20170104 HOLINESS OF LIFE BY LIVING A LIFE OF LOVE AND SERVICE AS
GOD’S CHILDREN
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
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First reading
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1 John 3:7-10 ©
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My children, do not
let anyone lead you astray:
to live a holy life
is to be holy just as
he is holy;
to lead a sinful life
is to belong to the devil,
since the devil was a
sinner from the beginning.
It was to undo all
that the devil has done
that the Son of God
appeared.
No one who has been
begotten by God sins;
because God’s seed
remains inside him,
he cannot sin when he
has been begotten by God.
In this way we
distinguish the children of God
from the children of
the devil:
anybody not living a
holy life
and not loving his
brother
is no child of God’s.
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm
97(98):1,7-9 ©
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All the ends of
the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Sing a new song to
the Lord
for he
has worked wonders.
His right hand and
his holy arm
have
brought salvation.
All the ends of
the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Let the sea and all
within it, thunder;
the
world, and all its peoples.
Let the rivers clap
their hands
and the
hills ring out their joy
All the ends of
the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
at the presence of
the Lord: for he comes,
he comes
to rule the earth.
He will rule the
world with justice
and the
peoples with fairness.
All the ends of
the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Jn1:14,12
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The Word became
flesh, and dwelt among us.
To all who received
him he gave power to become children of God.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Heb1:1-2
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Alleluia, alleluia!
At various times in
the past
and in various
different ways,
God spoke to our
ancestors through the prophets;
but in our own time,
the last days,
he has spoken to us
through his Son.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Alleluia, alleluia!
A hallowed day has
dawned upon us.
Come, you nations,
worship the Lord,
for today a great
light has shone down upon the earth.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John 1:35-42 ©
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As John stood with
two of his disciples, Jesus passed, and John stared hard at him and said,
‘Look, there is the lamb of God.’ Hearing this, the two disciples followed
Jesus. Jesus turned round, saw them following and said, ‘What do you want?’
They answered, ‘Rabbi,’ – which means Teacher –’where do you live?’
‘Come and see’ he replied; so they went and saw where he lived, and stayed with
him the rest of that day. It was about the tenth hour.
One
of these two who became followers of Jesus after hearing what John had said was
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. Early next morning, Andrew met his brother
and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ – which means the
Christ – and he took Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked hard at him and said,
‘You are Simon son of John; you are to be called Cephas’ – meaning Rock.
HOLINESS
OF LIFE BY LIVING A LIFE OF LOVE AND SERVICE AS GOD’S CHILDREN
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: [1 JOHN 3:7-10; JOHN 1:35-42 ]
We are
still within the celebration of Christmastide. We have also just
celebrated the Solemnity of the Mother of God and the beginning of the New
Year. Consequently, the Church invites us to continue to reflect on the
significance of the Incarnation, of what it means for Christ to be born for
us. Christ’s birth was only for one reason – that we may regain our
dignity as God’s children which has been lost through sin and a life of
sinfulness. By becoming man, He assumed our humanity, and lived a life of
holiness, in obedience to the Father’s will to the extent of dying for us. In
this He showed us the way to be reconciled with God. In Christ, we are
reborn in Him. We are now children of God, as St John reminds us.
We are not children of the devil any longer. Through the Holy Spirit
given to us at our baptism, we have been made heirs with Christ, thus becoming
God’s adopted sons and daughters.
Having received the sonship
given to us in Christ, we must now live consciously as God’s children. To
be God’s children means that we share the same life of God as our Father.
St John says, God is holy. Consequently, as God’s children, our
fundamental calling is to live a life of holiness. As such, holiness of
life remains the fundamental vocation of every baptized Christian. To be
a Christian is to desire to be holy. Indeed, to desire to live a holy
life is to live the life of God. It is the only way to share in the life
of God. This is precisely what St John was urging his fellow Christians,
and all of us, to do. He wrote, “My children, do not let anyone lead you
astray: to live a holy life is to be holy just as God is holy; to lead a sinful
life is to belong to the devil, since the devil was a sinner from the
beginning.” By living a holy life, it shows that we are begotten by
God. “No one who has been begotten by God sins because God’s seed remains
inside him, he cannot sin when he has been begotten by God.”
A life of holiness is more
than just not falling into sin, but it is a life of love and service. “In
this way we distinguish the children of God from the children of the devil:
anybody not living a holy life and not loving his brother is no child of
God’s.” To live a holy life requires that we seek to express our sonship
by loving God and our fellowmen according to our calling in life.
According to our vocation and charism, we are called to live for others, our
brothers and sisters. A holy life is a life that is dedicated to the
service and love of our brothers and sisters.
In a
most concrete way, we show our Christian identity as sons and daughters of God
by giving our lives to the service of the poor and the underprivileged.
We who are the privileged children of God cannot be indifferent to the
sufferings of our marginalized and poorer brothers and sisters in our
midst. Our Christian dignity as the sons and daughters of the one God and
one Father of our Lord Jesus requires us to offer the same love and concern
that God our Father has for all, especially the suffering, the poor and the
abandoned.
In this
way, the glory of God shines in us as we make the presence of Christ felt in
the way we live out our lives, in humble service and charity. In this
way, those who see us living a life of Christ can also rejoice with the
psalmist and declare, “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our
God. Sing a new song to the Lord for he has worked wonders. His right hand and
his holy arm have brought salvation. At the presence of the Lord: for he comes,
he comes to rule the earth. He will rule the world with justice and the peoples
with fairness.”
Yet we
must constantly remind ourselves that whilst holiness is expressed in a
concrete life of love and service, yet this capacity to live a holy life is not
something we can do by one’s strength but only by the grace of God.
Unless God lives in us, we cannot do the same work He has done for us.
Hence, a life of holiness entails necessarily a close relationship with the
Lord. We must always be careful that we do not turn Christian charity
into another social work based on another form of ideology or humanitarian
work. Charity does not spring from mere empathy and identification with
our fellowmen but the basis for our charity must spring from our consciousness
of our identity as God’s children in Christ. Every person is sacred, has
a soul, created in God’s image and likeness and called to sonship. We
love because God loves us first and He loves everyone. So, Christian
charity is deeply rooted in Christ’s love for us and His grace at work in us.
On our
part, therefore, lest we get carried away by activism based on human
satisfaction and human fulfillment, we must constantly return to Christ as our
cornerstone in all that we do. Without Christ, whatever service we do in
Church or in society can end up in frustration, anger and bitterness instead,
especially when we see so many challenges and often a lack of Christian
ambience and charity. Indeed, some of our members have left the Church as
a consequence of their having experienced injustice and disillusionment in the
Church. We must avoid taking things into our own hands, lest we become
angry first with the situation, then with the system and the institution, and
then we become enemies of God as we come to conclude that God is not on our
side.
Indeed,
this is what the gospel invites us to do. When the disciples of John
followed Jesus, He called them to “Come and see.” Before they could be
disciples of Jesus and later on His apostles, it was necessary that they lived
with Jesus, know Him personally and be inspired by His life and love. It
must have been a great moment of encounter for the disciples, so much so that
they could even remember that it was the tenth hour that “they went and saw
where he lived, and stayed with him the rest of that day.” Do we also
spend time with Jesus before we go and serve? Unless ignited by the fire
of His love, we have no real motivation to share what God has done for us to
others. It would do us much good to spend an hour before the Blessed
Sacrament each day before we begin our day’s work. Without finding
strength from Christ, we cannot truly be His messengers and prophets of love
and peace. Only living from and with Christ, can we become the Lamb of
God for others, like Jesus who offered Himself to the world for the conversion
of sinners and the redemption of humanity.
At the end of the day,
regardless of the work we do, whether social, charitable, Church or corporate,
we are doing the work of God. All works of love are for the greater glory
of God. In the final analysis, the greatest act of charity is to bring
someone to Jesus, like Andrew who brought Simon Peter to Jesus. We read,
“early next morning, Andrew … took Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked hard at him and
said, ‘You are Simon son of John; you are to be called Cephas’ – meaning
Rock.” Because of what Andrew did, Simon underwent a total change, not
only in name, but his life and mission were totally changed. Giving Jesus
as the cornerstone to all peoples is our ultimate goal, for when they have
Jesus, they have true and lasting peace and joy. They no longer have to
live in fear and anxiety because they know that Jesus will provide and care for
them. Most of all, they in turn will give their lives in service to
Christ, Church and society, and in the process find fullness of life.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights
Reserved
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