Holy Family Year C 2024

Some Holy Doors in Rome have opened. The Jubilee Year with its theme on hope has been inaugurated by the Holy Father to encourage the faithful to strengthen their faith, repent of their sins and to renew their spiritual focus.

Interestingly, the Holy Father has chosen to launch the Jubilee for the Church world-wide, on the Solemnity of the Holy Family. New beginnings are signs of hope precisely because our Catholic jubilee has a Jewish past. Then, a jubilee occurred once in every 50 years. Its aim was to restore equality amongst all children of Israel. Families which have lost their property and individuals who have lost their freedom might have them restored. Celebrating a jubilee reminds society that a time would come when everyone, slaves included, will become equals. It is a hope based on God’s promise.

Thus, the jubilee was a powerful instrument of social renewal. It aimed to restore society to a balance or an equilibrium which reflected or mirrored God’s design for the human race. What exactly does it mean that society is restored? Sometimes we easily forget that society is only an abstraction or a conceptual structure because right at the heart of any social renewal, lies the family. Society is not made up of disparate or distinct individuals because everyone must come from somewhere.

The “somewhere”, which is the context, is the family. For example, when we speak of Church, which is a kind of society, it is not the sum total of all the individuals there are. Nobody here who is baptised, had walked up to baptismal font, scoop Holy Water, tilted the head and poured water over it saying to oneself, “I baptise myself in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. We are always baptised by someone. In other words, we are a web of inter-related individuals.

The densest or the most basic relationships are to be found within the family. Therefore, society is composed of a network of families. Go to a small town and you get the sense of the “society” there because it is made up of all the relationships amongst the families who are often intermarried. But when towns developed into cities, anonymity soon becomes a part of our social setting. With anonymity and larger societies, the extended family is under pressure to retreat into the nuclear family. It may be the basic building block of society but it is besieged by various anti-family ideologies. For example, in some places, the state or rather, the nanny state, will step in to dictate how a family should raise a child.

The family is crucial to our well-being. As mentioned earlier, we live in an atomised society in which we reduce everything down to the individual, measured by his or her wants and desires. I remember an incident between my elder brother and mother. He said to my mother, “Ma, I can marry again but you, I only have one”. The statement was not to relativise his marriage as if it were not important but it did bring home the point on the irreplaceability of one’s family member and how important family is to one’s well-being. I am not merely a sum total of my likes and dislikes. I am also a reflexion of my family to a certain extent, whether it be functional or dysfunctional.

We need the family because society cannot function fully without the family. According to Pope John Paul II, civilisation blossoms amongst the fields and flowers of the family. Whatever happened to the family will affect civilisation. The etymology of the word is “civis” or the citizen. Precisely being a citizen involves politics, a city (or civilisation) can thrive only because it is watered by the aqueducts of familial relationships. The health of any civilisation is dependent on the health, not of the individuals, but of the individuals who come from families. We easily forget this fact, that is, whether we like it or not, we are a web of clans and tribes. When we forget that society is family, meaning that relationships characterise us, then it becomes easy to forget those who are weak and vulnerable amongst us—the unborn, the elderly and those with no access to decent human services. Dysfunctionality in the family weakens a society’s well-being.

Every society is an aggregation of families. Therefore, when we speak of restoration, it is not merely a restoration of an individual. The Sacrament of Confession is a perfect example of what it means to be restored. “I stole”. Nobody steals from nobody. We always steal from somebody. There is no such a thing as a sin which does not hurt someone. Every sin hurts and destroys the fabric of society. Through the Sacrament of Confession, we are restored in our relationships, thus, revealing how important relationships are to our health, physical, psychological and spiritual.

As we enter into the experience of the Jubilee, maybe this year we want to give more thoughts to our family. Much of our hurts come from the family and its broken relationships. When there is no love and loyalty involved, betrayal is just that, betrayal and it is not personal. But when there is love and trust, betrayal leaves an enduring scar on some of us. We are often hurt by people we love most.

Clearly, civilisation cannot thrive when families fail and as rightly pointed out by John Paul II, the family is key to fixing the serious destruction of the environment because the family is the most important environment. In the context of Laudato si, protecting the family is key to protecting the environment.

Not only does the country or society need the family. The Church too. Without healthy and functional families, the priesthood will suffer and marriages too. The start of the Jubilee Year beckons us to celebrate forgiveness and reconciliation within the family as moments of mercy and healing. We get hurt by siblings and parents but the family is where we also learn to offer mercy and pardon and ask for forgiveness when we have hurt others. The Church holds up the Holy Family for us not because they were perfect. They are models because of their faith and their selfless love for one another. Pope Francis highlighted in Amoris Laetitia that “Jesus, who reconciled all things in himself, has restored marriage and the family to their original form. Marriage and the family have been redeemed by Christ and restored in the image of the Holy Trinity, the mystery from which all true love flows”. Our fervent hope for this Jubilee is that the same love of the Holy Family may flow in and through our families.

Christmas Mass of the Day

We have now arrived at technically what is called the Mass of the King. This is my favourite Mass for Christmas for this reason. While the Infancy Narratives of Matthew or Luke stretches back to Abraham or Adam, John skips the details surrounding Christ’s birth. Instead, he transports all the way back to the beginning of time.

There, in the beginning, we enter more deeply into the mystery of the Incarnation of the King of kings. The contemplation is profound. The Baby that lies in the manger is basically God Himself. Through Him all things came into being. Thus, the plan of salvation was already there at the beginning of creation.

Jesus is God’s profound personal love for humanity. In the example of Moses, he encountered God but only through a burning bush. On Christmas, the shepherds were able to behold the face of God Himself in Jesus Christ. The author to the Hebrews states that “in times past, He spoke through the prophets and in various diverse ways. Now He has chosen to speak to us through His Son”. The invisible has now become visible as St Paul explained to the Colossians that “He is the image of the unseen God”. Perhaps it makes sense that Catholics express this reality through sacramentals like statues and pictures of Jesus.

God has never forsaken us but it is a struggle to grasp this truth. “God-with-us” should give us pause for joy. Yet, we are not wonderstruck. Recently, the Pope came to Singapore. Imagine the number of people who went gaga over the Holy Father. A personal picture with him would be a dream. But in the case of a babe in the manger, whom are we beholding? He is someone who ranks far higher than a prince or a pope.

God speaking through His Son is a big deal. Through Him we have been given the privilege of adoption. “To those who accept Him, He gave power to become children of God”. But more than He speaking to us is the desire to be with us. According to John’s Gospel, “He pitched His tent amongst us”. The translation we are accustomed to, like “The Word became flesh” is rather pedestrian. Whereas God pitching His tent amongst us is more inspiring. Picture the Israelite having escaped from Egypt with bare necessities. Pitching His tent amongst the fleeing refugees, God shares their hardship, for He is God with us.

Modernity’s problematic with the idea of Emmanuel may spring from a fatigue which has endured wave after wave of catastrophe. Humanity has witnessed the scale of global suffering that the feeling is rather of the absence of God. Where is God? Why are we suffering?

Our materialistic blinkers are blinding. We are engrossed with pleasure that life’s purpose escapes us. God is with us in all the messiness of life even if we do not feel it. Tomorrow, we celebrate St Stephen, the proto-martyr. Two days later we commemorate the Holy Innocents. Right after Christmas, the Way of the Cross is already revealed to us. The death of innocent children offends our modern sensibility because we have lost the sense of sin and necessity of salvation. The children in Bethlehem may have suffered death in their innocence but they still need their Saviour. In other words, the King in the manger will be the suffering servant for He has come to save us from eternal damnation. God with us is not a guarantee that there will not be pain. In fact, the price of God’s presence is the death of Jesus on Calvary. The cradle becomes the Cross, the Christmas tree stands in the shadow of Calvary.

Therefore, God with us is not the same as heaven is here. When we mistake God’s presence to be heaven on earth, then we will have difficulties navigating through the problems and pains that life throws at us. Creation, though beautiful, is imperfect and it is groaning because it hungers for salvation. Prior to Christ’s coming our human race was disfigured by sin, lost and wandering in a dark world. Christ’s coming ushers in a new chapter of salvation history. He is with us makes is possible to live in a world which has been redeemed but is still on the road to final perfection.

In other words, Christmas is the already and not yet. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “Though already present in his Church, Christ’s reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled ‘with power and great glory’ by the King’s return to earth. This reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ’s Passover. Until everything is subject to him, ‘until there be realised new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the pilgrim Church, in her sacraments and institutions, which belong to this present age, carries the mark of this world which will pass, and she herself takes her place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and await the revelation of the sons of God’” (671).

Emmanuel gives us the strength to live this already and not yet. In the meantime, be always on the guard and watchful because we live as if we are waiting for the Son of Man to come again. In other words, our conduct should be that when we face judgement, we are confident. It is hopeful and trusting that through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus (the already), we will be brought to the finality of completion in the future (not yet).

We have been freed from domination by sin and death and freed for a life in the Holy Spirit. Jesus who pitched His tent amongst us gives us the ability to stand with Him gives us the privilege to call God, Abba, Father. In this time of in-between already and not yet, we continue to pray “Thy Kingdom come”.

Christmas Day Mass at Dawn

I read somewhere about the four stages of life. The first stage, one believes in Santa Claus. The second, one does not believe in Santa Claus. The third, one is Santa Claus. The fourth, one looks like Santa Claus. Some of you parents here may be broke because you are breathing the 3rd stage. You are Santa Claus.

Whatever stage in life, and whether or not you believe in Santa, we can agree that we are here to glorify God. The Gospel continues from last night’s birth of the Child. Closer to midnight, the first of the Christmas Masses showcased the battle between darkness and light with the focus on the announcement of the Angel. This morning after the Angel’s announcement, the Shepherds hurried to Bethlehem to behold the birth of the Child Wonder. The fruit of their encounter of the Saviour was their proclamation of what they had witnessed. According to social hierarchy, the shepherds rank right at the bottom of the ladder. They had nothing. It was their lack that allowed them to behold so great a sight.

The birth of this Child lifts earth to heaven and stoops heaven to earth. One can even say that shepherds who came to behold the Child were indeed coming to behold, like us, the Eucharist. It is like sitting in front of the Blessed Sacrament and adoring Christ. He came as an insignificant Child, choosing to be born in such a humble setting so that we can all marvel at what God can accomplish. He did not come with power, not as emperor or king, MP (member of parliament) or congressman. He came as God to show us what He can accomplish just by being Himself.

In fact by His helplessness, He drew to Himself, the powerful like the Magi and the powerless like the poor shepherds. But sadly, we are afraid of nothingness. Maybe we are even afraid of our shadow. Have you noticed that our Christmas has to be filled with plenty. This is supposedly the season of emptying like Christ emptying Himself but judging by gifts galore in the shopping malls, it is the season of getting. Commercially we have been corralled to adopt a kind of bazaar behaviour. And Christmas has been reduced to nothing more than a consumer’s haven. Consumerism could be a sort of overcompensation for our fear of nothingness and it leads to an obsession with the self.

How then can we be more than consumers? How should we not overcompensate?

Perhaps the English language can help us. It is the word “present”. We have taken the reality of “present” to new heights of materialism. While giving is part of Christmas, the greatest present we have and can give is the presence of ourselves. It is personal. How present are we to one another? What is the quality of my presence to my family or friends? The beauty of the lowly shepherds is their ability to adore the Lord fully present in His humility and helplessness.

Sometimes we substitute our presence with presents thinking that sheer material pleasure is enough to take the place of the simple truth of being present—physically, psychologically and even spiritually. Many struggle to be present, let alone be still. Imagine sitting down and doing nothing? For almost all of us, that would be the definition of boredom. Visualise the motorcycles 5 or 6 abreast and the queue is one-kilometre long enduring the daily drudgery of crossing to and from Singapore. Everyone, if not all, silently gives thanks to the Lord for social media and the internet. To be able to watch a movie while waiting is not “wasted” time. For many this represents progress.

But what have we lost in this unstoppable “march of progress”? It is an ability to withdraw, to take a step back and to contemplate. The shepherds hurried away from their already quiet lives of desperation when they went to see the child. They found Him and they contemplated Him in His humble glory. The description that Mary pondered these things in her heart shines the path forward.

Christmas Mass at Dawn helps us to contemplate the event of human salvation. We are saved by the coming of the Lord. We marvel at what Christ can do and has done for us just by being Himself—God made man. In our withdrawal we gather fruits for the sharing.

However, an inability to step back and to ponder will have an impact on the world we live in. Recently, a CEO of an insurance company was shot dead in broad daylight in cold blood. Some young people have taken to social media to hail the murderer as a hero. Maybe this phenomenon suggests a normalisation of violence amongst the young but what is evident is a loneliness and emptiness in society that provides a fertile ground for a narcissistic glorification of the self and reflects a loss of the sense of the sacred.

Hence, rather than focussing on giving material gifts perhaps we can come away with the idea of making ourselves as gifts to others by our sincerity, our caring and our love. Have you ever as a parent or an adult experienced this? Your child did something incredibly stupid and in a moment of anger you punished your child? Or your wife said something which offended you deeply and in an uncontrollable rage you land your hands on her? Later you regret and you try to make up for it by buying a gift? Can you imagine what your child or your spouse would have liked? A present or you being present?

You know the answer to that question. To be present to others in a lost and lonely world is a gift far beyond any material gain. We can become gifts of love and patience to others. You see, the shepherds were not only the first visitors, they also became the first missionaries. It is not impossible to walk their footsteps. To be the Gospel, the path forward is to move beyond an obsessive focus on the self. Contemplating a humble and helpless Child invites us to marvel that what lies in the manger is none other than the mighty Saviour of the world. O come, let us adore Him.

Christmas Vigil Mass Year C 2024

Some of you may have been celebrating that it feels like Christmas is over already. There has been much excitement that when the event finally arrives, we are already exhausted. Notwithstanding how we feel, the liturgy bids us to remain at the cusp of Christmas proper. It is the Vigil Mass, where we are given a sense of what is to come. Isaiah proclaims a message of consolation for those who are waiting for the Saviour to be born. For the Gospel, we had to choose the shorter version that excludes the genealogy of Jesus. The simple reason is, reading it in Mandarin, I would have murdered every single one Jesus’ ancestors, AGAIN.

History appears to be central to the event that will take place closer to midnight. For the Vigil, we stay with the genealogy of Jesus. Its genesis begins with Abraham. The entire list of names is not a Litany of the Saints. Rather it is a salad mixture of saints and sinners. An important note is that many of them may have been great leaders but even then they too had been waiting for salvation to dawn upon them. It is indeed a history of frailty where the constant remains a God who desires to save. The ancestry presents Jesus as the ultimate commitment of God to the history of salvation. Jesus Christ is the long-awaited Messiah, the anointed one, the Saviour.

At the 4th Sunday of Advent, we highlighted Mary’s pivotal role in the drama of salvation. Now we turn our attention to Joseph. Learning of Mary’s pregnancy, he wanted, as an honourable man, to spare her the indignity of being accused as an adulteress. Instead he chose to discreetly break off the marriage. But God has other plans. Through a dream, the angel directed Joseph not to forsake Mary but instead Joseph is informed that the Child of his future wife had been conceived by the Holy Spirit and given a name which means God saves. That plan requires Joseph to lend his name to the Child. In summary, up until and including the Vigil, everything has been in preparation to welcome the Saviour. In other words, the Vigil encapsulates the Advent of alert and anticipation of Christ’s coming.

According to a British writer, GK Chesterton, he mentioned something about drawing a line before Christmas itself. For him, the very essence of any festival is that it should break in rather brilliantly and abruptly, that at one moment, the great day is not and the next moment, the great day is. It explains why there is a sense of penitence which includes a kind of purification, that is, our souls are scrubbed in order for us to fully appreciate and receive Christ coming at Christmas. This penitential principle preserves us from a kind of entitlement that we are now accustomed to. For example, if each day is celebrated as if it were a birthday, after a while, when the birthday comes, it will no longer be special.

It makes a lot of sense that the Church gives us Laetare Sunday during Lent and Gaudete Sunday during Advent. There is value in anticipation because hope springs from absence of grace especially when one is surrounded by sin. Perhaps this is where Christmas becomes a challenge for so many of us. We no longer believe in sin. Or maybe this statement has to be modified. We are somewhat familiar with sin but we do not think of it as such a big deal.

If the Catechism we have been taught holds true, then the line for Holy Communion should be shorter. Why? When we miss Mass on a Sunday we generally do not receive Holy Communion the next Sunday because we have been taught that to do so, it means that we need to go for Confession first. The truth is that many of us have no problem “waiting” until the penitential service to confess the sin of missing Masses. In other words, sin is sin but yeah, they are not that crucial. It can wait. So in the meantime we get on with the reception of Holy Communion.

Ask this question, who are we waiting for? A Saviour. But why do we need a Saviour if we are sinless? Thus, we have to recover this wonder of waiting which comes from a repentant heart. For if we do not, then our attitude towards Christmas will always be of an entitlement. It is time to celebrate and so, come hell or high water, we are entitled to celebrate. And we will. In the meantime, a season pregnant with a joy that comes from an appreciation of the salvation won for us will be nothing more than just an excuse for us to have a good time.

A good time is just that. It satisfies temporarily but it will never fill the divine emptiness which God our Lord has put into our souls. Our hearts will remain restless until they have found Lord. A good time is great but allowing Christ to come into our hearts is best for the souls. O Emmanuel, You are our King and judge, the one whom people await and their Saviour. O come and save us, Lord our God.

4th Sunday of Advent Year C 2024

The joyful meeting between mothers and sons of last Sunday is carried forward to this Sunday where attention is now shifted to Mary and her role in the work of Christ’s salvation. The Visitation can be viewed as a joyful response to the Annunciation. The event of the Incarnation, which according to the liturgical calendar took place on 25th of March, is the pivotal mystery of salvation. It is so central that we return to it every day whenever we recite the Angelus. It is a prayer that makes us relive the moment that God comes to Mary and from her Fiat, He begins to take flesh in her and from her.

The Collect of the Mass shines on Mary and it is basically the same prayer we recite at the end of the Angelus: “Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son, was made known by the message of an Angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection”.

The Kingdom sprouts from events that are insignificant to most people. The description that Christ’s Kingdom is like a mustard seed may just have its origin from the moment of Christ’s conception. Hence, in the Gospel we heard, Mary’s Magnificat goes beyond the simple and almost inconsequential encounter between the mothers and sons. Look at the 1st Reading. Bethlehem that little negligible hamlet will soon take centre stage for from there the Saviour will come. Hebrews underscores that Christ by His death has replaced the old sacrifice with the one perfect sacrifice of His Body. Once again, God is working to save us.

God works great with small things. All we need is faith. Imagine a 14-year-old girl venturing out without supervision under any male family member is almost unthinkable culturally. The fact that she dared to walk alone to another place is a testament of her faith. The Child promised her by the angel gave her the confidence that He will protect her from any danger. The cousin leaping in his mother’s womb just confirmed it for Mary.

The joyful encounter now hits us. What do we do with joy? On a personal level, if joy is a repudiation of sin, then would the joy of our preparation have seen us going for our Christmas confession?

But more on a social level. Have we brought joy to others? Evangelii gaudium, you remember that? “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept His offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness, and loneliness. With Christ, joy is constantly born anew” (#1).

The joy of the Gospel challenges each Christ to be good news to those whom we meet. This sort of evangelisation is perfect in a country as diverse as ours. There is nothing spectacular to announce except that the inconsequential visit of Mary to Elizabeth signals that God is at work in every facet of our lives, no matter how negligible.

That being said, we are not talking here of a wholesale conversion. Rather we are speaking here of bringing the joy that allows others to give space to God in their lives. “Blessed are you amongst women and blessed is the fruit of your womb”.

Mary’s visit to Elizabeth gave voice to her benediction. Thus, can we be a blessing to others whom we encounter most especially in our daily lives. It does not have to be something grand. We can begin small and maybe even insignificant. As Christ conquers hearts one by one, so too our outreach to others is always one at a time. What we often miss out is the obvious. We often expect success in rather spectacular terms failing to appreciate the unexpected.

For example, have you ever forgiven someone who does not expect your forgiveness? Like your spouse or your child or your parent? A relationship can be so broken that one does not expect anything at all. This is where conversion takes place. Every day you interact with your spouse and you react to him or her in the usual manner, by raising your voice or ignoring him or her because in your mind he or she is like that and cannot change. Perhaps you take a different tack this time like with your aged parent is stubborn. On the other hand, you are quite certain that you hold the answer to your mom or dad’s health. Maybe you could love them where they are and not where you think they should be.

Rightfully this Sunday highlights Mary’s role as the Mother of Christ’s Body, the Church. Even though she is pivotal to Christ’s salvific mission but nowhere does the Church claims her to be saviour. Instead she is our model of faith because she allowed Christ to take flesh and gestate in her heart and wholeheartedly she shared Him with the world. She modelled for us to do the same. The little spaces which we free up by our small gestures of kindness and love can be evangelical. Start at home if we want to convert the world for Christ.

Much can be said about how sad the world is or how tough life can be for many. What can be said also is how much are we a source of sadness to the world. The Gospel is carried by the joy that permeates our soul and shines onto the world. Christmas is around the corner. You can catch a glimmer of joy in our decoration but the real joy should come from inside us, from the little spaces of our hearts where we allow Christ to take flesh, like Mary did.

3rd Sunday of Advent Year C 2024

Rejoice in the Lord for He is near. That is the general sentiment for this weekend’s liturgy. The title Gaudete Sunday is derived from the Latin antiphon: Gaudéte in Dómino semper: íterum dico, gaudéte. In English, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice”. The antiphon itself is taken from the Letter of St Paul to the Philippians. It echoes the joy that comes with Christ’s nearness and it is aptly reflected in the colour of the vestment. We dare to be joyful even in the midst of our penitential preparation because our Salvation is near.

The basis for this joy harkens us back to the moments of the Annunciation and the Visitation. In the former, Mary is visited by the Archangel and given the good news of Christ’s taking flesh in her womb. As a response, she goes to visit Elizabeth her cousin, who at that time, was already pregnant with John in her womb. The elated embrace between the two exhilarating mothers merely hides a far more profound cosmic drama. The Preface for the Nativity of John the Baptist states that “His birth brought great rejoicing; even in the womb he leapt for joy at the coming of human salvation”. Somehow I still prefer the pre-2011 translation because it is more poetic in expressing proximity for “even in the womb he leapt for joy, so near was man’s salvation”. An analogy is going to a durian farm and as you approach the farm, the ripening durian already exudes the fragrance (or the stench) we are familiar with that in smelling you can almost taste the durian.

Thus, the question is how often we recognise that Christ is near to us or that He is already in our midst. Since He is in our midst, what should our response be? The people who went into the desert asked John for signs of repentance. He gave it as sharing one’s resources, cessation of plundering or pillage and being just and honest in our dealings. We are not unawares that this is Gospel requirement. The path charted by the Baptist is no less than a whole-hearted embrace of the Kingdom’s values.

The change in our life’s direction is the beginning of joy. It is derived from our desire to love God and neighbour. When we choose to love God and neighbour, we will know joy which means that this is a matter of choice, that is, one chooses to be joyful. The writer of the letter to the Hebrew exhorts us, “Let us gaze upon Jesus, as the Author and the completion of our faith, who, having joy laid out before Him, endured the cross, disregarding the shame, and who now sits at the right hand of the throne of God”. Despite the violence that Jesus had to endure, His love for His Father and His desire for our salvation became the source of His joy.

Joy is radical for it touches the core of our being. It cannot be manufactured. For example, today, it has become almost impossible to counsel a grieving parent to be joyful. When people are suffering, we naturally shy away from asking them to look beyond their grief. And yet, the very experience of Christ, according to the author of the Hebrews, reveals us that spiritual joy is not incompatible with suffering. Such joy is far remove from the present notion that equates joy as a palpable happiness. In this sense, we may have constructed a sand-castle that associates happiness as an emotion which is to be enveloped or surrounded by creatively comfort. Every advertisement suggests that. Each newer model of a car is designed to enhance our bodily pleasures. Think of camping which is not what people do today. Instead what is sold is glamping. Glamping is a portmanteau consisting of two words, glamour and camping.

Is it possible to be joyful even when not feeling it? Take a look at John the Baptist. He is living in the desert, devoid of any creaturely comfort. How is it possible that he could endure such hardship? Perhaps it was from that single encounter with the Saviour that gave consolation to sustain him, to be his strength and hope as he embraced the hardship of prophecy and finally his own beheading. It might not be easy to appreciate this but think of a man or woman who has seen someone for just a fleeting moment but from there fell in love and yet separated for almost forever. That person lives from that moment of having fallen in love. The entire epic of the Titanic was premised on that one iconic scene where Jack and Rose stood at the bow of the ship with Celine Dion belting “My heart will go on” in the background. Joy is an ability to live for that moment which sustains us for a lifetime.

However, we have become experts at living out the so-called “joyful” part of Christmas meaning we are good at embracing and enjoying all the so-called fun part so much so that we tend to forget that there is a repentance part too. Trouble begins when we reduced well-being to material expressions that it becomes almost impossible to be joyful especially in times of trouble. Joy, like peace, is not the absence of conflict or of pain. Rather it is experienced as a serenity in spite of conflict and suffering. It is an ability to persevere despite trials. As Jesus warned the apostles of their future martyrdom, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete”. John 15:11

Joy requires that we live in the present, not trapped in the past nor frightened by the future. A way of living in the past is by unforgiveness. Sometimes we are weighed down by hurts in the past and we continually hang onto them so much so that we do not know how to let go. It is sad to be burdened by what has been that one fails to see what can be. On the other hand we can also be trapped by a fear that God cannot take care of us in the future that we no longer know how to enjoy the present moment.

For the past, we take advantage of the season because it calls us to go for confession. The practice of examining our conscience daily may be a good start before we go for the Sacrament of Confession. For the future it means we become a bit more aware of the heart’s inclination to love the wrong things. When we are fearful of the future we will begin to fill the hearts with security which we might not really need. Loving the wrong things will not give us the space to be joyful and be present to the Lord.

This Sunday, choose to be joyful. It is not a feeling but rather the attitude. It is a capacity of the heart to say to God, I am here. This attitude does not require that we go away but rather be intentional in recognising that we can choose. As St Francis de Sales used to say, “Bloom where you are planted”. John the Baptist bloomed in the desert. May be we can bloom in Johor Bahru even in the shadow of a Singapore that is soon to be extinct. (According to Elon Musk).

Immaculate Conception 2024

Today we celebrate two solemnities because we could not celebrate one yesterday. Since the Immaculate Conception fell on the 2nd Sunday of Advent and because the Sundays during Advent rank higher than the Solemnities of our Lady, it is relegated to the day after. So for today we have two Solemnities. Firstly, the Immaculate Conception. Secondly, being my birthday it is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Misconception. Jokes aside, did you know that originally 9th Dec was the date for the celebration of the Conception of Mary. At least it was in the Orthodox Church.

Is it important to celebrate this solemnity? Obviously it is because we could have skipped it, like some of the feast days, instead of moving it from Sunday to Monday. I would like to approach this Solemnity from the perspective of what the world will soon witness next month: the inauguration of a new old president of the USA. He has already started to form his cabinet. In the process of shaping his administration, each nominated member has to go through the scrutiny of the confirmation process by the Senate. It is a bruising affair. But what is interesting lies behind the process.

In the last few decades or so, the world may have finally caught up with the Immaculate Conception. By this, I do not mean that they have finally accepted the dogma. We have to look at a cultural phenomenon known as cancel culture. What is cancel culture but a tacit or unspoken approval of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. How many nominations have been or scuttled or sunk because of a past sin? How many celebrities, for the sake of their fame, have had to apologise for a mistake of the past? A singer or an actor at 20 years old twitted a racist statement and forever he or she would be coloured by a stupidity of the past, that is, when someone finally discovered that twit. In other words, the process leading to the confirmation of a cabinet member is nothing more than the affirmation of the Immaculate Conception.

Everyone who ever harbours the ambition to be a minister or secretary should be sinless. In other words, even though the world does not believe in the dogma, the truth is the world expects the dogma to be operative in everyone’s life. One is supposedly born immaculate. How have we come here? Such a notion arose from a positive philosophy that man is “naturally” good and he is capable of becoming like god through his own efforts. We can deify ourselves without God. Divinisation is God’s gift to us. The little liturgical act of adding a drop of water into the wine later recognises that. “By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity”. This process of deification is God’s work on us.

Hence, in light of this great work of salvation to divinise creation, the Church proposes that only one human, apart from Jesus Christ, in all human history who is immaculately conceived while the rest of humanity is prone to sin. Two points to note. Firstly, that a person is sinful is not new knowledge. Never be surprised by the ability of man to descend to the lowest pits of hell. Secondly, true freedom is best exercised not on our own but best preserved when, like Mary, the creature answers Yes to God’s divine will. And it is this yes to God that begins for each one of us the road to redemption. A person may have a sinful past but no one is condemned to the prison of one’s history. Instead through grace, man is lifted from the darkness of sin into a future of hope. People make mistakes. They are marked by their mistakes but they are never canonised in their mistakes. Original sin is not a blight on human nature. Whether Adam ate the apple or not, humanity was always going to need the Saviour. Since humanity has been vitiated by sin, still, conversion is made possibly by grace. Even the most hardened criminal is loved by God and saved by Christ, if he desires redemption.

In summary, the Immaculate Conception is such an important dogma for us today especially because we seem to have repudiated Original Sin as exemplified by an almost wholesale embrace of cancel culture. As a result of this rejection of Original Sin, faith in the Resurrection makes no sense to a humanity caught in despair of its fallen nature. There is no afterlife because there is no possibility of redemption. Therefore, the Immaculate Conception is even more important for us because its full flowering, which is the Assumption of Mary into heaven, affords us a vision of what is possible when we die in God’s grace. Indeed Mary is the hope of tainted humanity for she is Advent of what is in store for each man, woman and child. She is our sweetness and our hope. Indeed as the poet says, she is tainted humanity’s solitary boast. If ever we want to say to God, “Hey, we are great”, it is never anyone of us, except Mary.

Mary, conceived without Original Sin. Pray for us.

2nd Sunday on Advent Year C 2024

The theme of preparation remains this Sunday even though the focus is shifted to the person of St John the Baptist. For him, vigilance and preparation must include reparation. The voice in the wilderness calls us to make straight the paths of our hearts. Asking for forgiveness does not mean we have no past to amend or to correct.

Christmas is fast approaching and we are definitely excited but in terms of preparing, is it mostly focused on the external? And we have plenty of reminders of how Christmas should look or feel like. They are simply materialistic and emotional. For example, friends have sent me fruit cakes. What do I do with them? Well, I added more brandy so that the cakes can drown in it. As you know, instinctively we are geared towards the physical preparation.

Thus, the 1st Reading is helpful. The Prophet Baruch announced to a people in exile that even in their darkest moment, the Lord has not forgotten them. They will be accompanied by justice and mercy. Those who are exiled, energised by hope, are waiting for God to fulfil His promise. Waiting for God flows into the 2nd Reading. While St Paul may speak of his affection for the Philippians, what is relevant for preparation is how one should be waiting. He exhorts the Philippians to grow more and more into the shape of Christ. In other words, hope is more than just a desire for change in one’s material status. It is also a longing for the conversion of one’s spiritual state.

With a heavily therapeutic cloud hanging over our heads, the care for our health is indeed a paramount concern. Following this focus, perhaps the state of our soul should be a consideration too. The Baptist in the Gospel urged the people to prepare the way for the Lord through the repentance for sins. “Paths are straightened, valleys are filled, mountain and hill be laid low, rough roads are smoothened. Mankind shall see the salvation of God”.

Indeed, the season for a more profound self-examination has return. But this soul-searching is not just an invitation to shine the light on ourselves. In fact, the word repentance can have a rather negative connotation because it is evocative or suggestive of a negative self-examination, a kind of chest-beating self-flagellation. It is not as “Santa Claus is coming to town” suggests, “to find out who has been naughty or nice”. The Gospel is not that. Instead our repentance must come from a positive space, that is, from opening our hearts for Christ to enter. Spiritual preparation is therefore giving space to Christ to be born in our heart. If sin separates us from God, then the return to God signals the repudiation of sin.

Even the Eucharistic Liturgy itself is really an invitation to turn to God with hope and it is more a rejoicing trust than it is a sad personal recrimination. For example, the penitential rite is never meant to be a moment of indulgent self-beating. Instead, we turn our attention to the Lord. Our penitence is based on God’s merciful love coming towards us. Listen to this appeal: “You, O Lord are magnificent in your mercy and for that we ask you, O Lord, have mercy on us”. Contrast this invocation with “We have been bad, Lord, have mercy”. There are two different foci here.

Our penitence is basically a recognition and a praise of God whereas the second is rather “indulgent”. Why? The point is who amongst us has not been bad. At the beginning of Mass, do we enter into His presence by reminding Him who we truly are? Would that be considered a wonderful discovery that we have been bad or that we are totally sinful? The fact is, there is nothing new about our sinfulness and the beginning of Mass might not be the best place for us to highlight that. Instead, if Christ’s sacrifice is anything, the Mass is where we acknowledge, remind ourselves by celebrating God’s goodness to us. That is why we come before Him.

We enter God’s presence not in fear but with confidence in His kindness towards us. Our preparation and reparation might just make better progress if we turn toward God and recognise that it is up to Him to change us. That is why we come to Him all the time despite our failures.

Think about it. We would like to be a better person but a better self is not our gift to God. A better self is God’s gift to us. How to be a better self is when we give space for God to make the changes in us. St Paul is the perfect model for us. He complained of the thorn in his side and asked for God to remove it. The Lord replied that His grace should be sufficient. From that moment on, St Paul left it to the Lord to shape him into a better person. Sadly and this is my reading of l’esprit de l’époque or the spirit of the times. Current philosophy leans heavily on the idea that we are basically good and because of that we can be gifts to God. Coming to Church is simply a good person doing God a favour. Perhaps you can detect this in one particular phrasing of the Act of Contrition? “And because You are so good, I will try not to sin again”. It is true that we have been redeemed but as long as we are here on earth, there will never be a moment when we do not need our Saviour.

In summary, Christmas preparation is still afoot for many of us. Just like the renovation is ongoing in the Cathedral, that is the state of our souls. Change is ongoing. Even as we put up the tree at home to ready ourselves for Christmas, what is central is to remember that the heart should also be prepared for Christ’s coming. Turn our hearts to Christ and offer Him the space that He needs so that we may be a part of the perfect sacrifice that He offers to God our Father.

1st Sunday of Advent Year C 2024

Even though we proclaim Christ as sovereign Ruler of a Kingdom, the truth is that He conquers one heart at a time. This Sunday we are invited to remain attentive as we begin the new liturgical year. Appropriately, in the line up to the drama of Christ’s birth, we are urged to be vigilant. To be watchful is not a stage to arrive at or a level to advance to. Instead it is a state of being, that is, we must continually be on the look-out.

As part of vigilance, we prepare. The 1st Reading speaks of God’s promise. He will fulfil His vow to Israel and Judah. On the side of God, it is certain that He will keep His promise. On our side, it is to be prepared for when that moment arrives. While St Paul highlights the preparation and diligence in terms of holiness and pleasing God, the Responsorial Psalm chimes in by letting us know the God will teach us His path which leads to holiness and pleasing Him.

When it comes to vigilance and preparation, why do we suffer from lapses?

A friend of mine used to tell me this—my memory is perfect but short. Basically, it was his get-out-of-gaol card that he uses every time he forgets to do what he had promised. It is true that our collective memory is short and for that reason, we frequently fail to learn from our past mistakes. History is condemned to repeat itself.

Man easily forgets and the history of Israel is a litany of her amnesia.

A way to forgetfulness is when we view vigilance as a feather in our cap, so much so that when we have become aware, we tend to let our guard down. There is an aspect within the Parable of the Sower that we may overlook. According to the narrative, some seed fall on the wayside. However we are too distracted by the productivity of the other seed that we overlook the fate of the seed that fall by the wayside. These wayside seed symbolise a form of inertia that is spiritually fatal. Those who are content to remain passive make it easy for the devil to pick them off.

Now imagine that everything you do in the Lord seems to be working for you. You attend Mass on Sundays and you dutifully send the children to Sunday catechism, donate to charity, are participative in Church-organised activities. You seem to have arrived and it is easy to think that nothing can touch you. Take it easy because everything appears good but is that enough.

The answer might surprise you but it comes from realm of prayer. We can be praying regularly and yet our prayers are dry. If we do not pray, dryness is at least understandable but why when we are praying and are serious about it, there does not seem to be any palpable affectivity, meaning that we feel nothing at all. Instead there is a deep sense that God is far away. God seems uncaring.

A spiritual director once remarked that such dryness is not a sign of God’s absence but could be an invitation to “duc in altum”, that is, put out into the deep. God is inviting the soul into a deeper relationship with Him. It is an invitation to leave behind the feelings of God, good as they are, in order to embrace the God of feelings. It is a challenge to trust in God for He wants us to progress further into our relationship with Him.

Vigilance is an attentiveness to the promptings of God to enter His space. But the Devil would prefer for us to remain superficial in our relationship with God—to be the seed that fall by the wayside. It benefits him because it makes his work of damnation much easier. The more passive we are, the better for the Devil.

Securing our relationship with God is mirrored in our experience of friendship. We progress from mere acquaintance to friendship. To get there, we exchange our life stories with our new-found friend. There is a natural progression in the path of friendship to enter further into surrender and trust. But how many of us are afraid? We fear losing because the other party cannot be trusted. Since we are fearful, we tend towards superficiality.

Christ invites us to a vigilance that is not superficial. However, in this invitation, He will not and He cannot remove us from trials or tribulations especially as our friendship with Him develops. This is an inconvenient truth because we tend to harbour a notion that relationship with the Lord will shield us from troubles and pain. If anything, relationship with Christ always entails an uphill climb to Calvary. St Teresa of Avila’s gentle retort to Christ is spot on for us. It may be a tongue-in-check reply but it reveals the truth. She was nearly swept away while crossing a river but Christ sustained her and she in her typical manner asked Him when He would stop messing about. His reply that He treats His friends as such only drew a quick retort that maybe it explains His lack of friends.

This anecdote teaches us that despite troubles Christ is never far away even though He would allow us to be tested terribly. Thus, it is part of vigilance to pray for strength and believe that He will keep his promise to us. Vigilance is always keeping our eyes fixed and our hearts focused on Him in good times or in bad.

Christ the King Year B 2024

Have you heard of Klaus Schwab? Maybe we are more familiar with George Soros whom Mahathir accused of damaging the country’s economy because he speculated on the Ringgit prior to the 1997 financial crisis. Anyway, the former, meaning Klaus Schwab, founded the advocacy think-tank called the World Economic Forum in 1971 and annually they meet in Davos, Switzerland. The latter, George Soros, is basically one of the billionaire participants.

Anyway, if you do not know these personalities or their plans, it is not the end of the world. More importantly, does this slogan sounds just about right for you? Building a greener, a fairer and a smarter world. These words describe the Great Reset.

The movement initiated by Klaus Schwab aims to transform the world into a better place that is fair for all. What made this dream closer to reality was the devastation brought about by the Coronavirus pandemic. It presented the perfect platform to jumpstart the world aright.

Perhaps it has escaped the notice of these great thinkers and leaders that the Great Reset is not humanity’s first attempt at “reshaping and unifying” the world. Very early in history, this very alluring idea was hatched when mankind tried to construct the Tower of Babel. The early 1900s saw Marx attempting to forge a fairer system where everyone will have access to what they need. Babel brought disarray into humanity whereas Communism destroyed lives.

Yet somehow mankind cannot help itself when it comes to attempts at setting the world aright. Given our fascination with performance indices, we are inclined to define ourselves through the metrics of achievement. There is an obsession with numbers and as a consequence, the temptation to push for a systemic reset is great. Coupled with this temptation is the hubris, the arrogance that every emerging generation seems to think that it holds the panacea to the ills of the world.

While it is noble to envision a better world, the reality is that systems can only do so much. Take for example, fines. Monetary penalty works to keep behaviour in check. The heftier the fine, the more subservient the citizens. But what if there were no enforcements? Like in this country. We have notices of fines for smoking but never enforced. In general, people tend to revert to their default position. In other words, you can take a monkey out of a jungle but you cannot take the jungle out of a monkey. Fear may be a great motivator but it is basically just that, fear and no more.

The Great Reset does not begin with grand systems. The Great Reset that we yearn for so badly actually belongs to Christ alone. The programme was already put into place two thousand years ago. He died in order to justify and to restore man to God’s favour. The price for that redemption, the Great Reset, was paid with His blood. It is an ongoing programme that continues with His Church through Apostolic Succession. Sadly, we find it hard to believe that there is already a reset or a restoration initiated by the Lord. If “system” is what fascinates us perhaps we should consider embracing His programme and it is His Sacramental system. Unfortunately, our fixation with novelty drives us to search for the better solution as if the Lord’s reset had been deficient.

Nature has been weakened by sin. Christ’s passion, death and resurrection is aimed at restoring our weakened state. To support this goal, His great reset, He left us His Church and His Sacraments. This is the part which is rather mundane and not in any way exciting. Imagine coming for Mass every day. It is a ritual which can be boring but it is there that Christ’s life-giving Sacrament allows me to be part of the Reset. Every Sacrament is Christ Himself making us a part of His programme of restoring the world to the Father.

Thus, the Great Restoration begins with me. It is an intensely personal journey. Becoming a better-quality Catholic is, by far, the most graceful answer to the Great Reset. The two great Sacraments of Reset of the Church are Confession and the Eucharist. One tends to the wounds caused by sin. One provides strength for the journey. Both the Sacraments belong to the life-long process of reorienting our compass in the direction of Christ.

Today we celebrate Christ the King. Discipleship is a daily reality. Like coming back from work and looking after a family—elderly parent who is losing her mind, young children who cannot afford housing. It is mundane and precisely the point. Christ did not conquer the world with the wave of a finger. He conquered the world one heart at a time. He did not conquered classes or races or societies but individual consciences. Temptation is always there to “reinvent” ourselves, as the Great Reset is one example. But as the Psalmist reminds us, “If the Lord does not build, then the labourer shall toil in vain”. Today we turn to the great Architect of the only reset for humanity, Christ the King and from Him we ask for the conversion of heart and the strength to follow Him closely and daily.

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 2024

Ordinary Time is drawing to a close but unlike Year A’s focus on the end time, the spotlight of Year B shines on faith in the midst of tribulation. From trusting in God’s generosity, we continue with the theme of faith in the Lord.

From the perspective of the Readings, discipleship has a cost which can only be paid by faith in the Lord. Without faith in Him, nobody can ever bear the price of discipleship.

Following Christ through trials and tribulations only makes sense if there is an end to our time on earth. The “Eschaton” invites us to think about the afterlife. However, it is a rather uncomfortable issue for some because nobody wants to be reminded of death. Two years ago, a priest from a parish not too distant from here was found dead in the bathroom of the Diocesan Retreat House. His death was most unexpected. It was unnerving. Unwittingly, we tend to run like clockwork. We wake up in the morning to slog or to slave during day and back to sleep at night. We eat from one meal to another. Sometimes even before we have finished eating we are already planning for the next meal. There is a rhythm or cadence to life which we take for granted. All we need is a spanner in the works. We assume that life will run smoothly but a death just throws us off kilter. It was in the aftermath of a death close to the presbyterium that we began to have workshops about our health etc.

But it does not take long for us to revert to our old ways. Until the next untimely death. Whether we like it or not, we need to think about the afterlife. We can go on accumulating but when we are at death’s door, nothing of what we possess materially can pass through that portal. What counts are the good deeds which we have done, the merits we have gathered, not as a guarantee of our entrance into eternal life but as gifts which, by God’s grace, we present to Him. In other words, all the merits we have are His gifts in the first place.

To reach that place, we need to calculate the cost for the journey. Much like going on an extended trip. The destination determines the amount of petrol to pump and also the toll to pay in order to get there. Last Sunday, the two widows gave their all. What are we prepared to sacrifice so that we may enter the gates of eternal life?

In the matter of paying the price of discipleship, we may have “romanticised” it by glamorising it with “blood”. While it is true that martyrdom is bloody yet the best description for it is actually bloodless. What is required is patience that comes from daily living out the call of Christ as in the Shema and the love of neighbour. It is not glamorous at all. It is daily and it is grinding. That is the cost of discipleship.

To give an example. Before marriage, the man and woman have great dreams of their shared life together. Just after their marriage, the couple remains barren despite all attempts to remedy their childlessness. Top that with the debilitating stroke of a spouse that ends with caring for the partner’s daily needs and also balancing the responsibility of being the sole bread winner for the family. This is a bloodless discipleship arising from the vow to remain together “for better or for worse”. It is not glossy or glitzy at all. In fact, such a life weighs upon and wears down a person. It is through difficulties that one gathers merits with the grace of God.

So, when Christ spoke of the end-time, it might seem to us that it is set in the future which we have to watch out for. The truth is the end-time can be closer in the sense that we might just drop death, like the priest in the bathroom mentioned earlier. Or like anyone engaging life like clockwork only to be stopped by an untimely death.

The watchfulness that the Lord asks of us is not as much directed to that specific time in the future as it is focused on our behaviour, our duties, our discipline because we can never tell when the time is for us to make that journey to eternity. Thus, we are called to be mindful that whatever good we can do, we should and we must never waste the many opportunities granted to us to make up and to repent while we can.

This sounds rather forbidding and frightening but if we look at the warnings of Jesus we realise that He is not trying to scare us. The life we have on earth is temporal. Between temporal and eternal, there is no comparison, no measure. If anything, the trials that we undergo is but a blip in the spectrum of eternity. We ought to live for that eternity. It might be better to remember that the end-time is not out there but rather it is in our hearts. Christ’s sacrifice has defeated Satan’s power forever but the battle continues in our hearts. It is there that His victory is to be asserted.

In fact, Christ makes it a point to emphasise that all will pass away. As the author of the Ecclesiastes reminds us, “All is vanity” and so we take heed. What Christ also promises is that He will come again and with Him, our salvation is assured. We should attempt to live as if today is our last day so that when we are called, we have already said our goodbyes. Our hearts are already prepared and we have been longing for the coming of the Lord.

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 2024

Last week, the love of God was paired with the love of neighbour. This week, God’s providence is paired with two widows’ generosity. If love for the Lord is the springboard for our out-reach towards our neighbour, then God’s trustworthy providence is the assurance of our generosity. 

The 2nd Reading seals our guarantee. We have been focussing on Christ as High Priest. But the author also tells us that Christ generously offered Himself as a sacrifice for us. He dared to walk into oblivion knowing that He will never lose because of His Father. Laying down His life as a ransom for us is the ultimate sign of trust in Providence. God is dependable because He spared no expense to provide for our salvation.

On our part, scarcity is a fear of the future. There will never be enough when we are fearful or are uncertain about what the future holds. Fearing future scarcity will limit our generosity. Exactly the situation of the Widow in the 1st Reading. She barely had enough to feed herself and her son. We are afraid to part with what we have and instead we tend to operate from a space of surplus. We give only because we have more than what we need and the best part is that we may even feel generous about it. But consider the sacrifice that saved us was paid with no less than the life of God’s only Son. God held nothing back, giving not from His surplus but of His most precious Son.

It is fascinating that we have so much and yet somehow we feel that there is not enough. In fact, some countries today are experiencing population decline. What brought about this phenomenon?

When the Industrial Revolution took off, machination increased production. Whether life became easier for everyone is debatable. What was evident is that medical science advanced in tandem. What followed was life-expectancy increased and correspondingly child mortality decreased. The result was a spurt in the population growth. The world seemed to have more people but somehow there never seemed to be enough for everyone.

When population growth spiked, the alarm was sounded. Humanity was growing at a pace where it was felt that natural resources would not cope. What we had failed to realised was that the industrial progress had made it possible for food production to increase. Instead the scare was that we will never have enough. This fear resulted in some countries’ attempts to limit population expansion through birth control and family planning that even included forced sterilisation. That programme has been so successful and now these same countries are facing a population decline.

The usual mantra is that the world is incapable of supporting a burgeoning population and have you noticed that our food wastage has also increase exponentially. It just does not add up.

Why?

The model that we have been operating under is one of surplus and not of need. We dare to share only because we have surplus. We are hesitant that if we were to part with what we need, then when the moment arises for what is needed, we do not have enough and we suffer. Perhaps it explains the phenomenon of hoarding. Actually, accumulation represents a kind of fear that when the moment comes, whatever we have, cannot supply for the present need. But hoarding is not limited merely to material goods. Some millionaires and billionaires can be considered hoarders too because they fear inadequacy.

Hoarding is just a way of saying that God does not know how to take care of us. Perhaps it would be a wonderful occasion for priests to preach a “gospel of prosperity” meaning that parishioners should be generous because God can never be outdone in generosity. After all we are in the midst of a renovation, right? But do you know that a “gospel of prosperity” actually misses the point? The generosity suggested still operates from a model of “surplus”. According to this “gospel of prosperity”, the person who gives a lot would still be giving out of surplus and not out of need. Do we give to God what we have and do not need any more OR do we give to Him what we have even though we need it? Again, like the Widow and her son of the 1st Reading who were supposed to eat what they had and then die but she obeyed Elijah by surrendering what she needed.

In other words, dare we hand our hearts and our wills, our whole selves to the Lord? That means everything we hold dear, our family, our loves, our joys or our careers. Do we dare to place all in God’s hands to do with them according to His will. Like Jesus walking into death’s embrace for He knows that the Father is ever there for Him. That is the lesson for today. God does not need anything we can give Him. After all, what have we that we have not received in the first place? In fact, everything belongs to Him. Giving back to Him is nothing more than surrendering to the rightful owner. But like Jesus who walked into His death, God wants us to depend on Him.

To be generous even with what we need is a kind of grace. It is a fortitude in facing the future not with fear but with confidence. Fear is certain that scarcity is around the corner whereas faith is a strength that believes abundance awaits because the God whom we trust will never let us down.

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 2024

Today the teaching of Christ highlights the great Shema of Dt. 6:4 and the love of neighbour of Lev. 19:18. How to navigate the love of God and neighbour?

We have a dilemma. The world appears to be on the brink of a war. Looking back at 1914, who would have thought the murder of an Archduke in Sarajevo could have reshaped the world. Now Israel and Iran are digging deep into their trenches, the former in self-defence and the latter intent on annihilation. On top of the spectre of a global conflict we are reminded that the planet is ravaged by climate change while the affluent West is inundated by economic migrations.

In other words, our attention is held sway by “hunger”. Whatever crises we face, be it an armed conflict, economic migration or even climate change, the stomach is involved. There will be hunger whenever a disaster strikes. Where is God in all these?

Today Jesus taught in the Temple emphasising the Great Commandment. We are in a bind. What does it mean to love a God who is absent at best or helpless at worst? Religion is mostly irrelevant and people shy away from organised religion. Increasingly people defined themselves as spiritual but not religious. In a meaningful “spiritual” realm, away from the control of organised religions, God, if there is one, should be a benevolent force. Thus, our definition of a compassionate God necessarily excludes His sovereignty. It means that if He exists, then it is His responsibility to affirm us and to ensure that we feel good about ourselves. In such a “spiritual” realm, God is the ultimate “therapist”.

The truth is, God is sovereign. If we can “define” ourselves, that would necessarily mean that God should be “defined” too. Given such a scenario, our self-definition might not fit in with God’s self-revelation. There is a possibility that we may not be included in His life, not that He needs us. This should give us pause to re-think our idea of who God is. He exists but not to prop us up. He is not our “therapist”.

Moreover, the dilemma we have with God is supplied by an urgency of a global magnitude. We experience how bad the world is and God seems to be silent or helpless even. Thus we set the question up. “How can you love a God whom you cannot see if you do not love the brother whom you can see?”. This question draws our attention to the glaring problems that we have before us. Hunger creates conflicts and also human migration. We want to solve this human ecological crisis.

Perhaps a better way to frame the need for action is to reorient ourselves with regard to the problems that we face. Jesus who laid down His life for His friends did not do it as a proof of His love for the Father. Rather it was His love for the Father that enabled Him to freely to lay down His life.

This should be how we approach the question of the love of our neighbour. The notion that we can create a world free from hunger and totally just or fair is appealing and seductive. However, the pantheon of canonised saint did not achieve sanctity from this great idea. Each became a saint because he or she had a personal love for Jesus. Their love for Christ fired their unreserved charity towards their brothers and sisters.

The ability to love a God whom one cannot see has a powerful effect. There are great people who are able to love even if they have no relationship with God. They are philanthropists and the world is packed with them. From this, it is easy to see how the love of neighbour has become the proof for the love of God.

The Shema is a call to each Christian to fall in love with God, not an idea of God nor even a wonderful idea of humanity. Perhaps what is radically wrong in the world today is that we have forgotten that love should flow from God to humanity. It remains our dilemma because it is never possible to convert the world to an ideology of good. Any attempt to make everybody loving in order to achieve a greater good will only result in human misery. Thus, the saying is true that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

It is rightly so that when we love God, there should be a kind of visibility to that love. The proof of our love flows into the love of the neighbour. That is the correct direction. If there is no love for our neighbour, maybe the question to ask is if one has truly loved God or rather what sort of relationship do we have with the God we love.

We desire a better world as we should and the only way to change is when enough humanity has fallen in love with God. Christianity as an effective force for good depends on this love of God. He is the reason that missionaries dared to fan out into the world to spread the Gospel and to share the love of Christ.

An example might illustrate how the love for God flows into the love for neighbours. Which is easier to order? Char Koay Teow. Or Char Koay Teow but no taugeh, without lap cheong, “see hum” must be cooked and fried with duck’s egg. If you were to “tapau” food, it is much easier to just say to the uncle, “Tapau, Char Koay Teow, two packets”. But it is definitely more mouthful to give that special instruction CKT. If the person were someone you truly love, it would not be a problem. You go and you even ensure that the CKT uncle complied with your instructions. But if it were someone whom you have no love for, you would find listing the exceptions an inconvenience and might even resent the person’s fussiness.

Likewise, in the matter of organised religion, complete with rules and regulations, when there is no love, everything will come across as impositions. But when we are in love, nothing is ever too much. The love of God and of neighbour are not equal loves. In order to fully love our neighbours, the challenge is to recover our love for the person of Jesus Christ.

To love your neighbour as yourself may be feel like the best recipe for social change especially if we think love can be programmed into actions like a machine can be programmed to run. We continually want to reshape the world by the dint of our will-power and thus through our machinations. We do possess technology that can increase food production. We can feed the world all over but why are we not doing it? The truth remains that without loving Jesus, we will be doomed to failure. Therefore, if we want to transform the world, then we must be inflamed by the love of Christ. There is no other way to love Him except to spend time with Him, through personal prayer, through scripture and silence, through the Eucharist and through Adoration.

All Saints’ Day 2024

Today we celebrate our saints who are mostly unnamed.

A particular Christian sect literally reads the Revelation and believes that only 144,000 people will be saved. Thankfully, the Apocalypse is more hopeful because it also describes “a huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language; they were standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands”.

Two essential things to note.

Firstly, for every saint the Church has canonised, there are many more who are uncanonised. They do not live quiet lives of desperation but rather quiet lives of unsung heroism. They may not be acknowledged by man but they are definitely known to God. He alone knows their struggles and tribulations for “these are the people who have been through the great persecution, and they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb” and now they sing, “Victory to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”.

Secondly, we live in hope. The Saints enjoy the fullness of God’s love. Those on earth are hoping to share in that plenitude of love. We are struggling to get there. Thus, the Saints are beacons of hope because they know our struggles. They continue to pray for us and also to pray for the souls in purgatory. Both the souls in purgatory and those of us who are on earth are either waiting to enter or are still on a pilgrimage to the Beatific Vision. Like the Saints in heaven doing good on earth, so too our brothers and sisters in Purgatory who are praying for us. While they can and do pray for the living, what is lacking for them is that they are totally dependent on the Saints and those of us on earth to pray for them.

An interesting quote might help us appreciate how one can be a saint. “Some people are just born to fight. It is not that they are born brave. It is not that they are born strong. It is just that the universe has decided that this one, this one will have grit and fire and steel in their blood. And it will be tested, this cosmic mettle of theirs. They will face trial after trial, be broken and damaged in countless ways. But this one was born to fight. Maybe it is not the life they would have chosen. Maybe they would love to lay down their arms. But they were born to fight. It is what they know. It is what they do best. It is all they can do”.

But here is the kicker. The difference between a person born to fight and a saint is grace. A person may have grit and guts but without grace it is just brute force. No effort of our own can ever propel us to sanctity. What we need is God’s grace. His grace is our strength and our hope. Julius Caesar writing a letter to the Roman Senate referred to his swift victory over his opponents, allegedly wrote, “Veni, vidi, vici” translated “I came, I saw, I conquered”. The Saints have conquered but they teach us what it means to be graced by God and with greater humility they will paraphrase Caesar, “I came, I struggled, I conquered” with the assistance of God.

In remembering the saints, we also celebrate the vocation of sanctity that every Christian is invited to. As we remember our many unknown Saints, we affirm our belief that we too have been called to holiness and we confess that by the grace of God, we too can be raised to the altar of sanctity.

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 2024

As Jesus was poised to enter Jerusalem, He encountered Bartimaeus, the blind beggar. What can we learn from this encounter?

Of the many persons helped by Jesus, we get to know the beggar’s name indicating that he could have been an important personality. In fact, outside the inner circle of Christ’s disciples, this man, even though visually impaired, was alert intuitively or spiritually to the presence of the Saviour.

In Bartimaeus’ appeal to Christ, we catch an echo of the Penitential Rite at Mass. “Jesus Son of David, have mercy on me”. “Eleison me, eleison me” translated becomes the familiar “Kyrie eleison”, that is, “Lord, have mercy (on me)”. This plaintive cry of Bartimaeus can help us take a look at who we truly are and what we need most.

Bartimaeus shows us that we need God more than we realise. The overarching theme provided by the first and second readings is our creaturely helplessness. In Jeremiah, the Israelites were exiled and vulnerable. It was God who led them to freedom. In restoring the Israelites, God revealed Himself to be the Father of a people. In Hebrews, Jesus the High Priest can empathise with our helplessness and weakness because He is a man like us except for the inclination to sin.

At every turn, man is helpless, especially in the area of sin and salvation. We may have bionic capabilities propped up by technological mastery but when it comes to saving ourselves we are beggars like Bartimaeus. The beauty of this blind man was not only his sensing of who Jesus is but despite the attempts to silence him, he still cried out to Jesus all the louder. Beneath the cry for healing was a firm faith supplied by the title “Son of David”. Faith in the Saviour saved him.

He is a symbol of a humanity that is disabled by sin and whose only recourse is to throw itself at the mercy of the Saviour. As sinners we are unable to save ourselves but must depend on God alone.

In the case of Bartimaeus, his faith is immense. After Jesus called him, he shook off his cloak and went towards the Lord. Such was his confidence in Jesus’ ability to heal. If the miracle did not materialise, one wonders how Bartimaeus could find his cloak. The cloak is like our security blanket and forsaking it signals the courage to leave behind one’s comfort. Sometimes we can be canonised in our sins because we know no better.

The nature of sin is not only its addictiveness. It could also be a form of security. We cling to sins because we dare not let them go. It is like a security blanket and therefore it is not merely a case of faith or a lack of it, as if we have no faith. The challenge for modern man is that our faith is often limited by our capacity to control. Since we are self-made, we pride ourselves on the ability to control our destiny which means we tend to shun helplessness. We even resent the state of helplessness because it is a sign of weakness. A self-help generation trusts God only in as much as it trusts ourselves. In other words, we turn to God only because we cannot do things for ourselves.

A good illustration is provided by our political experiences. Think about palace plotting, or party politicking, or clerical conspiracy. While we consider them weaved into our social fabric but manoeuvring is a symptom of our need to be in control. Thus, the election of the Pope is never an innocent affair because certain quarters will try to manipulate the outcome. Intrigues and politicking are indications of the lack of faith and our need to be in charge. We are fearful that God cannot be depended on and so set ourselves to supply what God is incapable of doing for us. We want to be in control.

While we may want to direct our destiny, still we can never save ourselves. The Israelites and Bartimaeus are lessons to learn. They mirror our need for God and His salvation.

Finally, Bartimaeus asked to see. Sight or vision is not merely a physical faculty but it also to have the eyes of faith, that is, to see what is proper. Our notion of vision is basically that of an ability or capacity to see. Fair enough? But is that the function of sight? Perhaps a question might just clarify this for us. We have fundamentally become a pornographic generation. It is so because smut is acceptable, accessible, affordable and anonymous. Consider these two options. Between being blind and being able to watch porn, which would you choose? The correct answer should be: I choose to be blind rather than to offend God with the faculty of seeing.

In the case of Bartimaeus, there appears to be no difference between seeing and not seeing. He was blind and yet he already recognised Jesus. So if we cry out like the blind beggar, then our desire, that is, what we most need, is to see Jesus our Lord so that we can be saved. As we inch closer to Jesus, we grow deeper in the awareness of His presence in the lives of others, most especially in the lives of those who are poor and outside the ambit of our vision, the vision of society.

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 2024.

The themes of the last few weeks seem to coalesce together this Sunday. There was the disciples’ discussion that centred on who the greatest would be. The previous Sunday Jesus lamented on how tough it is for those with possessions and riches to enter the Kingdom of heaven.

Today two brothers compete to sit on either side of Jesus. The context for all these exchanges and teachings that follow remains the impending Passion that Jesus will face. For Christians, the road to triumph must always be preceded by Calvary. In other words, there is no glory without suffering but the disciples seemed to suffer from selective hearing. While they zoomed in on the victory, Christ continued to point to the reality of His Passion.

The 1st Reading shines a spotlight on the Passion of the Suffering Servant. Like a Holy Week’s Good Friday follow-up, our iniquities are laid upon Him and we are saved by His Passion. In the midst of trials and tribulations, the Responsorial Psalm assures us that no one, most especially the servant who trusts in God, will be forsaken.

Interestingly for us is our take on or understanding of power and the glory that accompanies it. For Jesus, suffering comes with the territory of power. For us, we are enamoured by power’s control and capability, that is, the power to command and move things. Within this perspective, power is equated with dominion. For example, there are laws but how often have they been swept away because the one who has power decreed otherwise, giving the impression that the powerful are above the laws.

Poets are perhaps like the little boy who can see the Emperor or power for its nakedness. The two siblings who sought coveted positions believed that prominence will grant them dominion over the rest. Shakespeare could have set them right. “Uneasy is the head that wears a crown”. But Jesus goes a step further. Now, instead of supremacy, He equates superiority with service, meaning that it is a privilege to serve rather than to be served and the greatest distinction of one’s service comes from bearing suffering on account of another. A good illustration is whenever Americans encounter a member of the arm services, they have this tradition of saying “Thank you for your service.” Whether they support a war or not, the soldiers who have had their limbs blown off are taking one for the team.

If we think about it, all personal power must come to an end. In fact, power is ephemeral or fleeting, none more obvious than in the “after” or the lame-duck period that we are familiar with. The best case in point is President Biden. He is the most apt figure that “nature abhors a vacuum”. As soon as he exhibited public frailty, the power players behind him started plotting and manoeuvring to rid him. Now he is nothing more than a shadow of his past. Every king or anyone who has powers knows that at the end, there will be others who rule over him or her. Rightly so in the post-Resurrection scene by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus told Peter that in the end, people will lead him to where he would rather not go.

If power is fleeting, then power’s greatest expression should never be to dominate but to expend itself for the greatest good and that is to serve. Jesus told the disciples in John’s Gospel that the most profound love one has is to lay down one’s life. This magnificent expression of Christianity renders the words “love, power and service” interchangeable.

If we are powerful, how should we love or serve?

In general, our ruling elites are an embarrassment. A consolation is that our country is not special as if we have a monopoly of the most corrupt politicians in the world. In every corner of the cosmos, the scenario is repeated. Instead of serving, the ruling class has no difficulties with selfishness, concerned only with their own welfare and enriching themselves.

To serve is not alien to us. The truth is that the third leg of the human economy today stands on services provided. Some island economies geared towards tourism even depend entirely on the service industry. Airlines, banks and hotels are prime instances of this third sector of the economy. The challenge is to decouple service from fiducial consideration. At present, excellent service comes with a price. You get what you pay for.

But we are familiar with the excellent service that comes from our dedication to Christ. Catholic hospitals and schools were built upon the example of Christ’s hospitality. It was possible at one time to render free services because missionary brothers and sisters gave their entire lives to orders or institutions that provided gratuitous services. They drew their inspiration from their King who lived as a servant.

The decoupling between power and prominence in Jesus Christ is seen as strength and service, or better still, the strength to serve. He uses His power and authority always for others and never for His personal gain. A true leader serves others and never himself or herself knowing that the reward for him or her cannot be supplied by this world.

In a culture bent on self-promotion, the Gospel proposes a better option to the need for recognition. Who better to acknowledge us than God the Father? It is to Him we turn and from Him we receive the fullest affirmation. For Jesus, assured and secured in the Father’s embrace, the service of the vulnerable became the true expression of power. The reward promised for those who lay down their lives can only be claimed beyond this life. Lest we feel insecure and uncertain with this truth, we only have to look to Christ in Whom the instrument of shame and subjugation has become the source of strength and life. He who laid down His life for others became the Lord and Saviour of all humankind. In the Cross be my glory ever!