20190403
RECLAIMING
OUR SONSHIP IN CHRIST
03 APRIL, 2019,
Wednesday, 4th Week in Lent
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Violet.
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First reading
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Isaiah 49:8-15 ©
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On the day of salvation I will help you
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Thus says the Lord:
At the favourable time I will answer you,
on the day of salvation I will help you.
(I have formed you and have appointed you
as covenant of the people.)
I will restore the land
and assign you the estates that lie waste.
I will say to the prisoners, ‘Come out’,
to those who are in darkness, ‘Show
yourselves.’
On every roadway they will graze,
and each bare height shall be their
pasture.
They will never hunger or thirst,
scorching wind and sun shall never plague
them;
for he who pities them will lead them
and guide them to springs of water.
I will make a highway of all the
mountains,
and the high roads shall be banked up.
Some are on their way from afar,
others from the north and the west,
others from the land of Sinim.
Shout for joy, you heavens; exult, you earth!
You mountains, break into happy cries!
For the Lord consoles his people
and takes pity on those who are afflicted.
For Zion was saying, ‘The Lord has
abandoned me,
the Lord has forgotten me.’
Does a woman forget her baby at the
breast,
or fail to cherish the son of her womb?
Yet even if these forget,
I will never forget you.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm
144(145):8-9,13b-14,17-18 ©
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The Lord is kind and
full of compassion.
The Lord is kind and full of compassion,
slow to anger, abounding in
love.
How good is the Lord to all,
compassionate to all his
creatures.
The Lord is kind and
full of compassion.
The Lord is faithful in all his words
and loving in all his deeds.
The Lord supports all who fall
and raises all who are bowed
down.
The Lord is kind and
full of compassion.
The Lord is just in all his ways
and loving in all his deeds.
He is close to all who call him,
who call on him from their
hearts.
The Lord is kind and
full of compassion.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Jn3:16
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Glory and praise to you, O Christ!
God loved the world so much that he gave
his only Son:
everyone who believes in him has eternal
life.
Glory and praise to you, O Christ!
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Or:
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Jn11:25, 26
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Glory and praise to you, O Christ!
I am the resurrection and the life, says
the Lord;
whoever believes in me will never die.
Glory and praise to you, O Christ!
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Gospel
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John 5:17-30 ©
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The dead will hear the voice of the Son
of God, and all who hear it will live
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Jesus said to the Jews, ‘My Father goes on
working, and so do I.’ But that only made them even more intent on killing him,
because, not content with breaking the sabbath, he spoke of God as his own
Father, and so made himself God’s equal.
To
this accusation Jesus replied:
‘I tell you most solemnly,
the Son can do nothing by himself;
he can do only what he sees the Father
doing:
and whatever the Father does the Son does
too.
For the Father loves the Son
and shows him everything he does himself,
and he will show him even greater things
than these,
works that will astonish you.
Thus, as the Father raises the dead and
gives them life,
so the Son gives life to anyone he
chooses;
for the Father judges no one;
he has entrusted all judgement to the Son,
so that all may honour the Son
as they honour the Father.
Whoever refuses honour to the Son
refuses honour to the Father who sent him.
I tell you most solemnly,
whoever listens to my words,
and believes in the one who sent me,
has eternal life;
without being brought to judgement
he has passed from death to life.
I tell you most solemnly,
the hour will come – in fact it is
here already –
when the dead will hear the voice of the
Son of God,
and all who hear it will live.
For the Father, who is the source of life,
has made the Son the source of life;
and, because he is the Son of Man,
has appointed him supreme judge.
Do not be surprised at this,
for the hour is coming when the dead will
leave their graves
at the sound of his voice:
those who did good will rise again to
life;
and those who did evil, to condemnation.
I can do nothing by myself;
I can only judge as I am told to judge,
and my judging is just,
because my aim is to do not my own will,
but the will of him who sent me.’
RECLAIMING OUR
SONSHIP IN CHRIST
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ISAIAH 49:8-15; JOHN 5:17-30 ]
The whole season of Lent
is to prepare Catechumens to share in the divine sonship in Christ, and for
those already baptized, to renew their filiation with God as their Father. Although we are the Chosen People
of God, yet we, like the Israelites in the first reading, have lost our
identity and freedom as God’s people. Through our sins and infidelity, we
have become prisoners of our passions and our enemies. But God is
bountiful in mercy and compassion, as the psalmist declares, “The Lord is
gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. The Lord is good to
all and compassionate toward all his works.”
Truly, God wants to set us free by
helping us to recover our dignity as His children. He wants to
restore us to wholeness. This is what God spoke through the Prophet,
“Along the roadway, they will graze, and any bare height will be their pasture.
They will never hunger or thirst, scorching wind and sun will never plague
them; for he who pities them will lead them, will guide them to springs of
water. I shall turn all my mountains into a road and my highways will be raised
aloft.” When we become conscious that He is our God and Father, and we
are His people and His children, we will regain all that we have lost.
There will be joy and freedom in our lives.
In these tender words of assurance to His
people in exile, who were feeling abandoned and about to give up hope,God
reveals not only His fatherhood but motherhood for us all. Hence the
prophet of hope exhorted the people, “Shout for joy, you heavens; earth, exult!
Mountains, break into joyful cries! For Yahweh has consoled his people, is
taking pity on his afflicted ones. Zion was saying, ‘Yahweh has abandoned me,
the Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a woman forget her baby at the breast, feel no
pity for the child she has borne? Even if these were to forget, I shall not
forget you.” So, if we are feeling burdened, abandoned, alone in our
problems and imprisoned by our past, crippled by sin and anger, then let it be
known that God has not abandoned us. He is with us even during such dark
periods in our lives, when everything seems so hopeless and forlorn. God,
who is our Father and our Mother, will never abandon us.
What is needed is to
have faith in Jesus who came to give us back our sonship. Jesus is the Suffering Servant, as
prophesied in Isaiah. “At the time of my favour I have answered
you, on the day of salvation I have helped you. I have formed you and have
appointed you to be the covenant for a people, to restore the land, to return
ravaged properties, to say to prisoners, ‘Come out,’ to those who are in
darkness, ‘Show yourselves.'” Jesus is the One who will lead us prisoners out
of our dungeon of darkness and misery. To come out of this hell, we must
first “show ourselves”, that is, make ourselves available to Him. What
does showing ourselves entail? Simply, it means that we must learn from
Jesus what and how one can become the son of the Father. Only in Jesus
can we be restored to our sonship, since we are sons of the Father only in the Son.
We are sons and daughters by adoption, not by nature. To be sons and daughters
in the Son, we must deepen our knowledge of Jesus’ relationship with His
Father.
In the gospel, Jesus tells us that the Father
loves Him and has given everything to Him. “For the Father loves the
Son and shows him everything he does himself, and he will show him even greater
things than these, works that will astonish you.” In claiming this love
of His Father, Jesus made it clear that He is the Mediator of the Father.
He came to reveal to us His Father’s love and mercy in His teachings, and
especially in His works, particularly of forgiveness and in setting people free
from sin, illnesses and the bondage of the Evil One. Most of all, His passion,
death and resurrection will reveal the greater things that God does.
It is true for us too. If we
want to learn how to be children of God, we must learn from Jesus who Himself
learnt from His Father. To be a son implies having full knowledge of
the Father. Sonship is the corollary of Fatherhood and vice versa. Every
child must, therefore, represent the Father and become one with the Father who
is the source of his life. Indeed, in another text of the gospel Jesus
says, “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son
except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom
the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Mt 11:27) Knowledge of the son is at the
pleasure of the Father, who communicates Himself to His son. All parents
would like to hand down their values and traditions to their children,
especially their skills and trade. They hope that their children will
perpetuate the values of their fathers and race as well. In the case of
God our Father, He entrusted everything to the Son without reservation.
To His Son, He gave Him
the power to give life.
“Thus, as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life
to anyone he chooses; for the Father judges no one; he has entrusted all
judgement to the Son, so that all may honour the Son as they honour the
Father.” Jesus, therefore, is our life-giver. He is the source of
life and light for everyone. This life, however, is only ours if we
accept Jesus as the Son of the Father. Faith in Jesus is paramount and
the ultimate criterion in finding the fullness of life.
Faith in Jesus,
therefore, is more than mere trust in Him but to believe in Him so that His
life is reflected in ours. He assures us of fullness of life if we listen to Him,
a life that begins the moment we accept Him. “Whoever listens to my
words, and believes in the one who sent me, has eternal life; without being
brought to judgement he has passed from death to life. I tell you most
solemnly, the hour will come – in fact, it is here already – when the dead will
hear the voice of the Son of God, and all who hear it will live.” What a
wonderful promise from the Lord; that without being brought to judgement, we
have already passed from death to life. In other words, even before we
face the final judgement at the end of our life, this life of God is already
ours, if we share in the life of Jesus.
This life requires that
we do the will of the Father as Jesus did. “I can do nothing by myself: I can only judge
as I am told to judge, and my judging is just because my aim is to do not my
own will, but the will of him who sent me.” To be a true son and
daughter, like all good children, we endeavour to please our parents.
Children always seek approval and the love of their parents for whatever they
do, because they owe their origin and life to them. Similarly, if we are
called to be God’s children, it will not be to the approval of man that we
seek, but only God’s. This was always the attitude of Jesus towards His
enemies, and the people as well, for His one and only desire was to serve His
Father and to do what the Father would have done. Identified with the Father
fully, He gives life to all who come to Him.
We must also bear in mind that sonship
is ultimately spelt out in servanthood. This explains why Jesus
considered Himself as the Suffering Servant of Isaiah. He took upon
Himself as the One His Father had chosen to be the light of the Covenant and
set His people free. As we draw closer to the passion and death of our
Lord, let us continue to walk in this path of servanthood too. Life is
ours as we give ourselves more and more to Christ and His people. We who
have been chosen as His sons and daughters are called too, to bring others into
God’s family. So the concrete way for us to participate in the sonship of
Christ is the way of humble service and self-emptying for the good of
humanity. As Jesus assures us, “Do not be surprised at this, for the hour
is coming when the dead will leave their graces at the sound of his voice:
those who did good will rise again to life; and those who did evil, to
condemnation.” So let us not wait till Easter to live the resurrected
life, but this life is already ours as a foretaste if we imitate Jesus in being
the instrument of God’s love for others. Following Jesus, let us be
life-givers, by our words and actions. Let us be people of hope and be
like God who assures those who are depressed and alone or lost that we are with
them and there is hope in God. Giving life to others is the way to find
life ourselves.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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