Monthly Archives: January 2019

Friday of week 1 in Ordinary Time
Hebrews 4:1-5,11 | Psalm 77(78):3-4,6-8 | Mark 2:1-12

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Be careful: the promise of reaching the place of rest that God had for the Israelites still holds good, and none of you must think that he has come too late for it.

Hebrews 4:1

Procrastination is one of my regular sins. It’s easy to tell myself that I’ve enough time to do XYZ, so I push it off in favour of something more urgent. Before I know it, I’ve got a rush job on my hands, and even though I generally pull it off, it’s often not to the standard I expect from myself.

And if I can’t…I get to have a very uncomfortable conversation with the folks who’re waiting for my deliverables.

So it is with working towards the eternal life promised to us, along the road of holiness that Jesus paved and signposted by His life, teachings and sacrifice. We’ve always been told that it doesn’t matter how long you believe in God, just that you do. Deathbed baptisms simply seal that impression, so we merrily traipse down the secular road of hedonism and selfishness, confident that we’ll have enough time to atone for all our failings.

Until, of course, we actually run out of time.

So don’t tarry, dear brothers and sisters. Make peace now with your neighbours and God, partake regularly of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, spend time with the Good Book while you can, and love love love.

Else, one day, we may find ourselves with failing minds and bodies, short one solid foundation of faith and love, and helplessly spiraling down into…

Lord, remind us always that our time is short. Amen.

Thursday of week 1 in Ordinary Time
(Saint Antony, Abbot)
Hebrews 3:7-14 | Psalm 94(95):6-11 | Mark 1:40-45

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‘Mind you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your healing prescribed by Moses as evidence of your recovery.’

Mark 1:44

We can be quite certain that Jesus knew what the leper he’d just cured would do. It’s a foregone conclusion that anyone who’s had a life-changing experience will blab about it, despite any instructions to the contrary.

So why don’t we blab about Jesus?

Could it be that we just haven’t experienced the joy of knowing Him in our lives, because we’ve steeped ourselves in worldly cares and pleasures as mature adults are expected to do, instead of opening our hearts and minds to Him like children?

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Some years ago, I had the pleasure of asking a garrulous young boy a very simple question: What are you thankful for?

Out poured a torrent of things…

from the rain in which he’d taken respite from the heat (not particularly thankful for the concerned mother who yanked him out prematurely with a stern scolding),

to the dog who’d licked him silly (but initially frightened him with its loud bark),

to the extra sweets from the doctor’s office he’d sneaked in his pockets when his mom wasn’t looking.

Ask an adult the same question, and you’d probably get only a suspicious glare, or a carefully-considered response, or “nothing, really”. (You know that to be true, even with yourself.)

Share the child’s responses with an adult, and you’d typically get “aiyoh, sure get sick one, what’s the mother doing hah?!?!” We’d see them as typical childish nonsense, completely undignified for a grown person, if not a clear case for Child Protective Service to take up with the hapless parent.

So when it comes to sharing God with others, it’s no wonder we’re terribly unconvincing. The joy that His love elicits is not a calculated test of our erudition and biblical knowledge, but an unrestrained childlike lightness that comes straight from the heart. Bearing witness by the joyful way we live Christian lives is far more convincing than chapter-and-verse from the Good Book, complete with admonitions and exhortations.

I’m reminded somehow of Lewis Carroll’s famous nonsense poem Jabberwocky. It’s not meant to make any sense, just the reverse: Trying to analyze it to death just destroys the beauty of it all. Best to just go with the flow and appreciate the emotions it conjures up.

So, brothers and sisters, whenever we’re moved to blab about the Good News, let’s not hold back, yeah?

Lord, enflame us with Your love. Amen.

Wednesday of week 1 in Ordinary Time
Hebrews 2:14-18 | Psalm 104(105):1-4,6-9 | Mark 1:29-39

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For it was not the angels that he took to himself; he took to himself descent from Abraham. It was essential that he should in this way become completely like his brothers so that he could be a compassionate and trustworthy high priest of God’s religion, able to atone for human sins. (Hebrews 2:16-17)

It’s a truism that “you can’t really understand what you haven’t experienced”.

The rich, having never experienced desperate hunger, will never really understand what it’s like to be poor.

A new CEO who’s “parachuted” from outside an organization often turns out to be a poor fit, knowing nothing about the corporate culture and thereby running roughshod over what actually worked from previous management.

Is it any wonder that God, in his infinite wisdom, didn’t just take human form, but started from scratch as an infant? Only through experiencing the down-and-dirty process of growing up, could our Saviour truly be “one of us”.

Only by knowing our joys and woes first-hand, could He give up His life freely in the end, fully cognizant of what us poor humans go through day by day.

Only by exposing Himself to the master tempter Satan, could He truly minister to His flock, imparting a faith that would survive through the millennia.

An omnipotent alien being might command great awe, but hardly any respect, and certainly not love.

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

But we too maintain such a distance from our disadvantaged brothers and sisters. Perhaps they’re not as “alien” as true extraterrestrials, but do we truly understand their plight, or do we simply throw money into the collection box as a salve for our conscience?

Or consider our own acquaintances who are struggling with their finances, or their family life, or their faith. Do we reach out when they need us most, or do we make ourselves scarce, afraid of being dragged into their troubles?

How much more of an example do we need than Jesus Himself who, as we’re told in today’s Gospel, did not rest on the adulation of a single town, but pushed His all-too-human body to go far and wide, preaching to and healing as many people as He could?

Not with a Thanos-like snap of his fingers from on high, but step by tiring step, one person at a time.

So it should be with us privileged, not to throw money at the poor like they are problems to be solved, but go up close and personal, looking into their eyes and experiencing their desperate need for sustenance and someone who cares. As my favorite musical Les Misérables proclaims near its end:

And remember the truth that once was spoken…
to love another person is to see the face of God.

Lord, may we truly see You in the least of our brethren. Amen.

Monday of week 1 in Ordinary Time
Hebrews 1:1-6 | Psalm 96(97):1-2,6-7,9 | Mark 1:14-20

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in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his Son, the Son that he has appointed to inherit everything and through whom he made everything there is. (Hebrews 1:2)

When I read that portion of today’s reading, my mind immediately leaped to the Nicene Creed, specifically:

begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.

A wise priest once told me that “we may know by heart every word of the Creed that we profess, but we’ll never really understand it.” Those six words in bold used to be almost a throwaway line. Now, I’m reminded of the beginning of the Gospel according to St. John:

In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things came to be, not one thing had its being but through him. (John 1:1-3)

Christ, the Logos, the Word of God, born of the Father before all ages. Through Him were created you, and me, and everything we see around us.

I’m moved to exclaim, in punny hip hop lingo, “word up!”

Which, in plain Catholic, simply means…

Amen.

The Baptism of the Lord
Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11 | Psalm 103(104):1-4,24-25,27-30 | Titus 2:11-14,3:4-7 | Luke 3:15-16,21-22

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He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms, holding them against his breast and leading to their rest the mother ewe. (Isaiah 40:11)

It’s easy for most of us to forget the circumstances of our own baptism, and especially the expectations laid on our tiny infant shoulders to be part of “the holy priesthood that offers the spiritual sacrifices which Jesus Christ has made acceptable to God, […] living stones making a spiritual house.” (1 Peter 2:5)

A large part of our common priesthood involves offering ourselves in service to others as a shepherd would: giving food and drink to the hungry and thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, comforting the sick and imprisoned. (Matthew 25:35-36) Through our actions, we bear witness to others of the love of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

So let’s be more mindful of our daily deeds, and seek to shape them in the mold of God’s unconditional love, so that we may become good shepherds in the likeness of the Good Shepherd, fulfilling our baptismal promises by bringing all peoples from the darkness of secular concerns to the Light of the Almighty.

Amen.