20180511
THE PLACE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE PASCHAL
MYSTERY AS THE BASIS FOR CHRISTIAN HOPE AND JOY
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
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First reading
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Acts 18:9-18 ©
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'I have many people on my side in this city'
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At Corinth one night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision, ‘Do not
be afraid to speak out, nor allow yourself to be silenced: I am with you. I
have so many people on my side in this city that no one will even attempt to
hurt you.’ So Paul stayed there preaching the word of God among them for
eighteen months.
But, while
Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a concerted attack on Paul and
brought him before the tribunal. ‘We accuse this man’ they said ‘of persuading
people to worship God in a way that breaks the Law.’ Before Paul could open his
mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, ‘Listen, you Jews. If this were a misdemeanour
or a crime, I would not hesitate to attend to you; but if it is only quibbles
about words and names, and about your own Law, then you must deal with it
yourselves – I have no intention of making legal decisions about things
like that.’ Then he sent them out of the court, and at once they all turned on
Sosthenes, the synagogue president, and beat him in front of the court house. Gallio
refused to take any notice at all.
After
staying on for some time, Paul took leave of the brothers and sailed for Syria,
accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had his hair cut off,
because of a vow he had made.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 46(47):2-7 ©
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God is king of all the earth.
or
Alleluia!
All peoples, clap your hands,
cry to God with shouts of joy!
For the Lord, the Most High, we must fear,
great king over all the earth.
God is king of all the earth.
or
Alleluia!
He subdues peoples under us
and nations under our feet.
Our inheritance, our glory, is from him,
given to Jacob out of love.
God is king of all the earth.
or
Alleluia!
God goes up with shouts of joy;
the Lord goes up with trumpet blast.
Sing praise for God, sing praise,
sing praise to our king, sing praise.
God is king of all the earth.
or
Alleluia!
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Gospel Acclamation
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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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Or:
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cf.Lk24:46,26
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Alleluia, alleluia!
It was ordained that the Christ should suffer
and rise from the dead,
and so enter into his glory.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John 16:20-23 ©
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Your hearts will be full of joy that no-one will take from you
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Jesus said to his disciples:
‘I tell you most solemnly,
you will be weeping and wailing
while the world will rejoice;
you will be sorrowful,
but your sorrow will turn to joy.
A woman in childbirth suffers,
because her time has come;
but when she has given birth to the child she forgets the
suffering
in her joy that a man has been born into the world.
So it is with you: you are sad now,
but I shall see you again, and your hearts will be full of joy,
and that joy no one shall take from you.
When that day comes,
you will not ask me any questions.’
11 MAY, 2018, Friday, 6th Week of Easter
THE PLACE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE PASCHAL MYSTERY AS THE BASIS
FOR CHRISTIAN HOPE AND JOY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ ACTS 18:9-18; JN 16:20-23]
When we meet
trials and difficulties especially in the apostolate and in trying to be faithful to
our Christian life, what is the basis of our Christian hope and joy?
What is the secret to the joy of the apostles when they met with opposition and
persecution in preaching the gospel? If by reading today’s scripture
lessons, we immediately apply to the existential situation of overcoming some
difficulties or achieving some success, we have not yet come to the depth of
the joy that the Lord wants to give us. The sufferings that we endure
cannot be compared to the sufferings that the disciples of Jesus underwent in
witnessing to Him; nor the joy of success be compared to that of the disciples
in being witnesses to the Risen Lord Jesus.
The truth is
that unlike what Gallio, proconsul of Achaia thought, the dispute between the
Jews and the Christians was not simply “quibbles about words and names.”
This is because the bone of contention between the Jews and the Christians is
precisely the issue of hope. The question of hope and joy is therefore a
fundamental question. For the Jews, their hope is based on observation of
the Law but for the Christians, their hope is founded on faith in the
name of the Lord Jesus.
Christian
hope is therefore a Christocentric hope with a pneumatological focus.
Christian joy is founded on our faith in the resurrection of
the Lord, which is made possible by the Father who raised Jesus in the power of
the Holy Spirit. The joy of the disciples was their encounter
with Jesus at the resurrection. Indeed, this was what Jesus assured
them, “you are sad now, but I shall see you again.” Jesus anticipated this when
He told them, “I tell you most solemnly, you will be weeping and wailing
while the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful but your sorrow will turn
to joy.”
But more than
just an encounter with Jesus in the resurrection, the disciples continued to
experience the presence of the Risen Lord in a new but real way in the Holy
Spirit after
Ascension at Pentecost. It is the conscious presence of the Holy Spirit
that Paul heard the words of Jesus saying to him, “Do not be afraid to
speak out, nor allow yourself to be silenced: I am with you. I have so many
people on my side in this city that no one will even attempt to hurt
you.” Only with the Holy Spirit present in our hearts and operating in
our lives, can we know for certain that the Lord Jesus is Risen and alive in
our midst. Without a conscious experience of the Holy Spirit and His work
in us, we can never know that the Lord is Risen as we cannot see Him physically
but only by faith.
Hence, it
is because of the resurrection, His glorification at the Ascension and the
sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, that the promise of Jesus was
fulfilled. He said, “your hearts will be full of joy, and that joy no one
shall take from you.” If this joy cannot be taken away, it is because
what will fill our hearts would be the presence of Jesus, His love and
joy. The origin of our faith, which gives us hope and therefore joy, does
not spring from us but from the Risen Lord who dwells in us in the Holy
Spirit. Such joy cannot be taken away from us since it is not dependent
on external factors. Such joy therefore is not the absence of pain and
troubles, but the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Indeed,
Christian joy is a paradoxical joy as it includes suffering. Like Jesus, who
suffered for His mission, so too the disciples would have to suffer with Him
for the mission! However this is a suffering that brings joy because
of the resultant consequence of new life. Such is the case a woman in
childbirth, as illustrated in the analogy given by Jesus. Once the labor
pain is over, the mother forgets all her sufferings as she is too overwhelmed
by the birth of her child. So Jesus said, “A woman in childbirth suffers,
because her time has come; but when she has given birth to the child she
forgets the suffering in her joy that a man has been born into the world.”
The joy of
bringing new life into the world makes all suffering meaningful. The great joy of new
life one experiences makes all other questions redundant. Hence, for us
priests, to seek joy without suffering and pain would not be priestly
joy. The fact that we celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass daily means that
a priest’s life would entail sufferings encountered in the course of his
ministry. But knowing that we have brought life to others brings us great
joy, just as Jesus who is the joy of the Father, in giving us life.
However, a
Christian does not suffer without hope. For this reason, he finds true
joy even in suffering. Jesus said, “when that day comes, you will not ask me any
questions.” No questions will be asked not because we do not suffer any
more but because we will learn to live in faith and trust in His divine
providence. Knowing that Jesus is present in our sufferings will be
enough to see us through. Joy is experienced as a personal
encounter. When we encounter Jesus, we encounter life. When life is
encountered as an event, not as puzzlement, then living and experiencing the
event is already the answer in itself. With such an encounter, all other
questions are resolved, or the questions are redundant. Truly, when we go
through the struggles and sufferings of life, we tend to ask questions.
But when we complete the journey, everything becomes clear even though we might
not be able to understand everything.
In the final
analysis, we know that life, suffering and death are part of the mystery of
life.
They cannot be resolved by answers that satisfy our intellect but only the
heart can understand them. Our ability to find joy in the mystery of life
is founded on the paschal mystery, going through the death of Jesus, sharing in
His resurrection, and being filled with love of the Holy Spirit. This new
life through the love of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and our personal
encounter with the Risen Lord overcomes all the sufferings we endure in
life. In our difficulties knowing that Jesus is victorious over death
should give us sufficient consolation. Knowing that His Spirit lives in
us, is our assurance of His love for us and that joy of being loved will
strengthen us in our trials. Today being the first day of the
novena to the Holy Spirit, let us pray for the gift of joy, especially when we
have to suffer for the gospel.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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