Isaiah 62:1-5
Acts 13:16-17, 22-25
Mathew 1:18-25
This evening, we are gathered for a very special celebration.
Yes, we are here to celebrate the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
It is a very defining moment when at the appointed time, God fulfilled His promise of salvation, and His Word was made flesh in Jesus Christ.
Indeed, God has fulfilled His promise and that is why we gather in such numbers to testify that God has indeed fulfilled His promise.
We are not here just for the Christmas mood.
Because if we just want to have some Christmas mood, we might as well go down to Clarke Quay or Orchard Road.
But with the crowds and the jam, our Christmas mood might end up being Christmas moody.
So we made the right choice to be here, right?
Quite comfy, most of us have a seat, some are standing, but it is okay, we are happy to be here.
We are happy to be here to celebrate the birth of Christ 2000 years ago.
But we are here this evening for yet another defining moment.
Because we are here to witness God making another promise to us.
That promise we heard in the Gospel, that God is with us and that He promised to be with us always.
And that is why we are here to celebrate this Christmas Mass – we are here to testify that God has fulfilled His promise of a Saviour and God is promising us that His Saviour is not going to leave us, that He is going to be with us always.
Because God is with us, we are assured that He knows what we need, He knows the longings of our heart, He knows our anxieties and our worries.
Maybe that is why children are usually fascinated with Santa Claus, because they think or expect him to know what they want.
How children communicate with Santa Claus I am not sure, but let me share this joke with you,
Santa Claus was in the toys section of a department store and a little girl came up to him.
So Santa asked the little girl: Well, my dear girl, what do you want for Christmas?
The little girl stared at Santa, her jaw dropped and she looked surprise and shocked. So Santa asked her what was the matter.
The little girl asked Santa: You mean, you did not get my email?!
Oh yes, the way we communicate nowadays have gone electronic.
But God hoes not communicate with us by email.
Because His Word is now made flesh in Jesus, and Jesus is the new promise that “God is with us”.
The birth of Jesus tells us that we don’t have to always be chained to the stupidities of the past and its darkness.
Because Jesus is the light that brings new hope and a new vision that challenges our pessimism and opens our eyes to His presence among us.
Let me share with you a story about a pair of twins whose resemblance to each other was only in their looks.
They are opposite in every way. One being a bright optimist and the other a gloom and doom pessimist.
Just to see what would happen, to see if anything would change, on Christmas Day, when the family was out, the father had the pessimist son’s room filled with every imaginable toy and game.
The optimist son’s room was loaded with horse manure.
When the family came home, the father waited a while and then he walked past the pessimist son’s room.
He found him sitting with his new toys but crying bitterly, and the father asked him why.
The pessimist son replied: Because my friends would be jealous, I’ll have to read all the instructions before I can play with them, I’ll constantly need new batteries, and my toys will eventually be broken.
The father sighed and then he walked past the optimist son’s room.
He found him dancing for joy in the pile of horse manure.
So the father asked: What are you so happy about?
The optimist son answered: Well, I got my Christmas wish; there must be a pony somewhere.
So do you think the father will get him a pony? Sure, why not?
Christmas us a time for us to open our eyes to God’s blessings and graces, and to see his greatest gift of love, and that is Jesus.
Because with Jesus, we can only look forward for the best, and not fear and prepare for the worst.
Because of Jesus, we do not need to worry and fret when things start to crack.
After all, there is a crack in everything.
But, that’s how the light gets in.
Click the links under My Blog List to get to Chinese and English weekday homilies.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year C, 20 Dec
1st Reading Micah 5:1-4a
2nd Reading Hebrew 10:5-10
Gospel Luke 1:39-45
Every year around this time, a particular town would come into prominence.
Because the name of that town would be mentioned in Christmas cards, in scripture readings, and maybe even in holiday tour brochures.
Well, needless to say, that town is Bethlehem.
I think it is a town because that is how the Christmas carol goes: O little town of Bethlehem…
Whether it’s still a town or whether it has become a city, I am not sure because I have not been there yet.
But I would like to go and see Bethlehem.
Besides being the birthplace of our Saviour, Bethlehem has a deep faith significance.
Bethlehem was the fulfillment of a promise, God’s promise.
We heard about that promise in the 1st reading.
We will hear about it again at the feast of the Epiphany when the wise men asked about where the infant King of the Jews was.
But let us remember that from the time of the prophecy by the prophet Micah, which we heard in the 1st reading, to the fulfillment of that promise with the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem, it was a 700-year wait.
Now 700 years is a long wait, a very long wait.
That makes me recall a joke about a man who had a burning question to ask God.
So finally, God appeared to him and asked him what was his question.
So the man asked: O Lord, how long is a million years to you?
God answered: Like just a second.
Then the man asked: Then how much is a million dollars to you?
God replied: Like just a cent.
Then the man asked: So can I have a million dollars?
And God replied: Sure, just wait a second.
So, we just have to wait, whether it is just a second ,or for 700 years, we just have to wait, because what God has promised, He will certainly fulfill.
But it is not just a question of waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled.
It is also the question of believing that God’s promises would be fulfilled.
Today, the Gospel shows us how Mary herself came to believe in the fulfillment of God’s promises.
Today’s Gospel presents us with the scene of the Visitation.
There are a few reasons why Mary went all the way to visit Elizabeth.
Earlier, at the Annunciation, she had been told that she herself would conceive the Son of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.
At the same time, Mary was also told that her kinswomen Elizabeth, who was said to be barren, was in her 6th month of pregnancy, and that nothing is impossible for God.
So Mary went to visit Elizabeth to see for herself this marvelous wonder that God has worked in Elizabeth.
In doing so, Elizabeth also confirmed for Mary the even greater wonder that the Son of God has been conceived, and conceived in her.
Through this occasion, both Mary and Elizabeth grew deeper in their faith in the Lord’s promises.
Both Mary and Elizabeth kept pushing in their faith in the Lord’s promises.
But what did they push? Well, it’s not so much a physical kind of push, but a spiritual kind of push.
When I say spiritual kind of push, I mean to say that PUSH is an acronym.
PUSH is an acronym that stands for Pray Until Something Happens.
Indeed, for Elizabeth, she prayed that God would remove her barrenness, and then something happened.
For Mary, she prayed for God’s fulfillment of the coming of
the Messiah, and then something happened, and it happened in her!
So whether it is God’s promises or our desperate petitions, let us just PUSH, let us just Pray Until Something Happens.
Meanwhile, we just have to Wait and Push; wait and pray until something happens.
Let me share with you a story about waiting and praying until something happens.
The director of a big company plans to retire and he intends to choose among his top executives the next CEO.
So he called all of them together and gave them each a seed.
He told them: Plant this seed, and after 6 months, I will call all of you to show me how your plants are doing.
The one with the most healthy and beautiful plant will be the next CEO.
So all the executives brought back their seed and planted it.
One of the executives by the name of James, a hardworking and honest man, did the same.
He chose the best soil, sowed the seed in a nice pot, watered it, put it under the sun and waited.
And he waited and waited for it to sprout.
After one month, nothing happened. After two months, nothing happened.
He got a bit anxious, and asked his fellow executives how their seeds were doing.
All of them said that theirs have sprouted and growing into beautiful plants.
James got worried and he added more fertilizer, watered it, put it under the sun, even prayed over it, and waited.
Three months passed, and nothing happened. Four months passed, still nothing happened.
By now, the executives were showing off their plants to each other, and James was feeling dejected.
He thought to himself: I can’t even grow a plant, how can I become the CEO.
But he still did not give up hope. He added fertilizer, watered it, put it under the sun, and of course prayed over it, and waited.
Five months passed, nothing happened. Six months passed, and the day came when the executives were summoned to bring in their plants.
Now James was resigned to be a laughing stock, as he brought his pot with nothing growing, and he felt like a fool.
The executives placed their plants before the company director and he inspected the plants.
When all was over and done, the director said: I have inspected all your plants, they are all very beautiful.
I will now announce the one who will be the next CEO of the company. The next CEO will be James.
Everyone, including James, were surprised, bewildered.
The director then said: The seeds I gave all of you were actually dead seeds. They have been boiled over. They could not have sprouted.
So James will be the next CEO, because he has the honest and integrity to head the company.
Well, just a story to help us understand we may have to wait and PUSH, wait and pray until something happens.
But even if nothing happens, even if nothing seems to be happening, God will still keep His promises.
After all, He promised to send His Son and He has fulfilled that promise.
But whether it is God’s promises or our petitions, let us join Mary and Elizabeth in waiting and praying.
It is in waiting and praying, that something is happening.
Like Mary, in waiting and praying, something is indeed happening… and it is happening in us.
2nd Reading Hebrew 10:5-10
Gospel Luke 1:39-45
Every year around this time, a particular town would come into prominence.
Because the name of that town would be mentioned in Christmas cards, in scripture readings, and maybe even in holiday tour brochures.
Well, needless to say, that town is Bethlehem.
I think it is a town because that is how the Christmas carol goes: O little town of Bethlehem…
Whether it’s still a town or whether it has become a city, I am not sure because I have not been there yet.
But I would like to go and see Bethlehem.
Besides being the birthplace of our Saviour, Bethlehem has a deep faith significance.
Bethlehem was the fulfillment of a promise, God’s promise.
We heard about that promise in the 1st reading.
We will hear about it again at the feast of the Epiphany when the wise men asked about where the infant King of the Jews was.
But let us remember that from the time of the prophecy by the prophet Micah, which we heard in the 1st reading, to the fulfillment of that promise with the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem, it was a 700-year wait.
Now 700 years is a long wait, a very long wait.
That makes me recall a joke about a man who had a burning question to ask God.
So finally, God appeared to him and asked him what was his question.
So the man asked: O Lord, how long is a million years to you?
God answered: Like just a second.
Then the man asked: Then how much is a million dollars to you?
God replied: Like just a cent.
Then the man asked: So can I have a million dollars?
And God replied: Sure, just wait a second.
So, we just have to wait, whether it is just a second ,or for 700 years, we just have to wait, because what God has promised, He will certainly fulfill.
But it is not just a question of waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled.
It is also the question of believing that God’s promises would be fulfilled.
Today, the Gospel shows us how Mary herself came to believe in the fulfillment of God’s promises.
Today’s Gospel presents us with the scene of the Visitation.
There are a few reasons why Mary went all the way to visit Elizabeth.
Earlier, at the Annunciation, she had been told that she herself would conceive the Son of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.
At the same time, Mary was also told that her kinswomen Elizabeth, who was said to be barren, was in her 6th month of pregnancy, and that nothing is impossible for God.
So Mary went to visit Elizabeth to see for herself this marvelous wonder that God has worked in Elizabeth.
In doing so, Elizabeth also confirmed for Mary the even greater wonder that the Son of God has been conceived, and conceived in her.
Through this occasion, both Mary and Elizabeth grew deeper in their faith in the Lord’s promises.
Both Mary and Elizabeth kept pushing in their faith in the Lord’s promises.
But what did they push? Well, it’s not so much a physical kind of push, but a spiritual kind of push.
When I say spiritual kind of push, I mean to say that PUSH is an acronym.
PUSH is an acronym that stands for Pray Until Something Happens.
Indeed, for Elizabeth, she prayed that God would remove her barrenness, and then something happened.
For Mary, she prayed for God’s fulfillment of the coming of
the Messiah, and then something happened, and it happened in her!
So whether it is God’s promises or our desperate petitions, let us just PUSH, let us just Pray Until Something Happens.
Meanwhile, we just have to Wait and Push; wait and pray until something happens.
Let me share with you a story about waiting and praying until something happens.
The director of a big company plans to retire and he intends to choose among his top executives the next CEO.
So he called all of them together and gave them each a seed.
He told them: Plant this seed, and after 6 months, I will call all of you to show me how your plants are doing.
The one with the most healthy and beautiful plant will be the next CEO.
So all the executives brought back their seed and planted it.
One of the executives by the name of James, a hardworking and honest man, did the same.
He chose the best soil, sowed the seed in a nice pot, watered it, put it under the sun and waited.
And he waited and waited for it to sprout.
After one month, nothing happened. After two months, nothing happened.
He got a bit anxious, and asked his fellow executives how their seeds were doing.
All of them said that theirs have sprouted and growing into beautiful plants.
James got worried and he added more fertilizer, watered it, put it under the sun, even prayed over it, and waited.
Three months passed, and nothing happened. Four months passed, still nothing happened.
By now, the executives were showing off their plants to each other, and James was feeling dejected.
He thought to himself: I can’t even grow a plant, how can I become the CEO.
But he still did not give up hope. He added fertilizer, watered it, put it under the sun, and of course prayed over it, and waited.
Five months passed, nothing happened. Six months passed, and the day came when the executives were summoned to bring in their plants.
Now James was resigned to be a laughing stock, as he brought his pot with nothing growing, and he felt like a fool.
The executives placed their plants before the company director and he inspected the plants.
When all was over and done, the director said: I have inspected all your plants, they are all very beautiful.
I will now announce the one who will be the next CEO of the company. The next CEO will be James.
Everyone, including James, were surprised, bewildered.
The director then said: The seeds I gave all of you were actually dead seeds. They have been boiled over. They could not have sprouted.
So James will be the next CEO, because he has the honest and integrity to head the company.
Well, just a story to help us understand we may have to wait and PUSH, wait and pray until something happens.
But even if nothing happens, even if nothing seems to be happening, God will still keep His promises.
After all, He promised to send His Son and He has fulfilled that promise.
But whether it is God’s promises or our petitions, let us join Mary and Elizabeth in waiting and praying.
It is in waiting and praying, that something is happening.
Like Mary, in waiting and praying, something is indeed happening… and it is happening in us.
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