20171229
HOW CAN WE BE SURE THAT WE KNOW GOD?
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
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First reading
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1 John 2:3-11 ©
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We can be sure that we know God
only by keeping his commandments.
Anyone who says, ‘I know him’,
and does not keep his commandments,
is a liar,
refusing to admit the truth.
But when anyone does obey what he has said,
God’s love comes to perfection in him.
We can be sure that we are in God
only when the one who claims to be living in him
is living the same kind of life as Christ lived.
My dear people,
this is not a new commandment that I am writing to tell you,
but an old commandment
that you were given from the beginning,
the original commandment which was the message brought to you.
Yet in another way, what I am writing to you,
and what is being carried out in your lives as it was in his,
is a new commandment;
because the night is over
and the real light is already shining.
Anyone who claims to be in the light
but hates his brother
is still in the dark.
But anyone who loves his brother is living in the light
and need not be afraid of stumbling;
unlike the man who hates his brother and is in the darkness,
not knowing where he is going,
because it is too dark to see.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 95(96):1-3,5-6 ©
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Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad.
O sing a new song to the Lord,
sing to the Lord all the earth.
O sing to the Lord, bless his name.
Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad.
Proclaim his help day by day,
tell among the nations his glory
and his wonders among all the peoples.
Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad.
It was the Lord who made the heavens,
his are majesty and state and power
and splendour in his holy place.
Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad.
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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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Alleluia, alleluia!
A light to enlighten the pagans
and the glory of your people Israel.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Luke 2:22-35 ©
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When the day came for them to be purified as laid down by the Law
of Moses, the parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the
Lord – observing what stands written in the Law of the Lord: Every
first-born male must be consecrated to the Lord – and also to offer in
sacrifice, in accordance with what is said in the Law of the Lord, a pair of
turtledoves or two young pigeons. Now in Jerusalem there was a man named
Simeon. He was an upright and devout man; he looked forward to Israel’s comforting
and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy
Spirit that he would not see death until he had set eyes on the Christ of the
Lord. Prompted by the Spirit he came to the Temple and when the parents brought
in the child Jesus to do for him what the Law required, he took him into his
arms and blessed God; and he said:
‘Now, Master, you can let your servant go in peace,
just as you promised;
because my eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared for all the nations to see,
a light to enlighten the pagans
and the glory of your people Israel.’
As the child’s father and mother stood there wondering at the
things that were being said about him, Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his
mother, ‘You see this child: he is destined for the fall and for the rising of
many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is rejected – and a sword will
pierce your own soul too – so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid
bare.’
29 DECEMBER, 2017, Friday, 5th Day Within the Octave of
Christmas
HOW CAN WE BE SURE THAT WE KNOW GOD?
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 1 JOHN
2:3-11; LUKE 2:22-35 ]
How can we be
sure that we know God? This is the question that St John is asking us. St John in
his days was facing the same challenges we are confronted with today.
This is particularly true for those who are priests, religious and those active
and pious Catholics in Church. Quite often, we deceive ourselves into
thinking that we know God when we do not.
Like the
Greeks, we measure our knowledge of God in terms of insight, an intellectual
knowledge of God. There is always the tendency to substitute personal knowledge of
God with intellectual knowledge. This is the greatest temptation of
priests, students of theology and scripture, teachers of the faith, catechists
and those giving talks and conducting retreats. We can talk, teach and
preach eloquently, because we have acquired some intellectual knowledge of the
faith. But deep in our hearts, we know that we do not know Him because we
do not have any real interpersonal relationship with Him. We use only our
head but we have no contact with Him in our hearts.
For others,
they think they know God because they have had a mystical knowledge of
Him. Some have had beautiful religious experiences. They are
taken up by the graces of God and the consolations of visions, healing, joy and
peace they received. Those who received such personal encounters with God
often feel very high and elated. Sometimes, they think that they are
already living in the seventh castle of St Teresa of Avila. For
this reason, they keep on hanging to the consolations of God and would go for
those services that provide such emotional “highs” and mystical
experiences. Such believers probably have a heart contact with God but
their minds have no knowledge of the Lord.
Then, there
is the third category of people who are very active in Church. They use their hands
in encountering God. It is the incarnational way. They are very
much involved in organizing activities, doing this and that for the Church or
for the poor. They are unlike the first two groups; not the thinking or
the feeling types, but the doers. They need to be always in
activity so that they can feel charged and high all the time, especially when
they experience success and appreciation. Such emotional and
psychological fulfilment serve more the ego, the ambition and a defence
mechanism to boost a low self-esteem character than really a work borne out of
the love of God. Necessarily, when things are not doing well, they get
discouraged and give up easily; or when they are challenged by others, they
feel hurt and wounded because they think they are rejected.
Whilst all the
above ways are not excluded in coming to know God, the only sure criterion that
we can attest to truly knowing God is as St John wrote, “We can be sure that
we are in God only when the one who claims to be living in him is living the
same kind of life as Christ lived.” Indeed, this is the only
criterion that is needed to ascertain how much we know God. It is not
based on whether we have a theological degree, how many books we have read, or
the mystical experiences we have had, or how involved we are in church or in
the service of the poor, but whether the life of Christ is in us.
If our life
reflects the life of Christ, then we can be confident that we are growing in
the knowledge of Christ. The others are means but not the end. Indeed, this is
what Christmas is all about. That is why immediately after the feast of
Christmas, the Church celebrates the Feast of St Stephen, the first martyr who
not only served Christ, or died for Him, but with Christ and in Christ,
reenacting His passion and death, by forgiving his enemies, praying for them
and commending his soul to God.
This was
followed by the Feast of St John, whose whole life was a martyrdom of bearing
witness to Christ in a life of love and devotion to the Lord and His
Church. Yesterday was the feast of the Holy Innocents who witnessed to
Christ by dying an innocent and unjust death. They too gave witness to
Christ through unjust suffering, like Christ who died for us. Today, we
also celebrate another great saint, Thomas Becket who gave his life for the
Church because he was not ready to collaborate with the evil doings of the king
by being his Chancellor. Indeed, with courage he said, “I served our
Theobald (former archbishop of Canterbury) well when I was with him: I served
King Henry well as Chancellor: I am his no more, and I must serve the
Church.” All of them could truly be said to be witnesses of Christ by
their lives and by their deaths.
But what
would such a life of Christ entail? It means living out the commandments
of Christ.
This is what St John wrote, “We can be sure that we know God only by keeping
his commandments. Anyone who says, ‘I know him’, and does not keep his
commandments, is a liar, refusing to admit the truth. But when anyone does obey
what he has said, God’s love comes to perfection in him.” The obedience
rendered to God is not just an external observance of the commandments like the
scribes, Pharisees and some legal-based Christians. Rather, the obedience
asked of us must come from an inner conviction of the commandments as a real
expression of the mind and heart of God. Only those who know the Lord
will understand the intention, the purpose, the goodness and the values of the
commandments. So it is not so much simply obeying the commandments;
rather, it is our sharing of Christ’s mind and heart. For this
reason too, when we obey, that is, practice the commandments given by the Lord,
we enter deeper into His being, and share in His love. Perfection
of Christian life therefore is measured by how much the mind and heart of God
is in us, in the way we live our lives. “But when anyone does obey what he has
said, God’s love comes to perfection in him.”
In the final
analysis, there is only one commandment that sums up the entire list of
commandments. St John makes it clear that the commandment is
old and yet new. It is old in the sense that the commandment to love
God and our neighbour has already been spelt out in the Old Testament.
But there is newness as well because Christ not only asked us to observe the
commandments but to love each other as He has loved us. “I give you a new
commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also
should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.” (Jn 13:34f)
We are called to love as Jesus loved, to forgive as Jesus forgave, to be merciful
and compassionate as He was. So we are to love each other to the same
extent that He has loved us. Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta says, “God
pays attention to our love. Not one of us is indispensable. God has
the means to do all things and to do away with the work of the most capable
human being. We can work until we drop. We can work
excessively. If what we do is not connected to love, however, our work is
useless in God’s eyes.” In the same vein, St Paul wrote, “If I give away
all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not
have love, I gain nothing.” (1 Cor 13:3)
Consequently, one
clear sign that we have not arrived at the knowledge of God is when we cannot
forgive our brothers and sisters or when we continue to hate them. The
lack of forgiveness indicates that we have not yet received His love and mercy
for ourselves and the heart and mind of the Lord is not ours. A man who
cannot love his brother, that is, the one nearest to him, his loved ones, his
relatives, his colleagues, his superiors and his workers, then he has not yet
known the Lord. The greatest challenge in loving our brothers and
sisters is not loving those far away but those who are near, in our backyard,
our elderly at home, the difficult spouse, the disobedient children and the
incorrigible sibling who is irresponsible with his or her life, not
contributing to the family.
St John
wrote, “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in
the dark. But
anyone who loves his brother is living in the light and need not be afraid of
stumbling; unlike the man who hates his brother and is in the darkness, not
knowing where he is going, because it is too dark to see.” A man full of
hatred cannot see the goodness in another. He lives in the dark because
of his vindictiveness. He cannot see any good or truth that comes from
the person he hates, even when objectively he is doing good. Hatred
blinds us to many things in life. We see the other as our enemy,
competitor and a nuisance. But when we love, then we begin to see them in
a different light. Only the light of Christ, the light of love, can help
us to see our brothers and sisters, especially those who are weak and
difficult, with compassion and forgiveness because we know that they are deeply
wounded and hurt.
How then can
we love like Christ? Clearly, we need to allow Christ to love us first. Today, we need the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit who came down upon Simeon and enabled him to
recognize Christ. We too need to pray so that we can behold what he
did and said, “Now, Master, you can let your servant go in peace, just as you
promised; because my eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared for
all the nations to see, a light to enlighten the pagans and the glory of your
people Israel.” Once loved by the Lord, we must follow up by
contemplating on His love and His life, especially through the
scriptures. Without meditation and contemplation on His face, the life of
Christ cannot be imprinted in our minds and hearts. The truth remains
that a true knowledge of God cannot be ours without intimacy with the Lord in
prayer. Theological studies, spiritual experiences, doing good works can
help us to encounter God but all these cannot be replaced by making the mind
and heart of Christ our own. Imitation of Christ can only come after
contemplation of Christ. Once imprinted on our hearts, we can also be
like Christ, the light for the Gentiles, radiating the love and glory of God in
and through our lives.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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