20220101 PEACE PRESUPPOSES WE SEE THE FACE OF GOD IN MAN
01 January, 2022, Saturday, Mary, Mother of God
First reading | Numbers 6:22-27 © |
They are to call down my name on the sons of Israel, and I will bless them
The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ‘Say this to Aaron and his sons: “This is how you are to bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace.”
This is how they are to call down my name on the sons of Israel, and I will bless them.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 66(67):2-3,5,6,8 © |
O God, be gracious and bless us.
O God, be gracious and bless us
and let your face shed its light upon us.
So will your ways be known upon earth
and all nations learn your saving help.
O God, be gracious and bless us.
Let the nations be glad and exult
for you rule the world with justice.
With fairness you rule the peoples,
you guide the nations on earth.
O God, be gracious and bless us.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.
May God still give us his blessing
till the ends of the earth revere him.
O God, be gracious and bless us.
Second reading | Galatians 4:4-7 © |
God sent his Son, born of a woman
When the appointed time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law and to enable us to be adopted as sons. The proof that you are sons is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts: the Spirit that cries, ‘Abba, Father’, and it is this that makes you a son, you are not a slave any more; and if God has made you son, then he has made you heir.
Gospel Acclamation | Heb1:1-2 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
At various times in the past
and in various different ways,
God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets;
but in our own time, the last days,
he has spoken to us through his Son.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 2:16-21 © |
The shepherds hurried to Bethlehem and found the baby lying in the manger
The shepherds hurried away to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about him, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds had to say. As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; it was exactly as they had been told.
When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name Jesus, the name the angel had given him before his conception.
PEACE PRESUPPOSES WE SEE THE FACE OF GOD IN MAN
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [NUMBERS 6:22-27; GALATIANS 4:4-7; LUKE 2:16-21]
Today, we celebrate New Year’s Day. Pope Paul VI in 1967 established that the Church celebrates this day as a world day of peace. But we also celebrate this day as the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God. One wonders why the Church commemorates this 1st day of the calendar year with three events, one secular, one moral and the other religious. What is the unifying thread that runs through the celebration of these events? It is the work for peace.
Indeed, what the world needs most today is peace. Everyone in this world seeks peace. Without peace, there can be no joy or happiness or security. When the world is fighting, when there is division in the country, at home or at work, we live in fear and suspicion of each other. We feel unsafe to go out or even to work. We are not confident of tomorrow or our future because when there is fighting, jealousy, competition, or resentment, instead of living with friends around us, we see each other as enemies.
But if the world is so divided and so many crimes are committed each day in our country, it is because man’s heart is not at peace. The song “Let there be peace on earth” says that peace must begin with each person before it can be shared with others. Humanity has no peace within himself. He has a divided heart because his mind is contaminated with lust, greed, anger, resentment and envy. He wants more of everything but nothing in this world can satisfy him. As an individual, he seeks power, glory, wealth. As a country, some leaders seek to be the most powerful, most advanced in technology, in arms, in economic strength so that they can control and manipulate other nations, all because of insecurity. Instead of promoting multilateralism, the common good of humanity, shared wealth and prosperity for all, they seek to destroy their competitors and dominate weaker nations so that they can remain the most powerful nations in the world. When we are exclusive and only think of ourselves, it leads to hostility, unhealthy competition, fear and tension.
But why do people and nations regard each other as enemies when we are all one humanity, one people sharing one planet, all have a common destiny, all desiring peace, unity, progress and growth? It is simply because we do not recognize the dignity of the human person. We see each other simply as things to be made use of for our pleasure, convenience, benefits and interests. They are used and then discarded like the rest of our possessions. We do not value human beings as different from our worldly possessions and interests. This is because we fail to see the special role of human beings in the world, the special place it occupies in creation. This explains why people can kill each other, why wars are conducted with many innocent victims killed in the process, and many soldiers die leaving their loved ones to grieve, why men can rape and molest women and children, why people can cheat, slander and hurt each other.
If humanity fails to respect their fellowmen, it is because they have not seen the face of God. Secularism and materialism reduce man to a level where we are no longer distinguished from other creatures or creation. We are seen as constituted only of matter and when we die, we are just reduced to dust and go back as atoms in the atmosphere. We do not believe that we are created by God or that we have an eternal soul that lives on. If one is not happy with life, one just needs to end it. There is no real purpose on this earth except to enjoy as much as we can, accumulate money and power for our security, because we will eventually die. So life must be enjoyed to the full, and one should not be concerned about tomorrow as we will no longer be around. Each generation must solve their own problems, just as we solve our own problems. There is no future for humanity except for today. We try to keep ourselves happy on earth, but we are without peace.
For this reason, the first reading explains how Moses invoked peace for Israel. God said to Moses, “Say this to Aaron and his sons: ‘This is how you are to bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace.’ This is how they are to call down my name on the sons of Israel, and I will bless them.” It is a prayer for peace. But it is significant that Moses twice referred to the face of God as either shining on us or uncovered for us as a requirement to bring us peace. Clearly, therefore, there can be no peace unless man comes to know God who is His creator and the source of peace.
True peace is possible only when man is at peace with God first and foremost. From the peace that he enjoys with God, he will then find peace in his heart and in his soul. When he is no longer tossed by the temptations of the world and the evil one, when his heart is at rest and when his mind no longer craves for more and more, he will then be able to conduct his affairs and relationship with his fellowmen decently and justly. We cannot give peace to others when our hearts are full of anger and hatred, selfishness and greed. When we learn to let go of our possessions and seek union with God, we will find that peace within our hearts. As St Augustine says, “our hearts are restless until they rest in God.”
For us to see God face to face we have Jesus who is the image and likeness of God in person. In the Old Testament, it is said that one cannot see God and live. When Moses asked God to show him His glory, the Lord said, “But you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.” And the Lord continued, “See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.” (Ex 33:2-23)
But thanks to Jesus, we can see the face of God in and through His humanity. Jesus is our prince of peace. To see Him is to see the Father. (Jn 14:9) This is possible only because Jesus assumed our humanity through the Blessed Virgin Mary. As St Paul said, “When the appointed time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law and to enable us to be adopted as sons.” Jesus who was born of the Blessed Virgin is truly God and truly man. In Jesus, therefore, we see God in person. Jesus is not two persons but one person with two natures, divine and human, both distinguished, unmixed and undivided. This is possible only because of the fact that the Second Person of the Trinity took flesh in the womb of Mary, our Blessed Mother. It is for this reason that the Church declares Mary to be the Mother of God, since in Jesus there is only one person. Mary cannot be just the mother of Jesus the human person, or just the mother of the human nature of Jesus. Jesus is one person with two natures. This is what the Church wants to affirm in calling Mary the Mother of God in the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D.
If God’s face is in us, human beings, it means therefore, as St Paul says, “The proof that you are sons is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts: the Spirit that cries, “Abba, Father”, and it is this that makes you a son, you are not a slave anymore; and if God has made you son, then he has made you heir.” If we are all sons of God, the implication therefore is that we must treat our brothers and sisters with deep respect and dignity because they are the face of God. We cannot treat human beings as if they are things or our possessions to use, manipulate and destroy. We must promote peace among all peoples regardless of race, language, religion, culture or nationality. We are all equal and important in the eyes of God because we have a common identity, namely, we are children of God. We have a common Father, a common family, a common destiny to be with our Father together with the rest of humanity at the end of time. This is the basis for peace, knowing that we are all called to be one people, one family of God. With this in mind, we seek to promote peace, goodwill and love among all peoples, remove sufferings and poverty from the face of the earth, protect our environment so that there will be a future of the rest of humanity, and most of all, help each other to rediscover our dignity as God’s children in Christ.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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