20181204
PEACE COMES THROUGH
SUBMISSION TO CHRIST
04 DECEMBER,
2018, Tuesday, 1st Week, Advent
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Violet.
|
First reading
|
Isaiah 11:1-10 ©
|
|
A shoot springs from the stock of Jesse
|
A shoot springs from the stock of Jesse,
a scion thrusts from his roots:
on him the spirit of the Lord rests,
a spirit of wisdom and insight,
a spirit of counsel and power,
a spirit of knowledge and of the fear of
the Lord.
(The fear of the Lord is his breath.)
He does not judge by appearances,
he gives no verdict on hearsay,
but judges the wretched with integrity,
and with equity gives a verdict for the
poor of the land.
His word is a rod that strikes the
ruthless,
his sentences bring death to the wicked.
Integrity is the loincloth round his
waist,
faithfulness the belt about his hips.
The wolf lives with the lamb,
the panther lies down with the kid,
calf and lion feed together,
with a little boy to lead them.
The cow and the bear make friends,
their young lie down together.
The lion eats straw like the ox.
The infant plays over the cobra’s hole;
into the viper’s lair
the young child puts his hand.
They do no hurt, no harm,
on all my holy mountain,
for the country is filled with the
knowledge of the Lord
as the waters swell the sea.
That day, the root of Jesse
shall stand as a signal to the peoples.
It will be sought out by the nations
and its home will be glorious.
|
Responsorial Psalm
|
|
Psalm
71(72):1-2,7-8,12-13,17 ©
|
In his days justice
shall flourish, and peace till the moon fails.
O God, give your judgement to the king,
to a king’s son your justice,
that he may judge your people in justice
and your poor in right
judgement.
In his days justice
shall flourish, and peace till the moon fails.
In his days justice shall flourish
and peace till the moon fails.
He shall rule from sea to sea,
from the Great River to
earth’s bounds.
In his days justice
shall flourish, and peace till the moon fails.
For he shall save the poor when they cry
and the needy who are
helpless.
He will have pity on the weak
and save the lives of the
poor.
In his days justice
shall flourish, and peace till the moon fails.
May his name be blessed for ever
and endure like the sun.
Every tribe shall be blessed in him,
all nations bless his name.
In his days justice
shall flourish, and peace till the moon fails.
|
Gospel Acclamation
|
Ps84:8
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Let us see, O Lord, your mercy
and give us your saving help.
Alleluia!
|
Or:
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Behold, our Lord will come with power
and will enlighten the eyes of his
servants.
Alleluia!
|
Gospel
|
Luke 10:21-24 ©
|
|
No-one knows who the Son is except the
Father
|
Filled with joy by the Holy Spirit, Jesus
said:
‘I
bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from
the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father,
for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by
my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the
Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’
Then
turning to his disciples he spoke to them in private, ‘Happy the eyes that see
what you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what
you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.’
PEACE COMES THROUGH SUBMISSION TO CHRIST
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ ISAIAH 11:1-10; LUKE 10:21-24 ]
We are all looking for
peace, peace in the troubled
world, peace in our country, peace in our homes, peace in our offices, peace in
our community and peace in our lives. Man is desperate for peace.
When someone dies, our final wish for that person is, “May he rest in
peace!” So peace is what matters. Without peace, there can be
no real happiness even when we have plenty and our stomachs are full.
Why is there no peace in
our hearts and in the world? Like Israel, we are faced with threats from
within and without.
From without, the Israelites were faced with the prospect of being attacked by
the powerful kingdom of Assyria. From within, both political and
religious leaders were corrupt, not walking the ways of the Lord, enriching
themselves and practising all sorts of injustices and committing sins against
morality and worshipping the pagan gods. For us as well, our external enemies
are those that are not within our control. We have to contend with a
secular, relativistic, pluralistic, individualistic and materialistic
society. We have to live with difficult people in our lives, whether our
spouse, in-laws, office colleagues and friends who betrayed us and used
us. We are disheartened but unable to change the situation we are
in. We feel trapped in a hole we are unable to get out of.
Internally, we are filled with anger, hatred, un-forgiveness on one hand and on
the other, we are also not living an honest, responsible and moral life.
We are living in sin, cheating and drinking excessively, gambling and living in
irregular relationships.
How do we find peace? Today, the scripture
readings promise us that the Prince of Peace is on the way to restore peace in
our lives. To the Israelites, the prophet Isaiah announced that God
would destroy their enemy, the Assyrians. But He would also purify the
people as well and remove the evil kings who were unfaithful to the
Covenant. In other words, they would be exiled eventually. Cut down
to size and left with a stump, among the remnants, “A shoot springs from the
stock of Jesse, a scion thrusts from his roots: on him the spirit of the Lord
rests, a spirit of wisdom and insight, a spirit of counsel and power, a spirit
of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” God would give them a new king
and restore dignity to Israel. As the psalmist declared, “In his days
justice shall flourish and peace till the moon fails. He shall rule from
sea to sea, from the Great River to earth’s bounds. For he shall save the poor
when they cry and the needy who are helpless. He will have pity on the weak and
save the lives of the poor.”
Indeed, the prophecy of Isaiah is
fulfilled in the coming of Christ. He is the Messiah foretold, the
One who is filled with the Spirit and endowed with all the messianic gifts to
enable Him to bring the whole of humanity together under the rule of God.
So in the gospel, we have Jesus sending out the 70 disciples earlier on to
preach the Good News, to heal the sick and to cast out the devils. To
their amazement, they returned with great rejoicing as they shared with Christ,
saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” (Lk 10:17) Indeed, these disciples
were ordinary people, many were uneducated, and yet they were surprised that
even the devils could be cast out in the name of Christ. By doing so, it
is an indication that God reigns in this world again. Indeed, Jesus saw
this as a sign that He would win victory over the devil at the end when He
adjoined them saying, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from
heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and
scorpions, over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you.”
(Lk 10:18f) Truly, we are so blessed like
the disciples, compared to the prophets in the Old Testament, as Jesus said,
“Happy the eyes that see what you see, for I tell you that many prophets
and kings wanted to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you
hear, and never heard it.” We have seen the power and marvels of God at
work in our lives today as well!
However, there is a
condition to this peace we are looking for; we need to have faith in Christ and
submit to His rule. To
heal and exorcise in the powerful name of Jesus is to surrender our entire life
to Him so that He can act in and through us. This is what the Lord is
asking of us when He said, “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth,
for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to
mere children.” With humility, we must surrender our lives to the
Lord. We are called to be like Jesus, trusting in the divine
providence of our Heavenly Father. “Yes, Father, for that is what
it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father;
and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except
the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Only with
this personal confidence in the love of the Father as Jesus had can we find
peace, regardless of the situations we are in.
Only the proud and
arrogant will destroy themselves because they want to have things their own
way. Just before this
episode, Jesus was warning the unrepentant cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida and
Capernaum of their pride and failure to recognize the coming of the
Messiah. So, too, when the Seventy returned rejoicing, the Lord warned
them, “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to
you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Lk 10:20) In other words, even in
our success, we must never allow pride to get into our head. This would
be disastrous, for pride has been the cause of the downfall of the devils in
the first place! So we can cast out devils through exorcism and
preaching, but in the process, because of our pride, we fall into the same trap
of the devils!
Secondly, we must seek
to live a life of integrity.
Very often, what causes us to lack peace in our lives is because we do not live
a holistic and balanced life. The Messiah has come to teach us how to
live a life of integrity. We need to keep a clear and clean conscience if
we are to find peace in our hearts. This is what the prophet Isaiah says,
“Integrity is the loincloth round his waist, faithfulness the belt around his
hips.” If Jesus were a man of peace, it was because He was faithful to
Himself. Sinlessness does not mean that a person is free from imperfection
but that he is always true to himself and he lives a life that is in tune with
his true nature. Unlike us, Jesus who was without original sin was
free from a wounded nature. Hence, Jesus always acted according to His
human nature perfectly, so that His human nature was completely aligned to His
divine nature. The divine will of God also became His human will.
That is why Jesus always found peace even in His trials, as in the Garden of
Gethsemane. Hence, if we have lost our peace because we do not live lives
of integrity, then we must spend time in examen and celebrate the sacrament of
reconciliation so that the Lord can heal us of our blindness and give us new
sight again to see Him clearly, His truth and His love. Jesus wants to
restore our peace back to us. We must humble ourselves like children and
come to Him for forgiveness and healing.
Peace from within must
include peace with the world, with others and with nature. In fact, peace begins from within
oneself, but it also embraces the world outside of us. This also explains
why a man of peace is one with the whole creation, his fellowmen and even with
God’s creatures, animals and plants. This is the spirituality of
holistic ecology. This vision of integrity and alignment with the rest of
creation is not new, for Isaiah spoke of the day when all human beings and even
animals live in peace with each other. “The wolf lives with the lamb, the
panther lies down with the kid, calf and lion cub feed together with a little
boy to lead them. The cow and the bear make friends, their young lie down
together. The lion eats straw like the ox. The infant plays over the cobra’s
hole; into the viper’s lair the young child puts his hand. They do no hurt, nor
harm, on all my holy mountain, for the country is filled with the knowledge of
the Lord as the waters swell the sea.” Such a man of peace reminds
us of St Francis who too lived in such a way that he was one with the whole of
creation.
All this is possible because the Holy
Spirit will give us the wisdom, understanding, knowledge, prudence,
fortitude and devotion of the Messiah to handle our affairs rightly.
God will help us to judge situations. “He does not judge by appearances,
he gives no verdict on hearsay, but judges the wretched with integrity, and
with equity gives a verdict for the poor of the land.” When we are less
anxious and free from self-interest, we will be more sober to judge the
situation clearly.
So as we prepare for the
coming of the Prince of Peace, let us surrender our lives to Him like little
children, trusting in His love and mercy. Like Jesus, there is no better way to come to
know everything in and through Christ except in prayer. With humility and
trust, let us sit before the Lord in silence and in contemplation, surrendering
all our anxieties to Him and the storms in our hearts. He will calm our
hearts and give us true peace within us, a peace that will in turn shine out to
others so that as the prophet says, we become a beacon of peace and joy to
others. “That day, the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples. It
will be sought out by the nations and its home will be glorious.”
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment