1.  
    Year A / Lent / Week 5 / Sunday
    Readings: Ezekiel 37.12-14 / Psalm 129.1-2, 3-4ab, 4c-6, 7-8 (R/v 7) / Romans 8.8-11 / John 11.1-45


    “With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption” (Psalm 129.7)

    We sang this response when the Psalm was proclaimed. It expresses this great mystery of Christian faith – that God saves because God is merciful. I wonder if we recognise the truth it is. This should console us all the time. It can however unsettle us sometimes. Martha and Mary experienced this when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. 

    We hear of them mourning their brother’s death. More painful for them was Jesus’s absence when he died. They knew he loved the three of them but he had not turned up when Lazarus was sick. They waited in vain for his coming, hoping he would show mercy and do something for Lazarus, or at least explain his death. When Jesus finally came and met Martha and Mary separately, they had the same cry, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Their sadness and anger were real.

    Haven't we also expressed these same feelings to God? We probably cried out like the sisters when we lost a loved one, faced personal tragedy or were hurt by others. With them, we would have moaned like the psalmist, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.” All of us are in fact sharing the same heartache as we collectively cry out: “Where are you, Lord?” 

    How then can we continue living meaningfully as Christians in the face of death, loss and suffering? With trust in Jesus; he is God-with-us.

    This is how Jesus invited Martha and Mary to continue living. They had to trust in Him to act. Trust enabled them to cooperate with Jesus and his actions. “Do you believe in the resurrection?” he asked. “Take the stone away,” he commanded. In both moments, Jesus desires their trust more than anything else. With trust,  they were able to experience the fullness of the mystery of God’s mercy and redemption. Isn’t Jesus asking the same of us in our everyday difficulties, pains and doubts?

    Martha struggled to experience this mystery when she pulled back saying, “Lord, by now he will smell” as Jesus commanded the tomb  be opened to raise Lazarus. It was equally hard for Mary whose tears clouded her faith; she only saw Jesus arriving as the unfaithful friend instead of Jesus as God’s saviour. Jesus’s disciples also struggled to recognise this mystery at work in him and through his words and deeds. Like all of them, we struggle to encounter Jesus as God’s mercy and redemption. What is preventing us from recognising?

    Whatever prevents us, it helps to remember, celebrate and believe this truth the psalmist proclaims: “with the Lord is found forgiveness: for this we revere Him.” This should give us confidence to enter the mystery of God’s mercy and redemption that the Cross is and Lent leads us to. There, through Jesus’s death, we come to know who we truly are – sinners, yes, but always God’s beloved.

    Jesus reminds us who we are to God by seeking and saving us. Consider how he transforms the question God asked Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, “Where are you?” into “Where have you laid him?” to find Lazarus. The first, a question to correct a sin is now a question to redeem from sin. Jesus comes to open our graves, often self-made, have us rise from them and put his spirit in us to live, as Ezekiel prophesied. 

    We all want Jesus’s healing; it restores us to life, faith and community. Yet, we know how hard it can be to hear Jesus’s voice over the voices of dark spirits that tempt us  away from God, even worse, that keep the stone over the dark, death-dealing graves we bury ourselves in because of our sins. We don’t want this; we really want to step into God’s light and life. Temptations challenge us. Sin entombs us.

    Pope Francis suggests a way out of our tombs and graves:
    We must rediscover the concreteness of little things, small gestures of attention we can offer those close to us, our family, our friends...We must understand that in small things lies our treasure.  These gestures of tenderness, affection, compassion are minimal and tend to be lost in the anonymity of everyday life, but they are nonetheless decisive, important.*
    Here is Francis’s simple and practical way to live the Christian life. It imitates the style of God’s goodness: always modest and discreet, oftentimes hidden in the simple and small, and ever present through closeness and tenderness. Isn’t this how Jesus acted in the gospels? Isn’t this how the Spirit of the risen Jesus continues to act in our lives daily? 

    Today Jesus reveals the great mystery of God’s mercy and redemption to Martha and Mary by coming close to them with deep compassion, even as he raises Lazarus from the dead. But they needed to trust Jesus. So must we.

    The remainder of Lent is again God’s chance for us to prepare for Easter. Let us, so that we can really relish the great mystery of Jesus’s death and resurrection for it reveals the glory of God’s saving love for us. Then, we can delight in it wholeheartedly, singing this refrain more joyfully:  “with the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.” 

    Shall we?





    *Pope Francis, Interview with La Reppublica, 18 March 2020


    Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart
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  2.  
    Year A / Lent / Week 4 / Sunday
    Readings: 1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a  / Psalm: 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6 (R/v 1) / Ephesians 5:8-14  / John 9:1-41


    “I am the light of the world, says the Lord; anyone who follows me will have the light of life” (John 8.12).

    These words are from John’s Gospel. They are Jesus' words. They are also the gospel acclamation we proclaimed. I wonder if we see it for what it really is – Good News for you and me who want salvation for eternal life?

    ‘To see’ is a theme in today’s readings. We need light to see. It allows us to look, recognise and know. Consider what daylight allows us to see this morning: our family and friends, the greenery around and the blue above, an empty lot to park near church, a thumbs up emoticon that consoles while we are messaging on whatsapp, the beautiful stained glass in front and the mystery of the Eucharist we are celebrating. With light, we see so much more; we savour the goodness of life. 

    Natural light, even artificial light, is not the only light that is available for us to see and enjoy life. Christians can also choose to walk in the light of the Lord. This is St Paul’s message today. Listen again: “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; be like children of the light for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and right living and truth.” 

    But like many of the readings in the Bible that we read and want to follow, we struggle to live out Paul’s message fully, perhaps, sincerely sometimes. Today’s readings challenge us not to give up.

    Here we are at the midpoint of Lent. It’s half-time in our preparations for Easter. Perhaps, like me, your Lenten efforts thus far haven’t turned out the way you’d planned.  The praying is less. The almsgiving is  lesser. The fasting, may be, negligible, even undone.

    I’d like to suggest that Paul’s message is like that of a coach rallying his football team to pick themselves up, go back into the game, give their best in the second half and score those goals. His reminder that we are “children of the light” and that this responsibility is not only for others but also for ourselves is a wake-up call. We need to hear it; it encourages us to turn our sinful lives around. Yes, we can. And yes, there’s time.

    Some will still want to remain in darkness. There, they hide with their sinful choices, habits and lifestyles. We cannot choose darkness; it goes against our identity as children of light. In fact, our baptism and faith have already brought us into the light. Coming to Eucharist moves us a step further into the same light. 

    So how do we continue to walk in the light of the Lord? First, by “having nothing to do with futile works of darkness but exposing them,” as Paul teaches. Do we hear this and will we do so?

    Also, by letting this same light shine on ourselves. Then, we can search in all the dark corners of our souls. There we will surely find our spiritual shortcomings like pride and envy, greed and self-centeredness. In this light we can see ourselves as we truly are, when we sin. This honesty empowers us to see how much more we can become according to God’s plan, when we let Jesus into our lives. 

    The man born blind needed this same light to see. Jesus met him, healed his sin and restored his sight. Jesus allowed the man to see. Jesus’s healing anointed his eyes. It set him apart to become what he was created to be – holy.  The Pharisees and Jews struggled to understand how this could be possible.

    The theologian, Origen, writes: “to be holy is to see with the eyes of Christ." Lent allows us to see in a certain way: to see as Christ saw. Through prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we learn to speak, act and love as Christ spoke, acted and loved. Indeed, Christ-like is who we are meant to be. 

    We need to learn to become Christ-like. God gives us this Lenten time to learn how to. And he sends us Jesus to enter our lives and change our vision.  Through Jesus, God schools us to become Christ-like. Then we can see ourselves, our neighbours, and the world as he did on earth. Otherwise, we will continue to stumble about, fail and fall often in our spiritual blindness.

    To really see is therefore the Christian story of gradual conversion, from darkness into light, from blindness into sight. From our human way of seeing to seeing with the eyes of Christ. It is the story of the man born blind. It is also that of the early Christians Paul writes for. Ultimately, it is our own story to be able to see. We can when we humble ourselves and begin to recognise that Jesus is the real light we need to see and live in.


    Shall we? 



    Preached at Church of the Sacred Heart
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  3.  
    Devotion to the Sacred Heart
    Reflection based on John 19.28-30


    We all thirst.  It is a good sign. It reminds us that our bodies need to hydrate. More than water or fluids, we really thirst for God. We thirst in so different ways for God. For his love, when we are lonely. For his mercy, when we sinned. For his healing, when we are ill. For his guidance, when we are lost. In short, we thirst for God to be with us.

    Christmas celebrates God’s love with us.  The birth of Jesus reminds us that God comes to meet our varied needs. In Jesus, God quenches our thirst for him. 

    Easter celebrates God’s saving love for us. Lent helps us appreciate this truth. By faith we know this to be Jesus loving self-sacrifice on the Cross to redeem us. In Jesus, God readily gives himself up for us.  

    God with us. God for us. On the Cross, we see these truths come live most visibly, and hear them most clearly, when Jesus cries, ‘I am thirsty.’ 

    Jesus is equally human as he is equally divine. Being human, Jesus felt the emotions we feel. He underwent the hurts we experience. Jesus also thirsted just as much as we thirst.  Being divine, Jesus can address the deepest longings of our hearts and our souls. He alone is the forgiveness and grace, the love and mercy we thirst for. He alone reaches us in the depths of whatever situation, even the most sinful, we may find ourselves in. 

    I think Jesus thirsts for us because he knows how much we thirst for God. This is why he really wants to quench our thirst. I’d like to think we are here because we are thirsting for Jesus’s Sacred Heart to answer our prayers and petitions. Every invocation in the Litany to the Sacred Heart we recited assures us He will hear and answer. We prayed to the Heart of Jesus because it is ‘full of goodness and love,’ ‘our life and resurrection,’ ‘atonement of our sins’ and ‘salvation of those who trust in him.’  

    We are at the mid-point of Lent. It matters that we hear Jesus say, “I am thirsty” from the depths of his Sacred Heart. It reminds us that Jesus’s thirst is connected to our own thirst. 

    St. Teresa of Calcutta understood this connection. She had Jesus’s words “I Thirst” written in every home of the Missionaries of Charity. She told the sisters: “‘I thirst’ is something much deeper than Jesus just saying ‘I love you.’ Until you know deep inside that Jesus thirsts for you—you can’t begin to know who He wants to be for you. Or who He wants you to be for Him” (March 1993, Letter to the Missionaries of Charity).

    Hearing Jesus say, “I am thirsty” today in Lent should remind us that he especially thirsts for our repentance and conversion. He knows our thirst very well, particularly, our thirst for God’s saving love. For everyone of us who thirsts for this,  Jesus wants to give the same living water he offered the woman at the well, the same blood and water that poured from his side, the same living water all who believe in him can drink (John 7:37). Who dares ask for this water? Those who also ask for the Sacred Heart of Jesus be imprinted in their hearts. We are these people. Let us never forget then that Jesus will always thirst for us.




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  4. Year A / Lent / Week 3 /Sunday
    Readings: Exodus 17:3-7  / Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9 (R/v 8) / 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9 / John 4:5-42



    “Lord, you are really the saviour of the world; give me the living water, so that I may never get thirsty.”

    These are the words in today’s gospel acclamation. They echo the words of the Samaritan woman when she recognises Jesus as living water from God. I imagine she declares this because she experiences Jesus saving her. He forgives her and quenches her spiritual thirst forever. Do we recognise and believe in Jesus as she does?

    Water and thirst.  These themes are reflected in today’s readings. We cry out for water when we are thirsty.  Thirst signals our body’s need to hydrate.  It is a healthy sign. But we also hear today about living water for our souls.  Are we thirsty for this water?  How can it permeate our souls to rejuvenate us, especially as Lent calls us to renewal?

    Our first reading tells of the Israeites wandering in the desert to the Promised Land. They have children and livestock in tow. All of them need water. Trekking through the desert is hot and harsh. These Israelites need water, lots of it, or they will die. 

    The healthy desire they have for water reveals an unhealthy disposition. Tormented by thirst, they complained against Moses, accusing him of betraying their trust. Their actions show a loss of faith, particularly in God. However, God has repeatedly expressed his faithfulness with every miracle he did for them as they journeyed out of Egypt. Indeed God responded each time Moses pleaded on their behalf.  As we hear in Psalm, their actions test God though they had seen his works. But God continues to be patient. Instead of punishing them, God lovingly provides another miracle: water from rock for their thirst. 

    I wonder if we recognise ourselves in these Israelites. Their loss of faith is our loss of faith when things don’t go our way as we’d asked God for or when we feel God is not with us. In these moments, our souls thirst but the hardness of our hearts blocks us from receiving the water of God’s love. Even worse, our hardheartedness can numb our sense of thirst; we feel self-satisfied and have no need for God. Sadly, we still thirst. And, God still wants to give us his living water.

    Unlike the Israelites, the Samaritan woman shows us how to acknowledge the thirst we all have for God. This is the thirst that really matters and that God truly wants to quench. It begins by recognising Jesus as God’s living water. 

    The Samaritan woman discovers Jesus is God’s living water when he confronts her with some uncomfortable truths about her life: she is living in sin with another who is not her husband. She does not respond with excuses or blame others. Her honesty and humility open her up to receiving God’s living water. This action turns her life around. From a chance meeting to a divine encounter. From being a woman who attempts to deceive Jesus to becoming one who gives true testimony to the Christ. From her expectation of the Messiah to her belief that the “savior of the world” has come. True encounters with Jesus never leave anyone the same.

    This must also be for us. Jesus satisfies our thirst for God in every moment and through every person. If we use our eyes of faith and pay attention to each encounter, we will see God’s goodness present and transforming us. Especially at Lent, Jesus will quench our thirst for conversion as he did for the Samaritan woman. “This hope,,” Paul teaches in the second reading, “is not deceptive because the love of God has been poured into our hearts.” No longer parched, our thirsty souls now come alive. But we must want this and convert for it. Do we?

    The Israelites thirst. The Samaritan woman thirsts. We thirst. Jesus also thirsts.

    ‘Give me a drink’ are Jesus’s first words to the Samaritan woman. It seems odd that Jesus who is Living Water is asking this of a sinner. However it isn’t if we understand what Jesus thirsts for in this moment: her conversion and salvation. In mercy, he knows she is capable of this because he sees through her sins to the goodness in her heart to give him a drink. This goodness is her God-given potential to repent and convert.

    We too want to repent, convert and come home to God at Lent.  We have heard it and we are responding with prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We also seek reconciliation. However, we might be afraid and ashamed to ask Jesus to forgive our sins.  

    We need not be afraid to go to Jesus for confession.  He sees the same goodness to repent and convert in us as he saw in the Samaritan woman. His mercy will forgive and transform us, and so, save us from sin and death. Then, we can live and enjoy His gift of resurrection life fully and joyfully everyday.

    For the remainder of Lent, Jesus will journey with us to the Cross. Hanging there in pain, suffering and abandonment on Good Friday, he will cry out, “I thirst.” 

    Jesus thirsts for our conversion as we thirst for God’s salvation through Him. Truly, there is no better prayer to say now than this: “Lord, give me the living water, so I may never get thirsty?” Shall we?


     
    Preached at Church of the Sacred Heart
    Photo: revjrknott.blogspot.com
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  5.  

    Devotion to the Sacred Heart
    Reflection based on Matthew 15.21-28


    God is love.  This is the Christian truth about God. We believe it.  What does this love look like? 

    We know from the gospels this love Jesus reveals. It is merciful and compassionate. It is constant and steadfast. It heals and restores. It forgives and redeems. It saves. In today’s gospel, Jesus’s action reveals another aspect of God’s wondrous love.

    We might not see it at first because we often focus on the Canaanite woman and her persistent asking that Jesus heal her daughter. She expresses great faith, Jesus declares. Her example should invite us to do the same, particularly as we gather again with various petitions to ask the Sacred Heart of Jesus to answer. 

    When we pay closer attention to Jesus’s words and actions in the gospel, we will notice the shift in his attitude towards this woman. Initially, he refuses to answer her plea. Then, he dismisses her saying that he’s come to attend to ‘the lost sheep of Israel,’ not her, a non-Jew. When she persists, he hears her cry and answers it finally by healing her daughter. I cannot help but imagine how impactful her faith must be to move Jesus’s heart. 

    The wonder of this shift is how Jesus moves beyond his circle and even more towards another like the Canaanite woman.

    What kind of love is this? It is love that is ‘totally agape,’ Pope Benedict writes. This love moves beyond selfish interests and “becomes concern and care for the other…and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice” (Deus caritas est). This is the love of God. Jesus loves like this when he responds to the woman. He puts her and her needs before his. He freely gives himself to meet her need. His bighearted love cannot deny doing this to anyone. 

    God’s love is also totally agape because it always forgives. It will, even if the sin is as grievous as Israel betraying her covenant with God when she commits adultery by worshipping other God. The Prophet Hosea writes about this sin. The moralists will insist God act justly, that is, he judge and renounce Israel. But God doesn’t. He seeks Israel out, forgives her and embraces her back. Such is his love. Haven’t we all experienced this love that forgives repeatedly and unreservedly?

    The wonder of this kind of love, Benedict explains, is that it is simply “so great and mysterious that it turns God against himself and turns his love against his justice.” I’d like to suggest we see something of this turning in how Jesus’s love shifts towards embracing the Canaanite woman. Yes, she is irritating in her doggedness. To Jesus, however, she is fiercely faithful and worthy to be loved. Isn’t this how Jesus has been responding to us and our petitions when we come here every Friday for this devotion? 

    I believe Jesus will do the same this Lent as we come to him to confess our sins. No matter how grievous or how many our sins are, when we come to Jesus and repent, his heart will never judge each of us a mistake. Rather, he will recognise the mistakes we’ve made and he cannot help but forgive us with love. 

    This is the good news we hear tonight. Isn’t it good we do to help us continue onward this Lent? 




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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
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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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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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