Monthly Archives: May 2017

Friday of the 3rd Week of Eastertide
Acts 9:1-20 | Psalm 116(117) | John 6:52-59

He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
lives in me
and I live in him. (John 6:56)

Last night, I was introduced to a rather odd food item.

A post shared by Yujia Hu ?????? (@theonigiriart) on Apr 29, 2017 at 5:50pm PDT

Shoe-shi! A tasty work of art painstakingly crafted to be a single mouthful.

And it’ll give us life…for about 30 seconds, then it’s all over but the Instagram “food porn” posts.

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

In contrast, the bread that we share at each Eucharistic celebration looks and tastes pretty bland.

But eat it, while mindful of the sacrificial love poured out for us from the Cross, and we’ll be taking Christ into ourselves, where He will counsel and guide and propel us through the days to come.

Oh, and this mouthful will give us life eternal…just not on this earth.

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been cooking simple meals for myself at least four times a week, mostly vegetarian noodle soups with the occasional tuna or minced pork thrown in for additional protein. I feel a lightness of being after consuming such meals, especially when compared to the meat-heavy dishes I used to eat regularly. My mood lifts, my mind focuses, and my body just works better.

Consuming Christ also gives me that “fills me up, doesn’t weigh me down” sensation, even though the small wafer is about 1% of even my lightest meal. It’s almost as if the host sublimates into a ethereal Spirit that floods my body; I don’t feel the wheat as it slides down my throat, just the warmth of Jesus lifting my spirit with an unquenchable love.

I suspect I’ll encounter that same feeling in spades tonight, when I return to Holy Hour for the first time in years.

Lord, thank You for coming to me, and abiding in me. Let me never take Your presence, Your counsel, Your direction, for granted. Amen.

Thursday of the 3rd Week of Eastertide
Acts 8:26-40 | Psalm 65(66):8-9,16-17,20 | John 6:44-51

When Philip ran up, he heard [the eunuch] reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’
‘How can I’ he replied ‘unless I have someone to guide me?’ So he invited Philip to get in and sit by his side. (Acts 8:30-31)

I’M NOT STUPID!

That exclamation briefly jarred me out of my daily rosary on the train yesterday. It was yelled by a young student who was evidently being teased by his friends around him.

As the group ran out of the train at the next stop, a sudden thought hit me:

Do I understand what I’m praying?

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

Consubstantiation. Incarnation. Resurrection.

These are just three of the mysteries we profess to believe in both the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds. Do we have any hope of truly understanding them, of being able to explain the how of it all?

Not in our lifetimes, and perhaps not even in the life to come, when we finally see God face to face.

Sometimes, it’s enough to make us think ourselves stupid.

We can, however, gain some small measure of wisdom in faith, by immersing ourselves with wondrous pondering in the twin pools of sacred Scripture and holy Tradition.

But a solo journey in faith is a dangerous one, filled with the potential for detours into mindless mysticism (“Christ is really in the host? wah, like magic, man!”), pernicious pride (“hah! I know more than any of my ministry’s members! I must educate them!”), and a fatal fall into despair (“this doesn’t make any sense! why am I wasting my time with all this Catholic mumbo-jumbo?”).

By journeying with others at Catholic seminars, and sharing our thoughts about the readings of the day, we help each other see more clearly the path that is Life, the path that our ancestors in faith have followed, the path which we too are called to tread.

By infusing love in our daily interactions with others, and thereby consciously practise what we preach, we give life to the word of God that we hear and read, give life to the less fortunate among us, and give life especially to ourselves in our darker moments.

And at regular Eucharistic communion with our brothers and sisters in faith, we can bolster our common commitment to the Way, Truth and Life, confident that no matter what trials and tribulations await each of us, we need never walk alone, for we are no longer strangers to each other.

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

Brothers and sisters, if you have any appropriate reflections on what you just read, please do share them in the comments. Like Philip and the eunuch, we travel best on the road of faith…when we travel together.

Amen.

Saints Philip and James, Apostles
1 Corinthians 15:1-8 | Psalm 18(19):2-5 | John 14:6-14

Whatever you ask for in my name I will do,
so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask for anything in my name,
I will do it.’ (John 14:13-14)

“Heavenly Father, in the name of your most precious Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, I ask for…ONE BILLION DOLLARS!!!”

<crickets>

You didn’t really believe that would work, did you?

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

Let’s be frank. Just about every person on earth who professes to believe in God…harbours some doubt.

Perhaps we might not give voice to that doubt, but it invariably shows in our thoughts and actions, when we do what we know we mustn’t…and think we can get away with it.

That old lady who just hobbled into the crowded train? She can still walk, so she doesn’t need my seat, and besides Korean drama!

That %$#%^@$ idiot jumped my queue! Never mind, scold him chao %^$# ^%$ until he cry, then go confession later.

One billion dollars is nothing to God what! Don’t ask, sure never get, so must ask! If God don’t give, don’t give lor!

Making cavalier requests of God, and using His only Son’s name as a “magic key” to unlock His largesse, is literally “taking the Lord’s name in vain”. That we might even consider doing so points to our doubting what we claim to be our faith.

So how should we ask God for a billion dollars?

Jesus Himself showed us the way in the depths of His agony, praying to God in the Garden of Gethsemane:

‘My Father,’ he said ‘if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. Nevertheless, let it be as you, not I, would have it.’ (Matthew 26:39)

This passage suggests that:

• we should have a proper plan for whatever we ask—frivolous requests need not apply
• the plan should be in accordance with God’s will—using that billion dollars to build a golden church probably doesn’t qualify, even if it’s in His name
• we should nevertheless submit to His will in the end—perhaps He doesn’t think we are the right persons to be receiving that billion dollars for proselytism’s sake

And now to get that billion dollars out of my head (it’s a sticky thought, to be sure)…

Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, your Son, our Lord and Saviour, I ask only that You point me in the direction you wish me to go, and grant me whatever I need to do Your will. For everything else, I thank You, and praise You, and glorify You. Amen.

Saint Athanasius, Bishop, Doctor
1 John 5:1-5 | Psalm 36(37):3-6,30-31 | Matthew 10:22-25

His commandments are not difficult,
because anyone who has been begotten by God
has already overcome the world;
this is the victory over the world –
our faith. (1 John 5:4)

This is cold comfort for anyone who’s felt the weight of the world on their shoulders. “<sigh> So many things to do, everyone pressing me for answers, I want to die liao!”

But that’s what happens when we choose, consciously or otherwise, to make the secular world the centre of our lives. I’m now more convinced than ever that reversing our daily priorities is not just a Good Idea, it may also be the only way to retain a measure of sanity, in a world that does its best to suck the marrow of life out of our bones.

Dwelling in the sacred world, then letting the mundane interrupt where necessary, helps put many things in perspective, and helps us maintain a mental detachment from that which will fade away on its own, or is better handled by others, or is simply not important enough to consume us body, mind, and soul.

This shall pass.

This, too, shall pass.

All this shall pass.

In its place…an abiding peace of mind, welling up from the heart-spring that is the love of God in us.

In its place…a resolute conviction that His commandments are the keystone, especially in a world that hates Him bitterly: to love Him with all our being, and to love one another in the same way.

In its place…faith, hope, and love.

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

This came into sharp focus yesterday, during our parish’s ministry day of recollection. It ended with elections of office-bearers for all ministries, and I was told point-blank that my fellow long-term conductor and I were not eligible to stand for re-election.

There was a time when I would’ve exploded: “Alamak! How to go forward like that? Sure chaos one!”

This time, though, I was sufficiently detached after the long recollection session (and over a year of daily Lectio Divina) to Think Different: “Cool! That leaves me with the sole task of inspiring my fellow choir members to pay more attention to the sacred words we sing, and to rededicate ourselves to singing God’s praises in mind, mouth, and heart.”

I was never really a good administrator anyway. I’ve generally been much more effective working behind the scenes, watching out for things that needed doing but everyone else was ignoring, and getting those sorted.

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

Brothers and sisters, in this daily personal “war” between the sacred and secular worlds, which side have you chosen by your actions and preoccupations?

Lord, You call us every day to live in Your world, the world of easy yokes and light burdens, the universe that is Love. Help us to make our home in You every day, and detach ourselves from the physical, mental, and spiritual contamination of the mundane, for You alone have the message of eternal life. Amen.

St. Joseph the Worker
Colossians 3:14-15,17,23-24 | Psalm 89(90):2-4,12-14,16 | Matthew 13:54-58

Whatever your work is, put your heart into it as if it were for the Lord and not for men, knowing that the Lord will repay you by making you his heirs. It is Christ the Lord that you are serving. (Colossians 3:23-24)

There was a time when I would go through the motions of serving God, and would sometimes even stop entirely.

At some points during this past week, a tiny part of me longed for those days again, for the serenity of being uninvolved in others’ pain, for the freedom to do my own thing, for the lightness of not caring.

The rest of me wept at my own impotence, arriving too late to coordinate, mediate and advocate for my fellow liturgical ministers as my responsibility dictates, and balancing precariously on a pin-head’s worth of second-hand information.

And then I was smacked in the head with the double sign of Jonah.

Looking back with a certain dispassion, I think I understand now why my week devolved so badly: it was God’s way of getting my attention. It sorta worked before, but I was perhaps too distracted with getting Christmas sorted, to pay attention to the underlying message.

O God, I am truly sorry that I shut out your call all these years. Like Jonah before me, I’ll stop running away now. Lead me to where you want me to do Your will.

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

There’s a distinct possibility that I may be called away from the parish of my youth, of decades steeped in love, anger, joy, and pain.

I’d depart with a somewhat heavy heart, but after over a year of opening myself up to Him and all you brothers and sisters, I’ve inadvertently boxed myself in…His love, that is. I don’t see any other option, but to go where He points, and labour in His plan as He commands.

I’ll probably be terrified at how much I’d have to learn and change in the process, but with the grace of God, I’ll still keep faith in Him, and hope always in His love.

I think I’ll be OK.

Amen.