20150410 PROCLAMATION OF JESUS AS THE UNIVERSAL SAVIOUR
PRESUPPOSES THAT WE RECOGNIZE HIM AS THE RISEN LORD
Readings at Mass
First reading
|
Acts 4:1-12 ©
|
While Peter and John
were talking to the people the priests came up to them, accompanied by the
captain of the Temple and the Sadducees. They were extremely annoyed at their
teaching the people the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead by
proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus. They arrested them, but as it was
already late, they held them till the next day. But many of those who had
listened to their message became believers, the total number of whom had now
risen to something like five thousand.
The next
day the rulers, elders and scribes had a meeting in Jerusalem with Annas the
high priest, Caiaphas, Jonathan, Alexander and all the members of the
high-priestly families. They made the prisoners stand in the middle and began
to interrogate them, ‘By what power, and by whose name have you men done this?’
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, addressed them, ‘Rulers of the people,
and elders! If you are questioning us today about an act of kindness to a
cripple, and asking us how he was healed, then I am glad to tell you all, and
would indeed be glad to tell the whole people of Israel, that it was by the
name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the one you crucified, whom God raised from
the dead, by this name and by no other that this man is able to stand up
perfectly healthy, here in your presence, today. This is the stone rejected by
you the builders, but which has proved to be the keystone. For of all the names
in the world given to men, this is the only one by which we can be saved.’
Psalm
|
Psalm
117:1-2,4,22-27 ©
|
The stone which
the builders rejected has become the corner stone.
or
Alleluia,
alleluia, alleluia!
Give thanks to the
Lord for he is good,
for his
love has no end.
Let the sons of
Israel say:
‘His love
has no end.’
Let those who fear
the Lord say:
‘His love
has no end.’
The stone which
the builders rejected has become the corner stone.
or
Alleluia,
alleluia, alleluia!
The stone which the
builders rejected
has
become the corner stone.
This is the work of
the Lord,
a marvel
in our eyes.
This day was made by
the Lord;
we
rejoice and are glad.
The stone which
the builders rejected has become the corner stone.
or
Alleluia,
alleluia, alleluia!
O Lord, grant us
salvation;
O Lord,
grant success.
Blessed in the name
of the Lord
is he who
comes.
We bless you from the
house of the Lord;
the Lord
God is our light.
The stone which
the builders rejected has become the corner stone.
or
Alleluia,
alleluia, alleluia!
Gospel
Acclamation
|
Ps117:24
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
This day was made by
the Lord:
we rejoice and are
glad.
Alleluia!
Gospel
|
John 21:1-14 ©
|
Jesus showed himself
again to the disciples. It was by the Sea of Tiberias, and it happened like
this: Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the
sons of Zebedee and two more of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said,
‘I’m going fishing.’ They replied, ‘We’ll come with you.’ They went out and got
into the boat but caught nothing that night.
It was
light by now and there stood Jesus on the shore, though the disciples did not
realise that it was Jesus. Jesus called out, ‘Have you caught anything,
friends?’ And when they answered, ‘No’, he said, ‘Throw the net out to
starboard and you’ll find something.’ So they dropped the net, and there were
so many fish that they could not haul it in. The disciple Jesus loved said to
Peter, ‘It is the Lord.’ At these words ‘It is the Lord’, Simon Peter, who had
practically nothing on, wrapped his cloak round him and jumped into the water.
The other disciples came on in the boat, towing the net and the fish; they were
only about a hundred yards from land.
As
soon as they came ashore they saw that there was some bread there, and a
charcoal fire with fish cooking on it. Jesus said, ‘Bring some of the fish you
have just caught.’ Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore,
full of big fish, one hundred and fifty-three of them; and in spite of there
being so many the net was not broken. Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have
breakfast.’ None of the disciples was bold enough to ask, ‘Who are you?’; they
knew quite well it was the Lord. Jesus then stepped forward, took the bread and
gave it to them, and the same with the fish. This was the third time that Jesus
showed himself to the disciples after rising from the dead.
PROCLAMATION
OF JESUS AS THE UNIVERSAL SAVIOUR PRESUPPOSES THAT WE RECOGNIZE HIM AS THE
RISEN LORD
10
April 2015, Friday within the Octave of Easter
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: ACTS 4:1-12;
JN 21-14
Peter,
filled with the Holy Spirit declared to the rulers, elders and scribes of
Jerusalem saying, “For all the names in the world given to men, this is the
only one by which we can be saved.” In saying this, Peter was speaking
about the universal significance of Jesus for the world and His uniqueness as
Saviour and Lord.
Today,
many are irked at this proclamation of Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
Christians are accused of being triumphalistic and arrogant in confessing and
declaring that Jesus is the Only Saviour and Lord of the World. As
a result, quite often, in trying to preserve unity with other religions, there
is a tendency for some Catholics to fight shy of proclaiming this truth about
Jesus. This is true for those who are involved in inter-religious
dialogue. In trying to appease the sensitivity of our Christian claim, we
tell others that Jesus was only a great man or prophet like the founders of
other religions. By so doing, we have compromised the fundamental proclamation
of Jesus as Lord, Saviour and God.
In
contrast, we see Peter and John courageously and boldly proclaiming Him as such.
Pope John Paul II in the encyclical, the Church in Asia insisted that our
proclamation is “prompted not by sectarian impulse nor the spirit of
proselytism nor any sense of superiority. The Church evangelizes in obedience
to Christ’s command, in the knowledge that every person has the right to hear
the Good News of the God who reveals and gives himself in Christ. To bear
witness to Jesus Christ is the supreme service which the Church can offer to
the peoples of Asia, for it responds to their profound longing for the
Absolute, and it unveils the truths and values which will ensure their integral
human development.”
Indeed,
he further wrote: “Proclamation which respects the rights of consciences does
not violate freedom, since faith always demands a free response on the part of
the individual. Respect, however, does not eliminate the need for the
explicit proclamation of the Gospel in its fullness.” Thus Pope Paul VI
explicitly wrote that “there is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching,
the life, the promises, the Kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the
Son of God, are not proclaimed”.
What is
the basis, then, for the early Church and for the Church of today to continue
to proclaim without compromise, the truth about Jesus as the Lord and Saviour,
the Way, the Truth and the Life for all men? In order to understand why
the Church could not speak less than what we believe, we must understand how
the apostles came to recognize Jesus as the only Lord and Saviour of humankind.
In the
first place, we must recognize that the disciples throughout the ministry of
Jesus always saw Him as someone unique and special. In His ministry,
Jesus spoke and conducted Himself as One who represented God. He spoke
with authority and as one having the last word. Instead of citing from
the Torah as others would do, He would say to them, “It was said of old but now
I say to you.” He spoke of His unique relationship with the Father whom
He addressed as Abba Father, “my Father.”
He
behaved as one who took the place of God, not just in His preaching but in His
actions as well. He ate and drank with sinners, which is the expression of
reconciliation of sinners with God. He forgave sinners. He claimed
to be doing the Father’s will and spoke only what the Father had said to
Him. He identified Himself so closely with the Kingdom of God. He
performed miracles as signs of the arrival of the Kingdom of God in Him and in
the world.
In
spite of all these, it did not justify the early disciples of Jesus calling
Him, Saviour. Something else was needed. Ironically, it was the
tragedy of the cross. For the humiliating and scandalous death of Jesus
on the cross had put into question all the claims that Jesus made about
Himself. In being condemned as a criminal and crucified shamefully on the
cross, it appeared that God was not on His side.
Thanks
be to God who revealed His fidelity to Jesus by raising Him from the dead,
Jesus was vindicated by His Father! As St Peter under the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit testified, “If you are questioning us today about an act of
kindness to a cripple, and asking us how he was healed, then I am glad to tell
you all, and would indeed be glad to tell the whole people of Israel, that it
was by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the one you crucified, whom God
raised from the dead, by this name and by no other that this man is able to
stand up perfectly healthy, here in your presence today.”
Clearly,
for Peter and John, the sign of Jesus’ resurrection was that the healing took
place through the invocation of the name of Jesus. Peter and John did not
claim any credit for healing the cripple. They knew that it was not
through their own powers but by the power of the Risen Lord in His
Spirit. This explains why Peter and John could not stop “teaching the
people the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead by proclaiming the
resurrection of Jesus” even when arrested.
But why
could they not simply proclaim that He is risen without adding that “For all
the names in the world given to men, this is the only one by which we can be
saved.”? Truly, the world would have no problems with us if only we
say that Jesus is a good man like all great men. Why is the Church so
insistent that He is the Only Saviour of the World? Why can’t we
compromise for the sake of unity and harmony among all religions?
The
truth is that we cannot. We cannot proclaim less than what we know and
believe. To do so is to deceive others because we know that Jesus is more
than a good man because He is God Himself. Half-truth is as good as a
lie. Charity demands that we speak the truth. There can be no
charity without truth. Of course, truth must be proclaimed with charity
and sensitivity.
The
point is that for Jesus to implicitly claim Himself to be God and who acted
like God when He was on earth, and having been raised by the Father from the
dead, it clearly means that God the Father has identified Himself with the
cause and the person of Jesus. Who then could He be? Jesus is
seen first and foremost by the early Christians as the Lord in the sense that
God has always acted in and through Jesus. But it was also equally
important to go further to maintain that if Jesus exercised all the authority
of God in the world, then it implies that He shares in the nature of God.
In saying this, therefore, Jesus is not only Lord but also God.
Indeed,
the resurrection is the confirmation of what Jesus was before Easter.
History is the locus in which the Divine Sonship of Jesus was manifested,
proven and realized. He was always God from the very beginning, but the
realization of His divinity only became clear upon His death and resurrection
when the early Christians came to understand all His actions in the light of
the resurrection. His history and fate are the history of His being. Thus, the
resurrection of Jesus confirms His pre-Easter claims of identification with the
Father. In other words, what He did confirms what He is and what He is,
confirms all that He did. In this way, functional Christology is the realization
and expression of ontological Christology. Here we see the unity of being
and mission existing side by side in Jesus.
In the
final analysis, the recognition of the universal significance of Jesus as Lord
and Saviour presupposes our encounter with the Risen Lord. We can never
personally arrive at this conviction of Jesus as the Son of God and the Saviour
of the World unless, like Peter and the apostles, we could also say, “It is the
Lord.”
Faith
in the Risen Lord takes time, as was the case for the apostles in recognizing
the presence of the Risen Lord. Peter who had earlier denied Jesus three
times was still lacking faith in the Risen Lord. Peter needed to be
healed of his psychological blocks before he could be open to the Risen
Lord. For this reason, the Lord made known to him His forgiveness by
repeating the same encounter that Peter had with Jesus at the beginning of His
ministry. Not surprisingly, it was John the beloved disciple of the Lord who
knew the Lord so well that he could recognize Him almost instantly. In
inviting them to a meal with Him, the reconciliation and healing process helped
them to recognize His Risen presence in their midst.
With
the recognition of His Risen presence, the apostles are reminded to go out to
the world to bring others to share in the Good News of salvation by confessing
Him as the One appointed by God to be the Christ and the Saviour. With
the commissioning, there is also the promise of the success of the missionary
task entrusted to them. We are told that they caught 153 fishes and the
net was almost at breaking point. Yes, the Church is called to gather
people of all nations and the Church is meant for the service of
humankind. We can be confident of the Lord’s assistance in this work of
proclamation. We only need to be obedient to His voice as Peter was in
casting out the net. If we rely not on our own strength but in the power
of the Risen Lord, we too can be fruitful in our apostolate.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh
Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Singapore
©
All Rights Reserved
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