Scripture Reflection and Prayer : Journeying together

Monday, 3 January 2022

LOVING WITH THE LOVE OF GOD

20220104 LOVING WITH THE LOVE OF GOD

04 January, 2022, Tuesday After Epiphany

First reading

1 John 4:7-10 ©

Let us love one another, since love comes from God

My dear people,

let us love one another

since love comes from God

and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.

Anyone who fails to love can never have known God,

because God is love.

God’s love for us was revealed

when God sent into the world his only Son

so that we could have life through him;

this is the love I mean:

not our love for God,

but God’s love for us when he sent his Son

to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 71(72):1-4,7-8 ©

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

O God, give your judgement to the king,

to a king’s son your justice,

that he may judge your people in justice

and your poor in right judgement.

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

May the mountains bring forth peace for the people

and the hills, justice.

May he defend the poor of the people

and save the children of the needy.

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

In his days justice shall flourish

and peace till the moon fails.

He shall rule from sea to sea,

from the Great River to earth’s bounds.

All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.

Gospel Acclamation

cf.Mt4:23

Alleluia, alleluia!

Jesus proclaimed the Good News of the kingdom

and cured all kinds of diseases among the people.

Alleluia!

Or:

Lk4:17

Alleluia, alleluia!

The Lord has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,

to proclaim liberty to captives.

Alleluia!

Or:

Lk7:16

Alleluia, alleluia!

A great prophet has appeared among us;

God has visited his people.

Alleluia!

Or:

cf.1Tim3:16

Alleluia, alleluia!

Glory to you, O Christ,

proclaimed to the pagans;

glory to you, O Christ,

believed in by the world.

Alleluia!

Or:

Mt4:16

Alleluia, alleluia!

The people that lived in darkness

has seen a great light;

on those who dwell in the land and shadow of death

a light has dawned.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Mark 6:34-44 ©

The feeding of the five thousand

As Jesus stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length. By now it was getting very late, and his disciples came up to him and said, ‘This is a lonely place and it is getting very late. So send them away, and they can go to the farms and villages round about, to buy themselves something to eat.’ He replied, ‘Give them something to eat yourselves.’ They answered, ‘Are we to go and spend two hundred denarii on bread for them to eat?’ ‘How many loaves have you?’ he asked. ‘Go and see.’ And when they had found out they said, ‘Five, and two fish.’ Then he ordered them to get all the people together in groups on the green grass, and they sat down on the ground in squares of hundreds and fifties. Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven and said the blessing; then he broke the loaves and handed them to his disciples to distribute among the people. He also shared out the two fish among them all. They all ate as much as they wanted. They collected twelve basketfuls of scraps of bread and pieces of fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.

LOVING WITH THE LOVE OF GOD

SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 JOHN 4:7-10; MARK 6:34-44]

The basis of Christian love for our brothers and sisters is never merely a humanitarian response to the suffering of humanity. Rather, it is in response to the love of God for us. St John underscored this when he wrote, “let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love.” Our capacity to love must come from God Himself, since love comes from God alone.

A love that does not come from God would be at most an imperfect love. Such love is often tainted by a love of self, since our love for others springs from us, not from God. Human love is always imperfect even though it does reflect something of God’s love. Even the love between husband and wife, and friends, is a reciprocal love. We love in order to be loved. But if we are not loved in return, eventually, we will withdraw our love for that person and direct that love to someone else who would respond to our love. As human beings, we all need love, if not at least some appreciation. To give without conditions, to serve without being appreciated, to love without being loved would mean that we have the capacity of divine love.

Why do people get involved in philanthropic work, humanitarian service or community service if not for the sense of fulfilment that we get from helping someone, from having made a difference in the lives of others, for having uplifted someone who needed help? We feel happy for the person who is helped and loved; and we feel happy for ourselves that we have done good. So the hearts of both the recipients and the benefactors are filled with joy. But if we are not appreciated by those whom we serve or even accused wrongly, we would feel very hurt and of course, give up serving and helping those whom we deem to be ingrates.

A more perfect love comes not from the love of our brothers and sisters but from God. We must not think that only Christians love perfectly with the love of God. Non-Christians who have encountered God would also know how to love as well. The fact that someone can love without conditions and expectations of gratitude in any way, who loves freely because his heart is full of love, that person has truly encountered God. The only motivation for him to love is because his heart is filled with God’s love. When our heart is filled with love, love will pour out from us. St Paul wrote about the love of God saying, His “love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Rom 5:5)

‘God is love’ captures the heart and essence of God. God is not just loving but He is pure love. Because God is love, He shares His life and love with us not because we are worthy or because He needs us to find happiness and fulfilment. The Catechism of the Catholic Church makes it clear, “St. Bonaventure explains that God created all things ‘not to increase his glory, but to show it forth and to communicate it’, for God has no other reason for creating than his love and goodness: ‘Creatures came into existence when the key of love opened his hand.'” (CCC 293) God created us out of His goodness, love and abundance. In other words, God did not create us to find fulfilment for Himself, unlike us who love so as to find fulfilment through the love and appreciation that we receive from those whom we love. Our love is a dependent love whereas God’s love is free and unconditional.

Hence, those of us who have encountered God’s love and have known Him would enjoy a greater purity in loving people. In other words, we love not because we have to, or we need to feel good about ourselves in loving people, but because we have received so much love from God that is poured into our hearts that we want to share that joy of being loved with others. So like God, it is a love that is poured from our hearts to others. Our love will be like that of the birds who sing from joy every morning whether we are there to listen to them or not, or like that of the sun that shines even when we refuse to wake up and see the light. God’s love is not dependent on our response, and neither does God love us less if we do not love Him. Jesus made it clear, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” (Mt 6:44f)

To enable us to love like Him, God showed us the example of love by giving up His Son for us. St John wrote, “God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world his only Son so that we could have life through him; this is the love I mean: not our love for God, but God’s love for us when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.” When St Paul reflected on it, he said, “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.” (Rom 8:31-33) St Augustine in his Confessions upon contemplating God’s love for us in Christ exclaimed, “How great was your love for us, good Father, for you did not even spare your own Son, but gave him up to save us sinners! How great was your love for us!” (Confessions, X, 43)

God does not demand from us something impossible without His showing the way and giving us the capacity to do the same. By contemplating on the sacrifice of His Son on the cross, we will have life in and through Him. Encountering His love on the cross for us all, we will be overwhelmed by His love and sacrifice for us. From His love, our hearts will be filled with love for Him because we are healed by His love, forgiven and set free to love others. Otherwise we will lack the capacity to love. This was the case of the disciples in today’s gospel. When it was late, the disciples came to Jesus, “This is a lonely place and it is getting very late, so send them away, and they can go to the farms and villages round about, to buy themselves some-thing to eat.” Instead of solving the problem, they sought to put the problem back to the people because they knew their limitations to give. But the Lord replied, “Give them something to eat yourselves.” They answered, “Are we to go and spend two hundred denarii on bread for them to eat?” Indeed, they felt helpless because they depended on their limited capacity to give. They failed to depend on God’s love and power.

Jesus however remained undaunted in the face of the impossible. He trusted in the Father’s love because He knew that the Father’s love will never fail Him. He asked them, “How many loaves have you. Go and see.” And when they had found out they said, “Five, and two fish.” After ordering them to sit in groups, Jesus “took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven and said the blessing; then he broke the loaves and handed them to his disciples to distribute among the people. He also shared out the two fish among them all. They all ate as much as they wanted. They collected twelve basketfuls of scraps of bread and pieces of fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.” In this setting, the evangelist was making references to Moses who fed the people with manna in the desert, and Elisha who multiplied twenty loaves of barley bread to feed a hundred people. (2 Kgs 4:42-44) God is the One who provides. God makes it possible for us to love all.

We too must learn from the Lord not just to love concretely our brothers and sisters but to love fully and abundantly, the way the Lord fed the people with the bread and continue to feed us in the Eucharist. We must draw strength from the Lord to love not with our limited and conditional love, but with the love of God in our hearts. As Christians, it is not enough to proclaim the gospel in words but also in concrete acts of love and mercy. We read that “as Jesus stepped ashore, he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length.” His compassion was not limited to feeding them with the Word of God but with food to sustain their hunger as well. As we celebrate the birth of the Lord, let us as Christians also be life-givers through our sharing of the gospel in word and in deed.

Sunday, 2 January 2022

THE SALVIFIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INCARNATION

20220103 THE SALVIFIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INCARNATION

03 January, 2022, Monday After Epiphany

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.’

THE SALVIFIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INCARNATION

SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 JN 3:22-4:6; MT 4:12-17, 23-25]

The feast of the Epiphany celebrates the manifestation of God in man to all the world, including the Gentiles represented by the Magi who came from Persia. In Jesus, God came to us in our humanity to show us the face of God. But the incarnation is not something we can prove except to believe in faith, like the three wise men who found Jesus in the manger and worshipped Him in faith. Could they prove that the baby Jesus is God? Of course not, but they knew from their astrological studies and confirmed in the Jewish scriptures that the baby Jesus was someone extraordinary whom they called the Infant King of the Jews.

To say that the Word of God became flesh, as St John wrote, was a claim that neither the Jews nor the Greek Gentiles could accept. For the Jews, God and man cannot be reconciled. God is the transcendent, all holy and all mighty. We cannot even see Him face to face, otherwise we will die. God, for the Jews, is therefore the inaccessible one. There is no question of God assuming human flesh. Not only could the Jews not accept the doctrine of the incarnation, but the Greek Gentiles also could not. They believed that God and matter cannot mix simply because matter is evil. Only the Spirit is good. The body is evil. Our souls are trapped in the body. Upon death, our souls will be released and then return back to God. So the Gnostics, a particular branch of which is Docetism, taught that the Christ was not truly man. He was only God and took on the apparent body of Jesus the man at His baptism and the Christ left Him upon death. In this way, Christ who is God did not die on the cross. His divinity was safeguarded.

However, the denial of the central doctrine of Christianity, the foundation of faith in His salvific death on the cross would lead to serious implications for the Christian Faith. If we remove the incarnation, we cannot speak of Christ’s death on the cross for our salvation or even the reality of His resurrection. For Christ to die on the cross, it presupposes that Jesus was truly a man. For Christ to rise from the dead, it presupposes that He really died. For Christ to save us from our sins, it presupposes that He truly died on the cross for our salvation. Indeed, without the incarnation, we cannot speak of Christ as our Saviour because He cannot even be for us a moral example, to say the least, of living an authentic life of God. We would say that Jesus was God and He pretended only to be a man. So He did not really suffer. He was not tempted by the world, the flesh and the Evil One. He does not know our pains, our weaknesses and our temptations. If that were so, how can we as human beings live the life that Jesus showed us how to live? We are weak, sinful and with a fallen nature, there is no hope we can be saved.

But Christ is truly God and man. Only because He is God, can He reconcile us with Him. Otherwise, God and man will always remain divided since God is beyond the reach of man. But because Jesus is God and man, we can be reconciled with God. We do not become God just as Christ, although God, did not lose His humanity even at the resurrection. But we are not separated from God either because God lives in us in His Spirit. In Jesus, we see that it is possible to remain distinct between God and man, and yet undivided but united in Christ. This is why we say that we are God’s adopted sons and daughters in Christ. Only Christ is the eternal Son of the Father. But because we share in His humanity, we too are adopted as sons and daughters of God, without becoming divine but remaining human. Hence, we can truly say, in Christ, God and man are reconciled. It is thus important for us to maintain the doctrine of the incarnation when God assumed our humanity. As Athanasius said, “God became man so that man can become god.” Of course, this is to be understood in terms of participation of His divine life.

For this reason, St John makes it a criterion of orthodoxy for Christians to profess this doctrine of the Incarnation without compromise. “Every spirit which acknowledges that Jesus the Christ has come in the flesh is from God; but any spirit which will not say this of Jesus is not from God, but is the spirit of Antichrist, whose coming you are warned about.” Indeed, we must be careful of theories that swing between two extremes, pantheism on one hand, and materialism on the other. In some new age theories, we are all gods. The divine is in us waiting to be released from our bodies. Hence, salvation is to get in touch with the divine in us. Salvation is reduced to some form of enlightenment which is our god-consciousness in us. We all have the power to save ourselves. We do not need any Saviour. Jesus is just one of the eons who showed us the way to enlightenment, just as other founders of other religions. At the other end of the spectrum is to deny the spiritual dimension of man and reduce him to mere matter, a creature, albeit the highest, but remains only matter, returning to dust when he dies, at which his existence will disappear from the face of the earth.

This is why discernment is necessary. Today, some Catholics are falling into syncretism. They are picking up all kinds of novelties from other religions and seeking to impose on the Christian Faith. In the name of inculturation, they unwittingly import not just the practices of other religions but also the theology or philosophy behind it. Trying to be ecumenical or inter-religious minded, and to appear non-triumphalist, they make compromises in their beliefs about Jesus so that they can be more acceptable to the world. St John in no uncertain terms says, “It is not every spirit, my dear people, that you can trust; test them, to see if they come from God, there are many false prophets, now, in the world. You can tell the spirits that come from God by this: every spirit which acknowledges that Jesus the Christ has come in the flesh is from God; but any spirit which will not say this of Jesus is not from God, but is the spirit of Antichrist, whose coming you are warned about. Well, now he is here, in the world.”

Indeed, we must not try to gain false recognition and acceptance by the world. We must take our direction from Christ who is the light of the world. Jesus fulfils the scriptures that foretold His coming. Matthew, citing from the prophet of Isaiah, said, “In this way the prophecy of Isaiah was to be fulfilled: Land of Zebulun! Land of Naphtali! Way of the sea on the far side of Jordan, Galilee of the nations! The people that lived in darkness has seen a great light; on those who dwell in the land and shadow of death a light has dawned.” (cf Isa 9:1f) He is the light not just for the Jews but also for the Gentiles where many lived in Galilee. It is appropriate that Matthew and the prophet Isaiah mentioned Galilee of the Gentiles because after the fall of Israel to Assyria, the Assyrians imported Gentile peoples to the area of Zebulun and Naphtali, the area of Galilee. The Samaritans largely lived in Galilee during the time of Christ. It was also a major international highway, a crossroads of international travel, “the way of the sea.”

It is significant that Jesus would begin His ministry in Galilee, the land of the Gentiles where the Jewish people were a minority. Jesus came for the Gentiles too. When Jesus rose from the dead, the Risen Christ the angel said “has gone before you into Galilee.” It was at Galilee that St Matthew records that Jesus sent out His disciples to the nations to proclaim the Good News. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Mt 28:10; 19) We too must announce Jesus as the Incarnation of God, our Saviour to the world, to those who do not know Him. But in the process of transmitting the gospel in the language of the peoples we are sent to, we must be careful that we do not compromise our faith in Jesus as the Son of God, truly God and truly Man in one person. He is the Saviour of all. “For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all.’ (1 Tim 2:5)

Saturday, 1 January 2022

THE JOURNEY OF FAITH

20220102 THE JOURNEY OF FAITH

02 January, 2022, Sunday, The Epiphany of the Lord

First reading

Ecclesiasticus 24:1-2,8-12 ©

From eternity, in the beginning, God created wisdom

Wisdom speaks her own praises,

in the midst of her people she glories in herself.

She opens her mouth in the assembly of the Most High,

she glories in herself in the presence of the Mighty One;

‘Then the creator of all things instructed me,

and he who created me fixed a place for my tent.

He said, “Pitch your tent in Jacob,

make Israel your inheritance.”

From eternity, in the beginning, he created me,

and for eternity I shall remain.

I ministered before him in the holy tabernacle,

and thus was I established on Zion.

In the beloved city he has given me rest,

and in Jerusalem I wield my authority.

I have taken root in a privileged people,

in the Lord’s property, in his inheritance.’

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 147:12-15,19-20 ©

The Word was made flesh, and lived among us.

Alleluia!

O praise the Lord, Jerusalem!

Zion, praise your God!

He has strengthened the bars of your gates

he has blessed the children within you.

The Word was made flesh, and lived among us.

Alleluia!

He established peace on your borders,

he feeds you with finest wheat.

He sends out his word to the earth

and swiftly runs his command.

The Word was made flesh, and lived among us.

Alleluia!

He makes his word known to Jacob,

to Israel his laws and decrees.

He has not dealt thus with other nations;

he has not taught them his decrees.

The Word was made flesh, and lived among us.

Alleluia!

Second reading

Before the world was made, God chose us in Christ

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ.

Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ,

to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence,

determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ

for his own kind purposes,

to make us praise the glory of his grace,

his free gift to us in the Beloved.

That will explain why I, having once heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus, and the love that you show towards all the saints, have never failed to remember you in my prayers and to thank God for you. May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit.

Gospel Acclamation

cf.1Tim3:16

Alleluia, alleluia!

Glory be to you, O Christ, proclaimed to the pagans.

Glory be to you, O Christ, believed in by the world.

Alleluia!

Gospel

The Word was made flesh, and lived among us

In the beginning was the Word:

and the Word was with God

and the Word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things came to be,

not one thing had its being but through him.

All that came to be had life in him

and that life was the light of men,

a light that shines in the dark,

a light that darkness could not overpower.

A man came, sent by God.

His name was John.

He came as a witness,

as a witness to speak for the light,

so that everyone might believe through him.

He was not the light,

only a witness to speak for the light.

The Word was the true light

that enlightens all men;

and he was coming into the world.

He was in the world

that had its being through him,

and the world did not know him.

He came to his own domain

and his own people did not accept him.

But to all who did accept him

he gave power to become children of God,

to all who believe in the name of him

who was born not out of human stock

or urge of the flesh

or will of man

but of God himself.

The Word was made flesh,

he lived among us,

and we saw his glory,

the glory that is his as the only Son of the Father,

full of grace and truth.

John appears as his witness. He proclaims:

‘This is the one of whom I said:

He who comes after me ranks before me

because he existed before me.’

Indeed, from his fullness we have, all of us, received –

yes, grace in return for grace,

since, though the Law was given through Moses,

grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God;

it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father’s heart,

who has made him known.

THE JOURNEY OF FAITH

SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ISA 60:1-6; PS 72:1-2,7-8,10-13; EPH 3:2-3.5-6; MT 2:1-12]

How does one come to faith in Christ? Some of us feel discouraged that our loved ones and even our children do not have faith in Christ. We try to get them to go to church but they won’t, especially if they are in their teens or early adulthood. They find the church boring, or the faith superstitious and goes against science and empirical proofs. The story of the Magi is the story of the faith journey that we take to discover Christ as our Saviour and Lord. Of course, each journey of faith is different, but there are common elements that would be required for us to come to find Christ as our Saviour and King.

Every journey of faith begins with just a dim light. The Magi saw a star which led them to begin their search of the infant king of the Jews. Each one’s journey must also begin with a light even when it is dim. The prophet Isaiah said to those who have just returned from exile, “Arise, shine out, Jerusalem, for your light has come, the glory of the Lord is rising on you, though night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples.” It was difficult for them to believe that there was hope for them when they returned to Jerusalem because everything was in ruins. So too, often, it is in our desperation, helplessness and the lack of fulfilment that this search begins. They find something missing in life, a vacuum, an emptiness.

This explains why those who are self-sufficient cannot find God. Herod thought Jesus was a threat to his security and power. The religious leaders, although schooled in the knowledge of the scriptures and able to cite the scriptures so well, were saying, “At Bethlehem in Judaea, ‘for this is what the prophet wrote: And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, you are by no means least among the leaders of Judah, for out of you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel”, yet they were indifferent to the coming of the Messiah. They were not interested in Him because their lives were very secure and their position in society was firmly protected. This is true for many of us as well. The rich, the intelligent and the powerful are not interested in God because they think that by their hard work and intellect, they can be very wealthy and powerful, getting whatever they want. But a time will come when they too will find life meaningless whether they arrive at the top or end up in failure. When they experience emptiness, futility, failure, sickness, old age, then they begin to seek the light.

So to help people come to faith, we must stir up their sense of wonder. When the Magi saw the star, they began to wonder. They were astrologers and began to search and study their books to understand the meaning of the star. When we begin to wonder, we start to see newness in life and things that we have taken for granted. The danger is that many of us go through life so focused and busy with our career or looking after the family that we no longer stop to gaze and wonder at the beauty of creation or be grateful for the little things of life which we often take for granted – our food, the modern gadgets, nature and the people around us. Only those of us who dare to wonder can be connected with God. To wonder is to begin the journey of faith, asking the more profound and ultimate questions of life and death.

To those without a full-grown faith, God gives us reason to help us come to faith. So, the Magi, as astrologists and scientists, used their natural reasoning to study the stars. It is so wonderful to know that God will use our natural knowledge and reasoning to help us discover something of Him. God reveals to us where we are, according to our limitations and our resources. He permits the use of nature to reveal something of Himself, albeit vaguely. Through the use of reason and science, we are led to discover something more. This was the way the Magi began their search for the Lord. For most of us too, we begin with reason, inquiry and curiosity. We need to use whatever resources the Lord has given us to come to know the truth. This is the first step in faith. We begin with reason and inquiry.

Faith only comes to those who search for it. Those of us who are complacent, lazy and absorbed in our worldly interests are not in contact with God. This was the case of King Herod. He “summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared, and sent them on to Bethlehem. ‘Go and find out all about the child,’ he said ‘and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.'” Herod was sitting and idling in his palace. He sent the Magi to look for Him. This will never do. Faith must be a personal search for God. We cannot deputize someone else to fall in love with God for us or experience God on our behalf. We must personally undertake that journey of faith.

But this journey involves much risks and adventure. For those who are serious in wanting to find the ultimate purpose of life, the meaning of our existence, our goal and our final destiny, we will undertake the arduous journey, which is often fraught with frustrations because the journey is full of unknowns. This was the case of the Magi when they set out from the court of Persia looking for the King of the Jews. They saw the star and that was all. But they knew there was something more than just the star. They took the courage to search by asking and inquiring humbly of those who could give them some leads to find the Lord. We too must be humble enough to learn, to ask and to inquire about the ultimate questions of life.

As the Magi journeyed, the light disappeared. They lost the light. They were plunged in darkness. This is the whole process of faith. The moment we find it, the next moment we lose it. It is the experience of light and darkness. This is often the experience of those who encounter God deeply in a retreat. But soon afterwards, they again feel the emptiness and distance of God from them. Sometimes, we have to go through the dark night of the senses and the Spirit to be purified of our faith in God. Faith is never finally possessed until we are at our death bed. We will need to grow all the time. There will be moments of growth, retrogression or stagnancy. Even then in such moments, the grace of God is working and waiting for the right moment to strike so that we will once again see the light.

In moments of darkness, we are in precarious danger because we could be asking the wrong questions or the wrong people who would mislead us and lead us into sin, just as Herod tried to deceive the Magi into believing that he wanted to worship Christ. This is what is happening today when those who are desperate for life and meaning often end up looking at the wrong places because the world, like Herod, seeks to deceive us with fake and distorted information. Herod is a symbol of deception. He spoke in a relative manner making it sound as if he was sincere and religious. Herod is a symbol of the internet world.

In the final analysis, to come to faith, reason has its limitation. Revelation is necessary to know God. The Magi came to a situation when reason could not assist them anymore. That was why they sought assistance from the experts, those whom God has already spoken to. Reason must surrender to revelation, which requires a response of faith. Reason is illusive. This explains why in following the star, it led them to Judea, but then it disappeared until they were enlightened by the scriptures. Indeed, no matter how intelligent we are, we must never think that reason alone can help us to find God. Reason can tell us that God exists. Only revelation and faith can tell us who God is. To know the Lord, we too must consult the scriptures and make conscientious study of our faith. Revelation and grace often come to us through dreams as well. The evangelist told us that they believed Herod until they dreamt that God warned them not to go back to Herod but to go back by a different way.

But if we persevere, the star again will reappear leading us to Jesus. “And there in front of them was the star they had seen rising; it went forward and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight.” And when the Magi found the place, they entered the house, a symbol of the church where we encounter Jesus. The Eucharist is where Jesus is. As a consequence, they fell down in worship and adoration and surrendered themselves to the Lord through the symbols of the gifts of gold, worthy for a king, myrrh to prepare for His burial, and frankincense to offer Him worship. We too, when we encounter the Lord, after all the searching and studying, we must end with contemplation and adoration so that departing from our Lord, we can then go out to offer ourselves in love and service as gifts to humanity by living a life of faith and love.

Finally, the Magi have taught us a great lesson of solidarity in faith journey. We must never travel alone but with each other. The three Magi journeyed together with one purpose. Faith is solidarity with each other. Hence, it is critical that we keep up our study and contemplation of scriptures and the study of theology, and most of all sharing our faith with one another just as the Jewish leaders shared their findings with the Magi. Through faith study and sharing, we support each other in faith, especially when we are going through periods of doubt. We need the company and support of our friends to find the star. Like the Magi, they travelled together to give each other support. They never travelled alone because they would be lost or be led astray.

Today, we are called to be like St Paul who received such a wonderful mystery of revelation for the nations. We must be involved in the work of evangelization, since like St Paul we too “have been entrusted by God with the grace” meant for the world. We who have been “given the knowledge of the mystery” must manifest and reveal it to the world so that all pagans can “share the same inheritance, that they are parts of the same body.” The Feast of the Epiphany entails that we who have found the Lord must not keep Him to ourselves but share with all of humanity.