“Genuine Grace”
March 10, 2014
The 1st Sunday of the Christian Season of Lent
Genesis 2: 4b-9;
15-17; 25-3: 7/Psalm 51: 1 – 12/Romans 5: 12 – 2/Matthew 4: 1 – 11
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
This is the First Sunday
in Lent. As a Church direction, this year in Lent, we will voluntarily
take a somber attitude and approach things meditatively. We will withhold
our “Hallelujahs.” It is not a law, but a willingness on our part. It is
like that when you observe the Sabbath, you don’t disobey the law to
work. You obey the law to rest. When you work, you do not disobey
the command to rest; you obey the command to work because there is a time for
everything.
This Season, we would like
us to meditate. It is a three-fold thrust that we would like us to
observe: we fast; we pray; and we do works of charity. Understand that
this is not a law. We are not legalistic about it. I tell you,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, before the Mass ends, you shall have said
‘Hallelujah’ at least once.” It is not sin. It is a willingness on
our part to withhold it not because it is forbidden, but we observe it and we
meditate so that when Easter comes, our “hallelujahs” will be a lot
fuller. Our desire is to know God more and to grow in Him.
This is what God wills for us: to obey Him not out of compulsion
but willingly.
This is what the New
Covenant is all about. “New” doesn’t mean something to replace the
old. “New” means something that has been there the whole time which was
ignored and is being reiterated. It takes on a fuller meaning. It has to
come from our hearts because this is what God wants. He did not make us
robots. He gave us free will so that we would choose to obey Him.
Have you ever wondered why God had to place the tree of knowledge of the good
and evil in the Garden? If it wasn’t there, man would not have
sinned. He put it there so that man could obey His command to not eat of
the tree. God wanted man to be like Him, to choose what to do what is
right according to what the commandment of God is.
We will encourage you to
exercise that, to will to seek God, and to hear from Him. We won’t
spoon-feed you or give you a comic book. We won’t give you everything in each
interpretation. We would like you to appreciate and draw the message from
something that is important. If you go to a museum and look at a
painting, you appreciate what the painter did and you try to get his
message. Sometimes they will interpret it for you, but you are encouraged
to sit or to stand in front of the painting, to look at it, and draw the
message.
The icons in the Church
have no interpretations. You look at the scene and you let God speak to
you. You incline your ear and you incline your heart, if need be, to seek
God. God reveals Himself but you also have to do your part. You
seek Him. You crane your neck to see something and you reach deep down
and utilize the God-given sensitivity so that you understand and you hear what
the Spirit is saying.
In the Liturgy, we have to
exert effort to shut out all the worries of the world and come in to the
presence of God. Pay attention because something good is going on. The
Spirit is speaking to the churches. “He who has ears, let him use them,
and let him hear.” In the gospel where Jesus was warning the disciples
when future things would happen, about the rumors of wars and seeing the
abomination of desolation, there is a parenthetical message that says, "Let
the reader understand." You have to make an effort to hear
God. He won’t always speak bombastically. Sometimes He speaks in a
still small voice. If you are too busy or too wired and you have earplugs
in your ears, you won't hear the message.
Proverbs 2:1-5 says, “My
son, if you will receive my sayings, and treasure my commandments within you,
make your ear attentive to wisdom. Incline your heart to understanding;
for if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; if you seek
her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will discern
the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God.” You will have to exert effort,
which Proverbs 2 says is the same effort as you would make in treasure hunting.
We seek treasure and that is the same zeal and intensity that we need to apply
in seeking the voice and the will of God.
If you go to the Sistine
Chapel in Rome or the cathedrals in Europe, you will see all kinds of
paintings, icons and statutes, and most of them don’t have what you have in
museums like a plaque or a board that describes the thing to you and tells you
the message. No, you sit there and you strain your neck looking at the
ceiling because all of the church’s history and the Bible are there. You
have to study and look closely because after a while, God will speak to you and
understand this is what Jesus was saying in words in the Bible but expressed in
still pictures. You can pay for an audio tour, but it is not God’s
speaking to you.
This year and hopefully,
the rest of the Season, we will have to do a lot of meditating. We will
give you less of entertainment. We will give you less spectator
activities. We will encourage you to meditate and seek the will of
God. The key is to fast, to pray, and to do works of charity. Deny
yourself, fast, take up your cross, and follow the example of Christ.
Jesus said in John 7:17, "If you are willing to obey, you will receive the
revelation from God.” You have to be willing to demonstrate and show it.
You have to actively participate in order to get that which God wants us to
see.
We are called the people
of God. We are not an audience; we are not spectators. What we are
doing right now is called the Eucharistic Liturgy. Liturgy is the work of
the people. Eucharistic Liturgy is work of the people in thanksgiving,
offering sacrifices of thanksgiving. It is service of God. It is not a show, a
one-man show, a show of a cast with spectators. We give our offering, not
the Presider’s offering, but the people’s offering side by side and made
acceptable by the sacrifice of Christ Himself. When you become still and
know that He is God and actively involve yourself in His will, you will see
revelations galore. If you are willing, God will show you.
James said, "Draw
near to God and He will draw near to you." There is this saying that
I have heard that goes, “God helps those who help themselves.” I believe
in this. They say, “That is not true. God helps those who cannot help themselves.”
This is true, too. This is what Christ did on the cross. We
couldn't help ourselves; we couldn’t get sin out and away from us, so God
helped us who could not help ourselves. It doesn't stop there. When we
were babies, our parents changed our diapers and we were trained to walk.
But when you are a ten-year old, you can help yourself. You can walk.
Parents will help you with some other things, but you need to help yourself
also and God seeks that from us.
About fasting, Moses
fasted before he received the Commandment on Tablets of stone. Elijah,
before meeting God on the mountain, also fasted. Jesus, in our gospel
today, fasted forty days and forty nights. Prayer and fasting prepared
Him for His ministry which was marked from the beginning by an intense battle
with temptation. He overcame. There was one time when the disciples
could not cast out the demon from a child and Jesus said, “This does not come
out except by prayer and fasting.” Some things are needed for us to
prepare. It is by prayer and fasting.
St. Basil said that
fasting was ordained in Garden and was the very first commandment that was
given to Adam. He also said that “You shall not eat” is a law of fasting
and abstinence. Adam was given the command to cultivate and keep the
earth. Genesis said, "No shrub of the field, no plant was yet on the
earth because God had not sent rain yet and man had not yet
cultivated." The literal rendering of cultivate was serve the
earth. As long as Adam observed the true meaning of fasting and obeying
God and serving, he was in dominion.
Jesus spoke against the
hypocritical attitude of the Pharisees. He revealed the true meaning of
fasting. Isaiah 58 talks about true fasting. What is the real
meaning of fasting? Is it really ceremonial or do you fast for the purpose
of doing works of charity? If you fast and you continue to be hypocrites
and have hate, strife and division and you point the finger, then your fasting
is wasted and is meaningless. Jesus said, “Don’t just deny
yourself. You deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow after Me as I
demonstrate love by giving of Myself.” If you just deny yourself by
fasting and do nothing else, it is just like you are going on a hunger
strike. You can put meaning or not, but it doesn’t do you good. You have
to take up your cross and follow Christ completed.
Pope Benedict said, "Man
shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth
of God. True fasting is then directed to eating the “true food,” which is to do
the Father’s will.” Jesus said,
“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me.” “If, therefore, Adam
disobeyed the Lord’s command ‘to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil,’ we, the believers, through fasting, intend to submit ourselves
humbly to God, trusting in His goodness and mercy. Denying ourselves of
material food, which nourishes our body, nurtures an interior disposition to
listen to Christ and be fed by His saving word. Through fasting and praying, we
allow Him to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we experience in the
depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for God. Cast aside all that distracts the
spirit and grow in whatever nourishes the soul, moving it to love of God and
neighbour."
Jesus became hungry.
His flesh became weak when He fasted which you would think flesh would be at
its weakest and this is the time to tempt it with food. His flesh became
weak, but His Spirit became strong. When we mortify the flesh or when we
deny the flesh for a time, we strengthen the spirit and make it more sensitive
to God.
2 Corinthians4:16 says
“Though the body decays, yet the spirit is being renewed day by day.” Fasting
complements living on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. See
Jesus’ knowledge of Scripture. He and the disciples did not have the
luxury of being able to tuck their Bible under their arms. No individual owned
the Bible. Maybe Paul did with a few pages of the prophet, but it wasn’t
thin paper like what we have. They did not have Scriptures individually
owned. They had to listen in the synagogues and in their Bible
studies. They had to incline their ears. It is a shame that they
knew more of the Bible than we who individually own Bibles, who have Bibles on
our phones, which is available every day in different translations. It is
free but do we know it? Meditation on the Word of God is part of praying
and fasting, and this strengthened Jesus.
In Acts 8, can you imagine
Philip when God spoke to him and said, “Go, join that eunuch in his
chariot.” The eunuch was reading from Isaiah. Imagine the eunuch asking
Philip, “What are you reading?” The eunuch says, “This part were Isaiah
says this and that, but I don’t understand it.” Can you imagine Philip
saying, “Let me get the Deacon. I will catch up with you. Where are
you going? I will get the Deacon, the Parish Priest or the Bishop
because I was absent when they taught that in the synagogue.”
They had to incline their ear and their hearts to hear and to seek God.
Fasting and praying helps
us to dwell on things which according to Philippians 4:8 are true, honorable,
right, pure, lovely, of good repute, with excellence, and worthy of praise.
It gets our attention away
from the mundane and the things that are the exact opposite of Philippians 4.
Fasting is voluntary in our part. If we want to seek God and want
to know Him more, we detach ourselves from the routine business of everyday
life a lot of which are unnecessary. We cease from the rat race. We
just stop and cease from striving and know that God is God. As sons of God,
our wealth is not measured by how much material things we possessed. It
is measured by our knowledge of God.
Even the “.com”
executives, the geeks, the technical people would advise people to get
off-line. You don’t have to look at your Facebook account every day. What
you have to do is listen to God every day without ceasing. I am not
saying to always just to do nothing, but in everything you do, seek God. Listen
to Him. He may be speaking to you through something that you are reading
which is not of a Christian author. You could probably see something that
is just happening on the streets because wisdom also speaks on the streets and
we need to listen and to be sensitive.
Whenever Archbishop Hines
and I were in India before, we would only stay at the hotel because there is
not much outside. There is nothing to go to and nothing to see even on
TV. We are forced to be still, to meditate, and to read God’s word.
In that environment, you get a lot more revelation from God than when you are
in the city with all the noise and the distractions. You will be amazed
how sensitive you can be when you become still and seek God. Then, when
we do our part to do that, things will come because we will not be distracted
by unnecessary things. I am not saying to not work ever again or don’t
ever take care of your family and do what you do. Once in a while, see
the pattern of the work and Sabbath. If you observe those times of rest,
then you are energized and you become more effective when you do face again the
work part and the challenges. You will be more strengthened because you
have been reenergized and you have received from God. As Jesus would
minister, once in a while, He would go up to the mountain and He would pray
overnight. It is a pattern. We need to take time to pause and fast
and pray so that we can better know God and better do works of charity.
Then, God’s genuine grace can freely flow through us, into us, and through us.
Romans 5:17 says that the
recipients of grace will reign in life through Christ because His grace
is more abundant than sin. Where sin abounds, His grace all the more
abounds. The key is to seek God. We will reign in life, through Christ,
who Himself overcame temptation as He gave us the example, as He gave us the
pattern. We will also overcome temptation and we will reign in life with
Him and through Him.
We encourage you: be
attuned to God. If you ever are always to be on-line, be on-line with
God. Get off-line with unnecessary things and there are a lot of
them. Always be attuned to God, not just in Lent, but hopefully, we may
lead a fasted life and set this as a pattern for the rest of our days because
this 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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