20150524 “FIRE UP!” SUSTAINING THE FIRE
Readings at Mass
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First reading
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Acts 2:1-11 ©
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When Pentecost day
came round, they had all met in one room, when suddenly they heard what sounded
like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in
which they were sitting; and something appeared to them that seemed like
tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them.
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak foreign languages
as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech.
Now there
were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, and at this
sound they all assembled, each one bewildered to hear these men speaking his
own language. They were amazed and astonished. ‘Surely’ they said ‘all these
men speaking are Galileans? How does it happen that each of us hears them in
his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; people from
Mesopotamia, Judaea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the parts of Libya round Cyrene; as well as visitors from Rome –
Jews and proselytes alike – Cretans and Arabs; we hear them preaching in
our own language about the marvels of God.’
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Psalm
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Psalm
103:1,24,29-31,34 ©
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Send forth your
spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.
or
Alleluia!
Bless the Lord, my
soul!
Lord God,
how great you are,
How many are your
works, O Lord!
The earth
is full of your riches.
Send forth your
spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.
or
Alleluia!
You take back your
spirit, they die,
returning
to the dust from which they came.
You send forth your
spirit, they are created;
and you
renew the face of the earth.
Send forth your
spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.
or
Alleluia!
May the glory of the
Lord last for ever!
May the
Lord rejoice in his works!
May my thoughts be
pleasing to him.
I find my
joy in the Lord.
Send forth your
spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.
or
Alleluia!
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Galatians
5:16-25 ©
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If you are guided by
the Spirit you will be in no danger of yielding to self-indulgence, since
self-indulgence is the opposite of the Spirit, the Spirit is totally against
such a thing, and it is precisely because the two are so opposed that you do
not always carry out your good intentions. If you are led by the Spirit, no law
can touch you. When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious:
fornication, gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility; idolatry and sorcery;
feuds and wrangling, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels; disagreements,
factions, envy; drunkenness, orgies and similar things. I warn you now, as I
warned you before: those who behave like this will not inherit the kingdom of
God. What the Spirit brings is very different: love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control. There can be no
law against things like that, of course. You cannot belong to Christ Jesus
unless you crucify all self-indulgent passions and desires.
Since the
Spirit is our life, let us be directed by the Spirit.
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Sequence
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Holy Spirit, Lord of
Light,
From the clear
celestial height
Thy pure beaming
radiance give.
Come, thou Father of
the poor,
Come with treasures
which endure
Come, thou light of
all that live!
Thou, of all consolers
best,
Thou, the soul’s
delightful guest,
Dost refreshing peace
bestow
Thou in toil art
comfort sweet
Pleasant coolness in
the heat
Solace in the midst
of woe.
Light immortal, light
divine,
Visit thou these
hearts of thine,
And our inmost being
fill:
If thou take thy
grace away,
Nothing pure in man
will stay
All his good is
turned to ill.
Heal our wounds, our
strength renew
On our dryness pour
thy dew
Wash the stains of
guilt away:
Bend the stubborn
heart and will
Melt the frozen, warm
the chill
Guide the steps that
go astray.
Thou, on us who
evermore
Thee confess and thee
adore,
With thy sevenfold
gifts descend:
Give us comfort when
we die
Give us life with
thee on high
Give us joys that
never end.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in them
the fire of your love.
Alleluia!
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John
15:26-27,16:12-15 ©
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Jesus said to his
disciples:
‘When the Advocate
comes,
whom I shall send to
you from the Father,
the Spirit of truth
who issues from the Father,
he will be my
witness.
And you too will be
witnesses,
because you have been
with me from the outset.
‘I still have many
things to say to you
but they would be too
much for you now.
But when the Spirit
of truth comes
he will lead you to
the complete truth,
since he will not be
speaking as from himself
but will say only
what he has learnt;
and he will tell you
of the things to come.
He will glorify me,
since all he tells
you
will be taken from
what is mine.
Everything the Father
has is mine;
that is why I said:
All he tells you
will be taken from
what is mine.’
“FIRE
UP!” SUSTAINING THE FIRE
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Pentecost
is the birthday of the Church and the beginning of the missionary spirit of the
Church. The Church was born to exist not for herself but for the work of
mission, or proclaiming the Good News of salvation to the whole of
creation. This is what the Jesus instructs us in the gospel. “When
the Advocate comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of
truth who issues from the Father, he will be my witness. And you too will
be witnesses, because you have been with me from the outset.”
But how
can we be fired up like the early Christians who gave themselves totally to the
gospel and the mission? The call to mission presupposes that we have
experienced the truth of what Jesus said and taught. It is not enough to
know what Jesus said or taught if we want to be inspired for the
mission. This is only the first step. What we need is
to be led to the fullness of the truth of Jesus’ message. Indeed, the
apostles, before the death of Jesus, heard all that Jesus taught and saw Him
perform the miracles, yet, they were not ready to die for Jesus when He was
arrested and brought to trial. Similarly, how many Catholics are ready to
stand up for Jesus and for the truths that the Church teaches in the name of
the Lord?
To be
led to the complete truth means to understand not just with our head or hear
with our ears but to understand with our heart. In the gospel, Jesus
said, “I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for
you now. But when the Spirit of truth comes he will lead you to the
complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself but will say only
what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He will glorify
me, since all he tells you will be taken from what is mine.” Only
the Holy Spirit can give us the inner conviction and the understanding of the
truths revealed to us. This explains why the Holy Spirit gives us the
theological gifts of Wisdom, Understanding and Knowledge. He helps us to
understand more profoundly our experiences. We can be witnesses when what
we say and do come from the depth of our hearts and conviction.
Truth,
as Pope Emeritus Benedict tells us, is not a word or a lofty idea or even an
ethical way of life but an event. It is this personal encounter with the
Lord Jesus that can bring about a change of horizon. So there can be no
witnessing without first encountering the Lord in a personal and real way, not
just intellectually or doctrinally. Without this prior encounter with the
Lord, we cannot speak of witnessing and mission. After all, what does it
mean to be a witness to the Lord if we have not seen Him or known Him as our
Lord, Saviour and friend? Only a personal encounter with the Risen Lord
as the disciples did, were their lives totally transformed.
The
question is, are you a witness of Christ’s life, passion, death and
resurrection? Before we can witness to others, we must be witnesses
ourselves. First and foremost, we need to experience the mercy of God
through the forgiveness of sins, of our own and of each other’s. We need
to come to consciousness of what the passion of Christ means for us. Only
when we reflect and come to understand the depth of God’s love for us, can our
lives be changed radically. For this reason, the first gift of the
Holy Spirit, which is the gift of peace, comes together with the forgiveness of
sins. The Lord Jesus released His disciples for love and service by
liberating them from the fears that came from the guilt that they carried with
them for betraying the Lord, and from the lack of forgiveness for themselves.
This explains why He gave them the gift of peace, and only then gave them the
Holy Spirit to do likewise in forgiving the sins of others.
This
divine love can only be communicated in a personal way when His love dwells in
our hearts in the Holy Spirit. The cause of love and joy is always the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as we read in the first reading, “When Pentecost
day came round, …. something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire;
these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all
filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak foreign languages as the Spirit
gave them the gift of speech.” The gift of tongues is but the experience
of the love of God in our hearts. Fire symbolizes the warmth and light of
the Holy Spirit. It is this gift that unites us not just with God but
with all of humanity in Him, for although we might not understand each other’s
language, we certainly are united with a common experience of the infilling of
His Spirit of love in our hearts.
This
personal encounter of the Lord, whilst taking place invisibly in our hearts,
can certainly move us to manifest the power of God’s love in us as we express
this love in miracles and miraculous healings. Indeed, many are converted
today because they see the power and marvels of God at work in our lives, the
transformation taking place, the change of hearts and most of all the divine
intervention of God in our lives. ” They were amazed and astonished. We
hear them preaching in our own language about the marvels of God.”
That is
why preaching and mission need prayers and interiorization. Passion comes
from a deep prayer life and intimacy with the Lord. We read that the
disciples were at the Upper Room in prayer for nine days to prepare for the fresh
outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Passion comes from having been
revealed the truth, the Word of God that convicts us. Unless we have
heard the Lord speaking to us, we cannot speak His word. This can come
about only through contemplation of His word and, most of all, inspired and
guided by the Holy Spirit to grasp the inner truth of the Word of God.
Finally,
there is no other greater manifestation of the Spirit other than living the
life of the Spirit. St Paul expressed this truth when he wrote about how
the Spirit is expressed in the way we live our lives. “If you are guided
by the Spirit you will be in no danger of yielding to self-indulgence, since
self-indulgence is the opposite of the Spirit. What the Spirit brings is very
different: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness,
gentleness and self-control.” The truth of our message is vouched by
living a life of the Spirit. The proof is in the living of the
gospel. When we live the life of the Spirit and find true freedom and
joy, then we know what we proclaim is real and not just words.
But how
can this fire be sustained? The problem with us Catholics is
twofold. In the first place, we are trying to get our people excited
about mission when many of them are not evangelized. Many never truly
encountered the Lord. They do not know Him in their hearts. Their
faith remains an intellectual assent to some truths taught to them. They
have some superficial experience of God and Christ in their lives but insufficient
to transform their lives radically. They see the Catholic Faith as
something good to embrace. As a consequence, whilst they would continue
to go to Church, but they never make it to being witnesses. For
such Catholics, they need to ask for a release of the Holy Spirit. We cannot
witness to what we have not seen or experienced. The apostles qualify to
be the witnesses of Christ because they were with Him from the outset.
On the
other hand, there are those who have experienced the Lord personally through
some renewal programs, like the Charismatic renewal. But they do not
continue to deepen their relationship with the Lord. They do not go
beyond this nice and warm experience with the Lord. They cling to the
experience rather than to the Lord. Some would even keep on going for
more of such experiences so that they can always feel emotionally high.
This kind of spirituality does not make disciples nor missionaries. They
will eventually lose their zeal for the Lord.
The
crux of the problem is the lack of intentional discipleship. No real
witnessing can be sustained without discipleship. We need formation for
discipleship. The truth remains that many of us do not take formation
seriously. We are weak in doctrinal formation. More importantly we
are not formed in praying the Word of God and deepening our spiritual
life. All we are interested in is giving our service to the Church.
Our participation in the Church is activity based. How can we serve
properly and with the right Christian spirit and maturity of love and humility,
if we are not formed after the heart and mind of Christ? How can this
formation take place unless we study the scriptures and pray the scriptures
daily?
Most of
all, discipleship is not just an individual affair but it must lead to the formation
of a community of disciples. Forming the individual is one thing,
but no Catholic is to be alone. We need the Church to form us and we need
to belong to a community of faith so that we can grow by sharing our faith with
each other. Belonging to a Catholic community is not the same as
belonging to a ministry where we work together, unless this same community
comes often together to pray, share the Word of God and be formed together in
what they are called to do. Without a faith community, like the early
Church where they gathered to break the Word of God, celebrate the Eucharist
and listen to the apostles’ preaching, the members cannot be formed in the
faith and the community cannot grow.
So let
us pray for not just a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit so that we can
encounter His love and mercy in a marvellous way but that we allow the Holy
Spirit to continue to mould us into the image and likeness of Christ, through
prayer, intimacy with the Lord and His Word, and being one with His Body the
Church. In this way, we come to realize why the mission of the Church,
which is communion, can only be accomplished in communion, with the Lord and
with His Church, our brothers and sisters in the Lord. So long as we are
one with Him and with His Church, drawing life and strength from both Head and
Body, we will always be fired up for the gospel and the spread of the Good News
to all of creation.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh
Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Singapore
©
All Rights Reserved
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