20150416 THE CONVICTION TO WITNESS TO CHRIST

20150416 THE CONVICTION TO WITNESS TO CHRIST

Readings at Mass

First reading

Acts 5:27-33 ©

When the officials had brought the apostles in to face the Sanhedrin, the high priest demanded an explanation. ‘We gave you a formal warning’ he said ‘not to preach in this name, and what have you done? You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and seem determined to fix the guilt of this man’s death on us.’ In reply Peter and the apostles said, ‘Obedience to God comes before obedience to men; it was the God of our ancestors who raised up Jesus, but it was you who had him executed by hanging on a tree. By his own right hand God has now raised him up to be leader and saviour, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins through him to Israel. We are witnesses to all this, we and the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.’

  This so infuriated them that they wanted to put them to death.

Psalm

Psalm 33:2,9,17-20 ©

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;

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!

The Lord turns his eyes to the just

  and his ears to their appeal.

They call and the Lord hears

  and rescues them in all their distress.

This poor man called and the Lord heard him.

or

Alleluia!

The Lord is close to the broken-hearted;

  those whose spirit is crushed he will save.

Many are the trials of the just man

  but from them all the Lord will rescue him.

This poor man called and the Lord heard him.

or

Alleluia!

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia!

Christ has risen, he who created all things,

and has granted his mercy to men.

Alleluia!

Or

Jn20:29

Alleluia, alleluia!

‘You believe, Thomas, because you can see me.

Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.

Alleluia!

Gospel

John 3:31-36 ©

John the Baptist said to his disciples:

‘He who comes from above is above all others;

he who is born of the earth is earthly himself

and speaks in an earthly way.

He who comes from heaven

bears witness to the things he has seen and heard,

even if his testimony is not accepted;

though all who do accept his testimony

are attesting the truthfulness of God,

since he whom God has sent

speaks God’s own words:

God gives him the Spirit without reserve.

The Father loves the Son

and has entrusted everything to him.

Anyone who believes in the Son has eternal life,

but anyone who refuses to believe in the Son will never see life:

the anger of God stays on him.’

THE CONVICTION TO WITNESS TO CHRIST

SCRIPTURE READINGS:  ACTS 5:27-33; JN 3:31-36

To be brought before authorities and face charges is indeed a most frightening experience.  Those who have gone to court to face charges or simply to witness their loved ones being tried will tell us of their harrowing experience.  Indeed, just waiting for the trial or the judgment after the trial will cause anyone to lose sleepless nights.  Anxiety and fear of the punishment awaiting an accused will debilitate the person long before the actual trial begins. And yet today, we see the apostles standing before the Sanhedrin without fear for their lives.  Instead of compromising and humbly accepting the high priest’s warning, Peter and the apostles defiantly said, “Obedience to God comes before obedience to men.”  In fact, they even incurred the wrath of the officials further by accusing them of killing Jesus who had now been raised as leader and Saviour.

My first question upon reflection of the first reading was:  What was it that gave them such courage to witness to the crucified Jesus?  The answer of course is their encounter with the Resurrected Lord. But this is not the complete answer.  What is even more important is their theological reflection on the resurrection of a crucified man.  Their conclusion of the resurrection of Jesus is that He is indeed the Saviour.  How is that so?  Because if Jesus had been raised from the dead, it means that the Father has identified Himself with the cause and the life of Jesus.  Consequently, John’s reflection, which has probably been cast as the words of John the Baptist, concluded that Jesus must have come from above and therefore could understand God and speak God’s words, since He knew God intimately.

But most of all, the implication is that since the Father had identified Himself with Jesus in His resurrection, it means that He has entrusted everything to the Son.  Everything that Jesus said and did, receive its legitimacy and verity only because of the resurrection. If the Father has raised Jesus from the dead, one who was condemned as a criminal and shamefully put to death on the cross, it means that the Father endorses the words and deeds of Jesus. Hence, John said, “The Father loves the Son and has entrusted everything to him. Anyone who believes in the Son has eternal life, but anyone who refuses to believe in the Son will never see life: the anger of God stays on him.”

In other words, the Father who gave Jesus His Spirit without reserve demands that we believe in Jesus.  Since the functions of the Spirit are to witness to the Truth and lead people to recognize the truth, necessarily, to know God, one must accept the witness of Jesus.  Acceptance of Jesus brings about life.  This, then, is the choice given to us today.  Life can only be found if we accept Jesus because in Jesus we can be certain of who God is and what life is.  It is this realization that Jesus is the leader and Saviour that gave Peter and the apostles the courage to willingly risk their lives for their testimony of Jesus.

But what about us?  Do we have the courage to stand up for Jesus or for our faith?  The truth is that many of us lack the moral courage to do so.  It is a fact that many of us do not mind living a good life by being kind, charitable and loving towards others, serving the poor and the Church.  But it is another thing to demand from Catholics that they speak out for justice and for morality in the world. Many of us are afraid of being marginalized or considered old-fashioned by the world.  In moral issues, many of us prefer to remain silent rather than to speak and act on behalf of the truth.  When it comes to standing up for Jesus, especially for the Christian Faith, many of us, in the name of religious harmony and sensitivity, are quite ready to compromise our beliefs, suggesting to non-Christians that all religions are the same and that it is a matter of personal choice and preference and not so much based on the divine truth that has been revealed to us in Christ.  Perhaps we need not even consider witnessing to Jesus’ resurrection when quite a good number of our Catholics would so easily give up their faith simply because they had a tiff with their parish priest or their ministry leader!  So how can we speak about dying for our belief in the resurrection of Jesus?  How, then, can we have the same faith that enabled the apostles to die for Jesus?

Firstly, we suffer from certain disadvantages. We have never encountered the historical Jesus in person.  Consequently, we have nothing much to reflect about Him.  At least if we have encountered the historical Jesus, we might have been able to see the presence of God in Him, just as many people today could recognize the presence of God in the late Blessed Mother Teresa.  Of course, we must be fair in saying this because it does not mean that we are completely unaware of this historical Jesus. We still can come to know Him through study, reflection and most of all, contemplation.  For this reason, the mystical tradition of the Church encourages us to contemplate on the humanity of Jesus.  All great spiritual writers tell us that this is the path to come to know the resurrected Christ.  St Ignatius, St John of the Cross and St Teresa of Avila all followed the same path. Our faith in Christ is not reducible to a cosmic Christ.

Secondly, while a physical encounter with Jesus can lead to a personal encounter, it does not mean that we are deprived of a personal encounter with Jesus even if we have not seen Him physically.  In fact, even though many have had a personal encounter with Jesus, not all believe in Him as the Lord.  So whilst it might be good to know Jesus as a historical person, it is no guarantee that we will have a deeper faith in Him.  But even here, the Easter encounter of the apostles is radically different from ours.  They had a special encounter with the Risen Christ which cannot be repeated.  At most, our encounter with Jesus is a personal one, non-corporeal but nevertheless deeply personal.  This can come through contemplation or through those who manifest to us His love.  It would be worthwhile also to visit the Holy Land as it can help us to bring the gospel to life and enable us to know how Jesus lived during His time.

Even with these apparent two disadvantages, we actually have a certain advantage over the apostles.  For the apostles, they were required to make an act of faith before they could see the risen Lord.  For us, it is easier to make this act of faith because we have the courageous testimonies of the apostles.  The apostles surrendered themselves completely to the risen Lord, placing their entire trust in Him.  They were not disappointed.  Like the psalmist, they have confidence that God will hear the cry of the just man.  By surrendering ourselves in faith, we can be certain that we too will come to experience what they experienced.  In this sense, the apostolic faith paves the way for our own personal faith and the faith of the Church.  Because we know that they are reliable witnesses, we dare to take the calculated risk of giving ourselves to Jesus.  But that is not all.  By giving ourselves to Jesus and His message, we can verify in our own lives whether the teachings and the message of Jesus is true or not.  In living out His message, the truth of the words of Jesus will verify itself.  By following the life and teachings of Jesus, we too will experience true liberation and joy in our lives, which are characteristics of the risen life in the Spirit.  Only with such a real experience of the effects of the Spirit in our lives, can we then testify confidently both to the resurrection of Jesus and that He is truly our Saviour because we experience Him and His saving works in our lives.

This Spirit is of course given only to those who obey Him as the apostles declared.  They said, “we are witnesses to all this, we and the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”  If we want to receive the same Holy Spirit that brought them into a deep intimacy with the Risen Lord and revealed to them the truth about Him, then we too must surrender in obedience to the Lord.  Obedience is the expression of one’s total docility to the grace and power of God in one’s life.  So long as we do not place obstacles, God will also give us the same Spirit as He gave to His Son without reserve.  Through the same Spirit, we will bear witness to Christ with boldness, courage and conviction, disregarding our fears and safety but willing to risk our lives for Christ and the gospel.

Written by The Most Rev William Goh

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore

© All Rights Reserved