BRINGING CHRIST INTO OUR HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS

20160117 BRINGING CHRIST INTO OUR HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS

Readings at Mass

Liturgical Colour: Green.

First reading

Isaiah 62:1-5 ©

About Zion I will not be silent,

about Jerusalem I will not grow weary,

until her integrity shines out like the dawn

and her salvation flames like a torch.

The nations then will see your integrity,

all the kings your glory,

and you will be called by a new name,

one which the mouth of the Lord will confer.

You are to be a crown of splendour in the hand of the Lord,

a princely diadem in the hand of your God;

no longer are you to be named ‘Forsaken’,

nor your land ‘Abandoned’,

but you shall be called ‘My Delight’

and your land ‘The Wedded’;

for the Lord takes delight in you

and your land will have its wedding.

Like a young man marrying a virgin,

so will the one who built you wed you,

and as the bridegroom rejoices in his bride,

so will your God rejoice in you.

Psalm

Psalm 95:1-3,7-10 ©

Proclaim the wonders of the Lord among all the peoples.

O sing a new song to the Lord,

  sing to the Lord all the earth.

  O sing to the Lord, bless his name.

Proclaim the wonders of the Lord among all the peoples.

Proclaim his help day by day,

  tell among the nations his glory

  and his wonders among all the peoples.

Proclaim the wonders of the Lord among all the peoples.

Give the Lord, you families of peoples,

  give the Lord glory and power;

  give the Lord the glory of his name.

Proclaim the wonders of the Lord among all the peoples.

Worship the Lord in his temple.

  O earth, tremble before him.

Proclaim to the nations: ‘God is king.’

  He will judge the peoples in fairness.

Proclaim the wonders of the Lord among all the peoples.

Second reading

1 Corinthians 12:4-11 ©

There is a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit; there are all sorts of service to be done, but always to the same Lord; working in all sorts of different ways in different people, it is the same God who is working in all of them. The particular way in which the Spirit is given to each person is for a good purpose. One may have the gift of preaching with wisdom given him by the Spirit; another may have the gift of preaching instruction given him by the same Spirit; and another the gift of faith given by the same Spirit; another again the gift of healing, through this one Spirit; one, the power of miracles; another, prophecy; another the gift of recognising spirits; another the gift of tongues and another the ability to interpret them. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, who distributes different gifts to different people just as he chooses.

Gospel Acclamation

1S3:9,Jn6:68

Alleluia, alleluia!

Speak, Lord, your servant is listening:

you have the message of eternal life.

Alleluia!

Or	cf.2Th2:14

Alleluia, alleluia!

Through the Good News God called us

to share the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Alleluia!

Gospel

John 2:1-11 ©

There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited. When they ran out of wine, since the wine provided for the wedding was all finished, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ Jesus said ‘Woman, why turn to me? My hour has not come yet.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ There were six stone water jars standing there, meant for the ablutions that are customary among the Jews: each could hold twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water’, and they filled them to the brim. ‘Draw some out now’ he told them ‘and take it to the steward.’ They did this; the steward tasted the water, and it had turned into wine. Having no idea where it came from – only the servants who had drawn the water knew – the steward called the bridegroom and said; ‘People generally serve the best wine first, and keep the cheaper sort till the guests have had plenty to drink; but you have kept the best wine till now.’

  This was the first of the signs given by Jesus: it was given at Cana in Galilee. He let his glory be seen, and his disciples believed in him.

BRINGING CHRIST INTO OUR HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS

SCRIPTURE READINGS: ISAIAH 62:1-5; 1 COR 12:4-11; JOHN 2:1-11

Many things are necessary for life in this world.  We need food, accommodation and work to give us fulfillment.  But even if we have all these things, without love, life has no meaning.  Love indeed is the most beautiful thing on this earth.  We can do with less food and luxuries but we cannot do without love.  Those who have fallen in love or experienced love know the unutterable joy of being loved and of loving someone.  To find someone who loves you is such a precious gift.   So we can imagine the joy of a couple who is deeply in love with each other on their wedding day, pledging their unconditional, total and faithful love to each other.  That is why the height of human love is always celebrated as a nuptial love.

Yet, the sad reality is that this history of ours is one of broken relationships.  We have all experienced betrayal, estrangement and disappointment in relationships. Young and old enter into marriage hoping to find that love they are all desperately seeking, only to end up in disillusionment because such a love is rare.  Many of you, although married, are no longer deeply in love with each other.  You know that love is diminishing when there is no more excitement or creativity in loving each other.  As the gospel says, “They have no more wine!”

If we are feeling alone and disillusioned because we have lost our spouse through death or divorce, or our children and friends through misunderstandings, then the Good News is that God is going to restore all our broken relationships. This was the promise of God to the Israelites who just returned from exile.

Why is it that human relationships are so fragile and often do not last? It is because we are not in union with God and therefore not in union with our fellowmen.  All estrangement in relationships begins with our estrangement from God.  This was what happened to Adam and Eve.  When they disobeyed God, sin reigned, beginning with the murder of Abel by his sibling Cain, leading to the division in the world as illustrated in the story of Babel.

Indeed, if we are selfish and self-centered in relationships, it is because we are all broken people.  We did not receive unconditional love; not even in our own families.  Few of us have loving parents who can be held up as true models of love and authentic givers of love.

As a consequence, many of us are not capable of altruistic and selfless love.  Thus, it is not surprising that we have such a high number of divorces in the modern world because we are not capable of total and selfless love.  This is manifested in betrayal, unforgiveness and self-centeredness.  We seek our own convenience and happiness at the expense of the other.  If marriages and relationships break down, it is never due to one party but both.

Today, we fail to realize that love is a sacrifice of oneself for the other.   Instead of being faithful to the marriage vow of loving the other person for better or for worse, in good and bad times, we expect the other party to love us first, and pander to our needs. We marry someone in order to make that person’s life a living holocaust or sacrifice for us.  True love, on the other hand, chooses to make oneself a loving and living sacrifice for the other person!  Unfortunately, we are not capable of sacrificing ourselves for others because of selfishness and self-centeredness.

For this reason, God comes to give us the unconditional love we need and to teach us the proper way to love.  This explains why the key to genuine and mature relationships is based on our personal relationship with God.  Human love, in the final analysis, must be founded on God’s prior love for us.  Without which, we will not have the capacity or the knowledge to love.

So how does God reveal to us His love? He purposefully chose to reveal His love us to us at a wedding!  That the first miracle of Jesus took place at a wedding is not just an accidental event.  Rather, Jesus chose this nuptial event to express the heart of God, which is love, since every wedding is a celebration of love.  Indeed, the union between God and man is often portrayed in the image of a nuptial wedding in the Old Testament.  In the first reading, we read that Israel is called the Lord’s Delight, the Wedded and God will be the bridegroom of Israel.

What must we do, then, if we want to find happiness and fulfillment in life, especially in our relationships?  Faced with the truth about Jesus who has revealed to us the Glory of God, we must now make a decision for Him.

Firstly, we must believe in the power of Jesus to transform our lives.  This was the case of Mary.  She trusted in the power of Jesus to do something even if it was not yet His hour.   She left it to Jesus with the confidence that He will not fail her and the wedding couple.  And because of her faith, Jesus performed the miracle.   Yes, if we have the same faith, then our relationships can be repaired.  If Jesus could change water into wine, surely He can change the hearts of our loved ones, our unfaithful spouse, our ungrateful children, our disloyal friends, our discriminating bosses and our competitive colleagues. The changing of water into wine clearly brings out the message that  if man were to change his heart from hatred to love, death to life, darkness to light, then Jesus is the Agent of change.   He can change us into people of love and joy, regardless of whatever situation we are in.  We might be broken; disillusioned about love and relationships, but just as Jesus changed plain water into wine, He too can change our lifeless life into one of joy and love.  Only His love can fill the emptiness in our lives.

Secondly, we must invite Jesus into our relationships.   If we invite Jesus into our lives, He will transform and change us into people of joy and love.  Unfortunately, many of us are like the people at the wedding.  They did not recognize Jesus as the bridegroom of the Church.  Many Catholics, although married in Church, did not really marry Christ in their hearts.   They do not bring Christ into their married and family life, whether in prayer or in worship or in Christian living. How many of you married couples pray for your relationship, both individually and as a couple?  Do you ask the Lord to protect and nurture this relationship between you and your spouse?  Likewise, as parents and as siblings do we bring our family relationships to the Lord in prayer?  We pray for many things: money, good job and good health, but what about our relationships?

This is equally true in other forms of human relationships, including our friends and colleagues.  Many do not bring Christ into their relationships.  As a result, such relationships turn sour because love is lacking.  Many beautiful relationships start well but because they do not bring Christ into their relationships, human selfishness and insecurity eventually take over, resulting in an inevitable breakdown of the relationship. Strong and loving relationships do not just happen, so we must work at it and strengthen it with the grace of Christ who empowers and teaches us how to love freely and selflessly.  The failure in relationships happens only because Jesus has no place in our relationships!

Thirdly, we must be ready to give Him whatever we have.  This is what Mary did.  Like her, we must entrust our life to Jesus, our past, present and future.  We must be ready to give our entire being to the Lord, all our past, all our brokenness and sinfulness to Him. We must not hold back anything from the Lord.  Only then can He transform us.  If we surrender all that we have to Jesus, then we will see the miraculous transformation of our lives to one of joy and love.  Just as Jesus used the water that was available to change into wine, He will heal our wounded past and mend our broken hearts so that we can once again pluck up the courage to love.

Finally, in our relationships we must do the will of God.  All relationships must be guided by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit; otherwise we will live by the flesh and be dominated by our selfish needs and interests.  Indeed, this is what Mary is advising when she said, “Do whatever He tells you to do.”   If we want to receive the same Spirit that will unite us with God in the nuptial union mentioned in scriptures, then we must, like Mary, do whatever He tells us to do.  Obedient to His Word, we must be ready to embrace the cross with Jesus, for only through the Cross is salvation revealed.

Written by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved