20170719
THE FATHER REVEALS HIS MERCY TO US IN CHRIST
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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Exodus 3:1-6,9-12 ©
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Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law,
priest of Midian. He led his flock to the far side of the wilderness and came
to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in
the shape of a flame of fire, coming from the middle of a bush. Moses looked;
there was the bush blazing but it was not being burnt up. ‘I must go and look
at this strange sight,’ Moses said, ‘and see why the bush is not burnt.’
Now the Lord
saw him go forward to look, and God called to him from the middle of the bush.
‘Moses, Moses!’ he said. ‘Here I am,’ Moses answered. ‘Come no nearer,’ he
said. ‘Take off your shoes, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. I
am the God of your fathers,’ he said, ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and
the God of Jacob.’ At this Moses covered his face, afraid to look at God.
And the Lord
said, ‘The cry of the sons of Israel has come to me, and I have witnessed the
way in which the Egyptians oppress them, so come, I send you to Pharaoh to
bring the sons of Israel, my people, out of Egypt.’
Moses said
to God, ‘Who am I to go to Pharaoh and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?’
‘I shall be with you,’ was the answer ‘and this is the sign by which you shall
know that it is I who have sent you... After you have led the people out of
Egypt, you are to offer worship to God on this mountain.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 102(103):1-4,6-7 ©
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The Lord is compassion and love.
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 Lord is compassion and love.
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 Lord is compassion and love.
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 Lord is compassion and love.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Mt11:25
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are you, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth,,
for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom
to mere children.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 11:25-27 ©
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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.’
THE FATHER REVEALS HIS MERCY TO US IN CHRIST
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Ex 3:1-6. 9-12; Ps 102:1-4,6-7; Mt 11:25-27 ]
The responsorial
psalm speaks about God”s mercy, love and compassion. The biblical people
experienced God as justice and compassion. “The Lord is compassion and
love. 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 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.” Indeed, this God whom we worship is not a distant God who is
indifferent to the injustices and sufferings of humanity.
This is the
same God that Israel encountered when God revealed Himself to Moses. The Lord said, “And now the
cry of the sons of Israel has come to me, and I have witnessed the way in which
the Egyptians oppress them.” Such is the goodness of our God who
sees us in our suffering. He is not indifferent. When we are
suffering, we only need to believe that God hears us in our pain, anxiety and
fear. He feels with us and desires to help us. He is the same God
throughout the ages. “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” God is faithful to His covenant
He had made with the people of Israel.
In a special
way, God reveals His mercy especially in Christ. Jesus makes it
clear. “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 is the fullness of
God’s mercy and love. Jesus told Philip when he asked the Lord to show
them the Father, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do
not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us
the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in
me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who
dwells in me does his works. (Jn 14:8-10)
After the raising of the son of the widow of Naim, “Fear seized all of them;
and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has risen among us!’ and ‘God
has looked favorably on his people!’”
Christ is
shown to be God’s mercy only because the Father revealed His love for His
Son. Twice throughout His life, He received the affirmation and love of
His Father – at His baptism and at the Transfiguration. The heavens
opened and a voice said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased.” All through the ministry and life of Jesus, the Father
affirmed the Son in His love. Only in His love could Jesus be
empowered to share His Father’s mercy and love for everyone.
Jesus could
show us the Face of the Father only because He knew the Father
intimately. He was always in intimacy with Him. Every morning, He would
make time to converse with His Father. Everything He did, He did it in
union with the Father. He identified Himself with the Father’s love and
mercy for humanity. He came simply because He identified himself with
His Father’s heart. He willed what the Father wills for humanity.
So too Moses. Because he encountered God the Father radically and heard His
voice, he, like the Lord, was taken up in his mission to show the Father’s love
for His people.
There is no way
to see the Father’s face other than through our Lord. Moses covered his face
before the Lord. “At this Moses covered his face, afraid to look at
God.” We cannot see the Lord’s majesty directly. It is
too much for us. We can see His face through the humanity of
Christ. So all that Jesus did and taught are means to show us God’s
face. That is why St John Paul II in his apostolic letter, Novo Millennio
Ineunte, encouraged us to come to know the face of God by contemplating on His
life, passion, death and resurrection. To be ignorant of the scriptures is to
be ignorant of Christ. He cautioned us that unless we see Christ’s face,
we cannot be given the same passion for the mission.
There are
some Catholics who seek to bypass the humanity of Christ to reach God by
speaking of the cosmic Christ of St Paul. They are mistaken. St Paul’s
understanding is that the cosmic Christ is found at the end of the full
meditation on the mystery of Christ. The reason for Christ’s incarnation
is in order that we can see the heart of the Father and understand the depth of
His love by contemplating on the person and life of Christ. Otherwise,
Christianity is not much different from the rest of the great monotheistic
religions. The distinctiveness of the Christian’s claim is that in Christ
we see the fullness of God. He is therefore, the way, the truth and the
life. “No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you
will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
(Jn 14:6bf)
We who have
seen the face of God in Jesus are called to do the same. Like Moses and
the Lord, we too are sent. The Lord told Moses, “I send you to Pharaoh to bring the sons of
Israel, my people, out of Egypt.” Jesus is the New Moses sent by God to
reveal His face to us. We who have contemplated on the face of Christ can
now reveal God’s goodness and mercy to others. Unless we have seen
His face, we would not be able to reveal His face to others. So too,
unless a Christian has seen the face of God in Christ’s life, passion, death
and resurrection, would not be able to speak about God’s mercy and forgiveness
to others.
The work of
revealing the love and mercy of God cannot be undertaken as a personal
enterprise. We never do this work alone. We need to work with the
Lord. When Moses asked, “‘Who am I to go to Pharaoh and bring the sons
of Israel out of Egypt?’ ‘I shall be with you,’ was the answer ‘and this is the
sign by which you shall know that it is I who have sent you … After you have
led the people out of Egypt, you are to offer to God on this
mountain.'” It is this assurance that we are not alone that will
sustain us. When we remember that we are sent, then we will always
remember that we are the ambassadors of Christ and that whatever we do or say,
we are called to act in the name of the Lord. At the same time,
consciousness of being sent means that we rely not on ourselves but on the
power of God.
We need to be
childlike in coming to the Lord to experience His Fatherly love. 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.” It is not
through intellectual knowledge but a personal knowledge of Christ that enables
us to know the heart of the Father. Unless, we experience His love like a
child, we would not be able to speak confidently of the Father’s mercy.
To encounter
the Fatherly love of God, we must learn to pray in a childlike way using the
lectio divina and Ignatian contemplation. We must pray in a simple way
by immersing and absorbing the Word of God until a certain phrase or word receives
our attention. As we meditate on the Word of God, chew on it, and
engage in a dialogue with the Lord. The end result is that we begin to
hear God speaking personally to our hearts. The other way of entering
into the heart of God is through the method taught by St Ignatius, which is to
pray the scriptures using fantasy, that is, putting ourselves in the characters
of the Bible as we enter into their feelings, thoughts and mind of each
character. In this way, we make the gospel scenes come alive.
Finally, we
must pray in the way of the psalmist. “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 psalmist’s way of praying is very authentic and
sincere. He does not hide his fears, anxieties and even anger against the
apparent injustice and silence of God. He would utter how he feels, but
he would end up confessing his faith in the Lord, and surrendering his life to
Him. We too must pray in this manner if we are to encounter the
Father’s love and mercy. In this way, we would then be able to
reveal and share with others our own experience of His Fatherly love.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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