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.