Dear
brothers and sisters in Christ, our Faith invites us to become CHILDREN OF
GOD. That is the essence of
Faith: a childlike trust in, love for, GOD-OUR-FATHER. There are distinctive overtones with the
Persons of the Word, and of the Holy Spirit, but these are always consonant
with and expressive of that basic childlike awareness and response to
God-our-Father. Catholic and Christian Faith can never be understood,
interpreted, correctly if that foundational childlike awareness, and response to,
the Father is disturbed, disorientated or threatened.
Peter
wrote in his first letter (1:8):
Though
you have not seen (Jesus), you love Him.
Though you do not now see Him now, you believe in Him;
And
with such faith and love we do well, for Jesus came among us, was sent to
us, for one, supreme purpose: to free the Israel of God, not just from servitude
to their Egyptian overlords as brought about through Moses, or from their servitude
to sin as initiated by Moses and the prophets, but in order that God’s
saving plan to free the whole of mankind from its universal servitude to SIN,
might be brought about through God’s still-Chosen People under its intended
leader: Jesus the Christ of God and son of Mary of Nazareth, sent to
proclaim:
Repent and believe the Good News I bring.
That
is why, dear People of God, after Israel rejected Him as their leader, Jesus, our
Risen Lord and Saviour, now equips His Church to serve His
Holy Spirit, and bring to fulfilment the Father’s purpose of salvation from
sin and death for all men and women of good will.
Our
readings today show us who, as Christians and Catholics, we should love,
The
community of believers was of one heart and mind.
Everyone
one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God; and every one who
loves the Father, loves also the one begotten by Him;
And
in that oneness of mind and heart -- learning from Jesus to love the Father --
they hated the ‘sin of the world’:
Whoever
is begotten by God conquers the world; and the victory that conquers the world
is our faith.
‘Sin’,
that only God can truly heal, is now, in our deliriously proud and self-centred
world, rejected in favour of ‘sickness’ which can be cured by human
means. Mankind today seeks, in that way,
to take on God’s work: people do so want both self-approbation and the admiration
of others, that they are willing to reject as icy-cold God’s long-term commands,
and loll about on the sunlit beach of immediate self-satisfaction and general
approbation, anticipating the presumed success of popular treatment for what is
totally beyond their spiritually ken.
And of course, all that takes place with the inevitable result that
sickness and death continue to reign in ever more degrading disguises, causing
ever more unimaginable pain.
However,
the words of St. Peter do not speak only of faith which does not yet
see, because he continues:
Even though you do not see Him now, you
believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious …
God’s
faithful are already being enriched with blessings still to come; we who
believe, can experience -- that is, here and now -- what Peter calls “an
inexpressible and glorious joy” in the practice of our faith. In other words, in faith, we can already experience
here on earth some measure of the joy of
divinely P/personal love. In the words
of St. John of the Cross: try to put love -- your personal heart and
mind’s intention -- into your practice of the faith, and you will find love:
you will experience a personal
relationship with God of “inexpressible and glorious joy”. Let me give you an example.
At
the Easter Vigil we heard the story of our father Abraham journeying with his
son Isaac to a place the Lord would show them where Abraham was to sacrifice
his beloved son to the Lord as he had been told to do. You can imagine the deep grief and deadening
sorrow in Abraham’s heart as he walked along with his son by his side who was
asking him; “Father, I am carrying the wood for the sacrifice, but where is the
victim to be sacrificed on the wood?”
Now Isaac, the son to be offered in sacrifice, was a figure of Jesus
whom the heavenly Father would send to offer Himself for us in sacrifice on
Calvary. Abraham, was he, somehow, a figure of the Father in
heaven? Indeed, he was!
Think
of the joy, then, dear People of God, of our heavenly Father this Easter on
receiving back His beloved Son, glorious in His Easter rising. And then realize what joy YOU can give to
the Father by offering your participation in today’s Mass -- most
especially when receiving Holy Communion -- by offering Jesus back, glorified, to
His Father; to be at His Father’s right hand for ever in heaven. Try to delight in giving such joy to your
heavenly Father, by doing what only you can do: personally offering Jesus
back to His Father here in this Mass -- in your Holy Communion above all -- and
you will begin to experience something of that “inexpressible and glorious joy”
of which Peter spoke.
People
of God, there are two aspects to our faith: obedience and joy, the one protects
us and the other delights us. God wants
to receive the one and give us the other because obedience is meant by Him to
lead to a personal relationship of total fulfilment for us. Indeed, ultimately it will lead to a Personal
relationship in Jesus with the Father that will be overflowing with fulfilment
for us in the Holy Spirit. That is
already beginning to take place if we live our faith with personal commitment
and love, and that is why Peter says today:
Even though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
