20250422 CONVERSION THROUGH UNDERSTANDING AND LOVE
22 April 2025, 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.
CONVERSION THROUGH UNDERSTANDING AND LOVE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ACTS 2:36-41; PS 33:4-5,18-20,22; JN 20:11-18]
When we have a radical encounter with Life and Love, the consequence is obvious. We become messengers of that life and love which we have encountered and received. This is the basis for the proclamation of the Good News and the desire to announce that Jesus the Risen One is Lord and Saviour of all humanity. This was the heart of Peter’s proclamation at Pentecost when he said, “The whole House of Israel can be certain that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. 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.”
How do we bring about conversion of hearts to our listeners? There are two ways – one way is through reasoning and the other is through love. St Peter shows us the first way, which is through preaching with conviction and teaching. “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.” Indeed, when we preach and teach with conviction, the Holy Spirit can open the minds of our listeners. This approach is particularly effective for those who are intellectuals, and they can only open their hearts when their minds are first opened. They need reason for them to open their hearts to something that they find difficult to imagine or conceive.
With minds converted, their hearts will eventually follow as well. Indeed, we read that hearing the preaching of Peter, “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.” Repentance that is called for is more than just giving up one’s sin; it is an invitation to metanoia. It is changing one’s mind for the mind of God. It is changing our values of life. No longer do we judge ourselves by the world’s standards but by God’s standards. Conversion is simply seeking for the fullness of life and love.
But there is also another way to bring about conversion of heart. It is through gentleness and love. This approach is given to us in today’s gospel. We read that Mary was devastated when she found that the body of Jesus was missing from the tomb. Thinking that perhaps Joseph of Arimathea had asked his workers to move the body to another location, she was at a loss as to where the body could be. She was in deep distress, weeping and inconsolable. When a person is in such a state, a hard and intellectual approach will not help the person to connect with God and come to self-awareness. This is true especially for those who are deeply hurt, wounded by traumas, disappointments, betrayals or sad events in their lives. For such people, no amount of reasoning can convince them of anything.
Consequently, today we are called to take the cue from the angels and our Lord. The evangelist noted that Mary was blinded by her intense emotion of loss when she discovered the body of her master was missing. Although she “saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head, the other at the feet”, she was oblivious to the fact that they were there. She only could think of Jesus’ missing body. So, too, in life when we are wounded, our pain takes up all our attention, so much so we are not able to distance ourselves and see our problems objectively. By telling someone who is broken and downhearted to see the problem rationally and objectively is asking almost the impossible because grief will prevent us from seeing the issue in its entirety. So rather than trying to make sense for the person who is grieving, we need to show love and compassion.
This was the approach of the angels when it came to announcing the message to Mary. In the Synoptic gospels, when they saw the women, their first words were, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.” (Mk 16:6) For Mary, the angel did not begin in that manner because she was already wallowing in self-pity and would not be able to hear anything or see anything for that matter. So, they began by feeling with her. “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.'” They initiated a conversation with her, allowing her to express her fears and her pain. They did not interrupt her but made her feel that they were listening to her distress.
So too when Jesus appeared to Mary. Jesus did not reprimand her for her lack of faith. He was patient and with great sensitivity and compassion said to her “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” Jesus began by connecting with her, showing compassion for her sorrow. He allowed her to articulate her pain so that by sharing, the weight of her pain would be lifted from her heart. He knew that she was too overwhelmed by grief to even recognize His presence. “As she said this she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not recognise him. 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.'”
With tenderness, Jesus called her, “Mary!” “She knew him then and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbuni!’ – which means Master.” It was Jesus calling her by name that she immediately recognized the voice of her master. Indeed, she was the sheep of Jesus because the Lord said, “The sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” (Jn 10:4f) When we love Jesus, we will be able to hear Him speaking to us. Those who do not love Jesus, and do not know Him are not able to listen to His voice.
This is particularly true for those of us who read the scriptures or pray. Those who have no relationship or intimacy with the Lord will read the scriptures and nothing will speak to them. They read the words on the surface and their minds and hearts are not moved. But for those of us who are familiar with Jesus, reading the Word of God always brings new insights and new meaning even though we might have read that text many times before. Because with love and intimacy, we deepen our understanding of what the Lord is saying to us. We no longer understand what we read superficially, or just rationally, but we read it from the heart of Jesus. When we love, we understand more because reason has its limits beyond what the heart wants to say.
This is why the Lord said to Mary, “Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.” In other words, Jesus told Mary that she must go beyond the external and tangible. To know Jesus deeply, we need to move to another level of relationship beyond a bodily relationship. Jesus was going back to His Father and our Father. “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” This is an invitation to share in His relationship with the Father. Jesus came from God and now He returns to His Father. But this is in order to bestow upon us the Holy Spirit so that receiving His Holy Spirit, we too will be able to unite with Jesus and through Jesus, come to the Father who alone can satisfy our desires and give us the fulfilment that we long for. We need to go beyond simply the things of this world but as St Paul tells us, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.” (Col 3:2-4)
Encounter with the Risen Lord makes us all missionaries of Christ. Today, therefore, let us learn from Peter how to announce the gospel to unbelievers, calling them to repentance through reason and conviction. But greater still, we can learn from Mary, the apostle to the apostles as to how we can also bring people to the Lord, not through arguments but through understanding, relationship and love. May we too win them over by our love for the Lord.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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