“The Gospel Defended”
January 5, 2014
The 2nd
Sunday of the Christian Season of Theophany/Christmas
(12th
Day of Theophany/Christmas)
Jeremiah 31: 7 – 14/Psalm 84/Ephesians 1: 3 - 6; 15 - 19a/Matthew 2: 13 - 15; 19 - 23
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
Merry Christmas to
You! It is still Christmas, the Second Sunday of Christmas.
Supposedly, it is the last day of the Season, but Christmas doesn’t have to
end. The meaning, the message, the truth, and the reality of Christmas doesn’t
have to end. This is the part of the message that I would like to give to
you. All these things have been made available for us for a reason.
Looking at the gospel
today and the gospels during the Christmas Season, you cannot help but notice
that the faith, the obedience, and the commitment of Mary and Joseph and their
sensitivity to God's voice. In order to be sensitive to someone’s voice,
you have to be familiar with them. First, you have to be in a
relationship with them and somehow know them. This is how you become sensitive
to what they are saying.
As an example, when a
woman says, “I am fine,” the husband interprets that to mean something and
another person interprets it to be something else. It can mean two things
to two different persons. You have to be familiar with somebody first to
be sensitive to what they say.
Joseph was sensitive to
God's voice. He was faithful. Before the birth of Christ, Joseph
had to believe what was to many ridiculous. Against all odds, against
opinion and even common sense, he believed God's Word. Joseph wasted no
time and immediately obeyed. While it was still night, he obeyed,
fulfilled and carried out the message of God. There was stress
involved. I am sure there were sleepless nights. There was embarrassment,
ridicule, persecution. They were ostracized and look down and frowned
upon.
In the gospel, the Holy
Family was in danger. The first family of any nation is the most secure
family in the country, but the Holy Family, the first Family of the world was
in danger. Joseph obeyed and there was exile involved in their lives as a
consequence of his obedience. You cannot just discount and ignore
them. Jesus, as man, experienced the same things. This is why
He was incarnate. This is why He is our great High Priest.
Jesus went through danger,
ridicule, persecutions, hunger, pain, temptation, and even loss. The
things we asked Him about like the death of a loved one when we say, “Why?” We
only need to read that portion of the gospel where He grieved and cried when
Lazarus whom He loved died. Christ raised Him up again. He went
through the same things as us.
Jesus being our High
Priest, Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot
sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as
we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews
5:1-2, “For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of
men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices
for sins; he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself
also is best with weakness.”
Hebrews 2:14-15, "Since
then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of
the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of
death, that is , the devil; and might deliver those who through fear of
death were subject to slavery all their lives.”Verse 17-18, “Therefore,
He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make
propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in
that which He has suffered. He is able to come to the aid of those who
are tempted.”
This is the reason for the
incarnation so that Jesus might partake of our very nature; so that He Himself
would experience what we experienced; so that He also may be beset with
weaknesses so that we can come to the aid of those who are also beset with
weaknesses. When He, as a man, overcomes all of these things, He can tell
the rest of us, human beings, “You don’t have to be afraid. You don’t
have to fear death because I, as one of you, as a human being, as a man, have
overcome the world.”
You can complain and say,
“Jesus, You don’t understand what I am going through.” He will say, “Yes,
I do.” There is no excuse for us to say, “No, You don’t understand.
I am only human and I fail.” Jesus was human; He was able to
overcome. This is the encouragement, the reason He became
incarnate. He won for us the victory so that He can come to our aid and
tell us that we do not have to fear death and so that we can resume the life
that was put on hold when Adam fell and the fellowship with God was cut off.
Now, it can resume because
this is the very purpose of our lives – to live our lives with God with
communion and fellowship with Him. This is the very purpose Adam
was created, the very purpose you and I were born so that we can live this life
God gave with Him. Incarnate so that He can free us from death. His will
for us is peace, joy, and fullness of eternal life. Not fear, not lack of
peace, not death, not anything else, but a life of fullness and abundance of
joy, peace, prosperity spent with Him.
Jesus says, "Do not
be afraid. I have overcome the world.” Jesus showed us how as a human
being, like one of us, by putting His life in His Father’s hands. Can you
imagine God subjecting Himself to the limitations of a baby and allowing His
life to be put in danger in the hands of a very king He Himself created and
allowed to be born into the world? He can empathize and sympathize with
us. He knows what we go through. He puts His life in the hands of
God believing, as it is true, that God watches over His word to perform it.
In the gospel, three times
it says, “So that what was spoken through the prophets might be
fulfilled.” God makes sure that His Word, His promise always is
fulfilled, happens and comes to past. This is an encouragement to
us. If He promises you something, it will happen. If He promises
us, as a Church, a provision, our land, it will happen. God’s Word
will always come to pass.
“That which was spoken
through the prophet was fulfilled, saying, “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping
and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children…that the Scripture might be
fulfilled, ‘He shall be called a Nazarene.’” God watches over His Word because He
will make sure that it does not return to Him empty. The incarnation and
Jesus’ sinlessness, the offering of His life, His passion, His death,
resurrection and ascension – all of these restored for us eternal life and
fellowship with God. Eternal life is nothing more or less than fellowship
with God, knowing God. Not only did He restore it for us, He also
showed us how to live it. It is one thing to restore it for us, it
is another thing for us to live it.
In Ephesians, Paul tells
the church that God shows us to be holy and blameless and God predestined us
from the foundation of the world. He chose us and predestined us to
adoption according to the kind intention of His will. His will always
come to pass. “Every spiritual blessing from the heavenly places in
Christ has been given to us.” Nothing is left in the heavens; all
blessings have been given to us, in Christ. His grace freely bestowed
upon us in the beloved.
We are addressed by the
reader during the reading of the Epistle as, “Fellow accepted in the
beloved.” Our blessings are all through Christ, with Christ, and in
Christ because of what He offered and accomplished for us. St. Paul says,
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will see and
understand and appreciate and know the hope of your calling and that you
may know the riches of the glory of God’s
inheritance in the saints and alsoknow the
surpassing greatness of God’s power toward us who believe.”
In the Bible, the word
"know" is what is used to describe, especially in the Old
Testament, the intimate sexual union between a husband and a wife. It is
not a casual knowing of a person like knowing an actor. You don’t know
them. You know your brother, your classmate, your sister, your father,
your mother among others. You know their strengths and weaknesses.
You may know of someone because you may have heard of them or seen them on the
Wikepedia. “Know” means intimate and having an intimate
relationship. “Know” is synonymous to the word consummate; fulfill; actualized;
realized; lived out; experienced. It is to avail of the life Christ
showed us to live.
This is eternal life, as
defined by Jesus in John 17, “This is eternal life that they may know You, the
only God and Father, and Your Son Jesus Christ.” It is like Adam who knew
God talking to Him face to face and walking with Him in the cool of the day and
the night 24/7. This is eternal life. This is what Jesus made
available for us. It is one thing that something is available; it is
another thing to avail of it.
Around the city, in the
stores, there are exercise machines where you are floating in the air and
jogging. Because of commercials on TV, many people buy them. However,
they resell them because they don’t use them. You can buy them second-hand
used. The original buyers bought them but did not avail of
them. If you have exercise machines, gym equipments sitting
at home, do you use them? It is one thing for them available for use, and
it is another thing to actually use them and avail of them.
Because of Christ, ALL are
available for us. Therefore, we must avail of all so that we can get the
full benefit of them. It is not just letting them sit around and be
wasted but to avail of them. This is what Jesus has provided for
us. He did not buy the equipments for us as a display in one room in our
house. It is for us to actually use and benefit from. Eternal life
was restored on our behalf so that we can avail of the fullness of it.
This is the will of God – the fullness of it.
The prodigal son was all
the time the son of his father. Did he benefit from being a son when he
was far country? No. Was he disowned? No. Did he still carry
the surname? Yes. But was he staying at the house and enjoying the fullness of
his relationship as a son with the father? No, because he wanted to do
what he thought was more fun, more fulfilling. It was only a matter of
time when he came to his senses and realized, “Hey, I am wasting my privileges,
my honor as a son. What am I doing here eating this animal food?”
He thought this was better than what God had provided for him.
The will of God is for us
to avail of the fullness of what Jesus paid with a high price. Maybe
free, but it was bought with a high price – the very precious life of Jesus
Himself. In St. Paul’s letter to Timothy, he said, “God gives us all
things for a purpose to enjoy.” He gave us all good things for us to
enjoy them for us to make use of them, for us to benefit from them, and for us
to avail of them. He also said, “God is the Savior of all men and
especially of believers.” Believers are those who avail of this
salvation. It is like all of us are sons, but some remain in the house,
spending time with the father, and some waste their inheritance in prodigal
living and miss out on being sons and experiencing the fullness of that
reality. God wants us to avail of our sonship especially of believers
because believers are those who walk in the provisions made available to them.
This is why our challenge
is to make those who do not believe, those who do not fully take advantage of
their salvation to make them understand and realize that. This is our
mission – not to look down on them and think of them as, “Your soul is going to
burn in hell. You unbelieving heathen!” but to make them understand. Let
us share the prayer of St. Paul and make them understand the hope of their
calling and the riches of the glory of their inheritance in the saints and the
surpassing greatness of God’s power toward those who believe in Him, toward
those who avail of these provisions and take advantage of them.
When somebody gives you a
car or a TV, you would use it, don’t you? The gift may be cheap or
substandard, but you would appreciate it especially if it comes from somebody
dear to you. If somebody gave you a Mercedes Benz or any luxurious car or
a 90” TV, you would use it! Will you just display it when you have
visitors? Naturally, you would want to avail of the fullness of the gift.
Would you just sit on your Mercedes Benz in the garage? You would turn on
the engine, feel the power of it, and turn on the air-conditioner. You
would avail of the sound system in the car. You would want to get the
fullness out of the gift.
I am talking about earthly
things which are way, way, below the level of God’s precious gift to us that is
not wasted. Let us sing for joy. This is what the Incarnation did
for us. These are the provisions given to us.
This is what God wills for
us to avail of because this is the way it is in the kingdom of our God!
LET
US CONTINUE OUR REFLECTION
WITH
CARDINAL OF
HOLY MOTHER CHURCH
AND
VENERABLE PRIMATE
OF
THE PHILIPPINES
THROUGH
THROUGH
THE WORD EXPOSED
THROUGH
SPECIAL PAPAL INDULT/PERMISSION, THE CHURCH IN THE PHILIPPINES WAS GRANTED
THE PRIVILEGE TO CELEBRATE THE FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY ON THE SUNDAY BETWEEN
JANUARY 1-7 INSTEAD OF IT ACTUAL DATE, WHICH IS THE 6TH OF JANUARY
What road must I take to become a “disciple”?