Category Archives: Daily Reflections

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
Ezekiel 33:7-9 | Psalm 94(95):1-2,6-9 | Romans 13:8-10 | Matthew 18:15-20

[…] and if he refuses to listen to the community, treat him like a pagan or a tax collector. (Matthew 18:17)

So, as good Catholics, we should shun those among us who refuse to practise the Christian precepts of “love for God” and “love for neighbour”, right?

Well, yes and no.

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary says:

This is a way of saying, let him be excommunicated, excluded from the community, a drastic step to be taken only in serious matters where the welfare of the community is at stake. (NJBC 42:115)

So if, for example, a member is abrasive and disruptive to the proper functioning of our ministry, despite all efforts to persuade him to the contrary, we should indeed “cast him out”.

But not permanently, like a “spawn of Satan”.

If he should show a willingness to reform, he should be welcomed back with open arms, just like the Prodigal Son, or even Matthew himself, who accepted Jesus’ call while he was still a tax collector (Matthew 9:9).

Indeed, the whole point of excommunication isn’t punishment, but an invitation to reconsider, reconnect and rekindle the individual’s love for God and neighbour.

Reconciliation is inconceivable always on the table, both for those who have gravely offended us…and we who have gravely offended God.

Lord, help us keep in mind even those who do not practise what they profess, for we too are sometimes guilty of the same. Remind us always that You want us all to be one, and so we in turn should not permanently cast aside those whom we deem unfit for Your kingdom, for Your call is always to return to communion. Amen.

Friday of Week 21 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 | Psalm 96(97):1-2,5-6,10-12 | Matthew 25:1-13

What God wants is for you all to be holy. (1 Thessalonians 4:3)

As I write this, I’m surrounded by yelling children at my grandnephew’s birthday party. The sheer variety of antics that young kids can get up to, the number of physical obstacles they can bounce off of, and their inability to express their joy at reasonable volume; all these remind me of what it means to delight in the Lord.

I’m also sitting beside my brother-in-law. Over the last twenty years, Parkinson’s disease has slowly ravaged his body, and he’s no longer able to exert conscious control over his now-shriveled frame.

Yet, as the rest of us wince at the ear-splitting shrieks of half a dozen children, he sits quietly, gazing at them with a faint smile on his face,

probably reminiscing about his own journey as a father,

possibly tearing up inside at his inability to hold either of his grandsons from the day of their births,

and hopefully making peace with his failures and disappointments over the years, but also relishing his joys and triumphs.

Through him, I understand that my own body may simply crumble one day.

With him, I feel the need to take joy in the here-and-now, but also plan and act for the hereafter.

In him, I see holiness in suffering, of helpless fatherly and grandfatherly love that reflects the agape that is our Creator.

I can’t help but reflect on my own faults, my own stumblings on the path of faith, and keep pushing myself to be what my God wants me to be, despite the world’s multifarious efforts to drag me in the opposite direction.

Loving.

Aware.

Holy.

Amen.

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
Isaiah 22:19-23 | Psalm 137(138):1-3,6,8 | Romans 11:33-36 | Matthew 16:13-20

Your love, O Lord, is eternal:
discard not the work of your hands. (Psalm 138:8)

Yesterday, I finally returned to my primary school, 37 years after I graduated.

I was at St. Joseph’s Institution Junior for the archdiocese New Wine 2017 conference, but to me, it will forever be St. Michael’s School.

Sicut Michael Semper, indeed.

All the old familiar buildings are long gone, replaced by a spanking new campus that has a charm all its own.

Oddly, that neatly reflected one of the peripheral themes of the conference: No more “business as usual”.

It’s a perennial danger faced by all Catholics. We pray the same prayers over and over, perform the same actions over and over, and thereby sink into the same rut of faith over and over, neither blazing with belief nor rejecting the Lord entirely.

St. John had a disturbing revelation about God’s reaction to such Catholics:

I know all about you: how you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were one or the other, but since you are neither, but only lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth. (Rev 3:15-16)

We need to guard against such middle-of-the-road meanderings. It confirms something I’ve begun to implement in my life: Don’t Get Comfy In Faith.

I know I need to challenge myself every day, to not slip into “auto-prayer” mode, to focus in contemplation, to risk both silent and public scorn to share my faith in both word and deed.

For as Dr. Scott Hahn noted in his book Evangelizing Catholics:

You can’t keep the faith until you give it away.

The love of the Lord is never-changing because it is perfect.

We humans need to keep polishing.

Amen.

Wednesday of week 20 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
Judges 9:6-15 | Psalm 20(21):2-7 | Matthew 20:1-16

It’s quite obvious by now that my daily commitment to writing about each day’s scripture has fallen by the wayside. I draw a blank on most nights in recent memory, so I set the task aside till the dawn, whereupon I either end up busying myself with something else, or sit down and draw another blank. Blanks are really no fun to draw.

Do I feel like I’m letting God down? Kinda.

Do I feel like a failure? Oh yes.

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

Then last evening, as I was shopping for groceries, an odd sight nearly made me laugh out loud:

The price of failure?!?!

Just a simple electronic price tag, with a mocking message:

You arrogant fool! You think you’re a great failure? I’ve got news for you: everybody fails! So you missed a few days’ scriptural blogging, well big whoop! Keep on keepin’ on, I say!

(That was actually all in my head, but you get the idea…)

It’s a timely reminder to keep my eyes firmly fixed on the God who’s both far in the distance and right in front of me.

The God who knows I’ve failed, but also knows I’m willing to keep coming back.

The God who loves me enough to send me very unusual messages.

As long as I keep my eyes firmly fixed on Him, I can more-or-less avoid the grievous error of the Shechem elders in today’s scripture, who in electing Abimelech king would later regret their terrible choice.

Lord God, You are King of my heart. Let me never turn away from You, even in my direst moments, and especially not in the times of great success. May I always look to You in joy and in sorrow, in trial and in ease, salve for the wounded present and hope for the glorious future. For in You alone do I live, and move, and have my being. Amen.

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

And as the lights go out at the basement supermarket, a forlorn voice is heard:

OK, message sent. Now can someone please fix me?

Anyone?

Hello?

Wednesday of week 19 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
Deuteronomy 34:1-12 | Psalm 65(66):1-3,5,16-17 | Matthew 18:15-20

The Lord said to him, ‘This is the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying: I will give it to your descendants. I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not cross into it.’ (Deuteronomy 34:4)

Of late, I’ve been dreaming of failure.

I dream of building a successful business, only to be ousted by the company board.

I dream of running towards a young boy standing in the middle of the road, only to watch helplessly as he tumbles over a speeding car into a crumpled motionless heap.

I dream of standing in the middle of Raffles Place, proclaiming the end times to a never-ending flock of financial types blithely flitting past, minds lost in plotting their next market killing.

I wonder where all this failure is coming from.

Ow.

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

Moses failed in his success.

He led the Israelites to the Promised Land, but he did not trust in God enough to ask the rock at Meribah to yield its life-giving waters. Instead, he struck it twice, and in his disobedience, he was barred from entering himself. (Numbers 20:1-13)

Yet Moses, to this day, is still considered one of the greatest and most widely-acknowledged of all the prophets.

He also succeeded each time he trusted in the Lord. The Book of Exodus is filled with accounts of the miracles he was involved with.

✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞

I think my dreams weren’t actually about failure.

I may have lost my business, but it survived.

I may not have been able to save that child, but I didn’t hesitate to try.

I may not have been able to convert hearts, but I didn’t fear to take the stand for the Lord.

Instead, they were a reminder that my own abilities are limited, but there is something greater in this world, emanating from someone who beckons to me and points the way every day, the right race to run.

That something…is faith.

Not the fickleness of human desires.

Not the ever-changing measures of secular success.

Just the quiet voice that reminds us in the silence:

Trust in the Lord, and do what He commands.
Unto Him give the first fruits of your heart.
When all has crumbled into dust, He will remain.
He will raise you up in the palm of His hand.

Amen.