Holy Family, Year C, 27.12.2015

Ecclesiasticus 3:2-6, 12-14 / Colossians 3:12-21 / Luke 2:41-52

Today’s feast of the Holy Family brings back for me many childhood memories, especially childhood memories about going to church.

When my siblings and I were still kids, my parents would usually bring us together as a family for Mass every Sunday.

We would go for the early morning Mass and my parents would have a hard time waking us up on Sunday mornings.

I can’t remember how but I think my family would make it in time for Mass, although my parents had to drive us out of the house as if the house was on fire!

Then at Mass, I also don’t know if we were actually praying but all I could remember is that if I was not dreaming, then I would be playing a fool.

I remembered on one occasion, I went to church with a safety pin on my shirt because a button had come off.

But during the homily, I felt bored, so I took out the safety pin and poked my brother.

Of course, we got into a bit of fight, and my mum intervened, and she “prophesied” that I would get it after Mass, and the “prophecy” was fulfilled.

Of course, besides Sunday Mass, my parents would make sure that we have our family rosary prayers every evening.

As I think about it now, I must say that it is my parents who formed my religious upbringing.

It was not easy for them to make me behave in church and to say my prayers, because I was the naughtiest of my siblings.

They were strict with me in my religious upbringing but now I really thank them for that, otherwise I would have gone way out.

No doubt they prayed for me, but I guess they never expected how far their prayers would go, especially when I became a priest!

Today’s Gospel presents us Jesus and His parents going to the Temple.

This is the only time we hear about Jesus as a 12 year-old.

Being the Holy Family does not mean that they have no worries or anxieties or problems.

In today’s gospel, we see the problem between parents and children.

It is not about who is right or wrong. Rather it is about a family going through the struggles and difficulties of life together.

Nowadays parents have a difficult time bringing up their children, especially in giving them a religious upbringing.

Getting them to come on time for Mass on Sunday is already difficult enough.

Trying to have family prayers is really challenging because of the busyness of everyone in the family.

Yet, without the religious dimension of the family life, then it is almost impossible to have family values.

The 1st reading talks about the filial piety of children but this cannot be fostered if the children have no knowledge of God.

Hence, if parents want children to respect them then they have to teach their children to respect God first and then the children will know what to do.

Parents have to be firm with their children in their religious upbringing like coming for Mass on Sundays and praying together as a family.

It is not easy especially when parents themselves are so busy and children are so independent nowadays.

But if there is to be any family love, warmth and unity, then God must be in the center of the family.

The family that prays together will stay together in difficult and challenging times.

The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph showed us in this aspect.

Mary and Joseph will   pray for us and our families that there will be love, unity, understanding, forgiveness in our families.

Yes, Mary and Joseph will pray for us but we too need to do our part.

On this feast of the Holy Family, the Archbishop William Goh has composed a “Prayer for the family in the Year of Mercy”.

In that prayer, he prayed for the healing of family brokenness through God’s mercy and forgiveness.

His prayer is inspired by what Pope Francis said about the family:
“Husband and wife, have you quarrelled? Children with parents? It’s not right, but it isn’t the problem. The problem is that this sentiment must not be there the next day... The day must never end without making peace in the family.”

Yes, we need to pray for peace in the family. But it can only come about through God’s mercy and forgiveness.

The Archbishop has given us the prayer. It is for us to decide whether we really want to pray for peace in the family.

Family peace begins with prayer. And Mother Mary and St. Joseph will be there in prayer with us for our families.

A family that prays together will stay together in peace.

4th Sunday of Advent, Year C, 20.12.2015

During this time of the year, the two words that are quite often used are “Merry Christmas”. At least it is often used in Church. And although Christmas is only five days away we just can’t wait to keep saying it, as if Christmas is already here.

But this year, another word seems to have surfaced and have come into prominence, along with the traditional “Merry Christmas”.

With the opening of the Year of Mercy on the 8th December, the word “mercy” has generated other connected terms like “Door of Mercy” and “works of mercy” and also the theme of the year “Merciful like the Father”.

But the word “mercy” seems to have dropped out of use in our everyday language. It seems to be out of fashion.

It seems to be restricted to Church language in the form of prayers and preaching. 

But now the word “mercy” is brought up into prominence and the Pope, echoing his predecessors, declared the centrality of mercy in the Church’s mission and message.

Along with that, and among other things, is the re-emphasis of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

The understanding of mercy has its foundation in the opening lines of Psalm 50 – Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness, in your compassion blot out my offence.

So mercy is expressed in two forms – kindness and compassion.
Kindness is an act of charity to those in need and compassion is sharing in the suffering of others.

And that’s what we saw in the gospel account of what is commonly known as “The Visitation”.

The gospel account began by saying that Mary set out at that time and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah to visit her cousin Elizabeth.

Certainly it was not a casual or ordinary event. Mary has just conceived Jesus in her womb and she had her own worries and anxieties to handle.

It was certainly not a time to go travelling over the country side.

But having known that her cousin Elizabeth was already in her sixth month of pregnancy, Mary knew that she must be there for her.

It was a call to an act of mercy – to show kindness to Elizabeth in her time of need, and to share in her joy and anxiety of pregnancy.

The gospel passage reminds us that there is always something that we can give, even if it is only kindness and compassion. (Anne Frank)

Because life’s most persistent and urgent question is: “What are you doing for others?” (Martin Luther King Jr) 

Some time ago, there was this rather touching and inspiring article in the papers.

A single mother Noriza A. Mansor gets only one day off a week from her job as a bedsheet promoter.

Most would use that day to rest, but she spends it looking after an old man she met by chance as he stood in a Toa Payoh supermarket soiled by his faeces.

Noriza, 49, made headlines last October when she stepped forward to help Tan Soy Yong, 76, who had soiled himself while buying groce¬ries with his wife, who was in a wheelchair.

Others had recoiled from the old man and his stench. However, Noriza not only bought him new shorts but even knelt to wipe the dried faeces off his legs – an act which moved a bystander to tears.

Since that day, she has made it a point to visit Tan for at least six hours a week at his three-room flat in Potong Pasir.

Tan has lived there alone since the start of the year when his wife, Lee Bee Yian, also 76, was hospita¬lised for cancer.

During her visits, Noriza cleans up Tan, who cannot control his bowels, and washes his soiled laundry. She also mops the floor and tidies up the flat while chatting with him in a mix of Malay and Hokkien.

Some days, she will accompany him to visit his wife in hospital.

On other days, she will take him out in his wheelchair to the hawker centre to eat his favourite wonton noodles.

“I only wish I could see him more often. Sometimes if I finish work at 8pm, I will go to see him. But I don’t always have the time,” said Noriza.

She often works 12 hours a day, taking home around S$2,000 a month. She has three sons and two daughters aged 11 to 26. Four of them still live with her.

Yet she has no qualms about ma¬¬king time for the elderly couple. “In my life, I am never tired,” she said.

Tan told her he has a son and a daughter but Noriza said that according to social workers, the couple have no children.

Noriza believes Tan was sent into her life by God, as she lost her pa¬rents when she was 21.

Her father succumbed to cancer and her mother wasted away in depression eight months later.

She said she treated the couple as “my own father and mother”.

Tan once asked her if she had a passport. “I said yes. He said when his wife is discharged, we can go on holiday together as a family.”

She smiled wistfully. “I know this kind of thing is very hard with their conditions. But of course I told him we would.”

Certainly that was a very touching and remarkable act of kindness and charity. 

It is said that kindness goes a long way. But where does it go to?
Let us remember that every act of kindness, every act of compassion, every act of mercy, is a stepping stone towards heaven. 

Every corporal and spiritual work of mercy is to make us be merciful, just as the Father is merciful.

May this Christmas be a “Merry Christmas” for us. And may this Christmas also be a “Merciful Christmas” for us as we give to others the gifts of kindness and compassion.

Have a "Merciful Christmas"

3rd Sunday of Advent, 13.12.2015

Zephaniah 3:14-18 / Philippians 4:4-7 / Luke 3:10-18

It has been said that when God closes the door, He opens a window. 

Whatever we think about that, it somehow sounds rather ridiculous.

It seems that God closes the door that we can walk through and makes us climb in through the window. Just how can God be like that?

Certainly, God is not like that! Because God never shuts a door without opening a few other doors.

God has His reasons for closing a door, but we look so long and so sadly about a closed door without realizing that there are many other open doors.

But of course, an open door is like a mystery. Because between the things that are known and the things that are unknown, there is the door.

We may have this experience of walking through a door and into a room and then we forget why we have come into the room for. 

Somehow when walking through the door, something has changed. It’s like we have entered into another dimension or into another domain.

Last Tuesday, on the 8th December, Pope Francis blessed and opened a special door at St. Peter’s Basilica. It is called the Holy Door of Mercy.

And with that he declared the opening of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, as he entered through that door.

On that same day, Archbishop William Goh also blessed the Holy Door of Mercy at the Church of Divine Mercy.

The Pope has also decreed that the following Sunday, the 3rd Sunday of Advent, in every diocese, whether at the cathedral or another church of special significance, a Door of Mercy will be opened for the duration of the Holy Year.

Our parish, the Church of the Sacred Heart, is designated as one of the five churches in Singapore to have the Holy Door of Mercy and a pilgrimage church for the Holy Year.

Today, the main door of the church is blessed and we are called to cross the threshold of the Holy Door.

But the door can only have meaning when we associate the door with Jesus, who is the Door. There is only one way that opens wide the entrance into the life of communion with God, and that is Jesus.

To pass through that door is to profess our belief that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour.

To pass through that door means that it is a decision and a choice to leave the worries and anxieties and our sinfulness behind and to enter into the divine life of God.

Our parish is designated as one of the pilgrimage churches because it is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which represents the love and mercy of God.

And more than that, we pass through the door and into the mystery of the Heart of Jesus.

In other words, we pass through the door and we enter, not just into God’s house; we enter into a divine domain, we enter into the Heart of Jesus who is full of love and mercy.

Love is what God gives us when we don’t deserve it. But because of our sins, we deserve punishment. Yet because God is merciful, He spares us from the punishment due to our sin.

But the mercy of God cannot and should not be taken for granted.
As we heard in the gospel, the people asked John the Baptist, “What must we do?” we too ask the same question – What must we do to ask for God’s mercy?

Now if we want something we never had, then we must be prepared to do something we have never done.

In this Year of Mercy, we cross the threshold of the Holy Door of this church, and we ask for the strength to embrace God’s mercy and dedicate ourselves to being merciful with others as God the Father has been merciful with us.

So we will have to relook at the corporal and spiritual works of mercy which we can find in the pamphlet printed by our parish for the Year of Mercy.

Since we are one of the pilgrimage churches, we must be prepared to provide refreshment and hospitality to the pilgrims who will be coming to our church.

We priests must be prepared to be available to hear confessions and to provide spiritual guidance and healing for those seeking God’s forgiveness.

We must quickly organize ourselves to be of service to those who will be coming to our church to make their pilgrimage.

So in the weeks to come as we plan out what to do as a pilgrimage parish, we will also ask you to come forward to serve so that we can show the face of God’s mercy.

But first and foremost, let us familiarize ourselves with the spiritual program as laid out in the pamphlet.

We ourselves must experience the mercy of God before we can lead others to experience God’s mercy.

Indeed, God has opened the door of mercy for us and inviting us to enter through it and experience mercy and in turn be heralds of God’s mercy.

This is a special year in which the doors of mercy are fully opened to everyone. Let not our sinfulness close these doors.

2nd Sunday of Advent, 06.12.2015

Baruch 5:1-9 / Philippians 1:3-6, 8-11 / Luke 3:1-6

As we are about to come to end of another year, we can begin to look back and see what were the news that made headlines.

To begin with let’s look at the local scene. In March this year, we mourned the passing of our country’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew. 

We remember the crowds that went to pay their last respects at the Parliament House and the moving and emotional funeral.

Lee Kuan Yew was certainly missed as Singapore celebrates SG50 and at the National Day Parade, the chair that he usually sat on was left empty, and a bouquet of flowers was placed on it, in remembrance of him.

Nonetheless, the SG50 celebrations was indeed an occasion to remember as our country unites itself in recalling what makes it uniquely Singaporean.

Then there was the General Elections in September which was hotly contested and we wondered about the outcome, which of course we now know already.

That was certainly enough of the local big news that we can remember and enough to say that 2015 is a happening year for Singapore.

On the international scene, there was much to recap but enough to say all will be history soon.

The gospel began with the recalling of a bit of history – “In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar’s reign, …”

And following that were the big names of that year – Pontius Pilate the governor, the tetrarchs Herod, Philip and Lysanias, the chief priests Annas and Caiaphas.

They were in big positions and in high places. It’s enough to say they were the high and mighty ones who called the shots.

Though they were high and mighty, this is what history remembers of them:
Tiberius was one of Rome's greatest generals. But he came to be remembered as a dark, reclusive, 
and somber ruler who never really desired to be emperor, and he was called "the gloomiest of men."

Pontius Pilate is best known from the biblical account of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. It was he who sentenced Jesus to be crucified. 

Herod (Antipas) is best known today for accounts in the New Testament of his role in events that led to the executions of John the Baptist and indirectly the crucifixion of Jesus.

So they were big names and they held positions of power and authority. But what they were known for was certainly nothing big to talk about.

History remembers them not for any legacy but as tragedy.

But last on that name list is John, son of Zechariah, aka John the Baptist.

What sets him apart from the earlier ones was that the Word of God came to him in the wilderness, a barren and lowly place.

John the Baptist then went through the whole Jordan district proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

He was the voice that cried out in the wilderness to prepare a way for the Lord.

Though he was eventually executed, John the Baptist left behind a legacy. He was the one who prepared the way for the Saviour by pointing out who He was.

And during the season of Advent, John the Baptist is remembered for his legacy.

During this time of the year, what we hear is “Season’s greetings” and “Happy holidays”.

But the reason for the season is none other than Jesus; Jesus is the reason for the season.

John the Baptist and his message of repentance and forgiveness of sins remind us of that.

But John the Baptist also reminded us that when the Word of God came to him, he accepted it and he did what God wanted of him. He didn’t say he was a nobody who stayed in the wilderness. He didn’t make any excuses.

He was the greatest of all prophets because he didn’t make excuses, nor compared himself with those other big names.

In fact, John the Baptist continued the legacy of the other biblical characters when the Word of God came upon them and they did what God wanted of them.

For example, Abraham was too old, Moses stuttered, Jacob was a liar, Gideon doubted, Elijah was burned out, David had an affair and even had someone killed, Isaiah had unclean lips, Jeremiah was too young, Jonah didn't like the job, Amos only knew how to prune trees, Paul was a persecutor, 
Timothy had ulcers, Lazarus was dead, Martha was a aunty-worry.

But the Word of God empowered them to rise to the occasion and become some of the greatest models of our faith.

We are to carry on this legacy of accepting the Word of God as John the Baptist and the rest of the biblical figures did.

The repentance that is required of us is to stop making excuses and to let the Word of God empower us.

Because if we want it, we will find a way. If we don’t want it, then we will find an excuse.

When we don’t make excuses, we will see the salvation of God and  the reason for the season. 

Otherwise this season will not be worth remembering.