26th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 26.09.10

Amos 6:1a,4-7/ 1 Timothy 6:11-16/ Luke 16: 19-31

For those of us who love art, or know something about art, I am sure you would also know the names of famous artists.

So let me name some art pieces and you tell me who is the artist. They are all by the same artist anyway.

So here it comes – Sunflowers; The starry night; Irises; The potato eaters. So tell me, who is the artist.

Yes, it’s Vincent Van Gogh. His masterpieces range from $50 – 80 over million dollars.

For those of us who love art and can appreciate art, then we would certainly love to have one of the masterpieces by Vincent Van Gogh hanging in a prominent place in our home.

Yes, we would like to have an $80 million masterpiece from Vincent Van Gogh in our home.

But I am not too sure if we would like to have Vincent Van Gogh himself in our home.

If we know something about the life of Vincent Van Gogh, then you will probably understand why I said that we might not want to have Vincent Van Gogh himself in our home.

Vincent Van Gogh lived from 1853 – 1890.

In his lifetime, he produced 2000 artworks. But he had very little success as an artist.

In fact he only sold one painting “The Red Vineyard”.

Besides that he was also temperamental, depressed and also difficult to get along with, and other things besides.

Then at 37 years-old, he took his own life.

It was only after his death that his works became famous and renowned.

So that was why I said that we won’t mind having a multi-million-dollar painting by Vincent Van Gogh at home.

But we certainly won’t want to have him in our home.

Similarly, we don’t mind having a Bible in our home. In fact we should have the Bible, the Word of God, at home.

But, would we welcome Jesus, the Word made flesh, into our home?

We would say – Of course, we want to have Jesus in our home.

Yet Jesus does not come alone. Because He comes along with His close friends.

And who are they? Well, they are the poor and helpless, the problematic and difficult people, the Vincent Van Goghs.

We shouldn’t be surprised that these are the close friends of Jesus.

Because the Bible tells us that God is on the side of the poor and needy and helpless.

Indeed, God is closest to the poor and helpless, the weak and the lowly, the defenseless and the oppressed.

At least in today’s 1^st reading, the Responsorial Psalm and the gospel tell us that.      And we must see it!

Yes, God is for them. God cares about them. And God will console them.                    If not in this life, then it will be in the next.

Yes, God will console them and comfort them in His bosom and wipe away every tear from their eyes.

That was what happened in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

We can call that a reversal of fortunes, and the reversal is not temporal; it is eternal.

Although it is just a parable, it makes us see that the reversal  is for real.

At least it was real enough for the rich man. In the flames of agony, he looked up and saw Lazarus and even knows his name.

While on earth, he certainly saw Lazarus, or at least he knew he was at the gate.

But he just chose not to see, not to know, not to care.

But in the flames of agony, the rich man saw. Yes, he saw, but it was too late, and it was forever.

In Singapore, we don’t usually have beggars or destitudes or Lazaruses sitting at our doors.

Yet we cannot say that the poor and needy do not exist.

Just come every 1^st Saturday in the afternoon and we will see the members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul at work, distributing rations to the poor and needy.

And we will see for ourselves who are the poor and needy, the helpless and the rejected.

So we can’t say that we didn’t see, or we don’t know.

Or maybe we saw, and we knew, and we feel that we can do nothing about the multitudes of poor and needy and helpless.

Granted that it is an immense challenge, maybe let me ask you this.

Do you know what is the late Mother Teresa’s favourite number?

Well, I think that her favourite number is the number 1. And I will quote the following from her to say why I think it’s the number 1.

She said : I don’t agree with the big ways of doing things. Love needs to start with the individual. To love a person you must make contact with that person. To love the poor you must make contact with the poor.

When you do that, you cross the enormous divide between you and the poor, and it’s somebody you have actually touched.

She continues by saying : I look at the individual. I can only love one person at a time. I can only feed one person at a time.

So that’s why I think that Mother Teresa’s favourite number is 1. For her it is one person at a time.

So the Word of God in today’s readings makes us open our eyes.

God is not asking us how rich we are or how much we can give to the poor and needy.

Rather, God is asking us this : How much do we care? How much do we love? How much do we want to see?

And we don’t have to see far, see wide or see too much.

Let us look at the one who is at the gate.

The one who is poor and needy. The one that we can help.

And that one may not be outside the gate. That one may be within our gates.

But we may have become numbed and indifferent.

Let us listen to the voice of God prompting us to see, to care and to love the one who is poor and needy and helpless, the one who is difficult and problematic, the Vincent Van Goghs.

Yes, they are poor and needy, they may be difficult and problematic, but they are God’s close friends.

And it is they who will lead us into God’s bosom, forever.

23rd Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 05-09-2010

Wis 9:13-18b / Phmn 1:9-10, 12-17 / Lk 14:25-33
Recently the famous topic of the 4 Cs came up in the news again.

I m sure we know what the 4 Cs commonly stands for – cash, car, condo and credit card.

Along with that are other additions like country club membership, casino membership, etc.

There are spoofs of it like coffin, columbarium, whatever.

At a recent Pre-University seminar, the 4 Cs were given another version: confidence, compassion, the ability to compartmentalize and to be in good company.

Well, I also want to join in the bandwagon, but I want to change the letter. So instead of the letter C, I want to use another letter.

I was thinking of the letter G. Because it can stand for God, for good, for glory, for grace.

But then if I were to ask what does the 3 Gs stand for, or what the 4 Gs stand for, some might think I am talking about 3G network or the 4G super broadband which came out last week.

And then some will start thinking about the computer fair that is going on now, today’s the last day, need to get a new laptop, and then G will stand for “Gone! I have lost you!”

So G is not very good. Got to find another letter. Maybe the letter F.

F can stand for Father, for faithfulness, for forgiveness.

But then again, if I were to say what does F stand for, some might hear it wrong and think I was saying : What the what?!
So again, it doesn’t sound very nice.

Sigh, so better not use the letter F. So what other letter to use?

Well, I was asking myself : Why do people come to Church? Why do people want to believe in God?

So I came up with this letter “P”, P for papa, which means father, and God is our Father. So with the letter P I have covered the letters F and G.  ;-P

So what does the letter P stands for?

To answer that question, then we have to ask ourselves why do we believe in God? What kind of God do we believe in?

Well, at the level of basic religious needs, we want to believe in God who can protect us, who can provide for us, and who will also pamper us.

So there it is: we want God to protect us, provide for us and to pamper us.

I am not making up all this. God Himself said it in the Bible.

God said it to Moses and the Israelites when they panicked upon seeing the sword-wielding Egyptians charging at them to cut their throats.

God said: The Lord will do the fighting for you; you only have to keep still. (Ex 14:14) So you see, God will protect us and He will fight our battles for us.

And God will also provide for us. Jesus said that the Heavenly Father will give good things to those who ask Him.
So ask and we will receive, because God will provide.
That is what Jesus said.
So finally how will God pamper us? Well, God loves us with a tender everlasting love, and He will forgive us over and over again, 70x7 times.

If that is not pampering, then it is like God is spoiling us.

So there we have it: God is our Papa, He protects us, He provides for us, and He even pampers us.

Sounds too good to be true right? But it is true, otherwise why would we want to believe in God?

Yes, God will certainly protect us, provide for us, and even pamper us.

But I also have to say that there is another P involved here, and it stands for “price”.

There is a price to pay, on our part. So what is this price?

That price is stated by Jesus in the gospel.

To the great crowds that were following Him, He said: If anyone comes to Me without hating father, mother, brother, sister, and his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

The word “hate” here actually means to prefer less, or to give a lesser priority. It does not mean hate, as how we usually understand it.

Because in the Jewish language, there is no word to mean “prefer less” or “give a lesser priority”, so the word hate is used.

So what Jesus is saying is that either He is above all, or He is not at all. There is no in-between.

That sounds like tough and rough language from Jesus isn’t it?

But that is the price to pay if we want to be true disciples of Jesus.

So has anyone paid that price before?  Well, plenty actually.

One such person was St. Thomas More, who was the Chancellor when King Henry VIII was the king of England.

But when St. Thomas More refused to acknowledge King Henry’s second marriage and to cut ties with the Pope, he was thrown into prison.

The king sent close friends and even his family members to persuade him, because his vote was critical for the king’s standing.

But St. Thomas More stood firm and he was later charged with treason and sentenced to death.

His last words before he was beheaded were this: I am the king’s good subject, but first and foremost I am God’s servant.

The price was his head and his life. But his reward is eternal life.

The world as we know is practical, pragmatic, profitable and very pleasing to us.

Yes, the practical, pragmatic, profitable and pleasing world has been our father, mother, brother and sister.

But the nagging question is: So what if we gain the whole world and all that if offers? So what?

So Jesus puts the price tag before us.

Do we dare to let Jesus be above all?

We want God to protect us, to provide for us, to pamper us.

But as the song goes, we also say: Papa don’t preach.

Because we don’t want to hear the tough stuff and what price to pay for true discipleship.

But Jesus said in no uncertain terms that anyone who does not carry his cross cannot be His disciple.

The cross is painful indeed. But the cross also points us towards true discipleship and eternal life.