Trinity Sunday, Year B, 29.05.2021

Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40 / Romans 8:14-17 / Matthew 28:16-20

One of the common types of food that we eat is the humble bread. 

Although rice is a common Asian staple food, bread has its place in our diet. 

Maybe because it has a slight advantage in terms of durability. It can be left around for a couple of days at room temperature and still be consumable. 

For those of us who are into baking bread, we know that at least three ingredients are needed - wheat flour, yeast and water. 

There can be other things added to it, like raisins, nuts and herbs, but bread is essentially a mixture of wheat flour, yeast and water and then baked accordingly. 

Freshly baked bread is delicious in itself and it can also go along with all sorts of spreads and fillings. 

In the Bible, bread is not just seen as food for the sustenance of life. Bread also has a symbolic spiritual meaning. 

In the 1st reading, Moses reminded the people of the wonders the Lord God has done for them in freeing them from slavery in Egypt. 

Where once in Egypt they ate the bread of slavery and suffering, now they eat the bread of freedom and they eat in freedom. 

So, in the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, bread has this symbolic meaning of the blessings of God and His love. 

During the 40 years in the desert, God fed his people with manna, and it is often called the “bread from heaven” because it literally came down from heaven. 

So, in the Old Testament, God is seen as the Protector and the Provider for His people. God protects His people and He feeds them. 

Then in the New Testament, Jesus, the Son of God, taught us how to pray with that prayer that begins with the two words “Our Father”. 

Jesus taught us to call God “Our Father” and in union with Jesus, the Son of God, we become children of God the Father through baptism. 

In that prayer, there is also this verse: give us this day our daily bread. 

That daily bread is the bread for life, but it also points to the bread of life, which is the blessings and the love of God, the spiritual bread for our spiritual life. 

Jesus is our Bread of Life, and He is the true bread that came down from heaven to teach us who God is and His saving love for us. 

Today as we celebrate Holy Trinity Sunday, we profess that God is Trinity, Three Persons in one God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

The 2nd reading tells us that it is the Holy Spirit who moves us and makes us cry out to God with “Abba, Father” and that as coheirs with Christ and as children of God, we share in the mission of Christ, we share in His sufferings and His glory. 

In the humble bread, we see this spiritual symbol of the Holy Trinity, and the Holy Spirit moves us and forms us to become the spiritual bread for the world. 

We share in the bread of suffering with the world, and we also share the bread of life and love with the world. 

We believe and profess that God is Trinity. We have been fed with the Heavenly Bread.

We are called to be the spiritual bread for the world so that the world will come to know who God is. 

So, the next time when we hold the humble bread in our hands, may we be reminded of who God is, and who we are, and what we are called to do. 

By our lives and our faith, may we bear witness that God is our loving Father, that Jesus is our Saviour, and that the Holy Spirit empowers us to be the spiritual bread for others, so that they will come to know God and to love Him.

Pentecost Sunday, Year B, 23.05.2021

 Acts 2:1-11 / 1 Cor 12:3-7, 12-13 / John 20:19-23

There is a vast amount of information available that can enrich our knowledge of the world and the reality around us. 

But even with all that information, there are still a lot of things that we don't know or don't understand. 

How the world revolves and how the computer works are just a couple of the many things that we take for granted. 

To go into the details would be too much and also unnecessary if we are to live our lives in the ordinary sense of the word. 

If such is the case with the world and the reality that we live in, then when it comes to religion and the mysteries of the faith, it can also be said that there is only so much we know and a lot more that we do not know about or understand. 

We believe that God is the Holy Trinity, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

With God the Father, we may have a concept or an image in our minds. With Jesus Christ, the concepts and images may be clearer as He is the God-became-man. Jesus had a human form, so we may know and understand Him a bit more. 

But when it comes to the Holy Spirit, then what comes to our minds is the dove, or from the 1st reading, a powerful wind and tongues of fire. 

We only know that much about the Holy Spirit, that He is the Lord and Giver of life, which we profess in the Creed. 

And from the 2nd reading, we are told that no one can say that “Jesus is Lord” unless that person is under the influence of the Holy Spirit. 

And in the gospel, Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” 

That may help us to recall that in the story of the creation of man in the Book of Genesis, God blew into the nostrils of man and he became a living being. 

The Holy Spirit is Lord and Giver of life, and He is the breath of life that helps us to live our lives in union with Jesus Christ and to be more like Him. 

That breath of life is also something we take for granted, until we have difficulty in breathing. Without breath, it won't take long before there is no more life. 

So, every breath we take is a gift of life from God. Every breath we take is a sign of the Holy Spirit entering into our lives and uniting us to God the Father and the Son. 

And with every breath of the Holy Spirit, we proclaim that “Jesus is Lord”, and we are sent forth to proclaim the marvels of God, as the disciples did in the 1st reading. 

The 2nd reading tells us that all gifts come from the Holy Spirit, who is working in all sorts of different ways in different people. 

The particular way in which the Holy Spirit is given to each person is for a good purpose, which is essentially for the glory of God and service to others. 

Knowing all that, what is important is how to pray to the Holy Spirit. The Church has a traditional prayer to the Holy Spirit: Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Your love. 

That is a short and simple prayer to the Holy Spirit. It may even be shortened to an invocation like “Come Holy Spirit”. 

So, with every breath we take, let us call upon the Holy Spirit to come into our lives and into the world and the reality we live in. 

We ask the Holy Spirit to come into the situations where there is hatred so that we be channels of God's love. 

We ask the Holy Spirit to come into the situations where there is hurt and pain, so that we be channels of reconciliation and peace. 

We ask the Holy Spirit to come to where there is sickness, anxiety and worry so that we will be channels of healing and hope. 

We ask the Holy Spirit to come and send us forth into the world, so that we will be the signs of God's love in a troubled world. 

May our first breath of the day be this invocation “Come Holy Spirit”, and may our every breath be also “Come Holy Spirit”, for the Holy Spirit is our Advocate and He will guide us and protect us from harm and danger.

7th Sunday of Easter, 16.05.2021

  Acts 1:15-17, 20-26 / 1 John 4:11-16 / John 17:11-19

When someone says to us, “I've got news for you”, just what would be our reaction? 

Obviously, we will be curious. Is it going to be good news or bad news? Does it concern us personally or is it about other people? 

And then there is another type of news. Besides good news and bad news, there is also fake news. 

Fake news stir up emotions, and creates reactions. Fake news can be difficult to detect initially, but they won't stand the test of time. 

Because, eventually truth will prevail. When the murky waters of falsehood subside, the rocks of truth will appear.

For the past two weeks, we have been getting news that are making us anxious and cautious. The situation around the world is raging and escalating, and locally, cases have risen dramatically and measures are being tightened one after another. 

For us, the most impactful is that this Sunday's Masses are cancelled and capacity for worship services for the coming weeks is reduced to fifty persons. 

That sounds like bad news, but what is the truth in this bad news? Well, the truth is that this so-called bad news has revealed and is revealing that we have taken the situation for granted, we have become complacent, we think that we are out on the words when the rest of the world is groaning in distress. 

And the ugly side has also appeared. Healthcare workers are discriminated, there is the blame-game and the finger-pointing and the usual complaining and criticizing. 

But what is the truth of the situation calling out to? Is it all just bad news? Is there any good news?

In the gospel, we hear Jesus saying a long prayer. Among the things He prayed for, He prayed that we, His disciples, be consecrated in the truth. 

Jesus is the Truth, and to be consecrated in the truth means to be united with Jesus and to be persons of truth.

To be a person of truth is also to be a person of love, because truth and love are two sides of the same coin. 

So, when we speak, we must speak the truth, and we must also speak the truth with love. 

Truth without love is cruelty. But truth, with love, brings out the clarity of the reality. 

So, God may knock us with the hard truth but it always comes with His tender love. God may hurt us, but He will also heal us.

There is a story of a young and successful executive who was traveling down a neighborhood street, in his new sports car. 

As his car passed by, suddenly, a brick smashed into the car’s side door! He slammed on the brakes and reversed the car back to the spot where the brick had been thrown.

The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and shouted, “What was that all about? That’s a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost you a lot of money. Why did you do it?”

The young boy was apologetic. “Please, mister…please, I’m sorry but I didn’t know what else to do,” he pleaded. “I threw the brick because no one else would stop…” 

With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. “It’s my brother,” he said. “He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up.”

Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, “Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me.”

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay. 

“Thank you and may God bless you,” the grateful boy told the driver. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.

It was a long, slow walk back to the car. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. 

He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: “Don’t go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!” 

God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don’t have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It’s our choice to listen or not.

This situation is like a brick that is thrown at us. It brings out the truth of our weaknesses and failings. 

The World Health Organization Director-General said this, “The greatest failing would be not to learn from this crisis and to leave the world in the same vulnerable state it was in before.” 

Faced with the hard truth on this worrisome situation, let us pray that Jesus will also grant us His love and protection. 

This is probably the crisis of our generation and we will be talking about this to the next generation and the generations to come. 

But may we remember this moment of our history with the truth that is revealed to us and also about the love that God has protected us with. 

With truth and love, we will learn and grow from this situation, and we will remember with thanksgiving.

6th Sunday of Easter, Year B, 09.05.2021

 Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48 / 1 John 4:7-10 / John 15:9-17

Human beings stand at the apex, at the top, of creation, as the most intelligent, most resourceful and most creative species in the world. 

Given all those attributes, human beings would and should make this world a more beautiful and better place to live in. 

But as it is said, with great power comes even greater responsibility, and this is where humanity has flawed and fell short. 

There can be no doubt that the abuse of creation and creatures, the wars and violence, the poverty and the human tragedy, are because of the irresponsibility of humanity. 

But all these big issues have small beginnings like selfishness and greed. Practically speaking, all problems begin when we take things for granted. 

We take fresh air, clean water, sunshine and rain for granted. We take food and shelter and even health for granted. 

We not only take things for granted, we take people for granted. We use people for our advantage and get them to do things for us. 

We even take those who love us for granted. Who can ever say that they have never been disobedient or defied their parents and argued with them, especially with our mothers. 

So, in short, we take love for granted and when love is taken for granted, then anything and anyone can be taken for granted. 

But today's readings tell us not to take love for granted. If we bother to count the number of times the word “love” appears in the readings, it is 18 times, nine times in the 2nd reading, and nine times in the gospel. 

And the 1st reading talks about the workings of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit who is the Lord of life and love. 

We are reminded that God created us in love, we are to remain in God's love, we are to love God and to love one another. 

God chose to love us and He commissioned us to go forth and bear fruits of love for others so that they will come to know who God is. 

With God's love, we can make this world a beautiful place love will also make us better persons.

Even ordinary things, when seen with love, will tell us how much God loves us. 

When we look at our mothers, we see that they are ordinary persons doing their best to take care of us. 

But when we think deeper about them, we can see that there are two words that will describe them best: tough and tender. 

They know how to be tough with us, especially when we try to argue or defy them, but that's the way mothers show their tender love. 

For example, when we fall sick with cough or flu, they will nag and tell us that it is because we drink cold water and gassy drinks that we eat too much fried food and that we don't change our shirts when they are soaking with perspiration. 

But the objective is to make us more afraid of their incessant nagging and lectures so much so that we'd rather not fall sick. 

And when they look at our clothes and say “Are you going to wear that to go out?” they are actually teaching us that we dress respectfully for others and not just wear whatever we like. 

And when we go to the kitchen and we ask if she needed help, she will say “No”. Then 10 minutes later, she will say that no one helps out in the house (?!?). 

But the lesson she is teaching us is that we should not take what people say at face value. Our mothers were testing us in our sincerity in offering help. 

Yes, our mothers are ordinary persons but when it comes to loving us, they are tough and they are also tender. 

In our mothers, we see how the commandment of love takes on flesh and blood. 

Our mothers have taught us how to love, so that we in turn can teach our children how to love. 

When we love God and love others as how our mothers love us, this world will indeed be a beautiful place.

5th Sunday of Easter, Year B, 02.05.2021

 Acts 9:26-31 / 1 John 3:18-24 / John 15:1-8

That are a few occasions in life that stir up the emotions. And with emotions being stirred up, memories are created and we will remember those times when there were tears of joy and tears of sadness. 

One of the occasions is pregnancy and childbirth. For the parents and family, it is certainly tears of joy, although for the baby it is difficult to say. 

Another occasion is marriage and it is certainly a happy and memorable moment for the bride and groom. 

Another occasion would be the passing on of a person, or putting it bluntly, when death takes a person away from our midst. 

The certainty of death is a reality that we must accept, and the passing on of a loved one is undoubtedly an emotional occasion. 

Death is the stark reality and finality of life on this earth. Death can leave behind a heartache that no one can heal, but love leaves a memory that no one can steal.

And it is only with love and faith that we believe in an afterlife, an eternal life with God in heaven, a life of eternal peace, joy and rest. 

Come to think of it, that is and should be the life that we are looking forward to, isn't it? 

And the Bible reminds us that “our true home is in heaven, and Jesus Christ whose return we long for, will come from Heaven to save us” (Philippians 3:20)

So, faith tells us that our true home is in heaven, and not on this earth. And Jesus our Saviour has prepared a room for each of us in our eternal home. 

The Resurrection of Jesus tells us that He has conquered death and won for us eternal life. 

So, death is our final journey to our eternal life, and when we understand that, then death is truly a joyous occasion, (although we won't say that we will be so happy to die). 

Although our eternal home is in heaven, there is a home for us here on Earth. But it is not a physical or material home, with an address or postal code, and all the usual things that we think about when we talk about a home. 

In the gospel, Jesus says this: Make your home in me, as I make mine in you. 

If our life on earth is a preparation for the eternal life with God, then we have to understand what Jesus meant by making our home in Him, as He makes His home in us. 

In short, it means that our hearts are to be like a home to welcome Jesus, and that no matter what we have or how far we go, we will always stay in the Heart of Jesus. 

It also means that our hearts are dedicated totally to Jesus as His dwelling-place, and not cluttered with the things of this world. 

But in life, we tend to collect quite a bit of possessions as we move from one stage of life to another. 

Let us listen to a reflection from a senior lady as she is about move to what is possibly her last location in life on earth.

I'm going to a nursing home. I have to. When life gets to where you are no longer able to take care of yourself completely, and your children are busy at work and have to take care of their children and have no time to take care of you, this seems to be the only way to go.

The nursing home is in good condition, with clean single rooms, and the environment is also good, but the price is not cheap.

My pension is poorly able to support this. But I have my own house. If I sell it, then money is not a problem. I can spend it on retirement. So now I have to prepare to go to a nursing home.

But there are boxes, bags, cabinets, and drawers that are filled with all kinds of things. I like to collect. I have collected a lot of stamps. I have also hundreds of purple clay tea pots. There are many other small collections. I am especially fond of books. The bookshelves on the wall are full.

There are also dozens of bottles of good wine. There are full sets of household appliances and the kitchen is also full. There are also dozens and dozens of photo albums. Looking at the house full of things, I'm worried!

The nursing home has only one room with a cabinet, a table, a bed, a sofa, a refrigerator, a TV and an oven - all the things I will really need. There is no place to store the possessions that I have accumulated throughout my life.

At this moment, I suddenly feel that my so-called possessions are superfluous, and it doesn't belong to me. I just take a look at it, play with it, use it, but I can't take them.

I only kept a set of pots and pans, a few books that are worth reading; a handful of teapots for tea, my ID card, senior citizen card, health insurance card and of course a bank card. Enough for me!

Yes, in life, you can only sleep in one bed and live in one room. Any more of it is merely for watching and playing! We really don’t need much.

Life is not about the things we clutter our lives with, but the memories we fill up in our hearts, fond memories shared with others.

May the Lord grant us wisdom of heart to know the shortness of life and that all things shall pass, and what we leave behind are sweet memories of life and love.

May we also remember that our home on earth is none other than in the Heart of Jesus and that He will bring us to our eternal home in heaven. 

May the memories of all those who have passed on give us hope that while we try to live life to the full on earth, the fullness of life is with God in heaven.