Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15 / 1 Cor 10:1-6, 10-12 / Luke 13:1-9
Let’s begin with a question, and the question is this: Which Christian denomination (or which Church) appears most in movies and is the topic for stories in the newspapers?
If the answer isn’t obvious, then maybe these movies may jog our memory – The Exorcist; Da Vinci Code; Angels and Demons; Sister Act; The Sound of Music
Yes, all these movies have their themes around the Catholic Church or that the Church is used as a background.
So for better or for worse, whenever a Church is featured in a movie, it is most likely the Catholic Church, maybe because it has history as well as mystery.
And if no news is good news, then it may not be the case with the Catholic Church.
Every now and then, there are stories and articles written about the Catholic Church in the papers, some of which are inspiring while some are disturbing.
And in that sense, the Catholic Church is a bit like what we heard in today’s gospel.
We heard that some people came and told Jesus something that is rather disturbing – some Galileans were killed and Pilate had their blood mingled with that of their sacrifices.
And Jesus in turn had something disturbing to tell them – those eighteen people who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them.
Those were rather disturbing and uncomfortable discussions that we would rather not want to think about them and we might even wonder why they were in the gospel in the first place.
But the parable that Jesus told after that would put all those disturbing and uncomfortable topics in their context.
The parable about the fig tree that was not bearing fruit left the conclusion rather open-ended. So did the fig tree eventually bore fruit, or did it get chopped down?
Although there was no apparent conclusion, there was a message – the man who looked after the vineyard appealed for more time to work on the fig tree.
That gives us a glimpse of the mercy of God, which does not just give us a second chance but a series of chances for repentance.
And that’s the good news in the midst of the disturbing and uncomfortable news that we heard in the gospel.
And talking about disturbing and uncomfortable news, in last Sunday’s papers, there was an article that brought up something eerie and diabolic in which the Catholic Church was somewhat involved.
It was dubbed as the “Toa Payoh ritual murders that took place in 1981.
Singaporeans were shocked at the grisly, gruesome and horrible murders of two children in Toa Payoh within a fortnight.
But the murders and subsequent arrests of three persons drastically affected especially the Good Shepherd Sisters, who run schools, a vocational centre for girls and a shelter for women.
They knew the first victim, a nine-year-old girl, whose family were devout Catholics. And when the police arrested three people for killing the two children, the sisters were distressed to learn that one of the suspects was Catherine Tan Mui Choo, who had attended their Marymount Vocational Centre.
As the sensational case unfolded before the court, Singaporeans heard terrible details of trickery, sexual abuse, rape, violence and rituals.
When Adrian, Catherine and Adrian's 25-year-old mistress Hoe Kah Hong were sentenced to hang on May 23 1983, one of the nuns, Sister Gerard felt she had to act quickly.
She asked for and got permission to meet Catherine on death row, but only if she was willing to meet her, so she wrote her a letter right away and included a prayer card.
She waited for six months before a reply came.
The first words were: 'Sister, how could you love me after what I have done?' And she signed her letter, 'Your black sheep, Catherine.' Sr. Gerared immediately went and got permission to see her.
Sister Gerard would go to Catherine's cell each week and stay half an hour. She was not allowed to enter the cell, but the two women would hold hands and chat and pray and sing hymns together.
One day, Catherine asked to make her confession, and after that, her life changed. Catherine spent hours in prayer, and looked forward to the times when the priest would come and say the Mass in front of her cell and she received the Eucharist.
Later on, the other woman, Kah Hong asked to see Sr. Gerard too, and Kah Hong eventually asked to be baptised a Catholic and she took the name Geraldine.
And then they began to pray for Adrian’s conversion. During all those time (about 7 years), Adrian had refused to see a counsellor.
But it was not until one week before the executions that Adrian asked to see the priest. Adrian then asked for confession and communion.
So despite the gruesome, grisly and evil deeds committed by them, they eventually turned back to God and God in His mercy and compassion granted them forgiveness.
They had to pay with their lives for the wrong that they committed, but they repented and that’s the good news.
The parable of the fig tree and the man who asked for time, tells us that God is merciful and compassionate.
God does not just give us a second chance; God gives us a series of chances and waits patiently for our repentance
May we not take God’s patience for granted but repent and turn away from our sins, and by our repentance may we, the Catholic Church give the world the good news of God’s love and mercy.
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Saturday, February 13, 2016
1st Sunday of Lent, Year C, 14.02.2016
Deuteronomy 24:4-10 / Romans 10:8-13 / Luke 4:1-13
It can be said that everyone has two eyes but no one has the same view.
The fact is that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.
This can be said of how Valentine’s Day came about, since today is the day and it’s good to know something about it.
The Catholic Church recognises at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.
One story has it that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he saw marriage as an obstacle and so he outlawed marriage for young men.
Valentine saw the injustice of the decree, and he defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.
When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
That’s one account of how Valentine’s Day came about. So it was about two men who had two different views about love and marriage.
One view withstood the test of time and sensibility, while the other faded off into absurdity. It’s not just two different views, but also two opposing and contradictory views.
By and large, it can be said that the world is made up of two sorts of people – those who love and create, and those who hate and destroy.
Putting it simply, we can say that the world is made up of good and bad people.
As in the case of St. Valentine and the emperor Claudius, the bad will try to put down the good, as the good tries to stand for what is right and just.
We see this again in the gospel account of the temptation of Jesus.
In his attempts to tempt Jesus, the devil takes on the ultimate spiritual battle of trying to destroy Jesus and the good that He stood for.
The devil tried to fool Jesus to believe in what isn’t true. But Jesus turned the temptation into a teaching of what is true.
As for us, we are presented with these two opposing views and we have to decide which to believe and follow.
There is a story of a famous writer was in his study room. He picked up his pen and started writing:
“Last year, I had a surgery and my gallbladder was removed. I had to stay stuck to the bed due to this surgery for a long time.
The same year I reached the age of 60 years and had to give up my favourite job.
I had spent 30 years of my life in this publishing company.
The same year I experienced the sorrow of the death of my father.
And in the same year my son failed in his medical exam because he had a car accident. He had to stay in bed at hospital with the cast on for several days. The destruction of car was another loss.
At the end he wrote: Alas! It was such bad year!! ”
When the writer's wife entered the room, she found her husband looking sad and lost in his thoughts. From behind his back she read what was written on the paper. She left the room silently and came back with another paper and placed it on the side of her husband's writing.
When the writer saw this paper, he found this written on it:
“Last year I finally got rid of my gall bladder due to which I had spent years in pain.
I turned 60 with sound health and got retired from my job. Now I can utilize my time to write something better with more focus and peace.
The same year my father, at the age of 95, without depending on anyone or without any critical medical condition went peacefully to meet his Creator.
The same year, God blessed my son with a new life. My car was destroyed but my son stayed alive without getting any disability.
At the end she wrote: This year was an immense blessing of God and it passed well!! ”
The incidents are the same but the viewpoints are different. What point of view we take is certainly our choice.
Certainly, we should fear temptations, but then again, fear can have two meanings.
F-E-A-R can mean Forget-Everything-And-Run. Or it can also mean Face-Everything-And-Rise.
It’s for us to decide and choose.
Jesus faced His temptations and rose with the truth.
May we also face our temptations and realize that we do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
May we worship the Lord our God and serve Him alone.
May that be our choice and our decision.
It can be said that everyone has two eyes but no one has the same view.
The fact is that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.
This can be said of how Valentine’s Day came about, since today is the day and it’s good to know something about it.
The Catholic Church recognises at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.
One story has it that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he saw marriage as an obstacle and so he outlawed marriage for young men.
Valentine saw the injustice of the decree, and he defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.
When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
That’s one account of how Valentine’s Day came about. So it was about two men who had two different views about love and marriage.
One view withstood the test of time and sensibility, while the other faded off into absurdity. It’s not just two different views, but also two opposing and contradictory views.
By and large, it can be said that the world is made up of two sorts of people – those who love and create, and those who hate and destroy.
Putting it simply, we can say that the world is made up of good and bad people.
As in the case of St. Valentine and the emperor Claudius, the bad will try to put down the good, as the good tries to stand for what is right and just.
We see this again in the gospel account of the temptation of Jesus.
In his attempts to tempt Jesus, the devil takes on the ultimate spiritual battle of trying to destroy Jesus and the good that He stood for.
The devil tried to fool Jesus to believe in what isn’t true. But Jesus turned the temptation into a teaching of what is true.
As for us, we are presented with these two opposing views and we have to decide which to believe and follow.
There is a story of a famous writer was in his study room. He picked up his pen and started writing:
“Last year, I had a surgery and my gallbladder was removed. I had to stay stuck to the bed due to this surgery for a long time.
The same year I reached the age of 60 years and had to give up my favourite job.
I had spent 30 years of my life in this publishing company.
The same year I experienced the sorrow of the death of my father.
And in the same year my son failed in his medical exam because he had a car accident. He had to stay in bed at hospital with the cast on for several days. The destruction of car was another loss.
At the end he wrote: Alas! It was such bad year!! ”
When the writer's wife entered the room, she found her husband looking sad and lost in his thoughts. From behind his back she read what was written on the paper. She left the room silently and came back with another paper and placed it on the side of her husband's writing.
When the writer saw this paper, he found this written on it:
“Last year I finally got rid of my gall bladder due to which I had spent years in pain.
I turned 60 with sound health and got retired from my job. Now I can utilize my time to write something better with more focus and peace.
The same year my father, at the age of 95, without depending on anyone or without any critical medical condition went peacefully to meet his Creator.
The same year, God blessed my son with a new life. My car was destroyed but my son stayed alive without getting any disability.
At the end she wrote: This year was an immense blessing of God and it passed well!! ”
The incidents are the same but the viewpoints are different. What point of view we take is certainly our choice.
Certainly, we should fear temptations, but then again, fear can have two meanings.
F-E-A-R can mean Forget-Everything-And-Run. Or it can also mean Face-Everything-And-Rise.
It’s for us to decide and choose.
Jesus faced His temptations and rose with the truth.
May we also face our temptations and realize that we do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
May we worship the Lord our God and serve Him alone.
May that be our choice and our decision.
Saturday, February 6, 2016
5th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 07.02.2016
Isaiah 6:1-8 / 1 Cor 15:1-11 / Luke 5:1-11
When we walk through the main entrance of the church, we may have noticed quite a few things there.
Of course we can’t miss that big statue of the Sacred Heart at the side. Standing at the side, it seems to be saying “Hello” when we come in and “Goodbye” as we go out.
And then there is a table with the “Year of Mercy” pilgrimage pamphlets and information.
And then lately, about more a week ago, we added something else.
There is another table with an acrylic box and a holder with green-coloured slips of paper by its side.
That box is for petitions to the Sacred Heart and the green-coloured slips of paper are petition slips for us to write our petitions. Of course there are pencils there as well for us to write our petitions.
Just over a week and the petition box is already almost full. About 500 petition slips and almost all are used up and hence the need to print more already.
And on the 1st Friday Mass the petitions in the petition box are offered up and prayed for.
Going by the petitions that are already in the petition box it can be said that people don’t pray only when they are in trouble.
Because when we only pray when we are in trouble, then it may mean that we are already in big trouble.
Nonetheless, trouble and desperation will make us pray. There is even a “Student’s Desperate Prayer” that goes like this: "Now I lay me down to rest, And hope to pass tomorrow's test. If I should die before I wake, Then that’s the test I don’t have to take."
But prayer is not a “spare wheel” that we pull out when we are in trouble, but a “steering wheel” to direct us along the right path.
And when prayers go up, blessings come down. But if we heard of “blessings in disguise” then we must also be prepared that when our prayers go up, then the blessings might come down as a surprise.
In the 1st reading, the prophet Isaiah began with a prayer of mourning over the king’s passing, but what came down was a vision that resulted in his commissioning when he responded “Here I am, send me.”
In the 2nd reading, St. Paul recounted how he was a persecutor of the Church before his conversion. He probably prayed for success in his persecution. But would he ever think that he would change from persecuting the Good News to preaching the Good News?
And in the gospel, Peter would had probably prayed for fish, since he worked hard all night and caught nothing. But would he ever think that from catching fish for a living, he would be catching men for the Lord?
So when prayers go up, blessings come down. And when those blessings come down, they might come down in disguise and they will also come down as a surprise.
For Isaiah, St. Paul and St. Peter, they started off with their own prayers, and the blessings that came down, came as a surprise.
So when we pray, a surprise will be awaiting us. And it might just be that we will be the answer to someone else’s prayer.
There is a story of a pretty and well-dressed lady who went to see a lawyer to file for divorce.
Her husband used to be a successful businessman, and he was able to support her expensive and lavish life-style.
But when his business failed, his wife couldn’t take it and decided to file for divorce and leave him.
When the lawyer heard her story, he told her that he would like someone to speak to her, and he called in a middle-aged office cleaner.
The lawyer asked the cleaner to tell the lady how she found meaning and direction in her life.
The cleaner’s story went like this – My husband died of cancer in his late 30s, and then barely half a year later, my only son was killed in a road accident.
I had nobody left and nothing to live for. I was in grief and in shock and in a daze. I couldn’t sleep and couldn’t eat.
I couldn’t smile. I was angry with God and resented those people who seemed so happy in life. I even thought of ending my life.
One day when I came back from work, there was a scrawny kitten at the corridor, meowing away, and it followed me to the door.
I felt sorry for the kitten, and I decided to let it in and I gave it some milk. It purred and rubbed against my leg.
For the first time in months, I smiled. Then I stopped to think. If helping and feeding a little kitten can make me smile, then maybe helping somebody in need can make me happy.
So the next day, I cooked some food and brought it to a neighbour who was elderly and sick, and it made her happy.
So every day, I would try to do something nice for someone else and it made me happy to see them happy.
I realized that a person cannot be happy unless he is thinking of how much he can help others, instead of thinking about how much he can get from others.
Now I eat well, and I sleep well, and I am happy.
And then the cleaner said to the lady: I hope that you can be happy too, by helping others to be happy.
Whether the lady changed her mind or not, the story leaves it to us to think about it.
But the point of the story is that the poor cleaner found happiness by helping others to be happy.
She prayed for happiness and found it by helping others to be happy.
So when prayers of petition are offered up, blessings in disguise and blessings of surprise are awaiting us.
And it will help us change our own perspectives to see how God wants us to be an answer and a blessing to others.
Often we feel bad when others remember us only when they need us. But actually we should feel blessed because we are like a candle that comes to their mind when there is darkness.
So we pray, and offer up our prayer and petitions. And like Isaiah, St. Paul and St. Peter, let us be prepared to be God’s answer and blessing for others.
When we walk through the main entrance of the church, we may have noticed quite a few things there.
 |
| This life-size statue of The Sacred Heart has been with our Church since 1910. |
And then there is a table with the “Year of Mercy” pilgrimage pamphlets and information.
And then lately, about more a week ago, we added something else.
There is another table with an acrylic box and a holder with green-coloured slips of paper by its side.
That box is for petitions to the Sacred Heart and the green-coloured slips of paper are petition slips for us to write our petitions. Of course there are pencils there as well for us to write our petitions.
Just over a week and the petition box is already almost full. About 500 petition slips and almost all are used up and hence the need to print more already.
And on the 1st Friday Mass the petitions in the petition box are offered up and prayed for.
Going by the petitions that are already in the petition box it can be said that people don’t pray only when they are in trouble.
Because when we only pray when we are in trouble, then it may mean that we are already in big trouble.
Nonetheless, trouble and desperation will make us pray. There is even a “Student’s Desperate Prayer” that goes like this: "Now I lay me down to rest, And hope to pass tomorrow's test. If I should die before I wake, Then that’s the test I don’t have to take."
But prayer is not a “spare wheel” that we pull out when we are in trouble, but a “steering wheel” to direct us along the right path.
And when prayers go up, blessings come down. But if we heard of “blessings in disguise” then we must also be prepared that when our prayers go up, then the blessings might come down as a surprise.
In the 1st reading, the prophet Isaiah began with a prayer of mourning over the king’s passing, but what came down was a vision that resulted in his commissioning when he responded “Here I am, send me.”
In the 2nd reading, St. Paul recounted how he was a persecutor of the Church before his conversion. He probably prayed for success in his persecution. But would he ever think that he would change from persecuting the Good News to preaching the Good News?
And in the gospel, Peter would had probably prayed for fish, since he worked hard all night and caught nothing. But would he ever think that from catching fish for a living, he would be catching men for the Lord?
So when prayers go up, blessings come down. And when those blessings come down, they might come down in disguise and they will also come down as a surprise.
For Isaiah, St. Paul and St. Peter, they started off with their own prayers, and the blessings that came down, came as a surprise.
So when we pray, a surprise will be awaiting us. And it might just be that we will be the answer to someone else’s prayer.
There is a story of a pretty and well-dressed lady who went to see a lawyer to file for divorce.
Her husband used to be a successful businessman, and he was able to support her expensive and lavish life-style.
But when his business failed, his wife couldn’t take it and decided to file for divorce and leave him.
When the lawyer heard her story, he told her that he would like someone to speak to her, and he called in a middle-aged office cleaner.
The lawyer asked the cleaner to tell the lady how she found meaning and direction in her life.
The cleaner’s story went like this – My husband died of cancer in his late 30s, and then barely half a year later, my only son was killed in a road accident.
I had nobody left and nothing to live for. I was in grief and in shock and in a daze. I couldn’t sleep and couldn’t eat.
I couldn’t smile. I was angry with God and resented those people who seemed so happy in life. I even thought of ending my life.
One day when I came back from work, there was a scrawny kitten at the corridor, meowing away, and it followed me to the door.
I felt sorry for the kitten, and I decided to let it in and I gave it some milk. It purred and rubbed against my leg.
For the first time in months, I smiled. Then I stopped to think. If helping and feeding a little kitten can make me smile, then maybe helping somebody in need can make me happy.
So the next day, I cooked some food and brought it to a neighbour who was elderly and sick, and it made her happy.
So every day, I would try to do something nice for someone else and it made me happy to see them happy.
I realized that a person cannot be happy unless he is thinking of how much he can help others, instead of thinking about how much he can get from others.
Now I eat well, and I sleep well, and I am happy.
And then the cleaner said to the lady: I hope that you can be happy too, by helping others to be happy.
Whether the lady changed her mind or not, the story leaves it to us to think about it.
But the point of the story is that the poor cleaner found happiness by helping others to be happy.
She prayed for happiness and found it by helping others to be happy.
So when prayers of petition are offered up, blessings in disguise and blessings of surprise are awaiting us.
And it will help us change our own perspectives to see how God wants us to be an answer and a blessing to others.
Often we feel bad when others remember us only when they need us. But actually we should feel blessed because we are like a candle that comes to their mind when there is darkness.
So we pray, and offer up our prayer and petitions. And like Isaiah, St. Paul and St. Peter, let us be prepared to be God’s answer and blessing for others.
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