Isaiah 2:1-5 / Ephesians 3:2-12 / Mark 16:15-20
According to the official Catholic Church Directory (2013) of the Archdiocese of Singapore, there are 31 parishes.
The highest parish population is 10,000. The lowest is 600. Can you make a guess which is the parish with the lowest population?
Yes, we the parish of the Sacred Heart has the lowest population of 600, and the parish with the highest population of 10,000 is the parish of Holy Trinity.
In other words, the parish population of Holy Trinity is more than 15 times the parish population of Sacred Heart.
Yet, both parishes have the same number of Masses for the weekend, i.e. 6 Masses – 1 Chinese Mass and 5 English Masses.
But if based on the parish population of 600, then we would only need to have two or, at most, three Masses on a Sunday. And yet we have five Masses on a Sunday. And all the five English Masses are full and sometimes even packed.
Maybe the population of 600 is based on the residents staying within the parish boundaries.
The parish territory is like the shape of peninsula Malaysia. It begins from the junction of Bukit Timah Road and Stevens Road, going down to Scotts Road and Orchard Road and right down to Outram Road.
If we can picture it in our minds, our parish territory is a happening place.
Just mention Orchard Road and that’s where the shopping and entertainment is, the restaurants and the hotels are there, and the posh and pricy residences are there.
And then somewhere among all these glittery places is the Church of the Sacred Heart.
So it can be said that we are the church in Orchard Road. But do we know that? Do the shopping malls, restaurants and hotels in Orchard Road know that?
Maybe the Mt. Elizabeth Hospital in Orchard Road knows that because they will call the parish when the patients there need some pastoral care.
Other than that, the church of the Sacred Heart seems to be tucked away in a quiet corner of a happening area.
In the gospel, Jesus showed Himself to the Eleven and commissioned them to go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation.
So the mission for the Eleven is to go out and proclaim the Good News.
And what Jesus told the Eleven, He is also telling us to do likewise.
So now, go out to where? Maybe to go to that happening area called Orchard Road. Well, that would not be too difficult, would it?
But to proclaim the Good News in Orchard Road? How are we going to do that?
There is a story of a male nurse working in a hospital. Because of his shift work, he doesn’t have time to be involved in church activities, other than just coming for Mass.
He heard that the mission of all Christians is to proclaim the Good News and he wondered how he could do it.
Then he came across the idea of getting prayer cards and giving them to the patients that he is taking care of in the hospital where he worked.
So he got some prayer cards and if the patient consented he would leave a prayer card on the side drawer of the patient’s bed.
One day while going about his duties, a patient stopped him and thanked him for the prayer card. The patient said no one ever asked if he needed prayer or talked to him about religion until that male nurse gave him the prayer card.
It was just a small gesture of giving a patient a prayer card but in doing so the male nurse had done his part in proclaiming the Good News.
So taking a point from there, this weekend as the Church celebrates Mission Sunday, we have placed this prayer card at the entrances of the parish.
On one side is the picture of Jesus and the other side is a prayer to the Sacred Heart.
Take a few prayer cards and give it to whoever we think needs a prayer and pray it with them too.
And if we are going to Orchard Road then give it to whoever we meet and tell them that there is a church in Orchard Road.
Orchard Road may be a happening place but with all its ritz and glitz, it may also be like a desert and this church would be the oasis for a place of rest and quiet and prayer.
As the 1st reading puts it, “Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Temple of the God of Jacob that He may teach us His ways so that we may walk in His paths”.
The church is open from 6am to about 7.30pm, and if people were to come to the church in the later part of the evening when the church is locked, they can pray at the statue of the Good Shepherd.
And in time to come, we will also erect a shrine of Our Lady where people can spend a quiet moment in prayer. (The details of the shrine is in the bulletin)
Yes, we just have to go out there and proclaim the Good News and the Lord will work with us.
Our parish is small and lowly, but the Almighty will do great things with us. We just have to go out and proclaim.