20180504
SACRIFICIAL LOVE FOR THE SAKE OF THE MISSION
04 MAY, 2018, Friday, 5th Week of Easter
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
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First reading
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Acts 15:22-31 ©
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It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by us not to burden
you beyond these essentials
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The apostles and elders decided to choose delegates to send to
Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; the whole church concurred with this. They
chose Judas known as Barsabbas and Silas, both leading men in the brotherhood,
and gave them this letter to take with them:
‘The
apostles and elders, your brothers, send greetings to the brothers of pagan
birth in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. We hear that some of our members have
disturbed you with their demands and have unsettled your minds. They acted
without any authority from us; and so we have decided unanimously to elect
delegates and to send them to you with Barnabas and Paul, men we highly respect
who have dedicated their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Accordingly we are sending you Judas and Silas, who will confirm by word of
mouth what we have written in this letter. It has been decided by the Holy
Spirit and by ourselves not to saddle you with any burden beyond these
essentials: you are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols; from blood, from
the meat of strangled animals and from fornication. Avoid these, and you will
do what is right. Farewell.’
The party
left and went down to Antioch, where they summoned the whole community and
delivered the letter. The community read it and were delighted with the
encouragement it gave them.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 56(57):8-12 ©
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I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples.
or
Alleluia!
My heart is ready, O God,
my heart is ready.
I will sing, I will sing your praise.
Awake, my soul,
awake, lyre and harp,
I will awake the dawn.
I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples.
or
Alleluia!
I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples,
among the nations I will praise you
for your love reaches to the heavens
and your truth to the skies.
O God, arise above the heavens;
may your glory shine on earth!
I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples.
or
Alleluia!
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Gospel Acclamation
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Jn10:27
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice,
says the Lord,
I know them and they follow me.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Jn15:15
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Alleluia, alleluia!
I call you friends, says the Lord,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John 15:12-17 ©
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What I command you is to love one another
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Jesus said to his disciples:
‘This is my commandment:
love one another,
as I have loved you.
A man can have no greater love
than to lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends,
if you do what I command you.
I shall not call you servants any more,
because a servant does not know
his master’s business;
I call you friends,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.
You did not choose me:
no, I chose you;
and I commissioned you
to go out and to bear fruit,
fruit that will last;
and then the Father will give you
anything you ask him in my name.
What I command you is to love one another.’
SACRIFICIAL LOVE FOR THE SAKE OF THE MISSION
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ ACTS 15:22-31; PS 57:8-12; JOHN 15:12-17 ]
In the
gospel, Jesus said, “You did not choose me: no, I chose you; and I commissioned
you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last.” Indeed, this is a great
calling from Christ. He has chosen us and commissioned us to go out and
bear fruit for His Father. The mission to extend the gospel to all is a
command given by the Lord. We who are privileged to have received this
gospel are now obliged to share the Good News with others. We do
this not merely by the proclamation of the gospel in words but by our very
lives, in love, service and charity.
But we can
bear fruits only if we are united in our mission. Going out to the
world to proclaim the gospel is often met with opposition and
rejection. After the instruction to “love one another”, Jesus
immediately added, “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it
hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its
own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world – therefore the world hates you.” (Jn 15:18f)
Jesus was preempting the sufferings and trials of His disciples when they set
out to proclaim the gospel. Hence, the necessity of fraternal support and
love from our fellow Christians. Alone, we will not stand but if we stand
with others, we can cope with the onslaughts hurled at us.
But what does
it mean to love another? The truth is that we all seek to love and support each other, but
we all conceive love in a different way. So, even when we all claim to
love each other, we hurt each other instead. It is not enough to love one
another but to love each other in Christ, in the way Christ has loved
us. We are called to love like Jesus and with the heart and mind of
Jesus. This explains why earlier on, the Lord said to His disciples, “If
you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my
Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” (Jn 15:10)
So unless we are rooted in Jesus, as He is the vine and we are the branches, we
cannot love like Him. This is what Jesus meant when He said, “‘This is my
commandment: love one another, as I have loved you. A man can have no greater
love than to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do
what I command you. I shall not call you servants anymore, because a servant
does not know his master’s business; I call you friends, because I have made
known to you everything I have learnt from my Father.” Jesus has taught
us to love as He loved by laying down His life for others.
However, it
is not only about learning how to love from Jesus, but also to find the
capacity to love like Him. By our own strength, we cannot love the way Jesus has loved
us. We are weak, selfish, insecure, self-centered, defensive of our
interests and individualistic. We can find the capacity to love
only through Jesus. St John wrote, “In this is love, not that we loved
God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our
sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.”
(1 Jn 4:10f)
Only with His prior love for us, can we find the strength to love as He
loved. This is because “love is from God; everyone who loves is born of
God and knows God.” (1 Jn 4:7)
This necessity
to be in communion with Jesus and with each other for the sake of the mission is
aptly summed up by St John Paul II. He wrote, “Communion with Jesus,
which gives rise to the communion of Christians among themselves, is the
indispensable condition for bearing fruit; and communion with others, which is
the gift of Christ and his Spirit, is the most magnificent fruit that the
branches can give. In this sense, communion and mission are inseparably
connected. They interpenetrate and mutually imply each other, so that
‘communion represents both the source and fruit of mission: communion gives
rise to mission and mission is accomplished in communion … It is clear
that the Church’s ability to evangelize requires that she strive earnestly to
serve the cause of unity in all its dimensions. Communion and mission go hand
in hand.’” (Church in Asia, 24)
Indeed, this
was the case of the early Church. A schism was about to happen between
the Jewish Christians and the Greek Christians. The former wanted to
impose the practices and customs of the Mosaic Laws on Christians of pagan
birth. The latter resisted because such customs were alien to them and
they did not feel right that they had to subscribe to Judaism first in order to
be Christians. Fortunately, wisdom and charity prevailed in the early
Church. Instead of fighting among themselves or each going their own way,
they sent a delegation to the leaders in Jerusalem to have it discussed and to
find a solution.
Again, the
wisdom and restraint of the apostles in Jerusalem was demonstrated. They examined the
facts objectively instead of using their subjective opinions. St Peter
recounted how the Lord, “testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just
as he did to us; and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made
no distinction between them and us.” (Acts 15:8f)
“When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles
and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them.” (Acts 15:4)
“The whole assembly kept silence, and listened to Barnabas and Paul as they
told of all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the
Gentiles” (Acts 15:12)
Next, they
affirmed the principle that God is truly working in the lives of the Gentile
Christians and salvation is through Christ alone. “Now therefore why are
you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that
neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary,
we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as
they will.” (Acts 15:10f) Salvation is not dependent on observing the
laws of Moses but purely on the grace of Christ.
Whilst the
principle and the truth of salvation is affirmed, they had to consider also the
practice.
On one hand, there was the sensitivity of the Jewish Christians who were so
entrenched in the laws of Moses; and on the other hand, the Gentile converts
who felt that the laws did not apply to them. Hence, as a compromise, the
decision was made to keep the rules to the basic requirements, namely, “to abstain
from food sacrificed to idols; from blood, from the meat of strangled animals
and from fornication.” It was not a question of right of wrong, but a
question of charity, giving in to each other out of sensitivity.
Mutual
respect for other was what united the community. They were asked to
consider each other’s sensitivities and give in to each other. It was a win-win
situation. Rather than to have all or none, they struck a
compromise. This was what St Paul urged the Christians later on.
“If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer
walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ
died. So do not let your good be spoken of as evil.” (cf Rom 15:15f;
cf Rom 15:1-6; 13-23)
We must be ready to sacrifice our convenience and our preferences for the
greater good of the community. This is what it means to die for our
friends.
After making
the decree, they did not simply send to the Church at Antioch a letter because
it would be too impersonal and juridical. Instead, they wisely “decided to choose
delegates to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.” “They chose Judas
known as Barsabbas and Silas, both leading men in the brotherhood, and gave
them this letter to take with them.” Indeed, there is nothing like a
personal touch. Today, we have much to learn from the early
Christians. They knew that juridical decisions could not just be passed
down like an Emperor’s decree. It would be too high-handed and
authoritarian. But sending personal representatives to convey the decision
showed the personal concern and love of the Church leaders in Jerusalem for the
Christians at Antioch.
What was also
significant was that the whole deliberation was done in the context of prayer. They did not say that
it was their decision. Rather, it was “decided by the Holy Spirit and by
ourselves not to saddle you with any burden beyond these essentials.”
Because it was done in union with the Lord, they could be confident of their
decision. It was a discernment that was made before the Lord who spoke to
the community and their leaders. This is backed up by the promise of our
Lord to His disciples that if they loved one another. “And then the
Father will give you anything you ask him in my name. What I command you is to
love one another’
We too can
learn from the early Church, especially when faced with conflicts in the
community, including within our Christian communities. Instead of fighting
and quarrelling or breaking up to follow our own will, we should jointly submit
our disagreements to the rightful and legitimate authorities to discern and
discuss objectively in the spirit of prayer. All decisions must seek to
foster unity, and a compromise found where the disagreement is in the practice
and not in the principles. Once a decision is made, then like the
disciples, even if we do not agree, we must follow for the sake of preserving
unity in mission. Otherwise, if each goes his or her own way, our mission
which is communion would be compromised and a contradiction.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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