20160916 THE LIBERATING SPELL OF GOD EMPOWERS US FOR MISSION
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Red.
|
First reading
|
|
1 Corinthians
15:12-20 ©
|
Now if Christ raised
from the dead is what has been preached, how can some of you be saying that
there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead,
Christ himself cannot have been raised, and if Christ has not been raised then
our preaching is useless and your believing it is useless; indeed, we are shown
up as witnesses who have committed perjury before God, because we swore in
evidence before God that he had raised Christ to life. For if the dead are not
raised, Christ has not been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, you are
still in your sins. And what is more serious, all who have died in Christ have
perished. If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we are the most
unfortunate of all people.
But
Christ has in fact been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of all who have
fallen asleep.
|
Responsorial
Psalm
|
|
Psalm
16:1,6-8,15 ©
|
I shall be filled,
when I awake, with the sight of your glory, O Lord.
Lord, hear a cause
that is just,
pay heed
to my cry.
Turn your ear to my prayer:
no deceit
is on my lips.
I shall be filled,
when I awake, with the sight of your glory, O Lord.
I am here and I call,
you will hear me, O God.
Turn your
ear to me; hear my words.
Display your great
love, you whose right hand saves
your
friends from those who rebel against them.
I shall be filled,
when I awake, with the sight of your glory, O Lord.
Guard me as the apple
of your eye.
Hide me
in the shadow of your wings
As for me, in my
justice I shall see your face
and be
filled, when I awake, with the sight of your glory.
I shall be filled,
when I awake, with the sight of your glory, O Lord.
|
Gospel
Acclamation
|
Ps94:8
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Harden not your
hearts today,
but listen to the
voice of the Lord.
Alleluia!
|
Or
|
Mt11:25
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are you,
Father,
Lord of heaven and
earth,
for revealing the
mysteries of the kingdom
to mere children.
Alleluia!
|
Gospel
|
Luke 8:1-3 ©
|
Jesus
made his way through towns and villages preaching, and proclaiming the Good
News of the kingdom of God. With him went the Twelve, as well as certain women
who had been cured of evil spirits and ailments: Mary surnamed the Magdalene,
from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza,
Susanna, and several others who provided for them out of their own resources.
THE
LIBERATING SPELL OF GOD EMPOWERS US FOR MISSION
We read
in today’s gospel “Jesus made his way through towns and villages preaching and
proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom of God.” We are told too, that the
Twelve, “as well as certain women who had been cured of evil spirits and
ailments” accompanied Him. It is clear that already in the ministry of
Jesus, many of His disciples had shared in His mission. The question of
interest to us is: what drew these people, men and women to share in the
ministry of Jesus?
What
could have inspired such men like the apostles to give up everything, their
families and livelihood, to follow Jesus and accompany Him on His
mission? The fact that some of them were doing well in their careers,
that they were of different personalities with contrasting visions of life and
politics, would make them unlikely colleagues. Another man most unlikely
to qualify for apostleship was St Paul. As he said of himself, he was a
great persecutor of the Church and “hardly deserve the name apostle.” As
an educated man, a staunch believer of Judaism, the Law and a rabbi, the
Christians, including the Church leaders, initially met his conversion with
skepticism and disbelief.
Equally
surprising is, how women could be among Jesus’ disciples. We know very
well that Rabbis never accepted women as disciples. They were considered
to be second class citizens and categorized with the children. So
how could one ever imagine that not only a woman, but also someone of ill
repute like Mary Magdalene, supposedly an adulterous woman, could abandon her
flirtatious lifestyle to join Jesus’ band? Furthermore, we know that Magdalene
was previously possessed by seven demons, therefore an evil woman. So
too, Joanna, a lady of the court. How could she leave her palace to mix with
the vagabonds, the band of disciples of Jesus? Then again, how could
these two ladies, coming from totally different economic and social standing,
come to pool their resources to provide for Jesus and His apostles?
So on
all counts, both the men and women who followed and supported Jesus in His
ministry must have somehow been profoundly touched by Jesus. The key to
their transformation lies in the text of today’s gospel. They must have
come under the “spell” of Jesus and His Good News message. Isn’t this
what the Good News is all about?
The
etymology of the word “Good News” originates from the word “God spell”, which
literally means the news of God. So the gospel is the good news from God
that entices and overwhelms us. Perhaps, from the suffix, we have the
word “spell.” Spell refers to some magic charm, using words or gestures
or things to lure and fascinate us. When we refer to the gospel, then it
is concerned with the attractiveness and empowering beauty of the gospel
message of Jesus. So, what kind of god spell did they each receive to enable
them to break from their past and follow Jesus in His mission?
For the
apostles, it must be the experience of being called and chosen in spite of
their unworthiness. St Peter was only an uncultured but proud and
confident fisherman; and Matthew a tax collector, a traitor of the Jews.
As for Mary, it must have been her experience of forgiveness for her sinful past
when she was possessed by “seven demons”. Although everyone despised her
and many would have wanted to have her stoned, Jesus’ acceptance of her was
like a spell that healed her of her low self-esteem and raised her dignity. By
exorcising her, she was liberated from the grip of evil; especially that of her
lack of authentic self-love. As Jesus said, “her many sins, must have
been forgiven her, or she would not have shown such great love. It is the
man who is forgiven little who shows little love.” As for Joanna, Jesus
too must have touched her in ways not mentioned to us.
Finally,
the most dramatic of all conversion experience is that of St Paul. The
God spell of Jesus struck him whilst he was on his way to Damascus. The
Acts narrate how Paul encountered the Risen Lord. In that encounter, he
experienced Jesus as the Risen Lord in His forgiveness for him and His
solidarity with the persecuted Christians. That experience, which changed
the course of his life, strengthened his conviction that Jesus is truly Lord
and Risen from the dead.
Hence,
he was in dismay when he heard that some Christians were denying the doctrine
of the resurrection from the dead. If that were so, Paul contended that
the corollary would be to deny our faith also in Christ’s resurrection; and if
we were to deny His resurrection, it would lead to a denial of His glory and
divinity. Consequently, we are not saved as we continue to be in our
sin. He could then be accused of perjury before God, since the
proclamation of Christ’s resurrection is a lie. But such a logical consequence
contradicts his existential experience of having been saved by Him and
encountering Him as the Risen Lord. In gratitude and humility, he
confessed, “I hardly deserve the name apostle; but by God’s grace that is what
I am.” Indeed, St Paul’s transformation as a consequence of his
experience of the unconditional love and mercy of Jesus in his life resulted in
him preaching the God spell to others. He said, “I, or rather the grace
of God that is with me, have worked harder than any of the others; but what
matters is that I preach what they preach, and this is what you all believed.”
So it
is clear that all those who collaborated with Jesus in His ministry were given
a mission on account of a special experience of the love of the Lord in their
lives. A real experience of God’s love according to one’s situation is
what the gospel or the spell of God is all about. It could be a call,
forgiveness or a healing experience. With the experience or encounter, one is
overwhelmed by the spell of the love of Jesus and His message that one could
properly respond to only by following Jesus and joining Him in His
mission. Hence, it is the god spell that liberates us for love, service
and mission.
As Christians we should
ask, “What is the god spell I have received that so inspired me to become His
disciple?” Unless, we have been so charmed by that god spell, it would be
difficult for us, especially those of us who are serving in various Church
ministries, to give up the lure of the secular world, our time and even our
financial resources, to continue the work of Jesus, like the apostles, for the
sake of the Good News and the Church. Recalling our god spell will awaken
the call in us, our love for Him, which we may have forgotten, thereby
reinforcing it.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights
Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment