1.  

    Year B / Ordinary Time / Week 30/ Sunday 
    Readings: Jeremiah 31.7-9 / Psalm 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6 (R/v  3) / Hebrew 5.1-6 / Mark 10.46-52


    “Master, let me see again.”

    This is Bartimaeus’ prayer to Jesus. It should be our prayer too at this Mass. Not because we are blind. Rather, for us to see anew how we ought to live our Christian discipleship better.

    Today’s gospel reading from Mark offers us this possibility. We might struggle to see this because we’re too familiar with it. Here is Jesus healing the blind Bartimaeus. For many, this is another of Jesus’ wondrous miracles about God’s goodness in our lives. It’s a theme in the Sunday readings that our psalm declares: “What marvels the Lord has worked for us. Indeed we were glad.”

    More often than not, seeing is what most of us are  afraid of losing. If you could not hear, then you would not have to listen to your spouse nagging or questioning you. And if you could not speak, you would not get called upon in class or by the boss. But if you and I could not see, what would Christmas be like or not gazing lovingly on our loved ones be but our sadness? To all of us, the benefits of seeing are, just plain and simple, overwhelming.

    And so it was with Bartimaeus. Blind, possibly from birth, he had but one fervent desire, “Master let me see again.” Because of Bartimaeus’ unwavering faith, Jesus answered his prayer with these words we know so very well, "Go; your faith has saved you." In that instant the eyes of Bartimaeus were opened, and all the wonderful sights of the world around him were made real. 

    If Bartimaeus is with us now, I imagine him bursting into song singing these lyrics from Louis Armstrong’s “It’s a Wonderful World”: “I see trees of green, red roses too / I see them bloom for me and you / And I think to myself / What a wonderful world.”

    So how good is our vision? Are we using God’s gift of sight to its potential? Sure, we all see the image-filled screens on our iPhones, movies on Netflix or the words in our social media posts, but are we missing something?

    If you are like me, the something we are missing from time to time, amidst the hundred and one things we juggle, is Jesus. Jesus is present in all we encounter, from the moment we open our eyes in the morning, to closing them at night. He is a “24-7-365” constant in our lives. Yet we so often overlook His presence, justifying that we do on Sundays. Yes, finding God in all things we must. This is the Christian task.

    So let us find God in today’s gospel reading and hear his instruction for us to follow Jesus.

    Let us imagine the crowd between Bartimaeus and Jesus. They are speaking loudly, excitedly about Jesus. However, they cannot see Jesus for who he really is like Bartimaeus does; they are blind to his real identity.
     
    Even more, the crowd is deaf to Bartimaeus’ plea: “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.”  The crowds rebuke him: “sssh,” they utter to silence him, even when he cries out again. But Jesus hears and says, “Call him to me.” Then we hear the crowd echo Jesus and we see Bartimaeus throw aside his cloak, jump up and come to Jesus. Jesus cures Bartimaeus; his sight restored, Bartimaeus follows Jesus.

    Is this all we see? If so, I think we are blind to a small, discreet, even forgettable detail in this scene. It is this: that there is someone or a group of people going to Bartimaeus, lifting him up, and assisting him to Jesus. Otherwise, how can a blind man make his way through the crowd to Jesus? For surely the blind will grope around, bump into others and get lost.

    Mark does not name these helpers nor describe the kind of help they offered. Yet their actions are significant. They changed Bartimaeus’ life by bridging the gap between him and Jesus. Their example is hidden in the gospel passage. Now, we see clearly how their example offers a lesson for Christian  discipleship.

    These helpers knew what to do because they had encountered Jesus and knew his heart.  When Jesus said, “Call him to me,” they acted for Bartimaeus’  good. They knew this was the right thing to do as Jesus’ disciples: to bring another to Jesus who reveals God's mercy, love, and life. 

    They could do this because they saw and heard Jesus in the way he lived and prayed, taught and healed. And this made all the difference in their lives. As Jesus’ disciples, they allowed their heartbeat to beat in tandem with Jesus’ heartbeat. No longer bystanders, they truly followed Jesus.

    Jesus walked the talk that God is love. All his life was about bringing about a saving relationship that restored and gave life to those who were far from God but who sought God with all their heart. He called his disciples to do the same.

    In truth, we are those disciples. Jesus is again calling no other but you and me. Are we those unnamed helpers who helped Bartimaeus? Do we walk the talk like Jesus did, and bridge the different gaps our families, friends, and, more so, the many who are sidelined face? Or, are we merely onlookers, lost in the crowd?

    As we go about our affairs this weekend, let us all try and focus a little more closely on what we are really seeing and who is in our field of view. Maybe if we look a little closer at the entire picture, or try and peer around the corner, we will see Jesus standing there showing us his guiding hand, his unfailing willingness to be with us. Even more, He will be pulling us along with Him to care and serve others.

    When we allow Jesus to do this, He will improve our focus, Jesus will no longer be at the edges or hidden in the shadows, but front and center in our field of view, and we will truly see “Christ in all things.”
    Hopefully, now, with our new and improved 20-20 vision, we will also see how to love one another like Jesus loves each of us. That is the type of sight that is truly worth praying for.  So, let us pray, “Master, let me see again.” And if we dare do this, don’t be surprised that Jesus will say, “Go; your faith has saved you.” Indeed, pray for this we must. Shall we?



    Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart
    Photo by Samer Daboul at pexels.com

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  2.  
    Year B / Ordinary Time / Week 29 / Sunday (World Mission Sunday)
    Readings: Isaiah 2.1-5 / Psalm 66 (R/v  5) / Ephesians 3.2-12  / Mark 16.15-20


    "Go out to the whole world… proclaim the Good News to all creation" (Mark 16.15)

    This is Jesus' commission to the apostles. We hear it in the gospel reading. Today, Jesus commands us to do the same. Do you and I hear it? Will we do it?

    Pope Francis’ theme for World Mission Sunday 2024 is this line in the gospel parable of the wedding banquet, "Go and invite everyone to the banquet" (Matthew 22:1-14) The King issues this command after his guests reject his invitation. This is in fact the inclusive and urgent call Jesus makes to all His disciples to bring God’s saving love to everyone. 

    Jesus’ call coincides with the Synod meeting in Rome now.  Its focus is on our Church’s primary mission of preaching the Gospel in today’s world. 

    Jesus shows us the way to be ‘missionary’ and on mission. In his life and ministry, he goes to all peoples for them to  encounter God. Even more, his death and resurrection reveal the fullness of God’s love, mercy, forgiveness and redemption to everyone. 

    The risen Jesus taught this lesson to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. For Pope Francis, "their encounter with Christ in the Word and in the breaking of bread sparked in them the enthusiastic desire to set out again towards Jerusalem and proclaim that the Lord had truly risen. Their hearts burned within them, their eyes were opened, and their feet set out on the way."*

    We are those disciples on our life journeys. Jesus comes to us as God’s Word in the Scriptures. Jesus comes to us in the Eucharist at Communion. Jesus comes to us in the best of times and the hardest of days.  Do our hearts burn? Are our eyes opened? Have our feet set us on the way to proclaim Good News?

    I hope our answer is ‘yes’ to each question. Only then can we live as missionary Christians. How so? Hear Pope Francis’ explanation: "the primary and principal resource of mission are those persons who have come to know the Risen Christ in the Scriptures and in the Eucharist, who carry his fire in their heart and his light in their gaze. They can bear witness to the life that never dies, even in the most difficult of situations and in the darkest of moments."*

    Encountering the Risen Christ, and finding our hearts on fire for Him, even more, for others to know Him. This is God’s missionary mandate to each Christian and to the whole Church.
    Many feel they are unworthy to be missionaries. Instead, they applaud lay and religious missionaries doing God’s work in foreign lands. Yet, every encounter you and I have with Jesus kindles in us enough love, generosity and enthusiasm to share the Gospel with all.  Aren’t we then ready to join Jesus on mission?
    To do this, we must learn again what it means to be missionary and do mission Many often say, "Come and hear the Gospel taught in our church" or "Come and hear how the priest preaches about Jesus" or even, "Come and hear our choir sing the Good News."  
    This ‘come and hear’ way is a reversal of Jesus’ Great Commission to go to the whole world, proclaim the Good News and baptize all peoples. Today we are reminded that Jesus commands Christians to "go and tell" everyone, not call some to "come and hear."
     
    Jesus exhibits this style in how He announces God’s saving love. He goes to everyone, to all. For Pope Francis, "'All, excluding no one' is the heart of mission…Every mission of ours, then, is born from the heart of Jesus" who desires for everyone to be united, not divided, to enjoy harmony amid diversity, and to be blessed with charity and mercy unreservedly.**
    When you and I understand this, even more, when we practise heartfelt concern for all persons, whatever their social or moral status is, however good or bad they are, or be they “the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame” (Luke 14:21), then we will live and love, pray and serve as Jesus did. 

    We will do this best when we open our hearts and minds to Jesus and no other. Paul’s message to the Ephesians challenges us to do this. They are foreigners yet Christian like us. With them, we are the body of Christ. Together, we share in the same promise of Jesus. Paul’s message expresses the radical nature of Christian faith: in Jesus, we are all one, made in God’s likeness, gathered in God’s one family, however motley we are individually. Who might be today’s Ephesians in our midst?

    "That they may all be one" (John 17.21a).  This is the hope of Jesus’ mission: to care and save all to be one with God and each others. Yet, don’t we exclude many and often? Her skin colour is too dark. Those people aren’t like us. His child is noisy in Church. They don’t pray like us. We don’t want that kind near us, with us –  the ex-prisoner, the adulterer, the druggie, the transgendered.

    Today, Jesus stops us right there. "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to all creation," He commands. Go to all, tell all – not just to people who look, act, talk like us.  This was Jesus’ mission on earth. This must be our mission now. And it requires the commitment of every Christian, you and me no less.  

    I’d imagine this is what Jesus in heaven still has in mind. A story is told that Archangel Gabriel approached Jesus after his Ascension and said, "I know that only a very few in Palestine are aware of the great work of human salvation You have accomplished through Your life, death and Resurrection. But the whole world needs to know and appreciate what You have done and become Your disciples, acknowledging You as their Lord and Saviour. What is Your plan of action?"  Jesus answered, "I have told all My Apostles to tell other people about Me and preach My Message through their lives. That’s all." "Suppose they don’t do that?" Gabriel asked. "What’s your Plan B?" Jesus replied, “I have no other plan; I am counting on them."***

    Can Jesus count on you? On me? Can He count on us for the mission?



    * Pope Francis, Message for World Mission Sunday 2023
    ** Pope Francis, Address to the General Assembly of the Pontifical Missionary Societies, 3 June 2023
    *** S.D. Gordon, Quiet Talks

    Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart
    Artwork: Detail from 'St. Peter Preaching' by Masolino da Panicale (c. 1383 – c. 1447) in Brancacci Chapel [commons.wikimedia.org]

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  3. Year B / Ordinary Time / Week 28 / Sunday
    Readings: Wisdom 7.7-11 / Psalm 89.12-13, 14-15, 16-17 (R/v 14) / Hebrews 4. 12-13 / Mark 10.17-30


    “I prayed…and the spirit of Wisdom came to me” (Wisdom 7.7)

    Wisdom, our First Reading teaches, is to be prized even more than having riches and possessions. In the gospel, Jesus teaches that following Him is greater than possessions. This is Jesus’ wisdom for Christian life. What truly matters is being in relationship with Jesus. Today Jesus doesn’t just tell us; he insists he wants this relationship with you and me. 

    Where do we learn such wisdom from? From our encounters with the Word of God. Again and again in Scripture we hear how much God wants to be with us. He pitched his tent amongst us (John 1.14). He says, “Abide with me.” This is wisdom to live and pray, study and work, even to play. Praying with Scripture should be part of our daily way of life. Is it?

    At the heart of prayer is relationship. That of us and the Word of God interacting with one another. The second reading reminds us that the Word of God is alive and active. Whenever we read and pray the Word, we are in fact having a conversation with God. Through these conversations, God consistently invites us to bear fruit in our lives and in those He entrusts into our care. 

    Jesus is the Word of God. We encounter Jesus not just when we pray or study the scriptures or hear it proclaimed. We encounter Jesus daily in our lives. 

    What does Jesus bless us with when we encounter Him? God’s goodness. In His teachings about how to live in God’s ways. In His healing about how God’s mercy forgives and restores. In His miracles about how God’s power cares and saves.  In His presence about how God keeps faith with us. Most of all, when we receive Jesus’s love that reveals the big-heartedness of God for us, his beloved. All these make up the wisdom we need for everyday life, more so, in difficult, dark times. This wisdom gives us “faith that assures us what we hope for will come about and the certainty that what we cannot see exists” (Hebrews 11.1).

    The rich young man could not see the wisdom Jesus was offering him as they conversed about how “to inherit eternal life.” He missed it in the look of love Jesus had for him. This look that was really Jesus’ delight that he kept the commandments. 

    This man missed it altogether because he was fixated on looking out for the right answer to do the right thing to inherit eternal life. When Jesus challenged him to give up everything and follow him “to enter the kingdom of God,” he could not. Singularly focussed on the possessions he was called to give up, he was blinded to Jesus’ look of love inviting him to discipleship.

    This is where we fit into the gospel story.  Here we are, whatever our state of grace, and Jesus calls us to follow him, to serve at his side in the world, to be disciples  Simply put, Jesus calls us into relationship so that we can  enjoy God’s good gift of life to the full. If we really want this, we must be wise and assess what we need to “sell” in order to more faithfully be with Jesus.  What is it then that might hinder us from responding to Jesus’ call?  What might we do about it? 

    So, like the rich young man, let’s come to Jesus as good persons looking to add spiritual depth by using our God-given talents, growing in faith, and living life to the full with God and one another. Like him, we can’t perfect ourselves; only God can. And God does in and through our relationship with Jesus. 

    The story of the rich young man might be called “following Jesus: the ups and downs of being a disciple”; or “Here is the beginning of a long journey down the road with Jesus”; or “following Jesus: a call to love as he loved.”  To be a disciple means everyday faithfulness, not success as perfection nor even the pursuit of perfection to save ourselves. We’re simply called to trust God who alone saves.

    To be Jesus’ disciple we need to make that fundamental choice, that radical ‘yes,’ to let Jesus alone – never things or persons – possess us. This includes giving up the greatest of possessions we all have: our every self. This is that something more Jesus is asking of us. Can we do this? Do we want to?

    I suggest we bring our response to Jesus in prayer as Mass continues. Converse with him about his invitation we give away all our possessions and follow him alone. Share our thoughts and feelings with him who we cannot hide from and before whom everything is uncovered.  As we do, pay attention to Jesus looking at us with love. Then, hear him say, “Come, be me.” 

    We might struggle, finding excuses to follow. “I can’t give up what I have.” “I can’t do what you are asking of me.” “I am too scared to say ‘yes.’” “I am unworthy.” “Not me, Lord.” These echo the response of the rich young man – to walk away from Jesus.

    This is why we must pay attention to Jesus’ look of love. It’s the gaze of God looking at us, loving us, living with us. “We need that gaze to fill our hearts, a gaze that tells us who we are, and how much we are loved. It is a gaze that is unchanging, eternal and unconditional.”* Truly, it is Jesus' gaze that will draw us to Him. So, let’s look out for that gaze of Jesus in our everyday life, in all situations and places, in every person. And here at Mass too.

    Once we catch Jesus’ gaze on us everything falls in place. Then, this truth makes sense: we belong to God, as God belongs to us. This is wisdom for life. This is wisdom to be happy. This alone matters.  

    I wonder if we understand the gift of this wisdom, this Good News. Do we really?



    *James McTavish, FMVD, 'Sharper than A Sword'

    Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart
    Photo at www.reddit.com

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  4.  
    Devotion to the Sacred Heart 
    Reflection based on Luke 23: 35-43


    “I promise you today you will be with me in paradise.”

    These are Jesus’ words to the repentant thief in the gospel. Don’t we want to hear these words too at this time of year, with just three months to go?  Don’t we want the assurance that Jesus hears us and will answer our prayers? This thief asked; Jesus responded. And he felt seen and heard.

    Whenever we cross the midpoint or more of something we’re working at, like the work year, a sports game, or a pilgrimage, like the Camino, we need encouragement, more than consolation, to finish it. What we want to really hear is this: “You can do it,” “The end is in sight,” “We’ve got your back,” “Jiayou!”

    Jesus offers us more than words. He offers us much better: the fulfilment of His promise. This is why what Jesus’ words to the thief must matter; they assure and encourage us as we enter this last quarter of 2024. We need this because we’re probably not sprinting like when we started the year, nor cruising along at midpoint. More honestly, rightly now, we’re probably huffing and puffing, tired, jaded, straggling, maybe shuffling our feet, to the finish line. And if we are, we’re might be disappointed, hurt and burdened in some way.  

    At this time, some will ask, “How are you?” Our answer might be “I am OK,” “I’m fine,” “No worries.” We answer like this because we’re probably ashamed to be honest about how we’re really feeling right now. Besides fatigued, we might be anxious about how the year’s KPIs, exams and results will turn out, fearful if friendships will last, and burdened by how family life is. As people of faith, we might be disappointed that we’re praying, living, and serving, or not serving, in the same old ways; no improvement this year. I wonder if the unspoken worry is “Will I make it to the end?”

    Tonight we hear Jesus’s promise. They are the words of a dying man. In fact, they are of a God who chose to die for us. This is our Christian belief: there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for his friends. Jesus did for you and me.

    Tonight we also see Jesus thinking of another in need. Even in his final hours, in his immense pain and suffering, with all his dignity stripped away and ridiculed as a criminal, he cares.

    Jesus’ words and action should surprise yet assure us. Jesus is thinking of us. He answers us when we ask. He turns to us in our need. He does not give up on us. Isn’t this why we are here again? More so, at this time of the year? We are because Jesus is our hope.

    Isn’t He then the reason we are offering up our petitions to?  They express our hope that Jesus is with us on this year’s journey. Yes, He began the year with us. He’s walked through most of it with us. Now in the last stages, He’s not giving up on us.   

    Each of our petitions, many for others, are our simple, humble acts of entrusting ourselves, and those we are praying for, into the bighearted mercy of Jesus’s Sacred Heart. 

    Jesus’s promise to the thief is the guarantee we want. It is also the push we need to get us going again and through the failures, pains and regrets of the past months.     More important is how Jesus is God’s light. He lights the way onward. He will lead us home to God. 

    We do not need just hope for the coming months. We need certainty. Tonight, we can be sure that when Jesus says, “I promise you today you will be with me,” He will fulfil it. Yes, we will make it to the end — safely because Jesus is with us.




    Shared at the Church of the Sacred Heart
    Photo: www.caminosantiagocompostela.com

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  5.  
    Year B / Ordinary Time / Week 27 / Sunday

    Readings: Genesis 2.18-24 / Psalm 217.1-2, 3, 4-5, 6 (R/v c.f 5) / Hebrews 2.9-11 / Mark 10.2-16



    “As long as we love one another God will live in us and his love will be complete in us." (1 John 4.12).


    We know these words. They are from the First Letter of St John. He is exhorting the early Christians to recognise God’s gift of relationship, and through it, union with God. Today he is exhorting us too.


    The story of Adam and Eve echoes the truth about relationship. As a creature, Adam experiences his incompleteness. He is somehow separate from the rest of creation and from God Himself. So, God gives Eve to Adam to make him almost complete. The “two” are to become “one” not merely sexually, but more intimately, “one” in assisting God’s continuing creation in an orderly manner.


    “From the beginning of creation” then God intended for humankind to be in life-giving relationships with each other, all of creation and God himself.


    The relationship Adam and Eve share expresses how mutual belonging fulfils individual longing. How mutual dependence satisfies individual want. How mutual happiness uplifts individual anxiety. And yes, how mutual love completes our individual need to love and be loved. Relationships are therefore good. They are in fact very good, God declares.


    In the gospels, Jesus challenges us about how we’re relating with one another. Today, He highlights two contrasting ways we may be practising when we interact with each other.


    The first has to do with hardened hearts. That is, our hearts when we choose to close them to others. This way focuses on the self, never on the other. It is all about “I, me and myself.” Love of self, not love for another, is the focus of such a relationship. This often leads to sin, like divorce. 


    For Jesus, this “hardness of hearts” led to the Mosaic Law permitting divorce.  Moses allowed it because the Israelites were unteachable: their hard hearts made them deaf to God’s plan about marriage. Getting married and staying married are sacred to God because it is fundamentally God’s gift of relationship. It is rooted in mutual commitment and dependence for a couple’s shared wellbeing and happiness. This is why Jesus teaches that “whoever divorces his wife commits adultery.” Yes, hardened hearts, Jesus insists, destroy marriages, even more, the promise of what “could be better” in marriage.


    Aren’t hardened hearts then the cause of all the other failed relationships in our lives and those we know – be they family ties, friendships, working partnerships, amongst members in a community, even between church collaborators? Don’t our own hardened hearts make us stubborn to God and others?


    The second has to do with opened hearts. That is, our hearts when we choose to open them in order to receive and include, engage and care for others. For Jesus, “openness of heart” is the right disposition for life-giving relationships. By letting the children come to him, Jesus models the way to open our own hearts. Then, we can welcome, celebrate and bless others as God’s gifts in our lives, like Adam did when God created Eve for him.


    As Christians we must interact with opened hearts in every relationship, including marriage. It must especially be when we relate with those with hardened hearts. It is never easy to do this because we need to enter into their messy and dark, stubborn and sinful lives to bring God’s mercy to them. Having opened hearts in order to interact with others is indeed the only way to love one another as Christians, even those who have sinned, who live in sin, or who are divorced.


    The second reading reminds us this is the kind of love Jesus has. It is love that is merciful. It is love without reservation for sinners. It is love that calls others “brothers” and “sisters.” It is indeed the kind of love that lays itself down for others to live fully, even happily.


    Today Jesus teaches us God’s truth about relationships. In marriage, the relationship is for life, not for divorce. When interacting with one another, the relationship must be about understanding and forgiving, accompanying and restoring each other, including the divorced. Truly, when all interact with opened hearts, their relationships thrive; they are fruitful and happy.


    Jesus’ openness enables him to readily embrace the little children and bless them for how trusting they are. I wonder if our hearts are equally open to Jesus’ teachings? Do we see them as an interruption or a blessing? 


    Marital fidelity, the sacredness of family unity, commitment to chastity are all included in Jesus’ teaching and mission. These teachings impinge on our basic human freedom to do whatever seems good, feels good, and sounds good. As sacred as our human desire to love and be loved is, as sacred as sexual expression of love is, as sacred as our desire for commitment is, all three can so easily result in disorder and desecration if our hearts are closed to God and others.


    On the other hand, when we love with opened hearts, the kingdom of God comes alive in our midst. Then, God’s love enlarges the already opened hearts even more to love expansively. To love concretely in deeds, not words. This is how love should be: to will the good of another and enact it wholeheartedly for her wellbeing and happiness. This is also how the hard-hearted will learn to love again. Even more, how they can allow the light of God’s love to shine through their darkened lives. And if everyone of us can all do this, we will better see in our earthly love the reflection of God’s divine love.* 


    Sisters and brothers, hardened hearts or opened hearts. The choice is obvious if we truly want to live and love as Christians. But we struggle to do this well. We need Jesus to show us the way. So, let us pray: “Lord Jesus, teach us to love one another as you have loved us, so that God’s love will be complete in us.”  Shall we?





    *St John Paul II, Homily at the Holy Mass, National Stadium, Singapore, 20 September 1986     Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart
    Photo: www.ourdailybread.org

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  6.  

    Year B / Ordinary Time / Week 26 / Friday (Feast of St Francis of Assisi)

    Readings: Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5  / Psalm 139:1-3, 7-8, 9-10, 13-14ab (R/v 24b) / Luke 10:13-16


    “Harden not your hearts today, but listen to the voice of the Lord.”

    This is our gospel acclamation. It is from Psalm 94. Many are familiar with its message. For those who pray the Office of the Church daily, it is literally our wake up call. Yes, don’t close ourselves to the Lord for he really wants to get involved in our lives. And when we let Him, we’ll experience Jesus’ promise that life to the full is truly possible.

    We experience this promise most of all in the relationships we share. We are in fact created for relationships, not to live alone and apart from one another and God. To be made in the image of God’s likeness is to be for relationship. This is because God is Father, Son and Spirit and they each relate to one another in mutual love that gives and takes and mutual care that cares and builds.

    This is why God sends people into our lives; for us to be in relationship. Even more, to be his messengers to us. The Psalmist asks, “O where can I go from your spirit, or where can I flee from your face?” Look around us here in church. Look too at home and at work, in school and the parish, in Singapore and the world. Do you see the messengers God sends our way? Do we recognise them? Do we hear their messages of God’s love and care, his mercy and forgiveness, his life and restoration for you and me? All of this God’s News to us. Maybe if we calm the clutter of our minds, we will see and hear them more clearly.

    In the Gospel reading, we hear Jesus say, “Anyone who listens to you listens to me; anyone who rejects you rejects me, and those who reject me reject the one who sent me.” This is one of Jesus’ more direct, even harsher sayings. It expresses his disappointment with those who do not listen to the ones Jesus sends to us in his name. Hear his lament. Hear too the possible retribution for those who don’t receive his messengers, especially, the privileged whose hearts are “hardened” to his Word. Yes, listen, for aren’t you and I the privileged? Aren’t we hard-hearted sometimes? 

    Who then might we have not recognised as Jesus’ messengers sent for our salvation? 

    We might know who they are and what they said by looking back on our lives and recalling who came to encourage and comfort us, forgive and rescue us, even help us heal and build us up. Then, we’ll be better able to discern who is around us with the authentic Word of God and to look for who is setting boundaries between good and evil. We should do this because today Jesus is admonishing us to listen to his messengers.

    St Francis of Assisi was such a messenger. He shows us how to find God’s voice. Besides prayer and service, he looked to those around him, calling them “Fratelli Tutti,” all brothers, all friends, even the sun and moon, the birds and the beasts. Through them, God’s message was: “Francis, go and rebuild my church which, as you see, is falling down.” Not the institutional Church but the people of God. And he did through relationships of fraternal care, especially, for the  poor, and fraternal dialogue, that reached out to even the Muslims. He inspired many. They joined him to live, pray and serve like Jesus poor.

    In our time, God has sent another Francis. Pope Francis. He echoes St Francis’ message, updating them for today. That we must live as brothers and sisters of Jesus, caring especially for all the poor, the discriminated against and on the margins of society, more so, of the church. That we have to reach out and dialogue with peoples of other faiths to build God’s kingdom together. That God’s mercy cannot be church talk; rather, that everyone in church must walk the talk for someone else in need or in sin to experience God’s mercy. All this is not Pope Francis' message nor St Francis. They are in fact Jesus’ message that everyone is God's beloved, worthy for salvation. 

    It is important we hear this Good News. It offers hope. Even more, it calls us to conversion.Pope Francis reminded us of this when at the Papal Mass he said, “ultimately, life always brings us back to one reality: without love we are nothing.”  Do we hear God's voice speaking through Pope Francis? Do we want to live it? Or, will we continue living with hardened hearts and a lukewarm faith, hopefully not a dead one?



    Preached at the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
    Photo by Nathyn Masters on Unsplash


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Fall in Love, Stay in Love
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"Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute way final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything."

Pedro Arrupe, sj, Superior General, 1965 - 1983

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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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