[stephenkhoo]

LIFE IS UNION WITH GOD THE FATHER THROUGH JESUS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: ISA 49:8-15; PS 145:8-9, 13cd-14, 17-18; JN 15:17-30
http://www.universalis.com/20140402/mass.htm

“The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.” All of us at some time in our lives would have made these words our own. Like the Israelites, sometimes we feel abandoned by God and by our fellow human beings. In our sufferings and desolation, we look for encouragement. Yet, in saying that God has abandoned us, perhaps we are putting the statement wrongly. It would be more correct to say that we have abandoned the Lord, rather than that He has abandoned us. For the fact is that God can never theologically abandon us.


This is what the prophet wants to say when he prophesied: “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.” Yes, God who created us and the world, and sustained us in His providence, cannot withdraw Himself from us. Were He to do so, we would disappear! We would be reduced to nothing. So the problem is on our side, not His.


This is what the gospel wants to tell us. If Jesus lived the fullness of life, if Jesus could fulfill His mission confidently, it was because Jesus always lived in union with the author of life, His Father. St John makes it very clear that the intimacy of Jesus with His Father was almost one of identification. Indeed, Jesus did the work of the Father; imitated His Father and judged like the Father. And just as the Father possesses life in Himself, Jesus, who lived in union with Him, also had life in Himself. Yes, Jesus was a life-giver because He drew life from His Father. This was the secret of Jesus.


If we still find our lives rather meaningless, if we are living a living death, then perhaps we are not living in union with the Father. We do not share His heart and His mind; we do not share His life. For that reason, we are more concerned about doing our will than His. And because we live our lives apart from Him, we cannot find life.


Hence, Jesus tells us that the man who hears His word and has faith in Him, possesses eternal life. “He does not come under condemnation but has passed from death to life.” In other words, anyone who lives the same kind of life that Jesus lived is also empowered to live that fullness of life. For that person, he is always alive, whether physically alive or dead. Indeed, if only we draw life from God Himself we will be filled with the zeal and zest for life. It is our union with God that will make us so identified with Him that He will work through us, with us and in us. When that happens, we can identify ourselves with the work of God just as Jesus did. Then, we will also manifest His presence to all human beings and become life-givers, like the Father.


Truly, the Lord wants to assure us that the fullness of life is so near. The day of salvation is at hand. It is within our reach. If we find ourselves living an aimless and miserable life, it is not because He has abandoned us, but that He is waiting for us to be purified. Let us take heed of the exhortation of Isaiah and find courage in the promise made to us when God said, “At the time of my favour I have answered you, on the day of salvation I have helped you.” As the responsorial psalm affirms, “The Lord is kind and merciful. The Lord is kind and full compassion … compassionate to all his creatures … faithful in all His words and loving in all His deeds … He is close to all who call Him, who call on Him from their hearts.”


This season of Lent is of course the time of His favour and the day of salvation. All we need is to believe in Jesus who is the Word of the Father. He is the revealer of the Father, the source of life and love. Unless we confess that Jesus is the Son of God the Father, we will not find life. To confess in His name is to be identified with Jesus. He assures us that “whoever listens to my words, and believes in the one who sent me, has eternal life; without being brought to judgement he has passed from death to life.” Through fervent prayer, genuine fasting and selfless almsgiving at Lent, we seek to become more and more like Jesus in His love for His Father, doing His Will and imitating the compassion of the Father.


Yes, God speaks to us through Isaiah; that He not only wants to save us, but everyone. He has appointed us for this work, for He said, “I have formed you and have appointed you to be the covenant for a people, to restore the land, to return ravaged properties, to say to prisoners, “Come out”, to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves”. Through our sufferings, God, as the prophet says, is forming us so that we can be like Jesus, doing His Father’s work and so bring about salvation not just for ourselves but for all. As we identify with Jesus who Himself is identified with the Father in His life-giving activity, we find eternal life as well, not just at death but now, since the hour is here already as Jesus said, “”when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and all who hear it will live”.

Written by The Most Rev Msgr William Goh