2nd Sunday of Lent Year A 2026

There is supposed to be a pause this weekend. Not for the Chinese or Lunar New Year. Instead, the Sunday readings in Year A form the dynamics for the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. It used to be called RCIA, where R stands for Rite. I guess a name change may have been necessary because RCIA has jocularly come to mean Roman Catholics in Agony. However, the true reason for the change is that the Vatican mandated it because the word “Order” is closer to the original Latin title which is “Ordo Initiationis Christianae Adultorum”. The word “Rite” suggests a single event whereas the word "Order” better reflects a process that consists of multiple rites, steps, and periods of formation.

Anyway, today’s supposed pause is not taking place because we have the Rite of Election. This Election should have taken place last week on the 1st Sunday of Lent but then travel would have been impossible on account of the Chinese New Year traffic. After last Sunday, the Catechumens, who are preparing for baptism will be called the “Elect” after the Rite.

The spotlight of the 1st Sunday of Lent was shone on the three temptations. After His baptism in the Jordan, Jesus was led or rather driven to the desert where He was tempted by Satan. The Rite of Election signals this movement for it is the beginning of the last leg of the journey for the catechumens. These few weeks will be marked by intense preparations for baptism which involvepurification and enlightenment. Those preparing for baptism are chosen or elected by God, just like Jesus was led by the Spirit. The season of Lent mirrors the Elect’s refinement and conversion.

Jesus chose God resolutely throughout the ordeal of His temptations. The Elect are supposed to imitate that resolve. And this brings us all to the pause which is the Gospel today. Last week was the supposed Rite of Election and next week, the Scrutinies begin. The pause today is Jesus on Mount Tabor. He had predicted His death as well as taught His disciples about the costs of discipleship. The experience on top of Tabor for the 3 closest followers, Peter, James and John is instructive for us. This pause allowed them to catch a glimpse that for Jesus, death is never the end. It is a prelude to the Resurrection.

The Transfiguration is a phenomenon which is otherworldly. It provides a sense of what to expect in the next life. It is not a trip to fantasyland. Why? If the period after the Rite of Election is considered to be intense, then expect that life will lean a bit more towards trials and tribulations. Unfortunately, this is not a persuasive proposition according to present psychology which is organised along the principle of practicality and the prevention of pain. We want convenience and we avoid suffering.

Our Catholic world used to be at home with the idea of suffering but not entirely from the perspective of just dessert, that is, we deserve to suffer. Rather, we are at home with suffering because it is inevitable. Suffering is a consequence of a broken world which means we cannot escape suffering. And yet it is not hopeless.

Instead suffering can be transformative because we can unite our trials and tribulations with the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross so that good may be wrought from evil. It is only possible to embrace suffering because it is not the definitive mark or ultimate conclusion of who we are. On Mount Tabor, Peter, James and John caught hold of this truth about suffering and about our subsequent glory.

Calvary would be meaningless and all that Jesus taught would be useless unless we have the Resurrection. In an age gone by, the belief that we will ultimately shake off eternal death kept us grounded in the sense that it provided hope even as we endure suffering. Have you ever felt like you were in a wrong marriage? I am not criticising the present age. I am wondering why the earlier generations remained married despite the fact that couples quarrelled a lot. Without the assurance of the Resurrection our suffering has no meaning. Without the Resurrection, the vows to stay together in good times and bad do not make sense at all. The thought of heaven gives strength and sustains us, even those who think they were in a wrong marriage, because we know that defeat here on earth is not the final chapter. Look at how the martyrs faced their death without hesitation. Their loss of life here was never an annihilation.

Mind you. Nobody should suffer. Nobody deserves to suffer. Yet we do and some of us more than the others. And why did God allow for it? This is the mystery which man has been struggling to comprehend ever since the Prophet Job.

My younger brother who has an autistic son. When Mom was alive, my sister and my younger brother took turns looking after her in her illness whereas my older brother provided the financial support. My three siblings shouldered the responsibility of caring for Mom and when it was time for my younger brother to marry, he was blessed with a son who is autistic. It was as if life could not cut him a break as he transitioned from caring for a sick mother and to a highly dependent child. My sister responded to my lamentation when I asked why it had to be like that. She said, “Because God knows he has a heart big enough to love an autistic child”.

Not sure if my brother and his wife felt like they struck lottery and there are many amongst us who know the feeling of abandonment and how God is so far away. A cancer patient, a debilitating stroke, an auto-immune degenerative disease, facing financial ruin. I can assure you, none feels blessed. Cursed, most certainly. Therefore, the Transfiguration is crucial. It does not remove pain or suffering. It does not make life easier. But it does give us hope in the midst of our trials and tribulations.

Christ dazzlingly white garments is a promise that no defeat can hold on to us forever. The promise of the Resurrection is the reason why suffering, terrible as it may be, can be borne with courage and fortitude. Look at Carlos Acutis. Therese Lisieux. Bernadette Soubirous. All suffered and died from terminal illnesses. Today, the Transfiguration invites us to look beyond the dazzling display to our destiny which is the Resurrection. It is for this reason that we invite the Elect join us on this journey, in this pilgrimage beyond Tabor even as we fortify ourselves to bear whatever anguish or agony that life has for us here on earth.

1st Sunday of Lent Year A 2026

Do you remember plasticine? Children today use another term for it. "Play Doh". You buy them and they come in different colours that you can sculpt, slice and shape them into figures. After a while the clay loses its colours because the plasticine is pressed together into a dough. Worse still, the amorphous blob will acquire dirt from whatever surface it is moulded on. We will return to the plasticine shortly.

The 1st Sunday of Lent is a powerful reminder of who we are. Jesus is led into the desert after His baptism in the River Jordan. There in the wilderness, and for 40 days, He was tempted by the Devil. As a descendant of Adam, Jesus through fighting against temptations, overturned the disobedience of Adam. As the 2nd Reading reminds us that sin entered human history through one man and now the new Adam will bring grace and give life to humanity.

The Gospel’s Temptations represent the 2nd Adam’s resolve to stand against Satan. Whereas the 1st Adam folded on account of pride, Christ showed humility through dependence on God. “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God”.

Reflecting on Christ’s Temptations in the desert is a good start to Lent. Our experience playing with plasticine reveal a certain innocence or naïveté of modern mindset. In a description that we have been given regarding the synodal process on how the Church can face the world, the assumption is that humanity or if you like, the People of God, is like plasticine, pure matter to be shaped or moulded into whatever the image of the Church that we desire.

Alas, the Temptations remind us that matter is not amoral or neutral. Just like the plasticine that we knead or roll on the table to shape or to form, they pick up a lot of dirt from the surface. The point is, we are not innocent because nature and humanity have been tainted by sin. This is a reality that we have to accept if Lent were to mean something. Will-power alone is not enough to make something out of us. Instead we are sinners and we carry within us the rebellion that despite the best of intentions, we freqently do not behave according to what we are supposed to.

Our misguided motivations are represented by the three Temptations. Gluttony or materialism. Vanity or pride. Power or idolatry. We are tempted always towards one of these sins. Sometimes when people come for confession, they lament that they are afflicted by repeated sins. I would simply ask them, “Would you prefer to have another sin?”.

It sounds like I am making fun of them but no. The grass is greener yonder meaning that at times we can feel as if ours is the only sin which is so heinous. Truth is, if you are not greedy, then you might be vain. Everyone struggles with his or her favourite sin. And most of our other sins pivot around the main sin we have, be it greed, pride or idolatry.

Thus, the desert symbolises purification. In the wilderness of Lent, bereft of our usual comforts we learn to recognise and be aware of what our main sin is and to resolve, with the grace of God, through confession and the Eucharist, to overcome it. Sometimes, our pet sin changes over time. It is said that a young priest or religious will struggle with sins attached to the vow of chastity or if not, the vow of poverty. But over time the predominant drive will evolve. Older religious or priest will recognise that their sin is not chastity and it may not be vanity. Rather it is disobedience. The older a priest or a religious gets, the less a he or she wants to obey. It is the sin of pride. When we grow older and more set in our ways, we tend to be cocksure about our knowledge and that we are right all the time, and etc.

The Temptations illustrate or reveal a human condition that has been tainted by Original Sin. Weakened, we are prone to sin. Man is both a spiritual and a bodily being. Animals are basically bodily or corporeal by nature. They cannot be tempted by the Devil because they do not possess a rational soul capable of recognising, choosing or rejecting good or evil. What the Devil may do is to use animals or anything of the material world but he cannot tempt them. Only human beings can be tempted in the moral and spiritual sense because we possess an intellect which is able to discern right from wrong, good from evil.

Thus, the Devil like a roaring lion goes about prowling and looking for souls to devour. We should not let our guards down. Depending on our weakness he will target us. The more resolute we are, the more relentless he will be. We should never be discouraged because we have the example of Christ.

In the desert, He showed us the way to overcome temptation. He prayed and He fasted. These are two out of the three pillars of Lent. We pray to strengthen our relationship with God. We pray because the surest way to eternal life is to recognise our dependence on God. We fast because our appetites are unruly. Fasting tames our desires by delaying gratification. Self-denial is not self-hatred. It is learning to love oneself in the right measure. In fact, self-denial may also help us to love others in ways which are appropriate or owed to them. Actually, a statement about loving others sounds alien to ears schooled or socialised by “the greatest love of all is to love yourself”.

In summary, the experience of Christ in the desert teaches an existential truth that firstly, we are fundamentally dependent on God. The sooner we learn it, the better. Secondly, the love of others, which is the 3rd pillar of Lent is realised through self-discipline and self-denial. The greatest love is not how Whitney Houston characterised it, to love yourself. The greatest love is witnessed through Christ’s laying down His life for sinners. At the end of 40 days, Jesus was exhausted but He was not abandoned. He was attended to by the angels. That is our assurance and consolation. In conclusion, Lent has to be exasperating or vexing or overwhelming. Like I have joked about it. Meat tastes better on Friday because the more sinful an act is, the more delicious it feels. The more we want to abstain, the more we are tempted to eat meat. Despite the relentlessness of the devil’s attacks, we will never be forsaken by God because He will not test us beyond our limits. If we feel that God has abandoned us, it is a temptation egged on by the Devil himself. Hold fast and stand firm. Your salvation is at hand.

Dedication of the Cathedral 2026

The Church in France, particularly in the Île de France, held a council recently. The region of Paris has seen a surge in the number of baptisms particularly of the young and they wanted to find ways to accompany these catechumens and neophytes. Is there a co-relation here? When the Notre Dame de Paris burnt down, there was this nationalistic push to rebuild the iconic sacred building to reflect the France of modernity etc. Yet what won out was not a construction but a restoration of a monument to its glorious past. Notre Dame is a sacramental renaissance or rebirth of a living building.

Post-Vatican 2, we seemed to have created a chasm, a divide between the building, a sacramental icon, and the people and we view the congregation as more important than the building itself. But buildings are alive especially when people occupy them. There is a difference between an unused building and a disused one. An unused building is just one that has never been used. Whereas a disused building brings up a different connotation, that a building that was once alive is now decaying or dying. The tendency to downgrade sacred buildings is done without realising that both the edifice and the people are connected. Perhaps there is link between the restored Notre Dame and the increase in the number of baptisms especially of young people.

The flow of the Readings and Gospel makes this clear. The 1st Reading gives a description of the physical place where the Ark rested. It is a building; a temple filled with God’s glory. However, the 2nd Reading shifts God’s physical temple into our bodies, into the faithful congregation. Each one of us is now the temple of the Holy Spirit. Imagine that! In the 1st Reading, a temple houses the Spirit of God, whereas, in the 2nd Reading, the person becomes the sanctuary of God's Spirit. Finally, the Gospel redirects our attention to heaven where there will be no need of buildings or bodies to be temples because we are already beholding God Himself. Again, in the presence of reality, the sign disappears.

This Cathedral was erected some 45 years ago and today it is our 44th anniversary. The walls, the altar and the whole building were consecrated to God. In the past, buildings were meant to stand the test of time. Today, sadly so, buildings seem to have an expiry-date built into them. Look at Coronation Park. Once completed the erected towers will gleam and exude newness or manifest a modernity that reflects the latest state of the architecture. Give them 20 years and they will not radiate a sense of timelessness. Instead they will simply look tired and ugly. This is the difference. Structures built to last send a message of assurance and dependability. What this Cathedral has retained is its structure or skeleton, almost intact. The rest is just the augmentation and beautification. The originality can be observed in the 12 lit candles on the wall.

Following the readings and seeing the lit candles we get a sense of what a Sacrament is. Outward sign of inward grace. The twelve consecration candles around the Cathedral are lit as they should be each time we celebrate the anniversary of her dedication. From this year onwards, as long as I am the parish priest, the candles will be lit, altogether 5 times a year. Apart from the anniversary of the dedication, they will be lit at the Easter and Pentecost Vigils, at the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and at the Christmas midnight Mass. They serve to remind us that not only was the Cathedral set apart, consecrated, made holy as a place where heaven and earth meet but the lit candles remind us also of a profound reality: Through our baptism, we have been consecrated, set apart, and given the light of Christ to carry into the world.

Both the building and the people are central to our understanding of the Church as the Body of Christ. Since we gather at the Cathedral, we must find a way to make our Cathedral truly shine forth with the light Christ. Firstly, the building should breathe not just with practicality but it should exude beauty. If the restored Notre Dame has something to teach us, it is that our Cathedral should be a living building, that is, living and breathing Christ’s presence. That means the people inside should be the breath of the Spirit alive in the world.

Start with simple realities. The pews. People are scratching and leaving their graffities there. The toilets. They are new but already there are complaints how dirty they are etc. We look after our personal belongings, right? Maybe start with the idea that this is our personal pew or toilet even though they are publicly used. When a public area is viewed as a private space, people tend to more care into it. A good example is in the many Tamans we have. Sometimes a house owner takes care of the area outside his or her house by cultivating the small patch with vegetables etc. That public space, or garden plot or fruit orchard, becomes beautiful because there is a personal touch to it. It is that personal investment that we should bring into the Cathedral. After Mass, watch out for used tissue paper. Yes, we have a team of people who clean the place. But the volunteers are human beings for he or she is someone’s daughter or father. They are neither servants nor slaves. When you deal with your loved ones, do you throw rubbish for them to pick up? No. If you can think that the lady who cleans the pews is your mother, you might be less inclined to leave your used tissue in the pews.

When we say that the soul is the Temple, it just means the Cathedral is truly a sacred space. If our body is set apart for God, nothing should soil the soul. Likewise, the Cathedral space. Every time we see these walls, every time we admire the stained glass or hear the echoes of chants, or the peals of bells, we should remember that these things are signs pointing us back to the real temple: Christ dwelling in His people. Let us continue to grow as a people of grace, inside and outside. Most especially with care for our interactions with the inhabitants in this Taman.

In driving the money-changers out of the Temple, Christ challenged them to tear down the Temple so that He can rebuild it in three days. He was referring to Himself as the Temple. Our Lord is our new and true Temple. Thus, the Cathedral is a sacrament pointing us to the eternal realm where Christ will be reunited fully with His Body the Church. If through Baptism, we are grafted into His body, than through the Eucharist, His life flows into ours so that we can be the living stones of His Temple.

As we give thanks for forty-four years of grace in this parish, for the sacraments celebrated here, for the community built up here, for the prayers offered here, each one recommits himself or herself to being a true temple, a people of God, consecrated, filled with His Spirit, built upon the foundation of Christ. These consecration candles that burn today remind us that once a baptismal candle was lit for us and like the Wise Virgins, we are called to keep its flame alive until the day Christ welcomes us into His eternal temple in heaven.

Ash Wednesday 2026

Yesterday was the first day of Chinese New Year. Today we are slapped with the start of Lent, that is, Ash Wednesday. Almost like a rude awakening. What can we say of Ash Wednesday being the 2nd day of Chinese New Year?

I touched on relationships yesterday at the CNY Mass. Today we can concentrate on the three pillars of Lenten practices which in themselves are pointing us in the direction of relationships. The three pillars of our Lenten practices are praying, fasting and alms giving. Firstly, in praying, we recognise our need for God and that we are nothing without Him. Secondly, through fasting, we discipline our unruly appetites so that our desires can be rightly ordered. Thirdly, when we give alms, we acknowledge our solidarity with other human beings and that we bear responsibility for each other.

Both the Chinese or Lunar New Year and Lent all coincide with the season of spring which is a time of renewal and the three pillars of Lent remind us that our renewal is not exterior but interior. As the 1st Reading suggests, “Rend your hearts and not your garments” or according to our translation “let your hearts be broken and not your garments torn”, we are called to renewal. If hitherto we have merely expressed it externally, then we should let what we do be accompanied by an inner renewal. New clothes does not a new man make.

One of the sacramental reminders we have for the interior renewal called for are the ashes on our foreheads. The formula which many are accustomed during the imposition is rather benign and insipid almost. “Repent and believe in the Gospel”. I might as well tell a person “Go! Be loving”. Whereas the more ancient or traditional formula reads like this: “Remember that you are dust and unto dust you shall return”. This formula lends an air of urgency because queueing up to receive the ashes on the forehead, one is reminded of the time between the reception of the ashes and the time when one becomes a part of the ashes. How much time do we have and what to make of the time between receiving the ashes and becoming the ashes.

The ashes may have come from burning our old palms but ash is ash. What is to prevent us from using the same ashes that can be collected from a crematorium. At the crematorium, the cremains collected are not all of a person’s which if we want, we could use the remaining ashes of a burnt corpse. Therefore ashes are the appropriate reminder of firstly, the contingency of life. Here one day, gone the next day. We are most at danger when we think that we still have time because our life can be snatched away in an instant. The use of ashes is truly a reality check. This leads us to point number two. The renewal should be now and not later. Renewal is not just an event but a process that we enter into again and again. One thing that discourages us is when we conceive of renewal only as an event. As if, once converted, we will remain sinless and when we sin again, we are immediately discouraged. It is a Pelagian mindset which sees not sinning or being sinless as an act of our own rather than our cooperation with God’s grace.

Actually, our experience of the Sacrament of Confession can illuminate the way we should approach the process of conversion. We go for Confessions regularly because renewal is a life-long process. It is very much like we eating every day to sustain our physical life. Sadly, our self-made philosophy tends to see perfection from the perspective of our machination or the manner we are able to do things. This is reminiscent of the construction of the Tower of Babel. Would it not be nice to be able present ourselves as a complete present of perfection to God. Think about it for a moment. Babel, in a way, is a symbol of a self-made and technologically-driven culture which aspires to be independent of God and dreams of being able to look God in eyes as equals. I dare (or I am only worthy) to come (to stand) before God because I have no sin.

What is good about Ash Wednesday is that it is not a day of obligation and yet sometimes we do hear people confessing the sin of missing Mass on Ash Wednesday. So, why is reception of ashes so important even though it is not a day of obligation? The answer might be found in our gut-feeling. We instinctively recognise that no matter what we do, without God’s grace, we can never merit perfection as a gift to Him. We are nobody without God. We are aware of the reality that we are sinners and we measure up to nothing if God were not present in our lives. The ashes on our forehead powerfully remind us of this reality. Therefore, lower our pride and let this Lent be a humble return to God.

Chinese New Year Homily 2026

I really do not like to celebrate this event. Do not get me wrong. I love and enjoy Chinese New Year or to be more embracing of other East Asian cultures, Lunar New Year. I like it because I have fond memories of gathering with my cousins and gambling the nights away. They were not for the sake of winning or money. Gambling was camaraderie. It was fraternal sharing and familial bonding.

What I do not like is to celebrate this event as a religious one because it clashes with my devout practices. The Lunar New Year is basically an agrarian festival that marks the change in season otherwise known as the spring festival. The fact is that Christianity already has liturgical feast to mark this change of seasons which we recognise to be Ash Wednesday. Thereafter we enter into Lent whose etymology means the lengthening of the day as winter gives way to spring.

This year is a close shave. The second day of Chinese New Year, which is tomorrow, is also Ash Wednesday. Since we value cultural celebrations as expressions of diversity, the tension is such that Christ must give way to our culture as we see in how tomorrow being day of fasting, abstinence has been dispensed with. For me, it would be nice to keep the Lunar New Year as a separate celebration from our religious obligation but I suppose that is impossible in today’s world of cultural diversity.

Granted that we stuck with this. Perhaps the best thing we can do is to see how we can marry our religious and cultural needs. If Lent signals a new beginning, I suppose it coincides with our New Year emphasis. New clothes, new hair-do or haircut, clean house, new notes and debts repaid. “Newness” signifies letting go of the past especially of misfortunes and spring cleaning signifies sweeping away bad luck, and welcoming new, fresh beginnings, prosperity, and health for the coming year. We all know the drill.

But all these reside on a material plane. It is basically something to do with acquiring new things or it could be a status-driven thing. In other words, it is materialistic. We all are aware that there is more in us human beings than the material plane (or level). We are spiritual beings too. Apart from new clothes, new notes, new hairstyle, how about thinking of CNY as symbolising interior change?

There is a long history of judging people by their clothing, yet what is true is that we should not judge a book by its cover. What this means is that we all instinctively know the “ugly” person not by his or her external looks. Rather, the richer they are and the more well-dressed they are, the greater will their contrast be when they reveal their true selves. For example, when we encounter a very fine-looking lady or gentleman and their behaviour is unbecoming, we are immediately put off. Why we are put off is because we know how the interior moral bearing of a person is much more important than his or her looks. As my Teochew grandmother would say, “Outside looks great, inside it is empty” (外面好看裏面空).

It is great that we want new things. But it would be greater if our desires are match by the same impetus to renew our souls and to renew our relationships.

When I was studying in Manila, we did not really cover “Chinese” philosophy. Instead, we touched on it, in passing, through our sociology. A thing that struck me and remained with me till today is how if one were serious about the practices of “Confucianism”, it would mean that some occupations are looked down upon and have to be excluded from consideration. Being a soldier is one of them. Imagine, how noble this vocation is, that is, to defend one’s nation, but according to the Confucian measure, it is deemed a less than perfect profession. Why?

Filial piety. Confucian thoughts lean heavily on filial piety and the greatest expression of honour for our parents is achieved through the Reunion Dinner. Ingrained into a Chinese mind-set is the need to return home for this occasion of paying respects to our parents and ancestors. A soldier on duty at the frontier cannot do that. Perhaps it explains the mass migration of people at this time of the year in China and if not travelling, you know how our ancestors who came from China were always looking back to their homeland. Seared deep into the Chinese consciousness is this innate drive for relationship (關係).

Mirror this with what Lent is if not a renewal of our relationship with God, with humanity and with nature? Wealth is good and prosperity is great. But how many of us have seen or even experienced it ourselves that family relationships are destroyed because of inheritance? Wealth can bring us happiness. When we shop and when we dine and when we travel. But without relationship how long can that happiness last? How many of us want to live with toxic family relationships? No money can buy the happiness of fulfilled and fulfilling relationships.

This year, since our Chinese New Year is close to Ash Wednesday, maybe we can think of it as a time of forgiveness and also a renewal of our relationship even as we are enjoying the finest ingredients in our “Basin Vegetables” (盆菜). Firstly, remember that the only relationship that matters most of all is with God. Secondly life is sweeter like our oranges when we have others with us and finally, life can continue if we take care of our nature or environment. Finally we do not really need to worry too much of ourselves. If anything, we are actually eating or drinking too much. If we renew ourselves, then let us live more moderately and always think of others.

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A 2026

We will enter Lent soon and the Gospel passage which belongs to the Sermon on the Mount is somewhat truncated. This section deals with the Law and its centrality in the life of a Jew. When we resume with Ordinary Time in June we will not continue with the teaching on the Our Father, on trusting God’s providence and on how our lives should bear fruits in good deeds.

When Matthew speaks of the Law and the Prophets, he means the entire Scripture. When the Messiah comes, He will fulfil all and not one dot of the Law will be overturned. Our problem is not with the Law. It is not as if we disdain laws or regulations. We acknowledge them as important to our well-being and to the regulation of our relationships. “Do not kill”. “Do not steal”. “Do not covet your neighbour’s spouse”. We hold these prohibitions to be important. The challenge is when we encounter restrictions placed on our personal behaviour, especially those that infringe on our personal autonomy or freedom. We tend to feel that they do not apply to us. That is the challenge of entitlement. Many may think that they are not like that but the truth is many will express irritation when asked to submit themselves to some regulations which they deem to be stupid. The clerics, the celebrities or the civil servants amongst us might know this phenomenon. Many priests will not wear their clericals but at Lourdes, they will because they get treated with respect especially in the queue to enter the baths.

Laws require obedience. They compel but it is not a slavish compliance or obedience. Instead, if we think of Jeremiah’s (Jer 31:33) encounter with Yahweh where the Prophet was told by God, “I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel… Deep within them, I will plant my Law, writing it on their hearts”. Hence, it makes a lot more sense that Jesus spoke to the Pharisees that “I have not come to abolish the Laws but to fulfil them”.

St John Henry Newman, doctor of the Church, called this innate sense that God has left in us as our conscience. In fact, he defined conscience as the “aboriginal Vicar of Christ”, the moral compass given by God and it is not based on sentiments or personal opinions. Since this is the voice of God, Newman prioritises conscience over everything, shockingly, even over papal authority but the caveat which many forget or ignore is that our conscience should be properly formed. If not, then the priority of our conscience might just be an excuse for self-will or to justify whatever we want. As Whitney Houston sang in one of her songs, “I live my life the way I feel, no matter what I’ll keep it real”. That is not conscience but justification for doing what a person wants.

The challenge today is to allow God’s voice to speak or to manifest itself for us to obey. In general, we tend to prioritise our autonomy and freedom to do what we desire or want so much so that this priority is prized over any restrictions or limits we encounter. We chafe whenever there are restrictions but that chafing is really a confirmation of our broken nature. Or rather they highlight our unruly behaviour and that our senses are guided by a broken moral compass. It does not mean that all rules or regulations are perfect. It just means that when we react immediately each time we feel our freedom curtailed, we should check ourselves first.

St Paul himself said, “I do what I should not and I fail to do what I should”. That is an indication of how vitiated human nature is. Conscience in order for it to be formed correctly might require that we have self-discipline. It may require that we be self-restricting too. That way we tame our wilder nature. If not, it will not be possible to hear the faint voice of God because we are accustomed to having things done our way.

The law or the rule should come from within and for that to happen it requires us to play by the rule. For example, we are aware that a football pitch has lines drawn so every player acknowledges that the ball must be kicked or passed around within the lines drawn. Without that accepted guard-rail, the game will degenerate into chaos. Likewise, slowly by force of habit one can acquire self-restriction or rather self-discipline.

I remember an incident 40 years ago. We lived in two formation houses and as novices there were restrictive rules we had to follow. They were necessarily strict so that we could learn self-regulation. The two houses are separated by a garden and both had landlines installed. This was way before the advent of mobile telephony. A senior member of the Jesuit who visited the house told the junior priest who happened to be the formator to uninstall the phone of the house where the formator was not living in. The formator refused. He said, “If the boys do not learn how to be responsible for the use of the phones, they will not learn at all”.

I never forgot that lesson. Freedom was given so we could learn self-discipline. As a Jesuit novice, I was in charge of our annual outing spending and we were given more money than our holiday budgeted for. Again, it was a lesson how not to overspend.

Forcing people to behave might just give us a semblance of compliance or obedience but in reality it is counter-productive. The result might look good because people fear punishment. But when the external constraints are removed, people return to their original or primal setting. We all know that you can take a Malaysian out of the jungle but you cannot take the jungle out of a Malaysian. We might think that exerting greater control will ensure that things can be done correctly. It might lead to demotivation at best or rebellion at worst. We are familiar with passive aggressive behaviour. People say yes to an order but quietly disregard fulfilling it.

Finally, we cannot compel people to love. We can only lead people to love more. Thus, you can see the bedrock for what we do on Thursday evening is not coercion but rather invitatory. If there is anything good that can be done, it should be presented as an invitation to consider rather than a command to be accepted. Thus, we are invited to fall in love with the Lord because His words are sweeter than honey, even than honey that drips from the comb (Ps 19:10). God’s commandments are not merely burdensome rules but they are intended by the Lord to bring fulfilment and happiness to those who obey them. Those who do not know how to love will always feel its burden. Only those who love will never feel the heaviness of a command.

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

Are we taking ourselves too seriously? Are we taking our qualification too seriously? The word “transformation” is impressive and given the widespread abject scenario, we are challenged to change the world. Everyone is supposed to be a part of the transformation process. When we hear slogans calling for change, it inspires just as you are surely taken up by taglines like Malaysia Madani or 1Malaysia or Keluarga Malaysia.

Well, we do take ourselves seriously. Recently at Davos, where tech titans, corporate big-wigs, government leaders gathered, globalists spoke of the transformative changes that can be wrought or forged. Actually these so-called leaders do that annually at the Davos Summit. All they needed is more power. Hence governments and corporations with more power can forge ahead for the good of the world, to transform and change the world according to what God desires for us.

We have the power at hand to make the vision of Isaiah a reality. And yet despite all our sloganeering and our transformative initiatives, the question is, “Why is the world still that terrible”? If that statement were not true, meaning that the world is not as bad as it is painted out to be, then why are millions still trying to escape their fate by crossing the borders into the US and UK?

Perhaps we are taking ourselves too seriously. All the great ideas to change the world are like “koyok” (plaster or band-aid strips). They merely cover the wounds. There are underlying problems which we need to address first. What are they?

In the 2nd Reading, we hear St Paul exhorting the Corinthians. The background to this exhortation is to be found in Acts 17. He was with the Athenians at the Areopagus speaking with them. He impressed them with the speech about the Unknown God. He was philosophical and used many of the logical arguments to try to convince his audience about Christianity. But he was not successful. Thus at Corinth he turned his attention to the crucified Christ. Here he only had eyes for Jesus and did not rely on any human reasoning but rested in the power of God.

The Gospel talks about salt losing the taste. It brings us right into the middle of the equation. Transforming the world is amazing. Take for example, technology. In TED talks, we are always skirting around the cutting edge of technology. Everything about us is just a matter of time when technology will improve an application or so. Yet our information super-highway or rather “stupor-highway” is littered with the debris of discarded apps. Think of our Malaysian Border apps. They have been changing one after another. Sadly, the people who write the app, the ones who think of new methods to do things are still the same. So many are not converted even though they think that just by having a system, people will change.

The Gospel disabuses us of this delusion. Change does not come from a change in the system. It comeswhen hearts are converted. Our country is a perfect example. We ourselves have heard this so-called “prejudice” muttered about a country that has first-world infrastructure but run it with a third-world mentality. Without inner conversion, nothing will change, nothing will make sense.

Two illustrations to consider. Firstly, renewable energy. Secondly, plastics. We are addicted to both carbon and rubber. In terms of success, we barely scratch the surface of net carbon emission or full recyclability. Instead we are focused on trying to manage our usage or reduce our wastage without really facing the truth of who we are. Consumerist.

We consume and there has not been any meaningful conversion of heart. Take you another example right at the heart of Chinese cuisine. Shark-fin soup. We are lectured into submission with regard to the killing of sharks for the purpose conservation etc. When the consumption ceases, the killing stops, we are admonished. Right now, shark-fin soup is making a comeback. Supposedly, the gelatinous shark-fin is manufactured artificially. So there has been no conversion but rather, the progress is how we can consume fake shark-fin without guilt. In other words, we are still consumers through other means. The same can be said about Air Asia’s advertising slogan which says, “now everyone can fly”. It is nothing more than another consumerist ploy to mask or to sustain our carbon addiction.

Those who are taking medication, do you think that there is no long-term effect from the medications ingested? In the long run, our kidneys and liver will give way. Likewise, we consume and unless there is conversion to a moderate consumption, something has to give way. You know that gluttony and greed are the consumer’s creed.

Salt, to be useful needs to retain its saltiness. Light to be useful must illuminate. The only way we do not destroy the world (which in itself is transformational) is to work at it but not from the perspective of temporality. Meaning? We should stop working with the idea that the world will pass away, not that it will not. Rather we need to work from the perspective that we are just passing through. We are no more than guests in this world really. We live on borrowed time. Time here on earth is not our entitlement. If anything, we are to flavour the world through our saltiness and shine virtuously even as we temporally pass through. It is easier to think that we can change the world than it is to be the salt or light of the world. When we are salt or light, we have a lot more to look at, especially at ourselves because we have to change before we start to change the world. That takes an entire lifetime of conversion.

Given that we are a civilisation powered by technology, it is tempting to believe think that just by changing the world it changes people. Now the Bishops in some of our dioceses have reached their retirement age. You can sense the jostling amongst some priests who believe that with power and authority, they can change or shape the diocese. All they need is a fool-proof system. Anybody who can read the room, so-called, will realise that power andauthority cannot do much. You may be a Bishop or even government, you can coerce or even enforce.What you will get is outward obedience when there is no conversion. Worse is if you get passive aggression. Systems cannot change the world instead it is the other way around. The world changes because we are converted. For conversion to take place, we need God. Christ called us to be light and salt. Not that we can in any way shine or salt on our own. Instead, we are like the moon that reflects Christ’s brightness onto the world. That calls for so much more humility and dependence on God’s grace to be light of the world or salt of the earth. Ourgreatest power comes not because we have it but because we pour our life in the service of others.

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A 2026

The Gospel passage today must be read in tandem with the 2nd Reading. In the Gospel, Jesus put forth the Beatitudes for our consideration. Is embracing them worth our while because the blue-print for our happiness is not found in the usual configurations that we are accustomed to. Those who find favour with God are not the rich or the powerful; not those who are satisfied or have plenty; not those who are strong and free. In this reimagined realm, somewhat resembling the original setting before the Fall, the received conventions are flipped because the Kingdom which Christ has come to established favours the poor and marginalised, the weak and the merciful, the peace seekers and those who hunger for righteousness and justice.

This reimagined realm brings us to the 1st Reading where the tone is rather humbling. We are accustomed to hearing the God desires to save all. What is sobering is that according to the Prophet, God’s promise to save a remnant pales in comparison to the masses that one has come to expect because we have come to believe and accept that God has an “antecedent will” to save everyone. Maybe it makes sense that Zephaniah was merely acknowledging the truth of God’s “consequent will”. Even though God wants to save all, the reality is that He will only save a multitude. This is not because He does not want to save all or He is stingy.

This simple inconvenient truth about God’s consequent will ties in with the 2nd Reading. Paul described the remnant that God will save from the perspective of His strength. God’s power is manifested in our weakness. He will choose the weak, the unwanted, the forgotten and make them strong in bearing witness to His power and might. Thus, our glory, if there were any, does not come from ourselves but from boasting of God’s power at work in us. Those saved will not be the proud or the arrogant.

This brings us to the Beatitudes. They are ideals to be embraced and they only make sense if we can see beyond the veil of temporality. We need to stretch our vision beyond what we can see. As the Little Prince reminded us, "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye”. Sadly, we have an addiction to power. More so if we cannot peer beyond the curtains of time.

Power is potentiality. It is the ability or capacity to achieve and accomplish. It gives direction by influencing the behaviour of others or it can by coercionchange the course of events. It is even more evident for us when we want to do so many things. A good measure of our potentiality is to look into our online purchasing habits. How many of us add stuff or things to our shopping cart because the items somewhat entice us to believe that we have time for new ventures? For example, I look at drones now and I feel I would like to take up drone flying etc. The reality is, I hardly have time to do anything else.

However, our limitation has not dampened nor decreased our hunger for power. We want to possess it so that we can do more. But what Christ has shown us is what power can be. Power is at its greatest not when you wield it. Power is at its height when you serve. In fact, the 1st Temptation in the Desert was a self-serving abuse of His power to change stones to bread. Jesus refused to serve Himself.

Instead, Jesus exercised His power through the healing of the sick and the forgiveness of sins. Interestingly we are accustomed to the fact that healing of the sick involves the restoration of a person to full health and former duties. But there is more to full health and former duties in this ministry of the forgiveness of sins.

The power of Jesus to forgive sins is derived not merely from the ability to remove sins from sinners. It is not as if He needed to prove that He could do that even though He did demonstrate it when He told the man to pick up the mat and go home. Instead the forgiveness of sins is exercised through Him taking upon Himself the punishment accrued to us on account of our sins. Sometimes we have the idea that He forgives sins through a decree or a formal promulgation, like a wave of the hand, when in actual fact, forgiveness began with His assumption of our human nature. He took upon himself our frailty and at the moment when it most counted He carried the Cross and suffered physically.

The exercise of His power is His love that reaches out to others as a form of service and it was never for self-glorification and definitely never expressed incoercion. The ultimate expression of power in Christ is the Cross. It is fundamentally the most visible sign of failure and death but in God it is the most powerful sign of love and mercy.

We have a lot to learn. Power is meant for good. Have you ever wondered why our roads are so bad and merely 2km away, the roads are properly paved, lines solidly drawn and signages are consistently visible? That is an example of how power can be used judiciously for common good though I am not quite sure if I am comfortable with power being concentrated in a few hands. The point is,power is intended to serve others and never meant to enrich oneself. Therefore, it is not power that defines us. Instead, it is up to us to give power its meaning and direction.

We have the best example in Jesus. In Him, power and authority were wedded to His humble abnegation and loving service. And we can be quite certain that power, if we have it, is Christ-centred when it involves suffering especially forthe person who wields it. Thus, if you love power, be ready to suffer for Christ and for His Church and for humanity.

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A 2025

There is an elephant in the room. It is an idiom that describes how one avoids addressing or discussing a major but obvious problem or controversial issue. There are many elephants, metaphorically speaking, in our country but I would like to address an issue concerning heaven. The question is, “Are there animals in our celestial abode?”.

In the 1st Reading, Isaiah promised the people who lived in the fringes that a light would dawn for them. Christ has come and He is the Light that guides our path to eternal salvation. Sadly at night, we are hyper-lit that we no longer consider light to be a pollutant. We are kept awake and in general, people sleep either too late or barely. Many stay awake hoping to find solace, mostly through their devices or through entertainment or perhaps waiting for tiredness to claim them. Artificial light even though useful or beneficial is not salvific.

Historically, the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali came to symbolise spiritual darkness and as such they were marginalised, more so because of perceived Gentile contamination. These locations became significant as Jesus chose the areas to launch His ministry. It signalled that the prevailing darkness has finally met its match. He is the Light of salvation that breaks through the darkness of despair.

The Gospel is therefore written for us. Christ has come. Christ called the first disciples to follow in His footsteps. To be the light of virtue to the world. Not the light of gossip, not the light of slander and certainly not the light of misinformation but truly the light that draws people to God. Would that not be great?

Perhaps now, we can address the elephant in the room.

We hunger for the Light. More than we realise. We swing and sway from festival to festival as distractions from our otherwise mundane lives. Malaysian or Singaporean cultural festivities are basically relentless as one follows another. We can be shopping nonstop or eating continuously that barely do we stop to think about that eternity where we will encounter the true Light which we are searching for. Interestingly, in talking about entering the realm of eternal light, a person, the other day, asked me about animals. Since living creatures have souls, should they not go to heaven, like us?

My question to the person was “Should there be animals in heaven?”.

The point is that we all want heaven to resemble earth because we are unable to comprehend what the beatific vision is like. The “Visio Dei” is our ultimate good—it is the summum bonum as it is the view of God for in Him we find our perfect fulfilment. When we have reached the beatific vision we are so complete that we will not have any other needs. In other words, we no longer need animals in heaven. To desire to live with your favourite dog or your beloved cat or any of your previous precious animal is to miss the point. That kind of an aspiration is a statement that says, “I don’t think heaven is good enough and it cannot make me complete, so I might need something familiar to help me ‘survive’ heaven.

In fact, one can even interpret this desire to have our beloved animals accompany us as a kind of hunger for the fullness of the Light, the beatific vision.

To those who love your wife or your husband, I have some bad news for you. For those who do not really love your spouse, this might be good news. Why? Till death do you part is the reason. Every sacramental marriage is a sign of the relationship between Christ and His Church. Heaven is where Christ the Head and the Church, His Body are reunited and therefore, in the presence of the reality, the sign disappears. In the presence of the perfect union between God and humanity, we do not need married men and married women with their imperfect unions to remind us of God’s faithfulness to humanity and Christ’s unity with the Church.

Hence, heaven is not a billion times better than earth. The very desire for what is familiar to us, be it a husband, a wife or a dog is to be trapped in a kind of reasoning which thinks of heaven as a degree, albeit, a better degree of earth. But it is not a step higher and definitely not just an improvement. Moreover, what God grants is never to trap us here on earth or in that kind of a thinking. Listen to three samples of our prayers in our liturgy—they are taken from the Prayer after Communion. In the 1st Sunday of Advent: “… for even now, as we walk amid passing things, you teach us by them to love the things of heaven and hold fast to what endures”. In the 2nd Sunday of Advent: “… you may teach us to judge wisely the things of earth and hold firm to the things of heaven”. On 31st Dec: “… that, with the needed solace of things that pass away, they may strive with ever deepened trust for things eternal”. If only we pay attention, the Eucharistic Liturgy is peppered with such wisdom directing us to look for the Beatific Vision.

Jesus is the Light of eternity that we have been created for. God gives us enoughin this pilgrim journey here on earth so that our hunger for the true light may be intensified or deepened. Earth should be defined by heaven and not the other way around, where we try to conceive heaven in earthly terms. It explains how we often dull our search engine by latching on to the wrong things, being held hostage by passing things forgetting that they are meant to help only in as much as we recognise where the true Light is to be found. In another conversation with a young man, I gave him an analogy which we are familiar with. Say, if you had eaten a meal and you are extremely full and I offer you the most delicious chocolate dessert, chances are, it will not interest you because you cannot pack in anymore. Of course, the glutton in us might reason that there is another compartment in the bloated stomach for sweet dessert. The point is, when we have found the Light who is Jesus Christ, nothing else matters. As St Teresa de Avila reminds us, “whoever has God lacks nothing. God alone suffices”. In eternity, the elephant in the room would be a non-question!

2nd Sunday Year in Ordinary Time Year A 2025

Through our baptism, we join Jesus in His mission. In the 1st Reading, God called Israel to be His servant. More than bringing Jacob back, the Lord wants Israel to be a light to the nations. In the Gospel, John pointed Jesus out to be the Lamb of God and in a way, he tried to direct the undecided seekers to gravitate toward Jesus.

The Responsorial Psalm provides the key to these two readings. Lord, I have come to do your will.

Right at the start of the Ordinary Time, we get a taste of the meaning of baptism. It is true that the baptism is a sacrament of salvation. But sometimes we narrowly interpret it as the condition for salvation meaning that in order to be saved, one needs to be baptised. What today’s readings do is to expand our understanding of this sacrament.

We are baptised not merely for salvation. It is true that the Lord intends to save, but more than that, our baptism also initiates us into Christ’s mission to save. We are supposed to be the light of the nations. We are called not just to share His message but also to be His message to the world.

I was reflecting on this mission and one of the things which has made me think further is the listlessness of our modern lifestyle. How many of us while and waste our lives away? Another way of looking at it, we are mindlessly being entertained to death. Can you imagine how much time we have lost that we can never get back as we swing and sway from one “adrenaline high” to another.

The one truth about fulfilment or gratification is that it is temporary. What a high or a rush does for us is to grant us a temporary contentment because when the high dies down, we will be left hungering for more. The alternative to this endless oscillation is a sense of purpose.

During a Camino in 2018, I came across a tomb of a person who died along the Way and reading the tombstone I was struck by the reason for the tomb being located along the Camino. The person had spent his final years looking after the stretch of the Camino. Picture the deceased who had found a purpose and dedicated his life to the mundane and thankless task of making sure that people who walked the Camino can have a safe passage.

Likewise, John the Baptist came and he had only one purpose in his life which was to point out the Lamb of God. He did what he had to and that was it. His mission may have felt like it was meaningless but it was not in vain. The meaning of his existence was to be found in the fulfilment of his purpose and reason.

Perhaps the loss of purpose can help explain the lack of vocation in the Church. There is a need for more priest and religious but why has the vocation well run dry. It cannot be that the Church has no need of priests to provide the Sacraments. Our life of comfort coupled with the need for personal autonomy makes for a life in which rewards must be tangible in form. It is deeplymaterialistic. Whereas a life of service itself is a reward on its own. But that is hard to promote because we have been socialised into tangibility—or materialism. As someone said, “Cash is king”. Furthermore, everything we do needs to be highlighted, promoted and acknowledged. The incessant drive for social media presence basically hides a fear that if nobody knows us, then we are basically non-existent.

Thus, the humility of John the Baptist is instructive. His sense of identity was not tied to self-adulation but instead to making sure that Christ be known to all. That Christ is known and loved by all is our answer and our guarantee against our fear of being forgotten. It is not an assurance that we will never be lost but rather, it is an assurance that we will never be forgotten by God. Without the promise that we will be remembered by the Father, nothing of the sacrifices we make will mean anything.

The mission of Christ is not proselytisation per se. We are supposed to be agents of sanctification. It is a call to serve the Lord by making His presence felt in the world. Not by drawing attention to ourselves but by leading others to God. When Jesus asked Peter who he thought of Him, Peter answered “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”. The Pope, if there is one task associated with him, it is to assert unequivocally the very profession of Peter: You are the Christ. In a subsidiary manner, St Paul in the 2nd Reading reminded the Corinthians that they had been set apart to sanctify the world. We have a mission too, to be like both John the Baptist and St Peter, to point to those who seek, “There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”.

In that way, we sanctify the world by our proclamation. But more than mere proclamation, we sanctify the world by our holy presence. Can you imagine how rich the world could be because of a genuine Christian presence. The contrary is also a possibility: imagine how impoverished the world is because of the Christian absence. In this country, we may be a minority but the impact we had on the education of the nation far exceeded our number. We are becoming even more of a minority with the loss of the schools and low birth rate. However, rather than curse the darkness perhaps we should light the candle of Christ’s presence. At present, we can criticise the government and thank God we still have the right to speak but maybe more than just migrating to escape the injustice of this country, perceived or otherwise, imagine what we can become if each Catholic were to engage more robustly in the political processes of the country. Some may express a modicum of disdain or cynicism toward this idea but really the best thing we can do is not what we can achieve. We can always start with praying. Right now the most effective way is to prepare for the upcoming election is to pray for the country. Surely that is possible. We bless the country and sanctify her by our prayers.

In summary, whether in terms proselytisation, proclamation or presence we always think of what we our might and what we can do. In other words, we strategise. But the best way forward is to pray first not because we cannot achieve but because we acknowledge God's strength and what He can accomplish.

Baptism of the Lord Year A 2026

We encounter yet another theophany this weekend. Last Sunday we marked the 1st epiphany which was to commemorate the visit of the Magi. Today Jesus is baptised in the River Jordan. All three Synoptic Gospel are in unison that this event marked the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus.

The end of the Christmas season signals the start of the Ordinary Time. The Baptism of the Lord is also an encouragement for us to look into our own baptism. To appreciate this sacrament, we take a look at why Christ decided to be baptised. After all, He Himself was sinless. In fact, right from the start of the cousins’ encounter with each other, the Baptiser resisted. His reticence was technically an acknowledgement of Christ’s sinlessness and divinity.

But Jesus insisted and John relented.

In so doing, Christ reconfirmed that He was truly Emmanuel. He not only took on human flesh. More than mere identification and solidarity, He also substituted and submitted Himself to take our place. He embraced our humanity in every respect except sin in order to save us.

Secondly, He sanctified the waters of our Baptism. The catechism from the Council of Trent spoke of it this way: “(w)hen our Lord was baptised, water, by contact with His most holy and pure body, was consecrated to the salutary use of Baptism”. St Augustine put it in a better way. “The Lord is baptised, not because He had need to be cleansed, but in order that, by the contact of His pure flesh, He might purify the waters and impart to them the power of cleansing”. Thus, as Jesus entered the Jordan, He not only signalled the forgiveness of sins, He also removed Original Sin. The door is opened for each baptised to embrace a life of holiness.

Thirdly, through His baptism, in a way, He foreshadowed His own death and Resurrection. The water of the Jordan is both a symbol of death and of life. The river is a symbol of death, reminiscent of the destruction of the Great Deluge. But a stream is also a symbol of life. In that way, when we are baptised, we enter into death with Christ so that as He rose from the dead, we can rise with Him. According to Pope Benedict, Jesus used the word “baptism” to refer to His death but not just His. If baptism signals Jesus acceptance of death for the sins of humanity then the voice that announced over the baptismal waters, “This is my beloved Son” is an anticipatory reference to His Resurrection and ours too.

All in, this event of Jesus’ baptism has profound implications for us. Firstly, through His baptism, Jesus makes public His mission to sanctify and save the world. Secondly, we are not only privy to the inauguration of His mission. We are also privileged to catch a glimpse of who Jesus is and who God is as the Blessed Trinity. It is precisely the manifestation of the Three Persons that the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan is also known as a theophany. We hear the Father speaking, we witnessed the Holy Spirit descending, we see the Son being baptised. As the Son submits to the Father’s will, both the Father and the Holy Spirit confirms the divinity of Jesus

Baptism into Christ’s death has become an essential definition of our identity. It is not merely the gateway to salvation. If, through His baptism, Christ signalled His desire to enter into the messy human landscape, then, through our baptism we are invited to enter into the life of the Trinity. Through the Sacrament of Regeneration, we are brought into communion with the Father, Son and Spirit. Thus, this sacrament empowers us to live as children of God. If present liturgical sense concludes Christmas with the Baptism of Jesus then it is a fitting transition for us as we move from the festive mood surrounding Christ’s birth to the humdrum of ordinary time.

The human scene is NOT the ideal landscape for the practise of our faith. It is the only place we have to profess our faith because the mysteries of Christ’s life is to be lived through our daily rhythm and not in some idealised fantasy world. Baptism is much like our birthday through which we are reborn as God’s children. That means we are not just the mission of Christ, meaning that we are not merely the target of His mission to save. We are also invited to participate in His mission to save.

We are grafted into His Body, the Church thus sharing in Christ’s priestly, prophetic and royal mission. In fact, baptism provides a common basis for all Christians to cooperate, especially with those who are not in full communion with the Catholic Church. Baptism is valid as long as the rite involves immersion or pouring, done with a Trinitarian formula and the intention to baptise. The Catholic Church accepts the baptisms of Protestants because each baptised person is configured to Christ with an indelible spiritual mark which cannot be erased. Not even sin can destroy this mark even though what sin does is prevent us from bearing good fruits. That is how powerful our baptism is. According to St Augustine, the character of baptism marks us as belonging to Christ. Rightly we are called Christians.

St Paul urged the Ephesians to live up to the name of Christian because each one has been called by the one Lord to the one faith, one baptism and to the one God who is father of all, who is all over and through all and in all. There is never a good time for us to practise our faith. There will never be a right moment to be Church Militant. Some of us might be waiting for the right time to live as Christians or to step up as disciples. That moment will never come if we procrastinate. We are soldiers ever-ready to respond. Martyrs who laid down their lives for Christ did not wait for the opportune moment to do so. St Maximilian Kolbe, at the spur of the moment, stood forward and offered himself to replace another condemned prisoner. His entire life may have been a preparation but the moment was never the best of timing. Thus for us, today is as good a day to live out our baptism, to be a good Christian now and nottomorrow.

Epiphany Year A 2026

Today the world comes to Christ—it was the grand moment the Child Jesus was manifested to the 3 Kings who found their way to Bethlehem. The implication of this visit is made clear for us in the 2nd Reading. The Magi’s presence signals that now all are truly welcome. Perhaps we can understand this better from the perspective of our country.

Imagine one day the powers that be in this land decide that the principle of administration will no longer be based on colour of our skin nor the creed that we profess. Everyone who is born or has migrated and lives in this country will be called a native or a prince or princess of the land. Am I advocating subversion of any kind? Nope. What I am stating is that the Jews considered themselves to be the favoured sons and daughters of God. With the visit of the Gentile Magi, now everyone will be called a son or daughter of God and a brother or a sister of Christ and there will no longer be any special provision given to those who are Jew-born.

It may not impact anyone from nations where there are no discriminations based on colour or creed but in countries where there are biases, such equality would be radical. To hear that everyone has equal opportunity under the Malaysian sun would indeed be ground-breaking. According to the 2nd Reading: “This mystery that has now been revealed through the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets was unknown to any men in past generations; it means that pagans now share the same inheritance, that they are parts of the same body, and that the same promise has been made to them, in Jesus Christ, through the gospel”.

With the Magi’s visit, the Gentiles have now secured a spot at the feast of salvation. Travelling beyond the range of their comfort zone, they came seeking for the true God.

The Magi challenge us with this question. Are we still searching for the true God to worship or have we settled for less?

Nowadays we have to celebrate diversity where anything and everything should be accepted on equal standing. Thus it is standard to hear people say that all religions are the same. But the Epiphany shows us otherwise. These Magi risked everything they had, compelled by the innate search for the true God whom they instinctively knew to be worshipped as the Lord of lords.

If Christ were to be the Saviour, it would make no sense that He is simply a Saviour of the Jews or even Christians. God, to be Saviour, should be the Saviour of all humankind. The message or the Gospel must go out that Jesus Christ is the Saviour and not just the Saviour of Christians. He is the Saviour of all.

The message is not easy to preach given that we are constrained or limited by the dictates of “tolerance”, “diversity”, “equality” and “respect”. The result is that every religion should be treated on an equal basis and the challenge is that even if we believe in Jesus as the Saviour of mankind, we behave as if He were provincial and limited to Christianity as we unwittingly hold on to the axiom that basically all religions are the same.

Putting aside the difficulties surrounding the Kerygma, that is, the proclamation in this current climate of “DEI”, what can be done? If we acknowledge and accept that the Magi who came were looking for the God who saves, then how can that message of salvation be universalised?

Two of Pope Francis’ exhortations, “Evangelium gaudium” and “Gaudete et exsultate” are helpful. The word “evangelisation” is derived from Greek “eu angelion”, meaning, good message. In proclaiming the Gospel, the most powerful tool we have is not a book, not even the bible to beat others into submission. Rather it consists of a lived experience of Christ where we demonstrate a consistency between our belief and our behaviour. Immediately what comes to mind are the two basic Sacraments helpful to make the connexion between word and deed. Firstly, we are sinners through and through. We need the Sacrament of Confession for the grace to avoid sin. Secondly, the Sacrament of Communion for the strength for good deeds. We will be more attractive when the beauty of God shines through our actions.

Evangelisation is not and cannot be the proselytisation of the past and therefore it does not begin by seeking to convince others. The days of “proselytisation” are over in the sense of walking up to someone to tell him or her that Jesus Christ is Lord. It may have some value that we can shout at some street corners announcing who Christ is and that belief in Him promises eternal life. But we live in echo chambers, a world of herd-mentality where “your truth is true for you, my truth is true for me”, that it is almost impossible to penetrate those enclosed bubbles.

Instead, evangelisation must consist of bearing witness to the truth of a love that has looked upon us and has lifted us up. There is a profound beauty in the God who, sacrificed Himself for us and now through His Sacraments, lifts us up. Evangelisation must consist in communicating this truth and nobility in our behaviour is the only convincing message that modern men will embrace.

Like it or not, the current demand is that we live in a world which is hyper- sensitive to the lack of credibility. Imagine someone discovers a celebrity or a cleric who texted some homophobic slur in the past and immediately he or she is made to grovel before the “approved narrative” or the “canonised group-think” on how wrong he or she had been. Company and even the Church now must run “PR campaigns”. Whether all this is spin or not, credibility has become the standard and perhaps it is a good thing because it makes us more accountable, not so much in bowing to group-think but rather the need to make sure that we walk our talk. People are searching and even dying to believe. And we might be the only Gospel they ever read.

I end with a note on parking. Our one neighbour, maybe, in the big scheme of things, he is insignificant and who even cares, right? But for him, we are the only Christians he knows and each time he comes, in his rage to park his car at the entrance to block us, what we regard as a nuisance should give us enough concern to think of the impact we have on others because we are called Christians.