30th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 27-10-2013

Sir 35:12-14, 16-19 / 2 Tim 4:6-8, 16-18 / Lk  18:9-14

The month of October can be said to be a prayerful month.

And when we think about it, we can see that the month of October is indeed dotted with prayerful moments.

Well, the month of October began with the feast of our patron saint, St. Therese.

And then there was the feast of the Holy Rosary, and the feast of Our Lady of Fatima.

Tomorrow is also the feast of a saint that all of us have prayed to before - St Jude, patron saint of desperate cases.

And talking about desperate cases, as much as October is a prayerful month, it is also a stressful month, especially for students and also for the teachers, and also for the parents.

Yes, October is exam month and so it is a stressful month, but also a prayerful month, especially for the students.

It is said that last minute preparations for exams also produces the greatest motivation to pray.

And what do most students pray for? Certainly for good results.

And good results does not mean to just pass the exams.

(For some students and some parents) Good results does not mean just a D, or a C, or even a B.

Good results means scoring an A, and nothing less.

When asked why scoring A is so important for exams, one student candidly replied: Oh, because we are A-sians! :P

In the gospel, Jesus told a parable about two persons: a Pharisee and a tax-collector.

The Pharisee was like an “A” student: he is not grasping, not unjust, not adulterous.

He fast twice a week, he pays tithes, and of course, he prays.

The tax-collector was like an “F” student: he had got nothing to say but only this: God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

He was like a student with a report card full of red marks and with the head hanging down could only shamefully say: I am sorry that I failed.

As the saying goes, we reap what we sow. So if we study hard, we will get good grades, maybe even a string of As.

If we are lazy and don’t study hard, and play play play, and then, at the last minute, we pray pray pray very hard, even St. Jude may find it difficult to help a desperate case. It is more like a hopeless case.

The Pharisee was certainly impressive with what he did, and it is understandable if he bragged about what he did, just like the students who would say how they toiled and sweat with their studies in order to get good grades.

His only problem, and which was his biggest problem was that he started to compare himself with the tax-collector and subsequently he put down the tax-collector.

The Pharisee had already exalted himself but to exalt himself further, he went on to ridicule the tax-collector by saying: and particularly, I am not like this tax-collector here.

And Jesus said it plainly, God will not accept that. 

How can one be called religious when one starts to compare himself with another and subsequently condemns the other?

As the 1st reading puts it: The Lord shows no respect of personages to the detriment of a poor man, and He listens to the plea of the injured party.

Moreover, the 1st reading states that the humble man’s prayer pierces the clouds, and the Lord will not be slow to answer him.

Yes, the Lord will hear and answer the prayers of the humble and lowly who only have Him for their help.

I came across a story taken from a magazine called Guideposts.

There was a young school teacher who really wanted to be a good teacher to her students. But a student named Billy, who was like an “A” student and a smart alec, was causing havoc in her class so much so that she was becoming a nervous wreck.

One morning before class began, the schoolteacher was at her desk writing something in shorthand. Suddenly, Billy appeared and he asked her: What are you writing?   

She said: I am writing a prayer to God in shorthand. Billy laughed and said: Can God read shorthand? The teacher said: He can do anything, even answer this prayer.   

Then she tucked that slip of paper into her prayer book and turned to write something on the board. As she did so, Billy, being Billy, took the prayer slip from her prayer book and slipped it into his text book.   

Twenty years later, Billy was going through a box of his belongings.

He came across his old text book. As he began to thumb through it, that prayer slip fell out. Billy stared at the writing on that faded piece of paper.   

When he got to his office, he gave that piece of paper to his secretary to decipher.   

As she looked at it, she blushed and told Billy that she would type it out and leave it on his desk before she left.   

That night Billy read the prayer. It said: Dear God, don't let me fail as a teacher. I can't handle this class with Billy in it. Touch his heart. He is someone who can become either very good or very evil.   

That final sentence hit Billy like a hammer. Because just hours before he was contemplating on some illegal business that would make him very rich, but very evil.   

Billy read that prayer a few times, and finally he changed his mind about what he was contemplating on.   Eventually he located his old schoolteacher and told her how her prayer changed his life.   

The old school teacher smiled and said: And I thought that God took that prayer and forgot to answer it.   

Amazing story, isn't it? Really amazing. Yes, let us remember that every prayer uttered is also every prayer answered.   

And it will be answered powerfully, when it is uttered from humble lips that are surrendered to the merciful and loving God.

So may we begin and end our every prayer with that prayer of the tax collector: O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Mission Sunday, Year C, 20.10.2013

Isa 2:1-5/ Eph 3:2-11/ Mk 16:15-20     
 
The term “social media” is a relatively new term.

We understand what social means. And we understand what media means.

But when these two words are put together, there is a new meaning to it.

We may not understand its full meaning, just like we do not realize fully the impact of camera-phones, which play a huge role in the rise of social media.

In the past, a camera was just a camera, and a phone was just a phone.

Then the phones, the mobile phones, began to have cameras, and with that what was personal became social and that became media for mass consumption, or what is called social media.

Not that anyone is complaining (though some parents might be…) 

We get to see people on Youtube and Facebook and Instagram, and the pictures and photos and videos tell a thousand words (and sometimes they tell too much).

And one new term that has come up in social media is this word called “selfies”.

You might think that I am trying to say “selfish” but didn’t get the pronunciation right.

Well what I am saying is “selfies”, as in S-E-L-F-I-E-S.

What is done in “selfies” is that you take photos of yourself while holding a camera phone at an arm’s length. (definition from urban dictionary)

And then you post your self-portraits on whatever social media you are on. In other words, you broadcast yourself.

The purpose for this is to just share with your friends, and the entire world, through photos, about what you are wearing, eating, or where you are going or how you are looking.

And these are not just ordinary photos. Some are even very slick glamorous shots, maybe even photo-shopped.

Yet with every photo that is posted on the social media, there is a purpose.

Of course, it is obvious that we want to let others see us.

But more than that every photo has a message, because a picture tells a thousand words, or more.

A person who puts a personal photo on social media wants to give others a message.

It may be about lifestyle, about likes and dislikes, about beliefs, about character; in short, it is about something personal.

We heard in the gospel that Jesus told His eleven apostles to go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News.

Putting it in social media terms, Jesus has posted eleven photos of His apostles, each of them with a message about the Good News.

One might be a photo of an apostle baptizing a person.

Another photo might show an apostle casting out devils from someone who is possessed.

Another might show an apostle picking up a poisonous snake with his bare hands.

Another might show an apostle laying his hands on the sick and healing them.

But Jesus wants to post one more photo because He has twelve apostles.

And that photo will be about each of us. So what would that photo be about? What would that photo show us doing?

Today, as the Church celebrates Mission Sunday, Jesus is asking us what we are doing to proclaim the Good News.

So as we think about it, we may remember that St. Therese, our patron saint, is also the Patroness of the Missions.

Yet, as we know, St. Therese never left her convent in Lisieux. So how could she be the Patroness of the Missions?

It all began with a man by the name of Henri Pranzini. He was among the most notorious criminals of his time and also one of the most brutal.

On the morning of March 17, 1887, the bodies of 2 women and a child were all found brutally murdered in an apartment.

The motive was robbery and a few days later, Pranzini was caught and convicted of the triple murder.

Shocking as it was, Pranzini would have been executed and forgotten, if not for Therese Martin (St. Therese) who was only 14 years old at that time.

She felt compelled to intervene for him. As she recounts in her autobiography, “The Story of a Soul”, she stormed Heaven for a man, whom many thought was beyond redemption.

St Therese wrote: Everything led to the belief that he would die unrepentant. I wanted at all costs to keep him from falling into hell, and to succeed, I employed all means imaginable, and feeling that of myself I could do nothing, I offered to God all the infinite merits of our Lord Jesus.

As Pranzini’s fate approached, St. Therese increased her prayers until he was brought before the guillotine on Aug 31.

The next day, St. Therese read in the papers that recorded what happened, how when Pranzini was about to put his head under the guillotine, he turned, took hold of the crucifix the priest was holding out to him, and kissed the sacred wounds three times!

Then his soul went to receive the merciful sentence of Jesus who declared that in heaven there will be more joy over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine who have no need of repentance.

St. Therese was convinced her prayers had helped save the forsaken Pranzini from damnation, and the experience strengthened her conviction to become a Carmelite nun, and intercede for others who are in desperate need of God’s love.

So there we see, one picture of St Therese praying for a condemned soul to be saved from the fires of hell.

Yes, her mission as a Carmelite nun began with prayer.

Each of us has a mission. But that mission must begin with prayer.
Because with prayer, our mission picture will slowly begin to form, and with that mission picture, we will proclaim the Good News to the world.

So by all means take a selfie, and make it a mission: let others know, by our photos, that we are praying that the world will hear the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

28th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 13.10.2013

2 Kings 5:14-17/ 2 Timothy 2:8-13/ Luke 17:11-19

The year 1917 sounds like it is a long time ago. In fact, it is about a hundred years ago.

Most of us have not come into existence yet, and maybe it was a good thing that we didn’t live during that time.

Because the world was torn apart with WW I, and when it ended, the Great Depression followed, and not long after that, nations were fighting with each other in WW II.

Certainly, it was a terrible time to live in and it would seemed to be like end times.

Yet, on this very day, 13th October back in year 1917, something spectacular, astonishing and beautiful happened in a small village called Fatima in Portugal.

It was an event which was called “The Miracle of the Sun”.

In a spectacle witnessed by 70,000 to 100,000 people, the dark rain clouds opened up, revealing the sun as an immense silver disk.

It shone with an intensity never seen before, but was not blinding.

Then that immense silver disk (or the sun) began to dance. It began to spin rapidly like a gigantic circle of fire.

It even became scarlet and scattered red flames across the sky. All that lasted for about 10 minutes and then the sun returned to its original place, and once again became still and brilliant and shining brightly as before. Thus the miracle of the sun ended.

But it was not just some kind of miracle or phenomenon. Rather it was a sign that was promised by Mary on her last apparition to the three shepherd children Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia.

It all began during WWI when the then Pope Benedict XV made repeated but unheeded pleas for peace.

Finally, and desperately, at the beginning of May 1917, he made a direct plea to Mary, to intercede for peace in the world.

And Mary responded (as she always did), just after a week, with her first apparition at Fatima on the 13th May to the three children.

She made six more apparitions, all on the 13th of each month, and she told the children to pray the Rosary, and do penance for the sins of the world.

There were other revelations, including the famous Fatima secrets, but we must not miss the message of the apparitions.

On the last apparition on the 13th October, Mary revealed to the children (and to the world), that she is the Lady of the Rosary and she asked that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart so that Russia will be converted and there will be peace.

If not, evil will continue to spread and the Church will face persecutions and undergo trials.

Almost a hundred years later, on this very same day, 13th October 2013, Pope Francis is calling upon the Church to remember the message of Fatima.

Today, Pope Francis is calling the Church to prayer and to consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the New Evangelization.

Like what Pope Benedict XV did in 1917, Pope Francis is making a direct appeal to Mary for the Church and for the world.

The Church had undergone, and is still undergoing, turmoil and distress.

Even though the Church had divine origins and apostolic foundations, she has also been afflicted with spiritual leprosy. 

We have heard about all the bad news and the scandals that have rocked the Church.

We are left bewildered and disappointed with the clergy as well as with the people serving in Church ministry, and our faith begin to become lukewarm and slowly drain away.

Hence the New Evangelization is first and foremost for the Church.

Like the ten lepers in the gospel who daringly approached Jesus for a cure, we must turn to Mary and consecrate ourselves to her Immaculate Heart.

To consecrate ourselves to her Immaculate Heart means that we want to have a heart like Mary’s, a heart that is pure and holy, a heart that is thankful and joyful.

To have a pure and holy heart, to have a thankful and joyful heart already means that we are proclaiming the Good News, because to evangelize means to proclaim the Good News of salvation.

Just like that one leper in the gospel, who was cured and who turned back praising God at the top of his voice and threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked Him.

Jesus had this to say to him : Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.

So, that man was not just cured; he was saved. And that’s the difference.

The other nine were cured, certainly! Did they think of thanking Jesus? Maybe they did, but maybe they said “later” and that later became never.

On the 7th September (that was just a month back, and which was the eve of our Lady’s birthday), Pope Francis called on the Church to offer a day of prayer and fasting for the volatile situation in the Middle East, and particularly for Syria.

About 100,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square (and many more others around the world) joined the Pope in prayer and fasting.

There was no apparition, no dancing or spinning sun. But a quiet miracle did happen.

Did we notice that soon after the worldwide vigil of prayer and fasting for peace in Syria, more opportunities for nonviolent solutions were considered and taken up?

Yes, a quiet miracle happened. 

The New Evangelization is for us the Church to have faith in the power of prayer and to give thinks with joyful hearts for what wonders the Lord has done for us and for the marvels that He will do for us.

The New Evangelization is also for the world, that as we proclaim the Good News of salvation to the world, we pray with Mary, the Lady of the Rosary, that the world will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to the gods of money, sex and power.

Rather, may the world come to acknowledge the one true God, and that Jesus is the Saviour.

That may sound like a miracle (maybe even impossible!) but with faith and with prayer, nothing is impossible.

Because with God, there can be miracles.

St Therese, Parish Feast Day, 06.10.2013

When a loved one passes away, the common practice in Singapore is that the body is cremated (of course, there is still the practice of burial).

And the usual practice is that after cremation, the ashes are collected and put in an urn.

After which the urn is interned into a niche in the columbarium as its final resting place.

One of the questions that sometimes arises is whether the ashes (in the urn) can be kept at home.

Well, if we check at the NEA (National Environment Agency) website under the FAQ column, “Can I keep the cremated ashes of the deceased at home?” There is just a one word answer: Yes.

So would we want to keep the ashes of our loved ones at home? If yes, then why would we do so? 

Certainly, the reason cannot be that the niche in the columbarium is too expensive so better and cheaper to put at home.

If people were to think like that then the columbarium can close down already.

But by and large, people would place the ashes of their deceased loved ones in the niches of the columbarium.

Certainly, the columbarium is a more proper and respectable place for the ashes.

Also, people may feel a bit uncomfortable to keep ashes at home, even though it is their deceased loved ones. 

Maybe there is no proper place at home to keep it, or maybe they might wonder if the deceased will make their presence felt!(Oops!)

But if the deceased had experienced the warmth and love at home during their lifetime, then there is certainly nothing to be afraid of.

But of course, please don’t take out the urns of your loved ones from our columbarium; I will be in trouble!

But having said that, the Catholic Church has this practice of the veneration of the relics of saints.

The word “relic” comes from the Latin word “relinquo”, literally meaning “I leave behind”.

A relic is a piece of the body of the saint, or an item owned or used by the saint, or an object that has been touched to the tomb of the saint.

The veneration of sacred relics has a long history in the Church.

And it is a well-known fact that altars in the churches, when they were consecrated, were inserted with a relic of a saint which is called the altar-stone.

Although the word “relics” does not appear in Scripture, there were many instances when the remains of holy persons were venerated and held in high esteem.

For example, in the book of Exodus (13:19) when the Israelites left Egypt, they took the bones of Joseph along with them.

And then in 2 Kings 13:21, when a dead man was thrown into the tomb of the prophet Elisha and came into contact with the bones of the prophet, the dead man came back to life.

There is no doubt that the veneration of the relics of saints have brought about answers to prayers, cures sicknesses and other signs and miracles.

But of course a warped thinking would also lead to abuse and superstition, and even in the sale of relics.

Putting that aside, the relics of saints and their veneration help us to appreciate more deeply the holy men and women and even children, who followed and served Jesus their Master and all their heart.

Their relics also serve as a visible sign of their communion with us in our own journey of faith towards holiness.

And here in this parish of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, we are very privileged to have a great saint who is watching over us.

And along with this great privilege, we are also blessed to have her relics with us. We have three of her relics.

One is a tiny bit of her flesh; another is a fragment of her bone; and the other is the ashes from her grave.

All these three relics are encased in reliquaries, which are vessels to contain the relics.

And in the celebration of her feast-day, we have displayed her relics for public veneration and we are in the process of making this a permanent feature in this parish.

The relics are not just holy objects. They are visible and concrete signs of her presence among us.

In her famous book “The Story of a Soul”, she said that she will spend heaven doing good on earth.

We see this goodness in her relics, which point to her presence, as well as to the power of her intercession for us.

But her relics are not just for our curiosity. We come before her relics to offer her our needs and our petitions, and she in turn will offer it to Jesus on our behalf.

And we have needs. We need peace of heart and forgiveness. We need strength to face the stress and anxieties of life. We need to believe and to strengthen our faith in God.

In other words, we need to be loved by God, so that like St. Therese, we will also do little things with great love.

And as we venerate her relics, let us also take up the Novena Rose Prayer to St Therese that is printed in the cards.

With that prayer, let us offer our needs and petitions to St Therese, and as she promised, she will let fall from heaven a shower of roses.

St Therese is spending her heaven doing good for us. May we in turn spend our lives on earth doing good for others.