Monthly Archives: April 2016

Wednesday of the 4th Week of Easter
Acts 12:24-13:5 | Psalm 66:2-3, 5-6, 8 | John 12:44-50

[…] the Holy Spirit said, “I want Barnabas and Saul set apart for the work to which I have called them.” (Acts 13:2)

Imagine being told by your boss to travel to a country you’d barely heard of, to convince the locals in each state to set up and run branch offices in the name of your obscure social-enterprise startup. Oh, and you could only take one other person with you. No financial or logistics support would be forthcoming from HQ. Here’s your one-way ticket, and you have just enough time to catch the flight out, if you leave Right Now.

Did your heart just sink to the level of your feet? Did you immediately start to think of ways to get back into your boss’ good graces, while simultaneously destroying the accursed co-workers who just tried to sabotage your career?

Or did you just go “cool, new opportunities and cuisines to try”?

I’d like to think Saul (as he’s still referred to at this stage) and Barnabas were absolutely champing at the bit, ready and eager to go abroad and spread the Good News in places of which they had little prior knowledge. I know that I’d be running rather quickly in the opposite direction.

Still, I’d been taught since young that I am a member of a “people set apart”, not in the Übermensch “master race” sense, but in the “focus on the holiness of God’s Way, not the earthy sensibilities of humanity’s way” sense. Or in the words of St. Paul:

Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

So if I were awakened in the middle of the night by a quiet voice urging me to go forth and evangelise…I’d be terrified, but I’d start making plans. Hopefully, my dogged writings about daily readings will help me slip quickly into the right frame of mind.

Lord Jesus, we know that we have been set apart, not for our personal glorification, but that we might in turn share Your message of hope and salvation to all. For You are the Way to the Father, the source of all Truth, and the promise of everlasting Life. Amen.

Tuesday of the 4th Week of Easter
Acts 11:19-26 | Psalm 86:1-7 | John 10:22-30

The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice;
I know them and they follow me. (John 10:27)

To be called a “sheep” is, in most modern contexts, to be gravely insulted. After all, sheep are widely believe to be foolish creatures, bereft of individual thought and easily preyed upon by others of evil intent. See how their gather together in such large numbers, so we don’t have to run them down one by one!

And yet, even such detractors almost certainly have their own “idols” and “wolf packs”, and while sheep generally form close-knit communities, woe betide the self-confident alpha “I need no one, least of all a deity” intellectual who fall prey to misfortune, or otherwise can no longer meet the unwritten standards of the pack. Suddenly the predator turns prey, or at best is ejected from the pack with much ridicule and contempt. If you can’t keep up, you’re the one who gets run down. Sleep well, sonny.

Being part of a united flock doesn’t look so foolish now, does it?

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, always had a consistent message: “Love one another as I have loved you.” That’s the beauty of being a part of Christ’s flock: each member stands ready to help others in need, with no strings attached, because Christ Himself showed the way. When you walk with Christ and fellow Christians, You’ll Never Walk Alone:

Lord, remind us every day that You are our Shepherd, and in union with you and our fellow believers, we can meet the predations of the secular world with sacred Love, and come to You as a united flock to sing the praises of Our Father in heaven. Amen.

Monday of the 4th Week of Easter
Acts 11:1-18 | Psalm 41:2-3; 42:3-4 | John 10:1-10

Yesterday, I repeated the early journey to church that I made on Easter Sunday, this time to help the Daughters of St. Paul with their book sales and fundraising drive. It might even have been the same driver as before, given the similarly rapid drive I experienced, but what struck me this time was his unfailing politeness, greeting every boarding passenger with a hearty “Good morning!”…even the migrant workers boarding outside a small industrial estate along the way.

It’s hard not to draw parallels with today’s reading, wherein Peter recounts his encounter with Cornelius, the first Gentile convert, and the vision that led up to it. (Do read the whole of Acts 10, otherwise you’d only know less than half the story.) As my bus driver cared not about citizenship, or skin color, or other personal characteristics, so too did Peter come to understand that God cared not about prior religious affiliation, or nationality, or the state of one’s genitals. As I speculated yesterday, and subsequently confirmed by Peter:

God has no favourites, but that anybody of any nationality who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. (Acts 10:34-35)

Because of his Christ-like attitude toward others, I made it a point to alight from the front door and wish that he would “have a nice day.” The smile on his face: priceless.

Lord, you have never played favorites among Your peoples. Remind us always to do the same, that we may unite all who love You with those who do not know You, so as to bring Your Kingdom to fruition here on earth. Amen.

4th Sunday of Easter (Year C)
Acts 13:14, 43-52 | Psalm 99:1-3, 5 | Apocalypse 7:9, 14-17 | John 10:27-30

John’s visions of the End Times are some of my favorite readings for their revelations (pun intended), but I only recently realised that I’d been misinterpreting one passage for a very long time:

“These are the people who have been through the great persecution; they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb.” (Apocalypse 7:14)

For some reason, I’ve long conflated the two clauses into a mistaken belief that their martyrdom earned them the right to bleach the robes with Christ’s blood. This is of course incorrect: Christ redeemed all humanity with His blood, martyr or not.

I think the message here is rather: “these are the people who kept faith with Christ unto death, and because of their faith, they chose to wash their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb, and to stand in front of the throne and the Lamb.” In other words, your faith in Christ may cause you some amount of suffering in this life, but “keep faithful, and I will give you the crown of life.” Jesus Himself said as much:

Blessed are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this is how they persecuted the prophets before you. (Matthew 5:11-12)

Some crosses are heavier than others, but a life of suffering and poverty doesn’t automatically give a person any greater standing than a life of comfort and plenty. In the end, I think it’s how deeply we believe, and how that affects what we do to and for our fellow beings, that gains merit in God’s eyes.

Lord, help us to keep Your faith by seeing You in every one we meet, and to love them as we love You, especially if they love us not. Amen.

Saturday of the 3rd Week of Easter
Acts 9:31-42; Psalm 115:12-17; 6:60-69

Yesterday’s gospel, taken literally, would have Christ’s early disciples engage in cannibalism to attain eternal life. This absurdity triggered the discontent and departure of many followers in today’s gospel; indeed, many modern Catholics still have trouble processing the concept of transubstantiation, eventually falling back on:

• “well, if Father X says this host is the Body of Christ, then it must be so,” or
• “I’ll just go along with it for the sake of appearances,” or
• “aiyah, it’s just a wafer; come, I break a piece for you to try” (!!!)

An old priest once mentioned something similar with regards to our recitation of the Nicene Creed: When we say “I believe in God, etc.” do we even comprehend what we just said? Is that why we tend to rush through the Creed, because we really don’t understand what it all means…and don’t want to face that fact?

Al Gore popularised the phrase “inconvenient truth” in the context of global warming, but I think it applies just as well to the generally shallow depth of our belief in God, in Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit, in the 12 articles of faith that we recite every Sunday, often relying on projected or printed text to jog our memory. It’s a fragile faith that can, nay, should be reinforced by copious contemplation and conscious effort to close the gap between our words and our understanding. This should in turn be reflected in the way we live our lives, especially in our interactions with others.

Lord, our faith is weak. Remind us every day that you are our God. Help us to see You in and around us, and teach us to live our lives in faith, hope and love. Amen.