Holy Family, Year A, 29.12.2013

Ecclesiasticus 3:3-7, 14-17/ Colossians 3:12-21/ Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23

Two days before Christmas, on the 23rd December, there was a meeting between two prominent men.

One has the world’s spotlight on him, while the other has stepped away from the spotlight.

Pope Francis, Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” has something like over 10million followers on Twitter.

Some are of the opinion that Pope Francis is the most influential world leader in 2013.

For someone who became Pope on March 13 this year, the attention on him is quite phenomenal.

By and large, the attention is positive and hence we the Catholic Church should be proud of the Pope.

Well, on the 23rd December, Pope Francis paid a visit to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at the monastery of Mater Ecclesiae.

As we will certainly remember, it was Benedict’s resignation from the papacy that opened the way for the eventual election of Pope Francis.

It was a meeting that did not generate much headlines or interest.

Pope Francis paid a visit to Benedict XVI to give his best wishes for Christmas in advance.

They chatted and Pope Francis even told Benedict that he was happy to see him looking well and good.

Finally, before leaving, the two men prayed together in the chapel.

It was a significant moment for them as one prepares to celebrate his first Christmas as the Pope, whereas the other will spend his first Christmas after resigning as a Pope.

Yet, many anxious moments have gone by before coming to this point in time.

When the Vatican announced the unexpected resignation of Benedict XVI on the 11th February, the Church was thrown into a bit of turmoil and confusion.

The reason given was his declining health due to old age. But he also said that he was resigning for the good of the Church.

At that time, we wouldn’t have understood what it meant. But by now we probably would have understood and maybe there will be more things to understand in time to come.

So, the Church as a community, and as a family, has seen anxious and disturbing moments, as well as calm and consoling moments. 

As it is with the Church, so it was with the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

And today’s gospel gives us a glimpse of the turmoil and distress that they experienced as a family.

They are not a “no-worries be-happy” family without anxieties and difficulties.

They were a real family, who faced real emergencies and life-threatening situations in their lives.

Immediately, after the birth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph had to flee from their homeland to escape the death squads that were going after them.

Even though Jesus was the “Emmanuel”, the “God-is-with-us” the Holy Family was not spared of the trauma and the danger of the chaos of life.

Yet, for better or for worse, in good times or in bad, they stayed together.

Joseph did not abandon mother and child in the time of need. Mary did not abandon the child Jesus for her own safety.

Their staying together in the face of trials showed us this truth- that God is with us when we are united.

So it is with the Holy Family, and so it will be with our families, so it will be with the Church community.

Whether it is family or community, we need each other in order to become what God wants us to be.

There is this interesting story about porcupines. An extremely cold winter was coming and the porcupines had to find a way to survive.

At first they decided to group together to keep warm and protect one another.

But unfortunately, their sharp spiky quills poked at each other as their huddled together, so they dispersed.

Of course this left them exposed to the bitter cold and they started to freeze to the point of death.

So they had to make a fundamental life or death choice – either they stay apart and die, or they tolerate and accept each other’s thorns and survive.

And to think of it, we are a bit like porcupines.

We have our own “spiky quills” and with that we hurt others and others hurt us too.

At times, living as members of the family and community can be so painful and hurtful, that we think it might be better off living alone.

But if the porcupines know how to stay together in order to survive, then we must also learn to accept and live with the spiky quills of others.

The Church has suffered much from its own sharp quills. The Church has seen painful and hurtful times.

But under the leadership of Pope Francis, there is healing and restoration.

And the Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has committed himself to praying for the Church as he spends his days in retirement.

We are seeing the fruits of his prayers in Pope Francis and in what God wants the Church to be.

And may their prayers and the prayers of Mary and Joseph also help our families to be what God wants us to be.

Christmas Day, Year A, 25.12.2013

Isaiah 62:1-5/ Acts 13:16-17, 22-25/ Luke 2:1-14

This Christmas is a special Christmas for someone, and it is none other than Pope Francis because he is celebrating his first Christmas as the Pope.

There are already a few “firsts” for him – he is the first non-European Pope (he is an Argentinean); and he is the first Pope to choose the name of “Francis” (of Assisi).

And talking about St. Francis of Assisi, he made a special contribution to the celebration of Christmas – he was the first to stage a Nativity scene.

Back in the year 1223, when St. Francis of Assisi went to a small village to celebrate Christmas, he wanted to highlight the Nativity scene.

So he found a shed and laid it with straw and he got an ox and a donkey and he got some of the villagers to play the different characters of the Nativity scene.

So there was Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus and some shepherds with their sheep and a couple of angels.

(It was something like the Nativity pageant put up by the children that we saw before the Mass.)

And they sang hymns and read the gospel about the birth of Christ and prayed.

Everyone at the Nativity scene was moved and they felt like as if they were there at that very first Christmas.

And hence from then on, the Nativity scene became the main feature of Christmas celebration.

But more than that, the enactment of the Nativity scene also brought about blessings for the people.

As the account goes, the straw that was laid in the shed, when it was fed to the cattle and sheep, cured them of a disease that was afflicting them.

It was also said that the wooden beams that supported the shed was used to build the church nearby and they were surprisingly durable.

But over and above all the blessings, the people had a change of heart.

They heard and they saw the joyful news of the birth of Christ their savior.

Differences and disputes were reconciled, wrongs were forgiven, kindness and generosity flowed among the people.

Indeed the birth of Christ is good and joyful news. It brings about bountiful blessings and graces.

Today, we are gathered together as the people of God to celebrate the birth of Christ.

The birth of Christ brings about abundant blessings for us.

When we look at the baby Jesus in the crib, we will see that His arms are open and extended.

It is meant to show that He welcomes and embraces us and He also wants to give us blessings in abundance.

And of course the greatest blessing is the gift of Himself.

Jesus took His place in a lowly manger so that we will have a place in heaven.

When we reflect on the Nativity scene, we can see what Jesus is all about.

The shed is a symbol of poverty – Jesus emptied Himself and came down from heaven to be with us.

The donkey is a symbol of humility; the ox is a symbol of sacrifice; the sheep is a symbol of gentleness and docility; the shepherds represent the poor and the lowly.

The symbols of the Nativity scene point to what Jesus is, and they also point to what we are called to be.

Today, we journey back to that first Christmas, to receive the blessings that Jesus wants to give us.

And today, we also journey forward to proclaim the joyful news that Christ is born and that God is with us.

May God be with Pope Francis as he leads the church forward. 

May God be with us as we work for reconciliation and forgiveness so that peace that Jesus came to bring will be a reality.

4th Sunday of Advent, Year A, 22.12.2013

Isaiah 7:10-14/ Romans 1:1-7/ Matthew 1:18-24

In a couple of days’ time, we will hear that beautiful Christmas carol “What child is this?”

In fact, we are already hearing it at shopping malls and supermarkets, along with the ringing of cash registers.

But just to make sure that we are talking about the same carol, the first few lines goes like this:

“What child is this, who laid to rest on Mary’s lap is sleeping? When angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds watch are keeping.”

That’s a beautiful Christmas carol and it captures the essence of the reason of the season – “This, this is Christ the King…”

Yes, everything is made so clearly to us now, so much so that we may take it for granted and may not feel the depth of the mystery of the birth of Christ.

But if Joseph, whom we heard in the gospel, had known about that Christmas carol during his time, he might have changed the title from “What Child is this” to “Whose Child is this”.

Joseph had his dreams and his hopes about his future. Mary was betrothed to him and he would have dreamed of a happy family and children of his own.

And then, this had to happen. He came to know that Mary was pregnant and obviously his first question was “Whose child is this?”
It was certainly not his child; not his, but whose?

To say that Joseph felt disappointment and cheated might be an under-statement.

And to his reaction was an obvious reaction. He decided to call off the marriage.

But being a man of honour, he decided to do it quietly and informally.

He was hurt, but he was man enough to contain it. He didn’t want anybody else to be hurt.

In that sense, he still cared about Mary and he wanted to spare her the publicity, which would be a devastating publicity against the unwed and pregnant Mary.

Yet, that did not answer the question “whose child is this?” Who is the father?

And then as if all the questions in his mind were not enough for him, he gets a dream about an angel telling him what to do next.

Joseph is one of the central characters in the whole Christmas story and yet he is the only one who had nothing recorded of what he said or what he thought.

But it certainly cannot be said that Joseph was a simpleton and simply did what he was told.

Joseph had to lay aside his broken dreams and his disappointments and to make that decision to accept the pregnant Mary and to take her home as his wife.

Therein lies the greatness of Joseph. He took the responsibility to care for Mary and her child.

Even though the angel told him in the dream that the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit, would that really answer the question “Whose child is this?”

Would he be able to comprehend that truth? Would we be able to comprehend that truth?

Who can believe that virginity and motherhood would go together? Because a virgin mother had no precedent whether in the religious realm, or in the secular realm.

So how to believe? And neither can we expect Joseph to believe so easily.

And if we were in Joseph’s shoes, what would we do?

Are we going to follow dreams and mystery, or do what Joseph originally intended – just spare the publicity and settle it quietly.

There is this story of a wise and holy man who lived at the outskirts of a village.

Everyone revered him for being upright and holy.

Then a beautiful girl in the village got pregnant. Her angry parents demanded to know who was responsible.

At first she was reluctant to reveal, but under pressure, the anxious and embarrassed girl pointed to that wise and holy man.

The parents and the village elders went to confront the holy man and accused him of being a cheater and a fake.

To their accusations, his reply was simply: Is that so?

When the child was born, the parents took the child to that holy man and demanded that he take responsibility for the child, since he was the father.

His reply was: Is that so? But he took the child in, and for many months, he took good care of the child. 

But the girl who could no longer take it, finally confessed that the real father was a young man of the village whom she wanted to protect.

The parents and the village elders immediately went to that holy man, they apologized profusely to him and proclaimed his innocence and their respect for him; his only reply was: Is that so?

A reply like “Is that so?” can mean anything from being stoic to enigmatic. Or it may mean we don’t know and we also don’t care.

But for Joseph, he did not know clearly whose child it is that Mary was carrying.

But in the end, he took responsibility for Mary and her child and with that the Christmas Story turned from mystery to reality.

Life had many twists and turns. We may not ask questions like “Whose child is this?”

But our questions would be “Whose job is this?” or “Whose mistake is this?” or “Whose fault is this?”

Joseph also had his questions, but in the end, he took upon himself the responsibility of caring for Mary and Jesus, and Christmas became a reality.

In life, when people don’t do their job, or when a mistake is made and people start blaming each other, it is the poor, the vulnerable and the helpless who will have to suffer the consequences.

But like Joseph, when we take the responsibility upon ourselves, then we can make Christmas a reality.

And we will truly know what Child it is that we are celebrating at Christmas.

3rd Sunday of Advent, Year A, 15.12.2013

Isaiah 35:1-6, 10/ James 5:7-10/ Matthew 11:2-11

There used to be a complaint that they don’t make things like they used to.

It seems that in the past things are made to last a life-time, and maybe even longer than a life-time.

From machines to tools to toys, the things of the past were made of heavy durable material.

One example is the old “Singer” sewing machine from our mothers’ or grandmothers’ time.

Amazingly they still work, and no electricity is needed, but you would need the skill of hand and foot coordination.

But with the rise of industrialization and mass production, and with cheaper and less durable materials, things are made to just hold together till they have left the factory (or when the warranty expires).

And when they land into our hands and after a whole they malfunction and spoil and we bring it back to the shop or the agent, they will tell you that buying a new one would make more economical sense than repairing it (right?).

And so a culture is created, and it is called the “throw-away” culture.

So, when the TV is spoilt, just throw it away, the hi-fi set is spoilt, just throw it away, the computer is spoilt, just throw it away.

After all, with the abundance of cheap goods, why bother to repair something old when you can get something new and get it cheaply.

So, we have this “throw-away” culture. Oh, by the way, the statistics for 2012 states that a Singaporean throws away about 1400 kg of waste a year, and Singapore generates 7.3million tons of waste for 2012.

That’s a lot of waste and it seems that we love to throw away things.

But it may not just be spoilt things that we throw away.

The “throw-away” mentality may have also crept into the way we treat people.

If a person is not of any use to us, we may just “throw” that person out of our lives.

Because just as we use things, we may also “use” people. And when things are of no more use to us, we will also just “throw” them away.

Today’s gospel began with John the Baptist in prison. 

Just last week, we heard of how he appeared in the wilderness and crowds came to him and they confessed their sins and were baptized by him.

His words were sharp, like an axe that was ready to cut down any tree that does not bear good fruit.

He spoke of the one who is to come, the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.

And the one who is to come has a winnowing fan in his hand to clear the threshing floor and gather the wheat, but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.

So John the Baptist spoke of Jesus as a fiery judge, a dispenser of wrath and no chance will be given to those who do not repent. But what he said Jesus would do somehow did not match with what Jesus actually did.

Instead of condemnation, Jesus showed compassion; instead of axing and chopping the sinners, Jesus was sitting and chatting with them.

In the darkness of his dungeon, John the Baptist would have felt that he was like something thrown away and of no use anymore.

And when he heard what Jesus was doing, he would be having a broken feeling. He was to prepare the way for the one to come. But could he have been wrong?

Hence, he sent his disciples to ask Jesus if He was the one to come.
The reply Jesus gave was not a “Yes” or “No”. Rather He told the disciples to tell John the Baptist what they heard and saw.

The “thrown away” and “broken” John the Baptist is presented to us on this 3rd Sunday of Advent to point out an important aspect.
Jesus healed the sick: the blind see again, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear.

But the one most in need of healing then was John the Baptist as he laid broken in his dungeon.

Anything that is broken is usually considered useless and thrown away.

If such was the case with John the Baptist, then it would be a sad ending. And that is not Good News. That is more like sad news.

In this modern age, a ceramic bowl that is broken is usually thrown away. It doesn’t make any sense to try to join the broken pieces back together.

There is this Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with lacquered resin mixed with powdered gold. It is called kintsugi.

Kintsugi may have originated in the 15th century when a Japanese shogun sent a broken Chinese tea bowl back to China for repairs.

When it was returned repaired with ugly metal staples, it prompted Japanese craftsmen to look for a more aesthetic means of repair.

With kintsugi, broken valuable pottery was repaired and rejoined and the cracked veins now have beautiful gold finishing.

Kintsugi means “to repair with gold”. But the important point in the art of kintsugi is that the broken piece is now more beautiful for having been broken.

John the Baptist in his awful dungeon may have been broken and disappointed.

But the news that his disciples brought back to him from Jesus was like the gold lacquer that rejoined his broken heart and made it more beautiful than before.

That is why we now call him St. John the Baptist.

As for us, the struggles and the tumbles of life have caused cracks and breaks in our hearts.

Where others would write us off and throw us away, Jesus wants to save us.

Jesus is the Divine Healer and as the Divine Craftsman, He heals our broken hearts with His golden love so that we become more beautiful for having been broken.

It does sound strange, “we become more beautiful for having been broken”, but that is the Good News.

And when we do not lose faith in Jesus, that is really Good News.
Because we know we won’t be thrown away.

Jesus is there to lead us and save us.

2nd Sunday of Advent, Year A, 08.12.2013

Isaiah 11:1-10/ Romans 15:4-9/ Matthew 3:1-12

By this time of the month, which in Church terms is the second Sunday of Advent, most of us would already have gotten one thing done.

We would have already taken out the Christmas tree from the store room and started decorating it.

By and large, setting up the Christmas tree seems like no big deal. We can choose whether it is a 4ft or 5ft or 6ft tree or taller even.

And we can also choose what types or species of Christmas tree, whether fir or pine, and even what colour. After all they are artificial and can come in whatever shape and colour.

But buying a Christmas tree is not as simple or easy as it sounds.

Just the other day while I was looking around for Christmas decorations, I overheard a lady asking the salesperson for a particular kind of Christmas tree with a particular kind of fiber optic lights on its branches.

The salesperson said: Oh that one. No stock now. Come back in a week’s time.

The lady was exasperated: A week’s time?!?! I took leave just to come here to get that tree and then you say no stock. And Christmas is coming. So how???!!!.

So how? Just to put up the Christmas tree and the decorations can be like a really good Advent spiritual preparation.

Because we will have to learn how to handle the frustrations and disappointments of the season.

Like … cannot find the right Christmas tree, so how?!?! The lights cannot work, so how?!?! Cannot find the right present, so how?

So how to have a merry Christmas when we cannot get what we want, when we cannot get things to work, and when we can find what we need?

Yet when we look at the commercials and advertisements, everything seems so perfect: the perfect Christmas tree, the perfect decorations, the perfect gift.

So we dream, not so much as a white Christmas, but a perfect Christmas. But can we ever have a perfect Christmas?

Today we have someone telling us how to have a perfect Christmas. And crowds went to him to hear how it is possible.

Today, John the Baptist appears in the gospel and the people from Jerusalem and all of Judaea and the whole Jordan district made their way to him.

His message for a perfect Christmas is simple, and can be summarized into one word: Repent!

And his message also comes with an axe, and with that John the Baptist goes for our precious nicely decorated Christmas trees.

But why would he want to do that? Let’s listen again to what he said:
Even now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees, so that any tree which fails to bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Of course he is not referring to Christmas trees in particular, but nonetheless the Christmas tree has a biblical and religious significance.

The Christmas tree is a symbol of Jesus. He is the shoot that springs from the stock of Jesse, the scion that trusts from Jesse’s roots, as we heard in the 1st reading.

Jesse was the father of king David, whose reign brought about the golden age of Israel.

But after his reign, Israel declined and the kingdom was split and was overrun by her enemies over and over again.

Eventually when Israel was exiled into Babylon, king David’s line of descendants became an obscurity.

But the prophet Isaiah wrote of hope, that one day a shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse and bring about Israel’s glory.

Jesus was that shoot that sprang into a tree, a life-giving tree, a hope-giving tree, a tree that bore fruits of love.

And that is why the Christmas tree is an appropriate symbol for the season, provided we know what it stands for.

That is why we decorate our Christmas tree with meaningful symbols like the star, the lights, the little angels and those other ornaments that symbolize what Jesus is about and what He came to give us.

Hence our lives must also be like the beautifully decorated Christmas tree. Otherwise it has no connection to our faith.

In other words, our lives must bear good fruits, not just to show our repentance, but also to bear fruits of love for others.

Repentance is a beautiful spiritual experience when we see God’s self-sacrificing love in the beautiful mystery of the Incarnation at Christmas.

We may have heard of the story of the “Giving tree”. The story reflects the self-giving love of God at Christmas. The story:

Once there was a tree and she loved little boy. And every day the boy would come and he would gather her leaves and make them into crowns and play king of the forest. 

He would climb up her trunk and swing from her branches and when he was tired, he would sleep in her shade. 

And the boy loved the tree very much.. And the tree was happy. 
But time went by, and the boy grew older. And the tree was often alone. Then one day the boy came to the tree and the tree said: 
"Come, Boy, come and climb up my trunk and swing from my branches and eat apples and play in my shade and be "happy" 
"I am too big to climb and play" said the boy. "I want to buy things and have fun. I want some money. Can you give me some money?" 

"I'm sorry" said the tree, "but I have no money. I have only leaves and apples. Take my apples, Boy, and sell them in city. Then you will have money and you'll be happy." 

And so the boy climb up the tree and gathered her apples and carried them away. And the tree was happy... 

But the boy stayed away for a long time and the tree was sad. 
And then one day the boy came back and the tree shook with joy, and she said: "Come, Boy come and climb up my trunk and swing from my branches and eat apples and play in my shade and be "happy".. 

"I am too busy to climb trees," said the boy. "I want a house to keep me warm," he said. "I want a wife and I want children, and so I need a house. Can you give me a house?" 

"I have no house" said the tree. “The forest is my house, but you may cut off my branches and build a house. Then you will be happy" 

And so the boy cut off her branches and carried them away to build a house. And the tree was happy. 

But the boy stayed away for a long time and the tree was sad. And when he came back, the tree was so happy she could hardly speak. "Come, Boy" she whispered, "Come and play" 

"I am too old and sad to play. "said the boy. "I want a boat that will take me away from here. Can you give me a boat ?" 

"Cut down my trunk and make a boat," said the tree. "Then you can sail away and be happy." 
And so the boy cut down her trunk and made a boat and sailed away. 

And the tree was happy But not really…
And after a long time the boy came back again. 
"I am sorry, Boy, "said the tree, "but I have nothing left to give you — My apples are gone." 
"My teeth are too weak for apple, "said the boy. 
"My branches are gone," said the tree. "You cannot swing on them — " 
"I am too old to swing on branches" said the boy. 
"My trunk is gone," said the tree. "You cannot climb — " 
"I am too tired to climb," said the boy. 
"I am sorry" sighed the tree. "I wish that I could give you something. . . but I have nothing left. I am just an old stump. I am sorry..." 
"I don't need very much now" said the boy. "just a quiet place to sit and rest. I am very tired" 
"Well" said the tree, straightening herself up as much as she could, "well, an old stump is good for sitting and resting. Come, Boy, sit down... and rest." 
And the tree was happy …  (by Shel Silverstein)







God so loved the world that at Christmas, He gave us His only Son Jesus. 

On Good Friday, Jesus allowed Himself to be chopped down and reduced to a stump in order to save us.

But out of this stump, Jesus rose, and He want us to rise with Him.
Yes, to rise with repentance from our sins so as to bear good fruits, fruits of love that will bring about peace and joy.

So may our Christmas tress symbolize who Jesus is for us.
And may it also symbolize what we want to be for others.