03-16-2015, 06:16 PM
SALVATION AS A FREE GIFT THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST AS THE UNIMAGINABLE LOVE OF THE FATHER
SCRIPTURE READINGS: 2 CHR 36:14-16, 19-23; EPH 2:4-10; JN 3:14-21
http://www.universalis.com/20150315/mass.htm
Regrets! Missed opportunities! If only! When we review our lives we cannot but somehow feel that we have made a mess of it. Just like the Israelites in today’s first reading, we have disobeyed the laws of the Lord and His will. We were foolish not to pay heed to the wisdom of God as expressed in the Laws and the Ten Commandments.
As a result, we have brought disasters upon ourselves. Like the kings, the priests and the people of Israel, because they were unfaithful to Yahweh, their kingdom and ours have collapsed. Just as the worship of false gods, especially of self, led to moral decadence and internal division and which eventually brought about their downfall, we too are in that situation. The greed for money has led us to bankruptcy, dishonesty and even imprisonment. The thirst for revenge has destroyed our own happiness. The lack of self-control has led us to give in to lust and resulted in broken relationships, divorce and a broken family. The obsession with power has made us vindictive, manipulative and destructive of others.
Yes, like the Israelites, we are devastated today. Like them, we are in exile in Babylon. If we find ourselves in such situations today, we have only ourselves to blame. We reap what we have sowed. We have only ourselves to blame. We have exercised our freedom wrongly.
Yet, our days in exile are not meant to punish us. They are meant to reawaken our hope for true love and life. Just like the Israelites in Babylon who were given a long sabbatical of seventy years to come to self-realization and awareness of what they had missed out and what went wrong, so too, if we are in this period of bereavement and introspection, it is to prepare us for greater things to come.
I believe that in us, we are saying, “Could we start again, please?” And the Good News of today’s liturgy is, as St Paul says, “We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it.” So there is no need to give up. In fact, there is a future for us, the future as it was meant for us from the very beginning. We are not finished but we are just starting.
What is the basis of our hope in our hopelessness? It is the fidelity of God’s love for us. Of course, if only we knew the depth of God’s love for us, we would have been healed since love is always healing. Indeed, the scripture readings want to remind us that God has never given up hope on us. God is faithful in love. How do we know that He loves us unconditionally and always?
In the first reading, we read of God’s patience with us in our foolishness. In spite of their infidelity and ingratitude to God’s blessings, God sent prophet after prophet, urging the kings, the priests and the people who forsook Him for false gods to repentance. The prophets untiringly sensitized the conscience of the people whilst speaking of God’s faithfulness and compassion towards those who would repent. This continued even when the prophets of God were persecuted and killed by them. Because God loves us so much, He allows us to exercise our freedom even though it pains Him to know that we are destroying ourselves because we abuse that freedom.
However, God’s love does not even stop here. The Liturgy further reveals the incomprehensible love of God. St John in today gospel’s summarizes the permanent love of God for us when he said, “Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.” With the coming of Christ, we now know beyond any doubt that God truly loves us even if we are sinners. Clearly, God desires that all of us should not perish but have eternal life. God has no desire to destroy us but only to save us.
That God suffers for us in humiliation on the cross is something simply beyond all expectations. Indeed, Jesus’ death on the cross has challenged humanity’s way of thinking about God. God who is supposed to be immutable, perfect, and all powerful and transcendent, now made man and suffers and dies on the cross for us, forces us to rethink our whole concept of who God is!
Christ lifted up on the cross is the ultimate revelation of God’s love and mercy. God’s ultimate gift to us is the gift of His only Son. In other words, God gives the world nothing less than Himself. The gift of Jesus is but the expression of God’s total self-giving love. By giving up His only Son for the world as a living sacrifice, God heals the world of sin. Such is the breath and width, height and depth of God’s love, a love that extends to all, regardless of race, language or nation, saint or sinner. God, the loving Father, will not rest till we share in His love and His kingdom.
What must we do after recalling God’s incomprehensible love? We only have to believe in God’s love and accept it. This is reiterated by St Paul when he repeated twice, “it is through grace that you have been saved – and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.” In a further text he said, “Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit.” In other words, salvation is the free gift of God. God the Father does all this for us in Christ. We cannot earn it or merit it. God’s gift is there for the taking. He gives it to us without our asking. It is whether we want to respond or not.
If salvation is the free gift of God, then it means that the exaltation of Jesus should remind us that we can no longer rely on our own strength for salvation. For salvation to be ours, we only have to accept the grace of God and allow the love and light of Christ to transform our hearts. New life is ours if we enter into the paschal mystery of Jesus, sharing in His death and resurrection.
For this, faith in Jesus is absolutely necessary. Indeed, St John says, “No one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already, because he has refused to believe in the name of God’s only Son.” Like Mary, as we walk through darkness, we must surrender ourselves to God and confess our faith in Him.
Faith in Jesus of course is not simply a verbal faith. Faith, if it is truly personal, that is, involving our mind and heart, will empower us to walk in the light and the truth! Faith means to believe that Jesus has shown us the way by His cross and so we must now walk the same path.
Consequently, the objective of the Fourth Sunday of Lent is to cheer us on in our Lenten observances. We rejoice because convinced of God’s love for us in Jesus, we want all the more to be resolute and determined in sharing Jesus’ paschal mystery by dying to our sins, selfishness and pride through the penitential works of fasting, prayer and almsgiving or mercy. We do all these because we want to grow in a more complete and selfless love of God and neighbour so that we can return the love of God given to us. Through these good works too, we are brought even nearer to recognizing the truth of the mystery of grace brought by the cross of Jesus and most of all, His resurrection as well. Of course, all these are in full consciousness that we cannot depend on ourselves and our own efforts but by the grace given to us in the Holy Spirit.
Let us on this second part of the Lenten season, whilst contemplating on the passion of Christ and inspired by His example and strengthened by His grace and love, strive to deepen our spiritual life and reinforce the spiritual exercises which we have begun so that when we arrive at the Easter Triduum, we will be ready to completely die with Christ and enjoy the new Life given to us at Easter. It is with this confidence and hope that we should continue this Lenten journey, never giving up on ourselves, especially when we fail and at the same time, never complacent as we configure ourselves in Christ.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh
- See more at: http://www.csctr.net/reflections/#sthash.8mVASLec.dpuf
SCRIPTURE READINGS: 2 CHR 36:14-16, 19-23; EPH 2:4-10; JN 3:14-21
http://www.universalis.com/20150315/mass.htm
Regrets! Missed opportunities! If only! When we review our lives we cannot but somehow feel that we have made a mess of it. Just like the Israelites in today’s first reading, we have disobeyed the laws of the Lord and His will. We were foolish not to pay heed to the wisdom of God as expressed in the Laws and the Ten Commandments.
As a result, we have brought disasters upon ourselves. Like the kings, the priests and the people of Israel, because they were unfaithful to Yahweh, their kingdom and ours have collapsed. Just as the worship of false gods, especially of self, led to moral decadence and internal division and which eventually brought about their downfall, we too are in that situation. The greed for money has led us to bankruptcy, dishonesty and even imprisonment. The thirst for revenge has destroyed our own happiness. The lack of self-control has led us to give in to lust and resulted in broken relationships, divorce and a broken family. The obsession with power has made us vindictive, manipulative and destructive of others.
Yes, like the Israelites, we are devastated today. Like them, we are in exile in Babylon. If we find ourselves in such situations today, we have only ourselves to blame. We reap what we have sowed. We have only ourselves to blame. We have exercised our freedom wrongly.
Yet, our days in exile are not meant to punish us. They are meant to reawaken our hope for true love and life. Just like the Israelites in Babylon who were given a long sabbatical of seventy years to come to self-realization and awareness of what they had missed out and what went wrong, so too, if we are in this period of bereavement and introspection, it is to prepare us for greater things to come.
I believe that in us, we are saying, “Could we start again, please?” And the Good News of today’s liturgy is, as St Paul says, “We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it.” So there is no need to give up. In fact, there is a future for us, the future as it was meant for us from the very beginning. We are not finished but we are just starting.
What is the basis of our hope in our hopelessness? It is the fidelity of God’s love for us. Of course, if only we knew the depth of God’s love for us, we would have been healed since love is always healing. Indeed, the scripture readings want to remind us that God has never given up hope on us. God is faithful in love. How do we know that He loves us unconditionally and always?
In the first reading, we read of God’s patience with us in our foolishness. In spite of their infidelity and ingratitude to God’s blessings, God sent prophet after prophet, urging the kings, the priests and the people who forsook Him for false gods to repentance. The prophets untiringly sensitized the conscience of the people whilst speaking of God’s faithfulness and compassion towards those who would repent. This continued even when the prophets of God were persecuted and killed by them. Because God loves us so much, He allows us to exercise our freedom even though it pains Him to know that we are destroying ourselves because we abuse that freedom.
However, God’s love does not even stop here. The Liturgy further reveals the incomprehensible love of God. St John in today gospel’s summarizes the permanent love of God for us when he said, “Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.” With the coming of Christ, we now know beyond any doubt that God truly loves us even if we are sinners. Clearly, God desires that all of us should not perish but have eternal life. God has no desire to destroy us but only to save us.
That God suffers for us in humiliation on the cross is something simply beyond all expectations. Indeed, Jesus’ death on the cross has challenged humanity’s way of thinking about God. God who is supposed to be immutable, perfect, and all powerful and transcendent, now made man and suffers and dies on the cross for us, forces us to rethink our whole concept of who God is!
Christ lifted up on the cross is the ultimate revelation of God’s love and mercy. God’s ultimate gift to us is the gift of His only Son. In other words, God gives the world nothing less than Himself. The gift of Jesus is but the expression of God’s total self-giving love. By giving up His only Son for the world as a living sacrifice, God heals the world of sin. Such is the breath and width, height and depth of God’s love, a love that extends to all, regardless of race, language or nation, saint or sinner. God, the loving Father, will not rest till we share in His love and His kingdom.
What must we do after recalling God’s incomprehensible love? We only have to believe in God’s love and accept it. This is reiterated by St Paul when he repeated twice, “it is through grace that you have been saved – and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.” In a further text he said, “Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit.” In other words, salvation is the free gift of God. God the Father does all this for us in Christ. We cannot earn it or merit it. God’s gift is there for the taking. He gives it to us without our asking. It is whether we want to respond or not.
If salvation is the free gift of God, then it means that the exaltation of Jesus should remind us that we can no longer rely on our own strength for salvation. For salvation to be ours, we only have to accept the grace of God and allow the love and light of Christ to transform our hearts. New life is ours if we enter into the paschal mystery of Jesus, sharing in His death and resurrection.
For this, faith in Jesus is absolutely necessary. Indeed, St John says, “No one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already, because he has refused to believe in the name of God’s only Son.” Like Mary, as we walk through darkness, we must surrender ourselves to God and confess our faith in Him.
Faith in Jesus of course is not simply a verbal faith. Faith, if it is truly personal, that is, involving our mind and heart, will empower us to walk in the light and the truth! Faith means to believe that Jesus has shown us the way by His cross and so we must now walk the same path.
Consequently, the objective of the Fourth Sunday of Lent is to cheer us on in our Lenten observances. We rejoice because convinced of God’s love for us in Jesus, we want all the more to be resolute and determined in sharing Jesus’ paschal mystery by dying to our sins, selfishness and pride through the penitential works of fasting, prayer and almsgiving or mercy. We do all these because we want to grow in a more complete and selfless love of God and neighbour so that we can return the love of God given to us. Through these good works too, we are brought even nearer to recognizing the truth of the mystery of grace brought by the cross of Jesus and most of all, His resurrection as well. Of course, all these are in full consciousness that we cannot depend on ourselves and our own efforts but by the grace given to us in the Holy Spirit.
Let us on this second part of the Lenten season, whilst contemplating on the passion of Christ and inspired by His example and strengthened by His grace and love, strive to deepen our spiritual life and reinforce the spiritual exercises which we have begun so that when we arrive at the Easter Triduum, we will be ready to completely die with Christ and enjoy the new Life given to us at Easter. It is with this confidence and hope that we should continue this Lenten journey, never giving up on ourselves, especially when we fail and at the same time, never complacent as we configure ourselves in Christ.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh
- See more at: http://www.csctr.net/reflections/#sthash.8mVASLec.dpuf