1.  

    Year A / Christmas / Christmas Night 
    Readings Isaiah 9.1-6 / Psalm 95 (R/v Luke 2.11) / Titus 2.11-14 / Luke 2.1-14


    "The grace of God has appeared, saving all" (Titus 2.11)

    This is the Apostle Paul's message to Titus.  We hear it on this most holy Christmas night. It must resonate with all of us for this truth is indeed God's good news for all peoples.

    We see it in the new born child we remember again, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in this manger before us.

    We hear it in the joyful refrains of every Christmas song we will sing tonight, each echoing the celebration of the psalmist and the angel: "Today a saviour has been born to us, he is Christ the Lord."

    We believe it in the wondrous amazement and simple faith of the shepherds whose trust we imagine again propels them to seek out this little one in the manger, who we also long to come up close to and gaze upon his face after this Mass.

    We know all this to be the truth we have long awaited for throughout Advent. Tonight it comes to be in this child Jesus who is born.  Born again in no other place than in us. Our hearts are the very manger where he wants to dwell in. No matter how messy, chaotic or sinful our hearts may be, Jesus chooses our hearts to come and dwell in. And more than dwell in, he comes to save us. 

    Indeed the very place of true belonging -- where God and us are together -- is the space of our lives that God lovingly fashions with his own hands. Nothing we make will be good enough. So, let us rejoice!

    What kind of a God does this for us? A God who comes in the vulnerability of a child. A mighty God who makes himself small to meet us. A powerful God whose powerlessness is his might. A generous God whose poverty is his richness. A merciful, compassionate God whose simple, innocent child-like love is unreservedly and always selflessly for all. 

    This is what we believe we see in Jesus lying in the manger. Only eyes of faith can help us see even more: the utter wonder and goodness of God who freely chooses to come to us in Jesus. He wants to be with us. He cannot bear to be separated from us. He desires that we encounter, know and be together with him through the relationships we share for he is with each of us. 

    To drive home this message that God chooses us, in Jesus God wraps himself in human skin.  Our skin of whatever tongue or creed, whatever scars or wounds, or however we have made up to look pretty or am au naturel in our ruggedness tonight, or even however saintly or sinful our lives are, God intentionally wraps himself in our human skin. Skin that is finite, limited and temporal. Does this shock you? 

    God's action of wrapping himself in human skin expresses his singular desire to come and enter our lives. Enter not once but again and again. This is how God truly becomes God of our lives -- his goodness, ever giving; his faithfulness, ever present; his life never failing to be our life too. All this tells us that God’s love never ends. It also reveals how far God’s love will go for us: so far in coming down from heaven to us in Jesus. God made flesh – this truth should comfort us, give us peace, be our joy. Indeed, let us rejoice!

    Isaiah reminds us tonight that God does all this because he jealousy loves us.  This is why "the great mystery of Christmas continues to give us comfort and consolation," Henri Nouwen writes: "we are not alone on our journey." God is with us. Hear again the angel's proclamation: "Do not be afraid...a saviour has been born."

    Knowing this, let us humble ourselves and join the shepherds to go in haste to find the Christ, this child in the manger. Let us not see. Let us adore and worship. God-is-with-us; his name is Jesus. He will save. Truly, we can be grateful. Sincerely, let us rejoice!

    Something wondrous happens with Jesus’s coming. What was in us and in our lives, like words of anger or deeds of hurt, or even feelings of regret can now begin to fade into a passing darkness. This frees us to look ahead and anew to Jesus, God’s radiant light. 

    His light shows us the way to God. It enlightened the Apostle Paul who taught the first Christians to put on love, the love of God that binds all together. While Jesus was on earth, many experienced this love that guides all to God in Jesus’s flesh and skin. 

    Tonight Jesus comes into our lives. He wraps himself in our skin. This is the unexpected, remarkable gift of Christmas: Jesus being born in us, if we but let him. We should let God do this because as St Athanasius wrote, “In Jesus, God became what we are so that he might make us what he is.” His own, clothed in his love and imaged like his Son Jesus.

    Dare we let God wrap us in the remarkable, unexpected love of Jesus come alive in us? Wrap us so that we become his light to bring others out of their own darkness to reconcile with God and one another? 

    May be if we dare, we might come to know that God’s love would this far -- really so very far -- for all of us to be saved and happy.  Truly, we must rejoice! So, let us!

    A blessed Christmas, my friends!




    Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart
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  2. Year A / Advent / Week 4 / Sunday 
    Readings: Isaiah 7.10-14 / Psalm 23.1-2, 3-4ab, 5-6  / Romans 1.1-7 / Matthew 1.18-24



    "...a name which means 'God-is-with-us'" (Matthew 1.23)

    Throughout Advent we have been waiting to hear the name of the one to come at Christmas. Today we hear it. This name 'God-is-with-us' resounds throughout today's readings. 

    Names are important. They tell us who a person is, from whom he comes and where he is from.  In our gospel we hear the name 'Jesus.' He whom the prophets call, Immanuel, a name which means 'God-is-with-us,' as Isaiah proclaims to Ahaz and to us. 

    So what's in a name? God's faithfulness. 

    In the First Reading, Isaiah names God's promise that Israel and Judah will be spared from their warring enemies. It will come in the form of a son born of a young woman to King David's family line. His name will remind all of God's faithfulness: whether in the past, now or in the future, God is with his people, especially, the lowly and the suffering. 

    What's more in a name? God's comfort.

    In the Gospel Reading, Joseph struggles to make sense of Mary's pregnancy. It's a mystery he needs to solve. 

    Mysteries are uncomfortable. They disturb our stable, predictable and ordered lives. We need to know how things work and how they happen. 

    Because Mary's pregnancy is indeed a mystery, God comes to assure Joseph and to direct him onward. In a dream, God's angel reveals the child's name and his mission. He is Jesus and he has come 'to save his people from their sins' as the prophets foretold. This revelation comforts, particularly as it echoes Isaiah's proclamation that this child is God-with-us. Finally it consoles because Jesus's name situates him in David's line of descendants, like Joseph his earthly father is.

    What else is in a name? God's promise.

    This morning we hear of God giving Ahaz and Joseph a promise each. Mary received a similar promise at the Annunciation. These promises point them to God's name for the gift of his Son who becomes one like us, one for us. The readings announce these names: 'Jesus,' 'Son of the Most High,' 'Immanuel.'  However we call God's Son, he was, is and ever will be 'God-with-us.'

    This is why Advent has been waking us up from our mediocrity and laziness, our pride and sinfulness, our fear and stubbornness to hear God's name for the one we are waiting for at Christmas. We need to hear it so that we will welcome him wholeheartedly.  Are you and me sufficiently awake now to hear this name and welcome him?

    Our readings challenge us to do as Joseph did -- to wake up and take Mary to his home. He did by trusting God's guidance about Mary. Mary also trusted what she could not physically experienced. Even Ahaz had to trust what could not be seen. Do you and I also trust God's promise to bring Jesus to birth in us?

    We are good Christian people. We want to trust. Trust helps us as we wait patiently, even expectantly, for the remarkable to come: God coming down to be with us. Our excitement, if not our anxiety, might make us look for signs. Signs of God's promise, both to come and those already around us. Signs like a rainbow after the rains, the first cry of a newborn announcing life, a candle lighting up the dark, a neighbour reaching out to care, enemies forgiving each other. All these are God's goodness in our midst. 

    And yes, even the name 'Jesus.' In him on earth, many experienced God's presence. In birth, life and hope to an unwed mother. In life, protection in Egypt from enemies. In work, providence and friends on his itinerant journeys. In crucifixion and death, resurrection life that turns the world upside down and renews. Here is God's sure, sacred presence. Haven't we glimpsed this in our everyday lives too? Surely, this must make us see differently and believe anew. Yes, there is indeed more to God than a name. There is love -- love that saves.

    This is the goodness we're invited to contemplate on when we stand before the manger on Christmas day. We can only do this however when we dare to see beyond appearances. Beyond the figurine of baby Jesus lying before us to the mystery of God loving us so much that he comes with this promise: to be born in us again this Christmas. Are you really desiring this goodness of God?

    Joseph looked at Mary in this way after God's assurance. He took into his home more than Mary as his wife. He welcomed the mystery of God inside her.  Yes, there is more than meets the eye with the name 'Jesus.'

    There is love that gives the name 'Jesus.' There is love that expresses the fullness of the name 'Jesus.' There is love who Jesus himself is. The love of God's faithfulness, comfort and promise. This is the goodness of Jesus's name. It is a goodness that is hidden and silent because it is modest.* The only way we can know such goodness is to sit before Jesus in the manager and allow him to reveal the mystery of God's love in his smallness. Because God's style is discreet, never imposing himself, we will only know this goodness when we entrust ourselves to God's slow, continuous work of letting us see Jesus anew -- as the sure promise of God's mysterious way of loving to save us. 

    If we dare do this, then we must join the psalmist and declare with trust and expectant joy, these words as we stand at the threshold of Christmas: "Let the Lord enter, he is the king of glory' in our lives.

    Shall we?



    *inspired by Pope Francis, Address at General Audience, 19 October 2022


    Preached at Church of the Sacred Heart, Singapore
    photo: www.stleonardlouisville.org

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  3.  

    Year A / Advent / Week 3 / Sunday 
    Readings: Isaiah 35.1-6a, 10 / Psalm 146  / James 5.7-10 / Matthew 11.2-11


    "Go back and tell John what you see and hear" (Matthew 11.4)

    This is Jesus' response to the question John the Baptist instructs his disciples to ask Jesus: "Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another/"

    I wonder what our response would be if someone asks us the same question. Especially today when it is Gaudete Sunday and we are supposed to rejoice because Jesus's coming is very close at hand. 

    Jesus's reply directs the disciples to the good he is doing in their midst. His miracles. His words and deeds that announce God's Good News to the lowly, the sick, the disliked and the sinful. His mercy that converts and saves many, revealing to all the sure sign that God's Kingdom is real and alive in their midst.

    Jesus's reply should challenge us too to look up and around. And to see clearly. It should demand we strain and tune our ears to hear. And to really listen. What are we to see and hear? That God's goodness is also with us now. 

    We need to hear Jesus's reply. It is in fact his demand that we see and hear his goodness now amongst us even as we look ahead ahead to Christmas. At this time, our busyness is with worldly preparations of present buying, Christmas meal preparations, house cleaning and decorating, and rounds of festive merriment. All this might leave us preoccupied, anxious and stressed that our Advent preparations are spiritually naught. 

    We might say we are preparing for Christmas but we feel disconnected from Jesus. We might claim we are readying ourselves for Christmas but our hearts are still messy, ill-prepared and sin-filled for Jesus to be born in us.  We might feel good that most of the Christmas To Do list is done but we know we are spiritually lifeless and empty. 

    All this might make us feel like the blind, deaf, lame and mute Isaiah, the Psalmist and Matthew describe in today's readings -- struggling.

    Struggling because if I cannot see, I many not know where I am in relation to God and others this Advent. If I cannot hear, I may not hear God's life-giving words the Advent readings proclaim. If I cannot move, I may find myself withdrawing from God's desire to walk with me through Advent. If I cannot speak, I may become dumb, unable to share my desires with God for Christmas.

    For some these experiences make Advent a dark, silent and still time. It is almost as if God is absent. 

    Wait! This cannot be the Advent life. Today's readings tell us so. Isaiah, the Psalmist and Matthew declare that with God there is life and our world is filled with God's presence. This is why the wilderness and wastelands will exult, blossom and rejoice Isaiah proclaims.  We can too.

    Consider.  We may feel spiritually dry; but isn't there enough faith that brings us here, Sunday after Sunday, Advent or not? We may say we are blind because we cannot focus on Jesus; but isn't there enough vision and light to help us still look ahead to Jesus's coming? We may struggle with deafness to hear the Advent readings; but isn't there enough understanding and relationship with God who moves us to go for Advent confession, pray more fervently and make room in our hearts for Jesus? We may become aware of our paralysis to prepare for Christmas because of our sinfulness; but don't we have enough of God's Spirit to want to leap in freedom to see Jesus in the crib? We may sigh that we are not masters of speech to proclaim; but isn't there enough of a Christmas tune or refrain humming within us and lifting up our spirits to welcome Jesus? 

    There is enough. In God's eyes we have enough in us, with us and around us to rejoice! And rejoice we must because this is what we can see and hear. Yes, God is with us, and this is very good. Indeed, rejoice!

    What gives us the right and certainty that we can and must rejoice? That God's goodness is always with us, even now as we await Jesus's coming. This is the Advent message. There is light, instead of darkness. Hope, instead of despair. Love, instead of hatred. Peace, instead of anxiety. Joy, instead of sorrow. 

    Don't we know this message? Year after year we hear it. It's the same story, the same message, the same Jesus we are waiting for. So why bother?

    Because we must. We need the Advent message to give us the right perspective to celebrate Christmas. For what we all long for throughout Advent is exactly what God promised once to in history and still promises us today. It is simply this: the predictability of God's goodness in Jesus.

    The predictability of Jesus' coming and becoming one with us.
    The predictability of Jesus showing us the way to God.
    The predictability of Jesus redeeming us from sin and death.
    The predictability of God's goodness abounding in all our lives, regardless of our state of grace.
    The predictability of all our hopes being fulfilled.
    The predictability of peace on earth and goodwill to all peoples.
    The predictability of Christmas and the joy it brings.
    The predictability of the love come down to us and saving us.

    Indeed, this predictability of God is nothing less than God's faithfulness for us. This is the joyful reminder James teaches us today.  Yes, we are in the midst of Advent and we need to prepare for Jesus's coming. Yet even now we can joyfully anticipate him. To delay being joyful is to deny that God's goodness is already with us -- labouring in us and amongst us to make our waiting for Jesus worthwhile.

    What response can we make for God's goodness? No better response than to do what is expected of us as Christians: to be John the Baptist and point others to Jesus who came before and will come again and, even more, amazing, is already with us now. Indeed, he is God-with-us. When we act like this, we make the most human response to God -- to be his messenger to all in Advent and every day. And this is the most predictable way God expects us to live as Christians. 

    Shall we?




    Preached at Sacred Heart Church, Singapore
    photo: familybritches.com
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  4. This homily was preached at a retreat in the Ignatian tradition

    Year A / Advent / Week 2 / Sunday  
    Readings: Isaiah 11.1-10 / Psalm 72.2, 7-8, 12-13, 17 (R/v cf 7) / Romans 15.4-9 / Matthew 3.1-12


    "Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight, 
    and all mankind shall see the salvation of God" (Luke 3.4,6)

    This is our Gospel Acclamation today. It should encourage us on our Advent journey and along the way to Jesus at Christmas. We must prepare for the Lord; it is good and right for he is coming.

    These words are also apt as we begin this retreat. We need to hear them for a retreat is always about preparing a way for the Lord. To come to us. To visit us. To encounter us. To console and challenge us. To enter into our lives and dwell in us. To make us better persons. This is the hope many have when making a retreat.

    Many of us here are experienced retreat goers. Some are retreat groupies. In Latin 'retreat' means 'draw back.' We know this does not mean taking flight from the world. Rather, it is to do what the monks do -- choosing solitude to be with the Lord. Ignatius of Loyola understood the value of this choice for prayer, contemplation and union with God. All who retreat are doing it for the same reason Jesus did -- 'to get in touch with the One who brought the world in being and who directs it toward some meaningful end."*

    In the First Reading, Isaiah describes what such an end would look like. It will be a world where the poor and afflicted would be treated with justice and fairness. It would be a world infused with a spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and strength. In this world, peace and serenity will reign; the wolf will be the guest of the lamb and the leopard will lie down with the kid. Isn't this the kind of world we long for -- a better, safer, happier world? In truth, Isaiah's prophecy that we hear throughout Advent is for the new heaven and the new earth that Jesus's coming will bring about.

    Surely, Isaiah's prophecy echoes some of the consolations you have for yourselves, your families and friends, the world as you begin your retreat. However, could God have something more he wants us to give us? Could it also be for our Advent preparations?

    The gospel reminds us that we are all crying out in the desert. Specifically in the myriad deserts within us. Hurts and regrets, addictions and sins create these wastelands within. We need to prepare a way for the Lord to enter these spaces. There he wishes to hear our deepest longing, answer it and bring us home to him. There we can count on his forgiveness. However, we need to choose repentance and conversion to receive the fullness of God's forgiveness. Yes, we will make straight our paths by asking God for forgiveness and hope.

    Every year we do this when we make our confessions at the Advent Penitential Service. Then, we return to the same old same old ways of preparing ourselves for Christmas - with Advent busyness to get decorations up, presents bought, festive meals prepared and rounds of merriment done.

    Could it be that God wishes for us to do something more this Advent? To let him enter into the deserts within us and transform them into the manger of our hearts for Jesus to be born in us. I believe this is God's demand. Do we hear it? Will we let God do this for us?

    The image of Jesus with his winnowing fan in his hand can help us understand God's demand. In the Gospel reading John the Baptist describes Jesus clearing out his threshing floor, gathering his wheat and burning the chaff. Here is Jesus clearing out the waste, the dross, the muck in us so that there is space to gather goodness into our lives. Haven't we experienced God doing similarly in a retreat and gracing us with life-giving consolations?

    Humility allows us to let God give birth to Jesus in us. I believe this is the 'something more' God is demanding of us in our Advent preparations. He demands because he wants to save us. We will only hear it when we humble ourselves. Humility is also what we need to enter into this retreat and experience this 'something more' that is God's good labour -- to winnow our lives, separating the good from the bad. Then, we will be renewed for Christian life with Jesus.

    How shall we do this? By retreating into solitude. There, God speaks in silence. This is why the silence St Teresa of Calcutta writes about is the grace worth begging for as we begin this retreat, if not for Advent. Listen: "In silence he listens to us; in silence he speaks to our souls In silence he grants us the privilege of listening to his voice." Truly in silence, God labours to bring to birth Jesus in us and, through us, into the world. When this happens, let us recall Paul's teaching in the Second Reading that God helps the people who did not give up. For we are these people. This good news, Paul adds, is worth praising to all peoples.

    Our readings offer us much to turn our lives around towards Jesus. There is time to do this as we continue our Advent preparations. As we do, let us pray by keeping today's Collect (Opening Prayer) in in our minds, on our lips and in our hearts: "may no earthly understanding hinder those who set out in haste to meet your Son, but may our learning of heavenly wisdom gain us admittance to this company."

    Shall we?




    *E. Glenn Hinson, Spiritual Preparation for Christian Leadership



    Preached at Don Bosco Retreat Centre, Dalat, Vietnam
    photo by Edu Grande on Unsplash  
      
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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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