20200414
RISING
TO A NEW LEVEL OF RELATIONSHIP
14 April, 2020, 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
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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Victimae Paschali Laudes
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'
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.
RISING TO A NEW
LEVEL OF RELATIONSHIP
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ACTS
2:36-41; PS 33:4-5, 18-20, 22; JN
20:11-18 ]
The heart of the gospel
is fundamentally about relationship.
At the very beginning of St John’s gospel, the Lord asked John’s disciples who
were following, Him, “What are you looking for?” and their response was,
“Rabbi, where are you staying?” Jesus said, “Come and see.” (cf John
1:35-38) And today at the end of the gospel, Jesus asked a similar
question again, “Who are you looking for?” What we are looking for is not
a thing but a person. This is highlighted in the story of the Samaritan
Woman at the well. (cf John 4)
She came looking for living water and found Christ. She was looking for
human relationship, but all failed her until she found divine relationship,
coming to worship the Christ in Spirit and in Truth. (Jn 4:23-26)
Indeed, this is what the
gospel is reminding us today. With
the resurrection of Christ, the resurrected body is not exactly the same as the
earthly body. This explains why Mary Magdalene could not
recognize the Lord when He appeared to her. She thought He was the
gardener. At least for the angels, it would be easier to explain because
they could take on earthly appearances, as in the case of their visits to
Abraham, Gideon and Samson’s parents. (cf Gn 18; Jdg 6, 13)
Jesus in His resurrection was not easily recognizable and definitely not by
all. Clearly, in the resurrection, Jesus had a new mode of existence,
wholly different when He was on earth. But the person remains one and the
same.
This new mode of
existence requires us to relate to Him on a different level. This was what Mary Magdalene failed to
realize. She was still looking for the Jesus of Nazareth that she
loved. She was devoted to the body of Jesus. She was so absorbed in
the loss of His body and her grief was beyond consolation that she was even
oblivious of the presence of the angels or of our Lord. Indeed, when we
are in grief or in attachment to someone or something, we are not able to look
beyond our desires. We too can be so caught up in wanting to meet the Lord in
the way we feel most comfortable and are used to. This can happen
especially when we are used to certain devotions or practices. For
that matter, even the Eucharistic celebration is so important to us that for
some, even in critical situations as in the Covid-19 where many are infected,
we still insist on the Mass being made available to all.
Whilst sacraments and
sacramentals are the ordinary means of grace, we must not limit how the Lord
can continue to touch our hearts and bring His love to us. The Lord is not locked out by
closed doors and physical absence. In the resurrection, the Lord’s Risen
Body is beyond space and time. He can come in and go out, make
Himself present and then disappear in an instant. The Lord will continue
to make His presence felt in our lives regardless of the situation we are
in. We might be sick in bed. We might be immobile and confined to
home. We might be travelling. There might not be church
services because of Covid-19. Yet all these cannot hinder the Lord
from entering into our lives.
Indeed, the Lord
reminded Mary Magdalene, “Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended
to the Father.” In
other words, the Lord is asking Mary Magdalene to learn to let go of her
earthly attachment to Him and grow into a more mature depth of
relationship. Whilst it is understandable that as human beings we need to
touch and feel, the Lord wants us to go beyond the sensual to the
spiritual. Mary Magdalene, in trying to cling on to Jesus, was more than
simply assuring herself that Jesus was really alive but that He would not leave
her again. She had not yet come to realize that with the resurrection,
the Lord would always be present to her and in a new way after His return to
the Father when He would send the Holy Spirit upon the disciples.
The Lord was not leaving the disciples but He wanted to be with them in their
hearts.
Because of the radical
change in Himself, it calls for a new relationship with Him. In telling Mary Magdalene not to cling on
to Him, He signaled a change of our relationship with Him after His
resurrection. He would be with us in a new way. He
wants to be present to us as much as He was to them in the power of the
Spirit. This is the implication of Peter’s homily at Pentecost to the
crowd. (cf Acts 2:16-36) “This Jesus God raised up, and of that
all of us are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God,
and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has
poured out this that you both see and hear.” (Acts 2:32f)
And Peter continued, “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.”
Jesus’ return to the
Father is for our sake because we will share the joy that the world cannot
give. What is Jesus’
greatest joy if not to return to His Father? Jesus was never focused on
Himself. It was always on His Father. He did everything to glorify
the Father. His first message to the disciples after His resurrection was
not, “See, I told you, I am alive. I have risen from the dead.”
Rather, it was about His relationship with His Father. Secondly, it was
about how He was going back to Him so that He can bring the Father to us in a
new way. Christ was delighted that He had accomplished the mission the
Father entrusted to Him. (Jn 19:30)
He returned to the
Father so that He could send us the Holy Spirit from His Father who will teach
us all things and make us one with the Father and with Him. “I have said these things to you
while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all
that I have said to you. (Jn 16:25f)
With the Holy Spirit dwelling in the hearts of believers, we have a new
relationship with God. This is because Jesus’ Father is also our Father;
Jesus’ God is also our God. Jesus told Mary Magdalene, “Go and find the
brothers, and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God
and your God.”
Jesus remains for us the
point of contact with the Father.
This is why after the resurrection, the Lord told the women to go and tell His
“brothers.” In baptism, we share in the adopted sonship of Christ.
“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For
you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have
received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is
that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of
God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with
Christ.” (Rom 8:14-17) This is the new family founded by Christ
at the resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit. The new community
with Christ as the Head and we, His body, are now one. This new family
was already foreshadowed at the cross when Jesus gave Mary to us by making her
the mother of the Church, since John at the foot of the cross represented all
Christians as the sons of Mary. (cfJn 19:26-27)
The prerequisite to
encounter the Father and share in Christ’s sonship and intimacy is that we be
docile like those who listened
to the sermon of St Peter at Pentecost. “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.”
As for Mary Magdalene,
she was deeply in love with the Lord.
She thought she could resume the relationship she had with the Lord as
before. Jesus understood the immaturity of Mary. The Lord patiently
helped her to open her heart and mind to a relationship that is greater and
more lasting. In asking Mary, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you
looking for?’, and calling her by name, He opened her heart. We too must
be like Mary, deeply in love with the Lord but docile to His presence as we
move beyond our fixated views of how the Lord could enter into our lives.
He comes to us, as He wants and when He wants. Once we allow Him to come
to our hearts, we can then direct others to Jesus as Mary Magdalene did, so
that they can encounter Him themselves and come to faith for themselves.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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