Novena of Grace of St. Francis Xavier (Day 2) Saturday 5th March 2011 9th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

To those who did not come yesterday, let me recap a little of the 1st Day of the Novena of Grace. Otherwise, you might wonder why I seem to go off-tangent. I made a connexion between a trip to the former Jesuit Noviciate in Hong Kong, the Novena that we are in and the Jubilee Year of the parish—the connexion between these three is the universal call to holiness. This call is rooted in the mysteries of the Church and of Christ Himself. First, the Church is holy because Christ made her so. Second, Christ Himself preached holiness. The second mystery we can understand but the first about the Church being holy is where we may have difficulty with because of the sins of her children. Some cannot make a distinction between the Church, who is always holy, and Christians, who are not. And for some, this becomes an excuse for shirking the personal responsibility of responding to the call to be holy. Finally, holiness does not result from merely managing or changing sociological structures. For example, get rid of structures of injustice and we become holy. Instead, it requires a hard look at oneself as well as striving to make what is NOT of Christ in us disappear so that what is truly of Christ can appear. And for this enterprise we need Holy Mother the Church for she gives us Christ Himself through the sacraments.

Today the reading points us towards the space needed in order that the universal call to holiness may flourish. Let me tell what happened the other day and here I will revert into colloquialism and also use politically incorrect language. The other day I was going into the City for a function. I was with Fr Michael and just on the bridge turning into the Federal Highway, I saw what many of you may have seen and some of us may have done. A couple of cars ahead, I saw a window winding down and a bunched up ball of toilet tissue tossed out. I thought to myself, “So pariah lah, if want to litter, at least, throw out Kleenex lah”. Anyway, I was not about to let them go.

Well, prior to this incident, I was behind a BMW near to Amcorp Mall, same action but this time it was mandarin orange peel tossed out. That time, I flashed my lights and when I drove past the car I made some signs of disapproval but it was not communicated because the other car could not see nor hear me. So, coming back to Jalan Gasing bridge, as I caught up with the Toyota car on my right, whom did I see? Two Chinamen with a hair-do from a Jinjang saloon. I wound down my window and shouted across saying, “Oi! You so dirty lah!” and drove on. Of course, the traffic being heavy, we moved at different pace, the Toyota caught up with me and the passenger shouted back at me and gave me the dirty finger. That I ignored and as it got ahead, it sort of slowed down to give me another dirty finger.

Before I go further, I would like to make a clarification. Do you know why I give the marques of the cars? BMW and Toyota. We mistake style or standard for “civilisation”. We expect a person who drives an expensive car to behave according to the standard he or she subscribes to. It is a fallacy and it ties in with yesterday’s homily. It is an age-old fallacy to equate knowledge with virtue. Knowledge does not necessary translate into virtue. Just because a person has a university degree, it does not mean that he will have morals. Likewise, just because you are beautiful or dress beautifully, it does not mean you will have impeccable manners. Just because you meet a Christian, it does not mean you will encounter Christian behaviour. It proves the point that the Church is holy but people inside are so much more in need of conversion. In fact, yesterday after a homily on holiness, this took place in the basement. Fr Michael was in the car park removing his car so that someone else can move out but a car behind him was honking away impatiently. Coming for Mass and receiving Holy Communion is not guarantee that there will be no sin.

Now coming back to the story. Why this story? Well, I was fed up. Many of us are fed up. And it has something to do with drawing lines. After the earlier BMW incident, I decided that enough was enough, I was not going to keep quiet. Even though I did not know who the occupants in the Toyota were, I was quite prepared to face the music. Later, someone told me that if I had reacted to the dirty finger a fight would have ensued.

Last Sunday, I mentioned about the enclaves of gated communities. We gate ourselves believing that we will be safe. It is one of the expressions of self-reliance that in order “to be”, one has to “wrought, forge and make of oneself”. Self-reliance is well and good. But, what happens if within our gated community, still a break-in takes place? Where do we run to if the product of our self-reliance, that is security we forge for ourselves, is breached? Today, when public space is no longer safe, personal security is necessary to self-definition. Without security, the self may just cease to be. What can be done in order that the “self” does not cease to exist?

The answer lies in drawing lines. At least the first reading and the Gospel are clear in drawing lines. Moses told the people to choose. Draw a line between good and evil. The Gospel too drew a line between building on rock and on sand. The gated enclaves highlight to us that our problem is not that we do not draw the line. We do. It is just that we have drawn it too short. We make “personal” space to be the definition of who we are. Therefore, that which is not directly linked to the “personal” space will definitely fall without our care or concern.

On the one hand, it is easy to dismiss this lack of care or concern as apathetic. The usual culprit we blame is the “tidak apa” or “couldn’t care less” attitude. On the other hand we also are wary that drawing lines will make us “self-righteous”. But, in actual fact, drawing lines increases not so much the “selfish” space as it increases our public space. It increases the space for public and social interaction.

In a sense, twittering, blogging, face-booking are perhaps symptoms of small “private” spaces. It is true that one might reach many but it is often from the comfort of anonymity and so-called safety. But, there is such a thing called public space without which we cannot exist as a civilised people—a space where public discourse may take place. That space must be reclaimed by all and for all. If not, just a few will widen their own space to take over that public space meant for the good of all and they make it their personal domain. That is why tyranny and dictatorship exist.

I am sure that you would have passed by people in need. Again, let us not be hasty in judging it as selfishness or apathy. It merely highlights the reality that we have come to expect that someone else will provide the help, someone else will do the good deed. By far, the biggest sin in public arena is not really the sin of commission but the sin of omission. A famous quote attributed to an Irish statesman, Edmund Burke, succinctly conceptualise the need for us to enlarge the public arena. It goes: “For evil to flourish, all that is needed is that good men do nothing”. According to the same Burke, to mean well falls short of what public duty requires because public duty demands and requires that what is right should not only be made known but made prevalent; that what is evil should not only be detected, but defeated.

The Gospel today urges us to listen to Christ’s words and act on them. What does that mean if not living in the public arena? Holiness does not cocoon us into what is merely our personal space but brings us into the heart of the public square where the battle for Christ is fought. And to do that, we must draw the lines for public arena to exist. In doing so, we are not drawing lines in order to be self-righteous. Instead, we are drawing lines to be righteous for that is what it means to build our lives upon the rock of Christ.