20190620
KNOWING
THE FATHER THROUGH JESUS IS THE WAY TO FINDING PEACE AND SECURITY
20 JUNE, 2019,
Thursday, 11th Week, Ordinary Time
2Cor 11:1-11
wish you would bear with me
in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! 2 For I feel a
divine jealousy for you, since nI
betrothed you to one husband, oto
present you pas
a pure virgin to Christ. 3 But I am
afraid that qas
the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts rwill
be led astray from a ssincere
and tpure
devotion to Christ. 4 For if
someone comes and uproclaims
another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit
from the one you received, or if you accept va
different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. 5 Indeed,
I consider that wI am
not in the least inferior to these super-apostles. 6 xEven
if I am unskilled in speaking, yI am
not so in knowledge; indeed, in every way zwe
have made this plain to you in all things.
7 Or adid
I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because bI
preached God’s gospel to you free of charge? 8 I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order
to serve you. 9 And when I
was with you and was cin
need, dI did
not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia esupplied
my need. So I refrained and will refrain ffrom
burdening you in any way. 10 gAs
the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine hwill
not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. 11 And why? iBecause
I do not love you? jGod
knows I do!
Mt 6:7-15
7 “And
when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as bthe
Gentiles do, for cthey
think that they will be heard dfor
their many words. 8 Do
not be like them, efor
your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 fPray
then like this:
g“Our
Father in heaven,
hhallowed
be iyour
name.1
10 jYour
kingdom come,
kyour
will be done,2
lon
earth as it is in heaven.
11 mGive us nthis
day our daily bread,3
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our
debtors.
13 And olead
us not into temptation,
but pdeliver
us from qevil.4
14 rFor
if you forgive others
their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 sbut
if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive
your trespasses.
KNOWING THE
FATHER THROUGH JESUS IS THE WAY TO FINDING PEACE AND SECURITY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [2 COR 11:1-11; MT
6:7-15 ]
We are so miserable and
full of anxiety. As a consequence, we fall into sin because of
fear. St
Paul speaks about how easily we are led astray by false lights. Many of us
are sinful and hence can no longer see our sins. We have a false sense of
righteousness that comes with being more closed than open to the mystery of
God’s love. We see absolutes where God sees shades of gray.
The cause of all our
problems in life is because we do not know God and especially that God is our
Father! This
is the consequence of secularism and materialism. When you do not believe
in God, then one has to depend on oneself.
This is why the proclamation of
the Father’s love is the heart of Jesus’ message. This is why He
taught us the Lord’s Prayer.
But how many of us can
truly pray this prayer?
We do not pray with joy and confidence. If we do, then we would no longer
have any fear. We might know the Lord’s Prayer but we do not pray in the Spirit
of Christ’s sonship. We are just like the Pharisees and recite it like a
parrot.
What does it mean to
pray in Christ’s sonship? It means to know the Father’s love as Jesus
knew Him whom He called Abba Father.
This was the same experience of St Paul too. Jesus’ life and ministry and
teaching are demonstrated by the love of His Father for Him.
God loves us and is
jealous for us in love. This divine
jealousy is certainly nothing petty or selfish – in the Old Testament,
God’s jealousy was aroused when people turned to false gods or clearly failed
in some other way in showing reverence to the one true God. Even though
it’s not often spoken of today, God’s jealousy is still as real as
ever! God is indeed jealous – He wants us to be completely
His! And since our Father in Heaven created us, redeemed us, and showered
us with His blessings, there is no reason for Him to settle for anything less
on our part.
Secondly, it means to
imitate His son. “Be
perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” What is the
perfection of love? To love our enemies, and love them to the point of their
becoming our brothers. For indeed, our love should not be according to the
flesh. So love your enemies by wanting them to become your brothers; love your
enemies in such a way that they may be drawn into communion with you.
This is in fact how He loved us. When hanging on the cross, He said: “Father,
forgive them for they know not what they do” (Lk 23, 34). He wanted to snatch us away from
everlasting death by this prayer. “By this sign we know that we dwell in him,
if we are perfect in him.” Our Lord invites us to this perfection of love when
He says: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Thirdly, if we know the
Father’s love we will do His will.
Indeed, it is Jesus’ confidence in the Father’s love that enabled Him to give
Himself completely to the Father’s mission. “Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven.” The will of God is what Christ did and taught: humility
in His conduct, solidity in His faith, modesty in His words, justice in His
acts, mercy in His works, and discipline in His habits. It is the will of God
that we not act wrongly towards anyone, to bear the wrong that is done to us,
to maintain peace with our brothers, to love God with all our heart, to love
Him because He is the Father, and to fear Him because He is God. Not to prefer
anything over Christ, since He preferred us over everything, to adhere
inviolably to His love, to stay beneath the cross with courage and trust. When
it is a matter of fighting for His name or His honor, to show constancy in our
words; to prove that we trust in the midst of difficulties so as to bear the
struggle, to be patient in death so as to obtain the crown. That is what
wanting to be co-heirs with Christ means: to fulfill God’s precepts, to do
God’s will.
Fourthly, to love the
Father is to love all His children. That is why the Lord’s Prayer is
always prayed as a communal prayer. The Teacher of peace and Master of unity
did not want prayer to be made singly and privately, as whoever prays alone
would pray for himself. We do not say My Father, who art in heaven or Give me
this day my daily bread; nor does each one ask that only his own debt should be
forgiven him; nor does he request for himself alone that he may not be led into
temptation but delivered from evil. Our prayer is public and common, and when
we pray, we pray not for one person but for the whole people, since we, the
whole people, are one. And therefore, as they prayed, their prayers were heard
and were fruitful, because a peaceful, sincere, and spiritual prayer deserves
well from the Lord. Thus we find the Apostles and the disciples praying after
the ascension of the Lord: They all continued with one accord in prayer, with
the women and with Mary who was the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. They
continued with one accord in prayer, showing by the urgency and the unanimity
of their praying that God, who makes the inhabitants of a house to be of one
mind, only admits to His divine and eternal home those among whom prayer is
unanimous.
But it also calls for a
concrete living out of this prayer. What we pray is how we live. Jesus’
prayer includes an injunction that we must ask God to forgive us in proportion
as we forgive those who have wronged us. Ask the Lord to free your heart
of any anger, bitterness, resentment, selfishness, indifference, or coldness
towards others. Let the Holy Spirit fill you with the fire of His burning love
and compassion and with the river of His overflowing mercy and kindness.
We must also love our
neighbour. God
is kind and forgiving towards us and He expects us to treat our neighbour the
same. Do you treat others as they deserve, or do you treat them as the Lord
would treat you with His grace and favor and mercy? Like
Paul, share the Gospel free of charge. What a joy it is to put people under no
obligation when aiding them into a deeper and truer love relationship with
Christ!
Loving our neighbour means that we
are called to forgive each other because the Father always forgives us.
Again this is the secret of Jesus’ prayer of forgiveness for us on the
cross. We should forgive others for their shortcomings as we would have
God forgive us. What does it mean to forgive?
Certainly, it means to pardon, to
relieve another of a debt. But it also means to let go, to release
feelings of resentment, to calm the anger and to look past the offence.
This is tough, to forgive others. It is easy for us to mouth the words,
but can we heal the hurts and forget the pain that the other has caused
us? Can we, as does God, wipe the slate clean? And can we leave to
God the things that are God’s – judgment and punishment, vengeance and
retribution – and keep to ourselves what Jesus calls us to do – to love without
question?
How difficult it is to
set aside the rule in Exodus of “an eye for an eye” and to embrace Jesus’ call that we forgive those who wrong us
seventy times seven! And even more difficult than forgiving another is to
forgive ourselves, to recognize that we are sinful and not perfect, and so will
make mistakes, over and over again, for as long as we live.
Perhaps “forgive” implies too much. God can fully forgive, and God can
decide what consequences the victimizer should pay. Perhaps all we are
capable of is trying to love the victimizer as Jesus would, by letting go of
our resentments and hurt feelings. When we remember that we too are
sinful, we too hurt others, we too have much to account for, shouldn’t it be
easier to see ourselves in the person who has harmed us? Shouldn’t we be
able to see Jesus there as well?
How can we pray in
Christ’s Sonship? To
be able to pray the Lord’s Prayer, we must know Jesus and accept Jesus
as the son of the Father. This is eternal life, to know
Jesus as the One sent by the Father. Unfortunately, “He came
to His own, and His own did not accept Him. But to those who did accept Him, He
gave power to become children of God.” (Jn 1:11-12) Whoever believes in God’s name and
has become His son, should start here so that He can give thanks and profess
Himself to be God’s son, by calling God His Father in heaven.
Finally, it is through the gift of
the Holy Spirit that we can know God personally and call him “Abba,
Father” (Rom. 8:15). We can approach God our Father
with confidence and boldness because Jesus Christ has opened the way to heaven
for us through His death and resurrection. When we ask God for help, He
fortunately does not give us what we deserve. Instead, He responds with grace
and favor and mercy. It is His nature to love generously and to forgive
mercifully. When He gives, He gives more than we need so we will have something
to share with others in their need as well.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment