Spiritus Sanctus

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
Ecclesiasticus 27:33-28:9 | Psalm 102(103):1-4,9-12 | Romans 14:7-9 | Matthew 18:21-35

He who exacts vengeance will experience the vengeance of the Lord,
who keeps strict account of sin. (Ecclesiasticus 28:1)

This passage instantly triggered a musical memory from my teenage years:

Button up and tighten your lip
Keep a check on what you say
Those crazy words you fling from your mouth
Will bounce back on you some day

We will be held to account for everything we do and say, on the day we come face to face with the Lord. Just as the wicked and unforgiving servant in today’s Gospel earned the wrath of his master, so too will we be held responsible for our hard-heartedness towards our fellow humans.

And let’s be honest, we’ve all fallen short on that account at least once in our lives, and perhaps a lot more often than that.

Remember this commercial?

Our Lord is a forgiving master too. It’s not too late to make amends for our selfishness, to admit to our sins and forge a new caring path for ourselves.

Upon which we’ll eventually stumble and fall, hurting our neighbors yet again.

But since we’ve set our gaze on the Almighty, it’s easier each time to get back up on our feet, and love again.

We just have to take that first step, to reconcile ourselves with our sinful past, and to bounce right back onto the path of love and grace.

Amen.

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.