Sunday Homilies

32nd Ordinary Sunday, Year A, 06.11.2011

2011-11-06T16:21:00.000+08:00

Wis 6:12-16/Th 4:13-18/ Mt 25:1-13

The Bible has often been called the greatest story book, and certainly there are good reasons for saying that.

As a matter of fact, almost every other page of the Bible has a story.

There are also many moving and dramatic stories, like the parting of the Red Sea in the book of Exodus, the strength of Samson in the book of Judges and the healing accounts of Jesus in the gospels.

One of the dramatic stories is from the book of the prophet Daniel in the Old Testament.

King Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, was giving a banquet for over a thousand people, when he ordered for the sacred vessels which were looted from the Temple in Jerusalem to be brought out and used for serving food and wine.

In the midst of feasting and drinking, idolatry and immorality, a hand appeared on the wall beside the king’s throne.

The king turned pale as he saw the hand wrote these – Mene, Tekel, Parsin.

Nobody could understand the meaning of these three words until Daniel was brought in to translate them.

Daniel revealed the meaning of those three words : mene – measured; tekel – weighed; parsin – divided

Daniel explained the meaning. God had measured the sovereignty of king Belshazzar and will put it to an end; he had been weighed in a balance and found wanting; his kingdom will be divided.

It is a dramatic story and that’s where the saying came about : the writing is on the wall.

As we gather for the Eucharist, is the Lord God telling us something? Is there any writing on the wall?

Well, the gospel parable is disturbing enough, especially with that last line : I tell you solemnly, I do not know you.

As we come to the last couple of Sundays in Ordinary Time, there is this recurring theme of being alert and ready for the arrival of the coming hour, and all will be judged by their readiness for that hour.

There is no leniency for the foolish because to be foolish is to be unprepared for the hour – the hour where everyone, like king Belshazzar will be measured, weighed and divided.

So like the wise and sensible bridesmaids who were prepared with extra flasks of oil for their lamps, how are we to be prepared for that hour when Jesus comes knocking on our doors.

Surely we don’t want to be freeze in fear like king Belshazzar who was measured, weighed and divided.

Certainly we need some wisdom to be in that state of alertness and readiness for the arrival of the Lord.

Yet Jesus wants us to be prepared moment by moment for that last and final moment.

There is this story of a powerful and mighty king who called his advisors and wise men to come up with a wise saying which works in every situation, every circumstance, in every place and every time, in joy, in sorrow, in defeat and in victory.

The wise men thought and thought about it and finally came up with the wise saying.
It was written on a piece of paper and slipped into a wristband that the king was to wear, and the condition was that the king was not to take it out and look at it out of curiosity.

Only in extreme danger, when the king finds himself alone and there seems to be no way out, only then can he take out that paper and read the contents.

So the king complied and wore the wristband with that piece of paper in it.

Some time later, enemies attacked the kingdom and the mighty and powerful king was defeated.

The king fled on his horse with the enemies chasing after him.

Then his horse was struck down, and he ran until he came to the edge of a cliff.

Down below was a deep rocky valley and jumping down was certainly a dead end.

The sound of the enemies’ horses were approaching and the king was desperate. There was no way out.

Then suddenly he saw his wristband, and remembered that there was a wise saying in the piece of paper.

He took out the paper and read the contents. The message was just four words – THIS TOO SHALL PASS.

The king read it, read it again, and then it struck him. Yes, this too shall pass.

He thought about how mighty and powerful a king he was, until he was defeated, and now there is nothing left, all gone.

And now he was to going to lose his life as well. So like everything that had come and gone, this too shall pass.

A calmness came upon him and he stood there waiting for his life to pass.

He even began to admire the beauty of the place and the freshness of the air.

He was so calm and relaxed that he forgot about the enemies who were chasing him.

After a while, he realized that the sound of the enemies horses were fading away.

The king quickly went back and reorganized his army and began to drive out the enemy, and defeated them and regained his kingdom.

As he rode back to his city, there was much fanfare and praise of him, and his people celebrated and exalted him.

The king thought to himself : Indeed I am the greatest and mightiest king. And pride was welling up in him.

Then he saw his wristband, and he slowly took out that piece of paper with that wisdom saying : THIS TOO SHALL PASS.

He became silent and pensive. From being full of pride, he became humble. Yes, he thought, this victory, this exaltation, this too shall pass.

Yes, this too shall pass. The writing is on the wall. God has spoken, and we must listen, we better listen.

Jesus has already warned us – stay awake, be alert, for you do not know either the day or the hour.

Yes, in joy and in sorrow, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, that too shall pass.

Yes, that too shall pass, this too shall pass, yet that is not all.

This too shall pass, but what will last?

The last thing will be the final thing; the last thing will be the eternal thing, and that shall not pass.

The writing is on the wall – be alert, and be prepared.

Hence it is good to be very familiar with the Hail Mary prayer, especially that part that says “pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death”.

Yes, the hour of our death is the final thing, it is the last thing.

And we need to prepare it moment by moment, so that we would not be found measured, weighed and divided.

World Mission Sunday 23.10.2011

2011-10-24T08:14:00.001+08:00

Ex 22:20-26/ 1 Th 1:5c-10/ Mt 22:34-40

This Sunday is called World Mission Sunday, and the readings of this Sunday are also changed from the flow of the readings of the Ordinary Sundays.

It is a Sunday of the year in which we the Church reflects about who we are and what we should be doing as Church, in other words, our mission as Church.

In the gospel, Jesus states what our mission is about.

He said : Go out to the whole world, and proclaim the Good News.

Yes, proclaim the Good News. So what is this Good News?

Well, before going into that, it might be helpful to know that there is this strange connection between good news and bad news.

So what is this connection? A typical example would be this.

The news caster would always begin by greeting us “Good evening” and then proceed to tell us why the evening is not going to be good.

In other words, its “Good evening” and here is the bad news. It is a strange connection between two opposites.

Yes, it might be a strange connection between two opposites, but nonetheless a common connection.

Quite often, by the way we speak, we can already notice this connection.

For example, we may seem to agree initially, and then we proceed to disagree.

And we do that by using just two words – Yes, but …

So we would say things like : Yes, the food is good, BUT, the service is bad, it is too expensive, the waitress is not pretty, and whatever it might be.

So it’s like “Good evening” BUT here is the bad news.
It’s like something sweet on the outside, but bitter on the inside.

Yet, World Mission Sunday reminds us of the duty to spread the gospel, the Good News.

Simply because if the Good News is not proclaimed, then the bad news will start to multiply.

Yes, we have heard it so often that actions speak louder than words.

Yet actions without words is like watching a movie without the sound.

Words put meaning into actions, and words put action into motion.

So we the Church are like the news casters to the world.

And are we going to say to others : Good evening, and here is the bad news.

And out of our mouths come forth bad words, foul talk, lies and slander.

The letter of James (1:26) reminds us that if a man thinks he is religious and serves God, but has not learnt to control his tongue, then he is deceiving himself, and his religion is worthless.

The tongue that is used to bless cannot be used also to curse.

Hence the letter to the Ephesians (4:29) tells us not to use harmful and hurtful words, but only helpful words, the kind that builds up and provide what is needed, so that what you say will do good to those who hear it.

The Pope’s message for World Mission Sunday reminds us that today is not just an isolated moment or just a day in the course of the year.

Rather it is a precious occasion to pause and reflect on how we respond to the missionary vocation.

And it is a critical response to the massive bad news that is all around us.

Bad news like wars, or killings, or murders, and also shocking pictures of the blood stained face of the dead former Libyan dictator splashed on the front page of the newspaper.

Our common response would be : Oh my God! (OMG)

Oh my God … then what?

It is like calling on God, and God is alerted, and then He hears nothing else from us.

So when we say “Oh my God”, then we must also finish the sentence, and offer it as a prayer.

So whenever we say “Oh my God”, then finish the sentence, and make sure it’s a prayer.

Don’t say things like “Oh my God, how can he be so stupid?” or worse still, “Oh my God, I’m going to teach him a lesson he won’t forget.

If that is what we are going to say, then our tongues either have a split personality, or that we have split tongues.
But we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, so that we may praise Him (1 Pet 2:9)

Yes, we are called to be God’s news casters who will say : Good evening, and here is the good news.

Yes, we must be Good News to the world, and we must also teach our children to be Good News too.

One of the activities on World Mission Sunday is to pray for the poor children of the world, and to help them financially.

Next week, the children in the catechism classes will be donating their savings from the sacrifices they are going to make this coming week, to help the poor children of the Holy Childhood Association.

But besides financial help, let us also lead our children to pray for those poor children.

One of the ways is to pray daily, one Hail Mary, and adding on the intention “pray for us and for the poor children”.

Just only one Hail Mary daily with our children and with that intention.

But the power of prayer and sacrifice will surely make people hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spear into pruning hooks.

And nation will not lift sword against nation.

That is the good news that the world wants to hear.

That is the good news that we the Church must proclaim.

27th Ordinary Sunday, Year A, 02.10.2011

2011-10-02T18:04:00.000+08:00

Is 5:1-7/ Phil 4:6-9/ Mt 21:33-43

One of the things that we would remember from our school days would be nursery rhymes.

Whether the nursery rhymes were set in poem or in song, they would be easy to remember because they are short and they are simple.

Some nursery rhymes are used as a teaching tool. For example, the nursery rhyme “ABCDEFG” is used to teach the letters of the alphabet.

Some would just talk about the things we see around us. For example, “Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are”

Then there is this nursery rhyme “Baa Baa black sheep, have you any wool”

Is there a meaning behind that nursery rhyme?
Well, a number of nursery rhymes reflect events in history.

The words of the nursery rhymes were used to make fun of the royal and political events of that time.

So for example, “Baa baa black sheep” was a nursery rhyme about the wool industry in England, and it was actually a political satire back in 1275 about the king and the export tax in which the king collected a tax on all exports of wool.

Another familiar nursery rhyme is Jack and Jill. (we might think it’s about potato chips)

But Jack and Jill referred to the French king Louis 16th and his wife Queen Marie Antoinette, who were beheaded during the Reign of Terror in 1793.

So the nursery rhyme “Jack and Jill” actually has a gruesome historical background.

Another familiar nursery rhyme is “Humpty Dumpty”. Have we ever wondered what the words meant?

Well, “Humpty Dumpty” was not a big egg as we might have thought, maybe because we saw some pictures of it.

Humpty Dumpty was actually a nickname for a large cannon that was used during the English Civil War in the 17th century.
Maybe you can find out more about it yourself.

So nursery rhymes may not be as simple as it seems.
There is an origin and a historical background and a meaning.

Similarly with a parable. A parable has been cleverly described as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.

The parable of the vineyard that Jesus told in today’s gospel was taken from the book of the prophet Isaiah.

It was a song about the vineyard. Or it may have been a poem of even a nursery rhyme.

It was something familiar to the people and that was why Jesus used it.

But Jesus added on to it. The original song of the vineyard had it that the vineyard produced sour grapes, despite all the tender care it was given.

In the parable of Jesus, it was not the grapes that were sour, but the tenants.

Yes, sour, wicked, despicable, murderous tenants, who will do anything to get something that does not belong to them.
What we hear often are good tenants and wicked landlords. What we heard in the gospel is a parable of wicked tenants and a good landlord.

The meaning is clear and sharp. God’s people has rejected His care and betrayed His love.

It even hurt God so deeply that He had to say : What more could I have done for my people that I did not do.

What did God get in return for His love and care? He looked for peace but there was war; for true worship but there was idolatry; for justice but there was corruption and exploitation; for goodness but there was evil; for humility but there was pride; for holiness but there was sinfulness.

But in the end, the parable was about love and justice.
Yes, God is loving and patient, and what He can untie, He won’t cut away.

But the day will come when the tenants will have to be held accountable for their actions.

Today we are gathered as God’s chosen people, the Church. We are also God’s vineyard.

The parable is asking us, who are God’s chosen people : What fruits are we producing?

Yes, we are the Church, but are we a House of prayer?

What are we teaching our children about prayer? Or are we teaching our children anything about prayer at all?

This coming Friday we celebrate Children’s Day. In the spiritual aspect, what are we doing for our children?

If we don’t teach them to pray when they are young, then when are we going to teach them to pray?

The month of October, being the Month of the Rosary, will be a good time to inculcate in our children the traditional prayer of the Rosary.

Yet at the same time, there are also many simple prayers that take the form of nursery rhymes.

Today, the 2nd of October, if it is not a Sunday, the Church would celebrate the feast of the Guardian Angels.

I am sure we know the simple nursery rhyme prayer to our guardian angel – Angel of God my guardian dear, to whom His love entrusts me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.

It’s a simple prayer, but it contains a deep truth. Each of us has a guardian angel who will protect us from evil and guide us in the way of truth.

Well, let us teach that prayer to our children. Pray with them the Guardian Angel prayer before they go off to school.

Or how about the Bedtime prayer – As I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, that if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.

A simple prayer but with a deep truth. One day all this will come to a close, and we will stand before the Lord and give an account of our lives.

And before that happens, let us pray to our guardian angels to help us guide our children and teach them to pray and bear a good harvest for the Lord.
Let us remember that we will be held accountable to our children, and also held accountable to the Lord.

25th Ordinary Sunday, Year A, 18.09.2011

2011-09-18T19:27:00.001+08:00

Is 55:6-9/ Phil 1:20c-24, 27a/ Mt 20:1-16a
There is one song which I think we are familiar with, or at least we have heard it before.

We may have even sung it at the karaoke sessions, or in the private studio of our bathrooms.

Even though we may not be familiar with all the lyrics of that song, yet we know that line that is repeated in almost every verse.

And that line is this: I did it my way.

Yes, it’s a song made popular by the late Frank Sinatra in 1969.

The last verse of that song sums up what it is essentially all about, and it goes like this:

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels
The records shows, I took the blows –
And did it my way

So to have it my way means to say the things I truly feel, and not the one who kneels.

So as much as we try to be diplomatic and careful with our words in order not to put our foot into our mouth, there are times when we say what we truly feel when things don’t go our way.

Especially when we want to grumble and complain about certain things in life.

From our earliest days, we ask why our brother or sister seemed to get the bigger piece of cake, or the better toy, or a better treatment from our parents.
As we grow older, we may ask why others get the ipod, the iphone, the ipad, and we get the “iron”, meaning to say, others seem to get the perks, while we get the pits.

And so we say what we feel, we complain and grumble, we say that life is not fair, because we didn’t get it our way.

So say what we may, but we would have to admit that it is easier to relate with the grumbling first-comers in today’s gospel parable than with the late-comers.

Who among us have not felt cheated or unfairly treated?

Yes, we feel that life is unfair and we grumble and complain.

We seem to do more, but we don’t seem to get more; in fact, what’s worse, we seem to get less!

There is this story about a priest who always addresses complains and grumbles with this phrase – Thank God, it could be worse.

So when his parishioners complain to him that the aircon is too cold, he would say : Thank God, it could be worse. Or when it’s too warm, he would also say : Thank God, it could be worse.

Or when the toilets are not clean, or when the place is dirty, he would always say : Thank God, it could be worse.

So a man got tired of hearing the priest say this same thing always, so one day he went to see the priest.

And he said : Father, last night I had a bad dream. I dream that I was falling and falling in pitch darkness and I finally landed in hell, and the fire began burning me and the worms were eating me up, and I was screaming in pain. What have you to say about this?

The priest, as usual, said : Thank God, it could be worse.

The man retorted : Just how could it be worse?

The priest replied : Thank God it’s only a dream. But it could be worse, in that, it could be real!

Well, the grumblings we heard in today’s gospel parable, admittedly, is a reality in our lives.

We seem to think that we do more, but we seem to get less, we seem to be worse off, so we grumble and we complain.

Yet, in today’s gospel parable, there is a revelation about the nature of God.

In the words of Jesus, God is telling us this : Have I no right to do what I like with my own? Why be envious because I am generous?

In other words, what God is saying is this : I do it my way!

The 1st reading pushes the point further by saying : God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, God’s ways are not our ways.

And just as the heavens are as high above the earth, God’s ways are above our ways, God’s thoughts are above our thoughts.

So as we try to understand God’s ways and God’s thoughts in comparison with our own, we still need to resolve our envy, our complains, our grumblings.

We may say that life is not fair, but could it be worse?

In the last line of the gospel, Jesus mentioned something about the last will be first, and the first, last.

There seems to be some sort of reversal of roles.
And this is one of the realities of life, in that we find ourselves on the other side of the fence.

So what we criticize, we will eventually become.

So if we criticize our boss, we might eventually find ourselves in a managerial position and in turn get criticized by our subordinates.

When we put ourselves in the position of the grumbling first-comers in the gospel parable, then there will come a time when we eventually find ourselves in the position of the late-comers.

We can imagine how those late-comers feel at the 11th hour.

They would feel dejected, rejected, useless, hopeless, desperate.

When we are in their position, or when we had been in their position, then we know we can’t have it our way.

We can only utter the words of one who kneels.

Because our only hope is in God’s mercy, which is the way of mercy and compassion, the way of love and forgiveness.

We can only utter words of thanks as we kneel before the Lord.

When we have a heart of gratitude, and give thanks to God, then God assures us that all things will work for the good of those who trust in God’s ways.

When we trust in God’s ways, there won’t be grumbles, there will only be gratitude.

And we will want to live our lives, not our way, but in God’s way.

In this Eucharist, let us give thanks to God, and let us always give thanks, and may that be our way of life.

22nd Ordinary Sunday, Year A, 28.08.2011

2011-08-28T22:00:00.002+08:00

Jer 20:7-9/ Rom 12:1-2/ Mt 16:21-27

When it comes to choosing a Christian name, we certainly have quite a choice from the Bible.

From the New Testament as well as from the Old Testament, we have all those traditional Christian names like Joseph, Mary, James, Joanna as well as David and Rachel, Moses, Sarah.

But as much as there are many names in the Bible, it is not often that the meanings of the names are given there.

But of course with the Internet, to find the meaning of a name is not that laborious.

One common traditional Christian name is Peter and we know the meaning of that name.

In last week’s gospel, Jesus said to Simon: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church.

So the name Peter means “Rock” and it implies stability, steadfastness and reliability.

Although Peter’s name means “Rock”, yet his understanding of Jesus is like rock and roll.

For eg, when Peter asked Jesus if he could only forgive someone who wrongs him not more than seven times, he thought he gave Jesus the maximum count.

Yet Jesus gave him something to count about when He told him: Not seven but seventy times seven times.

And we will surely remember that story about the disciples in the boat during the storm and they saw Jesus walking on water.

It was Peter who said: Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you across the water.

When Jesus told him to come, Peter stepped out of the boat but he got frightened by the wind and waters and started to sink, like a rock.

At times, we just can’t help shaking our heads and wondered why he ventured where the rest dare not tread and only to become a rock of embarrassment.

But to be a rock of embarrassment is not as bad as being a stumbling block.

Last week, Jesus called Peter a “rock”. Today, we heard how Peter was a stumbling block.

When Jesus began to make it clear to His disciples that He was destined to suffer grievously and be put to death, Peter started to remonstrate with Him.

Remonstrate here means to protest, to object, to disapprove.

Yes, Peter didn’t want that to happen to Jesus because if it was going to happen to Jesus, then it was as good as saying it was to happen to him as well.

Peter wouldn’t want that. Nobody would want that either.

And Jesus had strong words for Peter, words like Satan, get behind me, you are an obstacle in my path, your ways are not God’s ways but man’s ways.

Peter was to be the rock on which Jesus would build his church but almost immediately, he became a stumbling block.

Yes, Peter was to be the rock but when he had to face the truth of life, he stumbled.

So what is this truth of life? Well, the truth of life is this – life is a cross.

The trouble is that we, like Peter, don’t want to accept it. We don’t want to accept that life is a cross.
We say to ourselves: Heaven preserve me. This must not happen to me.

We have this notion that all difficulties and discomfort should be diminished asap, that life should be pleasant and easy and we should be able to get what we want without cost or sacrifice.

That’s our way. But that’s not God’s way. That’s also not the way of Jesus.

The way of Jesus is the way of the cross.

The cross is not just a part of Christianity. The cross is the heart of Christianity.

And great crosses make great hearts.

In the 1st reading, we heard how Jeremiah felt the pain of being God’s prophet.

He was a daily laughing stock and everyone’s joke. He had to bear insult and derision all day long.

He thought of giving up but the fire burned in his heart and in his bones.

He just had to continue his prophetic mission. That was his cross.

Or how about someone from the 16th century by the name of St Thomas More.

He was Lord Chancellor and an important councilor to King Henry VIII.

But when he had to declare his loyalty to King Henry VIII as Sovereign Head of the Church of England, he refused and was imprisoned.

His friends and family members pleaded with him to save his own life but he knew he had to embrace his cross.

At his trial, he said: It profits a man nothing to gain the whole world and lose his immortal soul.

For that he was beheaded. But for that he was blessed.

The prophet Jeremiah and St Thomas More showed us that with the cross, God will give us hearts of rock by which we will stand firm.

Yet the crosses in life are like the rocks of difficulties that come our way, and they will come our way.

A Sunday school teacher was thinking about how to teach her class about accepting the cross.

So one Sunday, she came in with a transparent container and some rocks, a box of pebbles and a box of sand.

Then she filled the container with rocks and asked the class if it was full. They nodded their heads.

Then she picked up the box of pebbles and poured it into the container and shook it a little until the pebbles filled the spaces between the rocks.

Again she asked if the container was filled and the class nodded.

Next, she picked up the box of sand and poured in into the container and of course the sand filled the remaining spaces.

Again, she asked the class if the container was finally full and the class nodded.

Then she explained what she did. The rocks are like the crosses in life, bulky and heavy, but they are the most important and should go into our lives first.

The rocks are things like our faith when it is being shaken, our family when they take us for granted, our loved ones when they disappoint us, the sacrifices that we make which go unnoticed, the forgiveness that we grant to someone even when they are not sorry for the wrong they have done to us, the patience and kindness we show to others who are a pain to us.

The pebbles are the other things in life, like our jobs, our studies, our hobbies, our interests.

The sand is everything else, all the small stuff.

But if we fill the container first with the sand, then we won’t be able to get in the rocks or anything else. That will be like building our lives on sand.

Yet, the rocks are like the crosses of life. They are heavy and bulky and difficult to carry.

But when we put them first in our lives, then we are building our lives on rock.

In the end, it is these rocks that we will carry with us in exchange for eternal life.

May we stand firm as a rock in carrying the cross, so that the way we walk will be God's way and not our way.

19th Ordinary Sunday, Year A, 07.08.2011

2011-08-07T19:50:00.001+08:00

1 Kings 19:9, 11-13/ Romans 9:1-5/ Matthew 6:41-51

Last week, I made a discovery, although it was not that fantastic a discovery.

And that discovery came about through an advertisement – it was an advertisement for mooncakes.

When I saw the advertisement on the papers, I thought to myself – Oh it’s time for mooncakes and those little piglets.

But then I remembered that before the mooncakes come in, there is something else happening before that.

Do you know what that is? Yes, it is the Chinese seventh month. Do you know when it started? Yes, last Sunday!

And along with the Chinese 7th month are the bright and loud “ge-tai”s and also the auctions. You can hear them more than a mile away.

And also there are those spooky stories, because it is the popular belief that the gates of the underworld are opened and the spirits roam the earth.

So the Chinese 7th month is also called the Hungry Ghosts Month, for whatever reason.

But it is actually a time to offer prayers for the deceased and to make other offerings for the deceased.

Also during this time, we seem to hear a bit more of those kind of spooky stories – people see white shadows or black shadows.

But let me tell you this – if you see someone, and that someone has got no shadow, then you better quickly walk away.

Better to see white shadow or black shadow than to see someone with no shadow!

Well, these so-called ghost stories always give us the creeps, and undeniably we get affected especially when we come across dark and lonely places.

Yes, those dark, lonely and deserted places are famous for those kinds of spooky appearances.

But have we ever heard of a ghost walking on water during a storm at sea?

Somehow, those conditions don’t seem right for any kind of ghostly appearances.

In the gospel, we heard that the disciples were in the boat and trying to keep afloat during the storm.

Then when Jesus came to them walking on the water, their first reaction was that they thought it was a ghost and they cried out in fear.

Why would they think it was a ghost? What made them think it was a ghost?

Well, essentially it is just one word, a 4-letter word, and it begins with “F”, but it’s not that word we might be thinking of.

The word is fear. Yes, that primal enemy of man that cripples us as human beings and as disciples of Jesus.

Fear caused chaos in the disciples as they faced the uncontrollable powers of the sea and immediately they were terrified.

In the storm, the wind, the waves, and the figure walking on the water, fear gripped them and made them think of ghosts.

In the gospel, the word “ghost” is used to mean “an apparition” (phantasma), a seeing of something unknown, something that we do not have control over.

And there are many things in life we do not have control over.
Like for e.g., we can’t control what others want to say to us, especially those sarcastic and disparaging remarks.

There was a pious woman who always took her Bible and Rosary along with her wherever she went so that she could pray.
One time, she was in a ferry when a storm began to blow up.
She took out her Bible and Rosary and began to pray.
A man who was sitting next to her looked at her and after awhile he turned to her and asked, "You don't really believe all that stuff in the Bible, do you?"
The woman replied, "Of course I do. It is the Bible."
He said, "Well, what about the guy that was swallowed by that whale?"
She replied, "Oh, Jonah. Yes, I believe that, it is in the Bible."
He asked, "Well, how do you suppose he survived all that time inside the whale?"
The woman said, "Well, I don't really know. I guess when I get to heaven, I will ask him."
"What if he isn't in heaven? What if he’s in hell?" the man asked sarcastically.
"Then you can go there and ask him," replied the woman.

The reality of life is that there are many things that we do not have control over.

And because of that, our hearts are troubled with fears, and we create the ghosts of our lives.

One ghost that will haunt us and even break us is the ghost of shame and humiliation.

A church organist was sharing with me about his experience of the first time he played for Mass, and it was just a weekday evening Mass.

To prepare for that Mass, he took the day off and practised at the organ in the morning and the afternoon.

He felt confident enough, so he decided to go for a tea-break before Mass.
He came back just in time for Mass, and when the Mass started, he began to play the opening hymn.

To his horror, the notes sounded different, sounded out of tune, and it just didn’t sound right.

The priest looked at him, the parishioners looked at him, a storm was brewing in him, he messed up his fingering, in a word it was a disaster.

And he couldn’t go on after that and he got up and left. He wished he could just disappear, evaporate or be invisible.

Well, it seemed that someone came to practice on the same organ when he took a break and adjusted a few knobs and he didn’t realize it.

It haunted him so much that he didn’t touch the organ or the next two months or so.

But as it usually happens, our greatest fears will come true, he happened to bump into the priest who celebrated that evening Mass that was his disaster.

The priest urged him to try again and give himself another chance, otherwise it was such a waste of talent.

So after some persuasion, he gave it another try and this time he was at the organ an hour before Mass, no tea-break, and just to make sure that everything was right and nobody touched the knobs.

Well, for that organist, his nightmare turned into sweet melodies for the Lord, a classical case of failure being turned into success.

He sank into shame and humiliation, but Jesus pulled him up.

Just as Peter sank, when he felt the force of the wind and took fright, but Jesus pulled him up and saved him.

Our own experiences of failure, shame and humiliation will drag us down and make us sink.

But like Peter, we just have to call out : Lord! Save me!

And Jesus will hold us by the hand as He says : Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.

For all that lies behind us and for whatever that lies ahead of us, let us be assured that Jesus is always with us.

For all our fears and failures, let us also have the faith that Jesus is with us to face it.

Not that there will be no more storms or that we won’t sink and go down into the murky darkness and even think of ghosts.

But Jesus will always be there to hold our hand and say to us: Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.

17th Ordinary Sunday, Year A, 24.07.2011

2011-07-24T12:22:00.001+08:00

1Kings 3:5, 7-12/ Romans 8:28-30/ Matthew 13:44-52

Last week, from Monday to Friday, the priests of the diocese had their annual retreat.

Thanks for your prayers, we priests had a good and spirit-filled retreat, and we prayed for you too.

We had enough to eat, enough of sleep; and most importantly we had time for prayer.

Yes, we had so many intentions to pray for, and so many other things to reflect and think about.

But it was a nice and comfortable five days of retreat.

So much so that we wished that we could have another five more days of retreat.

Seemed like the days passed by so quickly when we are having a good time.

Yet deep in our hearts, we priests know that we must go back to our parishes.

One point of reflection for us towards the end of the retreat was, what kind of parish are we going back to?

Is it our dream parish? Are we looking forward to going back to our parish?

Or are we secretly wishing that we could go to another parish?

So I am going to ask you a sensitive question but it’s a rhetoric question, i.e. no answer is required.

So what do you think? Do you think that Fr. JJ, Fr. Stanley and myself wish to be back in this parish? Or are we dreaming of going to another parish?

Just a rhetoric question, and maybe I share with you this story for reflection.

When a wheat farmer heard that gold was discovered in another state, he became discontented with the golden grain he harvested year after year.

He thought of leaving his farm and even his family in search of the golden fortune.

When his wife came to know what he was thinking, she was frantic.

They had five young children to feed and she knew that her farmer husband could never be successful in discovering gold.

So, very reluctantly, the farmer stayed home but he kept dreaming about the gold.

Then one night he had a dream. He saw himself in a room filled with gold.

After gleefully running the gold nuggets through his hands, he felt hungry.

When he looked for something to eat, he found only gold.

He called for his wife, hoping to be comforted by the warmth of her love, but there was only the coldness of the gold.

He longed to look into the sparkling eyes of his children, but the only sparkle he saw was that of his lifeless gold.

Then he woke up with a start, and he realized what his true riches were.

Yes, the farmer realized that his true riches were right where he was, right under his nose literally, and he already possessed it. There was no need at all to even search for it.

Just a simple story, but it illustrates a very profound truth.

What we long for, what we dream of, what we yearn for, we already have it, and it’s right where we are. It only takes some wisdom to realize it.

Well, back to the rhetoric question – Do you think that Fr. JJ, Fr. Stanley and myself like it here in this parish?

Or do you think we are dreaming of being in another parish?

Well, if anything, the priests retreat made us count our blessings and to be grateful.

And indeed, to be in this parish is a blessing.

For myself, to be with Fr. JJ and Fr. Stanley is indeed a blessing.

Well, in Fr. JJ there is wisdom and experience, and in Fr. Stanley there is calmness and steadiness.

So you see, like that, I can relax, I can even rest and relax.

Yet we need to pray for that wisdom to see the truth of life that the 2nd reading is telling us.

And that is: God will turn all things good for those who love Him.

So be it in this parish, or at home, or at the work place, we must believe that God has placed us there and He wants us to be there.

Because His plans for us are always for our good and nothing less.

Because when we love God, everything becomes the best case scenario, and never the worst case scenario.

So in our homes, we may have our misgivings about our family members.

We may be disappointed and even resentful with our parents, our spouse and our children.

But do we love God enough to believe that this is where God wants us to be, yes, with our parents, our spouse, our children.

Yes, when we love God, He will turn all things for the good of those we are living with, those whom we call family.

Or at the workplace, there may be all that wheeling and dealing, those who cut corners at our expense, the devious scheming and disparaging remarks that makes us so sick with the workplace.

But when we love God, He will turn all things for the good of those whom we are working with, as well as for ourselves.

Yes, when we love God, it will always be the best case scenario, never the worst case scenario.

Anyway, we celebrated our feast day about three weeks ago right?

Now, let me ask you this : Do you remember the theme for our feast day celebration? (Home is where the heart is)

For Fr. JJ, Fr. Stanley and myself, this is our home and this is where our hearts will be.

But in the first place, this is your home, and with your heart you have welcomed us and shared your home with us.

Well, this is not a perfect parish, nor is this a dream parish.

But wait, a perfect and a dream parish doesn’t exist at all.

But there is a treasure that is buried deep in this parish.

This parish is dedicated to the heart of Mary.

And if home is where the heart is, then this is Mary’s home, and we are her treasures.

And in Mary’s home, let us learn this from her.

Let us learn how to love one another.
Let us learn to forgive one another.
Let us learn to bear with the failings of one another and to help those in need.

Let us consecrate ourselves to Mary so that we can love God as much as she loves God.

Let us make this parish a house of God’s blessings, and where our hearts are really at home.

Trinity Sunday 19.06.2011

2011-06-19T19:35:00.001+08:00

Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9/ 2 Cor 13:11-13/ Jn 3:16-18

Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday. Sounds like a heavy and serious kind of feast.

But not knowing how to start the homily seriously, I can only think of starting with a joke.

But I was warned not to use this joke unless the congregation is matured enough, and also they may not laugh.

But I will take the risk and see how. So here it goes.

Jesus asked his disciples – Who do people say I am?

His disciples answered – Some say you are John the Baptist, some say you are Elijah, and others say you are one of the prophets.

And Jesus said – But you, who do you say I am?

Simon Peter answered – Oh, you are the Word made flesh, you are fully human and fully divine, you are the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made and one in being with the Father.

And Jesus looked at Simon Peter with those eyes and said – Huh???

Well, if someone were to ask us – What is the Holy Trinity? How would we reply?

We will probably have recourse to some textbook answer like – The Holy Trinity is 3 persons, one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

After that we might not know what else to talk about, and we might also not be too sure what we are talking about.

Or we might just start reciting the Creed, an easy way out, but people will still not know what we are talking about.

Well, today’s feast is not about words, or description or definition.

The Holy Trinity is essentially a mystery. But that mystery is revealed – we know that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

But that mystery is revealed and yet it is also revealing. In other words, we know something about God, but yet not everything.

Today’s gospel gives us another revelation of the mystery of God. It’s a profound revelation and it is this :

God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.

Now, do we know what that means essentially?

But before we start to give serious answers, let me share with you another joke.

After being married for 25 years and intending to make their silver anniversary a memorable one, the wife asked her husband to describe her.

He looked at her slowly, and said – You’re A,B, C,D, E,F,G,H, … and I,J,K.

The wife was puzzled and so she asked – Now what does that mean?

So he said – Adorable, Beautiful, Cute, Delightful, Elegant, Foxy, Gorgeous, Hot.

The wife smiled and beamed and said – Oh you are such a sweet darling. What about I,J,K?

He said – I’m Just Kidding!

Hope that the wife won’t ask for any more descriptions when it comes to their golden anniversary.

Well, the man was only one letter away from telling his wife what she meant to him.

From A to K, he just have to move on to L, and L would stand for “love”.

And that’s what the feast of the Holy Trinity is telling us.

That God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life.

To have eternal life means to live in the Spirit of God’s love, which is the love of the Father for the Son, and the Son for the Father.

And what does that mean practically? The 2nd reading would put it as this – help one another, be united, live in peace.

Today is also Father’s Day, and we thank God for our fathers and the love they give to us.

Myself being a spiritual father to this spiritual family, I can say that I understand what a father feels for his family.

Fathers want to protect and provide for their family.

They may not show that kind of tender love which is associated with mothers, but fathers give that assuring presence of love.

As I was reflecting on the presence of the father in the family, a childhood memory came to mind.

There was a time when my father had to work the night shift, and at that time I was in my early primary school age.

So after dinner, my father would rest for awhile, and then leave for work around 9pm.

I remembered that everytime he left the door of the house, I had this sad feeling that I would really miss my papa, and I didn’t want him to go.

But yet, all I could say was “bye bye”.

I guess that to our fathers, we are not so emotionally expressive.

But I can certainly say that the presence of the father in the home brings about a sense of love and security.

So fathers may not be Adorable, Beautiful, Cute, Delightful, Elegant, Foxy, Gorgeous, Hot.

But for them, we can say it’s I,J,K, and it’s not I’m Just Kidding.

But I,J,K as in I Just Know. Know what? I Just Know that my father loves me.

Yes, we just know that our fathers love us.

We call God our Father. We also know that God our Father loves us.

We also know that God will empower all fathers to be living reflections of His love for us.

With all the fathers present here, we give thanks to God.

And with all the fathers present here, we also want to proclaim that God is Trinity, and that God loves us eternally.

6th Sunday of Easter, Year A, 29.05.2011

2011-05-29T19:43:00.000+08:00

Jn 14:14-21

I wonder if we know what is the hottest news in town. Any idea what is the hottest news in town?

Whatever we think it might be, the hottest news in town is certainly the weather report!

Over the radio, over the tv, over almost every media, there is always the weather report.

And I must say, the weather over the past few days is just hot and hotter.

But even without the weather report, how will we know when it’s really hot?

Maybe let me speculate on some possible indications.

It’s really hot when …
You want to buy milk and all they have is evaporated milk
Beads of sweat appear on the statue of Stamford Raffles
The public swimming pools are now protected areas
The chickens are laying hard-boiled eggs

Anyway all those extremes aside, what precautions are there to take in such a hot and humid weather?

What will we do or say in such a weather condition?

Of course we will say things like …
Drink more water, but that does not mean can drink more beer!
Eat more fruits, but that does not mean eat more durians!
Don’t eat fried or heaty food, you will get sore throat, as well as sore somewhere else
Wear light clothing, but that does not mean wearing shorts or spaghetti straps to Mass!

Yes, in any and in every situation, we will somehow know what we should do.

So be it hot weather, cold weather, sunny day, rainy day, we will have a set of mental rules to follow.

And these rules, although not set in stone, and also more like common sense, these rules help us, as well as remind us of what to do in a given situation.

So rules are helpful, and they remind us of what to do even if it’s about a trivial matter like hot weather.

So if rules are helpful, then how about commandments?

Certainly, the very word itself “commandments” indicate that it is essential, fundamental and even critical.

In today’s gospel, Jesus said : If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

So even though we may not know the Bible by heart, or quote Bible verses, yet we know what Jesus has taught us.

His teachings are His commandments for us.

And just like we know the dos and don’ts for hot weather, we also know the dos and don’ts of the commandments of Jesus.

So we know we should forgive and love our enemies; we should be kind and compassionate and generous.

We know we must pray and be faithful to God; we know we should tell the truth always and to keep our promises.

We also know that we should not lie or cheat, we should not be devious or malicious.

We know we should not judge or condemn or slander others. We know we should not bear hatred or take revenge.

Yes, these are the commandments of Jesus, and we know it.

Or do we know it? And if we know it, are we teaching it?

When it comes to teaching the commandments of Jesus, it is not just to children or to youth. Even adults need to be taught.

But whether it is children, or youth or adults, they need more than teachers. They need witnesses.

Pope Paul VI said that modern man listens more to witnesses than to teachers, and if they do listen to teachers, it is because they are first and foremost witnesses.

So how do we witness to the commandments of Jesus?

Someone by the name of Dr. Kent Keith wrote this :

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, others may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
So, in the FINAL analysis, it is more than what we say. It is about what we do. It is about actions speaking louder than words.

So if our children don’t pray anymore, then we must show them that we will still pray, anyway.

If we think that some people come to church dressed inappropriately or dressed anyhow, then we must show them what is dressing appropriately. Or we will just turn the aircon colder, anyway.

If we think that some of us don’t behave like Catholics, then we must show them what it means to be a good Catholic.

If we truly love Jesus, then we will keep His commandments, and witness to it in our actions.

Hot weather, cold weather, rain or shine, we must know what to do if we truly love Jesus.

And if we know what to do, then it’s either we do it, or we do it.

And as Jesus said in the gospel, the Holy Spirit will help us do it, anyway.

4th Sunday of Easter (Good Shepherd Sunday), Year A, 15.05.2011

2011-05-14T21:15:00.000+08:00

I wonder how many of us appreciate art, or that some of us are artists in the general sense of the word.

Art, or drawings, are very different from photographs.

Photographs capture the snap-shot moment of a reality.

So there are snap-shot moments of people being baptized, or a bridegroom kissing a bride on their wedding day, or children gathered around their mother to celebrate Mother’s Day, which was just last week.

Yes, photographs capture those snap-shot moments of life.

But art and drawings capture a different aspect of reality.

So if I want to have a picture of your faces as I preach, I can take it with a camera.

Or if I have some artistic talent, then I can draw the expressions of your faces according to how I perceive it.

But what I will draw may not be the same as the photograph that I have taken with the camera.

Surely I will draw a much nicer picture isn’t it. Certainly those faces that look like as if the sun is setting in their eyes, I will draw them with faces like the rising sun and look fully alive.

Those faces with a blank look, I will draw them like as if they are laughing all the way to the bank.

So photographs show the snap-shot moment of reality, but art and drawings will give the aspect of imaginary.

So maybe let us now imagine Jesus, and we imagine Jesus as the Good Shepherd.

What kind of picture is forming up in our minds?

Probably a neat and tidy Jesus in His long flowing robes, with His long hair nicely combed, carrying a lamb in His arms, with other sheep grazing in the meadows.

A nice, serene, tranquil imagery of Jesus the Good Shepherd and His sheep. All is calm and peaceful.

That is the picture that most religious art pieces will portray.

But what is the reality? Well, I have yet to see any photographs of a shepherd and his sheep that looked similar to what is portrayed in religious art.

One thing for certain is that there is a close and intimate relationship between the shepherd and his sheep.

Because out there in the country side and away from the city, the shepherd has only his sheep for company.

Hence, for the shepherd, the sheep are his priority, and in many ways, the sheep are also a cause of his anxiety.

Unlike what we see in religious art, not all is peaceful and calm.

Out there in the country side and in the open fields, there is danger lurking somewhere.

The gospel which we have just heard mentioned about thieves and brigands, with the devious motives of stealing, killing and destroying.

So if the shepherd cares enough for his sheep, he must be prepared to bleed, yes, bleed for his sheep.

Religious art seldom portray the Good Shepherd with bleeding wounds, or lying on the ground with a mortal wound.

But the reality is that the Good Shepherd suffered wounds, and was eventually nailed to the cross to die.

Today is also Vocation Sunday, and the emphasis is on the call to the priesthood and to serve as shepherds of the people of God.

For this Vocation Sunday, the diocese has printed a brochure, and it’s about “All you wanted to ask about the Diocesan Priesthood but were afraid to ask”.

In this brochure are 14 FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) with corresponding answers, and also some nice photographs about life in the Major Seminary.

But one question that is not asked is this: As a priest, will I have to bleed for the sheep, just like the Good Shepherd?

Well, bleed … yes! But maybe in another way.

I came across this poem of sort, and the title is: No one wants to be a priest!

It goes like this: No one wants to be a priest because …

If he begins Mass on time, his watch is fast;
If he begins a minute later, he keeps people waiting.
If he preaches too long, he makes people get bored;
If his homily is too short, he is unprepared.
If his voice is strong when preaching, he is shouting;
If his voice is normal,
people do not understand what he is preaching about;
If he goes to visit families, he is always out:
If he does not, he does not care for them.
If he asks for donations, he is a money-face;
If he does not do it, he is too proud and lazy.
If he takes time in the confessional, he is too slow;
If he makes it too fast, he has no time for his penitents.
If he renovates the church, he throws away money;
If he does not do it, he allows everything to rot away.
If he is with the youth, he forgets the old.
If he warms up to old women, he must be missing his mummy.
If he keeps distance from all of them, he has a heart of stone.
If he is young, he has no experience;
If he is old, he should retire.
As long as he lives, there are always people who are better than him;
BUT IF THE PRIEST DIES....THERE IS NOBODY TO TAKE HIS PLACE!
Because no one wants to be a priest!!!

So in many small n little ways, the priest is called to follow the Good Shepherd and to bleed for the sheep.

But just as the Good Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep, the priest bleeds for his flock so that his sheep can have life and life to the full.

So what is the priest called to do, or what is he called to be like, so that his sheep can have that fullness of life?

The 2nd reading gives a very profound and challenging direction in the understanding of the call to the priesthood.

It is not actually about the priesthood, but rather it is about the Good Shepherd. But it is a good direction for priests. It goes like this :

This is what you are called to do, because Christ suffered for you and left an example for you to follow the way He took.
He has not done anything wrong, and there was no perjury in his mouth.
He was insulted and did not retaliate with insults;
When he was tortured, he made no threats, but he put his trust in the righteous judge.
He was bearing our faults in his own body on the cross, so that we might die to our faults and live for holiness.
Through his wounds, you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:20-25)

Yes, by the wounds of the Good Shepherd, we are healed and given life.

Personally, I know that my life and my call to the priesthood has to be lived out in the way of the life of the Good Shepherd.

It is only when we priests live out the way of the life of the Good Shepherd that we can lead the flock to green pastures and feed the sheep.

So my dear people of God, pray for us priests, pray for vocations to the priesthood.

We have a critical situation. This is certainly not just imaginary, and it is more than just the reality.

This is an urgency. And it's more like an emergency.

We must pray for priests and for vocations to the priesthood.

Otherwise we will all go astray. And thieves and brigands will just come to steal, kill and destroy.

Easter Vigil, Year A, 23.04.2011

2011-04-24T17:26:00.000+08:00

Today we celebrate the deepest and the most profound mystery of our faith.

Yes, the Resurrection is indeed the core and the center of our faith, the very reason why we are here, the very reason why we are Church, the very reason why we believe in God.

Yet, having said that, the stark reality is the finality of death.

So even though we may believe in the Resurrection, do we dare to take death lightly?

Yes, preparing for death is a serious matter, but let’s see if we can take this story lightly.

An elderly woman was getting her earthly matters in order.

So she prepared her will, and made her final arrangements.

As part of the arrangements, she went to see the priest to talk about the type of funeral service she wanted, the hymns to be sung, etc.

She told the priest that she wanted 2 things done.

Firstly, she wanted to be cremated. That’s well and good.

Secondly, she wanted her ashes to be scattered over every golf course in Singapore.

The priest was so puzzled that he had to ask why.

The elderly woman explained – Well, in that way, I will know that my son will visit me whenever he goes to play golf.

Yes, death is a serious matter, whether we are prepared for it or not.

Yet, whether prepared or otherwise, we will have to face it, and accept it.

The disciples of Jesus were not prepared for His sudden and violent death on the cross. It was just too fast, too furious.

When Mary Magdalene (and the other Mary) came to the tomb and saw that the stone was rolled away, her (their) reaction was not one of immense relief or joy, that Jesus was not dead.

In fact, she (they) came to the tomb to finish the embalming of the crucified and dead Jesus.

Mary Magdalene saw how Jesus died and her only conclusion was that the dead body of Jesus was stolen.

So the reality of the death of Jesus was accepted and sealed, and there was no question about it.

But, it was from the reality of His death that came about the resurrection.

God accepted the death of His Son. But God did not leave Him for dead.

In raising Jesus from the dead, God did not allow death to have the final say.

God will always have the final word and that word is the resurrection.

God loved His only Son, and He won’t leave Him for dead.

Indeed nothing could ever separate the love God has for His Son, not even the reality and finality of death.

It was with God’s love that Jesus rose from the dead and conquered death and sin.

The letter to the Romans 8 will ask us this – What will separate us from the love of God? Trials? Tribulation? Anguish? Persecution? The sword of death?

But because of the Resurrection, we now know that nothing could ever separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord!

Just as nothing could ever separate God’s love for His Son, nothing could also separate the love that our Risen Lord has for us.

Yes, God accepted the death of His Son. But through the Resurrection, God saved Him, not from death, but out of death (Hebrews 5:7-9).

So for us who believe in the Resurrection of Easter Sunday, we also have to accept the crucifixion of Good Friday.

We have to accept that life is going to be a series of dyings.

It is essentially a dying to self – dying to our pride and ego, dying to be a perfectionist and a control freak, dying to be acknowledged and praised, dying to be looked up to.

Dying to be remembered and visited by our descendents, long after our ashes are frozen in the columbarium or scattered in the golf course or whatever.

Come to think of it, we so carelessly use the phrase “dying to”, for e.g. we might say later “I am dying to sleep”. Well you may just end up with eternal rest.
Maybe we should say – I am dying to live, and mean it.

Because the truth is that it is in our dying to our old life that we rise to a new life.

That is what the Resurrection is telling us. That is what God is telling us.

Maybe let me just tell you a little joke about death, so that we can have some humour about life.

One morning, a man opened the newspapers and he was shocked to see his obituary. He was surely not pleased at all.

So he called up his best friend and said to him – Hey! Did you read about my obituary in the papers?

His friend replied – Ya, I just saw it ……… Err… by the way, where are you calling from? (That’s what friends are for!)

Yes, Jesus Christ is risen. He is calling the Elect to be baptized into His death so that they can rise to a new life.

And the Risen Lord is also calling us who are already baptized to accept our dying, so that we can truly go on living.

Because we believe that Christ is risen, we can truly say, we are dying to live. And it’s not a joke.

3rd Sunday of Lent, Year A, 27.03.2011

2011-03-27T19:30:00.002+08:00

Exodus 17:3-7/ Roman 5:1-2, 5-8/ John 4:5-42

Well, that is a long gospel, and I am sure you are tired from standing, and I am also trying to catch my breath.

Normally I won’t say such mundane and trivial things as I begin a homily. Normally.

But when there are changes, then the behaviour also changes.

And when these changes create a need, then our behaviour also changes to satisfy the need.

Maybe one example could be how we use the restroom (or what we commonly call the toilet)

We won’t go to the toilet if there is no need, right?

But when there is a need, and if it’s an urgent need, then our behaviour somehow becomes a little altered, our behaviour changes.

What won’t normally bother us, somehow becomes an issue for us, in that time of need.

For e.g. the smell will bother us, the floor is wet, and if we have to do some serious potty business, then the toilet paper, whether have or don’t have, whether smooth enough or not, the toilet seat is clean or not, all these will become major issues.

Talking about toilet seats, women are often irritated when men don’t put down the toilet seats after they are done with their “local calls” as different from “trunk calls”.
What’s even worse is that the men don’t even lift up the toilet seats when they are doing their local calls.
This really irritates the women, for obvious reasons.
But do you know what it takes to get men to lift the toilet seat before they start and to put the seat down after they are done?
Nothing less than a sex-change operation. Then the men will get it. (but by which time they are not exactly men anymore)

So in a time of need, what normally doesn’t bother us or what we don’t normally care much about, somehow becomes an issue and a cause of complaint for us.

All because there is a need, and with that need, our behaviour changes.

In the gospel, we saw how a need changes the behaviour of a person.

And of all people, that person was Jesus. He had a need. He was tired and He was thirsty.

There was the well, but He can’t get the water.

So when a Samaritan woman came along with a bucket, He threw aside all restrictions and barriers and asked her for a drink.

That was why the Samaritan woman was surprised, maybe even shocked, and her first word was “What!”, and even the gospel took the trouble to explain what was the problem.

Jesus had a need – He was thirsty – so He couldn’t be bothered about restrictions and barriers.

But the Samaritan woman also had a need. And it was shown implicitly in her behaviour.

She came to the well at the 6th hour – meaning at noon – the hottest time of the day.

It’s an awkward time to draw water because everyone would want to be at home under shelter. But that tells us that the Samaritan woman wanted to avoid people.

But as she talked with Jesus, her other needs became obvious. She was also thirsty.

She was thirsting for dignity and self-worth, so that she won’t have to keep avoiding people and drawing water in the noon-day sun.

She was thirsting for love and relationship. Well, she had had five husbands, and still counting.

So when people thirst, their behaviour changes, and can even change drastically, especially in the hot and dry desert, as we heard in the 1st reading.

Tormented by thirst, the Israelites didn’t care about who God is and their words were as scorching as the hot desert sands.

Yes, when people thirst, their behaviour changes.

And they will say things which they won’t usually say.

Earlier on, I said that the toilet is a place where we will go only when we are in need.

But have you heard of toilet talk?

Well the story goes that a man went to a pub for a drink.

After a few drinks, he felt the need to go to the toilet.

When he was in the cubicle, he heard a voice from the next cubicle : Hi, how are you doing?

The man was a bit surprised, but he replied : Oh, I’m fine. Things are going smoothly, literally.

And then the voice said : So what are you doing this evening?

Feeling a bit awkward now, the man nonetheless replied : Oh I’m just here for a few drinks.

Then the voice said : Tell you what, I will call you back later. There is this guy in the next cubicle who is answering all my questions. (so be careful what you say in the toilet; better still don’t talk in the toilet)

In the gospel there was no mention that Jesus got His drink.

There was also no mention of the Samaritan woman drawing water from the well.

But Jesus started the conversation, and they began talking. And it was certainly no toilet talk.

They talked about water, about relationships, about God, they talked about the things that mattered in life. It was a heart to heart talk.

In a way, Jesus asked the right questions and the Samaritan woman gave the answers that revealed her need.

What we need in life are also conversations that will refresh us.

Have we ever noticed that when we are engaged in a meaningful conversation, we forget about our thirst and we don’t even need a drink. Even if there is a drink around, it is just like an ornament, a decoration.

Because meaningful conversations with words spoken in love refreshes our hearts, like cool water that soothes the parched throat.

Let us ask the Lord to quench our hearts with His living water, so that our conversations with others will refresh them and lead them to Jesus who will quench their thirst.

7th Ordinary Sunday, Year A, 20.02.2011

2011-02-20T19:20:00.005+08:00

Lev 19:1-2, 17-18/ 1 Cor 3:16-23/ Mt 5:38-48

One of the most feared predators of the sea is the shark.

It doesn’t matter whether it was those slimy-creepy looking shark characters in the movie “Finding Nemo”, or that man-eating big shark in the movie “Jaws”, just mention “sharks” and fear and danger immediately comes to mind.

But mention sharks fin, and something else comes to mind.

But there are also sharks without fins, and they don’t live in the sea.

I am sure you know what I am talking about – Loan Sharks!

The term loan sharks is used to describe a certain type of predatory money lenders whose aim was to keep their customers eternally in debt.

So we may lend money to others, but that does not mean that we are loan sharks.

In fact, there may be another species called “debt sharks”. So what are these debt sharks?

Well, they are those kind of people who are able to convince you to lend them money, anything from a 3-figure to a 5 or even 6 figure sum, depending on how much they know you have.

Once we have parted with our money, these debt sharks will happily swim away, leaving us to slowly feel the pain of their bite.

Well, as they always say, this is a small world, and those debt sharks will somehow swim into our paths again one day.

We might think that they would be shocked and ashamed upon seeing us right?

On the contrary, they will look at us like total strangers, like as if they don’t know us since the world began, and then again we will feel the bite of these debt sharks.

I wonder if you ever had that kind of experience?

The pain of losing our money to these debt sharks is not just the bite. It is like as if they left their teeth in our hearts and leaving us in pain.

We won’t ordinarily call these debt sharks our enemies, but we certainly resent them, we detest them, we curse them under our breath, because we feel the pain and hurt when we think about them.

We may not have any enemies in the exact sense of the word.

But bad and dishonest people, like those debt sharks are the pain of our lives, and how we wish we could sink our teeth into their flesh, just as they had done to us.

But when we can’t, and so we just end up grinding our teeth.

So at the core of these so-called “teething” problems is the urge for revenge.

It’s that “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” thing that Jesus was talking about in the gospel.

In other words, it’s this-for-that, butter-for-fat, you kick my dog and I’ll skin your cat.

Well, revenge is a crass and crude word, so we will disguise it with other words like “seeking justice”, “settle scores” or “pay back time”.
Revenge is what we have been exposed to, and revenge is what we have learnt.

Jesus even acknowledged it when He said: You have learnt how it was said: eye for eye, tooth for tooth.

But immediately He follows with: But I say this to you.

And then He gives a set of teachings that is difficult to bite, and more difficult to swallow.

But all in all, Jesus is telling us that if we are to be His disciples, then we have to be different from the rest, in the way we respond to the evils we suffer.

In other words, we must not let evil conquer us; instead we are to conquer evil with good, we are to conquer evil with love.

That’s why Jesus gave us this directive: Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.

Yes, it is a directive – But I say this to you – strong words that tell us that it is not optional, nor is it negotiable.

Let me ask you a “corny” riddle : What do sharks not eat?
Sharks don’t eat clowns. (Why?) Because they taste funny.

Well the Bible does not have the word “clowns”. But somewhere in the Bible there is this mention of “fools”, and specifically “fools for Christ” (1 Cor 4:10)

Loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us may sound foolish.

But come to think of it, it doesn’t hurt to be nice and loving right?

There are many types of sharks waiting to bite us – loan sharks, debt sharks, hammerhead sharks, etc.

If they want to bite, then like what Jesus said, offer them no resistance, let them bite.

All the more, give them a bite of love (not a love bite!)

Let me tell a story with a corny ending.

A rich retired old man bought a house on a large bay front property, something like Sentosa Cove, but more classy.

So he had his own private beach with picnic tables and the beach was perfect for swimming.

One day as he was reclining on his deck chair and taking a nap, he was awakened by voices shouting and squeals of laughter and water splashing.

He went over to his beach and he saw a group of young people swimming on his beach.

The group saw him, but instead of apologizing, they went into deeper water, and taunted him by saying: Come on grandpa, show us you can swim.

The old man replied: It’s ok, I didn’t come down here for a swim. I just came to feed my sharks!

Whatever it may be, never return evil for evil. In any case, can blood be washed away with blood, and can injury heal injury?

The disciple of Jesus will always suffer wrong rather than to do wrong.

That might sound foolish, but that’s what we are called to be – fools for Christ.
Yes, we are called to be fools for Christ, offering to the sharks of the world, love at first bite.

Yes, love our enemies, love those sharks, because those who deserve our love the least, need it the most – from us.

5th Ordinary Sunday, Year A 06.02.2011

2011-02-06T16:59:00.001+08:00

Is 58:7-10/ 1 Cor 2:1-5/ Mt 5: 13-16

Today is already the 4th day of the Chinese New Year.

But when does Chinese New Year actually starts?

On Thursday? Which is the first day of Chinese New Year?

I would say that Chinese New Year starts with the Reunion Dinner.

Because with the Reunion Dinner, the Chinese New Year celebrations will begin, because that’s when we celebrate family love, family unity and family relationships over dinner.

So does the Reunion Dinner have anything spiritual?

Well, let us listen to this story and see how the Reunion Dinner can be something spiritual.

Well, after the Reunion Dinner, some people would go down to Chinatown, to shop for bargains.

So, this little girl was walking with her mother when she saw balloons for sale, the type that are filled with helium.

So, she asked her mum to get one for her, and she was thrilled and happy with the balloon floating in the air as she held on to the string attached to the balloon.

Then accidentally, she lost grip of the string and the balloon began to float and rise up to the sky.

Happiness turned into sadness and she cried over the loss of the balloon.

Her mum wanted to console her. Now, what do you think she would say to her?
By and large, we would think that her mother would tell her that it’s alright, don’t cry and that she will get her another balloon. (Right? That’s what we would most likely say.)

Well, the mother thought for a while, and said to her little girl.

Don’t cry, the balloon has gone up to have Reunion Dinner with its family. Just like we go home for Reunion Dinner, the balloon has gone home for Reunion Dinner.

When the little girl heard this, she stopped crying and became happy for the balloon.

Interesting to note what the mother said to her girl.

No religious talk, no big faith concepts, just a little something about what the little girl understood.

In the gospel, Jesus used two common things to help us realize who we are and what we are.

As much as Jesus talked about salt and light, yet we also know that these two things do not exist for themselves.

Salt gives taste but we don’t eat salt as it is.

Light does not shine in, light shines out.

So, salt and light are in many ways similar to faith and love.

Faith does not exist for itself. Faith helps us to realize the presence of love and the presence of God in all situations (where there is love, there is God).

Jesus Himself was salt and light when others forgot about the presence of God in several instances in the gospels.

Remember that instance, when He was asked if it was necessary to pay taxes?

He asked for a coin, he asked them whose image was on the coin, and then He said: Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.

The people were talking about taxes, a tasteless thing.

Jesus put in some salt and made them realize the presence of God, and more importantly that all things belong to God. So what belongs to Caesar, actually belongs to God.

In another instance, when Jesus was asked where His authority came from, He in turn asked them where the authority of John the Baptist came from. From man or from God?

Well, His question was the answer for them, and they had no reply to that.

Because the moment God comes into the picture, their question becomes redundant and pointless.

So Jesus Himself showed us what salt and light are all about.

Any situation without the involvement of God is a tasteless situation.

Faith is like salt that brings in the presence of God and it enlightens the situation with the love of God.

Just want to share with you another story about balloons.

A balloon-seller was holding on to a bunch of balloons of various colours- red, yellow, blue, green, white.

And children gathered around him, thrilled by the balloons that were dancing in the air.

So he asked them what was their favourite colour, and they said red, blue, green, yellow, white.

So he asked them which balloon will rise faster up if he let all of them go at the same time.

And the children said that it will be the balloon of their favourite colour.

And then the balloon-seller let go all the balloons, and the children shouted with delight as the balloons danced and floated up towards the sky.

As the balloons slowly disappeared out of sight, the balloon-seller said to the children.

So you see, it is not the colour of the balloon that will make it rise faster, it is what is inside the balloon.

Yes, it is not what is outside that is important, it is what is inside that matters.

Well, as I prepare to move on to my next parish appointment, I know what it is inside of me.

Inside of me is filled with your prayers, your love, your care.

You have affirmed me, you have supported me, you have been patient with me when I am in my cranky moods.

From what filled your heart, you have filled my heart.

To me, you are a great parish community, very heart-lander, very real, very loving.

Jesus tells us that we are to be salt of the earth and light of the world.

I would just add on and say that may you also be like the balloons that will rise up to heaven and give glory and praise to God.

May you always be aware of what fills your inside, and of WHO fills your inside.

And from what you are filled with, may you in turn fill others. Amen.

2nd Ordinary Sunday, Year A 16.01.2011

2011-01-16T13:16:00.001+08:00

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

I am sure you know how Singapore got its name.

Maybe let me refresh your memory a little about the history lessons we had in school.

We may remember reading about how Sang Nila Utama came to an island which was then called Temasek which means “sea port” or “sea town”.

When he landed there, he saw a strange, agile, fast-moving animal.

It had a red body and a black head.

When he asked what animal was that, he was told it was a lion.

He thought that the animal was a good sign, so he established a city at Temasek which he named Singapura, which means “Lion City”.

Can we remember all that? Brings back memories of school days and history lessons huh?

Well that account goes way back to the 14^th century.

Today, Singapore has lived up to its name as the Lion City.

It is a lion in progress and prosperity, a lion in productivity and efficiency.

And we who live in Singapore are also brought up to be like lions.

We are brought up to be like lions in everything, from the airport to the integrated resorts, from the MRT to the ERP, from the clean to the green.

Yes, these are the show-pieces of Singapore, the Lion City.

Yes, we want to be like the lions in everything.

Yes, everything, maybe except football.

Maybe lions and football don’t go along well.

Nonetheless, the lion is a powerful symbol.

It is said that a 100 sheep led by a lion, is mightier than a 100 lions led by a sheep.

So between a lion and a sheep, it is obvious what we would choose.

But between a lion and a sheep what would God choose? What would Jesus choose?

In today’s gospel passage, we heard how John the Baptist pointed out Jesus and described who He is.

Jesus was described as the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

Sounds a bit strange right?

A lamb means that it has not crossed 12 months yet.

So it is a pretty small and meek thing.

So how can a lamb take away the sins of the world?

It would make more sense to say that the lion will take away the sins of the world.

But we know that the mighty lion did not take away the sins of the world, not even the woes of the world.

The mighty lion of capitalism promises wealth but we now know the world was brought to its knees in the recent financial crisis.

The lion of military might has not brought about peace; in fact, it keeps shattering the world to pieces.

Yet, it is the lamb that takes away the sins of the world, the lamb that was slain and sacrificed on the cross.

Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Yet Jesus is also called the Good Shepherd.

Remember the parable about the Good Shepherd who leaves the 99 and goes about in search of the lost sheep.

Notice that it was not a lost lamb, but a lost sheep.

I came across this poem that tells us why it was a lost sheep. It goes like this:

Out on the hilltop, and out in the cold, It was a sheep the Good Shepherd sought.
Back to the fold and back to the flock, It was a sheep that the Good Shepherd brought.
Now, why should the sheep be so carefully fed
And cared for even today?
That’s because there is danger if they go wrong,
They will lead the lambs astray.
The lambs will follow the sheep, you know,
Wherever they wander–wherever they go.
If the sheep goes wrong, it will not be long
That the lambs will just be as wrong.
So to the Good Shepherd we must earnestly pray,
For the sake of the lambs today.
If the lambs are lost, what a terrible cost,
That we, the sheep, will have to pay.

If the young are the future of the world, then they are the lambs who are going to take away the sins of the world.

And they, the lambs, look to us, the sheep, for faith and for moral direction.

Let us teach them about the Lamb of God who made a difference in the word.

He went silently to the shearers, He also turned the other cheek, also prayed for His enemies.

He was the Lamb of God who did not call down fire on the Samaritans, nor did He condemn a fallen adulterous woman.

He was the Lamb of God who laid down His life for His friends.

May we, the sheep, teach the lambs to follow the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world.

Holy Family, Year A, 26.12.10

2010-12-26T15:57:00.002+08:00

Sirach 3:3-7, 14-17/ Colossians 3:12-21/ Mathew 2:13-15, 19-23

The most prominent symbol of the feast of Christmas is none other than the Nativity crib.

The Nativity crib has to be the most prominent and the central symbol of Christmas.

Take that away and it is as good as taking the “Christ” out of the word Christmas, and as such it wouldn’t make sense.

Well the Nativity crib goes a long way back to the year 1223.

That year, St. Francis of Assisi set up the first Nativity crib, which would eventually spread across the whole Church.

His intention was to help the peasants, who were illiterate, to have a visual understanding of the situation and circumstances in which Jesus was born.

So there is the stable with a cow here, and a donkey there, and the baby Jesus lying in the manger, which was the feeding trough or the feeding tray of animals.

There is Mary and Joseph, and a couple of shepherds with a couple of sheep surrounding Jesus.

The scene is one of poverty, and it shows us that the Saviour of the world came in such humility.

Indeed the Nativity scene is a wonderful scene that is filled with many heart-warming aspects.

That is why as part of the Christmas celebrations, there is usually a Nativity play put up by children, to highlight the Christmas message.

Well there was this catechist who was preparing her children to put up a Nativity play.

As a warm-up to the preparations, she asked her children to write a composition on this very simple topic – Who do I want to be at Christmas?

Obviously they can say that they want to be Mary or Joseph or one of the shepherds or the angel or one of the wise men.

So after the children had written their compositions, the teacher collected it and was reading through it.

Then she read one that really surprised her, and she was stunned.

The topic was supposed to be – Who do I want to be at Christmas?

This composition began like this – At Christmas I want to be the tv in my house.
I want to take its place. I want to live like the TV in my house.
Have my own special place, and have my family around ME.
To be taken seriously when I talk.... I want to be the centre of attention and be heard without interruptions or questions.

I want to receive the same special care that the TV receives when it is not working.
I want to have the company of my father when he arrives home from work, even when he is tired.
And I want my mother to care for me ! Because when she is sad and upset, she ignores me...
And I want my brothers to fight to be with me...
I want to feel that my family just leaves everything aside, every now and then, just to spend some time with me.
And last but not least I can make them all happy and entertain them...
So at Christmas I want to be the tv in my house.
We may remember that last Sunday we saw some replies to a survey conducted among some parishioners.

We may have seen some needs like children wanting their parents to spend more time with them, communication problems between parents and teens, families not praying together, parents being worried about the influence of the internet on their children, etc.

Those were worrying trends, but Christmas has got good news for the family.

The profound message of Christmas is that when God came into the world, He was born into a family, the family of Mary and Joseph.

The Nativity scene was one of poverty. But it also shows the love and warmth of the family – the family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

That is what makes the Nativity scene so attractive and heart-warming .

In it, we see the love and care Mary and Joseph had for each other and for the baby Jesus.

So even if there is a tv at that time, they won’t be watching it or paying much attention to it.

Simply because they had each other, and God was with them.

But if people wish they were a tv, or a handphone, or a computer game, then something is seriously wrong.

At Christmas, God became man so that He can be with us.

It is because God is with us that we can truly be with each other.
Well I am sure we know what a porcupine is. So let me ask you this : What sound do porcupines make when they kiss?
Answer : Ouch!

Let me share with you the story of the porcupine.

As we know, a porcupine has many needle-like spikes, actually it is called quills, on its body.

When it is threatened, it curls up and these quills deter its enemies from harming it.

But during winter or in a cold season, the porcupines will come together to share body warmth.

But as they huddle together, their quills also poke at each other, causing each other pain.

But if they stay away from each other, they will die from the cold.

Just as porcupines gather together when it is cold in order to survive, we are born into families to be nurtured in love and life.

But just like the porcupines gathered together will poke and prick each other, living together as a family can be difficult and painful at times.

But just as the porcupines will bear the pain in order to live, we too must bear with the failings of our family members in order to grow in love and forgiveness.

And we can bear this pain because Jesus has come to be with us. He is the Emmanuel – the God is with us.

And God is with us especially in our families.

And Jesus will help us bear the pain with our family members, because He Himself was pierced for our sins.

So as much as we have the Nativity scene here in church, let us also have that Nativity scene in our homes and in our families.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph care about our families.
God cares about our families.

Let us now look at the replies to that survey again.

Let us ask Jesus to make our families like the Holy Family.

And Jesus will do it. Because He knows what’s it like to be in a family.

A Note for Christmas

2010-12-24T16:03:00.000+08:00

My dear brothers and sisters,

Wishing you a Merry and Blessed Christmas and may the celebration of the birth of Christ bring peace and joy to our hearts.

I want to give thanks to God for the many inspirations to make His "Word become flesh" in the daily readings of the liturgy. I also want to thank those whom I have not been able to acknowledge but from whom I got the ideas, the stories, the examples and the situations in life in which they shared their experience of God.

I give thanks to God if the reflections on the daily readings have helped you grow in faith, love and understanding of the ways of God.

Since it is Christmas, I have daringly posted a little tune to entertain you :)

I wished I could have given a better rendition of that popular carol. But I once read somewhere:

    Sing the songs that you can sing
    Forget about the perfect offering
    There's a crack in everything
    But that's how the light shines in.

Merry Christmas & God bless you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxPj6PtwBMY

2nd Sunday of Advent 05.12.2010

2010-12-12T23:45:00.002+08:00

Isaiah 11:1-10 / Romans 15:4-9 / Mathew 3:1-12
Sometimes it is difficult to say when does Christmas begin.

Yes, today is the 2^nd Sunday of Advent, which means that we begin the 2^nd week of Advent.

And that means to say that Christmas is about three weeks away.

But while the Church is waiting for another three more weeks for Christmas, it seems that for the rest of the world, Christmas celebrations have already begun.

So while in Church we sing “O come O come Emmanuel”, the world is already singing “Jingle Bells” and Santa Claus is already in town.

Just open the newspapers and it’s page after page of Christmas sales and special offers.

Come to think of it, I have never come across an Advent sale or Advent special offer.

So in the papers, over the radio, and on tv commercials, Christmas is in the air, and it began as early as November.

The world is telling us to make this Christmas special, and the media is spewing out special offers.

So there will be offers on special food to hold that special Christmas party.

And since we might be going for Christmas parties, then we might want to take up that special offer to buy that special car.

And not forgetting that special set of clothes to “wow” our friends at the parties.

And to fit into that special set of clothes, we might want to consider that offer to have a special figure for Christmas.

Unless we are going to play Santa Claus at the parties.

And then of course, the face. There are many special offers to give us that special look for Christmas.

We can even have a nose job to look like Rudolf!

Yes, the world is telling us to have a special Christmas with their special offers.

And we won’t deny it. We also want to have a special Christmas.

Well, on this 2^nd Sunday of Advent, the Church brings in a special guest.

Yes, indeed a special guest, with special clothes for the occasion as well as a special diet to go along with it.

It’s none other than John the Baptist.

And John the Baptist is going to tell us how to have a special Christmas.

Ok, be ready for this. It’s just a special word. And that is : Repent! Yes, repent! Sounds like some hangover talk right

Oh come on, we want to hear words like “party” “celebrate” “it’s the season to be jolly”.

But no! Three weeks before Christmas, John the Baptist comes with a special message and it’s “Repent!”

Yes, repent! And it comes along with an axe!

John the Baptist is telling us that if we want to have a special Christmas, then we have to do some cutting and chopping.

Yes, we will have to cut away and chop off everything that is blocking the way of the Lord into our hearts.

So what is it that we need to cut? What is it that we need to chop off?

Maybe among other things we may need to cut away this idea of having a special Christmas.

The month of December is an anxious and stressful month.

Besides the stress of closing accounts and year-end reports, there is also the anxiety of preparing for Christmas and to make it special.

So there are Christmas decorations to put up, but we have to find them first, and then the lights may not work.

And I think that people may not request for a house blessing during this period of time.

Just imagine – you ask the priest to come and bless your house.

And the house is in a mess with Xmas decorations half done and you have to prepare a Xmas present for the priest even.

So better wait till after Christmas for house blessing.

Well, besides Christmas decorations, there is also the anxiety of getting special presents for the people who are special in our lives.

Because we also want them to have a special Christmas right

Well all this adds to the festive mood. But all this does not make Christmas special. In fact they are just ornamental.

We need to cut away the idea of an ornamental Christmas, and what we need to do is to make this Advent special.

We do that by preparing the way for the Lord, and we make a special place for Him this Advent.

We make a special place for the Lord, first and foremost, in our homes.

Earlier on I was talking about house blessing. Some time back I went to bless a house.

As I finished the prayers and was about to sprinkle the house with holy water, the little boy asked me : Father, why must use holy water to bless the house?

So I looked at the parents and asked : Do you know why?

They gave me that “google” look (searching … ) and in case they come up with something like … holy water will drive away the devil and those funny spirits, I quickly said :

Well, I use holy water to bless the house to remind us of our baptism and that our home is the first place to live out our baptismal promises.

So the home is a special place. Because God wants to be in our homes.

And hence we have to make our homes a special place for the Lord, we have to make our homes a special place for prayer.

Advent is the time to make a special place for the Lord at home.

Even if we don’t have an Advent wreath at home, we can dedicate a place and have the four Advent candles there, and light it and have our family prayer.

Already the two lighted candles tell us that we must hurry in making this Advent special.

We must hurry in making a special place for the Lord in our homes.

We must hurry in making a special time for the Lord in prayer, especially family prayer which is so lacking in families, and yet it is so important.

Let us make this Advent special, and only in doing so Christmas will be special.

Let us remember that Advent is a time for prayer, especially family prayer.

Yes, prayer is special. The rest are just ornamental.

31st Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 31.10.10

2010-10-31T19:01:00.000+08:00

Wisdom 11:22-12:2 / 2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2 / Luke 19:1-10

Well, to begin with, I must say that we should be happy.
Yes, happy and thankful.

Simply because, just about a week ago, things looked hazy.

Remember the haze? That was only a week ago.

Yes, just a week ago, it was hazy, it was humid, and the air was heavy.

But with the wind and the rains, the air was cleared, and we should be happy and thankful.

So since we are in a happy mood, since I am in a happy mood, let me tell you a couple of jokes ok, to make you happier.

A woman went to see her doctor and complained of an embarrassing problem.

She said: Doctor, I have a serious flatulence problem. I fart all the time. But they are soundless and have no smell. In fact, since I’ve been here, I farted no less than 20 times.

So the doctor said: Ok, so here’s the prescription. Take these pills 3 times a day for seven days. After that come back and see me.

Well, after a week, the woman stormed into the doctor’s office and said: Doctor, I don’t know what was in those pills, but the problem got worse. I am farting just as much and now they smell terrible. What is this?!?

The doctor said: Ok ok, calm down, calm down. Now that I have cured your sinuses, I will work on your hearing, ok?

If jokes have a moral, than the moral of the joke is this: You will only know what is your real problem when you get someone else to see it for you.

Here is the second joke: A man was talking to his wife about the idea of living and dying.

He said to her: My dear, never let me live in a vegetative state, totally dependent on machines and liquid from a bottle.

If you see me in that state, I want you to disconnect all the contraptions that are keeping me alive. I would rather die.

The wife looked at him admiringly and said: Ok, I’ll do that.

And then she went to disconnect the TV, the cable, the DVD, the computer, the laptop, the smart phone, the Xbox, the play station and then she went to the fridge and threw away all the beer.

Well as for the man… he nearly died!

Jokes make us laugh because there is always something witty in a joke.

There is a twist in the story that brings about some humour.

Today’s gospel might sound like just another gospel story to us.

But for the crowd, the onlookers in the gospel story, it was like a very bad joke, something that they did not expect and something that they didn’t like.

As the story began, all seemed quite normal, and then there was that senior tax collector, Zacchaeus climbing up a sycamore tree to get a better view of Jesus.

As the story went on, Jesus reached the spot, looked up and saw Zacchaeus and said: Zacchaeus, come down.

From here on, what the crowds expected was a pay-back time.

It was a perfect occasion for Jesus to teach Zacchaeus a public lesson, and a condemnation on injustice and exploitation, and impending punishment.

Or at least, Jesus could make Zacchaeus do a public admission of his guilt and make a public apology.

Here is where the twist comes in : Jesus looked at Zacchaeus and said: Zacchaeus, come down! Hurry, I must stay at your house today.

And the crowd’s reaction was – Huh?!? What is this?

For them, it was not a joke, and if Jesus was joking, then it was a very bad joke, and no one was laughing.

Maybe only Zacchaeus. Yet for him, if he were laughing, it was not because it was a joke.

It was simply because Jesus could accept him for who he was.

Just like the joke about the man whose wife disconnected all his modern contraptions, Zacchaeus had to unplug and disconnect all the stuff he thought was important – his wealth, his income, his possessions, his authority, his power – so that he could have a new life in Jesus.

It was like Jesus pressed the “Reset” button and Zacchaeus went back to his original settings.

Zacchaeus realized that he was freed from the contraptions of life and could live on as a child of God.

Yet, the gospel story is not just about a sinner who repented and was forgiven.

The story is also for the crowd, and for us.

Like the joke about the woman with a serious flatulence problem, we might think that we do not have a big sinful problem as compared to others.

We may think that other people have greater sins and we want them to remain in their sins. We also want to trap them in their sins.

We will know that we want others to be trapped in their sins when we say things like:

Remember last time you cheated on me…
Remember last time you played me out…
Remember last time you stole money from me…
Remember last time how you ill-treated me…
Remember last time they burned the trees and we got the haze …

It’s always a “Remember last time…” and it’s always a smelly past.

We use this phrase to hurt others, and yet we ourselves resent and detest it when others use it on us.

But Jesus is our healer. He gives us His sacred body as medicine to realize our own sins are as smelly as the rest and yet we are forgiven.

Jesus is also our Saviour. He came to seek and save what was lost.
Jesus rejoices over one repentant sinner. Heaven rejoices over one repentant sinner.

That is not a joke. Yet let us repent and rejoice.

World Mission Sunday 24-10-10

2010-10-22T23:29:00.002+08:00

Isaiah 2:1-5 / Ephesians 3:1-12 / Mark 16:15-20

Whenever we talk about mission and spreading the gospel several ideas might come to our minds.

We may think of the missionaries who go to other countries like China, Cambodia, and Laos, to build up the churches there.

We may also think that missionaries are usually priests or religious or some specially chosen lay people because speaking the Gospel is a serious thing and not everyone can do it.

We may also think that our task is to pray for these missionaries and also to give them some financial support.

Today’s celebration of Mission Sunday reminds us that we have an important role in the spreading of the gospel.

Let me tell you this story so that we can have a deeper understanding of our role and mission.

An old man was going around planting small fruit trees.

Some asked him when these trees would bear fruit.

He replied: Oh, probably many years after I am gone from this earth.

So then, why plant trees when he won’t be around to enjoy the fruits?

His reply was this: When I came into this world, I didn’t find this world without any fruit trees.

I enjoyed the fruits. Now I plant these fruit trees for those who will come after me, just as those who have done before me.

These are very profound words of the old man – I plant these fruit trees for those who will come after me, just as those who have done before me.

When we reflect upon the words of the old man, we will also come to a deeper understanding of our faith and mission.

We will come to see that the faith we have had been built upon and handed down to us by the earlier generation of believers.

What we have received, we too must build it up and hand it over to the next generation.

That is not just the work of missionaries, priests, religious and a selected few parishioners.

Each of us has a task in the spreading of the gospel.

Just as trees bear fruit and gives us shade, so is each one of us called to plant trees of faith that bear fruits of truth and love.

Trees are important not just because they bear fruit and provide shade and beauty.

Trees have an ecological importance. A world without trees is like a dry desert wasteland.

Similarly, faith is important for the world. This world needs God and needs to know His truth and love.

A world without God and His truth and love becomes a dark and dangerous world.

So, Mission Sunday reminds each of us that we have a task and a responsibility.
We have to continue planting trees of faith that will bear fruits of truth and love.

And we have to start planting these trees of faith in our homes, in our parish, in our workplace, in our own country.

This world needs to know God. This world needs to know His truth and love.

And we are the ones to show it. We are God’s messengers.

As the 1st reading puts it: All the nations will say – come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, that He may teach us His ways so that we may walk in His path.

Our task and mission is to plant trees of faith along that path so that as people walk towards the Lord, they will also see the fruits of His truth and love.

29th Ordinary Sunday Year C 17 Oct 2010

2010-10-16T22:38:00.003+08:00

Exodus 17:8-13 / 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2 / Luke 18:1-8

I wonder if we could still remember this person if I were to mention his name.

It was not that long ago when we heard of this person.

The name is Low Wei Jie. Can we still remember him?

Just about two months ago he was in the news.

We may not quite remember his name, but we will surely remember his story.

He was that 12 year-old schoolboy who followed the Youth Olympic flame torch relay.

The amazing thing was that he was dressed in an orange T-shirt, blue Bermudas and flip-flops.

Armed with a digital camera, he just wanted to take pictures of the Youth Olympic flame torch relay, as it weaved through Sengkang, Punggol and Hougang.

When he started off, it was bright and early.

As the relay began, he followed the torch, and he ran, and ran, and ran.

Over two and a half hours, he covered almost 15km, undeterred by a heavy downpour along the way.

At first, nobody paid attention to the boy in the orange T-shirt as he ran along, snapping pictures as the torchbearers handed the flame from one to the other.

His quest was not without problems though – his feet hurt because he was running with just flip flops.
And to his frustration and disappointment, the camera he borrowed from his parents got jammed because of the rain. But he still continued running along.

Although he didn’t plan to, he followed the torch relay to the end.

By that time, he had already caught the attention of the cameramen, the relay entourage, the officials, the traffic police officers, and of course, the reporters.

At the end of the relay, Low Wei Jie was a sort of a celebrity, a surprise star of the YOG, and words like “determination” and “perseverance” were used on him.

Well, that was Low Wei Jie and his amazing story.

Amazing because who would want to run for two and a half hours in the rain just to take pictures of a torch.

And when the camera had jammed, who would want to keep running to the end? What’s the point?

Amazing also because it was a 12 year-old boy, and there was nothing in it for him.

The good thing was that in the end, he got some recognition for it, besides also getting a brand new camera.

So in a way, we can say that Low Wei Jie got determination, he got perseverance.

But, would we say that he was persistant?

Maybe not. Because persistence may have an irritating and annoying tone to it.

Maybe that’s why Jesus used the word “persistence” in today’s gospel parable.

He used that word to describe the widow who kept seeking for justice from a judge who couldn’t be bothered about her.

But she persisted and persisted until the judge gave in to her, even though it took a long time.

Jesus said we also should pray with persistence.

And Jesus even made this promise. He promised that God will see that justice is done and done speedily.

Yet Jesus is not making a new promise.

In the Old Testament, God already promised to protect His people from danger and from their enemies.

In the first reading, Israel was attacked by the Amalekites.

So Moses prayed for God’s protection over their enemies.

As long as Moses raised his hands in prayer, Israel was winning the battle.

But when he let his arms drop due to tiredness, the Amalekites were winning.

Moses had to persist in prayer, and Aaron and Hur helped him by supporting his arms and even took a stone for him to sit on.

It looked funny and strange, but with 3 men holding up a staff, Israel managed to overcome the Amalekites.

But when it comes to persistence in prayer, nothing can ever sound so strange or funny.
To pray is difficult. To persist in prayer is even more difficult.

A short story to share with you. A woman was late for an important interview, and as she was rushing to catch the bus, she prayed: O God, let me not be late, let me not be late.
Just then she tripped and fell. Picking herself up and straightening her dress, she prayed: O God, let me not be late, let me not be late, but no need to push me ok, no need to push me!!! (she will be in time, won’t be late)

Well, I have come across Catholics who have devised many interesting as well as strange and funny ways to persist in praying for a need or an intention.

Some will have an hourly chime on their watches so that they will stop whatever they are doing and say a short prayer, like an Our Father or a Hail Mary.

Some will come for Mass everyday to pray for their need or intention, especially during this period of school exams.

Another interesting way that I have come across is synchronized prayer.

A group of people wants to pray for a particular need or intention.

But because they are all busy and cannot come together, they agreed upon a particular time of the day, usually at night, to pray together wherever they are.

They even SMS each other to remind each other of their prayer time.

So persistence in prayer also needs support, just as Moses was supported by Aaron and Hur, and even by a stone.

Let us keep faith in what Jesus had promised that God will see justice done and done speedily.

Let is also support each other in persisting in prayer.

If the 12 year-old Low Wei Jie could keep running just to take pictures of a torch, then all the more we should persist in our prayer to keep the flame of faith burning.

Our persistence will be rewarded. That is what Jesus promised us.

Jesus will persist in His promise. May we persist in our praying.

26th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 26.09.10

2010-09-26T20:28:00.001+08:00

Amos 6:1a,4-7/ 1 Timothy 6:11-16/ Luke 16: 19-31

For those of us who love art, or know something about art, I am sure you would also know the names of famous artists.

So let me name some art pieces and you tell me who is the artist. They are all by the same artist anyway.

So here it comes – Sunflowers; The starry night; Irises; The potato eaters. So tell me, who is the artist.

Yes, it’s Vincent Van Gogh. His masterpieces range from $50 – 80 over million dollars.

For those of us who love art and can appreciate art, then we would certainly love to have one of the masterpieces by Vincent Van Gogh hanging in a prominent place in our home.

Yes, we would like to have an $80 million masterpiece from Vincent Van Gogh in our home.

But I am not too sure if we would like to have Vincent Van Gogh himself in our home.

If we know something about the life of Vincent Van Gogh, then you will probably understand why I said that we might not want to have Vincent Van Gogh himself in our home.

Vincent Van Gogh lived from 1853 – 1890.

In his lifetime, he produced 2000 artworks. But he had very little success as an artist.

In fact he only sold one painting “The Red Vineyard”.

Besides that he was also temperamental, depressed and also difficult to get along with, and other things besides.

Then at 37 years-old, he took his own life.

It was only after his death that his works became famous and renowned.

So that was why I said that we won’t mind having a multi-million-dollar painting by Vincent Van Gogh at home.

But we certainly won’t want to have him in our home.

Similarly, we don’t mind having a Bible in our home. In fact we should have the Bible, the Word of God, at home.

But, would we welcome Jesus, the Word made flesh, into our home?

We would say – Of course, we want to have Jesus in our home.

Yet Jesus does not come alone. Because He comes along with His close friends.

And who are they? Well, they are the poor and helpless, the problematic and difficult people, the Vincent Van Goghs.

We shouldn’t be surprised that these are the close friends of Jesus.

Because the Bible tells us that God is on the side of the poor and needy and helpless.

Indeed, God is closest to the poor and helpless, the weak and the lowly, the defenseless and the oppressed.

At least in today’s 1^st reading, the Responsorial Psalm and the gospel tell us that. And we must see it!

Yes, God is for them. God cares about them. And God will console them. If not in this life, then it will be in the next.

Yes, God will console them and comfort them in His bosom and wipe away every tear from their eyes.

That was what happened in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

We can call that a reversal of fortunes, and the reversal is not temporal; it is eternal.

Although it is just a parable, it makes us see that the reversal is for real.

At least it was real enough for the rich man. In the flames of agony, he looked up and saw Lazarus and even knows his name.

While on earth, he certainly saw Lazarus, or at least he knew he was at the gate.

But he just chose not to see, not to know, not to care.

But in the flames of agony, the rich man saw. Yes, he saw, but it was too late, and it was forever.

In Singapore, we don’t usually have beggars or destitudes or Lazaruses sitting at our doors.

Yet we cannot say that the poor and needy do not exist.

Just come every 1^st Saturday in the afternoon and we will see the members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul at work, distributing rations to the poor and needy.

And we will see for ourselves who are the poor and needy, the helpless and the rejected.

So we can’t say that we didn’t see, or we don’t know.

Or maybe we saw, and we knew, and we feel that we can do nothing about the multitudes of poor and needy and helpless.

Granted that it is an immense challenge, maybe let me ask you this.

Do you know what is the late Mother Teresa’s favourite number?

Well, I think that her favourite number is the number 1. And I will quote the following from her to say why I think it’s the number 1.

She said : I don’t agree with the big ways of doing things. Love needs to start with the individual. To love a person you must make contact with that person. To love the poor you must make contact with the poor.

When you do that, you cross the enormous divide between you and the poor, and it’s somebody you have actually touched.

She continues by saying : I look at the individual. I can only love one person at a time. I can only feed one person at a time.

So that’s why I think that Mother Teresa’s favourite number is 1. For her it is one person at a time.

So the Word of God in today’s readings makes us open our eyes.

God is not asking us how rich we are or how much we can give to the poor and needy.

Rather, God is asking us this : How much do we care? How much do we love? How much do we want to see?

And we don’t have to see far, see wide or see too much.

Let us look at the one who is at the gate.

The one who is poor and needy. The one that we can help.

And that one may not be outside the gate. That one may be within our gates.

But we may have become numbed and indifferent.

Let us listen to the voice of God prompting us to see, to care and to love the one who is poor and needy and helpless, the one who is difficult and problematic, the Vincent Van Goghs.

Yes, they are poor and needy, they may be difficult and problematic, but they are God’s close friends.

And it is they who will lead us into God’s bosom, forever.

23rd Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 05-09-2010

2010-09-05T19:43:00.001+08:00

Wis 9:13-18b / Phmn 1:9-10, 12-17 / Lk 14:25-33
Recently the famous topic of the 4 Cs came up in the news again.

I m sure we know what the 4 Cs commonly stands for – cash, car, condo and credit card.

Along with that are other additions like country club membership, casino membership, etc.

There are spoofs of it like coffin, columbarium, whatever.

At a recent Pre-University seminar, the 4 Cs were given another version: confidence, compassion, the ability to compartmentalize and to be in good company.

Well, I also want to join in the bandwagon, but I want to change the letter. So instead of the letter C, I want to use another letter.

I was thinking of the letter G. Because it can stand for God, for good, for glory, for grace.

But then if I were to ask what does the 3 Gs stand for, or what the 4 Gs stand for, some might think I am talking about 3G network or the 4G super broadband which came out last week.

And then some will start thinking about the computer fair that is going on now, today’s the last day, need to get a new laptop, and then G will stand for “Gone! I have lost you!”

So G is not very good. Got to find another letter. Maybe the letter F.

F can stand for Father, for faithfulness, for forgiveness.

But then again, if I were to say what does F stand for, some might hear it wrong and think I was saying : What the what?!
So again, it doesn’t sound very nice.

Sigh, so better not use the letter F. So what other letter to use?

Well, I was asking myself : Why do people come to Church? Why do people want to believe in God?

So I came up with this letter “P”, P for papa, which means father, and God is our Father. So with the letter P I have covered the letters F and G. ;-P

So what does the letter P stands for?

To answer that question, then we have to ask ourselves why do we believe in God? What kind of God do we believe in?

Well, at the level of basic religious needs, we want to believe in God who can protect us, who can provide for us, and who will also pamper us.

So there it is: we want God to protect us, provide for us and to pamper us.

I am not making up all this. God Himself said it in the Bible.

God said it to Moses and the Israelites when they panicked upon seeing the sword-wielding Egyptians charging at them to cut their throats.

God said: The Lord will do the fighting for you; you only have to keep still. (Ex 14:14) So you see, God will protect us and He will fight our battles for us.

And God will also provide for us. Jesus said that the Heavenly Father will give good things to those who ask Him.
So ask and we will receive, because God will provide.
That is what Jesus said.
So finally how will God pamper us? Well, God loves us with a tender everlasting love, and He will forgive us over and over again, 70x7 times.

If that is not pampering, then it is like God is spoiling us.

So there we have it: God is our Papa, He protects us, He provides for us, and He even pampers us.

Sounds too good to be true right? But it is true, otherwise why would we want to believe in God?

Yes, God will certainly protect us, provide for us, and even pamper us.

But I also have to say that there is another P involved here, and it stands for “price”.

There is a price to pay, on our part. So what is this price?

That price is stated by Jesus in the gospel.

To the great crowds that were following Him, He said: If anyone comes to Me without hating father, mother, brother, sister, and his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

The word “hate” here actually means to prefer less, or to give a lesser priority. It does not mean hate, as how we usually understand it.

Because in the Jewish language, there is no word to mean “prefer less” or “give a lesser priority”, so the word hate is used.

So what Jesus is saying is that either He is above all, or He is not at all. There is no in-between.

That sounds like tough and rough language from Jesus isn’t it?

But that is the price to pay if we want to be true disciples of Jesus.

So has anyone paid that price before? Well, plenty actually.

One such person was St. Thomas More, who was the Chancellor when King Henry VIII was the king of England.

But when St. Thomas More refused to acknowledge King Henry’s second marriage and to cut ties with the Pope, he was thrown into prison.

The king sent close friends and even his family members to persuade him, because his vote was critical for the king’s standing.

But St. Thomas More stood firm and he was later charged with treason and sentenced to death.

His last words before he was beheaded were this: I am the king’s good subject, but first and foremost I am God’s servant.

The price was his head and his life. But his reward is eternal life.

The world as we know is practical, pragmatic, profitable and very pleasing to us.

Yes, the practical, pragmatic, profitable and pleasing world has been our father, mother, brother and sister.

But the nagging question is: So what if we gain the whole world and all that if offers? So what?

So Jesus puts the price tag before us.

Do we dare to let Jesus be above all?

We want God to protect us, to provide for us, to pamper us.

But as the song goes, we also say: Papa don’t preach.

Because we don’t want to hear the tough stuff and what price to pay for true discipleship.

But Jesus said in no uncertain terms that anyone who does not carry his cross cannot be His disciple.

The cross is painful indeed. But the cross also points us towards true discipleship and eternal life.

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary 15.08.10

2010-08-15T19:00:00.003+08:00

Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab/ 1Corinthians 15:20-27/ Luke 1:39-56

We know how great an influence a mother has over her children.

Mothers teach their children, and one of the tactics they use is information-overload, i.e., they talk, talk, talk, nag, nag, nag, and they hope that something goes into their children.

But mothers teach not only with their words, but also by their actions.

There are many examples in history of how mothers have influenced their children.

One example from Chinese history is this Chinese general called “岳飞”(Yue Fei)

Yes, just mention the name “岳飞”(Yue Fei) in Chinese circles, and these four words will come to mind:　精忠报国.

Broadly translated it means : Faithfully serve your country.

You may know the story of “岳飞”(Yue Fei) but I will just narrate it briefly.

“岳飞”(Yue Fei) lived during the Southern Song Dynasty, around the 12th century.

At that time, the barbarians were invading China from the north, and the country was also in turmoil and strife.

“岳飞”(Yue Fei’s) mother taught him faithfulness and loyalty since he was young.

So, being a faithful and loyal citizen, he decided to join the army to help protect his country.

When he told his mother of his decision, his mother affirmed him because that was also what she had always taught him.

Being a wise mother and knowing how easy it was to fall into corruption and dishonesty, she made sure that her son remembered what she taught.

So on his back, she tattooed these four words “精忠报国”, i.e., - Faithfully serve your country

Yue Fei became a great general and he served his country faithfully and protected the people against the enemy.

But traitors plotted against him and eventually got him executed.

Yet, Yue Fei served his country faithfully to the end, and he accepted death, even though he knew he was accused by traitors of his own country.

That’s why, mention the name Yue Fei and these four words 精忠报国 came to mind - Faithfully serve your country

And these were the words tattooed on his back by his mother.

So why am I telling you this story？

Today we celebrate the Assumption of Mary into heaven.

This is a very important feast because it celebrates the completion of salvation.

Jesus, by his death and resurrection had overcome sin, and won for us eternal life.

By his ascension into heaven, He has assured us of our place in heaven.
By assuming Mary into heaven, body and soul, God is proclaiming that salvation is a reality.

Mary, a human being had entered into heaven. And so can we.

What God has done for Mary, He will also do for us.

That is also our faith and our hope, that we will enter our eternal home in heaven.

But while we are on earth, we must remember what Mother Mary taught us.

In the gospel of John 2:5, she told the servants at the wedding in Cana : Do whatever He tells you.

And she is telling us the same thing: Do whatever He tells us.

In today’s gospel, she said this: My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.

She is telling us to join her to give thanks to God and also to be faithful to our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Back in 2008, a 98 year-old lady by the name of Irena Sendler passed away.

We may probably ask : Who passed away? What was the name again?

Well, Irena Sendler was a social worker in Poland when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939 during WW II.

She got permission to work as a sanitation worker in the concentration camp for the Jews in Poland.

She knew what the Nazis were doing to the Jews and she had a motive.

Irena Sendler smuggled the Jewish infants out of the camp in the bottom of the big tool box she carried.

During her time of doing this, she managed to save 2500 babies and young children out of the concentration camp.

But one day she was caught, and she was beaten severely, and had her arms and legs broken, and left for dead.

But she survived. She had also kept a record of the names of all the children she had smuggled out of the camp.

After the war, Irena Sendler tried to locate any parents who might have survived the concentration camp, and to unite them with their children.

But almost all had died in the concentration camp.

Nonetheless their children, the 2500 children survived, the children that Irena Sendler had smuggled out.

Last year, Irena Sendler was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

But she did not win it. But it doesn’t matter anyway.

She had passed on from this world into the eternal world of peace where every tear is wiped away forever.

To save 2500 lives at the risk of your life is not a small thing.

But for the humble and little-known Irena Sendler, she stood in the face of violence and evil, and carried on her mission faithfully.

She was a Catholic, and she was faithful and loyal to what she believed in – that life is sacred because all life comes from God.

In this world, it is so easy to fall into temptation and sin.

It is so easy to be distracted and lose our focus on God and lose sight of our eternal home in heaven.

It is so easy to lose faith in God and to be disloyal to our own values and principles in life.

Earlier on we heard about the Chinese general Yue Fei and his mother.

Yue Fei’s mother tattooed those four words on his back: 精忠报国 which means “Faithfully serve your country”.

Mother Mary also wants us to remember just four words on this feast of her Assumption – Faithfully serve your Lord

Mother Mary also prays for us, that one day, we too, will join her in heaven to praise and glorify the Lord our God.

17th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 25th July 2010

2010-07-25T19:01:00.001+08:00

Genesis　10：20－32／Colossians　2：12－24／Luke　11：1－13

There is a local event happening now, but I think it’s coming to an end soon (in fact I think it’s ending today!)

It has been happening for two months already, and it would have caught our attention somehow.

Do you know what I’m talking about? Still thinking?
What if I say it’s connected to shopping?
Ahh … yes … it’s the Great S’pore Sale! Right?

Yes, the Great S’pore Sale, and it’s intended to spur us on to a shopping spree because there are supposed to be great discounts and bargains.

I can’t say much about the Great S’pore Sale because I don’t do much shopping, and I don’t have the time to go around comparing prices.

But I can say that there is something missing in the Great S’pore Sale.

Yes, there is something missing. What is missing is this very interesting activity called bargaining.

So as much as it is called the Great S’pore Sale, and the prices are slashed and discounted, yet that is the final price.

There is no further bargaining. The discounted price is fixed.

That is something that my mother and the women of her generation cannot quite understand, nor will they accept it.

For them, the displayed price, whether discounted or otherwise, is meant to be further reduced.

For them, the displayed price is a challenge for them to see how much more can be reduced, and their usual starting bid is 50% off the displayed price.

So at times, it can be quite difficult for me to go shopping with my mum at those classy departmental stores.

Because she will ask me to go and bargain with the salesgirl!

But if bargaining with the salesgirl at a classy department store can be embarrassing, then are we daring enough to bargain with God?

In the 1st reading, Abraham seemed to have the guts to do it.

The whole town of Sodom was to be destroyed because of their sinfulness.

Abraham pleaded with God not to destroy the just man with the sinner.

So he bargained with God, from finding 50 innocent persons to finding just 10 innocent persons, so that the whole town could be spared.

But in his bargaining with God, Abraham believed that God was merciful and compassionate.

So Abraham dared to persist further and further in his prayer bargain with God.

He did all that in order to try to save the people of that town.

In the gospel, Jesus teaches us to persist in prayer.

He told us to ask and we will receive, to search and we will find, to knock and it will be opened.

But we may need to look at what we are asking for in prayer.

Generally speaking, most of what we are asking for are valid needs.

So there are prayers for recovery from illness, for job stability, for peace in the family, for our children to do well in their exams, and maybe that our cars won’t be stuck in a flood, or whatever.

These are valid needs, and Jesus assures us that God knows what we need and He will provide for us.

In the gospel, Jesus told a parable about a man knocking on his neighbour’s door at midnight to ask for some bread because he had a guest.

Jesus concluded the parable by saying that if the neighbour does not get up and give it to the man for friendship’s sake, then persistence will be enough to make him get up and give the man what he wanted.

Jesus emphasized the need for persistence in prayer.

But there may be another side to this parable.

Now, let’s say, that your bank offers you this fantastic deal.

Each morning, the bank will deposit $86, 400 into your private account for your use.

But these are the following conditions.

Firstly, the money that you do not spend each day will be taken from you.

Secondly, you cannot transfer the money into another account.
Thirdly, only you, and you alone, can spend it.

Fourthly, the bank can end this deal without any notice.

At any time, it can say “Account closed” and you will not get a new account.

Now what would you do with the money in this account?

You would surely buy anything and everything you wanted right? No need Great S’pore Sale, just shop till you drop.

Not only for yourself, but also for the people you love and for your friends too, isn’t it?

Even for the people you don’t know, you will also spend it on them, because you couldn’t possibly spend it all on yourself.

You would try to spend every cent and use it all before the day ends, right?

Sounds like too good to be true, isn’t it?

Well, this is true, because each of us has such a bank account.

Everyday God gives us 86,400 seconds as a gift of life.

It cannot be brought forward. What we have not lived up to for that day is gone. Well, yesterday is forever gone.

Each new day, the account is renewed.

But the account can be terminated at any time, and without any notice.

Well, what are we going to do with our 86,400 seconds?

Certainly, those 86,400 seconds are worth so much more than the same amount in dollars.

Well, God is knocking at our doors and persistently asking us how we are spending our time, and what are we doing with our lives.

We don’t have to ask for more. Whatever we needed, God has already given to us.

86, 400 seconds of life is God’s gift to us everyday.

How we use it, how we live it out, is our gift to God and our gift to others.

Abraham used his gift to plead for the innocent people of the town.

May we use our gift to bring life and love to others.

May our lives bring joy and peace to others.

Let that be our prayer, our persistent prayer.

14th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 4July 2010

2010-07-04T19:30:00.001+08:00

First Reading: Isaiah 66:10-14

Second Reading: Galatians 6:14-18

Gospel: Luke 10:1-12.17-20

Among the species of animals, the one that gives us a sense of intrigue and enigma, and also fear, is the snake.

Actually the snake is an odd creature.

It has no hands or feet or wings, and it moves about by crawling on its belly.

But all this not withstanding, the snake has a reputation for being a deadly creature.

From constriction to venom, and from the time of Adam, the snake is like the scourge of mankind.

Though some snakes are not poisonous, yet there is just too much fear created about them.

A story has it that a preacher wanted to show his congregation that there is nothing to fear about snakes.

So he had a non-poisonous snake in a sack, and he told his congregation that there is nothing to fear about snakes and that they can even crush it with their heels.

So he let the snake out of the sack. Bad move.

Children started to scream and run, followed by the adults.

It was pandemonium, total chaos.

Well, if we priests try to do this kind of antics, we might just get ex-communicated!!

Yet, it is not a joke when Jesus said that He is sending us out like lambs among wolves.

But Jesus assures us that He has given us power to tread under foot snakes and scorpions.

He even tells us that nothing will harm us.

Well to that, a missionary can give testimony as he relates his encounter with danger.

This missionary was serving in a rural area where electricity was generated by a diesel generator.

One stormy night, the generator failed and his house was in total darkness.

He had no torchlight but he remembered that there were candles and matches in the church.

So he felt his way around, got out of the house and using the walls as a guide, made his way to the church, all this in pitch darkness.

Finally, he got to the candles and lighting a candle he made his way back to the house safely.

A few days later, there was another storm, and again the generator failed.

This time around, the missionary was prepared and he had a torch light.

So, with confidence, he made his way to the church to get some candles.

But as he opened the door to step into the church, his steps came to a sudden halt.

Because, as he shined his torch light ahead of him, he saw a snake coiled up in the church, taking shelter from the rain.

He turned back immediately and headed straight for his house, and when he got back, he went down on his knees to thank God.

As he thought about it, just a few days back, he made the same way in pitch darkness and, thank God, there was no snake.

This time around, he was not going to tread on the snake to see if it would bite; that would be crazy.

Putting it any way we want, we can be sure that Jesus was protecting that missionary, when he made his way to the church in pitch darkness.

And Jesus wants to protect us as we make our way in this world that is darkened by fear and danger, where the wolves howl, the snakes bite and the scorpions sting.

Jesus sends us forth into the world to be instruments and channels of His peace in the midst of fear and danger.

But let us also remember that peace is not the absence of fear and danger. There will always be fear and danger.

Peace is the presence of God, in the midst of fear and danger.

At every Mass, Jesus says to us – I leave you peace. My peace I give you.

So Jesus already gave us His peace. That’s what we have. That’s what we are – a people of peace.

Earlier on, I talked about a preacher with a snake.

I’d like to tell you now about a preacher with a $100 note.

So this preacher showed his congregation a $100 note and asked – Who would like to have this $100 note?

Of course, hands went up. Then he said, “OK, but what if I do this?” And he proceeded to crumple up the $100 note.

And then he asked, “So now, who would still like to have this?”

Well, the hands still went up.

And then the preacher said, “Ok, but what if I do this?”

And he dropped the note to the ground and started to grind it on the floor with his shoe.

He then picked it up, the crumpled and dirty note, then he asked, “Who still want this?” Would you want it?

Of course, we would still want it. Because no matter how crumpled and dirty it is, the value has not decreased. It is still a $100 note.

And that is the truth! In God’s eyes we will always have a value; and as God promised, we will always have peace.

It is a peace that the world cannot give; it is also a peace the world cannot take away.

Yet, we have to always ask ourselves: do we give others peace of mind, or do we give others a piece of our mind?

So, do we bring peace wherever we go?

Or do we bring peace whenever we go?

In this Mass, and in every Mass, peace is what Jesus gives to us.

It is this peace that we are to give to others.

May this peace give us the power and the strength ….

so that where there is injury, we bring pardon,
where there is doubt, we bring faith,
where there is despair, we bring hope,
where there is darkness, we bring light.
where there is sadness, we bring joy.

11th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 13th June 2010

2010-06-13T19:09:00.001+08:00

2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13
Galatians 2:16, 19-21
Luke 7:36-8:3

I wonder how you would feel if you had to talk to a group of prisoners, and to talk to them about God’s love and forgiveness.

Well, we may not have that kind of experience，or that kind of task given to us.

But we can certainly imagine the apprehension and the anxiety that comes with it.

Another aspect to consider is that what are we going to say and how should we say it.

Keeping in mind that the audience is a group of prisoners and we are going to talk to them about God’s love and forgiveness.

We cannot sound judgmental or condescending, nor can we pretend that there was no wrongdoing at all.

Well, a priest was asked to speak to a group of prisoners about God’s love and forgiveness.

In the days that led up to the talk, he thought about what he needed to say and how to say it.

So finally, the day came and he went to the prison, and he was escorted to the room where the talk was to be held.

As he walked into the room, the prisoners looked at him with silent expressionless eyes.

After the introduction, the priest stood up to speak.

He looked around at the prisoners and then he began to speak.

So how do you think he started? What do you think were his first words?

Well, how would you have started? What would be your first words?

Well, the priest began with these words: The difference between you and me is that … I was not caught.

Strange words to begin with, right?

Yes, strange words to begin with, but strangely, very true.

So from robbery to adultery, from speeding to littering, as long as we were not caught, we can fake innocence.

But still it is a fake innocence. All because we were not caught… yet!

In a way, it is similar to sin, right?

As long as our sins are not exposed, we can fake innocence. Yes, we can fake innocence as long as nobody knows about our sins.

There are three characters in today’s gospel – a sinner, the sinless one, and then there is the one who is faking to be sinless.

The problem was not with the sinner or the sinless one.

The problem was with the fake.

Simon, the Pharisee, thought he was the sinless one, yet he was just faking it.

Yet Jesus did not expose him outright. Instead, he used the parable of the two men who owed a debt to let Simon realize it, to let him catch himself, so as to speak.

Indeed, when we catch ourselves, we will truly and humbly ask for forgiveness.

That was the case in the 1st reading.

What we heard in the 1st reading was just the consequence of the pronouncement that King David made earlier.

The prophet Nathan did not expose David about his sin of adultery and murder.

Rather, he told a story of a rich man who had a flock of sheep and a poor man who had a beloved lamb.

When the rich man had a visitor, he took the lamb from the poor man and had it slaughtered to entertain his guest.

When King David heard the story, his anger flared and he judged the rich man as deserving the sentence of death.

It was only when David made that pronouncement that the prophet Nathan said to him: You are that man!

And David knew he had caught himself and he repented.

But today’s gospel is not about who had sinned and who was faking righteousness.

Rather, it is about the realization for repentance and the need for forgiveness.

I like to share with you a story about the need for realization for repentance and the joy of forgiveness.

A priest noticed that a man went into the church in the middle of the day.

The man’s clothes were rather shabby and dirty. He went to the pew, knelt down, bowed his head, then he rose and walked away.

In the days that followed, that man would come in around the same time and do the same thing.

The priest began to be suspicious of that man, so one day, he decided to stop that man and ask him what he was doing.

The man replied, saying that his factory was down the road.

Lunch was only half an hour and he used the lunchtime as his prayer time for finding strength and power.

But he could only stay for a few moments and so he would say this prayer:

I just came to tell you, Lord, how happy I have been. Since we found each other and you took away my sin. Don’t know much about how to pray, but I think about you everyday. So, Jesus, here I am, checking in today.

The priest feeling foolish and awkward, told the man he was welcomed to come and pray anytime.

When the man left, the priest knelt at the altar and he realized that it had been a long time since he said a heat-felt prayer.

His heart began to melt, and warmed with love, he felt Jesus there and he repeated that man’s prayer:

I just came to tell you, Lord, how happy I have been. Since we found each other and you took away my sin. Don’t know much about how to pray, but I think about you everyday. So, Jesus, here I am, checking in today.

God does not want to catch us in our sins and punish us.

But He will use events, situations, and people to help us catch our own sins, so to speak, and to realize the need for repentance.

The joy of forgiveness is awaiting us. The only thing that can block it is when we continue to fake innocence.

Pentecost Sunday, Year C, 23.05.2010

2010-05-23T19:04:00.004+08:00

Acts 2:1-11
Romans 8:8-17
John 14:15-16, 23b-26

Most of the liturgical seasons and feast day celebrations of the Church are easily identifiable from the images and symbols that are used.

For eg, when we see an evergreen wreath with 4 candles, we will know it’s Advent.

When we see a crib and some figurines, we will know it’s Christmas.

When we see a cross and purple cloth, we will know it’s Lent.

When we see the big candle out here, we will know it’s Easter.

But how about Pentecost? What concrete image or symbols would indicate it’s Pentecost?

Could it be the red-coloured vestment? But it also looks like CNY.

So there is the traditional symbol of the dove, and those tongues of fire.

Actually it’s 7 tongues of fire to denote the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Of course we are not going to let go some doves here, because something else other than gifts will drop on us.

And we are also not going to carry lighted candles to denote the tongues of fire, because some of us might be on fire, in the wrong sense.

So it is actually quite difficult to have a concrete image or symbol for the celebration of Pentecost.

So what concrete image for symbol did Jesus use to symbolize the outpouring of the Holy Spirit?

Well, He didn’t use an image or symbol.

Rather, He used an action – He breathed on His disciples and said: Receive the Holy Spirit.

Quite plain, right? No drama at all?

We would expect something like Jesus would go to each disciple and lay His hands and say “Receive the Holy Spirit”.

And they will drop and rest in the Spirit, and start speaking in tongues or whatever.

I still can remember the time when I was at a Confirmation camp for teenagers who were preparing for the Sacrament.

The highlight of the camp was the praying over each participant.

I was asked to help out in the praying over and at that time I was still a seminarian.

I was given this group of boys to pray over.

So I prayed over the first boy. I didn’t really call fire from heaven. There was no need to; after all, they are only 14-year old boys.

So I prayed over the first boy, then I prayed over the second boy.

Then I prayed over the third boy. After praying over him, he looked at me and said: Didn’t feel anything.

I was taken aback and felt a bit cheezed, so I retorted: Tsk, it takes a while lah!

He got no reply to that, and I thanked the Holy Spirit for shutting his gab!

So when Jesus first appeared to His disciples after the resurrection and breathed the Holy Spirit on them, I think that the disciples also did not feel anything. Just that they didn't dare say it.

But 50 days later, on Pentecost, something happened and things were never the same again.

Yes, it took a while, but when the Spirit moved the disciples, things got moving.

The Church took shape and started to grow.

But it was not an easy growth, because blood was shed and lives were lost.

But the Holy Spirit kept the Church moving and going.

There is this story of a daughter who complained to her father about how life was so difficult for her, with one difficulty after another, and her prayers were not answered.

Her father, who was a chef, took her to the kitchen.

He filled 3 pots with water and put them to boil.

In one, he put in carrots, in the second, he put in eggs and in the third he put coffee powder.

He let them sit and boil, without saying a word.

The daughter wasn’t very amused and was getting impatient with her father.
After 10 minutes, the father turned off the fire and he took out the carrots and the eggs.

Then he ladled the coffee into a mug.

Then he asked his daughter: What do you see?

She replied: Carrots, eggs and coffee.

He asked her to feel the carrots and she did and said they were soft.

He then asked her to break an egg. After peeling off the shell, she observed that it was a hard boiled egg.

Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee and she tasted the rich aroma.

Then she asked her father what it all meant.

The father explained that each of them has faced the same adversity, boiling water, but each reacted differently.

The carrots were hard and strong, but in the boiling water, it softened and became weak.

The eggs had been fragile, but after sitting through boiling water, its inside became hard.

The coffee powder was unique in that after they were in boiling water, they changed the water.

Finally, the father asked his daughter – So what are you? When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or coffee powder?

The point of this story is that do we let the world and all its adversities change us?
Do we get weakened and disillusioned like the carrot; or do we become hard and bitter like the egg?

Or do we change the world when faced with its adversities, like what the coffee powder did to the boiling water.

So the symbols of red-coloured vestments and tongues of fire still give very profound meanings for Pentecost.

Red is the colour of martyrdom. The blood of martyrs gives rise to the Church.

And the tongues of fire purifies the Church, and sanctifies the Church, in the face of adversity.

And the Holy Spirit continues to move in the Church.

Well back to the story of that 14 year old boy who said “Didn’t feel anything”.

Well, after the Confirmation camp, I nicknamed him “Mr. Didn’t Feel Anything” and I thought he was rather arrogant and cocky at that time.

He looked like he was going to end up on the sleazy side of life.

He in turned called me “Bro. Wait a While”.

But that was many years ago. Now he calls me “Fr. Wait a While”.

That “Mr. Didn’t Feel Anything ” has become someone doing something.

He is active in his parish community and he is a catechist teaching Confirmation class!

He has come a long way and I am sure that the Holy Spirit was moving him along the way.

And he did feel something, although it took a while.

Well, it may take a while for us too. We may have to wait a while.

But meanwhile, may the Holy Spirit fill our hearts and kindle in us the fire of God’s love.

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C, 02-05-10

2010-05-02T18:57:00.003+08:00

Acts 14:21b-27
Revelation 21:1-5a
John 13:31-33a, 34-35

For a start, I would like to ask you a few questions.

These are no trick questions; just general knowledge questions.

Also there is no need to shout out the answers because I know you won’t shout in church.

So here come the questions: Name the three wealthiest people in the world.

Name the last three people who have won the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Name the last three winners of the Oscar awards for best actor.

Name the last three winners of the Miss Universe pageant.

You may wonder, what is the point of asking these questions, when most of us can’t remember any of those names.

But that is the point. Most of us can’t remember much of who made it to the headlines of yesterday.

Well, those who made it to the headlines are certainly no second-class achievers.

They are indeed the best in their fields, the cream of the crop.

But the applause, no matter how loud and how prolonged, will fade.

And the awards will tarnish. And the achievements are slowly forgotten.

Yesterday’s headlines are stale news. They are yesterday’s papers, left in the corner and maybe even used to wrap doggy pooh.

Now here is another quiz. Let us see how we will do for this one.

Name three teachers who taught you in school.

Name three friends who helped you through a difficult time.

Name three persons who have encouraged you and affirmed you.

Name three persons whom you enjoy spending time with.

Now, was that easier? And why was it easier?

Well, from the two sets of questions we can realize one thing.

We realize that the people we remember most in our lives are not necessarily the ones with the most money, or the most credentials, or the most awards, or the ones who make it to the headlines.

Rather, the people we remember are the ones who care about us; they are the people who love us.

So in the final analysis, what really matters is who loved you, and who you loved.

In the gospel we hear of Jesus giving us a new commandment.

It is the commandment of love – just as Jesus have loved us, we are to love one another.

What Jesus gave us is a commandment; it is not a suggestion.

A commandment does not give us an option.

Rather it requires from us a decision.

And if we call ourselves Christians, then we have already made that decision.

To say that we are a Christian, and yet, not fulfill that love commandment, then that is a contradiction.

Yet within us there exists this contradiction of sinfulness and holiness.

Within us there is selfishness, and yet there is also selflessness.

So when we decide to love, that is a profound decision, because it comes out of a struggle from within.

A journalist was watching the late Mother Teresa attending to a man suffering from gangrene.

The sight and smell of the wounds were just too revolting for him and he said to Mother Teresa: I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars!

Mother Teresa replied: Neither would I do it for that amount of money. But for the love of God, I will do it.

Yes, love always demands the best out of us, and love brings out the best in us.

And love will also help us understand others, and love will help us see how they need to be loved.

Maybe let me tell you a pre-Mother’s Day joke, since next Sunday is Mother’s Day.

Four very successful brothers were sharing with each other what they gave to their mother, who lived far away in another city, for Mother’s Day.

The first said: I had a big house built for Mama.

The second said: I had a state-of-the-art theatre built in that house.

The third said: I had a limousine delivered to Mama.

The fourth said: You know how Mama loved reading the Bible, but her eyesight is failing. I came across this parrot which can recite any passage of the Bible.

Mama just had to name the chapter and the verse and the parrot will recite it.

That parrot costs $500 000, but I thought it was worth it and I had it sent to Mummy.

The other brothers were impressed.

After Mother’s Day, the brothers received thank you notes from their mother.

The first – Dear Milton, the house you built was so huge and I live in only one room but I had to clean the whole house. Thanks anyway.

The second – Dear Marvin, I am too old to drive. I stay home and have things delivered to me. I don’t use the limo. Thanks anyway.

The third – Dear Michael, you built for me an expensive theatre which can sit 50 people, but all my friends are dead. My hearing and my eyesight are failing, I won’t be using the theatre. But thanks anyway.

Finally, the last one – Dearest Melvin, you were the only son who had given a little thought to your gift. Thanks for the live chicken. I cooked it and it was delicious. Love you, mummy.

So, to be a person of love, we don’t have to be rich and famous, or great achievers and high-flyers.

We only need to have a heart which decides to love, and keep on loving to the end.

St Terese of Lisieux, the “little flower” has this wise saying for us: I do small things with great love.

Yes, small things like cooking a simple meal for our family members, helping those who call upon us. Spending time with those who need us.

Yes, to fulfill the commandment of love is simple.

We just have to do small things with great love.

And by that love for each other, others will know that we are disciples of Jesus.

And they will also remember how we showed love and that is, by doing small things with great love.

2nd Sunday of Easter / Divine Mercy Sunday, 11.04.10

2010-04-11T19:00:00.002+08:00

Acts 5:12-16
Revelation 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19
John 20:19-31

So we have crossed over from Lent to Easter, and we are already at the 2nd Sunday of Easter.

So Good Friday is over, we have had people being baptized at Easter, we are relieved that the period of fasting and penance and the Way of the Cross is over.

So now should be a time of rejoicing, a time of celebration, a time to take a deep breathe and to take it easy for a while.

So while we are in this rejoicing and celebrative mood, let me share with you an Easter joke, a so-called Easter joke.

A small boy came back home after a long day at school, and he told his mother that he was having a stomachache.

His mother said to him : Oh, that’s because you got nothing in your stomach. You got to put something in there. Go and have your dinner and you will be ok.

The small boy did that and true enough, his stomach was ok.

Now on Easter Sunday, the small boy went with his parents for the Sunday evening Mass.

After Mass, the small boy and his parents happened to meet the priest, and the priest said to them:

Whew! It was a long and busy weekend. I am having a headache now.

When the small boy heard this, he suddenly remembered, and he said to the priest:

Father, that’s because you got nothing in your head. You got to put something in there, ok.

Well, today’s gospel is not about the Sunday after Easter.

Rather it is still dwelling on the evening of Easter Sunday and the disciples were hiding behind locked doors.

There was nothing left in their minds and nothing in their guts, and they were having the greatest heartache of their lives because there was also nothing in their hearts.

For the disciples, it was a dark, a very dark Easter Sunday evening.

It was into this darkness and heartache that the Risen Christ came and offered them peace and joy.

And there was one more thing – Jesus showed them His hands and side, the wounds of His crucifixion, to show that He was also offering them healing.

Well, if I may say it, this particular Easter, is for the Catholic Church, a bit like that Easter evening for the disciples.

The celebration of Easter was dampened and marred by a certain darkness and heartache.

I would like to think that we have read about the reports of the scandals that have surfaced in Europe.

It is a horrible scandal. And to make matters worse, it involved the clergy, it involved priests.

The media is having a field day, whereas we are reeling from the shock waves.

So we know about it, we have read about it, and yet we don’t know what to think or what to say about it.

This has shocked us. The Catholics in Europe are shaken and shattered.

We don’t feel like talking about it, maybe because we don’t know how to talk about it.

Like the disciples on that Easter Sunday evening, we are just hanging on in the darkness and hanging on with a heartache.

Maybe I am just speaking for myself, but I sigh in pain and in shame.

I wonder how many will lose faith in the Church and even leave the Church. How many will even lose faith in God?

I also wonder what’s going to happen to the dignity of the priesthood, and what will people think of priests now?
And what about promotion of vocations?

I don’t dare think about these questions, and I don’t know what the answers will be like.

But today’s gospel gives us a glimmer of hope in the darkness.

Today’s gospel mentions that eight days later, Jesus came back, and He came back just for Thomas, to strengthen his faith.

In this time of distress and darkness, of pain and shame, let us stay united with each other and together let us wait for the Lord.

I wonder if you know about the story of a dog called Hachiko. By the way, Hachi in Japanese means eight.
Hachiko was an extraordinary dog.

Back in 1924 in Japan, its owner Ueno took it as a pet.
Everyday, Hachiko would accompany Ueno to the train station and see him off to work.

At the end of the day, Hachiko would wait at the station to greet Ueno as he comes back from work.

All went on happily until one day, when Ueno suffered a heart attack, and died at his workplace.

He never returned to the train station where Hachiko was waiting.

Yet everyday, Hachiko would wait at the train station for his master’s return.

And each day, he did not see his master among the commuters at the station.

Many of the commuters who frequented the train station had seen Hachiko and Ueno together.

When they heard of what had happened, they brought food for Hachiko to nourish him during his wait.

This went on for nine years, and the story became a national sensation.

Hachiko’s faithfulness to his master impressed the Japanese people, and his legendary faithfulness became a national symbol of loyalty.

To date, two movies had been made about this true story of a dog’s loyalty.

Hachiko died on the steps outside the train station where he had waited for his master, on 8 March 1935.

For nine long years, Hachiko waited faithfully for his master, although it was a wait in vain.

In this troubled and distressful time of the Church, let us also understand the meaning of Easter in all this.

Christ died but He rose from the dead. He came back for His disciples. He even came back just for Thomas.

The Risen Christ will come back for us.

Today as we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday, let us pray for God’s mercy on the Church and that Jesus will come into our hearts to strengthen us with His love.

Our wait will not be in vain. Like Hachiko, we will be loyal and we will wait in faith.

And blessed are we who do not lose faith, in God, and in the Church.

Palm Sunday, Year C, 28-03-10

2010-03-29T08:52:00.000+08:00

At the beginning of the Mass, we participated in the triumphant procession of Jesus into Jerusalem.

We joyfully waved the palm branches to welcome the King who comes in the name of the Lord.

And just as quickly as the weather changes, we witness another procession, this time a procession out of Jerusalem, a procession towards execution.

And this time, the palm branches are as lifeless as dead leaves.

Yet these palm branches which we will bring home are a reminder that whether in celebration or in tribulation, we must be with Jesus, our Lord.

We must stay with Jesus especially in His trials and suffering.

The gospel portrayed Jesus as being tested.

From His sweating of blood to His being betrayed and abandoned by His disciples, to His being interrogated, to His crucifixion, Jesus was tested.

He was tested but He persisted. He was abandoned but He was not broken.

In fact He could even tell the repentant thief: Indeed, I promise you, today you will be with me in paradise.

So as we bring home these palm branches, let us also walk with Jesus in His triumphant procession into Jerusalem, and stay close to Him in the procession towards execution which will unfold before us.

Because we too will be tested. We too will face our agonies, our betrayals, our pains, our loneliness and our sufferings.

Yet we are also reminded that our sufferings in the world are nothing compared to the glory that is waiting for us in eternity.

In the meantime, let us keep in mind these words of Jesus to the repentant thief.

Indeed, I promise you, today you will be with me in paradise.

It is a King’s promise, it’s a Saviour’s promise. It is God’s promise.

Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year C, 14 March 2010

2010-03-14T19:00:00.000+08:00

Joshua 5:9, 10-12
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

From the young to the old, stories always have a special appeal in our hearts.

Because embedded in stories are the experiences of life, there are also lessons of life, surprises of life, or just simply the colour of life.

Telling stories to children might be relatively simple because there is a vast resource of children’s story books to tap on.

So we can tell children stories like Snow White and Cinderella, and let them imagine the characters.

That’s for children. For adults, telling stories to them become a bit tougher.

Because to get their attention, then the stories have to be about real-life.

And it can be anything from charity and bravery, to the tacky and the juicy.

So stories like how a local movie director had an affair with a young model would surely arouse the interest of adults.

Or how a foreign diplomat got involved in a series of hit-and-run accidents would surely catch our eye.

But yet, these stories are often about other people and about other characters.

These stories don’t necessarily involve us, and we can just remain as spectators or as the audience.

We can say that Jesus is a great story-teller.
Yet, Jesus does not merely tell stories ; He speaks in parables
Parables have a spiritual and mystical dimension.

Because parables reveal something about God and they also reveal something about us.

In today’s gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal son. It is not the story of the prodigal son.

Because the parable involves us and God. It makes us think.

Are we like the younger son who did a terrible wrong, and then came to his senses, and hoping to be forgiven?

Or are we like the older son, who does his duties and keeps the rules, but complains and criticizes those who step out of line and cannot tolerate them?

Or do we think we are like the father of the two sons who accepts and forgives unconditionally and tries his best to keep everybody together in harmony?

Of course, I have also heard of some other amusing reflections.

Like this one from a lady who said that she felt like she was the calf. Because no matter what happens, she will get it!

Certainly the parable is about acceptance and forgiveness.

And also the underlying theme of love in the parable, as seen in the father’s love for his two sons.

Let me share with you a story, not a parable, but just a story.

There was a wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art.. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael.. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art....
When war broke out, the son went to serve his country. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and he grieved deeply for his only son.

Some time later, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands..

He said, 'Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly... . He often talked about you, and your love for art..' The young man held out this package. 'I know this isn't much. I'm not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.'

The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by that young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the protrait that he was very moved.

He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. 'Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It's a gift.'

The father hung the portrait in his hall. Every time visitors came to his home he pointed out the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.

The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.

On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. 'We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?'

There was silence.....
The people in the room shouted, 'We want to see the famous paintings.. Skip this one.'

But the auctioneer persisted.. 'Will somebody bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?'

Another angry voice was heard. 'We didn't come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Gogh's, the Rembrandts.
Get on with the real bids!'

But still the auctioneer continued. 'The son! The son! Who'll take the son?'

Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. 'I'll give $10 for the painting...' Because being a poor man, it was all he could afford.

'We have $10, who will bid $20?'

The annoyed voices shouted :'Give it to him for $10. Let's see the masterpieces.'

The crowd was becoming angry. They didn't want the picture of the son.

They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.

The auctioneer pounded the gavel. 'Going once, going twice, SOLD for $10!'

A voice shouted, 'Now let's get on with the collection!'

The auctioneer laid down his gavel. 'I'm sorry, the auction is over.'

'What about the paintings?' the people asked.

'I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will.... I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time.. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings.
So the man who took the son gets everything!'

This reminds us that God gave us His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is: 'The son, the son, who'll take the son?'

Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.

We may recall this scripture verse : FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, SO THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES, SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE..........
THAT'S GOD’S LOVE FOR US!

In the parable of the prodigal son, the father in his love and forgiveness, seemed like a loser.

He gave his younger wayward son his inheritance when he asked for it.

He told his elder sulking son that all he had was his.

The father is indeed a reflection of God who gave us His only Son so that we know what love is.

The question in the parable is that will the two sons now love the father more?

Will we ourselves love God more? Will we love Jesus more?

The late Archbishop Fulton Sheen, a pioneer in TV evangelizing, shared this story about what inspired him to make a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament everyday.

When the communists took over China, they imprisoned a priest in his own rectory which was beside the church. After being locked up in his own house, the priest looked out the window and was horrified to see the communists enter the church.

Once inside, they went into the sanctuary, broke open the tabernacle and in a hateful act of desecration, threw down the ciborium scattering the Hosts on the floor. The priest knew exactly how many Hosts had been in the ciborium: there were thirty-two.

When the communists left, they either didn't notice, or didn't pay any attention to a little girl praying in the back of the Church who saw everything. That night she returned, and slipping past the guard, entered the Church where she made an hour of prayer in reparation for the desecration she witnessed of the Blessed Sacrament.

After her hour of prayer, she went into the sanctuary, and kneeling down, she bent over and received Jesus in Holy Communion with her tongue.

Each night, the girl returned to the church to make her holy hour and receive Jesus in Holy Communion on her tongue just as she did the first night. On the thirty-second night, after having consumed the last Host, she accidentally made a noise that alerted the guard.

From his bedroom window, the priest could only watch in horror as the heartrending scene unfolded before his eyes. The girl tried to run away but the guard caught up with her and beat her to death with his rifle.

When Archbishop Fulton Sheen heard this story he was so inspired that he promised God he would make a holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament every day for the rest of his life.

And he was not only faithful to his promise, but he took every opportunity to spread this devotion of the daily holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament. He also said this : I have found that it takes some time to catch the fire of love in prayer.

We do not know the name of that little girl in that story which inspired Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

But her heroic act of going to the church every night at the risk of her life to adore and receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament serves as a powerful testimony of her love for Jesus.

Yes, she lost her life, but I am sure she won the crown of life.

May her story inspire us to thank God for His love and forgiveness for us.

May it also move us to come to our senses, and come to love God more

1st Sunday of Lent, Year C, 21-02-10

2010-02-21T18:54:00.002+08:00

Deuteronomy 26:4-10
Roman 10:8-13
Luke 4:1-13

Last Wednesday was a special day for the Church. Because last Wednesday we began the season of Lent and we call that day Ash Wednesday.

Although it was not a day of obligation, it was a day of obligatory fasting and abstinence.

Although it was not a day of obligation, yet most of us came for Mass, and the 4 Masses on that day were generally well attended.

On Ash Wednesday at Mass, we were marked with ashes in the shape of a cross on the forehead.

This custom of marking with ashes on the forehead is from the Old Testament practice of putting ashes on the head as a sign of repentance.

Now, besides being irritating on the skin, the ashes also make a person look rather ghoulish.

Just imagine, with ashes on the head and face, a person would look like he went for cremation and was only half-done.

He would look ghostly or would even look like a ghost.

But that was the idea of the Old Testament practice of putting ashes.

Because to sin is to turn away from God. And without God, one would look like a ghost.

Hence the putting on or smearing with ashes is a sign of repentance.

But on Ash Wednesday, we didn’t have to smear ourselves with ashes; just some ashes on the forehead in the shape of a cross.

Yet to non-Catholics, it may raise some eyebrows.

A couple told me that after evening Mass on Ash Wednesday, they went back and were waiting at the lift-lobby.

Another lady came along to the lift lobby, she glanced at them, she looked alarmed and immediately turned and hurriedly walked away.

The couple looked at each other and realized that the ashes were still on their foreheads.

But the ashes on our foreheads are not meant to frighten people. They are meant to frighten us.

They are meant to remind us of our mortality and our finality.

“Remember, you are dust, and unto dust you shall return”

Yes, ashes is also a powerful reminder of what will finally become of us.

Ashes is also a powerful reminder of what will eventually become of everything we see around us.

That is also what Jesus is telling us in the gospel as He faced the temptations of the devil.

Jesus is telling us that all temptations have the objective to make us grab the temporary, and to throw away and forget about eternity.

Taken together, the 3 temptations were to lure Jesus to take control of the here and now.

What was at stake was what will control the heart of Jesus.

Because whatever controls the heart of Jesus, that will also control His actions.

The first temptation has to do with control over things.

The devil says: You are hungry. Use your power to turn stone into bread. Control your situation, no need to control your hunger.

The second temptation has to do with control over people.

The devil says: Just bow down to me, and you will have these hordes, these multitudes, bowing down to your whims and fancies. Don’t let people control you – you control them.

The third temptation is to control God, to put God to the test, so to speak.

The devil taunts Jesus: Come on, take a leap. If you are the Son of God, then God must save you, isn’t it?

Oh yes, the temptations are all about control, about what controls our heart.

We want to have control and a say over our things.

We may not admit to being control freaks, but yet we use the word “I want…” so often.

Just imagine the control and power we have over people, when we can tell someone: I want you to do this now! And he gets it done.

Or when we have a trump card in our hands, we might just say this: I want to bring this up, and I want to put all those people down. I want to show them some colour.

Such power and control makes us feel high and mighty about ourselves.

But for what? And for how long? Do we want control over the temporary and yet lose hold of our eternity?

Throughout his ministry, Jesus was faced with the choice, the temptation, to use His divine powers for His own benefit and to win the crowds for Himself.

Jesus could have taken control over what His life would be like, He could have a life of fame, power, prestige, wealth,

But Jesus surrendered this control to His Father and the most profound occasion was at Gethsemane when He said: Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from me; yet not my will but Your will be done.

To do the will of God means that we surrender control of our lives to Him.

Because at the core of our temptation is this little word “if”.

For Jesus, it is: if you are the Son of God… For us, it will be this: If God really loves me…

So we might say things like:
If God really loves me, then He will answer my prayers, He will solve my problems, He will remove my difficulties and tribulations, He will heal my illness, He will give me what I want.

And what if God does not?

The evil is in the “if”. With God, it is not an “if”, or a “but”, or a “maybe”.

God is love, and He loves us with an everlasting love.

Everything will turn to dust and ashes. We ourselves will turn to dust and ashes.

Only in God is our life and our destiny.

So let us surrender our lives and hearts to God and let Him be in control.

Let us pray that we will always do God’s will while we are here on earth, so that even while our bodies will turn to dust, we will be with God forever in heaven.

4th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 31st January 2010

2010-01-31T18:30:00.000+08:00

Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19
1 Corinthian 12:31-13:13 (or 13:4-130
Luke 4:21-30

If we ever have to choose a name for someone, and specifically a Christian name, it might be good to check out the Bible for some options.

But as we look in the Bible for some nice sounding names, please choose with caution.

At least, read up about the character whose name we are considering.

For e.g. “Stephen” is a nice name, right? Well my parents chose that name for me. It is also found in the Bible.

But as we know, Stephen, the one who was mentioned in the Bible, was stoned to death!

If my parents had known about that, I wonder if they would still choose that name for me.

Another nice sounding name found in the Bible is Jeremiah, or Jeremy, for short.

It was also the name of the prophet from which the 1st reading is taken.

If you want to choose the name Jeremiah or Jeremy for yourself or for someone else, it might be good to read up about this prophet in the Bible.

Jeremiah was a young man when the Lord called him, probably he was in his early 20s.

He was very reluctant to be God’s prophet and he tried to reject it, but in the end he still did what he was told.

So Jeremiah began to preach. He told his people bluntly that their only hope for survival was to reform their lives and turn back to God.

For that, Jeremiah got flogged in public, he was put in chains, he was thrown into a dungeon, and finally he was exiled from his homeland.

Things got so bad for him that he even cursed the day he was born.

So that’s the prophet Jeremiah. We may want to take after his name, but we sure don’t want to end up like him.

Another name which we will not take after is the name of Jesus. I don’t think anyone here has that name, out of respect, of course.

It is a nice name, but we know what happened to Jesus in the end.

At least today’s gospel gave us a snippet of what was in store for Him.

He faced rejection from the people of His own hometown, and it got so bad that they hustled Him out and wanted to throw Him down the cliff.

But He walked away, to preach another day.
But the end will come.

Jesus said that a prophet is not accepted in his own country.

But let’s face it – a true prophet is not accepted anywhere.

Because a true prophet has to speak the truth.

Yes, the truth will set us free, but first it will make us uneasy.
But in case you start to get uneasy, let me tell you a corny joke about truth.

Let me ask you: What is the difference between someone praying in church and someone praying in the casino?

Well, the one praying in the casino, his prayer is serious.
It can be as serious as this as he throws the dice – Our Father in heaven, give me a seven!

It sounds corny, but it can be that serious.

But of course, that doesn’t mean that our prayer in church is not fervent.

It may not be that serious, but it is nonetheless very fervent because we know that God hears our prayers.

Of course we have to be clear about what we are praying for.

A story has it that a woman went to see a holy man and asked him to pray to God to take her husband out of this world, because he was always quarrelling with her, and she could not live with him anymore.

The holy man paused for a moment, and then said to her : Very well, I will pray, but I must warn you that when I begin to pray, God will decide which of you is more guilty.

If God judges you to be more guilty, you will die immediately! So ….. how? You want me to start praying?

The woman thought for a while, and then said : Err…. Never mind, no need to pray anymore. And she left, hurriedly.

Well, the truth set her free, and it also made her flee.

Still, to be a prophet of the truth is never an easy task.
But to help us be prophets of the truth, the 2nd reading introduces the necessary aspect of love.

In other words, we speak the truth with love.

The only way to speak the truth is to speak it with kindness.

Because only the words of a loving person will be heard.

One of the biggest tests of a relationship is to speak to a friend about his/her faults.

And here we have to understand this. And that is, people don’t care about what you know, until they know you care about them.

If we speak the truth WITHOUT love, then as the 2nd reading puts it, we are just like a gong booming, or a cymbal clashing.

Nothing is happening, because nothing is going in.

Even we ourselves know from experience that no matter how many hard knocks we give a person, he won’t change.
In fact he might even build a wall against us.

We might know who St. Augustine is, and the story of his life. In his younger days, he was simply wild.

He kept delaying his conversion. He would even seriously pray like this: O Lord, make me good … but not so soon!

One day he happened to see his mother, St. Monica crying softly.

Now St. Monica was noted for this – she prayed for 30 years for her son’s conversion.
She had such perseverance because a priest told her that her prayers and tears for her son would not go unnoticed by God.

So St. Augustine asked his mother why she was crying. St. Monica replied : I am crying for you, my son. I cry because I love you.

St. Augustine did not respond to that, but it moved him, and that finally triggered his conversion process.

Yes, truth alone is too glaring ; we can’t take the naked truth.

But truth dressed in love will move hearts to build bridges and tear down walls.

So whatever name we have, we are all called to be God’s prophets. So what does it mean to be a prophet?

How am I to be a prophet?

Let me paraphrase the 2nd reading and tell you what it means to be a prophet.

A prophet is patient and kind. A prophet is not jealous or boastful or conceited.

A prophet is not rude or selfish. A prophet does not take offence and is not resentful.

A prophet does not take pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth.

A prophet is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes.

That’s what it means to be a prophet. That’s what it means to be a prophet of God’s love.

Baptism of the Lord, Year C, 10th Jan 2010

2010-01-10T18:30:00.002+08:00

Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7
Acts 10:34-38
Luke 3:15-16, 21-22

There is one day in our life that we will always remember, one day that we will not forget, unless of course, our memory begins to fail.

Some would make this day special with a big celebration, others would just spend it quietly.

That day I am talking about is none other than our birthday.

Yes, that’s our special day and every year we would take note of it, or others will remind us of it.

More so if our birthdays fall on big festive days like Christmas Day or New Year’s Day.

Even if we don’t want to celebrate our birthday on those kind of days, others will remind us about it.

I came across this story about celebrating birthdays, but it sounds more like a joke…

A group of friends wanted to spring a birthday surprise for one of their shy friends.

But of all things, they decided to do it at Mass.

So before Mass, one of them approached the priest to ask if he would say or do something for the birthday boy.

The priest, a prim and proper traditionalist, gave this reply: See how lah.

Now, during Mass, the priest said nothing about the birthday.

After the final blessing and just before the priest left the altar, he said: Is there someone here celebrating his birthday today?
So his friends gleefully prodded the shy birthday boy to raise his hand.

And then the priest said, “Well, we don’t have a birthday cake for you, but since it is your birthday today…” and then he pointed to the altar, “then you can blow out the candles.”

Well, it is still a privilege to do something for the altar, even if it is just blowing out the candles!

So, in big or small ways, birthdays are remembered because they are as special as each of us is special.

But, there is another special day for us which we seldom take note of, or even bother to remember.

That special day is none other than the day of our baptism.

Some of us may remember the day of our baptism but by and large, we don’t usually take note of the date.

Just in case we do not know when the day of our baptism was, we can find it in our baptism certificate.

And just in case we do not know where our baptism certificate is, then better start finding. You will need it when you want to book a niche in the Church columbarium.

Our baptism day is just as important as our birthday, maybe even more important, when considered in the religious sense.

Just as we celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas, today we celebrate His baptism.

The baptism of Jesus is as important an event as our baptism, although it is different in essence.

Our baptism cleanses away the stain of original sin and immerses us into the identity of Christ and that is why it is only with baptism that we can be identified as Christians.

The baptism of Jesus identifies Him as the beloved Son of God who came to take away the sins of the world.

Hence, the baptism of Jesus marks the beginning as well as the commitment to His mission as Saviour.

Similarly, our baptism marks the beginning of our life in God, our spiritual life.

If our birthday marks the beginning of our existence, then our baptism marks the beginning of our commitment to God.

That commitment is essentially and fundamentally expressed in a life of faithfulness to God.

And there will be plenty of temptations to challenge our faithfulness to God.

Even Jesus after His baptism was tempted by the devil in the desert. But of course he overcame the temptations.

We too, are subjected to many temptations. So how have we done so far?

This feast of the Baptism of the Lord not only reminds us of the day of our baptism, but also reminds us that it is time for a spiritual check-up.

Sometimes, we may be tempted to think that if we were not baptized, then we might have it easier and have more freedom.

We can sleep in on Sundays, don’t have to come to church, do anything we like without feeling guilty and we do not have to go for confession.

In the area of morality, we don't have to worry about free sex, divorce and abortion, if we were not baptized.

As it is, we are already losing, or maybe even lost, the sense of sin.

For example, committing adultery is now called having an affair, stealing is called shop-lifting,

Yes, we are tempted to go easy on ourselves, don’t have to take life too hard, after all how bad can we be.

We are not playing with black magic or anything satanic so we can’t be that bad what…

Yet there is one aspect of the spiritual life that is called spiritual warfare, which we don’t mention often.

Just as Jesus came to fight evil and sin, we now continue the fight, and we fight with confidence in our faithfulness to God.

But there are distractions that can make us lose focus.

Here I would like to cite the battle of Troy, a classic example in the art of war.

In the story, the Greeks laid siege on the city of Troy.

But they could not break the defenders of the city because the Trojans were united in their commitment to their city, so the Greeks decided to use deception.

They pretended to retreat and sail off, but they left behind a big horse-like structure, which we now call the Trojan Horse.

The people of Troy unsuspectingly pulled the Trojan Horse into they city as their war trophy and began rejoicing and celebrating too soon.

When everyone was drunk on celebration and with their guard totally down, the Greek soldiers hiding inside the Trojan Horse came out and opened the city gates for the Greek army that sailed back and were waiting outside the city

That was how the city of Troy fell, all because they lost focus on their safety and security, and were deceived by novelty and they gave in to their curiosity.

It was a classical example of deception and temptation in the art of war.

The Bible gives us this warning in 1 Cor 10:12:”The man who thinks he is safe must be careful not to fall.”

In God is our safety and security, He is our God and we are His beloved people.

This is the covenant that is sealed by our baptism.

God has already given us everything to help us feel safe and secure. He even gave us His Son. What more do we want?

We might like to have some excitement in life, but we are risking our safety and security.

Because there are Trojan Horses waiting at our gates.

But they can’t come in, unless we want to pull them in, and then the Horse will be our loss.

So as we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, and as we recall our own baptism, let us recommit ourselves in faithfulness to the Lord.

Let us fight the good fight, let us keep focused on the Lord, and keep faithful to the Lord always.

Christmas Vigil, Year C, 24.12.09

2009-12-25T11:10:00.000+08:00

Isaiah 62:1-5
Acts 13:16-17, 22-25
Mathew 1:18-25

This evening, we are gathered for a very special celebration.

Yes, we are here to celebrate the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

It is a very defining moment when at the appointed time, God fulfilled His promise of salvation, and His Word was made flesh in Jesus Christ.

Indeed, God has fulfilled His promise and that is why we gather in such numbers to testify that God has indeed fulfilled His promise.

We are not here just for the Christmas mood.

Because if we just want to have some Christmas mood, we might as well go down to Clarke Quay or Orchard Road.

But with the crowds and the jam, our Christmas mood might end up being Christmas moody.

So we made the right choice to be here, right?
Quite comfy, most of us have a seat, some are standing, but it is okay, we are happy to be here.

We are happy to be here to celebrate the birth of Christ 2000 years ago.

But we are here this evening for yet another defining moment.

Because we are here to witness God making another promise to us.

That promise we heard in the Gospel, that God is with us and that He promised to be with us always.

And that is why we are here to celebrate this Christmas Mass – we are here to testify that God has fulfilled His promise of a Saviour and God is promising us that His Saviour is not going to leave us, that He is going to be with us always.

Because God is with us, we are assured that He knows what we need, He knows the longings of our heart, He knows our anxieties and our worries.

Maybe that is why children are usually fascinated with Santa Claus, because they think or expect him to know what they want.

How children communicate with Santa Claus I am not sure, but let me share this joke with you,

Santa Claus was in the toys section of a department store and a little girl came up to him.

So Santa asked the little girl: Well, my dear girl, what do you want for Christmas?

The little girl stared at Santa, her jaw dropped and she looked surprise and shocked. So Santa asked her what was the matter.

The little girl asked Santa: You mean, you did not get my email?!

Oh yes, the way we communicate nowadays have gone electronic.

But God hoes not communicate with us by email.

Because His Word is now made flesh in Jesus, and Jesus is the new promise that “God is with us”.

The birth of Jesus tells us that we don’t have to always be chained to the stupidities of the past and its darkness.

Because Jesus is the light that brings new hope and a new vision that challenges our pessimism and opens our eyes to His presence among us.

Let me share with you a story about a pair of twins whose resemblance to each other was only in their looks.

They are opposite in every way. One being a bright optimist and the other a gloom and doom pessimist.

Just to see what would happen, to see if anything would change, on Christmas Day, when the family was out, the father had the pessimist son’s room filled with every imaginable toy and game.

The optimist son’s room was loaded with horse manure.

When the family came home, the father waited a while and then he walked past the pessimist son’s room.

He found him sitting with his new toys but crying bitterly, and the father asked him why.

The pessimist son replied: Because my friends would be jealous, I’ll have to read all the instructions before I can play with them, I’ll constantly need new batteries, and my toys will eventually be broken.

The father sighed and then he walked past the optimist son’s room.

He found him dancing for joy in the pile of horse manure.

So the father asked: What are you so happy about?

The optimist son answered: Well, I got my Christmas wish; there must be a pony somewhere.

So do you think the father will get him a pony? Sure, why not?

Christmas us a time for us to open our eyes to God’s blessings and graces, and to see his greatest gift of love, and that is Jesus.

Because with Jesus, we can only look forward for the best, and not fear and prepare for the worst.

Because of Jesus, we do not need to worry and fret when things start to crack.

After all, there is a crack in everything.

But, that’s how the light gets in.

Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year C, 20 Dec

2009-12-20T18:30:00.002+08:00

1st Reading Micah 5:1-4a
2nd Reading Hebrew 10:5-10
Gospel Luke 1:39-45

Every year around this time, a particular town would come into prominence.

Because the name of that town would be mentioned in Christmas cards, in scripture readings, and maybe even in holiday tour brochures.

Well, needless to say, that town is Bethlehem.

I think it is a town because that is how the Christmas carol goes: O little town of Bethlehem…

Whether it’s still a town or whether it has become a city, I am not sure because I have not been there yet.

But I would like to go and see Bethlehem.

Besides being the birthplace of our Saviour, Bethlehem has a deep faith significance.

Bethlehem was the fulfillment of a promise, God’s promise.

We heard about that promise in the 1st reading.

We will hear about it again at the feast of the Epiphany when the wise men asked about where the infant King of the Jews was.

But let us remember that from the time of the prophecy by the prophet Micah, which we heard in the 1st reading, to the fulfillment of that promise with the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem, it was a 700-year wait.

Now 700 years is a long wait, a very long wait.

That makes me recall a joke about a man who had a burning question to ask God.

So finally, God appeared to him and asked him what was his question.

So the man asked: O Lord, how long is a million years to you?

God answered: Like just a second.

Then the man asked: Then how much is a million dollars to you?

God replied: Like just a cent.

Then the man asked: So can I have a million dollars?

And God replied: Sure, just wait a second.

So, we just have to wait, whether it is just a second ,or for 700 years, we just have to wait, because what God has promised, He will certainly fulfill.

But it is not just a question of waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled.

It is also the question of believing that God’s promises would be fulfilled.

Today, the Gospel shows us how Mary herself came to believe in the fulfillment of God’s promises.

Today’s Gospel presents us with the scene of the Visitation.

There are a few reasons why Mary went all the way to visit Elizabeth.

Earlier, at the Annunciation, she had been told that she herself would conceive the Son of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.

At the same time, Mary was also told that her kinswomen Elizabeth, who was said to be barren, was in her 6th month of pregnancy, and that nothing is impossible for God.

So Mary went to visit Elizabeth to see for herself this marvelous wonder that God has worked in Elizabeth.

In doing so, Elizabeth also confirmed for Mary the even greater wonder that the Son of God has been conceived, and conceived in her.

Through this occasion, both Mary and Elizabeth grew deeper in their faith in the Lord’s promises.

Both Mary and Elizabeth kept pushing in their faith in the Lord’s promises.

But what did they push? Well, it’s not so much a physical kind of push, but a spiritual kind of push.

When I say spiritual kind of push, I mean to say that PUSH is an acronym.

PUSH is an acronym that stands for Pray Until Something Happens.

Indeed, for Elizabeth, she prayed that God would remove her barrenness, and then something happened.

For Mary, she prayed for God’s fulfillment of the coming of
the Messiah, and then something happened, and it happened in her!

So whether it is God’s promises or our desperate petitions, let us just PUSH, let us just Pray Until Something Happens.

Meanwhile, we just have to Wait and Push; wait and pray until something happens.

Let me share with you a story about waiting and praying until something happens.

The director of a big company plans to retire and he intends to choose among his top executives the next CEO.

So he called all of them together and gave them each a seed.

He told them: Plant this seed, and after 6 months, I will call all of you to show me how your plants are doing.
The one with the most healthy and beautiful plant will be the next CEO.

So all the executives brought back their seed and planted it.

One of the executives by the name of James, a hardworking and honest man, did the same.

He chose the best soil, sowed the seed in a nice pot, watered it, put it under the sun and waited.

And he waited and waited for it to sprout.

After one month, nothing happened. After two months, nothing happened.

He got a bit anxious, and asked his fellow executives how their seeds were doing.

All of them said that theirs have sprouted and growing into beautiful plants.

James got worried and he added more fertilizer, watered it, put it under the sun, even prayed over it, and waited.

Three months passed, and nothing happened. Four months passed, still nothing happened.

By now, the executives were showing off their plants to each other, and James was feeling dejected.

He thought to himself: I can’t even grow a plant, how can I become the CEO.

But he still did not give up hope. He added fertilizer, watered it, put it under the sun, and of course prayed over it, and waited.

Five months passed, nothing happened. Six months passed, and the day came when the executives were summoned to bring in their plants.

Now James was resigned to be a laughing stock, as he brought his pot with nothing growing, and he felt like a fool.

The executives placed their plants before the company director and he inspected the plants.

When all was over and done, the director said: I have inspected all your plants, they are all very beautiful.

I will now announce the one who will be the next CEO of the company. The next CEO will be James.

Everyone, including James, were surprised, bewildered.

The director then said: The seeds I gave all of you were actually dead seeds. They have been boiled over. They could not have sprouted.

So James will be the next CEO, because he has the honest and integrity to head the company.

Well, just a story to help us understand we may have to wait and PUSH, wait and pray until something happens.

But even if nothing happens, even if nothing seems to be happening, God will still keep His promises.

After all, He promised to send His Son and He has fulfilled that promise.

But whether it is God’s promises or our petitions, let us join Mary and Elizabeth in waiting and praying.

It is in waiting and praying, that something is happening.

Like Mary, in waiting and praying, something is indeed happening… and it is happening in us.

First Sunday of Advent , Year C, 29.11.09

2009-11-29T18:30:00.004+08:00

Jeremiah 33:14-16
Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

I wonder what you will think of when I mention these 4 numbers. And these four numbers are 2012.

Well, some of us may think that it is 4D number and might want to try our luck.

For some of us, 2012 is a movie, which is currently showing.

For those of us who have seen the movie, we will know it’s about the end-times, with catastrophe and devastation, worst than some kind of a nuclear disaster.

And there is this haunting line in the movie trailer: You have been warned.

Anyway, 2012 is about the year 2012, which is like 2 or 3 years away.

But we are not scared or frightened.

As we sit back comfortably and watch the movie, we will be impressed by the CGI (computer generated imagery) movie effects.

There is the aircraft carrier being rolled over by the tidal waves, massive earthquakes and skyscrapers tumbling, there is even a scene in which the dome of St Peter’s Basilica is being washed away by the waves.

But it is just a movie with good impressive effects. A must watch, if got time.

It is some kind of apocalyptic movie, but we are not going to be frightened or scared, even though it says: You have been warned.

At times I wonder if coming for Mass is like coming for a movie.

We come to church, we walk down the aisle, we go to our favourite seat, we sit back in air-con comfort.
Very much like going for a movie, isn’t it?

Then we hear some kind of end-of-the-world and out-of-this-world dooms-day message.

But we are not alarmed, we are not frightened, we are not scared even.

And what’s all that got to do with our Xmas preparations?

The world out there seems to be more prepared for Xmas.

Orchard Rd is dressed up to the hilt, the Xmas light-up this year was earlier than usual, on the radio Xmas carols are like the top 10 songs.

So while the world is preparing for a festive holiday, the Church on this 1st Sunday of Advent seems to be preparing us for dooms-day.

So strange, so out-of-touch, and every year it is like this :
1st Sunday of Advent, it is about devastation, and nothing about Xmas celebration.

So what is the meaning of all this? What is the religious meaning of the 1st Sunday of Advent?

Well, a calmer, more sober reflection of the gospel message is this.

And that is, the impermanence of the things of this world. In other words, nothing is permanent, everything is temporary, everything is passing on.
Well, the Xmas decorations and the lights we see now, will have to be taken down very soon after Xmas.

The Xmas carols that are flooding the airwaves will soon fade off and fade out, in fact almost immediately after Xmas day.

And not just the decorations and the lights and the carols.

Life is also passing on, and moving towards the final destiny, moving on towards God who is Everlasting.

So the gospel message is not about doom and gloom.
In fact it is about Vroom … Vroom! That’s the sound of acceleration, the sound we get when we throttle the engine of a car or motorbike.

We want to prepare to celebrate Xmas so that we can move on and move forward.

The celebration of Xmas is the celebration of one promise that was fulfilled 2000 years ago.

The celebration of Xmas is also the renewal of another promise yet to be fulfilled.

So Advent is to remind us of this 2nd promise and to prepare us for the fulfillment of this promise.

The gospel characters like Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah, were told of the 1st promise of the coming of the Saviour, and they saw its fulfillment.

In today’s gospel, we are told of the promise of the 2nd coming of Christ.

So we have been told, we have been warned. So are we prepared?

On this 1st Sunday of Advent, we bless the Advent wreath and we light the 1st candle.

Why the Advent wreath, and why must it be made of evergreens like holly and fir.

The story has it that the trees of the forest were told to stay awake till the rising of the sun.

As the night drew on, some trees dozed off. As the night went deeper, some trees fell asleep.

By the time of the first rays of the rising sun, the only trees still awake were the cedar, the pine, the spruce, the fir, the holly and the laurel.

So these trees were blest to be evergreens and to be guardians of the forest.

In the seeming dead of winter, when the rest of the trees lose their leaves and sleep, the evergreens keep watch with their green leaves and they are the visible signs of life in the dead of winter.

In the blessing of the Advent wreath, we are reminded that like the evergreens, we are called to be on the watch for God’s promptings around us.

And that is why the Advent wreath is circular, to symbolize that God is eternal and everywhere.

We are also reminded to be signs of life and love in a world that just wants to go on a eat-drink-sleep and rush cycle.

I would like to share with you how people often sleep-rush through life.

The place was Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. A man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about an hour.

During that time, approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later, the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes later, a young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes later, a 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pulled hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time.

This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes later, the musician was still playing continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 people gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour later, he finished playing and then silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

What no one knew that day was this - the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world.
He played one of the most intricate musical pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.

Two days before, Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 a piece.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in that metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

The questions raised were: in a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One question for reflection is this :
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.....
How many other things are we missing?

So maybe, let us begin our Advent preparation by just looking and reflecting on the Advent wreath.

Let us see in it the sign of God’s eternity and encircling presence among us.

May the evergreens also remind us to be signs of life and light to others.

May it also remind us to be alert and on the watch for God’s promptings during this period of preparation.

Otherwise we might just sleep-rush through Xmas, right through to 2012, and may not even be awake in eternity.

All Saints Day 01.11.09

2009-11-01T18:30:00.000+08:00

Rev 7:2-4,9-14
1 Jn 3-1-3
Mt 5:1-12a

Ever since the Church came into existence, the Church has issued some very bold statements. Of course, these statements or teachings are made through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

One such statement is that the communion host is the Real Presence of Jesus. In other words, the communion host is indeed the real body of Christ.

On this feast of All Saints, we recall yet another bold statement that the Church has made, and in fact, is still making.

On this feast of All Saints, the Church proudly, and confidently and bravely proclaims the names of those who have gone to heaven.

In the name of God, the Church issues, with certainty, the list of the names of these people, and gives them the title of Saints.

In this official list are the familiar names like St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Jude, St. Anthony, etc.

And just recently, on the 11th October, the names of St. Damien (the leper priest) and St. Jeanne Jugan, the foundress of the Little Sisters of the Poor, were added on to this official list of saints.

The Church’s official list has more than 10,000 canonized saints.

But that is just the official list. Heaven certainly has much more than that.

Because in the 1st reading, we hear of a huge number of people, impossible to count, from every nation, race, tribe and language.

Nonetheless, the Church issues this list of canonized saints to affirm one reality – the reality of heaven, and that people have gone there.

So besides these, more than 10,000 canonized saints who are in heaven, who else can be there?

Recently in the newspapers, the picture of the body of a blue whale washed ashore, reminded me ironically of a joke.

The joke goes like this : A science teacher was telling the class about sea creatures and came to the topic of whales.

A little girl stood up and said : I know something about whales. A whale swallowed the prophet Jonah and he was in its belly for 3 days.

The teacher frowned and said that it was impossible for a whale to swallow a man because of the size of its throat, and also, a man cannot possibly survive in the stomach of a whale, etc., etc.

But the little girl was adamant and said : Ok, when I go to heaven, I will ask Jonah whether it is true or not.

Then the teacher said : But what if Jonah is in hell.

The little girl said : Then, you go and ask him.

Just a joke, but I am sure that little girls will go to heaven and meet people like Jonah and the rest of that countless number whose names are not in the official list of canonized saints.

And if heaven has a big aquarium, then we might even find the whale that swallowed Jonah, swimming there somewhere.

Anyway, the meaning of the feast of All Saints is that we believe that people have gone to heaven, and they are praying and waiting for us to join them there.

Yes, we believe that they are there, and we also want to know how they got there, so that we have an example and a direction to follow.

We may tend to think that saints are people who did great and heroic acts that made people gasp in awe.

Well, some of them actually did, like the martyrs who courageously suffered horrendous torture in their witnessing for Christ.

For e.g., St. Perpetua who was heavily pregnant at the time when she was caught in the persecution of Christians.

She gave birth only a few days before her martyrdom.

The soldier who witnessed her crying out in the pains of childbirth said to her : You cry out now in so much pain. What will you do when you are suffering in the arena at the jaws of the wild animals?

Her reply was : Then another One will suffer in me, referring to Christ within her.
Such was her courage and her faith in Christ

We may think that such faith and courage belonged to a bygone era, and the skeptic in us may even think that the stories and lives of the saints have gone through some kind of embellishment, or some kind of dramatization.

If that is the case, then how about the story of the recently canonized St. Damien, the leper priest.

He is hailed a hero for going to Molokai and ministering to the leper colony there. Unfortunately he contracted the disease and died of it.

But from his own writings, he revealed the ordinary human struggles he had to endure in order to overcome his revulsion for the day-to-day life with his flock of lepers.

He wrote : The flesh of the leper gives out a repulsive and foul odor ; even the breath of the leper becomes so foul that the air around is poisoned with it.

I have great difficulty in getting used to such an atmosphere.

One day at a Sunday Mass, I found myself so stifled that I thought I must leave the altar to breathe a little of the outside air.

But I restrained myself, thinking of our Lord Jesus who reached out to the leper. These are the words of St. Damien himself.

So when we look at it deeper, we can see that saints are holy not because they love to do great and heroic deeds for God.

Rather they are holy because they do things for God with great love.

That is what today’s gospel of the Beatitudes tell us.

It is not how great or heroic the act is, but rather, how great the love is for God.

Our love for God should tell us to put our trust in God, rather than on wealth and riches.
Our love for God should tell us to hunger and thirst for what is right and good.

Our love for God should tell us that true greatness lies in forgiveness and mercy, instead of revenge and hatred.

Our love for God should tell us that life is not about good looks and appearances, but rather a good, clean and pure heart.

The world doesn’t need us to be a hero. What the world wants to see is that we are holy.

Because to be holy is to be like God.

One last story about St. Damien, the leper priest.

When St. Damien went to the leper colony at Molokai to minister to them, he met the hostile opposition of one leper who did not want to have anything to do with him.

That leper used to taunt him, saying : Go home, priest! Since your God does not cure us, what is the point of believing in Him?

Now many years later, when that leper was coming to the end of his life, he called for St. Damien.

And he said : Priest, I have been watching you. And now I want to believe.

If you were only a man, you would have run away from this island, and you would have failed long ago.

But you stayed, you have not failed, you must be more than a man. You must have a God in you.

Tell me about the God that is dwelling in you, so that I may receive him as well.

Indeed, holiness is to be like God ; holiness is to have God dwelling in us.

With God in us, we can fight the good fight, we can run the race to the finish, we can keep the faith.

And, we can become saints while still on earth.

28th Ordinary Sunday, Year B, 11.09.10

2009-10-11T18:30:00.001+08:00

Wis 7:7-11
Hebr 4:12-13
Mk 10:13-30 (or 17-27)

I think it would be nice to have a guest preacher once in a while, and hear a different tone and a different style.

Well, I have tried to get a guest preacher for this weekend.

But because he is a celebrity, and very much in demand, hence it was difficult for him to fit us into his schedule.

I wanted him to share with us the secret of his success so that we might be stimulated and helped by his story.

Although he can’t be here in person, nonetheless, I have a transcript of his sermon.

Also, I have his poster, so although he can’t be here with us today, I would like to show you who he is.

So our preacher for this weekend…presenting…Mickey Mouse from Disneyland.

And this is the transcript of his sermon:

Thank you, thank you very much for inviting me to your church.

I must admit, at first, I was surprised that a church would ask me to give a sermon.

Oh, I have been invited to churches to give out Disneyland goodie bags. But to give a sermon is something new.

But after I thought about it, I kind of see that Disneyland and the church do have a lot in common.

As I began to organize my thoughts, I believe that if your church were to apply our principles, you would become as successful as Disneyland.

Well, firstly, make sure that your Church seems exciting, even dangerous, much like our joy rides, but be quick to let your people know that there is really no danger at all. Give the illusion of great risk, but make sure everything is perfectly safe.

Secondly, go into the entertainment business mode.
People don’t care what you say as long as they are entertained. Keep your people happy. Don’t tell them anything negative and don’t make demands on them. Just keep them diverted from the ugly reality of today’s world and they’ll keep coming back for more.

Finally, pretend that there are no problems. At Disneyland, we dress up our security guards as smiling rabbits and friendly bears, because we don’t want anyone’s experience at Disneyland to be spoilt by the sight of law enforcement personnel.

Disguise your problems and failures with a warm smile and a firm handshake. Leave the problems at home, and let the church be a happy place where there are no ugly problems. Just friendly priests and smiling wardens.

The point here is that people today want good clean entertainment. They want an environment that is safe for children and they want a place that is safe for their family and friends.

Well, I am so glad that you have invited me here. Thank you once again and see you soon at Disneyland. Bye!

We might clap for Mickey if he were here ; or would we clap at all?
Certainly, all that he said earlier is something we know that the church should not be.

But yet for all that he said, could it be that it was something we, the church are becoming, or have become?

I was thinking of the part about making the church exciting, even dangerous, but yet actually there is no danger at all.

Just giving the illusion of great risk, but actually everything is perfectly safe.

Well, is this what Christianity is all about?
Is this what is being Church all about?
Is this what following Jesus is all about?

Maybe that is what the rich young man in today’s gospel thought it was all about.

He had kept the law from his earliest days. He had met the requirements and the religious standards.

He thought he had made it, and that was it.

So as he approached Jesus, he was confident that he would get a pat on the back and maybe even held up as a model for others.

When he came before Jesus, he fell on his knees and told Jesus where he was at.

But when Jesus told him where he should go, and what he should do, his face fell and he went away sad.

Now, we came to church today, we genuflect, we fall on our knees in prayer.

But when we heard the gospel, did our faces fall like the face of the rich young man?

Maybe not. Because we would be thinking to ourselves: Jesus does not mean it literally, right? He does not expect us to sell everything and give it to the poor, right?

Whatever it is, we want to have a safe worship, we want to be comfortable, the message of Jesus might sound dangerous and risky, but we won’t be pushed to do anything strange or funny.

But if that is the case, we might have become the church of Mickey Mouse and not the Church of Christ the King.

We might have blunted the double-edged sword of the Word of God and made it into a joy-ride.

As in it looks exciting, looks even dangerous, but actually there really is no danger at all. Quite safe.

But Christianity is not about safety. Because Christianity points to the Cross.

St Paul would say this in the letter to the Galatians (2:19):
With Christ I hang upon the cross.

And if we hang upon the cross, then nothing and no one can ever save us except Jesus Christ.

On the cross, our money can’t save us, our health can’t save us, our abilities can’t save us, our achievements can’t save us.

Only Jesus Christ who was crucified on the cross, died, buried but rose from the dead, only He can save us.

Not even Mickey Mouse, with all his success and fame can ever save us.

But yet behind the Mickey Mouse character is an interesting story of 2 men and their strong but volatile friendship.

One is the famous Walt Disney and the other is his side-kick Ubbe Ert.

Both were animation artists, and though they were talented in their own ways, they had to struggle to prove themselves.

Eventually, they started their own company, with Disney providing the ideas and Ubbe Ert coming with animation and thus they created the famous MM character.

But Disney had a short and fierce temper, which was often dumped on Ubbe Ert who was more introvert and mild.

But one day, Ubbe Ert shocked Disney by making a secret arrangement with a competitor so that he would break out on his own.

That caused Disney to lose a lot of money and nearly become bankrupt. We must remember it was the days of the Great Depression in the US and things were not easy.

But Ubbe Ert failed in his venture and was left penniless and destitute.

Meanwhile, Disney managed to climb back from his severe setback.

When Disney heard what happened to Ubbe Ert, instead of gloating over it, he went in search of him, and when he found him, he invited him to work with him again.

There was no mention of the betrayal, no mention of revenge, no mention of pay back time.

Now, we would certainly not do that. How can we forget the pain of betrayal, the hurt of being played-out, the anger of being stabbed in the back.

Well, for whatever reason, Disney took that dangerous path with Ubbe Ert.

And together, they brought up Walt Disney Studios to what it is today.

So behind the smiling MM character was of a volatile yet close friendship.

Similarly, behind the cross, is an invitation to hang upon the cross with Christ.

To hang upon the cross with Christ means to let go of ourselves.

It is not just our money or wealth – that would be easy to do.

Compared with the hurt, the resentment, the anger we want to vent, the revenge we want to inflict.

Let us hang all those on the cross with Christ, so that in return we would dare to love again, in spite of the risks.

Note: Sermon of the Mouse is adapted from "Get 'em Talking: 104 Great Discussion Starters for Youth Groups" by Mike Yaconelli & Scott Koenigeaecker.

24th Ordinary Sunday, Year B, 13.09.09

2009-09-13T20:40:00.005+08:00

1st Reading:Is 50:5-9a
2nd Reading: Jas 2:14-18
Gospel: Mk 8:27-35

The face of Singapore has changed tremendously over the past 30 to 40 years.

When I say the face of Singapore, what I am talking about are the places and buildings we see now, as compared to how we remembered them 30 to 40 years ago.

Many old buildings have been torn down and big gleaming high-rise buildings now stand in their place.

But the good thing is that the government has gazetted some old historical buildings and sites to be preserved.

But one of the places or sites that won’t be slated for preservation is the cemetery.

In Singapore where land is scarce, resting in peace is not a certainty.

But with the reclamation of old cemeteries like Bidadari, then gone are those grand tombs, and the sentimental, and at times, enigmatic epitaphs.

Enigmatic epitaphs like this one that I once saw on a tomb at Chao Chu Kang cemetery.

It’s not exactly an epitaph, but on one side of the tomb were these words in mosaic : Life is but a dream.

Kind of enigmatic isn’t it – Life is but a dream

I wonder if those words were what the deceased wanted on the tomb, or were those words used to describe what the life of the deceased was all about.

Whatever the case may be, how are we going to describe our lives when it is all over?
Or what will others say about us when our lives are over and done?

That is why what is said about the deceased at a funeral service can be rather sensitive. It can even be embarrassing if the wrong thing was said.

Maybe let me share with you a joke to let you know what I mean.

At a funeral service, the priest was delivering the homily. So he began : Well John (the deceased) was a good husband and a good father. He was a patient and a kind man, loving and understanding towards his wife, always helping her with the housework, …

Now, the wife of the deceased, as she was hearing all this, she slowly elbowed her son who was sitting next to her.

And she whispered to him : Go over and open the lid, and see if that is your father …

So you see, we priests are always in some kind of a situation when it comes to funerals.

So it’s safer to say something in general. Or sometimes, it may be something profound, but it can be misunderstood as something profane.

I remember that occasion when my friend’s father passed away, and so he had to arrange the obituary.

His father’s favourite scripture verse was this : Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. The words of Jesus on the cross.

And indeed his father was an understanding and forgiving man. And so it was decided that those words are to be included in the obituary.

But the layout of the obituary turned out to be like this : the father’s photo, followed by the scripture verse “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”

And then below that, the names of the wife, the children and the grandchildren.

Somehow, it just didn’t look right, so the scripture verse had to be removed, to prevent any awkward misunderstanding.

But seriously, what do others think about us? What are they saying about us?

It is a sensitive question, and we may not even want to know what others think, or say about us.

But yet, that is preciously what Jesus asked His disciples in today’s gospel : Who do you say I am?

It is a very direct and personal question. They can’t borrow answers from others. They have to give their own answers.

So who do we say Jesus is? Who do you say Jesus is? Who do I say Jesus is?

Well, so who do I say Jesus is? Over the years, my answer to that question has changed from the conventional and conservative titles like Lord or Saviour, to a very personal and down to earth answer – Jesus is my best friend.

Well, I have good friends, but not a best friend.

Until I discovered that Jesus is indeed my best friend who is always with me, who is always there for me.
And that gives me a lot of consolation and comfort.

You see, as a priest, most of the time, I am alone. So when I am thinking about something, or if something is bothering me, of when I am anxious about something, I don’t usually have someone to talk with, or to share with.

So in the past, I had this habit of talking to myself.
I think most of us do that right? We talk to ourselves.
I think that’s pretty ok, as long as we don’t talk to ourselves in public.

But I have come to realize that talking to myself did not bring me anywhere better, nor did it give me any comfort.

In fact whenever I think, and talk to myself about something disturbing, or frustrating, or annoying, I was like digging deeper into the dark hole of resentment and even anger.

But over the years, I have come to realize, and experienced, that when I start talking with Jesus, it is just so comforting and consoling. There is this healing effect.

So if you happen to see me talking to myself, please don’t be alarmed, please don’t worry or think that some wire up there is disconnected.

I am just talking with Jesus, my best friend.

And it’s also good for mental health and spiritual health, to be talking with Jesus, instead of talking to yourself.

Even 1 Pet 5:7 would urge us to “unload all our worries on to Him, since He is looking after you”.

So, how else to unload our worries but by talking with Jesus.

If we talk to ourselves, we only stress ourselves. But when we talk with the Lord, then He will come to our help.

Yes, the Lord comes to our help to unload all our worries because He is taking care of us.

So that’s why I say that Jesus is my best friend. He is always there whenever I want to talk with Him.

Jesus is not only my best friend. He wants to be your best friend too.

We may have a lot of good friends, or we may even have a best friend.

But they can’t be with us all the time, especially when the crosses of life come our way.

Then we will find ourselves having to face the pains, the difficulties and uncertainties of life alone.

St Peter had to face his cross alone when he was asked if he knew Jesus. He denied knowing Jesus. He alone had to take the consequences of his denial.

Yes, there will come a time when we alone have to face the cross of life, and all our friends can’t be there with us.

I remembered visiting someone in hospital before he had to undergo a major surgery.

He told me that he was afraid of being alone because no one will be with him as he goes for his operation.

I gave him the Anointing of the Sick and Holy Communion, and I told him that Jesus is now with him, and he is not alone, and he need not be afraid.

Then I noticed he relaxed and calmed down, and I told him to call on Jesus to be with him when he is being wheeled in for the operation.

Thanks be to God, the operation was successful and after he was discharged, he told me that as he prayed when he was being wheeled into the operating theatre, he felt a warm sensation over his heart, and he knew that Jesus was with him in his loneliest and fearsome moment.

Even for Jesus, we might think that He was alone in the Garden of Gethsemane. Even His disciples were asleep.

But He was not alone. He was talking with God His Father, and He was strengthened to face His cross.

Jesus in turn, now wants to enter into our hearts whenever we face loneliness and distress.

So, whoever you might say that Jesus is, just know that He is there for you, whenever you want to talk with Him.

Because Jesus is the Christ ; He is also our Lord, our Saviour, our Good Shepherd, our Healer, and also our Best Friend.

21st Ordinary Sunday, 23.08.09

2009-08-23T20:28:00.002+08:00

1st Reading: Josh 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b
2nd Reading: Eph 5:21-32
Gospel: Jn 6:60-69

If you are to stand here, where I am standing, and look at what I’m looking at, then, like me, you would also say it’s awesome.

And to know that there are so many pairs of eyes looking your way, and so many pairs of ears listening to what you are going to say, you can be sure that this is not child’s play.

In fact, some of the visiting priests have commented that the size of the congregation, especially at the 11.30am Mass, can be quite overwhelming.

Yes, we are proud that this parish community is big, and still growing, and at times overwhelming.

But let’s say that the Church lifted this thing about the Sunday obligation.

Let’s just say that coming for Mass on a Sunday is not obligatory but optional.

Now, if that’s the case, would we still want to come to Church for Mass on Sunday?

We have to consider the fact that there are so many other things that we want to do on Sunday.

We can sleep in till noon, and then wake up for this thing called “brunch”, a word now found in the dictionary.

For some people, Sunday can be the laziest day, or the busiest day.

You can sleep right into the late afternoon and wake up for a combination of lunch and dinner. (I don’t know what to call that. If breakfast and lunch is called brunch…)
Or if you have young children, you may not even have time to eat because you will be busy bringing them around from enrichment classes to your parents’ places. (Oh, I forgot, of coz, Sunday catechism classes, how can I forget huh)

So for some, it’s “Thank God it’s Friday”, for some it’s “Thank God it’s Monday”.

But whatever it is, for us, Sunday is to come to church to thank God.

But for us who come to church on Sunday, we also know of someone who does not come to church anymore.

There many reasons why they don’t come to church anymore.

Some are valid reasons; others are just excuses.

Whatever it is, they have made their choice, which is also their decision.

The readings we have heard earlier, also have this underlying aspect of the freedom of choice, and it’s a choice that expresses a decision.

In the first reading, Joshua asked the people – choose today whom you wish to serve.

In the 2nd reading, St Paul urged his people to choose the way of love so as to be obedient to Christ.

In the gospel, when people began leaving Jesus because they could not take what he said about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, He turned to His apostles and asked: What about you, do you want to go away too?

It is said in three different ways, but essentially it is about exercising the freedom of choice, and the choice is decisive.
So, to reply the question of Jesus: What about you, do you want to go away too? We might just give the textbook answer of St Peter and said: Lord, who shall we go to?

But let’s just say, that Jesus would ask this next question: So why do you want to stay?
How are we going to answer that?

We just can’t have a textbook answer for this. We are not going to find the answer in “Facebook”either.

The answer has got to come from your own book, and my own book.

Yes, it has to be a personal answer. And we have to make that personal choice, and it’s a choice that is decisive.

Let me share with you a story of a salesman, a salesman was dealing with audio equipment and accessories.

His basic pay was not much and neither was his commission, but because his clientele was large, so he could make ends meet.

Then came along a competitor company, and it offered him three times his current salary, as will as a higher commission from the sales.

It was certainly a more than attractive offer, but what was unwritten but understood, was that he would have to bring his clientele along.

For this salesman, the monetary benefits would be enough reason for him to leave his present company.

But as he thought about it, he painfully decided not to leave his present company.

So what made him stay on? It is a matter of integrity.

Because to bring his clientele along to the next company would mean that he would be the talk of the town and end up with a bad name.

So it was a choice between a quick gain or a good name, and his choice was a decision for integrity.

We might say; Ya… but integrity will only keep you hungry…”
Well, not the end of story yet. As things turned out, a few years later, that competitor company, due to bad management, began firing its sales personnel and executives.

That salesman could only give thanks to God for helping him make the good and right choice.

Talking about choices, when I was a seminarian, people often asked me about my calling and why I wanted to become a priest.

Now that I am a priest, not many people have asked me why I want to stay on as a priest.

Of course, if I am asked that question, I can always resort to the textbook answer that the priesthood is indelible, as in “once a priest, always a priest”, much like baptism and marriage.

But why do I want to stay on as a priest? Of course there is the joy of seeing people experiencing the love of God and growing in love for the Lord as I carry out my priestly ministry.

Yet there are also the trials and challenges of meeting the expectations as well as demands of the people.

Some people may even think that a priest is like some kind of holy superman, always smiling, always saying Yes to any requests, wont be angry and wont scold people.
Of coz, I want to be a holy man, but a superman ….???

But what is the primary reason that I want to stay on as a priest?

Well, its all about integrity and responsibility.

I have made my choice to answer God’s call. That is my decision. I will be responsible for my decision and I will be faithful to my decision. For me, there will be no other options.

In many ways, I learnt integrity and responsibility from my own father.

My father is an easy going simple family man. He works hard although his salary was not much.

He stays at home to be with his wife and children and goes to church with them.

In short, my father is a simple, responsible man, who is faithful to what he has committed himself to.

Yes, from my father, I learnt responsibility and faithfulness to commitment.

And one more thing, and that is I don’t want to entertain any other options. It is either I stay on, or I stay on.

May you also stay on in whatever good decisions that you have made in life. Let there be no other options.

Let God be our only option. When we choose God and God alone, then we choose life, as well as eternal life.

18th Ordinary Sunday Yr B, 02.08.09

2009-08-01T15:33:00.009+08:00

1st Reading: Ex 16:2-4, 12-15
2nd Reading: Eph 4:17, 20-24
Gospel: Jn 6:24-35

If we had read the papers, or browsed the internet on the 20th July (which was just about 2 weeks ago), we would have surely come across this prominent news.

And along with this piece of news, is also the recalling of a very famous historical statement.

Now, I have recorded it for you. It goes like this: This is just one small step for man, but a giant leap for humankind.

Yes, the voice of Neil Armstrong, the American astronaut, the first man to step on the surface of the moon, on the 20th July 1969, a historical moment for him, and also for the world.

And 2 weeks ago, was the 40th anniversary of that historical moment, that historical landing on the moon.

Yes, it was a great moment for science and technology.

The 3-man space team landed on the moon, 2 of them walked on the moon, 1 of them circled round the moon in the spacecraft.

Yes, they reached the moon, but none of them ever wanted to stay on the moon.

So even with all that rocket science that enabled them to break free from the gravitational pull of the earth, they still wanted to come back to earth.

Actually, they had no choice; they had to come back to earth.

But let’s say, they had a choice, as in, the moon was like the earth, and they can stay there.

There is fresh air, clean waters, the sea teeming with fish, the land filled with fruit trees. Almost like the biblical Garden of Eden, unpolluted, but uninhabited.

Would they have stayed on there and lived on the moon? How about you? Would you want to go to the moon and stay there? Would I want to go to the moon and stay there?

Well, can consider. It’s a nice idea, being the 1st priest on the moon. Can even be the 1st pope of the moon.

But I think that if we considered all the options, all the opportunities, as well as all the challenges, I think we would still want to come back to earth.

Even though, we might be able to break free from the gravitational pull of the earth, something else will be pulling us back to earth.

I would call it the sentimental pull.

A classic example of this so-called sentimental pull, can be seen in the 1st reading, which was the book of Exodus.

Now we all know the Exodus story, how Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, into freedom and towards the Promised Land.

But the strange thing was that although freed from the clutches of slavery in Egypt, the Israelites kept looking back at Egypt.

The sentimental pull was just too strong, especially when they faced the hunger and thirst of the desert.

Almost immediately, they became nostalgic about the past, and they dreamed about the pans of meat and eating bread till their hearts content when they were in Egypt.
And then they grumbled, they complained, and they began to say ridicules things like wishing to die as slaves in Egypt rather than be free and die in the desert.

Somehow in the hunger and thirst of the desert, even slavery looks good, compared to freedom in the desert, but no food.

Such is the powerful tempting illusion created by the sentimental nostalgic pull.

That’s why, it probably took one day for Israel to get out of Egypt, but it took 40 years to get Egypt out of Israel.

So if the Israelites were asked: Are you happy now that you are free? It won’t be surprising to hear them say ‘No, life in Egypt was better.’

And that’s also a question to ask ourselves : Are we happy with life, … now?

Or are we thinking that life in the past was better. Somehow it is the sentimental nostalgic good old days.

But the question remains. Are we happier now, or were we happier in the past?

This question can be put to the various situations of our lives.

For eg, are we happier in the new job? Or do we think we were happier in the old job.

Are we happier after marriage? Or do we think we were happier before marriage?

Are we happier now that we are older? Or do we think that we were happier when we were younger?

In the gospel, Jesus tells us not to work for food that cannot last, but to work for food that endures to eternal life, the food that Jesus is offering us in the Eucharist.

Indeed Jesus is the bread of life, He is the bread of fulfillment, He is the bread of joy and happiness.

Let’s face it, if we come for Mass, and we receive Jesus the bread of life, and then we are still not happy, then we will not find happiness anywhere else on earth.

No point going even to the moon to search for happiness, because as long as we are not happy on earth, even if we go to heaven, we might think it is hell.

The purpose of receiving Jesus the bread of life, is to open our eyes to life, and to see where are the areas of our lives that we can grow in happiness.

God made all things good, and He made man the best, because man is made in the image and likeness of God.

But we might become like the Israelites in the desert, grumbling and complaining about life.

But God still uses His beautiful creation to remind us of the beauty of our lives, and how to be happy.

Let me share with you some images of creation, images of happiness, so that we can see for ourselves, what we need to be, in order to be happy.

Be like the sun.
Arise early, and do not go to bed late.

Be like the moon.
Shine in the darkness, but submit to the greater light.

Be like the birds.
Eat, sing, drink, and fly free.

Be like the flowers,
Loving the sun, but faithful to your roots.

Be like the faithful dog,
but only to your Lord.

Be like the fruit.
Beautiful on the outside, and healthy on the inside.

Be like the day,
which arrives and leaves without boasting.

Be like the oasis.
Give your water to the thirsty.

Be like the firefly,
although small, it casts its own light.

Be like the water,
Good and transparent

Be like the river,
always moving forward

And above all things,
be like the heavens:
A home for God.

If any of these images caught your attention, then just act on it.

Let that image be your inspiration and motivation in your journey towards happiness.

It may be one small step, but it will also be a giant leap.

15th Ordinary Sunday, 12.07.09

2009-07-13T10:35:00.000+08:00

Mark 6:7-13

It is amazing how the standard of living in Singapore has risen, especially in the area of affluence.

We take so many things for granted now, without thinking how it was back then.

For eg, maybe 40 years ago, each house has only one TV set, and it’s usually placed in the living room.

Now, each room has a TV set, and maybe all are connected to cable TV with over 40 channels to chose from.

Probably the only room that does not have a TV, well not at least I know of, is the toilet.

But maybe because the toilet is like a reading room. People bring newspapers and magazines in there to read.

Maybe also because the reading material comes in handy if the toilet paper runs out!

But it is not just TVs that is a reflection of our affluence.
The number of computers or laptops in each household is amazing.

Plus of course the accessories of comfort and entertainment, like the home-theatre-system, the aircon units, the crystal lighting and what have you.

Indeed, most of us are very proud of our well-furnished and well-decorated homes, and in a way, it reflects the level of our affluence.

But let’s say, let’s just say, although it’s not nice to say such things, let’s just say that our house is now on fire.

And we have only 3 minutes to retrieve whatever is most precious to us. Now, what would it be?

What is it that we are willing to risk our lives for, in order to save it from being destroyed?

Of course, I am not talking about that kind of drama where the baby is left in one of the rooms, or the paralyzed parent is still in the bed. That is TV kind of drama.

Church drama is about what are the most precious possessions that we have at home.

So if there is a fire now at home, and we have only 3 minutes to save what is most precious to us, what will it be?

Will it be that biscuit tin that is tucked away in an obscure cabinet which contains the hard-earned cash of our life savings?

Well, other than that I really can’t think of anything else that is more important.

Or would we be contented with just taking a pair of shoes and a walking stick?

Well, that was what Jesus told his disciples to take as He sends them forth to proclaim His Word.

He didn’t give them time to pack; or time to think; just the clothes they were wearing, a pair of sandals and a staff and off they go. That was about it. Nothing more.

We might even ask: How about the Bible? At least ask them to bring the Bible lah!

Well, priests and religious and pastors should bring their bibles along everywhere they go to proclaim the Good News.
And This Monday, the priests of the diocese are going for their annual retreat.

We priests are cordially reminded: Please bring your own Bible. So it means we cannot share Bible. Sounds like going for exam.

But the Bible, the Word of God, is not just a thick book that is often carried under the arm, or placed at the home altar for adoration, or hidden in some biscuit tin in some obscure cabinet.

The Word of God is dynamic, in that when God speaks, He also creates. When God said : Let there be light, and there was light.

When He said : let us make man in our image and likeness, man was created, in God’s image, in God’s love.

So God’s word created us, God’s Word shaped us into His image and likeness, and God’s Word is stamped into our very being.

In a way, we can say that God’s Word is made flesh in us. It cannot be taken away from us.

It is precisely God’s Word in us that makes us turn to God and to thirst for God.

St Augustine would express this yearning for God in a prayer like this: O Lord, our hearts will not rest until they rest in you.

Yes, it is only in God that we know we have come home, that indeed we are at home.

And this homing instinct is not so mystifying or mysterious.

Even animals show that they have this homing instinct.
Take for example, the green sea turtles. The green sea turtle will lay eggs on a particular beach.

When the eggs hatch, the baby turtles will instinctively head for the sea.

After about 40 years of swimming in the sea and surviving the dangers from predators and other elements, the green sea turtle reaches reproductive age.

Then she will swim all the way back to that particular beach where she was hatched. They call it the natal beach.

It is on that and only that particular natal beach, she will lay her eggs of the next generation of sea turtles.

The problem comes in when that particular natal beach is destroyed or reclaimed or whatever.

I really don’t know what the sea turtle would do. But one thing for sure, the sea turtle is lost, because the natal beach is lost, and with that the next generation is lost.

The story of the sea turtle reminds us of this: We have to preserve and safeguard the natal beach of our hearts.

Because God’s Word created us and God’s Word is planted deep in our hearts for us to find God and come back to Him.

And that’s why reading the Bible is imperative, it is a must.

Because the written word of the Bible will awaken the Word of God that is planted deep in our hearts.

The Word of God awakens us and spurs us into action, to go forth and awaken in others the Word that is in them.

Today, being Bible Sunday, Jesus sends us forth to proclaim His Word.

And I ask you to bring one thing – that is, this little card that was given to you as you came in.

On this card are 2 promises. God promised that He will be with us always.

The other promise is that His plans for us are always for our good, so as to give us hope and a future.

We need to believe in these promises from God.
We must believe in these promises.

When we don’t, then we ourselves have destroyed the natal beach of our hearts, and we would be lost.

But when we believe, then we must also show that we believe.

Take this card, and more if you want, and give it to those who need to hear about God’s promises.

Especially those who have their hopes and their future destroyed by the fires of bitterness and disappointment.

We pray, that with the aid of these humble cards, we will help others to find their natal beach and come home to God.

12th Ordinary Sunday, Yr B, 20.06.09

2009-07-07T12:32:00.000+08:00

Well, the school holidays are going to be over, and if you had planned for a short holiday, then I suppose it is already over and done with.

But there is one place that we won’t go to for a holiday, or that we will make a trip to.

That’s because no travel agency and no one would want to bring us there, Not that I know of at least.

Ever heard of Atlantis? The sunken city? I don’t think any of us had gone there before, even though some of us may like scuba-diving.

Well, in the first place, we don’t even know exactly where it is. Because it seems that there are quite a few places that have gone underwater.
And that, highlights the enormous power of the sea.

Even as we stand before a calm and tranquil sea, we cannot pretend that we are not aware of what lies beneath the waters.
Besides the Atlantis, there are some big and famous names that are lying in its depths.

One of which is the Titanic, which was touted as the ship which would never sink ; it hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank on 14 April 1912.

Also lying in the seabed are aircraft carriers, ships of all shapes and sizes, all sorts of aircraft and whatever that is sinkable.
Plus whatever we throw into the sea; we treat the sea like some kind of dumping ground.

But the sea is temperamental. And what goes down into the clutches of its murky waters are not easily retrievable.
Today’s gospel features the Sea of Galilee. It is actually a very big lake.

But because it is something like 700 ft below sea-level and surrounded by mountains, the Sea of Galilee is more temperamental than any other lake.

The gospel tells of one such temperamental moment and the disciples were caught in it.

Their experience tells them that it was not just one of those storms, but one that can bring them down to the bottom and end up as one of the victims of the Sea of Galilee.

And yet Jesus was asleep in the boat. Strange that he could still be asleep in such a storm.

So the disciples had to wake him up. I am sure the gospel went through some kind of censorship.
What we don’t get to hear are the shouting, the cursing and the swearing, all the panicking. But we can imagine…

But what were the disciples expecting Jesus to do?
I guess that they merely wanted Him to help them keep the boat afloat till the storm blew over and that they reach the shore.

But did they expect Him to stop the storm just like that.
Certainly not, otherwise they won’t be filled with awe, and they wondered “Who can this be.”

Now we, we are much smarter than the disciples.

Becoz , we will ask Jesus that no storms will ever hit us.

And then, should a storm hit us, we will ask Jesus for a bigger boa,t to keep us safe and secure in the storm.
Surely, this is what we expect for believing in Jesus, what.
We expect life to be like a leisurely cruise on Superstar Virgo and sailing over calm and tranquil waters.

Now here is the good news. If we are asking our God to let our lives be smooth sailing, that there will be no storms in life, and that our boats will be unsinkable, then here is the good news.

The good news is this :God says No! I repeat: God says – No!
And we will ask – why?

We will always ask why because we can’t quite take “No” for an answer.

We are not much different from the character of Job, from the first reading.

Job met with one storm after another, and he too asked why??

Yes, we want answers, especially when storms start to blow, and ships start to sink.

Here, let me share with you a reflection that might help us to understand why God may say No to our requests.
It goes like this:

I asked God to take away my habit.
God said, No.
It is not for me to take away,
but for you to give it up.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole.
God said, No.
His spirit is whole, his body is only temporary.

I asked God to grant me patience.
God said, No. Patience is a byproduct of tribulations;
it isn't granted, it is learned.

I asked God to give me happiness.
God said, No. I give you blessings;
Happiness is up to you.

I asked God to spare me pain.
God said, No. Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares
and brings you closer to me.

I asked God to make my spirit grow.
God said, No. You must grow on your own,
but I will prune you to make you fruitful.

I asked God for all things that I might enjoy life.
God said, No. I will give you life,
so that you may enjoy all things.

Sometimes, I wonder if that is why God is called Father.

Because when I was a kid, the most frequently used word from my father is “No”, and like what we would usually do, I will go running to my mother and ask “why”(x5).

Today is also Father’ Day. As we honour our fathers, we also try to understand why they say No to us.

Could there be something more than just a plain No?

Well, let me share with you two stories, two real stories.

WWII produced many heroes. One of them was Edward Henry O’Hare. He was a fighter pilot assigned to an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific.

One day, his entire squadron was sent on a mission.

After he was in the air, he checked his fuel gauge only to realize that he didn’t have a full tank to complete his mission and return back

So he had to drop out and head back to his ship.
As he was heading back alone, he saw something that turned his blood cold.

A squadron of Japanese fighter bombers were speeding their way towards the American fleet.

Since the American fighters had all gone on mission, the entire fleet was left defenseless.

O’Hare had no time to think. Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety and survival, he dived into the formation of the Japanese planes.

Wing mounted 50 calibers blazed as he charged in, weaving in and out, shooting down a couple of planes and breaking up their formation.

Finally, with all his ammunition running out, the surprised and confused enemy planes flew off.

The film from the camera mounted on his plane told the story. It showed the extent of O’Hare’s daring attempt to protect the American fleet.

He was recognized as a hero and given one of the nation’s highest military awards. And today, the O’Hare airport in Chicago is named in honour of the courage of this great man.

The second story was about a man in Chicago called Easy Eddie.

At that time, the Mafia boss Al Capone virtually owned the city. Al Capone, as we might know, dealt in everything, from prostitution to murder.

Now, Easy Eddie was Al Capone’s lawyer, and for a good reason. EE was very good.

In fact, his skill at legal maneuvering kept Al Capone from the law and the jail, for a long time.

And of course, EE was very well-rewarded by Al Capone.

Yes, EE lived the high life of the Chicago mob, and gave little consideration to the atrocities that went on around him.

But he did have one soft spot. He had a son whom he loved dearly.

EE saw to it that his young son had everything and despite his own involvement in organized crime, EE tried to teach his right from wrong.

EE just wanted to teach his son to rise above his own sordid life. He wanted him to be a better man than he was.

EE began to realize that there were 2 things that he could not pass on to his beloved son, and that is a good name, and a good example. A storm was beginning to brew in his heart.

One day, he came to a difficult decision. Offering his son a good name was more important than the rewards Al Capone was giving him.

He had to rectify all the wrong he had done. He will spill the beans on Al Capone. That meant that he would testify against Al Capone, and he knew the cost would be great.

But more than anything he wanted to be an example to his son.

EE wanted to give his son an example of courage and honour. He wanted to teach his son to say No to wrongdoing. That meant that he himself had to say No first.

Not long after EE testified against Al Capone, his life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago street.

But, he left his son an example of courage and honour, and to say No to wrong doing.

So what is the connection between the two stories? It is this: O’Hare, the fighter pilot, was Easy Eddie’s son.

So when our fathers say “No” to us, they certainly have more wisdom and experience than we think.

They don’t want us to get pampered, and become softies, and end up sinking in the storms of life.

And when God seems to say “No” to us, it is because He wants us to learn something from the storms of life.

And essentially, it is this: the storm is not out there.
The storm is within. When we quell that storm, then we will know who God is.