Category Archives: Daily Reflections

The Presentation of the Lord
Malachi 3:1-4 | Psalm 23(24):7-10 | Hebrews 2:14-18 | Luke 2:22-40

“Hormat, senja…….TA!”

(Credit: Suntec Singapore Convention Loves)

Even though my National Service days are well behind me, I still remember many of the parade commands that were drilled into us young men over and over again.

This one is the Malay equivalent of “Present ARMS!”, a call to assembled soldiers to hold forth their weapons, a military salute to dignitaries or the state flag.

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On this feast day of the Lord, let us do some soul-searching:

How do we present ourselves to the Lord of All?

Do we stand erect as soldiers of God, ready to do battle with the Evil One?

Or do we skulk like cockroaches, desperately avoiding the Light of Christ?

Do we approach others with love in word and deed, seeing the face of Christ in everyone?

Or do we abuse others with harsh gossip and unkind actions?

Do we still turn to the Lord after we fall, desiring reconciliation, confident in His forgiveness and mercy?

Or do we drift away in sin, confident that we are better off without Him?

Lord, here we are to answer Your call. Steel our hearts to resist the lure of evil, fill our minds with Your Holy Word, and help us show Your grace to all we meet, in loving and merciful deeds. Amen.

Wednesday of Week 4 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
Hebrews 12:4-7,11-15 | Psalm 102(103):1-2,13-14,17-18 | Mark 6:1-6

Suffering is part of your training; God is treating you as his sons. Has there ever been any son whose father did not train him? (Hebrews 12:7)

Childhood is a time of accidents and incidents. Like most boys my age, I’d do silly things like disassemble my dad’s (then) expensive calculator, then put it back together…to discover it no longer worked.

Or take the faceplate off a 3-way wall plug adapter, then watch the pins of a power plug fit snugly into the exposed metal prongs of the adapter. Unfortunately, I’d often forget to switch the power off and get a little careless with my fingers, so there’d be a ZAP!, I’d be thrown across the room, and the home circuit breaker would trip. (It’s a minor miracle that I’m still alive after all these years.)

Inevitably, my dad would take down his rotan from behind a remarkably familiar picture hanging in the dining room, apply it vigorously to my tender behind, then return it to its resting place behind the picture.

I’m sure you’re curious why I seem to be drawing your attention to that mysterious picture. Wonder no longer, for it looked like this:

O Mother of Perpetual Help, save me from myself!

I doubt my dad was trying to make a point here, but in hindsight, I’d already begun to form an association between God’s love…and the pain of corporal punishment.

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One common argument I’ve heard from atheists goes like this: “How can you believe God is real, when you suffer more than that rich kid over there?”

The simple answer: since we’ve joined ourselves to Christ in faith and baptism, we inevitably share in His sufferings, but we also participate in the redemption that He’s won through his death on the cross. The idea that suffering can have redeeming qualities seems counter-intuitive, but it’s an important part our faith.

Suffering keeps us humble, reminds us of our mortality, and gives us an opportunity to reflect on what is truly important in our lives. Looking back just over a year ago, when I broke my foot and was housebound for two months, I really did begin reflecting through the pain on what sort of Catholic I wanted to be, which led after Easter to this daily spiritual blog.

So let us embrace the suffering we experience in our lives, and let it transform us into better and more faithful followers of Christ.

Lord Jesus Christ, in the midst of our daily pain, we often forget that You bore our sufferings and carried our sorrows all the way to Your Holy Cross. Help us to unite ourselves with Your suffering, to express the eternal love You give us by helping others in their pain, so that we may all be transformed into worthy children of God. Amen.

Tuesday of Week 4 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
Saint John Bosco, Priest
Hebrews 12:1-4 | Psalm 21(22):26-28,30-32 | Mark 5:21-43

‘If I can touch even his clothes,’ she had told herself ‘I shall be well again.’ And the source of the bleeding dried up instantly, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her complaint. (Mark 5:28-29)

This story of the hemorrhaging woman is often cited as a clear example of the power of faith, but I see it embodying a related and even more powerful message: “Dare To Dream Of Eternity!”

Many of us, confronted with a major illness that defies all medical intervention, are simply content to live with our condition as best we can.

This woman dared to dream: “I can be cured, and Jesus is the One who’ll cure me!”

From such dreams will spring lasting faith.

Adrian, you’ve really lost it this time! What nonsense are you spouting?

Let me explain…

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What sort of faith do we practice, brothers and sisters?

Is it an intellectual faith, one based on the clockwork belief that “if we give alms to the poor, clothe the naked, etc. so forth, we will be doing what the Father wants, and will therefore be reunited with him”?

Or is it a faith based on hope, one that says “Lord, have pity on me, a sinner, and guide me to the path of life”?

I think the former is in fact more akin to Mosaic law, the very mechanical call to obedience that Jesus came to supplant! “So boring, so tedious, and I’m not seeing results!”

The latter, on the other hand, starts with a dream, that we shall one day be reunited with the Father.

A dream that imbues us with the desire to be reunited with the Father.

A dream that gives us hope when life itself turns against us, and we are beset by difficult people and irresistible temptations, tormented by the worry that we might not be judged worthy.

A dream that compels us to reach out to Jesus amid life’s difficulties, to acknowledge that He can guide us through it all, and lead us to eternity with the Father.

So let us dare to dream: “We have been saved, and Jesus will show the way to claim our eternal prize! We have but to reach out and touch, and to follow Him.”

Amen.

Monday of Week 4 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
Hebrews 11:32-40 | Psalm 30(31):20-24 | Mark 5:1-20

I was about to alight the train yesterday evening, when I heard a spitting noise behind me.

I turned my head, thinking nobody could possibly be inconsiderate enough to spit in a train. To my surprise, there was a young girl sitting there, with a small pool of spit in front of her. (I hadn’t noticed her before, probably because I had been facing outwards when she entered my carriage from an adjoining one.)

As I was exiting, I distinctly heard a female voice go “Ew, disgusting!”

To my shame, I immediately thought “yeah, just like the mouth from which those words came.”

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Dear brothers and sisters, have you formed a mental picture of the above scene?

Have you made one or more moral judgments based on what I’ve said so far?

In particular, did you think I was being too harsh on the woman who pronounced disgust on an unhygienic and illegal act?

Good, because I left out one detail on purpose:

The young girl showed unmistakable signs of Down syndrome.

Have any of your thoughts suddenly changed?

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The possessed man in today’s gospel reminded me of that young girl. Both were deemed “undesirable” by their respective societies, unable to fit in through no fault of their own.

Jesus drove the demons from the man’s mind, enabling him henceforth to lead a normal life, to the great relief of his family.

But modern medicine still has no answer to this girl’s affliction, so she’ll be ostracized till her dying day…along with her mother beside her, probably trying her best not to retaliate with an unkind remark of her own, and enduring the contemptuous stares from fellow passengers.

I think this mother is no less a “hero of faith” than Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets mentioned in today’s reading. I don’t know if she believes in God, but we are reminded regularly by Jesus that:

It is not those who say to me, “Lord, Lord”, who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. (Matthew 7:21)

I think this woman, in loving her daughter without reservation, and bearing the cross of lifelong caregiving, embodies the will of our Father in heaven.

As do the families of mentally and physically challenged children whom I see every Sunday at church, resolutely standing by their helpless progeny.

Heroes of faith are revealed in action rather than words, and it doesn’t take much to become one.

It just takes an act of will, to love others and not to count the cost.

We just have to break that little habit of counting the cost in everything.

Lord, You gave us Your life, and You gave us Your love. Help us to share our life and love unreservedly with others who are disadvantaged in life and bereft of love, as You would want us to. Amen.

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
Zephaniah 2:3,3:12-13 | Psalm 145(146):6-10(Lord6) | 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 | Matthew 5:1-12

Today’s scripture is filled with humility.

“Seek the Lord, you humble of the earth,” says the prophet Zephaniah.

St. Paul reminds the Corinthians (and us) that we have been chosen by God because we are weak, having nothing to boast about to the Lord.

And Jesus reminds us that the kingdom of heaven is waiting for those who are “poor in spirit”, who understand that we would not exist without the grace of God.

No matter how successful we are in this life, no matter how many things we’ve had the money to buy, we are nothing compared to God.

It can sometimes be hard to tamp down our pride, to tell ourselves that, despite all our riches and acclaim, we aren’t God’s gift to humankind.

But we do bear His gift to others, the gift of Love given to us in faith, the willingness to share our abundance with those who have nothing, the openness to do a kindness or two to those in need.

So let us open ourselves up like beautiful flowers to others, our petal-hands spreading the peace of Christ through deeds of mercy.

Let us do this not for our own arrogant glory, but as reflections of the One who made all things new.

And let us never forget to turn our faces to the Lord, to acknowledge the source of all strength and power, humble enough to become one of us, to suffer with us, and to die for us.

In Him, who won our salvation with His blood, can we truly make our boasts.

Amen.