Monthly Archives: January 2017

6 January
1 John 5:5-13 | Psalm 147:12-15,19-20 | Mark 1:6-11

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Jesus Christ who came by water and blood,
not with water only, but with water and blood;
with the Spirit as another witness – since the Spirit is the truth –
so that there are three witnesses, the Spirit, the water and the blood,
and all three of them agree.
We accept the testimony of human witnesses,
but God’s testimony is much greater,
and this is God’s testimony, given as evidence for his Son. (1 John 5:6-9)

Indeed, God made it clear that Jesus is His Son, both human and divine, one in being with Him.

It doesn’t mean that we have nothing left to say for, Christian or not, everyone’s actions speak volumes to the world at large.

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There was an article in yesterday’s Straits Times about the weekly masses in Extraordinary Form (Latin) at St. Joseph’s (Victoria Street). As I was showering last night, it hit me that my blog has pretty much been one long Confiteor, in which I lay bare my transgressions in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my most grievous fault.

But I hope that readers would notice that it’s also a subtle Sanctus, for all that God has done for me throughout my life, especially in my darkest moments when I’d all but turned away from Him. Heaven and earth are indeed full of His glory.

And it’s also a daily reminder that I’m still far from where I should be as a child of God. I still have many faults to fix and transgressions to make right, but each step can itself be testimony to the healing grace that comes from the One who Is.

So long as He wills it, this blog will continue to be a record of the only way I know to bear credible witness to God: my own life.

Lord, I offer my life to You,
all my successes and failures,
everything I’ve done, good and bad.
Help me fill the holes left in my life with the Love that you bled on the cross,
help me wash my soul anew with the water of new life that was poured on me so long ago,
help me enflame myself and everyone I meet with the Spirit sent to be our Advocate,
help me lead others to You with my words and deeds.

For You alone are the Holy One,
You alone are the Lord of all,
You alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God our eternal Father. Amen.

5 January
1 John 3:11-21 | Psalm 99(100) | John 1:43-51

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[I just noticed that this is turning into Resolution Week for me, what with I Resolve To…, I Will Prepare To… and I Will Lead Others to God… already published. Today’s entry just affirms that trend.]

This is the message
as you heard it from the beginning:
that we are to love one another;
not to be like Cain, who belonged to the Evil One
and cut his brother’s throat;
cut his brother’s throat simply for this reason,
that his own life was evil and his brother lived a good life. (1 John 3:11-12)

I just watched this interesting and amusing TED talk: Are you a giver or a taker? It explores the various personalities present in any organization (givers, takers and matchers) and how to promote a more giving culture within.

This talk really hit home for me. It reminded me that my habit of giving my all to God without getting the necessary support from my fellow ministers pretty much dooms me to burnout in short order, which has happened several times already.

It also gave me pause on how I mentally judge people, and that a few folks whom I’ve always thought of as “takers” or general a*holes might actually be “disagreeable givers” instead. Unpleasant though they may be, they have generally been supportive of the mission at hand, and while I might wish they would give a little more of themselves, they seem to already be heading in that direction, if a bit slowly.

For all I know, some folks may have always thought of me as a “disagreeable giver”. After all, my “people skills” don’t just have room for improvement, they have an entire mansion!

I think the difficult part for me is to continue giving out of love, but being careful about securing early support for whatever activities I’m engaged in, without going overboard into quid pro pro territory. Still, if my judgement proves faulty, I’d rather err on the generous side, for as St. John the Evangelist reminds us today:

our love is not to be just words or mere talk, but something real and active (1 John 3:18)

Lord, we thank You for Your supreme gift of Love that set us all free. Help us offer that Love in turn to others around us, helping others without expecting reciprocation, but also graciously accepting others’ help in turn. May our efforts to better each others’ lives lift us all in Your sight, so that we may all come into Your presence in good conscience. Amen.

4 January
1 John 3:7-10 | Psalm 97(98):1,7-9 | John 1:35-42

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My children, do not let anyone lead you astray:
to live a holy life
is to be holy just as he is holy (1 John 3:7)

Yesterday was the first day of the school year, and as I passed the primary school next to my home, I had to thread my way through a huge crowd of parents and guardians outside the school gates, waiting for their children who were attending school for the first time. Clearly, they wanted to make sure that their kids didn’t wander off in a daze after a mind-boggling first day, or be led off by a stranger with nefarious intentions.

Later, I was discussing some issues with one of my client’s employees, and I found myself doing what those parents were waiting to do: shepherd this young man away from a critical decision that might result in a foreseeable and catastrophic data loss in the future.

Then I read the above passage from today’s scripture, and made the connection.

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Even as presumably well-informed Catholics, it would not be difficult for us to be led astray, given this world’s constant pressures of personal wealth-building and self-centered role models, and a growing lack of civility and morality on the Internet and in real life. Yet we continue to fight the good fight, reminding ourselves daily through prayer and Eucharistic participation about the core of our faith, which is Love and Mercy.

But how about our godchildren, the people whom we pledged in the sight of God to guide in faith after their baptism? Unless we actually see them on a regular basis, it’s a safe bet that we haven’t been fulfilling our promise. For all we know, they might have wandered off into the spiritual wilderness while our attention was focused on our own lives.

I haven’t been in regular touch with any of my godchildren. It’s time to correct that omission.

Lord, You called us all to be shepherds to each other, to bolster our collective faith and guard one another against the relentless assaults of the Evil One. Help us remember to turn to You always, and lead our charges in the same direction.

O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, lead us to Your Son, and pray for us who struggle in the grip of temptation. Amen.

3 January
1 John 2:29-3:6 | Psalm 97(98):1,3-6 | John 1:29-34

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My dear people, we are already the children of God
but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed;
all we know is, that when it is revealed
we shall be like him
because we shall see him as he really is. (1 John 3:2)

There are only two things we can say for sure about the future:

• It’s coming, and
• Jesus is at the end of it.

So as we go about our daily lives, we should take some time to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ. Daily reflection about what we have done each day would be a good start; in the words of the Confiteor that we pray at the beginning of each mass, “in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and what I have failed to do”.

Then comes whatever corrective action is appropriate: perhaps a conscious effort to spend less time staring at our mobile devices, and more time interacting with our families. Or setting an alarm to remind us to get to church on time. Or a monthly reminder to plan an early arrival in time to confess our sins and cleanse our souls before receiving the Body of Christ.

As St. John the Evangelist reminds us, we are already the children of God…but we can, through neglect or active rebellion, deny our heavenly inheritance, so that on the last day, we will be nothing like Him, wallowing instead in eternal suffering.

Lord Jesus Christ, as we continue to celebrate Your birth, give us the courage to turn to You each day for guidance and comfort and inspiration to action, so that when You come again to judge the living and the dead, we may be privileged to behold You as You are, one God, Almighty God. Amen.

2 January
Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops, Doctors
1 John 2:22-28 | Psalm 97(98):1-4 | John 1:19-28

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Live in Christ, then, my children,
so that if he appears, we may have full confidence,
and not turn from him in shame
at his coming. (1 John 2:28)

“I am a child of God.” It’s easy to make that claim, but hard to live up to it. It runs counter to the base human instinct of it’s-all-about-me. When my business partner WhatsApp’d me the Vulcan “live long and prosper” at the time when 2016 officially ended, I had to pause for a long while before realizing that I really didn’t want to do that, and shot back with “I’ll settle for live well and faithfully“.

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As we begin a new year, there’s a great temptation to make resolutions that are more vague grand gestures than detailed practical deeds. “Eat less”, “exercise more”, “be more holy” – these are mostly doomed to failure.

On the other hand, “pray the rosary every day”, as Fr. Cornelius Ching urged us all to do during his Sunday homily, should actually be doable for everybody. I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t have a half-hour of quiet time each day to focus on prayer, and Mother Mary is just waiting for us to draw close, so that she can in turn lead us to Jesus.

I’ve mentioned before that my favorite time to pray the rosary is during my first journey on public transport each day. I’m not doing anything useful at that time, and after the first week of smartphone reminders, it became second-nature to make the sign of the cross in public, begin praying, then cross myself at the end and think about the rest of the day with a clear head. (I also learned that, contrary to my sometimes-inflated ego, nobody really cares about what I do in public as long as I’m quiet about it.)

So for 2017, I resolve to work towards “living in Christ”. Going for monthly confession seems like a good start; it doesn’t take much time to do, but requires me to be honest with myself about my failings – which can be surprisingly difficult.

Lord, accept these poor gifts that we offer, our successes and failures, our good times and bad. Give us in turn your love and grace to face each day as Your children, with willing hearts and minds to improve the lot of our fellow men. Amen.