Monthly Archives: September 2016

Saturday of Week 23 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
1 Corinthians 10:14-22 | Psalm 115:12-13,17-18 | Luke 6:43-49

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In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us that our faith must be built on a firm foundation, in order to withstand the tempests of evil. I’m reminded of an old hymn we hardly sing any more:

Christ is made the sure foundation,
Christ, our head and cornerstone,
chosen of the Lord and precious,
binding all the Church in one;
holy Zion’s help forever,
and our confidence alone.

But if Christ is to be an integral part of our foundation, who helps us lay the whole thing?

In the building world, you’d want a skilled construction crew, able to pour the concrete properly and smooth it out, without air pockets and other defects that could cause the building above it to crumble unexpectedly.

In personal terms, we’re looking at the company we keep: our friends, colleagues, bosses, priests, lay ministers and everyone else who plays a part in our lives. Each person can either teach us by example to be better Christians, or seduce us to the Dark Side. The quality of our faith is derived from the sum of all these influences, and we should be wary of any “Swiss cheese” areas, situations in which we are beset by Satan’s wiles…and have been weakened by his human minions.

So, it behooves us to choose our “foundation crew” wisely, and not be afraid to part ways with those who would drag us downward into debauchery, mean-spiritedness or just plain isolation from our Creator.

Lord, open our eyes to see the qualities of love and mercy in the people who are a part of our lives, and to deflect those who would lead us away from You. Amen.

Friday of Week 23 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
1 Corinthians 9:16-19,22-27 | Psalm 83:3-6,12 | Luke 6:39-42

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[I reflected on a related Gospel passage (Matthew 7:1-5) here, so I won’t tread that ground again.]

It’s past midnight as I type this, after a long grueling online discussion with my business partner. It’s oh so tempting to leave this entry to the morning, at which point I might get sidetracked with one thing or another, so that this entry never comes into being.

Then I read today’s first reading, and I see St. Paul write this:

All the runners at the stadium are trying to win, but only one of them gets the prize. You must run in the same way, meaning to win. (1 Corinthians 9:24)

And suddenly I get a burst of energy, and a familiar theme runs through my head:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSav51fVlKU

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

We’re often tempted to take shortcuts in our Christian lives, to renege on one faith commitment or another, to cut short a labour of love after stumbling halfway.

Missed praying Day 3 of a novena? No point continuing, since “the chain is broken”, right?

When we’re just a handful of voices left working on a musical production of parish thanksgiving, it’s hard not to throw in the towel, right?

In two years’ time, I’d have cycled back round to Year II daily readings once more. Time to stop blogging, since I’d just be reflecting on the same words all over again?

No. No. No.

The high-achievers in any field have known the same obstacles, the same weaknesses, the same failures. They just plow right through all these impediments through sheer force of will, and eventually “win the wreath”.

They do this, taking no half-measures, because their field means so much to them. We, therefore, need to ask ourselves: How much does God mean to us?

(As for this blog, I’m sure that in two years, the readings will be the same, but I won’t. With the grace of the Almighty and Ever-Living God, I’m quite sure I’ll have something new to say then, and two years after that, and so on.)

In the end, we should take inspiration from the apostolic firebrand St. Paul:

All the fighters at the games go into strict training; they do this just to win a wreath that will wither away, but we do it for a wreath that will never wither. That is how I run, intent on winning; that is how I fight, not beating the air. I treat my body hard and make it obey me, for, having been an announcer myself, I should not want to be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:25-27)

Amen.

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Micah 5:1-4 | Psalm 12:6-7 | Matthew 1:1-16,18-23

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St. Matthew traces the genealogy of Jesus from Abraham in today’s Gospel. It’s an impressive 39 generations’ worth of names, some familiar, many not.

But then I asked myself the question: How many ancestors does the Son of Man have, going back to Abraham? In other words, how many people are in the complete family tree (2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, etc.)?

In theory, Jesus would have had 2⁴⁰-1 = 1,099,511,627,775 ancestors. That’s 1.1 TRILLION people.

Now, the tree probably crosses itself at one or more points, with marriages between close or distant cousins, or even at different generational levels, helping to drastically reduce the number of actual branches. Still, it’s clear that if any of us were to trace our own family tree back that far, it would potentially be HUGE.

And look at some of the names that appear in just one line of that tree:

• Tamar, seducer of her father-in-law Judah
• Rahab, the harlot of Jericho
• David, king, adulterer and murderer

Only God knows what character imperfections stain the other billions in this family tree. Surely He could have found at least a line without such grievous sinners, to bear His Holy Son, the King who is to rule the universe.

This, however, is human thinking, the vindictive kind that says that the sins of the father shall cling to his sons. Woe betide the children of a mass murderer; they shall bear their parent’s stigma till their dying days, especially in the eyes of his victims’ descendants. Such irrational hatred fuels feuds that can last for centuries, till no one on either side remembers why it all began.

God doesn’t bear such grudges; only the woman who was to bear Him, our Blessed Mother Mary, had to be Immaculate. Our ancestors get to bear the punishment for their own sins, and we for our own. As I’m sure I have mortal sinners somewhere in my family tree, as do we all, I’m grateful to God for having to atone purely for my own transgressions.

So as we celebrate the birth of Our Blessed Mother today, let us look to our own spiritual rebirth, free from the yoke of our forefathers’ transgressions, and committed to living the Gospel life day by day.

Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Father, forgive us our trespasses,
and those of our ancestors,
as we forgive those who trespass against us. Amen.

Wednesday of Week 23 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
1 Corinthians 7:25-31 | Psalm 44:11-12,14-17 | Luke 6:20-26

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Each time I get a new piece of hardware, whether it be a PC or mobile phone, I end up spending days getting it to work exactly the way I want. Even migrating my files from the older hardware, or restoring from a backup, takes significant time, and afterwards, I feel the need to go through and clear out any obsolete or unused apps and files, just to make room for future use.

It would certainly be easier to just continue using the old hardware, but mundane issues like dead batteries, ever-increasing software bloat, or even discontinued GSM network support by local telcos, always interfere with that plan for frugality. It seems that “keeping it simple” isn’t part of the Worldly Way.

Which is why St. Paul’s eschatological reminder to the Corinthians is so timely. “Our time is growing short”; not only could we shuffle off this mortal coil at any time, but we also “do not know the hour when the Son of Man is coming.” We should therefore not let ourselves get bogged down by the minutiae of mortal life, forgetting about the life to come. We should strive to minimize our preoccupation with secular things like PC and phones, and increase our willingness to spend time contemplating the Word that is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

So let us always remember to keep our eyes on the prize that is reunion with our Creator in heavenly bliss, and while we still have to deal with the world, let us not become engrossed in it. (1 Corinthians 7:31)

Amen.

Tuesday of Week 23 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
1 Corinthians 6:1-11 | Psalm 149:1-6,9 | Luke 6:12-19

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Over a decade ago, I bought a book that still sits on my bookshelf, though it’s covered with dust now: The 48 Laws of Power.

It sketches a Machiavellian model of personal power with a stark central thesis: You gain power by depriving others of their power – to understand what’s happening, to act freely, to fully trust you. Fail at this, and it would be others who draw power from you.

In today’s reading, St. Paul vents his frustration with the Christians in Corinth who are suing each other in front of pagan judges in Roman courts, instead of settling their differences amicably within the Christian community. In doing so, they mirror the litigious world we have today, both embodying the power model described above: Not only must I prevail, but you must also be utterly crushed and humiliated in the process.

Jesus, however, embodies a different sort of power in today’s Gospel:

everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all (Luke 6:19)

His power is for others, not from them. He enables, and does not subjugate. He gave everything of himself, holding nothing back, and He asks us to do the same.

And Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, who was canonized this past Sunday, answered His call in spades. I like Pope Francis’ off-the-cuff remark at his homily, as I too find “St. Mother Teresa” or “Mother St. Teresa” or even “St. Teresa of Calcutta” to be rather awkward ways of referring to a diminutive woman who gave her all to those who themselves had nothing to give. “Mother” is indeed the proper honorific, both necessary and sufficient.

So Jesus has shown the way, and Mother Teresa has confirmed it through her own actions. Shall we follow suit?

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Wait, you despise that book, and yet you still keep it?

Yes. Like it or not, this has become the playbook of the mundane world. If nothing else, it behooves us to understand such tactics, in order to spot and potentially counter them.

Besides, I have a soft spot for one of the laws that I’ve yet to master:

Law 4: Always Say Less than Necessary

Ouch.