Holy Family, Year B, 27.12.2020

Ecclesiasticus 3:2-6, 12-14 / Col 3:12-21 / Luke 2:22-40    

There are a couple of words that will stir the heart. And not just the heart, but also the mind. 

It may just be words, but somehow there is a feeling to it, and it brings out some emotions in us. 

One of those words is “home”. The other word is closely associated with it, and that is “family”. 

Yes, home and family. Two words that will stir up some thoughts in the mind and some feelings in the heart. 

And especially at this time, some of us may feel it more. Because of travel restrictions and other factors, we can’t go home and to be with family. 

But it is also especially at this time, that home and family are very much in the focus because we are at home more often and we spend more time with family members. 

Now, that should be a good thing isn’t it. After all, people often say that they wish to be at home more often and to spend time with family. 

Well, there is always a flip side to things and some quirky comments have come up over this situation: 

- My family is temperamental: half temper, half mental.

- What is the point of cleaning up the home, if these people are going to keep staying here. 

- If I were to shake my family tree, I’m sure that a bunch of nuts will fall out. 

But before we go too much into the quirky side of the family, let us remember that this weekend, the Church is celebrating the Feast of the Holy Family. 

It is a feast that is very near and dear to us, because it is a celebration of who God is, who Jesus, Mary and Joseph are as family, what the Church is, and what we are as family. 

God is family, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus came into this world and He was born into the family of Joseph and  Mary. 

The Church is a reflection of who God is and what the family is about. 

And these profound aspects of life and love flows down to us and into our families. 

Our families are to be like that of Holy Family, united in love, so that we can be signs of the unity and the love of God who is Trinity. 

But we know how challenging family life can be and how difficult it is to love our family members. 

In fact, the ones who can be the most difficult to love are the very ones who are closest to us, i.e. our family members. 

They can be difficult to love and they can also hurt us the most. The most painful tragedy of the family is when resentment turns into hatred resulting in division and even violence. 

And it can and usually start from small and petty things like dissatisfaction and unhappiness. 

Joseph could have thought: I don’t want any more dreams. I want a peaceful life. I’m tired of taking care of Mary and Jesus. 

Mary could have thought: I did what God wanted me to do. How come life is not smooth and comfortable? I feel so insecure. 

And if baby Jesus could talk, He might have said something like: This is not my idea of a crib. Couldn’t Joseph and Mary do better than this? 

They could have thought that way, but they didn’t because they chose not to. 

They chose to love and with love as their decision, they accepted each other and their situation and hence the Holy Family reflected who God is and what our families should be like. 

Yes, never let resentment against family members lead us into sin. The sunset must not find us still angry. Do not give the devil his opportunity. 

Rather with every sunrise, let us pray that the life and love of God will fill the hearts of our family members, so that united in heart and mind, there will be peace and joy, as well as kindness and forgiveness. 

May the Holy family also pray for us, that we will have the strength and courage of Joseph, the tenderness and faith of Mary, and may Jesus protect our families from all evil and danger.

Christmas, Year B, 25.12.2020

This year’s Christmas is a Christmas to remember. Because it is a Christmas like no other, as far as most of us can remember.

For us who came for Christmas Mass in the past, whether on Christmas Eve or on the Day itself, we know what it was like.

We would be sitting side by side, and standing shoulder to shoulder. 

Well, this Christmas we are all spaced-out, literally spaced-out, but we won’t be down and out.

Someone, or some people, came out with this rather amusing protocol for the setting up of the Nativity crib for Christmas 2020, and it goes like this:

a. A maximum of 5 shepherds will be permitted in the crib.

b. All will have to wear masks and observe social distancing.

c. Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus will be able to stay together as they form a family bubble.

d. The ox and donkey has to be certified for non-contamination by the health authorities.

e. The Three Wise men will be subjected to a 15-day quarantine, hence they are not present in the Crib.

f. The straw and other decorations must be disinfected with alcohol.

g. All non-essential persons are not allowed to be at the Crib.

h. Pontius Pilate will explain to all authorised participants how to wash their hands.

We will certainly smile at this. Yes, mask or no mask, we will smile because that is what Jesus came to bring.

Whatever the situation is, Jesus came to be with us, COVID-19 or whatever.

Jesus is the Emmanuel, the God-is-with-us, the Word-made-flesh, the Saviour who comes to bring light to us who are now in a kind of land of deep shadow.

The deepest darkness disappears with the faintest light. 

Jesus is the true Light that shines through the dark, a light that the darkness could not overcome.

Covid-19 has stopped a lot of activities. But thanks be to God, it didn’t stop Masses from resuming, it didn’t stop Christmas from happening, and it shouldn’t stop us from smiling and giving thanks to God for His blessings!

Come to think of it, the greatest gift that God has given us this Christmas is that we are able to see, whether on-site or online, that our Saviour was born in the little town of Bethlehem.

He was born in the midst of unfavourable conditions, His birth was celebrated in the midst of wars and disasters, and His birth is now celebrated in the midst of this pandemic.

We learn from our forefathers that the celebration of Christmas gave them hope and they survived and lived on to celebrate more Christmases.

We too want to celebrate Christmas, we too want to have that hope, that with the grace of God, we will overcome and look forward to more Christmases to come.

Our homes are now little Bethlehems, and it is for us to make room for Jesus to celebrate His birth.

There are certainly no restrictions for us, to come before the Nativity Crib in our home to contemplate the beauty of our Saviour and to ask Him to bless us with peace and joy.

May we be filled with the wonder of Mary, the obedience of Joseph, the joy of the angels, the eagerness of the shepherds, the determination of the wise men, and the love they had for the Child Jesus.

May we too be filled with that love and may this Christmas, be a Christmas to be remembered. 

4th Sunday of Advent, Year B, 20.12.2020

 2 Sam 7:1-5, 8-11, 16 / Romans 16:25-27 / Luke 1:26-38

One of our desires in life, besides wanting to be happy, is that everything would be peaceful and smooth sailing. 

We don’t like it when life becomes bumpy and rocky and stony. In other words, we don’t like to be disturbed in life, whether by situations or by people. 

When we are disturbed, we will get irritated and frustrated, and we will grumble and complain. 

What we have undergone, and are still undergoing, is a great disturbance. We can call it the disturbance of our generation. 

The only consolation is that everyone, in fact the whole world, is affected by it. We have not heard anyone say “I love this pandemic” or that “I was looking forward to this”. For anyone to say that, they must be crazy. 

Oh yes, this time has been a time of great disturbance. 

But when we think about it, since when life is without disturbance. 

From the moment we came into this world, it is one disturbance after another. Life is like a series of disturbances. 

Today’s gospel passage is commonly known as the Annunciation. It is a message of the good news of salvation. 

But when we read it again, we will notice that when the angel Gabriel greeted Mary, she was disturbed, and deeply disturbed. 

And maybe even before that, and if we do some imagining, we may picture the angel Gabriel being rather disturbed when God told him to go and announce that message to Mary. 

We can imagine that as Gabriel came to Nazareth, he was a bit anxious and a bit nervous. 

Would Mary accept what he was going to tell her? It sounded so out of this world, so impossible. 

And true enough, Mary was disturbed, deeply disturbed. And Gabriel had a lot of explaining to do. 

But in the end, Mary accepted. But that doesn’t mean that the disturbance has ended. In fact, more was to come. 

As we hear this passage on the last Sunday of Advent, we would not think of it as a disturbing message. 

After all, Christmas is just a few days away, and we want to be happy and forget about the disturbances of life. 

But actually, disturbances are a source of growth and we can draw strength and experience from it. 

We see in nature. When the winds blow, the trees are disturbed, but they grow stronger from it and they hold on firmer to the ground. 

This time of great disturbance has affected all of us, and especially the seniors. 

Today is the day that Fr Paul Tong celebrates the 67th anniversary of his priestly ordination. 

We would want to celebrate for him and he would have loved to see us without wearing masks and without having to observe safe- distance. He would have loved to see us celebrate without any restrictions. 

At 93 years old, this situation has affected and maybe even disturbed him. 

But 67 years ago, when he said “Yes” to the Lord, the Lord gave him the strength to face the challenges of the ministry and the disturbances of life. 

Oh yes, Fr Tong has had his share of challenges and disturbances: he couldn’t go back to his family and his country when there were persecutions against the Church; he had to adapt quickly to different life-styles and learn different languages; he had to keep believing when the going was rough. 

Fr Tong has shown us what perseverance and resilience is about when we say “Yes” to the Lord. 

So like Mary our Mother, and like Fr. Paul Tong, let us also say “Yes” to the Lord. 

We will face challenges and disturbances, but we will overcome and we will grow stronger and be happy in life.

3rd Sunday of Advent, Year B, 13.12.2020

 Isaiah 61:1-2, 10-11 / 1 Thess 5:16-24 / John 1:6-8, 19-28

As we begin the third week of Advent, there is a certain anxiety as well as an expectation. 

In less than two weeks, it will be Christmas, but it doesn’t look like Christmas is around the corner. 

Even in and around the parish, we couldn’t quite put up the decorations yet because of the repair and repainting works. 

We didn’t want the white paint to drip on the decorations and make it a white Christmas, literally. 

Even putting up the Nativity scenes inside and outside the church was done with a bit of hesitation, and precautions had to be taken. 

Still, we will move on towards Christmas. We must move on towards Christmas. 

Even though there are cancellations of festive events, the celebration of Christmas is our expectation and there will be no cancellation. 

And with the lighting of the third candle of the Advent wreath, which is the rose- coloured candle, it signifies the lighting of hope, that there will be rejoicing. 

Because this beautiful time of Advent is to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and to open doors of hope. 

The gospel of this Sunday is a bit similar to that of last Sunday in that it features John the Baptist … again. 

John the Baptist may seem to be a rather out-of-place figure in our preparation for the Christmas celebration. 

But he is an important figure in the Advent season, because as the gospel says, he was sent by God, to be a witness, to speak for the light. 

He preached a message of repentance and the baptism for the forgiveness of sins. 

And that is actually the essence of our Advent preparation isn’t it?

Because repentance and forgiveness of sins will lead to a rejoicing and fulfil our expectations of a meaningful Christmas celebration. 

The rose-coloured candle of the Advent wreath reminds us that we are given the Holy Spirit who will help us to be witnesses like John the Baptist was the witness. 

We are to bring good news to the poor and bind up hearts that are broken. 

We are to turn the situation of darkness and gloom into light and make it bright. 

Yes, the darkness and gloom have broken our hearts and we long to hear good news of hope and rejoicing. 

We have been spammed with the gloomy news of the spreading pandemic, rising infections, closing of businesses and increasing stress and anxiety. 

But the 2nd reading reminds us to be happy at all times, to pray constantly and for all things to give thanks to God. 

With this call to mend broken hearts and to be witnesses of hope, let us begin with the messages that we send to others. 

Some messages are seen as spam and in the email it may end up in the spam folder. 

But let us send Spirit-filled messages and change the understanding of spam into an acronym: Special Prayers And Messages. 

Yes, we must send out Special Prayers And Messages so as to bring hope and mend broken hearts. 

This weekend, the Archdiocese launches a year-long celebration of 200 years of the existence of the Church in Singapore, also known as Catholic200SG. 

The mission of the church is to bring hope and to mend broken hearts. That is also our mission. 

Let this Advent be an Advent of Special Prayers And Messages. 

Let us remember that God has called us to this mission and He will help us to be witnesses of Hope and to be menders of broken hearts.

2nd Sunday of Advent, Year B, 06.12.20

 Isaiah 40:1-6, 9-11 / 2 Peter 3:8-14 / Mark 1:1-8

It is around this time of the year that we hear a particular type of music. It is a type of music that is so peculiar that we hear it only at this time of the year, and yet it is so easily identifiable. 

Obviously, we are talking about Christmas music, which usually can be heard as early as mid-October. 

It can be anything as pop as “Jingle Bells” to as sacred as “O come let us adore Him”. 

Year in and year out, we hear that Christmas music and we are familiar with it and we will sing along with it.

At times it may get a bit overplayed but we still get along with it because it gives us the mood for the season. 

The music is somehow “imprinted” into us.

This year, with all that is happening, the festive mood is rather subdued and toned down. 

The Orchard Road light up was almost like a non-event, and the lights and decorations are less fanciful and less lavish. 

Anyway, the Christmas decorations this year are generally much lesser and maybe even the Christmas music is softer. 

But for us there is a void that needs to be filled. 

Although the Christmas feeling is rather toned down and seems lesser, but maybe lesser can be better for us. 

At least the festive commercialization of Christmas is lesser and the reason for the season gets clearer. 

And maybe because the Christmas music is less and softer, we feel that something is missing. 

And indeed, there is something missing. There are no practices for the Christmas carols because the choirs have gone silent. And there is also no public carolling. 

But we want to hear the Christmas music. At least we hope that the music can lift us up from the gloom. 

We want to hear that music, because it is imprinted in our hearts. Christmas is going to look or sound strange without those Christmas carols. 

Our consolation is to turn to our CD collection and hear those carols. 

It is not just to get into the mood. We are beginning to realize that those Christmas carols give us hope, that the yearly cycle of life and love is renewed. 

There is a voice in those Christmas carols that tells us who God is and who we are to Him. 

In the 1st reading, the prophet Isaiah was the voice of God to the people as he says: Console my people, console them, says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call to her. 

In the gospel, it was John the Baptist who was the voice of God to the people, a voice that cries out in the wilderness to prepare a way for the Lord and to make His paths straight. 

But for us, where or who is the voice of God? Could it be in those Christmas carols that we hear year in and year out, but never really took notice? 

But now that the Christmas carols are lesser and softer, we long to hear more and to hear it louder. 

The voice of God that is “imprinted” in those Christmas carols is slowly awakening our hearts to listen. 

We want to listen and to be consoled.

Over this period of time, we have learned to live with lesser, we have learned what is necessary, we have learned what is important. 

We want to listen to the message of repentance and make our own paths straight for the Lord who is the Giver of life and love. 

We want to listen and the season of Advent tells us that in order to listen, we have to be silent. Anyway, the word “listen” and the word “silent” have the same letters. 

Oh yes, listening to Christmas carols will bring us some consolation. But it also calls for reflection. 

And there’s one peculiar thing about music and more so about Christmas music. 

The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between the notes. The great composer Mozart said that, and he certainly knows what he is talking about. 

So, as we listen to those Christmas carols, let us also be silent. 

May it bring us consolation from God, and may the paths of our hearts be straightened for Jesus to come and dwell in us.