20160328 JESUS IS LORD
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
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First reading
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Acts 2:14,22-33 ©
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On the day of
Pentecost Peter stood up with the Eleven and addressed the crowd in a loud
voice: ‘Men of Israel, listen to what I am going to say: Jesus the Nazarene was
a man commended to you by God by the miracles and portents and signs that God
worked through him when he was among you, as you all know. This man, who was
put into your power by the deliberate intention and foreknowledge of God, you
took and had crucified by men outside the Law. You killed him, but God raised
him to life, freeing him from the pangs of Hades; for it was impossible for him
to be held in its power since, as David says of him:
I saw the Lord before
me always,
for with him at my
right hand nothing can shake me.
So my heart was glad
and my tongue cried
out with joy;
my body, too, will
rest in the hope
that you will not
abandon my soul to Hades
nor allow your holy
one to experience corruption.
You have made known
the way of life to me,
you will fill me with
gladness through your presence.
‘Brothers, no one can
deny that the patriarch David himself is dead and buried: his tomb is still
with us. But since he was a prophet, and knew that God had sworn him an oath to
make one of his descendants succeed him on the throne, what he foresaw and
spoke about was the resurrection of the Christ: he is the one who was not
abandoned to Hades, and whose body did not experience corruption. God raised
this man Jesus to life, and all of us are witnesses to that. Now raised to the
heights by God’s right hand, he has received from the Father the Holy Spirit,
who was promised, and what you see and hear is the outpouring of that Spirit.’
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm
15:1-2,5,7-11 ©
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Preserve me, Lord,
I take refuge in you.
or
Alleluia,
alleluia, alleluia!
Preserve me, God, I
take refuge in you.
I say to
the Lord: ‘You are my God.
O Lord, it is you who
are my portion and cup;
it is you
yourself who are my prize.’
Preserve me, Lord,
I take refuge in you.
or
Alleluia,
alleluia, alleluia!
I will bless the Lord
who gives me counsel,
who even
at night directs my heart.
I keep the Lord ever
in my sight:
since he
is at my right hand, I shall stand firm.
Preserve me, Lord,
I take refuge in you.
or
Alleluia,
alleluia, alleluia!
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, Lord,
I take refuge in you.
or
Alleluia,
alleluia, alleluia!
You will show me the
path of life,
the
fullness of joy in your presence,
at your
right hand happiness for ever.
Preserve me, Lord,
I take refuge in you.
or
Alleluia,
alleluia, alleluia!
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Ps117:24
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Alleluia, alleluia!
This day was made by
the Lord:
we rejoice and are
glad.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 28:8-15 ©
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Filled with awe and
great joy the women came quickly away from the tomb and ran to tell the
disciples.
And
there, coming to meet them, was Jesus. ‘Greetings’ he said. And the women came
up to him and, falling down before him, clasped his feet. Then Jesus said to
them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers that they must leave for
Galilee; they will see me there.’
While
they were on their way, some of the guard went off into the city to tell the
chief priests all that had happened. These held a meeting with the elders and,
after some discussion, handed a considerable sum of money to the soldiers with
these instructions, ‘This is what you must say, “His disciples came during the
night and stole him away while we were asleep.” And should the governor come to
hear of this, we undertake to put things right with him ourselves and to see
that you do not get into trouble.’ The soldiers took the money and carried out
their instructions, and to this day that is the story among the Jews.
JESUS
IS LORD
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: [
ACTS 2:14. 22-33; MT 28:8-15 ]
We
can empathize with non-Christians who cannot accept our proclamation that Jesus
is Lord and God. How can a man be God? This is ludicrous. It was also
true for the early Church as well. The early disciples of Jesus were Jews
and they professed faith in the One God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob. Furthermore, the stress is on the transcendence of God.
So how could they proclaim Jesus as Lord and God as it went against their own
beliefs? So should we be surprised that the world views us with
skepticism and see as naïve and superstitious to believe that a man could be
called Lord and God?
What
is the crux of the matter? What is the real obstacle to faith in Jesus as
Lord? It is all
boils down not so much on whether Jesus is Lord and God but whether we believe
that He has been raised by the Father from the dead. In other words,
faith in Jesus as Lord hinges on faith in His resurrection. The claim of
Jesus as Lord is unthinkable only because the resurrection of Jesus is always
unacceptable, for no one has been raised from the dead, at most resuscitated.
Again,
we can appreciate denial of the resurrection of Christ. Non-Christians
often make fun of our belief in Christ’s resurrection. Again should we be
surprised? The
women we read in today’s gospel too were amazed and ran away in awe when they
saw the empty tomb instead of the corpse of Jesus. In Mark’s gospel, they
were filled with fear but in St Matthew’s gospel, they were “filled with awe
and great joy” because it was simply incredible, too good to be true and an
out-of-this-world kind of experience. The joy that comes from the hope
that He was still alive was too great. Their hope was not disappointed
because the Lord appeared to them along their way. “And there, coming to
meet them, was Jesus. ‘Greetings’ he said.”
Of
course, this initial reluctance to believe in the resurrection was also true
for the apostles and disciples except St John. We read that St Peter, who was the
first to arrive and enter the tomb of our Lord, left mystified. At any
rate, the disciples would not believe the testimony of the women as they
doubted their integrity. As for others, they dismissed it as a
hoax. This explains the story that was circulated as recounted in the
gospel. They bribed the soldiers to say that “His disciples came during
the night and stole him away while we were asleep.”
So
it is important that we are able to adduce the reasons for our faith in the
resurrection of our Lord. Right from the outset, we must state in no
uncertain terms that the resurrection of our Lord is a trans-historical
event. This is
to say that we are speaking of a resurrected body at the end of time, which is
beyond history, and now made present in history. This explains why it
cannot be seen with ordinary eyes and without the grace of God. Jesus
gave this grace to the women who saw Him and touched His feet. Because the resurrection
cannot be proven empirically like a scientific observation, then we need to
draw from other supporting evidence to show the reasonableness of our claim.
St
Peter established and verified the truth of the resurrection by referring to
the fulfillment of scriptures. Quoting from the prophecy of King David who said, “I saw
the Lord before me always, for with him at my right hand nothing can shake me.
So my heart was glad and my tongue cried out with joy; my body, too, will rest
in the hope that you will not abandon my soul to Hades nor allow your holy one
to experience corruption. You have made known the way of life to me, you will
fill me with gladness through your presence.” (Cf Ps 16:8-11) So the
resurrection of our Lord fulfills the prophecy of David.
Secondly,
we have the testimony of the life, passion, death of our Lord. He was doing good on earth, and
fulfilled the messianic promises of bringing healing and restoration. St
Peter said, “Jesus the Nazarene was a man commended to you by God by the
miracles and portents and signs that God worked through him when he was among
you, as you all know.” As Jesus said, even if we do not believe in Him at least
believe in the works He had done. Such works vouched for His
identification with the Father. “If I am not doing the works of my
Father, then do not believe me. 38 But if I do them, even
though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and
understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” (Jn 10:37f)
Thirdly,
that He was raised from the dead, even though He was condemned unjustly as a
criminal and political revolutionary, showed again the fulfillment of God’s
plan. God did
not allow Him to be condemned to death. St Peter said, “This man,
who was put into your power by the deliberate intention and foreknowledge of
God, you took and had crucified by men outside the Law. You killed him, but God
raised him to life, freeing him from the pangs of Hades; for it was impossible
for him to be held in its power.” Indeed, the power belongs to God
ultimately, not to man. So everything happened according to the plan of
God and His divine wisdom. No one can jeopardize and derail the plan of
salvation.
Fourthly,
note that on this first Monday of the Octave of Easter, the Church selected
the discourse of St Peter from the Acts of the Apostles as the first reading
when this discourse was given at Pentecost, not at His resurrection. Why?
The conclusion is obvious. If “God raised this man Jesus to
life, and all of us are witness to that”, then it means that He has been
“raised to the heights by God’s hand. “ It means that “he has received
from the Father the Holy Spirit, who was promised, and what you see and hear is
the outpouring of that Spirit.” Jesus, in other words, at His
resurrection was not simply raised from the dead but exalted and seated at the
right of God, assuming all divine powers and therefore able to send us the Holy
Spirit that He received from the Father. Unless He is God, He would not
have been able to send us the Holy Spirit. Hence, in the mind of St
Peter, it is beyond doubt that Jesus is Lord and God.
So
what does it mean for us who confess that Jesus is Lord and God? Firstly,
it means that following the women, we too must do what the women did. What did they do?
“And the women came up to him and, falling down before him, clasped his
feet.” To come up to Him implies that we must now approach Him in awe and
devotion. Like them, we must fall down in worship and adoration by
clasping His feet. Only because He is Lord do we bow down before
Him. But worshipping Jesus as Lord is more than just sentimental
expression of love and reverence.
To
confess that Jesus is Lord means that He will from now on be the center of our
life, our devotion, all that we live for and die for. In other words, “We do not live to
ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and
if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we
are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again,
so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” (Rom 14:7-9)
Jesus, as Lord, means that we will obey Him and take directions from Him
because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Whatever we say or think,
it will be rooted in the Lord and not in the wisdom of the world. We will
from now on measure all things by Christ’s standards, not that of the
world. With the psalmist, we pray, “I will bless the Lord who gives
me counsel who even at night directs my heart. I keep the Lord ever in my
sight. Since he is at my right hand, I shall stand firm.”
Finally,
it means to announce to our brothers and sisters that Jesus is Lord. Jesus said to the women, “Do not
be afraid; go and tell my brothers that they must leave for Galilee; they will
see me there.” By our lives, our words, actions and testimony, we are
called to witness to His resurrection. We are called to live
adventurously and courageously. “Be not afraid” is what the Lord told His
disciples. We are called to live as freed men and women. Death has
been overcome and life is certain, here and now and in the next life. We
can surrender our lives and future to Him because God is faithful to us.
Just as the Father showed His fidelity to His Son by raising Him from the dead,
He too will be faithful to us. As the psalmist says, He will preserve us
from death and rescue us from our enemies. “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.”
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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