20180903
PROCLAMATION IN FAITH
INSPIRES FAITH
03 SEPTEMBER,
2018, Monday, 22nd Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
White.
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First reading
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1 Corinthians 2:1-5 ©
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The only knowledge I claimed was of the
crucified Christ
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When I came to you, brothers, it was not
with any show of oratory or philosophy, but simply to tell you what God had
guaranteed. During my stay with you, the only knowledge I claimed to have was
about Jesus, and only about him as the crucified Christ. Far from relying on
any power of my own, I came among you in great ‘fear and trembling’ and in my
speeches and the sermons that I gave, there were none of the arguments that
belong to philosophy; only a demonstration of the power of the Spirit. And I
did this so that your faith should not depend on human philosophy but on the
power of God.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 118(119):97-102 ©
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Lord, how I love your
law!
Lord, how I love your law!
It is ever in my mind.
Your command makes me wiser than my foes;
for it is mine for ever.
Lord, how I love your
law!
I have more insight than all who teach me
for I ponder your will.
I have more understanding than the old
for I keep your precepts.
Lord, how I love your
law!
I turn my feet from evil paths
to obey your word.
I have not turned from your decrees;
you yourself have taught me.
Lord, how I love your
law!
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Gospel Acclamation
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Jn8:12
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Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the light of the world, says the
Lord;
anyone who follows me will have the light
of life.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Lk4:18
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The Lord has sent me to bring the good
news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Luke 4:16-30 ©
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'This text is being fulfilled today,
even as you listen'
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Jesus came to Nazara, where he had been
brought up, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day as he usually did.
He stood up to read and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:
The spirit of the Lord has been given to
me,
for he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring the good news to
the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives
and to the blind new sight,
to set the downtrodden free,
to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.
He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back
to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him.
Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you
listen.’ And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the
gracious words that came from his lips. They said, ‘This is Joseph’s son,
surely?’
But
he replied, ‘No doubt you will quote me the saying, “Physician, heal yourself”
and tell me, “We have heard all that happened in Capernaum, do the same here in
your own countryside.”’
And
he went on, ‘I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own
country.
‘There
were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah’s day, when heaven
remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged
throughout the land, but Elijah was not sent to any one of these: he was sent
to a widow at Zarephath, a Sidonian town. And in the prophet Elisha’s time
there were many lepers in Israel, but none of these was cured, except the
Syrian, Naaman.’
When
they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They sprang to their
feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to the brow of the
hill their town was built on, intending to throw him down the cliff, but he
slipped through the crowd and walked away.
PROCLAMATION IN FAITH INSPIRES FAITH
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 1 COR 2:1-5; LK 4:16-30 ]
How do people come to faith
in Christ? In an age of
rationalism and science, people are looking for logical proofs and empirical
evidence before they believe. In some quarters of religion, believers
seek to prove that their religion is the true religion. Among Christians,
Catholics often seek to prove to non-believers that Christianity is the true
faith, and to non-Catholic Christians, that they are the true Church of
Christ. We come up with all kinds of arguments and syllogism to show the
truth of our faith claims. We engage in apologetics, hoping to convince
the atheists or adherents of our faith that our religion is the true religion.
However, the truth is
that faith is a personal relationship and a personal conviction. It is not reducible to
reason. God cannot be proven, otherwise no faith is needed. For
those who have faith, no proofs are necessary. For those who have no
faith, no proofs would suffice. The author of Hebrews wrote, “Now
faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed,
by faith our ancestors received approval.” (cf Heb 11:1-3)
Indeed, faith in God is
analogous to any human relationship, especially in marriage. All relationships are based on mutual
trust and faith in each other’s love. No one can prove or guarantee that
our friend or spouse would always love us faithfully and forever.
They can make promises but we all know many of these promises are empty
promises. How many so-called loving marriages have been destroyed by
infidelity? So it is in faith that we learn to trust a person’s
declaration of love for us. We have no proof. The person might show
his love for us now through acts of love by buying gifts and helping us and
listening to us. But there is no guarantee that he will still be loving
after marriage, and for the next 20, 30 or 50 years of married life. So
why do we still make an act of faith in the person when no fool proofs can be
given to anyone? Love knows the reason that reason does not know.
Christianity is rooted
in faith, in a personal relationship with God. It is not primarily a system of
intellectual arguments to prove that our faith is true. St Paul says this
clearly in today’s first reading. “Brothers, when I came to you, it was
not with any show of oratory or philosophy, but simply to tell you what God had
guaranteed. During my stay with you, the only knowledge I claimed to have
was about Jesus, and only about him as the crucified Christ.” St Paul was
not seeking to prove or to argue that Jesus is the Son of God. Rather, he
was sharing his personal encounter with the Lord. What changed him radically
was his conversion experience at Damascus when the Lord appeared to him.
Without this personal encounter with the Lord, there could be no
mission. Paul was ready to die for Christ only because he knew Him
personally. (Acts 9:4f)
St Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I
who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the
flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
(Gal 2:19f) St Paul’s conversion was
based on a personal encounter, not on philosophy. (cf 1 Tim 1:12-14)
This is true for the
Lord Himself as well. Christ did not receive His calling to proclaim the
Good News because of reasoning. He
received His calling from His intimacy with the Father from young, and which
climaxed at His baptism. Right from childhood, He was rooted in His
personal relationship with His Father. At the temple, He said to His
parents, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my
Father’s house?” (Lk 2:49) And at
His baptism, He heard the voice of the Father affirming His Sonship when the
voice of heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well
pleased.” (Mt 3:17) It is His
intimacy with the Father that was the basis of His mission. In John’s
gospel, Jesus said, “The Father and I are one.” (cf Jn 10:30,37f)
For this reason, at the
beginning of His ministry, Jesus could make the prophecy of Isaiah about the
Suffering Servant His own.
His citation of the Suffering Servant was His identification with His
conviction that God is love and mercy. “The spirit of the Lord has been
given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to
the poor, and to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to
set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.” Again
in John’s gospel, Jesus remarked, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do
nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the
Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows
him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than
these, so that you will be astonished.” (Jn 5:19f)
His citation of Elijah’s
ministry again shows that it was not reason but the encounter with God’s love
and mercy in the miracles worked by him that brought faith. He said “There were many widows in
Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah’s day when heaven remained shut for three
years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land, but Elijah
was not sent to anyone of these: he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a
Sidonian town. And in the prophet Elisha’s time there were many lepers in
Israel, but none of these was cured, except the Syrian, Naaman.” It was
faith in God working through Elijah that the widow was fed and Naaman was
healed.
Thus, we must take the
advice of St Paul seriously in the work of evangelization and proclamation of
the gospel. “Far from relying
on any power of my speeches and the sermons that I gave, there were none of the
arguments that belong to philosophy; only a demonstration of the power of the
Spirit. And I did this so that your faith should not depend on human
philosophy but on the power of God.” It is not apologetics and
proofs that will convict people about Christ and the Church. Rather, it
is the witness of His personal love and mercy for us in our lives. It is
through personal testimonies of what the Lord has done for us in our lives and
how He continues to speak to us through the Word of God and how we encounter
Him deeply in the sacraments and in the intimacy of prayers. Most
of all, it is our sharing of the miraculous healings and deep religious
experiences we have of Him that will edify the faith of others.
Pope Benedict in His
encyclical “God is Love” succinctly wrote, “Saint John also offers a kind of
summary of the Christian life:
‘We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us’. (1 Jn 4:16)) We have come to believe in
God’s love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental
decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or
a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new
horizon and a decisive direction. Saint John’s Gospel describes that event in
these words: ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should … have eternal life’ (3:16). (Deus caritas
est, 1) Conversion is not the result of appreciation of Christian
morality or brilliant insights but due to a personal experience of His love and
mercy.
Hence, the way to bring
people to Christ is through faith, not reason. This does not mean that
reason has no part to play in the growth of faith. Instead of understanding to believe, we
should take the path of believing to understand. Understand to believe
will take a long time and we may never reach the goal of faith. We cannot
prove or convince someone unless the person is already receptive and docile to
faith in Jesus. But until that happens there is no faith. We can study
about love, but if we are not ready to take the plunge to love, nothing will
happen. This love is just in the head, it is not real and not
transforming. It is an ideology. We must fall in love with Jesus,
surrender to His love and mercy if we are to know His love and His power. So we
need people who have encountered the Lord personally to testify to the reality
and transforming power of His love and mercy. We do not need great
theologians but people who have fallen in love with God and encountered Him to
bring conversion into the lives of those who do not know Him.
With faith as the
starting point, we can then follow with the study of scripture and theology. Study is necessary for the individual
Christian to deepen and mature in His faith. The intellectual discourse
of the faith is not to prove that Christ is true but to show the credibility of
our beliefs and the reasonableness of our faith. This is to eradicate a
mythological, superstitious or fundamentalistic approach to Faith. The study of
scripture and theology is to help Christians and those enquirers find reasons
to take the leap of faith. In most instances, those who join our churches
have already been inspired by faith believers to register for RCIA.
Through the study of Christianity, their already incipient faith is
strengthened.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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