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Saturday – Twenty-eighth Week – OT2
Readings: Eph 1:15-23; Lk 12:8-12.
1/ First Reading: NAB Ephesians 1:15 Therefore, I, too, hearing of your faith in the Lord Jesus and of your love for all the holy ones, 16 do not cease giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him. 18 May the eyes of (your) hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might, 20 which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens, 21 far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.
2/ Gospel: NAB Luke 12:8 I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God. 9 But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. 10 “Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say. 12 For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.”
I. THEME: The Holy Spirit’s role in the Christians’ life
II. ANALYSIS:
1/ Reading I: The Father may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him.
1.1/ The Holy Spirit’s role in the Christians’ life: He helps the Christians to believe in Christ and his teaching:
Today passage is difficult to translate from the original Greek due to the following reasons: First, the ideas connect with each other. Secondly, the confusion of the subjects and the objects (between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit). Lastly, the author used many possessive cases. To understand his meaning, we must pay attention to his structural sentence, the possessive cases, the direct and the indirect objects; sometimes we must sacrifice the literary translation to guarantee his meaning.
After St. Paul gave thanks to God for his faithful, he asked God, Jesus’ Father, oud God, the glorious Father to give the faithful two following things:
(1) “May give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him.” What translation we should render for spirit “pneuma” here—spirit or the Holy Spirit? We can translate as the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit continues Christ’s mission on earth. He enlightens the faithful so that they can understand Christ’s teaching and revelation. Once they understand, they shall love Christ more. The possessive “him” as the end refers to Christ.
(2) “May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know “three important things:
– “What is the hope that belongs to his call”: The most valuable hope that we mentioned in yesterday passage is to become God’s children. The possessive “his” is used for God.
– “What are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones”: Also from yesterday passage, when people became God’s children, they have a right to inherit their Father’s inheritance. Two most important ones are graces and the eternal life.
– “What is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might, which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens”: God’s most powerful act is to raise Christ from dead. Through this powerful event, death is destroyed, human sins are forgiven, and salvation is given to human beings.
In order for the faithful to recognize these things, they need the Holy Spirit to enlighten their mind. The right to give the Holy Spirit belongs to the Father, but the one who helps the faithful is the Holy Spirit. People can’t understand Christ’s teaching and revelation if the Father doesn’t give the Holy Spirit and if the Holy Spirit doesn’t enlighten their mind.
1.2/ The relationship between Christ and the Church: Jesus’ victory guarantees for people to enjoy all the privileges, but in order for these privileges are extended to all, Christ needs the Church’s co-operation. The Letter to the Ephesians has special teachings about the Church. In the two last verses of today passage, the author let us see the Church’s role in God’s plan of salvation, “And he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.”
These ideas are mentioned in detail in the First Letter to the Corinthians: Christ is the head of the Church, his body is the Church, all the faithful are members of Christ’s body. The Church extends God’s plan of salvation to all people by continuing to preach the Gospel and to co-operate with the Holy Spirit to understand all the important points above so that people may also believe in Christ and receive their salvation.
2/ Gospel: “Everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God.”
2.1/ The witness is necessary to arouse faith in people: Two things that help people to believe in Christ are the preaching and the preacher’s witness. The latter sometimes attracts people more than the earlier, because “words call people’ attention, but deeds stimulate people to believe.” Gandhi, the leader of the Indian non-violent movement, said: “If all Christians live what Jesus taught, the whole world might already believe in Christ.” In order to live what Christ taught, Christians need to learn the Gospel where the evangelists recorded all Christ’s teachings. If one does not want to learn, how can he know what to do?
Our purpose of life is to be a witness for God by preaching and good deeds. The purpose of the Church’s existence is also to bring the Good News to all people. If we don’t fulfill this duty, how can we reach the eternal life which Christ has prepared for us? In the Gospel today, Christ declared the results for those who did and did not fulfill their duty: “I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God. But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God.”
2.2/ What is the sin against the Holy Spirit? Generally, it is the sin of those who don’t believe in Christ and his teachings. The mission of the Holy Spirit is to help us to know the truth, the sin against him is to refuse to follow his guidance. In the Gospel of Matthew and of Mark, both mentioned the sin against the Holy Spirit when some Jews said to Jesus: “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons” (Mt 12:31-32, Mk 3:28-29).
Why can it not be forgiven? When one lost his sensitivity of the truth to the point that one believed the falsity is the truth or reverse; or like the Jews who believed Jesus is a member of Beelzebul, how can they believe in Christ in order to have salvation? Similarly, when one lost his sensitivity of sin to the point that nothing is sinful to them, he won’t need forgiveness. Therefore, when one denied following the Holy Spirit’s instruction to know the truth, he has no hope to inherit the salvation.
2.3/ The Holy Spirit’s role in time of witness: Jesus declared the Holy Spirit’s role to his disciples: “When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.” The Holy Spirit was called the Advocate in the Fourth Gospel, and the duty of the Advocate is to speak on behalf of the accused. It is the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and power which made many fragile and simple people to become courageous martyrs and gave us many of their wise sayings.
III. APPLICATION IN LIFE:
– The Holy Spirit’s role in God’s plan of salvation is to enlighten us so that we can understand Christ’s teaching and revelation. Therefore, we need to pray to the Holy Spirit every time we learn Scripture so that he shall enlighten us.
– We need to follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance so that we are always sensitive to the truth. Once we despise and lose our sensitive to the truth, we have no hope to be saved.