20230103 OVERCOMING OUR SINFUL NATURE
03 January, 2023, Tuesday
First reading | 1 John 2:29-3:6 © |
Everyone must try to be as pure as Christ
You know that God is righteous –
then you must recognise that everyone whose life is righteous
has been begotten by him.
Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us,
by letting us be called God’s children;
and that is what we are.
Because the world refused to acknowledge him,
therefore it does not acknowledge us.
My dear people, we are already the children of God
but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed;
all we know is, that when it is revealed
we shall be like him
because we shall see him as he really is.
Surely everyone who entertains this hope
must purify himself, must try to be as pure as Christ.
Anyone who sins at all
breaks the law,
because to sin is to break the law.
Now you know that he appeared in order to abolish sin,
and that in him there is no sin;
anyone who lives in God does not sin,
and anyone who sins
has never seen him or known him.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 97(98):1,3-6 © |
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Sing a new song to the Lord
for he has worked wonders.
His right hand and his holy arm
have brought salvation.
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
Shout to the Lord, all the earth,
ring out your joy.
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Sing psalms to the Lord with the harp
with the sound of music.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
acclaim the King, the Lord.
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Gospel Acclamation |
Alleluia, alleluia!
A hallowed day has dawned upon us.
Come, you nations, worship the Lord,
for today a great light has shone down upon the earth.
Alleluia!
Or: | Jn1:14,12 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.
To all who received him he gave power to become children of God.
Alleluia!
Or: | 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 | John 1:29-34 © |
'Look: there is the Lamb of God'
Seeing Jesus coming towards him, John said, ‘Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. This is the one I spoke of when I said: A man is coming after me who ranks before me because he existed before me. I did not know him myself, and yet it was to reveal him to Israel that I came baptising with water.’ John also declared, ‘I saw the Spirit coming down on him from heaven like a dove and resting on him. I did not know him myself, but he who sent me to baptise with water had said to me, “The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and rest is the one who is going to baptise with the Holy Spirit.” Yes, I have seen and I am the witness that he is the Chosen One of God.’
OVERCOMING OUR SINFUL NATURE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 JN 2:29-3:6; PSALM 98; JOHN 1:29-34]
We all know that humanity is powerless in resisting the temptations of the Evil One. In spite of severe and sometimes draconian laws imposed by society, man continues to sin. Perhaps in some countries where it is vast and criminals can get away by going into hiding, in Singapore, there is no place to hide. Yet, every day we hear of crimes being committed; rape, molestation, voyeurism, theft, robbery, drunken driving, CBT, and even murder. Why do people still commit crimes when they know they cannot escape the law?
If it is true of crimes, then when it comes to sins that are not considered criminal by law, more of us will commit them, such as pride, envy, anger, sloth, gluttony, greed and lust. These are sins against our well-being and the good of others. When we allow the capital sins to take control of our lives, there will be no peace and joy in our hearts. We think that these offences are permissible simply because they do not break the civil laws but in truth, they destroy our happiness in life and cause others to suffer as well. St Paul clearly wrote, “the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Gal 5:19-21) Again, we ask, why do we do things against our well-being?
The reason is simple. We come from a wounded society and a fallen humanity. We belong to a generation of broken and wounded people. If we believe in the genome theory that we inherit the genes of our parents, we must also recognize that their sinful traits and character are passed on to us not just through genes alone but by their examples and the way they raise us. Many of us are hurt in the process and suffer much trauma in our lives. Those of us who have had traumatic experiences in our childhood will be affected in the way we act, think and conduct ourselves. So using the will alone is not sufficient to get us out of our sinful tendencies to react, defend and to fend for ourselves.
St Paul in Romans diagnosed the human condition when he wrote, “For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.” (Rom 7:14-20)
Does it mean then, that we should just resign ourselves to sin, accept our sinful condition and admit defeat in our struggle against sin and temptations? That is precisely what the Devil wants of us – to give up our battle against darkness and evil. Those who are sinners consider themselves incorrigible. They feel powerless in the face of temptation and give in easily to the seduction of the world, the Evil One and the weakness of the flesh. They feel that there is no hope for them to be good and holy. Then there are those who seek to purify themselves as St John wrote, “Surely everyone who entertains this hope must purify himself, must try to be as pure as Christ. Anyone who sins at all breaks the law, because to sin is to break the law.” Again, they fall back to sin repeatedly, go for confession and then sin again, until they give up returning to confession.
The truth is that only Christ is able to take away the sins of the world. John the Baptist said, “Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” Believing in Jesus as the Lamb of God, the sacrificial love of the Father, offered in sacrifice for our sins will enable us to realize that God is always forgiving and merciful towards us. We can overcome evil and sin not with our own strength but only with His. St Paul realized his powerlessness in the face of temptation. He wrote, “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7:21-25)
Indeed, it is through the Sacrament of Baptism, that we are filled with the Holy Spirit and thereby given the power to overcome sin. John the Baptist declared, “I saw the Spirit coming down on him from heaven like a dove and resting on him. I did not know him myself, but he who sent me to baptize with water had said to me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and rest is the one who is going to baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ Yes, I have seen and I am the witness that he is the Chosen One of God.” Unlike the baptism of John the Baptist which is but an expression of our desire to repent of our sins, Christian Baptism enables us to overcome sin not with our own strength and will but by the power of God’s love and mercy in us, in the Holy Spirit. By virtue of our baptism, we too are bestowed the messianic gifts of the Holy Spirit.
But is this really the case? How is it, then, that we still cannot overcome our sins when we are baptized in Christ? St John wrote, “You know that God is righteous – then you must recognize that everyone whose life is righteous has been begotten by him.” We can be righteous only when the Spirit of Christ lives in us at our baptism. But the truth is that even with baptism, many of us are weak. We continue to fall into sin and go back to our old way of life. It seems baptism has not truly made us children of God. We remain weak to resist sin. The real danger is that many of us, after being born again in baptism, do not continue to keep growing in maturity in our faith through regular fellowship with God and the Church; through spiritual growth and formation.
It is not because baptism is ineffective but because we have not allowed the grace of baptism to work in us. To be given a new birth through faith in Him means at the same time to follow Him in the new way of life. Being born again in Christ means to put on Christ in the way we think, love and act. It requires us to deepen ourselves into the Body of Christ through the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Confirmation. By receiving the Eucharist and celebrating the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord, we grow to become more like Him in Spirit and in love. Through the Sacrament of Confirmation, we begin to strengthen our faith as we begin to witness for Him in our way of life. Through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we renew our love for Christ and His mercy for us when we sin through human weakness. Gradually as St John says, we purify ourselves to become more like Christ so that “all the ends of the earth” can see “the salvation of our God.”
In this way, we become truly the children of God because we live the life of Christ. We are adopted sons and daughters in the Son not just in name but in fact. St John wrote, “Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us, by letting us be called God’s children; and that is what we are. Because the world refused to acknowledge him, therefore it does not acknowledge us.” We can be known as God’s children only if the world acknowledges the Father. If the world is opposed to God and to the values of the gospel, they will not be able to accept us. So we must remain firm even when our way of life is rejected by the world. The litmus test of whether we are truly the children of God is not so much by what we say but our obedience to the commandments of God, not out of fear but out of conviction and expressed in our love and service for our fellowmen.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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