20160424 BUILDING A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
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First reading
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Acts 14:21-27 ©
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Paul and Barnabas
went back through Lystra and Iconium to Antioch. They put fresh heart into the
disciples, encouraging them to persevere in the faith. ‘We all have to
experience many hardships’ they said ‘before we enter the kingdom of God.’ In
each of these churches they appointed elders, and with prayer and fasting they
commended them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe.
They
passed through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia. Then after proclaiming the word
at Perga they went down to Attalia and from there sailed for Antioch, where
they had originally been commended to the grace of God for the work they had
now completed.
On their
arrival they assembled the church and gave an account of all that God had done
with them, and how he had opened the door of faith to the pagans.
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm 144:8-13 ©
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I will bless your
name for ever, O God my King.
or
Alleluia!
The Lord is kind and
full of compassion,
slow to
anger, abounding in love.
How good is the Lord
to all,
compassionate
to all his creatures.
I will bless your
name for ever, O God my King.
or
Alleluia!
All your creatures
shall thank you, O Lord,
and your
friends shall repeat their blessing.
They shall speak of
the glory of your reign
and
declare your might, O God,
to make known to men
your mighty deeds
and the
glorious splendour of your reign.
I will bless your
name for ever, O God my King.
or
Alleluia!
Yours is an
everlasting kingdom;
your rule
lasts from age to age.
I will bless your
name for ever, O God my King.
or
Alleluia!
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Second reading
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Apocalypse
21:1-5 ©
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I, John, saw a new
heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared
now, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, and the new
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, as beautiful as a bride all
dressed for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice call from the throne, ‘You
see this city? Here God lives among men. He will make his home among them; they
shall be his people, and he will be their God; his name is God-with-them. He
will wipe away all tears from their eyes; there will be no more death, and no
more mourning or sadness. The world of the past has gone.’
Then the
One sitting on the throne spoke: ‘Now I am making the whole of creation new.’
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Jn13:34
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Alleluia, alleluia!
I give you a new commandment:
love one another just
as I have loved you,
says the Lord.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John
13:31-33,34-35 ©
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When Judas had gone
Jesus said:
‘Now has the Son of
Man been glorified,
and in him God has
been glorified.
If God has been
glorified in him,
God will in turn
glorify him in himself,
and will glorify him
very soon.
‘My little children,
I shall not be with
you much longer.
I give you a new
commandment:
love one another;
just as I have loved
you,
you also must love
one another.
By this love you have
for one another,
everyone will know
that you are my disciples.’
BUILDING
A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: [
Acts 14:21-27; Apocalypse 21:1-5; John 13:31-35 ]
Most people live their
lives without a clear vision and any real hope for the future. This explains why the modern man
and woman live only for himself or herself, and just for today without a
thought for tomorrow. If we only have today to live for, then we should
not be bothered about doing anything for tomorrow. We live only for
this world and for our pleasures and not beyond ourselves. For those
without any real hope for tomorrow, life has no meaning or purpose.
But the Christian does
not live like a lost man who has no identity, no inkling of his origin or
destination in life. Rather, Christians have a clear vision of the future
of humanity in Christ.
In the resurrection of our Lord and in the second reading, the Word of God
provides us a preview of what will happen at the end of time. There will
be a new Heaven and a new Earth. “I, John, saw a new heaven and a new
earth; the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now, and there was
no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, and the New Jerusalem, coming down from
God out of heaven, as beautiful as a bride all dressed for her husband.”
What does this new
heaven and earth entail?
Firstly, it is new, unlike the current earth and heaven. “The One
sitting on the throne spoke: ‘Now I am making the whole of creation new.’” This
implies that there is a radical discontinuity between the new and the old earth
and heaven. This has already been anticipated in the resurrection
of Christ when the Risen Lord passed through closed doors, appeared and disappeared
as He willed. Most of all, He is beyond recognition, unless we have
faith. So the bible says that there will be a radical newness in a
futuristic humanity. It will be a life beyond comparison. “He will
wipe away all tears from their eyes; there will be no more death, and no more
mourning or sadness. The world of the past has gone.” Indeed, this new
heaven and earth will be filled with the light of truth and goodness of God.
Secondly, it is still
heaven and earth. In other words, although the New Heaven and Earth are
transformed and transfigured, the future cosmos and humanity does not mean we
become pure spirits. What is of this earth will continue into the next world.
This is how Gaudium et Spes 39 explains, “we are taught that God is preparing a
new dwelling place and a new earth where justice will abide, and whose
blessedness will answer and surpass all the longings for peace which spring up
in the human heart. Then, with death overcome, the sons of God will be raised
up in Christ, and what was sown in weakness and corruption will be invested
with incorruptibility.”
Indeed, in this new
heaven and earth, there will be radiant light because we live in truth; and
fullness of life because of love. In a nutshell, the future of humanity and the cosmos
would be so filled with the presence of God, His truth and love, that there
will be joy and happiness. God will no longer be outside of us but lives
in us in His Spirit. God said, “You see this city? Here God lives among
men. He will make his home among them; they shall be his people, and he will be
their God; his name is God-with-them.” When God lives in us, we live in
Him. There is only joy, peace and fulfillment. Indeed, when we say
that Jesus rose from the dead, we mean that He is now filled with God’s
presence, His love and truth. The resurrection means that Jesus lives entirely
from God, for God and in God.
This is another way of
saying that Jesus is glorified and that the Father has glorified Him. This was what Jesus said before
His passion. “Now has the Son of Man been glorified, and in him God has
been glorified. If God has been glorified in him, God will in turn glorify him
in himself, and will glorify him very soon.” Because Jesus glorified God by His
life, in giving Himself over to the service of others in love, even for His
enemies, Jesus has brought glory to God, revealing Him as a God of love and
compassion. So the glory of Christ is to reveal the Father of love; and
the Father by raising Him from the dead, vouched for the truth of Jesus in what
He taught and did.
We too are called to do
the same. We are called to glorify God and Christ by our
lives. How
do we do this if not by simply living the resurrected life of the future here
and now! Like Jesus, we must expend our lives, using our talents and
resources for the service of humanity. We need to live our life
meaningfully in loving, caring and serving. Jesus said, “Just as I have
loved you, you also must love one another. By this love you have for one
another, everyone will know that you are my disciples.” Like the disciples in
the early Church, we are called to spread the gospel of truth and love, in
words and deeds. Because many are seeking for life and meaning, we too, like
the disciples, must open “the door of faith to the pagans.” The gospel must be
offered to those who live aimless and sinful lives. The responsorial
psalm invites us to proclaim to the world that “The Lord is kind and full of
compassion, slow to anger, abounding in love.”
At times, service and
the proclamation of the Good News might be met with opposition because of
jealousy, fear, misunderstanding and sin. This calls for courage and fortitude in
the face of trials, like the early Christians. And so the apostles, “put
fresh heart into the disciples, encouraging them to persevere in the faith. We
all have to experience many hardships they said before we enter the kingdom of
God.” So we must not fear when rejected and misunderstood. Rather, we
must continue to hold firm to the truth. In the process, we strengthen our own
faith and are purified as well in love and compassion. In this way we
become the glory of God as God is found in man fully alive. Sin
makes us fall short of this glory (Rom 3:21) but His grace
justifies and make us a new creation for good works. (Eph 2:10)
How can we do it?
How can we continue to be that dwelling place of God in the world so that the
world will know that we come from God? We need to be renewed by His love
all the time. Jesus
made it clear when He said, “I give you a new commandment: love one another;
just as I have loved you, you also must love one another.” Without
being loved by Him first, we cannot love like Jesus. We need to draw strength
from the Lord to love humbly, unconditionally and selflessly like Him. It is
for this reason that the disciples, in their mission, always entrusted their
works and their leaders to the Lord through prayer and fasting.
The success of our
mission is not through human effort but the work of God. The early Christians recognized this
when the evangelist wrote that “they had originally been commended to the grace
of God for the work they had now completed” and “on their arrival they
assembled the church and gave an account of all that God had done with them,
and how he had opened the door of faith to the pagans.” It was always
about what the Lord had done in and through them, not what they did. The
emphasis was that this mission is the work of God, not the work of man.
We are called to rely on God, not on ourselves and our efforts. Most of
all, we are to rely on the help of the Holy Spirit as we draw nearer towards
the Feast of Pentecost.
Of course, not only must
the missionaries of Christ be united with Him in love and prayer, they must
also be united among themselves. Hence, we read both in the first reading and the gospel,
the insistence of unity among the Christians working together for the mission,
always supporting each other and caring for each other, whether financially, in
resources or in prayer. Jesus insisted that His disciples first loved
each other in Him before they could love the rest of humanity. “By this love
you have for one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples.”
Without which, our proclamation would be hollow and a contradiction to the
gospel. The Christian community is already an anticipation of the new
life promised to us in the second reading when we will all be one in Him and
one with each other. A community that lives in love, forgiveness and
charity, dying to self and sin certainly is already participating in the
resurrected life that is to come. In building a new society founded on
truth and love, we have become witnesses in the world to Christ’s
resurrection. The sacramental sign par excellence of communion with
Christ and our fellow Christians is the Eucharist that we celebrate.
So let us once again
renew our commitment to renew the face of this earth so that we can bring about
a new earth and a new heaven. This is so beautifully anticipated in the Eucharist. In
the Eucharist, the Holy Spirit changes the bread and wine into His body and
Blood, where the Risen Lord is truly present. It anticipates and makes
present the life of the world to come. In the Eucharist too, we become
one Body in Christ and with Him, because we receive His Holy Spirit that unites
us all together. The Eucharist becomes the summit of the expression of
Christian life and the source of our strength and food for the journey in our
mission to become bread broken for others in the world. As we celebrate
the Eucharist, we enter more deeply into the paschal mystery by dying to
ourselves and rising with Jesus each day, and so become more and more His body,
the Church.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore
© All Rights Reserved
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