20150423 SALVATION AS A FREE GIFT FROM THE TRINITY REQUIRES OUR RESPONSE AND CO-OPERATION

20150423 SALVATION AS A FREE GIFT FROM THE TRINITY REQUIRES OUR RESPONSE AND CO-OPERATION

Readings at Mass

First reading

Acts 8:26-40 ©

The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, ‘Be ready to set out at noon along the road that goes from Jerusalem down to Gaza, the desert road.’ So he set off on his journey. Now it happened that an Ethiopian had been on pilgrimage to Jerusalem; he was a eunuch and an officer at the court of the kandake, or queen, of Ethiopia, and was in fact her chief treasurer. He was now on his way home; and as he sat in his chariot he was reading the prophet Isaiah. The Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go up and meet that chariot.’ When Philip ran up, he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ ‘How can I’ he replied ‘unless I have someone to guide me?’ So he invited Philip to get in and sit by his side. Now the passage of scripture he was reading was this:

Like a sheep that is led to the slaughter-house,

like a lamb that is dumb in front of its shearers,

like these he never opens his mouth.

He has been humiliated and has no one to defend him.

Who will ever talk about his descendants,

since his life on earth has been cut short!

The eunuch turned to Philip and said, ‘Tell me, is the prophet referring to himself or someone else?’ Starting, therefore, with this text of scripture Philip proceeded to explain the Good News of Jesus to him.

  Further along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, ‘Look, there is some water here; is there anything to stop me being baptised?’ He ordered the chariot to stop, then Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water and Philip baptised him. But after they had come up out of the water again Philip was taken away by the Spirit of the Lord, and the eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing. Philip found that he had reached Azotus and continued his journey proclaiming the Good News in every town as far as Caesarea.

Psalm

Psalm 65:8-9,16-17,20 ©

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.

or

Alleluia!

O peoples, bless our God,

  let the voice of his praise resound,

of the God who gave life to our souls

  and kept our feet from stumbling.

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.

or

Alleluia!

Come and hear, all who fear God.

  I will tell what he did for my soul:

to him I cried aloud,

  with high praise ready on my tongue.

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.

or

Alleluia!

Blessed be God

  who did not reject my prayer

  nor withhold his love from me.

Cry out with joy to God, all the earth.

or

Alleluia!

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia!

The Lord, who hung for us upon the tree,

has risen from the tomb.

Alleluia!

Or

Jn6:51

Alleluia, alleluia!

I am the living bread which has come down from heaven,

says the Lord.

Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.

Alleluia!

Gospel

John 6:44-51 ©

Jesus said to the crowd:

‘No one can come to me

unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me,

and I will raise him up at the last day.

It is written in the prophets:

They will all be taught by God,

and to hear the teaching of the Father,

and learn from it,

is to come to me.

Not that anybody has seen the Father,

except the one who comes from God:

he has seen the Father.

I tell you most solemnly,

everybody who believes has eternal life.

‘I am the bread of life.

Your fathers ate the manna in the desert

and they are dead;

but this is the bread that comes down from heaven,

so that a man may eat it and not die.

I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.

Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;

and the bread that I shall give is my flesh,

for the life of the world.’

SALVATION AS A FREE GIFT FROM THE TRINITY REQUIRES OUR RESPONSE AND CO-OPERATION

SCRIPTURE READINGS:  ACTS 8:26-40; JN 6:44-51

“No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me.”  These words of the gospel make us reflect on the process of our faith in Jesus.  The first question we need to ask is:  What is the origin of our faith?  Why is it that one has faith and another does not?  How then does one come to faith?  The answer is clear:  Faith is a free gift from God who takes the initiative to reach out to us.  As a totally free gift, it is irreducible.

It begins first and foremost in the heart of the Father who wishes to share His life with us.  But He can do so only through Jesus.  Hence, the Father wants to draw us to Jesus.  Faith is therefore a free gift from the Father.  He is the source of love and our salvation. Without His drawing us to Jesus, we will never come to Jesus in the first place.

However, although the origin of faith comes from the Father, it is Jesus who reveals to us who the Father is.  As John tells us, Jesus is the only one who has seen the Father, since He comes from the Father.  If Jesus is the one who reveals to us who the Father is, we too must also say that the gift of Faith comes from Jesus as well.  Jesus, as we are told in the gospel, is the bread of life that has come down from heaven.  By eating the living bread, one finds life and lives forever.  Of course, this bread is first and foremost His Word, and secondly the gift of Himself in the Eucharist.  Hence to eat of the bread and His flesh is the way to find life.  Of course, we know that being filled with His Word and receiving Him in the Eucharistic bread is but our expression of sharing His mind and His heart.  In sharing His Being, we come to a deep and intimate relationship with Jesus and therefore share in His intimate relationship with the Father.  By so doing, we become divinized in Jesus.

But that is not all.  Faith in Jesus as the revealer presupposes that we believe Him.  This is where the Holy Spirit plays His role in bringing us to Jesus.  The instrumental role of the Spirit in bringing us to Jesus is clearly illustrated in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles whereby Philip was moved by the Spirit to help the Ethiopian eunuch to understand the text that he was reading. The eunuch has the Word but he could not perceive the text.  Only through the assistance of Philip under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, could the meaning about Jesus as the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah be elucidated to the Ethiopian eunuch.  Only through the Holy Spirit could Philip tell the eunuch that the sufferings of Jesus as the servant of God were not in vain.  God vindicated Jesus by raising Him from the dead.  Hence, the gift of faith is also given by the Spirit no less than the Son or the Father.

Consequently, we see that the process of faith is Trinitarian in pattern.  The Father sends us the Son so that by seeing the Son we can see Him.  And the Son sends us His Spirit so that we might recognize Him as the Expression of the Father.  Faith then is a gift of the Holy Trinity.  Faith is a sheer gift from God.  This would be the way we grow in faith. Furthermore, this gift is given to everyone, for according to Jesus, “All will be taught by God.”  The gift of faith is therefore given to everyone. If not, it seems rather unjust to say that grace is given to some but not to all.  It would imply that we are fated to salvation or damnation.

So with the emphasis on the free grace of faith from God, we must also put an equal emphasis on the freedom of man to respond.  This freedom of man is highlighted in John’s gospel by his employment of the word, to ‘draw.’  God does not force us to accept His love.  But what is most interesting about this word is that the word ‘draw’ always implies some kind of resistance.  God can draw us and pull us by His grace, yet man can resist.  Thus, while faith is a gift of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, yet, we must at least play our part by being open to that gift. It does not simply mean that we wait passively for grace without any co-operation on our part.  No, we can do something about the growth in our faith.  And even if we have to wait, we must wait actively.

This is what the Ethiopian did.  He took the initiative to read the Word of God himself.  He used his human effort to make himself available to God.  He did not sit around and do nothing.  Instead he reflected on life situations.  In this case here, the Ethiopian reflected on the innocent death of the prophet.  He could not understand why that person had to die in such a humiliating way.  Reflection on life events, whether our own or others, or through our contemplation of the world, or through meditative reading and prayer, is the first step in preparing ourselves for faith.  Yes, faith will come to us provided we also make use of the resources given to us to grow in faith.  Faith begins with a question and a prayer.  This is precisely why we call the first stage of RCIA as enquiry, since the potential catechumen has taken the step of asking questions.

But that is not all.  We must also be open to the Word of God commented on by the Church to help us grow in faith.  The Ethiopian was open to Philip who was sent by the Holy Spirit to help him grow in faith and understanding.  He did not reject the assistance of Philip.  He was humble enough to learn.  It was Philip who explained to him that the passage of Isaiah is fulfilled in Jesus Christ and that the good news is that death is not the last word but resurrection is.  Only with the explanation from Philip could the Ethiopian come to solve the puzzling text.  He could not find the answer on his own.

This means that for us too, we can never be too proud to learn our faith from others, especially the Christian community.  To think that we have the fullness of faith and a clear understanding of the mysteries of faith through infused inspiration is dangerous, both for ourselves and for those we serve.  Whether we like it or not, faith has a communitarian dimension.  We do not give faith to ourselves but it is given by the community of faith.  The corollary therefore is that we find faith only within the Christian community.  The Church is called our mother as she nurtures us in faith. It would be foolish to think that we can do without the Church if we want to grow in faith. Those who leave the Church and the Christian community to which they belong out of disillusionment because of imperfections and sins will eventually also leave their faith.

Indeed, there is no end to a deepening in our relationship with the Lord and also no end to our biblical and theological studies as well.  Faith requires our effort.  But in the final analysis, we must take our faith from the Church, just as the Ethiopian took instructions from Philip.  This is a clear reiteration that our faith is a gift of God imparted to us through the Church and can only grow within the Church’s faith. Outside the faith of the Church, there is no faith.  The word of God can be fully understood only within the Church and not without.  This then is the second stage of the RCIA process, the way of the catechumenate.

Finally, we must seize the opportunities to encounter the Lord experientially.  We are told that when the Ethiopian came to some water, he immediately asked Philip to baptize him. The Ethiopian is one who does not wait. He is no procrastinator.  When he realized that Jesus is the one foretold in Isaiah, he got himself baptized because he knew that unless he is incorporated into Christ and His Church, that faith cannot be further deepened.  Indeed, it is through a sacramental encounter with Jesus, both in baptism and in the Eucharist, that we come to a real faith in Jesus.

To recapitulate, the scripture lessons of today have given us the process of our journey of faith in Christ.  Faith is a gift from God but we need to co-operate with God’s gift.  Like the early Christians, we need to begin by reflecting on our lives and then look to Jesus the Word of God to enlighten us and nurture us.  But we can come to know Him only through the Church, which we are joined through baptism and the Eucharist.  It is in our communion with Him in the Eucharist that our faith is deepened each day.  In encountering His Risen presence in our relationship with Him and with His members, the Church, we will be filled with joy like the Ethiopian eunuch.  Yes, through baptism and the Eucharist, we are incorporated into Christ with the Father in the Holy Spirit. This is what faith essentially entails because it is this union with the Trinity that brings us eternal life – a life with God.

Written by The Most Rev William Goh

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore

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