Monthly Archives: May 2017

Monday of the 5th Week of Eastertide
Acts 14:5-18 | Psalm 113B(115):1-4,15-16 | John 14:21-26

“Friends, what do you think you are doing? We are only human beings like you. We have come with good news to make you turn from these empty idols to the living God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that these hold.” (Acts 14:15)

No one is willing to admit to idolatry, but most of us practise it to one degree or another.

TripAdvisor: “St. Peter’s statue – touching his feet brings good luck.”

Poor St. Peter, getting an unwanted pedicure.

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

When we touch a statue of Mother Mary, or even the foot of Jesus on His cross, what goes through our minds?

Wah, touch statue liao, tomorrow sure get job one!

Sounds a lot like He-Man drawing from the power of Grayskull:

But when we don’t get that job, do we stop touching Mother Mary, or Jesus? Now that we’ve proven to ourselves that this statue can’t work miracles, do we move on to St. Joseph, or St. Francis of Assisi, or something else?

Hey, look! That statue over there must be lucky, otherwise shoulder won’t be rubbed smooth, right?

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

Or do we think to ourselves, as we gently press our fingers against the feet of Mother Mary, or Christ Himself:

My God, You know what I truly need in my life,
so let it be done unto me according to Thy word.

There aren’t enough idols on this planet if we’re only concerned about our good fortune, but when we turn to God and abandon ourselves to Him, we’d be carrying our own “statue” within us, to touch and be touched at every hour of every day.

[…] the Advocate, the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you everything
and remind you of all I have said to you. (John 14:26)

Come, Lord Jesus, send us Your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth. Amen.

5th Sunday of Easter (Year A)
Acts 6:1-7 | Psalm 32(33):1-2,4-5,18-19 | 1 Peter 2:4-9 | John 14:1-12

The Lord is the living stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him; set yourselves close to him so that you too, the holy priesthood that offers the spiritual sacrifices which Jesus Christ has made acceptable to God, may be living stones making a spiritual house. (1 Peter 2:4-5)

It bears remembering that a church is not just a building of concrete and glass.

It bears remembering that a church without an active faith community…is just a building.

It bears remembering that we are the church.

We are the walls made of living stone, building with each other an edifice to the glory of God, with Christ as the keystone.

We gather together, bonding tightly against the assailing winds of worldly temptation, moving together against the earthquakes of secular assaults, always linked in one faith, one baptism, one God who is Father of us all.

We may live independently in this world, each journeying through life as best we can, choosing different directions that could change at any time.

But when we come together as a church, all these I‘s are subsumed in an all-encompassing WE, one voice hailing the great I AM.

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

My parish is currently going through a rocky period, as we all try to adjust to our “new management”. When “Wait, you want us to do what? WHY?!?!” becomes a distressingly familiar anthem, it can be hard to remember our place in God’s plan.

We are living stones.

We gather around Christ.

We form one church.

Let us build a house where prophets speak,
and words are strong and true,
where all God’s children dare to seek
to dream God’s reign anew.
Here the cross shall stand as witness
and as symbol of God’s grace;
here as one we claim the faith of Jesus.
All are welcome, all are welcome,
all are welcome in this place.

https://youtu.be/Sba9cHv9TG8?t=76

Amen.

Friday of the 4th Week of Eastertide
Acts 13:26-33 | Psalm 2:6-11 | John 14:1-6

The Lord said to me: ‘You are my Son.
It is I who have begotten you this day.’ (Psalm 2:7)

Or, as my choir sings at every Christmas Midnight Mass, after leading off with “Silent Night:

Dominus dixit ad me: Filius meus es tu, ego hodie genuite.

It’s a good way to begin every morning, by acknowledging that, after the “death” of much-needed sleep, we are “born” afresh each new day.

What went before informs us of who we are, what changes we need to make in ourselves, and what amends we may need to make. Outside that, there’s nothing worth dwelling upon.

So let us not waste the day’s opportunities to show the world at large what it means to be God’s children:

To love, as best we can.

To serve, as best we can.

To be holy, as best we can.

Amen.

Thursday of the 4th Week of Eastertide
Acts 13:13-25 | Psalm 88(89):2-3,21,22,25,27 | John 13:16-20

After he had washed the feet of his disciples, Jesus said to them:
‘I tell you most solemnly,
no servant is greater than his master,
no messenger is greater than the man who sent him. (John 13:16)

Jesus is the acknowledged Master, yet he deigned to kneel at the feet of His own disciples, and cleanse them with His own hands.

Does that not make Him…a master servant?

It’s like an employer, who ladles food onto the plate of her maid, as they sup together with the family.

Or a young man in pressed sleeves and tie, who helps an old cleaner carefully push a wobbly trash bin to the food court dumping area.

It’s the boldest of statements: I may be superior to you by some earthly measure, but I’m neither a superior being nor your lord, just a fellow traveller in this journey through life. Here, have some love, no charge.

Let us take in this signature lesson from the Lord, and master the art of serving with love and abandon.

Jesus, our Teacher and our Lord,
stooped to wash the feet of His disciples,
and He told them: “This is an example;
just as I have done, so you must do.”

Amen.