20180106
CAPACITY TO LOVE
06 JANUARY, 2018, Saturday, Weekday of Christmas Time
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
These
readings are for the Vigil Mass on the evening before the feast:
1 John 5:5–13Embed5 Who is it that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?6 This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. 7 And the Spirit is the witness, because the Spirit is the truth. 8 There are three witnesses, the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree. 9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has borne witness to his Son. 10 He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne to his Son. 11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life.13 I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.Psalm 147:12–15, 19-20Embed12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!Praise your God, O Zion!13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates;he blesses your sons within you.14 He makes peace in your borders;he fills you with the finest of the wheat.15 He sends forth his command to the earth;his word runs swiftly.19 He declares his word to Jacob,his statutes and ordinances to Israel.20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation;they do not know his ordinances.Praise the Lord!Mark 1:6–11Embed6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, and had a leather girdle around his waist, and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove; 11 and a voice came from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son;d with thee I am well pleased.” |
CAPACITY TO LOVE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 1
JOHN 5:5-13; PS 147:12-13,14-15,19-20; MK 1:6-11 ]
The theme of
the First Letter of John is the love of God and the implications of His love
for us.
As the children of God, we too are called to love one another. In
yesterday’s reading, St John wrote, “We know love by this, that he laid down
his life for us – and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How
does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or
sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in
word or speech, but in truth and action.” (1 Jn 3:16-18)
The question that is raised today is, how then can we find the capacity to love
as He loved?
This capacity
to love as He loved us depends on whether we believe that Jesus is the Son of
God.
St John said, “I have written all this to you so that you who believe in the
name of the Son of God may be sure that you have eternal life.”
Faith in Jesus as the Son of God means to believe that He is truly human and
divine. St John in his time was battling with a heresy called Gnosticism
where the true humanity and divinity of Jesus was not fully accepted.
Some thought that Jesus was only divine when he was baptized and “the Christ”
left his body just before He died. This heretical theological position
was expounded to protect the divinity of Christ, since God cannot
die. If that were the case, then there is no real salvation for
humanity because only God can take away our sins.
The faith of
the Church in Jesus is clear. Jesus is truly the Son of God and the Son
of man in one person since the moment of His incarnation. Only this faith in His
divine sonship can help us to overcome all trials in life and give us the
capacity to love as He loved. “Who can overcome the world? Only the man
who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” Only Jesus who was truly man,
doing the will of God even though He was divine, can give us hope that we too
can do the will of God with a human will. Indeed, He “emptied himself, taking
the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.” (Phil 2:7)
What, then,
is the basis for us to believe that Jesus is truly the Son of God and not just
a man? St John gives us three criteria. “Jesus Christ who came by
water and blood, not with water only, but with water and blood; with the Spirit
as another witness – since the Spirit is the truth – so that there are three
witnesses, the Spirit, the water and the blood, and all three of them
agree.” In the bible, when there are three witnesses, the testimony is
considered valid. Furthermore, St John said, “We accept the testimony of
human witnesses, but God’s testimony is much greater, and this is God’s
testimony, given as evidence for his Son.”
In the first
place, the water refers to the baptism of our Lord. We are aware that Jesus was
baptized even though as the Son of God, He was sinless and hence did not
require baptism. When John the Baptist deterred Him from getting
baptized, Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us
to fulfil all righteousness.” (Mt 3:15)
Jesus received baptism as a man from John the Baptist in order to be identified
with sinners like us so that He could assume in His body our sins. St
Paul remarked, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in
him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21)
Baptism too
was the beginning of His mission. He was confirmed as the Son of God so that He could live
out His sonship for others to follow the same. “A voice came from heaven,
‘You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.’” Confirmed by His
Father, this gave Him the impetus to bring all others into sonship in Him by
inviting us to follow Him, living His way of life. “But to all who received
him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who
were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man,
but of God.” (Jn 1:12f) As a consequence, by virtue of our baptism, we
are to live His life.
Secondly,
Jesus came “not with water only, but with water and blood.” In other words, Jesus not
only came as a man even though He was God but as St Paul said, “And being found
in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of
death – even death on a cross.” (Phil 2:8)
The death of Jesus on the cross reveals to us the ultimate meaning of sonship
in Christ. It means that we are called to empty our lives totally for the
love of God and our fellowmen, even unto death. The command to love has
no limits. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have
loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for
one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” (Jn 15:12-14)
Truly, in the death of Christ, we see the unconditional and total love of God,
not just of Christ but of His Father as well. “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)
Thirdly, it
was not just that Jesus was baptized and that He died, more importantly, the
Holy Spirit was with Jesus throughout His life. He is the witness to
Christ as the Son of God. “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to
you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will
testify on my behalf.” (Jn 15:26)
The Spirit came upon Jesus when He was baptized. “No sooner had he come
up out of the water than he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit, like a
dove, descending on him.” Throughout His ministry, Jesus was working in the
power of the Holy Spirit. The apostles testified “how 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.” (Acts 10:38)
Most of all,
Jesus did not end His life just in death, He was also raised in the power of
the Holy Spirit. “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells
in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies
also through his Spirit that dwells in you.” (Rom 8:11)
“Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above
every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and
on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:9-11)
If this is God’s testimony for His Son, it means therefore “Everybody who
believes in the Son of God has this testimony inside him; and anyone who will
not believe God is making God out to be a liar, because he has not trusted the
testimony God has given about his Son.”
Consequently,
only with faith in Christ’s divine sonship can we be given new life in the
Spirit.
John the Baptist said, “Someone is following me, someone who is more powerful
than I am, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals. I
have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy
Spirit.” After His resurrection and ascension, He sent the Holy Spirit
upon them saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you
forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any,
they are retained.” (Jn 20:22f) This same Holy Spirit is given to us at our
baptism and renewed at confirmation when we are sent out on mission. We
are made sons and daughters in Christ. Sharing in His life, we are called
also to share in His suffering and glory. “For you did not receive a
spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of
adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit
bearing witness with our spirit that 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)
This same
Holy Spirit not only empowers us to be His disciples by giving us the Spirit of
Christ but also gives us the power to do what He did. Jesus assured His
disciples, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the
works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am
going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the
Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for
anything, I will do it.” (Jn 14:12-14)
True enough, we read in Mark’s gospel, “And they went out and proclaimed the
good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message
by the signs that accompanied it” (Mk 16:20)
by using His name to cast out demons, speak in new tongues, lay their hands on
the sick. (cf Mk 16:17f)
Consequently,
we can understand why the Christian experience of God’s love follows that of
Christ’s;sharing
in His baptism as we die to our sins and so begin the path of sonship;
following Him to the extent of dying with Him on the cross, so that we can
share in His resurrection. This is all made possible through the work of
the Holy Spirit given to us at our baptism and confirmation and reinforced by
the Eucharist. This explains why the Christian experience of God is
called the Rite of Christian Initiation. Unless, we share a common
experience of sonship in Christ, we cannot do what He did.
Today, as we
celebrate the Eucharist, we are called to renew the Holy Spirit given to us at
baptism and confirmation, for it is the same Holy Spirit that transforms the
bread and wine into His Body and Blood. Only by receiving the
Eucharist frequently, do we receive the Holy Spirit anew as well. By
inserting ourselves into Christ and His Church, the mystical body of Christ, we
can grow in faith, in love and in our sonship so that we can live the life of
the Spirit, the life of Christ. Unless we renew the Holy Spirit in us
daily through the Eucharist, the Sacraments and prayers, we will lose the power
to be witnesses of His love.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment