Category Archives: Daily Reflections

Friday of Week 1 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
St Hilary of Poitiers, Bishop, Doctor
Hebrews 4:1-5,11 | Psalm 77(78):3-4,6-8 | Mark 2:1-12

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)

Yesterday, I learned that Dylann Roof, the young white supremacist who killed nine black American churchgoers in cold blood, was sentenced to death…and that one victim’s family members surprisingly oppose that sentence.

It may also surprise you, dear readers, that the Catholic Church has never issued a blanket opposition to the death penalty, though individual Popes have opposed capital punishment, on the grounds that a lesser sentence like “life without parole” gives the offender time and space to properly repent and reform.

But even a death row inmate, during the last seconds before end-of-life, can repent and obtain forgiveness from God. It won’t save him in this life, but it’s the first step to reunion with the Father in the next.

Right?

Would you believe that there are Catholics who do not believe the above, that there are some sins that are simply unforgivable?

Would you believe that they are both right and wrong in their belief?

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We’ve been taught from the beginning that God can forgive anyone, even the vilest mass murderer. As fallible humans, our forgiveness of each other certainly has its limits, but God has none.

We’ve also been taught that a death-bed baptism, with the subject maintaining a proper disposition of wanting to be united with the Father, forgives all past sins.

So what on earth could escape the Father’s all-encompassing forgiveness?

Just one thing: the refusal to recognize our sinful nature and turn back to God. The Almighty forgives all…except those who don’t want to be forgiven.

This refusal can stem from several sources. The one that’s related to today’s scripture is despair, the erroneous belief that we’ve sinned too much and too often for God to possibly forgive it all, so why bother repenting at all? We’re going to hell, so we might as well enjoy the ride!

I came close to this stance in my college days, feeling lost and alone in a secular world that only believed in itself.

But in the words of today’s reading, “none of you must think that he has come too late for it.” God has never given up on us, so why should we give up on our struggle to reach Him? The promise of salvation, of “reaching the place of rest that God had for the Israelites” still holds good.

Jesus saw to that by giving Himself on the cross for the souls of all humans past, present and future, even blood-soaked Hitler-level maniacs, or Dylann Roof.

Who are we to reject such a gift, but ungrateful bastards?

Almighty and ever-living God, we know that You are ever-loving and ever-forgiving, but we sometimes lose hope in our salvation along our rocky journey through this life. Send us the Holy Spirit to remind us that You are always waiting patiently for us to return to You in humble penitence, and that Your healing mercy will do the rest. Amen.

Thursday of Week 1 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
Hebrews 3:7-14 | Psalm 94(95):6-11 | Mark 1:40-45

Every day, as long as this ‘today’ lasts, keep encouraging one another so that none of you is hardened by the lure of sin, because we shall remain co-heirs with Christ only if we keep a grasp on our first confidence right to the end. (Hebrews 3:13-14)

In yet another fact-stranger-than-fiction moment, the word “confidence” triggered a memory of a long-lost commercial jingle for Rexona antiperspirant from my childhood days, which featured that word prominently. My brain naturally wrote a parody:

Confidence, every day, that special feeling faith in God will give you
Confidence, all day long, Jesus is beside you day and night too

(spoken) Trust in God to illuminate the right path
Leading you with confidence from death to new life

If you want life, God is with us
Or you want comfort, Christ saved us
Confidence, new life, the Spirit just won’t let you down!

Yeah, it looks really weird in writing, but it sounded a lot better in my head. I guess “jingle writer” won’t be added to my CV any time soon.

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It just occurred to me that our baptism day is like New Year’s Day. In both cases, we’re all fired up with enthusiasm, and make all sorts of resolutions to improve our spiritual/physical fitness.

Then Real Life rudely butts in with its distractions and temptations. One by one, each resolution to remain faithful to God/our exercise plan falls by the wayside. “Whatever happened,” we wonder as we reflect at year’s end, “to that ‘first confidence’, that fire we had at the beginning?”

I think we all know the answer to that question: That was a firework, the kind that flares in celebration like a supernova, then disappears quickly into the darkness of humdrum life. What we need to be at the outset is a candle, which gives off less light but burns steadily.

When it comes to physical fitness, that means eschewing fancy high-intensity exercises that make us feel real good one day and real pain the next, in favour of a slow ramp-up from daily walks to daily jogs to daily runs, building confidence that we can sustain this effort over the long term.

In the spiritual realm, it means “showing up” every day, consciously reminding ourselves to pray a daily rosary, or to contemplate daily scripture and (in my case) pen our own thoughts about it.

And in both situations, it helps to have a “coach” or “buddy” along for the ride, someone to keep our spirits up and our legs pumping, physical or otherwise. This blog is my own effort to run the spiritual race alongside you, dear readers, the one that St. Paul meant when he wrote to Timothy:

I have fought the good fight to the end;
I have run the race to the finish;
I have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7)

As a good antiperspirant gives us confidence in the sweltering heat of the moment, so may our collective faith give us confidence to stand fast against the pressures of secular life.

Lord, let each day that passes be another day that we draw ever closer to You. Help us find the strength to fight the good fight of faith, and support each other in remaining steadfast against the Evil One, so that in the fullness of time, we will all be reunited with You and the Father, singing one united song of praise and glory. Amen.

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

That is, because he has himself been through temptation he is able to help others who are tempted. (Hebrews 2:18)

What a wonder is Jesus, Son of God,
that He deigned to also become Son of Man,
to realize human joys and pains, astonishment and temptation,
and to will His own sacrifice for the salvation of every human through eternity.
Not just to fulfill the will of God,
but also out of the compassion that only flows from shared experience.

“I know what you’re going through” is one of the easiest phrases to toss off, but is it the truth? Or is it merely shorthand for “tough luck, sorry you’re going through this, here’s some advice I haven’t used myself, but I guess it might work, so I’ll force-feed it to you anyway”?

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Jesus knew what we humans go through each day. He experienced it for Himself, and it greatly coloured His ministry.

Experiencing the mortality of human flesh, He chose not to stay in one place like a rabbi of privilege, waiting for everyone hearing about His exploits to come to Him. Instead, as a man on a mission with limited time, He “went all through Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out devils.” (Mark 1:39)

Understanding the jealousy that infects human hearts, He prevented the devils He cast out from revealing His true identity (Mark 1:34). In this way, He could continue to minister and preach to all without unduly worrying the scribes and Pharisees in their midst, until the time was ripe to return to Jerusalem and set in motion the events that would lead to His crucifixion.

Feeling the tug of human need, He let Himself be tested by the devil, while in a state of extreme hunger (Matthew 4:1-11). By overcoming such extreme temptations, He became the perfect role model to teach us how to resist the lure of sensuality.

Jesus “walked the walk”, so that He could “talk the talk” with authority.

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The people I meet sometimes wonder why I usually interact as pleasantly as I can with the young adults trying to sell me on a charitable cause,

or the old lady selling tissues at slightly exorbitant prices,

or the glum contract worker cleaning tables at the hawker centre,

or the slightly disheveled middle-aged man asking for a “pity handout” on a bus,

basically the kinds of people other folks prefer to ignore and/or blatantly avoid. They don’t often voice it out loud, but I do see traces of ARE YOU NUTS?!?! in their facial expressions.

And in the rare instance when they summon up enough courage to ask why I’d do such a silly thing, my answer couldn’t be clearer: “Because I’ve been a busboy before, I know first-hand what it feels like to be a pariah, and I really don’t want to make someone else feel the same way.”

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A famous American comedian once uttered a humorous twist on an old proverb:

Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
That way, when you do criticize him, you’ll be a mile away and have his shoes.
— Steve Martin

While funny on the surface, it belies a uncomfortable subtext: “Now that you’ve walked such a long way and your feet hurt like hell from ill-fitting footwear, perhaps you’ll not be so crass about others’ social status and dignity.”

Jesus literally went to hell and back for us, because He experienced our pain and suffering first-hand. So did models of charity like Mother Teresa, and so can we. While we might not experience grinding poverty or general social rejection, we can at least imagine what they’d feel like, and let that “experience” influence our interactions accordingly.

Otherwise, we may realize too late that (channeling comic artist Walt Kelly) “we have met the a**hole, and he is us!”

Amen.

Tuesday of Week 1 in Ordinary Time (Year A)
Hebrews 2:5-12 | Psalm 8:2,5-9 | Mark 1:21-28

Jesus and his followers went as far as Capernaum, and as soon as the sabbath came he went to the synagogue and began to teach. And his teaching made a deep impression on them because, unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority. (Mark 1:21-22)

Jesus was in a unique position. As the Son of God, He was “put in command of everything” (Hebrews 2:8), and He worked miracles during His ministry on earth as signs of that authority. More importantly, He was not limited by appeals to external authority when speaking about what God wanted of mankind; while the scribes were hobbled by their need to defer to one rabbi or another in their religious discourse, Jesus simply said, “I tell you most solemnly…”

Similarly, I’ve heard many conversations along the lines of “Fr. X said you should do Y, because…well, I can’t quite remember what he said, but it was a good reason.” Hardly convincing, is it? Much better to say “you should do Y, because Z”, but will they believe us, or reply with a snarky “and who made you God?”

We are called to spread the Word of God to others, but how can we do so with authority, especially when this world seems to revolve around moral relativity and personal opinion, in which everyone claims “authority” that others are reluctant to challenge on grounds of political correctness, or that are challenged with great ferocity but little substance?

The one way I’ve found is to live that Word, to experience what Fr. X was talking about, to internalize it and make it part of our being. Just as we would never trust a mechanic who’s read every car repair manual inside and out but never actually touched an engine, so we should not expect others to take our word for anything, just because we appeal to ecclesial authority. Being able to say “I speak from experience” and actually be living proof of it beats any number of theoretical suggestions.

So instead of being a NATO (No Action, Talk Only) “commander”, we should “practice what we preach”. Instead of just telling a friend in despair to “pray about it,” we should immediately join them in a prayer of comfort and appeal to our heavenly Father. Instead of just talking about charity, we should practice it for real, giving up our seats to those in more need of support, resisting dishonest urges in our dealings with vendors, being living models of Christian love.

In this way, when we speak of the unremitting love of God as shown to us through His Son’s ultimate sacrifice, even those who would prefer not to follow Christ cannot simply dismiss our words as being without foundation, since we would have proven ourselves by our very deeds to be that foundation.

We will never attain Christ’s level of authority, but we can certainly improve on “do what I say, not what I do”.

Lord, the world at large prefers to reject Your words of love and mercy.
Help us live our lives steeped in those words of love and mercy.
Help us pour forth Your love and mercy through our words and actions each day,
and so convince others by example that You are indeed the Way of Truth and Life. Amen.

The Baptism of the Lord
Isaiah 42:1-4,6-7 | Psalm 28(29):1-4,9-10 | Matthew 3:13-17

I stood in the shower last night, as I do every night, reflecting on today’s scripture while washing away the sweat and grime of the day.

Suddenly, a stray series of thoughts entered my head, tracing the passage of soapy water down my body:

Cleanse my mind, Lord, that it may discern Your Holy Way.

Clear my senses, Lord, that they may show me Your Holy Way.

Rinse my tongue, Lord, that it may tell of Your Holy Way.

Lave my heart, Lord, that it may yearn for Your Holy Way.

Scour my hands, Lord, that they may work to lead others on Your Holy Way.

Purify my feet, Lord, that they may walk Your Holy Way.

It’s funny what a thorough ablution does to the thought process.

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As Catholics, we can only be baptized once. Many of us were also baptized as infants, so we can’t recall the event even if we wanted to.

Nevertheless, we should never forget the end result of our baptism: an indelible seal of Spirit-filled purification on our hearts. It remains there in good times and bad, in sickness and health, whether we face God in joy or turn away from Him in shame. It simply is.

But because it only occurred once, and much would’ve happened in our lives since then, it’s often easy to forget its criticality in the hustle and bustle of mundane and Spirit-less life. We can and should consciously remind ourselves of this key point in our lives, and the responsibilities thrust upon us at this root of our rebirth.

Starting today, I will pray this prayer as I shower each morning before heading out to do the day’s work:

Lord, as I wash away the waste of my body’s nightly purification, cleanse me with your Spirit. Purify my heart and mind, that I may endeavour to do Your will today and every day of my life. Amen.

and another one as I wash each night:

Lord, as I wash away the detritus of today’s activities, cleanse me with your Spirit. Forgive me my trespasses of this day, as I forgive those who trespass against me, and grant me a good night’s rest, that I may endeavour to do Your will tomorrow and every day of my life. Amen.