20150517 COMMUNICATING THE GOSPEL PRESUPPOSES COMMUNION WITH CHRIST, HIS CHURCH AND THE WORLD

20150517 COMMUNICATING THE GOSPEL PRESUPPOSES COMMUNION WITH CHRIST, HIS CHURCH AND THE WORLD

Readings at Mass

First reading

Acts 1:15-17,20-26 ©

One day Peter stood up to speak to the brothers – there were about a hundred and twenty persons in the congregation: ‘Brothers, the passage of scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit, speaking through David, foretells the fate of Judas, who offered himself as a guide to the men who arrested Jesus – after having been one of our number and actually sharing this ministry of ours. Now in the Book of Psalms it says:

Let someone else take his office.

‘We must therefore choose someone who has been with us the whole time that the Lord Jesus was travelling round with us, someone who was with us right from the time when John was baptising until the day when he was taken up from us – and he can act with us as a witness to his resurrection.’

  Having nominated two candidates, Joseph known as Barsabbas, whose surname was Justus, and Matthias, they prayed, ‘Lord, you can read everyone’s heart; show us therefore which of these two you have chosen to take over this ministry and apostolate, which Judas abandoned to go to his proper place.’ They then drew lots for them, and as the lot fell to Matthias, he was listed as one of the twelve apostles.

Psalm

Psalm 102:1-2,11-12,19-20 ©

The Lord has set his sway in heaven.

or

Alleluia.

My soul, give thanks to the Lord

  all my being, bless his holy name.

My soul, give thanks to the Lord

  and never forget all his blessings.

The Lord has set his sway in heaven.

or

Alleluia.

For as the heavens are high above the earth

  so strong is his love for those who fear him.

As far as the east is from the west

  so far does he remove our sins.

The Lord has set his sway in heaven.

or

Alleluia.

The Lord has set his sway in heaven

  and his kingdom is ruling over all.

Give thanks to the Lord, all his angels,

  mighty in power, fulfilling his word.

The Lord has set his sway in heaven.

or

Alleluia.

Second reading

1 John 4:11-16 ©

My dear people,

since God has loved us so much,

we too should love one another.

No one has ever seen God;

but as long as we love one another

God will live in us

and his love will be complete in us.

We can know that we are living in him

and he is living in us

because he lets us share his Spirit.

We ourselves saw and we testify

that the Father sent his Son

as saviour of the world.

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,

God lives in him, and he in God.

We ourselves have known and put our faith in

God’s love towards ourselves.

God is love

and anyone who lives in love lives in God,

and God lives in him.

Gospel Acclamation

cf.Jn14:18

Alleluia, alleluia!

I will not leave you orphans, says the Lord;

I will come back to you,

and your hearts will be full of joy.

Alleluia!

Gospel

John 17:11-19 ©

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said:

‘Holy Father,

keep those you have given me true to your name,

so that they may be one like us.

While I was with them,

I kept those you had given me true to your name.

I have watched over them

and not one is lost

except the one who chose to be lost,

and this was to fulfil the scriptures.

But now I am coming to you

and while still in the world I say these things

to share my joy with them to the full.

I passed your word on to them,

and the world hated them,

because they belong to the world

no more than I belong to the world.

I am not asking you to remove them from the world,

but to protect them from the evil one.

They do not belong to the world

any more than I belong to the world.

Consecrate them in the truth;

your word is truth.

As you sent me into the world,

I have sent them into the world,

and for their sake I consecrate myself

so that they too may be consecrated in truth.’

COMMUNICATING THE GOSPEL PRESUPPOSES COMMUNION WITH CHRIST, HIS CHURCH AND THE WORLD

SCRIPTURE READINGS: Acts 1:15-17.20-26; 1 Jn 4:11-16; Jn 17:11-19

We have just celebrated the Feast of the Ascension. Christ’s ascension into heaven reveals to us that we too are destined to a life beyond this life to a life in perfect union with God.  We who have been privileged to receive this revelation and new life from Jesus are now given the mission to share this new life and salvation in Christ with all humankind in the world.  Through us, Christ will finally complete the final stage of proclaiming the Good News to the whole of creation.

Appropriately, this Sunday is commemorated by the Church as Communication Sunday, a day when we are challenged further to communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ, our saviour to the world.

The communication of the Good News to the whole of creation however presupposes that we have received the Good News ourselves.  In other words, before we can evangelize others, we must be evangelized ourselves.  This explains why one of the criteria for being an apostle of Jesus is that one must have been an associate of Jesus.  St Peter decreed that the one appointed to replace Judas must be “someone who has been with us the whole time that the Lord Jesus was traveling round with us, someone who was with us right from the time when John was baptizing until the day when he was taken up from us – and he can act with us as a witness to his resurrection.”  Yes, to be Christ’s witness, the presupposition is that we must be in communion with Jesus, the risen Lord.

But how is faith in Jesus as the risen Lord possible?  We must be in communion with the Church.  This communion firstly must be a communion of faith.  Unless we share a common belief in Jesus, we cannot speak of mission, since mission presupposes that we know what and whom we believe.   For us, it is by entering and accepting the same faith of the apostles that we can come to relate with Jesus the Risen Lord.  Without faith, it is impossible to experience the Lord Risen in our lives.  But trust in the apostles’ testimony will give us the ground to surrender ourselves to the Lord so that he can become present in us.

Of course, for us who are not the foundational witnesses of the life, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, we do not share in the unique experience of the apostles of the Risen Lord.  Nevertheless, our encounter with the Lord is real.  We know that Jesus is the Lord when we encounter His presence in our hearts and in our lives.  This communion with God comes about when we “acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God”.  Today, we are called to surrender in faith to Jesus.  In our surrender we verify for ourselves what St John vouched when he said, “we ourselves have known and put our faith in God’s love towards ourselves.”

However, communion of faith is not just on the level of doctrines and beliefs; it must also be on the level of love and life.  So communion of faith must be seen in the communion of love and life, especially within the Church, the body of Christ, and then extending beyond to the world.  The love of God would not be real unless we experience that love in Christian fellowship.  Thus, St John urges us saying, “since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another. No one has ever seen God; but as long as we love one another God will live in us and his love will be complete in us.”  The sign of the risen Lord in our midst is when we live a life of love.  By our love for one another others will know that we are His disciples.

The communion of life with the Risen Lord and the Christian community further challenges us to consider whether we are truly “witness to his resurrection.”  To be a witness to His resurrection is not just in proclamation of word but also in our lives.  If people do not believe in Christ, it is not because they do not think well about Jesus.  On the contrary, non-believers and atheists are willing to admit that Jesus was a good man like any of the great founders of religion.  But they would not be able to say that Jesus is risen and therefore He is Lord.  This is because when they look at us, Christians, they do not see the risen and transformed life in us.  They do not see that we are living a new existence given to us by the Risen Lord.  For if we claim that Jesus’ resurrection is His victory over death, how is it that we are still in sin, enslaved by our fears, greed and pride?  If Jesus is truly the Good News, then how is it that we live as if we are people without hope, without joy?  If we assert that Jesus is our resurrection, how is it that we all fear death and even become angry with God when our loved ones return to God at the end of their earthly sojourn?

Finally, we must be in communion with the world.  It is true that this world is not the ultimate, for the ascension of Jesus proves that we have a transcendent destiny.  But this is no excuse for not being involved in the world since the world is the arena, the vineyard of the Lord.  It is in our involvement in the world that we manifest our being and who we are.  For by being engaged in the world, we grow in character, in virtues, such as love, compassion and humility.  The world is where we are sanctified.  At the end of time, the world will be so totally transformed.  What will remain is “charity and its works”.

Today, when we celebrate Communication Sunday, we must therefore reflect how we are involved in the world, in our society spreading the Good News; explicitly by proclaiming Jesus in word and implicitly by proclaiming Jesus in deeds, through our life and conduct.  Unless we are concerned with the life of the world in the social, economic, political, cultural and civil life of society, we cannot communicate the Good News to the world.  When religion is withdrawn from the world, it becomes redundant and irrelevant.  Hence, we are required to be present in the world to sow the seeds of the values of the gospel of truth by promoting “human dignity, brotherly communion and freedom.”  It calls for inculturation, which is to transform a climate of individualism, egotism, materialism, culture of death and a total lack of respect of life and the dignity of persons into a society that understand the values of love, compassion, life and freedom.  We are called to transform this world into “a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.”

Being engaged in the world is fraught with risks because quite often the world can absorb and overwhelm us.  Instead of influencing the world and inculturating the world with Christ-like values and truth, many of us imbibe in the values of the world; absorbing its materialistic, hedonistic and selfish attitudes.  We compartmentalize our faith, living like Christians in the Church on Sunday but like pagans with pagan values when we are outside the Church.

Hence, before His departure, Jesus prayed to the Father, “I am not asking you to remove them from the world, but to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.”  So the prayer of Jesus is not that we run away from the world.  On the contrary, we must stay focused.

How? By being consecrated in the truth.  Jesus said, “For their sake I consecrate myself so that they too may be consecrated in truth.”

What is truth?  Truth is not a word but an event.  The truth is that God loves us concretely in the Christ Event, which is the life, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.  It is this event that saves us and gives us new life.  This is the event St John spoke of when he said, “we ourselves saw and we testify that the Father sent his Son as saviour of the world.”  So the truth is about Jesus, the Word of the Father made flesh and manifests to us the love of God.  We are called to share in this experience of being loved by the Father.

To be consecrated in the truth means that like Jesus, we must be committed to love and life.  Anything that promotes life and love is true.  Anything that destroys life and love is not true.  This is the ultimate criterion.

How then can we be consecrated to the truth so that we can be true to His name? Jesus prayed, “Consecrate them in the truth; your word is truth.”  This means that to be an apostle of Jesus, we must be immersed in the Word.  To be rooted in the Word is to be in communion with the person of Jesus, His word, message and life. We must be in contact with Jesus in person through the Word of God as an event.

This is possible only when the external word becomes the inner word n our hearts.  This requires the assistance of the Holy Spirit.  He is the principle of life, love, unity and truth.  The Spirit is the Spirit of love between the Father and the Son and therefore the principle of unity among us.  The Spirit is also the Spirit of truth, for He reveals to us all that Jesus had lived and taught.  The Spirit is also our inner teacher who will lead us to Christ.  Hence, as we await the feast of the Pentecost, we must pray for the renewal of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Unless, we have the Spirit of Jesus, we will not know that He is alive and present in our hearts.

Written by The Most Rev William Goh

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore

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