[stephenkhoo]

BECOMING A SANCTUARY OF THE HOLY TRINITY IN ORDER TO MEDIATE GOD’S DIVINE PRESENCE TO OTHERS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: ACTS 14:5-18; JN 14:21-26
http://www.universalis.com/20140519mass.htm

The question of Judas in today’s gospel is significant to us in our times. He said to Jesus, “Lord, what is all this about? Do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” The world is seeking for God whether we are believers or atheists. This is because we are all seeking for truth, happiness and for meaning.


Yet, the truth remains that without divine revelation, it is not possible for us to know God. This explains why the world will never find true happiness if they seek God only through reason, that is science and technology. The fascination with science and technology is the modern form of pantheism as the modern generation thinks that science and technology can solve all the problems in the world. Secularism is but a rehash of the ancient search for God in pantheism. It is a new form of idolatry. The real problem is that man wants to find God on his own terms. As a result, he misleads himself.


The first reading tells us how the Greeks misunderstood that the gods are found in nature and in things or even in man. Of course, the modern version of the ancient practice of idolatry is materialism, when material things are the object of man’s pursuit. We are slaves to a consumerist society. We find security in things. But we know too well that happiness is not found in things, no matter how much we have. Happiness is found only in love and service. Hence, it is important to know what is the heart of God.


For us as Christians we need to affirm in the face of secularist ideology, that God can only be known through divine revelation. Man cannot find God unless God chooses to reveal Himself, because man is not God. At most, man bears the vestiges of the divine in him. God must freely reveal Himself to us if we were to know Him. Otherwise, at most we can conclude that He exists but we can never know the heart and mind of God.


But the Good News is that God wants to reveal Himself to us, especially His Lordship over creation. Christian faith is rooted in the fact that God has chosen to reveal Himself. He has spoken to us in Christ Jesus. Jesus indeed as the Word of God is the Revelation of the Father. In the Christ event, God is known and has spoken His definitive word. And He continues to make Himself known to us today in the Holy Spirit, who is the subjective revelation of God in us.


It is within this context that we can understand the gospel today about God’s threefold mode of revelation. The Father wants to reveal Himself to us. Hence, the Father sent His Son. Of course, Jesus as the Word is from the Father. This He made it clear when He said, “My word is not my own: it is the word of the one who sent me.” The Father as the Revealer expresses His Word through the Son. Jesus as the Word of God is identified with the Father. Conversely, the Father identifies Himself with the life, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. The Father and Son are distinct and yet identical.


However, this revelation of God the Father in Christ Jesus is completed only by the Holy Spirit, for Christ remains a historical event and an objective event unless Christ lives in us, which is only possible in the Holy Spirit. So long as revelation is merely in the past, it will not touch us unless this event is also made present in our lives here and now. God wants to make His presence in us so that we can be in communion with Him. This is why Jesus said, “I have said these things to you while still with you; but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you.” The Holy Spirit effects our communion with the Father through the Son.


Yes, we are called to be like Paul and Barnabas to bring people to God through our lives. All of us are called to be the manifestations of God by being His mediators in grace.


We are called to demonstrate our faith and conviction in the power and the love of God through words and deeds. It was the preaching of the apostles that convicted the crippled man from birth to find faith in Christ. And it was also that faith in Christ that the apostles helped the man to be healed by Jesus. But it was not only the man’s faith but the faith of Paul who “said in a loud voice, ‘Get to your feet – stand up,’ and the cripple jumped up and began to walk.” Yes, we must be people of deep faith in the power and mercy of God.


So how can we be great messengers of the Lord? We must be the sanctuary of the Holy Trinity where the Father and Son can dwell in us in the Holy Spirit. We must once again take heed of Jesus’ exhortation when He said, ”Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them will be one who loves me; and anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and show myself to him.” Unless we are consciously in touch with the Holy Trinity in our prayer life and in our relationships with each other, we cannot reveal the love of the Father in Christ Jesus to the world.


Indeed, if we want to know God, then we must love Jesus and keep His word. Jesus says, “Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them will be one who loves me; and anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and show myself to him.” Only by accepting and welcoming Jesus into our lives, which is to accept His word and obey His commandments, can we find God. Our hearts are open to those whom we love. If we do not obey the commandments, it means that we still have no trust in Him. But if we obey Him, then we will be able to look at life from Christ’s perspective and appreciate the commandments that He has left for us. Happiness is revealed to us as we live out the way that the Lord has taught us how to live.


This of course must be aided by the Holy Spirit who gives us a personal encounter with the Father and the Son. Through grace, God has already lived in each one of us and becomes an intrinsic, co-constitutive principle of the human subject Himself. That is why, every man thirsts to find God since this transcendental calling, which is grace, lives in him. But in the Holy Spirit, the Father draws close to us through the Son. By living in the Spirit, we are united with the Son and through the Son, we are united with the Father.


As we approach the Feast of Pentecost, let us turn more and more to the Holy Spirit to teach us, to enlighten us and to bring to mind all that Jesus has revealed to us through the scriptures and His life. Most of all, we must implore the Holy Spirit to open our hearts so that we can touch the Father’s love given to us in the passion, death and resurrection of His Son.

Written by The Most Rev William Goh