Monthly Archives: June 2016

10th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
1 Kings 17:17-24 | Psalm 29:2,4-6,11-13 | Galatians 1:11-19 | Luke 7:11-17

The son of the mistress of the house fell sick; his illness was so severe that in the end he had no breath left in him. […] ‘O Lord my God, may the soul of this child, I beg you, come into him again!’ The Lord heard the prayer of Elijah and the soul of the child returned to him again and he revived. (1 Kings 17:17,21b,22)

I’m currently recovering from a severe bout of flu that’s literally breath-taking. As I’ve previously written, “breath” and “spirit” are intertwined both in the Bible and in real life, so as you can imagine and have probably experienced too, I’m also rather dis-spirited right now. I can temporarily infuse myself with spirit by taking a deep breath, but it quickly gets released in violent coughing.

I hope, dear brothers and sisters, that you are breathing deeply and filling yourself with life-giving spirit, and I will pray for your continued good health in body, mind and soul.

O Lord my God, may my life breath, I beg you, come into me again, so that I may sing your praises with heartfelt joy and thunderous volume. Amen.

The Immaculate Heart of Mary
Isaiah 61:9-11 | 1 Samuel 2:1,4-8 | Luke 2:41-51

The canticle of Isaiah 61:10-11 is well-known to most Singaporean Catholics, being the basis of this old and rather popular hymn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WlC1PnqTTU

But there’s another setting by Knut Nystedt that is more popular with non-church choirs, and is far and away the most common YouTube match for “I Will Greatly Rejoice”:

The words are largely the same, but if we tried to sing the latter at mass, we’d probably just get blank stares and resounding silence. Nystedt is, at least to me, more resounding and uplifting, but also more appropriate for quiet appreciation; mass would therefore generally not be the appropriate time for it.

In the words of one of my favorite Bible passages:

There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

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Today’s Gospel, in contrast, brings a different kind of time to the fore: appointed time. The difference, in my mind, is as follows:

Appropriate time is judged by man.
Appointed time is determined by God.

Therefore, it was the appointed time for the child Jesus to come of age in the eyes of the Temple elders, holding His own in intellectual discourse.

It was also the appointed time for Mary and Joseph to receive a hint of His lasting obedience to His heavenly Father, that would always take precedence over his earthly family ties.

Thereafter, he willingly submitted to their authority like a good son…until the appointed time came for him to begin His ministry of salvation like a Good Son.

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When the appointed time comes for us to answer God’s call into consecrated life, or to surrender this earthly life, how will we respond?

When the appointed time comes for us to let go of a loved one who has been called to this other life, how will we respond?

As Catholics, there’s really only one thing to say:

Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will. (Psalm 40:8a,9a)

Amen.

The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Ezekiel 34:11-16 | Psalm 22:1-6 | Romans 5:5-11 | Luke 15:3-7

It is not easy to die even for a good man – though of course for someone really worthy, a man might be prepared to die – but what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:7-8)

We’re all familiar with the Mother’s Day story often titled “Paid in Full”, in which a little boy counts the cost of his obedience to his mother, gets schooled by her 100% discount of her rendered services to him, then cancels her “debt” to him with a titular flourish.

Well, Jesus took that up a notch by paying for everyone’s salvation with an excruciating death. Not just everyone walking the earth during His lifetime, but also everyone through the whole of time right up to the Day of Judgement. Not just those who’ve already come to trust in Him, but also everyone else who has yet to repent.

It takes a lot of love and trust to vouch for every human being past, present and future, but Christ the Son of God has veritable galaxies of that.

And what does He ask in return? Simply that we return to God our Father through Him, by letting our faith flower in righteous deeds, reaching out to others and sharing with them the wondrous love that “caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse for all our souls.”

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, our peace and reconciliation, spotless victim for our sins and salvation of all who trust in You, have mercy on us. Amen.

Thursday of the 9th Week in Ordinary Time
2 Timothy 2:8-15 | Psalm 24:4-5,8-10,14 | Mark 12:28-34

The scribe said to Jesus, ‘Well spoken, Master; what you have said is true: that God is one and there is no other. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself, this is far more important than any holocaust or sacrifice.’ (Mark 12:32-33)

About a decade ago, I spent Holy Week on business in Taiwan. It was a very busy trip, and we ended up working right through the Easter Triduum and into the first week of Easter. It was the first Holy Week I’d not been in church, and I was extremely uneasy all week, a veritable skin-crawling sensation.

After that incident, I resolved never to travel overseas during Holy Week again and, sure enough, that uneasy feeling never returned.

Except recently, when I reflected upon that troubled time, because it was then that I realised the real reason for my extreme reaction: I could not properly “love my neighbour” at the time.

You see, I was a consultant to a software team that was facing a rather difficult technical manager at a client site. He was critical of our efforts in a rather strident manner, because things were running far too slowly if not simply failing, and my appalling command of Mandarin and nonexistent Hokkien didn’t help me smooth things over with him.

In short, I was stressed to a point just shy of a physical outburst…which would have been applied directly to the manager’s face. I’ve yet to visit holocaust on anyone, but I came really close that time. “Love thy neighbour?” Hah! I wanted to kill him!

It took some needed separation in time and space to realise that he too was probably under great stress. Quite a few of the failures we encountered were actually due to issues with their own infrastructure; they were quietly limping along, with a few minor hiccups that could be papered over, but then our shiny new software came along and flattened their house of cards. He happened to be the reporting manager for both our project and the IT department, so his bosses were almost certainly shoving rather pointed questions up his nethers.

In hindsight, I could’ve taken some time off during that weekend, to clear my head in church and remind myself of Christ’s sacrifice and rejoice in His resurrection, and perhaps receive some divine inspiration on how to proceed with this difficult task. Instead, I chose to slave with the team all week long, trying to work around the issues we were facing…and not making much headway.

I suppose a more accurate description of that period would be: I loved my neighbour as myself…not very much at all. To realise that I could not love myself brought the skin-crawling back all over again.

Lord, You have searched me, and You know me through and through. All my thoughts and my faults lie open to Your gaze. Help me learn to love myself as You love me, that I may in turn love and lift others as You love and lift me, especially those like me who wander in the darkness of fear, uncertainty, doubt and anger. In that way, may we all be granted lightness of heart and clarity of mind, to love and serve You now and forever. Amen.

Wednesday of the 9th Week in Ordinary Time (Year II)
2 Timothy 1:1-3,6-12 | Psalm 122:1-2 | Mark 12:18-27

I am reminding you now to fan into a flame the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you. God’s gift was not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power, and love, and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:6-7)

When I was in my early teens, I saw myself growing into one of two roles: priest…or firefighter. The now-obvious joke, that these vocations did opposing things to fires, eluded me at the time; I wanted to be one or the other because both save lives, though in different ways.

Then I discovered computers in secondary school, and veered off course into a vast digital wasteland. I also discovered that my plans for the future had to be shelved; my lack of fitness and eventual discovery of a blood ailment put paid to my firefighting ambition, and my extreme timidity and lack of self-control in social situations made the idea of becoming a priest quite laughable.

Fast-forward 30-odd years, and I’ve returned to the church, in a manner of speaking (I may write about my journey in spiritual wilderness some day). I’ve gained some confidence and valuable experience, some spiritual power and a heaping basket of love, but self-control is still somewhat lacking.

See, I find myself occasionally committing to liturgical and pastoral activities without much forethought. With God’s grace, I managed to survive some of those deep-dives by myself, but in other cases, I could not get the necessary support from others in time. While most such cases ended happily (God’s labour is nothing if not sweet), I generally found myself bereft in the end of inner calm, adequate sleep and, in a couple of cases, a considerable sum of money.

Which brings me to the matter of this blog…

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When I first committed myself to examining daily scripture and publicly reflecting on it, a tiny part of me thought I was on a fool’s errand at best. Thankfully, the Spirit has kept me going till this day, though I must confess that the readings on some days can be rather tricky to reflect on. Also, the hope that my words might some day stir some hearts aflame with a desire to know God better, and to treat their neighbours with more love and respect, is another impetus.

What I could use more of…is feedback.

I sometimes wonder if I’ve become Don Quixote de la Singapura, tilting at spiritual windmills while everyone around quietly laughs into their sleeves at this fool who exposes his feeble faith and flaws in a misguided attempt at inspiration and evangelisation.

So:

• Is my writing influencing you in some way, for better or worse?
• Is there something you’d like to see changed? Perhaps my writing style (“wah, so cheong hei man!”), or subject matter, or even frequency?
• Have you tuned me out altogether? ?

Silence probably won’t stop my daily posting, but constructive suggestions and observations would be pounced upon with glee. Thanks much in advance, brothers and sisters.

Lord, you have surrounded me with people whom I love, for I see You in their faces each day. Help me to show the depth of my love for them in the privacy of my thoughts, the transmission of my words, and especially the impact of my deeds. Amen.