20190105 COURAGE TO LOVE
05 JANUARY,
2019, Saturday, Weekday of Christmas Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
White.
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First reading
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1 John 3:11-21 ©
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Our love is to be something real and
active
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This is the message
as you heard it from the beginning:
that we are to love one another;
not to be like Cain, who belonged to the
Evil One
and cut his brother’s throat;
cut his brother’s throat simply for this
reason,
that his own life was evil and his brother
lived a good life.
You must not be surprised, brothers, when
the world hates you;
we have passed out of death and into life,
and of this we can be sure
because we love our brothers.
If you refuse to love, you must remain
dead;
to hate your brother is to be a murderer,
and murderers, as you know, do not have
eternal life in them.
This has taught us love –
that he gave up his life for us;
and we, too, ought to give up our lives
for our brothers.
If a man who was rich enough in this
world’s goods
saw that one of his brothers was in need,
but closed his heart to him,
how could the love of God be living in
him?
My children,
our love is not to be just words or mere
talk,
but something real and active;
only by this can we be certain
that we are children of the truth
and be able to quieten our conscience in
his presence,
whatever accusations it may raise against
us,
because God is greater than our conscience
and he knows everything.
My dear people,
if we cannot be condemned by our own
conscience,
we need not be afraid in God’s presence.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 99(100) ©
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Cry out with joy to the
Lord, all the earth.
Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the
earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing for
joy.
Cry out with joy to the
Lord, all the earth.
Know that he, the Lord, is God.
He made us, we belong to him,
we are his people, the sheep
of his flock.
Cry out with joy to the
Lord, all the earth.
Go within his gates, giving thanks.
Enter his courts with songs of
praise.
Give thanks to him and bless
his name.
Cry out with joy to the
Lord, all the earth.
Indeed, how good is the Lord,
eternal his merciful love.
He is faithful from age to
age.
Cry out with joy to the
Lord, all the earth.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Heb1:1-2
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Alleluia, alleluia!
At various times in the past
and in various different ways,
God spoke to our ancestors through the
prophets;
but in our own time, the last days,
he has spoken to us through his Son.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Alleluia, alleluia!
A hallowed day has dawned upon us.
Come, you nations, worship the Lord,
for today a great light has shone down
upon the earth.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Jn1:14,12
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.
To all who received him he gave power to
become children of God.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John 1:43-51 ©
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You will see heaven laid open, and the
Son of Man
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After Jesus had decided to leave for
Galilee, he met Philip and said, ‘Follow me.’ Philip came from the same town,
Bethsaida, as Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We
have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, the one about whom the
prophets wrote: he is Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.’ ‘From Nazareth?’
said Nathanael ‘Can anything good come from that place?’ ‘Come and see’ replied
Philip. When Jesus saw Nathanael coming he said of him, ‘There is an Israelite
who deserves the name, incapable of deceit.’ ‘How do you know me?’ said
Nathanael. ‘Before Philip came to call you,’ said Jesus ‘I saw you under the
fig tree.’ Nathanael answered, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King
of Israel.’ Jesus replied, ‘You believe that just because I said: I saw you
under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.’ And then he added
‘I tell you most solemnly, you will see heaven laid open and, above the Son of
Man, the angels of God ascending and descending.’
COURAGE TO LOVE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 1 JOHN 3:11-21; PS 100:1-5; JOHN 1:43-51 ]
The birth of Jesus is
the gift of God to humanity. In assuming our humanity, the second person
of the Trinity has chosen to be the love of God in person. Not only did He assume our humanity, but
we read in Philippians, He “emptied himself, taking the form of a
slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he
humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.”
(Phil 2:7f)
His coming into the
world was to invite us to share in His life so that He can teach us how to love
and be empowered to love.
In this way, we know “we have passed out of death and into life and of this we
can be sure because we love our brothers.” St Paul in his letter to Titus
says, “He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all
iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good
deeds.” (Tit 2:14) This is
what St John wrote as well, “This has taught us to love – that he gave up his
life of us: and we, too, ought to give up our lives for our brothers.”
Indeed, the test of
whether we are truly Christians is not orthodoxy alone but orthopraxis. It is when what we believe is
expressed in our actions. St James puts it succinctly when he wrote,
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but
do not have works? Can faith save you? So faith by itself, if it has
no works, is dead.” (Jms 2:14) St John affirms the
truth that Christian faith is active love for our neighbours. He wrote,
“If a man who was rich enough in this world’s goods saw that one of his
brothers was in need, but closed his heart to him, how could the love of God be
living in him? My children, our love is not to be just words or mere talk, but
something real and active; only by this can we be certain that we are children
of the truth.” If we do not produce the fruits of love, then our faith in
God is only lip service; God is not in our hearts. St John warns us, “If
you refuse to love, you must remain dead; to hate your brother is to be a
murderer, and murderers, as you know, do not have eternal life in them.”
This active love demands
that we die for our brothers and sisters. To die to ourselves is the first step in
love. It means putting others before self and their needs before
ours. This requires that focus on others instead of on ourselves.
It is not about us being loved but that we love others. This demands
self-emptying, sacrifices and giving up our things, time, resources and even
giving up our lives for others.
However, it is not
enough to die for them, we are called to live for them. Death is the highest form of
surrender but the daily dying to self requires as much sacrifice as dying
physically for someone. A lifelong martyrdom is no lesser than that of an
immediate martyrdom. Living for others means to serve them and to care
for them. It means a slow but eventual death to oneself.
Living for others means a daily giving, every moment and every minute of our
life. It means tolerating the sins of others, accepting them, journeying
with them in their pain, experiencing helplessness and sharing in their misery
whilst doing what we can to relieve them of their suffering.
Sometimes, to die and
live for them requires that we champion their cause and be hated for speaking
up for them. This is what
St John said, “You must not be surprised, brothers, when the world hates you.”
When we seek to do the right thing, we will find much opposition. The
world hates us because we are a reprimand to them, showing them not just by our
words but by our actions what they ought to do and what they are missing in
their lives. Evil people oppose us because by our words and life,
we are reminding them how they should live and who they really are. But
they are not ready to face the truth about themselves.
Very often, because of
jealousy we are opposed from doing the right things. St John gave us the example of Cain
and Abel. He warned us, “We are to love one another; not to be like Cain,
who belong to the Evil One and cut his brother’s throat; cut his brother’s
throat simply for this reason, that his own life was evil and his brother lived
a good life.” Ironically, often in serving the poor, we have opposition
not just from without but from within. Within our Catholic organizations,
there is competition between the different organizations, all seeking to
champion their organization and to be more successful than the others. By
so doing, we are not loving and this is not charity. When organizations
work in silos and do not collaborate with each other in the service of the poor
or in the mission of the Church, we work against each other. This is pure
ambition, not mission. This is rooted in egoism and pride. We
should be supporting each other because we are all doing different things in
the one mission of faith and love. The success of one organization is the
success of all others. It is not about our organization but whether the
poor are served and that those without faith come to know the love of God.
We too must not be too
parochial-minded and denominational.
Catholics must work with all men and women of goodwill, irrespective of
religions and organizations. We cannot think that only we can do good
works and others who are not of our faith cannot. This is
narrowmindedness. St Paul underscores this when he wrote, “There are
varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of
activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in
everyone.” (cf 1 Cor 12:4-7) All good works of love and
service are inspired by the Holy Spirit. We should appreciate and welcome
others who wish to work with us, or for us to work with them, as long as they
are not motivated by ideology or a hidden agenda.
We are called to be like
Nathanael who took the courage to respond to the Lord’s invitation to share in
His life. He was skeptical
initially as he was prejudiced against the inhabitants from the town of
Nazareth. Nathanael was receptive and put his reservations aside to meet
the Lord. He went to see for himself the truth about Jesus whom his
friends claim to be the Messiah. Openness to His love is the critical and
primary step towards loving. The first step towards conversion of heart
is to stay with Jesus. “Come and see!” Knowing Him and seeing how
He loves will inspire us to love accordingly. Unless we experience His
love and mercy in our lives, we will not be able to know how to love and find
the capacity to love. Hence, love for God must precede our love for our
fellowmen. The capacity to love must come from Christ alone. There
is a real danger that many of our charity workers and church volunteers want to
serve but with their own strength and vision, not with the love of God in their
hearts and the vision of our Lord.
Without love for Christ,
we will fall into despair.
There are some of us who feel guilty that we are not loving enough. We
feel that we should do more and when the poor are not helped sufficiently, we
become resentful, angry and bitter. Some of us who champion the poor
become oppressors of the rich and judgmental of others who do not support our
cause. We take things into our own hands. We are impatient
and ambitious in service. This is where St John warns, “My dear people,
if we cannot be condemned by our own conscience, we need not be afraid in God’s
presence.” Indeed, if we have done our best, then we should leave
everything to God. We must not make charity work into an ambition to find
glory and self-satisfaction. We have a vision for humanity and a mission,
but no ambition of any sort.
Our task is to make the
love of God real in our lives so that others will come to know Him, the source
of love. Once we have done
what we could, we should surrender everything into His hands and be at peace
with ourselves. If we are not at peace, we cannot give peace to
others. Christ knows our hearts and limitations more than we know
ourselves. He knew Philip and Andrew, so He called them to service.
He knew Nathanael even before He met him. Jesus saw through the heart of
Nathanael sitting under the fig tree in contemplation seeking for truth and
love. The Lord too has called us to follow Him so that we can share
His life of love and service so that we too can pass from death to life.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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