2022127 THE INTRINSIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE INCARNATION AND THE RESURRECTION
27 December, 2022, Tuesday, St John, Apostle & Evangelist
First reading | 1 John 1:1-4 © |
The Word, who is life - this is our subject
Something which has existed since the beginning,
that we have heard,
and we have seen with our own eyes;
that we have watched
and touched with our hands:
the Word, who is life –
this is our subject.
That life was made visible:
we saw it and we are giving our testimony,
telling you of the eternal life
which was with the Father and has been made visible to us.
What we have seen and heard
we are telling you
so that you too may be in union with us,
as we are in union
with the Father
and with his Son Jesus Christ.
We are writing this to you to make our own joy complete.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 96(97):1-2,5-6,11-12 © |
Rejoice, you just, in the Lord.
The Lord is king, let earth rejoice,
let all the coastlands be glad.
Cloud and darkness are his raiment;
his throne, justice and right.
Rejoice, you just, in the Lord.
The mountains melt like wax
before the Lord of all the earth.
The skies proclaim his justice;
all peoples see his glory.
Rejoice, you just, in the Lord.
Light shines forth for the just
and joy for the upright of heart.
Rejoice, you just, in the Lord;
give glory to his holy name.
Rejoice, you just, in the Lord.
Gospel Acclamation | cf.Te Deum |
Alleluia, alleluia!
We praise you, O God,
we acknowledge you to be the Lord.
The glorious company of the apostles praise you, O Lord.
Alleluia!
Gospel | John 20:2-8 © |
The other disciple saw, and he believed
On the first day of the week Mary of Magdala came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb’ she said ‘and we don’t know where they have put him.’
So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in. Simon Peter who was following now came up, went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed.
THE INTRINSIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE INCARNATION AND THE RESURRECTION
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 John 1:1-4; Ps 97:1-2,5-6,11-12; John 20:2-8]
We are still in the midst of the Christmas Octave. Necessarily, our thoughts are on the incarnation of our Lord. The Church invites us to contemplate more deeply on the meaning of the incarnation. What does the birth of our Lord mean for humanity? More importantly, what grounds do we have to make the incredible statement that the little baby Jesus is the Son of God? How could God, who is the creator of all things, assume our humanity in the infant Jesus? In other words, how could Christians look at the baby Jesus and bow down in worship? Certainly, the baby Jesus looked like any baby in those times and in ours. To have the faith to confess that the baby Jesus is the Son of God, something is necessary.
The truth is that faith in the incarnation is a corollary of faith in the resurrection. In the order of knowledge and reflection, the resurrection came first. In the order of chronology, it was the birth, the life and passion of our Lord. Indeed, the earliest scriptures and apostolic preaching was not focused on the life of our Lord, much less His infancy, but all emphasis was given to His passion, death and resurrection, which we call the kerygma. The apostolic preaching was reduced to the kerygma. Indeed, the early gospels were written after AD 60 whereas the letters of St Paul were written as early as AD 45. The letters of St Paul had hardly any reference to the life and ministry of our Lord except a summary statement from the Acts of the Apostles that says, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem.” (Acts 10:38f)
Hence, faith in the incarnation begins with faith in the resurrection. The point of departure is the resurrection. The point of arrival is the incarnation. The early Church thought through the implications of the resurrection to conclude that Jesus must have been God since His conception in the womb of Mary and not just upon His resurrection. Otherwise, it would seem that Jesus began His life on earth as simply a man and upon His death, graduated with divine honours. If Jesus were proved to be divine upon His resurrection, His divinity would have begun since He assumed human flesh in the womb of Mary. This explains why the gospel was written in the reverse order. The stories of His passion and resurrection were the first chapters to be written, followed by His ministry in Palestine and then finally, the infancy narrative completes the story of the life of Jesus.
But how did faith in the resurrection begin? It was brought about by the life and passion of our Lord. The resurrection faith is not based on a myth or some figment of imagination or hallucination. Rather, the resurrection faith is very much connected with the earthly Jesus. This is what St John wished to underscore in today’s first reading. “Something which has existed since the beginning, that we have heard, and we have seen with our own eyes; that we have watched and touched with our hands: the Word, who is life – this is our subject. That life was made visible: we saw it and we are giving our testimony, telling you of the eternal life which was with the Father and has been made visible to us.” In other words, the substance of faith in the resurrection is founded on the life and history of our Lord. The resurrection is a continuity on one hand with the earthly Jesus of Nazareth. On the other hand, it was such a trans-figured Lord that without faith, one would not be able to recognize Him, just like Mary of Magdala who thought He was a gardener. So the early Christians could come to faith in Christ’s resurrection only when they began to connect the empty tomb with the life and teachings of Christ, remembering His prophecies about His death and resurrection. It was this memory of the life of Jesus that helped them to make the connection with His resurrection.
Indeed, when they begin to reflect on the Empty tomb, they came to understand more fully the depth of Jesus’ message, His life and His conduct. Upon reflecting on the way He preached with authority and the miracles He performed to demonstrate the power of God at work in His life and the restoration of the rule of God, they surmised He was more than a man. We are told that at the end of His miracles, people were amazed and filled with awe and wonder. Like the disciples who were in the boat when Jesus calmed the storm, the question asked was, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mk 4:41) And when Jesus showed authority that went above the Sabbath and the laws; His eating and drinking with sinners as a sign of acceptance and forgiveness of God for sinners, they asked, “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mk 2:7) Finally, the way He died on the cross, forgiving His enemies and praying for them, made even the pagan centurion “who stood facing him…(say), ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!'” (Mk 15:39)
So, there are two ways to arrive at faith in the Incarnation and the resurrection. One way is through reason and reflection. This was the case of the disciples of the early Church, including St Peter. We read in the gospel that St Peter was the first to enter the cave. He “went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.” There was no indication that he believed. He saw the facts, namely that the linen cloths laid there as if the body had been taken away or immaterialized. But he did not come to the conclusion immediately that the Lord had risen. Perhaps, it was his betrayal of the Lord that blinded his eyes and his intellect from arriving at this truth because of guilt and sin. It was much later on when the Lord appeared to the Twelve that he came to affirm that the Lord was risen.
So too for us, to come to faith in the incarnation, we need the testimony of those who have seen Him, since we did not see for ourselves personally. We are called to rely on the testimony of the Church as St John wrote in the first reading. “What we have seen and heard we are telling you so that you too may be in union with us, as we are in union with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing this to you to make our own joy complete.” Through their testimony, we are called to make an act of faith in the Risen Lord. That is why even today, one of the most effective ways of bringing people to encounter the Risen Lord is through testimonies, not doctrines and intellectual exposition of the scriptures. Faith ultimately is a matter of the heart and then later confirmed by the head through knowledge.
But there is a better way to faith in the Risen Lord; it is through love. We read in the gospel, that St John who was “the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed.” John was the beloved disciple of the Lord. He knew the Lord intimately. In his intimacy, he intuited the presence of the Risen Lord. And this is true for us as well. Many of us encounter the Lord not just through the testimony of others but because of their testimonies, we are led to master the evidence ourselves by opening our hearts to the Lord. Mary of Magdala too was given the gift of being the first to encounter the Lord after His resurrection because she loved the Lord deeply. If we want to encounter the Lord in our lives today, we should make time to contemplate on the face of our Lord.
This was how the crib came into existence. It was in 1293 that St Francis instructed a holy man named John to enact the birth of our Lord at Bethlehem and how He was born in the manger between a donkey and an ox. St Francis told him that he wanted to see this with his own eyes. It was there that the solemn mass was celebrated and St Francis, who was a deacon, read the gospel. St Ignatius of Loyola also recommended us in his Spiritual Exercises to contemplate on the face of our Lord in His infancy, life, ministry, passion and resurrection to come to encounter the Lord in the flesh so that we can feel His living presence in our lives.
In the final analysis, encountering the Risen Lord is through the flesh and blood of our fellowmen. It is in the Church, in our fellowship with our fellow Catholics, sharing our faith and love together, then reaching out to those who are poor and do not know the love of Jesus, that the incarnation of our Lord becomes real for us. It is for this reason that the incarnation means we need to be in fellowship with Christ and with His body the Church so that the Risen Christ could be present concretely in our midst, so that like the apostles, we could also say, “we have heard, and we have seen with our own eyes; that we have watched and touched with our hands: the Word, who is life – this is our subject.”
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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