skip to main |
skip to sidebar
A couple of weeks ago, I raised an issue which might relevant to the readings, notably, the subject of compulsion. The 1st Reading has Prophet Ezra speaking of God’s laws and reading to the people from morning till afternoon. The word “law” itself is already compelling because embedded in the notion of legality is an inherent threat of force. In order for it to be effective, laws must “carry a stick”. Just like fines imposed on us. If we were not punished for non-compliance, then what is the point of stating a fine? It makes a mockery of the law and our country is full of warnings but because they are never enforced. Almost everyone flouts the law and if enforced, it is done selectively.
So, right at the start of the year, how can we move away from this notion of the law as an imposition? If we were tangled by the annoyance that laws compel, then it will be hard to see beyond imposition. We will also feel burdened but beyond penalty, that is, away the long arms of the law, rules and regulations also serve another purpose. They define us. They are not merely matters of do’s and don’ts. In drawing lines, they define who we are. For example, if rapists were caught and released with simply a stern warning, the message to the rapists is that our society tolerates rapes.
In the Gospel, Jesus went to the Temple and there He took out the scroll of Isaiah and started reading. For him that was a moment of self-definition. He drew His lines like He did on the sand, and His behaviour after reading from Isaiah sent a clear signal of His identity. As He sat down, all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on Him and He proceeded to announce that the words of Isaiah were applied to Himself. He is the Messiah they had been waiting for. As the Anointed One, He has come to proclaim the Gospel, to set prisoners free, to give sight to the blind, to set the downtrodden free and to proclaim a year of favour.
For the Church, the boundaries that defines the Messiah’s engagement with the world has deep social and ecological implications. They define who we are too. In fact, the Church’s self-understanding harmonises with mission she has received from Christ Himself. Doing good has been the DNA of the Church and currently that good is done through a comprehensive care for the environment and a search for a form of equality that respects with our dignity as “imago Dei”.
As the image of God, we reflect the Trinitarian character of our God. We are not monads, or single-cell organisms. We are not amoebas. We are defined by our complex relationships. The 2nd Reading speaks of the body as an organic whole and yet we are not merely any body but a spirit-filled body with the heart of Christ beating within. Echoing the 3rd Eucharist Prayer which we are familiar with, “One body, one spirit in Christ”, we are animated by Christ’s Spirit to be His Body, the Church. As such, each one has a role to play in making this Body come alive.
Sadly, we are highly motivated as individuals and we think in terms of self-reliance, independence and assertiveness. We fiercely guard our personalfreedom so much so that beyond our close-knit circle of family and friends, there seems to be a chasm or a void out there which we seldom feel responsible for. This is exemplified when people speak of “victimless” crime as if there were truly such a thing. The criterion that no one got hurt cannot be translated to a victimless crime.
The organic analogy of the Church given by St Paul is an antidote against such a notion of victimless crime. For even if no one were hurt or injured, the person who sins, deforms his or her soul. If being good makes us more like Christ, then sin mars His image in us and moves us further away from His body. In other words, everyone has an influence on everyone no matter how small. If a member of the Christian community is hurt, then all the other members also share in the suffering. This makes us responsible for each other.
What has become an important value for modernity is authenticity. But if we think about it, Christ’s proclamation of Isaiah’s scroll would not sound so revolutionary if everyone regarded himself or herself as part of an organic whole. For example, we are inspired by acts of generosity and goodness. In heaven, everyone is generous and good that it would not even cause a ripple or register as a stand-out.
Christ’s definition of Himself is an invitation and challenge to each one of us to cultivate the habits of generosity and goodness because these acts create the Body of Christ, making the Church even more Christ-like for the world which hungers for and also seeks the face of God.
Finally, the very idea of laws is not alien to us. It is not an imposition but rather as found in Jeremiah 31:34: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people”. In love there is no compulsion. When there is love, there will always be an overflowing of compassion and charity. When we love, there God is.
We have arrived at the final theophany in a trilogy of Divine manifestations. First, came the Magi from the East. Second, Christ was baptised in the desert by His cousin, John. Third is this weekend’s Gospel set in Cana and we have jumped from Luke to John’s Gospel. There was a wedding and the mother of Jesus was there. So too were Jesus and His disciples.
The wedding at Cana is listed by the Evangelist as the first sign performed by Jesus. What makes it the first miracle bears a closer scrutiny. The context for this miracle is interesting. Firstly, John speaks of the event from the perspective of the third day. Secondly, the answer Jesus gave to Mary is also related to it. He tells His mother that His hour has not come yet. Hence, right at the start of His public ministry, we catch a glimpse of both the Cross and the Resurrection. The “hour” points to His Passion and the “third day” is echoed each Sunday when we recite the Creed that “On the third day, He rose again”.
The symbolism is there to see. What is about to take place at a wedding highlights a future to come. The past was caught up in the history of Adam and Eve whereas the future is charted by the New Eve who simply indicates to her Son that His hour is about to begin and through this new Adam, creation is getting a fresh start.
Therein is something for us to think about.
Christ is the new beginning. According to today’s Gospel narrative, it started with the water jars meant for ablution. As the couple ran out of wine, the miracle initiated by Our Lady is quite frankly out of this world. Associated with new beginning in Christ is abundance. The six stone jars represent incompleteness and in a manner of speaking, chaos and raw disorder at the start of creation. Christ calms the chaos and completes creation with the blessing of plenty.
The Evangelist’s first sign is an invitation to appreciate life and to savour the bounty of God’s goodness towards us. Christ Himself promised that “I have come so that you may have life to the fullest”. However, this begs the question of what the “fullest of life” could mean.
At the level of human experiences, He multiplied bread and fish to feed the multitude. After their meal, they were left with baskets full. This is what the Lord does when it comes to scarcity. The boy who offered Him the five loaves and two fish learnt that in Christ abundance is the miracle but we have to trust in Him. The more generous we are with God, the greater His benevolence.
An expression of our trust in God’s generosity is to share this abundance with others. Again it is not about material plenty. The great thing about material sharing is that our second collection for the poor is doing rather well. Kudos to the people who have responded really so generously especially towards our food bank. Working in the office, one gets to see how the regulars drive in and start loading up the poor box with basic necessities that POHD needs to fulfiltheir charity run.
More than feeding the poor, abundance calls for a sharing of life. This might be a bit messier because it involves people and feelings. How do we let the abundance of our love flow out to others. Of course, as always, it starts at home, beginning with relationships in the family and it flows out into our relationships with others. How can we interact or socialise, wherever we are, so that people sense that life is worth living? How do we support each other psychologically and even spiritually? Do people who encounter us leave more hopeful? Or they come to us and they feel that life is sucked out of them?
There is more to life than merely earthly abundance, be it material or psychological. What about spiritual abundance in the fullest sense of the word? Through our experiences with others, be it family or friends, Christ actually purifies our earthly delights and He also elevates our sorrows. In Him, there has to be a reconciliation between a life in abundance and the sorrow that we will experience on earth. God’s blessing and sorrow are not mutually exclusive.
Both Laetare and Gaudete Sundays are examples of why we dare to celebrate even though Lent and Advent are both penitential seasons in their nature. Catholics know how to have a good time but Catholics also know how to endure difficulties gracefully. Tribulations are merely reminders that total plenitude can never be found in this world.
We necessarily live within a world where there is going to be sorrow but it is not a sign that God is miserly. In fact, the abundance of God is manifested in the Son. Right at the beginning of the Cana experience, there was already an indication of the Passion to come. Christ who died on the Cross is God’s mightiest benevolence. Just like it is for the couple at Cana, their wedding celebration is truly a sign of trust that come hell or high water, Jesus will never fail us. With Him, the couple enjoyed His abundance. There were about 700 litres of alcohol to imbibe, judging by the 6 times 30-gallon jars. The lesson at the start of the Ordinary Time, is that with Jesus and Mary, there will always be enough. Let us rejoice.
Last week we marked an epiphany. Again, this Sunday is another theophany. It is the baptism of the Lord. How can we better appreciate this event and the Sacrament?
Perhaps we can approach it from the perspective of birthdays. Celebrating birthdays is such a central feature in modern living. Life is precious and we ought to celebrate the day we were born. But there are other birthdays too. For example, do you remember the day of your baptism? For the majority amongst us, it is truly a non-event. We can be sure that babies, in general, have no memory of the rite. So much so that the Anabaptists and some of their offshoots have a tradition that only adult baptisms are valid. For them, the criterion for the sacrament’s validity is being able to make a conscious decision to accept and ask for baptism.
In a way, the belief of the Anabaptists mirrors the experience of some of our RCIA candidates who are to be envied for if they had undergone a genuinely life-altering baptism, they will generally make better Catholics than some of us cradle-baptised.
A little anecdote of how insignificant baptism is for some of us. I was ordained a deacon in AD1999 and then a priest at the turn of the millennium. Went back to complete my licentiate after the sacerdotal ordination and then returned to full service in AD2001. After conducting many prenuptial enquiries, I thought it might be a good idea to obtain a fresh copy of my baptism certificate since we were always demanding for their latest copy. One day, I was passing through Malacca and so decided to step into St Theresa’s Church, the family’s parish, to request an extract. A couple of months later, I was in Malacca again and went to parish office to enquire but still, there could not locate my baptismal record. Long story short, this terrible “harassment” of the parish office staff took 3 years. Finally, they managed to obtain an extract for me. They traced through the Confirmation record they had kept to the Church of the Seven Sorrows, Macalister Road in Penang. It was embarrassing but more importantly, it simply highlighted how insignificant “baptism” can be for some of us.
Jesus today was baptised as an adult. Firstly, He had no need of it because John’s baptism was a rite of repentance which was a symbolic and outward expression of an interior desire for change. Precisely Jesus was sinless and yet He submitted Himself to the rite to show His solidarity with humanity. Yet, John pointed to Him as the Lamb of God who takes the sins of the world—Jesus.
Secondly, as Luke detailed, coming out of the water, He prayed and heaven was opened. That was an important milestone in His life. It was the confirmation of His Father’s love and also signalled the start of His public ministry.
Perhaps we could also rethink the ways we could celebrate our baptismal anniversary. So far, our focus is on birthdays. They are tangible milestones but do you know that there is a tradition in some countries, where the predominant Church is either Catholic or Orthodox, to celebrate a person’s name day.
Every day of the calendar has a name associated with it and it is usually that of a Saint. Thus people should celebrate the day that they took on a new name which happened to be the day of their baptism. But with a heavy emphasis on originality and individuality, we tend to accentuate the uniqueness of a person as reflected in the most “fantabulous” names parents can conjure.
A name day is coming from another angle and it is based on imitation and it is also exemplary. Moreover, assuming a new name represents a change in one’s life direction. Like Simon becoming Peter and Saul transforming into Paul, their names changed signalled their newfound purpose to be missionaries of Christ. Likewise, it is for us. When we take on a patron saint’s name at baptism, we indicate that we are part of that mission to be apostles of Christ and that our patron saint is a concrete model to emulate.
This is borne out by our liturgy too. When a drop of water is added to the wine, the priest says sotto voce, “May we come to share the divinity of Christ who humbled Himself to share our humanity”. He came to be one of us and through the grace of our baptism, we should strive to be like Him. The pantheon of saints are shining beacons that beckon us to follow their examples.
In other words, baptism is such an important event in our life, that not even our birthdays rank as high. There is a rule for celebrating a saint’s feast day. The day we commemorate a saint is usually associated with the day he or she died. The day they died is called “dies natalis”, the day that they are born into heaven.
Our baptism is both a death and a birth. The waters of baptism mortify as well as vivify. We die because of our sins but at baptism we also die to our sins. But what feels like death is actually a rebirth, like for example, a child in the womb who needs to “die” in order to be born. Thus the death to sins is a birth in the Spirit. Baptism, our second birth initiates our journey on earth that must end with our birth into the fullness of life in heaven. Let us live for that final birthday, the “dies natalis”, when we will be counted amongst the saints and friends of the Lord in eternity.
Epiphany is a feast of manifestation. So far the shepherds were the only ones who had seen the Christ. With the Magi, He is now shown to the world and that is just the beginning. If the world were in doubt, they will no longer be for the King of the kings is here now. The event that has brought the Magi is by no means a flash in the pan because liturgically, there are two more epiphanies to come and they are the Baptism in the Jordan and the Wedding at Cana.
As a public presentation to the world, we respond. Both shepherds and Magi responded by seeking out the Child to marvel and to worship. However, Herod responded with a somewhat malignant motive. Jesus was right when He told the Apostles, “Those who are with us are for us and those who are not with us are against us”. Either you are on His side or you are not. Herod was on the opposite side of Jesus.
If we fancy ourselves on the side of Jesus, then we have things to think about.
The three Magi brought gifts befitting the King. More than the status of a King is true worship. If anything, the gifts, even with gold, were just side shows. Significantly, these men had come from the far ends of the known world to behold the Child. That is devotion and dedication. Perhaps we should ask what attitude we bear when we come before the Lord.
Our present attitude is pretty much exposed via the system of obligation. The present religious practice is that we are required to attend Mass on a Sunday or any of the designated days of obligation. If the basic attitude were simply to fulfil it, then we may have just missed out on what the Magi did. They were under no obligation to come from afar. Yet they willingly embraced the hardship of travel in order to come and behold the child. Can you imagine yourself moving heaven and earth in order to come worship the Lord? Or do you feel compelled to be here? Last Sunday, when we launched the Jubilee, as part of the rite, there was a procession into the Cathedral. We announced that those with mobility issues should remain while those who can walk should join in the procession. There were mutterings about having to “vacate” the Cathedral and to go out into the hot sun. When we chafe under such a minor inconvenience, can we endure a more rigorous demand like persecution for our beliefs? We have become worshippers of convenience.
Compulsion does not grow well in the soil of freedom. St Augustine in his famous Confessions remarked that the God who created us without our permission cannot save us without our cooperation. That is how profoundly free we are—to accept or to reject. But God is also a “mysterium tremendum et fascinans”. It means that He is both a fearful and a fascinating mystery. Whether we recognise it or not, man fears that God will punish him if he does not toe the line. Even the Psalms highlight the fear of the Lord as a virtue. Whilst its meaning is “reverence”, what we hear it as “terror” or being terrified by the Lord. In fact, dictators are powerful because they know how to exploit our weakness which is the fear of the consequence of our inability to love.
But if like the Magi, nothing is going to stop us from coming to worship the Lord, then, gifts should be unfolded. If we come here because our hearts are searching for the Lord, then our gifts will represent that. We bring our best before the Lord. Perhaps the system of tithing might be brought up. Tithe is a method of ensuring that if all else fails, at least 10% is reserved for the Lord. But that can brings us back to the compulsion of giving. True giving is not calculative. To clarify, I am not suggesting donation. Just trying to see how we can move away from having to be dutiful out of compulsion to being dedicated out of love.
The Cathedral that is rebuilt in the centre of Paris should be our model. The French decided to return to the ancient Gothic structure that represented the best of what the mediaeval artisans erected for the Lord. Those Gothic monuments soaring into the sky sprang from a foundation of love. Since that should be the case, then we should spare no effort to give God our best. It is represented by our offering to Him the best of who we are. It is quality and not just quantity.
The same qualitative principle at work is to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Again the love for the Lord is the engine that powers our love for others and not the other around. Loving others in order to “prove” that we love God is to fall into the trap of giving grudgingly at best or merely fulfilling the obligation at worst. A good example is when the collection bag comes. Everyone seems to be putting in. You will look bad if you alone do not put anything in. The giving will be grudgingly or just fulfilling the obligation. Again the point is where our heart is, there is our treasure.
Finally, after the Magi had offered their best, they also made the decision to follow the star on their way home. Having the desire to worship God, we render Him the finest gift of ourselves and we should earnestly strive to follow the north Star. This so-called “true Star” is not the same as that which is promoted by popular culture. Our “celebrity star” puts a stress on my self-fulfilment and whatever I want to do. Everyone is his or her my own star. No. The Star is Christ Himself. He is the light that shines upon our path. Once we have found Him, we must not let go, no matter what. He is the treasure which we would want to hold onto forever, even if it should cost our life.
Some Holy Doors in Rome have opened. The Jubilee Year with its theme on hope has been inaugurated by the Holy Father to encourage the faithful to strengthen their faith, repent of their sins and to renew their spiritual focus.
Interestingly, the Holy Father has chosen to launch the Jubilee for the Church world-wide, on the Solemnity of the Holy Family. New beginnings are signs of hope precisely because our Catholic jubilee has a Jewish past. Then, a jubilee occurred once in every 50 years. Its aim was to restore equality amongst all children of Israel. Families which have lost their property and individuals who have lost their freedom might have them restored. Celebrating a jubilee reminds society that a time would come when everyone, slaves included, will become equals. It is a hope based on God’s promise.
Thus, the jubilee was a powerful instrument of social renewal. It aimed to restore society to a balance or an equilibrium which reflected or mirrored God’s design for the human race. What exactly does it mean that society is restored? Sometimes we easily forget that society is only an abstraction or a conceptual structure because right at the heart of any social renewal, lies the family. Society is not made up of disparate or distinct individuals because everyone must come from somewhere.
The “somewhere”, which is the context, is the family. For example, when we speak of Church, which is a kind of society, it is not the sum total of all the individuals there are. Nobody here who is baptised, had walked up to baptismal font, scoop Holy Water, tilted the head and poured water over it saying to oneself, “I baptise myself in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. We are always baptised by someone. In other words, we are a web of inter-related individuals.
The densest or the most basic relationships are to be found within the family. Therefore, society is composed of a network of families. Go to a small town and you get the sense of the “society” there because it is made up of all the relationships amongst the families who are often intermarried. But when towns developed into cities, anonymity soon becomes a part of our social setting. With anonymity and larger societies, the extended family is under pressure to retreat into the nuclear family. It may be the basic building block of society but it is besieged by various anti-family ideologies. For example, in some places, the state or rather, the nanny state, will step in to dictate how a family should raise a child.
The family is crucial to our well-being. As mentioned earlier, we live in an atomised society in which we reduce everything down to the individual, measured by his or her wants and desires. I remember an incident between my elder brother and mother. He said to my mother, “Ma, I can marry again but you, I only have one”. The statement was not to relativise his marriage as if it were not important but it did bring home the point on the irreplaceability of one’s family member and how important family is to one’s well-being. I am not merely a sum total of my likes and dislikes. I am also a reflexion of my family to a certain extent, whether it be functional or dysfunctional.
We need the family because society cannot function fully without the family. According to Pope John Paul II, civilisation blossoms amongst the fields and flowers of the family. Whatever happened to the family will affect civilisation. The etymology of the word is “civis” or the citizen. Precisely being a citizen involves politics, a city (or civilisation) can thrive only because it is watered by the aqueducts of familial relationships. The health of any civilisation is dependent on the health, not of the individuals, but of the individuals who come from families. We easily forget this fact, that is, whether we like it or not, we are a web of clans and tribes. When we forget that society is family, meaning that relationships characterise us, then it becomes easy to forget those who are weak and vulnerable amongst us—the unborn, the elderly and those with no access to decent human services. Dysfunctionality in the family weakens a society’s well-being.
Every society is an aggregation of families. Therefore, when we speak of restoration, it is not merely a restoration of an individual. The Sacrament of Confession is a perfect example of what it means to be restored. “I stole”. Nobody steals from nobody. We always steal from somebody. There is no such a thing as a sin which does not hurt someone. Every sin hurts and destroys the fabric of society. Through the Sacrament of Confession, we are restored in our relationships, thus, revealing how important relationships are to our health, physical, psychological and spiritual.
As we enter into the experience of the Jubilee, maybe this year we want to give more thoughts to our family. Much of our hurts come from the family and its broken relationships. When there is no love and loyalty involved, betrayal is just that, betrayal and it is not personal. But when there is love and trust, betrayal leaves an enduring scar on some of us. We are often hurt by people we love most.
Clearly, civilisation cannot thrive when families fail and as rightly pointed out by John Paul II, the family is key to fixing the serious destruction of the environment because the family is the most important environment. In the context of Laudato si, protecting the family is key to protecting the environment.
Not only does the country or society need the family. The Church too. Without healthy and functional families, the priesthood will suffer and marriages too. The start of the Jubilee Year beckons us to celebrate forgiveness and reconciliation within the family as moments of mercy and healing. We get hurt by siblings and parents but the family is where we also learn to offer mercy and pardon and ask for forgiveness when we have hurt others. The Church holds up the Holy Family for us not because they were perfect. They are models because of their faith and their selfless love for one another. Pope Francis highlighted in Amoris Laetitia that “Jesus, who reconciled all things in himself, has restored marriage and the family to their original form. Marriage and the family have been redeemed by Christ and restored in the image of the Holy Trinity, the mystery from which all true love flows”. Our fervent hope for this Jubilee is that the same love of the Holy Family may flow in and through our families.
We have now arrived at technically what is called the Mass of the King. This is my favourite Mass for Christmas for this reason. While the Infancy Narratives of Matthew or Luke stretches back to Abraham or Adam, John skips the details surrounding Christ’s birth. Instead, he transports all the way back to the beginning of time.
There, in the beginning, we enter more deeply into the mystery of the Incarnation of the King of kings. The contemplation is profound. The Baby that lies in the manger is basically God Himself. Through Him all things came into being. Thus, the plan of salvation was already there at the beginning of creation.
Jesus is God’s profound personal love for humanity. In the example of Moses, he encountered God but only through a burning bush. On Christmas, the shepherds were able to behold the face of God Himself in Jesus Christ. The author to the Hebrews states that “in times past, He spoke through the prophets and in various diverse ways. Now He has chosen to speak to us through His Son”. The invisible has now become visible as St Paul explained to the Colossians that “He is the image of the unseen God”. Perhaps it makes sense that Catholics express this reality through sacramentals like statues and pictures of Jesus.
God has never forsaken us but it is a struggle to grasp this truth. “God-with-us” should give us pause for joy. Yet, we are not wonderstruck. Recently, the Pope came to Singapore. Imagine the number of people who went gaga over the Holy Father. A personal picture with him would be a dream. But in the case of a babe in the manger, whom are we beholding? He is someone who ranks far higher than a prince or a pope.
God speaking through His Son is a big deal. Through Him we have been given the privilege of adoption. “To those who accept Him, He gave power to become children of God”. But more than He speaking to us is the desire to be with us. According to John’s Gospel, “He pitched His tent amongst us”. The translation we are accustomed to, like “The Word became flesh” is rather pedestrian. Whereas God pitching His tent amongst us is more inspiring. Picture the Israelite having escaped from Egypt with bare necessities. Pitching His tent amongst the fleeing refugees, God shares their hardship, for He is God with us.
Modernity’s problematic with the idea of Emmanuel may spring from a fatigue which has endured wave after wave of catastrophe. Humanity has witnessed the scale of global suffering that the feeling is rather of the absence of God. Where is God? Why are we suffering?
Our materialistic blinkers are blinding. We are engrossed with pleasure that life’s purpose escapes us. God is with us in all the messiness of life even if we do not feel it. Tomorrow, we celebrate St Stephen, the proto-martyr. Two days later we commemorate the Holy Innocents. Right after Christmas, the Way of the Cross is already revealed to us. The death of innocent children offends our modern sensibility because we have lost the sense of sin and necessity of salvation. The children in Bethlehem may have suffered death in their innocence but they still need their Saviour. In other words, the King in the manger will be the suffering servant for He has come to save us from eternal damnation. God with us is not a guarantee that there will not be pain. In fact, the price of God’s presence is the death of Jesus on Calvary. The cradle becomes the Cross, the Christmas tree stands in the shadow of Calvary.
Therefore, God with us is not the same as heaven is here. When we mistake God’s presence to be heaven on earth, then we will have difficulties navigating through the problems and pains that life throws at us. Creation, though beautiful, is imperfect and it is groaning because it hungers for salvation. Prior to Christ’s coming our human race was disfigured by sin, lost and wandering in a dark world. Christ’s coming ushers in a new chapter of salvation history. He is with us makes is possible to live in a world which has been redeemed but is still on the road to final perfection.
In other words, Christmas is the already and not yet. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “Though already present in his Church, Christ’s reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled ‘with power and great glory’ by the King’s return to earth. This reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ’s Passover. Until everything is subject to him, ‘until there be realised new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the pilgrim Church, in her sacraments and institutions, which belong to this present age, carries the mark of this world which will pass, and she herself takes her place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and await the revelation of the sons of God’” (671).
Emmanuel gives us the strength to live this already and not yet. In the meantime, be always on the guard and watchful because we live as if we are waiting for the Son of Man to come again. In other words, our conduct should be that when we face judgement, we are confident. It is hopeful and trusting that through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus (the already), we will be brought to the finality of completion in the future (not yet).
We have been freed from domination by sin and death and freed for a life in the Holy Spirit. Jesus who pitched His tent amongst us gives us the ability to stand with Him gives us the privilege to call God, Abba, Father. In this time of in-between already and not yet, we continue to pray “Thy Kingdom come”.
I read somewhere about the four stages of life. The first stage, one believes in Santa Claus. The second, one does not believe in Santa Claus. The third, one is Santa Claus. The fourth, one looks like Santa Claus. Some of you parents here may be broke because you are breathing the 3rd stage. You are Santa Claus.
Whatever stage in life, and whether or not you believe in Santa, we can agree that we are here to glorify God. The Gospel continues from last night’s birth of the Child. Closer to midnight, the first of the Christmas Masses showcased the battle between darkness and light with the focus on the announcement of the Angel. This morning after the Angel’s announcement, the Shepherds hurried to Bethlehem to behold the birth of the Child Wonder. The fruit of their encounter of the Saviour was their proclamation of what they had witnessed. According to social hierarchy, the shepherds rank right at the bottom of the ladder. They had nothing. It was their lack that allowed them to behold so great a sight.
The birth of this Child lifts earth to heaven and stoops heaven to earth. One can even say that shepherds who came to behold the Child were indeed coming to behold, like us, the Eucharist. It is like sitting in front of the Blessed Sacrament and adoring Christ. He came as an insignificant Child, choosing to be born in such a humble setting so that we can all marvel at what God can accomplish. He did not come with power, not as emperor or king, MP (member of parliament) or congressman. He came as God to show us what He can accomplish just by being Himself.
In fact by His helplessness, He drew to Himself, the powerful like the Magi and the powerless like the poor shepherds. But sadly, we are afraid of nothingness. Maybe we are even afraid of our shadow. Have you noticed that our Christmas has to be filled with plenty. This is supposedly the season of emptying like Christ emptying Himself but judging by gifts galore in the shopping malls, it is the season of getting. Commercially we have been corralled to adopt a kind of bazaar behaviour. And Christmas has been reduced to nothing more than a consumer’s haven. Consumerism could be a sort of overcompensation for our fear of nothingness and it leads to an obsession with the self.
How then can we be more than consumers? How should we not overcompensate?
Perhaps the English language can help us. It is the word “present”. We have taken the reality of “present” to new heights of materialism. While giving is part of Christmas, the greatest present we have and can give is the presence of ourselves. It is personal. How present are we to one another? What is the quality of my presence to my family or friends? The beauty of the lowly shepherds is their ability to adore the Lord fully present in His humility and helplessness.
Sometimes we substitute our presence with presents thinking that sheer material pleasure is enough to take the place of the simple truth of being present—physically, psychologically and even spiritually. Many struggle to be present, let alone be still. Imagine sitting down and doing nothing? For almost all of us, that would be the definition of boredom. Visualise the motorcycles 5 or 6 abreast and the queue is one-kilometre long enduring the daily drudgery of crossing to and from Singapore. Everyone, if not all, silently gives thanks to the Lord for social media and the internet. To be able to watch a movie while waiting is not “wasted” time. For many this represents progress.
But what have we lost in this unstoppable “march of progress”? It is an ability to withdraw, to take a step back and to contemplate. The shepherds hurried away from their already quiet lives of desperation when they went to see the child. They found Him and they contemplated Him in His humble glory. The description that Mary pondered these things in her heart shines the path forward.
Christmas Mass at Dawn helps us to contemplate the event of human salvation. We are saved by the coming of the Lord. We marvel at what Christ can do and has done for us just by being Himself—God made man. In our withdrawal we gather fruits for the sharing.
However, an inability to step back and to ponder will have an impact on the world we live in. Recently, a CEO of an insurance company was shot dead in broad daylight in cold blood. Some young people have taken to social media to hail the murderer as a hero. Maybe this phenomenon suggests a normalisation of violence amongst the young but what is evident is a loneliness and emptiness in society that provides a fertile ground for a narcissistic glorification of the self and reflects a loss of the sense of the sacred.
Hence, rather than focussing on giving material gifts perhaps we can come away with the idea of making ourselves as gifts to others by our sincerity, our caring and our love. Have you ever as a parent or an adult experienced this? Your child did something incredibly stupid and in a moment of anger you punished your child? Or your wife said something which offended you deeply and in an uncontrollable rage you land your hands on her? Later you regret and you try to make up for it by buying a gift? Can you imagine what your child or your spouse would have liked? A present or you being present?
You know the answer to that question. To be present to others in a lost and lonely world is a gift far beyond any material gain. We can become gifts of love and patience to others. You see, the shepherds were not only the first visitors, they also became the first missionaries. It is not impossible to walk their footsteps. To be the Gospel, the path forward is to move beyond an obsessive focus on the self. Contemplating a humble and helpless Child invites us to marvel that what lies in the manger is none other than the mighty Saviour of the world. O come, let us adore Him.
