20180831
THE ILLOGICAL LOGIC OF
CHRISTIANITY
31 AUGUST, 2018,
Friday, 21st Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Green.
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First reading
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1 Corinthians 1:17-25 ©
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We preach a crucified Christ, the power
and wisdom of God
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Christ did not send me to baptise, but to
preach the Good News, and not to preach that in the terms of philosophy in
which the crucifixion of Christ cannot be expressed. The language of the cross
may be illogical to those who are not on the way to salvation, but those of us
who are on the way see it as God’s power to save. As scripture says: I
shall destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing all the learning of
the learned. Where are the philosophers now? Where are the scribes? Where
are any of our thinkers today? Do you see now how God has shown up the
foolishness of human wisdom? If it was God’s wisdom that human wisdom should
not know God, it was because God wanted to save those who have faith through
the foolishness of the message that we preach. And so, while the Jews demand
miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom, here are we preaching a crucified
Christ; to the Jews an obstacle that they cannot get over, to the pagans
madness, but to those who have been called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a
Christ who is the power and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser
than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm
32(33):1-2,4-5,10-11 ©
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The Lord fills the earth
with his love.
Ring out your joy to the Lord, O you just;
for praise is fitting for
loyal hearts.
Give thanks to the Lord upon the harp,
with a ten-stringed lute sing
him songs.
The Lord fills the earth
with his love.
For the word of the Lord is faithful
and all his works to be
trusted.
The Lord loves justice and right
and fills the earth with his
love.
The Lord fills the earth
with his love.
He frustrates the designs of the nations,
he defeats the plans of the
peoples.
His own designs shall stand for ever,
the plans of his heart from
age to age.
The Lord fills the earth
with his love.
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Gospel Acclamation
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cf.Ps129:5
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Alleluia, alleluia!
My soul is waiting for the Lord,
I count on his word.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Lk21:36
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Stay awake, praying at all times
for the strength to stand with confidence
before the Son of Man.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Matthew 25:1-13 ©
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The wise and foolish virgins
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Jesus told this parable to his disciples:
‘The kingdom of heaven will be like this: Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and
went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were sensible:
the foolish ones did take their lamps, but they brought no oil, whereas the
sensible ones took flasks of oil as well as their lamps. The bridegroom was
late, and they all grew drowsy and fell asleep. But at midnight there was a
cry, “The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet him.” At this, all those
bridesmaids woke up and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish ones said to the
sensible ones, “Give us some of your oil: our lamps are going out.” But they
replied, “There may not be enough for us and for you; you had better go to
those who sell it and buy some for yourselves.” They had gone off to buy it
when the bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready went in with him to the
wedding hall and the door was closed. The other bridesmaids arrived later.
“Lord, Lord,” they said “open the door for us.” But he replied, “I tell you
solemnly, I do not know you.” So stay awake, because you do not know either the
day or the hour.’
THE ILLOGICAL LOGIC OF CHRISTIANITY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 1 Cor 1:17-25; Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 10-11; Mt 25:1-13 ]
Is there logic in the
Christian Faith? The
Church has always maintained that faith is reasonable but not reasoned.
In other words, the starting point of Christianity is always faith, and then to
show that this faith is not unreasonable. In other words, it is a
credible faith. The faith claims of Christianity are not explained by
logic. That is why the faith claims of Christianity appear to be
ridiculous to those who have no faith.
The doctrines of the
Christian Faith give rise to many objections. For the humanists, it is difficult to accept
the fact of divine revelation. Many religions claim to have some kind of
divine revelation. The scriptures are considered sacred and not
questionable. Even the founders of religions, although not claimed to be
divine, are given a status of demi-gods. The scandal of Christianity is that we
go beyond merely claiming that the Christian Faith is a revealed faith like
some other religions.
We make the astonishing
claim that the Crucified Christ is the Crucified God. This is what St Paul said, “And so,
while the Jews demanded miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom, here are we
preaching a crucified Christ; to the Jews an obstacle that they cannot get
over, to the pagans madness, but to those who have been called, whether they
are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is the power and the wisdom of
God.” For the Jews, it was difficult to reconcile a messiah
that was crucified when he was to be the triumphant Messiah who would
liberate Israel from their enemies. All the time, they were looking for
signs and miracles to authenticate their claims. When Jesus was
performing miracles, they thought He was the One. But with His
crucifixion, all His claims were called into question. The book of
Deuteronomy teaches that “When someone is convicted of a crime punishable by death
and is executed, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse must not remain all
night upon the tree; you shall bury him that same day, for anyone hung on a
tree is under God’s curse.” (Dt 21:23) The crucifixion of Christ for the
Jews proved that they were right that Jesus was not the Messiah.
For the Greek Gentiles,
God was supposedly to be immutable. God is pure act because He is all that He can
be. He cannot be perfected as He is absolutely perfect. His
attributes are identical with His essence. Creatures, however, are in a
state of potentiality, seeking to arrive at perfection. So if God can
change and suffer in Christ, it would be impossible to claim that the Crucified
One is the Son of God. So to claim that God could suffer and even die is
totally absurd. The God of the philosophers was a God who cannot feel,
cannot change, cannot be incarnated and of course, cannot suffer and die!
Otherwise, He would be subject to change and therefore is no longer perfect.
But this is precisely
the greatest miracle of Christianity, the claims of a crucified God. “Christ did not send me to baptise, but to
preach the Good News, and not to preach that in the terms of philosophy in
which the crucifixion of Christ cannot be expressed. The language of the
cross may be illogical to those who are not on the way to salvation, but those
of us who are on the way see it as God’s power to save. As scripture
says: I shall destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing all the
learning of the learned. Where are the philosophers now? Where are the
scribes? Where are any of our thinkers today?” In speaking about the
Crucified God in Christ, Christianity is making the wildest claim that no
religion dares to make for their founder. We are not only claiming
that Christ is the Son of God but that the Crucified One is the Son of
God. By so doing, we are also saying that God is not a monad as in
other monotheistic religions but a Trinity of persons.
What is the basis of
this claim? It is based on the resurrection of the Crucified
Christ. Without
the resurrection, then indeed all the objections that are raised are
valid. St Paul could preach so convincingly about the Crucified Christ
only because He has encountered the Risen Lord. It was his personal
encounter with the Risen Lord on his way to Damascus that made him change, not
just his mind but his entire life. Before that, like the rest of the
Jews, he could not accept the claims of the early Christians, so much so he
took upon himself to persecute the Christians for destroying the Jewish faith.
But what of the
Crucified Christ condemned as a criminal and then risen from the dead? What is
the implication? If
God had raised a criminal back to life, it clearly demonstrates that the
heavenly Father endorses all that Jesus said, did and claimed. It is the
divine seal upon the life and teaching of Christ. The resurrection of our
Lord is His vindication. So faith in the Crucified God is dependent on
faith in the resurrected Christ.
This also means that we
have to accept all that Jesus taught and claimed, implicitly and explicitly. In the life of Christ, He had
claimed to speak in the name of His Father and to act on His behalf. He
identified Himself with the Father and claimed that His sonship was unique and
different from ours. Faith in the resurrection is the foundation of the
Christian confession of faith in Jesus as the Son of God. Indeed,
because of the resurrection of our Lord, we could accept the doctrine of the
Incarnation, the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the Bible as the Word of God, the
reality and effectiveness of the sacraments, the teaching authority of the Holy
Father as the successor of St Peter and the magisterium. Without
faith in the resurrection, such claims cannot be justified.
But that is not all,
when we contemplate that the One who was crucified is truly the Son of God,
then our whole understanding of God has to change. The death and resurrection of
Christ debunks all our philosophical concepts of God through human
reasoning. The philosophical presupposition of God’s immutability cannot
hold anymore and challenges us to rethink our concept of God. This God
whom we believe in can become incarnated. He can feel with us and suffer
with us. This is a God of compassion and mercy. He is not detached
from us and oblivious to our pains. He carries within Himself our
suffering and our sins. With His death and resurrection, the heart of God
is shown. Indeed, St Paul wrote, “Do you see now how God has shown up the
foolishness of human wisdom? If it was God’s wisdom that human wisdom should
not know God, it was because God wanted to save those who have faith through
the foolishness of the message that we preach.”
Thus, the key to faith
in Christ cannot be mere reason alone. No amount of argument can bring a person
to faith. The intellectual arguments at most can supply the logic to our
illogical belief in Christ. That is to say, that we have reason to
believe that the claims are true to enable us to take the leap of faith in
Christ. Faith at the end of the day cannot be based on reason but on
submission of our reason in obedience to the revelation received. In
order to arrive at belief, we must in faith surrender our minds and enter into
the experience of the Christians. Only when we surrender in faith can we
see what the mind cannot. In daily life, this is true because only in
faith and trust, can we understand a person better than when we relate with a
person with doubt and skepticism. As we open ourselves to a relationship,
then we will see more and the evidence will only further what we believe.
For this reason, the
gospel warns us that the Oil of faith cannot be borrowed or shared. In the final analysis, we must
bring our own Oil of faith to welcome the bridegroom. There are certain
things in life that cannot be borrowed, especially relationship. Unless
we open our hearts to the Lord in faith and engage Him in prayer, worship and
the meditation on His word, we cannot find our faith strengthened. We
need to discover for ourselves the Christ that is proclaimed in the Church if
we were to find a deeper faith in Him.
Finally, there is a
warning that this must begin now before it is too late. If we do not strengthen our faith
in Christ now, when the time comes, it would be too late. If we do not
study hard now, it would be too late when our exams arrive. This is
particularly true when we are speaking about making our preparations to meet
God.
How do we make our
preparations? We
must realize ourselves according to God’s plan for us. We must become the
person we are called to be. Every little thing we do now, every good
action we do will strengthen and reinforce our virtues and increase our
capacity for love and holiness. Hence, we must actualize ourselves more and
more each day to become the son and daughter of God that we are meant to
be. To help us to make preparations for this long journey, we need
to receive Christ often, especially in the Eucharist, the bread of life and
reading the Word of God. In this way, by receiving the Viaticum, we will
have the strength to journey to our heavenly Father’s home.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights
Reserved
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