20180331
THE DAWNING OF FAITH IN CHRIST’S RESURRECTION
31 MARCH, 2018, Holy Saturday – Easter Vigil
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
|
First reading
|
|
Acts 10:34,37-43 ©
|
|
'We have eaten and drunk with him after his resurrection'
|
Peter addressed Cornelius and his household: ‘You must have heard
about the recent happenings in Judaea; about Jesus of Nazareth and how he began
in Galilee, after John had been preaching baptism. God had anointed him with
the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was with him, Jesus went about
doing good and curing all who had fallen into the power of the devil. Now I,
and those with me, can witness to everything he did throughout the countryside
of Judaea and in Jerusalem itself: and also to the fact that they killed him by
hanging him on a tree, yet three days afterwards God raised him to life and
allowed him to be seen, not by the whole people but only by certain witnesses
God had chosen beforehand. Now we are those witnesses – we have eaten and
drunk with him after his resurrection from the dead – and he has ordered
us to proclaim this to his people and to tell them that God has appointed him
to judge everyone, alive or dead. It is to him that all the prophets bear this
witness: that all who believe in Jesus will have their sins forgiven through
his name.’
|
Responsorial Psalm
|
|
Psalm 117(118):1-2,16-17,22-23
|
EITHER:
|
Second
reading
|
|
Colossians 3:1-4 ©
|
|
Look
for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is
|
Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you
must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is, sitting at God’s
right hand. Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are
on the earth, because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with
Christ in God. But when Christ is revealed – and he is your life –
you too will be revealed in all your glory with him.
OR:
|
Alternative
Second reading
|
|
1 Corinthians 5:6-8 ©
|
|
Get
rid of the old yeast and make yourselves unleavened as you were meant to be
|
You must know how even a small amount of yeast is enough to leaven
all the dough, so get rid of all the old yeast, and make yourselves into a
completely new batch of bread, unleavened as you are meant to be. Christ, our
passover, has been sacrificed; let us celebrate the feast, then, by getting rid
of all the old yeast of evil and wickedness, having only the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth.
|
Sequence
|
Christians, to the Paschal Victim
offer sacrifice and praise.
The sheep are ransomed by the Lamb;
and Christ, the undefiled,
hath sinners to his Father reconciled.
Death with life contended:
combat strangely ended!
Life’s own Champion, slain,
yet lives to reign.
Tell us, Mary:
say what thou didst see
upon the way.
The tomb the Living did enclose;
I saw Christ’s glory as he rose!
The angels there attesting;
shroud with grave-clothes resting.
Christ, my hope, has risen:
he goes before you into Galilee.
That Christ is truly risen
from the dead we know.
Victorious king, thy mercy show!
|
Gospel Acclamation
|
1Cor5:7-8
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Christ, our passover, has been sacrificed:
let us celebrate the feast then, in the Lord.
Alleluia!.
|
Gospel
|
John 20:1-9 ©
|
|
He
must rise from the dead
|
It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark,
when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved
away from the tomb and 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. Till this moment they had failed to
understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
THE DAWNING OF FAITH IN CHRIST’S RESURRECTION
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ACTS 10:34.37-43; COL 3:1-4 OR 1 COR 5:6-8; JN 20:1-9 ]
Alleluia!
This is the cry of joy of every Christian at Easter. This joy is founded on the
fact that the Crucified Christ has been raised from the dead by the
Father. We can imagine the profound and indescribable joy of the
disciples of Jesus when they heard that their master and Lord had come back to
life after a tragic and shameful death on the cross just three days ago.
Surely, if someone whom we loved deeply and dearly had died, and then later on
proclaimed to be alive, our joy would be so indescribable.
Indeed, the
resurrection of Christ is an act of the supreme power of God. It is a marvelous
intervention of God, as in the Incarnation. This is an out of this
world event, the most unimaginable and extraordinary happening in the whole of
history.
But is this
amazing claim of the Christians true? Are we repeating superstitious stories passed on to
us? What is the basis of faith in the resurrection? Is the
resurrection faith founded on the Empty Tomb?
Indeed,
arriving at Easter Faith is not just a sudden encounter. To see the Risen
Christ, we need the conditions that can give birth to faith in the Lord. Without faith, no one can
see the Risen Lord. Faith is the eyes that allow a person to see the
Risen Lord. When the young man told the women, “There is no need for
alarm. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified: he has risen,
he is not here. See, here is the place where they laid him”, it requires
faith. The empty tomb itself is no proof. One must add, He is
Risen. This explains why the Risen Lord was not seen by all except those
who had faith. This explains why the RCIA journey takes the people
through different stages, from inquiry to catechumenate and to the election, as
they need time to study, pray and be initiated into the faith before they are
baptized.
In other words,
coming to faith in the Risen is a dawning experience. It is so
significant that the setting for the Easter encounter was at dawn when
everything was still dark and the light was just beginning to penetrate the
sky. Mary Magdalene came in the dark but at the early dawn when the light
was beginning to shine. So too was Peter who came a while
later. They were still in darkness and that was they were still
unable to see the true meaning of the empty tomb.
For ourselves
too, we might be like the disciples trying to figure out what the resurrection
is all about and whether it is true. We want to find logical proofs of the resurrection of the
Lord before we can believe. By so doing, we will always remain in the
dark because no proofs can suffice unless we see the Risen Lord in faith.
What, then,
are the signs for faith in the Risen Lord? The signs are important so that our
faith is not an arbitrary faith, or worse still, a fictitious faith. The
Empty Tomb provides us the signs as it did for the apostles. Indeed, the stone was rolled
away, not so much to let Jesus out, as He, being the Risen Lord, could walk
through walls and closed doors, but so that we can enter and see the signs of
His resurrection. The impossibility of someone taking away the body of
Jesus was clear because the tomb was guarded by the soldiers and it would
require a few people to remove the stone.
Secondly,
there were traces of the Resurrected Lord that were left behind the Empty
Tomb. When they entered the tomb, they “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.” That the linen
cloths were left behind and properly rolled up showed that His body was not
stolen in a hurry. It was as if Jesus woke up from His sleep and tidied
His bed properly, as most of us do. There is another suggestion that
according to the Jewish tradition, a master would fold the napkin when he leaves
the table to indicate to the servant that the meal is not yet done and he would
be back a while later. Regardless, these are indications that the body of Jesus
was not stolen in a hurry.
Thirdly,
there are the living testimonies of encounters with the Risen Lord. The fact is that the lives
of the disciples were transformed. If they did not encounter the Lord,
what could have brought about such a radical change from men of despair and
filled with fear to men of hope and courage? No psychological autosuggestion
would be possible because if their master had failed in His mission, how could
they, uneducated men, seek to do what their master could not, if not for the
fact that they saw the Risen Lord! Indeed, this was the testimony of
Peter when he addressed Cornelius and his household. (cf Acts 10:39-42)
Not only did
they simply claim that they encountered the Risen Lord, the proof was in their
transformed life. St Paul says, “If in union with Christ we have imitated his death,
we shall also imitate him in his resurrection. We must realise that our former
selves have been crucified with him to destroy this sinful body and to free us
from the slavery of sin. When a man dies, of course, he has finished with sin. When
he died, he died, once for all, to sin, so his life now is life with God; and
in that way, you too must consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for
God in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 6:5-6; 10-11)
Their lives were radically changed. From fear to courage, from slavery to
freedom, from ambition to service, from death to life. The
apostles, like St Paul, were so changed by the Lord that they began to live
holy lives in imitation of the Lord.
But faith in
the resurrection does not stop at this, they continued to deepen their
understanding of what raising Jesus from the dead by the Father implied. Their conclusion was
that if the Father had raised Jesus from the dead, then His claims of divinity
were true. Thus, they said, “he has ordered us to proclaim this to his
people and to tell them that God has appointed him to judge everyone, alive or
dead. It is to him that all the prophets bear this witness: that all who
believe in Jesus will have their sins forgiven through his name.” (Acts 10:42f)
Jesus, for them, was therefore the Anointed One of our Lord, the Messiah that
was to come to save the people. He was also made Lord to be the judge of
everyone at the end of time. Through Him, we have our sins forgiven
because of His mercy and love.
We might not
have seen the Risen Lord with our own eyes, but we are called to believe like
the disciples on the Word of the Angel. (cf Lk 24:5) Indeed, those of us who believe on account of
the testimonies of the disciples and all the Christians who have encountered
His power at work in their lives too will come to faith in His
resurrection. In our time, we have many who have testified to God’s
intervention in their lives in miracles, especially of healing and having their
petitions answered. We do not seek the Lord in the tombs of the
dead. We seek Him among the living. If we were to ask, how can we
be sure that the apostles did not deceive us with their stories, or if they had
not concocted some stories from the figment of their imagination, then the
answer is, when we look at them, are they alive, not just physically but
spiritually alive?
If we are
still not satisfied and we do not want to rely on secondary sources, we too can
encounter the Risen Lord through intimacy in prayer. This is a privileged
way to encountering the Lord. This was the case of the
beloved disciple John. We read that “the other disciple who had reached
the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed.” St John did not see
the Risen Lord but upon seeing the signs, he knew that the Lord was
risen. This was because John knew the Lord intimately. He
could sense from the signs that he saw. Indeed, when we know someone
intimately, we can sense the person’s presence or needs even when we do not see
him or her. Love knows and understands what reason does not
comprehend.
So if our
faith in the Risen Lord is still weak, what must we do? We must run with
the disciples to see the Lord. Why would they run to the tomb, as if the body
of Jesus was still there? Their passionate love for Jesus was what caused
them to run to see the Lord. If we want to see the Lord, then we too need
to seek Him by strengthening our relationship with Him. We can see Him
through the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist and Reconciliation, if we
prepare and celebrate them attentively and with fervor. We can find the
Risen Lord in the scriptures when we read of Him and especially through the
preaching of the Church and the teaching of the Magisterium. Finally, we
can see the Risen Lord as we reach out to serve Him in the poor, the suffering
and the hungry. (cf Mt 25:40) We are called to be witnesses of love and
charity and hope for others.
Once we have
encountered the Risen Lord, then it will be our turn to announce Him to the
world.
A clear sign that we have truly encountered the Lord and can sing Alleluia from
our hearts, not just from our lips, is when we cannot but be like the disciples
in running to announce the resurrection to others. We cannot contain such
incredible news in ourselves. We would want to share with the whole
world. The lack of the desire to announce that He is risen means that our
faith in the Risen Lord is just a cerebral faith, not a personal conviction.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment