20190510
POWER OF THE MISSION COMES FROM CHRIST WHO LIVES IN US
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
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First reading
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Acts
9:1-20 ©
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This man is my chosen
instrument to bring my name before the pagans
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Saul was still
breathing threats to slaughter the Lord’s disciples. He had gone to the high
priest and asked for letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, that
would authorise him to arrest and take to Jerusalem any followers of the Way,
men or women, that he could find.
Suddenly, while he was travelling to Damascus and just
before he reached the city, there came a light from heaven all round him. He
fell to the ground, and then he heard a voice saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you
persecuting me?’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ he asked, and the voice answered, ‘I am
Jesus, and you are persecuting me. Get up now and go into the city, and you
will be told what you have to do.’ The men travelling with Saul stood there
speechless, for though they heard the voice they could see no one. Saul got up
from the ground, but even with his eyes wide open he could see nothing at all,
and they had to lead him into Damascus by the hand. For three days he was
without his sight, and took neither food nor drink.
A disciple called Ananias who lived in Damascus had a
vision in which he heard the Lord say to him, ‘Ananias!’ When he replied, ‘Here
I am, Lord’, the Lord said, ‘You must go to Straight Street and ask the house
of Judas for someone called Saul, who comes from Tarsus. At this moment he is
praying, having had a vision of a man called Ananias coming in and laying hands
on him to give him back his sight.’
When he heard that, Ananias said, ‘Lord, several
people have told me about this man and all the harm he has been doing to your
saints in Jerusalem. He has only come here because he holds a warrant from the
chief priests to arrest everybody who invokes your name.’ The Lord replied,
‘You must go all the same, because this man is my chosen instrument to bring my
name before pagans and pagan kings and before the people of Israel; I myself
will show him how much he himself must suffer for my name.’ Then Ananias went.
He entered the house, and at once laid his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother
Saul, I have been sent by the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on your way here
so that you may recover your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’
Immediately it was as though scales fell away from Saul’s eyes and he could see
again. So he was baptised there and then, and after taking some food he
regained his strength.
He began preaching in the synagogues, ‘Jesus is the
Son of God.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm
116(117) ©
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Go out to the
whole world; proclaim the Good News.
or
Alleluia!
O praise the
Lord, all you nations,
acclaim
him all you peoples!
Go out to the
whole world; proclaim the Good News.
or
Alleluia!
Strong is his
love for us;
he
is faithful for ever.
Go out to the
whole world; proclaim the Good News.
or
Alleluia!
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Gospel Acclamation
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cf.Lk24:46,26
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Alleluia,
alleluia!
It was ordained
that the Christ should suffer
and rise from
the dead,
and so enter
into his glory.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Jn6:56
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Alleluia,
alleluia!
He who eats my
flesh and drinks my blood
lives in me, and
I live in him,
says the Lord.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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John
6:52-59 ©
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My flesh is real food and
my blood is real drink
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The Jews started
arguing with one another: ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ they
said. Jesus replied:
‘I tell you most
solemnly,
if you do not
eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you will not
have life in you.
Anyone who does
eat my flesh and drink my blood
has eternal
life,
and I shall
raise him up on the last day.
For my flesh is
real food
and my blood is
real drink.
He who eats my
flesh and drinks my blood
lives in me
and I live in
him.
As I, who am
sent by the living Father,
myself draw life
from the Father,
so whoever eats
me will draw life from me.
This is the
bread come down from heaven;
not like the
bread our ancestors ate:
they are dead,
but anyone who
eats this bread will live for ever.’
He taught this
doctrine at Capernaum, in the synagogue.
10 MAY, 2019, Friday, 3rd Week of Easter
POWER
OF THE MISSION COMES FROM CHRIST WHO LIVES IN US
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Acts 9:1-20; PS 117:1-2; John 6:52-59 ]
Why are
Catholics encouraged to attend daily mass and not just Sunday mass? It is
in order that we draw strength from the Lord. Otherwise, how can we carry
on with our daily life with the wisdom and love of our Lord? Even Jesus
Himself said, “I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the
Father.” Jesus was conscious that without His intimacy and communion with
His Father, there would be no mission or ministry. After all, He was
conscious that He was to present the Father to us. “Believe me that I am
in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me
because of the works themselves.” (Jn 14:11)
We who have
been sent by the Lord to continue His mission should also be dependent on Him. The theological
principle of sending is that the one who is sent must find strength and
authority from the one who sends him. At the commissioning, the Lord said
to the apostles, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
Then “he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’.” (Jn 20:21f) For this reason, Jesus could
say to His disciples, “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects
you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” (Lk 10:16) The Holy Spirit identifies us
with Jesus because the Spirit of Jesus lives in us. We become one with
Jesus because He lives in us.
But how does
the Spirit of Jesus live in us so that Jesus is one with us? Eating His
body and drinking His blood is the way in which we enter into the life of Jesus
and His Holy Spirit dwell in us. Jesus said, “I tell you most
solemnly, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you will not have life in you. Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood
has eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is
real food and my blood is real drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
lives in me and I live in him.” Jesus lives in us when we
receive Him into our lives.
This doctrine
of the body of Christ which St Paul expounds in 1 Cor 12:12-31 has its basis in the
Eucharistic doctrine propounded by our Lord in the gospel. He wrote, “For just
as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body,
though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we
were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and we were
all made to drink of one Spirit.” (1 Cor 12:12f) Indeed, we are one body in
Christ and Christ is the head of the Church. “He is the head of the body,
the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might
come to have first place in everything.” (1 Cor 12:18)
This
realization of St Paul that we are the body of Christ came from his own personal
encounter with the Lord. We read in the first reading that on his way to Damascus, the Lord
appeared to Paul in a dazzling light and said to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you
persecuting me? I am Jesus, and you are persecuting me.” Jesus in
no uncertain terms identified Himself with the Christians whom Paul was
persecuting. To hurt the Christians was to hurt the Lord.
Jesus could only make this claim because He lived in the Christians through the
Eucharist that they received. The Lord dwelt in them and they in
Him. Not only did the Lord identify Himself with the Christians, He also
identified Himself in a special way with those in need. In the Last
Judgement, the Lord said, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the
least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Mt 25:40) The early Christians, recognizing
that they were family and all belonged to Christ, claimed no “private ownership
of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.” (Acts 4:32)
To strengthen
this doctrine of the Body of Christ, we have Ananias who was sent by the Lord
to affirm Paul of his brotherhood with Christ and His body. “He entered the
house, and at once laid his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother Saul, I have been
sent by the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on your way here so that you may
recover your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit’. Immediately it was as
though scales fell away from Saul’s eyes and he could see again. So he was
baptised there.” Saul was called a “brother” and was baptized and filled with
the Holy Spirit. Through baptism, we enter into the communion of saints
and become a member of Christ’s body, the Church.
Only with
this vision, was St Paul sent out to be the apostle of our Lord. “After taking some
food he regained his strength. He began preaching in the synagogues,
‘Jesus is the Son of God’.” Indeed, the food that St Paul needed was not
just material food but the spiritual food of the Eucharist. As the Lord
said to Ananias, “this man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before
pagans and pagan kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him
how much he himself must suffer for my name.” Without the strength that
came from his personal encounter with the Risen Lord and the Christians, the
head and body of Christ, he would have lacked the strength to remain steadfast
in his ministry.
Paul knew that
partaking of His body and blood is not just a superstitious ritual that one
goes through when we celebrate the Eucharist. He said, “For as often as
you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he
comes.” (1 Cor 11:26) To
share in the life of Christ, it entails that we are ready to offer our body and
our blood in union with our Lord for the salvation of humanity, in service and
in love. Indeed, when the Church encourages us to receive the Eucharist
daily, she is not asking us to merely perform the ritual of attending mass and
receiving the Eucharist. Such a ritualistic exercise will not change our
lives radically and will bear no real fruits in our lives.
Indeed,
partaking of the bread from heaven is more than just eating His flesh and
drinking His blood; it is also to recognize that Jesus is the Bread of life. Jesus is the Word of
God, the manna that came down from heaven. “This is the bread come down
from heaven; not like the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead, but anyone
who eats this bread will live for ever.’ He taught this doctrine at Capernaum,
in the synagogue.” In other words, Jesus is the Word of God in person, in
the flesh. We are called to encounter Jesus not just sacramentally in the
flesh but His Word also. This explains why the Eucharist is the Real
Presence of our Lord in a par excellence manner. Jesus is not just
present in the bread and wine but He is also present when the scriptures are
read and preached.
Partaking of
His body and blood brings us into full communion with the Lord in mind and
heart.
We are called to receive the entire person of Jesus. Reducing Jesus to
the Word of God alone would be to reduce Jesus to a cerebral
relationship. We communicate with a person both through words and
deeds. So it is important that we hear the Word of God first so that we
can then recognize as Saul did, that Jesus is the Word of God. This
explains why the Church in Vatican II teaches, “For this reason Jesus perfected
revelation by fulfilling it through his whole work of making Himself present
and manifesting Himself: through His words and deeds, His signs and wonders,
but especially through His death and glorious resurrection from the dead and
final sending of the Spirit of truth.” (Dei Verbum 4) It is the
entire person of our Lord that communicates God’s love and plan to us.
Hence, if we
want to go out to the whole world to proclaim the gospel, we must be able to
feel with the psalmist who says, “Strong is his love for us; he is faithful for
ever.” It is only in Christ, sharing in His life and love, through the
Eucharist, the bread of life, His Word and His person, that we can find
strength, encouragement, empowerment, wisdom, enlightenment and His presence at
work in us. We are called not just to labour for the Lord but more
importantly, to let the Spirit of Jesus work in and through us.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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