20170601 PRESENTING CHRIST AS THE UNIVERSAL SAVIOUR TO
NON-BELIEVERS
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Red.
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First reading
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Acts
22:30,23:6-11 ©
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Since the tribune
wanted to know what precise charge the Jews were bringing, he freed Paul and
gave orders for a meeting of the chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin; then
he brought Paul down and stood him in front of them. Now Paul was well aware
that one section was made up of Sadducees and the other of Pharisees, so he
called out in the Sanhedrin, ‘Brothers, I am a Pharisee and the son of
Pharisees. It is for our hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on
trial.’ As soon as he said this a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and
Sadducees, and the assembly was split between the two parties. For the
Sadducees say there is neither resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, while the
Pharisees accept all three. The shouting grew louder, and some of the scribes
from the Pharisees’ party stood up and protested strongly, ‘We find nothing
wrong with this man. Suppose a spirit has spoken to him, or an angel?’ Feeling
was running high, and the tribune, afraid that they would tear Paul to pieces,
ordered his troops to go down and haul him out and bring him into the fortress.
Next
night, the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘Courage! You have borne witness for
me in Jerusalem, now you must do the same in Rome.’
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm
15(16):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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cf.Jn16:7,13
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Alleluia, alleluia!
I will send you the
Spirit of truth, says the Lord;
he will lead you to
the complete truth.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Jn17:21
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Alleluia, alleluia!
With them in you and
you in me,
may they be so
completely one
that the world will
realise that it was you who sent me,
says the Lord.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John 17:20-26 ©
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Jesus raised his eyes
to heaven and said:
‘Holy Father,
I pray not only for
these,
but for those also
who through their
words will believe in me.
May they all be one.
Father, may they be
one in us,
as you are in me and
I am in you,
so that the world may
believe it was you who sent me.
I have given them the
glory you gave to me,
that they may be one
as we are one.
With me in them and
you in me,
may they be so
completely one
that the world will
realise that it was you who sent me
and that I have loved
them as much as you loved me.
Father, I want those
you have given me
to be with me where I
am,
so that they may
always see the glory you have given me
because you loved me
before the foundation of the world.
Father, Righteous
One,
the world has not
known you,
but I have known you,
and these have known
that you have sent me.
I have made your name
known to them
and will continue to
make it known,
so that the love with
which you loved me may be in them,
and
so that I may be in them.’
PRESENTING
CHRIST AS THE UNIVERSAL SAVIOUR TO NON-BELIEVERS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [
Acts 22:30; 23:6-11; John 17:20-26 ]
We all seek unity and love.
Regardless whether we are believers or not, it is in the human DNA to desire
peace, love and unity. This is the deepest quest of every human
person. We are created in the image and likeness of God and thus no man
can find rest until he finds true love and peace. The Church, as the
Sacrament of Christ, has the task of leading all peoples to unity because we
are all the children of God. This is what the Lord prayed at the end of
His life. He said, “Holy Father, I pray not only for these, but for those
also who through their words will believe in me. May they all be one. Father,
may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, so that the world may
believe it was you who sent me.”
How is this best done? Lasting
unity and love must be founded on truth. The deception of the world today
is that although everyone desires love, not all desire to be truthful in
love. We are quite satisfied with a disguised form of love.
Many in the world confuse sex with love. Many seek casual sex, believing
that what they are getting is love. What they are really seeking is intimate
relationships; not just physical but emotional, intellectual and even spiritual
union. Again, those who are not capable of handling relationships
substitute relationships with things. Instead of spending time with their
children to bond, parents give them money and things to replace their absence
and their incapacity to feel with and for them.
What is this truth if not faith in God,
the Ultimate Reality? Which God, or which religion, can bring us to
encounter this absolute truth? All religions claim to have the
truth. Today, it is politically incorrect to deny the claims of other
religions to having the truth. However, that does not prevent us from
saying that Christ is the fullness of truth and that Christianity possesses the
fullness of truth. Whether others agree with us or not is their
prerogative, but anyone can certainly claim that his or her religion offers the
fullness of truth.
So it is not true, as some claim, that
proclaiming Christ in Asia as the unique saviour of the world sounds
triumphalistic to other religions, and that by so doing we are creating
competition and even hostility. But not to do so would also be wrong,
because it would mean that we are forced to pretend to believe what we do not.
That would be hypocrisy! To believe that Jesus is the Universal Saviour
and our Lord and yet not say so would be to live a lie. By suggesting to
others that we believe in the same thing would make us fall into irenicism, a
false compromise. In so doing we do a disservice to inter-religious
dialogue by misleading others in the nature of our real beliefs. Indeed,
all followers must be true to claims they make about their founder or
religion. There is no need to apologize for making the claims so long as
we do not denigrate other religions, belittle them or deny them their claims.
Indeed, this was the mistake of the
Pharisees and the Sadducees. For political interests, they came together
with the objective of standing up to Rome and also for social and religious
gains. Although they were united as one in the Sanhedrin (the council
that ruled on religious matters for the Jews), their unity was false. It
was not based on common truths and beliefs but purely for political and selfish
motives. Theirs was a superficial unity not based on truth but
pragmatism.
How, then, do we present Jesus without
belittling other religions? We should begin by stressing our
commonality. This was what St Paul did when he concurred with the
Pharisees on the doctrine of the resurrection. We too must begin in this
manner by sharing with other religions what we have in common. This
will promote trust and respect, paving the way for dialogue. In
truth, we have more in common than disagreement. Fundamentally, all
religions teach us how to love, forgive and to help each other. Whilst we
might not agree on how we interpret moral issues because we differ on what is
truth, we are in agreement that we should seek authentic love. All
religions teach us to do good and avoid evil even if we do not agree on what
exactly is evil, as many moral issues are ambiguous with a mix of love and
selfishness, truth and falsehood. In our case, we share with the
world a desire to find lasting unity and love. As believers of religions,
we share this belief that unity must be based on eternal truths. Of
course, not all religions share faith in a personal God. There are many
religions that speak of an impersonal, ultimate reality rather than a personal
God. With some religions, like the Muslims and the Jews, we share a
common faith in the one God.
Only after we have begun with the basic
beliefs that are common to all, should we then share our distinctiveness. I
prefer to use the word “distinctiveness” rather than “differences.” We
should not talk about being different from others but rather that we have our
own distinctive way of explaining something, with a distinctive culture,
worldview and presuppositions.
What, then, is our distinctive
contribution? Namely, that this Ultimate Reality is the one God who is
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This God whom we believe in is a
personal God who is a communion of relations within Himself. God is the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and both are united in the one Spirit.
That God is a Trinity of persons in communion, is rendered explicitly by the
priestly prayer of Jesus Christ, “Father, Righteous One, the world has not
known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you sent me. I have
made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the
love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them.”
Because the Trinitarian God is communion,
He invites us to share in His communion of love and life. Indeed,
this is the Priestly prayer of Jesus. What is this glory that Jesus wants
to share with us but His intimacy with His Father? It is this intimacy
that He desires us all to have as well. Jesus’ deepest desire for us is
this, “ that they may be one as we are one. With me in them and you in me, may
they be so completely one that the world will realise that it was you who sent
me and that I have loved them as much as you loved me.” Only from
this intimacy with a personal God can we truly love our fellowmen and the whole
of creation because His love in us will empower us to do the same.
The basis for real unity in this world is
to love each other in the same way the Father loves the Son. In the
same Spirit of the Father and the Son, we are called to love each other the way
the Father loves us in Christ. By sharing our experience and faith in God
in this manner we show them the way to a fuller understanding of God based on
divine revelation through Christ in the Spirit. We are not coercing
others to believe what we believe unless they have the same experience of the
love of the Trinity. So the desire to proclaim the gospel is not so much
a question of proselytism, of making converts, but to share the joy of intimacy
with the Father through the Son in the Spirit. In this way, without showing
disrespect for other religions, and without any intimidation, we humbly share
the gift we have received from Christ with them. They are free to accept or
reject.
Of course, at the end of the day, if we
do not live out this Trinitarian life, then our belief becomes an empty
doctrine. No one will believe, regardless how lofty our doctrines can
be. Thus, the greatest scandal in Christianity is the division among His
disciples and in His church. We do a disservice to the Church’s mission
and proclamation when we are divided, like the Sanhedrin. Truly, by washing our
dirty linen in public, we Catholics are no better than spouses and children
exposing their family squabbles for the whole world to judge. Instead of
settling differences and disagreements quietly and in Christian charity, we
often go on social media to express our frustrations, ventilate our anger on
fellow Catholics or the Church, or even the bishops and the Holy Father,
thinking that we are doing the Church a favour. Instead, we cause division
and allow our enemies to take advantage of us, knowing that we are divided
within ourselves. How can the world be our judge?
That is why Christ prayed for unity among
His disciples before His departure. As St John Paul II said, “our mission
is communion and it must therefore be accomplished in communion.” Thus,
he urged us to promote a Spirituality of communion before embarking on any
mission or ministry. If we are disunited, all the good that we do would
be destroyed by Catholics attacking each other. No one will believe that
we are Christ’s disciples if we do not love each other as He has loved
us. (Jn 13:34)
So how can unity be brought about among
us all? By once again asking for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, the love of God and His gift to
us. He is the bond of love between the Father and the Son. He is
therefore the principle of unity, the power for love. As we await the
feast of Pentecost, let us pray earnestly for the renewal of the Holy Spirit in
our lives by praying the Novena to the Holy Spirit.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
