20240605 FAN INTO A FLAME THE GIFT THAT GOD GAVE YOU
05 June 2024, Wednesday, 9th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
2 Timothy 1:1-3,6-12 © |
God's gift is the Spirit of power, love and self-control
From Paul, appointed by God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus in his design to promise life in Christ Jesus; to Timothy, dear child of mine, wishing you grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Christ Jesus our Lord.
Night and day I thank God, keeping my conscience clear and remembering my duty to him as my ancestors did, and always I remember you in my prayers. That is why I am reminding you now to fan into a flame the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you. God’s gift was not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power, and love, and self-control. So you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to the Lord, or ashamed of me for being his prisoner; but with me, bear the hardships for the sake of the Good News, relying on the power of God who has saved us and called us to be holy – not because of anything we ourselves have done but for his own purpose and by his own grace. This grace had already been granted to us, in Christ Jesus, before the beginning of time, but it has only been revealed by the Appearing of our saviour Christ Jesus. He abolished death, and he has proclaimed life and immortality through the Good News; and I have been named its herald, its apostle and its teacher.
It is only on account of this that I am experiencing fresh hardships here now; but I have not lost confidence, because I know who it is that I have put my trust in, and I have no doubt at all that he is able to take care of all that I have entrusted to him until that Day.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 122(123):1-2 © |
To you, O Lord, I lift up my eyes.
To you have I lifted up my eyes,
you who dwell in the heavens;
my eyes, like the eyes of slaves
on the hand of their lords.
To you, O Lord, I lift up my eyes.
Like the eyes of a servant
on the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes are on the Lord our God
till he show us his mercy.
To you, O Lord, I lift up my eyes.
Gospel Acclamation | Jn17:17 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Your word is truth, O Lord:
consecrate us in the truth.
Alleluia!
Or: | Jn11:25, 26 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;
whoever believes in me will never die.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Mark 12:18-27 © |
The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is the God of the living
Some Sadducees – who deny that there is a resurrection – came to him and they put this question to him, ‘Master, we have it from Moses in writing, if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first married a wife and then died leaving no children. The second married the widow, and he too died leaving no children; with the third it was the same, and none of the seven left any children. Last of all the woman herself died. Now at the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be, since she had been married to all seven?’
Jesus said to them, ‘Is not the reason why you go wrong, that you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry; no, they are like the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising again, have you never read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the Bush, how God spoke to him and said: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? He is God, not of the dead, but of the living. You are very much mistaken.’
FAN INTO A FLAME THE GIFT THAT GOD GAVE YOU
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [2 Timothy 1:1-3, 6-12; Psalm 123:1-2; Mark 12:18-27]
We have all received gifts and blessings from God. We received, most of all, the gift of faith from our parents and our friends. Unfortunately, after receiving this gift of faith and eternal life, some of us never grow it at all. We take it for granted. We take for granted the easy accessibility to the sacraments – whether of the Eucharist, or reconciliation -, to scriptures and theology. In fact, today, no one can claim ignorance of their faith; that there is no one to teach them, or that they do not know where to find information on their faith and doctrines. Today, there are more than enough resources on the internet to help us grow in our knowledge of our faith – if only we are serious about wanting to “fan into a flame the gift” that God has given to us.
Indeed, the greatest act of thanksgiving we can give to those who have passed on their faith, their legacy, knowledge or skills to us, is to in turn pass it on to future generations. It is sad that today, many of our traditional skills, whether in making handicrafts, cooking or the arts, are lost because they are despised by the modern generations who prefer trades that can bring them greater profits, and often without having to exert much physical effort, except using the mind and the hands. It is so true of our faith today. What has been handed down by our forefathers is taken for granted because we do not value that which is given to us for free. We have forgotten the price our forefathers paid for their faith. Even in a small country with a short history like Singapore, there is a danger that our young people will grow up entitled, because we are now affluent and they do not know how much our forefathers sacrificed to build our nation to what it is today.
St Paul was forever grateful for the gift of faith passed on to him directly by the Lord Himself and the Christian community. He handed on to others the faith that he had received. Writing to the Corinthians, he said, “I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them–though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” (1 Cor 15:3-10)
At the end of his missionary journey, he declared that his conscience was clear because he had done all that he could; “You yourselves know how I lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, enduring the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. I did not shrink from doing anything helpful, proclaiming the message to you and teaching you publicly and from house to house. I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me. But I do not count my life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God’s grace.” (Acts 20:18-24)
Consequently, we are called to do the same. St Paul exhorted Timothy, whom he called his child because he was the father of faith to him. He reminded Timothy to imitate him and be grateful for the gift of faith given to him. Not only that, he had been appointed an overseer of the community that Paul had founded. So Paul told Timothy to be brave in handing on the faith entrusted to him. He said, “God’s gift was not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power, and love, and self-control.” When God gave us the gifts of Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders or Holy Matrimony, God also empowered us to live that state of life. We should seek the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to us to live out our calling in life. The gifts we have received from the Holy Spirit is for love. He gives us the courage and the dynamism to witness to the gospel.
This grace is assured by our faith in the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord. St Paul said, “This grace had already been granted to us, in Christ Jesus, before the beginning of time, but it has only been revealed by the Appearing of our saviour Christ Jesus. He abolished death, and he has proclaimed life and immortality through the Good News.” Indeed, faith in the kerygma is critical for us in witnessing to the Lord and passing on the gift of faith. Only because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, are we certain of the power of God, and that this God is truly alive and continues to walk and journey with us.
This is what the Lord said in today’s gospel when the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection tried to discredit this doctrine by giving the analogy of the woman who married seven brothers, but bore none of them any child. The question they asked was, “Now at the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be, since she had been married to all seven?” Jesus went to the heart of the issue, which is faith in the living God. It is not a question of who one is married to in the next life, but whether one continues to exist after this life. The foundation for faith in life after death depends on whether we believe that this God is truly alive. Jesus said to them, “Is not the reason why you go wrong, that you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, men and woman do not marry; no, they are like the angels in heaven.”
To substantiate this truth, Jesus cited from the Book of Moses, one of the books of the Torah, which were the only books accepted by the Sadducees. Even then, they failed to understand the significance of the text from the Book of Exodus. Jesus said, “Now about the dead rising again, have you never read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the Bush, how God spoke to him and said: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? He is God, not of the dead but of the living. You are very much mistaken.” Indeed, many of us, too, are ignorant about Christ and the gospel, because we are ignorant of the Word of God. We are misled by the world, listening only to the world instead of the Word of God. Like the Sadducees, we never read the scriptures.
So, today if we want to be true witnesses of our Lord and be ready to transmit the faith we have received, we must, as St Paul wrote, “confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Rom 10:9) Confession of faith in His passion and resurrection gives us confidence in proclaiming Him even when we are persecuted, or when we have to go through hardships for the sake of the gospel. If we know that the Lord is risen, then we can be confident that He will be with us in our trials and difficulties. As St Paul told Timothy, “So you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to the Lord, or ashamed of me for being his prisoner; but with me bear the hardships for the sake of the Good News.”
We can only rely on the power of God to witness and not use our own strength or ingenuity. As St Paul reminds us, we must rely “on the power of God who has saved us and called us to be holy – not because of anything we ourselves have done but for his own purpose and by his own grace.” Conversion and the success of the gospel is not the work of our hands but purely through Him alone who sends us the Holy Spirit to help us preach with conviction, and to open the hearts of our hearers. So, let us commend our work to the Lord as St Paul did. “It is only on account of this that I am experiencing fresh hardships here now; but I have not lost confidence, because I know who it is that I have put my trust in, and I have no doubt at all that he is able to take care of all that I have entrusted to him until that Day.”
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment