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FAITH IN THE INCARNATION CELEBRATED IN BAPTISM AND THE EUCHARIST AS THE BASIS FOR OUR - stephenkhoo - 01-08-2016 10:39 AM
FAITH IN THE INCARNATION CELEBRATED IN BAPTISM AND THE EUCHARIST AS THE BASIS FOR OUR MISSION
SCRIPTURE READINGS: 1 John 5:5-13 [Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)] ; PS 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20; Luke 5:12-16 [Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)]
“Who can overcome the world?” In other words, who can save humanity from its woes and sins? The answer given by St John is this: “only the man who believes that Jesus is Son of God: Jesus Christ who came by water and blood.” Indeed, it is faith in Jesus as the Son of God, the Word made flesh, that can save us. This is because St John tells us that “God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son; anyone who has the Son has life, anyone who does not have the Son does not have life.” Faith in the Incarnation requires that we believe that in the person and humanity of Jesus, we see God. The man Jesus who was baptized at the river Jordan and who was crucified at Calvary reveals to us the nature of God’s love for us. Indeed, during the season of Epiphany, we celebrate the love of God manifested to us in Jesus.
But how can we arrive at this faith in the Incarnation? St John tells us that this is possible only in the Spirit. Hence, he speaks of the Spirit as the witness of the truth. It is the Spirit that reveals to us in the depth of our hearts the real person of Jesus. Faith in the incarnation cannot be simply an intellectual conviction but truly a personal enlightenment in our hearts. Hence, St John speaks of the importance not simply of human but divine testimony when he said, “we accept the testimony of human witnesses, but God’s testimony is much greater, and this is God’s testimony, given as evidence for his Son.”
Today, we are truly privileged because as Christians we celebrate and renew our faith in the incarnation at our baptism and at the celebration of the Eucharist. At baptism, we receive the Spirit of our adopted sonship because of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Faith in the resurrection is really but an extension of the incarnation. Hence, in the Eucharist, we celebrate the incarnation and resurrection of Christ, an event that is not only thought of but lived.
How then can we arrive at this experience of faith in Jesus as the Son of God? Like Jesus, we need to pray. The gospel tells us that “his reputation continued to grow, and large crowds would gather to hear him and to have their sickness cured, but he would always go off to some place where he could be alone and pray.” It is in prayer like Jesus that we will discover our sonship and share in His Spirit. Only with such an encounter, can we at the same time be truly evangelical in our faith.
Like the leper today, we need to ask the Lord to remove the blindness of our sins that prevent us from seeing the selfishness and pride in us. Leprosy as a symbol of alienation should invite us to cleanse ourselves and come to the Lord in prayer so that we can experience His love and mercy. Like the leper we must be desperate in seeking for a deeper union with God. Without this desire, we can never truly find Jesus in our lives.
But when we do, then like Jesus, we will be able to manifest God’s life in us as well. For when we discover the heart of the Father, we too would surely want to extend His love to others. For this reason when the leper asked Jesus, ‘”If you want to, you can cure me.” Jesus stretched out His hand and, touching him and said, “Of course I want to! Be cured!”’ Indeed, Jesus surely wants to heal us, for this is the desire of God. There is no doubt that if we want to be healed, God would not delay in healing us. When we encounter God like Jesus, we can be certain that God wants to heal through us as well. It is this confidence in God’s love that empowered Jesus to heal, for we are told that “the leprosy left him at once.”