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TRUE FREEDOM IS FOUND IN THE SON AND THROUGH
THE SON
21 MARCH, 2018, Wednesday, 5th Week of Lent
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Violet.
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First reading
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Daniel 3:14-20,24-25,28 ©
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God has sent his angel to rescue his servants
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King Nebuchadnezzar said, ‘Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, is it
true that you do not serve my gods, and that you refuse to worship the golden
statue I have erected? When you hear the sound of horn, pipe, lyre, trigon,
harp, bagpipe, or any other instrument, are you prepared to prostrate
yourselves and worship the statue I have made? If you refuse to worship it, you
must be thrown straight away into the burning fiery furnace; and where is the
god who could save you from my power?’ Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied
to King Nebuchadnezzar, ‘Your question hardly requires an answer: if our God,
the one we serve, is able to save us from the burning fiery furnace and from
your power, O king, he will save us; and even if he does not, then you must
know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the statue you have
erected.’ These words infuriated King Nebuchadnezzar; his expression was very
different now as he looked at Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. He gave orders
for the furnace to be made seven times hotter than usual, and commanded certain
stalwarts from his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them
into the burning fiery furnace.
Then King
Nebuchadnezzar sprang to his feet in amazement. He said to his advisers, ‘Did
we not have these three men thrown bound into the fire?’ They replied,
‘Certainly, O king.’ ‘But,’ he went on ‘I can see four men walking about freely
in the heart of the fire without coming to any harm. And the fourth looks like
a son of the gods.’
Nebuchadnezzar
exclaimed, ‘Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego: he has sent
his angel to rescue the servants who, putting their trust in him, defied the
order of the king, and preferred to forfeit their bodies rather than serve or
worship any god but their own.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Daniel 3:52-56 ©
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You are blest, Lord God of our fathers.
To you glory and praise for evermore.
Blest your glorious holy name.
To you glory and praise for evermore.
You are blest in the temple of your glory.
To you glory and praise for evermore.
You are blest on the throne of your kingdom.
To you glory and praise for evermore.
You are blest who gaze into the depths.
To you glory and praise for evermore.
You are blest in the firmament of heaven.
To you glory and praise for evermore.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Mt4:4
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Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Man does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
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Or:
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cf.Lk8:15
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Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Blessed are those who,
with a noble and generous heart,
take the word of God to themselves
and yield a harvest through their perseverance.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
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Gospel
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John 8:31-42 ©
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If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed
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To the Jews who believed in him Jesus said:
‘If you make my word your home
you will indeed be my disciples,
you will learn the truth
and the truth will make you free.’
They answered, ‘We are descended from Abraham and we have never
been the slaves of anyone; what do you mean, “You will be made free”?’ Jesus
replied:
‘I tell you most solemnly,
everyone who commits sin is a slave.
Now the slave’s place in the house is not assured,
but the son’s place is assured.
So if the Son makes you free,
you will be free indeed.
I know that you are descended from Abraham;
but in spite of that you want to kill me
because nothing I say has penetrated into you.
What I, for my part, speak of
is what I have seen with my Father;
but you, you put into action
the lessons learnt from your father.’
They repeated, ‘Our father is Abraham.’ Jesus said to them:
‘If you were Abraham’s children,
you would do as Abraham did.
As it is, you want to kill me
when I tell you the truth
as I have learnt it from God;
that is not what Abraham did.
What you are doing is what your father does.’
‘We were not born of prostitution,’ they went on ‘we have one
father: God.’ Jesus answered:
‘If God were your father, you would love me,
since I have come here from God;
yes, I have come from him;
not that I came because I chose,
no, I was sent, and by him.’
TRUE FREEDOM IS FOUND IN THE SON AND THROUGH THE SON
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ DN 3:14-20; 24-25, 28; JN 8:31-42 ]
We are
approaching the Feast of the Resurrection, which is the feast of new
life. Jesus wants to give us new life in Easter. But there
is life only when there is real freedom. Freedom is an essential
dimension of finding life, and of being truly human. Without freedom,
there can be no life. Of course, we are not simply talking about physical
freedom. We are speaking of an interior freedom, the freedom of the mind
and heart. Today, we are presented with the three young men who, although
not physically free, were so happy because their interior freedom could not be
taken away. In the gospel too, we have Jesus enlightening us on the real
meaning of freedom.
What then is
freedom? Very often we define freedom as the ability to choose
between good and evil. We see this in the case of the three young
men. They were conscious of what is morally right and wrong. In
their perspective, no compromise was possible, even if it were to cause their
death. As far as the three young men were concerned, what was good and
morally acceptable had to be done, irrespective of the coercion of men to do
otherwise. Their submission was to God alone who is the source and
measure of all goodness and truth.
However, whilst
such understanding of freedom is praiseworthy, this is still a very narrow
understanding of freedom. Freedom is not so much a moral choice of
choosing between good and evil. Rather, it is to be true to oneself; to
live by the truth; to determine our lives for good rather than evil.
Freedom, therefore, is always orientated to goodness. It means the power to do
and be good. Such freedom implies that we must be able to be true to our
convictions and the truth. The inability to live up to our inner
convictions is what makes us slaves. This is what Jesus accused the Jews
of. They were slaves to their falsehood. They were slaves even though
they were descended from Abraham. Hence, Jesus told the people, “learn
the truth and the truth will make you free.”
What, then,
is being true to truth? Truth is an existential and personal truth; not a philosophical
truth. Hence, the ultimate truth is that all of us are called to be sons of the
Father. Indeed, Abraham considered God as his Father. In the covenantal
relationship between God and Abraham, God is the Father of Abraham and all his
descendants. It is because Abraham was true to his identity as God’s heir that
he lived the life of faith and trust in God. It was the same situation
for the three young men who were willing to die for their faith and belief in
God. By being true to our identity, we will have a life that is
reflective of God. All our moral actions will flow from our basic and
fundamental realization of who we are.
On the other
hand, when we do not know our real identity, then, like the Jews
who claimed that God is their Father, we will not behave like the children of
God nor accept Jesus and the truth that He came to reveal. Did the Jews
not know their identity? Of course they knew, for they retorted saying,
“we are descended from Abraham and we have never been the slaves of anyone;
what do you mean, ‘You will be made free’?” So why did Jesus say that
they did not know their true identity?
We can be
children of our parents in two senses. We can regard our parents in biological terms.
Legally and genetically, we originate from them. But sometimes our
biological parents are not our father or mother, because they never exercised
their paternity and maternity over us. To be a father and mother in the
real sense means that we nurture our children according to our image and
likeness, passing on to them our nature, the way we think, the values we hold,
the life that we live. So a true son and daughter would take after his or
her parents by adopting their culture, outlook towards life and faith as well.
Prescinding from
this, the Jews, although true descendants of Abraham, could not in
spirit call him ‘father’, because they did not share the same faith of Abraham,
a faith that was lived in total obedience to God. This was why Jesus said to
them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do as Abraham did. As it is,
you want to kill me when I tell you the truth as I have learnt it from God;
that is not what Abraham did. What you are doing is what your father
does.” Indeed, they did not know the Father, as demonstrated by the fact
that they rejected Jesus who came to speak the Word of the Father. If
they were truly the sons of Abraham, they would have accepted Jesus, since He
came from the Father. But in truth, they were ‘bastards’, not truly the
son of Abraham, neither were they the sons and daughters of God.
In rejecting
the Father, they became slaves to their sins. Jesus told them, “I tell you most
solemnly, everyone who commits sin is a slave. Now the slave’s place in the
house is not assured, but the son’s place is assured.” Truly, because we
are not putting on the mind of Christ, therefore of the Father as well, we
allow fear to cripple us in life. We live in guilt of our past, not
believing that the Father loves us and has forgiven us in Christ. We live
in anxiety, not trusting that the Father will look after our future. We
do not love ourselves with all our strengths and weaknesses, because we do not
believe that the Father loves us for who and what we are. So we struggle
with the negativity about ourselves, wallowing in low self-esteem on one hand,
and on the other, envious of others and angry with God, often making Him or
others scapegoats for our unhappiness in life. When we live under the
bondage of anger, resentment and sin, then we know that we are not free because
true sons and daughters of God are truly free, for they know that God has given
them their dignity.
How then can
we recover our sonship? In Jesus, we are set free because He says, “the Son makes
you free.” In Jesus, we see what being son truly means. In Jesus,
the Father is revealed to us. This is because Jesus is the true Son of
God in the fullest sense of the term. Jesus lives intimately with the
Father. He shares the mind, heart and will of the Father. Only Jesus
can restore us to our true sonship in Him. Jesus is the face of the
Father. He said, “If God were your father, you would love me, since I
have come here from God; yes, I have come from him; not that I came because I
chose, no, I was sent, and by him.” He is the One who can reveal to us the
Truth that sets us free. In Jesus the Son of God, the Eternal Word of the
Father, we discover the truth, since He reveals to us the mind and heart of the
Father. Jesus knows the Father intimately as He originated from the
Father. Hence He knows the real life that is to be lived.
Consequently if
we want to recover our sonship, then, as Jesus tells us, we must make His Word
our home. We must immerse ourselves in Jesus, not simply by listening
to His Word, but by having a personal relationship with Him. The Word of
God is not simply words but an event, His personal self. Hence, by
letting His Word make a home in us, we will indeed be His true disciples.
We can discover the truth by immersing ourselves in the Word, which is to put
on Christ, since the Word is a person. In our relationship with Jesus, we
become more like Him and therefore one with the Father. Only then can we
enjoy real freedom because we truly become who we are. And then as sons in the
Sonship of Jesus, we truly become like Abraham, the heirs of God. Hence,
as we approach Holy Week, the Church underscores the importance of confessing
Jesus as the Son of God, for only by accepting Him can we truly regain the joy
and freedom of our divine filiation at our baptism which we will renew at
Easter.
Most of all, by
coming to accept our true identity as sons and daughters of God, we can
surrender our lives to Him completely, like the three young men.
Their trust in God was vindicated. Because they fixed their eyes on God,
they were saved by Him. Nothing is too difficult for God. When
faced with trials, temptations and the struggles of living an authentic life we
too are called to surrender in faith. We are called to exercise the
highest and most heroic form of freedom, which is obedience to God unto
death. The highest form of freedom is to surrender our freedom to the
Lord by accepting His holy will. This was the case of Jesus who
surrendered His life to the Father. His only food was to do the Father’s
will, and this obedience caused Him His life and suffering on the Cross.
It was by this very obedience unto death that God demonstrated His power over
death by raising Jesus from the dead. When we respond with fearless and
unflinching obedience to His divine will, we too will find ourselves elevated
to the level of the divine, transcending all earthly pain and fear, for God is
our security and peace.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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