20180430 SEEING GOD TODAY
30 APRIL, 2018, Monday, 5th Week of Easter
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
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First reading
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Acts 14:5-18 ©
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We have come with good news to turn you to the living God
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Eventually with the connivance of the authorities a move was made
by pagans as well as Jews to make attacks on the apostles and to stone them.
When the apostles came to hear of this, they went off for safety to Lycaonia
where, in the towns of Lystra and Derbe and in the surrounding country, they
preached the Good News.
A man sat
there who had never walked in his life, because his feet were crippled from
birth; and as he listened to Paul preaching, he managed to catch his eye.
Seeing that the man had the faith to be cured, Paul said in a loud voice, ‘Get
to your feet – stand up’, and the cripple jumped up and began to walk.
When the
crowd saw what Paul had done they shouted in the language of Lycaonia, ‘These
people are gods who have come down to us disguised as men.’ They addressed
Barnabas as Zeus, and since Paul was the principal speaker they called him
Hermes. The priests of Zeus-outside-the-Gate, proposing that all the people
should offer sacrifice with them, brought garlanded oxen to the gates. When the
apostles Barnabas and Paul heard what was happening they tore their clothes,
and rushed into the crowd, shouting, ‘Friends, what do you think you are doing?
We are only human beings like you. We have come with good news to make you turn
from these empty idols to the living God who made heaven and earth and the sea
and all that these hold. In the past he allowed each nation to go its own way;
but even then he did not leave you without evidence of himself in the good
things he does for you: he sends you rain from heaven, he makes your crops grow
when they should, he gives you food and makes you happy.’ Even this speech,
however, was scarcely enough to stop the crowd offering them sacrifice.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 113B(115):1-4,15-16 ©
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Not to us, Lord, but to your name give the
glory.
or
Alleluia!
Not to us, Lord, not to us,
but to your name give the glory
for the sake of your love and your truth,
lest the heathen say: ‘Where is their God?’
Not to us, Lord, but to your name give the
glory.
or
Alleluia!
But our God is in the heavens;
he does whatever he wills.
Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
Not to us, Lord, but to your name give the
glory.
or
Alleluia!
May you be blessed by the Lord,
the maker of heaven and earth.
The heavens belong to the Lord
but the earth he has given to men.
Not to us, Lord, but to your name give the
glory.
or
Alleluia!
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Gospel Acclamation
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Christ has risen and shone upon us
whom he redeemed with his blood.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Jn14:26
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The Holy Spirit will teach you everything
and remind you of all I have said to you.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John 14:21-26 ©
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The Advocate, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach
you everything
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Jesus said to his disciples:
‘Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them
will be one who loves me;
and anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I shall love him and show myself to him.’
Judas – this was not Judas Iscariot – said to him,
‘Lord, what is all this about? Do you intend to show yourself to us and not to
the world?’ Jesus replied:
‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we shall come to him and make our home with him.
Those who do not love me do not keep my words.
And my word is not my own:
it is the word of the one who sent me.
I have said these things to you while still with you;
but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you everything
and remind you of all I have said to you.’
SEEING GOD TODAY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ ACTS 14:5-18; JOHN 14:21-26 ]
Many are
longing for God to reveal Himself. This is particularly so in the modern world where God is
absent and not felt because of secularization and the self-sufficiency complex
that believes that science and technology can solve all our problems.
Today, faith in God is considered naïve and superstitious. That is why we
are even embarrassed to say that we believe in God or have a religion.
But deep in the hearts of everyone, we are seeking God. Unless, we see
Him or feel His presence, we cannot believe.
Why is it
that we are not able to see Him? Firstly, it is because we are ignorant,
like the inhabitants of Lycaonia, of who God is. They were
superstitious and fearful of the gods. That explains why “when the crowd
saw what Paul had done they shouted in the language of Lycaonia, ‘These people
are gods who have come down to us disguised as men.’ They addressed Barnabas as
Zeus, and since Paul was the principal speaker they called him Hermes. The
priests of Zeus – outside-the-Gate, proposing that all the people should offer
sacrifice with them, brought garlanded oxen to the gates.” The context of
their sacrifice was based on a legend that when these gods came the last time
and the people did not welcome them with hospitality, all were destroyed except
for the elderly couple who welcomed them. Their worship of God was based
on fear and appeasement.
Secondly, we
are seeking Him not for who He is but what we want Him to be. Judas, and presumably the
people, was waiting to see a revolutionary messiah. They suspected Jesus
to be the Messiah that would set them free from the Romans. This
was the context of the question of Judas “Lord, what is all this about? Do you
intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” He was asking
on behalf of the others as to why Jesus did not reveal to the world that He was
the Messiah if He was the one who was to liberate them from the
Romans. The people still had the misconception that the Messiah was
a political messiah and the kingdom that Jesus came to establish was an earthly
kingdom.
As a result,
when the “gods” did not fulfill their expectations, they dumped them. This was true of
Jesus. Just earlier on, they welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem and wanted to
make Him king. A few days later, they asked for His crucifixion in place
of Barabbas who was a murderer. So too in the case of the apostles.
When the Lycaonians discovered that the apostles were not the gods that
they feared to offend, they not only stopped welcoming them but wanted to stone
them to death. Such is the fickleness of the mind of man. We do not
really love God but we love Him only because we can make use of Him. We
do not want His love, but we seek Him to give us what we desire and what we
want. God is not so much to be loved but to be used.
For this
reason, Jesus made it clear that He will reveal Himself only to those who love
Him. “Anybody
who receives my commandments and keeps them will be one who loves me; and
anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and show
myself to him.” Only those who love can see Him. Love is more
than just a sentiment. It is expressed concretely in action. This
love is seen in keeping His commandments. Love desires to please the one
whom we love. Hence, Jesus said, “If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and
my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him.
Those who do not love me do not keep my words.” Those who love the Lord
and allow the Word of God to dwell in them, God will come to live in
them. When we are in love with the Lord, we come to understand more
deeply what He says in the Word of God. This is why St Augustine says that we
must believe to understand rather than understand to believe. Love
enables one to understand more.
God reveal
Himself to us if we seek Him from our hearts. Indeed, we are just like the crippled
man from birth. He was sitting and listening to St Paul as he
preached. Through the preaching of St Paul, his heart was moved and
converted. Faith comes from hearing the Word of God that is preached. (cf Rom 10:14f)
He must have been hoping that perhaps God would grant him a cure, for he had
heard Paul preaching about the Risen Lord and the wonders He had been working
through His disciples, healing the sick and giving hope to those who were
lost. There are many in the world hoping that God would look upon them
just as the crippled man managed to catch the eye of Paul. And St Paul
read that his heart was yearning for the Lord.
But we also
need others who can lead us to come into contact with the Lord. This is
where we need mediators and missionaries. We are told that St Paul was
sensitive to those who are ready to encounter the Lord. Although Christ
wants to touch every one, not all of us are ready to welcome Him. That is
why although many are searching for Christ, even to the extent of attending
RCIA, they are unable to make the leap of faith to be baptized. Many go
for retreats, rallies and to be prayed over, but not all are healed or received
a spiritual experience. This is because their hearts are still not
ready. As it is said, “when the disciple is ready, the master will
appear.” This was so in the case of the crippled man. St Paul
was preaching and he was prompted by the Holy Spirit to look at the man.
“Seeing that the man had the faith to be cured, Paul said in a loud voice, ‘Get
to your feet – stand up’, and the cripple jumped up and began to walk.”
Without St
Paul’s sensitivity and judgement on the man’s faith, the crippled man would not
have been healed. So today, we need evangelizers, teachers and preachers who
are alert to those who are ready to encounter the Lord. All they need is
someone to encourage them to make the leap of faith. Without
encouragement, they will remain in their shell. This is true also of
vocations. Sometimes there are young people who are called to the priestly
and religious vocation, but they need someone to prompt them and stir up their
hearts to respond to their calling.
We also need
teachers to enlighten us. Many are ignorant about life and about Christ. Some of us have our
own warped concept of God. This was what Barnabas and Paul did.
When they “heard what was happening they tore their clothes, and rushed into
the crowd, shouting, ‘Friends, what do you think you are doing? We are only
human beings like you. We have come with good news to make you turn from these
empty idols to the living God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all
that these hold.” What we need to do is to offer our listeners a
better life than what they are living now. We are called to give them
meaning and purpose in this life and in the next.
Then there
are times when God manifests Himself to us but we are blind to His presence. This was the case of
the Lyconians who failed to see that the God they worshipped was already
present in nature. St Paul told them, “In the past he allowed each nation
to go its own way; but even then he did not leave you without evidence of
himself in the good things he does for you: he sends you rain from heaven, he
makes your crops grow when they should, he gives you food and makes you happy.”
That is why
the work of touching lives and enlightening minds and hearts require the help
of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told His disciples, “And my word is not my own: it is
the word of the one who sent me. I have said these things to you while still
with you; but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my
name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to
you.” A preacher and a servant of God must be in tune with the Word of
God Himself and the Holy Spirit if he were to offer discernment to those who
come to seek help. Only one who is in close contact with God can share
the Word of God with others in such a way that they are impacted. We need
prayerful leaders who are sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit so that
they can teach what the Lord asks of them. We need leaders who are not easily
dictated by the popular wishes of the people. Our Lord and St Paul did
not seek to satisfy the whims and fancies of the people. Instead, they
spoke the truth, even if it meant opposition and rejection.
For this to
happen, the messengers of the gospel must diminish so that Christ can increase. This is what John the
Baptist reminds us. “He must become greater; I must become less.” (Jn 3:30)
Paul came to reveal the true God and to direct us to Him. Even
though he could heal, he never drew attention to himself. No real
preacher or messenger of God makes himself the object of the people’s
attention. His task is to lead others to Christ and then disappear from
the scene. This is what the psalmist says, “Not to us, Lord, not to us,
but to your name give the glory for the sake of your love and your truth, lest
the heathen say: ‘Where is their God?’ But our God is in the heavens; he does
whatever he wills. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human
hands. May you be blessed by the Lord, the maker of heaven and
earth. The heavens belong to the Lord but the earth he has given to
men.” All glory and honour must be given to God and not to us.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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