[stephenkhoo]

21 May, 2012, Seventh Monday of Easter
FIDELITY TO CHRIST ONLY IN THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
SCRIPTURE READINGS: ACTS 19:1-8; JN 16:29-33

“Do you believe at last?” This question that Jesus put to His disciples is equally pertinent to us as well. Indeed, we have to examine ourselves honestly with regard to our faith in Jesus as the Son of God. Do we really believe in what we confess about Him? In truth, we are not much different from the disciples who spoke so confidently of their faith in Jesus as the Son of God. They claimed to have known Jesus when they said, “Now you are speaking plainly and not using metaphors! Now we see that you know everything, and do not have to wait for questions to be put into words; because of this we believe that you came from God.” We too think that we know Jesus and truly believe that He is the Son of the Father. But do we?

What would be the crucial test of our faith in Jesus? It boils down to this: fidelity! Will we be faithful to Christ in moments of trial and temptation? Will we stay with Jesus and defend Him when our faith is questioned and tested, just as St Paul did when “he spoke out boldly and argued persuasively about the kingdom of God … for three months”? Will we be faithful to our Christian identity until death, especially when the trials of Christian living set in? More importantly, will we be faithful to the demands of our vocation, whether it is priestly, religious or married life? Will we give our whole life to the proclamation of the gospel through our witnessing by living the gospel values without counting the cost, even at the expense of our pleasure and convenience?

We all say “yes” to all these questions. Yet, the reality is that many of us have betrayed our promise to Jesus. Many of us are unable to keep to our marriage vows because of the difficulties and challenges of both married and family life. How do we go on loving our spouse or our children when they are causing us so much pain and stress? It is easy to love those who are lovable, but when they are sick, depressed or troubled, loving and caring for unreasonable people is extremely trying. So the profession of fidelity in love for our loved ones, friends and Church ministry often does not last. This is not surprising. After all, the disciples too were over confident of themselves. They all professed allegiance to Jesus. And yet Jesus knew them and He knows us better. How consoling to know that the Lord knows how weak we are. He knows us more than we know ourselves! Hence, He forewarned them, “Listen; the time will come – in fact it has come already – when you will be scattered, each going his own way and leaving me alone.” Yes, we will betray Jesus in various ways.

But why is it that our faith in Jesus is so weak and cannot stand up against the challenges to our faith? Because many of us are still operating on the level of knowledge about Jesus! Having knowledge of Jesus through intellectual study is not yet the discovery of truth. As truth is an event, and therefore an experience of a reality, it means that truth must be something not simply in our heads but in our hearts. Only when our confession of faith in Jesus is more than just an intellectual assent to some external doctrines but goes to the depth of our being, can our faith remain strong against all difficulties.

This is certainly the case for Jesus, even in His relationship with the Father. If Jesus could overcome the struggles of fidelity to His mission, it was because Jesus was one with the Father. He knows from within the Father’s abiding presence in His life. Hence, He could say, “And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.” Only this recognition of the Father’s presence with Him could enable Him to remain faithful in His moments of temptation thereby overcoming the world. So long as we are conscious of the Father’s presence as Jesus did, will we never lose hope. With God on our side, we will never fail. Victory is ours, as Jesus assures us, “In the world you will have trouble, but be brave: I have conquered the world.” Without this prior experience of the Father’s love, Jesus would never have been able to prepare for the dark night of the spirit when He was hanging on the cross, cut off from the apparent absence of the Father and weighed down by the sins of the world. The experience of the Father at His side gave Him the confidence to surrender in faith and trust, commending His Spirit to Him in His darkest moment on earth. We too can surmount every trial and apparent dead end in life when our relationship with the Father is secure.

How then can we experience the abiding presence of Jesus in us so that our faith in Christ becomes an event in our lives? We need to pray for the renewal of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is what the Church is urging us during this period of the Novena to the Holy Spirit to prepare for the feast of Pentecost. Only the Holy Spirit can lead us to Jesus. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal the Truth about Jesus to us. Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot confess that Jesus is Lord. Without the Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts, we cannot know Jesus as an event but only as an idea. Without recognition of Jesus’ Lordship, we will never be able to see the face of the Father in Him. The Holy Spirit as the Soul of the Church makes Jesus personally present to us in the spirit. This has been true for the disciples of Jesus and that of the early Church.

This necessary reception of the Holy Spirit is brought out in the first reading when Paul realized that something was missing in the disciples at Ephesus. This made him ask them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” The answer was in the negative. Thus Paul explained that the baptism of John, which was simply a baptism of repentance, was not enough to give them the plus factor in the faith. Although John’s disciples were upright and devout believers, yet their spiritual life was not complete without the Holy Spirit. It was still very much based on their efforts and goodwill. Like many of us, their faith was merely an intellectual faith in Christ. They did not have a real experience of the power of the Lord that goes beyond reason.

The stark reality is that we cannot transcend the trials of this world by mere reason alone. Faith goes beyond reason although never against reason. Reason has its values. It is based on logic and clear ideas systematically thought out. When we use reason, we are in control and most of us want to be in control. We reject anything that we cannot logically accept or do not appeal to our reasoning and our knowledge. This accounts for why many cannot accept Christ and the gospel because the teachings of Christ are not agreeable with them. This is particularly true with regard to the moral teachings on sex, marriage and justice in the bible. Instead of recognizing our ignorance and accepting the Word of God as it is, we remain unconvinced. We rationalize the truths and try to seek a compromise.

Precisely, when Jesus promised His disciples that He would no longer speak to them in metaphor, it was in view of the fact that He was going to send them the Holy Spirit who would make all things clear to them, not through logic and reason alone but by His very presence and His actions. He said, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.” (Jn 16:13-15)

Hence, when Paul baptized them in the Lord Jesus and with it, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, “they began to speak in tongues and to prophesy.” Speaking in tongues and prophesying of course goes beyond logic! How can we explain that others could hear in their own tongues when the apostles spoke at Pentecost? Miracles of healings too are beyond the knowledge of science. The Church did not start with proofs and reason but with faith. Even St Peter recognized that the Holy Spirit works beyond the confines of the institution when Cornelius and his household spoke in tongues before they were even baptized. (cf Acts 10) If we peruse all the texts from the Acts of the Apostles, the early Church was always conscious of the need to receive the Holy Spirit explicitly in order to be His witnesses. Isn’t this what Jesus meant when He said, “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father.”(Jn 16:26) The experience of His presence at work in us marvelously and miraculously is the sure testimony that Jesus is Lord!

Yes, whilst it is true that it is not easy to live an authentic life of a Christian totally and we can expect great sufferings ahead of us for those who desire to be good and holy, yet today, the encouraging and uplifting words of Jesus should give us strength for He has revealed to us the way to keep ourselves afloat in all these difficulties. Indeed, He said, “I have told you all this so that you may find peace in me.” Truly with the Spirit of Jesus in us, with the presence of the Father and the Son making their home in us, we can be sure that we will prevail over difficulties. His presence will give us the strength to hold out all the temptations of the world, especially that of discouragement and despair. “

As Pentecost approaches, let us pray earnestly for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit whom we have already received when we were baptized. When He comes anew, then we will have no more questions to ask because we would have experienced for ourselves the power of the victory of Christ over death in the resurrection. And indeed, all our sorrows would turn into joy because we have remained faithful to our master till the end.