20190423
TURNING
AROUND
23 APRIL, 2019,
Easter Tuesday
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
White.
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First reading
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Acts 2:36-41 ©
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You must repent and be baptized in the
name of Jesus
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On the day of Pentecost, Peter spoke to
the Jews: ‘The whole House of Israel can be certain that God has made this
Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.’
Hearing
this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the apostles, ‘What must
we do, brothers?’ ‘You must repent,’ Peter answered ‘and every one of you must
be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and
you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise that was made is for
you and your children, and for all those who are far away, for all those whom
the Lord our God will call to himself.’ He spoke to them for a long time using
many arguments, and he urged them, ‘Save yourselves from this perverse
generation.’ They were convinced by his arguments, and they accepted what he
said and were baptised. That very day about three thousand were added to their
number.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm
32(33):4-5,18-20,22 ©
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The Lord fills the earth
with his love.
or
Alleluia, alleluia,
alleluia!
The word of the Lord is faithful
and all his works to be
trusted.
The Lord loves justice and right
and fills the earth with his
love.
The Lord fills the earth
with his love.
or
Alleluia, alleluia,
alleluia!
The Lord looks on those who revere him,
on those who hope in his love,
to rescue their souls from death,
to keep them alive in famine.
The Lord fills the earth
with his love.
or
Alleluia, alleluia,
alleluia!
Our soul is waiting for the Lord.
The Lord is our help and our
shield.
May your love be upon us, O Lord,
as we place all our hope in
you.
The Lord fills the earth
with his love.
or
Alleluia, alleluia,
alleluia!
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Sequence
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Christians, to the Paschal Victim
offer sacrifice and praise.
The sheep are ransomed by the Lamb;
and Christ, the undefiled,
hath sinners to his Father reconciled.
Death with life contended:
combat strangely ended!
Life’s own Champion, slain,
yet lives to reign.
Tell us, Mary:
say what thou didst see
upon the way.
The tomb the Living did enclose;
I saw Christ’s glory as he rose!
The angels there attesting;
shroud with grave-clothes resting.
Christ, my hope, has risen:
he goes before you into Galilee.
That Christ is truly risen
from the dead we know.
Victorious king, thy mercy show!
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Gospel Acclamation
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Ps117:24
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Alleluia, alleluia!
This day was made by the Lord:
we rejoice and are glad.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John 20:11-18 ©
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'I have seen the Lord and he has spoken
to me'
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Mary stayed outside near the tomb,
weeping. Then, still weeping, she stooped to look inside, and saw two angels in
white sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head, the other at
the feet. They said, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ ‘They have taken my Lord
away’ she replied ‘and I don’t know where they have put him.’ As she said this
she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not recognise
him. Jesus said, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?’
Supposing him to be the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have taken him away,
tell me where you have put him, and I will go and remove him.’ Jesus said,
‘Mary!’ She knew him then and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbuni!’ – which
means Master. Jesus said to her, ‘Do not cling to me, because I have not yet
ascended to the Father. But go and find the brothers, and tell them: I am
ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ So Mary of
Magdala went and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had
said these things to her.
TURNING AROUND
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ ACTS 2:36-41; PS 33:4-5,18-20,22; JN 20:11-18]
What is metanoia? It
means to turn around, which is what repentance is all about. It is to turn around to receive
the Good News. Repentance is not a negative term. In fact, it is a
positive term because it invites a person to turn away from sin and turn
towards the new reality of joy, freedom and peace. This was what St Peter
told the people, “Save yourselves from this perverse generation.” This
same message is addressed to us today. We are called to be faithful to
God and the gospel. The gospel wants to free us for authentic love and
the joy of unconditional service against the materialistic, consumeristic,
selfish and self-centered values of the world.
How can we help people
to turn around? Conscientising the conscience is the ordinary way of
helping people to repent. That
is why instruction in morality is fundamental in guiding the life of our
people. Unless they know what is right and wrong, there would be no
repentance. The ideology of relativism precisely misleads people into
desensitizing their conscience because according to relativism, there is no
question of right or wrong, but it is a matter of preference and
pragmatism. This explains why today we face a world that is not only
immoral but amoral. At least if people realize that some of the things
they do are immoral, they can still change. But when it is amoral, the
conscience is dead.
This explains why St
Peter began by highlighting to them the wrongfulness of the actions against
Jesus. He
said, “Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of
power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves
know – this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and
foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside
the law. But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because
it was impossible for him to be held in its power.” (Acts 2:22-24)
However, it is not
enough to be aware that something is wrong, but that someone has been wronged
and who is causing the harm. Indeed, this is the situation of the world
today. People are very quick to pick on the faults of others but are
blind to their own.
This was the case of King David when he heard the parable of the prophet Nathan
whereby a rich man took from a poor man, the only little ewe lamb he had to be
slaughtered for his guest. “Then David’s anger was greatly kindled
against the man. He said to Nathan, ‘As the Lord lives, the man who
has done this deserves to die; ‘he shall restore the lamb fourfold,
because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.’ Nathan said to
David, ‘You are the man!'” (1 Sm 12:5-7)
There is a great deal of
hypocrisy in the world today.
The world is promoting promiscuity and pornography, but when people fall into
sexual sins and are tempted to commit sexual crimes, we condemn them. It
is almost like putting temptation and waiting for those who are weak to catch
the bait and then condemn them. Isn’t this what the devil does? He
seduces us and then accuses us. “For the accuser of our comrades has been
thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.” (Rev 12:10) Instead of removing the cause
of sexual crimes, we condemn the weak who fall into the traps set up by the
world!
Hence, it is not enough
to name the sin but we must be made aware that we are equally guilty of that sin
for repentance to take place.
Indeed, that was what happened. “Hearing this, they were cut to the heart
and said to Peter and the apostles, ‘What must we do, brothers?’ ‘You must
repent.’ Peter answered ‘and every one of you must be baptised in the name of
Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” To be cut to the heart is
what guilt is all about. Unless we know we are guilty, there can be no
repentance. This kind of guilt is different from scrupulosity. We
must make a distinction between good and bad guilt. The former sets us
free and makes us take action to change. The latter just dwells in us all
the time, causing us to live in regret and condemnation of self.
There is another way to
bring people to turn around, which is by way of arguments. St Peter “spoke to them for a long
time using many arguments. They were convinced by his arguments,
and they accepted what he said and were baptised. That very day about three
thousand were added to their number.” There is still a place for
apologetics in theology although the defence of faith today is taken over by
dialogue. Yet, we still need to give a reason for our faith, as St Peter
tells us. “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands
from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with
gentleness and reverence.” (1 Pt 3:15f) By explaining what and why
we believe, we provide the intelligibility and credibility of our faith.
This is what theology is all about. It is a systematic presentation of
the faith. But theology’s presupposition is also faith seeking
understanding. This explains why theological arguments only help those
who are ready to listen, dialogue and have a certain openness and
predisposition to believe, or are sincerely searching for the truth.
Otherwise, intellectual arguments alone will not convince anyone who is out to
disprove the theological position of the other party. So it will not do
much good since no one is going to be convinced of anything as there is no
genuine dialogue.
The third way to help
people turn around is through the witnessing of God’s power and mercy. Peter’s homily was in response to the
descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, “Divided tongues, as of fire,
appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of
them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as
the Spirit gave them ability. The crowd gathered and was bewildered, because
each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.” (Acts 2:3-6) St Peter used this
phenomenon to explain why “God has made him (Jesus) both Lord and
Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36) Indeed, the early Church
testified to the Lordship of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit through
the signs that accompanied their preaching. “And these signs will
accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they
will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if
they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands
on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mk 16:17f)
St Peter offered this
same gift to them when he said, “every one of you must be baptised in the name
of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift
of the Holy Spirit. The
promise that was made is for you and your children, and for all those who are
far away, for all those whom the Lord our God will call to himself.” It
is not enough to tell people to give up their sins but we must offer them
something greater if they were to turn around to receive Jesus and the Holy
Spirit. Unless we have something better to offer, why should people give
up what they consider their security, even it does not offer lasting happiness?
That is why the Church cannot do away with the healing ministry and works of
charity. Preaching without the works of God will not change hearts or
convince people that the Lord is risen.
In the final analysis,
love is the best way to make people turn around. This was the case for
Mary Magdalene in the gospel. She was the one whom the Lord “had cast
out seven demons.” (Mk 16:9) St Luke
also mentioned her as one of the women who had been cured of evil spirits and
infirmities who provided for Jesus and the apostles out of their
resources. (Lk 8:1-3) Mary Magdalene
must have been like the other women, so grateful to the Lord that they would
visit Him at the tomb the next day.
In the gospel, we read
of the reward of Mary Magdalene’s love and devotion to the Lord. She was not able to let the Lord go
and even after His death, her love for the Lord was immense. This was due
most likely to the fact that she must have been so terrified and tormented by
the seven demons in her. In the ancient world, it was believed that
demons were the cause of physical and psychological illnesses. Because of
her love for the Lord, she was among the first disciples gifted to see the
Risen Lord. We are told specifically in today’s gospel that it was her
intimacy with the Lord that helped her to overcome her grief and pain.
She could not see properly because of her overwhelming grief that when the Lord
appeared to her, she thought He was a gardener. However, when the Lord
called her, “‘Mary!’ She knew him then and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbuni!’ –
which means Master.” To hear the Lord’s voice defines her as a true
sheep of the Shepherd. (cf Jn 10:3-5)
We too must turn around
to the Lord if we are to fall in love with Him even more. It is the lack of intimacy that
prevents us from giving all our resources to serve Him. We love ourselves
more than we love Him. Like the women who used all their resources to
serve the Lord, we too can give ourselves wholeheartedly to the Lord if we love
Him as much as Mary Magdalene loved Him. Guilt, awareness of our
sinfulness, the joy of a new life ahead of us and intellectual convictions
supplement, but that is not enough to ground our commitment to the Lord.
Only love can, because when we love, we will do everything out of love and for
love, even to the extent of giving up our life for the love of someone as Jesus
did for us.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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