26th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 29.09.2013

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

I wonder how many of us ever thought of going into business.

And if we ever thought about that, then what kind of business would we go into?

For those stallholders who are selling food at the fun fair outside, they might have thought of going into the food business.

Well, it may be good profits, but it is certainly a lot of sweat and fret.

Going into retail business might be easier and maybe safer.

We just need to know what is the consumer demand and we get the right supply.

And if you were to ask me what small retail business is in demand now, I would suggest this: handphone covers.

Yes, handphone covers, and screen protectors, and those kind of accessories.

Why that kind of business? Well, just the other day, I happened to pass by a “pasar malam” (those temporary night market that are set up in the neighbourhood).

I was surprised at the number of stalls that were selling handphone covers and I was also amazed at the variety of designs on the covers.

There are all sorts of colours, all sorts of designs like “Hello Kitty” and “Minions” for the teenagers and smart leather covers for the stylish and sophisticated.

It might sound strange, but to have only one cover for a phone is too boring.

And the funny thing is that the handset companies spend millions of dollars in R & D to make the phone light and slim.

And then people buy some cheap cover to make it thick and bulky again. That’s so strange and ironic.

The parable that Jesus told in the gospel has got nothing to do with phone covers.

Yet, in a certain sense it does refers to covers.

There was Lazarus, the poor man outside at the gate, and he was covered with sores.

Inside the gate was a rich man, covered in purple and fine linen, and it can also be said that he “covered” himself with rich food.

It was a parable of two human beings of the same species, but with two totally different so-called “covers”.

One had a rich luxurious cover and the other had an ugly repulsive cover.

But as the parable goes, the covers will be taken away.

Because when death comes upon the two characters in the parable, there is a reversal of situations.

The rich man is now in agony and covered with flames, whereas the poor man Lazarus is now safely covered in Abraham’s bosom.

Jesus directed this parable to the Pharisees who thought that externals were all important.

So they wore long tassels and phylacteries to give the impression that they were pious and religious.

And they despised those sinners whose sin is public knowledge, and they would not go near them or even look at them.

And that was what Jesus was pointing out at in the parable.

As much as the rich man did not abuse or ill-treat or drive Lazarus away, he did not look at him; he chose not to look at him. He did not care at all about him.

We may not be rich (or that rich!) but when it comes to the poor, we may also look away and not bother or care about them. Or we simply put covers over our eyes.

As the 1st reading says of the rich and affluent: about the ruin of Joseph, they do not care at all.

Similarly, we may not be that pious or religious, but when it comes to the sinners of society, we rather not look at them, or bother about them. Better to keep them out of sight so that they will be out of mind.

So, how different are we from that character of the rich man in today’s gospel parable?

Of course, it is uncomfortable, and even repulsive, to look at or think about the sinners of society, like those gangsters whose bodies are covered with tattoos.

It would be better that these “public sinners”, these gangsters and criminals, be imprisoned and kept out of sight and better still, be forgotten.

Yet some good-hearted people, and they are doctors, have gone to Changi Prison to volunteer in a tattoo-removal program.

The tattoo-removal program is for those prisoners who want to have their tattoos removed, as a demonstration of their desire to renounce their former gang affiliations.

One of the doctors, Dr. Lam Bee Lan, said that the prisoners have to undergo an excruciating procedure.

She added : I’ve seen muscular and tough men wince and tear in pain when I use the laser to remove the tattoos. Tattoo removal is much more painful than making one.

But despite the agony the inmates undergo, they thanked the doctors afterwards for helping them leave their gang identifications behind.

Yes, those doctors chose to look, and to help those prisoners remove their tattoos, to heal their “sores”, to remove their ugly “covers”, so that they can reintegrate into society.

We may not be able to do what those doctors did for those prisoners, but we can certainly do something for the poor and needy.

We only need to remove the “covers” from our eyes and see the face of Jesus in the poor and needy and to reach out to help them.

Well, we may get cheated, and we have been cheated before. 

But it might be better to be fooled a thousand times by people who may be taking advantage of us, than to miss the chance just once to help a genuinely poor person. (St. Robert Bellarmine)

25th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 22.09.2013

Amos 8:4-7/ 1 Timothy 2:1-8/ Luke 16:1-13

There are some phrases that we can just remember easily, and they come from various sources.

It’s not as difficult as that game show “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” because these are phrases that we heard since young and they are easy to remember.

For example, “Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall” and we can easily continue with “Humpty Dumpty had a great fall” (It’s from a nursery rhyme).

And how about this: Mirror, mirror on the wall…who’s the fairest of them all? And that is from the fairy tale “Snow White”.

That popular phrase was from the evil queen who had a magic mirror and she would ask the mirror “Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”

And the mirror would reply: You, O queen, are the fairest of them all.

All was well until one day, when she asked the mirror that question and she was shocked to hear this reply: Snow white is fairer than you, O queen, and she is the fairest of them all.

And of course we know how the story went on from there, with the 7 dwarfs coming in.

Well, we don’t talk to mirrors (or maybe we do?) but we will surely look at the mirror whenever we have the opportunity.

Whether we do it out of necessity or out of vanity, we look into the mirror so as to get something out of it.

We want the mirror to “tell” us how we look like, and from the mirror, we will also know what we want to look like.

In other words, when we look at the mirror, we want to get something out of it.

But it is not only from the mirror that we want to “get something”.
The greedy tendency in us will always make us ask this question: What can I get out of it? 

So we will tend to ask: What can I get out of my job/company? What can I get out of the people working under me? What can I get out of my friends/children/spouse?

In today’s gospel, the dishonest steward knew what he could get from his master and he went about with dishonest gains from his 
master.

But as it is, dishonesty will be discovered, sooner or later, and the dishonesty steward was to be removed from his job.

But instead of repenting, that dishonest steward turned to his master’s debtors and now he was looking at what he could get from them.

He went about securing their favours with yet more dishonest means at his master’s expense.  

Yes, that dishonest steward was very shrewd and crafty.

He knew where to look, how to look, and who to look, in order to get something and to gain something.

And even his master, whom he had cheated, was impressed with his astuteness.

Jesus told us such an astounding parable to show us this – when it comes to gaining an advantage, the people of this world will spare no effort to get what they want and to feed their greed.

And the 1st reading shows how people may be practicing religion, and yet at the same time they were also looking forward to swindling and cheating.

What was disgusting was that it was the rich and the greedy who were cheating and trampling on the poor and needy.

Essentially, it was the same old human story – we look at others to see what we can get from them, to see what we can gain from them.

And the greedy tendency can even make people go so far as to cheat and trample upon the poor and the needy.

Here we get another famous saying: The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

And the Lord says this in the first reading: Never will I forget a single thing you have done. (That is something that we must not forget!)

Yes, for better or for worse, the Lord God never forgets.

It is said that elephants have a good memory and they also seem to never forget.

There is this incredible but true story of the elephant’s memory.

We may not remember or know who Lawrence Anthony was.

He was a legend in South Africa. He bravely rescued wildlife and rehabilitated elephants all over the world from human atrocities, including the courageous rescue of Baghdad Zoo animals during the US invasion in 2003.

On March 7, 2012, Lawrence Anthony died. He is remembered and missed by his wife, his 2 sons and his 2 grandsons, and by the elephants he had rescued.

Two days after his passing, the elephants that he rescued showed up at his home.

They came to say goodbye to their “man-friend”.

A total of 31 elephants had walked over 12 miles to get to his South African home.

The people who witnessed this were awed by the sense of those elephants over the passing of Lawrence Anthony.

They were also awed by the profound memory and emotion those elephants had for their friend.

The elephants obviously wanted to pay their respects and honour their friend who had saved their lives.

They came, stayed for two days and two nights, without eating anything, and then they left. Incredible but true story.

Yes, the elephant remembers.  The poor and the needy will also remember when we help them.

People will also remember how we look at them, whether out of greed, or to help them in their need.

And the Lord will also remember. Like the elephants He created, He will never forget! May we also not forget this.

24th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 15.09.2013

Exodus 32: 7-11, 13-14/ 1 Timothy 1:12-17/ Luke 15:1-32

Children love to play games. Yet the image that may come to our minds when we say that children love to play games could be that of a child having a handphone or a tablet in the hand and playing some kind of computer game.

Or for the older children, it may be at the laptop or desktops playing some kind of serious online games. 

But when it comes to children playing games, we may want to go retro and recall the games that we play when we were children.

And those games are usually very interactive. For example, in the game of “catching” there will be laughing and shouting and screaming as the children run around and try to catch each other.

And then there is “hantam-bola”. In those days, there was only the soft rubber ball. I can’t imagine if we used golf balls to play “hantam-bola”. (OUCH!) 

And then there is the game of “hide-and-seek”. All the children would go hiding and the seeker, after the countdown, would go looking for them.

It is quite an intriguing game in the sense that those children who were hiding would always want to peek out of their hiding place to see where the seeker was.

Somehow they won’t just be contented with hiding and concealing themselves until the seeker can’t find them.

In other words, those who are hiding will somehow give away their hiding place.

So the seeker will somehow be able to find those who are hiding.

But that is where the fun is. The children can hide but the seeker can find them.

It is not going to be that much fun if the children hide and cannot be found.

Well, the fun of “hide-and-seek” is to hide so as to be found. Strange isn’t it? That’s why it is rather intriguing.

In the gospel, Jesus told two parables about something that went missing, something that was lost.

There was a parable about lost sheep and another one about the lost coin.

It is obvious that the sheep and the coin did not play hide and seek. They were lost, they went missing.

And then there was the puzzling and ridiculous search for what was lost and missing.

The shepherd leaving the 99 behind to look for the missing sheep; and the woman lighting a lamp and sweeping out the house just to find a lost coin.

Yes, puzzling and ridiculous, just to look for that one lost sheep and that one missing coin.

Yet, Jesus is telling us how puzzling and ridiculous God is. It is quite difficult to believe that God will go all out just for one that is missing or lost.

But Jesus told these two puzzling and ridiculous parables in response to the criticisms against Him.

The Pharisees and scribes complained that He welcomed sinners and ate with them.

But the fact is that Jesus came to seek and to find what was lost and missing.

In a way it is like some kind of spiritual hide-and-seek.

The tax collectors and sinners, were hiding from public view because of their sin and yet Jesus came looking for them.

But this hide-and-seek drama was first played out in the Book of Genesis.

After Adam and Eve fell into sin, the Lord God came walking in the garden and they hid themselves.

Then the Lord God called out: Where are you?

Well, Adam and Eve did not go into deeper hiding; they responded to the Lord God.

As for the tax collectors and sinners in the gospel, they too responded to the call of Jesus.

In fact, they were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what He had to say.

Yet there may be many others who don’t know how to respond to the call of Jesus.

They may be lost in the troubles and difficulties and anxieties of life. Jesus calls out to them but they may not know how to respond or that they may have lost the voice to respond.

Well, exam time is coming (only secondary and P6) and the students are all hyped up and stressed out with the studies.

Not only the students are stressed, their parents, are also stressed out. Students and parents seem to be taking exams. (In Singapore, exam is a family affair!)

Today, we have called the students, to come for this Mass to pray for their exams and we too will pray for them.

Yet there may be other students who are not here. Some may even skip Mass to mug for their revision.

We need to pray for them too, because they have lost the voice to call out to the Lord for help.

But more than just praying for the students for their exams, we the Church have to be the voice for the world to call upon the help of the Lord God.

Last Saturday, Pope Francis called upon the Church for a day of prayer and fasting for peace in the world and especially for Syria.

More than 100 000 people joined the Pope in a prayer vigil at St. Peter’s Square, and the Church throughout the world also heeded the call of the Pope.

The Pope is leading the Church to be the voice for the world to call upon God for His saving help.

Let us join our voices in prayer to cry out to God for His help, be it for the students preparing for exams or for peace in the world.

Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Our voices in prayer will tell Him where we are and that we desperately need Him to find us and save us.

23rd Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 08.09.2013

Wisdom 9:13-18/ Philemon 1:9-10, 12-17/ Luke 14:25-33

One characteristic of most Singaporeans when they travel overseas, especially when they travel out of the Asian region, is that they will bring along a particular spice.

And that particular spice is none other than chilli.

For most Singaporeans, or at least a number of Singaporeans, chilli is the spice of life.

So into the luggage will go a bottle of chilli, be a dried chilli, or chilli powder, or sambal chilli or whatever chilli. 

If there is such a thing as chilli perfume, it will also be brought along. (Not to spray on the body but on the food! : P )

Yes, in Singapore, chilli is the spice of life. So if you are a Singaporean, and you don’t eat chilli, then it may mean that you have a crisis of identity.

Having said all that, chilli after all, is only a spice. And spices are used to add flavor to food or to preserve food.

We don’t eat chilli as food, or consume spices as food!

Food will still be food, with or without spices. And when we are very hungry, we will eat whatever food there is, even without the chilli or the other spices.

In other words, without chilli we won’t die. Even without the other spices of life, we also won’t die.
And the spices of life is not just about what we put into our food.

Broadly speaking, there are many things that can spice up our lives.

For example, there was the “Spice Girls”, though they are not so hot now. There is also a smartphone model called “Desire”.

Oh yes, these kind of spices certainly fuel our desires and make us forget our essential needs, just like how too much chilli can make us forget the original taste of food. 

When there is too much of these spicy flavoring in our lives, then the 1st reading has this to say: The reasonings of mortals are unsure, and man’s intentions become unstable.

Then like the examples that Jesus gave in the gospel, we will build but we won’t be able to finish. We can fight with all our might but we won’t be able to win.

When there is too much clutter in our lives, then we lose the clarity of our vision, and hence our reasoning become unsure and our intentions become unstable.

In today’s gospel, Jesus gave a rather severe teaching on discipleship.

Jesus makes it clear to us that if we want to be His disciple, then He must be over and above what we treasure most.

And that means that He must be above father, mother, spouse, children, brothers and sisters.

And as if that is not tough enough, He asks for where it will hurt most – and that is our very own life!
And that is where Jesus brings in the cross.

As we all know, and for those who are listening to Him knew it as a reality, the cross was the ultimate punishment for those who are sentenced for rebellion or subversion.

Hence, His listeners know, as a matter of fact, what crucifixion was, how horrible it was, how gruesome it was and shockingly cruel.

And yes, Jesus said that anyone who does not carry his cross and come after Him cannot be His disciple.
Certainly the cross meant pain and shame. And along with that it also means fears and tears.

So the cross challenges us in a very shocking way.

The cross challenges our fears of losing our loved ones – father, mother, spouse, children, brothers and sisters.

The cross challenges our fear of pain and suffering.

And finally the cross challenges our fear of dying to ourselves and giving up our lives for others.

Because our understanding of the survival of the fittest is that the one who has the most and who possess the most, will survive.

It is so unnatural to let go and sacrifice and give ourselves for others.

Here is where we can learn something from the grey squirrel. As we know, the grey squirrel would run around gathering nuts for food for the winter.

It would hide the nuts in a few places. Yet very often it would also forget where it has hidden the nuts so in the end it would only consume about 10% of the nuts that it had gathered.

Well, as for the rest of the 90% of the nuts, after winter, they will germinate and bear fruit for the next cycle.
So unintentional and out of forgetfulness, the squirrel helps in the reproduction of the food cycle.

Like the grey squirrel, we too will gather, but as a disciple carrying the cross, what we gather we must scatter and give to others.

The cross is painful because it challenges us to give up ourselves for others.

The cross will cut away all that we spice up our lives with, but when all the spice of life is cut away, we will get the real taste of life. 

No doubt, the cross will bring tears to our eyes, but very often tears are the lenses we need to see Jesus (quote from Pope Francis); yes, to see Jesus clearly and to continue to carry our cross and follow Him as His disciple.