1. Year C / Ordinary Time  / 31st Week / RCIA Rite of Scrutiny (3rd Scrutiny)
    Readings: Wisdom 11.22-12.2/ Psalm 144.1-2, 8-9,10-11, 13c-14 (R/v 7a) / 2 Thessalonians 1.11-2.2 / John 11.1-45


    Winter in Boston is a good time for long meditative walks. A space I enjoyed walking in the cold when I studied there was Mount Auburn, Boston’s first landscaped cemetery. In wintertime, Mount Auburn’s undulating lawns are covered by snow. Leafless trees and stubborn shrubs of various kinds pepper it. Tombs and memorials of all shapes and stones poignantly complete the silent scene. 

    Many of us would walk about Mount Auburn in wintertime. Quite a few of us aimed to ascend to the lookout point overlooking Boston. Our walks were sobering; they reminded us of life amidst death. We walked amidst he stick-like trees harboring buds waiting to burst forth in spring. We walked amidst family and friends remembering their beloved at gravesides.  You could say we walked amidst signs that give faith and signs of faith lived. 

    Faith is at the heart of today’s gospel story today. We tend however to focus more on the miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from death to earthly life again. For some, this miracle is the culmination of Jesus’ ministry. For others, it symbolizes the promise of eternal life. If we are too fixated on this miracle, we will sadly forego a richer message this gospel story offers. It is this: a faith challenged is a faith strengthened. Martha experiences this truth when her faith is tested by Lazarus’ death. 

    Lazarus’ death pains Martha and Mary. They mourn his death. They also lament Jesus’ absence. “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died”. But Martha has faith in Jesus. She believes he is the Christ who saves. She professes this faith when Jesus asks if she believes he is the resurrection and the life for all. She does, even as her brother is lying dead in the tomb. She needs no miraculous deeds to believe in Jesus; she simply believes.

    Why should our catechumens and we reflect on Mary’s faith and her act of believing in Jesus? What lesson can we learn to better follow Jesus in everyday life? These are the questions the three RCIA Scrutinies invite catechumens and the baptised to meditate on  each time they are celebrated in Church. In particular, we are being asked to consider the stages of faith in our lives, and the quality of how we live out our faith. 

    The gospel reading of the 1st Scrutiny focused on the Samaritan woman meeting Jesus at the well. Here we meditated on the initial coming to faith. In the 2nd Scrutiny, we read about Jesus healing the man born blind. Here, we considered how this incipient faith takes root with testing. In today’s 3rd Scrutiny we reflect on how this faith deepens even more through the most painful of human experiences, death.

    Let us now telescope our attention onto Martha’s struggle as a way to answer the questions posed. Martha believes that Lazarus will be raised up in resurrection on the last day. She believes in Jesus who is the resurrection for all. Yet, hers is an incomplete faith, for she wishes that her brother had not died and she hesitates when Jesus order Lazarus’ tomb to be open. 

    Do we see ourselves in Martha? Are we like her when life is difficult and we cannot see and feel Jesus’ presence? At such times, don’t we too cry out “Lord, where are you?”—we who faithfully come to mass, pray and practice the Christian life? 

    Like Martha, we believe in Jesus and we want to believe our belief is deep. But the truth is that our faith is incomplete. What we need is for our faith in Jesus to go deep so that our love for God and neighbor can grow wide. 

    All too often we look for signs like miracles to help us deepen our faith. John the evangelist reminds us to focus on Jesus and not on the signs. It is therefore right and good that we meditate on Martha’s profession of faith in Jesus, not on the miracle of Lazarus’ resuscitation. For John, the goal of Jesus’ mission is not resuscitating Lazarus. Bringing the fullness of God’s life to all is. Anyone and everyone who receives Jesus and God’s life that he brings must accept that true faith is really about believing in Jesus: he is the source of unending life. 

    Acceptance is not enough; we must live out our faith in Jesus fully. We will do this well when we live each moment—the good and best, but, more so, the worst and difficult—confident that the promise of God’s life in Jesus, with Jesus and through Jesus’ resurrection is ours even now on earth. This is how our faith is strengthened.

    How can we live true faith in Jesus confidently and fully, especially in difficult, challenging times? By making our faith in Jesus our hope. 

    Part of Jesus’ relationship with Martha and Mary was to give them hope. He did this by preparing them to understand the paschal mystery that they would witness in the resurrection—that out of death comes new life in Christ. This hope enabled Martha to profess faith, even before the miracle.

    The RCIA team and sponsors are preparing our catechumens in the same way. They are preparing them in the most fundamental lesson for Christian discipleship: to know the person of Jesus and to have hope in Jesus who offers salvation to all.

    Such preparation is important for Christian life. It helps believers to understand Jesus’ words about the resurrection, and to go beyond the human logic that death is death. It schools our Christian faith and anchors our Christian hope.

    If such preparation is important, then, you and I, the baptized, must ask ourselves this question: what are we doing to help others understand, know and hope in Jesus? Our answer depends, I feel, on the depth of how we are living out our faith in Jesus. Only we know this depth. Only we know how deep it is because of our life’s challenges. However deep it is, it is always a gift good enough to help another to grow in Christian faith. 

    This is the richer reason why I cherish my winter walks through Mount Auburn. I treasure them not so much for the snow or the quiet, nor even the wonderful winter view of Boston from Mount Auburn’s highest point. What I most cherish them for is the reminder about faith when I see family and friends, all bundled for warmth, praying at the beloved’s graveside in winter silence. Their act of faith offered me once, as it now offers all of you, the glory of this Christian truth: that in the face of death, it is not nothingness or emptiness before us, but the fullness of God’s life truly alive in us and for us that only faith in Jesus can give as our hope to live. 
    Preached at St Ignatius Parish, Singapore
    Photo: www.vdberk.co.uk

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  2. Year C / Ordinary Time  / 30th Week / Sunday (Mission Sunday)
    Readings: Ecclesiasticus 35:12-14, 16-19/ Psalm 33:2-3,17-19,23 (R/v 7a) / 2 Timothy 4.6-8, 16-18 / Luke 18.9-14


    Altitude. It’s a distance measurement. In aviation, geometry, geography, altitude, it is about the vertical or “up” direction. Height is our common word for altitude.

    Whenever we stand at some height or attitude above ground, like on a high floor or a peak, we see differently. Our perspectives on things and people change. Don’t people look really tiny from way up high? Sometimes, we stand on such heights as being right, as being holy, as being superior to others that our attitudes towards them slowly but surely alters.

    Altitude and attitude. They figure in today’s parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector in Luke’s gospel. Here, Jesus teaches us about humility in prayer. In particular, he is teaching us to practice a prayerful attitude towards God and each other. Such attitude is possible when we inhabit the right altitude to live life and faith as Jesus’ disciples, and so carry on his mission.

    For Pope Francis, Jesus’ mission is “to announce the mercy of God, the beating heart of the Gospel” (Misericordiae Vultus, §12). You and I are invited to recommit ourselves to this mission on Mission Sunday. I believe we can do this well when we embrace a prayerful attitude for mission.

    Let us return to the parable and consider how Jesus uses altitude and attitude to instruct us for prayer and mission.

    Two men go up to the temple to pray. The Pharisee stands by himself in the holy space he feels is his rightful place because of his position. The tax-collector stands away from this holy place, some distance from it, at the periphery because he feels unworthy. They inhabit different altitudes to relate to God and each other.

    The Pharisee prays to himself, thanking God that he is better than other people. He does not ask for God’s help; he is full of himself. The tax collector prays to God, repeatedly asking for God’s mercy and forgiveness, desiring reconciliation. He depends on God. They have different attitudes towards God and about themselves before God.

    Jesus ends the parable teaching that God values the pray-er who knows himself and his relationship with God. God is interested in the right attitude for prayer and the right altitude to prayer from.

    The tax collector has the right attitude -- dependence on God -- because he inhabits the right altitude -- humility -- before God and with others. His prayer allows him to deepen his relationship with God.

    Why should we pay attention to the altitudinal and attitudinal location of the two characters in this parable? Because Jesus is warning us against having the naiveté of the Pharisee. Such naiveté is a bluff: it makes a person believe that he is better than everybody else in life and faith, and that God needs no one for the mission but him alone. This is a very dangerous blind spot to have. We all have this same blind spot, if we dare to examine ourselves.

    If I have learnt anything from my life’s journey, it is that I have usually fallen and failed not from my weaknesses, but in my strengths. These often are my blind spots. Perhaps, you’ve realized this too. The irony is that we did not guard our strengths; and in the shadow of our glittering self-images of who we think we are and what we are capable of doing, these strengths failed us and we fell.

    Today Jesus is offering us wisdom for salvation. He teaches us the importance of relating to God from a humble position, never a highhanded one. This is the space to practice the right prayerful attitude for Christian life, faith and mission.

    This is why we need to be honest about ourselves as we listen to this parable. Luke tells us that addressed it to those “who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else”. We are these people too, these Pharisees, sometimes, even as we desire the sincerity and humility of the tax collector to be in right relationship with God and neighbor.

    In our Pharisee-like moments, we perch ourselves high above others, look down on them, and minister to them from our point of view. In these moments, we depend more on ourselves than on God. These are perhaps less than Christian moments in mission. Moments like treating the less skilled and educated with less attention and care. Moments like offering our help and hospitality to Christians only. Moments like taking care of ourselves and our loved ones, and forgetting the rights of others. Moments like judging who in our midst here can and cannot receive communion.

    But God surprises us even in our most Pharisee-like moments whenever we come to God as we truly are: good as we are bad; human as we need God; sinful and repentant as we hope to change and grow in holiness.

    To come to God like this is to come like the tax collector did in the temple -- with a prayerful attitude. It is a graced attitude. Such attitude springs from his hope that God will meet him in God's mercy, and that he, a sinner, can reach out to God in his humility and dependency.

    This attitude springs from being on level ground with God: this is the right altitude for life, faith and mission with God. This is Jesus’ insight into how right attitude and correct altitude play a part in Christian life. He teaches us this today. It is challenging to hear but it is hopeful to live by; and it is necessary for mission.

    Having this prayerful attitude by being with God on the same level will enable us to work with Jesus on God’s mission. It opens us to hear God’s call to mission, as Jesus did. It allows us to know our strengths, our giftedness, our suitability for the mission, as Jesus knew. It draws us back into prayer to renew ourselves, as Jesus practiced the day’s mission is done.

    Perhaps, the most important reason to desire this prayerful attitude for mission and to practice it is because it binds us in solidarity with those we serve. It is only when we can see, connect, love and care for one another prayerfully while on mission that we can discern how to do God’s will faithfully and to do it for no one other than another like me, a sinner yet always God’s beloved.

    This is why knowing the right altitude to live and move and have our being before God and with one another, especially, those in need of our help, will indeed guard us from being morally superior and being quick to judge and condemn. It will moreover preserve us from being blind to others and acting as if they don’t matter.

    Ultimately, having and practicing a prayerful attitude in daily life empowers us to always keep rediscovering what God finds good enough to love in each one of us, whether we are like the Pharisee or the tax collector.

    And what this goodness is is the human potential to yearn for God. This is what God values in us. This is what gives God hope in humankind.

    This goodness is what saved the tax collector for life with God. This goodness is what Jesus hopes the Pharisee will hear in his closing words to the parable: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted”. And yes, this goodness what you and me should listen to in Jesus' call this evening.

    It is a call about going deeper, about increasing the distance in which we can go deep in our friendship with Jesus, and through him, go deep in our relationship with God. Depth is also a vertical measurement; it is about altitude too. The altitude of going deep. We need this depth; it anchors our discipleship deep in Jesus so that we can go far and wide to carry on his mission for God.

    Sisters and brothers, shall we not embrace this depth, and live it daily, this good news for going deep into God for others?


    Preached at St Ignatius Parish, Singapore
    Photo: willis tower deck by vito (www.smartdestinations.com)


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  3. Year C / Ordinary Time / 29th Week / Sunday
    Readings: Exodus 17.8-13/ Psalm 121. 1-8 (R/v cf  2) / 2 Timothy 3.14 - 4.2 / Luke 18.1-8


    What do you pray for? Often times, we petition God for this or that. Sometimes, we complaint and grumble, and we beg God to better our lives or the lives of others. Then, there are times when we simply give thanks, and praise and reverence God. 

    In her poem, “Praying”, the American poet Mary Oliver envisions prayer as “the doorway into…which another voice may speak”.

    She captures well what many of us desire when we pray: to hear the voice of God. To hear God’s voice comforting and assuring us, forgiving us and guiding us, and dare, I add, to even sometimes hear God’s voice challenging and correcting us. But most of all, don’t we really want to hear in prayer God speaking God’s love for us? Don’t we want to catch the timbre of God’s voice as we surrender ourselves more and more to God when we lean more and more into prayer? 

    “Here I am, Lord”, we cry. “Here, I am too, with you”, says God. Isn’t this God’s reply, God’s answer to our prayerful plea? Sometimes, however, and maybe for longer periods in our life, we might have experienced, nothing. Just utter silence, not a squeak, nor a whisper from God. It these moments it is natural for us to feel disappointment, confusion and despair.  

    And yet as tempting as it was to give up on God when our prayers were unanswered, when we did not hear his voice—which admittedly I have done sometimes in the past, and I would guess some of us have done likewise too—we kept on praying, didn’t we? Why?

    Today we hear of Moses and the widow persisting in their petitions: Moses petitions God for Israel’s victory over the Amalek, while the widow petitions a corrupt judge for a just ruling against an opponent. 

    What about you and me: do we persist and persevere in prayer, do we stay the course, trusting that God will answer our petition?

    All of us can be most persistent about what is important to us, like exercising to keep fit, practicing the 10 year serious to ace the PSLE, O Levels and A Levels to perform well, and baking till we get the sugee cake recipe for Christmas right. Shouldn’t we also persist in prayer too, persevering always when we pray to God?  

    I think this question is a no-brainer for us who gather here Sunday after Sunday, faithfully nurturing our faith: we know our answer. We persist because this is how we ought to be in relationship with God— resilient.

    We know the value of persevering in prayer. A deeper trust in God. A stronger faith to live everyday, especially in adversity. A humbling of ourselves that frees us to follow God more closely in our lives. An imitation of Jesus who prayed often and best by teaching us to pray to our Father. But what allows us to persevere in prayer? 

    The image of Moses with his hands raised up can give us an answer. This is a posture we often see in children. A child does this to get attention or to be cared for. This child-like stance is hope-filled: one hopes mommy will cradle her in mommy’s embrace, and daddy will let him lay his head on daddy’s shoulder.

    With his hands held up, Moses’ stance is really the child-like disposition of opening oneself to God and trusting that God will provide. Trusting, even when one doesn’t hear God’s voice or feel God’s presence.

    St Therese of Lisieux has a wonderful story about the Christian and child-like trust in God. A child is at the parade with her father. A crowd surrounds her. They block her view. She hears the parade going by: the marching steps; the band’s rousing music; the cheers and hurrahs of the crowds. She wants to see is the parade. She has her arms up in giggly, gleeful expectation.  And without needing to be asked, her father picks her up, lifts her up with one swoop onto his shoulders, and there, way up high on his shoulders, she delights in the parade.

    We all need to have this child’s trust when we pray to God. We need this trust because it empowers us to persevere. Indeed, every time we pray, especially when we don’t hear God’s voice, we tend to raise and open our arms. It’s not an image of giving up.  Rather, it echoes Moses with his hands up: it is about praying with trust in God. Does God respond? Yes, certainty, though, not ways in the ways we want. Ask and you will receive. We have asked; we have received. God has answer our prayer; we know we can trust. 

    This trust makes us resilient. We need such resilience for the long haul of our pilgrimage home to God. The world however judges trust and resilience as nothing less than foolhardiness humankind doesn’t need. For us Christians, however, this foolhardiness cannot be anything less than graced; it allows us to persevere in prayer. Don’t call it foolhardiness then; call it holy boldness. We grow into this daring boldness every time we keep praying and trusting, trusting and praying to God. Indeed, the Holy Spirit transforms our limited faith into the likeness of Jesus’ unfailing faith in God. 

    We pray so that we can be with God and we allow God to labor for our good. Prayer then leads us to this central human truth: we are not god; we are limited. Every one of us desires union, peace, and joy. We love being human until we experience needs, losses, injuries, and fears. Prayer invites us to humble ourselves in the midst of it all and to trust God, so that we can ask. Prayer invites us to announce our dependencies and proclaim the truth that you and I, we, need God.

    “Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth”. This is the refrain in our psalm this morning. We can only say it like the psalmist did when we dare to trust God’s sure help in the hope Jesus shows us on Cross: never death; always salvation. Such trust deafens every silence we encounter in prayer, and fills each empty experience we have of an absent or distant or non-existent God. 

    This is why Paul’s advice to Timothy in the second reading is also meant for us: “You must keep to what you have been taught and know to be true” that we are saved “through faith in Christ Jesus”. His counsel anchors our perseverance in prayer, as it tilts our prayer toward the hope-filled orientation towards God.

    Jesus reminds us in our gospel reading that we need to pray continually and never lose heart. We need trust and perseverance to do this well. Let us pray then with holy boldness, not lukewarm mediocrity. 

    We can indeed pray like this when we make all of our life—the way we live and move and have our being—a prayer. Be it a petition or a thanksgiving, our prayer will only be prayer when it is our desire, our yearning, for God, and not an obligation we have to do or a tick to put on our day's checklist. For it is when we thirst for God in prayer that we can constantly abandon ourselves into God, so that God can catch us securely in love but, more so, lift us up to the fullness of life, like the little girl in Therese of Lisieux’s story. Then, we will have reached our prayer’s end: we rest in God, as God rests in us. 

    Indeed, what matters most when we persevere in prayer, is not that we hold God within ourselves, but that we try, as best as we can, to hold ourselves in God. 

    And isn’t this, my friends, a petition worth persevering in prayer for?



    Preached at St Ignatius Parish, Singapore
    Photo: from the internet (sharingrace.com)

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  4. Year C / Ordinary Time / Week 27 / Sunday
    Readings: Habakkuk 1.2-3;2.2-4 / Psalm 94. 1-2, 6-7, 8-9 (R/v 8) / 2 Timothy 1.6-8, 13-14 / Luke 17.5-10


    Have you watched parents teaching their children to ride a bicycle? 

    They’d begin their little ones on tricycles. In time, they’d graduate them to bicycles with two supporting wheels in the rear to finally only cycling on two wheels. They'd push them from behind to prevent any falls. They'd also guide them from the side, with encouraging words. They’d do this again and again, until their child makes his first unsupported solo ride. 

    On that day, Daddy would seat the child down and fix the safety helmet a tad tighter. He’d give a short pep talk to reassure the little one. He would go position himself some distance further away, usually at the end of this historic ride. Then he'd probably beckoned his kid to start riding, by shouting out loud, “1,2,3, Go! Just ride, buddy. Just do it!”

    "Just do it”.  We’re all familiar with this Nike trademark. I’d like to suggest that it could be the key we need to unlock Jesus’ message in today’s gospel passage. His message is to teach his followers about the purpose of faith and the role of duty in their lives.

    "Increase our faith," the apostles ask Jesus. Their request opens today’s gospel. The apostles ask because they want to live out his teachings. Teachings like: change your hearts or perish; love God and neighbor more than sacred ritual; put God before everything including family and self; forgive enemies; share your wealth with all; seek out the lost and  lead no one into sin. These are challenging lessons to live. It’s no wonder they ask for more faith.

    We too hear Jesus’ teachings in the gospels. They were also part of the gospel readings these past few Sundays. Like the apostles, we want to live as better Christians. It’s logical then that we also ask Jesus, “increase my faith”. 

    Jesus would reply to us as he did to his apostles: Were your faith the size of a mustard seed, you would already have all the power you need to perform tremendous feats. His reply is enlightening: the faith we have is good enough to live as he teaches us to.

    The operative word here is: “were”. By definition “were” is the simple past tense of the verb “be”, which has to do with the temporary or permanent quality someone has. When Jesus uses the phrase “were your faith”, he is referring to the faith one already has. He is not questioning the quantity of the apostles’ faith, or scolding them for a total lack of it. Rather, Jesus recognizes that the disciples’ faith, while miniscule, could still empower them to live out his teachings, if only they would use it. 

    Jesus wants us to also use our faith, no matter how much we have of it, to live in his ways. What’s the best way to do this?

    Christian discipleship is about witnessing actively to God’s love in the world as Jesus proclaimed it.  Our words will not accomplish this mission. What will is our self-sacrificing deeds of loving God and loving neighbor, particularly, those in need.

    Faith is the necessary fuel we need to do this mission and to achieve it. This is a purpose faith has in Christian life. We would be lazy and irresponsible Christians if we think of Jesus like a dispenser, giving out more faith whenever we feel we want to do the mission. 

    The truth is that Jesus has already given us a tank full of faith in baptism. It is given for us to complete the mission by living in right relationship with God and one another. We are responsible for topping it up. We do this best by living our faith actively: then, faith multiplies. But faith left idle evaporates, till nothing's left.

    In this gospel, Jesus tells us that we already have the faith needed to live in his ways and to carry on his mission. Our task is to grow it. There is no need to ask for more faith. We need to use our faith, or we will lose it.

    Jesus describes the life of duty as the gospel ends. Such a life is one way faith can grow. The servant dutifully attends to all his master’s needs, he accomplishes them before his own, with no regard to being thanked. Jesus calls us to live a similar life: always serving and when all is completed, to say, “we are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty.” 

    I believe we all want to say “yes” to following Jesus' call;  we do so using use our heads to help us rationalise this. But our hearts struggle: we would rather say “no” for we would prefer to set the agenda for our discipleship and define the kind of disciple we want to be. Such is our reality of living in today’s world that preaches individualism and individual rights. 

    Early Christians reading Luke’s gospel, however, would have understood the richer meaning of Jesus’ example of the dutiful servant for their lives. It is this: that there is no place or time when the Christian disciple can say, “I’m done serving; now I want to be served”. For them, a Christian must do as Jesus did: dutifully serving all and dutifully serving always. 

    These should be difficult words for us to hear because Jesus is insisting that we cannot live our faith by selectively serving God and neighbor. If we want to grow in our faith, we have to learn that we have a duty to do this: to be selfless and humble to serve someone else always. If this is the right thing Christians ought to do, shouldn’t we just do it?

    I think there is no other way to just do this than by practicing attentiveness to God’s many invitations to use our faith to serve. Each of these invitations in our everyday life draws us into imitating Jesus more closely—Jesus who shows us that service for others must be the right and just shape  for us to express the depth, the breath and the height of our faith in God.

    Practicing faith like this is about making it come alive, not about adding to its quantity. This is why the faith we already have—however much or however little it is—is truly good enough for God to grow in us. This is Paul’s point in the second reading: with the Spirit’s help, we have to fan the gift of faith into a flame that witnesses to God. 

    Let us then heed the wisdom in today’s psalm: O that today we would listen to God’s voice! Hardened not our hearts. In every opportunity to serve others, God is growing our faith. We assist God by answering this question daily: “How have I lived today for another to have life?” We can begin our answer by listening to how God speaks to us in every possibility to serve others each day. The more we open our hearts to God as we do this, the more we will know our answer. Jesus lived like this. When we do likewise, we let God grow our faith.

    Grow. Growing. Growing up. This is how the little ones learn to build confidence to make their first solo bicycle ride. From learning to pedal with four wheels to then with two wheels that Daddy and Mommy help them to ride with to finally their solo ride, they grow in confidence by practicing again and again. Sometimes, they fall, and have a few scrapes too.  But it is in practicing that they know they will make it to the end when they set off on their own. 

    We too can have this same confidence to live our faith through lives of service. We don’t really need to ask for more faith; we just need to practice, practice, practice it more. Today God is urging us to simply do this and so grow our faith. “Go,” God says, “just do it!”  Shall we?




    Preached at St Ignatius Parish, Singapore
    photo: from the Internet
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I hope you will find in these posts something that speaks to you of the God who loves us all and who always holds us in the palm of his hand. Blessings!
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Fall in Love, Stay in Love
Fall in Love, Stay in Love

"Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute way final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything."

Pedro Arrupe, sj, Superior General, 1965 - 1983

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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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