4th Ordinary Sunday, Year A, 29.01.2017

Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13 / 1 Cor 1:26-31 / Matthew 5:1-12

Most of us wake up to the sound of an alarm clock. Maybe on Saturdays and Sundays we can sleep in and tomorrow we can also sleep in since it’s a holiday.

But on weekdays, whether it is to go to work or to school, the alarm clock will be our wake-up call.

And that can be a very challenging time as our ears and our bodies keep protesting to the sound of the alarm clock as it persistently keeps bugging us.

And depending on how we want to start the day, there are many alarm tones that we can choose from.

There are those that sound like the fire alarm, such that even the neighbours at the next block can hear it. That is usually for heavy sleepers who want it loud.

Some choose to be awaken gently and so there is the radio-alarm where we can wake up to soothing music. And then there is a range of alarm tones to choose from. 

But the most traditional alarm tone is provided by nature and it comes from the rooster. But the cock-crow is something that we don’t hear in our highly urbanized surroundings.

But the rooster, often generally termed as chicken, is not often noted for its morning call. Rather it is thought of as food: fried chicken, curry chicken, essence of chicken, chicken nuggets, chicken soup, etc.

But in the Chinese zodiac, the rooster takes on a prominence as this year is the Year of the Rooster.

And in the Bible, the rooster makes its one and only appearance, and that was in the trial of Jesus.

When Jesus was being questioned by His persecutors, Peter was nearby as he tried to see what would happen to Jesus. Then some people identified him as being associated with Jesus. At this he began to vehemently deny it, and when he denied knowing Jesus for the third time, the rooster crowed.

At that cock-crow, Jesus turned to look at Peter. And as their eyes met, Peter suddenly realized what he had done and he went away and wept bitterly.

The crowing of the humble rooster was used by God to be a wakeup call for Peter. It was for him an awakening – an awakening of a sleeping heart.

In the face of persecution, the call of the rooster revealed to Peter who he was and who Jesus is.

In the gospel, we heard a teaching from Jesus which is often called the Beatitudes. Beatitudes means blessings.

So what Jesus is saying is that when we are poor in spirit, when we are gentle, when we are merciful, when we hunger and thirst for what is right, when we are persecuted because of Jesus, we are blessed. The gospel used the word “Happy” but it means blessed. 

And that word recurs throughout the passage. (9 times)

Another word in the passage that keeps recurring is the word “shall”. That word accompanies the word “Happy” and it reinforces it by making it into a promise.

In other words, when we are gentle, when we are merciful, when we hunger and thirst for what is right, when we are persecuted because of Jesus, then we shall be blessed. 

That is the promise that Jesus is making to us, and it is He Himself who will bless us.

And that is a wakeup call for us. When we hear the teaching of the Beatitudes, we wonder about it. Because it goes against our instinct and logic to think that by giving way, by not retaliating, by being humble, by being kind, we will be blessed.

We would be more inclined to go by the ways of the world and to go with the flow by keeping quiet and looking away from injustice and staying out of trouble, by playing safe, by going for what is advantageous and profitable to us.

But the Beatitudes keep calling us to us that when we follow the Way of Jesus, we will be blessed and rise from what the world can give us to what Jesus want to give us.

There’s a story of a chicken farmer who found an eagle’s egg. He put it with his chickens and soon the egg hatched.

The baby eagle grew up with all the other chickens and learned to imitate the chickens. He would scratch the ground for worms. He grew up thinking he was a chicken.

Since the chickens could only fly for a short distance, the eagle also learnt to fly a short distance.

He thought that was what he was supposed to do. So that was all that he thought he could do.  As a consequence, that was all he was able to do.

One day the eagle saw a bird flying high above him. He was very impressed. “Who is that?” he asked the chickens around him.

“That’s the eagle, the king of the birds,” the chickens told him. “He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth, we are just chickens.”

So the eagle lived and died as a chicken, for that’s what he thought he was. Or maybe he ended up as fried chicken or curry chicken.
So as the Lunar New Year begins with the Year of the Rooster, let us also hear the awakening call from Jesus. 

We are not called to be of this world, to be like mere chickens that scratch the ground for worms.

But we are called to lift up our minds and hearts and lives to God so that we can stretch our wings of blessings and soar high with God’s love.

Yes, that is what God is calling us to and that is what He wants of us.

St. Peter heard it and he became who God wanted him to be.

May we too hear God’s call and become who God wants us to be.

May the New Year bring about God’s blessings so that we will stretch out our wings and proclaim God’s wonderful love for us.
May we firmly believe in the promise of Jesus in the Beatitudes and receive blessings upon blessings.

3rd Ordinary Sunday, Year A, 22.01.2017

Isaiah 8:23 – 9:3 / 1 Cor 1:10-13, 17 / Matthew 4:12-23

Life is kind of strange and it has its absurdities. At times it sounds like a serious joke, and we can choose to laugh at it, but at times it can also make us frown and we wonder why it is like that.

For example, why does round pizza come in a square box? Why is it that people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?

Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are flat? Why do banks charge a fee on 'insufficient funds' when they know that there is already not enough money?

Enough of examples to tell us that we live in a strange world that at times look rather absurd.

There is this story that one day an elephant decided to go for a nice bath in the river. No sooner had he gone into the water when a little mouse ran up and down the river bank demanding that the elephant get out of the water.

The elephant protested and asked what the problem was. The little mouse was adamant that the elephant had to get out of the water first and then he would tell him.

The elephant gave in and got out of the water. Then the little mouse said: So sorry, Mr. Elephant. I was just checking. Someone took my swimming trunks and I was just checking if it was you who was wearing it.

That sounds like an absurd joke. But the strange thing here is that sometimes it takes a joke to bring out a point, or the moral of the story. And the moral of the story is this: 
It is easier to think that an elephant can fit into the swimming trunks of a mouse than for God’s plan to enter into the human heart. 

In other words, we can accept the absurdities of life more easily than we can accept the mysteries of God’s plan for us.

In the gospel, we heard about the beginnings of the ministry of Jesus. He heard that John the Baptist had been arrested and He went back to Galilee and settled in the lakeside town of Capernaum.

As He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He called His first disciples – Peter and Andrew, and James and John – and all four of them were fishermen.

And that sounds like a joke already. Just what kind of strategy was that? If the mission was going to be anything serious and successful, then Jesus would need professionals and not amateurs. 

More so when it was about the proclamation of Good News of the Kingdom and curing all kinds of diseases and sickness among the people. He would need the media and communications people, as well as doctors and health care specialists on board.

But fishermen? Is there something that we have missed?

The gospel quoted a prophecy that was taken from the 1st reading: The people that lived in darkness has seen a great light; on those who dwell in the land and shadow of death, a light has dawned.
Yes, it was a great light, so great that it didn’t look normal; it looked strange and absurd. But for those that it beckoned and called, the light shines and reveals.

So it was for Peter and Andrew, for James and John, and for all those who follow the light that shines in a strange and absurd world.

One of those who followed the light was Vietnamese Cardinal Francois-Xavier Nguyen van Thuan (1928-2002)
detained by the Communist Government of Vietnam in 1975 in a reeducation camp for 13 years, 9 of them in solitary confinement.

To his non-Catholic fellow prisoners, who were curious to know how he could maintain his hope, he answered: "I have left everything to follow Jesus, because I love the defects (or absurdities) of Jesus."

Nguyen van Thuan said: "During his agony on the cross, when the thief asked him to remember him when he arrived in his Kingdom … had it been me, I would have replied: 'I will not forget you, but you must expiate your crimes in purgatory.' However, Jesus replied: 'Today you shall be with me in paradise.' He had forgotten that man's sins. Jesus does not have a memory, He does not remember sins, He just forgives everyone."

"Jesus does not know mathematics. This is demonstrated in the parable of the good shepherd. He had 100 sheep, one is lost and without hesitating he went to look for it, leaving the other 99 in the sheepfold. For Jesus, one is as valuable as 99, or even more so."

Jesus doesn’t know logic. Van Thuan’s evidence for this “defect” is the story of the woman who loses one of her ten silver pieces and who, upon finding it calls all her friends to celebrate with her. The celebration must have cost more than that one silver piece, perhaps even more than ten silver pieces. This, Van Thuan suggests, is completely illogical, except to the strange logic of the heart of Jesus.

He also said that Jesus is a risk-taker, a man with a publicity campaign that to human eyes is “doomed to failure.” A promise of trials and persecutions for those who follow him. No guarantee of food or lodging, only a share of His own way of life. “Jesus is the risk-taker for the love of the Father and of humanity, is a paradox from beginning to end, even for us who have become used to hearing it.”

Finally, Jesus doesn’t understand finance or economics, as evidenced by the story of the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Van Thuan points out that if Jesus were named the administrator of a community or the director of a business, the institutions would surely fail and go bankrupt. How can anyone pay someone who began working at 5:00pm the very same wages paid to the other person who has been working since early morning? Yet Jesus does.

Archbishop Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan also recalled.
"One day, one of the prison guards asked me: 'Do you love us?'" I answered: 'Yes, I love you.'
"'We have kept you shut in for so many years and you love us? I don't believe it ...'
"I then reminded him: 'I have spent many years with you. You have seen it and know it is true.' The guard asked me: 'When you are freed, will you send your faithful to burn our homes and kill our relatives?' 
'No, although you might want to kill me, I love you.' "Why?' the guard insisted. "Because Jesus has taught me to love everyone, even my enemies. If I don't do this, I am not worthy to bear the name Christian. Jesus said: 'Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.'
'This is very beautiful, but very hard to understand,' the guard replied.

Indeed Jesus is hard to understand. To some, He is strange and absurd. To others, He is a light that is too bright to look at.

To us, He calls and beckons us to follow Him and His light will guide us through this strange and absurd world. 

We may look like “crack-pots” to follow Jesus. But only when there is crack that the light can shine in.

2nd Ordinary Sunday, Year A, 15.01.2017

Isaiah 49:3, 5-6 / 1 Cor 1:1-3 / John 1:29-34

According to the Chinese zodiac, this is the tail end of the Year of the Monkey. The Year of the Monkey began last year with the Chinese New Year and will end with the coming Chinese New Year.

As some will say, monkey business is coming to an end.

Of all the animals in the Chinese zodiac, the monkey is considered the most intelligent. 

And there is some theory that says that human beings were evolved from apes. Hmmm … if that is true, then why are there still apes?  ;)

But let us not go to that topic. No matter how intelligent the monkey is, it is certainly not a match against human intelligence.

The natives of an island have a way to catch monkeys in a very unusual way. 

Most of the monkeys are sold to zoos, so the hunters avoid using ordinary traps which can cause disfiguring injuries. Instead, they hollow out a football-sized coconut, leaving a hole in one end just big enough for a monkey to slip in its hand. Inside the hollowed-out coconut, the hunters put delicious green bananas, the monkey's favorite food. Then they fasten a chain to the other end of the coconut to a nearby tree. 

A monkey will pick up the baited coconut, put its hand through the hole in one end, and clutch the bananas inside with its fist. 

However, when it tries to pull out the delicious fruit, it quickly discovers that the hole in the coconut is too small for it to withdraw its banana-filled hand. All the monkey has to do to escape is open its fist and let go of the bananas. Then it can easily pull out its hand.

But the greedy monkey almost never does the logical thing. It tries to carry off the coconut, but of course, it is chained securely to a tree. It struggles, it screams, it rages, it tugs and pulls at the coconut until it is exhausted. Then the hunters come to put a sack over the monkey who's been caught by its own fist.

The monkey could, of course, let go of the bananas and run before getting caught. But it hangs on to the bananas until the sack goes over its head. Why? Because the banana has value to the monkey and the monkey is unwilling to let go of that value. So unwilling that it gets trapped for it. 

So much for a monkey trap. So even though the monkey can be quite intelligent, it can still fall for a simple trap.

In the gospel, when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming towards him, John said: Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.

John the Baptist was called the greatest of all the prophets because it was he who pointed out the Lamb of God, the Saviour of the world.

But before Jesus came onto the scene, John the Baptist had the people in his hand. He preached about repentance, he baptized people, and the people even thought that he was the Saviour.

But when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming towards him, he had to make a choice. He could look away and hold on to the limelight and the attention that he was getting from the people.

But he made the choice to let go and to be freed from the clutches of pride and ego. It was in letting go that he was able to point out the Lamb of God.

Therein lies his greatness. He was humble enough to let go and make way for Jesus when He appeared.

There is one statement from John the Baptist that expressed his understanding of the whole matter. He said: A man can lay claim only to what is given to him from above (Jn 3:27).

Indeed, we can only have what is given to us from above. As for the rest, we will have to let go.

It is only in letting go that we can be freed from the trap of the clutches of our own hand.

We have an intelligence higher than that of the monkey, and yet we often fall into the trap like how the monkey is trapped by the banana in the coconut.

John the Baptist said that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

So what is this sin that he is talking about? Certainly when it comes to sin in its broadest understanding, it is what separates us from God.

And when we look at how John the Baptist was able to let go of himself and point out Jesus as the Lamb of God, then we can see particular strand of sin is self-obsession. 

There is this story of the last three wishes of Alexander the Great. After conquering many kingdoms, he was returning home. On the way, he fell ill and it took him to his death bed. With death staring him in his face, Alexander realized how his conquests, his great army, his sharp sword and all his wealth were of no consequence. 

So, the mighty conqueror lay prostrate and pale, helplessly waiting to breathe his last.

He called his generals and said, "I will depart from this world soon, I have three wishes, please carry them out without fail.”

1) "My first desire is that", said Alexander, "My physicians alone must" carry my coffin."

2) After a pause, he continued, "Secondly, I desire that when my coffin is being carried to the grave, the path leading to the graveyard be strewn with gold, silver and precious stones which I have collected in my treasury".

3) "My third and last wish is that both my hands be kept dangling out of my coffin".

Alexander's favorite general asked, "O king, we assure you that all your wishes will be fulfilled. But tell us why do you make such strange wishes?"

At this Alexander took a deep breath and said: "I would like the world to know of the three lessons I have just learnt. Lessons to be learnt from last 3 wishes of King Alexander. I want my physicians to carry my coffin because people should realize that no doctor on this earth can save a person from the clutches of death. So let not people take life for granted.

The second wish of strewing gold, silver and other riches on the path to the graveyard is to tell people that not even a fraction of gold will come with me. I spent all my life greedy for power, earning riches but cannot take anything with me. Let people realize that it is a sheer waste of time to chase wealth.

About my third wish of having my hands dangling out of the coffin, I wish people to know that I came empty handed into this world and empty handed I go out of this world". With these words, the king closed his eyes, and death conquered him and he breathed his last.

What you do for yourself, dies with you. But what you do for others will live forever. John the Baptist showed us how to let go so as to point out Jesus to others. May we do likewise. 

Epiphany, Year A, 08.01.2017

Isaiah 60:1-6 / Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6 / Matthew 2:1-12

By now we would have already opened up all our Christmas presents. 

If we were not surprised by the presents that we got, then we may not be aware of Murphy’s principle about Christmas presents – “we always get the most of what we need the least”. And maybe there is also another one – we never get what we want. The irony of Christmas presents.

Nonetheless, it is still quite exciting to tear away the wrappers and see what is the gift, even though we may already know that it is a box of chocolates, or a bottle of wine, or a shirt, or several pairs of socks, (seems like I am talking about what I got for presents …)

Anyway if we got our presents before Christmas Day, would we wait for that day to open our presents? Well, we should, but being pragmatic Singaporeans, we would open up the presents before Christmas Day and then see if we can “recycle” those presents!

But the spirit of Christmas is to give something precious isn’t it? 

A 5-year-old boy was telling his 3-year-old brother: “Let’s play Christmas. I’ll be Santa Claus and you’ll be a present, and I’ll give you away.” So much about giving away something precious …

To put it business-like, the deadline for giving Christmas presents is Christmas Day. 

Nonetheless, belated Christmas presents are still welcomed, but don’t wait till next Christmas.

Although it is not stated anywhere, but the last day for giving Christmas presents would be today, on the feast of Epiphany.

Today the Nativity Scene is a little more crowded than on Christmas Day because of three additional figurines. The three wise men have finally appeared, together with their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

And their appearance is really a contrast to the rest of the figurines in the Nativity Scene. They have crowns on their heads, their robes are royal and elegant, their gifts are exotic and mystical.

These three wise men (let’s just take it at three) capture our attention, and they also stir up our imagination, and they also lead us on to a reflection.

Although they appeared at the end of the Christmas season, their journey actually began much earlier and they would give us something to think about at the start of Advent.

They saw a star, it was “His star” in their own words, and they began the journey to look for the infant king of the Jews.

The star stirred them to go on a journey of a search and to look for this king of the Jews. But it was not a straight-forward journey on first-class.

Because it meant crossing the harsh desert sands to Israel to look for this king.

Also the directions were not clear for them. The star was not there for them all the time. They had no clear indication of where the infant king of the Jews was. 

They came to Jerusalem thinking He was there. King Herod came to know who they were looking for and he schemed to make use of them to get to know the whereabouts of this infant king of the Jews.

Unlike the shepherds who had a vision of angels and were told in detail how and where to look for Jesus, the wise men had to be redirected to Bethlehem.

And it was in the final stages of their search that the star appeared again to lead them to their destination.

The wise men presented gifts of symbolic and mystical meaning. Gold points to the kingship of Jesus; incense points to the divinity of Jesus; and myrrh points to the humanity of Jesus. 

But the wise men are also gifts to us because we see in them the aspects of our faith. Our faith is one of searching and it also entails a struggling.

We too search of answers to our prayers. We search for answers to quell our doubts. We struggle with the fundamental questions of sickness, suffering and death, with hurting and broken relationships, with terrorism and wars and hunger and poverty, and recession and retrenchment. 

We search for answers to the things that say that there can’t be a God, if God is the one who allows miscarriages and babies to be born with severe defects and illness.

We struggle with the anxiety and worry of job security, financial security and emotional security.

Yes, we search and we struggle for the answers to life and its burdens, challenges and difficulties.

The wise men also had to search and struggle for answers and directions.

But they appear in this feast of Epiphany with a message for us. Epiphany means revelation. 

And their message for us is this: You will face your greatest opposition when you are closest to your greatest revelation.

Yes, like the wise men, we will face our darkness, our uncertainties, the Herods who will manipulate us.

But on this feast of Epiphany, the wise men had this message for us – they found what they are looking for; they found who they were looking for.

And so will we. Jesus will reveal Himself to us. That is His promise to us on this feast of Epiphany.