20170623
BEATING WITH THE HEART OF JESUS
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
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First reading
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Deuteronomy 7:6-11 ©
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Moses said to the people: ‘You are a people consecrated to the
Lord your God; it is you that the Lord our God has chosen to be his very own
people out of all the peoples on the earth.
‘If the Lord
set his heart on you and chose you, it was not because you outnumbered other
peoples: you were the least of all peoples. It was for love of you and to keep
the oath he swore to your fathers that the Lord brought you out with his mighty
hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king
of Egypt. Know then that the Lord your God is God indeed, the faithful God who
is true to his covenant and his graciousness for a thousand generations towards
those who love him and keep his commandments, but who punishes in their own
persons those that hate him. He is not slow to destroy the man who hates him;
he makes him work out his punishment in person. You are therefore to keep and
observe the commandments and statutes and ordinances that I lay down for you
today.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 102(103):1-4,6-8,10 ©
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The love of the Lord is everlasting upon those
who hold him in fear.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
all my being, bless his holy name.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
and never forget all his blessings.
The love of the Lord is everlasting upon those
who hold him in fear.
It is he who forgives all your guilt,
who heals every one of your ills,
who redeems your life from the grave,
who crowns you with love and compassion,
The love of the Lord is everlasting upon those
who hold him in fear.
The Lord does deeds of justice,
gives judgement for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses
and his deeds to Israel’s sons.
The love of the Lord is everlasting upon those
who hold him in fear.
The Lord is compassion and love,
slow to anger and rich in mercy.
He does not treat us according to our sins
nor repay us according to our faults.
The love of the Lord is everlasting upon those
who hold him in fear.
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Second reading
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1 John 4:7-16 ©
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My dear people,
let us love one another
since love comes from God
and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Anyone who fails to love can never have known God,
because God is love.
God’s love for us was revealed
when God sent into the world his only Son
so that we could have life through him;
this is the love I mean:
not our love for God,
but God’s love for us when he sent his Son
to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.
My dear people,
since God has loved us so much,
we too should love one another.
No one has ever seen God;
but as long as we love one another
God will live in us
and his love will be complete in us.
We can know that we are living in him
and he is living in us
because he lets us share his Spirit.
We ourselves saw and we testify
that the Father sent his Son
as saviour of the world.
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,
God lives in him, and he in God.
We ourselves have known and put our faith in
God’s love towards ourselves.
God is love
and anyone who lives in love lives in God,
and God lives in him.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Mt11:29
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Shoulder my yoke and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 11:25-30 ©
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Jesus exclaimed, ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of
earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing
them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.
Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son
except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to
whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
‘Come to me,
all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my
yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find
rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’
BEATING WITH THE HEART OF JESUS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Dt 7:6-11; 1 Jn 4:7-16; Mt 11:25-30 ]
We have just
celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi when we contemplated on Jesus giving
Himself to us in His body and blood. Following this feast, the Church celebrates the Solemnity
of the Sacred Heart. This feast invites us to contemplate deeper into the
heart of God. The heart is always a symbol of love. It is a symbol
of passionate love. In a world where there is so much selfishness,
materialism, competition and desire for fame and power, there is a lack of
graciousness and compassion in society. Indeed, people today tend to care
more about themselves, their success and enjoyment in life than repaying their
gratitude to their parents, especially the elderly and the weak, Church and
society. It is about themselves first and foremost but not about others.
The Feast of
the Sacred Heart brings to mind the heart of God’s love for us in Christ Jesus. God’s love is not
mere words or sentimentalism. The love of God is personal and
concrete. St John tells us that “God’s love for us was revealed when God
sent into the world his only Son so that we could have life through him.”
God was not just sympathetic to the sufferings of His people. He did not
save us from on high and sent His holy angels to help us. He personally
came down to be with us in our struggles, to identify with us and to show us
the way to true freedom and fullness of life. This happened when God
became man in Jesus. God pitched His tent among us, suffered with us so
that no one can say He does not understand the pain of humanity.
Indeed, in
Jesus, we see the heart of God beating for the marginalized and the poor. In the first reading,
God said to Moses, “If the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, it was not
because you outnumbered other peoples: you were the least of all peoples. It
was for love of you.” This too was the same mission of Jesus. When
He began His mission, He made the prophecy of the Suffering Servant His own
when He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed
me to bring good news to the poor.” (Lk 4:18a)
Jesus’ preferential option is for the poor and the marginalized, the sinners
and the outcasts of society.
Secondly, in
Jesus, we see the heart of God beating for those who are suffering, oppressed
and under bondage. Our God is a compassionate God. When He saw the
Hebrews in slavery, He told Moses, “I have observed the misery of my people who
are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I
know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the
Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a
land flowing with milk and honey.” (Ex 3:7-8a)
Indeed, Jesus came to deliver us from our captivity to illnesses, sin and the
Evil One. “He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and
recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.” (Lk 4:18b)
Thirdly, in
Jesus, we see the heart of God beating with graciousness that He would even
choose us to be His people. “You are a people consecrated to the Lord your God; it is
you that the Lord our God has chosen to be his very own people out of all the
peoples on the earth.” Indeed, to think that we are worthy to be chosen
by the Lord! Yet in Christ Jesus, we have become adopted sons and
daughters in God. Jesus said, “You did not choose me but I chose you.” (Jn 15:16)
St Paul wrote, “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into
fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption … we are children of
God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with
Christ – if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with
him.” (Rom 8:15-17)
Finally, in
Jesus, we see the heart of God beating for us even unto death. God did not spare Himself
from giving Himself to us even though we are ungrateful to Him. Paul
wrote, “He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us,
will he not with him also give us everything else?” (Rom 8:32)
Moses said, “It was for love of you and to keep the oath he swore to your
fathers that the Lord brought you out with his mighty hand and redeemed you
from the house of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” God
is true to Himself and faithful in love even unto death. This is what St
John wrote, “this is the love I mean: not our love for God, but God’s love for
us when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins
away.” Indeed, in Jesus, the heart of God is manifested fully.
Have you
contemplated on the heart of God sufficiently to be able to say with the
apostles, “We ourselves saw and we testify that the Father sent his Son as
saviour of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God
lives in him, and he in God.”? Unless we come to realize the
depth of His love for us in Christ Jesus, we will never know the sacrificial
love of God for us. Indeed, if many of us feel discouraged or hopeless or
abandoned, it is because instead of focusing on the heart of God, we are
focusing on our own pains. Such an attitude will destroy us. We
become negative and inward looking.
The way out
of our misery is to place our faith in God’s love. This is what St John
wrote, “We ourselves have known and put our faith in God’s love towards
ourselves.” In a similar vein, this is what the Lord is asking of
us. He said, “Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I
will give you rest.” Indeed, it is human to be always anxious about
tomorrow, about our finance, our health, our children and our elderly. We
wonder how we can care for them and whether we will have sufficient means to
look after them. Even if we are financially sound, we worry about their
career, their relationships and their well- being. Worry will only
cripple us. Fear will make us live in anxiety each day.
Jesus invites
us to come to His Father in total confidence. He said, “I bless you, Father, Lord of
heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever
and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased
you to do.” We must be like a child in faith. If we are
humble and trusting, the Lord will reveal to us the wise plan of His Father for
us. Those of us who trust in our own intellect and ingenuity and strength
will not find rest. But like little children, we must surrender our lives
entirely to God and walk by faith, not by sight.
But we cannot
put our trust in our Heavenly Father unless we develop the same intimacy Jesus
has with His Father. He said, “Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father;
and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father
except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Jesus
surrendered His life to the Father even when His mission appeared to have ended
in failure on the cross. He commended everything in faith to the Father
that He would deliver Him, for He knew His Father is faithful. This is
what God Himself said, “Know then that the Lord your God is God indeed, the
faithful God who is true to his covenant and his graciousness for a thousand
generations towards those who love him and keep his commandments.” So too,
unless we share the Abba relationship of Jesus with His Father, it would be
difficult for us to entrust our lives to Him whom we do not know. This is
the reason why many Catholics lack faith in God because there is no personal
relationship with the Father.
But our
devotion to the Sacred Heart does not end here. This devotion cannot
make us inward-looking. The heart must be open to others. Hence, Jesus
tells us that if we want to find happiness in life, then “Shoulder my yoke and
learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heat, and you will find rest for
your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.” We must now take
the yoke of Jesus upon ourselves. It is the yoke of love and compassion.
Indeed, if we
want to go beyond our pain and suffering, we must use our pain and
disadvantages to reach out to others in compassion. St John says, “let us
love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten
by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God,
because God is love.” This is the only way in which we can share in
His spirit of love and mercy. When we follow Jesus in reaching out to the
sick, the elderly, the abandoned, and the wounded hearts, those forlorn and in
despair, sinners and those rejected by society, we give them hope. We
must never think that we are too poor to give. There is someone who is
poorer than us. Help the one who is poorer than you!
By so doing,
we come to realize that we are all in solidarity in suffering as human beings. We are all suffering,
rich or poor, in our own ways. No one is exempted from
suffering. Our task on earth is to support each other along this
pilgrimage of life, to make this world a better place, to give encouragement
and assistance to each other. In healing others, we heal ourselves!
When we do that then the love of God will fill our hearts. St John wrote,
“God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in
him.” Most of all, in reaching out to others in love and compassion, we
see the face of God and live. “No one has ever seen God; but as long as we love
one another God will live in us and his love will be complete in us. We
can know that we are living in him and he is living in us because he lets us
share his Spirit.”
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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