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HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS MUST BE FOUNDED ON THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST - stephenkhoo - 01-29-2013 10:23 AM
Tuesday, 29 January, 2013, 3rd Week, Ordinary Time
HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS MUST BE FOUNDED ON THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST, WHICH IS TO DO THE WILL OF THE FATHER
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Heb 10:1-10; Mk 3:31-35
What is the purpose of Jesus’ coming into the world? The letter to the Hebrews tells us that on coming into the world, Christ said, “I am coming to obey your will.” What is the will of the Father if not, as the gospel tells us, to build the family of God? Salvation therefore is to belong to the family of God when all of us are brothers and sisters to each other; when there is no more distinction and separation. Indeed, the Church is the communion of saints, the community of love and fellowship. Yet we all know that very often, relationships within the family break down. Our relationships with each other remain rather fragile. Our life is a series of broken relationships. So what does it take to keep the family of love united in love?
The first reading tells us that this is possible only by the sacrifice of Christ. But what do we mean by this? Why is the sacrifice of Christ on the cross necessary to bring us together and reconcile us with the Father? Certainly we cannot think that the Father would only reconcile us with Him if He sees the death and blood of His Son. If He were simply bloodthirsty, then the blood of bulls and goats should suffice. But precisely, if the latter is not sufficient to reconcile us with the Father, it is because the sacrifice of the Old Law “is incapable of bringing the worshippers to perfection.” As the author of Hebrews explains, the Law only provides us the pattern of sacrifice but not the real thing itself. For by offering animal sacrifices, the offering remains external to our being.
In the sacrifice of Christ however, it is the sacrifice of His entire self. God has prepared a body for Him, as the scripture says, so that He can offer His entire being to the Father. So it must be said that it is not even the death or the blood of Jesus that really saves us as such, but what the death and blood of Jesus symbolizes, namely, His total surrender and identity with the will of the Father to save and to love. Hence, He said, “You who wanted no sacrifice of obligation, prepared a body for me. You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices for sin; then I said, just as I was commanded in the scroll of the book, ‘God, here I am! I am coming to obey your will.’” So by offering Himself on the cross, and doing His will, He unites Himself to the Father’s will and shows us the way to the Father. Thus the author concludes, “He is abolishing the first sort to replace it with the second. And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ.” Jesus therefore has made the perfect sacrifice on our behalf.
For us then to be reconciled with the Father and with each other, we must share the will of the Father and make His sacrifice ours as well. Jesus made this clear in the gospel when He declared, “Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother.” When we do the will of God like Jesus, then we are in union with God and with Him. Thus when we celebrate the Eucharist and offer the sacrifice of the mass, we are not simply offering Jesus to the Father. More importantly, we are participating in the same sacrifice of surrender to the Father’s will with Jesus. Without this appropriation of Jesus’ sacrifice and obedience to the Father’s will, we would not be reconciled. So the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, so to speak, is to pave the way for us to join Him in that same act of sacrifice, for it is only by doing His will that we become one with the Father.
This explains why in today’s gospel, Jesus in St Mark’s interpretation makes a distinction between His relatives who stood outside and the disciples of Jesus who were inside sitting round Jesus. Those who remained outside were those who were not yet ready to embrace the will of the Father, whereas those within were the true disciples and family members of Jesus because they shared with Him His union with the Father in doing His will. As Mark describes it, “And looking round at those sitting in a circle about him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother.”
The implication for us therefore is that if we truly want to share in the communion of saints and belong to the family of God, then we must build our human relationships on our relationship with the Lord. To be in relationship with each other and with God is our common calling, for we are called to be brothers and sisters to each other. However, all human relationships must be subordinated to the life of the Kingdom. In other words, we must ask whether our relationships with our friends, family members or confreres truly help us to grow in holiness, in love, in compassion and in virtues. Only when our relationships help us to be more committed to Christ, to His Kingdom, His mission and our ministry, can they be said to be helpful and truly expressive of the will of God for us.
Conversely, if our relationships are not centered on Jesus, the kingdom and the will of God, then such relationships will start to lose focus and turn inwards. Indeed, if many of our relationships have gone wrong, become messy and eventually break down, it is because we have not brought them to the Lord. When our relationships are not centered on Him and we fail to do His will, then we become grasping, demanding, manipulative, possessive and even lustful. Indeed, if our relationships with our friends and family lead us away from God, from our commitment to the Lord and from a life of perfection, then such relationships can even lead to our ruin and downfall. It is merely built on sand and will not last either.
Yes, today as we celebrate the Feast of St Thomas Aquinas, let us learn from him. In spite of his knowledge and wisdom in theology, he considered all he wrote as straws; for he knew that theology is not yet faith, but only faith seeking for further understanding. Only when one is in relationship with the Lord, sharing His life and His will, can one find true happiness and freedom. Only a deep relationship with the Lord can empower us to build beautiful, loving, strong and enriching relationships with others because such relationships help each other to grow in grace and in love with the Lord.