20200108
BELIEVING
IS SEEING
08 January,
2020, Wednesday after Epiphany
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
|
First reading
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1 John 4:11-18 ©
|
As long as we love one another God's love will be complete in us
My
dear people,
since
God has loved us so much,
we
too should love one another.
No
one has ever seen God;
but
as long as we love one another
God
will live in us
and
his love will be complete in us.
We
can know that we are living in him
and
he is living in us
because
he lets us share his Spirit.
We
ourselves saw and we testify
that
the Father sent his Son
as
saviour of the world.
If
anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,
God
lives in him, and he in God.
We
ourselves have known and put our faith in
God’s
love towards ourselves.
God
is love
and
anyone who lives in love lives in God,
and
God lives in him.
Love
will come to its perfection in us
when
we can face the day of Judgement without fear;
because
even in this world
we
have become as he is.
In
love there can be no fear,
but
fear is driven out by perfect love:
because
to fear is to expect punishment,
and
anyone who is afraid is still imperfect in love.
|
Responsorial
Psalm
|
|
Psalm 71(72):1-2,10-13 ©
|
All
nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
O
God, give your judgement to the king,
to
a king’s son your justice,
that
he may judge your people in justice
and
your poor in right judgement.
All
nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
The
kings of Tarshish and the sea coasts
shall
pay him tribute.
The
kings of Sheba and Seba
shall
bring him gifts.
Before
him all kings shall fall prostrate,
all
nations shall serve him.
All
nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
For
he shall save the poor when they cry
and
the needy who are helpless.
He
will have pity on the weak
and
save the lives of the poor.
All
nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
|
Gospel
Acclamation
|
Lk4:17
|
Alleluia,
alleluia!
The
Lord has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,
to
proclaim liberty to captives.
Alleluia!
|
Or:
|
cf.1Tim3:16
|
Alleluia,
alleluia!
Glory
to you, O Christ,
proclaimed
to the pagans;
glory
to you, O Christ,
believed
in by the world.
Alleluia!
|
Or:
|
Mt4:16
|
Alleluia,
alleluia!
The
people that lived in darkness
has
seen a great light;
on
those who dwell in the land and shadow of death
a
light has dawned.
Alleluia!
|
Or:
|
cf.Mt4:23
|
Alleluia,
alleluia!
Jesus
proclaimed the Good News of the kingdom
and
cured all kinds of diseases among the people.
Alleluia!
|
Or:
|
Lk7:16
|
Alleluia,
alleluia!
A
great prophet has appeared among us;
God
has visited his people.
Alleluia!
|
Gospel
|
Mark 6:45-52 ©
|
His disciples saw him walking on the lake
After the five
thousand had eaten and were filled, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat
and go on ahead to Bethsaida, while he himself sent the crowd away. After
saying goodbye to them he went off into the hills to pray. When evening came,
the boat was far out on the lake, and he was alone on the land. He could see
they were worn out with rowing, for the wind was against them; and about the
fourth watch of the night he came towards them, walking on the lake. He was going
to pass them by, but when they saw him walking on the lake they thought it was
a ghost and cried out; for they had all seen him and were terrified. But he at
once spoke to them, and said, ‘Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.’ Then he got
into the boat with them, and the wind dropped. They were utterly and completely
dumbfounded, because they had not seen what the miracle of the loaves meant;
their minds were closed.
BELIEVING IS
SEEING
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 JN 4:11-18; MK 6:45-52]
The humanistic and
secularistic viewpoint with regard to the existence of God is rooted in
scientific proof.
Show me that God exists, prove to me that God exists and I will believe.
Otherwise, for them God is merely a figment of imagination. But is such
demand for proof possible? Can we see what is invisible? The truth is
that we can only see what can be seen in creation. The point is that God
is pure Spirit and He is the Creator, not a creature like us. Creation is
at most a manifestation of His love, goodness, presence and omnipotence.
Can we see the mind? No, all we can see is the brain and they tell us
that the brain makes it possible for us to think and function. We can
only see the effects of the brain but not the mind itself.
This is why, during this
season of Epiphany, the Church seeks to show us the manifestation of God
concretely in our lives. He
has manifested Himself to us in the Incarnation at His birth. God manifested
His Son to us at His baptism. Christ manifested Himself as the Lord at
Cana in Galilee in anticipation of His passion and resurrection. Yesterday,
He manifested Himself as the Bread of life in the multiplication of loaves for
5000 people. Today, He manifested once again as the Lord of creation by
calming the storms and walking on the sea.
But underlying all these
manifestations, we need to have faith. Without faith, these
manifestations remain mere events without meaning. As Emmanual Kant wrote, “Perception
without conception is blind. Conception without perception is
empty.” In his greatest work, the “Critique of Pure Reason”, Emmanuel
Kant was correcting the extreme views propounded by Rene Descarte who advocated
pure reason through the intellect to know the truth disdaining what is
sensible. On the other hand, we have David Hume who went the opposite
direction of making empiricism, that is what is sensible, to be the ultimate
criterion of truth. The truth is that we need both senses and the intellect to
arrive at the truth. From the perspective of faith, the manifestations of
God in daily life must serve the data for reflection, which ultimately requires
faith.
Indeed, even though the
disciples saw the events, yet they remained ignorant of who Christ was. They saw the miracles at Cana, the
multiplication of loaves and Jesus walking on the waters, yet they still did
not have faith in Jesus. They were still blind to the identity of Jesus.
Having sensed and seen the miracles, they did not arrive at a true
understanding of our Lord. On the contrary, in spite of the miracles they
saw Jesus performing in His ministry, “when they saw him walking on the lake
they thought it was a ghost and cried out, for they had all seen him and were
terrified.” Jesus had to calm them and assure them. “Courage!
It is I! Do not be afraid.” And the evangelist remarked, “Then he got
into the boat with them, and the wind dropped. They were utterly and completely
dumbfounded, because they had not seen what the miracle of the loaves meant;
their minds were closed.”
That is why in the final
analysis, although signs are necessary for us to come to faith, yet one must be
open to faith after witnessing the signs. So faith ultimately comes from
believing. If one does not want to believe, no matter what signs we give,
the person will never come to faith. Take the case of a person who has
been much wounded in a relationship. When we seek to love the person, we
will be met with suspicion. We can show the person our love and yet our
love will be doubted. Even parents can never assure their children enough
that they are loved. I know of many children who, in spite of what their
parents had done for them, the sacrifices they made, still insist that their
parents do not love them. So it is impossible to prove to someone that we
love him/her, unless the person is willing to open his/her heart to recognize
that what we do for him/her is an expression of our love.
Of course,
understandably, some of us are afraid to take the leap of faith in love because
of negative experiences and past failures in life. We allow fear to hinder us from
loving and from believing. This was what blinded the disciples from
recognizing Jesus for who He was. In the face of the overwhelming
challenge to feed the 5,000 people, they ended up in despair. Confronted
by the storms, they too were so frightened they could not think or see properly.
They thought Jesus was a ghost. Fear makes us hallucinate. Fear
obstructs us from seeing and thinking calmly. We, too, because of
unpleasant events in our lives, loss of loved ones, accidents, failure and
misfortunes, have lost faith in God. We feel He does not care or is
concerned about our sufferings.
Hence, the Lord urges
us, “Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.” Jesus is always there with us even in His
apparent absence. Today’s gospel is so telling and revealing about Jesus’
relationship with His Father. We are told that Jesus needed not so much
rest but time with His heavenly Father after a long day’s ministry. He
was exhausted and He needed to be recharged. And so “Jesus made his
disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to Bethsaida, while he himself sent
the crowd away. After saying good-bye to them he went off into the hills to
pray. When evening came, the boat was far out on the lake, and he was alone on
the land. He could see they were worn out with rowing, for the wind was against
them; and about the fourth watch of the night he came towards them, walking on
the lake.”
How beautiful to know
that even when Jesus was spending time with His Father, He was not blind or
oblivious to the struggles of His disciples. He was deep in intimacy with His
Father. But the deeper His love for His Father, the more sensitive and
alert Jesus was to the needs of those who were suffering and those who needed
Him. This is a very important lesson for us all. Spending time in
prayer and intimacy with the Lord does not take us away from our pastoral and
humanitarian work. On the contrary, they make us more in contact with
them and more sensitive to their sufferings and needs. Indeed, those who
hardly pray and spend time with Jesus, will eventually become harsh, callous,
indifferent or even ambitious to the extent of lacking charity and justice in
dealing with people and situations simply because they want their goals to be
achieved.
The secret, therefore,
is simply to allow the
love of God to dwell in us, as St John tells us: “My dear
people, since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another. No one
has ever seen God; but as long as we love one another God will live in us and
his love will be complete in us. We can know that we are living in him and he
is living in us because he lets us share his Spirit.” Only by
allowing God to dwell in us in His Spirit, can we find the capacity to love as
He loves. With Him in us, we can then love others in the same way
we have been loved. And the great thing is that when we begin to love
others with the love that is in us, we too increase in our capacity to love
because of the joy of serving and of touching hearts and lives. In loving
others, we actually come to see God incarnated in them and His love flows to us
through those whose lives we touch.
So the final question
remains to be answered, namely, how can God’s love be in us? St John gives us the answer, “We
ourselves have known and put our faith in God’s love towards ourselves.”
This love of course is incarnated in Christ Jesus, in His incarnation, life,
passion, death and resurrection. His whole life was a manifestation of
the Father’s love. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say,
‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the
Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the
Father who dwells in me does his works.” (Jn 14:9f) Believe in Him and then we will see
His love. The clear sign of faith is love in freedom. “God is love
and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him. Love will come
to its perfection in us when we can face the day of Judgement without fear;
because even in this world we have become as he is. In love there can be no
fear, but fear is driven out by perfect love: because to fear is to expect
punishment, and anyone who is afraid still is imperfect in love.” So we
love because God loves us and we in turn are impelled to extend that love to
others.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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