4th Sunday of Lent, Year C, 31.03.2019

Joshua 5:9-12 / 2 Cor 5:17-21 / Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Generally speaking, human beings have five senses – sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch.

These five senses provide the brain with the necessary data for perception and interaction with the surroundings.

Then there is the sixth sense, which may be termed as intuition, or it could be some kind of awareness that cannot be explained in terms of normal perception. 

Of course what must not be forgotten is “common sense” which we are supposed to have but somehow we seem to be unaware of it or we don’t seem to use it that much.

Common sense tells us what is obvious about life but somehow we don’t pay much attention to it.

For example, no matter how tall we are, we won’t be able to see what is going to happen tomorrow.

No matter how big a car we drive, we still need to walk to the bed.

Yes, that is the common sense about the reality of life, but somehow our awareness and our perception of it seem to get dimmed by the busyness and anxieties of life.

And that’s why we need to be constantly reminded of the basic common realities of life, the “common sense” of life so to speak, because we do forget and then we let “nonsense” be the direction of our lives.

The gospel begins by saying that the tax-collectors and sinners were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what He had to say. 

But why did those sinners want to seek the company of Jesus and hear what He had to say?

Could it be that they realise that their way of life is not making any sense and that what Jesus was saying was bringing them back to their senses and awakening in them the love of God for them?

The parable that Jesus told, often called the parable of the Prodigal Son, may seem rather irrational and even nonsensical. But that’s the purpose of a parable, because a parable is about a divine revelation in a human situation.

So it is not the divine revelation that is irrational or nonsensical. Rather it is the human situation that is irrational and nonsensical.

What the younger son did was totally irrational and nonsensical. He asked for his share of the property and he got it. He did the stupid thing of leaving his father for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.

And when he was totally down and out, he did the unthinkable of going against his Jewish tradition of hiring himself out to look after pigs.

But it was in that pigsty that all his senses rebelled against him – the sight, the stench, the sound, the filth and the hunger – and then, as the parable puts it, he came to his senses.

And as his senses awakened, common sense and all, he decided to leave that place and go back to his father.

We may have heard this parable countless of times, but we have to admit that what the father did was very surprising and unexpected.

And this is the divine revelation in the human situation. No matter how gravely we have sinned or how far we have turned away from God, God is like the father who saw his son while he was still a long way off and ran to him, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly.

Indeed, that is God’s revelation in a human situation, and that may also leave us with a question. Can it be possible that God can forgive just like that? Maybe it is possible for God but not for us.

Because forgiveness is so difficult. And even if we can forgive, then we still cannot forget. 

That was what the Pharisees were saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” They cannot accept sinners, much less forgive them.

That’s also the elder son, when he said, “This son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing your property … “ The elder son can’t forgive his younger brother.

But unforgiveness is actually irrational and nonsensical. Because unforgiveness is a spiritual disease and it is manifested physically in our health issues. 

Unforgiveness is also manifested emotionally, as we become angry easily and we burn with resentment and bitterness.

But through the gospel parable, a profound divine revelation comes into a profane human situation.

God forgives, He is merciful and compassionate, He runs towards us even though we have sinned, He takes away our shame, He clasps us in His arms and He wants to heal us of the wounds of our sins.

So let us join those tax-collectors and sinners in the gospel and listen to what Jesus has to say to us.

May we come to our senses, be healed and forgiven, and be ambassadors of Jesus to bring about reconciliation, forgiveness and healing.

  

3rd Sunday of Lent, Year C, 24.03.2019

Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15 / 1 Cor 10:1-6, 10-12 / Luke 13:1-9
One of the reasons for accepting and embracing a religion is this age-old need for protection and security in a world where violence and hostility seem so common.

And the violence and hostility have often resulted in the shedding of innocent blood. So the violence and hostility are directed at innocent and defenseless people who have no means to avert it or to stop it.

That makes people realise that they need God to watch over them (despite whatever human security measures there might be) and protection from unforeseen dangers and snares.

But in recent times, even places of prayer and worship don’t seem to be safe any longer. Churches have been bombed and attacked and worshippers were killed.

Last week, in New Zealand, two mosques were attacked by gunmen and a number were killed and wounded.

So where once it was unthinkable, now the evil of hostility and violence has attacked the sacred spaces of prayer and worship and also shed innocent blood.

Putting it plainly and starkly, evil has attacked the House of God and shed blood on holy ground. Where once it was unthinkable, now that is the reality and it is causing anxiety and fear and the faith is shaken. Just yesterday, a priest was stabbed during Mass at a Canadian church and it was live-streamed on TV. It was shocking, but thanks be to God, the priest only suffered minor upper body injuries.

So can we feel safe anymore as we come to church to pray and worship. Will God protect us from the evil of hostility, violence and terrorism? Does God know? And if He knows, why is He not doing anything to stop this evil and those who are doing it? 

In the gospel, we hear of something very disturbing and disgusting. Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with that of their sacrifices.

There were not many details about it but it can be certain that it was an occult ritual. 

But Jesus didn’t seem to address this aspect of evil. Rather, He addressed the aspect of sin. He said that those Galileans who were killed were not more sinful than the rest of the other Galileans, nor were those 18 who were killed when the tower of Siloam collapsed on them.

The Galileans and those 18 were killed not because they were more sinful than the rest. Nor were those who died from terrorism attacks. They were certainly not more sinful than the rest.

And then Jesus gets to the point as He says: But unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.

And we should be bewildered. So here we are telling Jesus about this rampant evil of hostility, violence and terrorism, and He tells us that we should repent.

Of course we will protest. Jesus should make those evil people repent, and maybe tell us to forgive them. But why is He telling us to repent?

And here is where we have to turn back to the 1st and 2nd readings to understand why Jesus is telling us to repent.

The 1st reading tells us that God saw the miserable state of His people in Egypt. He heard their appeal to be free of their slave-drivers. He was aware of their sufferings and He intended to do something.

So He called out to Moses and gave him the mission to deliver His people out of the hands of the Egyptians and bring them to the Promised Land.

So God sees, God hears, God knows and God will act. And He told Moses that the people just had to invoke the name of the Lord God and He would come to their help and deliver them and be their Protector.

So all was well and good until the 2nd reading tells us that though God led His people through the desert and provided food and drink for them as they went, most of them failed to please God and their corpses littered the desert.

The 2nd reading continues: These things all happened as warnings for us, not to have the wicked lusts for forbidden things that they had. You must never complain as some of them did, and they were killed by the Destroyer.

It ends off by giving us this warning: The man who thinks he is safe must be careful that he does not fall.

So what God wants of us is our obedience and faithfulness. But when we sin, we create openings for evil to enter into our lives and in doing so, we become like those who complained and then perished in the desert.
Our sins will also weaken the faith of the Church and the threats of the evil of hostility, violence and terrorism becomes greater. It can be observed that as the faith of the Church grows weaker, the threat of the evil of terrorism becomes stronger.

Our safety is not just in tight security measures or having heavily-armed security personnel. Our safety and security lies in our obedience and faithfulness to God who is our Protector and Saviour.

It is said that evil can only thrive when the good do nothing about it. And evil will thrive as long as the faith of the Church is weak.

So let us heed the call of Jesus to repent. Let us renounce our sins, go for Confession, be faithful and obedient and call upon the name of the Lord to protect us and God will protect us and save us. That is His promise to us. 

2nd Sunday of Lent, Year C, 17.03.2019

Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18 / Philippians 3:17 – 4:1 / Luke 9:28-36
The season of Lent is indeed a spiritual season. It puts before us the three spiritual disciplines that will help us to respond to the call of repentance and prepare us for the renewal of faith.

The three spiritual disciplines are prayer, penance and almsgiving. Practically speaking, all the three spiritual disciplines are “do-able”, i.e. they can be done. The question is the level of difficulty in each of them.

Let us look at “almsgiving”. This weekend, the “Charities Week” envelopes are distributed to us to help us respond to the call of almsgiving.

There are a couple of things that we can do with these envelopes. We can leave it at the pews. Or we can put in some money and drop it immediately into one of the donation boxes and then forget about it.

Or we can bring it home and leave it lying around and slowly let it disappear from our sight and from our conscience.

Or we can look at it and think about it and count our blessings, in the sense that we have to honestly ask ourselves how much God has blessed us with, either materially or financially.

Will we consider the Old Testament practice of offering back to God one-tenth of what we have received from Him?

So the “Charities Week” envelope is not a piece of paper for us to put in some money. It is for us to do some thinking and to do some generous giving.

When it comes to penance, what comes to mind especially in the season of Lent is fasting and abstinence from certain kinds of foods.

While fasting and abstinence have health benefits for the body, what do they do for the soul? Certainly, food and drink are the basic necessities of life.

But when we fast and abstain, we will come to see that as much as we want to eat till our hearts content, we only need that little to get through the day.

So it is a want versus a need. And as we fast and abstain, we will come to see that God has blessed us with enough for everyone’s need, but there will never be enough for everyone’s greed.   

So fasting and abstinence are forms of prayer through which God tells us that as much as food and drink can satisfy a hungry stomach, only He can fill an empty and thirsty heart.

In the gospel, we heard that Jesus brought Peter, James and John up the mountain not for any other purpose but to pray.

And for Peter, James and John, praying on that mountain was no ecstasy. In fact, they were sleepy.

And that too is our experience. And we even beat the 3 apostles in some areas of prayer. Besides being sleepy during prayer, we get distracted with our gadgets, we speed up our prayer so that we say what we need to say quickly, we skip our prayers although we won’t skip our meals. 

Yet, in the presence of those three sleepy-heads, something wonderful happened. As Jesus prayed, the aspect of His face was changed and His clothes became brilliant as lightning.

This event is called the Transfiguration, and it is important enough that the three gospels have recorded it and in Singapore there is also a church named after it.

Essentially, the Transfiguration is a revelation. The Transfiguration reveals Jesus in His glory, His glory that is hidden in the ordinary.

The Transfiguration also reveals the identity of Jesus as the Son of God, the Chosen One, the one who we must listen to.

So as we listen to the account of the Transfiguration, what does God wants to reveal to us?

One thing for sure is that God reveals to us in the ordinary things and events of our lives. So with the Lenten spiritual disciplines of prayer, penance and almsgiving, they reveal to us who we are and also who God is in our lives.

Besides those three spiritual disciplines, the ordinary things of life can also reveal to us who God is in the ordinary people around us.

A man was late for Mass and he hurried to church and got to his pew just in time for the opening prayer. But as he bowed his head, he noticed the shoe of the old man next to him touching his own shoe. He sighed to himself, “So much room. WHY must he let his dirty shoe touch mine?”

This bothered the man greatly but it didn’t seem to bother the old man at all.

He tried to pay attention to the Mass but his thoughts kept going to the old man’s dirty shoes that were touching his nice looking shoes. 

The old man sang the hymns loudly, but the man with the nice shoes was irritated. He grumbled to himself, “Wear dirty shoes still want to sing so loud.”

After Mass, the man wanted to have a word with the old man about entering the church in his dirty shoes. He tried to be polite so he began with, “Hi, how are you?”

The old man’s face brightened up and he said, “You know, I have been coming here for a few months already and you are the first to say “Hi” to me. The old man continued, “I know that my appearance is not like all the rest of you, but I really do try to always look my best. I try to look my best and clean my shoes before I come to church, but my long walk to church made my clothes wet with sweat and my shoes become dirty and dusty.”

When the man heard this, he could only bow his head and look at the old man’s dirty shoes. And the old man continued, “I am sorry if my dirty shoes touched your nice shoes. I am sorry.”

The man managed to say, “Oh please don’t say sorry. Your shoes are not that dirty.” And he said silently to himself, “My heart is dirtier …”

Well, ordinary shoes, maybe a bit dirty, but through it God makes a revelation and a heart receives a transfiguration.

So as we continue climbing the mountain of Lent, let us look for the signs of revelation from God. It is in those revelations that our hearts will receive a transfiguration.

1st Sunday of Lent, Year C, 10.03.2019

Deuteronomy 26:4-10 / Romans 10:8-13 / Luke 4:1-13
The Catholic Church has a Ritual Book of Blessings and in it are the prayers of blessings for people and for things.

So the prayers of blessings for people include birthday blessings, wedding anniversary blessings, blessing of expectant parents, blessing of children and adults in the various situations of life.

And then there are blessings for things from the holy to the ordinary. So there are blessings for chalice and paten, ciborium, vestments, cross, statues, bells, right down to water, oil, salt and candles.

And then come those extra-ordinary blessings which may happen only once a year, like blessing of palm branches which happens on Palm Sunday.

Last Wednesday, which was Ash Wed, we had one of those extra-ordinary blessing, which is the blessing of ashes, and the ashes are obtained by burning the palm branches from last year’s Palm Sunday. That is why we requested for the return of the palm branches.

Now the prayer for blessing of the ashes goes like this:
O God, who desire not the death of sinners, but their conversion. Mercifully hear our prayers and in your kindness be pleased to bless + these ashes, which we intend to receive upon our heads, that we, who acknowledge we are but ashes and shall return to dust, may through a steadfast observance of Lent, gain pardon for sins and newness of life after the likeness of your Risen Son.

So as we are marked with the blessed ashes, we are reminded that we are dust, we ask for forgiveness of our sins, we ask for the grace to be faithful, for God does not want us to perish but to have life in the Risen Christ.

And with the ashes marked on our foreheads on Ash Wed, we begin the season of Lent, the 40 days of Lent, which is focused on repentance and conversion.

But it is only on Ash Wed that we are marked with ashes and not for 40 days. And even for those of us who are marked with ashes on Ash Wed, as we leave after Mass, some would want to wipe off the ashes on their foreheads as quickly as possible.

Although it would be a good sign of witnessing to our faith, we are not too sure about what others might think of it. Especially after the evening Mass of Ash Wed, when we walk around with those ashes in the form of a cross on our foreheads, others might not want to take the lift with us, or that they might just want to avoid us.

And those ashes can be quite messy, they are rough, they can cause an irritation for those who have sensitive skin. In short, there is nothing really nice about those ashes.

But it was just for one day, and even then not for the whole day, nor for 40 days.

But in the Old Testament, as a sign of repentance, those rough, messy ashes are put on the head and face, besides also wearing sack-cloth.

So, yes, ashes are only for Ash Wed. But it is also a start to the 40 days of Lent. There is no need to put on ashes for 40 days, but those ashes should also make us reflect and meditate about those 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert. So it is like from ashes to Jesus.

And on this 1st Sunday of Lent, we hear once again the account of Jesus in His 40 days in the desert, and being tempted by the devil.

The devil tempted Jesus with only three temptations. If He were the Son of God, then He could turn the stones into bread to feed His hunger. He would be safe, even if He were to jump off the parapet of the Temple. And He could have all the earthly power and glory if He just bowed down to the devil.

These three temptations could be just simply put like this – The devil tempted Jesus with what He would want. And yet in overcoming the temptations, Jesus showed us what we really need. So essentially, it is a want versus a need.

The devil’s temptation is to confuse us between a want and a need. Well, “want” has four letters, and so is “need”.

And it is in those areas of our life that we must see the similarities as well as the differences.

“Love” has four letters, and so has “hate”. We want to love those who love us and hate those who are against us. Yet Jesus tells us that it is in loving our enemies that we will know the greatness of the capacity of love that God has created in our hearts.

And talking about “enemies”, that word has seven letters, and so has “friends”. We want friends and we don’t need enemies. But often it is our so-called friends who will hurt us and betray us.

We want God to give us success and we blame God when we fail. “Success” and “failure” has the same number of words. Success can get into our heads and make us proud, but failure will always keep us humble and dependent on God.

So in many areas of our life, there seem to be similarities as well as differences. A want may seem like a need. But a want is only for ourselves, and a need is essentially for us to turn back to God and trust in Him.

So let us remember those ashes on Ash Wed, and let us follow Jesus into the 40 days of Lent. May we see that we will always be tempted on what we want, but Jesus will help us to know what we truly need.

May we rise from ashes, and rise to trust in Jesus. 

8th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 02.03.2019

Ecclesiasticus 27:4-7 / 1 Cor 15:54-58 / Luke 6:39-45
Let us begin with a riddle: what has words but does not speak?  - A book.

What has words but no one reads? – the Terms and Conditions, usually in small print (maybe they don’t want us to read it)

It is also said that actions speak louder than words. Of course we presume that those are edifying actions. Yet for those of us who are drivers, we also know that on the road, some hand gestures done with a finger can mean very impolite words.

What has words but no one wants to hear – an angry person. The tongue has no bones but it can break the heart. And the tongue of an angry person can cause a heart attack, to the one who is listening and maybe even to the one using it.

The tendency is that we use bad words to express our angry and bitter feelings. And there are some days the supply of available swear words are inefficient to meet our demands. Oh yes, we have those kind of days. 

But bad moods and volatile emotions are never reasons to curse and use cruel words. And even if we regret it later, we can’t simply brush it off with “I didn’t mean what I said”. No. We meant what we said. Just that at that moment, we couldn’t control it and we let it fly off our mouth before tasting those words.

The problem is that we will never know how long our words will stay in someone’s heart, even long after we have forgotten that we said them, whether for better or for worse.

Already from this, we are reminded of the lessons of life. One of which is that we must control our tongue when our heart is bitter. Certainly, silence is better than angry words.

And also angry words are spoken with a raised voice. But instead of raising our voice, let us raise our words. It is the rain that grows flowers, not the thunder.

But words, whether kind or otherwise, are just expressions from a source. The source of our words is none other than our heart.

And that’s why Jesus said in today’s gospel passage that a man’s words flow out from what fills his heart.

And that’s why words can heal or hurt. It is from one heart to another. Only a heart can heal another heart, and a heart can break another heart, with words that flow from the heart.

As Jesus said, a good man draws what is good from the goodness of his heart; a bad man draws what is bad from the store of badness from his heart.

There is this story of two altar servers.
Two altar servers lived in two different cities, serving in different churches, but both of them wanted to become priests. Both of them had the exact same experience.

One altar server was late for Mass. Because he was in a hurry to do everything he needed to do, he accidentally knocked the chalice that contained the wine. After the Mass, the priest called the boy and shouted, “Get out of here! You’ll never serve as an altar server again!”

At another church, the altar server was also late for Mass. And he too, knocked the chalice that contained the wine, spilling it onto the floor. After the Mass, the priest, called the altar server and said, “It's all right. You'll do better next time. You'll be a fine priest for God someday.”

Thirty years later, the second altar server became Archbishop Fulton Sheen, one of the most loved religious leaders in America. 
And the other altar server? He became Joseph Tito, an atheist and the ruthless dictator of Yugoslavia.

Words are powerful. They can heal or hurt. They can encourage or destroy.

Every day, we hear polite and kind words, as well as impolite and hurtful words. And then what happens? Our heart is like a sink-trap. All the polite and kind words get drained away quickly and what is left in the sink-trap are the remnants, and in this case, the impolite and hurtful words.

Much as those remnants in the sink-trap are to be gotten rid of, somehow we let them stay there, right in our hearts. And of course those things don’t do any good to our hearts.

And today, Jesus talks about what is stored in our hearts. He reminds us that our hearts are created to be good, because our hearts are created by God.

Jesus wants to clean our hearts of all that rubbish that is caught in the sink-trap of our hearts.

Jesus wants to clean and heal our hearts and make it a store of goodness. Jesus wants to make our hearts like His.

There are many ways that we can let Him clean our hearts. One way is through prayer. Another can be through the Devotion to the Sacred Heart.

We have just launched a new revised edition of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart and it is now available.

Just as a heart can break another heart, so too a heart can also heal another heart.

Jesus wants to clean and heal our hearts with His blood and cleansing water that flows from His heart.

Let us prepare our hearts to be cleansed and healed through the Devotion to the Sacred Heart and through atonement and reparation.

May we let Jesus fill our hearts with His love, so that from what fills our hearts, our mouths will give thanks and praise, and proclaim the Good News of God’s love to others.