20171227
THE INTRINSIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE
INCARNATION and THE RESURRECTION
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
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First reading
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1 John 1:1-4 ©
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Something which has existed since the beginning,
that we have heard,
and we have seen with our own eyes;
that we have watched
and touched with our hands:
the Word, who is life –
this is our subject.
That life was made visible:
we saw it and we are giving our testimony,
telling you of the eternal life
which was with the Father and has been made visible to us.
What we have seen and heard
we are telling you
so that you too may be in union with us,
as we are in union
with the Father
and with his Son Jesus Christ.
We are writing this to you to make our own joy complete.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 96(97):1-2,5-6,11-12 ©
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Rejoice, you just, in the Lord.
The Lord is king, let earth rejoice,
let all the coastlands be glad.
Cloud and darkness are his raiment;
his throne, justice and right.
Rejoice, you just, in the Lord.
The mountains melt like wax
before the Lord of all the earth.
The skies proclaim his justice;
all peoples see his glory.
Rejoice, you just, in the Lord.
Light shines forth for the just
and joy for the upright of heart.
Rejoice, you just, in the Lord;
give glory to his holy name.
Rejoice, you just, in the Lord.
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Gospel Acclamation
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cf.Te Deum
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Alleluia, alleluia!
We praise you, O God,
we acknowledge you to be the Lord.
The glorious company of the apostles praise you, O Lord.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John 20:2-8 ©
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On the first day of the week Mary of Magdala came running to Simon
Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. ‘They have taken the Lord
out of the tomb’ she said ‘and we don’t know where they have put him.’
So Peter set
out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. They ran together, but the other
disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; he bent down and
saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in. Simon Peter who
was following now came up, went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on
the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with
the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple
who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed.
27 DECEMBER, 2017, Wednesday, St John, Apostle and Evangelist
THE INTRINSIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE INCARNATION and THE
RESURRECTION
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 1 John 1:1-4; Ps 97:1-2,5-6,11-12; John 20:2-8 ]
We are still
in the midst of the Christmas Octave. Necessarily, our thoughts are on
the incarnation of our Lord. The Church invites us to contemplate more
deeply on the meaning of the incarnation. What does the birth of our Lord
mean for humanity? More importantly, what grounds do we have to make the
incredible statement that the little baby Jesus is the Son of God? How
could God, who is the creator of all things, assume our humanity in the infant
Jesus? In other words, how could Christians look at the baby Jesus
and bow down in worship? Certainly the baby Jesus looked like any baby in
those times and in ours. To have the faith to confess that the baby Jesus
is the Son of God, something is necessary.
The truth is
that faith in the incarnation is a corollary of faith in the resurrection. In the order
of knowledge and reflection, the resurrection came first. In the
order of chronology, it was the birth, the life and passion of our Lord.
Indeed, the earliest scriptures and apostolic preaching was not focused on the
life of our Lord, much less His infancy, but all emphasis was given to His
passion, death and resurrection, which we call the kerygma. The apostolic
preaching was reduced to the kerygma. Indeed, the early gospels
were written after AD 60 whereas the letters of St Paul were written as early
as AD 45. The letters of St Paul had hardly any reference to the life and
ministry of our Lord except a summary statement from the Acts of the Apostles
that says, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with
power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the
devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea
and in Jerusalem.” (Acts 10:38f)
Hence, faith
in the incarnation begins with faith in the resurrection. The point of
departure is the resurrection. The point of arrival is the
incarnation. The early Church thought through the implications of the
resurrection to conclude that Jesus must have been God since His conception in
the womb of Mary and not just upon His resurrection. Otherwise, it would
seem that Jesus began His life on earth as simply a man and upon His death,
graduated with divine honours. If Jesus were proved to be divine upon His
resurrection, His divinity would have begun since He assumed human flesh in the
womb of Mary. This explains why the gospel was written in the reverse
order. The stories of His passion and resurrection were the first
chapters to be written, followed by His ministry in Palestine and then finally,
the infancy narrative completes the story of the life of Jesus.
But how did
faith in the resurrection begin? It was brought about by the life and passion of our
Lord. The resurrection faith is not based on a myth or some figment
of imagination or hallucination. Rather the resurrection faith is very
much connected with the earthly Jesus. This is what St John wished to
underscore in today’s first reading. “Something which has existed since the
beginning, that we have heard, and we have seen with our own eyes; that we have
watched and touched with our hands: the Word, who is life – this is our
subject. That life was made visible: we saw it and we are giving our testimony,
telling you of the eternal life which was with the Father and has been made
visible to us.” In other words, the substance of faith in the
resurrection is founded on the life and history of our Lord. The
resurrection is a continuity on one hand with the earthly Jesus of
Nazareth. On the other hand, it was such a trans-figured Lord that
without faith, one would not be able to recognize Him, just like Mary of
Magdala who thought He was a gardener. So the early Christians could come to
faith in Christ’s resurrection only when they began to connect the empty tomb
with the life and teachings of Christ, remembering His prophecies about His
death and resurrection. It was this memory of the life of Jesus that
helped them to make the connection with His resurrection.
Indeed, when
they begin to reflect on the Empty tomb, they came to understand more fully the
depth of Jesus’ message, His life and His conduct. Upon reflecting on
the way He preached with authority and the miracles He performed to demonstrate
the power of God at work in His life and the restoration of the rule of God,
they surmised He was more than a man. We are told that at the end of His
miracles, people were amazed and filled with awe and wonder. Like the disciples
who were in the boat when Jesus calmed the storm, the question asked was, “Who
then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mk 4:41)
And when Jesus showed authority that went above the Sabbath and the laws; His
eating and drinking with sinners as a sign of acceptance and forgiveness of God
for sinners, they asked, “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is
blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mk 2:7)
Finally, the way He died on the cross, forgiving His enemies and praying for
them, made even the pagan centurion “who stood facing him…(say), ‘Truly this
man was God’s Son!’” (Mk 15:39)
So there are
two ways to arrive at faith in the Incarnation and the resurrection. One way is
through reason and reflection. This was the case of the disciples of the early Church,
including St Peter. We read in the gospel that St Peter was the first to
enter the cave. He “went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the
ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the
linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.” There was no indication
that he believed. He saw the facts, namely that the linen cloths laid
there as if the body had been taken away or immaterialized. But he did not come
to the conclusion immediately that the Lord had risen. Perhaps, it was
his betrayal of the Lord that blinded his eyes and his intellect from arriving
at this truth because of guilt and sin. It was much later on when the
Lord appeared to the Twelve that he came to affirm that the Lord was risen.
So too for
us, to come to faith in the incarnation, we need the testimony of those who
have seen Him, since we did not see for ourselves personally. We are called to rely
on the testimony of the Church as St John wrote in the first reading.
“What we have seen and heard we are telling you so that you too may be in union
with us, as we are in union with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We
are writing this to you to make our own joy complete.” Through their
testimony, we are called to make an act of faith in the Risen Lord. That
is why even today, one of the most effective ways of bringing people to
encounter the Risen Lord is through testimonies, not doctrines and intellectual
exposition of the scriptures. Faith ultimately is a matter of the heart
and then later confirmed by the head through knowledge.
But there is
a better way to faith in the Risen Lord; it is through love. We read in the
gospel, that St John who was “the other disciple who had reached the tomb first
also went in; he saw and he believed.” John was the beloved
disciple of the Lord. He knew the Lord intimately. In his intimacy,
he intuited the presence of the Risen Lord. And this is true for us
as well. Many of us encounter the Lord not just through the testimony of
others but because of their testimonies, we are led to master the evidence
ourselves by opening our hearts to the Lord. Mary of Magdala too was
given the gift of being the first to encounter the Lord after His resurrection
because she loved the Lord deeply. If we want to encounter the Lord
in our lives today, we should make time to contemplate on the face of our Lord.
This was how
the crib came into existence. It was in 1293 that St Francis instructed a holy man named
John to enact the birth of our Lord at Bethlehem and how He was born in the
manger between a donkey and an ox. St Francis told him that he wanted to
see this with his own eyes. It was there that the solemn mass was celebrated
and St Francis, who was a deacon, read the gospel. St Ignatius of Loyola
also recommended us in his Spiritual Exercises to contemplate on the face of
our Lord in His infancy, life, ministry, passion and resurrection to come to
encounter the Lord in the flesh so that we can feel His living presence in our
lives.
In the final
analysis, encountering the Risen Lord is through the flesh and blood of our
fellowmen.
It is in the Church, in our fellowship with our fellow Catholics, sharing our
faith and love together, then reaching out to those who are poor and do not
know the love of Jesus, that the incarnation of our Lord becomes real for
us. It is for this reason that the incarnation means we need to be in
fellowship with Christ and with His body the Church so that the Risen Christ
could be present concretely in our midst, so that like the apostles, we could
also say, “we have heard, and we have seen with our own eyes; that we have
watched and touched with our hands: the Word, who is life – this is our subject.”
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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