20220102 THE JOURNEY OF FAITH
02 January, 2022, Sunday, The Epiphany of the Lord
First reading |
Ecclesiasticus 24:1-2,8-12 © |
From eternity, in the beginning, God created wisdom
Wisdom speaks her own praises,
in the midst of her people she glories in herself.
She opens her mouth in the assembly of the Most High,
she glories in herself in the presence of the Mighty One;
‘Then the creator of all things instructed me,
and he who created me fixed a place for my tent.
He said, “Pitch your tent in Jacob,
make Israel your inheritance.”
From eternity, in the beginning, he created me,
and for eternity I shall remain.
I ministered before him in the holy tabernacle,
and thus was I established on Zion.
In the beloved city he has given me rest,
and in Jerusalem I wield my authority.
I have taken root in a privileged people,
in the Lord’s property, in his inheritance.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 147:12-15,19-20 © |
The Word was made flesh, and lived among us.
or
Alleluia!
O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!
Zion, praise your God!
He has strengthened the bars of your gates
he has blessed the children within you.
The Word was made flesh, and lived among us.
or
Alleluia!
He established peace on your borders,
he feeds you with finest wheat.
He sends out his word to the earth
and swiftly runs his command.
The Word was made flesh, and lived among us.
or
Alleluia!
He makes his word known to Jacob,
to Israel his laws and decrees.
He has not dealt thus with other nations;
he has not taught them his decrees.
The Word was made flesh, and lived among us.
or
Alleluia!
Second reading |
Ephesians 1:3-6,15-18 © |
Before the world was made, God chose us in Christ
Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ.
Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ,
to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence,
determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ
for his own kind purposes,
to make us praise the glory of his grace,
his free gift to us in the Beloved.
That will explain why I, having once heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus, and the love that you show towards all the saints, have never failed to remember you in my prayers and to thank God for you. May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit.
Gospel Acclamation | cf.1Tim3:16 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Glory be to you, O Christ, proclaimed to the pagans.
Glory be to you, O Christ, believed in by the world.
Alleluia!
Gospel | John 1:1-18 © |
The Word was made flesh, and lived among us
In the beginning was the Word:
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things came to be,
not one thing had its being but through him.
All that came to be had life in him
and that life was the light of men,
a light that shines in the dark,
a light that darkness could not overpower.
A man came, sent by God.
His name was John.
He came as a witness,
as a witness to speak for the light,
so that everyone might believe through him.
He was not the light,
only a witness to speak for the light.
The Word was the true light
that enlightens all men;
and he was coming into the world.
He was in the world
that had its being through him,
and the world did not know him.
He came to his own domain
and his own people did not accept him.
But to all who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to all who believe in the name of him
who was born not out of human stock
or urge of the flesh
or will of man
but of God himself.
The Word was made flesh,
he lived among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory that is his as the only Son of the Father,
full of grace and truth.
John appears as his witness. He proclaims:
‘This is the one of whom I said:
He who comes after me ranks before me
because he existed before me.’
Indeed, from his fullness we have, all of us, received –
yes, grace in return for grace,
since, though the Law was given through Moses,
grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God;
it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father’s heart,
who has made him known.
THE JOURNEY OF FAITH
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ISA 60:1-6; PS 72:1-2,7-8,10-13; EPH 3:2-3.5-6; MT 2:1-12]
How does one come to faith in Christ? Some of us feel discouraged that our loved ones and even our children do not have faith in Christ. We try to get them to go to church but they won’t, especially if they are in their teens or early adulthood. They find the church boring, or the faith superstitious and goes against science and empirical proofs. The story of the Magi is the story of the faith journey that we take to discover Christ as our Saviour and Lord. Of course, each journey of faith is different, but there are common elements that would be required for us to come to find Christ as our Saviour and King.
Every journey of faith begins with just a dim light. The Magi saw a star which led them to begin their search of the infant king of the Jews. Each one’s journey must also begin with a light even when it is dim. The prophet Isaiah said to those who have just returned from exile, “Arise, shine out, Jerusalem, for your light has come, the glory of the Lord is rising on you, though night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples.” It was difficult for them to believe that there was hope for them when they returned to Jerusalem because everything was in ruins. So too, often, it is in our desperation, helplessness and the lack of fulfilment that this search begins. They find something missing in life, a vacuum, an emptiness.
This explains why those who are self-sufficient cannot find God. Herod thought Jesus was a threat to his security and power. The religious leaders, although schooled in the knowledge of the scriptures and able to cite the scriptures so well, were saying, “At Bethlehem in Judaea, ‘for this is what the prophet wrote: And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, you are by no means least among the leaders of Judah, for out of you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel”, yet they were indifferent to the coming of the Messiah. They were not interested in Him because their lives were very secure and their position in society was firmly protected. This is true for many of us as well. The rich, the intelligent and the powerful are not interested in God because they think that by their hard work and intellect, they can be very wealthy and powerful, getting whatever they want. But a time will come when they too will find life meaningless whether they arrive at the top or end up in failure. When they experience emptiness, futility, failure, sickness, old age, then they begin to seek the light.
So to help people come to faith, we must stir up their sense of wonder. When the Magi saw the star, they began to wonder. They were astrologers and began to search and study their books to understand the meaning of the star. When we begin to wonder, we start to see newness in life and things that we have taken for granted. The danger is that many of us go through life so focused and busy with our career or looking after the family that we no longer stop to gaze and wonder at the beauty of creation or be grateful for the little things of life which we often take for granted – our food, the modern gadgets, nature and the people around us. Only those of us who dare to wonder can be connected with God. To wonder is to begin the journey of faith, asking the more profound and ultimate questions of life and death.
To those without a full-grown faith, God gives us reason to help us come to faith. So, the Magi, as astrologists and scientists, used their natural reasoning to study the stars. It is so wonderful to know that God will use our natural knowledge and reasoning to help us discover something of Him. God reveals to us where we are, according to our limitations and our resources. He permits the use of nature to reveal something of Himself, albeit vaguely. Through the use of reason and science, we are led to discover something more. This was the way the Magi began their search for the Lord. For most of us too, we begin with reason, inquiry and curiosity. We need to use whatever resources the Lord has given us to come to know the truth. This is the first step in faith. We begin with reason and inquiry.
Faith only comes to those who search for it. Those of us who are complacent, lazy and absorbed in our worldly interests are not in contact with God. This was the case of King Herod. He “summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared, and sent them on to Bethlehem. ‘Go and find out all about the child,’ he said ‘and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.'” Herod was sitting and idling in his palace. He sent the Magi to look for Him. This will never do. Faith must be a personal search for God. We cannot deputize someone else to fall in love with God for us or experience God on our behalf. We must personally undertake that journey of faith.
But this journey involves much risks and adventure. For those who are serious in wanting to find the ultimate purpose of life, the meaning of our existence, our goal and our final destiny, we will undertake the arduous journey, which is often fraught with frustrations because the journey is full of unknowns. This was the case of the Magi when they set out from the court of Persia looking for the King of the Jews. They saw the star and that was all. But they knew there was something more than just the star. They took the courage to search by asking and inquiring humbly of those who could give them some leads to find the Lord. We too must be humble enough to learn, to ask and to inquire about the ultimate questions of life.
As the Magi journeyed, the light disappeared. They lost the light. They were plunged in darkness. This is the whole process of faith. The moment we find it, the next moment we lose it. It is the experience of light and darkness. This is often the experience of those who encounter God deeply in a retreat. But soon afterwards, they again feel the emptiness and distance of God from them. Sometimes, we have to go through the dark night of the senses and the Spirit to be purified of our faith in God. Faith is never finally possessed until we are at our death bed. We will need to grow all the time. There will be moments of growth, retrogression or stagnancy. Even then in such moments, the grace of God is working and waiting for the right moment to strike so that we will once again see the light.
In moments of darkness, we are in precarious danger because we could be asking the wrong questions or the wrong people who would mislead us and lead us into sin, just as Herod tried to deceive the Magi into believing that he wanted to worship Christ. This is what is happening today when those who are desperate for life and meaning often end up looking at the wrong places because the world, like Herod, seeks to deceive us with fake and distorted information. Herod is a symbol of deception. He spoke in a relative manner making it sound as if he was sincere and religious. Herod is a symbol of the internet world.
In the final analysis, to come to faith, reason has its limitation. Revelation is necessary to know God. The Magi came to a situation when reason could not assist them anymore. That was why they sought assistance from the experts, those whom God has already spoken to. Reason must surrender to revelation, which requires a response of faith. Reason is illusive. This explains why in following the star, it led them to Judea, but then it disappeared until they were enlightened by the scriptures. Indeed, no matter how intelligent we are, we must never think that reason alone can help us to find God. Reason can tell us that God exists. Only revelation and faith can tell us who God is. To know the Lord, we too must consult the scriptures and make conscientious study of our faith. Revelation and grace often come to us through dreams as well. The evangelist told us that they believed Herod until they dreamt that God warned them not to go back to Herod but to go back by a different way.
But if we persevere, the star again will reappear leading us to Jesus. “And there in front of them was the star they had seen rising; it went forward and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight.” And when the Magi found the place, they entered the house, a symbol of the church where we encounter Jesus. The Eucharist is where Jesus is. As a consequence, they fell down in worship and adoration and surrendered themselves to the Lord through the symbols of the gifts of gold, worthy for a king, myrrh to prepare for His burial, and frankincense to offer Him worship. We too, when we encounter the Lord, after all the searching and studying, we must end with contemplation and adoration so that departing from our Lord, we can then go out to offer ourselves in love and service as gifts to humanity by living a life of faith and love.
Finally, the Magi have taught us a great lesson of solidarity in faith journey. We must never travel alone but with each other. The three Magi journeyed together with one purpose. Faith is solidarity with each other. Hence, it is critical that we keep up our study and contemplation of scriptures and the study of theology, and most of all sharing our faith with one another just as the Jewish leaders shared their findings with the Magi. Through faith study and sharing, we support each other in faith, especially when we are going through periods of doubt. We need the company and support of our friends to find the star. Like the Magi, they travelled together to give each other support. They never travelled alone because they would be lost or be led astray.
Today, we are called to be like St Paul who received such a wonderful mystery of revelation for the nations. We must be involved in the work of evangelization, since like St Paul we too “have been entrusted by God with the grace” meant for the world. We who have been “given the knowledge of the mystery” must manifest and reveal it to the world so that all pagans can “share the same inheritance, that they are parts of the same body.” The Feast of the Epiphany entails that we who have found the Lord must not keep Him to ourselves but share with all of humanity.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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