20150104 RE-DISCOVERING THE PERSONAL CHRIST
Readings at Mass
First reading
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Isaiah 60:1-6 ©
|
Arise, shine out,
Jerusalem, for your light has come,
the glory of the Lord
is rising on you,
though night still
covers the earth
and darkness the
peoples.
Above you the Lord
now rises
and above you his
glory appears.
The nations come to
your light
and kings to your
dawning brightness.
Lift up your eyes and
look round:
all are assembling
and coming towards you,
your sons from far
away
and your daughters
being tenderly carried.
At this sight you
will grow radiant,
your heart throbbing
and full;
since the riches of
the sea will flow to you,
the wealth of the
nations come to you;
camels in throngs
will cover you,
and dromedaries of
Midian and Ephah;
everyone in Sheba
will come,
bringing gold and
incense
and singing the
praise of the Lord.
Psalm
|
Psalm
71:1-2,7-8,10-13 ©
|
All nations shall
fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
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.
All nations shall
fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
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.
All nations shall
fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
The kings of Tarshish
and the sea coasts
shall pay
him tribute.
The kings of Sheba
and Seba
shall
bring him gifts.
Before him all kings
shall fall prostrate,
all
nations shall serve him.
All nations shall
fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
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.
All nations shall
fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
Second reading
|
Ephesians
3:2-3,5-6 ©
|
You have probably
heard how I have been entrusted by God with the grace he meant for you, and
that it was by a revelation that I was given the knowledge of the mystery. This
mystery that has now been revealed through the Spirit to his holy apostles and
prophets was unknown to any men in past generations; it means that pagans now
share the same inheritance, that they are parts of the same body, and that the
same promise has been made to them, in Jesus Christ, through the gospel.
Gospel
|
Matthew 2:1-12 ©
|
After Jesus had been
born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, some wise men came
to Jerusalem from the east. ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews?’ they asked.
‘We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.’ When King Herod
heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem. He called
together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and enquired of
them where the Christ was to be born. ‘At Bethlehem in Judaea,’ they told him
‘for this is what the prophet wrote:
And you,
Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
you are by no
means least among the leaders of Judah,
for out of you
will come a leader
who will shepherd
my people Israel.’
Then Herod summoned
the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the
star had appeared, and sent them on to Bethlehem. ‘Go and find out all about
the child,’ he said ‘and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too
may go and do him homage.’ Having listened to what the king had to say, they
set out. And there in front of them was the star they had seen rising; it went
forward, and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star
filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his
mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening
their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. But
they were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, and returned to their own
country by a different way.
RE-DISCOVERING
THE PERSONAL CHRIST
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: ISA 60:1-6; EPH 3:2-3, 5-6; MT 2:1-12
Among
the many quests of humankind, there is none that is as unavoidable as that of
the search for God. Man knows that the search for life is not complete
until and unless they find God. This thirst for God is illustrated in
the story of the wise men that came to Jerusalem from the East in search of the
Infant King. They are truly wise because they know that unless they find
God, their lives would not be complete, for all the things in this world would
not be able to satisfy them. Of course, we are told that they were not disappointed
in their quest.
The Good News is that
God has revealed Himself to us in Jesus. This is what the feast of Epiphany is all
about. The word, ‘Epiphany’ means the manifestation of God in Jesus
Christ. More particularly, this feast, which is a continuation of the
Christmas celebration, focuses on the manifestation of Jesus Christ as the
Saviour of the world, not only for the Jews, the chosen people of God, but for
all the gentiles, that is, the non-Jews. The wise men symbolize the first
non-Jews who came to recognize and accept Jesus as their Saviour. Indeed,
Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah in the first reading.
He is the glory of the Lord that rises and appears for all nations to see and
come to adore Him. He is the light that shines in our darkness.
How can we begin this
personal search for Jesus in our lives?
Firstly, like the wise men
whose faith were stimulated by a star that they saw; we too should be
challenged to grow further in our faith through reflection on our life
events. We must first look for Him in created things and in our
history just as the wise men looked for God through the stars. Through
our own reflection of life; the world’s sufferings, pain and joy, we will begin
to ask the more fundamental questions of life; who are we, where have we come
from, where are we going to, what is life, why is there suffering, why is there
evil, etc.. Unless, we begin to ask the ultimate questions of life, we
cannot come know to know God since to search for God who is the Ultimate of
life presupposes that we go beyond living this life on the mundane level.
Secondly, we must look
deeply within ourselves. The gospel told us that the Magi encountered
God through their dreams. What are dreams if not God’s way of reaching
out to us, since dreams express the deepest aspirations of man. Quite
often, we think that we are the ones who take the initiative to look for
God. On the contrary, the truth is that God is looking for us.
Indeed, if God has not first found us, we would not have found Him. If we
found Him, it is only because He has been waiting for us all the while.
Thus, it is not enough to look outside of us, but we must look within as well,
since God is found both within and without. After all, isn’t He
everywhere? We have to search in the depths of our hearts and we
will clearly hear the voice of God telling us that true happiness can only be
found in Him. Unfortunately, there are simply too many voices around us
and some of them are false. Yes, like the wise men who had to contend
with the false voice of Herod, we, too, must discern what are those authentic
voices that come from God, lest we be misled in our search. Like the wise
men, we have to listen to our intuition and our instincts, the voice of God in
our heart, so that we can discern correctly.
Thirdly, we must find
God who makes Himself known through others. Indeed, the wise men
sought the help of Herod and the religious leaders. Although they
themselves do not have faith in Jesus, they have some knowledge about
Him. So, we too must come to people who have knowledge about Jesus.
We must be humble enough like the wise men to look for people who can tell us
about Jesus. We need to study about Him from others who have knowledge of
Him. This is possible if we attend formation classes, like RCIA,
religious and faith classes or through reading of religious books.
Knowledge about Jesus is necessary for us to come to a real encounter with Him.
Fourthly, the knowledge
of Christ comes through an intimate knowledge of scriptures since God makes
Himself known through the scriptures. This is clear, for the gospel
tells us that the wise men came to know Jesus through the help of the
scriptures. In the second reading, St Paul mentioned the fact that the
mystery has been entrusted to the prophets and apostles through the ages.
It is important therefore that we turn to the Word of God to find Him. It
is the scriptures that point to the fact that Jesus is the revelation of God in
person. That is why, St Jerome used to say that ignorance of the
scriptures is ignorance of Christ. Only a deeper knowledge of the
scriptures can help us to discover the person of Christ better.
However, studying about
Christ is not enough. It will not bring us to a real faith yet. The
religious leaders and Herod knew about Christ but they remained
indifferent. Faith therefore is not borne simply of knowledge.
It is not sufficient to know about God. We must have a personal knowledge
about Him. This knowledge can come only through personal
experience. The avenues for such personal experience of Christ are made
possible through the testimonies of those who have experienced Him in their
lives. But most of all, it is through prayer and worship that Christ
becomes real in our lives. The way of prayer and contemplation is, in the
final analysis, the only way to experience Christ as God personally in our
lives. This was true of the Magi. We are told that when they were
led to Jesus, they worshipped Him. Only in worship, did they come to experience
Jesus as their Saviour and the resultant effects of this experience was that
they were transformed. For we are told that after paying homage to Jesus,
they returned to their own country by a different way.
Yes, today, we are being
challenged to find our faith anew again. We are called to be open and
to be courageous in seeking for the real Christ in our lives. For those
of us who have not yet found Him or are lukewarm in our faith, then we must
take the risk of searching for Him through study and prayer. We must
imitate the example of the Magi who took the risks of adventure to search for
the real God in their lives. They were willing to leave their secure
homeland to search for someone that can give them the ultimate meaning in their
lives. We must not simply be contented with observing or following a
religion. If Christianity does not offer us a greater meaning and zeal
for life and love, then it is clear that we have worshipped the wrong Christ
and the wrong God, even if we have got the name right. A faith that
cannot provide us the fullness of truth and meaning to life; a faith that
cannot transform us from within to become people of love and dynamism, such a
faith can hardly be said to be divine.
Finally, for those of us
who are supposedly good Catholics, we must never presume that we know Him
well enough. Let us realize that the riches of Christ are
inexhaustible. Our knowledge of Him must increase so that our
relationship with Him can be deepened. The more we come to know
about Him, the more we come to know about ourselves. And as we come to
know ourselves better and who God is, the more we can share in the life of
God. Yes, today as we celebrate this feast of the Epiphany, let us pray
that we will come to know Christ more and more as the revelation of God in
person; so that by seeing Him as the presence of God, not only we will be able
to find Christ as our Light and life but we will be able to bring His light to
all who are seeking desperately for truth, meaning and life like the Magi.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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