For us Chinese, the Chinese New Year is an important celebration.
We take a break from work and from everything else just to celebrate Chinese New Year.
One of the most important aspects of Chinese New Year is the Reunion Dinner which we had last evening.
The family came together and gathered at the dinner table for a meal.
It’s a special meal because it is a reunion meal.
It is a meal that expresses the unity of the family, the love, the care, the concern for each other.
Also in partaking of this meal, we express our acceptance and forgiveness of each other.
That is why the reunion dinner is so important in the Chinese New Year celebrations.
And today, we are gathered around the altar of God to be reunited with God.
We want to offer our worship, give thanks, ask for forgiveness, ask for protection, and ask for blessings.
We also want to celebrate God’s love for us and to express that love for each other as we wish each other.
That is what real blessing is about – to be reunited with God and united with each other.
The real blessing is to be united as God’s family and celebrate family love.
Where there is love, the celebration of Chinese New Year will be indeed joyful and meaningful.
So, blessed is wearing new clothes and new shoes and having a new hairdo, let us also ask God to grant us a new heart.
Let us ask God to grant us a new and clean heart as we begin a new year.
Let us also ask the Lord to pour forth His love and blessings in our new and clean heart so that we will always be united with God and with each other.
We Chinese has this saying: it is blessed to have a meal.
In this Mass, we gather for a sacred meal.
We gather at the sacrificial table, the altar of the Lord, and we eat of the body of Christ.
That is the greatest blessing that we can ever ask for.
Yet, we also continue to share this blessing whenever we share a meal with our family, relatives and friends.
As we go visiting our relatives and friends during this Chinese New Year, we will surely sit down for a meal with them.
Let every meal be an expression of love, care, concern, reunion.
Let every meal also be an expression of acceptance, understanding and forgiveness.
Let every meal be an experience of God’s blessing.
More importantly, it is at the Mass, where we partake of the sacred meal that God is pouring forth His fullest blessings.
May you have a happy and blessed Chinese New Year.