20150415 JESUS AS THE NORM OF NEW LIFE

20150415 JESUS AS THE NORM OF NEW LIFE

Readings at Mass

First reading

Acts 5:17-26 ©

The high priest intervened with all his supporters from the party of the Sadducees. Prompted by jealousy, they arrested the apostles and had them put in the common gaol.

  But at night the angel of the Lord opened the prison gates and said as he led them out, ‘Go and stand in the Temple, and tell the people all about this new Life.’ They did as they were told; they went into the Temple at dawn and began to preach.

  When the high priest arrived, he and his supporters convened the Sanhedrin – this was the full Senate of Israel – and sent to the gaol for them to be brought. But when the officials arrived at the prison they found they were not inside, so they went back and reported, ‘We found the gaol securely locked and the warders on duty at the gates, but when we unlocked the door we found no one inside.’ When the captain of the Temple and the chief priests heard this news they wondered what this could mean. Then a man arrived with fresh news. ‘At this very moment’ he said, ‘the men you imprisoned are in the Temple. They are standing there preaching to the people.’ The captain went with his men and fetched them. They were afraid to use force in case the people stoned them.

Psalm

Psalm 33:2-9 ©

This poor man called and the Lord heard him.

or

Alleluia!

I will bless the Lord at all times,

  his praise always on my lips;

in the Lord my soul shall make its boast.

  The humble shall hear and be glad.

This poor man called and the Lord heard him.

or

Alleluia!

Glorify the Lord with me.

  Together let us praise his name.

I sought the Lord and he answered me;

  from all my terrors he set me free.

This poor man called and the Lord heard him.

or

Alleluia!

Look towards him and be radiant;

  let your faces not be abashed.

This poor man called, the Lord heard him

  and rescued him from all his distress.

This poor man called and the Lord heard him.

or

Alleluia!

The angel of the Lord is encamped

  around those who revere him, to rescue them.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

  He is happy who seeks refuge in him.

This poor man called and the Lord heard him.

or

Alleluia!

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia!

Christ has risen and shone upon us

whom he redeemed with his blood.

Alleluia!

Or

Jn3:16

Alleluia, alleluia!

God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son:

everyone who believes in him has eternal life.

Alleluia!

Gospel

John 3:16-21 ©

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

‘Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost

but may have eternal life.

For God sent his Son into the world

not to condemn the world,

but so that through him the world might be saved.

No one who believes in him will be condemned;

but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already,

because he has refused to believe in the name of God’s only Son.

On these grounds is sentence pronounced:

that though the light has come into the world

men have shown they prefer darkness to the light

because their deeds were evil.

And indeed, everybody who does wrong

hates the light and avoids it,

for fear his actions should be exposed;

but the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light,

so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God.’

JESUS AS THE NORM OF NEW LIFE

SCRIPTURE READINGS:  ACTS 5:17-26; JN 3:16-21

The gospel says, “men loved darkness rather than light.”  Yes, if man loves darkness rather than light, it is because man is born in ignorance.  We are born in darkness, not knowing who we are.  We are not aware of who we are.  We do not know our destiny.  Even if we do know, we do not know how to arrive there.  The darkness is tremendous and overwhelming, as life seems to be such a punishment.  What more darkness can there be? We are somehow just groping, drifting.  We go through life pulled along by others, pushed by society, like automatons.  Life seems meaningless.  It is but a cycle of rebirth, of dying and rising, of building and destroying.  We are not conscious of our identity and our goal.  We have not yet attained the light of inner being which can enlighten our path.  In this darkness, if failure happens, it is natural.  In this darkness, if frustration happens, what more can you expect?  In this darkness, if one can only die and never live, it seems logical.

That is why it is very difficult to explain to people who live this kind of life.  It is a sub-human kind of life.  A lady once told me, “I do not see what is wrong with my kind of life.”  I asked, “what kind of life?”  “Well,” she said, “I like to eat lavishly, drink and smoke a lot. I like to wear branded clothes. And presently I am having a relationship with a married Muslim man.”  So I asked, “Do you enjoy this kind of life?”  She said, “I do.”  Well, I said, “what you are doing is surely good in some ways.  In themselves they are not totally wrong.  Surely, there is no harm drinking or even wearing nice clothes; or having a love relationship.”

The real question I posed to her was, “Is that the best kind of life that God is offering you?”  So I challenged her, “Are you really happy with this kind of life-style?  Are you really at peace with the relationship you have with this guy? Or do you not wish to have a more stable relationship with another guy who is free to love you?  And do you really enjoy being a slave to what people might say about you, what you do and wear and eat?  Because if that is so, I doubt one can be truly free or happy in life.”  When she searched deeper into herself, she had to admit that in truth she was not happy.  Because we do not have a better life, we are resigned to what we already have.  Many of us are afraid to look further to find the fullness of life.  Instead we contend with a pseudo-happy life, but deep within, we know we are not happy.  A reflected life is not worth living at all.

Yes, she is like the frog living in a well who thought that the well was everything.  And then one day, her fellow frog managed to jump out of the well and had a good look at the world.  And when that frog came back and told her about the beauty and vastness of the world outside the well, she could not believe her friend.  She continued to insist that the well was the only world of its kind and it is the world.   This was precisely the reaction of the high priest and his supporters, the Sadducees.  They could not accept the new life that the apostles were proclaiming.  It was too intimidating for them.  It would also have been humiliating to admit that they had killed the wrong man.  At the bottom of their rejection was fear manifested in their jealousy of men who were uneducated and ordinary.  And so they tried to restrain the apostles from preaching about the new life.  The Jewish leaders wanted to maintain their status quo.  They were contented with their life-style because they thought that there could not be any other way to live except the way that they had been taught.  It would be too difficult for them to change and accept the new life that the apostles were giving them.

The lesson of today’s scripture readings is simply this: many people are living sub-standard human lives.  They live only on the carnal and superficial level.  Not that this world is totally bad and evil.  No. The gospel makes it clear that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”  But God wants to offer us a better world.  He wants us to live life to the fullest as He meant us to live, a life that is truly human and yet divine.  He does not want us to reduce ourselves to living an animal life, a life of pleasure but without purpose and freedom.  But how can we know that there is a better world than the one we are living in?

Precisely, the gospel tells us that Jesus is our light.  It is He who enables us to know the real meaning of life and the world.  God wants to offer us a fuller life in His Son.  This life would still be lived in this world but it would be lived with a different perspective altogether.  That is why Jesus said that “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him.”  In other words, when we live in the way that Jesus lived, then this world will become a joy for us.  If not, we can become so identified with the world that we lose our transcendence over the world.  And to lose one’s transcendence is to lose one’s freedom.  But if we accept Jesus, then this eternal life is ours, for He said, “No one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already, because he has refused to believe in the name of God’s only Son … but the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God.”

Now, if Jesus is the light of our life and the norm of how life should be lived, it means that whenever we do not live the life of Jesus, we condemn ourselves.  He said, “On these grounds is sentence pronounced: that though the light has come into the world men have shown they prefer darkness to the light because their deeds were evil. And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear his actions should be exposed.” It is significant that Jesus declares that it is not God who will condemn us but that we will condemn ourselves in the light of the truth that God has revealed to us.  For by failing to live the life of Jesus, we have already condemned ourselves to live a lower quality of life.  The rejection of Jesus is therefore tantamount to the rejection of the fullness of life that God is offering us in Jesus.

Today, we must ask ourselves whether we are really open to that fullness of life Jesus is offering us.  Or are we, like many other people who are still clinging to their old kind of life-style, afraid to make changes because we think that our present life is the only way to live?  But unless, we are open to the fuller life that is always ahead of us, I am afraid that we have condemned ourselves to death even before we die.  Indeed, a person who does not live in total openness to the ever new life that is constantly being offered to him in Jesus is depriving himself of the opportunity to live.  Yes, before we think that we have fully lived, we must unceasingly explore this life of Jesus because understanding Him and His life will open up to us new avenues as to how life should be seen and lived.

This calls for faith in Christ, in the power of God at work in our lives, believing that Jesus is our light and life. The scripture readings make it clear that salvation does not come from the world.   On the contrary, we see the divine intervention of God in sending the angels to release the apostles from prison when the Jewish leaders tried to have the apostles arrested and imprisoned to prevent them from spreading the Good News.  Darkness is overcome not by human ingenuity in the final analysis but by divine grace.  The apostles placed their absolute trust in the Lord and the power of His name.

Like the apostles, we must be receptive to the grace of God working in ways unseen in our lives.  Just when we think that goodness is overcome by evil, and we are about to give up, let the faith of the early Christians inspire us.  They knew that life is more than just a matter of human calculation, often restricted by fear and wanting to be in control. Not even the learned scholars of the establishment could explain how the disciples were released from captivity. This explains why when the apostles were miraculously set free from goal and returned to the Temple, they acted as if they were oblivious of the miracle that they had just witnessed.  Only those who live by faith can live adventurously, not allowing a false security of life measured by earthly securities of power and wealth to inhibit the spontaneity of living life to the fullest in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Will you too live dangerously and enthusiastically like the apostles, a life of surprises and wonder at the power of God at work in those who believe?

Written by The Most Rev William Goh

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore

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