Monthly Archives: June 2017

Veiling God’s Glory

Thursday of Week 10 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
2 Corinthians 3:15-4:1,3-6 | Psalm 84(85):9-14(Thu10) | Matthew 5:20-26


Even today, whenever Moses is read, the veil is over their minds. It will not be removed until they turn to the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:15-16)

This curious reference to Moses’ veil brought me back to Exodus. After Moses begs forgiveness from God for the Israelites’ faithlessness, he spends 40 days and nights on Mount Sinai, subsisting only on the glory of God. Upon his return with the second set of Commandments tablets:

he did not know that the skin on his face was radiant after speaking with the Lord. And when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, the skin on his face shone so much that they would not venture near him. (Exodus 34:29-30)

Eventually, Moses would wear a veil to shield the Israelites from the reflected brilliance of God’s glory, except for the times when he was relaying God’s Word to them.

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From our modern point of view, it’s easy to think of our religious ancestors as stubborn imbeciles. Who wouldn’t want to bathe in the radiance of God, even when it’s a small fraction of the real thing (as it was with Moses’ face)?

Well, we wouldn’t, to be honest.

How else can we explain our wandering minds, our inability to pay attention when the Word of God is proclaimed at the masses we attend?

How else can we explain our repeated refusal to gaze upon the transubstantiated Body of Christ, despite being commanded to Behold the Lamb of God at our Eucharistic celebrations?

How else can we explain our reluctance to arrive early to prepare ourselves for worship, our rush to leave immediately after communion, our overriding urge to “get it over with”?

When we do all this, we are no better than the Israelites of old. We too would be drawing a dark veil over our own hearts, to block out the healing rays of Divine Mercy, radiating out from the Sacred Heart of Jesus Himself.

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Yet even as we perpetrate this rudeness against the One who bled out for our sake, He still patiently waits for us to recognize our faults, to draw back the thick curtains separating us from Him, and to bask in the loving warmth of the eternal love that He promised…and continually delivers.

The Saviour is waiting to enter your heart
Why don’t you let Him come in?
There’s nothing in this world to keep you apart
What is your answer to Him?

Time after time, He has waited before
And now, He is waiting again
To see if you’re willing to open the door
O how He wants to come in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHJLmdR5gVQ

Lord, we draw a veil over our hearts, because we fear Your judgement, and the loss of our secular pleasures.

Give us the gift of honest self-examination, so that we may come to realize the terrible cost of refusing Your love.

Show us the freedom that comes from letting go of temporal temptations, and turning to You in all our worldly endeavors.

Breathe the Holy Spirit upon us, to set our hearts aflame, and burn away all that stands between us and Your Holy Presence.

For You are our Lord and our God, now and forever.

Amen.

Administrators of Spiritual Life

Wednesday of Week 10 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
2 Corinthians 3:4-11 | Psalm 98(99):5-9 | Matthew 5:17-19


Now if the administering of death, in the written letters engraved on stones, was accompanied by such a brightness that the Israelites could not bear looking at the face of Moses, though it was a brightness that faded, then how much greater will be the brightness that surrounds the administering of the Spirit! (2 Corinthians 3:7-8)

On my way to work yesterday, I beheld an old lady adjusting her dentures with her tongue.

It was an awesome sight, a set of grinning teeth attached to an artificial gumline, moving around between two thin lips on a weathered face.

For everyone else around me (at least the few who didn’t have eyes glued to their screens), their general reaction would probably have been “GROSS!!!

But to me, her utter lack of self-consciousness, coupled with the eye-catching and humorous dance of her pearly whites, was remarkably brilliant.

Make no mistake, this senior exuded more liveliness that the morose 20-somethings around me, faces perpetually frowning down into their mobiles.

I think she could teach a masterclass in the administering of spirit and life.

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In contrast, most of us administer death in our daily lives, despite our protestations to the contrary.

Perhaps not the corporal death handed out to drug offenders at Changi Prison, or even the termination of gainful employment that might have been a family’s sole lifeline.

But in our own way, we “put down” other folks through unkind words, through rejection, through turning away from those in need.

We can certainly do better, but we must first recognize that tendency in ourselves, the tendency to deliver the equivalent of cruel headslaps for “infractions” that are mere misunderstandings at worst, not because they’re deserved, but because we can.

This feeling of power over others is devilishly seductive, a false impression of superiority over others. We are beacons of rightness, oh yes we are!

Except…we aren’t, are we?

Lord Jesus Christ, You humbled Yourself to accept the death that was administered to you. You picked up and carried mankind’s cross, not because we deserved such consideration, but because You loved us that much. Help us recognize how much spiritual death we administer in turn, and teach us to offer Spirit and life instead, in our daily words and deeds, so that all mankind may see Your boundless love through us, and in union with the whole world, we may praise and glorify God for ever and ever. Amen.

Jesus, God’s YES to Us

Tuesday of Week 10 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
2 Corinthians 1:18-22 | Psalm 118(119):129-133,135 | Matthew 5:13-16
Saint Antony of Padua, Priest, Doctor
Isaiah 61:1-3 | Psalm 88(89):2-5,21-22,25,27 | Luke 10:1-9


The Son of God, the Christ Jesus that we proclaimed among you […] was never Yes and No: with him it was always Yes, and however many the promises God made, the Yes to them all is in him. That is why it is ‘through him’ that we answer Amen to the praise of God. (2 Corinthians 1:19-20)

Most of us have a strange relationship with God.

Stupid parents, can’t control their kids. How can I pray with all their noise?

I knew coming for Eucharistic adoration was a waste of time. How can I hear God when that clown in the corner is snoring?!?!

“The Son of God, the Christ Jesus that we proclaimed”zzzZZZZZ…

(That last bit happened to me last night. I’d come back very late from a friend’s mother’s wake, and nodded off while contemplating today’s scripture.)

Jesus, on the other hand, was ever-present in God. Even in the direst of circumstances, as His Passion unfolded on that terrible day, He still accepted His excruciating role in our salvation:

‘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)

Jesus was God’s ultimate YES to us (John 3:16), and in turn showed us how to say YES to God.

We may always fall short in our human frailty, turning away or giving up despite our most earnest desire to be closer to God.

But that doesn’t mean we should stop striving to make our very lives a tangible YES to our Creator.

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I’m reminded of a Spanish hymn I used to sing in college. I roughly understood the lyrics at the time (the Spanish words alternated with their English translation), but it took over 25 years to really understand their import.

Digo “Si,”Señor,
en tiempos malos y en tiempos buenos.
Digo “Si,”Señor,
a todo lo que hablas.

Let us look deep into our hearts, and reorient our priorities, our desires and fears, to the One, the Everlasting, the Eternal YES.

I say “Yes,” my Lord,
in all the good times, through all the bad times.
I say “Yes,” my Lord,
to every word you speak.

Then, and only then, can we answer with all our heart, our soul, our strength and will:

Amen.

 

God, The Quiet Janitor-Medic

Monday of Week 10 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
2 Corinthians 1:1-7 | Psalm 33(34):2-9 | Matthew 5:1-12


Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, a gentle Father and the God of all consolation, who comforts us in all our sorrows, so that we can offer others, in their sorrows, the consolation that we have received from God ourselves. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

“Wah, Adrian, you’re so cheerful!”

“Of course! I find my joy in the Lord!”

That conversation happened just yesterday, and it took me by surprise. Until I’d uttered those words, I never really thought about being cheerful that day.

Especially since, just two hours before, I’d given some of my choir members a good ticking-off for not singing in time.

But as I stopped to think about what I’d just said, I admitted to myself that I have been a lot happier in general, since I committed myself to spending a good chunk of each day with the Lord.

My troubles don’t seem to have lessened, and may in fact have increased, as others who aren’t as thrilled with their lives try their best to wipe the silly grin off my face.

But my troubles aren’t troubling me any more. I don’t spend hours agonizing over what needs to be done. With the Lord comes clarity of thought, and the consolation that, when I feel most alone and abandoned, He’s propping my weary body up with His grace and love.

As John Michael Talbot sang almost 15 years ago:

Only in God is my soul at rest,
in Him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock,
my strength and my salvation.

My stronghold, my Saviour,
I shall not be afraid at all.
My stronghold, my Saviour,
I shall not be moved.

Brothers and sisters, I pray that God our Father, source of all strength and salvation, may grant you the same graces He’s given me,

that when our journey through life is joyously calm, we never lose sight of Him clearing trash and smoothing the way before us,

but when we stumble and fall, He will always be beside us, to pick us up, bandage our scrapes, dust us off, and send us on our way.

To Him be all praise and blessings, now and forever.

Amen.

Trinal Unity of Love and Grace

The Most Holy Trinity
Exodus 34:4-6,8-9 | Daniel 3:52-55 | 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 | John 3:16-18


God the Father, source of all life and love, creator of heaven and earth.

God the Son, redeemer of mankind, by the blood and water that flowed from Him in his Passion.

God the Holy Spirit, sent to advocate for us all, in fellowship as one united people.

The Holy Trinity, the One God.

It’s a mystery that we will probably never really fathom, but it’s still worth pondering just how much each part of the Trinity impacts our daily lives.

And how that impact can be increased.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.