1.  

    Year A / Ordinary Time / Week 15 / Monday

    Readings: Isaiah 22:19-23 / Psalm: 138:1-2, 2-3, 6, 8 (R/v 8bc) / Romans 11:33-36 / Matthew 16:13-20



    “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16.15)

    Jesus asks the disciples this question. We hear it in today’s gospel passage because you and I are these disciples. 

    This question demands a profession of faith in Jesus who is God with us. What will be our response?


    We profess our Christian faith whenever we say the Nicene Creed. However, each of us understands the one God we worship in different ways. These shape our answers to Jesus’ question. In turn these affect how each of us lives out our Christian faith.

    If you believe God is a judge who counts our good and bad deeds, our saintly acts and sinful choices, then you’d probably live your lives very carefully. And possibly, fearfully. You’ll do everything to avoid sin, observe every church law without necessarily understanding them, and safeguard your faith by staying away from everyone you deem a sinner. 

    On the other hand, if you believe God is all-accepting, welcoming and will wait patiently in Heaven for you to get there, then, you may not really worry about the state of your Christian life. You’re probably comfortable with a lukewarm faith, not anxious about pleasing God with good deeds or striving hard enough to turn away from sin.

    What we believe about God then affects all sorts of other things. Like whether we come to Sunday Mass to fulfil the Church’s obligation or for the love of God. Or, why some are Pope Benedict Catholics for whom God and the Church are more concerned about moral behaviour while others are Pope Francis Catholics for whom God is mercy and the Church inclusive.

    Our beliefs affect our prayer too. If we think of God as a stern judge, we will always want to look good before God. If we think of God as a loving parent, we will readily ask for help or advice. And if we think of God as a friend, we will converse with God just talking about our day.

    Indeed what we believe about God matters. This is why I believe Jesus asks the question, ‘Who do you say I am?’ He knows that what we think of him will  affect how we live our Christian lives daily.

    Who do people say that I am?” Jesus asked. His disciples replied, “Some call you John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” They repeated what they heard others say about Jesus instead of what they believed. What about us? Will we repeat what others say, that ‘Jesus is this’ and ‘Jesus is that’?  

    Jesus didn’t seem satisfied. He wanted to hear his disciples’ answer. Hence, He asked the more important question: “But you, who do you say that I am?” I imagine his disciples struggled to answer. Only Peter did: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And only God could have revealed this to Peter Jesus teaches us.

    Wise are we to ask God to reveal who Jesus is to us personally and uniquely. This is how we can better encounter, know and believe in Jesus. 

    God did this for Jared, a young man at a retreat I once conducted. He shared with the group that Jesus spoke to him in Teochew, saying “I am your best friend.” They laughed, saying Jesus only speaks English in their prayer. Jared explained how his grandma spoke Teochew to teach him about God, to pray to Jesus, and to recite the Hail Mary.

    “Who do you say I am?”  I can’t help but wonder if Jesus’ question is for us to know Him as He really is for each of us. And according to God’s revelation to us, like He did for Jared.

    I believe Jesus asks us this question because he wants more from us than those easily repeated answers from Catechism class, spiritual writings read, youtube videos watched, or Facebook posts and whatapp messages crowding out our spiritual lives. 

    I am convinced Jesus wants us to answer His question thoughtfully with our head, and, more so, lovingly with our heart, and totally with our soul and with our life.

    Let me suggest that at the heart of Jesus’ question is His desire to have a two-way relationship between Himself and us, not just one-way. His question opens a space for our answer. He knows this interaction will draw us deeper into life with Him. 

    Then, we will understand Jesus not as a charismatic leader, a good friend or a learned teacher. Rather, that He is the very presence of God’s love in the world. Divine love that opens wide to love each of us and to whom we can open up our hearts and let God’s love in — and return it. This openness to God’s love has a name. It is “faith.” 

    We need this kind of faith to answer Jesus’ question. Not just in this homily or in a theology class. Rather, when and where our faith matters most.  Beside a sick or death bed, not just next to our parents or children. Whenever we’re burdened, anxious or struggling to sleep, not just when we are consoled and can sleep in. When life is falling apart, not just when things are going well. This is when our faith matters; it’s like when rubber hits the road, so to speak. That’s when what we truly believe about God matters. That’s when our faith in Jesus is tested. 

    No matter what is going on in our lives presently, today’s gospel reading demands we wrestle with Jesus’ question. We must because we profess to have faith and trust in Jesus as our Saviour. For some of us, Jesus promises to calm our every storm. For others, He offers us a peace that surpasses understanding. For all of us, he is eager to hear our every prayer and to assure us that He will be with us always, even to the end,

    This is who Jesus is. And He tells us so, even with His question, in the language we know best, His love. Let’s consider replying to Jesus with love too, saying, like Peter did, ‘Yes, You are the Christ.”

    Shall we?



    Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart
    photo     by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash

    Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash
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  2.  

    This homily was preached at Mass before the Devotion to the Sacred Heart on 18 August

    Year A / Ordinary Time / Week 19 / Friday
    Readings: Joshua 24:1-13 /Psalm 136:1-3, 16-18, 21-22 and 24 (R/v 10bc) / Matthew 19:3-12


    "O give thanks to God for he is good."

    We said this response during the Responsorial Psalm. I wonder if we said it because it is expected that we respond. Or, did we say it -- hopefully wholeheartedly -- because we recognise the gift there words are as we end this week here at Eucharist together?

    These words that begin today's psalm invite us to recall the past week and give thanks for all that we have received, the good and bright that lifted our spirits and even the challenging and trying that helped us understand ourselves and become better. Indeed, we give thanks for God who is the Giver of these gifts and, even more, because God is God in our lives.

    And isn't giving thanks and praise to God what we will do at this Eucharist? Give thanks and praise, and also receive Jesus in Communion. We need Him to ready us for another day and this weekend. To ready us even more for the new possibilities God wants to bless us with so that we can share with others.

    So, count our blessings we must! And as we do, I wonder if we'd be surprised by how many they are and how gratuitous God is in giving them to us. We need not earn them because we were saintly this past week. Neither did we receive them because we recited our prayers and petitioned God. All we have is gift. God is good and gracious to give them to us.

    This is in fact the message the Lord speaks through Joshua in the First Reading. Its closing lines express the goodness of the Lord's labour in the lives of the Israelites. Listen again: "I gave you a land where you never toiled; you live in towns you never built; you eat now from vineyards and olive-tress you never planted." Indeed they have much to "give thanks for God is good."

    What about you and me as we end this week? What can we thank God for? 

    We don't often think of our coming to Eucharist as God's gift. God calls us here not just to worship Him. Nor does He want us to come because it is an obligation or demand that we must do and not sin. I believe God draws us to Eucharist because He wants to nurture in us an attitude for gratitude. Each Eucharist is God's opportunity for you and me to practise gratitude. 

    For saints like St Ignatius of Loyola and St Thérèse of Lisieux, gratitude is the attitude for holiness. For them, the way to holiness is to recognise the generous goodness of God, not just for all that has been given but for all that will come.  Isn't this why we write petitions and say intercessory prayers?

    When gratitude becomes our attitude in faith and life, then our prayer will not only be about asking for what we need or thanking God for what we have received. Even more, it will also be about thanking God ahead of time!

    Today we come with faith to do what the Lord asks of the Israelites and us: to give thanks.  When this Eucharist ends, let us go forth giving thanks that we can truly entrust to Him what will be and what will come.

    Shall we?





    Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart




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  3. Year A / Ordinary Time / Week 19 / Sunday
    Readings: Isaiah 56.1, 6-7 /  Psalm 67.2-3, 5, 6, 8 (R/v 4) / Romans 11.13-15, 29-32 /  Matthew 15.21-28


    "Lord, help me."

    This explains the words and actions of the Canaanite woman towards Jesus. She is seeking his help to heal her daughter from the torments of the evil one. 

    You and I have also uttered these words when we needed Jesus' help. We turned to Jesus for many reasons, so many needs, and we continue to ask for his help.

    When we do, others tell us to persist and persevere. In fact persistence in prayer is a common theme in the Gospels. It is seen as a measure of a person's faith in times of trial and tribulation. Jesus encouraged people to persist in prayer so as to entreat God, our Father with our requests while trusting that God's will, not ours, be done. 

    This is the perspective we often bring to interpret today's gospel story. It is about Jesus testing the woman's persistence in prayer. Indeed, how else would He know the depth of her faith unless He tests the degree of her perseverance to keep asking for help?

    In preparing this homily, I wondered if there is another way, another lens, to appreciate what more this gospel story can offer us to live our Christian faith more fully. I'd like to suggest there is. It has to do with vulnerability. 

    Many of us associate vulnerability with weakness. To be vulnerable is expose ourselves to the possibility of being put down and harmed. However, for the American researcher and story teller, Brené Brown, "Being vulnerable takes courage. But it's worth it. It's worth it to be ourselves, to connect with others."

    Is it possible then that vulnerability is a grace from God to help us to be more ourselves and hence more authentic when we relate to one another?

    I'd like to suggest that the Canaanite woman exhibits vulnerability. She is vulnerable enough to ask for help and trust that Jesus will answer her plea. She comes to him with faith and begs. Who amongst us wants to beg? We know how shameful and embarrassing it is to be a beggar. Yet she can beg because she embraces her vulnerability. This gives her the courage to open herself to being who she really is before Jesus -- one in need of help. "Lord, help me."

    What enables her to embrace her vulnerability and to act out of it? Nothing less than love. Love alone allows her to risk being vulnerable. I wonder about you and me before Jesus.  Would we dare to be vulnerable and show our real selves to Jesus? Or, will we come with masks to present ourselves as devout, obedient, good Christians even when we know the depth of our sinfulness and our need for conversion?

    As I wondered about the Canaanite woman and her vulnerability, I found myself wondering about Jesus. There is a change in Jesus' attitude towards the woman. Is it possible that Jesus embraced his vulnerability and this helped him to treat her differently?

    At the beginning of their encounter, Jesus is reluctant to help the woman. He refuses to answer her plea. He then dismisses her saying to the apostles that he was '"sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel." Yet the woman's persistence moves Him to answer her finally and heal her daughter. 

    Could this woman's perseverance reveal her vulnerability to the point it moves Jesus to be equally vulnerable in turn? Vulnerable enough to open Himself to really listen and then to genuinely respond. Vulnerable enough to receive her as one like him, God's own, and not different. Vulnerable enough to care with the love of God.

    Honestly, I wonder if Jesus comes to know and own his true identity and God's mission when he recognises this woman's vulnerability to ask for his help: that he is the Christ sent to save everyone. This is why I'd like to suggest that when Jesus says, "Woman, you have great faith. Let your wish be granted," Jesus is truly being Himself: he is the Son of God.

    This is a moment of connection. All of us join the woman and his disciples to witness this marvellous sight. Also, this moment must have moved Peter who would later declare Jesus to be the Holy One of God whose words give eternal life (John 6.19). 

    Like Peter and the Canaanite woman, we believe Jesus can and will give us eternal life. This explains why we turn to him for help repeatedly.  Today's story of Jesus changing his attitude -- from distancing Himself from the woman to reaching out to her -- ought to strengthen our faith: Jesus will make himself vulnerable to hear and help us. He will in the manner of God: coming up close to all in need, hearing their cries with compassion and responding with tender care for everyone. This is how Jesus reaches out to the Canaanite woman. He will care for us similarly.

    What has all this talk about vulnerability to do with you and me? I wonder if it will challenge us to see beyond the cry of anyone seeking our help and who we find annoying and demanding. To stop seeing them as beggars who are difficult but vulnerable to be their true selves. Even more, that they are God's beloved, like us, who we must help.

    If we recognise them in this way and really want to help them, then, we must learn from Jesus. First, to change from the hardheartedness you and I sometimes have to stay away from them or ignore their cry for help. Second, to then get involved in their lives, and so, truly care and uplift them from their plight and pain, and even save them. When we dare do this, we will cooperate with God to become who He created us to be -- Christian.

    If Jesus could give himself to care for the Canaanite woman and her plea, I wonder who will we risk ourselves for and what we will dare to risk when we choose to be vulnerable as Christians? 





    Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart
    photo by Josue Michel on Unsplash

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  4. Year A / Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
    Readings: Revelations 11.19a; 12.1-6a, 10ab / Psalm 45.10, 11, 12, 16  (R/v 10bc) / 1 Corinthians 15.20-27 / Luke 1.39-56

    My father loved country and western music. He played it often whenever he took our family on car rides around rural Singapore in the 1970s. A song he played often was “Homeward Bound” by Glen Campbell. It is about traveling home on a train to something better, or as this lyric in the song describes, “home to where my love waits silently for me.” 

    What if Christian life is like a train journey? Where will it bring each of us to? 

    We can find an answer or two to these questions by reflecting on Mary’s life, particularly her Assumption into heaven that we celebrate today. 

    Mary’s life journey finds its fulfilment in God, and no other end. Our first reading expresses this with these words: God had made a special place for the woman. This is a place of safety, of peace, of being one with God. In terms of today’s feast, we understand it to be heaven.

    Heaven is where humankind experiences the fullness of the glory of God’s saving love. Jesus promises His disciples this glory. We are his disciples. It can be ours if we live as Mary did. She was Jesus’ first disciple because she accepted him, the word of God, into her life. Even more, she let Him walk with her through life to fulfil God’s plan for her - to bear Jesus, accompany him, and point others to him. Then, when all was done God assumed her into heaven.  

    The words ‘assume’ and ‘assumption’ are synonymous with today’s feast. They describe God’s action of raising Mary, body and soul, to heaven. Only God has the power to do this. On her own Mary could not. So it is for us. We need Jesus to show us the way home to Him. This is why God sent Jesus into the world. With Mary, then, we are bound for God. This message is the Good News today’s readings proclaim.

    Sometimes, I struggle to fully appreciate this message. You might too. We probably do when we make mistakes so bad, so wrong that we feel “I’m really worthless, really a sinner.” Or, when we look at the high standards of Christian life, and think to ourselves, “How can I ever live this Christian life when I am lazy, gossip, watch porn and masturbate, grab more food and drink than I need, spend my time and money wastefully, do not care for others, live a lukewarm faith.” Or, when we get angry with God because of a loved one who has died. 

    Yet, in the face of these struggles and doubts, our Christian faith consoles and uplifts us. It reminds us of these truths. No, you are not a worthless failure but life’s learner. No, your Christian future is not wasted, but always work in progress. No, your beloved one is not dead but alive with God.

    All these resound with the hope that the Assumption of Mary proclaims. We are created for God and our lives are heaven-bound. So, look up, dear friends.

    Upwards is in fact where Jesus’ death and resurrection directs our gaze to – to God who saves us for eternal life with him. This is the message in the second reading. We also profess this truth each time we end The Nicene Creed saying: "I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen." 

    If we truly believe this, then, where are you and I keeping our gaze on as Christians? On satisfying ourselves or on what God wants for us?

    Mary kept her gaze on God. Always. I believe her humble understanding of who she was to God and who God was to her enabled her to do this. She was God’s servant, as she proclaimed at the Annunciation. This humility allowed her to relate to God in two ways. To say ‘yes’ when God called her to be the mother of Jesus. And, to praise God at the Visitation that is today’s gospel story. 

    I wonder about our own ‘yes-es’ to God. Wouldn’t our ‘yes’ to God every time be nothing less than doing the Mary thing? That is, humble ourselves  like Mary to bear Jesus, God’s Word,in us, carry him and give birth to him who saves us and brings to God? Humbling ourselves like Mary is how we can give God permission to bring us home to him. 

    If we dare do this, we might begin to understand Pope Benedict XVI's reflection on the Assumption. He invites us to see in Mary’s Assumption the truth that in God there is room for man – God is man’s home – but there is also room for God in man.*

    In the Assumption, God brings Mary home to himself because she first gave Him a home in her life at the Annunciation. Today’s feast reminds us God is asking the same of you and me.

    When we do, maybe that image of a family singing “Homeward Bound” in their little Datsun 100A might encourage us to sing – sing with Mary to God whose great deeds in our lives witness that God is with us, and  wherever He is there we will be too – at home.





    *Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 15 August, 2021


    Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart

    photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash

     

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  5.  
    Year A / Ordinary Time / Week 19 / Sunday
    Readings: 1 Kings 19.9, 11-13 /  Psalm 84.9, 10. 11-12, 13-14 (R/v 8) / Romans 9.1-5 / Matthew 14.22-33


    “He went up into the hills by himself to pray” (Matthew 14.23)

    This is how St Matthew describes the close of a day in Jesus’ life. We hear about it in today’s gospel. Jesus ends his day by praying to the Father. 

    I imagine him bringing to the Father his ups and downs of the day that it was. Also, the people he encountered and their pains, joys and hopes. I honestly believe he’d share the spiritual consolations and desolations he had. And when Jesus had said all he wanted to, I imagine him sitting in silence and listening — listening to God, the Father.

    Prayer is at the heart of today’s readings. Elijah was told to stand before God who he could only encounter in the quiet of a gentle breeze. Paul prayed for his own people. And Jesus went to prayer. We could miss the importance of prayer, and listening to God in prayer, that today’s readings offer for our reflection. 

    An obvious and common interpretation of the readings is that their message is about how to follow Jesus. Elijah’s obedience leads him to encounter God’s presence. Paul’s conscience moves him to consider sacrificing himself for his people. Peter’s enthusiasm sees him jumping headfirst to walk on water to Jesus, even if it means possibly falling flat on his face, crying humbly, “Lord, save me!” 

    I want to suggest that prayer and listening in prayer are what God wants us to focus on today. Not to know or speak about them. Rather, for us to practise them daily.

    As people of faith, don’t we naturally turn to prayer? Prayer for us to be with God. To ask God for the needs we have and for others who we pray for.  To complain to God. To know God’s plans. To discern God’s will and his ways. To thank and praise God. In all of this, we simply want to listen to God first and then to respond as God calls us to, always for others, particularly, for the last, the lost and the least amongst us.

    Through the readings and in the example of Jesus praying, God is calling us as a diocese to prayer. And we must pray because in February this year He gave us the gift of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council or APC.

    Laity, religious and clergy make up the APC. Its role is to help our Archbishop and the Church on the pastoral and evangelizing priorities in Singapore. 

    The immediate work of the APC is to discern a new 10-year pastoral vision and plan for our Church. We cannot know what this vision and plan are unless we pray as one diocese. 

    Prayer is at the heart of the APC’s work of studying and discerning your pastoral concerns, needs and hopes. So many of you shared them in the synodal process last year, particularly during the Archdiocesan Assembly in this church. The APC also wants to consider how our Church can accompany and care for our neighbours, regardless of their race, language and religion.

    However, the APC cannot do all this work alone. It needs you and me, praying individually and together. All of us need to pray like we sang in our psalm: “Let us see, O Lord, your mercy and give us your saving help.” We need Jesus’ mercy to help us see with his eyes and to listen with his heart about how we can become a more Christ-like diocese. 

    This is why as Jesus’ disciples we must pray. Pray like Jesus prayed to the Father, with faith, humility, earnestness and deep trust. Pray to have the mind of Christ, put on the love of Christ and wash one another’s feet like Christ did for his apostles. 

    Then, we can listen to how Jesus wants us to live as the Body of Christ, and so make Him present to all in today’s world. Only then can we live and move and be like Jesus, caring for and saving souls through lives of service. The APC is praying to discern this, and it needs your prayers too.

    This is why on behalf of the APC, I would like to warmly invite you and your families and friends to join us for Intercessory Prayer Evenings at different churches in the coming months. We want to come and pray as one diocese. The second evening of this prayer is this Wednesday, 16 August at 8pm here in your parish of St Joseph. 

    Hearing this some of you may say, “Let’s leave the praying to the holy and pious.” Or, “The Archbishop and priests should pray. If not them, the PPC Exco and ministry members should.” Some may even say that this APC effort is another church initiative, around this season, gone the next. Others may insist, “All this has nothing to do with me.” Behind all these sentiments is this good and honest question, “What’s in this APC for me and my family?”

    My answer is: “Everything!”  Everything if we want to become the Church Jesus revealed to us: where he gathers everyone into one family with God; where he assures each person a place at God’s table; where he proclaims no sinner will be turned away because God’s mercy saves everyone. Don’t we want this for ourselves and our loved ones? Don’t our hearts break open to also pray for this Church for everyone around us who suffers, lives hard lives and despairs in hopelessness?

    I want to suggest that we must pray as families and friends for the APC’s work of discerning a new pastoral vision and plan. This vision and plan are not just for ourselves. It is also for those we love and care about who struggle with the Church’s teachings and who have left the Church. All the more so, we should pray for everyone, including our loved ones, who have been painfully and unjustly sidelined to the margins by some people in the Church who judge and condemn them as sinful and ungodly. 

    Maybe when we dare to pray together for the APC’s discernment and work, particularly, for how much more Jesus wants to transform us to shine brightly as his Church, that radiant light for the world, and in whose light all will have light, we will experience how good and right it is that we pray together as God calls us to this morning. Pray like Paul for his people. Indeed, pray like Jesus did at the Last Supper for his disciples – that all may be one.

    As we do, don’t be surprised to hear Jesus say to us – as he did to the disciples on the boat in the storm – “Courage! It is I! Don’t be afraid!” This is how he assures that we are His and He is always with us.

    How can we then not turn to one another and say: “My sister, my brother, come, let us pray together.”





    Preached at St Joseph’s Church, Bukit Timah
    photo by Carlos Magno on Unsplash

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  6. Year A / Ordinary Time / Week 18 / Sunday - Feast of the Transfiguration
    Readings: Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14  / Psalm: 97:1-2, 5-6, 9 (R/v 1a and 9a) /  2 Peter 1:16-19 / Matthew 17:1-9


    “...a lamp for lighting a way through the dark until the dawn comes…” (2 Peter 1.19b)

    These words end our second reading. For me, this is a hope-filled description of what Peter, James and John received at the Transfiguration – a lamp of deeper faith in Jesus. It guided their life and ministry. I wonder if everyone welcomed this lamp Jesus gives when we encounter him.

    A lamp brightens the dark and we can see. A lamp sheds light and we know the way ahead. A lamp's light can enlighten us that God’s present.

    I’d like to suggest that these are three ways Peter, James and John experienced the Transfiguration. Each offers us the light of Jesus,God’s light himself, to know ourselves as his disciples, to understand his call to follow him and to pray to God like he does.

    A lamp’s light lets us know ourselves.

    Today Jesus invites us to join Peter, James and John and go up the mountain. He singles them out from the other apostles and disciples to climb up with him because they matter to him. We matter too, and so he calls you and me to join him. Regardless of our state of grace, hasn’t Jesus led us to climb up those steps at the Church’s entrance to be here?

    Jesus calls us to follow his lead to the Transfiguration. His direction is upwards. It will be a strenuous climb but there is no other way to see the light of the Transfiguration but to climb.

    Climb like Elijah up Horeb and Moses up Sinai to meet God. Now we are to climb with Jesus to his Transfiguration. There, God will reveal Jesus’ glory as His Son. Jesus wants us to see and know this. 

    We can only ascend if we are prepared to let go and climb upwards with Jesus. Let go by leaving behind the plains of our mediocrity and sinfulness, the foothills of our convenience, all the familiar, safe routines of our everyday comfort. Then, we are free and we can climb. 

    Remarkably, Jesus trusts us to say ‘yes’ to climb with him. He knows we can do this. I wonder if we trust ourselves to make this climb like Jesus does that we can.

    A lamp’s light shows us the way ahead

    After the Transfiguration, Jesus leads Peter, James and John down the mountain. On the ground Jesus heals the sick. His life of service flows out of his life of prayer. 

    Whether we are at the mountaintops of prayer, a retreat, a God-moment or Eucharist, Jesus also calls us to come down with him and go to the people. To serve them, like he does, freely, unreservedly, always with a greater love.

    But wouldn’t we rather stay on the mountaintop and be with Jesus, no longer distracted, no longer burdened, no longer seeking the Lord? Peter wanted to; hence he proposes making those tents. ‘It’s good to be here.’

    Pope Francis calls Peter’s faith “a static, neatly parked faith.” Such faith makes us too comfortable, too sanitized, too cut off from the many God wants us to care for. If our faith is like this, about building tents to stay and feel good on the mountaintop, we have missed the point of encountering the glory of Jesus in the Transfiguration. It is to recognise him as the Christ who suffered, died and rose again to save everyone. He reveals what living sacrificially looks like. His love serves selflessly to the end.

    Jesus wants his disciples to live and love like him. Hence, he brings Peter, James and John down to serve. ‘Come, follow me,’ he also says to us. Down to the people, with their aches and wounds, their anxieties and pains, their joys and hopes. He shows us how not to be afraid to touch them and their wounds, to chase after them and their hopes. He commands us to do likewise. When we do, we will meet no other in the wounds and hopes than Jesus himself. The way to Jesus then is through one another, especially, those crying out to us to come close, be tender and care compassionately. Do we recognise this?

    A lamp’s light enlightens us to encounter God

    On the mountaintop, Jesus prayed and his face changed. His clothes shone brilliantly. Earthly space and time became holy space and sacred time.

    Isn’t this what we learn when we pray: that prayer changes reality, and so, enlightens us to encounter God? Our perspective changes: not that God answers all our prayers but that our prayer draws us into God’s presence. Our reality changes: that with God, we can share in his life, receive his love and flourish as his beloved, even as we struggle with strife and stress, sickness and sin. 

    Most of all, prayer humbles us to entrust our lives to Jesus who leads us to God. This is what Jesus’ transfiguration is about. He reminds us that our own transfiguration to be more like him comes from no other Christian acts than prayer.  

    God’s declaration, “This is my Son…Listen to Him,” is not just to instruct Peter, James and John to follow Jesus’ teachings. It is God exhorting them to pray like Jesus. 

    Here and now we are being asked to do this: to hear, see and experience the Transfiguration as we pray at this Eucharist. And through Communion, be transformed into the Body of Christ. This is God’s promised transfiguration for you and me, today and everyday if we pray for it. Do we, really?  

    To follow Jesus up the mountain. To pray like Jesus on the mountain. To come down the mountain with Jesus and serve. This is how Peter, James and John experienced the Transfiguration.It deepened their faith in Jesus and became the light they carried like a lamp. Jesus is giving us this same lamp today. Let us receive it and light our way forward to live brighter Christian lives. 

    Let us also carry this lamp to celebrate Singapore’s 58th National Day. Carry it so that others can experience the good light of Jesus that dispels darkness, draws us to God and moves us to care for one another, regardless of race, language or religion. As we do, let us thank God for the happiness, prosperity and progress we’re blessed with, living here with God and one another. 

    Shall we?




    Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart

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    Labels: Breaking Open God's Word
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"Bukas Palad"
"Bukas Palad"
is Filipino for open palms
Greetings!
Greetings!
Peace and welcome, dear friend.
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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