{"id":1167,"date":"2012-01-16T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2012-01-16T00:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=1167"},"modified":"2022-04-07T20:27:20","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T12:27:20","slug":"45-on-truth-and-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=1167","title":{"rendered":"48. On Truth and Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reflections on a Pauline Pilgrimage to Turkey [12]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesus said to Nicodemus: \u201cGod loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life\u201d\u00a0[John 3:16<\/span>].<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It is Wednesday 4 May 2011, the last but one day of our pilgrimage trip to Turkey. We will start the day with an early morning Mass at our hotel at Kusadasi. It is time to reflect on the\u00a0 readings before we begin another long day.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Gospel reading is taken from John 3:16-21. \u201cGod loved the world so much that he gave his only Son!<\/strong>\u201d Just a few words of Holy Scripture, but they contain a fundamental truth of the Christian faith. That truth is at the root of the Incarnation of the Word, the coming to earth of Christ the Son. Clearly, two key words from the Gospel of the day are the pair of truth<\/em> and light<\/em>. About this pair, we propose three points for reflection and on-going dialogue.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0<\/a>The Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta.[2]\u00a0\u00a0Andrei Rublev\u2019s Trinity icon. [3]\u00a0<\/a>Relics of the Martyrs hanging from the Altar, Shrine of the Ugandan Martyrs.<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

[1] Truth and Life<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGod loved the world so much that he gave his only Son!<\/strong>\u201d – a few words of Scriptures so indelibly edged on our minds, not so much because of our hefty course on The Gospel According to John in Leuven, Belgium, but more on account of the memorable visit of the Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta in 1991 to that university city where we studied theology.<\/span><\/p>\n

News of Mother Teresa\u2019s visit reverberated across the campus and the city. With eager expectation, we went early to the Holy Spirit College where she was appointed to speak, and headed to the front row seats on the loft, ensuring a strategic position for the best view in the hall. The famous Nun was late, understandably, since so many would jostle for so little of her time. Delay only magnified the expectations. But when she finally walked in from the back of the stage, Mother Teresa looked so old, so small, slightly hunched and, well, so disappointing on a big stage. Suddenly, after all that heightened expectations, it all seemed like it was going to be a great disappointment after all. But, the moment she began to speak, we had an electric shock. In her stunning simplicity, she declared: \u201cGod so loved the world that he gave his only Son<\/strong>.\u201d We were stunned. We were electrified. We did not hear anything else she said after that. We wanted to scream, \u201cIt is true! It is true!\u201d In that magnificent hall of the Heilige Geestcollege<\/em>, Leuven<\/a>, we knew that the Incarnation of Christ was true because Mother Teresa who proclaimed the Gospel lived its truth in her life<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

More than any theology professor possibly could, Mother Teresa convinced us of the truth of God\u2019s love and of the sending of his Son. She was a living reminder on love. We would go on to learn in our theological formation that truth is not something to be insisted upon in argumentation. Truth is something lived<\/em>. Truth is performed<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

That day, however, she taught us more than any theology books that truth must be connected to life<\/em>, that faith must be reflected in action<\/em>, and that words must be matched by deeds<\/em>. Or, as a fellow pilgrim on the footsteps of St Paul put it in her characteristically arresting precision: \u201cAll talk and \u2018no do\u2019 is not very good, really.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

[2] True Love is Concrete<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGod loved the world so much that he gave his only Son!<\/strong>\u201d In those few words, God is teaching us that \u201cthe love of God\u201d is useless, unless we can touch it, feel it, and experience it. True love is concrete<\/em>. Now we know why God came amongst us in his Son. The Incarnation is real; it is concrete. \u201cIn the beginning was the Word \u2026 The Word took flesh, and pitched tent amongst us,\u201d St John the evangelist declared, \u201cfull of grace and truth; and we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father\u201d [John 1:1, 14]. The Incarnation was not a pretension as the docetists claimed.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Incarnation also teaches that true love involves pain. It costs. True love always involves making sacrifices. And Jesus the Son has shown that true love goes all the way, \u201cto the end\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3] Truth and Light<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

To accept that \u201cGod loved the world so much he gave his only Son\u201d is to understand also that the Triune God is missional. Then, we must go on to see that the Church does not exist for its own sake. Rather, mission is the raison d’etre<\/em> of the Church. In baptism, we each were recreated, as it were, with missional DNA.<\/span><\/p>\n

Life may deal us unwanted surprises and disappointments sometimes. But life is good; it is given by God. Life by nature is full of good times and bad times. The question that must always surface is whether we have a vision of what we want to be. We know that this vision is built on solid ground when our unyielding focus is truth<\/em>, service<\/em> and justice<\/em>. Difficulties and bad times may visit upon us, but what we are not allowed to do is to abandon our vision! That is the singular light that guides Christians in spiritually difficult times, times of darkness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Truth, then, is always in close association with light. The two verses in today\u2019s gospel reading, verses 20 and 21 of John 3, are easily one of our favourite passages in the Bible.<\/span><\/p>\n