DEEPENING OUR FAITH IN THE RESURRECTION

20160326 DEEPENING OUR FAITH IN THE RESURRECTION

Genesis 22:1-18New International Version (NIV)

Abraham Tested

22 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring[b] all nations on earth will be blessed,[c] because you have obeyed me.”

Psalm

Psalm 15:5,8-11 ©

Preserve me, God, I take refuge in you.

O Lord, it is you who are my portion and cup;

  it is you yourself who are my prize.

I keep the Lord ever in my sight:

  since he is at my right hand, I shall stand firm.

Preserve me, God, I take refuge in you.

And so my heart rejoices, my soul is glad;

  even my body shall rest in safety.

For you will not leave my soul among the dead,

  nor let your beloved know decay.

Preserve me, God, I take refuge in you.

You will show me the path of life,

  the fullness of joy in your presence,

  at your right hand happiness for ever.

Preserve me, God, I take refuge in you.

Exodus 14:15-15:1 ©

The Lord said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry to me so? Tell the sons of Israel to march on. For yourself, raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and part it for the sons of Israel to walk through the sea on dry ground. I for my part will make the heart of the Egyptians so stubborn that they will follow them. So shall I win myself glory at the expense of Pharaoh, of all his army, his chariots, his horsemen. And when I have won glory for myself, at the expense of Pharaoh and his chariots and his army, the Egyptians will learn that I am the Lord.’

  Then the angel of God, who marched at the front of the army of Israel, changed station and moved to their rear. The pillar of cloud changed station from the front to the rear of them, and remained there. It came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. The cloud was dark, and the night passed without the armies drawing any closer the whole night long.

  Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove back the sea with a strong easterly wind all night, and he made dry land of the sea. The waters parted and the sons of Israel went on dry ground right into the sea, walls of water to right and to left of them. The Egyptians gave chase: after them they went, right into the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.

  In the morning watch, the Lord looked down on the army of the Egyptians from the pillar of fire and of cloud, and threw the army into confusion. He so clogged their chariot wheels that they could scarcely make headway. ‘Let us flee from the Israelites,’ the Egyptians cried. ‘The Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians!’

  ‘Stretch out your hand over the sea,’ the Lord said to Moses, ‘that the waters may flow back on the Egyptians and their chariots and their horsemen.’

  Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and, as day broke, the sea returned to its bed. The fleeing Egyptians marched right into it, and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the very middle of the sea. The returning waters overwhelmed the chariots and the horsemen of Pharaoh’s whole army, which had followed the Israelites into the sea; not a single one of them was left. But the sons of Israel had marched through the sea on dry ground, walls of water to right and to left of them.

  That day, the Lord rescued Israel from the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. Israel witnessed the great act that the Lord had performed against the Egyptians, and the people venerated the Lord; they put their faith in the Lord and in Moses, his servant.

  It was then that Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song in honour of the Lord:

Canticle	Exodus 15 ©
Hymn of victory after crossing the Red Sea

I will sing to the Lord, glorious his triumph!

I will sing to the Lord, glorious his triumph!

  Horse and rider he has thrown into the sea!

The Lord is my strength, my song, my salvation.

  This is my God and I extol him,

  my father’s God and I give him praise.

I will sing to the Lord, glorious his triumph!

The Lord is a warrior! ‘The Lord’ is his name.

  The chariots of Pharaoh he hurled into the sea,

the flower of his army is drowned in the sea.

  The deeps hide them; they sank like a stone.

I will sing to the Lord, glorious his triumph!

Your right hand, Lord, glorious in its power,

  your right hand, Lord, has shattered the enemy.

  In the greatness of your glory you crushed the foe.

I will sing to the Lord, glorious his triumph!

You will lead your people and plant them on your mountain,

  the place, O Lord, where you have made your home,

the sanctuary, Lord, which your hands have made.

  The Lord will reign for ever and ever.

I will sing to the Lord, glorious his triumph!

Isaiah 54:5-14 ©

Thus says the Lord:

Now your creator will be your husband,

his name, the Lord of Hosts;

your redeemer will be the Holy One of Israel,

he is called the God of the whole earth.

Yes, like a forsaken wife, distressed in spirit,

the Lord calls you back.

Does a man cast off the wife of his youth?

says your God.

I did forsake you for a brief moment,

but with great love will I take you back.

In excess of anger, for a moment

I hid my face from you.

But with everlasting love I have taken pity on you,

says the Lord, your redeemer.

I am now as I was in the days of Noah

when I swore that Noah’s waters

should never flood the world again.

So now I swear concerning my anger with you

and the threats I made against you;

for the mountains may depart,

the hills be shaken,

but my love for you will never leave you

and my covenant of peace with you will never be shaken,

says the Lord who takes pity on you.

Unhappy creature, storm-tossed, disconsolate,

see, I will set your stones on carbuncles

and your foundations on sapphires.

I will make rubies your battlements,

your gates crystal,

and your entire wall precious stones.

Your sons will all be taught by the Lord.

The prosperity of your sons will be great.

You will be founded on integrity;

remote from oppression, you will have nothing to fear;

remote from terror, it will not approach you.

Psalm

Psalm 29:2,4-6,11-13 ©

I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me.

I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me

  and have not let my enemies rejoice over me.

O Lord, you have raised my soul from the dead,

  restored me to life from those who sink into the grave.

I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me.

Sing psalms to the Lord, you who love him,

  give thanks to his holy name.

His anger lasts a moment; his favour all through life.

  At night there are tears, but joy comes with dawn.

I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me.

The Lord listened and had pity.

  The Lord came to my help.

For me you have changed my mourning into dancing:

  O Lord my God, I will thank you for ever.

I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me.

Epistle

Romans 6:3-11 ©

When we were baptised in Christ Jesus we were baptised in his death; in other words, when we were baptised we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too might live a new life.

  If in union with Christ we have imitated his death, we shall also imitate him in his resurrection. We must realise that our former selves have been crucified with him to destroy this sinful body and to free us from the slavery of sin. When a Christian dies, of course, he has finished with sin.

  But we believe that having died with Christ we shall return to life with him: Christ, as we know, having been raised from the dead will never die again. Death has no power over him any more. When he died, he died, once for all, to sin, so his life now is life with God; and in that way, you too must consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus.

Psalm

Psalm 117:1-2,16-17,22-23 ©

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,

  for his love has no end.

Let the sons of Israel say:

  ‘His love has no end.’

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

The Lord’s right hand has triumphed;

  his right hand raised me up.

I shall not die, I shall live

  and recount his deeds.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

The stone which the builders rejected

  has become the corner stone.

This is the work of the Lord,

  a marvel in our eyes.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Gospel

Luke 24:1-12 ©

On the first day of the week, at the first sign of dawn, they went to the tomb with the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, but on entering discovered that the body of the Lord Jesus was not there. As they stood there not knowing what to think, two men in brilliant clothes suddenly appeared at their side. Terrified, the women lowered their eyes. But the two men said to them, ‘Why look among the dead for someone who is alive? He is not here; he has risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee: that the Son of Man had to be handed over into the power of sinful men and be crucified, and rise again on the third day?’ And they remembered his words.

  When the women returned from the tomb they told all this to the Eleven and to all the others. The women were Mary of Magdala, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. The other women with them also told the apostles, but this story of theirs seemed pure nonsense, and they did not believe them.

  Peter, however, went running to the tomb. He bent down and saw the binding cloths but nothing else; he then went back home, amazed at what had happened.

DEEPENING OUR FAITH IN THE RESURRECTION

SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Gen 22:1-18; Ps 15:5, 8-11; Ex 14:15–15; Ex 15 canticle; Isa 54:5-14; Ps 29:2,4-6,11-13; Rom 6:3-11; Ps 117:1-2,16-17,22-23; Lk 24:1-12 ]

Alleluia!  The Lord is Risen.  He is risen indeed!   Do you believe this confession of faith of the early Christians?  Indeed, for us Christians, it is nothing great to believe that Jesus died on Good Friday because even pagans and the world believe.  Few have questioned the crucifixion and the death of Jesus on the cross.   But not many believe that He rose from the dead and is alive.  This is not surprising, considering that even the disciples of Jesus initially could not believe that Jesus had risen.  In the gospel, the proclamation of the resurrection of our Lord was met either with disbelief, skepticism and reservation.  When the women told the apostles their story, it “seemed pure nonsense, and they did not believe them.”  St Peter, as the head of the college of apostles, ran to the tomb, he “bent down and saw the binding cloths but nothing else; he then went back home, amazed at what had happened.”

If they who knew the Lord on earth, worked with Him, talked with Him and yet disbelieved, why should we be surprised that many cannot accept the resurrection of Christ.   Many of our Catholics are not too sure of Jesus’ resurrection because their faith in the resurrection is an intellectual assent to a doctrine but not a conviction of the heart.   St Paul tells us in Romans, “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.” (Rom 10:9f)

Faith in the resurrection cannot be simply an idea, a notion or a doctrine, but it must be faith from the heart.  This explains why the Empty Tomb means nothing much.  It is not a basis for faith.  St Paul proclaimed the resurrection of our Lord without the story of the Empty Tomb.  This shows that faith in the Empty Tomb is not necessary for faith in the resurrection of the Lord.  The early Christians got on very well without the story of the Empty Tomb.  The fact of the empty tomb only declares that the body was not there.  But faith must add to the fact by saying, He is risen.  Faith interprets the missing body as the Lord has been raised from the dead.  Only because of a prior faith in the resurrection could the early Christians use the story of the Empty Tomb meaningfully, not to prove the resurrection but to substantiate their claims of the Risen Lord.  The empty tomb is at most an indicator that the Lord’s body was not there and therefore it was plausible that one of the reasons was that He had risen.  Of course skeptics, as we read in the gospel, suggested that the body was stolen or even claimed that Jesus was taken down from the cross half-dead and then resuscitated and then proclaimed as risen!

How can we know that our faith in the Risen Lord is not an empty faith?  We have not seen the Risen Lord like some of the apostles or the women of Jerusalem did.  What then is the basis of our claim that Jesus is truly risen from the dead?   How can we be so sure of our claims?

Firstly, faith in the resurrection is more than a matter of saying, “Alleluia, Jesus is Lord or Jesus is Risen!”  The proof of our faith in the resurrection is that we have overcome the fear of death ourselves.  Death is always the last enemy of man.  Death cripples us from living our life fully.  The fear of death hinders us from giving our lives, our possessions and things to the poor.   When we fear death, we dare not live adventurously and fully.   The fear of death prevents us from doing many things in life, whether it is the death of our loved ones or ourselves.

The fear of death of course is that instrument by which the Evil One leads us to commit sin.  We sin only because of fear of death.  St Paul says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 6:23)  Because of sin, we become indifferent to God and our fellowmen.  We no longer feel the presence of God and lose our goal and final destiny in life.  Because of sin, we no longer feel for others and we are blind to the truth.  Because of sin, we live for ourselves and as we live for ourselves, life becomes empty and meaningless, leading to nihilism.

Hence, the proof of our faith in the resurrection is that we are ready to enter into the tomb with Him and rise to a new life, as St Paul says.   “If in union with Christ we have imitated his death, we shall also imitate him in his resurrection. We must realise that our former selves have been crucified with him to destroy this sinful body and to free us from the slavery of sin. When a Christian dies, of course, he has finished with sin.”   Only when we have decided that sin causes us to be more miserable and makes us slaves like the Israelites in Egypt, then we will be ready to give up our sins.

Secondly, faith in the resurrection means that we are ready to witness for Jesus as the women did.  Even though the women’s testimony was met with disbelief and skepticism, it did not stop them from announcing the Good News that Jesus is risen.   What about us?  Are we ready to confess the resurrection with our lips as Paul urges us?  Are we ready to stand up for Jesus even when the world ridicules our faith and cast aspersions on us?  In the face of critics and opposition to our belief in Christ and the gospel, are we ready to take risks in defending Jesus and our faith in Him, that He is risen and He is our Lord and saviour of the world?   Abraham, the Father of faith, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, for God.  He was ready to take risks when the Lord called him out of the land of Ur to the Promised Land.

If we find our faith still weak and not sufficient to confess with our lips and believe in our hearts that Jesus is risen, what must we do?

We need to follow the example of Abraham our father in faith in surrendering ourselves to the promises of God.  Abraham trusted in God fully and did what he was told to do, even to the point of sacrificing his only son.   He knew that obedience to the will of God is the sure way of finding life.  Thus, again and again, in obedience to the will of God, he surrendered his entire self to Him.  We too must follow him and be ready to say “yes” at all times to His holy will in all things.  With Abraham, we can trust in divine providence, knowing that because He is still with us in our midst, He will provide us with what is necessary to arrive at our goal and to accomplish His divine plan of which we are all participants in our own ways.

Secondly, to strengthen our faith, we need to rely on the testimonies of those who have seen the Lord.  In the early Church, the early Christians relied on the testimonies of the apostles when they claimed that they saw the risen Lord.  Testimonies are important in strengthening faith.  We still have such testimonies in our day when people witness to the power of God at work in their lives, much like the works of wonders the Lord worked when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea.  Indeed, the miracles that the Lord worked during the time of the Israelites are still being worked today because the Lord we believe in is a living God, not a God of history but in history.  In truth, many of us lack faith in the resurrected Lord because, like the Israelites, we have been forgetful of the many events when God showed forth the power of His arm and His divine mercy in our lives.  The angels told the women, “Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee: that the Son of Man had to be handed over into the power of sinful men and be crucified, and rise again on the third day?”  When we recall the love of God in sacrificing His only Son for our salvation, we should be moved to repentance and love.   So great and merciful is our God that He who spared the only son of Abraham, Isaac, did not spare His own begotten Son because of His great love for us.

Thirdly, to strengthen our faith in the Risen Lord, we need to develop a personal relationship with Him.   Faith in God and in Christ, in the final analysis, is based on a personal relationship, not an intellectual assent to a doctrine.  If the women and John could look at the empty tomb and come to the conclusion in faith that “he is not here, he is risen”; it was because they loved the Lord intensely.  They had intimacy with the Lord and knew Him from their hearts.  The rest, including Peter, operated from the level of the head and could only arrive at amazement or puzzlement at what happened.  Logical love for the Lord will not bring about deep faith because God has “hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent” and revealed them to mere children.  (Mt 11:25)

So today, let us renew and deepen our faith in the resurrection of our Lord.  Let us remove that stone of sin, of pride and blindness to the truth from the tomb so that the rays of the Risen Lord can shine upon us and set us free from fear, from sin and from eternal death.  In faith, relying on the testimonies of the early Church, let us say with joy, Alleluia!  He is Risen indeed!

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