PROCLAIMING THE GOOD NEWS WHICH IS JESUS THE CHRIST

20151012 PROCLAIMING THE GOOD NEWS WHICH IS JESUS THE CHRIST

Readings at Mass

First reading

Romans 1:1-7 ©

From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus who has been called to be an apostle, and specially chosen to preach the Good News that God promised long ago through his prophets in the scriptures.

  This news is about the Son of God who, according to the human nature he took was a descendant of David: it is about Jesus Christ our Lord who, in the order of the spirit, the spirit of holiness that was in him, was proclaimed Son of God in all his power through his resurrection from the dead. Through him we received grace and our apostolic mission to preach the obedience of faith to all pagan nations in honour of his name. You are one of these nations, and by his call belong to Jesus Christ. To you all, then, who are God’s beloved in Rome, called to be saints, may God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ send grace and peace.

Psalm

Psalm 97:1-4 ©

The Lord has made known his salvation.

Sing a new song to the Lord

  for he has worked wonders.

His right hand and his holy arm

  have brought salvation.

The Lord has made known his salvation.

The Lord has made known his salvation;

  has shown his justice to the nations.

He has remembered his truth and love

  for the house of Israel.

The Lord has made known his salvation.

All the ends of the earth have seen

  the salvation of our God.

Shout to the Lord, all the earth,

  ring out your joy.

The Lord has made known his salvation.

Gospel Acclamation

Ps118:88

Alleluia, alleluia!

Because of your love give me life,

and I will do your will.

Alleluia!

Or

Ps94:8

Alleluia, alleluia!

Harden not your hearts today,

but listen to the voice of the Lord.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Luke 11:29-32 ©

The crowds got even bigger and Jesus addressed them, ‘This is a wicked generation; it is asking for a sign. The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. On Judgement day the Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here. On Judgement day the men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation and condemn it, because when Jonah preached they repented; and there is something greater than Jonah here.’

PROCLAIMING THE GOOD NEWS WHICH IS JESUS THE CHRIST

SCRIPTURE READINGS: ROM 1:1-7; LK 11:29-32

Many people are seeking for wisdom so that they might have life.  This is true also of those days when the Queen of the South, supposedly the Queen of Sheba from Ethiopia in South Africa, had traveled from afar to seek the wisdom of Solomon.  But the point of today’s liturgy precisely is that we have someone who is greater than Solomon here, someone who is not merely wise but the Wisdom of God in person.

This person of course is none other than Jesus who is the Word of God in the flesh.  Indeed, this is the Good News that we are all called to proclaim which is “promised long ago through his prophets in the scriptures”.  Consequently for us Christians, our great privilege is not that we simply have a message of wisdom, but we have God who has come to us in our humanity by taking upon our human nature; and in the order of the Spirit, was given the “power of holiness through his resurrection from the dead”.  In other words, to proclaim the Good News is nothing else but to proclaim the person of Jesus the Christ expressed in the two-leveled Christology of St Paul in his letter to the Romans, namely, the Incarnation and Resurrection of Christ.

But why should that be considered the Good News?  This is because if we fully understand the full meaning of the Incarnation, then we would also understand the meaning of humanity and God.  In the Incarnation, we understand the love of God for us.  In the Incarnation, we are introduced to the life of God which we are called to live.  Similarly, in the Resurrection, we experience the power of the Spirit bestowed upon us to live the life of God.  It is indeed through His Spirit that God has inserted our humanity; which is finite to the infinite.  Indeed, the life of God as lived in Jesus cannot be lived by us simply as a result of human will, but necessarily requires the power of God in us, which is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus given to us after His resurrection.

Yet, what still remains to be seen is whether we have really understood and experienced for ourselves the presence of the Risen Christ in our lives.  The danger is that due to our lack of openness to the Good News, we are still seeking for signs and not giving ourselves to the Good News.  We are still unrepentant and not giving that “obedience of faith” as St Paul exhorts us.  In other words, we are still not surrendering ourselves to the gospel and most of all, to Jesus.  Although we claim to be Christians and followers of Jesus, we are not converted, like the Ninevites who repented on account of the preaching of Jonah.  Neither do we live the sign of Jonah in our lives, which is to die with Christ and so rise to a new life in Him.  Only when we become the sign of Christ’s Incarnation and Resurrection in our own lives can we share the Good News and become the incarnation of the Good News.  Let us therefore pray for this grace to respond to the Good News, which is the person of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, the Word of God in person.

Written by The Most Rev William Goh

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore

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