20241024 BEING FILLED WITH THE UTTER FULLNESS OF GOD
First reading |
Ephesians 3:14-21 |
A prayer that faithful may know the love of Christ
This is what I pray, kneeling before the Father, from whom every family, whether spiritual or natural, takes its name:
Out of his infinite glory, may he give you the power through his Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God.
Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 32(33):1-2,4-5,11-12,18-19 |
The Lord fills the earth with his love.
Ring out your joy to the Lord, O you just;
for praise is fitting for loyal hearts.
Give thanks to the Lord upon the harp,
with a ten-stringed lute sing him songs.
The Lord fills the earth with his love.
For 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.
His own designs shall stand for ever,
the plans of his heart from age to age.
They are happy, whose God is the Lord,
the people he has chosen as his own.
The Lord fills the earth with his love.
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.
Gospel Acclamation | Jn8:12 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
anyone who follows me will have the light of life.
Alleluia!
Or: | Ph3:8-9 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I have accepted the loss of everything
and I look on everything as so much rubbish
if only I can have Christ
and be given a place in him.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 12:49-53 |
How I wish it were blazing already!
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already! There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great is my distress till it is over!
‘Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on a household of five will be divided: three against two and two against three; the father divided against the son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’
24 October 2024, Thursday, 29th Week in Ordinary Time
BEING FILLED WITH THE UTTER FULLNESS OF GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [EPH 3:14-21; LK 12:49-53]
What is the goal of every human person if not to grow in the fullness of God’s life and love? Indeed, this is the prayer of St Paul in today’s first reading. He prayed, “that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God.” Truly, when one is filled with God’s life and love, he is truly with God. This is eternal life. This is what it means to live in the kingdom of God. What is heaven if not to be so filled with God’s life, love, light and glory? When a person is filled with the presence of God, he is completely fulfilled. His mind is enlightened by truth, and his heart is filled with love.
This is also the mission of our Lord as well. In the gospel, He said, “I have come to bring fire to the earth and how I wish it were blazing already! There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great is my distress till it is over!” The fire that Jesus was speaking about is the purifying fire of God’s love. God’s love and dynamic presence is symbolized by fire. He appeared to Moses in a burning bush. Fire purifies all impurities. The Holy Spirit descended on the apostles in tongues of fire. When a person is filled with love, he is warm and full of life. And this is what Jesus sought to bring to this earth. He wants to ignite this world with the love of His Father so that humanity is filled with the fire of God’s love.
So how can one arrive at this state of being? We need to come to the source of life. This is our heavenly Father. This was why St Paul knelt down and prayed “before the Father, from whom every family, whether spiritual or natural, takes its name.” St Paul shows us the way by reminding us our origin and identity in life. We all come from God. The Father is the source of life. When we use the word “father” we do not mean that God is a male. What we mean is that He is the origin of life. Secondly, we are referring to His fatherhood in terms of love, providential care, intimacy and protection. All of us are called to imitate His fatherhood, especially those who are responsible for those under their care, not just earthly fathers but anyone in authority or leadership. Our task is to lead our children to the heavenly Father. We are called to be the face of the Father for them by showing them our love, care and protection from all harm and evil.
This explains why St Paul says, “Out of his infinite glory, may he give you the power through his Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong.” We must acquire the Spirit of the Father. Sharing in His Spirit is the way for us to share in His life and love. But this Spirit comes to us through Jesus, His Son, who comes to give us His Spirit, which is the Spirit of the Father. He told us, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf.” (Jn 15:26). He further explained, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (Jn 16:12-15)
This Spirit that Jesus comes to give us is the Spirit of love. St Paul said, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Rom 5:5). Jesus is the sender of the Holy Spirit because in Him the Spirit of God dwells fully. As St John tells us, when He was on earth, we did not yet receive the Holy Spirit until at His death on the cross. “On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.'” Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (Jn 7:37-39) And when the hour came, St John wrote, Jesus said, “‘It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (Jn 19:30)
Hence, the key to receiving the Spirit of God is faith in Christ. It is through faith in Him that we come to appreciate the love and mercy of God. In His death and resurrection, we come to know the depth of God’s love for us. St Paul wrote, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God.” (Rom 5:6-9). It is for this reason, we need to come to God through Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is the way to the Father, as Jesus told Philip, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” (Jn 14:9f)
To know Jesus is the first step in acquiring concretely what it takes for us to share in God’s love. His passion, death and resurrection for us, Christians, is the way in which we are invited to follow after Him. We are called to imbibe in the gospel of Christ by obeying His commandment, learning how to love God and our fellowmen beyond a mere fulfilment of the Law but carrying out the spirit of what the Law requires of us. In Christ, we learn how to love by carrying our cross after Him, becoming a servant of others in selfless love. When we imbibe Christ’s life and love, then as St Paul said, “planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God.” The more we are filled with Christ’s love, the more we live like Him. We will come to appreciate the true meaning of God’s love in Christ. When we consider how great His love is for us in sacrificing His only Son, we cannot but be filled with awe. St Paul, contemplating on God’s love, wrote, “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Rom 8:31-35)
Consequently, knowing how much God loves us in Christ, and sharing in His Spirit, we can do what Christ has done. It is for this reason that St Paul could pray with such great confidence when he said, “Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.” Indeed, this is but the fulfilment of Christ’s promise to us when He told His disciples, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.” (Jn 14:12-14). Indeed, with faith in Christ and sharing in His Spirit, we are empowered to set the world on fire as the apostles did after Pentecost. Filled with the Spirit, they proclaimed the gospel with boldness before the Sanhedrin and the peoples. “With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.” (Acts 4:33)
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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