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While I composed this homily, the airspace in the Persian Gulf has remained closed, affecting thousands of travellers. The closure of airspace is similar to the what the Disciples may have felt. Right now anywhere near the Persian Gulf would be dangerous and for the Disciples, anywhere near Jerusalem would have been for them life-threatening.
Thus proximity is key to understanding the behaviour of Jesus. Firstly, the Jewish authorities were demonstrating an increasing hostility towards Jesus. He was at the Hanukkah or the Feast of the Dedication and when they questioned Him on His identity, He claimed His divinity and the proof was the work He was doing on behalf of God. “The Father and I are one”. That audacity to place Himself on par with God sent the religious authorities into a murderous frenzy and Jesus barely escaped a stoning for blasphemy.
Jerusalem was for Jesus a dangerous place and Bethany was perilously nearby--about 2 kms away from the centre of danger. But Jesus was on the far side of the Jordan when He received news about the death of Larazus.
Interestingly, a prevailing spirituality at that time was that the soul remains with the body for about 3 days after death. After receiving news of Lazarus’ death, Jesus continued to work. He waited for two days more before going to Bethany which meant all in, Lazarus was already in the tomb for four days. Thus, aninterval of four days was meant to show the power of Christ in bringing the truly dead back to life.
Given the advances we have made in medical technology, bringing back a dead to life is not impossible. We see that in emergency resuscitation. A person who is clinically dead may be brought back to life using a defibrillator especially when he or she had suffered a cardiac arrest. However, there is a difference between a revival, which is what a resuscitation is about, and the resurrection. Medical gadgetry is able to revive many a clinical dead for that. If we accept the Jewish notion that the soul is proximate to the body after death for about 3 days, then a revival, whilst amazing is still possible even though we would classify that as a miracle.
What is interesting is that Jesus managed to bring a body back to life way after the 3-day interval that a soul can remain in the body. This is the point for the Gospel today. Christ has the ability to raise a body from death to life. Yet that is not the main message of the Gospel passage. John does not give much details to Lazarus’ life after his resuscitation or revival. Presumably he lived on. Even if he did live to a ripe old age, John is silent about Lazarus’ subsequent death. In other words, Lazarus would have to die again.
What does that mean?
Well, it brings us right into the heart of the Passion and the Resurrection. Somehow we may have conflated or mistaken a long life with eternal life and that the main goal of existence is to prolong life for as long as we can. It may help explain why we are hyper-focused on being healthy. What can help presently is that the process of organ harvesting and replacement lends a semblance of prolongation of life, meaning, we can live forever. In some ways, medical technology is geared towards this goal.
The question is, can we? Can we live forever here on earth?
The Transfiguration is the key to understanding the Resurrection. If anything, the raising of Lazarus is like the Transfiguration, a foretaste of a life that is changed or transformed. The Risen Christ who appeared amongst the Disciples in the Upper Room provides the clearest picture of His new reality. He told Thomas to put the finger onto His side and into the hands. Jesus was still bodilyor earthly and yet the physics of this material world does not apply entirely to Him. Just as He appeared suddenly in the room and in the silent way He crept up to the two disciples departing for Emmaus.
Jesus deferred in going to Bethany and when He did decide to go, the Disciples met His decision with trepidation. They felt that they would meet some forms of violence, walking directly into a death trap set for Jesus. But the deliberate delay was not out of fear but rather to prove that He was in charge.
Life and death were both in His hands. Jesus showed us through Lazarus’ revival or resuscitation that there is a future which is ours through the Resurrection. As they rolled away the stone covering Lazarus’ tomb, that day will arrive then they will discover Christ’s empty tomb.
Jesus in summoning Lazarus out of the tomb showed that even the dead will listen to His voice. Thus each one of us is called out of the tomb of our sins to walk into the light of Christ. It is a command to shake off the sins that cling on to us. But it requires that we want to come out into His light. While the body of Lazarus in the tomb is a reminder of the reality that bodies in graves will decompose and yet we are assured that neither death nor decomposition would be the last word on our ultimate destiny.
Finally, for the Lourdes medical pilgrimage, we are taking Qatar Airways, flying right into the heart of Iranian drone attacks. I asked a couple of persons who will be going to Lourdes on the medical pilgrimage if they were fearful about the prospect of being shot down like MH17 and the answer was a resounding no. As Annette and Catherina said, “If our time has come, so be it. We shall go and meet our Saviour”. He is the Resurrection and the Life. As He commanded Lazarus to come out, He will command our bodies too.
From water of last Sunday, this weekend we continue John’s Gospel centring on light. It is still a journey of knowledge for the Elect and in a way, it is for us too.
The 1st Reading feels out of place because it details the anointing of David unless one reads it through the lens of the Responsorial Psalm. God is the shepherd who has never left His flock untended. He has come and so the focus of the 2nd Reading and the Gospel is on Christ as the light to enlighten our minds.
Firstly, there is the idea of coming into the light or proceeding from darkness into light. The movement is gradual which reveals a process which we do not always appreciate. Conversion is gradual and sometimes slow and painful.When we talk of saints, we frequently think of them as finished “products”. Truth is many of them struggled all through their lives. Many have been canonised saints only because they had persevered through the course of conversion.
Secondly, the conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees will shed light on the future of Jesus’ suffering. The prevalent view of the time was a belief heavily influenced by Job’s experience. Misfortunes and illnesses were considered to be the consequences of sin. It is illustrated by the question of whose sins they were that caused the man’s blindness. Jesus did not answer that directly though the conversation does shed light on innocent and redemptive suffering for He Himself was the prime example.
Christ who was sinless bore His rejection and suffering as an expiation for our sins. It is true that we do have to pay the price of our sins. The saying that “karma is a ‘female dog’” reflects this understanding. And yet, we are taught by the Lord’s own personal situation that sickness and suffering are not necessarily the consequence of sins. The fact that you suffer is not because God is punishing you. However, what has happened is that we have flipped the script around. Instead of suffering on account of sins, now the prevailing philosophy is to excuse sin because we are sick or suffering.
Today a disease is considered to be an excuse that mitigates a person’s responsibility or culpability. Insanity plea and compos mentis are related to claiming a lack of responsibility because a person has no control over rational thought. Our homegrown example is found in the title of a documentary called “Kleptocrats”. Kleptomania is the irresistible urge to steal. Hence, one steals because one suffers from the condition of kleptomania which in a way makes the stealing less sinful as it were. Anything can be an excuse for bad behaviour and yet we all know that there has to be accountability in which one assumes responsibility for one’s actions. It leads us to the next point.
Thirdly, the Gospel whilst it details the gradual enlightenment of the man born blind, it also uncovers an uncomfortable truth about us. As the blind man gradually gained sight, those around him became more blind. It is perhaps an invitation for us to be less arrogant and to be more humble. While we should be confident about what we know, we should also be open to our blind spots. Socrates himself supposedly said, “I know that I know nothing”. If we desire to be humble, then the people who mirrors us best are not those who praise or speak well of us. Rather, those who criticise might in fact help us see ourselves for who we truly are. In the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes, it took a child, a naïve one, to expose the truth of how group-think can blind us to what we truly need to see. It took an innocent child to point out the reality as it was--the Emperor was naked. We need light to perceive the unvarnished truth about ourselves.
Sometimes we do not have the courage to see ourselves or we might try to run away from what is true. Our addictions could be symptoms of our escape. We run away from facing reality by numbing ourselves either through excessive working, over-eating, substance abuse, binge-watching or engaging in repetitive behaviours that distract us. Solitaire, Dota, SIM City or Plants vs Zombies are some examples.
Finally, as we approach Easter Vigil where there will be baptisms, the healing process involved highlights an important element of Catholic or Orthodox Christianity. It is the incarnational underpinnings of our Sacramental system. Christ uses matter to effect a healing. He spat onto the earth to make paste to apply onto the man’s eyes.
In fact, water was last week’s sacramental matter. This week earth is used to mediate healing and restoration. All these materials are tangible and sensible and they reveal to us the underlying principle that is at work in our Sacramental system. God uses matter to effect His grace, thus revealing to us that our world, even though fallen, is still a good one.
Combined with specific words, which are the formulae we use, the material elements such as water and oil, bread and wine, the physical acts of confessing, the laying on of hands and the mutual exchange of consent make visible the invisible grace of God. Through these elements and acts directed by the formulae God communicates His grace to us. In fact, the Sacramental system actually stands upon the pivotal event of the Incarnation, an act whereby God the Son, who is the Logos, the Word, became flesh for us. Later, through His flesh and blood under the appearance of bread and wine, the same flesh and blood that suffered and flowed forth from Calvary, we are saved.
The Gospel this Sunday is a detour from Matthew. It is taken from John and if read in itself, it should be enough. It is long and it covers many areas which are relevant to the journey of the Elect who are on the way to their baptism this Easter Vigil.
The central figure of the Gospel is the Samaritan Woman and through her we encounter God’s mercy. To appreciate this immensity of this encounter and the scale of the animosity between the Jews and Samaritans we survey a situation that is taking place right now some thousands of kilometres away. It seems that Starbucks is not doing too well in this country. I hear that McDonald’s is suffering too. Post 7th Oct 2023 and the Gaza invasion, the rancour between the Jews and the Palestinians has cut even deeper that here some thousands of kilometres away, the animosity is palpable economically. Translate that kind of animosity to the Jews and the Samaritans.
From this perspective, the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman sounds contrived because it is not something which should have happened. He, an observant Jew, should not be seen speaking to a Samaritan, let alone a woman. It would have rendered Him unclean. Yet we are brought deep into the conversation between these two characters.
The woman was an outcast three times over. Firstly, a Samaritan. Secondly, a woman. Thirdly, a woman with many husbands. Jesus did not reject her based on any of these stipulations. Instead, He led her on a conversion journey. Firstly through a natural thirst for water. Secondly to seeing how He Himself will quench her deepest longings. Thirdly, He led her to recognise her sinfulness. Fourthly, she became a messenger of the good news to her other countryfolks.
Mercy is the name of God. Bismillah ir-Rahman, ir-Rahim. In the name of God the most gracious and the most merciful. In fact the word for womb is rahim in Malay and it shares the same etymology with another word Malaysians should know about. “Sumbangan asas rahmah”; rahmah being an Arabic word for compassion or care. God is merciful.
In the encounter with the Samaritan woman, Christ reaches out to her, without condemnation. And yet He did not leave her unjudged. We are uncomfortable with the idea of judging because it is associated with the idea of superiority and at the same time, making a judgement draws lines. We do not like those lines especially when they seem to infringe on our personal freedom. In judging, the Lord merely pointed out to her the reality or truth. He stated it only as a matter of fact and not as a condemnation. Due to His gentle coaxing, she admitted her state which was unacceptable even from the view of her people, the Samaritans themselves. This brings us to the Elect.
In their catechetical journey thus far, they are brought to the experience of water and to know the well from where they drink. The Samaritan woman drank not just from the well of ostracisation. She who had to carry water from the well in the hot noon-day sun was not welcomed by her other women-folk of the village. Not only was she isolated. In fact, she thought her thirst could be slaked by the husbands she had accumulated in her life. Here at the well, she had to face the probing questions of Jesus about her state of life, just as the Elect and in a way, we who have been baptised, are.
Where are our wells and what is the quality of the water that we are drinking? We are definitely not ostracised, at least, not in the moral or spiritual sense. We might be excluded academically, economically, racially or technologically. But in the matter of sin, except for a few heinous crimes, the sin of the Samaritan woman in having one husband too many, will not cause that much of a stir amongst us. Who are we to judge, right?
Perhaps we are too accustomed to accepting that any liquid will do the job of slaking one’s thirst. It does not matter what the source is except that we are quenched. Yet the woman at the well intuitively asked for the water to fulfil her so that she may not have to thirst again. At first what she asked for was basically a kind of water that would prevent her from coming back to the well. Never mind the cessation of ostracisation. Later as the conversation continued, she was led to the heart of her thirst, which is for the water of eternal life. At this point, Christ presented Himself as the source of eternal life.
Shamefully, I bought a lovely kettle the other day. I already have an electric hot-water pot. Shopee delivered it and as soon as I had it unpacked, I sort of thought to myself, why did I buy it? Our shopping experience is rather telling because it gives us a glimpse into how our rational faculty works.
Jesus presented Himself as the water of eternal life. But more than water, she was led to know Him personally. Her experience begs the question of how our faculty of knowledge can be honed.
In an economy driven by information, we think of knowledge as facts and the more facts we gather, the more we know. But to know is to basically to know the truth. Since Jesus spoke of Himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life, to know is to really to know Him personally, like the Samaritan woman got to. If the faculty of knowing is geared towards knowing Jesus, then we will never knowingly choose evil. It is only when we do not really “know” that we will choose what is evil. In other words, nobody in the right frame of mind, in terms of the faculty of knowing, will choose what is evil.
At the well, the Samaritan woman slowly came to a personal realisation of Jesus who presented Himself as the water that wells up to eternal life. Our Elect too must make the journey of knowledge. If the well symbolises a journey towards knowledge, then, knowledge cannot be measured by the accumulation of more facts or data. We are not wiser because of them. To know is to know truth, beauty and goodness. Since no one knowingly chooses evil, then those who commit evil can only be explained by an ignorance that mistakes evil for good.
People think that knowledge is neutral as if it is something to be acquired. But knowledge is not neutral because there are facts we should never know of. For example, someone’s personal diary can be so thrilling to read but once you know something you cannot “unknow” it and there are some secrets we should never know. The point is once you know you cannot unknow or ignore.
In summary, evil is mistaken as good for those who do not know or are ignorant. For the Samaritan woman, hers was a pilgrimage of mercy which gradually allowed her to recognise her sins. In her physical thirst, she came to more than a realisation of water as necessary for life. Christ mercy shown hergave her courage to move on. More than that, by knowing that Jesus as the source of life, in turn she led others to the proper well that gives life, Jesus Christ Himself.
There is supposed to be a pause this weekend. Not for the Chinese or Lunar New Year. Instead, the Sunday readings in Year A form the dynamics for the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. It used to be called RCIA, where R stands for Rite. I guess a name change may have been necessary because RCIA has jocularly come to mean Roman Catholics in Agony. However, the true reason for the change is that the Vatican mandated it because the word “Order” is closer to the original Latin title which is “Ordo Initiationis Christianae Adultorum”. The word “Rite” suggests a single event whereas the word "Order” better reflects a process that consists of multiple rites, steps, and periods of formation.
Anyway, today’s supposed pause is not taking place because we have the Rite of Election. This Election should have taken place last week on the 1st Sunday of Lent but then travel would have been impossible on account of the Chinese New Year traffic. After last Sunday, the Catechumens, who are preparing for baptism will be called the “Elect” after the Rite.
The spotlight of the 1st Sunday of Lent was shone on the three temptations. After His baptism in the Jordan, Jesus was led or rather driven to the desert where He was tempted by Satan. The Rite of Election signals this movement for it is the beginning of the last leg of the journey for the catechumens. These few weeks will be marked by intense preparations for baptism which involvepurification and enlightenment. Those preparing for baptism are chosen or elected by God, just like Jesus was led by the Spirit. The season of Lent mirrors the Elect’s refinement and conversion.
Jesus chose God resolutely throughout the ordeal of His temptations. The Elect are supposed to imitate that resolve. And this brings us all to the pause which is the Gospel today. Last week was the supposed Rite of Election and next week, the Scrutinies begin. The pause today is Jesus on Mount Tabor. He had predicted His death as well as taught His disciples about the costs of discipleship. The experience on top of Tabor for the 3 closest followers, Peter, James and John is instructive for us. This pause allowed them to catch a glimpse that for Jesus, death is never the end. It is a prelude to the Resurrection.
The Transfiguration is a phenomenon which is otherworldly. It provides a sense of what to expect in the next life. It is not a trip to fantasyland. Why? If the period after the Rite of Election is considered to be intense, then expect that life will lean a bit more towards trials and tribulations. Unfortunately, this is not a persuasive proposition according to present psychology which is organised along the principle of practicality and the prevention of pain. We want convenience and we avoid suffering.
Our Catholic world used to be at home with the idea of suffering but not entirely from the perspective of just dessert, that is, we deserve to suffer. Rather, we are at home with suffering because it is inevitable. Suffering is a consequence of a broken world which means we cannot escape suffering. And yet it is not hopeless.
Instead suffering can be transformative because we can unite our trials and tribulations with the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross so that good may be wrought from evil. It is only possible to embrace suffering because it is not the definitive mark or ultimate conclusion of who we are. On Mount Tabor, Peter, James and John caught hold of this truth about suffering and about our subsequent glory.
Calvary would be meaningless and all that Jesus taught would be useless unless we have the Resurrection. In an age gone by, the belief that we will ultimately shake off eternal death kept us grounded in the sense that it provided hope even as we endure suffering. Have you ever felt like you were in a wrong marriage? I am not criticising the present age. I am wondering why the earlier generations remained married despite the fact that couples quarrelled a lot. Without the assurance of the Resurrection our suffering has no meaning. Without the Resurrection, the vows to stay together in good times and bad do not make sense at all. The thought of heaven gives strength and sustains us, even those who think they were in a wrong marriage, because we know that defeat here on earth is not the final chapter. Look at how the martyrs faced their death without hesitation. Their loss of life here was never an annihilation.
Mind you. Nobody should suffer. Nobody deserves to suffer. Yet we do and some of us more than the others. And why did God allow for it? This is the mystery which man has been struggling to comprehend ever since the Prophet Job.
My younger brother who has an autistic son. When Mom was alive, my sister and my younger brother took turns looking after her in her illness whereas my older brother provided the financial support. My three siblings shouldered the responsibility of caring for Mom and when it was time for my younger brother to marry, he was blessed with a son who is autistic. It was as if life could not cut him a break as he transitioned from caring for a sick mother and to a highly dependent child. My sister responded to my lamentation when I asked why it had to be like that. She said, “Because God knows he has a heart big enough to love an autistic child”.
Not sure if my brother and his wife felt like they struck lottery and there are many amongst us who know the feeling of abandonment and how God is so far away. A cancer patient, a debilitating stroke, an auto-immune degenerative disease, facing financial ruin. I can assure you, none feels blessed. Cursed, most certainly. Therefore, the Transfiguration is crucial. It does not remove pain or suffering. It does not make life easier. But it does give us hope in the midst of our trials and tribulations.
Christ dazzlingly white garments is a promise that no defeat can hold on to us forever. The promise of the Resurrection is the reason why suffering, terrible as it may be, can be borne with courage and fortitude. Look at Carlos Acutis. Therese Lisieux. Bernadette Soubirous. All suffered and died from terminal illnesses. Today, the Transfiguration invites us to look beyond the dazzling display to our destiny which is the Resurrection. It is for this reason that we invite the Elect join us on this journey, in this pilgrimage beyond Tabor even as we fortify ourselves to bear whatever anguish or agony that life has for us here on earth.
