[stephenkhoo]

14 May, 2012, St Matthias, Apostle
JOY OF SERVICE LIES IN REMAINING IN HIS LOVE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: ACTS 1:15-17, 20-26; JN 15:9-17

“We must therefore choose someone who has been with us the whole time that the Lord Jesus was travelling round with us, someone who was with us right from the time when John was baptising until the day when he was taken up from us – and he can act with us as a witness to his resurrection.” Right from the outset of the primitive Church, the Christians were aware that they needed to appoint successors to the apostles in order that the mission of the Church could continue. It was fitting therefore that they quickly took action in appointing Matthias to succeed Judas lest the unity and mission of the Church was compromised.

That this feast of St Matthias is celebrated between the Feasts of Ascension and Pentecost reminds us that like Matthias, we are all called be His witnesses since Jesus is no longer present physically. Indeed, Jesus has chosen and commissioned us “to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last.” As His disciples and apostles, we are called to be witnesses to the life, passion, and death of Jesus so that His resurrection can be seen in and through us. It entails dying to self and living for God and for others. It means observing His commandments. “If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” It also entails sacrificing our lives for others as Jesus said, “A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.” This is easier said than done. Although we claim we love God and our fellowmen, it is never easy to die to self and to give ourselves totally to God and to our fellowmen in altruistic love. So often, we forget that to be a Christian requires us to bear the crucified Christ in our lives as we live a life of poverty, simplicity, generosity, love and humility.

But how can we claim to be witnesses of His life, death and resurrection if the death and resurrection of Christ is not manifested in our lives? Clearly, St Matthias the apostle was nominated for election only because he fulfilled the criteria for apostleship, which is someone who has been walking with Jesus, who knew Him personally and most of all, was a witness to His death and resurrection. If we find ourselves unable to bear witness to His death and resurrection in our lives, we must perhaps inquire how we can receive the grace of transformation and courage to proclaim Jesus, especially in a hostile environment.

Jesus tells us: “Remain in my love.” Yes, if we were to be His true apostles, before everything else, we must remain in His love. This was also the case for Jesus. He says, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.” The secret of Jesus’ love for us is rooted in His own experience of His Father’s love. Similarly, if we want to share in that power which enabled Jesus to love, then we are called to experience the Father’s love as well. This is possible through Jesus who is the love of the Father in person. That this is so is implied by the command of Jesus, “Love one another as I have loved you.” The implication is that we can love one another as He has loved us only because He has first loved us. Without experiencing the prior love of Jesus, it would not be possible to love as He has loved. Only when we are bathed in the love of Jesus, can we truly go out and proclaim His Good News and be His witnesses, bearing fruit that will last.

Having understood the key to the paschal mystery of Jesus, we must now consider how we can remain in His love. The first way of remaining in His love is of course to experience His love directly in prayer and in intimacy. Only in prayer can we come to know Jesus personally. We cannot reduce our knowledge of Jesus to mere collection of facts and data. Personal knowledge of Jesus implies a real personal relationship with Him. As such, to be witnesses of Jesus in our lives, it presupposes that we are first witnesses in the sense of having walked with Jesus the way Matthais walked with Jesus in His life, passion and death. Although we cannot journey with Jesus the way Matthais knew Jesus when He was on earth, we can still come to know Jesus personally; His life, His mind, His heart and His mission in prayer. It is through prayer, meditation and contemplation on the Humanity of Jesus that we enter into His mind and heart and share His life and passion for the world. Indeed, feeling with and for Jesus and sharing His life is the fundamental point of departure for service and mission. Christianity is not an ideology but living out the love of Christ. Our mission is not about exporting some ideology or some psychological peace and calmness but transmitting a living person, who is God and man, our Lord Jesus Christ. Such a personal encounter and intimate knowledge of Jesus’ life, person, passion and death is so important that it is a prerequisite for mission and apostleship. For good reason, the Church encourages us to contemplate on His life and person. Only through such contemplation can we truly be inspired to choose to follow His way of life.

However, although contemplation and prayer remains the primary and fundamental way of intimacy with the Lord, it must be complemented by a desire to keep His commandments. This is the acid test of whether we have truly contemplated on His life and experience His love in prayer. Jesus said, “If you keep the commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept the Father’s commandants and remain in his love.” Keeping the commandments however must not be understood in a juridical and legalistic manner. The commandments of God are not to be carried out in a subservient manner. Rather, the commandments of God are the expressions of His love for us and the guidelines for us to live a life of love. Concretely, to keep His commandments can be evidenced in our love for others or better still, to love as Jesus loves. For this reason, Jesus calls us His friends since “a servant does not know his master’s business.” To be friends of Jesus means that we too know the heart of the Father and therefore want to love them the way the Father has loved us in Jesus.

By keeping the commandments, it helps us to nurture that love especially when the feelings are not present. We must realize that feelings come and go. Love is more than mere feelings, but a commitment to love regardless. Jesus asked us to keep the commandments because we need them when our affective relationships with Him or with others are weak. This is particularly true in our spiritual life. On some days, we do not feel that God is present even when we pray. We experience spiritual dryness and feel His absence. More so for those pious souls who have arrived at the mystical stage of the dark night of the spirit. However, it is precisely when we no longer feel, and yet remain faithful to loving those we have promised, that we truly love selflessly, since we cannot feel love but yet give love. Of course, we pray that by God’s mercy, weak and human as we are, we will be given the consolation of love as well. By persevering in loving even when we do not feel loved, the consolation of love will eventually return.

Hence, loving Jesus, remaining in His love and keeping His commandment to love are but one reality. Only when we love Jesus, can we live out His commandment to love. In loving others as Jesus loved, we come to share in His heart of love as well, thereby remaining in His love. In other words, in the process of loving others, we in turn experience the same kind of love that He has. Identified with Him in love, we can be confident that the Father will give us anything we ask Him in His name since we are one in the same mind with Jesus. In this way, we find the love of Jesus in loving others. So loving others and loving Jesus are intrinsically related. Hence, we can appreciate why keeping the commandment of Jesus is the way to remain in His love.

The consequence of remaining in the love of Jesus, experiencing His love and sharing His love with others is the reward of joy. As He said, “I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” In the final analysis, the joy of the ministry must come from our union in love with Jesus and His Father; and this love must flow from us. As a result, we have a continuous process or perichoresis of love coming from the Father in Jesus to us; and then flowing to others who in turn give us the joy of loving. This then is the joy of our service, a joy that no amount of material success or worldly happiness can give. This joy grows from strength to strength because it does not simply receive and stays within a person but in an unceasing way, it flows to others and back to him so long as we do not hoard that joy to ourselves.