Lent: Walking with Jesus
First Sunday: First Stop
The other day, I met a young man as I was coming into our Parish Church to prepare for the Ash Wednesday evening Mass. He wanted to know if there is an evening service in the Church. I told him to come back at 6 pm and attend to the Mass which I would be saying. As he was leaving I inquired for his name. He answered readily and even added that he actually belongs to an Anglican communion in the surrounding area. Hearing that, I was impressed and awed of him. I am so impressed to hear of this young man in his early teens, observing the importance of Ash Wednesday for his faith. Something must have happened in his life and in his own personal faith. God must have touched him in a more personal and intimate way. Only God knows. But I’m sure that that ‘something’ happening in him must have helped him make the decision to look for the Church that has Ash Wednesday Evening service no matter if it is Catholic Church or whatever. I am just very happy and privileged to meet such a person.
Friends, I am telling you this story because of our Gospel today. We are looking at the very heart of the gospel message of Jesus here in the Gospel of Mark 1:12-15, in which Jesus openly proclaims the kingdom of God. But prior to this courageous act of proclaiming a ‘new message’ for the ‘old audiences’, something also has happened to Jesus. We heard in the gospel that Jesus is seemed to be so convinced of his mission that he can say with confidence ‘The time is at hand…repent and believe the Good News.’ We might wonder how can Jesus urge his audience with such urgency. Something must have helped him make a firm and good decision to start doing his mission. But to look at what could have happened to Jesus, means to journey with him. And there is no more proper time than this Lenten time wherein we are invited to journey with Jesus on this way to the cross. Let us realize too, that lent is a journey towards Easter- the momentous event of our salvation and God’s greatest gift for us. So to re-call, to re-present the history of our salvation and to celebrate our salvation once again we are invited to walk with Jesus as he walks on the way of the Cross.
First Stop: Mk 1:12-15.
There are five things according to Mark that have happened to Jesus in the wilderness. These things might have helped him decide to go on with his mission to proclaim the Kingdom. First, he was driven by the Spirit of God. Second he stayed in the wilderness to pray and fast for forty long days. Third, he was living with the wild beasts. Fourth he was tempted by the evil one. And fifth, he was looked after by the angels.
In our first stop, we find the person of Jesus as recounted by Mark 1:12-15, doing his 40 long days of silence, prayer and fasting in the wilderness, then being tempted by Satan, then proclaimed the Good News of the Kingdom.
First Jesus makes himself available for the Spirit of God to work and motivate him. And these Spirit helps him to discern between the real-life- giving word and the false and deadly words of the tempter. This same Spirit is also getting through to work in us. And our time and age is in fact a ripe time for us, that like Jesus, we will make ourselves available for God’s spirit to guide and help us as we journey especially when all sorts of temptations are just there really close to us every moment, everyday.
Second, Jesus stayed in the wilderness in fasting and prayer. Jesus gives time for God always. And this is one secret of his ‘success’ if you like to call it that way. He is always grounded in God his Father, to do his will always, and to promote the kingdom of God. Learning from Jesus, we are also called to give ample time in silence, prayer and fasting with our God. With God we can be assured of his help and mercy, as well as protection and care as long as we keep grounded in him.
Third, Jesus was living with the wild beasts. Mark didn’t mention any struggle on Jesus’ part against the presence of the wild beasts. Scripture commentators would say that this specific passage shows us that Jesus gives us a glimpse of the original harmony which was broken when our first parents disobeyed God. Commentators would say that Jesus living in ‘harmony’ with the wild beasts, on one hand, expresses the reality of our being creatures before the fall of Adam and on the other hand, it shows what we will become in the future if we keep our eyes focused on the Kingdom of God. In our time surely, we realize we are surrounded by many different kinds of beasts (temptations, trends, materialism, consumerism, instant gratification, etc). Jesus in our gospel offers us a way to deal with this- i.e. not to be affected by them or not to be defeated by these kind of beasts. Like Jesus, we can subject these beasts at our service if we just don’t allow ourselves to be lost and totally immersed in the process.
Fourth, Jesus was tempted. There are three ways by which Jesus was tempted according to the Matthew and Luke. He was told to turn the stones into bread- the temptation about immediacy, instant gratification and impatience. But He didn’t give in. He stood firm in his ground. Then the tempter told him to jump off the cliff for he will not be hurt anyway for he will be saved by the angels. This temptation is about taking short cuts to attain our dreams. But no, Jesus didn’t give in. He stood firm on his ground. For us being the disciples of Jesus, we are not to expect short cuts. It is a process. Jesus himself reminds us this: ‘If you want to be my disciple, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me, everyday.’ Then Jesus was tempted to worship Satan in exchange of all the kingdoms and the splendour of the world. Jesus again, stood firm in his ground. He didn’t give in, telling the tempter not to test the Lord. Sometimes we tend to do this as well. We tend to test God. We tend to bargain with God. But God knows more than we do. Only God can give us all the things that we need in life. If we think we’re getting it from somebody else, let’s review our order of priorities.
Fifth, Jesus was looked after by the angels. God knows Jesus needs assurance, care and protection. So he sent his angels to assist him in his needs. God knows more than we do. He just couldn’t leave us with nothing or no one to turn to. But like Jesus we are also called to be faithful to him, to stand for him, no matter what happens, or no matter how will it cost for us. We know as we continue to follow Jesus that Lent is not all there is. After Good Friday comes Easter Sunday.
Five things have happened to Jesus in 40 days. Those things have helped him shape his decision to start proclaiming his mission and to be so committed to realizing even to the extent of giving up his very life. In our 40 days of Lenten journey with Jesus, as we move on to the second stop (2nd Sunday of Lent) let’s reflect on the things that might happen to us as God’s way of expressing his love and care for all of us. We might be surprised to see how wonderful God would work in and through us in this time, if we only allow him to be. And with God’s help we might make use of those things to be tools for the renewal of our Christian commitment of loving God and our neighbours as we love ourselves and as we celebrate the saving love of our God.
The Test of Real Friendship
Homily for 7th Sunday in Ordinary time 2012
Can you keep a secret? I have a confession to make. I have 766 friends on Facebook. True, that’s the latest as of 9.54 pm last night and counting. It’s quite a lot of ‘friends’ really. But many of them are just acquaintances. Some I just met once. And some I have never personally met at all. I’m sure only very few of them I can honestly call my ‘friends’. I’m telling you this, not to brag about this or to discourage you of befriending me on FB, but because today’s gospel challenges me to have a review at the list of friends I have. Today’s gospel can be the answer on ‘how to test a real friend’ or ‘A Test of Real Friendship.’
Mark in our gospel today tells us of Jesus healing the paralysed by forgiving his sins and thus curing him of his physical illness as well. But it is only upon ‘seeing their faith’ that Jesus speaks to the sick man. Jesus saw the great faith of the men carrying the sick. The man was carried by four men ‘assumed’ to be his friends. As friends they didn’t give up. They didn’t go back home immediately when they couldn’t even pass through the door of the house because of the squeezing crowd inside. In fact, they took the extreme measure in order to express their faith in Jesus. They climbed up to the roof, made an opening and lowered the sick man to get closer to Jesus. As friends, they have such faith and confidence in Jesus that they tried all possible means to present their friend to Jesus. And seeing their faith, Jesus forgives and heals the man.
This is a test of real friendship. A true friend is someone who brings us brings us closer to God. A genuine friend is one who takes the risk, no matter how big or how difficult a task it is, just to save his or her friend. A true friend is one who not only give alms to the leper but touches and embraces them as Mother Teresa did. A true friend is one who doesn’t stop doing good for his/ her friend even if he/she is being ridiculed, rejected, frowned upon, or sick and unable to return back the favour.
Now that we heard this, do we have someone we can count on as friends?
Surely, we have. We have a friend in Jesus. He not only said “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” but he really did realize it in himself. And we reflect and hear more of this coming Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. He laid down his life for us. He sacrificed himself for all of us. He even experienced the rejection, the betrayal of his closest and chosen disciples, and the shout of crucifixion from those same people who had welcomed him very warmly on Palm Sunday. But despite all that, He would still call us his friends by trusting us the treasures of the Kingdom of His Father. Despite all our shortcomings, human weaknesses and constant sinning, he would still utter that ever powerful word on the cross interceding for all of us saying ‘Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing’ (Lk 23:34).
Because of all that Jesus has done, we became friends of God. Thus, as friends of God in Jesus, we also are to be friends to one another. Our liturgical celebration is always motivated to express this friendship with God and with one another, in worship, in reconciliation, praise and thanksgiving. Thus, our gesture of expressing the sign of peace in the mass is not just there to fill in the gap. That serves to remind us that in God we are all one family and that each one is always ‘someone’ special for God. That is how beautiful our friendship with God is. That must also be the ideal of human friendship: valuing each other. God values us all no matter how small we may feel, or how insignificant we might think we are. In God, no one is more equal than the other. So also must we.
Being our friend, Jesus shows us how to be a real friend to one another. He welcomes the sinner. He appreciates and acknowledges the faith of the four men in the gospel and suggesting that they’ve done the right thing and the good initiative. As a friend, he forgives the fault done to him. Interestingly, the prophet Isaiah has somehow experienced this friendship with God when he wrote of God telling us in our First Reading today: ‘No need to recall the past, no need to think about what was done before…It is I, who must blot out everything and not remember your sins.’ Is it not a wonderful experience when God himself would tell us in a way: ‘Let’s call it quits, will we?’ St Paul in our Second Reading today would also tell us the same thing: That in Jesus, God has assured us of His power and sustenance through his Spirit dwelling in our hearts.
Now let’s ask ourselves about the test of real friendship: Are we now friends of Jesus? If so, are we expressing this friendship by bringing all our friends closer to him as well? Jesus as a friend, brings us closer to his Father’s heart. How are we as friends? Are we willing to take a big risk or to go through extreme measures just to bring our friend closer to God, and be healed, be forgiven, and become whole again? Or are we taking our friends away from God?
Christ: the lover of the unlovable
Homily for 6th Sunday in Ordinary time 2012
Our Gospel today is one of those gospels that is really not Good News for us when we hear it for the first time. It is seemingly ‘not’ Good News for us who are called Christians because to live out this noble name is to imitate Jesus Christ on what he was doing – to love the unlovable, to give hope to the hopeless. It is not ‘Good News’ for us who are apparently healthy and well-off but are called not only to ‘stretch out our hands’ as Jesus did to the ‘leper’ but also to ‘touch’ the person. ‘Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ’ says St Paul in our Second Reading today.
Jesus loves the unlovable. The people who have leprosy were repugnant in the time and the culture wherein Jesus was living in. We can’t blame them. It has always been the ‘tolerated or even recommended attitude or behaviour’ that the Law of Moses expected of the people. Our First Reading today gives us a glimpse of what was it like before. Once diagnosed with leprosy the leper would have to act or wear some signs distinctive only of lepers, to shout ‘unclean’ as he/she goes out to the streets, and even to live ‘apart’ from the rest of the society. Physically, he/she was really sick. And more so emotionally or psychologically, he/ she was to be rejected systematically. But Jesus in our gospel today ignored the prescribed rituals or laws against the lepers by expressing his great love to the leper. Our Gospel tells us that Jesus was ‘feeling sorry for him.’ According to one Commentary, the original language to describe the attitude of Jesus towards the leper, would point that He felt more than sorry about him. He rather ‘felt compassion’ towards him. It means in latin ‘to suffer with.’ Because He loves the person himself Jesus realizes that the leper was not only physically sick but also psychologically. Because He suffered with the leper, he can understand what was it like to be sick physically and psychologically. And because of this, He stretched out his hand and touched the leper (a thing prohibited in the Jewish law– for the leper should have gone to the priest first and be proclaimed publicly as ‘clean or cured’). Because of love Jesus went beyond the letter of the law. He went across borders or cultural boundaries, because that is just how God loves us- unconditional.
Jesus gives hope to the hopeless. Only in Jesus we can find the real meaning and the assurance that our Christian hope is really pointing to- that something which real and so great a mystery which we are all called to share with in God’s time. The leper in our gospel has started to lose that hope but he made use of the little hope he has. He may have felt he has nothing to lose at all if Jesus wouldn’t cure him. He said:’ If you want to, you can cure me.’ Such a humble and simple statement of hope. He wasn’t demanding of Jesus. He was just stating the facts of his being, of his neediness, of the hopelessness of his situation. Jesus touched him. And that touch cured him not only physically but also psychologically. Because of what Jesus has done unto him, he realized that he is worth more than just a dime. Thus, he couldn’t contain the ‘Good News’ he has personally heard and experienced- that there is still hope for a better and a healthy life despite the ‘hellish’ life he has been experiencing until Jesus came along to his life. He went out and told the people of the Good News as well.
In our time and age, experiencing the love of Jesus and living in hope are tough calls. It is so because we always have excuses not to allow Jesus to touch us. Everyday God wants to touch us in a more personal way. He wishes we would allow him to be part of the solution of the problems we are facing. He wishes we would allow him to speak to us and we listen. But our time now is always trying to compensate this Spiritual drought by bombarding us with all material things that we tend to believe the reasons or the ways to make us live a happy and a contented life. But we cannot cure cancer with just a capsule of antibiotic. In like manner, we cannot end our spiritual drought by having material possessions. It’s the wrong remedy and most of the time, it just doesn’t work alright.
Living in hope is also another tough call for us now because of the many ‘hopeless’ things or events or life’s circumstances we may have experienced or known about. But Jesus today is telling us: There is hope after all this. This is not the end of things. There is much greater and better things than these. Let’s just hang in there and keep our faith and hope going.
What we can do then? Like the leper, let’s be humble, simple and courageous in facing the reality of our situations and bringing them all to Jesus. And as we have heard in the Gospel, Jesus transformed the situation, from the worst to the best. This is not just a wishful thinking. It is true not only because the Gospel says this, but also because Jesus himself has shown us this. He suffered the worst of that agonizing Friday but he has also received the best of that remarkable Easter Sunday.
Like the leper, let’s be humble yet courageous before others and before the Lord. And like Jesus, let’s stretch out our hands and touch others as Jesus touches them. Let’s then be Christ to others. Let’s be the ‘Good News’ for others. Amen.
Junjun FAITHBOOK 