Friday, 8 January 2016

FAITH IN THE INCARNATION CELEBRATED IN BAPTISM AND THE EUCHARIST AS THE BASIS FOR OUR MISSION

20160108 FAITH IN THE INCARNATION CELEBRATED IN BAPTISM AND THE EUCHARIST AS THE BASIS FOR OUR MISSION

1John 5:5-13
5 Who can overcome the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
6 He it is who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with water alone but with water and blood, and it is the Spirit that bears witness, for the Spirit is Truth.
7 So there are three witnesses,
8 the Spirit, water and blood; and the three of them coincide.
9 If we accept the testimony of human witnesses, God's testimony is greater, for this is God's testimony which he gave about his Son.
10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him, and whoever does not believe is making God a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.
11 This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 Whoever has the Son has life, and whoever has not the Son of God has not life.
13 I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Psalms 147:12-15; 19-20
12 Praise Yahweh, Jerusalem, Zion, praise your God.
13 For he gives strength to the bars of your gates, he blesses your children within you,
14 he maintains the peace of your frontiers, gives you your fill of finest wheat.
15 He sends his word to the earth, his command runs quickly,
19 He reveals his word to Jacob, his statutes and judgements to Israel.
20 For no other nation has he done this, no other has known his judgements.

Gospel Luke 5:12-16
12 Now it happened that Jesus was in one of the towns when suddenly a man appeared, covered with a skin-disease. Seeing Jesus he fell on his face and implored him saying, 'Sir, if you are willing you can cleanse me.'
13 He stretched out his hand, and touched him saying, 'I am willing. Be cleansed.' At once the skin-disease left him.
14 He ordered him to tell no one, 'But go and show yourself to the priest and make the offering for your cleansing just as Moses prescribed, as evidence to them.'
15 But the news of him kept spreading, and large crowds would gather to hear him and to have their illnesses cured,
16 but he would go off to some deserted place and pray.

FAITH IN THE INCARNATION CELEBRATED IN BAPTISM AND THE EUCHARIST AS THE BASIS FOR OUR MISSION

SCRIPTURE READINGS: 1 John 5:5-13; PS 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20; Luke 5:12-16
“Who can overcome the world?”  In other words, who can save humanity from its woes and sins?  The answer given by St John is this: “only the man who believes that Jesus is Son of God: Jesus Christ who came by water and blood.”  Indeed, it is faith in Jesus as the Son of God, the Word made flesh, that can save us.  This is because St John tells us that “God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son; anyone who has the Son has life, anyone who does not have the Son does not have life.”  Faith in the Incarnation requires that we believe that in the person and humanity of Jesus, we see God.  The man Jesus who was baptized at the river Jordan and who was crucified at Calvary reveals to us the nature of God’s love for us.  Indeed, during the season of Epiphany, we celebrate the love of God manifested to us in Jesus.
But how can we arrive at this faith in the Incarnation?  St John tells us that this is possible only in the Spirit.  Hence, he speaks of the Spirit as the witness of the truth.  It is the Spirit that reveals to us in the depth of our hearts the real person of Jesus.  Faith in the incarnation cannot be simply an intellectual conviction but truly a personal enlightenment in our hearts.  Hence, St John speaks of the importance not simply of human but divine testimony when he said, “we accept the testimony of human witnesses, but God’s testimony is much greater, and this is God’s testimony, given as evidence for his Son.”
Today, we are truly privileged because as Christians we celebrate and renew our faith in the incarnation at our baptism and at the celebration of the Eucharist.   At baptism, we receive the Spirit of our adopted sonship because of the anointing of the Holy Spirit.  Faith in the resurrection is really but an extension of the incarnation.  Hence, in the Eucharist, we celebrate the incarnation and resurrection of Christ, an event that is not only thought of but lived.
How then can we arrive at this experience of faith in Jesus as the Son of God?  Like Jesus, we need to pray.  The gospel tells us that “his reputation continued to grow, and large crowds would gather to hear him and to have their sickness cured, but he would always go off to some place where he could be alone and pray.”  It is in prayer like Jesus that we will discover our sonship and share in His Spirit.  Only with such an encounter, can we at the same time be truly evangelical in our faith.
Like the leper today, we need to ask the Lord to remove the blindness of our sins that prevent us from seeing the selfishness and pride in us.  Leprosy as a symbol of alienation should invite us to cleanse ourselves and come to the Lord in prayer so that we can experience His love and mercy.  Like the leper we must be desperate in seeking for a deeper union with God.  Without this desire, we can never truly find Jesus in our lives.
But when we do, then like Jesus, we will be able to manifest God’s life in us as well.  For when we discover the heart of the Father, we too would surely want to extend His love to others.  For this reason when the leper asked Jesus, ‘”If you want to, you can cure me.” Jesus stretched out His hand and, touching him and said, “Of course I want to! Be cured!”’  Indeed, Jesus surely wants to heal us, for this is the desire of God.  There is no doubt that if we want to be healed, God would not delay in healing us.  When we encounter God like Jesus, we can be certain that God wants to heal through us as well.  It is this confidence in God’s love that empowered Jesus to heal, for we are told that “the leprosy left him at once.”

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



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