1. Graduation Mass for the Class of 2014 of St Joseph’s Institution International (SJII)
    Readings: Jeremiah 1.4-10 / Song of Praise: Exodus 15 / 1 Timothy 1.3-4, 6-10 / Luke 4.16-21


    Today is your happy day: you’re graduating. Congratulations, graduates! And congratulations too to the parents and to the teachers!

    As graduates, you probably have a few things to say today. But I think “Yes, I’ve made it!" and, "Look out world; here I come!” sum it all up. I believe you are also asking questions like: “Where shall I go to next? Oxford? Stanford? Harvard? NUS?” And, “What shall I become? Doctor? Scholar? Social Worker? World class musician or adventurer?”

    But here you are, here we are, before God on graduation morning. What would God want to say to you? What would God want to ask of you?

    I’d like to think that the theme chosen for our Eucharist—“Fan into a flame the gift of God”—is God’s message for you right here, right now. Let me suggest that God’s message is both a gift and a task.

    The Gift of Remembering
    In our 2nd reading a letter, Paul writes to his friend Timothy. Here is Paul writing at the end of his life; he is a prisoner awaiting his death. Here is Paul the apostle preached the Good News—that God is love—to one and all around the Mediterranean.

    Paul's letter reminded Timothy, as it should remind us, that what should matter in our lives is this: that we should be thankful for the gifts we have from God and for God’s invitation for us to use these gifts, however big or small, to proclaim the same Good News that God is love and we are God’s beloved. For Paul, giving thanks for the gift of faith and salvation is the reason that he became an apostle proclaiming the Good News.

    What about you? Haven’t you been gifted too in these years of studying at SJI International? What are you remembering with gratitude as you sit here? Perhaps these:

    Lessons learnt. Experiences had. Care received. Friendship forged. Growing up accomplished.  Family love continuing. Students, teachers who’ve walked with you. Teachers, students who challenged you to give your best. And parents, your children growing up and your hopes answered.

    And for the rest of us who've come to celebrate with our graduates, we can all give thanks for relationships that matter in our life, and for simple, everyday things that sustain us, as well as the extra-ordinary events that have uplifted or challenged us to become better.

    Yes, there is much to be thankful for as you look back on your SJII days, and as we come to be with you.

    But I believe thanking God for the gifts you have been blessed with is only half of what you’ve learnt well in this school: learning how to learn to be thankful and expressing this thanks as men and women of integrity.

    The other half of what you've learnt has to do with how you've learnt to live by being men and women for others. We can appreciate the significance of this when we reflect on the image of the prophet Jeremiah in our first reading. Jeremiah was chosen to go forth and to proclaim the Good News by using his gift to speak prophetically about God. Like Jeremiah, you are being invited to the task of sharing your gifts. 

    The Task Ahead of You
    Today, God is challenging you to go forth from this school bearing your gifts to the world: bearing them to transform the world, as SJII has transformed you. Your graduation ceremony is about your school sending you sent forth into the world to make a difference. And this is also part of God’s message for you.

    I’d like to believe that your learning in SJII has taught you to live, not for yourselves but for others to have life. I believe that you have learnt through your studies and your interaction with the community in these SJII day about how to use your gifts of knowledge, energy, enthusiasm, compassion and care to bring about change, to better the world, and to uplift, transform and enliven others. This is what it means to be a person for others.

    Yes, good to know God’s gift and God’s task on graduation day.

    One More Thing
    But I think God does have one more thing to say to you as you graduate from this Catholic Lasallian school. And it is this: that all that you have and all that you are from these years of learning, of interacting, of playing, of growing, of becoming more the person you are is meant to be wasted. Yes, wasted. 

    Your education, indeed your life, will only really be worth its value, its fullest, truest, value when you dare, really dare, to waste it away for another.

    What do I mean by wasting? Let’s go back to your theme: “To fan into a flame the gift of God.” For there to be a flame, wood has to burn till nothing but ashes is left.

    This is the kind of life Jesus lived. In our gospel reading, Jesus speaks of his public ministry. He charts out his roadmap of what he will be doing and who he will become. He will heal the afflicted. He will free the burdened. He proclaim God’s goodness for all, whether saint or sinner. He will do nothing less than to lay down his life for another. He does this because love of God is only truly and fully love when it is love for others. This is how Jesus show us how to live as God’s beloved.

    You and I are God’s beloved.  As his beloved, God has blessed you with gifts, including a Josephian education, to do what Jesus: to lay it all down for another to have life. This is how you can—like burning wood turning into ashes—fan into a flame the gift of God in your life. There is no other Christ-like way to do this than to die like Jesus did. In death, he gave life to all. Wasting our education and our life away is like death; it is a giving of ourselves selflessly for another.  

    We would be wrong to see such wasting as loss. Rather, it is wasting in that richer sense of being prodigal, that is, of being generous, of being selfless, of really being self-giving in what we do with all our abundance to another, with all our riches for others. 

    This is what a Josephian education is truly meant for: that it be given to someone else as blessing and gift so that another may have life to the full, and so come to know the love of God in his life. And this kind of giving to another, this kind of wasting, is indeed how we can fan into a flame the gift of God.

    I believe we cannot really give thanks or share gifts unless we dare to die to ourselves—die to what we have, to what we hoard and to what we want—so that we can be prodigal towards others, to be wasteful for them. When you dare to do this then the knowledge, faith, life you have received here in SJII can kindle other fires that will light up the world.

    Waste your education for another’s life. It sounds illogical, stupid, dumb, I know. "What can I gain by doing this?" you may ask.  

    Jesus’ public ministry (which he proclaimed in today’s gospel) didn’t end in death or nothingness. It ended in resurrected life so that in everything else there is fullness of life.  You can say that he wasted his life away for life to abound.

    Could God be asking you who are graduating from SJII today, and yes asking us all too: "Will you waste your education for another?  Will you waste it so that you might find life? Yes, will you waste it so that you can fan your flame brightly in the world, so brightly so that when others see you, they will say, 'See how they shine with God’s love!' and then they will smile with delight?"



    Preached at the Graduation Mass at SJII, Singapore
    Photo: from the Internet (stockproject1)


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  2. Year A / Ordinary Time / Week 33 / Sunday 
    Readings: Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31 / Psalm 128:1-5 / 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6 / Matthew 25:14-30


    Our family gathers for dinner on Sunday evenings. Now and then, one of us brings little Daniel, my 2 year old nephew, a gift. It could be toy or a t-shirt. I’m always amused by how Daniel—after playing with his gift for awhile with some ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ and a giggle or two—marches up to another person, the gift in two hands, and gifts it to her saying, ‘ta-dah.’ We all laugh; and some of us (often my sister) say, ‘Good boy, Daniel!’

    A happy scene. And happier too if we but could see how Daniel is giving us a much richer gift in each of these moments: the wisdom of receiving and multiplying gifts. 

    Wisdom and gifts. An odd combination. We usually associate gifts with words like: gift-giver; generosity; birthdays and Christmas; shopping; wrapping paper; thanking; storing. But wisdom and gifts? 

    Our first reading focuses on wisdom. Our gospel reading invites us to consider gifting and gifts.

    Our first reading pictures wisdom as a "worthy wife."  She takes ordinary things, like wool and flax, and remakes these to care for her husband and the poor. Our gospel reading presents Jesus’ parable about a rich man who entrusts three persons varied amounts of money each. Each of them then does something with amount given to them.

    What is the connection between these readings? Between wisdom and gifts, these seemingly unconnected ideas? Why would such a connection, if any, be good news for Christian life? 

    Two of the persons in Jesus’ parable multiply the money entrusted to them. One does not; he keeps what was given so as not to lose it. This morning Jesus teaches that even the little this third person has, which he buried for fear of the giver, will be taken away and given to the one who was given more. “For everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away,” says Jesus in our parable.  

    This doesn’t sound just, merciful, or even Christian? How are we to make sense of Jesus’ harsh and challenging teaching?

    By recalling another teaching of Jesus: "Where your heart is, there also is your treasure" (Luke 12.34). Wisdom is not about knowing all things. Rather, wisdom is about knowing all things truthfully: knowing where things come from, what they are for and where they can take us to when we use them.

    Upon receiving a gift, we might think that we know exactly what it is and how to use it.  A wise person, on the other hand, takes time to reverence the gift; she approaches it with humility, openness and a generous heart to receive and to share. She never assumes full knowledge of what the gift is or how to use it, nor why it was given in the first place. 

    Reading Jesus’ teaching through the lens of wisdom can help us better focus on what really matters in Jesus’ parable: that we honestly locate the real treasures of our lives.  What persons center our imaginations, plans, activities and hopes?  What personal gifts have been given and which ones, as of yet, have not been fully unwrapped?  What material objects clutter our lives?  Which spiritual practices are truly gifts that lead us to God, and which ones entrap us like the man who buries his gift because we fear God?

    When—and if—we dare locate the real treasures in our lives, we might begin to answer the why, what and how questions about the gifts we have.  This is wisdom that opens us up to better sense God’s labor and love through these gifts in our lives: we receive God with love. This is wisdom that re-orientates our understanding of what these gifts are for in our lives: we share God in love for others more willingly. 

    Wisdom teaches us that what should matter is that we really do something with God’s gift of faith to us: like Jesus, we should receive God into our lives with gratitude and we should share God with others in generosity. 

    The men who multiplied their given amounts had faith in their master. And so, they opened themselves to what more his gifts offered. The man who had little faith in his master did nothing with his gift; he entombed himself from its promise of more. This morning, you and I are invited to be like the men who multiplied their gifts. Is our faith like these, a faith in God that’s open and trusting of God's abundance? Or, is our faith like the man who feared, feared because he was too secure, too certain that faith in God is always about obeying rules and laws? Which one are you?

    I believe Jesus’ teaching is harsh because he wants to wake us up. The fear of God is not what should keep us in good standing with God. Rather, what keeps us in good standing with God is holy boldness, that is, the daringness we have to trust God and to risk our faith so that God can bless us with more. This is the kind of wisdom that can embolden us to trust God in, through and with our many gifts. We can then begin to glimpse and to savor just a little bit more of the mystery of God’s goodness in these gifts for us, and, through us and our sharing, for others. 

    This trust is what risking our faith is all about: to dare to see a little more than meets the eye what is of God in the gifts we have and to so let God multiply our faith. 

    Hence, Jesus’ parable is not about fairness or justice. It is about receptivity, about how we receive God’s gifts and how we use them. Those of us who pretend that there’s no need to be wise about the gifts we receive don't really understand what faith is about, and so we let it be. But those of us who truly do have faith will dare to risk it because we know we need even more of it. Which one are you?

    Daniel comes running to my Mother and trusts his gift of Elmo into her hands. ‘Ta-dah,’ he says. Grandma takes it and wiggles it about. ‘Ta-dah,’ she replies, handing it to back to him with a hug and a kiss. And Daniel snuggles up in the warm embrace of Mama’s love. ‘Yay,’ he chuckles.

    Love received; love shared; love multiplied abundantly. 

    And this is true of God too, only magnified a hundred fold, even more, when we dare to multiply our faith by sharing it with God and with one another. 



    Preached at St Ignatius Church
    photo: from the internet (iStock.com)


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  3. Dedication of the Lateran Basilica (Feast)
    Readings: Ezekiel 47.1-2,8-9,12 / Psalm 46 (R/v 5) / 1 Corinthians 3.9c-11, 16-17 / John  2.13-22


    You’ve seen him, that man at the fair or the bazaar calling out, “Step right up, step right up.” Calling us to dare try a throw to win a prize. Calling us not to be part of the crowd but to come forward and try something new. Step right up.

    Yes, step right up now and try your hand at this question about today’s feast:

    Is the Lateran Basilica: (a) The Pope’s church as the Bishop of Rome?; or (b) The main cathedral of the diocese of Rome?; or (c) the Mother cathedral of the Universal Church?  By show of hands, how many say (a)?  (b)?   (c)? 

    And the answer is: all of the above.

    The Basilica we remember today is named after a Roman palace, the Lateran, which the converted Emperor Constantine gifted for Christian worship. His gesture marked Christianity becoming the official religion in his Empire. This basilica is sometimes called St John because it is dedicated to St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist. In 324 AD, it became the Cathedral of Rome. It remained the pope’s residence until 1308. Yes, a short lesson in Church history.

    “But why are we celebrating a church building?” you may ask. What’s the significance of this church, or any temple of God as the Church is imaged in our readings? Why should we care about a church building? Because our readings should disturb us about how we understand "Church." This is exactly what Jesus did when he bothered the moneychangers and merchants doing commerce in God’s temple in today’s gospel.

    Today’s readings should disturb us with this question: “What’s our attitude towards Church? Towards this holy place where God invites us to meet God, this place which is never our possession, nor our entitlement but God’s? The quality of our zeal for God is really what Jesus is challenging us to consider this morning. His challenge should bother us because how we respond will determine the quality of our participation in Church.

    Today’s readings can help us think about our answers to this question. Ezekiel describes the temple as life-giving in the first reading: water flows out of this place of God and makes the “salt waters” fresh.  Paul describes the church in Corinth as “God’s building” in the second reading: this Christian community is “the temple of God” and “holy.” And in today’s gospel reading, Jesus refers to his body as the temple that cannot die: it is ordained to be the risen body through whom God’s saving glory shines forth on us all.

    Our readings offer two themes for reflection. First, that the temple of God, the Church, is meant to give life, and life that flourishes. Second, that we, the Church, the Body of Christ, cannot be kept down.

    But what does any of this have to do with us who celebrate the dedication of the Lateran Basilica?

    Consider how our readings encourage us to live like the first Roman Christians who started worshipping in this building. Their life and love for one another in Jesus finally moved Christianity out of the shadows and into the light of the world. Their lives transformed Christianity. From a religion on the periphery, a religion hidden behind household doors to a religion at the heart of the world, a religion practiced publicly amidst the world. This is how Jesus’ disciples enfleshed his instruction, become the light of the world.

    These early Christians could do this because they cooperated with God’s Spirit dwelling in them. This is the truth Paul proclaims today. God’s Spirit empowered these disciples to share God’s life with one another in community and to evangelize about the good life in the God of Jesus Christ to the world.

    You and I are also filled with God’s Spirit. Our readings call us once again to let God’s Spirit lead us onward. More significantly, following Paul, we are to let God’s Spirit flow out of us. Then, we can become, as Ezekiel envisions, life-giving water to nourish another, to enliven others, to raise up the downtrodden, the lesser and the forgotten in our midst.

    But there is one more message our readings suggest as we reflect on the Lateran Basilica. This has to do with improving our participation in Church and as Church. This is summed up in these two phrases: stepping up and standing up.

    The Lateran Basilica has had its ups and downs: it has experienced fires, wars, earthquakes, and even bad popes. It has had to be renovated and restored. But it still stands. And as an embodiment of Church, it continues standing up for the Good News: that in Jesus, God redeems all of us, saint or sinner alike, into his own house forever. Like the Church, you and I are called to step up and stand up for the Good News; this is the Christian way to transform the world anew.

    This is why it is our Christian duty to step up and stand up to remind others about faith and to offer hope to them. This is what we can offer others when life seems dark and despairing at times, or when things in our parish or school or work place, even in our Church and nation don’t seem to be going as God’s reign should look like. This is why our Christian mission as God’s temples is to be the Christ-like source of renewing the world.  This is why stepping up and standing up are non-negotiable if we want our Christian lives to matter and to be salvific.

    So, if something is not the way it should be in the world, why not step up and stand up?

    If we worry about the widening economic gap and don’t think the poor are cared for well enough, then why not step up to do something about it, rather than wait for the government or an NGO to act?

    If we think that the Church is confused and divided after the Synod on the Family because traditionalists are policing those who cannot receive communion while progressives are welcoming all to communion, then why not stand up for God's mercy that unites all in God's love?

    If we feel that world is saturated with too much violence, hate and prejudice, then why not step up, stand up and get involved in the lives of those suffering in the world?

    Whatever the issues we face, individually and collectively as Church, I believe Jesus calls us to step up, stand up and be His presence in the world.  He calls us to take our worship of him inside this building, into the world, to go outside of this building and make God's love alive in the world!

    This is what we really celebrate today: God’s ongoing invitation to us to let God’s Spirit flow out from us into the world as Christ’s life-giving presence.

    Isn’t it time then for us to not just come to Mass and be passive spectators or passive worshippers, but to let God bless and break us as his daily bread that he will sent forth from this building to the hungry and the thirsty, the hurt and the broken, the discarded and the lost?

    If you agree with me that God will transform us here into the Body of Christ so that God can send us forth to renew and lift up the world, can you and I just be quiet for a bit in the next few moments….quiet enough to hear him, this Jesus calling out to you and me right here, right now: “Step right up, step right up; step up and come stand up with me"?

    Yes, will you, will I, will we together step right up to Jesus and stand up with him now to love the world as he does?




    Preached at St Ignatius Church, Singapore

    photo: internet (planetware.com)
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The Liturgical Calendar / Year C
The Liturgical Calendar / Year C
Faith & Spirituality
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is a 50something Catholic who resides in Singapore and works for the Church. He is a priest of the Roman Catholic Church.
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