20150722 PASSIONATE LOVE FOR THE LORD
Mass
Readings
Song
3:1-4
1 On my
bed at night I sought the man
who is my sweetheart: I sought but could not find him!
2 So I
shall get up and go through the city; in the streets and in the squares, I
shall seek my sweetheart. I sought but could not find him!
3 I
came upon the watchmen -- those who go on their rounds in the city: 'Have you
seen my sweetheart?'
4 Barely had I passed them when I found my sweetheart. I caught
him, would not let him go, not till I had brought him to my mother's house, to
the room where she conceived me!
Or 2 Cor 5 : 14-17
14 For
the love of Christ
overwhelms us when we consider that if one man
died for all, then all have died;
15 his
purpose in dying for all humanity was that those who live should live not any
more for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life.
16 From
now onwards, then, we will
not consider anyone by human standards: even if we were once familiar with Christ according to human
standards, we do not know him in that way any longer.
17 So for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation: the
old order is gone and a new being is there to see.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Ps118:36,29
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Bend my heart to your
will, O Lord,
and teach me your
law.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The seed is the word
of God, Christ the sower;
whoever finds this
seed will remain for ever.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John
20:1-2,11-18 ©
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It was very early on
the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the
tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running
to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. ‘They have taken the
Lord out of the tomb’ she said ‘and we don’t know where they have put him.’
Meanwhile
Mary stayed outside near the tomb, weeping. Then, still weeping, she stooped to
look inside, and saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had
been, one at the head, the other at the feet. They said, ‘Woman, why are you
weeping?’ ‘They have taken my Lord away’ she replied ‘and I don’t know where
they have put him.’ As she said this she turned round and saw Jesus standing
there, though she did not recognise him. Jesus said, ‘Woman, why are you
weeping? Who are you looking for?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said,
‘Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go
and remove him.’ Jesus said, ‘Mary!’ She knew him then and said to him in
Hebrew, ‘Rabbuni!’ – which means Master. Jesus said to her, ‘Do not cling
to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go and find the
brothers, and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God
and your God.’ So Mary of Magdala went and told the disciples that she had seen
the Lord and that he had said these things to her.
PASSIONATE
LOVE FOR THE LORD
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SCRIPTURE
READINGS: SONG 3:1-4
OR 2 COR 5:14-17;
JN 20: 1-2,
11-18
Do you
truly love the Lord? What kind of love relationship do you have with
Him? Is your love for Him, tepid, lukewarm or passionate? How
often do you think of Him? Does your life revolve around Him? Do you
yearn for Him as you would yearn for someone whom you love deeply? For
those of us who only have a lackadaisical love for the Lord, He is unlikely to
be consciously felt or even thought of, much less yearned for. At
most, we try to ritually remember Him briefly at prayers in the morning and
just before we sleep. Such a compartmentalized relationship with God cannot be
love.
Why do
we not have a passionate love for Christ? It is because we love with our
minds rather than with our hearts. We may find Him, His teachings, and
His values fascinating, but our hearts are unmoved. Furthermore, we delude
ourselves into believing that we love Him just because we are able to produce
fruits of love in our service to the Church, our generosity to the poor and our
devotion to spiritual exercises. The irony is that such intended acts of
love for God can be means of consolation to make us feel good about ourselves,
to justify ourselves before Him and to receive appreciation from others.
The
truth is that if we love God at all, our love must be a passionate
love. Such a passionate love of course does not exclude knowledge
of the one we love, or the works of love. On the contrary, these must be
included otherwise it would be a deficient love. However, mere intellectual
faith or good actions if not prompted by a passionate love for Him would be
deprived of power and efficacy. Emotions and especially feelings are part
of the whole experience of love.
This is
where Mary Magdalene, whose feast we celebrate today, can teach us how to love
passionately. In fact, this is where she stands out from the rest of the
disciples and apostles. Her passionate love for Jesus is brought out in
the scripture readings. What better way to express her love for Christ
than for the Church to permit the use of the Book of the Song of Songs to evoke
in us the sentiments of Mary Magdalene in her love for Christ. Like a lover in search
of her beloved in the Song of Songs, Mary Magdalene went in search of Christ on
Easter Sunday morning.
So what
kind of love could be appropriately classified as passionate love? It
must firstly be a love of intimacy. Mary was intimately in union with Jesus.
Her whole life was focused on loving Jesus. She lived for Jesus and her
life was consecrated to Him and for His service. The gospel tells us that
she and the other women followed Jesus in His ministry and attended to His
needs out of their own resources.
Secondly,
it must a yearning love. Mary was always thinking of Jesus. The
first reading describes this kind of love: “On my bed, at night, I sought him
whom my heart loves. I sought but did not find him. So I will rise and go
through the City; in the streets and the squares I will seek him whom my heart
loves.” When we love someone, we will always yearn for the presence of
that person, desiring to spend all our time with him or her, being one in mind
and heart. So too, when we are in love with God, we would also long to be
with Him at all times.
Thirdly,
it must be a love of passion. This must however be rightly
understood. The love of passion must be distinguished in two ways,
namely, feelings and suffering. Mary Magdalene did not simply have a
sentimental love for Jesus. She expressed her love by her desire to
suffer with Jesus. The gospel recounted her faithful and courageous love for
Him when she stood at the foot of the cross with Mary, the mother of our Lord
and St John, whilst the others abandoned Him. So her passionate love was
beyond feelings. She was ready to suffer the shame of the cross with Jesus,
even remaining behind with the women to complete His burial by anointing His
Body on Easter morning. Such a love gave her the grace to be the first to
see the Risen Lord, even before the apostles.
Fourthly,
her passionate love is demonstrated in her evangelical outlook as well.
She did not keep Jesus for herself. Her love for Jesus was not a selfish
and self-centered love. On the contrary, she wanted to share Jesus with
as many as possible. Not only did she help Jesus in His earthly ministry,
but after encountering the Risen Lord, she went to announce to the apostles
even though they were slow in believing. So much so the Byzantine Liturgy
celebrates Mary Magdalene as “the apostle to the Apostles.” She taught us
that the basis of apostleship and discipleship is rooted in a passionate love
for Him.
Yet
there is a warning as well. We must be careful not to reduce love into
mere sentimentalism. This is where Jesus reminded her when He
said, “Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to my
Father. But go and find the brothers, and tell them: I am ascending to my
Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Love must bring about a
real change in our lives. It must be a transforming love. This was
certainly the case for Mary Magdalene. She was transformed by Christ’s
love, for she had seven demons cast out from her (Mk 16:9). Rightly,
the words of St Paul applies to her when he wrote, “From now onwards,
therefore, we do not judge anyone by the standards of the flesh. Even if we did
once know Christ in the flesh, that is not how we know him now. And for anyone
who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now
the new one is here.”
What
then is the foundation of such a passionate love? In the optional reading
of today’s mass taken from 2 Cor 5:14,
St Paul shares the source of his zealous ministry. He wrote, “The love of
Christ overwhelms us.” If Paul too was passionate about Christ and
the gospel, it was because of the love of Christ he experienced just as Mary
Magdalene did. Truly, we must first be loved by Christ before we can find
the passion to love likewise. Only with this love was St Paul able
to say, “when we reflect that if one man has died for all, then all men should
be dead; and the reason he died for all was so that living men should live no
longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life for them.”
It is
true that a passionate love entails the mind, heart and action. Isn’t
this what is commanded in the scriptures and affirmed by Jesus when He said,
“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with
all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as
yourself.”? But it is significant that such a love begins with the heart
(affective love), then the mind (intellectual faith) which is then expressed in
actions (strength). Thus, St Teresa of Avila says, “Prayer is to think
less and love more.”
So have
you fallen in love with Jesus? Do you want the liberating, healing and
empowering experience of His love? We can have the experience of
encountering the Risen Lord only if we make ourselves available to Him.
Unfortunately, like Mary Magdalene, we allow our sorrows; pains and fears to
hinder us from recognizing His presence. We dare not take the risk like
Mary Magdalene to seek Jesus, even if it were at the tomb. In the Church,
there are many avenues; programs and retreats that offer you a personal
experience of the love of Jesus. But are you receptive and courageous
enough to seize the opportunity to open your heart to His love? He is our
beloved, waiting for us to respond to His love.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh
Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Singapore
© All Rights Reserved
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