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As I was composing this homily, the airspace in the Persian Gulf has remained closed, affecting thousands of travellers. The closure of airspace is similar to what the Disciples may have felt. Right now anywhere near the Persian Gulf would be dangerous and for the Disciples, anywhere near Jerusalem would have been for them life-threatening.
Thus proximity is key to understanding the behaviour of Jesus. Firstly, the Jewish authorities were demonstrating an increasing hostility towards Jesus. He was at the Hanukkah or the Feast of the Dedication and when they questioned Him on His identity, He claimed His divinity and the proof was the work He was doing on behalf of God. “The Father and I are one”. That audacity to place Himself on par with God sent the religious authorities into a murderous frenzy and Jesus barely escaped a stoning for blasphemy.
Jerusalem was for Jesus a dangerous place and Bethany was perilously nearby--about 2 miles away from the centre of danger. But Jesus was on the far side of the Jordan when He received news about the death of Larazus.
Interestingly, a prevailing spirituality at that time was that the soul remains with the body for about 3 days after death. After receiving news of Lazarus’ death, Jesus continued to work. He waited for two days more before going to Bethany which meant all in, Lazarus was already in the tomb for four days. Thus, aninterval of four days was meant to show the power of Christ in bringing the truly dead back to life.
Given the advances we have made in medical technology, bringing back a dead to life is not impossible. We see that in emergency resuscitation. A person who is clinically dead may be brought back to life using a defibrillator especially when he or she had suffered a cardiac arrest. However, there is a difference between a revival, which is what a resuscitation is about, and the resurrection. Medical gadgetry is able to revive many a clinical dead for that. If we accept the Jewish notion that the soul is proximate to the body after death for about 3 days, then a revival, whilst amazing is still possible even though we would classify that as a miracle.
What is interesting is that Jesus managed to bring a body back to life way after the 3-day interval that a soul can remain in the body. This is the point for the Gospel today. Christ has the ability to raise a body from death to life. Yet that is not the main message of the Gospel passage. John does not give much details to Lazarus’ life after his resuscitation or revival. Presumably he lived on. Even if he did live to a ripe old age, John is silent about Lazarus’ subsequent death. In other words, Lazarus would have to die again.
What does that mean?
Well, it brings us right into the heart of the Passion and the Resurrection. Somehow we may have conflated or mistaken a long life with eternal life and that the main goal of existence is to prolong life for as long as we can. It may help explain why we are hyper-focused on being healthy. What can help presently is that the process of organ harvesting and replacement lends a semblance of prolongation of life, meaning, we can live forever. In some ways, medical technology is geared towards this goal.
The question is, can we? Can we live forever here on earth?
The Transfiguration is the key to understanding the Resurrection. If anything, the raising of Lazarus is like the Transfiguration, a foretaste of a life that is changed or transformed. The Risen Christ who appeared amongst the Disciples in the Upper Room provides the clearest picture of His new reality. He told Thomas to put the finger onto His side and into the hands. Jesus was still bodilyor earthly and yet the physics of this material world does not apply entirely to Him. Just as He appeared suddenly in the room and in the silent way He crept up to the two disciples departing for Emmaus.
Jesus deferred in going to Bethany and when He did decide to go, the Disciples met His decision with trepidation. They felt that they would meet some forms of violence, walking directly into a death trap set for Jesus. But the deliberate delay was not out of fear but rather to prove that He was in charge.
Life and death were both in His hands. Jesus showed us through Lazarus’ revival or resuscitation that there is a future which is ours through the Resurrection. As they rolled away the stone covering Lazarus’ tomb, that day will arrive then they will discover Christ’s empty tomb.
Jesus in summoning Lazarus out of the tomb showed that even the dead will listen to His voice. Thus each one of us is called out of the tomb of our sins to walk into the light of Christ. It is a command to shake off the sins that cling on to us. But it requires that we want to come out into His light. While the body of Lazarus in the tomb is a reminder of the reality that bodies in graves will decompose and yet we are assured that neither death nor decomposition would be the last word on our ultimate destiny.
Finally, for the Lourdes medical pilgrimage, we are taking Qatar Airways, flying right into the heart of Iranian drone attacks. I asked a couple of persons who will be going to Lourdes on the medical pilgrimage if they were fearful about the prospect of being shot down like MH17 and the answer was a resounding no. As Annette and Catherina said, “If our time has come, so be it. We shall go and meet our Saviour”. He is the Resurrection and the Life. As He commanded Lazarus to come out, He will command our bodies too.
From water of last Sunday, this weekend we continue John’s Gospel centring on light. It is still a journey of knowledge for the Elect and in a way, it is for us too.
The 1st Reading feels out of place because it details the anointing of David unless one reads it through the lens of the Responsorial Psalm. God is the shepherd who has never left His flock untended. He has come and so the focus of the 2nd Reading and the Gospel is on Christ as the light to enlighten our minds.
Firstly, there is the idea of coming into the light or proceeding from darkness into light. The movement is gradual which reveals a process which we do not always appreciate. Conversion is gradual and sometimes slow and painful.When we talk of saints, we frequently think of them as finished “products”. Truth is many of them struggled all through their lives. Many have been canonised saints only because they had persevered through the course of conversion.
Secondly, the conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees will shed light on the future of Jesus’ suffering. The prevalent view of the time was a belief heavily influenced by Job’s experience. Misfortunes and illnesses were considered to be the consequences of sin. It is illustrated by the question of whose sins they were that caused the man’s blindness. Jesus did not answer that directly though the conversation does shed light on innocent and redemptive suffering for He Himself was the prime example.
Christ who was sinless bore His rejection and suffering as an expiation for our sins. It is true that we do have to pay the price of our sins. The saying that “karma is a ‘female dog’” reflects this understanding. And yet, we are taught by the Lord’s own personal situation that sickness and suffering are not necessarily the consequence of sins. The fact that you suffer is not because God is punishing you. However, what has happened is that we have flipped the script around. Instead of suffering on account of sins, now the prevailing philosophy is to excuse sin because we are sick or suffering.
Today a disease is considered to be an excuse that mitigates a person’s responsibility or culpability. Insanity plea and compos mentis are related to claiming a lack of responsibility because a person has no control over rational thought. Our homegrown example is found in the title of a documentary called “Kleptocrats”. Kleptomania is the irresistible urge to steal. Hence, one steals because one suffers from the condition of kleptomania which in a way makes the stealing less sinful as it were. Anything can be an excuse for bad behaviour and yet we all know that there has to be accountability in which one assumes responsibility for one’s actions. It leads us to the next point.
Thirdly, the Gospel whilst it details the gradual enlightenment of the man born blind, it also uncovers an uncomfortable truth about us. As the blind man gradually gained sight, those around him became more blind. It is perhaps an invitation for us to be less arrogant and to be more humble. While we should be confident about what we know, we should also be open to our blind spots. Socrates himself supposedly said, “I know that I know nothing”. If we desire to be humble, then the people who mirrors us best are not those who praise or speak well of us. Rather, those who criticise might in fact help us see ourselves for who we truly are. In the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes, it took a child, a naïve one, to expose the truth of how group-think can blind us to what we truly need to see. It took an innocent child to point out the reality as it was--the Emperor was naked. We need light to perceive the unvarnished truth about ourselves.
Sometimes we do not have the courage to see ourselves or we might try to run away from what is true. Our addictions could be symptoms of our escape. We run away from facing reality by numbing ourselves either through excessive working, over-eating, substance abuse, binge-watching or engaging in repetitive behaviours that distract us. Solitaire, Dota, SIM City or Plants vs Zombies are some examples.
Finally, as we approach Easter Vigil where there will be baptisms, the healing process involved highlights an important element of Catholic or Orthodox Christianity. It is the incarnational underpinnings of our Sacramental system. Christ uses matter to effect a healing. He spat onto the earth to make paste to apply onto the man’s eyes.
In fact, water was last week’s sacramental matter. This week earth is used to mediate healing and restoration. All these materials are tangible and sensible and they reveal to us the underlying principle that is at work in our Sacramental system. God uses matter to effect His grace, thus revealing to us that our world, even though fallen, is still a good one.
Combined with specific words, which are the formulae we use, the material elements such as water and oil, bread and wine, the physical acts of confessing, the laying on of hands and the mutual exchange of consent make visible the invisible grace of God. Through these elements and acts directed by the formulae God communicates His grace to us. In fact, the Sacramental system actually stands upon the pivotal event of the Incarnation, an act whereby God the Son, who is the Logos, the Word, became flesh for us. Later, through His flesh and blood under the appearance of bread and wine, the same flesh and blood that suffered and flowed forth from Calvary, we are saved.
The Gospel this Sunday is a detour from Matthew. It is taken from John and if read in itself, it should be enough. It is long and it covers many areas which are relevant to the journey of the Elect who are on the way to their baptism this Easter Vigil.
The central figure of the Gospel is the Samaritan Woman and through her we encounter God’s mercy. To appreciate this immensity of this encounter and the scale of the animosity between the Jews and Samaritans we survey a situation that is taking place right now some thousands of kilometres away. It seems that Starbucks is not doing too well in this country. I hear that McDonald’s is suffering too. Post 7th Oct 2023 and the Gaza invasion, the rancour between the Jews and the Palestinians has cut even deeper that here some thousands of kilometres away, the animosity is palpable economically. Translate that kind of animosity to the Jews and the Samaritans.
From this perspective, the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman sounds contrived because it is not something which should have happened. He, an observant Jew, should not be seen speaking to a Samaritan, let alone a woman. It would have rendered Him unclean. Yet we are brought deep into the conversation between these two characters.
The woman was an outcast three times over. Firstly, a Samaritan. Secondly, a woman. Thirdly, a woman with many husbands. Jesus did not reject her based on any of these stipulations. Instead, He led her on a conversion journey. Firstly through a natural thirst for water. Secondly to seeing how He Himself will quench her deepest longings. Thirdly, He led her to recognise her sinfulness. Fourthly, she became a messenger of the good news to her other countryfolks.
Mercy is the name of God. Bismillah ir-Rahman, ir-Rahim. In the name of God the most gracious and the most merciful. In fact the word for womb is rahim in Malay and it shares the same etymology with another word Malaysians should know about. “Sumbangan asas rahmah”; rahmah being an Arabic word for compassion or care. God is merciful.
In the encounter with the Samaritan woman, Christ reaches out to her, without condemnation. And yet He did not leave her unjudged. We are uncomfortable with the idea of judging because it is associated with the idea of superiority and at the same time, making a judgement draws lines. We do not like those lines especially when they seem to infringe on our personal freedom. In judging, the Lord merely pointed out to her the reality or truth. He stated it only as a matter of fact and not as a condemnation. Due to His gentle coaxing, she admitted her state which was unacceptable even from the view of her people, the Samaritans themselves. This brings us to the Elect.
In their catechetical journey thus far, they are brought to the experience of water and to know the well from where they drink. The Samaritan woman drank not just from the well of ostracisation. She who had to carry water from the well in the hot noon-day sun was not welcomed by her other women-folk of the village. Not only was she isolated. In fact, she thought her thirst could be slaked by the husbands she had accumulated in her life. Here at the well, she had to face the probing questions of Jesus about her state of life, just as the Elect and in a way, we who have been baptised, are.
Where are our wells and what is the quality of the water that we are drinking? We are definitely not ostracised, at least, not in the moral or spiritual sense. We might be excluded academically, economically, racially or technologically. But in the matter of sin, except for a few heinous crimes, the sin of the Samaritan woman in having one husband too many, will not cause that much of a stir amongst us. Who are we to judge, right?
Perhaps we are too accustomed to accepting that any liquid will do the job of slaking one’s thirst. It does not matter what the source is except that we are quenched. Yet the woman at the well intuitively asked for the water to fulfil her so that she may not have to thirst again. At first what she asked for was basically a kind of water that would prevent her from coming back to the well. Never mind the cessation of ostracisation. Later as the conversation continued, she was led to the heart of her thirst, which is for the water of eternal life. At this point, Christ presented Himself as the source of eternal life.
Shamefully, I bought a lovely kettle the other day. I already have an electric hot-water pot. Shopee delivered it and as soon as I had it unpacked, I sort of thought to myself, why did I buy it? Our shopping experience is rather telling because it gives us a glimpse into how our rational faculty works.
Jesus presented Himself as the water of eternal life. But more than water, she was led to know Him personally. Her experience begs the question of how our faculty of knowledge can be honed.
In an economy driven by information, we think of knowledge as facts and the more facts we gather, the more we know. But to know is to basically to know the truth. Since Jesus spoke of Himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life, to know is to really to know Him personally, like the Samaritan woman got to. If the faculty of knowing is geared towards knowing Jesus, then we will never knowingly choose evil. It is only when we do not really “know” that we will choose what is evil. In other words, nobody in the right frame of mind, in terms of the faculty of knowing, will choose what is evil.
At the well, the Samaritan woman slowly came to a personal realisation of Jesus who presented Himself as the water that wells up to eternal life. Our Elect too must make the journey of knowledge. If the well symbolises a journey towards knowledge, then, knowledge cannot be measured by the accumulation of more facts or data. We are not wiser because of them. To know is to know truth, beauty and goodness. Since no one knowingly chooses evil, then those who commit evil can only be explained by an ignorance that mistakes evil for good.
People think that knowledge is neutral as if it is something to be acquired. But knowledge is not neutral because there are facts we should never know of. For example, someone’s personal diary can be so thrilling to read but once you know something you cannot “unknow” it and there are some secrets we should never know. The point is once you know you cannot unknow or ignore.
In summary, evil is mistaken as good for those who do not know or are ignorant. For the Samaritan woman, hers was a pilgrimage of mercy which gradually allowed her to recognise her sins. In her physical thirst, she came to more than a realisation of water as necessary for life. Christ mercy shown hergave her courage to move on. More than that, by knowing that Jesus as the source of life, in turn she led others to the proper well that gives life, Jesus Christ Himself.
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.
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.
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.
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.
