3rd Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 27.01.2013

Nehemiah 8:2-6, 8-10/ 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 or 12:12-14, 27/ Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21

Over the past week, there is one topic that dominated the local news, and that is the election or by-election.

Oh yes, the faces of the four candidates from the four political parties were on the news, together with the leaders and members of their parties.

Rallies were held, many words were spoken, many promises were made.

Each candidate is matured and promising, and so it would be a by-election to watch as it would be closely fought.

By now, we would know who won the seat at the Punggol East constituency.

And we would certainly hear some words of vision and direction from the new minister of parliament.

Coincidentally, at the same time, we, the Church of Singapore, are also rejoicing over an “election”.

Yes, we give thanks and we rejoice because an Archbishop Coadjutor had been chosen for our archdiocese.

Archbishop Coadjutor means that he will definitely succeed the present Archbishop when he retires.

And the date for his ordination (Episcopal Ordination) is set on the 22nd February at the Singapore Expo Max Pavilion.

We certainly await that day as the administrative and logistic preparations are rolling at full speed.

But we are also looking ahead into the future to see what vision the Archbishop-to-be William Goh has for the Church in Singapore.

We also want to know what direction and what mission he has for us.

Yes, we are waiting because this will certainly have an effect on how we are going to live out our faith and to make it relevant in our lives and in our society. 

Yes, we are looking for vision and mission statements from our spiritual leaders as well as from our political leaders.

But today we hear the vision and mission statement from none other than the Chief Shepherd, who is also the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

Jesus went back to His hometown in Nazareth, and in the synagogue on the Sabbath day, He stood up to read.

He unrolled the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and He read this passage.

“The Spirit of the Lord been given to me, for He has anointed me. 
He has sent me to give good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.”

Certainly, a very grand and impressive vision and mission statement.

It represented the hopes and dreams of the people of the Old Testament and Jesus came to fulfill it as He said those words: “This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.”

Yet, as much as it represented the hopes and dreams of the people of the Old Testament, what they experienced were anguish and pain.

In fact, the anguish and pain of the peoples of the Old Testament are also the anguish and pain of the people of the New Testament and are also the grieves and anguish of the people of modern times.

It is said that every person, on the average, has some kind of physical complaint or a stressful problem every 3 days. 

I think that is already very optimistic. You may retort by saying, “What every 3 days?! It’s everyday!”

Whatever it may be, we want to hear good news that bring joy and hope and we also want to tell others that kind of good news.

We want to experience liberty and freedom from all those stressful problems that hold us captives.

We want to experience that power of prayer that will heal the sick and make them healthy and happy.

We want to say that we are not stressed because we are blessed, and that the Lord’s favour is on us.

Yet, in the face of illness, financial difficulties, family and marriage problems, and problems at work, what we feel are pain and anguish.

We feel so weak in face of all the challenges and it is a painful burden for us. 

So, did God fail us somewhere and did not keep His word? After all, Jesus proclaimed that grand and impressive vision and mission statement, but the world is still battling old illnesses and facing new ones; there is still injustice and poverty, oppression and destruction.

Yes, we are still struggling in our grief and anguish over the problems that we face, be it physical or emotional.

Yet, our struggle is not an absence of strength. In fact, our struggle is a means to strength. 

We are tempted to think that God sends us our trials and tribulations to test us and teach us.

But the fact is that our trials and tribulations are already here. Even Jesus would say, “In this world you will have trials and tribulations.”

There is a story of a little girl who found a butterfly cocoon and she brought it home to take care of it and to watch the butterfly come out.

Finally, the day arrived and the cocoon shook a little and there was a small tear and a tiny head appeared.

But it seemed that the butterfly was struggling and having difficulty to break out of the cocoon.

The little girl grew impatient and she thought of helping. She took a little stick to open up the cocoon so that the butterfly could break out of it.

Immediately, the butterfly was free, but when it tried to fly, it stretched out its wings but it fell and died.

The girl was shocked and ran crying to her father, asking, “What happened? I tried to help!”

The father gently answered, “The butterfly needed to struggle.Without struggling, it would never be able to strengthen its wings to fly.”

And even for Jesus, after proclaiming the words from the prophet Isaiah, He went on His mission that would be lined with trials and difficulties. (In fact, next week, we will hear of His first struggle)

And in the end, He had to struggle to carry the cross up to Calvary on which He would lay down His life for us.

But we must remember that struggles and sufferings, trials and tribulations, do not have the final word.

The final word belongs to Jesus as He tells us: In this world, there will be trials and tribulations. But do not fear. I have overcome the world.

So Jesus has given us a vision of hopes and dreams. With that the mission must begin and it must begin today.

It will be a struggle, but may we be rewarded with the joy of seeing the butterflies breaking free from the cocoons.