1.  
    Year C / Christmas Season / Feast of the Holy Family
    Readings: 1 Samuel 1:20-22,24-28 / Psalm 83.2-3,5-6, 9-10 (R/v cf 5a) / 1 John 3:1-2, 21-24 / Luke 2:41-52


    “Turn your eyes, O God, our shield, look on the face of your anointed” (Psalm 83.10)

    Our Responsorial Psalm ends with this line. This is the psalmist’s cry for God to look over the King of Israel. It ultimately points to the Messiah, the anointed one of God. Generations of Jews prayed in hope for God’s Messiah to come as their salvation. 

    Simeon also prayed for the Messiah. To him, God revealed Jesus as Saviour. Some might echo Simeon as we adore Jesus in the crib this Christmas. “Lord…Your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation which You have prepared in the sight of every people. A light to reveal You to the nations.”

    We believe Jesus is God’s salvation in our lives. Isn’t this why we keep looking out for Jesus?

    The act of looking features prominently in today’s gospel reading. The Holy Family is actively looking. Mary and Joseph went to look for Jesus when he was lost. They were anxiously looking for him everywhere. When they found him, Mary said, “your father and I have been looking for you.” Jesus replied, “Why are you looking for me?” I imagine Jesus returning home and looking at Mary and Joseph to learn how to live and pray, to be obedient and grow in wisdom with God and others.

    The act of looking is indeed part of family life. Parents looking out for their children. Looking to care for them. Looking to forgive them. Looking to affirm them. Looking to delight in them. Children too look at their parents and godparents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and even each other. Looking to learn how to live and care, to be good and loving, to be faithful to God and loyal in relationships. 

    Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. This family offers us a pattern of faithful Christian living so that we can have fullness of life. We can practice this by imitating how they look for Jesus.

    Mary and Joseph’s anxiety as they look for Jesus is our anxiety when we are distant from him. Our worry grows when too many days pass and we seem to lose him. So, we search for Jesus, looking to find him again.

    Consider how we do this. We pray harder, perhaps longer, when we cannot find Jesus in prayer.  We challenge ourselves to be more like Jesus, selfless and giving, when we find ourselves becoming self-centred and self-absorbed. We seek Jesus out in a retreat, a talk with a spiritual director, even conversation with fellow parishioner, when our lukewarm faith slides us into complacency.  We humble ourselves and seek Jesus’s forgiveness when we sin. Even here and now, we have sacrificed other wants to come to Jesus in the Eucharist at this time; we do because we need Him.

    Mary and Joseph remind us that finding Jesus is hard work. They teach us to persevere, stay focused and be determined in our search. They instruct us to trust  God to find him and where to find Jesus: in God’s House, the  temple, where he is teaching the elders. Finding Jesus like this astonishes us too: “Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs?”

    Jesus himself teaches us how to look for him. We do, when we like him, seek to be in God’s presence. When we like him, choose to be obedient to God. When we like him, let God nurture and grow us in His wisdom. Consider the many times we have imitated Jesus and found ourselves growing to become more like Him, the fullness of  God’s image and likeness. Others will look at us and judge how Christian we are by our life and our love. What will they say?

    Looking for Jesus also enlarges where we look for him, how we find him and what new understanding comes to us through our encounters with him. 

    Listen to this story of St Benedict and the novices. They were praying before the manger in their chapel on Christmas Eve. There was a loud knock. No one got up. Everyone was focussed on the Infant Child The knocking got louder. No one moved. They were all adoring Jesus. The knocking continued incessantly. St Benedict got up, opened the door and let a beggar into their midst. He prayed beside them. When prayer ended, the beggar disappeared. ‘Where is he?’ Who is he?’ the novices asked. ‘He is Jesus,’ St Benedict said. ‘He came to pray with you and for you. You didn’t really look.’

    The novices had to learn how to experience divine presence, obedience and growing in wisdom within the community they are – with each other and with Jesus as one with them, one amongst them, one for them. We too live and learn in the community we call ‘family.’ 

    As a Christian family, we hear echoes of the way the Holy Family looks for Jesus in our second reading. We can look for him by believing in him, loving one another, and keeping the commandments. Indeed, we will do these best when we look out for one another. For together, in our shared joys and pains, challenges and opportunities, we can turn our eyes to look for Jesus.

    Finding him will more than calm us; it will be our satisfaction and delight. Shall we do this daily?





    Preached at St Ignatius Church, Singapore

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  2. Year C / 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


    “And the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us” (John 1.14)

    This is how John the Evangelist describes what happened that first Christmas night Jesus was born. Isn’t this why we celebrate?

    We believe Jesus is not another infant. He is that very particular infant who shows us the way to God. To be one with God. He came and dwelt amongst us. Everything Jesus said and did was to lead everyone into the very life of God. This is the purpose of Jesus’s birth. This is God’s plan for us. Even now, His Spirit labours in our daily lives to fulfil it. 

    So it is good and right we celebrate Jesus’s birth. It is even better we rejoice for what His birth is truly for: our salvation. The angels sung this Christmas proclamation to the world.

    Listen to Jean Vanier, a Catholic social activist, describe the Christmas proclamation. 
    Here we have the heart, the center, the beginning and the end of the gospel: God, the eternal God, Creator of the heavens and the earth, became like us, a vulnerable, mortal human being. He became as a baby needing a mother, conceived in her flesh, nourished at her breast, needing her love and the love and presence of Joseph in order to grow and develop as a human being. Pitching his tent among us, he became a pilgrim and a brother, walking through the desert with us. He became part of history, revealing to us a way to God and to universal peace.*
    Jesus’s birth is God’s Good News for all peoples. We all need it. It moves many, even of other faiths, to cry out in wonder that God will humble Himself and come to us. It encourages  Christians to proclaim joyfully that God keeps his word: the Saviour is born. It consoles the suffering, hurting and despairing to keep faith that God hears because He is true hope.

    There is another way Jesus’s coming touches us, if we but let it. It moves us to embrace.

    Later in his ministry, Jesus will remind a follower that he “the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” But for now, the Infant Jesus rests in the arms of Mary and Joseph. We know this well. Scripture and song tell it. Christian art and Hallmark cards portray it.  Every manger proclaims it each Christmas.  This child  with his parents will live an ordinary life of pleasures and joys, dull routines and everyday habits,  sorrows  and pains like ours, largely hidden from others. 

    Yet even now, today, this Christmas, the Infant Jesus, again with outstretched hands, asks you and me if he can rest his head against our hearts. How shall we respond?

    Pope Francis tells a story about a shepherd’s response. Hearing the angels proclaim Jesus’s birth, this shepherd hurried to the manger with the other shepherds. The rest bore different gifts. He had nothing to give for he was poorer than them. He stood apart, embarrassed. Joseph and Mary found it hard to receive the many gifts, especially Mary who was holding the baby. “Seeing that poor shepherd with empty hands, she asked him to draw near. She put the Infant Jesus into his arms. Holding the baby, that shepherd became aware he was holding the greatest gift of all time. He looked at his hands, those hands that seemed to him always empty; they had now become the cradle of God. He felt loved. And moved by this love, he overcame his embarrassment to show Jesus to the others, for he could not keep for himself the gift of gifts.”**

    Today, Jesus invites everyone to embrace Him like the poor shepherd did. We might struggle to do this. Some feel spiritually poor with no good gift for Jesus. Others are ashamed for wasting the Advent opportunity to prepare for Jesus’s coming. Many deem themselves unworthy to hold Jesus. Everyone  is grappling with sin. We are these people.  

    Yet, Jesus ​calls out to us again this Christmas to us to embrace Him and lift Him high for all to see and know. What else is Jesus’ invitation but God loving us still?

    John’s Gospel begins with these words: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (John 1.1). Jesus is God’s Word come down to us. His humble birth in Bethlehem means that God is no longer distant or set apart from our world. He is one with us.  He is like us in all things but sin. He comes for us and our salvation. 

    More amazing it is that we can now touch, hold and embrace Jesus, as he does the same to each of us, repeatedly. He calls us to make our hands, our hearts a cradle for God. How can this not move our hearts?

    In Jesus God is amongst us. Surely this must mean a huge change for every one of us. Personally, as the gospel assures us: “from the fullness of life and love in Jesus we have received love upon love, grace upon grace” (John 1.16). In fact, this is our joy at Christmas –  for we have received so much from Jesus that his birth is, in a real sense, our birth too.***

    A Blessed Christmas!




    *Jean Vanier, Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus Through the Gospel of John
    ** Pope Francis, Midnight Mass, 24 December 2019
    *** Trappist reflections on Christmas 


    Preached at St Ignatius Church, Singapore
    photo: by Omar Lopez on Unsplash
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  3. Year C / Advent / Week 4 / Sunday
    Readings: Micah 5.1-4a / Ps 80 (R/v 4) / Hebrew 10.5-10 / Luke 1.39-45


    “Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord?” (Luke 1.43)
     
    We hear Elizabeth making this exclamation when Mary visits her. It is however much more than this. She cries out in astonishment that God is indeed visiting her. Elizabeth can do this because she recognizes Mary’s true identity. She is more than a cousin; she is the bearer of God.
     
    I wonder how we would respond if Mary, pregnant with Jesus, visits us here and now. What would we utter?
     
    Today we watch Mary journeying into the hill country to share her extraordinary secret with Elizabeth. That she is carrying God within her. Through Mary, God visits Elizabeth. Soon and very soon, God will be born for all peoples, ourselves included. Hasn’t this also been our Advent longing?
     
    God comes to intervene in our lives. He did so for a young virgin and a barren old woman. The virgin became the mother of God. The barren woman bore a prophet who converted many to God. 
     
    In Mary, we see the power of God’s intervention to bring about good. It sends her on a mission to care for Elizabeth, large with child. Then, she will give birth to Jesus for all peoples. From that point onward, Mary will care for every person with a mother’s love, as she did with the apostles at Pentecost. 
     
    Mary acts like this because God sweeps her up in his own haste. His urgent haste to reach all people to love and save. This is why Mary went with haste to Elizabeth over the hill country. Such is the power of God’s intervention. If we are honest, we too have been caught up in God’s haste – every time we loved or forgave another, cared and uplifted the needy, accepted all society shuns, even delighted in one that nobody values.
     
    God’s own haste, Pope Francis, writes, “urged Mary to open the door and go out…to set out on her journey to her cousin. She chose the unknowns of the journey over the comforts of her daily routines, the weariness of travel over the peace and quiet of home. This is the risk of faith that makes our lives a loving gift to others over placid piety.* Such was Mary’s choice. Would we choose the same?
     
    Today’s story of the Visitation reminds us that there is no place where God does not reach. Our life stories are replete with God’s interventions into our messy, disordered lives. If we dare to notice and admit, God has done this so many times, and it is beyond counting. 
     
    God reaches out to all peoples, in all places and at all times. We know this with our heads. We struggle with our hearts that God does this repeatedly for the lesser and lost, the forgotten and unknown, the small and insignificant. Like Bethlehem-Ephrathah, “too small to be among the clans for Judah.” Yet from such places and people, God will bring about great things, like a ruler for Israel, a shepherd who cares, and peace for everyone.
     
    Consider how God comes to us to right our wrongs, straighten our crooked ways, and order our disordered lives and loves. “Yes, come, Lord Jesus, come,” we pray, “Come and share in our humanity.” Dare we pray, however, “Come. Lord Jesus, and let us share in your divinity?”
     
    Indeed, if we have experienced and savoured the goodness of Jesus coming to be one with us, one like us, and one for us in every person we encounter, wouldn’t we join Elizabeth and cry out, “Why should I be honoured by the mother of the Lord.”
     
    It is not enough to cry out. We must welcome God who comes to us through the many we interact with. Come into the dimness and emptiness of our souls. Here, whatever is gloomy, angry, resentful bitter, or discouraging grips us in fear, burden, and despair. 
     
    So often we hide this side of our lives. We dare not tell others our truest thoughts and deepest feelings. “How are you?” they ask. We reply, “I’m fine,” “OK,” “I’m getting along.” We struggle to be honest and vulnerable. We are too ashamed to be our truest selves. We hide our pains and hurts. We deny our failings and sins. We harden our hearts, afraid to admit “I’m not like you” or “I just want to be loved by you.” Sometimes, we even fear voicing dreams and hopes.
     
    Into the spaces, God wishes to be with us. Make his home in us. Come and be born in us like the child born that first Christmas morning.
     
    How shall we welcome this child?  This child whose human face reveals the face of God. This truth is beyond our understanding and comprehension. It is beyond our grasp.
     
    Our cleverness and intelligence, even our skills to analyse and rationalise, will never enable us to welcome God adequately. 
     
    Only wonder can. Wonder because it leads us to the threshold of contemplation. A contemplation, not so much of seeing God, as it is entering God’s seeing.** That is, seeing everything and everyone from God’s point of view. Maybe then we will understand how he welcomes us. No matter how unworthy we think we are, God loves us too much to always welcome. Born in a manger, he stretches out his hands to us, His beloved. How else can we welcome God but to do the same – with outstretched hands?
     
    Yes, let us wonder expectantly this week and welcome God who we say we love.  Shall we?
     
     


    * Pope Francis, Homily, 15 September 2021
    ** Inspired by the Trappist monks at Spencer Abbey, Massachusetts.
     
     
    Preached at St Ignatius Church, Singapore
    photo:   Leo Rivas on Unsplash

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  4.  

    Year C / Advent / Week 3 / Sunday
    Readings: Zephaniah 3.14-18a  / Psalm: Isaiah 12.2-3, 4, 5-66  (R/v 6) / Philippians 4.4-7 / Luke 3.10-18


    “I want you to be happy…the Lord is very near” (Philippians 4.4-5)

    Here is St Paul exhorting us to rejoice. Today’s readings tell us why: they proclaim the Lord’s nearness. He is coming, John the Baptist proclaims. Indeed, we should be expectant, anticipating something good, eagerly awaiting it. Yes, soon and very soon.

    Every Advent focuses us on Jesus’ coming – in two ways.  We recall his first coming as the Infant Child. He is peace for all peoples. His coming in history roots our belief. We also anticipate his second coming as Christ the King. He is hope for everyone and all creation. His coming in time strengthens our faith. This twin focus enables us to remember, celebrate and believe in Jesus, God-with-us. 

    But did we recognise Jesus in our lives this week? This third way Jesus comes makes real this Christian truth: God always shows up. Let’s pay more attention to this truth in the second half of Advent to prepare better for Christmas.

    Listen to Jesus’s assurance: "Anyone who loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him” (John 14.23). We follow Jesus. However well we do this, whatever the state of our lives, and wherever we are on our faith journey, God will come to us in Jesus. 

    How can we recognise him in our midst? We can learn from John the Baptist. He recognizes Jesus as Saviour. His clear and unequivocal answers to “What should we do?” give the people direction in their lives. But his answers provide more. They point to the One who is all Good News. To “a mighty saviour” who is in our midst (First Reading) and is near (Second reading). John’s words proclaim a person, not a message.  Excited, the people keep a lookout for Jesus. Do we? 

    Maybe we struggle to recognise Jesus as Saviour in our daily lives. Here are three possible reasons we do.

    Because we expect Jesus to come and act the way we want him to. Like the Jews some want Jesus to be powerful, on their side and vanquishing the sinful. Yes, Jesus comes, but he does otherwise. He eats with the outcasts, prays for his enemies, and forgives every sinner. He even chastises our self-righteousness. Those disappointed with Jesus’s words and actions crucified him. Have we done the same whenever he failed our expectations?

    Because we have made Jesus too ordinary. Like Jesus’ kinsfolk in Nazareth, others see him too familiarly as one like us and amongst us – a friend, a brother, a neighbour. We cannot accept his teachings that challenge us to live in God’s ways. We scrutinize his miraculous powers. We grapple with his boundless mercy to love all, even to lay down his life sacrificially. “Isn’t he the carpenter’s son, his mother’s name, Mary, and his brothers and sisters with us?” Jesus’ family asks in disbelief (Matthew 13.54-56).  Might we be equally blind to appreciate his extraordinary love and saving action in our lives?

    Because we are too busy. Like so many our lives are packed every day. We are constantly caught up in 101 activities. We put too much on our plate to do the right thing for the family, for success, for meaningful lives. We problem-solve the daily concerns and plan diligently for a hope-filled future. All these are important but are they essential to our Christian life? Jesus wants to be with us and to have us help others know him. He is present but we don’t see him. Could we be missing Jesus altogether because we were looking elsewhere?

    Advent reminds us that God still comes to us even when we don’t recognise him. He shows up, even if we miss him countless times. We might ignore or reject God but He keeps turning up for us and for our good. This is Good News. Shouldn’t we be rejoicing daily?

    What kind of a God keeps showing up? One who knows love costs. That to love lavishly, He must give up everything for His own, including turning up at a time they need, which is honestly always.

    Henri Nouwen writes, with “ears to hear and eyes to see, you will recognise Jesus at any moment in your life. Life is Advent. Life is recognising the coming of the Lord.”

    Let us ask for the grace to do this. Simeon prayed for this grace while waiting for the Messiah’s coming (Luke 2.25-35). And the Spirit moved him to recognise Jesus when Mary and Joseph were offering him to God in the Temple.  This grace readied him to see Jesus as the Christ, God’s salvation for all peoples. We need this grace too. To recognise Jesus in prayer and worship, in Eucharist and Confession, in charity and compassion. More so, in the sheer goodness of another person, the utter joy of an event, the complete surprise of intimacy. This is the nearness of Christ in the flesh among us.

    When we can do this, we will truly know Zephaniah’s claim: that when the Lord is in our midst, he will rejoice over us, renew us in his love and sing joyfully because of us (Zephaniah 3.17). Indeed, God is coming to us in Jesus because He delights in us. It’s that simple. Is there any better reason for us to be expectantly joyful for Christmas and every day to come?




    Preached at St Ignatius Church, Singapore
    Photo: Conner Ching on Unsplash

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  5.  

    Year C / Advent / Week 2 / Sunday
    Readings: Baruch 5.1-9 / Ps 126.1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6  (R/v 3) / Philippians 1.4-6, 8-11 / Luke 3.1-6


    “Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight” (Luke 3.4)

    Today, John the Baptist is calling us to recognize our longing for God. A longing that can move us to level and straighten out the uneven and crooked shape of our lives, if we want to. His call challenges us: is our present path taking us closer to God and are we opening up for others the way to God?

    John’s call reminds us that the spirituality of Advent is not repentance. That is for Lent.* Advent is of expectant longing. It involves recognizing the tensions we have as we long for God to come into our lives, often messy. To do this, we must respect that God’s love will come and resolve them in his time. The Advent prayers, readings, and songs help us imbibe this spirituality of Advent as we prepare for Christmas. How are we doing?

    The world demands we prepare differently. Focus on the material, it insists. Buy presents. Light up Orchard Road. Eat, drink and be merry. Christians tussle with this; we know this isn’t Christmas. We might struggle even more this Advent because of the pandemic: is there really a reason for the season?

    Today’s readings are providential. They help us discern what must truly matter in our Advent preparations, and how we can do this.

    Advent and discernment. It seems odd to pair them together. Yet, we should if we yearn for God’s best for us. 

    This is in fact St Paul’s prayer for the Philippians: “My prayer is that your love for each other may increase more and more and never stop improving your knowledge and deepening your perception so that you can always recognise what is best."

    “Deepening our perception to recognise what is best.” This is what discernment is about. It enables us to appreciate the very best God wishes to give us. Advent helps us discern this more clearly: God’s best is Jesus. Jesus who is God-with-us.  We ought to discern this to “become pure and blameless, and prepare…for the day of Christ,” St Paul teaches.

    How can we practice Advent discernment? By quieting ourselves, paying attention to God, and relishing God’s saving actions in our lives and those around us and the world. 

    Today’s readings teach us how to do this.

    With Baruch, we hear how God will not abandon the deprived, desperate or disappointed. God will come to them with mercy and justice, and take off the mourning robes. God will then show all the earth how splendid they are as his own. 

    This Advent, let us look more charitably at all who suffer, especially the sick at this time. Then, we might see how Jesus is faithfully labouring for everyone's wellbeing. So, let us appreciate Jesus as God’s hope for us, not once in history but now daily in our lives. 

    With Paul, we hear how God will complete the good work he begins in every Christian community. The Philippians were besieged by external forces and internal divisions. Yet God drew them together as a community and empowered them to spread the Good News.  

    This Advent, let us look at our families, schools, workplaces, and parish. Then, we might discern how Jesus never gives up on us, even when there are divisions, difficulties, and despair. So, let us celebrate Jesus as God’s joy to us, not once in history but now daily in our lives. 

    With Luke, we hear how God sends John the Baptist to care for the Jews and everyone. God wants all to receive salvation in Jesus. What humankind had hoped for generations and thought impossible, God makes possible and real with Jesus’s coming. 

    This Advent, let us look at how Jesus continues to accompany, care and uplift many, ourselves too. Then, let us recognise how Jesus's actions truly save everyone. So, let us believe that Jesus is God’s peace in us, not once in history but now daily in our lives. 

    These are three ways to practice Advent discernment. They teach us to pay attention to God’s voice and listen to it. It speaks simply and honestly. It is prophetic. It proclaims this truth: in Jesus, God is with us and God will save us.

    God spoke this truth through John the Baptist. The Jews heard and turned to God. Today, God is calling us to do the same. God speaks through many who are like John the Baptist in our lives. They are often the ordinary people around us, including the lesser and least. 

    Their voices are hidden amidst the loud and noisy, the mighty and powerful, even the holy and devout. They might be the habitual sinner, that person you hate, someone you are avoiding, like the divorcee or the gay Catholic, and maybe your enemy.  It could even be someone who’s hurt you, like a loved one whose words and actions disappoint. 

    Can you hear God calling you through them to Advent preparation? Will you listen?

    We need to discern God’s desire to draw us to Jesus. He is God’s love who puts our life in order and leads us back to God. Indeed, because of Jesus, empires fall, achievements fade, pride is humbled, self-righteousness and bigotry are challenged, and justice and peace will reign. And yes in Jesus, we believe our sins are forgiven and death is defeated.
     
    So, let us be prepare well for Christmas. Foolish are we to refuse to discern God working through many to meet our longing for Him in Jesus. Our Advent will be lesser, poorer, even mediocre. Wise are we to beg for the grace to discern that Jesus is God's best for us. Then, our Advent this year will be blessed. So let us pray “Come, Lord, Jesus, come!"




    *Ron Rolheiser, “Advent—Preparing for the Sublime”

    Preached at St Ignatius Church, Singapore
    photo: by Giang duong on Unsplash

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Fall in Love, Stay in Love
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"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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