Monthly Archives: December 2016

Friday of the 3rd week of Advent (Year I)
Isaiah 56:1-3,6-8 | Psalm 66(67):2-3,5,7-8 | John 5:33-36

All who observe the sabbath, not profaning it, and cling to my covenant – these I will bring to my holy mountain. I will make them joyful in my house of prayer. (Isaiah 56:6-7)

Have you ever gone to church and asked yourself in the middle of mass:

Why am I here?

How much longer is this going to take?

I used to ask myself that in my younger days, until I realized that it was probably because I didn’t want to be involved in the celebration around me.

All that joyful singing? Not feeling it.

That insightful homily? Can’t remember what the priest said, and why does he have to go on and on?

It’s often said that “body language tells all”. Crossed-arms-over-chest speaks volumes, and the bored/glum face just reinforces it. I don’t want to be here.

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In the matrimonial arena, we’re often advised:

If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.

But I’m firmly convinced that it’s always been misquoted:

If you can’t be with the one you lust, love the one you’re with.

We’re always looking for that new thing that gets our mental, carnal, or other juices flowing, and when those juices run stale, we move on. The abovementioned saying reminds us that the here-and-now possesses an importance all its own:

the menial job that keeps food on the table and throws up interesting situations each day, when looked at in the right frame of mind,

the wife who isn’t half the looker she was 25 years ago, but still makes sure you and the kids are fed and clothed well, and the house in decent condition,

the God who hangs in effigy, staring in silence at you each Sunday, waiting for you to draw closer.

So instead of impatiently waiting for the agony of mass to end, let us instead heed the words of that old hymn, “Joy in the Lord”:

Joyful and trusting, we come to you, O Lord
Ready to give all to you

Let us embrace the opportunity to seek peace in the chaos of modern life, to open ourselves to the Lord and to our fellow worshippers. For as the hymn further observes:

Why are men cast down and so sad in their looks?
God is always at their side!

Open up and cheer up. Amen.

Thursday of the 3rd week of Advent (Year I)
Isaiah 54:1-10 | Psalm 29(30):2,4-6,11-13 | Luke 7:24-30

for the mountains may depart,
the hills be shaken,
but my love for you will never leave you
and my covenant of peace with you will never be shaken,
says the Lord who takes pity on you. (Isaiah 54:10)

My choir will be helping a couple celebrate their golden anniversary this Saturday, and I had the privilege of meeting the wife last night. What struck me was her matter-of-fact description of her situation: her husband is not Catholic, and it took her 8 months to convince him to celebrate this long-awaited milestone in church. She still holds out hope that he will come to know God in the years left to him, and that one Easter in the near future, we may be privileged to bear witness to his rising to new life.

Contrast that with this matter-of-fact description of my choir’s preparation for Christmas: we’re woefully unprepared, and only a handful of folks have been practising together throughout these past weeks. I was frustrated and in despair…until I remembered that this happens every Christmas, and yet somehow, God has always granted us the grace and the strength to persevere through to the midnight feast itself, gaining enough confidence and momentum as our numbers slowly grow with each practice session, until we are even able to work with the folks who literally show up at the eleventh hour, brimming with enthusiasm but lacking the right notes.

Lord, we await your coming with trepidation, for we are unworthy and largely unprepared. Help us gain the confidence and willingness to set aside all our earthly cares and commitments, and come together to do Your will, not out of human obligation but because we love You, and we believe that:

though the mountains may fall and the hills turn to dust,
though faith may falter and flee at the first sign of hardship,
yet Your love always stands as a spacious tent
to shelter all who call on You
and sing Your praise and glory forever. Amen.

Wednesday of the 3rd week of Advent (Year I)
Saint John of the Cross, Priest, Doctor
Isaiah 45:6-8,18,21-25 | Psalm 84(85):9-14(Advent) | Luke 7:19-23

Today, we remember the life of St. John of the Cross (San Juan de la Cruz), a major figure in the Counter-Reformation of the late 16th century. The violent rejection to his reforms from his clerical brethren is a stark reminder that we are all sinners, even men of the cloth.

We will all fall prey at one time or another to pride, jealousy and other negative aspects of our humanity, and when we let it drive us to self-centeredness and away from the mercy and compassion of our Lord, it can be very difficult to take that first step toward reconciliation with the One at the end of everything.

So let us consciously turn and face the Lord this Advent, no matter how difficult it might seem, or how many excuses we’re tempted to make up.

Let us stop trying to cram every waking moment with pleasures and make-work and time-wasters, or trying to be everything to everyone just so we can say to God, “sorry, I’m very busy right now”.

Let us instead spend some time each day with the Lord this Advent, opening our hearts like the earth that Isaiah described, opening “for salvation to spring up”, for “deliverance to bud forth”.

Let us feel the cooling dew of His compassion, raining down from the heavens, and share that healing kindness as we minister to our less-fortunate brethren.

The Lord is coming. Let us meet him halfway, as eager and uninhibited as little children.

Amen.

Tuesday of the 3rd week of Advent (Year I)
Saint Lucy, Virgin, Martyr
Zephaniah 3:1-2,9-13 | Psalm 33(34):2-3,6-7,16,18-19,23 | Matthew 21:28-32

In the Parable of the Two Sons that is today’s Gospel, Jesus reiterates His message in the earlier Sermon on the Mount, which is best known for the Beatitudes. During that lengthy sermon, He reminded us that:

It is not those who say to me, “Lord, Lord”, who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. (Matthew 7:21)

So let us consciously avoid the NATO (No Action, Talk Only) way of Christian living, and adopt instead the ASEAN philosophy, as Action Surely Evangelizes All Nations.

After all, it’s hard to ignore folks who practise what they preach.

Lord, we know that actions speak louder than words, but we often lack the will to show Your love to others. Give us the courage and strength to stand in Your name against the hatred and despair in this world, to show mercy and compassion like You showed the downtrodden and sorely afflicted during Your ministry on earth. May it come to pass that everyone whose lives we touch in Your name turns to You in faith, hope and love, as we turn to You in our daily lives. Amen.

Monday of the 3rd week of Advent (Year I)
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Numbers 24:2-7,15-17 | Psalm 24(25):4-6,7a-9 | Matthew 21:23-27

Jesus had gone into the Temple and was teaching, when the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him and said, ‘What authority have you for acting like this? And who gave you this authority?’ (Matthew 21:23)

Those are important questions to ask ourselves ever so often: What makes us so sure that we actually have the authority to boss everyone else around? Who gave it to us, and what happens when our bluff is called?

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Yesterday, our Archbishop celebrated the Rite of Confirmation with over 100 of our youths. During his post-communion exhortation, he bemoaned the flak he was getting from many folks about the upcoming mass ecclesial rotation. I wasn’t surprised to hear that many parishioners were complaining about the quality of their inbound priests (Singaporeans are champion complainers after all), but I was taken aback by the sheer number of people who were perturbed, nay, apoplectic about the changes they anticipated at their parish, based on hearsay accounts from Nth-hand sources of unknown veracity.

Clearly, we have a deluge of Catholics in our midst who claim authority on the running of their parish, despite only showing up for just an hour a week, and often less than that.

Then, during the ride home on a packed bus, we commuters were berated by an old man who was yelling at us folks alighting the bus near the end stages to move to the back, so as to (purportedly) streamline the flow of alighting and not impede the boarding of all the passengers waiting at each bus stop (which turned out to be less than a handful). During his five-minute tirade before alighting the bus to multiple sighs of relief, he also sarcastically informed the driver that he was doing his job for him, loudly apologized to all foreigners on board for his fellow Singaporeans’ lack of civic-mindedness, and verbally sparred with another old man who decided he’d had enough of the yelling.

Clearly, our fellow traveler was claiming authority on public transport optimization and good manners, while actually lacking in both.

And, of course, there’s no shortage of man-in-the-street experts on government policies, all of which have been professionally assessed to “make no cow-sense”, and exist only to fill the coffers of those in power. Based on their observations, I can only conclude that Singapore has been a poverty hellhole since the turn of the millennium.

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Instead of continually acting like we know what we’re talking about and everyone should listen to us, perhaps we should stop and think about what we’re asserting. I think we should always ask ourselves each time we feel like talking loud and proud:

• Do we really know what’s best for everyone, or are we only talking about our best interest?
• Do we actually know what we’re talking about, or just going by what we learned from some fictional TV drama?
• Are we holding forth in a sincere attempt to make things better, or just wanting to hear ourselves crow like strutting roosters?

This way, we can hopefully avoid having our authority gambit called out in public, the way Jesus humiliated the temple authorities.

Lord, You see and know everything. Compared to You, we know less than a newborn babe. Help us retain some humility in our daily dealings with others, and give us the courage to strive in love for the interests of the less fortunate among us. May we thus draw them to You as we ourselves have been drawn, and so gather all the faithful around the world in one continuous song of praise to the Holy Trinity. Amen.