21st Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 24.08.2025

 Isaiah 66:18-21 / Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13 / Luke 13:22-30 

Life is often said to be like a race and a competition. 

It is all about being the first, being the best, and being the most. 

And there is no doubt where the spotlight will shine on. 

It shines on the first, the best and the most. 

Another way of looking at it is like that of a lighted candle. 

What attracts is the flame of the candle that gives out light. 

But what goes unnoticed is the darkness at the base of the candle. 

The same can be said of a lighthouse. In the darkness of the night, only the light at the top of the lighthouse is seen shining brightly. 

And like the candle, it is dark at the foot of the lighthouse. 

So, even the brightest light casts a shadow at its base. 

Adding on to that, when the light is brightest, the shadows are also the darkest. 

The gospel passage begins with Jesus going through the towns and villages, and He went about teaching. 

And then someone asked Him: Sir, will there be only a few saved? 

That question is like asking a teacher: How many students will score an A? 

This weekend, the Church in Singapore highlights Catholic education in Catholic schools. 

Whenever education is discussed, the general inclination is about examinations and results. Good results will mean entry into good schools, and also towards a bright career path. 

But education is more than just a means to making a living. 

Education is a means to living life with dignity and meaning. 

So, as much as results are an indication, the formation of character and integrity of life is important. 

There is a story of two professors who were discussing about their lectures. 

One professor said: They are about 200 students attending my lectures. How many students are there in your lectures? 

The other professor replied: There are also about 200 who are attending my lectures, but I don't know how many are really my students. 

This may help us to understand what Jesus said: Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because many will try to enter and not succeed. 

So, to attend the lectures does not mean that that is true knowledge and understanding. 

To hear the gospel does not mean we have listened to the voice of Jesus. 

To be in the spotlight, or to be in the limelight, does not mean that we are enlightened. 

As we reflect on Catholic education in Catholic schools, we pray for the teachers and the students. 

The mission of the teacher is to proclaim the light of truth and love in the sharing of knowledge and understanding. 

Teachers are like a lighted candle. The light may not be seen by everyone, but it will reach those who are seeking it. So, keep shining.

Because there are students who need to see the light. 

They need to know that it is dark at the base of the candle. 

They need to know that the first can become the last, and the last can become the first. 

They need to be shown the narrow door, but it is the door that leads to life and love.

May teachers and students, and parents, be blessed with wisdom, knowledge and understanding by Jesus, who is our Teacher and who is the Light of the world.

20th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 17.08.2025

 Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10 / Hebrews 12:1-4 / Luke 12:49-53 

It is often said that we live in a small world, a small world in the figurative sense of the word. 

We will see how true this is when we realize, and are amazed, at how closely we are connected to each other. 

We may have a friend, who is related to someone else, who in turn is related to someone else, and then that someone else is also related to us. 

So, from being a friend, we suddenly realise that we are distant relatives. 

Indeed, this is a small world, and we are more closely connected than we think. 

With these close connections, then people's views and opinions spread faster and further. 

On a personal level, we can't deny that we can be affected by how others see us, and what they think of us. 

And we will be concerned and anxious about people's views and opinions about us, especially when it is not that pleasant.

In the 1st reading, the prophet Jeremiah's reputation was not favourable to the king’s leading men. 

They wanted to put him to death for disheartening the people with the so-called bad news. 

Even the king wasn't able to stop the leading men from throwing Jeremiah into the well. 

Such is the fate of a true prophet who proclaims the Word of God to those who are not willing to listen. 

In the gospel, what Jesus said would certainly disturb us, and make us wonder about what He meant. 

Jesus talks about bringing fire to the earth, and how He wished it were blazing already. 

Obviously, this fire is in the figurative sense, and it has a deeper meaning. 

It is a spiritual fire that burns away impurities and it is also a fire that enlightens. 

In our interactions and connections with family, relatives and friends, we are very much concerned about their views and opinions. 

Very often, the question that we ask ourselves is this: What will others say? What will people say? 

So yes, we are concerned about what others say and think about us. We are concerned about public opinion. 

So, we will go with the flow, we will conform, we will stay with the majority. 

But, the question is not “What will others say?”, or, “What will people say?” 

The burning question is this: What will God say? 

In order to hear what God will say, we will have to pray. 

In prayer, we will remember how Jesus responded to others, especially with their snide and disparaging remarks. 

When He was nailed to the Cross, the crowd taunted Him by saying: If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross and save yourself. 

And the other criminal also abused Jesus by saying: If you are the Son of God, save yourself, and us as well. 

But Jesus remained silent and did not do what they wanted Him to do. 

Jesus did what God wanted Him to do, and that is to bear with the abusing and disparaging. 

In listening to God, and obeying God, Jesus won salvation for us. 

The 2nd reading urges us with this: Let us not lose sight of Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection. 

May the fire of God's love enlighten us to listen to what He is saying to us.

And may we obey and follow Jesus, and walk with Him towards salvation.

19th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 10.08.2025

 Wisdom 18:6-9 / Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19 / Luke 12:32-48

Sixty years ago, a small little island country began her journey of independence. 

That little island country was hardly noticeable in the world map. 

With no hinterland, no natural resources, and no advantages, there was not much of a future to think about. 

The independence was also nothing much to celebrate, because it came on quite suddenly. 

The future of the nation, and survival became a priority and a necessity. 

Needless to say, we are talking about our own country, and yesterday we celebrated sixty years of independence on a bright and high note. 

But we must not forget how we started off as an independent nation. 

We had nothing to speak of, but now we are rather well off. 

In retrospect, we can say that God looked upon our country with compassion and kindness. 

In the opening lines of today's gospel, Jesus said to His disciples: There is no need to be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom. 

That seems to remind our country that sixty years ago, God was gracious, and our country grew and developed and progressed with God's blessings. 

That is what the Church in Singapore must believe in, and we must also believe that the Church, in that early independence era, prayed for the country and for the nation. 

That is also similar to what the 1st reading is saying, as it recalls how God delivered His people from slavery in Egypt. 

When the people put their trust in God, they joyfully took courage at what lies ahead. 

The 2nd reading reiterated this when it said that only faith can guarantee the blessings we hope for. 

So, as the Church in Singapore, we pray that our country will grow and develop in the ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality. 

But we the Church must also be reminded to pray for ourselves. 

As life becomes more settled and comfortable, our faith will also become less fervent. 

We will begin to rely more and more on material security and worldly resources. 

Prayer becomes less fervent and less urgent. 

And here, Jesus reminds us with this: See that you are dressed for action, and have your lamps lit. 

Jesus reminds us to keep vigil and to be on the watch with prayer. 

Already, there are gaps and cracks in the faith of the Church as there is little or no family prayer. 

Also, married couples are facing difficulties and problems in their marital relationships. 

Stress levels are rising with the cost of living, and affecting physical and mental health. 

The situation seems to be tensed, anxious and worrisome as it was sixty years ago. 

But like sixty years ago, let us hold tight to our faith and fortify ourselves with prayer. 

With faith and prayer, we will have hope. 

With faith in God and with fervent prayer, we will be signs of hope to our country, to our Church, and also to the next generation.

18th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 03.08.2025

 Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23 / Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11 / Luke 12:13-21 

It is not a pleasant experience to be reprimanded or scolded. 

We would also feel embarrassed and offended if we are reprimanded or scolded in public. 

Very often heated arguments and even fist-fights are a consequence of some reprimanding or scolding. 

But that also reveals this fiery anger within us that can erupt into a sudden violence. 

And we don't only react when we are reprimanded or scolded. 

We also have a few sharp things to criticize about others. 

We may not like the behaviour or attitude of some people, or how they talk, or what they wear. 

We wish we can just tell them off, even publicly, so as to teach them a lesson. 

But of course, we are smarter than that, and we also don't want to get ourselves into trouble. 

So, we will use third-party means to hit at those we want to reprimand or scold. 

In other words, we want to get others to do the dirty work for us. 

And that is like what we heard in the gospel. 

A man in the crowd said to Jesus: Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance. 

And Jesus replied: My friend, who appointed me to be your judge or arbitrator of your claims? 

In effect, Jesus was telling that man to go and resolve that matter himself. 

But Jesus went on further to give a teaching on avarice, which is an extreme greed for wealth or material gain. 

And He also told a parable to emphasize that a man's life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than enough. 

In that parable, the rich man wanted to hoard more and more so as to be secure and comfortable for the rest of his life. 

And then in the parable, God spoke: Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul. And this hoard of yours, whose will it be then? 

It is not often that Jesus would portray God as reprimanding with such sharp words. 

The one word that summarizes the teaching in the parable is the word “Fool”. 

The 1st reading would call that vanity. Whether it is foolishness or vanity, in the end it comes to nothing. 

Because without God, everything comes to nothing. 

A story has it that a grandfather was teaching his grandson about good and evil. 

The grandfather said: There are like two lions within me. One is a white lion and the other is a black lion, and they are always fighting against each other. 

The grandson asked: So, grandpa, who will win? 

The grandfather replied. The one that I feed, that one will win. 

In the spiritual life, we have to make a decision between God and greed. 

The 2nd reading says that greed is the same thing as worshiping a false god.

In our greed, we want to possess things. But what we want to possess, will eventually possess us.

But when we turn to God and put our lives in His hands, then we will focus on the heavenly riches of love, kindness, generosity, gentleness, understanding and compassion. 

May we also share these heavenly riches with those who need to be freed from foolishness and greed.

17th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 27.07.2025

  Genesis 18:20-32 / Colossians 2:12-24 / Luke 11:1-13

The art of communication is indeed a form of art. It has to be learned, it has to be practiced, it has to be refined, in order to be good at it. 

Another way of looking at the art of communication is to call it the art of negotiation. 

Practically speaking, it is a way of turning a NO into a YES, or YES into a NO. 

Maybe this example will give us the idea:

Father says to his son: I want you to marry a girl of my choice. 

Son says: No. 

Father says: The girl is Bill Gate’s daughter. Son says: Then okay. 

Father goes to see Bill Gates and says: I want your daughter to marry my son. 

Bill Gates says: No. 

Father says: My son is the CEO of the World Bank. 

Bill Gates says: Then okay. 

Father goes to the President of the World Bank and says: Appoint my son as CEO of your bank. 

President says: No. 

Father says: He is the son-in-law of Bill Gates. President says: Then okay. 

Call that the art of communication, or the art of negotiation, or the art of confusion, or whatever, there is one important factor that needs to be noted. 

And that is, we have to know who we are talking to. 

In the 1st reading, we can say that Abraham was pushing all the buttons as he seems to be bargaining with God for the lives of the people of the two wicked towns. 

Abraham knew that God is merciful and compassionate. 

So, he asked questions like, “Are you really going to destroy the just man with the sinner? Will the Judge of the whole earth not administer justice?” 

This conversation between God and Abraham revealed a couple of truths. 

Abraham spoke daringly, but he also knows who he is, and he knows that God is merciful and forgiving. 

He expressed it in statements like, “I am bold to speak like this to my Lord, I who am just dust and ashes. I trust my Lord will not be angry.” 

That conversation between God and Abraham also revealed the nature of God. 

Besides being merciful and forgiving, God listens to His people, and even allows them to speak daringly to Him. 

That 1st reading tells us how intimate God is to His people. 

And in the gospel, Jesus also tells us how much God loves us. 

Jesus tells us to ask and it will be given to us, to search and we will find, to knock and the door will be opened to us. 

And Jesus goes on further to say that the one who asks always receives, the one who searches always finds, and the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him. 

But we know that from experience, when we pray to God for need, the answer is either a Yes, or a NO, or a LATER. 

A “Yes” is when God wants us to act immediately. 

A “No” is because God has something better for us.

And a “Later” means that it is not yet time. 

We may be able to understand what it means by “Later”, but there can also be a “yes and no” answer, a so-called “in-between” kind of answer. 

The following story may help us understand this. 

A priest was sharing that when he was discerning his call to the priesthood, he decided to ask God for a difficult sign. 

He decided to ask God to show him a blue moon, which he thought will never happen. 

Then one day, as he was driving and listening to the radio, out came this song: “Blue moon, you saw me standing alone …” 

Immediately he stopped the car and he knew he had to say yes to God. 

So, that priest asked for a difficult sign from God.

He did not get exactly what he asked for, but yes, he knew it when God gave him the sign.

So let us ask, let us search, and let us knock.

God will listen to our prayer, and every prayer that is uttered is also every prayer answered. 

And when God speaks, when God shows, may the Holy Spirit help us to listen, to see and to do what God is asking of us.

16th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 20.07.2025

Genesis 18:1-10 / Colossians 1:24-28 / Luke 10:38-42

One of the things in life that creates problems for us is that we expect the expected. 

And because we expect what we are expecting, then we begin to imagine our expectations. 

Even if our imagination doesn't run that wild, we would already have built up our expectations. 

A story goes that with her birthday approaching, a woman was expecting a gift from her husband. 

She wanted a specific gift, a diamond necklace, and so she hinted to her husband that she had a dream, that she received a diamond necklace for her birthday. 

The husband replied, “We will see” and then he went to work. 

That day the wife kept imagining and dreaming about the diamond necklace. 

In the evening, the husband came back from work with a parcel and gave it to his wife. 

The wife was so excited and she quickly opened up the parcel. 

In it was a book, and the title is: The meaning of dreams. 

In life, we spend quite a bit of time dreaming and imagining our expectations. 

Although there is this saying, “Expect the unexpected”, the reality is that we expect the expected. 

In other words, we want life to happen the way we expect it to happen. 

And when it doesn't, then we get flustered and frustrated. 

So, actually, we created our own problems with our own expectations. 

In the gospel, when Martha welcomed to Jesus into her home, she had expected Mary, her sister, to help in the serving. 

But when Mary sat at the Lord's feet, listening to Him speaking, Martha became distracted. 

So, Martha complained to Jesus, and she expected Him to tell Mary to help out in the serving. 

The reply of Jesus was rather unexpected, and caught Martha by surprise, and it would also make us think. 

We too worry and fret about so many things because we have high expectations of others. 

From our children we expect academic excellence.

From our parents, we expect our share of the inheritance. 

From our spouse, we expect dedication and affection. 

From our superiors, we expect understanding and compassion. 

From our subordinates, we expect agreement and compliance. 

And from God we expect providence. 

So instead of saying “Speak Lord, your servant is listening”, it becomes “Listen Lord, your servant is speaking”. 

In the 1st reading the Lord appeared to Abraham, but not in the usual way that Abraham expected. 

Abraham had been expecting the fulfillment of the promise of God for a son. 

Then that day, when he was sitting at the entrance of his tent at the hottest time of the day, he saw three men nearby. 

They appeared unexpectedly, and they came at an unexpected time, which is the hottest time of the day. 

Still, Abraham got up and welcome them, and in doing so, God answered Abraham's prayer and fulfilled His promise. 

But it was so unexpected, and certainly not in a way Abraham expected. 

The 2nd reading would call it the mysterious ways of God, His ways which are beyond human understanding and expectation. 

So, when unexpected events happen, when unexpected people come our way, and all that happening at an unexpected time, let us not worry and fret. 

Let us look and listen to what the Lord Jesus is saying and showing us. 

And let us remember that spiritual saying: Peace begins when expectation ends.

Whether we are expecting the expected, or expecting the unexpected, let us know what it is that we really want and what we are really longing for.

What we long for, what we really want, is peace in our hearts.

We don’t want to waste our lives burning away with worry and fret.

We don’t want to waste our time expecting this or expecting that.

We want peace. And peace begins when expectation ends.

15th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 13.07.2025

 Deuteronomy 30:10-14 / Colossians 1:15-20 / Luke 10:25-37

The word “convenient” is a nice sounding word, and with it comes certain expectations. 

Convenient means that the situation or the circumstances fit well into our needs, into our schedules and into our plans. 

Convenient may also mean involving little trouble or effort. 

And we like it when life has its conveniences and makes us comfortable. 

Just think about the 24-hour convenience stores that are also conveniently located. 

If we ever need something like an instant meal or some common grocery at an odd hour, those convenient stores would probably have what we are looking for. 

And in our country, we are spoiled with convenience. 

There are those 24-hour petrol stations, 24-hour food outlets and 24-hour department stores. 

So, it is like whatever we want and whenever we want it, it is conveniently there for us. 

All these conveniences of life, however, create an attitude in us. 

It makes us take things for granted and feel entitled.

In the gospel, a lawyer wanted to disconcert Jesus, and he asked Him about what needs to be done to inherit eternal life. 

The lawyer wanted to unsettle Jesus. Since he was a lawyer, Jesus asked him about what is written in the Law. 

And the lawyer was precise: You must love the Lord your God with all your heart come up with all your soul, with all the strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.

But the lawyer still didn't let go, and was anxious to justify himself, and so he asked a rather questionable question: And who is my neighbour. 

And out of the lips of Jesus, came this beautiful parable of what is commonly known as the parable of the Good Samaritan. 

More than just a Good Samaritan, he can also be called a Strange Samaritan. 

Like the priest and the Levite, he also can be excused for not helping the injured man. 

The priest and the Levite had to keep themselves ritually clean for their religious duties, and cannot be defiled with blood. 

Samaritans and Jews had a hostility towards each other, so the Samaritan was not obligated at all to help the injured man. 

But whether it was the priest, or the Levite or the Samaritan, there is no doubt that it would be very inconvenient to help the injured man. 

But as the parable shows us, the response to inconvenience is compassion. 

The Samaritan traveller was moved with compassion when he saw the injured man. 

The Samaritan could have gone the way of convenience, and looked away, and walked away. 

But he looked at the injured man, and he was moved with compassion towards him. 

In a world where we go with convenience and what is convenient, we may not want to think about compassion. 

As we heard in the parable, to be moved by compassion would mean that it is going to be inconvenient, is going to be troublesome, and we may even have to fork out money to pay for someone else's problem. 

And it is also not convenient to be a Christian. 

Just as the Samaritan is commonly called “good”, we too have an adjective before our religious identity, and that is “compassionate Catholic”. 

The second reading says that Jesus is the image of the unseen God, and we are the image of the compassion of Christ. 

In the first reading, Moses tells the people that God's Word is very near to them, it is in their mouths, it is in their hearts, for their observance. 

So is the compassion of Christ. It is in our heart, in our soul, in our mind and in our strength.

It was compassion that moved the Samaritan. 

It is the compassion of Christ that will also move us. 

May the compassion of Christ move us away from our desire for convenience and for what is convenient. 

And may the compassion of Christ move us to be compassionate and loving, and to look at that neighbour whom we have been conveniently avoiding.