1. Year B / Christmas / Christmas Day 
    Readings Isaiah 52.7-10 / Psalm 97.1,2-3ab, 3cd-4, 5-6 (R/v 3) / Hebrews 1.1-6 / John 1.1-5, 9-14


    “The Word was made flesh, he lived among us.”

    What joyful proclamation today! The angels herald it. The shepherds adore God’s Word alive in our midst.  Mary and Joseph hold their new born and love him. We too should rejoice: Hallelujah! Glory to God and peace to all peoples.

    But how much does Jesus’ birth really matter to you and me?

    This Christmas isn’t going to be quite the same for many. Fewer will gather for the Christmas liturgies. Celebrations will be smaller and muted. Loved ones will be apart, some quarantined. Frontline workers will work harder to keep us safer. 

    Today it matters that we hear greetings of “Merry Christmas” or “Blessed Christmas.” Also, words of love and expressions of loving between family and friends. Some thanksgiving too for gifts exchanged and, hopefully, for the gift we are to one another. 

    But what we really want to hear, I suspect, are more comforting words.  Like this: “Thank God, you are safe!” They assure us that God laboured through our sacrifices, hard work and vigilance throughout this pandemic, and looked after us. Yes, God has, and so we resound “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” 

    What must especially matter then this Christmas is this. Not just that God loves, cares and saves us. But that He is indeed God-with-us, especially in hard times now, as illness, anxiety and uncertainty swirl around us.

    By giving us his only Son God offers all who believe eternal life, not death. This is God’s faithfulness, the Gospel announces. Throughout this pandemic, we’ve experienced the depth of God’s faithfulness: Jesus walks with us. 

    Yes, Jesus is God’s Word come down to us. Come down as radiant light to guide. Come down as daily bread to feed. Come down as healing balm to restore. Come down as consoling wisdom to guide. Come down as grace upon grace for us to have life to the fullest. Come down to save us.  

    Come down so true and real in this pandemic.  Indeed, God’s love always acts in our favour. This matters. How can anyone miss this Christmas truth coming alive this year? “None” I dare say because Jesus’ coming encourages humankind to look for the face of God. More importantly, Jesus’ coming teaches many how to reveal God’s saving love.

    Regardless of faith, race or tongue, we have learned to do this because we have all stood once before the child Jesus in Christmas cribs in churches or shopping malls, and even metaphorically, in story and music.  A child, vulnerable and helpless — with outstretched hands, waiting. Waiting for our response.

    Many still look, see and move on. But for those who dare to quieten ourselves before Jesus, open our hearts and listen, something happensJesus’ quiet prompting in our hearts, oftentimes soiled and messy, moves us to care. To welcome him who is little and least. To uplift him who is weak. To care for him who is poor. To love him who is infinite and infant. Will we still?

    Our Advent hope is for God to come and save us. At Christmas, God fulfils our hope. God also hopes we will welcome Jesus into our lives. Then, God can make our hearts big, even bigger in time, to love. He will by humbling us to see him in every face of all in need, pleading for our care. Particularly, the small and weak, the least and last, the poor and outcast. 

    This is God’s plan. Not for today and tomorrow; it extends into the future – our future with one another on earth, and with God in heaven.

    Today, we rejoice for Jesus dwells amongst us. In him, we know we are God’s own.  Let us respond gratefully in the best human way we can – in deeds of care for many, not words. Then, we can best show forth what must really matter: that God’s glory is indeed Jesus caring for all with love beyond all telling. Let us.

    A Blessed Christmas.



    Preached at St Ignatius Church, Singapore
    Photo: humanitarian aid relief trust website (internet)
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  2. Year B / Advent / Week 4 / Sunday
    Readings: 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16 / Responsorial Psalm 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29. (R/v 2a) / Romans 16:25-27 / Luke 1:26-38


    “Hail, full of grace. The Lord is with you.”

    This is how Angel Gabriel greeted Mary at the Annunciation. His words touch us and move us. They comfort us for we believe they are God’s greeting. These words from the Gospel have also inspired painters and poets to capture this moment. Whether in art and word, each has richly and rightly expressed every person’s longing for God and God’s love for us in return.

    Today’s readings attest that God hears us in our need and He reaches out to us. Don’t our Advent readings point us to the gurgling infinite and infant Jesus who fulfills all our wants and needs?

    As uplifting as Gabriel’s words are, they disturbed Mary: “She was greatly troubled at what was said.” I wonder if his greeting would disturb us as much if God does the same to you and me, calling us by name to say, “Hail, full of grace.”  How should we react? 

    With gratitude and hope, I will suggest.

    With gratitude first, after the surprise has settled. God comes to disturb us in our busyness. To stop us in our tracks, remind us of His presence, and demand we pay attention to Him. God-is-with-us. 

    Perhaps, this year, more than any before, we need God to disturb us at Christmas. For in our busy efforts to keep safe, protect others, and survive this pandemic, we may have been too busy to remember God. Some of us might have busied ourselves, even more, to avoid God and hide our messy, sinful lives.

    When God does disturb us – and God will – let us be wise and consider the manner and reason for God’s intervention. Mary did; she pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

    The Lord is with you.” This is Gabriel’s answer to Mary. It consoles. It must be our answer and consolation too. 

    Unlike Mary, born without sin, we might feel our sinful lives have nothing for God to find favour with. Yet, hasn’t God repeatedly shown us otherwise? When family mercifully forgives us for mistakes. When friends compassionately care for us in illness and disappointments. When colleagues and classmates value our deficiencies as gifts and together we uplift others.  These are the many times God intervenes. He disturbs us to remind us we are worthy. Like today, again: “Hail, full of grace.”

    With hope too in our gratitude. Hope because God reveals the mystery of Jesus’ birth to us. Kept secret for long ages, proclaimed by the ancient prophets, it is now revealed: the good news of Jesus Christ, as St Paul reminds us in the Second Reading. Once, God chose Mary to bring alive this mystery. She accepted God’s call to bear Jesus to birth, and at the right time, she bored him to the world. Let heaven and earth rejoice (Psalm 96.11). And yes, let us too.

    Today, God chooses us to do the same. He is asking us to open ourselves to Jesus, let him dwell in us, and at the right time, go forth and bear him to all peoples. Does this demand disturb you? 

    God doesn’t just want to be with us. Like Mary, God wants to come and dwell in us, and through us, to stay in the world. The Greek translation of John 1.14 expresses this best: “the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us.” 

    Are we ready to let our lives be Jesus’ tent, his dwelling place in today’s world? Or, truth be told, do we have some cleaning up and clearing out to do for Jesus to come to birth in the manger of our hearts

    God’s faith in our worthiness. God's demand that we be his tent on earth. These are radical messages to hear. The word ‘radical’ has its origins in Latin for ‘root.’ This should give us confident hope. For God is affirming once again what He did at Creation, and has been inviting humankind to claim ever since. First, the truth that we were created good and worthy for God. Second, the desire God always has to be with us. In the Annunciation story, we hear God speak his hope. Mary heard it once. She responded with a “yes.” 

    What about us? What response will you and I make to God?





    Preached at the Courage Ministry Advent Recollection and St Ignatius Church, Singapore
    photo: rachelutainsevans.com
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  3. Year B / Advent / Week 3 / Sunday
    Readings: Isaiah 61:1-2a, 10-11 / Responsorial Psalm - Luke 1:46-48, 49-50, 53-54. (R/v Is 61:10b) / 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 / John 1:6-8, 19-28

    “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God, my saviour.”

    We know these words. We ponder and bring them to prayer. We strive to live them in our daily lives. These are part of Mary’s Magnificat at the Annunciation. They are her grateful, joyful praise of God’s graciousness in her life and in the lives of many.

    Today, these same words make up our Gospel Acclamation. They call us to rejoice and be glad because we celebrate Gaudete Sunday. Yes, we should because the Lord is coming. He is on the way. Indeed, Christmas is even nearer now.

    Are we however truly joyful? 

    Maybe we find it difficult to be, like the Israelites Isaiah addresses in the First Reading. They struggled in exile, facing opposition and obstacles. We are now struggling with the coronavirus and the prolonged pain, suffering, uncertainty it has wrought in our lives. Even with a vaccine in sight, many are grappling with the reality of less festive and family Christmas celebrations, if not, none at all.

    Maybe it is even harder to rejoice in this Advent because we feel that we are insufficiently prepared spiritually.  Who amongst us has not been more preoccupied with keeping safe and well and not taking any risks, for family, friends, and at work? Circumstances have shifted our focus. 

    These real, everyday reasons do weigh us down. We may wonder if there is indeed any good reason to really rejoice today.

    Today’s readings rightly direct our gaze to Jesus’ coming at Christmas. They demand we be glad and rejoice. They reveal another reason we can be glad.  

    We find it in the repeated focus they make on the Lord’s Spirit. This Spirit brings glad tidings to the poor, heals the brokenhearted, proclaims liberty to captives and announces God’s favour on his people. Filled with this same Spirit, John the Baptist announced the Lord’s coming, converted sinners and brought many to Jesus as we hear in our Gospel reading. This Spirit is none other than God’s Spirit in Jesus

    Today we are reminded that we are filled with this same Spirit. We have it because we are Jesus’ disciples. Jesus’ coming opens the way for God to gift us this Spirit. This is why we can do what John the Baptist did once before – announce the Lord’s coming into our midst. “There is one among you whom you do not recognize.” 

    As with John, this Spirit empowers us to be that voice crying out in the wilderness. In today’s wilderness where many are lonely and despairing and where apathy and unbelief abound among many. They are looking for light and healing, comfort and peace. We can bring these to them and be their hope by proclaiming Good News like John the Baptist did for many. 

    St Paul calls us to pray unceasingly in our Second Reading. We should beg God to fill us with His Spirit and move us to bring glad tidings to the poor.  We should also pray unceasingly in thanksgiving. For, after all, what kind of a God would anoint us with His Spirit and invite us to partner him in Kingdom-building? A kind and loving God. He gifted us with Jesus once in history and every moment daily so that we receive his mercy and know his compassion.

    Today, we have every right to rejoice: our anticipation for Jesus is real and his sure coming is our certain joy. Our rejoicing will be greater if we humble ourselves enough to realise that we know this because God’s gift of the Spirit has empowered others to announce Good News to us like John did to many. How can this unconditional love of God for us not compel you and me then to do the same to another who awaits this Advent? 

    Who then should we reach out to and help them rejoice with us?



    photo: dailywalkdevontional.com

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  4.  

    Year B / Advent / Week 2 / Sunday
    Readings: Isaiah 40.1-5, 9-11 / Psalm 85. 9-10, 11-12, 13-14 (R/v 8) / 2 Peter 3.8-14 / Mark 1.1-8


    “Console my people, console them.” 

    Sisters and brothers, these are God’s words that we hear in the First Reading. His words are to assure His people: He will come to comfort and console His own. At Christmas we celebrate how God made His words come alive and true once before in history, and how He still does for us daily – in Jesus’ coming to be amongst us, to love and forgive us, to save us.

    But who is God asking to console his people? Who is to bring His comfort to them?

    While it is right and good that Advent prayer focuses us on the Lord’s coming, today we are being challenged to focus on who it is to bring the Lord’s consolation and comfort. It is us. We are the very ones who God wants to send to console and comfort all humankind.  

    God does not just want us to go and announce His sure coming, like John the Baptist did, and so prepare for this. He also wants us to be like the joyful messengers to Zion, Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah; we must also proclaim to all peoples, “Here is your God.” The Good News is more than the call we must heed to prepare well for the Lord’s coming.  It is also and always the important work of prophesying the truth that God is here with us now.

    You and I know how true it is that God is with us. We have all experienced his goodness and presence in our lives. This gives us the confidence to live our Christian faith. Are we, however, announcing God and God’s saving love in word and deed to all around us like John the Baptist and the joyful messengers did?  Their work is important; they collaborated with God to console the people. They were His heralds. 

    This Advent when the pandemic has heightened our fears and anxieties, we need God’s heralds to comfort us.  Even more, we need them to assure and uplift us this Christmas. Come, we pray, because everything we associate with Christmas – family gatherings, festive meals, gifts exchange, and even Christmas Masses with Glorias resounding – will be stripped away, if not pared down to the minimum. 

    More than ever, we do not just want God to be with us this year. We really need God, I believe. Who are the heralds He will send if not you and me?

    An image the Advent narrative offers for our prayer is that of a pregnant Mary making her way over the countryside to be with her cousin Elizabeth. This visitation is an act of charity; Mary comforts and consoles the elder Elizabeth in her pregnancy. In fact, she who receives Jesus within her is to gift him to all around her. This is how God uses Mary to present Himself to us. Aren’t Christians to do likewise  – to gift Jesus, the incarnate compassion of God, to others in charity, and so console the many in need?

    It is easy to be introspective and prayerful at Advent to prepare ourselves for Christmas. But the more Christian act in this time, I suggest, is to herald God’s coming, not as a future event, but as the immediate reality that God is with us, in our midst. This is what Mary proclaimed to Elizabeth with her visit, and, more so, make real that God is in charge.

    Who then should we visit this Advent and how should we make this visit count for another? Let us learn from those who have visited us and shown us the loving face of God.  We can only give what we have. God has visited us in different ways, through various people, and his compassion is our comfort. Let us give what is good and loving from God in our lives to those who cry out for our help and care.

    Maybe when we act in these ways, consoling and comforting them as God demands we must today, we will hear them echo resoundingly the very Good News those joyful messengers announced in the first reading – truly, “here is our God.”

    Isn't this a good way to bring Advent hope to many? Shall we?





    photo: ccn. com (internet)
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"Bukas Palad"
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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

"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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