20180509
THE FULLNESS OF TRUTH IN JESUS IS UNFOLDED TO
US GRADUALLY THROUGH THE SPIRIT
09 MAY, 2018, Wednesday, 6th Week of Easter
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
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First reading
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Acts 17:15,22-18:1 ©
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I proclaim the God you already worship without knowing it
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Paul’s escort took him as far as Athens, and went back with
instructions for Silas and Timothy to rejoin Paul as soon as they could.
So Paul
stood before the whole Council of the Areopagus and made this speech:
‘Men of
Athens, I have seen for myself how extremely scrupulous you are in all
religious matters, because I noticed, as I strolled round admiring your sacred
monuments, that you had an altar inscribed: To An Unknown God. Well, the God
whom I proclaim is in fact the one whom you already worship without knowing it.
‘Since the
God who made the world and everything in it is himself Lord of heaven and
earth, he does not make his home in shrines made by human hands. Nor is he
dependent on anything that human hands can do for him, since he can never be in
need of anything; on the contrary, it is he who gives everything –
including life and breath – to everyone. From one single stock he not only
created the whole human race so that they could occupy the entire earth, but he
decreed how long each nation should flourish and what the boundaries of its
territory should be. And he did this so that all nations might seek the deity
and, by feeling their way towards him, succeed in finding him. Yet in fact he
is not far from any of us, since it is in him that we live, and move, and
exist, as indeed some of your own writers have said:
“We are all his children.”
‘Since we are the children of God, we have no excuse for thinking
that the deity looks like anything in gold, silver or stone that has been
carved and designed by a man.
‘God
overlooked that sort of thing when men were ignorant, but now he is telling
everyone everywhere that they must repent, because he has fixed a day when the
whole world will be judged, and judged in righteousness, and he has appointed a
man to be the judge. And God has publicly proved this by raising this man from
the dead.’
At this
mention of rising from the dead, some of them burst out laughing; others said,
‘We would like to hear you talk about this again.’ After that Paul left them,
but there were some who attached themselves to him and became believers, among
them Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman called Damaris, and others besides.
After this,
Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 148:1-2,11-14 ©
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Your glory fills all heaven and earth.
or
Alleluia!
Praise the Lord from the heavens,
praise him in the heights.
Praise him, all his angels,
praise him, all his host.
Your glory fills all heaven and earth.
or
Alleluia!
All earth’s kings and peoples,
earth’s princes and rulers,
young men and maidens,
old men together with children.
Your glory fills all heaven and earth.
or
Alleluia!
Let them praise the name of the Lord
for he alone is exalted.
The splendour of his name
reaches beyond heaven and earth.
Your glory fills all heaven and earth.
or
Alleluia!
He exalts the strength of his people.
He is the praise of all his saints,
of the sons of Israel,
of the people to whom he comes close.
Your glory fills all heaven and earth.
or
Alleluia!
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Gospel Acclamation
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Col3:1
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Alleluia, alleluia!
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.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Jn14:16
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Alleluia, alleluia!
I shall ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate
to be with you for ever.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John 16:12-15 ©
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The Spirit of truth will lead you to the complete truth
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Jesus said to his disciples:
‘I still have many things to say to you
but they would be too much for you now.
But when the Spirit of truth comes
he will lead you to the complete truth,
since he will not be speaking as from himself
but will say only what he has learnt;
and he will tell you of the things to come.
He will glorify me,
since all he tells you
will be taken from what is mine.
Everything the Father has is mine;
that is why I said:
All he tells you
will be taken from what is mine.’
THE FULLNESS OF TRUTH IN JESUS IS UNFOLDED TO US GRADUALLY
THROUGH THE SPIRIT
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ACTS 17:15, 22-18:1; JN 16:12-15
]
“I still have
many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now.” These
are indeed very consoling words of Jesus for us. Consoling because of the
fact that many of us are impatient at the mysteries of life.
We are often puzzled by the things that happen to us in our personal life, in
society and in our spiritual journey. On the personal level, perhaps some
of us have certain weaknesses that we cannot yet overcome. We’ve tried to
overcome them but somehow we cannot come to terms with them. At times, we
feel like giving up. On the social level, some of us might moan the
situation that we are in. Often we wish, for example, that the situation
at home or at the office may be different from what it is now; or that our
society could be more gracious and free. On the level of faith, some of
us might be grappling with our belief. Some of us think that by reading
or attending bible study courses we will be able to deepen our faith, only to
discover that we have more questions and doubts than ever, and that there is no
simple solution to the mysteries of faith and spiritual life.
However, the
words of Jesus should console us and help us to see our lives in perspective.
When Jesus said that He had many things to tell His disciples, but that it
would be too much for them to bear, He was simply speaking of the fact that
revelation takes place according to our capacity. We do not explain algebra
to a child when he has not yet learnt arithmetic. We do not try to
explain the difficulties of marriage life to our little child. They will never
understand and even if they do, they would be overwhelmed. Indeed, a
young man who was looking after his mother who was diagnosed to be suffering
from cancer, did not let her know what she was suffering from. His reason was
that she should only be told when she was ready; otherwise she might give up
the will to fight the disease. That might be the case, although I am of the
view that such life-changing news should be shared with the patient without
loss of time.
What is true of
our human situations is also true of the revelation of God to us. Grace
respects nature. Hence, God will not reveal something to us that
we are not ready to understand or accept. God would not reveal our
life events to us if they are going to overwhelm us. This is illustrated
in today’s first reading when St Paul preached the good news according to the
level of faith of the people. He picked up the fact that they were
worshipping an unknown God and thus led them to understand that this God had
revealed Himself in Jesus Christ. He did not ridicule their faith.
Instead he praised them for their devotion to God and from there tried to help
them to advance further in their search for God.
From this we
arrive at another insight, which is that revelation is an unfolding
process. God does not reveal everything to us all at once.
Many things can only be understood on hindsight. There are many things
that happened in our lives which we could not then understand. But over
the years and over time, these became clearer, and we began to
understand. This was equally true for the disciples. They too could not
understand the full import of the significance of all that Jesus said and did
when He was with them. Their understanding of Jesus grew gradually.
Indeed, we know that the divinity of Jesus was not something that the disciples
came to believe all at once. Jesus gradually came to be understood as
divine only after His resurrection. For this reason, we must be patient
with those who are slow to understand or change their sinful way of life.
Again, this was
also true for the Athenians. They too could not understand who God
was. Nevertheless, deep within them, they knew that God was real.
After all, as Paul said, some of their writers had said that “it is in Him that
we live, and move, and exist.” For this reason, they erected an altar to
the Unknown God. But Paul helped them to understand that God could not be
anything that had been formed by human hands. Rather, God surprises us by
becoming man in Jesus. In Jesus, God revealed who He was, especially by
His death and resurrection.
Revelation
therefore cannot be reduced to some idea or concept. Revelation cannot
even be reduced to the scriptures or the bible. Certainly, the bible
contains the revelation of God. But God’s revelation goes beyond
scripture. Of course, Revelation also includes information about the
world, about ourselves and about God. But for Christianity, revelation is
basically a person. For in Jesus, truth is fully present and
experienced. In His teaching and life, Jesus revealed to us who the
Father is, since all that He had was given to Him by the Father.
Jesus is therefore the truth in person.
That being the
case, it means that if we want to understand ourselves or to understand
life and its mysteries, we must come to Jesus. Only by coming to know
Jesus will we know ourselves. In this sense, revelation is still
ongoing. There is no end to God’s revelation because Jesus is
inexhaustible and unsurpassable. Jesus as a person cannot be fully
understand or absorbed. On the contrary, the more we come to know Jesus,
the more we discover how little we know of Him and about Him.
The question we
need to ask ourselves is, what kind of response do we give to Him?
There are three ways of responding to Jesus. We can be
like those who sneered at St Paul. They made fun of Him. They were skeptical
and proud. They did not take the message seriously. We, too, often
make fun of others who have experienced God in their own ways. We
ridicule the charismatics, or those whose way of praying is different from
us. We must be careful because we might be depriving ourselves of such
possible avenues of coming to know God. Indeed, it is said that “those
who make a jest of life will find that which began as comedy must end in
tragedy.” (William Barclays).
Secondly, some
of us might act like those Athenians who said, “we will discuss it at some
other time.” These are the people who would like to delay.
They are afraid to make a decision. They want to be totally safe before
making a commitment. And so they postpone their decision. Many of us are
like that too. We want to investigate thoroughly before we make an option
for God. This is particularly true for those of us who are too
rational. Such an approach will make us regret. The truth is that
it is not possible to gather complete and full proof empirical evidence.
There are many things we need to accept in faith. If not, we would one
day regret with St Augustine who said, “Too late have I know you Lord, too late
have I known you.” By postponing our decision to believe, we will miss out on
the joy of knowing and loving the Lord and be loved by Him.
Finally, we
could make an act of faith and accept Jesus into our lives.
Only by entering into a relationship with Jesus in faith and love, can we
really begin to understand who Jesus is. In embracing Jesus, He will give
us His Spirit of Truth who will in turn reveal to us about life, ourselves, God
and the world. As we come to know Jesus more, we will also learn to
embrace the mysteries of life. In this way, we will be led
gradually but surely into the fullness of truth. There are many things in
life we do not understand fully but as we embrace them, we will come to
understand them gradually. This is particularly true of relationships and
of love. Only when we take the courage to open ourselves up to the other
person, will we then experience liberation and love. By putting up a
false front and a mask, we alienate ourselves from others. By becoming
vulnerable, we actually become even more loved.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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