First Sunday of Advent , Year C, 29.11.09

Jeremiah 33:14-16
Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

I wonder what you will think of when I mention these 4 numbers. And these four numbers are 2012.

Well, some of us may think that it is 4D number and might want to try our luck.

For some of us, 2012 is a movie, which is currently showing.

For those of us who have seen the movie, we will know it’s about the end-times, with catastrophe and devastation, worst than some kind of a nuclear disaster.

And there is this haunting line in the movie trailer: You have been warned.

Anyway, 2012 is about the year 2012, which is like 2 or 3 years away.

But we are not scared or frightened.

As we sit back comfortably and watch the movie, we will be impressed by the CGI (computer generated imagery) movie effects.

There is the aircraft carrier being rolled over by the tidal waves, massive earthquakes and skyscrapers tumbling, there is even a scene in which the dome of St Peter’s Basilica is being washed away by the waves.

But it is just a movie with good impressive effects. A must watch, if got time.

It is some kind of apocalyptic movie, but we are not going to be frightened or scared, even though it says: You have been warned.

At times I wonder if coming for Mass is like coming for a movie.

We come to church, we walk down the aisle, we go to our favourite seat, we sit back in air-con comfort.
Very much like going for a movie, isn’t it?

Then we hear some kind of end-of-the-world and out-of-this-world dooms-day message.

But we are not alarmed, we are not frightened, we are not scared even.

And what’s all that got to do with our Xmas preparations?

The world out there seems to be more prepared for Xmas.

Orchard Rd is dressed up to the hilt, the Xmas light-up this year was earlier than usual, on the radio Xmas carols are like the top 10 songs.

So while the world is preparing for a festive holiday, the Church on this 1st Sunday of Advent seems to be preparing us for dooms-day.

So strange, so out-of-touch, and every year it is like this :
1st Sunday of Advent, it is about devastation, and nothing about Xmas celebration.

So what is the meaning of all this?  What is the religious meaning of the 1st Sunday of Advent?

Well, a calmer, more sober reflection of the gospel message is this.

And that is, the impermanence of the things of this world. In other words, nothing is permanent, everything is temporary, everything is passing on.
Well, the Xmas decorations and the lights we see now, will have to be taken down very soon after Xmas.

The Xmas carols that are flooding the airwaves will soon fade off and fade out, in fact almost immediately after Xmas day.

And not just the decorations and the lights and the carols.

Life is also passing on, and moving towards the final destiny, moving on towards God who is Everlasting.

So the gospel message is not about doom and gloom.
In fact it is about Vroom … Vroom! That’s the sound of acceleration, the sound we get when we throttle the engine of a car or motorbike.

 We want to prepare to celebrate Xmas so that we can move on and move forward.

The celebration of Xmas is the celebration of one promise that was fulfilled 2000 years ago.

The celebration of Xmas is also the renewal of another promise yet to be fulfilled.

So Advent is to remind us of this 2nd promise and to prepare us for the fulfillment of this promise.

The gospel characters like Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah, were told of the 1st promise of the coming of the Saviour, and they saw its fulfillment.

In today’s gospel, we are told of the promise of the 2nd coming of Christ.

So we have been told, we have been warned. So are we prepared?

On this 1st Sunday of Advent, we bless the Advent wreath and we light the 1st candle.

Why the Advent wreath, and why must it be made of evergreens like holly and fir.

The story has it that the trees of the forest were told to stay awake till the rising of the sun.

As the night drew on, some trees dozed off. As the night went deeper, some trees fell asleep.

By the time of the first rays of the rising sun, the only trees still awake were the cedar, the pine, the spruce, the fir, the holly and the laurel.

So these trees were blest to be evergreens and to be guardians of the forest.

In the seeming dead of winter, when the rest of the trees lose their leaves and sleep, the evergreens keep watch with their green leaves and they are the visible signs of life in the dead of winter.

In the blessing of the Advent wreath, we are reminded that like the evergreens, we are called to be on the watch for God’s promptings around us.

And that is why the Advent wreath is circular, to symbolize that God is eternal and everywhere.

We are also reminded to be signs of life and love in a world that just wants to go on a eat-drink-sleep and rush cycle.

I would like to share with you how people often sleep-rush through life.

The place was Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. A man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about an hour.

During that time, approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later, the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes later, a young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes later, a 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pulled hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time.

This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes later, the musician was still playing continuously.  Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 people gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour later, he finished playing and then silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

What no one knew that day was this - the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world.
He played one of the most intricate musical pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.

Two days before, Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 a piece.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in that metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

The questions raised were: in a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One question for reflection is this :
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.....
How many other things are we missing?

So maybe, let us begin our Advent preparation by just looking and reflecting on the Advent wreath.

Let us see in it the sign of God’s eternity and encircling presence among us.

May the evergreens also remind us to be signs of life and light to others.

May it also remind us to be alert and on the watch for God’s promptings during this period of preparation.

Otherwise we might just sleep-rush through Xmas, right through to 2012, and may not even be awake in eternity.

All Saints Day 01.11.09

Rev 7:2-4,9-14
1 Jn 3-1-3
Mt 5:1-12a

Ever since the Church came into existence, the Church has issued some very bold statements. Of course, these statements or teachings are made through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

One such statement is that the communion host is the Real Presence of Jesus. In other words, the communion host is indeed the real body of Christ.

On this feast of All Saints, we recall yet another bold statement that the Church has made, and in fact, is still making.

On this feast of All Saints, the Church proudly, and confidently and bravely proclaims the names of those who have gone to heaven.

In the name of God, the Church issues, with certainty, the list of the names of these people, and gives them the title of Saints.

In this official list are the familiar names like St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Jude, St. Anthony, etc.

And just recently, on the 11th October, the names of St. Damien (the leper priest) and St. Jeanne Jugan, the foundress of the Little Sisters of the Poor, were added on to this official list of saints.

The Church’s official list has more than 10,000 canonized saints.

But that is just the official list. Heaven certainly has much more than that.

Because in the 1st reading, we hear of a huge number of people, impossible to count, from every nation, race, tribe and language.

Nonetheless, the Church issues this list of canonized saints to affirm one reality – the reality of heaven, and that people have gone there.

So besides these, more than 10,000 canonized saints who are in heaven, who else can be there?

Recently in the newspapers, the picture of the body of a blue whale washed ashore, reminded me ironically of a joke.

The joke goes like this : A science teacher was telling the class about sea creatures and came to the topic of whales.

A little girl stood up and said : I know something about whales. A whale swallowed the prophet Jonah and he was in its belly for 3 days.

The teacher frowned and said that it was impossible for a whale to swallow a man because of the size of its throat, and also, a man cannot possibly survive in the stomach of a whale, etc., etc.

But the little girl was adamant and said : Ok, when I go to heaven, I will ask Jonah whether it is true or not.

Then the teacher said : But what if Jonah is in hell.

The little girl said : Then, you go and ask him.

Just a joke, but I am sure that little girls will go to heaven and meet people like Jonah and the rest of that countless number whose names are not in the official list of canonized saints.

And if heaven has a big aquarium, then we might even find the whale that swallowed Jonah, swimming there somewhere.

Anyway, the meaning of the feast of All Saints is that we believe that people have gone to heaven, and they are praying and waiting for us to join them there.

Yes, we believe that they are there, and we also want to know how they got there, so that we have an example and a direction to follow.

We may tend to think that saints are people who did great and heroic acts that made people gasp in awe.

Well, some of them actually did, like the martyrs who courageously suffered horrendous torture in their witnessing for Christ.

For e.g., St. Perpetua who was heavily pregnant at the time when she was caught in the persecution of Christians.

She gave birth only a few days before her martyrdom.

The soldier who witnessed her crying out in the pains of childbirth said to her : You cry out now in so much pain. What will you do when you are suffering in the arena at the jaws of the wild animals?

Her reply was : Then another One will suffer in me, referring to Christ within her.
Such was her courage and her faith in Christ

We may think that such faith and courage belonged to a bygone era, and the skeptic in us may even think that the stories and lives of the saints have gone through some kind of embellishment, or some kind of dramatization.

If that is the case, then how about the story of the recently canonized St. Damien, the leper priest.

He is hailed a hero for going to Molokai and ministering to the leper colony there. Unfortunately he contracted the disease and died of it.

But from his own writings, he revealed the ordinary human struggles he had to endure in order to overcome his revulsion for the day-to-day life with his flock of lepers.

He wrote : The flesh of the leper gives out a repulsive and foul odor ; even the breath of the leper becomes so foul that the air around is poisoned with it.

I have great difficulty in getting used to such an atmosphere.

One day at a Sunday Mass, I found myself so stifled that I thought I must leave the altar to breathe a little of the outside air.

But I restrained myself, thinking of our Lord Jesus who reached out to the leper. These are the words of St. Damien himself.

So when we look at it deeper, we can see that saints are holy not because they love to do great and heroic deeds for God.

Rather they are holy because they do things for God with great love.

That is what today’s gospel of the Beatitudes tell us.

It is not how great or heroic the act is, but rather, how great the love is for God.

Our love for God should tell us to put our trust in God, rather than on wealth and riches.
Our love for God should tell us to hunger and thirst for what is right and good.

Our love for God should tell us that true greatness lies in forgiveness and mercy, instead of revenge and hatred.

Our love for God should tell us that life is not about good looks and appearances, but rather a good, clean and pure heart.

The world doesn’t need us to be a hero. What the world wants to see is that we are holy.

Because to be holy is to be like God.

One last story about St. Damien, the leper priest.

When St. Damien went to the leper colony at Molokai to minister to them, he met the hostile opposition of one leper who did not want to have anything to do with him.

That leper used to taunt him, saying : Go home, priest! Since your God does not cure us, what is the point of believing in Him?

Now many years later, when that leper was coming to the end of his life, he called for St. Damien.

And he said : Priest, I have been watching you. And now I want to believe.

If you were only a man, you would have run away from this island, and you would have failed long ago.

But you stayed, you have not failed, you must be more than a man. You must have a God in you.

Tell me about the God that is dwelling in you, so that I may receive him as well.

Indeed, holiness is to be like God ; holiness is to have God dwelling in us.

With God in us, we can fight the good fight, we can run the race to the finish, we can keep the faith.

And, we can become saints while still on earth.