20180421
THE TEMPTATION TO ABANDON THE LORD IN
DIFFICULT TIMES
21 APRIL, 2018, Saturday, 3rd Week of Easter
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
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First reading
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Acts 9:31-42 ©
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The churches grew and were filled with the consolation of the
Holy Spirit
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The churches throughout Judaea, Galilee and Samaria were now left
in peace, building themselves up, living in the fear of the Lord, and filled
with the consolation of the Holy Spirit.
Peter
visited one place after another and eventually came to the saints living down
in Lydda. There he found a man called Aeneas, a paralytic who had been
bedridden for eight years. Peter said to him, ‘Aeneas, Jesus Christ cures you:
get up and fold up your sleeping mat.’ Aeneas got up immediately; everybody who
lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they were all converted to the Lord.
At Jaffa
there was a woman disciple called Tabitha, or Dorcas in Greek, who never tired
of doing good or giving in charity. But the time came when she got ill and
died, and they washed her and laid her out in a room upstairs. Lydda is not far
from Jaffa, so when the disciples heard that Peter was there, they sent two men
with an urgent message for him, ‘Come and visit us as soon as possible.’
Peter went
back with them straightaway, and on his arrival they took him to the upstairs
room, where all the widows stood round him in tears, showing him tunics and
other clothes Dorcas had made when she was with them. Peter sent them all out
of the room and knelt down and prayed. Then he turned to the dead woman and
said, ‘Tabitha, stand up.’ She opened her eyes, looked at Peter and sat up.
Peter helped her to her feet, then he called in the saints and widows and
showed them she was alive. The whole of Jaffa heard about it and many believed
in the Lord.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 115(116):12-17 ©
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How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me?
or
Alleluia!
How can I repay the Lord
for his goodness to me?
The cup of salvation I will raise;
I will call on the Lord’s name.
How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me?
or
Alleluia!
My vows to the Lord I will fulfil
before all his people.
O precious in the eyes of the Lord
is the death of his faithful.
How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me?
or
Alleluia!
Your servant, Lord, your servant am I;
you have loosened my bonds.
A thanksgiving sacrifice I make;
I will call on the Lord’s name.
How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me?
or
Alleluia!
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Gospel Acclamation
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Alleluia, alleluia!
We know that Christ is truly risen from the dead:
have mercy on us, triumphant King.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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cf.Jn6:63,68
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life;
you have the message of eternal life.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John 6:60-69 ©
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Who shall we go to? You are the Holy One of God
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After hearing his doctrine many of the followers of Jesus said,
‘This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?’ Jesus was aware
that his followers were complaining about it and said, ‘Does this upset you?
What if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?
‘It is the spirit that gives life,
the flesh has nothing to offer.
The words I have spoken to you are spirit
and they are life.
‘But there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew
from the outset those who did not believe, and who it was that would betray
him. He went on, ‘This is why I told you that no one could come to me unless
the Father allows him.’ After this, many of his disciples left him and stopped
going with him.
Then Jesus
said to the Twelve, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ Simon Peter
answered, ‘Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and
we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.’
THE TEMPTATION TO ABANDON THE LORD IN DIFFICULT TIMES
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ ACTS 9:31-42; JOHN 6:60-69 ]
“After this,
many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him. Then Jesus
said to the Twelve, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’”
This too is the question that Jesus is asking of us. Indeed, accepting
the total message of Jesus is not an easy thing. Like the disciples of
Jesus, we can accept many things that Jesus said and taught. But there
are certain things that we cannot really give our submission of will and mind.
Even among Catholics, although verbally we say that we believe all that the
Church teaches, we have selective reading and acceptance of what is taught by
the Church. We pick and choose those doctrines, especially moral
teachings, that we agree with. Each one of us has our own hierarchy of
truth and values in our faith.
Some even
reject certain aspects of the Church’s doctrinal and moral teachings, such as the real
presence of our Lord in the Eucharist and the Sacrament of
Reconciliation. They do not see why they need to frequent the sacrament
of reconciliation and choose to confess directly to God. Many more cannot
accept the moral teachings of the Church on marriage, divorce, sexual morality,
same sex union or homosexuality and bioethical issues relating to artificial
methods of birth control or conception, stem cell research involving embryos,
etc. Let us not pretend that we do not have real struggles on such
matters that touch us so personally. How often do we feel that the
teachings of the Church are so hard to accept?
Even on the
level of faith, many of us have problems accepting the Lord’s message
of forgiveness, self-denial, humility in our lives. Like the disciples, it
is not because we do not understand, but it is just that we cannot accept in
the depths of our hearts. We find it difficult to believe that God really
forgives us and accepts us for what we are. We live in guilt and fear and
anxiety that God will take His revenge on us in due time. We feel so
fearful of God, not out of reverence but because of guilt and the inability to
accept in faith the power of God to work miracles in our lives.
When that
happens, what are we tempted to do? Isn’t it true that often we feel like abandoning the cause
of Jesus even if not Jesus Himself? When we find difficulties in our
relationships, especially marriage, we want to give up because it is really so
trying to work it out all the time, absorbing all our energy and sapping our
emotions. At times, we feel like abandoning our ministry and work because
of the many difficulties we face in managing people and getting things
done. In our disappointments and failures, often we end up dejected and
discouraged; and instead of turning to the Lord in prayer, we are tempted to
shorten our prayer, because it is dry and we see it as drudgery. We just
feel like giving up everything and withdrawing into our own world. In
other words, when life is difficult, like the disciples, we too want to go away
from Jesus. We want to give up and abandon our cause and our hopes.
What is the
reason for our lack of perseverance? What is the cause of our despair? Perhaps, it is
because we tend to view life merely from a human perspective. This is
what Jesus is telling us. What is upsetting you? “It is the Spirit
that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer.” Yes, perhaps, in our
human weakness, we do not see beyond ourselves and immediate needs, our limited
horizon of life to the reality of the situation. We tend to see life
based on reason and science. We do not leave room for faith. We
reduce everything to reason alone. Of course, faith is not against
reason. Reason is important to challenge and purify faith, lest we become
incredulous and superstitious. Faith is never against reason but elevates
reason to a higher level of wisdom that reason cannot penetrate in the world of
the spirit.
That is why the
gospel invites us to see life from the perspective of God. Since it
is the Spirit that gives life, what we seriously need is the Spirit of Jesus
living in our hearts and in our minds so that we can truly see our trials and
difficulties in our spiritual journey in the right perspective. The
Church was born from faith in the Risen Christ. It did not begin with
proofs. Faith is the one thing that pleases God, as in the letter to the
Hebrews. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what
we do not see.” (Heb 11:1) “And without faith it is impossible to please
God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he
rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Heb 11:6)
“We live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Cor 5:7)
“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to
face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully
known.” (1 Cor 13:12)
How then do
we find faith? How can the Spirit of Jesus live in us unless we are open to His
words which give life? “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and
they are life.” Unless, we contemplate on His word, i.e. the Eucharist in
its fullest sense as the Bread of life and His Body, we can never grasp His
Word fully. And because God came to us in the body, taught us in and
through His body, suffered with us in the body, rose in the body, and gave His
body as food, we too will be able to give our bodies for the gospel.
We are called to
be receptive to faith, just like the Jews who became receptive to the gospel in
faith. We read that “the churches throughout Judaea, Galilee and Samaria
were now left in peace, building themselves up, living in the fear of the Lord,
and filled with the consolation of the Holy Spirit.” To have
faith we must cultivate a reverential fear of the Lord in humility.
Without humility there can be no submission of mind and heart. It is our
union with Jesus that can ultimately lead us to confess with Peter, that Jesus
indeed is the Holy One of God and hence has the message of eternal life.
Only this inner conviction of who Jesus truly is will give us the strength to
overcome all our trials and difficulties. Only such a conviction will
help us to be strong and not abandon Jesus even when we do not understand why
things had to happen that way. This is because an utter faith in Jesus as
the Son of the Living God is what will assure us that He will see us through
even if we do not understand fully what He has taught us through the Church.
Indeed, it
is this kind of faith that accounted for the early Church’s growth and enabled
it to flourish. The Acts tells us that after having suffered a period
of persecution, now the Church continued to grow in the period of peace.
Such growth would not have been possible if the apostles had given up during
their days of persecution and abandoned Jesus. But their faith in Christ
and their trust in His promise and His words gave them the courage to continue
to proclaim the message in and out of season, in good and in bad times.
This is exemplified in the faith of Peter in today’s first reading. It
was Peter’s faith in the power of the Risen Lord and their faith in him that
gave him the power to heal Aeneas from paralysis and raised Dorcas to
life. It was not Peter who cured or raised them but it was the Lord Jesus
Christ who acted through the faith of Peter.
And the
outcome of such faith is a fostering of faith in others. We read that
“everybody who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they were all converted
to the Lord.” So too when Dorcas was raised back to life, “the whole of
Jaffa heard about it and many believed in the Lord.” Without faith in
Christ, such miracles would not been possible. With faith we receive the
consolation of the Holy Spirit to know that God is with us as we receive His
healing grace. The result of faith is the working of miracles as we see
in the early Church where many were brought to the Lord. Truly, the most
powerful sign of a faith-filled people is conversion and witnessing. We
read that many were converted; including the priests themselves because they
saw the power of faith and fear of the Lord and His power at work.
Indeed, for
those of us who have encountered the power of the Lord through faith in Him,
our response would be the same as that of the psalmist. “How shall I
make a return to the Lord for all the good he has done for me?The cup of
salvation I will take up, and I will call upon the name of the Lord. My vows to
the Lord I will pay in the presence of all his people. Precious in the eyes of
the Lord is the death of his faithful ones.”
Let us pray that
we will not fail Jesus ourselves by walking out on Him just
because there are too many things that are finite and our mind cannot
comprehend. Rather, whenever confusions arise in our lives, we will turn
to Jesus in prayer, meditating on the scriptures and the Eucharist to find Him,
so that He might give us the words of life for our growth and direction.
Or else, what kind of response are we going to give to Jesus when He asks
us: “Will you too go away? Will you too abandon me?” Let us
in faith exclaim with St Peter, “Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message
of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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