“Striving Together to
Revive God’s Work”
February 9, 2014
The 5th Sunday of the Christian Season of Epiphany
Habakkuk 3: 2 - 6; 17 –
19/Psalm 27: 1-5/1 Corinthians 2: 1 – 11/Matthew 5: 13 – 20
His Excellency
The Most Reverend Ariel Cornelio P. Santos D.D.
Auxiliary Bishop and Locum Tenens
of the
Archdiocese of Manila
the
National Church in the Philippines
and the
Territorial Church of Asia
International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church
In the Fifth Sunday of
Epiphany, the Season challenges us to manifest the Christ in us. As
Christ is in us, we are to manifest Him to the world following what He did when
He was still an infant where He revealed Himself to the world. This is our
calling. We must understand Christ is in us. Don't listen to anything
negative that says, “Is it indeed Christ in you? Did you remember what
you did last week, yesterday or on your way to Church?” Christ is in you,
by grace! It doesn’t depend whether you are good or bad; He chose to be
in you. We can shun Him and quell Him or quench Him, but our calling is
to understand that He has chosen to abide in us. As our response, we
recognize that and we let it be shown.
Christ
is the light of the world. In the gospel, He says, "You are the salt
of the earth; you are the light of the world.” It is by virtue of Christ
who is the Light of the world being in us. We are not to be arrogant to
say, “I am the light of the world.” The reason we are the light of the
world is because Christ is in us. This is how we can be the light of the
world. We are commanded to let that light shine.
Christ
said first, “You are the salt of the earth.” Salt preserves from
corruption, from perishability and from death. Salt is a seasoning. It
enhances flavor. Saltiness is a figure for life and the meaning to
it. We have been given this life, this saltiness so we can be a seasoning
and an enhancer to life. Otherwise, the light of the world would be
tasteless, dead, and would not have meaning to it. God has given to us
the saltiness to enhance the dead life that needs to be given life.
It is an active compound not passive.
Jesus
said, “As salt has become tasteless or loses its saltiness, how can it be made
salty again?” We must not lose that saltiness because Christ is in
us. The very salt, the very light of God is in us. If we have
become tasteless and have lost our saltiness, then, we are no longer good for
anything and we are trampled underfoot by men. This is the exact opposite of
our calling. We are to be in dominion. We are to be the head, not
the tail. We are to be active, not passive. We are to rule, not to
be trampled underfoot by men, but to be in dominion and not in a yoke of
bondage. We are to walk on water, not drown, and not to be under
circumstances.
When
Christ ascended on high, He took us with Him and seated us at the right hand of
God the Father far above all rule, authority, and dominion. We must
understand this. It is by grace and by God’s doing through the work of
Christ.
The
world salvation in Biblical context also means preservation. We preserve
as the salt. We are not the savior; we are instruments of the Savior in
preserving and in spreading salvation and preaching the good news of
salvation. We have an active role for the life of the world. All of
creation looks to us. Romans says that all of creation longs for the revelation
of the sons of God
because
we are the steward that God entrusted the world with. In the movie,
“Lion King,” all the animal kingdom looked to the lion king not because he is
god but because he is the leader. All of creation looks to us because man
has been crowned by God with leadership. He doesn’t act independently of
God, he acts because He was commissioned, blessed, and empowered by God. The
very breath of God was breathed into Him – no one else.
What
privilege, honor and exalted position God has given to man. We are this
channel of life. God's life, His saltiness, passes through us to the
entire world to all of creation. The saltiness was given by God.
Every Easter vigil, we light the candle. Where does the fire come
from? It is from the Christ's candle. All of our light comes from
the Christ’s candle. The instruction given to us is to take our light
figuratively from the Church which we received from Christ and we take that to
the world. This is exactly our mission. We are the salt and the
light of the world.
Jesus
said in one instance in John 8, "I am the light of the world."
In chapter nine, He said, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the
world.” Now, He says to us, “You are the light of the world.”
We light our candle so that we can be a light to the world. Jesus said,
“While I am in the world…” Where is Jesus now? Physically, He is at
the right hand of the Father. Symbolically, He is in us. The reason
He is in us is so that we can be the light of the world because He gave us His
light.
There
is one song a decade ago that expresses a feeling and an emotion which we can
understand. It prays to God to, “Take me out of the dark, my Lord.”
We don’t want to be in darkness. While we understand the feeling, more
importantly, we understand the mission. In the first place, why were we
given light and made to be light? Do you at noon turn the light in your
house? When do you turn on your light? It is at night when it
is dark and where it is dark. Have you ever heard your ceiling or lamp light
complain to you, “Take me out of here. It is too dark to let my light
shine.” If they did that, what would we tell them? “It is
exactly why I need you here because it is dark. Otherwise I can’t read my
pocketbook or see what I am doing.
Where
darkness is, there is where light is needed. It is a calling. In
the gospel where Jesus was starting His ministry, Matthew quoted the Old
Testament and said, “The land of Zebulun and the land of Napthali are a people
sitting in darkness and they saw a great light.” The people were sitting
in darkness and in the shadow of death and a light dawned upon them.
Jesus’ prayer was not, “Take me out of the dark, I don’t want to be
there.” He could have told the Father, “Let Me just stay here. This
is cloud nine. Why do I have to go down there? It is dark.” The Father
said, “It is exactly why you have to go down there because the people are
sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death.”
The
earth was formless and void; it was a wasteland. There was emptiness.
There was a very great need. In the beginning, God spoke and said,
"Let there be light." Light when there was darkness and where
it was dark. The earth was formless and void that darkness was over the surface
of the waters of the earth. There was emptiness; formlessness; waste;
need.
At
the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus struggled about facing death, He said,
“Now, My soul is troubled because I am facing opposition, the cruelty in the
hands of man, the very people I created. What do I say, “Father, deliver Me
from this hour? But it is precisely for this hour and purpose that I was
sent. It is because there is darkness.” He did not ignore the
trouble of His soul. What overwhelmed Him was the very reason that He was
sent – not necessarily for His comfort but to fill a need. “There is
darkness. I am light and I am going where darkness is.”
Jesus
said, “Take Me out of the dark.” He said, “For this hour, I was sent and
so rather than take Me out of the dark, Father, glorify Your Name through letting
My light shine in this darkness. Is it trouble? Yes, it is for Me
but more for them and they need Me. I go because I understand My mission. I
understand the need.”
Jesus
commands, “Let your light shine.” My question is: where else?
Is it where there is brightness? What did Jesus say on the Mount of
Transfiguration where Peter wanted to stay where the bright light was?
Peter said, “Let us hang out here. Why don’t we build a tabernacle for
You. Let us stay here for a while.” Peter went down from the
Mountain, taking the light with them.
Light
is not needed where there is light and bright. We have been commissioned not
for what we can get, but for what we can give. Christ is in us.
Christ the light of the world, the life of the world. He is what we can
give to those in need of Him. The wisdom of the world will tell you, “I
give as little as I can so I can get as much as I can.” Very little
investment for the maximum profit. This is not what Christianity
is.
Habakkuk
said, "Even though the fig tree does not blossom, even there is no cattle
in the stalls, even though the vine fails, even though there is no harvest in
the field, yet I will exalt the Lord and I will please Him and rejoice in
Him.” Why are we Christians? For what is in it for us or for
service? Why are you in Church? Why are you serving in
Ministry? For what you can get or for what you can give? If it is
for what we can get, then we are hirelings. If we are after the pay, then
we are hirelings and we are Pharisees. Jesus said, “You are to surpass
the righteousness of the Pharisees. The Pharisees love greetings in the
market place and people bowing to them and giving them the best seats.
They have their reward in full. They will get no other reward. You gloat
in the greeting of the people and that is all that you can get.” This is
not us. Jesus said, “We are to surpass that. We are to be better
than that.”
When
I was five or six years old, I was in my parent’s room jumping on their bed
while they were preparing to go somewhere. They asked me, “What do you
want to be when you are grown up?” I answered them with a question,
“Well, what pays the most?” Both said, “No, that is not the basis of your
career or vocation. You give not for what you can get. Where you are
needed, that is where you should be.” We are not to be like the
world. The wisdom of the world is to take advantage of the people.
One would say, “What is in it for me? I will preach in your church but I
fly First Class. I only stay in Five-Star hotels and this is my fee.”
Before even asking, “What is the need in your church? What is your
direction? How can I be of help? How can I minister to them?”
It is not what pays the most but what one can give. Our attitude should be that
even if there is nothing, we are to serve.
The
three Hebrew children followed God and would not bow before the statue of
Nebuchadnezzar and they were placed in a fiery furnace. Before they were
thrown in the fire, they said, “God will deliver us. Just in case He doesn’t, we
still will follow Him. We will obey His commands. We will not bow
before a statue because we only bow before God even if there is nothing waiting
for us. We will follow. We obey only God.”
There
is a very popular TV evangelist who was asked a question and his answer was
very controversial. A husband who had a wife with Alzheimer’s disease
asked this evangelist, “Is it okay that I divorce my wife because she is not
the same person I married. I don’t know her. The person that I used to
know is who I decided to marry. Now, this person that I am married to, I
don’t know her and she doesn’t know me.” The answer given to him by the
evangelist was, “It is okay. You do not sin if you divorce her.”
To
me, my question is: did you get married for what you can get out of this
person that you said you know before? She had a weakness; now, she is in
need and she needs you. Are you in the marriage for what you can
get? Maybe you are saying, “I can’t get anything from her anymore.”
Understand this: her need is you, right now. She is in a very big
need. Do you drop her? Do you abandon her?
One
Christian, two weeks after getting married realized one thing and said, “I
realized that marriage is not for me.” What he meant was, "It is for your
spouse. It is about what you can give to them not what is in it for me.”
Marriage is for one giving. Ephesians 5 said, “Jesus gave Himself up for
the Church to whom He is married.” This is what it is all
about! It is what you give, not what you get. Even though the fig tree
does not blossom, even though you don’t get a reward for service, you will
serve God. Love, marriage is a decision; a commitment. It is in sickness, in
health; for richer, for poorer; till death do us part. Commitment is not based
on reward but on what I decide to do from this day forward and forever. It is
the giving up of ourselves.
St.
Paul’s dilemma in one of his epistles said, “I understand that I have a short
time left upon earth. I so want to be with God for in His presence is fullness
of joy. It is bliss. It is unexplainable, but I am torn between
going and staying for your sake.” He said, “I am staying. Forget my
bliss. Forget my eternal happiness. I am staying because you need
me.” It is not the fact that he meets the need that he doesn’t get the
joy over that. He does, but he was selfless and he thought of the people
who need him rather than his own sake.
One
American President made a popular statement: ask not what your country
can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country. Ask not what
your church can do for you; ask what you can do for your church. Ask what
you can do for the world. Ask what you can do for your nation.
Don’t look to government. We should be wiser now than the government.
Ask what we can do for our nation despite conflicts. If you go to a
job interview, you don’t dare ask, “How much are you going to pay me?” In fact,
you are not the interviewer. It is the interviewer who asks the question and
one of the questions is, “What can you do for our company? Why would we hire
you?
What
can we do as salt, light and life? A fireman doesn’t say, “It is too hot
in there. I am not going in there.” He has the hose; the water that can
kill the fire. Does he ask, “Why do I have to go there?” He has the
water and if he doesn’t want to go there, he doesn’t have to be a
fireman. Be in the navy where there is water all around. This is
exactly why we are needed – where there is fire, emptiness, darkness, need and
no flavor or no meaning to life.
The
Psalm said, “Despite the conflicts and oppositions, one thing I ask of the
Lord, ‘That also I shall seek and pursue and be committed to do is that I
will dwell in the house of the Lord to serve Him all the days of my
life.” It is a commitment because God is not our “yaya,” our valet, our
butler. God is not our servant but our Master. We choose to
serve Him. We are supposed to be bondservants, bondslaves. A
bondslave is he who has been freed yet chose to come back and serve his master
forever. It is not what he is going to get. It would be probably be
better for him and more promising for him because he has freedom but he chose
to serve and submit himself to the master.
We
chose to serve God when we could be free because we realize that there is need
and we have the answer because God gave us the answer. Rewards will
always be there because God is a God of abundance and He is every blessing us.
Don’t worry about the rewards. It is that our attitude should always be like
Habakkuk. He says, “Even if there is nothing for me, yet, I will serve
the Lord.”
That
my friends is the way it is in the kingdom of God.
LET US CONTINUE OUR REFLECTION
WITH
CARDINAL OF HOLY MOTHER CHURCH
AND
VENERABLE PRIMATE
OF THE PHILIPPINES
THROUGH
THE WORD EXPOSED
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