20160531 MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL OF JOY
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
EITHER:
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First reading
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Zephaniah
3:14-18 ©
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Shout for joy,
daughter of Zion,
Israel, shout aloud!
Rejoice, exult with
all your heart,
daughter of
Jerusalem!
The Lord has repealed
your sentence;
he has driven your
enemies away.
The Lord, the king of
Israel, is in your midst;
you have no more evil
to fear.
When that day comes,
word will come to Jerusalem:
Zion, have no fear,
do not let your hands
fall limp.
The Lord your God is
in your midst,
a victorious warrior.
He will exult with
joy over you,
he will renew you by
his love;
he will dance with
shouts of joy for you
as on a day of
festival.
OR:
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Alternative
First reading
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Romans 12:9-16 ©
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Do not let your love
be a pretence, but sincerely prefer good to evil. Love each other as much as
brothers should, and have a profound respect for each other. Work for the Lord
with untiring effort and with great earnestness of spirit. If you have hope, this
will make you cheerful. Do not give up if trials come; and keep on praying. If
any of the saints are in need you must share with them; and you should make
hospitality your special care.
Bless
those who persecute you: never curse them, bless them. Rejoice with those who
rejoice and be sad with those in sorrow. Treat everyone with equal kindness;
never be condescending but make real friends with the poor.
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Isaiah 12 ©
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The rejoicing of
a redeemed people
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Great in your
midst is the Holy One of Israel.
Truly, God is my
salvation,
I trust,
I shall not fear.
For the Lord is my
strength, my song,
he became
my saviour.
With joy you will
draw water
from the
wells of salvation.
Great in your
midst is the Holy One of Israel.
Give thanks to the
Lord, give praise to his name!
Make his
mighty deeds known to the peoples!
Declare
the greatness of his name.
Great in your
midst is the Holy One of Israel.
Sing a psalm to the
Lord
for he
has done glorious deeds;
make them
known to all the earth!
People of Zion, sing
and shout for joy,
for great
in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
Great in your
midst is the Holy One of Israel.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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cf.Lk1:45
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed is the Virgin
Mary, who believed
that the promise made
her by the Lord would be fulfilled.
Alleluia!
|
Gospel
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Luke 1:39-56 ©
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Mary set out and went
as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into
Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s
greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy
Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit
from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the
child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the
promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’
And Mary
said:
‘My soul proclaims
the greatness of the Lord
and my spirit exults
in God my saviour;
because he has looked
upon his lowly handmaid.
Yes, from this day
forward all generations will call me blessed,
for the Almighty has
done great things for me.
Holy is his name,
and his mercy reaches
from age to age for those who fear him.
He has shown the
power of his arm,
he has routed the
proud of heart.
He has pulled down
princes from their thrones and exalted the lowly.
The hungry he has filled
with good things, the rich sent empty away.
He has come to the
help of Israel his servant, mindful of his mercy
– according to the
promise he made to our ancestors –
of his mercy to
Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’
Mary
stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back home.
MINISTERS
OF THE GOSPEL OF JOY
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: [ ZEPH 3:14-18
OR ROM 12:9-16; LUKE 1:39-56 ]
The
scripture readings of today’s feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin
Mary exude joy from beginning to end, both in the first reading and in the
gospel. To the Israelites in exile, the prophet said, “Shout for joy,
daughter of Zion, Israel, shout aloud! Rejoice, exult with all your heart,
daughter of Jerusalem!” For Mary, she too exulted in joy. “My soul
proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit exults in God my saviour;
because he has looked upon his lowly handmaid.” John the Baptist also leapt for
joy. Elizabeth exclaimed, “”Of all women you are the most blessed, and
blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from
the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child
in my womb leapt for joy.”
We have just completed the
Feast of Pentecost when the Lord commanded us all to go and proclaim the Good
News to all creation. This Good News therefore must be one that gives joy
to those who receive them. But it can only be of great joy to those who
hear them provided the messengers themselves are filled with joy. On this
feast of the Visitation of Mary, we are called to imitate Mary by being
messengers of joy to others. In this way, we too become like Mary,
bearing the visitation of our Lord.
How can we be joyful
messengers of the gospel unless we ourselves have been recipients of joy?
We cannot give what we have not received. Mary was the recipient of that
joy herself. She was not only called to be the mother of the Saviour but
her real joy was that the Lord was not only with her but in her. She
was filled with joy simply because God was so close to her, truly the Emmanuel.
This is but the fulfillment of the prophecy of Zephaniah when he said,
“The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult with
joy over you, he will renew you by his love; he will dance with shouts of joy
for you as on a day of festival.”
When we know that the Lord
is with us as our warrior and commander, we have no fear, just as the angel
said to Mary, “Do not be afraid.” In a similar vein, the prophet said,
“The Lord, the king of Israel, is in your midst; you have no more evil to fear.
When that day comes, word will come to Jerusalem: Zion, have no fear, do not
let your hands fall limp.” Thus Mary could exalt when she herself with
confidence proclaimed the saving help of God. “Holy is his name, and his mercy
reaches from age to age for those who fear him. He has shown the power of his
arm, he has routed the proud of heart. He has pulled down princes from their
thrones and exalted the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things, the
rich sent empty away. He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of
his mercy – according to the promise he made to our ancestors – of his mercy to
Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
Indeed, when the Lord is
with us, we are free from slavery and bondage, like the Israelites. The
Lord has given us new purpose, new hope and meaning. So the Good News is
proclaimed to the downtrodden, the lowly and the poor. God has come to
assure us that He is with us. This explains the joy of Mary, Elizabeth
and John the Baptist. So, too, in the resurrection appearances, the
disciples were filled with joy when the Lord appeared to them. To have
Jesus so near to them, in their womb and in their midst gave them joy that was
incomparable. Indeed, whoever knows that the Lord is with him or her will
no longer fear about tomorrow! St Paul wrote, “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.” (Rom 14:8
) We too are filled with joy whenever we are at
prayer and feeling His healing and assuring presence.
) We too are filled with joy whenever we are at
prayer and feeling His healing and assuring presence.
But for some of us, we have
lost this joy. What is the reason for losing the joy of the Lord?
What are the enemies of our joy? In truth, unlike the Israelites, our
real enemies are not external enemies. It has to do with ourselves.
Our enemy, as the
Magnificat tells us, firstly is the lack of faith. We lack faith in the
Lord and therefore we live in fear and anxiety. Mary was called to be the
mother of the Saviour. Of all peoples, we would expect Mary to be full of
fear and anxiety at the prospect of her pregnancy; how she would have to
explain to Joseph and her family, and her community. But we read that
upon receiving the message of the angel, she left everything into the hands of
the Lord. Instead of focusing on her needs and her future, she turned
outwards and immediately went to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, who too was pregnant
with John the Baptist, in her old age. Indeed, the remark of Elizabeth
captures the spirit of Mary when she said, “Yes, blessed is she who believed
that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
Secondly, it is the enemy
of pride. Mary said, “He has shown the power of his arm, he has routed
the proud of heart. He has pulled down princes from their thrones and exalted
the lowly.” Only the humble and lowly, the anawim can receive the
blessings of God. Many of us rely on our own strength, on our wealth,
power and talents. That explains why the modern man and woman are
so proud of their achievements. They think that their success is all due
to their hard work, ingenuity and intelligence. Such people are arrogant
and look down on others who are not as successful as them. But the day
they are struck down, with a marriage failure, an incurable illness, a tragedy
or an accident, they will come to realize their nothingness and finiteness.
Thirdly, it is the enemy of
self-sufficiency. “The hungry he has filled with good things, the rich
sent empty away.” Many of us cannot feel the presence of God in our lives
because we do not need Him. We think we can manage by ourselves.
This is what the humanist is saying to us. We do not need God. We can
solve all problems by ourselves. We have intelligence and with will, we
can conquer the sky. There is nothing we cannot do, no problem we cannot
solve. Such self-sufficient people cannot feel with others. They
lack the humility to know their limitations. That is why God only comes
to those who need Him and acknowledge that only He is sufficient. When we
are self-sufficient, we live in fear of losing what we have. But if our
sufficiency is in God, we live a life of freedom and detachment. St Paul
wrote, “I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty.
In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of
going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things
through him who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:12f
)
)
Fourthly, it is the enemy
of ingratitude. When we are proud and self-sufficient, we lack gratitude
for what we have because we feel that we have earned them and hence there is no
one to whom we need to be grateful to. An ungrateful person is an unhappy
person because he is not appreciative of what he has. Mary was a woman
who felt blessed, not because of her merits but by the grace of God. And
so with great joy, she could say, “Yes, from this day on all generations will
call me blessed, for the Almighty has done great things for me. Holy is his
name, and his mercy reaches from age to age for those who fear him.” Her
greatness, she knows, comes from God and therefore she did not rejoice in
herself and become proud, but instead she remained always humble before the
Lord and His people, for she did not merit her position as the Mother of the
Savior, or whatever she has been blessed with. For her, everything is
pure grace.
So if we have lost our joy,
we need to come back to the Lord. The Lord wants to be with us but we
must welcome Him like Mary, Elizabeth and St John the Baptist. He wants
to fill us with His joy and peace.
We begin this process by
recounting the wonderful things that the Lord has blessed us with. Like
Mary, we must recall the good things that the Lord has done for us. As
the psalmist says, “Give thanks to the Lord, give praise to his name! Make his
mighty deeds known to the peoples! Declare the greatness of his name.
Sing a psalm to the Lord for he has done glorious deeds; make them known to all
the earth! People of Zion, sing and shout for joy, for great in your
midst is the Holy One of Israel.” Giving thanks and praise for all that He has
done for us like Mary is the way to recover that joy which we have lost.
Secondly, we must then pass
that joy to others, the same way that Mary did. St Paul invites us to
live a life of charity like Mary in reaching out to others. He said, “Do
not let your love be a pretence, but sincerely prefer good to evil. Love each
other as much as brothers should, and have a profound respect for each other.
Work for the Lord with untiring effort and with great earnestness of
Spirit.” (Rom 12:8-11
) When we share the joy that we have received from the
Lord, that joy multiplies and increases. Mary in bringing the joy to
Elizabeth and John the Baptist augmented her own joy. Whenever joy is
shared, joy increases. We do not keep joy to ourselves. The sign of
true joy is that of spontaneity in sharing that joy with others, just like the
outbursts of Mary and Elizabeth and John the Baptist in thanksgiving. Again St
Paul said, “Rejoice with those who rejoice and be sad with those in sorrow.
Treat everyone with equal kindness; never be condescending but make real
friends with the poor.” (Rom 12:15f
)
) When we share the joy that we have received from the
Lord, that joy multiplies and increases. Mary in bringing the joy to
Elizabeth and John the Baptist augmented her own joy. Whenever joy is
shared, joy increases. We do not keep joy to ourselves. The sign of
true joy is that of spontaneity in sharing that joy with others, just like the
outbursts of Mary and Elizabeth and John the Baptist in thanksgiving. Again St
Paul said, “Rejoice with those who rejoice and be sad with those in sorrow.
Treat everyone with equal kindness; never be condescending but make real
friends with the poor.” (Rom 12:15f)
Written by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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