to
claim that Christ is living in us. He wrote, “You know that God is
righteous -
then
you must recognize that everyone whose life is righteous has been begotten by
him. Surely everyone who entertains this hope must purify himself, must try to
be as pure as Christ. Anyone who sins at all breaks the law, because to sin is
to break the law. Now you know that he appeared in order to abolish sin, and
that in him there is no sin, and anyone who sins has never seen him or known
him.” The truth is that if we really know Him, not so much in the
cognitive sense but knowing Him in the depths of our hearts, His love and mercy
for us, then we would not do anything to hurt Him or make Him feel sad and
sorry for us.
Today we are called to
recognize the Lord the same way John the Baptist recognized the Lord. When he saw the Lord coming
towards Him, he immediately knew Jesus was the promised Lamb of God, the
Messiah, the Chosen One, because the Spirit rested on Him. He did not
hesitate but even declared to others that Jesus is the One they must
follow. John the Baptist knew that his task was just to prepare the way.
He was always conscious of his role in the economy of salvation. He said
without apology and with utter frankness, “This is the one I spoke of when I
said: A man is coming after me who ranks before me because he existed before
me. I shall not know him myself, and yet it was to reveal him to Israel that I
came baptizing with water.” John the Baptist did not hide the fact that
his work was only preparatory. He was just only a voice in the
wilderness, not the Word of God. He was only a prophet but not the Messiah.
So when the Messiah
came, he immediately let go and allowed Christ to take over. This is not an easy task. How
many of us who have been holding a certain portfolio in the Church, or at work,
are willing to let go when someone who is better than us comes along? How
many of us would direct those under our charge to serve the new person elected
or appointed to lead the organization we were heading? How many of us are
willing to give our utmost support to the new leader and play the second fiddle
or even be eased out from service all together? How many of us are
willing to let someone build on our success and our work which we have so
strenuously built up over the years? How many of us, after having given
up our portfolios, still seek to influence those people who were serving us,
telling them what to do and even sometimes bad mouthing the new leader that has
been appointed? How many of us, especially those of us who are older and
more experienced, are willing to let the younger ones or our juniors take over
without being tempted to tell them what to do all the time? We still act
as if we are in charge and that our way is the only way to do the job. We
don’t trust them although we say that they are now in charge!
The truth is that many
of us are not so ready to be as generous as John the Baptist. He is a shining example of one who has
truly welcomed the Lord and bore Him in his heart. John the Baptist was
not a failure in his mission that he had to give way to Jesus. In fact,
Jesus was still unknown to many. Yet, he even encouraged his own
disciples whom he had gathered to follow Jesus instead. Furthermore,
Jesus was building His teaching upon his idea of the coming of God’s
Kingdom. His teaching was in continuity with John the Baptist’s, albeit
with modifications. Did John feel that Jesus was stealing his ideas and
works? John the Baptist was happy that the Messiah came and that he was
ready to retire from the scene. Few of us can be so open hearted and
magnanimous like John the Baptist. More often than not, jealousy,
insecurity, resentment and anger set in when someone is overtaking us in
performance or taking over our office. In many cases, we harbour envy,
leading to slander, backbiting and detraction. We desire to see others put down
so that people might say that we had done a better job.
Indeed, St John the
Baptist demonstrated that he had purified his heart for the Lord. He
was not tempted to positions and honour in life or popularity. He knew
that he had already been given the greatest dignity of being the child of
God. This identity is worth more than any other titles the world could
bestow on him. To be called a child of God is a thousand times better to
be known as a CEO, a doctor, a professor or prince or the smartest, etc.
All these worldly titles cannot make us happy because they are all
functions. But just being loved for who we are rather than what we do, is
the greatest freedom and joy in life. And the Good News is that God loves
us and chose us to be His children, not for anything that we can do but simply
because He wants to share His love and life with us. So for John the
Baptist who came to recognize the Lord, there was nothing else for him to do or
desire. That is why St John wrote, “because the world refused to acknowledge
him, therefore it does not acknowledge us.”
So are we ready to give
in and give way to Christ so that He can be born in our hearts and so that we
can be reborn again in the Spirit? If we are ready, then we must seek to purify our hearts
each day to be like His. Have we made time for Jesus in prayer each day
so that we could also receive His Spirit like John the Baptist, recognizing His
presence especially in the Eucharist, in the Word of God and in others?
To welcome Christ into our
hearts is more than purifying our hearts from sin but also ever ready to welcome
Christ in others, since in His incarnation, He has identified Himself with
every man and woman. It means letting go of our pride and selfishness and
welcoming others into our lives, be that person our new leader, someone who is
taking over our position, a younger person training to assume leadership, the
poor or the weak. If we are willing to welcome Him in every situation in
our lives, learning to let go of our pride and insecurity and instead allow
humility and selfless service to determine what we do in life, then we will be
always filled with joy and peace, since happiness is no longer dictated from
without but from within.
In the final analysis, only
those who have seen the Lord will be able to see goodness in their fellowmen,
even in wicked and sinful people, especially our enemies. When we
know the Lord, we will see others the way Jesus looks at us. We will see
kindness and love even in our enemies instead of seeing their flaws and their
weaknesses. Those who have a heart of love will only focus on the goodness and
virtues of others rather than their sins. Isn’t this the case with the
way we perceive our friends and loved ones? We only want to see and
remember the good in them and we are more than willing to overlook their human
frailties. Those without love only find fault with others, regardless how
sincere or genuine they are. So let us put on the eyes of the Lord
and acquire a spiritual eye to see what the world cannot, to bring out the
goodness in those who are so broken, thinking that they are hopeless and
useless. As we focus on their strengths and their imperfect attempts to
do go, they will become better and better persons as they regain their identity
as a child of God who is always loved, regardless whether he is good or
naughty.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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