20190210
AUTHENTICATING A GENUINE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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Isaiah
6:1-2,3-8 ©
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'Here I am: send me'
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In the year of
King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord of Hosts seated on a high throne; his train
filled the sanctuary; above him stood seraphs, each one with six wings.
And they cried out to one another in this way,
‘Holy, holy,
holy is the Lord of Hosts.
His glory fills
the whole earth.’
The foundations
of the threshold shook with the voice of the one who cried out, and the Temple
was filled with smoke. I said:
‘What a wretched
state I am in! I am lost,
for I am a man
of unclean lips
and I live among
a people of unclean lips,
and my eyes have
looked at the King, the Lord of Hosts.’
Then one of the
seraphs flew to me, holding in his hand a live coal which he had taken from the
altar with a pair of tongs. With this he touched my mouth and said:
‘See now, this has
touched your lips,
your sin is
taken away,
your iniquity is
purged.’
Then I heard the
voice of the Lord saying:
‘Whom shall I
send? Who will be our messenger?’
I answered,
‘Here I am, send me.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm
137(138):1-5,7-8 ©
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Before the
angels I will bless you, O Lord.
I thank you,
Lord, with all my heart:
you
have heard the words of my mouth.
In the presence
of the angels I will bless you.
I
will adore before your holy temple.
Before the
angels I will bless you, O Lord.
I thank you for
your faithfulness and love,
which
excel all we ever knew of you.
On the day I
called, you answered;
you
increased the strength of my soul.
Before the
angels I will bless you, O Lord.
All earth’s
kings shall thank you
when
they hear the words of your mouth.
They shall sing
of the Lord’s ways:
‘How
great is the glory of the Lord!’
Before the
angels I will bless you, O Lord.
You stretch out
your hand and save me,
your
hand will do all things for me.
Your love, O
Lord, is eternal,
discard
not the work of your hands.
Before the
angels I will bless you, O Lord.
EITHER:
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Second reading
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1
Corinthians 15:1-11 ©
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I preached what the others preach, and
you all believed
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Brothers, I want
to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, the gospel that you received and
in which you are firmly established; because the gospel will save you only if
you keep believing exactly what I preached to you – believing anything else
will not lead to anything.
Well then, in the first place, I taught you what I had
been taught myself, namely that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with
the scriptures; that he was buried; and that he was raised to life on the third
day, in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared first to Cephas and
secondly to the Twelve. Next he appeared to more than five hundred of the
brothers at the same time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died;
then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles; and last of all he
appeared to me too; it was as though I was born when no one expected it.
I am the least of the apostles; in fact, since I
persecuted the Church of God, I hardly deserve the name apostle; but by God’s
grace that is what I am, and the grace that he gave me has not been fruitless.
On the contrary, I, or rather the grace of God that is with me, have worked
harder than any of the others; but what matters is that I preach what they
preach, and this is what you all believed.
OR:
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Alternative Second reading
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1
Corinthians 15:3-8,11 ©
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I preach what the apostles preach; and
this is what you all believed.
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Brothers, in the
first place I taught you what I had been taught myself, namely that Christ died
for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; and that
he was raised to life on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures; that
he appeared first to Cephas and secondly to the Twelve. Next he appeared to
more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still
alive, though some have died; then he appeared to James, and then to all the
apostles; and last of all he appeared to me too; it was as though I was born
when no one expected it. But what matters is that I preach what they preach,
and this is what you all believed.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Jn15:15
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Alleluia,
alleluia!
I call you
friends, says the Lord,
because I have
made known to you
everything I
have learnt from my Father.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Mt4:19
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Alleluia,
alleluia!
Follow me, says
the Lord,
and I will make
you into fishers of men.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Luke
5:1-11 ©
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They left everything and
followed him
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Jesus was
standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him
listening to the word of God, when he caught sight of two boats close to the
bank. The fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got
into one of the boats – it was Simon’s – and asked him to put out a
little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, ‘Put
out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.’ ‘Master,’ Simon
replied, ‘we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so,
I will pay out the nets.’ And when they had done this they netted such a huge
number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their
companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they
filled the two boats to sinking point.
When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of
Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.’ For he and all his
companions were completely overcome by the catch they had made; so also were
James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners. But Jesus said to
Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch.’ Then, bringing
their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.
10 FEBRUARY, 2019, Sunday, 5th Week, Ordinary Time
AUTHENTICATING
A GENUINE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Isa 6:1-8; Ps 138:1-5,7-8; 1 Cor 15:1-11 (or >< 15:3-8.11); Luke 5:1-11 ]
Every
Christian by virtue of his or her baptism has an obligation to spread the
gospel. Yet the truth is that this responsibility is hardly felt or
carried out consciously and passionately. Many are baptized just to save
their own soul. It is about their salvation and happiness. Why is
there such an indifference to the duty of spreading the Good News? St
Paul in the second reading took his responsibility seriously. He was
concerned about the salvation of the souls of others.
The truth is
that many of us, even though baptized, have not had a real personal encounter
with the Lord. Even if we did, we fail to be open to ongoing personal
encounters with the Lord in our lives. We live our faith as if it is a
philosophy of life, or as Pope Benedict wrote, “the result of an ethical choice
or a lofty idea.” (Deus est Caritas, 1) Rather, it is our encounter
with God’s love in Jesus “that gives life a new horizon and a decisive
direction.” Deus est Caritas, 1) Without a radical personal encounter with the
Lord and renewal of such encounter, our faith will be weak. It will lack
power and dynamism because it is on the cerebral dimension. This
explains why there is a lack of enthusiasm, conviction and joy to proclaim the
Good News of our Lord. The Good News is reduced to simply the passing on
of a message or a doctrine, not about the person of our Lord.
Indeed, all
the three characters in today’s scripture readings, Prophet Isaiah, St Paul and
St Peter had a radical encounter with the Lord. What would
such an encounter with the Lord entail? People often mistake
an insight with a religious encounter. Insight comes after a personal
encounter. In other words, there is first an experience and the
conceptualization of the experience. In fact, all doctrines are grounded
in some religious experience before they are formulated in words. Isaiah
was given the grace of a mystical vision of “the Lord seated on a high throne;
his train filled the sanctuary … And they cried out ‘Holy, holy is
the Lord of hosts.” St Peter encountered the power of God in the
miraculous catch of the fish. St Paul had a radical experience of being
thrown off the horse on his way to Damascus. “He heard a voice saying to
him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ He asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’
The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.'”
How do we
know that our encounter with the Lord is real and not just a figment of our
imagination? Firstly, a religious experience always brings about a sense of
unworthiness and awareness of one’s sinfulness. Isaiah’s immediate
reaction was one of unworthiness before the holiness of God. He said,
“What a wretched state I am in! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I
live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have looked at the King, the
Lord of hosts.” So too was the case of St Paul when the Lord appeared to
him on his way to Damascus. St Paul regarded himself as an unworthy
apostle of the Lord. He said, “I am the least of the apostles; in fact,
since I persecuted the Church of God, I hardly deserve the name apostle; but by
God’s grace that is what I am.” (cf 1 Tim 1:13) Indeed, humility is the
cause and effect of a religious encounter with the Lord. If we feel a
sense of worthiness or self-righteousness and spiritual superiority over others,
it could be a sign that we have neither seen God nor known Him, otherwise we
would have seen the truth about ourselves, sinners like the rest of humanity
before Him and yet loved by Him unconditionally.
St Peter too
had this similar reaction when he encountered the Lord’s power and holiness. He thought he knew
better than Jesus where to make a catch of fish. It was with reluctance
that he obeyed the Lord in putting down the nets, perhaps just to prove Him
wrong. When he saw the big catch that “filled the two boats to sinking
point … he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful
man.’ For he and all his companions were completely overcome by the catch they
had made.” Indeed, if we claim to have an encounter with the Lord and feel
smug and overly confident about ourselves, then clearly we have not had a real
encounter. Anyone who encounters the holiness of God and His glory will
feel very inadequate about himself. This explains why on the last day the
hardcore sinners will reject God because they will feel so unworthy to see the
Lord, like Isaiah, even when the Lord forgives and welcomes them to heaven in
spite of their sins.
Secondly, in
an authentic religious experience, the awareness of one’s sinfulness is
accompanied by a humble acceptance of God’s forgiveness. In the case of Isaiah, the
Lord sent one of the seraphs “holding in his hand a live coal” and touched the
mouth of Isaiah saying, “See now, this has touched your lips, your sin is
taken away, your iniquity is purged.” The consciousness of sin is
followed by the forgiveness of sins. So too, St Peter experienced the
forgiveness of our Lord, not once but twice. Jesus assured Peter, “Do not
be afraid!” Indeed, even in our sinfulness, the Lord is telling us not to
be afraid of His love. He welcomes us. Later He gave Peter another
chance by replacing his threefold denial with a threefold profession of love.
St Paul too
was given a chance to encounter the Lord’s forgiveness when He sent Ananias to
welcome him as a brother. Ananias went and “laid his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother Saul,
the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you
may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ And
immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was
restored. Then he got up and was baptized.” (Acts 9:17f) Saul was not just accepted
as a brother in Christ, but was given the gift of physical and spiritual sight
to acknowledge Jesus as the Christ.
The third
effect of a religious encounter is one of gratitude and amazement. St Paul wrote to
Timothy and said, “He judged me faithful and appointed me to his
service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man
of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in
unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and
love that are in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
– of whom I am the foremost.” (cf 1 Tim 1:12-15) If we have received His
infinite and undeserving mercy, we will be as grateful as Peter and
Isaiah. Indeed, when we think of how undeserving we are of His mercy and
love, all the blessings He has given to us, our career, our health, our loved
ones and our financial independence and most of all, our faith in Him, we will
have nothing but gratitude because we will know that who we are today and what
we do is not our efforts alone but purely His grace.
The fourth
consequence of this overwhelming experience of God’s mercy is the call to serve
Him and our immediate response to that call. So when Isaiah, “heard the voice of the
Lord saying: Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger? I answered, ‘Here I
am, send me.'” Having been touched by the Lord’s mercy, one
naturally desires to serve Him without reservation. We give ourselves
easily to those who love us and care for us. Indeed, God shows His mercy
to us not just for our sakes but also for the sake of others. St Paul
wrote, “But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the
foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example
to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.” (1 Tim 1:16) So also for Peter and the
rest of his friends. After the miraculous catch, the Lord said to them,
“‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch.’ Then, bringing
their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.” When
God calls us, our response must be complete and immediate because of His love
and mercy. What is most amazing again is that God has chosen us in spite of our
unworthiness and sinfulness. It is not because we are talented and
gifted, but He chose us when we were nothing. (cf 1 Cor 1:26-29) Our qualification does
not come from us but from Him alone. It is by God’s grace that we are who
we are today. “By God’s grace that is what I am”, says St Paul.
Truly, if one
has an authentic experience of God’s mercy, forgiveness and love, like the apostles,
we too would want to be the apostles of mercy and love, the messengers of the Good
News to all of humanity. Thus, if we have no desire to spread His love
and mercy, it means that we either have forgotten our encounter with Him or we
have never had a radical experience of His love. That is why we rely on
our intellectual knowledge or just an act of our will, which of course demands
more energy from us since it does not spring from our hearts.
Hence, we
must cooperate with His grace and not allow the grace of God given to us to be
received in vain. This was what Isaiah and the apostles did. St Peter
cooperated with the grace of God by putting down the nets. St Paul
himself wrote, “The grace that he gave me has not been fruitless. On the
contrary, I, or rather the grace of God that is with me, have worked harder
than any of the others; but what matters is that I preach what they preach, and
this is what you all believed.” We who have received the gift of faith
must allow the grace of God to work in and through us for His greater
glory. When we cooperate with His grace like the apostles, He will show
forth His glory and power in our weakness. God chooses us, ordinary
people, to be His witnesses and ambassadors of the Good News through the
ordinary situations of our life. Today, the Lord continues to ask, “Whom
shall I send? Who will be our messenger?” What is your response?
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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