1.  
    Year A / Ordinary Time / Week 17 / Sunday
    Readings: 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12 / Psalm: 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130 (R/v 97a) / Romans 8:28-30/ Matthew 13:44-52 or 44-46


    “The kingdom of heaven is like…”

    Today Jesus teaches us three parables. They help us to understand what the kingdom of heaven is like.  Treasure hidden in a field. A pearl of great price. A full and good catch from the sea. What is your image of the kingdom of heaven?

    Whatever our image is, something more than an image is being offered to us in these parables we hear about in the Gospel. Jesus focuses us on the motivation one should have to want the kingdom of heaven. 

    What motivates the person who finds the treasure, the merchant who discovers the pearl and the fishermen who catch bountiful fish is the extreme goodness they find? They have in fact already come upon it, and knowing it, they strive to have it. 

    Haven’t we come upon the most important good that we are seeking? If not, why are we here at Eucharist? Yes, we know what the goodness of the kingdom of heaven is. We have already come upon this extreme good that we spend our lives seeking. The challenge is to give our all to attain it. Will we?

    In the First Reading, Solomon asks God for wisdom, and God gives him “a heart to discern between good and evil.” Wisdom is all Solomon asks for: not long life, riches or the death of his enemies. We need this same wisdom to recognise the kingdom of heaven already in our midst. Wise are we to ask God for it.

    Solomon receives wisdom because God asks him what he wants. I’d like to imagine that in a real way in our prayer, God is also asking us, “What do you need?” What will you and I ask for?”

    I think we sometimes ask God to change other people, like the unfaithful spouse or disobedient child. We could also ask God to change our circumstances, like removing work burdens or examination stress. We might even ask God for more to live better off than others. 

    Maybe there are better gifts we can ask God for. For the love of Jesus to respond better to others, especially the needy. Also, for the strength of Jesus to help us through the inevitable challenges of daily life.  I believe these are the very gifts God uses to transform our lives into that marvellous light of the kingdom of heaven. This light is shining in our midst. It shines for the many in darkness. This is how our Christian lives give meaning in the world.

    Our Christian life compels us to share it. Share it selflessly and generously.  Share it, like the shepherd and the woman who gathers everyone to rejoice with them on finding his lost sheep and her lost coin. Share it, like the prodigal father who throws a celebration when his long lost son returns after squandering his inheritance. This is the joy of finding again the goodness of a valuable sheep, a precious coin, and a child that is one’s own. It moves each person to share it with all.

    You and I have encountered Jesus in our lives. We know how good he is for us; he loves and saves us. Do we share Jesus? With our families, by making his closeness real and alive to them? With our friends, by proclaiming the tenderness of his care? With our different communities in the parish, at work and in school, by being merciful like Jesus who serves in that most self-giving way of washing feet? Do we?

    Jesus’s goodness reveals the kingdom of heaven. We’ve already experienced it. God’s love that is showered on us when we don’t deserve it. God’s mercy that is dispensed to forgive us when we’ve sinned. God’s life that is given when we don't expect second chances. God’s comfort and hope when we suffer and despair. God’s community and Church that welcome and include us when others, including self-righteous, Pharisee-like Christians, judge, cancel and ostracise us.

    Here we are in God’s House. We hear the Word of God proclaimed. We receive Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, in communion. Aren’t these a foretaste, a glimpse of what being in the kingdom of heaven is like? Having our place at the table of God. Being together as God’s beloved. One with God forever. Isn’t this the kingdom of heaven we all yearn for?

    Today Jesus tells us about the kingdom of heaven. Even more, he encourages us to want it. We’ve already experienced it on earth; it shall be more divine in heaven. If we want this, we must not only hear and understand this Good News. We must strive for it, Jesus teaches. And sharing the goodness of the kingdom of heaven that we have been blessed to receive with others while on earth is how we will attain it – for it is in giving that we receive. 

    Shall we?




    Preached at Church of the Sacred Heart
    photo from ourdailybread.org


    Posted by
    Labels: Breaking Open God's Word
    0

    Add a comment


  2. Year A / Ordinary Time / Week 16 / Sunday
    Readings: Wisdom 12.13, 16-19 / Psalm 86. 1-6, 9-10, 15-16 (R/v 5a) / Romans 8.26-27/ Matthew 13.24-30


    ‘Let them both grow till the harvest’

    There’s wisdom in these words that the owner of the field tells his servants. Wise are we then to learn its message, especially if we are ashamed, worried, or disturbed that our lives are messy – like those unkempt lalang, tall grass and overgrown flowering plants that choke wide, open spaces of our everyday life.

    Jesus’ parable of the darnel or weeds among the wheat offers us another perspective on messiness: it is a graced space where God’s patient love saves.

    Like weeds and wheat alongside each other, our lives are a mix of good and bad. 

    Our strengths, our talents, and our gifts are the wheat in our lives. These promise a rich harvest when we use them well to care and nourish, forgive and reconcile, love, and build up others. Many are therefore fed and nourished.

    Bad habits, unhealthy addictions, and sinful ways are like weeds. When they take root and multiply, our lives become messy. Jealousy and pride, hatred, and hard-heartedness take over our lives. Our lives do not thrive. They become barren. They cannot offer a life-giving harvest.

    Don’t we struggle to be fruitful for ourselves and others when our lives are messy and our faith messed up? And so we work hard to weed out our wrongs. Yet we cannot get rid of all of them. It seems impossible to be a good Christian. No wonder many feel tired and discouraged. It is easier to stop correcting our wrongs and continue living in sinfulness.

    Our first reading encourages us not to give up because God is patient. He gives Israel a chance to repent. God forgives. God does not destroy. This is also Jesus’ message in the parable. God gives us time to repent and become better.

    To ensure a good crop to harvest, the landowner lets the wheat mature with the weeds beside it. He knows weeds should be removed but done too quickly and without care, it can compromise a greater good for all, that is, the harvest. 

    We know God does not approve of sin, nor condone it. Yet God allows us to sin. Our sinful actions make our lives messy. Yet, instead of condemning us in our sinfulness, God enters our messed up lives repeatedly to save us. With mercy to embrace us in forgiveness. With love to raise us up to new life. Each time God does this, over our lifespan, his big-hearted love humbles us to repent honestly and reconcile with God better. Over time, our growing intimacy with God helps us repent more easily. We embrace Jesus’ call to conversion more readily.

    We need time to accomplish the goodness of repentance and conversion in us and for others. God gives us time unreservedly.

    Why? Because God understands that our human potential fo goodness, particularly, for repentance and conversion, needs time to mature and bear fruit. It begins in us as God’s small but sure assurance that our lives will surely bear a rich harvest, even in the face of sin. It is like the smallest seed that grows into the big mustard tree and the yeast needed to bake bread. All these are good and will come to be because God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

    In fact, God has more faith that we are good and will do good than we have about ourselves. We are our harshest critics and judges. I think we should ask God to have the faith He has in us.

    It’s a faith that I glimpsed when I read the story of Peter Soo some years back. From his teens, he struggled to find himself and to keep himself alive. His involvement in gang-related activities, drugs and gambling didn’t help. He was in and out of prison. He has a criminal record. His future looked bleak, even hopeless. God came to Peter through a girl who believed in him. She would marry him. She led this non-believer to church. Peter’s life slowly turned around. Today, he works with prisoners to rehabilitate them. He does this as a pastor in the Baptist Church.

    Peter’s story echoes God’s good labour in the lives of many you and I may know. The wayward child or unfaithful spouse who comes home. The cheating co-worker who changes his way. Those who turn away from self-centred, decadent lifestyles to contribute and build the community. Sinners who choose conversion and God. These are not stories about somebody else. In one way or another, they are our stories. We are these people.

    Today Jesus teaches that even if we cannot eradicate all the weeds in our lives, God will sift out and harvest the wheat in us for the good of all. God will do this patiently — in his time and in his ways. His time is ample for his love to work and save us.

    This is why God can live with the mix of weeds and wheat that our lives are. God is indeed in charge. Can we believe this too and live in peace with God and one another? Can we let God labour in our lives to bring about the harvest He wants, surprisingly even out of the messiness our lives so often are? Can we?






    Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart
    photo from crosswalk.com









    Posted by
    Labels: Breaking Open God's Word
    0

    Add a comment


  3. A Homily on the 5th Night of the Novena to St Anne at the Church of St Anne's

    Year A / Ordinary Time / Week 15 / Monday
    Readings: Exodus 1:8-14, 22 / Psalm 124:1b-3, 4-6, 7-8 / Matthew 10:34—11:1


    “There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism”

    This is our theme tonight. Here in Ephesians 4.5 St Paul is exhorting the first Christians to conduct themselves worthily as members of the church. They are to witness a life of oneness and togetherness in Jesus. They are to bring about unity and community as Christians. 

    This comes to be when Christians believe in one Lord, celebrate one faith and understand that they share one Baptism. When Christians do, the words in Ephesians 4.1 come alive: “to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” Are we living like this in our daily interactions?

    I don’t know about you but I find myself challenged, even slightly disturbed, that Jesus’ words in today’s gospel seem to suggest a different message. Listen again: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth: it is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” 

    We don’t associate such words with Jesus. He speaks of love and forgiveness, not of division, hatred and strife.

    I wonder if you, like me, feel resistant to Jesus’s message today. I’d rather have Jesus bring peace and unity. Bring these to the divided, messy and tumultuous parts of my life and your lives and to all struggle with these parts of their lives.

    So what does Jesus mean to say in today’s gospel? It’s difficult to understand Jesus’ message with our 21st Century ears. They are filled with loud sound bites about individual rights and human wants. Perhaps, this explains our discomfort with Jesus’ words. 

    I’d like to suggest we listen to Jesus' words with the Middle Eastern ear of his time, attuned to family and community first.

    Let’s start with this line Jesus says: “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me; and those who welcome me welcome the one who sent me.” There is an old Middle Eastern proverb that says, “the messenger is the same as the sender of the message.” The Rabbis used it and everyone knew it well. Jesus used it too to teach the Twelve that if they received him they also receive God who sent him. His message is also for us.

    Yet, aren’t we often like Philip who asked Jesus, ‘Show us the Father?’ Jesus answers us, as he did Philip, saying: “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

    We know the Father. We encounter him in Jesus. This is part of our relationship with Jesus, including these three ways.

    Through Jesus, our Lord, we share family resemblance with God for we are all made in his image and likeness. 

    With Jesus, we live his faith in God and learn to live it out fully in our lives by serving everyone, even sacrificially at times.
     
    In Jesus, we are baptized into God as he was baptized. And what God said to Jesus, ‘This is my beloved, with you I am well pleased,” he also says to us.

    This is why when we see one another, we should be humbled for we are seeing no other face than the face Jesus. His face is etched into our faces and his face reveals God himself. 

    In a similar way, whether our name is Joseph or Peter, Anne or Mary, Jovita or Adrian, we are all marked by the name, ‘Christian.’ Yes, we bear Jesus’ name. 

    When we can understand whose face we see before us and whose name calls forth our response, we will come to value the person before us, particularly, in their difference or difficulties. One like you and me: God’s beloved.

    Maybe then we will understand how to practice our Christian faith as we interact with one another - with humility to welcome, charity to care and love to include. 

    In today’s gospel, Jesus names four types of people who come to us as his own. They are prophets, holy or righteous ones, little ones and disciples. How do we value them? How will we engage them?

    A prophet is a spokesman of God. Aren’t we all prophets by virtue of our baptism? 

    A righteous person is not someone who is self righteous. Rather, he is the one who is just, honest and true. In Hebrew a righteous person is “one who makes things right.” Don’t we know of many in our families, among our friends, here in the parish, and in the world, who strive to do the right thing?

    Little ones are those who are vulnerable. They could be the poor, orphans and widows. It could also be anyone who does not have the same opportunities as you and I have. Wouldn’t we want to also include family who have special needs or are LGBTQ, friends who have failed or disappointed, workmates or classmates who are struggling with daily life, the uncle selling tissues at the MRT station and the aunty collecting cardboard in Sengkang? 

    Disciples who are, Jesus says, his emissaries.  Aren’t we l even when we struggle with sin?

    Can you and I see Jesus in each of them? 

    Or are we like those at the Last Judgment in Matthew’s Gospel: “Lord, when was it that I saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Listen to Jesus’ reply: “just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” 

    Each of these groups should remind us of the diverse people that make up families, communities, and the world. Isn’t our church a motley mix of devout and lukewarm, traditionalists and progressives, the struggling and striving, the saintly and sinful?

    But isn’t everyone God's own, every one a sheep of his flock? This is a truth we Christians must especially remember, celebrate and believe in for we all have one Lord, share One Faith, and are gathered together through the One Baptism we share.

    Oftentimes, we focus more on the differences that separate and divide us, instead of what we share in common – in Church, that we share in Jesus’ name, Christian, and in the world, that we are all made in God’s likeness. 

    When the brand of the lens with which we see, speak and interact with each other is ‘difference,’ there is a tendency to become biased and prejudicial. Then we begin to discriminate and walls go up that divide everyone into ‘us’ versus ‘them.’ 

    Just consider the ongoing debate in our own Church between Pope Benedict Catholics and Pope Francis Catholics. This ideological mudslinging, so often from those that claim to know the mind of God, confuses all of us who have been gathered into the one Church. It divides the Church which is not Jesus' plan. What’s forgotten is who we really are first and foremost  - Jesus’s disciples.  

    Now let’s return to Jesus’ words about bringing the sword and not peace, dividing households and setting relatives against each other. 

    If we want to live like Jesus and set things right, we will have to accept that others will disagree, challenge, even oppose us. This is how Dorothy Day, an American Catholic social activist, sums it up: “We are called to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” 

    To follow Jesus as Lord. To live the Christian faith fully, particularly, our Baptismal call to care for souls and save them. These are choices that will cause dissension in our homes and communities. This is however the weight of our baptism: it demands we do as Jesus does, and put God first.

    If we look at the lives of the saints, we would see that what they did was what we are all supposed to do as Christians. However, we like to make them the exception. We struggle to be like them who embrace everyone, including those who many reject, ignore or cast aside. They do because they hear Jesus’ call to welcome him in all of them.

    Jesus calls us to do the same and so  live like them - saints. This is quite a demonstration of Jesus' faith in each of us! Do you believe it? Do we want it?



    Preached at the Church of St Anne
    photo: www.unclecu.org/
    Posted by
    Labels: Breaking Open God's Word
    0

    Add a comment

  4.  
    Year A / Ordinary Time / Week 15 / Sunday
    Readings: Isaiah 55.1-11 / Psalm 65.10, 11,12-13, 14 (R/v Luke 8.8) / Romans 8.18-23 / Matthew 13.1-23


    "Thus says the Lord…the word that goes from my mouth does not return to me empty, without carrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do" (Isaiah 55.11)


    This is God's assurance for us in the first reading. God is a man of his word: He does what He says. We can count on his word. His faithfulness enables us to trust and believe in him. 

    We see this truth come alive in today's Gospel. Jesus speaks of God’s Word as seeds that are scattered. Each seed promises fruit and harvest. The sower tosses them over various kinds of ground, even the unlikeliest of soils. I don’t think he does because he doesn’t understand the odds. Rather, I think he’s willing to take the risk that the scattered seeds will thrive and flourish. I imagine his belief is audacious because he has faith that God’s grace will work. 

    We encounter God’s Word in Scripture and prayer and through worship. It can also come as God’s call to the Church. At Vatican II, God called the Church to update the Church’s traditions and teachings to better engage the modern world, and make it more Christ-like. 

    Today in our diocese, God is calling us to discern a pastoral vision and plan for the next ten years. This is the immediate task of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council (APC). Laity, religious and clergy make up the APC. Its role is to guide our Archbishop and the Church on the pastoral and evangelizing priorities in Singapore. 

    The APC will do this by listening, dialoguing and journeying with the Holy Spirit working in and through you and me, God’s people. To hear and understand our concerns and hopes about being God’s Church. To look for those who have been forgotten, marginalized or lost, listen to their pains and joys and include them in Church. Even, to consider how we as Church can accompany and care for our neighbours, regardless of race, language or religion. 

    This way of walking together is called ‘synodal.’ For Pope Francis, ‘synodal’ means all of us journeying to God by discerning how the Holy Spirit wants us to be one Church and move ahead by participating in Jesus' mission together and ministering to one another.* 

    With eyes of faith, we can say the APC and its work is like the seed Jesus speaks about; it bears God’s promise for our diocese. If we let this seed take root and flourish, we can possibly be that brighter Church shining for everyone. Then, they’ll really know we are Christian by our love.

    The field for this seed of God, the APC and its work, is really our own hearts. There, we discover the soil of our hearts. It can be hard, full of rocks, and infested with weeds. In some places it is well drained, rich, and able to produce in abundance.

    Knowing this invites us to pay attention to the good, and the bad, the rich and abundant, and the rocky and hard in our hearts and the diocese. Only then can we begin to pray with the Prophet Ezekiel that God will take from us hearts of stone and give to us hearts of flesh. Then, we can renew ourselves and the diocese, and produce abundantly, in some cases thirty fold, in some cases sixty fold, and in some cases a hundred fold. This is how the APC and its work, sown in our hearts as the seed of God’s Word, is not wasted.

    This is why the APC turns to prayer and discernment, including the 5 nights of Intercessory Prayers for everyone to join in at different churches and to pray as a diocese. The first night is this Wednesday, here in our parish of the Sacred Heart at 8pm.  

    Prayer is where you and I will hear the voice of God. We will hear his assurance that the Word that comes from his mouth will carry out his will and succeed in its mission. His word is Jesus. 

    Isn’t Jesus who we turn to in all the ups and downs of our life and faith? The APC wants to do the same, trusting that God’s will be done when each of us and the whole diocese pray to have the mind of Jesus and to put on his love. This is how we will live as the Body of Christ and so make Christ present in today’s world.

    The APC cannot do all this work alone. It needs you and me, and our prayers. All of us need to heed Jesus’ words as today’s gospel ends: ‘Listen, anyone who has ears!’  When we do, we will recognise God’s promise for our diocese in and through the APC. He promises much more than the seeds that fell on rich soil.

    How can we respond to Jesus’ call? In no other way than as the Prayer of St Oscar Romero tells us:

    We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
    We water seeds already planted,
    knowing that they hold future promise.
    We lay foundations that will need further development.
    We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
    We cannot do everything,
    and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
    This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
    It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
    an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.
    We may never see the end results,
    but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
    We are workers, not master builders;
    ministers, not messiahs.
    We are prophets of a future that is not our own.

    Shall we?







    *c.f. Pope Francis, Address to the Doctrine of the Faith's Theological Commission, 29 November 2019



    Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart
    artwork: from reflectionsofgodslove.com

    Posted by
    Labels: Breaking Open God's Word
    0

    Add a comment


  5. Devotion to the Sacred Heart – Friday, 14 July
    Reflection based on Luke 23.33-34


    ‘Father forgive them; they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23.33)


    This is perhaps the most heart-breaking moment when Jesus is on the Cross. It is because he prays for those who crucify him. He prays that they be forgiven. This is therefore truly gracious moment; mercy is real.

    A quick scan of today’s passages suggests that the ‘they’ are those involved in Jesus’ Passion and Death. And so we think of Pontius Pilate, the Chief Priests, Scribes and Pharisees, Sadducees and the crowd. But we are also part of the ‘they.’ Our sins nail Jesus to the Cross and to his death. Only Jesus, God-with-us, can forgive our sins. We cannot remove our sins.

    Jesus’ forgiveness is  poignant. It wells up from deep within him. From his compassion for those who hurt him and now kill him. This explains his plea to God to forgive them. Even crucified, He still loves.

    When was the last time someone humiliated or hurt us? The last time when someone put us in a position of shame or threat? Did we forgive or did it take time to work through our grief and pain? 

    Jesus’ example of forgiving invites us to learn one of the hardest prayers we can pray. “Father forgive them; they do not know what they are doing” is in fact the ultimate prayer for anyone wanting to forgive.

    We need to learn to say this prayer because we live in a world where so many are easily offended by every small misstep. Some are angry over the smell of the food neighbours cook. Others, when someone disagrees with the way we think. Even in church, a few get angry when the drivers around us are late coming out after Mass and we can’t drive out. 

    In all these moments, and more, forgiveness isn’t given a second thought. The seemingly natural response when people are hurt, offended or threatened is retaliation, being cancelled out or fact-checked and anything to give an air of superiority over others. These become idols we place before our eyes. What we no longer see clearly is Jesus, and in this gospel, his incredible example on the Cross of showing love, grace and forgiveness to his own people that literally hate and kill.

    If Jesus himself forgives, what excuse do we have not to forgive those who wrong us? Jesus’ simple yet powerful prayer to forgive is God’s gracious model for us to respond when we are offended, scorned and wronged.

    Jesus’ prayer is intercessory prayer, meaning he prays on behalf of others. Every Friday, we bring intercessory prayers to His Sacred Heart. Many of our petitions are for those we know who are in need of God and God’s help. This evening, let us not forget to also ask Jesus for forgiveness for ourselves. Let us ask for this so that experiencing his immeasurable forgiveness we can begin to forgive others who’ve hurt us.

    As we do, let us be mindful of these words that Jesus chooses to say from the Cross: “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.” Then, let us follow his example. 



    Shared at the Church of the Sacred Heart
    Photo: from mindful.org




    Posted by
    0

    Add a comment

  6. Year A / Ordinary Time / Week 14 / Sunday
    Readings: Zechariah 9.9-10 / Psalm 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14 (R/v c.f1) / Romans 8.9, 11-13 / Matthew 11.25-30


    “Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11.28).

    Who is Jesus really inviting when he says this? In today’s gospel, it is the crowd, the people who follow him each day. 
     
    Pope Francis describes them as simple people. They are the poor, the sick, sinners, all who are marginalised. For him, these humble people “always followed Jesus to hear his word — a word that gave hope!”* In his ministry Jesus spoke to them, healed them and encouraged them to speak to God as a loving father. Now, Francis says, “He calls them all to himself: ‘Come to me,’ and he promises them relief and rest.”*

    You and I, we, are also these people. We want hope. And because we believe in Jesus, we hear his comforting, consoling invitation as hope-filled. Isn’t this why we’ve come to Eucharist today? Bringing our lives to Jesus. Each of them, challenging and burdensome, even as each is hallowed and blessed. Every one of our lives with its saintliness and sinfulness.   

    But you may say, “Don’t I have to go to Jesus first?” I hear you. However, I wonder if today’s readings invite us to see otherwise. That is, Jesus comes to us first. Truth be told, he always comes to us before we come to Him. 

    In fact, Jesus coming first has always been God’s plan for us, our wellbeing and our salvation. In the first reading, Zechariah speaks about the coming of a king. He is humble, riding on a donkey. He will banish war chariots and warrior bows. He will bring peace. Isn’t this Jesus who comes as our Saviour that the Advent message proclaims?

    Why would Jesus come and invite us to Himself? As I prayed, I wondered if it is because Jesus Himself experienced the Father’s love coming to him. At Jesus’ Baptism, his Father came and said, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with You I am well pleased.” At the Transfiguration, the Father came again and said these same words of love to Jesus.

    I believe this is how Jesus knows the Father’s love: from his experience of God’s love that keeps coming to enfold him in His embrace.  Filled with the Father’s love, Jesus does what the Father does: He comes to us repeatedly. Love, only love, compels Jesus to come and draw everyone into His embrace. Today, he is calling us into His love.

    How can we know this? By paying attention to these words Jesus says in the gospel: “no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Jesus’ invitation therefore reveals the love of God for us. Indeed as the Father loves and cares for Jesus, so He loves and cares for us. 

    When Jesus calls us from our labours to rest in him, he is inviting us to more than physical relief and rest. He wants to gather us who are lost into worthiness, who are in danger into safety, who are in pain into comfort, and who are abandoned into relationship. Simply put, Jesus is inviting us to abide in the love he shares with his Father. This is the rest we really need; here in love we will have Jesus’ promise of life to the full. 

    We can abide in this rest because the Spirit of God dwells in us. It opens our ears to hear Jesus’ invitation. It will lead us to Him, if we choose to respond. 

    This same Spirit has drawn us to Eucharist here. It has helped us choose God over other needs and wants, distractions and temptations we have this afternoon. God’s Spirit keeps us interested in the spiritual, St Paul tells us in the second reading. And this leads us to live in God’s ways as Jesus did; thus we are saved.

    Jesus’ invitation however does not end in relief and rest. He calls us to much more: to take up His yoke on our shoulders, and to do as He does. Gather the lost and bring them home. Care for those around us. Support the weary and burdened. Uplift the neglected and find the forgotten. 

    You and I may fear doing this as Jesus commands. We may feel we are not strong enough or spiritually ready to do this.

    We should know that Jesus is not handing over a burden to us. Rather, He  is asking us to join Him in His work, to share the yoke. It helps to understand that as a yoke, a harness shared by two oxen, both work together as a team.  

    Suddenly, humility becomes something you and I might want to ask for. We will when we begin to recognise that meekness helps us turn to Jesus and say, “I hear you invitation; I desire to shoulder your yoke but I need your help.” Maybe then we will learn from Jesus how to make our way through this world in small and humble service to others.  That is where we will finally find peace.

    Let us then beg for humility. It can place us in the shoes of another to see and begin to understand their world and point of view.  Let us not be afraid to do this. We are not in this alone, but side by side with Jesus, doing our part. And his assurance is that he loves and guides us to the Father in whom we will have the rest we need, even more, desire.

    This is the Good News we hear today. Do we really hear it? 






    *Pope Francis,     Angelus, 6 July 2014

    Preached at Church of the Sacred Heart



    Posted by
    Labels: Breaking Open God's Word
    0

    Add a comment

  7.  

    Year A / Ordinary Time / Week 13 / Sunday

    Readings: 2 Kings 4.8-11, 14-16  /  Psalm 89.2-3, 16-17, 18-19 (R/v 2a) /  Romans 6.3-4, 8-11 /  Matthew 10.37-42



    “Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10.39)


    At the center of today’s Gospel is this statement Jesus makes to the Twelve, and to us this morning. He simply and clearly states that the only way we have life is to lose it. We lose our life by choosing to love Jesus even above family and by serving others, even “little ones.” It is challenging to hear these words, even harder to live them as Christians.


    Many of us struggle to do this. Jesus demand means we live sacrificially, that is, a total self-giving to God and others. However, almost all the ways we love often begin with a good bit of ‘self’ wrapped up in it. I love the other because he makes me feel good or happy. I love her because she meets all my needs. I love them because I can make them love me the way I want. Human love can be possessive, controlling and manipulative sometimes.


    Yet there is a human impulse in all of us to simply love. We do this in various ways. Like gifting flowers to celebrate someone’s birthday, or inviting family to dinner for a catch up or whatsapping ‘hello!’ to encourage another to begin the day happily. Even a simple smile at a friend’s joke, however lame, or a pat on the back to console express love.


    Something happens when we show love. A gift is returned. This is the story of the Shunemite woman in the first reading. She served the prophet Elisha and provided for his needs; by so serving she received in turn the gift of life. Indeed, ‘for it is in giving that we receive.’ 


    This past week, I’ve been reflecting on this line from the Prayer of St Francis of Assisi in relation to my priestly ministry of ten years. 


    Particularly on how much I have received from the many different groups of people God has asked me to serve and in the different ways He has blessed me through them. Everyone  praying with me and for me in faith. Everyone humbling and inspiring me in friendship. Everyone teaching me in ministry and nurturing my vocation. I count my many blessings and give thanks for them all. Indeed, what I’ve received from many, including you here, has enabled me to live my priesthood better, and I hope, brighter, each day for everyone.


    Many of you say we priests are a blessing to you. Let me say on behalf of my brother priests that you are a blessing to us too. I don’t think we could have done this for each other unless we understood Jesus’ invitation to carry the cross of love. This is the way of true loving — a self-emptying gift of ourselves for one another, and many more. 


    We give ourselves best when we are ready to lay down our life, readily, freely and selflessly. Paradoxically, this is the only way to find and possess it, and then share it with all, Jesus says in today’s gospel. For St Paul, if we die with Christ, we shall also live with him, shall live a life in God. This is the Christian way. Do we hear it? Are we really listening to his call that can save us?


    You may ask: die in order to live? How so? Think of a grain of wheat; unless it falls and dies, there is no wheat to harvest, no more new seeds for the next cycle of planting and harvesting.


    Consider again Jesus’s invitation to take up the Cross. Many of us stay away from fully embracing the Cross and carrying it because it seems too heavy to carry, too painful to shoulder, possibly too demanding to make it my cross. 


    Yet for the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life; rather it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow him.”* They are no more fishermen; they become the fishers of man God had created them to be. 


    So it must be for you and me too: the Cross is God’s way to humble us in order that we can become who God created us to be. You are not simply the laity. I am not just as a priest. Rather, all of us together are Christian disciples. With Jesus journeying home to God. Along the way, he labours to make us saints. We can say to the Lord, ‘yes,’ and with Jesus, take up the cross that leads to sainthood, or ‘no, thank you,’ and continue another way on our own.


    We have a choice to make. Which will it be?




    Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart

    Photo by Jules PT on Unsplash


    Posted by
    Labels: Breaking Open God's Word
    0

    Add a comment

"Bukas Palad"
"Bukas Palad"
is Filipino for open palms
Faith & Spirituality
Faith & Spirituality
Blog Archive
Blog Archive
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

About Me
About Me
My Photo
is a 50something Catholic who resides in Singapore and works for the Church. He is a priest of the Roman Catholic Church.
Loading