Novena of Grace (Day 3) Year A

The geography of Malacca has changed much. Near the ruins of the old fort, the A Formosa, there is a stone relic which according to stories told, the high tide water would never wash over because Francis had dusted his shoes there as he left Malacca in disgust over the sinfulness he had encountered there. The rock is now surrounded by reclaimed land. It’s no longer miraculous that no tide washes over it.

The fact is that it didn’t happen that way. What took place at his last visit to Malacca was that the city was racked by a family feud between the Captain of the Fort and his brother. The conflict saddened Francis so much that coupled with the subsequent rejection of the people, he removed his shoes, struck them against a rock as if removing the dust that clung to it.

In fact, the way Francis dealt with sin is reminiscence of the way Moses dealt with his people’s sin. Moses pleaded with God on behalf of his people, always to mitigate or to stay God’s anger against the people. Francis didn’t really plead with an angry God even though he did encounter a headstrong people when he came to Malacca, a bustling cosmopolitan city of that time, a meeting place for cultures and religions. Here, we find cross-crowned steeples of Catholic churches appealing to heaven together with mosques and temples dedicated to Indochinese deities.

The apostolic landscape was far from charming because the city was where greed and lust cohabitated. It was not easy but Francis plunged into this corrupt milieu with his customary zeal and enthusiasm. He found great difficulty in bringing about reform. So, more than any other place of his sojourning, his prudence and charity became evident. Seeing that there was nothing to be hoped from mere exhortation or denunciation, he set himself to win the hearts of the sinners. He was always a jovial self, mixed easily with everybody, men and women. He would even go to the place where they were gambling, showing that he enjoyed their company and if they, out of deference for him, tried to stop the game, he encouraged them cheerfully to carry on, for—he said—soldiers were not expected to live like friars. To be merry without offending God is better any day than grumbling and quarrelling.

Not only the Portuguese but also their concubines and servants loved him dearly and liked to have him for lunch at home, for he showed great love for everyone…telling them that their girls were very beautiful and they deserved to be wives of honest men.

Witnesses testified over and over again that it was mainly his radiant cheerfulness that attracted people to him. Here in Malacca, an incidence of relevance to our blessing today is a strange story related by a Fr Paul Gomez who tells us that, "There were some mothers with their babies. He called the babies by their names, inquiring from them about their fathers. I and many others believed this a miracle. How could he know the names of children he had never seen?" He served the sick and taught the children daily. On Sundays, he preached at the church on the hill and he was so overwhelmed by the great number of people seeking ministrations that he himself bore testimony to the fact saying, "It is impossible to satisfy all who come".

How is this related to us?

Yesterday, we spoke of friendship and affection as means to apostolic efficacy. It might give us good grounds to ponder on how we approach those who do not share our sentiments. I think by and large, our normal response is to shut people out—people who are difficult often end up as lumps swept under the carpet. Everyone knows that there’s a problem but no one wants to deal with it and people simply just sidestep the lump. Or if we do deal with it, we might be a bit more judgemental when we express our disagreement. When it became more difficult for Francis, his prudence and charity became more evident. Virtues such as these are not easy to exercise. But, it is worth our while to ask for this grace. Conversion is a response to love—not matter how cliché it sounds; conversion is never the fruit of anger.

But, beyond the conversion, we need to look into the area of catechesis, the process of handing on our faith. Both the Israelites in the desert and the unbelieving Jews reveal the stark reality of the complexity of catechesis and conversion. On this topic, we run into some kind of an invisible wall. Most Catholics understand catechesis to be the work of the Church, namely, our Sunday Schools. It may explain why the topic of catechism does not make sense to most people. It’s a task to be engaged by others. Perhaps an analogy may help us understand our role in catechesis. A child spends barely an hour each Sunday in formal catechism. If you consider the minimum 70%-attendance obligation, that does not count for much. Thus, the formal catechesis that our children receive at our Sunday school is like a skeleton. The home is where the “enfleshment” or incarnation takes place. Family must take a greater role in the formal catechetical development of a person. A difficulty we might encounter is where to begin... how do we begin?

A very good starting point is through the liturgy and the celebration of the liturgy. Lex orandi lex credendi. How the Church prays is what the Church believes in. Here, we’ve endeavoured to make sure that our preaching and our liturgy help each other. It is as simple as paying attention to the way a prayer is structured to find the theology of our belief. Every now and then, you will find little catechesis taking place as we celebrate our liturgy. Our grasp of the faith is enriched so much through the prayers of the Church.

Secondly, the home must become a place where the faith can take root. Parents are the first catechists for every child. Catholic sensibilities are caught at home. The whole sacramental system of the Church is built upon the senses experiencing the sacramentals. Rosaries, holy water, blessed candles, medals, the bible etc. Of course, the caveat is that the presence of the rosaries, holy water and bible resting on your altar do not mean anything if you do not faithfully use them. In general, if there is something lacking in the parents’ practice of the faith, it will be reflected in the child’s subsequent behaviour. For example, our crisis with the lack of social concern is reflected in the phenomenon that our current catechesis is basically damage control. So much of what we are doing in terms of catechesis is just damage control. I give an example: the altar servers’ formation has to begin when they first enter the society. If the substance of what we are doing is not inculcated or instilled, then subsequently we will have to deal with damage control—we basically try to limit whatever bad habits they have accumulated. We are constantly battling with bad habits... and how can we have a socially conscious young people when prayer, when Catholic social teachings do not even form part of their sensibilities?

Let us pray our Saint today that he ask the grace for us to be joyful in facing any difficult apostolic challenge and that our homes be graced much more as a place where faith is first taught and caught.