22nd Ordinary Sunday, Year A, 28.08.2011

Jer 20:7-9/ Rom 12:1-2/ Mt 16:21-27

When it comes to choosing a Christian name, we certainly have quite a choice from the Bible.

From the New Testament as well as from the Old Testament, we have all those traditional Christian names like Joseph, Mary, James, Joanna as well as David and Rachel, Moses, Sarah.

But as much as there are many names in the Bible, it is not often that the meanings of the names are given there.

But of course with the Internet, to find the meaning of a name is not that laborious.

One common traditional Christian name is Peter and we know the meaning of that name.

In last week’s gospel, Jesus said to Simon: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church.

So the name Peter means “Rock” and it implies stability, steadfastness and reliability.

Although Peter’s name means “Rock”, yet his understanding of Jesus is like rock and roll.

For eg, when Peter asked Jesus if he could only forgive someone who wrongs him not more than seven times, he thought he gave Jesus the maximum count.

Yet Jesus gave him something to count about when He told him: Not seven but seventy times seven times.

And we will surely remember that story about the disciples in the boat during the storm and they saw Jesus walking on water.

It was Peter who said: Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you across the water.

When Jesus told him to come, Peter stepped out of the boat but he got frightened by the wind and waters and started to sink, like a rock.

At times, we just can’t help shaking our heads and wondered why he ventured where the rest dare not tread and only to become a rock of embarrassment.

But to be a rock of embarrassment is not as bad as being a stumbling block.

Last week, Jesus called Peter a “rock”. Today, we heard how Peter was a stumbling block.

When Jesus began to make it clear to His disciples that He was destined to suffer grievously and be put to death, Peter started to remonstrate with Him.

Remonstrate here means to protest, to object, to disapprove.

Yes, Peter didn’t want that to happen to Jesus because if it was going to happen to Jesus, then it was as good as saying it was to happen to him as well.

Peter wouldn’t want that. Nobody would want that either.

And Jesus had strong words for Peter, words like Satan, get behind me, you are an obstacle in my path, your ways are not God’s ways but man’s ways.

Peter was to be the rock on which Jesus would build his church but almost immediately, he became a stumbling block.

Yes, Peter was to be the rock but when he had to face the truth of life, he stumbled.

So what is this truth of life? Well, the truth of life is this – life is a cross.

The trouble is that we, like Peter, don’t want to accept it. We don’t want to accept that life is a cross.
We say to ourselves:  Heaven preserve me. This must not happen to me.

We have this notion that all difficulties and discomfort should be diminished asap, that life should be pleasant and easy and we should be able to get what we want without cost or sacrifice.

That’s our way. But that’s not God’s way. That’s also not the way of Jesus.

The way of Jesus is the way of the cross.

The cross is not just a part of Christianity. The cross is the heart of Christianity.

And great crosses make great hearts.

In the 1st reading, we heard how Jeremiah felt the pain of being God’s prophet.

He was a daily laughing stock and everyone’s joke. He had to bear insult and derision all day long.

He thought of giving up but the fire burned in his heart and in his bones.

He just had to continue his prophetic mission. That was his cross.

Or how about someone from the 16th century by the name of St Thomas More.

He was Lord Chancellor and an important councilor to King Henry VIII.

But when he had to declare his loyalty to King Henry VIII as Sovereign Head of the Church of England, he refused and was imprisoned.

His friends and family members pleaded with him to save his own life but he knew he had to embrace his cross.

At his trial, he said: It profits a man nothing to gain the whole world and lose his immortal soul.

For that he was beheaded. But for that he was blessed.

The prophet Jeremiah and St Thomas More showed us that with the cross, God will give us hearts of rock by which we will stand firm.

Yet the crosses in life are like the rocks of difficulties that come our way, and they will come our way.

A Sunday school teacher was thinking about how to teach her class about accepting the cross.

So one Sunday, she came in with a transparent container and some rocks, a box of pebbles and a box of sand.

Then she filled the container with rocks and asked the class if it was full. They nodded their heads.

Then she picked up the box of pebbles and poured it into the container and shook it a little until the pebbles filled the spaces between the rocks.

Again she asked if the container was filled and the class nodded.

Next, she picked up the box of sand and poured in into the container and of course the sand filled the remaining spaces.

Again, she asked the class if the container was finally full and the class nodded.

Then she explained what she did. The rocks are like the crosses in life, bulky and heavy, but they are the most important and should go into our lives first.

The rocks are things like our faith when it is being shaken, our family when they take us for granted, our loved ones when they disappoint us, the sacrifices that we make which go unnoticed, the forgiveness that we grant to someone even when they are not sorry for the wrong they have done to us, the patience and kindness we show to others who are a pain to us.

The pebbles are the other things in life, like our jobs, our studies, our hobbies, our interests.

The sand is everything else, all the small stuff.

But if we fill the container first with the sand, then we won’t be able to get in the rocks or anything else. That will be like building our lives on sand.

Yet, the rocks are like the crosses of life. They are heavy and bulky and difficult to carry.

But when we put them first in our lives, then we are building our lives on rock.

In the end, it is these rocks that we will carry with us in exchange for eternal life.

May we stand firm as a rock in carrying the cross, so that the way we walk will be God's way and not our way.

19th Ordinary Sunday, Year A, 07.08.2011

1 Kings 19:9, 11-13/ Romans 9:1-5/ Matthew 6:41-51


Last week, I made a discovery, although it was not that fantastic a discovery.

And that discovery came about through an advertisement – it was an advertisement for mooncakes.

When I saw the advertisement on the papers, I thought to myself – Oh it’s time for mooncakes and those little piglets.

But then I remembered that before the mooncakes come in, there is something else happening before that.

Do you know what that is? Yes, it is the Chinese seventh month. Do you know when it started? Yes, last Sunday!

And along with the Chinese 7th month are the bright and loud “ge-tai”s and also the auctions. You can hear them more than a mile away.

And also there are those spooky stories, because it is the popular belief that the gates of the underworld are opened and the spirits roam the earth.

So the Chinese 7th month is also called the Hungry Ghosts Month, for whatever reason.

But it is actually a time to offer prayers for the deceased and to make other offerings for the deceased.

Also during this time, we seem to hear a bit more of those kind of spooky stories – people see white shadows or black shadows.

But let me tell you this – if you see someone, and that someone has got no shadow, then you better quickly walk away.

Better to see white shadow or black shadow than to see someone with no shadow!

Well, these so-called ghost stories always give us the creeps, and undeniably we get affected especially when we come across dark and lonely places.

Yes, those dark, lonely and deserted places are famous for those kinds of spooky appearances.

But have we ever heard of a ghost walking on water during a storm at sea?

Somehow, those conditions don’t seem right for any kind of ghostly appearances.

In the gospel, we heard that the disciples were in the boat and trying to keep afloat during the storm.

Then when Jesus came to them walking on the water, their first reaction was that they thought it was a ghost and they cried out in fear.

Why would they think it was a ghost? What made them think it was a ghost?

Well, essentially it is just one word, a 4-letter word, and it begins with “F”, but it’s not that word we might be thinking of.

The word is fear. Yes, that primal enemy of man that cripples us as human beings and as disciples of Jesus.

Fear caused chaos in the disciples as they faced the uncontrollable powers of the sea and immediately they were terrified.

In the storm, the wind, the waves, and the figure walking on the water, fear gripped them and made them think of ghosts.

In the gospel, the word “ghost” is used to mean “an apparition” (phantasma), a seeing of something unknown, something that we do not have control over.

And there are many things in life we do not have control over.
Like for e.g., we can’t control what others want to say to us, especially those sarcastic and disparaging remarks.

There was a pious woman who always took her Bible and Rosary along with her wherever she went so that she could pray.
One time, she was in a ferry when a storm began to blow up.
She took out her Bible and Rosary and began to pray.
A man who was sitting next to her looked at her and after awhile he turned to her and asked, "You don't really believe all that stuff in the Bible, do you?"
The woman replied, "Of course I do. It is the Bible."
He said, "Well, what about the guy that was swallowed by that whale?"
She replied, "Oh, Jonah. Yes, I believe that, it is in the Bible."
He asked, "Well, how do you suppose he survived all that time inside the whale?"
The woman said, "Well, I don't really know. I guess when I get to heaven, I will ask him."
"What if he isn't in heaven? What if he’s in hell?" the man asked sarcastically.
"Then you can go there and ask him," replied the woman.

The reality of life is that there are many things that we do not have control over.

And because of that, our hearts are troubled with fears, and we create the ghosts of our lives.

One ghost that will haunt us and even break us is the ghost of shame and humiliation.

A church organist was sharing with me about his experience of the first time he played for Mass, and it was just a weekday evening Mass.

To prepare for that Mass, he took the day off and practised at the organ in the morning and the afternoon.

He felt confident enough, so he decided to go for a tea-break before Mass.
He came back just in time for Mass, and when the Mass started, he began to play the opening hymn.

To his horror, the notes sounded different, sounded out of tune, and it just didn’t sound right.

The priest looked at him, the parishioners looked at him, a storm was brewing in him, he messed up his fingering, in a word it was a disaster.

And he couldn’t go on after that and he got up and left. He wished he could just disappear, evaporate or be invisible.

Well, it seemed that someone came to practice on the same organ when he took a break and adjusted a few knobs and he didn’t realize it.

It haunted him so much that he didn’t touch the organ or the next two months or so.

But as it usually happens, our greatest fears will come true, he happened to bump into the priest who celebrated that evening Mass that was his disaster.

The priest urged him to try again and give himself another chance, otherwise it was such a waste of talent.

So after some persuasion, he gave it another try and this time he was at the organ an hour before Mass, no tea-break, and just to make sure that everything was right and nobody touched the knobs.

Well, for that organist, his nightmare turned into sweet melodies for the Lord, a classical case of failure being turned into success.

He sank into shame and humiliation, but Jesus pulled him up.

Just as Peter sank, when he felt the force of the wind and took fright, but Jesus pulled him up and saved him.

Our own experiences of failure, shame and humiliation will drag us down and make us sink.

But like Peter, we just have to call out : Lord! Save me!

And Jesus will hold us by the hand as He says : Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.

For all that lies behind us and for whatever that lies ahead of us, let us be assured that Jesus is always with us.

For all our fears and failures, let us also have the faith that Jesus is with us to face it.

Not that there will be no more storms or that we won’t sink and go down into the murky darkness and even think of ghosts.

But Jesus will always be there to hold our hand and say to us: Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.