Sunday 17 March 2024

5th Sunday of Lent Year B 2024

From Laetare Sunday, the pace will now quicken toward the solemnity of Easter Triduum. Last week, we covered the topic of God’s love for us. A profound recognition of our sinfulness is a necessary prelude to appreciating the salvation brought about by God’s only Son, Jesus Christ. If salvation is free but not cheap, then, the more aware we are, the more we may be able to cherish this hard-earned redemption.

To better appreciate salvation, we need to ingrain into our consciousness that to approach Easter, we go through Good Friday. In other words, we reach the Resurrection by going through Calvary. In Year A, both the themes of Death and Resurrection are covered through the story of Lazarus. In Year B, we cover them through the parable of the grain. “Unless a grain of wheat falls on the ground and died, it remains only a single grain. But if it dies, it yields a rich harvest”.

What lesson can we learn from this?

Firstly, it is natural and part of our survival instinct to preserve ourselves. We are by nature not suicidal. Normally, we fear death and nobody in the right frame of mind wants to die. However, the recent pandemic seemed to have heightened our fear of death to the point where we took measures to avoid death at all costs. Again, this is not advocating the wanton waste of life. But the death which Jesus refers has to be more than the “death” which no man can escape from. Not even Lazarus or the son of the widow of Nain. All those whom Jesus raised from the dead had to suffer death again. So, the grain that must die does not refer to the inevitability of death.

Rather, the death of the grain refers more to the kind of dying in which we must undergo as part of life after the Fall. This type of death is far from the drama surrounding the end of life. Instead, the death best exemplified for us is dying daily. The notion associated with this daily dying is called self-sacrifice.

To a certain extent, the people of this great city of Johor Bahru know first-hand the experience associated with sacrificing. Children get up when most civilised people are still asleep in order to get to school across the “Longkang”. The same for parents who daily leave home for work only to return late in the dark. They brave the congestions at immigration check-points both sides of the divide. Of course, JB is by no means unique as there are other major cities in this Federation where suffering citizens run the same gauntlets of traffic congestions. People suffer just to put food on the table.

However, such sacrifices revolve around the self. Sacrifices, even if linked to one’s self-benefit, can teach us to die to oneself. But what is crucially needed is a kind of sacrifice which goes beyond self-advantage. It is a kind of dying which benefits others.

Earlier it was mentioned that the Pandemic may have fostered a certain fear of death. This fear could very possibly be a symptom that our generation have lost the stomach for selflessness. Think about it. Daily we are challenged to die to our selfishness, to say no to our self-centredness. In our culture which is big on self-promotion, it could simply mean we become less self-referential. As C.S Lewis said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less”. Like fasting from having to be right in every pronouncement we make. Whatever I say is right and fasting from that is dying to pride.

When death terrifies, maybe it is because we have forgotten to embrace the daily difficulties and the inconveniences of life. We do not just “die”. Instead, we learn to die through self-sacrifices. It is this daily dying that gives us the freedom to follow Jesus closely.

One of the challenges Jesus issued to the Disciples was to take up the Cross and to follow Him. It sounds noble until we realise that it does not come from out of nowhere. Life presents us with countless chances to die to ourselves. Can you imagine Peter remonstrating with Christ when the Lord predicted His own death. “How can, Lord?”. This denial could have stemmed from not making the connexion between daily life and the inevitability of death.

Perhaps we can visualise this better with the image of a candle. To be useful, that is, to provide light, the candle must necessarily burn itself out. In summary, a candle is only as good as it is being burnt up.

To follow Jesus is to follow Him to His death. Martyrdom is not restricted to the shedding of blood. White martyrdom consists of the kind which is inescapable in life and which to a certain extent takes its toll on us. But we plod on because inherent in suffering is the very sense that we are not alone. It sounds too easy to state it because those who are suffering can feel terribly lonely. But our suffering makes sense because we, in Christ, endure it for the benefit and the sake of others.

Finally, the saying, “unless a grain of wheat should fall and die” refers to Jesus Himself. He is the supreme model of word and deed. What makes it better is to pair it with another great saying of Jesus. “No greater love a man has than to lay down his life for his friends”. Indeed, the Christian notion of life is premised on death but precisely because it is a death that gives life to others. Christ died so that we might have life to the fullest.

Friday 8 March 2024

Laetare (4th) Sunday of Lent, Year B 2024

The colour rose is up again at this mid-point of the season of Lent. It is an anticipation, a sort of looking forward to the salvation that Easter will bring.

What can the readings teach us?

Central to these readings is the Gospel of the Gospel, according to Martin Luther. “For God so loved the world that He gave us His Son so that anyone who believes in Him may not be lost but have eternal life”. John 3:16 is the Gospel in miniature. The principal message to humanity is God’s love which is cause of our rejoicing.

How should we rejoice when the Readings are taken from the Book of Chronicles and Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians?

In the Book of the Chronicles, sin upon sin was the experience of the Israelites which resulted in suffering. The people had abandoned God and the consequence was exile and subjugation by the Chaldeans. Only when they recognised their sins were they brought back. When we abandon God, He does not forsake us. Rather He allows the consequences of our actions to take their course. However, when we turn back to Him, He shows His mercy as He did through the pagan ruler Cyrus who allowed the Israelites to return to their homeland.

The recognition of sin is the key to God’s merciful love for us. Two things to be noted here. Firstly, exile is a powerful symbol of sin’s consequence because sin destroys relationship. God does not cut us off because we have sinned. Rather our sin cuts us off from God.
 
Secondly, why is recognition so important? Without acknowledging sin, how can we appreciate God’s saving mercy? St Paul in the 2nd Reading clearly states that nothing of ours can ever merit salvation. We are saved through grace and not through our own merits. Yes, the Catholic position is that grace saves through our cooperation. Without our cooperation, even God cannot do anything for us. That makes the recognition of sin so important.

Nicodemus’ conversation gives us a clue about how God saves. Through Jesus Christ the Son. In fact, the name of Jesus saves. The ancient symbol of the serpent lifted up will now be replaced by the Son of God Himself on the Cross. As St. Augustine puts it: “God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love”.

With God desiring to save each of us, our challenge is therefore to deepen the knowledge of our own need for God. The inability to recognise sin makes us all less of a sinner which makes our rejoicing rather superfluous. What does it mean?

Imagine food, good food. We are at a dinner and the food is to die for. The only problem is we are not hungry. When the stomach is so full, pleasure derived from eating will instead be anti-climactic. Instead of joy, it becomes a chore because we are full and not hungry. Better still. Can you visualise taking a shower when you are already clean or be admitted into hospital even though not sick.

Perhaps this is the curse of living in a therapeutic society that is controlled by the urge and the need to feel good. Our therapeutic mentality believes that as human civilisation progresses and that living conditions have improved dramatically all these correspond to the idea that we are actually a better people. We do not need salvation as much as we need to feel healthy. Interestingly, the words “salvation” and “health” are related because true healing is found in salvation.

Soon our beloved Elect will be going for their baptism. It is the bath of regeneration. The question to ask is this: Do they need to be washed clean? If so, their baptism begs a further question: So how can we be more acute in knowing that we are sinners? How to grow in the awareness of our sinfulness so that our joy of being loved and saved by God can be manifold?

We need to wean ourselves from a therapeutic God, the idea that God’s love is to make us feel good. God’s mercy is reassuring as today’s Gospel tells us. But that love for us must be based on an acute awareness of the need for redemption and forgiveness. The role of religion is not merely therapeutic. Its objective is salvific leading us to recognise the dark corners of our hearts that need the light of Christ. We easily hide in our sins rather than let the Light shine upon them.

For Christ’s light to shine, we have a duty to reclaim our moral conscience. It is not a clarion call to self-righteousness as if one were holier than the rest. But so far, we have abdicated our responsibilities and have outsourced our morality to social media—television, radio, journals, books, computer games etc. All these media freely dictate how we should think, see, hear and enjoy. They offer a worldview that is at best neutral or at worst, they are downright evil. Daily we are presented with evil as good and good regarded as out of touch with what is “acceptable” morally.

This is the darkness that has obscured our relationship with God. Without God, there is no foundation for our moral sense or compass. Also, we sort sins into categorie big and small. Ordinarily, we equate big as bad and small as “excusable”. Everybody does it, so what is the problem? But the burden of sin is not big or small. Rather, the crush is that anyone who sins does so because he or she is unable to stop the behaviour. The meaning of sin is to be caught in a trap in which one is powerless to flee. It is this inability to save ourselves that we must embrace and know. Our impotence in escaping makes our reaching out to God all the more urgent. God mercy may be infinite but the sobering truth is that we have a greater chance going hell than to heaven if we are dead in sin.

Few people believe this truth but instead choose to remain with the comforting notion that Laetare Sunday celebrates the joy of God’s love. However, we cannot just desire God’s love without first acknowledging that we are utter sinners who need His redemption. According to St John, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us". What is there to save if we were sinless which means we would have no need of Jesus and His salvation. Therefore, what are we doing here? Without the admission of our guilt, the constant stress on God’s immense love becomes an empty gesture. This is not unhealthy Catholic guilt. Salvation is free but it is not cheap. If we desire to saved, acknowledging our sinfulness is necessary. The price paid for our salvation is none other than the Son of God who laid down His life for us sinners.

Saturday 2 March 2024

3rd Sunday of Lent Year B 2024

Last Sunday, at Tabor, Moses and Elijah appeared and spoke to Christ. Today, the 1st Reading provides an account of Moses giving the Law to Israel. The event on Tabor indicates that the Law and the Prophets who embodied the spirit of the Law find their highest and fullest expression in Christ. This is confirmed in the 2nd Reading, but not in the way the world perceives nobility and excellence. Christ crucified is indeed a stumbling block for those seeking proof of His divine pedigree and foolishness for those seeking wisdom. They have ears but do not hear. They have eyes but do not see.

In a way, we are no different from the Jews or the Gentiles during the time of Jesus. They were unable to grasp or fathom a Messiah who could die. For us, a mortal Messiah is not a scandal. We are used to seeing a Corpus on the Cross. Maybe too used to it because what challenges us is not the dying Christ on the Cross but the tendency to separate law and its spirit. Law constraints whereas the spirit enables.

This tendency ties in with the age of achievement where autonomy is a coveted value. No one likes the restrictions imposed on personal freedom as “laws” often do. Freedom is understood as the ability to exercise our individual autonomy without external restraints. Is there an opposition between restriction and freedom? Given this type of tension, how do we reconcile restraint with autonomy?

Firstly, recognise that relationship is at the heart of the Law. The Gospel is a good example. Christ drove the traders out not because they were trading but because they had not fully appreciated the centrality of God in the Temple. The Temple is not only sacred but also a restricted space where God comes first and the traders defiled its sanctity by prioritising commercial dealings over man’s relationship with God.

Secondly, to understand the commandments in the context the spirit, we must survey the connexion between laws and punishment. Penalty is a measure of the value of whatever, be it a person, a thing or a concept, that a law is protecting. The more we esteem a reality, the greater the penalty is attached to violating the law. A good example are the laws surrounding a woman’s honour. They are highly punitive because a woman is highly esteemed. Perhaps one can understand why the laws against rape are harshly draconian in some countries.

Thirdly, there is a correlation between sin and suffering meaning that the consequence of sin, apart from punishment, is suffering. Before we delve into their association, what needs to be clarified is that there is no suggestion that the person who suffers is a sinner. The prime example is Jesus Christ crucified. Suffice to say that there is a price to be paid for our sins which Christ took upon Himself.

With regard to suffering as a result of sin, we have come to expect that a merciful and forgiving Deity should also be understanding and accepting. In the past, God’s commandments were accepted as literally written on stone. The best illustration is Moses depicted as carrying the two tablets. Since they were carved in concrete, Man simply obeyed. But today, those who follow the letter of the law literally would be as “fundamentalist” and generally they are lumped together with “right-wing, conspiracists and nut-cases” etc.

Take the case of what happened in the 80s. When AIDS arrived at the scene, the notion that the disease is God’s punishment for aberration in sexual behaviour, notably between same sex, was unaccepted. This rejected view was considered to be so out of touch with the idea of a God who is gentle and merciful. God is not that type of a God.

The Gospel gives us an aspect of God which might come as a surprise to us. Christ’s zeal for the Father’s house reminds us that our relationship with God takes priority. He who emptied the Temple did so because there are times and spaces that we protect. In other words, if relationship is at the heart of today’s Gospel, then the question should not be centred on “this” law or “that” law but instead, the focus is on how our relationships are circumscribed by time and space.

What sort of time do we give to God? Do we give Him enough time or merely left-over and tired time? Take the Sunday obligation. As a duty, it sounds more legal than relational because we are compelled to make space and give time to our relationship with God. How is that a relationship? To appreciate the legality involved, we need to understand that the nature of time is not just passing but it is also sacred. The Christian measure of time is markedly holy.

No matter how much we tried to change AD (Anno Domini) to CE (Common Era), time remains sacred because we measure it “In the year of the Lord”. The birth of Christ is the measure of all time—before His coming and after. We live, move and have our being in God’s time. Time is holy when translated, it means we give God the best. The Divine Office, the Church’s official prayer allocates periods of time to communing with, time to raise our minds and hearts to the praise and glory of God. Midnight, morning, mid-morning etc.

However, the reality is that the Church is not at all that demanding. Church law states that there are holy days of obligation where Catholics are bound to attend Mass. In practical terms. 52 Sundays in a year added with 4 other days of obligation. Less if one of them, like Christmas, All Saints, Assumption or Ascension, falls on a Sunday. The trouble is, when we condense that which is most central to our being into a law, we will be reduced to quibbling about how much or how little we can get away with in order to fulfil a “requirement”.

No matter what the law does, it cannot capture love. It might provide space and time for a relationship to flourish but it cannot compel. Time and space are important in any relationship. For example, why do we need to be married in Church after all, the argument is that God is everywhere. So should we not be allowed to be married at a beach? Right? Would your toilet be a suitable place for a wedding. Or perhaps the best of all is to have a cemetery right in front of your gate. Space, and not only time, is also an important marker for our relationships. Some spaces are sacred and some are not.

Time and space are markers for the proper conduct of human behaviour. Lenten penances are basically directed towards the right ordering of our relationships with God, others and ourselves. Law draws boundaries in time and space so that relationships can flourish. As Christ drove the traders out of the Temple, we should ask ourselves what traders reside in our hearts that we forget to prioritise our relationship with God. May our Lenten fast, abstinence and penances help us to do just that.

Saturday 24 February 2024

2nd Sunday of Lent Year B 2024

From the desolate desert of deception, this Sunday we scale the top of Tabor to witness Christ’s Transfiguration. It is like spanning the two extreme ends of human experiences. Christ showed us that from the depths of deception we can scale the heights of heaven.

The context for this event is important. Firstly, the three Synoptic Gospels carry this narrative. It happened after Peter’s Confession that Jesus is the Messiah that was followed by Jesus predicting His own passion to come. Jesus’ inner circle of Peter, James and John were brought up to the mountain and there in their presence, He is transfigured. Secondly, as Jesus was resolutely making His way to Jerusalem, this episode was an encouragement to the Disciples. Enveloped by the cloud, the three heard a voice that affirmed once again that Jesus is the Son of God and they were commanded to listen to Him. The matter to consider is that woven into discipleship are both a price and a prize.

The 1st Reading does suggest a heavy price to be paid for discipleship. Abraham was asked to sacrifice his only son. God’s demands feel as if He will always ask for more than we are prepared to give. But that is not the case. God does not ask what He Himself is not able to deliver. Central to Abraham’s experience is faith that God Himself will supply. Isaac symbolises what was dearest to Abraham—his continuity and God asked that Abraham trust Him with his most precious treasure. Abraham becomes the father of faith because he was prepared to trust in God’s providence. The subsequent sacrifice of the ram symbolises God’s greatest Providence. God modelled the way of trust by giving up His only Son to be the ultimate sacrifice.

Even if discipleship is often thought of as a call to action, it is truly a journey of faith. Ultimately it is a journey to the Resurrection. Perhaps, we can better understand this from the perspective of those who are journeying to join the Catholic faith. Why? We who have been baptised long ago might have lost the sense of wonder because our vision is a bit more blurred and our attitude more blasé.

Why do people seek baptism? Does it confer on them material benefits? Maybe. Is there more to material gain in conversion? The answer to the question why the Elect choose to join the Church is Eternal Life. We are baptised into eternal life. The Transfiguration is therefore a Resurrection experience of the disciples. Peter, James and John caught a glimpse of the prize at the end of their discipleship.

As a journey to eternity, discipleship does not settled on what is passing, important though that may be. This is perhaps one of the challenges we face in a consumer society. We may have been promised heaven here on earth. The “Great Reset” proposed at the World Economic Forum operates from a space of responsibility for creation and our common home is noble but it might hide within its philosophy a promise of “eternity” which this temporal and transient world cannot support.

We are not meant to live forever here. For example, the eradication of hunger, diseases and injustice is not eternity because eternal life is premised on death. We need to pass through death before reaching the Resurrection. While discipleship is exercised in the world, still its objective is eternity. The Transfiguration is therefore a kind of foretaste of what is to come.

Any mountain experience is exhilarating. It is wonderful to be able to witness glory but it is a different matter altogether to follow it. In the end, after all the firework display has died off, all that remained was Christ alone. Continuing the journey to Jerusalem, He will go to His death. The glory of the Transfiguration passes through the summit of Calvary.

As Christ was preparing the disciples for His Passover, so during this period of enlightenment, our Elect too are reminded of the price of discipleship. They are not alone. We who have been baptised must count that cost too. We also have to follow Christ and keep our faith until the Resurrection.

The culmination of our faith journey is the Resurrection. Speaking of this reality can feel like a meaningless exercise because it describes an experience that is so out of this world. How do we desire something that we cannot really put a finger on? And moreover, we are continuously promised “eternity on earth”. What may be helpful is the Greek word for the experience of the Apostles. In Greek, Transfiguration is “metemorphothe” or in science, we know the process as “metamorphosis”. Remember how an ugly caterpillar morphs into a dead chrysalis (pupa) before it transforms into a beautiful butterfly.

Our cosmetic industry is basically mimicking for humanity what metamorphosis does for the insect kingdom. We all want to be beautiful and we are prepared to go to great lengths to beautify ourselves when in fact discipleship is the process whereby the beautification of the soul takes place. If physical beauty is our objective, then the Resurrection is the ultimate spiritual goal of the transformation that we desire.

In summary, the Transfiguration is an important symbol of the Resurrection; a foretaste of what is to come. The part of the Eucharistic Prayer III used in a funeral Mass reflects this reality. “…When from the earth He will raise up in the flesh those who have died and transform our lowly body after the pattern of His own glorious Body”. Placed early in Lent, the Transfiguration reminds searchers and believers not to lose sight of the Resurrection, no matter how good life can be here, for eternity is truly the prize we win after paying the price of discipleship.

Saturday 17 February 2024

1st Sunday of Lent Year B 2024

We have entered rather hastily into Lent. Right at the beginning, related themes in the Readings and Gospel are highlighted for our consideration. This is also a period where the journey towards Calvary is intensified and in way, it is reflected in the Catechumens’ experience.

The Rite of Election is usually celebrated on the 1st Sunday of Lent. The Catechumens who have listened to God’s word, responded to His invitation and participated in the life of the faithful community are sent to the Bishop for their election. From now on, their journey of faith is deepened with enlightenment and purification through the three Scrutinies.

Appropriately St Peter mentions in the 2nd Reading about the Sacrament of Baptism that we are saved through the death and resurrection of Christ. Such a statement sounds cut and dried but it is linked to an article of our faith which refers to the “harrowing of hell”. In the Apostles’ Creed, we usually read it as “He descended into hell” but St Peter stated it as “He went to preach to the spirits in prison”. In the context of Christ’s descent into Hades' domain, the rainbow at the end of the Great Deluge, mentioned in the 1st Reading, makes sense. It symbolises that God will no longer use water to destroy mankind. Instead, two points to consider. First, Christ’s descent into hell reveals the distance and the depth the Lord will go to save us. Second, beyond the rainbow, the covenant is now enacted through the Sacrament of Baptism.

The deluge of death will now become the bath of rebirth. Baptism is the new covenant expressing God’s intent to save everyone. For the Elect, the logical conclusion to their Lent is the Easter Vigil where they will receive the Sacraments of Initiation. But for those of us who had been reborn through baptism, Lent becomes a season of renewal. Baptism may have washed away all sins, original and otherwise, yet many may be bogged down by present sins. Thus, renewal is the chance to walk with a God who first chose to walk with us.

Christ walks with us and the Gospel at the start of Lent, narrates His Temptations in the desert. While all the three Synoptic Gospels tell the same story, Mark is rather sparse with details. He merely mentions that Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the desert to be tested and tried by Satan. We know details of Jesus’ temptations via Matthew and Luke.

The temptations are important. Describing Lent as a season of repentance, renewal and revival, suggests that something is not right. Is there a process of renewal for the sake of renewal? For example, whenever a newer product comes online, it is always marketed as a better iteration. Remember the "best ever iPhone" model? The older model may have been good but the latest offering is always better. Otherwise, what is the “newest” for, right?

Likewise in terms of “renewal”, that is, being made new, either through baptism or reconciliation, it is always in terms of leaving behind what is considered to be less good. In other words, no one is baptised if there is no need for a change in direction or no one goes for confession if there is no need for forgiveness.

It is vital to reflect on this because we are speaking of salvation. We are saved from our sins which are the results of our caving in to temptations. Everyone yearns for salvation which is a natural inclination that arises from our brokenness. Yet, we do not give much thought to the role that temptations play in frustrating our salvation.

Satan tried to find weaknesses in Jesus which means that He will try to exploits ours too. But Christ overcame Satan and thankfully in our Lenten arsenal, the three devout practices of the Jews can aid in overcoming temptations. For long as we want to follow Jesus we need to be prepared for we will not be spared Satan’s wrath. He will aim for us the more we desire to follow Him. If you find yourself in a lot of troubles, then you must know that you are in good company with the Lord. For He was not only tested in the desert but throughout His earthly life.

Firstly, during Lent, we fast. A most basic temptation is our desire for instant gratification. Christ was tempted to turn stone into bread. While it is difficult to give up something good for something better, self-denial actually gives us strength to counter Satan’s assault. Secondly, we give alms. Christ was tempted to exercise His status by lording over the angels. He could have thrown Himself off the roof for the recognition that would surely help Him in His ministry. Instead He served by giving Himself to others. Christian charity which flows from the principle of stewardship becomes an imitation God. This brings us to the third Lenten practice. We pray. Christ was tempted to vain-glorious independence but He chose dependence on the Father. He pointed out to Satan that true worship is directed to God alone.

In every temptation we face, Jesus walks with us because He Himself had experienced them. Through fasting, almsgiving and praying, He gives us the grace and strength to overcome Satan’s wiles. By nature, temptations are relational and we are always tempted against relationship. Praying, fasting and charity are intended to foil not only temptations, nor only to gain strength to resist the Tempter himself. They are meant to strengthen our relationship with God, with oneself and with society. The temptations in the desert remind us that Lent is not needed by the saints. Rather the season is God's gift for sinners to become saints.

Friday 16 February 2024

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 2024

The popularity of Christ’s healing ministry is brought to fore through the healing of the leper. Beyond the act of restoring the leper to his place in community is Christ in the mission to further the Kingdom’s boundary.

Man being a finite creature naturally needs boundaries. He is not made up of pure spirit but instead is a composite of spirit and matter. Finitude by nature requires definition. To be known, we need to be known as someone and not just anyone. Anybody here who is organising lunch or dinner knows the frustrating feeling when the answer to the question “What do you want to eat?” is met by the response “Anything”. In terms of knowing, we generally want to describe or define things right down to its minutest details in order to be precise.

The act of separation is also a form of definition. For example, racial identity is so important in this country. The forms that we fill in always have this question: Race. Sometimes when we hear a crime committed. The next question we ask is: Race? And almost instantly, if the “correct” race is identified, the racial stereotypical markers will kick in. This race is like this or that race is like that.

In the Gospel, leprosy was a major social marker. The taboos surrounding leprosy not only function as a form of identity but they act as a boundary to secure the general population from the infected. The instructions regarding lepers were draconian. The diseased had to tear off their clothes and shout “unclean, unclean”. This form of isolation or segregation might just remind us of our own experience when Covid exploded onto our scene. Remember the drastic measures taken against those who came into close contact with the infected? They were treated like they were the infected. Recall the “two lines, two lines” of our Covid tests?

When Christ approached the lepers, He did two things for us. Firstly, in crossing prohibited boundaries and entering into the disfiguring territory of the “Leprosarium”, He enlarged the Kingdom. Think about it, the Kingdom that Christ came to proclaim, is not limited by our narrow notions of “wholeness” and “security”. Moreover, we confess that He came to gather all nations unto the Father’s Kingdom. It is another description of the idea of recapitulation. In other words, He did not come to gather only the saved. He came to redeem also the unsalvageable or the unlovable.

Secondly, He deepens our appreciation of the full impact of His Incarnation. When we recite the Creed every Sunday, we can just glide over the fact without grasping the true meaning of the Incarnation. Soon we will enter into Lent. The journey of Lent leads toward Calvary. Again, such an idea sounds quite run of the mill. But when Christ entered into the territory of the lepers and touched the leper, He made Himself unclean. In other words, He became like a leper Himself. He really took our sins upon Himself which means that in the enterprise of recapitulation, nothing, meaning that no one is outside the realm of salvation.

Today we have lines that we do not cross or breach. Uncrossed lines often fade and this is where our challenge lies. They fade or disappear into the background. Or simply we become insensitive that they are there. To give an example, EVs or electric vehicles. Governments around the world are pushing EVs and even Laudato si is pushing for the transformation of our environmental engagement. We have to diminish our carbon legacy, meaning that we must make sure that we leave as small a carbon footprint as possible. All these initiatives are good for the planet. The “uncrossed lines” that may have faded into the background, are the destitute in poorer countries who have to pay the price for our “environmental concerns”. The raw material, like rare metals, are mined from these impoverished countries. The poor often never benefit from this carbon initiative.

Our social exclusion extends further than just the medical outcasts. The reconciliation that both Laudato si and Fratelli tutti are aiming for calls us to a greater consciousness of the frontier, to grow more aware of the walls that hem us in. Our sight must cross into the socially discriminated of today. Social media for example is a divide between those who are “saved” and those who are not. There are many who are left behind in the chase for digital proficiency. In our rush towards electronic integration, imagine those who are not tech-savvy. They become victims of scams and frequently they suffer quietly because they do not want to be seen as stupid or electronically illiterate.

The poor we will always have with us. This is not a canonisation of the poor but rather one way of thinking about them. Meaning that we must never forget them. A thought that might help us to bring to fore what may have become hidden from us is to remember that when we give it is not because we have more. When we help it is not because we are more capable. Rather, every endeavour we take on behalf of the poor, or the socially outcast, it is because we need them. We need them to help us go to heaven. Sometimes we think of the poor as deserving of our pity. It is like a one-way street but the truth is that the poor teach us to rely on God. They show how to be compassionate. They help us enlarge the border of Christ’s Kingdom.

Finally, the extension of Christ’s Kingdom, the enterprise of recapitulation often goes further than what we are comfortable with. We are creatures of habit and when we are comfortable in our blindness, we become complacent. However, if last Sunday, Christ by praying showed that prayer is not an extra duty laid upon our shoulder, then today, in crossing boundaries, Christ shows us that He is truly the Saviour of all and not just a few. We cannot be complacent about our blindness if we want to follow Him.

Saturday 3 February 2024

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 2024

The exorcism of Jesus last Sunday continues this weekend as He is sought by many. Moreover, the new-found Disciples also acted like intermediaries. The good example is Peter bringing Him to heal the mother-in-law.

Last Sunday a mention was made about the vacuum created by the absence of God. This Sunday we begin to appreciate that preaching, healing and exorcism belong to the one mission of Christ to extend the Kingdom of God. In other words, Christ came to reclaim creation back for the Father. Interestingly, from the perspective of sacramental theology, the different healings and cures conducted by Jesus laid the foundation for the latter institution of the Sacrament of Anointing. Restoration, whether it be physiological, psychological or spiritual, is a sign of the Kingdom to come. Recovery from sickness and sin is the beginning of the Kingdom’s rule.

In establishing the Kingdom, we can already discern two Christian doctrines right at the start of Christ’s public ministry. The first is the central notion of the Resurrection. We see it in the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. He held her hand and the elderly woman was literally brought back to life and to service. Her post-recovery ministration of Jesus and His apostles is reflected in the 2nd Reading where St Paul wrote of the apostolic service of the Lord.

The second doctrine is a less heard concept of recapitulation (see CCC518). The furthering of the Kingdom is not merely an extension of geography, meaning that it is not just to enlarge Christ’s dominion territorially. Rather, recapitulation is the logical conclusion of our profession of faith where we confess that the Word was made flesh and that through Him all things were created. Recapitulation flows into the Great Commission to go and baptised all nations using the Trinitarian formula. Thus, Creation, the Fall, the Great Commission all come under the mission of Christ to lead us back to the Father as He restores us to our original vocation. In other words, creation, from its inception until the end of time, is always headed by none other than the Word through Whom all things were made.

Therefore, anyone who claims Christian heritage is enrolled in this endeavour of Christ to reclaim all creation for God the Father. In that case, evangelisation is not merely to preach the Gospel. It is not even to increase membership in the Church. Rather the Good News is proclaimed in view of the total ministry of Christ who leads us back.

Leading creation back to the Father is an enormous task. In today’s Gospel, an important facet of Christ’s life is inserted into the mission of recapitulation. Mark introduced the idea of Christ praying. He does not give many details but enough for us to know that recapitulation is not merely actions on our part. It is also a life of prayer. Despite the success of his work and the authority with which He had over the crowd, Christ still found time and space to retreat into the quiet and silence in order to pray.

Jesus prayed always in order to do the will of God. In Luke’s Gospel, He spent an entire night in prayer before choosing the 12 to be His Apostles. In raising Lazarus from the dead or in multiplying fish and loaves, Jesus prayed. All through His ministry He engaged in prayers, both formal and informal. His most famous prayer took place in the Garden of Gethsemane where He struggled to choose the path less travelled.

When we embrace the task of recapitulation, the fact that Jesus prayed is something for us to think about. Perhaps our idea of evangelisation is filled with boxes to tick especially of the things that need to be done in order to bring the Good News to those who are waiting for it. Our yardstick for evangelisation is largely action. Many cannot stomach the “NATO” rhetoric, the type who is “No Action, Talk Only”. Our measure of success is achievement-focused to the point that we become afraid of inactivity and prayer often feels like wasted indolence. But Jesus prayed because the idea of “recapitulation” was more than just a task to be accomplished. Yes, He was bringing creation to its proper fulfilment but it was always in light of reconciliation and restoration of creation’s filial relationship with God the Father?

As followers of His, we too need prayers in our lives. Jesus may come across as someone who prayed spontaneously. But in fact, He would have been a man of ritualistic prayers. The word “ritualistic” itself may sound pejorative in our casual free-spirited world but for Jesus ritual was important. Our notion of freedom is an ability to engage in prayers as and when we want but for those who care for relationship, ritual suggests of fixed time for and forms of prayers.

If we look at how life is organised, spontaneity is overrated because 99% of our lives revolves around formality rather than informality. People work and it is not exciting. Doctors schedule their operations. Pilots follow time-tables. In reality, formality signals relational obligations. If rituals denote importance in relationship perhaps we should also recognise why going for Mass on Sunday is so central in our Catholic ethos.

Most of all, we need to get away from a mentality which prizes or values prayers as “effective” to one which is more “affective”. What is the difference? Effective praying views prayers in terms of results, that is, getting what we want from God. In itself, the prayer of asking is not a bad thing. Jesus Himself taught us to ask from God in our prayers. But those who are in relationships know the degrading feeling of utilitarianism. When someone only looks for you when he or she needs something, that is not relationship. Even though we should always ask from God, He is not a sugar daddy type of a deity.

In terms of asking, Christ Himself modelled a relationship based on embracing God’s will rather than bending God to ours. The Gethsemane experience was definitely “affective”, filled as it was with anguished and yet it revealed the depth of the filial relationship between the Father and the Son. In terms of the mission of recapitulation, prayer is not an extra duty enjoined upon us. It highlights that the more important a relationship is, the less we would leave it to chance. Since the task of reconciling creation is a priority in Christian discipleship, Christ by praying led the way by showing that if we want to follow Him, we cannot NOT pray. To pray is actually to live in the presence of the Father to whom all glory and honour belongs.