20240402 TRUE DEVOTION TO THE RISEN LORD
02 April 2024, Easter Tuesday
First reading | Acts 2:36-41 © |
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.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 32(33):4-5,18-20,22 © |
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!
Sequence |
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!
Gospel Acclamation | Ps117:24 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
This day was made by the Lord:
we rejoice and are glad.
Alleluia!
Gospel | John 20:11-18 © |
'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.
TRUE DEVOTION TO THE RISEN LORD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ACTS 2:36-41; PS 33:4-5,18-20,22; JN 20:11-18]
In the gospel, we read of the devotion of Mary Magdalene to the Lord. Even though He was dead, Mary Magdalene remained committed to Him. Her intention of going to the tomb was not to seek the Risen Lord but to see the body of our Lord. And so, when the body was not there, she was focused on wanting to find the missing body. She presumed that the workmen of Joseph of Arimathea could have moved Jesus to a more permanent site – where, she did not know. In itself, it is certainly a good example of what love entails. When we love deeply, we will keep our eyes on our beloved and we will do anything for our beloved. Such was the case of Mary.
Alas, for many of us, our love for Jesus is on the cerebral level. Our knowledge of the Lord is on the intellectual level. We lack feelings for Him. For many of us, especially those of us who are intellectually-inclined, we tend to rationalize our relationship with Jesus. This is even true for priests and theologians because of our theological studies. We have many ideas, thoughts and insights about our Lord. We can even write brilliant essays on our Lord and profound theological and spiritual reflections on Christ. And people are impressed at what we write and what we teach. Yet, we do not have any intense feelings for our Lord. Perhaps, at most we know about Him, but we do not really know Him. I cannot even say that there is a real relationship with Him because it is only that of the mind, but the heart seems frozen.
A real relationship cannot just be a matter of the head but must include the heart as well. Without the heart, we cannot conquer the world. Saints and martyrs are people with a heart for Jesus. They are like Mary Magdalene, so much in love with Jesus that they would give everything they have to serve Him and even to die for Him. When we read the stories of martyrs, many of them were ordinary people. Some have no education and certainly no deep knowledge of theology. They only read the simple scriptures, said some simple prayers, followed some devotions, but they knew Jesus in their heart. They had faith in Him and they loved Him. In the early Church, those Catholics who were martyred in Korea, Japan and in Cambodia were mostly ordinary people and simple priests. But because they loved the Lord with their heart, they were ready to die for Him.
But there is a lesson also to be learnt here. We must not let emotions of love blind us to the reality that is before us. Just because we need to feel with and for Jesus, it does not mean that we lose our objectivity as well. This, unfortunately, was the case of Mary Magdalene. She was so absorbed in her emotions of losing Jesus that she could not recognize the Lord when He appeared to her. She was not even looking at Him, thinking that He was the gardener. She just was concerned with finding the body of Jesus. But Jesus wanted to offer her more than His dead body. Jesus wanted to offer His Risen Body. But she was still living in the past. Because of her devotion to Jesus, and suffering the grief of His death, she was not able to go beyond the past.
And that is true also for those of us who have great affective feelings for our Lord. As I said, it is good to feel for and with Jesus. This is a necessary part of the relationship. But we cannot allow our emotions to carry us away until we lose our objectivity. We need to consider the larger aspect of our relationship with the Lord. There are some Catholics who have deep feelings for the Lord. They relate with Him as if they are relating with someone who is present physically. Like Mary Magdalene, they want to cling to the body of Jesus. They want to feel Him. As a result, they can allow the Evil One to mislead them into emotionalism. They might begin to think that their visions are real and the voices they hear are from God.
This is why mystics and the Church often warn devotees of falling into emotionalism, so much so they begin to conjure all kinds of visions and claim that God is speaking to them and that He has a message for them to deliver to this person or that person. Their imagination can stretch so far that they begin to believe that they are appointed visionaries of God. This is not to say that God does not reveal Himself and His message to certain individuals, but certainly such occurrences are not as common as what people think.
At any rate, any presumed divine messages received must undergo the discernment process of the teaching Church, the magisterium. It is the task of the Church to discern whether the message is truly from God or from one’s pious imagination. Hence, we must be vigilant always, and as St John says, we must test the spirit. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 Jn 4:1) St Paul also warns us, “Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” (1 Cor 11:14) Truly, we must not allow one’s emotions to take over the objectivity of the situation.
Truth is not purely intellectual, or purely a feeling. Truth is encountered with the heart and mind. A mature relationship requires a balance between mind and heart. Whilst it is true that the heart knows the reason that reason does not know, there is also the possibility that the heart could be deceived as well. This is why, Church doctrines are not rational nor merely subjective, depending on one’s feelings. Church doctrines are reasonable. They do not go against reason but transcend reason. This is why faith and reason go together in discerning the revelation of God. It is never faith alone or reason alone. It begins with faith but it must pass the test of reason. In other words, it must be credible and consistent with the nature of revelation and fits in with the rest of the other doctrines.
This explains why the Lord asked Mary Magdalene to let go of Him. She must let go of that earthly relationship with Him that she was used to. Jesus is risen and transfigured. He has to move to a new level of relationship because as the Lord said, “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.” Jesus has to return to the Father, His Father, and our Father, and assume His divinity, which He always had, with the Father. Because of that, Jesus is no longer just the earthly Jesus that they knew on earth. Although it is the same Father, Jesus’ relationship with the Father is not exactly the same as ours, because Jesus is the divine Son of the Father, equal to Him, but that is not true of us. We are merely adopted sons and daughters.
So, too, in our relationship with God, we must move to a deeper and higher level. In the mystical writings of the saints, we need to go through the seven castles to arrive at God. We must move from the purgative stage, the illuminative stage to the unitive stage. There are no short-cuts. Many Christians are impatient in their spiritual life. They want to have a feeling of the “highs” but there is no way to reach the heights without climbing the ladder of spirituality. We begin with the external journey and then ascend the inner journey towards the high altitude of union with God. It is a difficult process but it is a journey that enables us to find fulfilment.
Like the crowd who said to St Peter, “‘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.” This is just the first stage of the journey to God. From then on, we will have to purify ourselves and gradually learn detachment and humility until we love God purely, from the need to satisfy our emotions until we come to the dark night of the Spirit. Only then, when we are totally detached, can we find God and be united to Him. But there is no greater fulfilment and happiness than to be in God, in union with Him, which is already a foretaste of what heaven is like, complete joy.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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