20160221 TO KNOW ONE’S DESTINY IS TO KNOW ONE’S ORIENTATION IN
LIFE
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Violet.
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First reading
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Genesis
15:5-12,17-18 ©
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Taking Abram outside,
the Lord said, ‘Look up to heaven and count the stars if you can. Such will be
your descendants.’ Abram put his faith in the Lord, who counted this as making
him justified.
‘I am the
Lord’ he said to him ‘who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldaeans to make you
heir to this land.’ ‘My Lord,’ Abram replied ‘how am I to know that I shall
inherit it?’ He said to him, ‘Get me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old
goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon.’ He brought him
all these, cut them in half and put half on one side and half facing it on the
other; but the birds he did not cut in half. Birds of prey came down on the
carcases but Abram drove them off.
When the
sun had set and darkness had fallen, there appeared a smoking furnace and a
firebrand that went between the halves. That day the Lord made a Covenant with
Abram in these terms:
‘To your descendants
I give this land,
from the wadi of
Egypt to the Great River.’
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Psalm
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Psalm
26:1,7-9,13-14 ©
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The Lord is my
light and my help.
The Lord is my light
and my help;
whom
shall I fear?
The Lord is the
stronghold of my life;
before
whom shall I shrink?
The Lord is my
light and my help.
O Lord, hear my voice
when I call;
have
mercy and answer.
Of you my heart has
spoken:
‘Seek his
face.’
The Lord is my
light and my help.
It is your face, O
Lord, that I seek;
hide not
your face.
Dismiss not your
servant in anger;
you have
been my help.
The Lord is my
light and my help.
I am sure I shall see
the Lord’s goodness
in the
land of the living.
Hope in him, hold
firm and take heart.
Hope in
the Lord!
The Lord is my
light and my help.
EITHER:
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Second reading
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Philippians
3:17-4:1 ©
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My brothers, be
united in following my rule of life. Take as your models everybody who is
already doing this and study them as you used to study us. I have told you
often, and I repeat it today with tears, there are many who are behaving as the
enemies of the cross of Christ. They are destined to be lost. They make foods
into their god and they are proudest of something they ought to think shameful;
the things they think important are earthly things. For us, our homeland is in
heaven, and from heaven comes the saviour we are waiting for, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and he will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of
his glorious body. He will do that by the same power with which he can subdue
the whole universe.
So then,
my brothers and dear friends, do not give way but remain faithful in the Lord.
I miss you very much, dear friends; you are my joy and my crown.
OR:
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Alternative
Second reading
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Philippians
3:20-4:1 ©
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For us, our homeland
is in heaven, and from heaven comes the saviour we are waiting for, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and he will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies
of his glorious body. He will do that by the same power with which he can
subdue the whole universe.
So then,
my brothers and dear friends, do not give way but remain faithful in the Lord.
I miss you very much, dear friends; you are my joy and my crown.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Mt17:5
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Glory and praise to
you, O Christ!
From the bright cloud
the Father’s voice was heard:
‘This is my Son, the
Beloved. Listen to him.’
Glory and praise to
you, O Christ!
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Gospel
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Luke 9:28-36 ©
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Jesus
took with him Peter and John and James and went up the mountain to pray. As he
prayed, the aspect of his face was changed and his clothing became brilliant as
lightning. Suddenly there were two men there talking to him; they were Moses
and Elijah appearing in glory, and they were speaking of his passing which he
was to accomplish in Jerusalem. Peter and his companions were heavy with sleep,
but they kept awake and saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As
these were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is wonderful for us to
be here; so let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for
Elijah.’ – He did not know what he was saying. As he spoke, a cloud came
and covered them with shadow; and when they went into the cloud the disciples
were afraid. And a voice came from the cloud saying, ‘This is my Son, the
Chosen One. Listen to him.’ And after the voice had spoken, Jesus was found
alone. The disciples kept silence and, at that time, told no one what they had
seen.
TO KNOW
ONE’S DESTINY IS TO KNOW ONE’S ORIENTATION IN LIFE
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: Gen 15: 5-12,
17-18; Phil 3:17-4:1; Lk 9:28-36
Last
Sunday we saw how the devil tried to cast doubts in the mind of Jesus with
regard to his personal identity. In all the three temptations, we saw how
the identity of Jesus was challenged. For Jesus to lose sight of His
self-identity would mean the end of His mission. But because Jesus
stood firm on His identity as the Son of God, the devil could not dissuade Him
from carrying out the mission of His Father.
Today,
we see another dimension that is important with regard to our mission and
orientation in life. The gospel today speaks of the transfiguration
experience of Jesus. This episode, which took place in the final
stage of Jesus’ ministry, was important to Him because this was a preview of
the outcome of His life. In the transfiguration experience, Jesus
encountered God in a special way. This encounter resulted in His
keen perception of His life’s destiny.
What,
then, is this insight with regard to His consciousness of the destiny? It is His realization that His
body will be transfigured in such a way that He would have a totally liberated
life. It was a preview into the life that was to come. It was an
anticipation of His own resurrection after His death.
This
experience and the corollary insight was important to Jesus because the
transfiguration that was about to take place would be nothing less than to
return to His divine sonship. Indeed, the words of the Father from heaven
confirmed once again His personal identity, which was challenged by Satan in
the temptation of Jesus in the desert. Such a realization was certainly a
boost to Jesus’ dedication and commitment to His Father’s will, especially when
the threat to His life was looming.
What is
said of Jesus is equally applicable for us today. If we want to live a
directed life, we too must be aware of our destiny. Unless we know
what our destiny in life is; unless we know what will become of us, we cannot
live our lives meaningfully and in a focused manner. So what exactly is
our destiny in life? Our destiny, according to the gospel, is
to be transfigured like Jesus. It is Jesus’ promise that one day we
too will be transformed as well – a transformation that is truly liberating and
enlightening. This is reiterated by St Paul in the second reading when he
spoke about our “wretched bodies” being transformed into copies of Christ’s
glorious body.
And this
hope is certain because of Jesus’ own resurrection. St Paul is
confident of such a hope because, as he said, “He will do that by the same
power with which he can subdue the whole universe.” In other words, in
the resurrection of Jesus, He was made Lord of heaven and earth. Because
He is Lord, He also has the power to transform us into His likeness.
Such a
hope is also consistent with what we are all called to be. Indeed, in our
own way, we are also called to be the brothers and sisters of Jesus.
He is the first-born son. We are called, in others words, to be the sons
and daughters of God. We too, like Jesus, are called to reclaim our
sonship and daughtership. This is our real calling in life.
To share in the transfiguration of our bodies is another way of speaking about
sharing in the life of God. And this life of God is symbolized by our
intimacy and union with Him. For this reason, we speak of our union with
God in terms of our sonship and filial adoption by God.
This
is the new covenant
which Prophet Jeremiah and Ezekiel spoke about as the law of God that is
written in the hearts of man and not on tablets. This law that is
written on our hearts is nothing else but the Spirit of God living in us,
enabling us to live the life of God from our interior conviction and freedom.
This covenant is now fulfilled in Jesus. In Him who was faithful to his
Sonship, we too can now become faithful to our own sonship and daughtership as
well.
How,
then, can we fulfill our identity? The first thing that is required is faith.
This is the faith of Abram. He trusted in God and left his homeland for a
future that was not yet clear to Him. But he trusted in God who called
Him. It was because of his faith in God’s promise and his fidelity to
God’s word that Abram was rewarded to be the father of a great nation to
come. Indeed, it was his faith that justified Abram. In other
words, it was his faith that made it possible for him to have a real
relationship with God. It was his faith that deepened this relationship
into one of trust, confidence and surrender.
In
similar ways, St Paul today urges us to imitate the kind of live that he
lived. He asks us to take him as a model in living out the Christian way
of life. He urges us to imitate him by remaining faithful to the
Lord. And how can we remain faithful? The gospel is clear: we
must listen to Jesus. Yes, if we want to become the true sons and
daughters of God, we must listen to Jesus, just as Jesus listened to His
Father. We must not only listen, but listen in faith, like Jesus and Abram.
They are living examples of people who listened to God in faith and therefore
could surrender their lives to God.
Unless
we listen in faith, we will not be able to overcome the onslaught of temptation
in our lives; we will
lose our objectives and forget our destiny. As Paul warns us, when we
behave like the enemies of the cross of Christ, then we are destined to be
lost. This is obvious because when we refuse to live the life of God,
then we become worldly. We, as Paul says, then begin to make food into
our gods; we begin to make this world as if we are going to stay here forever;
we begin to cling to the things of this world. Such attachment is
illusory because our homeland is not here.
Today,
let us listen to Jesus if we want to protect ourselves from being lost.
If Jesus could overcome His fear of the cross and the trials ahead of Him, it
was because he was assured of the Father’s support for Him in His
mission. More importantly, it was because the Father assured Jesus of His
real identity and final destiny. His conviction of His divine sonship
gave Him the impetus to continue His mission of proclaiming the Father’s love.
During
this season of Lent, let us learn to keep silence with the apostles,
contemplating with them the full implications of the life, passion, death and
resurrection of Jesus. We are invited to reclaim our sonship and
daughtership by living a life of faith and love, a life of deep relationship
with God and a righteous life. In so doing, we are preparing for our
destiny that is to come when we too will become like Jesus, glorified and
united with God, enjoying the fullness of life forever. This is what the
season of Lent is all about – to prepare and invite us to live our identity as
sons and daughters of God which is what our baptismal calling is all
about. In this way, we already have a share in Christ’s resurrected life
at Easter, and the fullness of life hereafter, because we have shared in His
death to the world and to sin.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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