Genesis 3 : 9-15, 20 / Ephesians 1 : 3-6, 11-12 / Luke 1 : 26-38 (2024)
For those of us who were baptized as babies, our parents gave us a baptism name.
For those of us who were baptized as adults, we chose a baptism name for ourselves.
These will be the names for the rest of our lives.
But these are not just names to identity ourselves. They have a much greater significance.
They symbolize our new identity in Christ through baptism.
For those of us who were baptized as adults, our baptism names symbolize our "Yes" to God to be His beloved children.
Mary was graced to be immaculately conceived in her mother's womb, and freed from sin by the power of God.
But at the Annunciation, Mary is called by a new name and empowered to bear the One who is to crush the power of evil.
Mary is called by the angel Gabriel "the highly favoured one".
And Mary said "Yes" to the mission of bearing the Word made flesh.
By the grace of our baptism, we too have become God's highly favoured ones; we too have become "immaculate".
We too are empowered to say "Yes" to God.
In saying "Yes" to God, we are also saying "No" to evil and to the devil's temptations.
So let us rejoice with Mary on this feast of her Immaculate Conception and give thanks and praise to God for His saving love for us.
Let us renew the grace of our baptism, and by the grace of our baptism, let us crush our evil and sinful desires and live as God's beloved and highly favoured sons and daughters.
Let us also ask Mary to pray for us by using the prayer that is inscribed in the Miraculous Medal : O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
2nd Week of Advent, Monday, 07-12-09
Isaiah 35 : 1-10
Luke 5 : 17-26
The Communists took over power in China in 1949.
They set up the state-controlled Church, and anyone who resisted was thrown into prison.
Bishop Ignatius Kung of Shanghai was one of those who resisted.
He was imprisoned for 30 years before being released at 83 years old and in poor health. He died in March 2000.
Bishop Ignatius Kung spent one third of his life in prison.
His suffering was a true experience of an exile - he was separated from the people he loved, from the ministry which he was ordained for, and from the life he loved.
In fact, all human suffering is a form of exile - it separates us from what and from who we love.
In the 1st reading, the prophet Isaiah talked about God bringing His people back from exile, to restore them to the promised land, to save those from being lost.
That was what Jesus did for the paralyzed man.
That is also what Jesus wants to do for us when we feel that we are walking through some kind of wilderness and desolation, or going through some kind of exile.
The Lord wants to heal us with His word and with His touch.
He wants us to experience love and forgiveness and to have true freedom.
Bishop Ignatius Kung was imprisoned for 30 years, but the Lord gave him strength for his weary hands and trembling knees.
The Lord gave him courage to hope for the coming of the Lord who will save him.
May we too be courageous and keep hoping in our Lord who will come to save us and grant us freedom.
Luke 5 : 17-26
The Communists took over power in China in 1949.
They set up the state-controlled Church, and anyone who resisted was thrown into prison.
Bishop Ignatius Kung of Shanghai was one of those who resisted.
He was imprisoned for 30 years before being released at 83 years old and in poor health. He died in March 2000.
Bishop Ignatius Kung spent one third of his life in prison.
His suffering was a true experience of an exile - he was separated from the people he loved, from the ministry which he was ordained for, and from the life he loved.
In fact, all human suffering is a form of exile - it separates us from what and from who we love.
In the 1st reading, the prophet Isaiah talked about God bringing His people back from exile, to restore them to the promised land, to save those from being lost.
That was what Jesus did for the paralyzed man.
That is also what Jesus wants to do for us when we feel that we are walking through some kind of wilderness and desolation, or going through some kind of exile.
The Lord wants to heal us with His word and with His touch.
He wants us to experience love and forgiveness and to have true freedom.
Bishop Ignatius Kung was imprisoned for 30 years, but the Lord gave him strength for his weary hands and trembling knees.
The Lord gave him courage to hope for the coming of the Lord who will save him.
May we too be courageous and keep hoping in our Lord who will come to save us and grant us freedom.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
1st Week of Advent, Saturday, 05-12-09
Isaiah 30 : 19-21, 23-26
Matthew 9:35 - 10:1, 6-8
We are always attracted to this phrase : Free of charge! Of course we would rather be receiving it than to be giving it.
Indeed, we get a spurt of happiness whenever we get something free, and more so when it is something valuable.
As we think about it, let us also reflect about the free and valuable things that God has given us daily - the warm sunshine, the rain, the fresh air, the cool evening, the beautiful moon, etc.
Most of all, the life that is beating in our hearts and the love that we experience around us.
All these are certainly blessings from God. But what if God were to charge us for His blessings?
What if God were to charge us for the help He gave us, for the times He saved us from trouble and danger, for healing us when we were sick?
But God doesn't need our money nor does He want us to pay Him back anything.
God is all loving and generous and merciful and compassionate. Furthermore it is out of His great love for us that He created us in His image and likeness.
Jesus, the greatest gift from God wants us to know this and that is why He said in today's gospel : You received without charge, give without charge.
It is not just about the material blessings that we have received from God that we are called to share without charge with others.
Our greatest treasures are in our heart, and in there are the gifts of love, care, compassion, forgiveness, patience, understanding and all the blessings that God has given us free of charge.
Let us share these gifts and blessings without charge with the others around us.
That will be one way of preparing to celebrate Christmas, because at Christmas we celebrate the greatest gift of God.
We celebrate the gift of Jesus, who was given to us free of charge.
Matthew 9:35 - 10:1, 6-8
We are always attracted to this phrase : Free of charge! Of course we would rather be receiving it than to be giving it.
Indeed, we get a spurt of happiness whenever we get something free, and more so when it is something valuable.
As we think about it, let us also reflect about the free and valuable things that God has given us daily - the warm sunshine, the rain, the fresh air, the cool evening, the beautiful moon, etc.
Most of all, the life that is beating in our hearts and the love that we experience around us.
All these are certainly blessings from God. But what if God were to charge us for His blessings?
What if God were to charge us for the help He gave us, for the times He saved us from trouble and danger, for healing us when we were sick?
But God doesn't need our money nor does He want us to pay Him back anything.
God is all loving and generous and merciful and compassionate. Furthermore it is out of His great love for us that He created us in His image and likeness.
Jesus, the greatest gift from God wants us to know this and that is why He said in today's gospel : You received without charge, give without charge.
It is not just about the material blessings that we have received from God that we are called to share without charge with others.
Our greatest treasures are in our heart, and in there are the gifts of love, care, compassion, forgiveness, patience, understanding and all the blessings that God has given us free of charge.
Let us share these gifts and blessings without charge with the others around us.
That will be one way of preparing to celebrate Christmas, because at Christmas we celebrate the greatest gift of God.
We celebrate the gift of Jesus, who was given to us free of charge.
Friday, December 4, 2009
1st Week of Advent, Friday, 04-12-09
Isaiah 29 : 17-24
Matthew 9 : 27-31
Advertising is a big business. Almost everyone, maybe even anyone who has a product to sell or a service to offer will have to have recourse to some of advertisement to get some publicity.
But the most powerful and most convincing form of advertisement is none other than people's words.
For eg., if you want to buy a hand-phone or a laptop, just ask someone who is using one. You don't have to look at the papers to get some opinions.
So why did Jesus tell the two blind men who were cured, not to talk about what happened?
Maybe Jesus didn't want people to see Him simply as a wonder-worker.
That's because people generally focus on the sensational and the wonderful things rather than on the message.
Jesus also wanted people to follow Him and come to know Him for who He really is, and not what He can just do for them.
That's why before He cured the two blind men, He asked them a very profound question : Do you believe I can do this?
He wanted to know the faith of these two blind men. He wanted them to see more than just the sensational and the wonder.
We too come before Jesus with our needs and our petitions. Do we really believe that Jesus will grant us our needs?
If we really do believe, then what is our anxiety and our worry?
The question is not what Jesus can do for us or what He can give us.
The question He is asking us is this : Do you believe I love you?
That can be the question for our Advent reflection and prayer.
May our prayers lead us to find the answer at Xmas.
Matthew 9 : 27-31
Advertising is a big business. Almost everyone, maybe even anyone who has a product to sell or a service to offer will have to have recourse to some of advertisement to get some publicity.
But the most powerful and most convincing form of advertisement is none other than people's words.
For eg., if you want to buy a hand-phone or a laptop, just ask someone who is using one. You don't have to look at the papers to get some opinions.
So why did Jesus tell the two blind men who were cured, not to talk about what happened?
Maybe Jesus didn't want people to see Him simply as a wonder-worker.
That's because people generally focus on the sensational and the wonderful things rather than on the message.
Jesus also wanted people to follow Him and come to know Him for who He really is, and not what He can just do for them.
That's why before He cured the two blind men, He asked them a very profound question : Do you believe I can do this?
He wanted to know the faith of these two blind men. He wanted them to see more than just the sensational and the wonder.
We too come before Jesus with our needs and our petitions. Do we really believe that Jesus will grant us our needs?
If we really do believe, then what is our anxiety and our worry?
The question is not what Jesus can do for us or what He can give us.
The question He is asking us is this : Do you believe I love you?
That can be the question for our Advent reflection and prayer.
May our prayers lead us to find the answer at Xmas.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
1st Week of Advent, Thursday, 03-12-09
Isaiah 26 : 1-6 / Matthew 7 : 21, 24-27 (2019)
The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 to separate the communist East Germany from West Germany.
Along with that wall were electrified fences, mine-fields, guard-posts and at regular intervals, tall towers with search lights.
It was a formidable sight, and all this just to protect a Communist political system, and also at the expense of lives who tried to escape from that system.
Yet in 1990, the Berlin Wall crumbled. It crumbled from the people's urge for freedom from an oppressive system.
But as we look deeper at it, the Berlin Wall crumbled from the power of God's will to grant freedom and peace and unity among peoples.
The prophet Isaiah urged his people to trust in the power of God rather than in steep citadels and fortifications which will eventually crumble.
Because high walls and electric fences will not protect us if our hearts are not with God.
Real defense against fear and insecurity ad evil is having a faithful heart which will trust in the Lord.
When we put our faith in God and build our lives on the Lord who is the Everlasting Rock, we will not crumble in the face of evil and suffering and oppression.
The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 to separate the communist East Germany from West Germany.
Along with that wall were electrified fences, mine-fields, guard-posts and at regular intervals, tall towers with search lights.
It was a formidable sight, and all this just to protect a Communist political system, and also at the expense of lives who tried to escape from that system.
Yet in 1990, the Berlin Wall crumbled. It crumbled from the people's urge for freedom from an oppressive system.
But as we look deeper at it, the Berlin Wall crumbled from the power of God's will to grant freedom and peace and unity among peoples.
The prophet Isaiah urged his people to trust in the power of God rather than in steep citadels and fortifications which will eventually crumble.
Because high walls and electric fences will not protect us if our hearts are not with God.
Real defense against fear and insecurity ad evil is having a faithful heart which will trust in the Lord.
When we put our faith in God and build our lives on the Lord who is the Everlasting Rock, we will not crumble in the face of evil and suffering and oppression.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
1st Week of Advent, Wednesday, 02-12-09
Isaiah 25 : 6-10
Matthew 15 : 29-37
I have heard quite a bit about fine dining although I have not been to one nor do I intend to.
It seems like it is always in a top-class restaurant, and each diner will be served by a waiter, and the food is, needless to say, very good. And so is the price.
Yet when we hear of such things in a world that is experiencing hunger and famine, we wonder what sense does it all make. In fact it sounds like a mockery.
For the people hearing the prophet Isaiah taking about God preparing a fine banquet and rejoicing, it didn't make much sense to them because they were in the midst of the threat of annihilation by a powerful enemy and there was also an internal power struggle to bear with.
In fact one might even get angry with God about the hunger and famine and the political turmoil and the wars and violence that is happening all around.
Just like the story of the young man who was angry with God over the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
Then he had a dream in which God told him this : I have great things in store for the poor and hungry.
The young man asked angrily : Like what!?! God answered : I am sending you
Well, like is often said : If we are not part of the solution, then we are part of the problem.
I guess the problem is realising that we are called be the solution.
Just as in the gospel, the solution was in the hands of the disciples, the solution to life's problems also lies in our hands.
But we have to ask God to help us realise it.
Matthew 15 : 29-37
I have heard quite a bit about fine dining although I have not been to one nor do I intend to.
It seems like it is always in a top-class restaurant, and each diner will be served by a waiter, and the food is, needless to say, very good. And so is the price.
Yet when we hear of such things in a world that is experiencing hunger and famine, we wonder what sense does it all make. In fact it sounds like a mockery.
For the people hearing the prophet Isaiah taking about God preparing a fine banquet and rejoicing, it didn't make much sense to them because they were in the midst of the threat of annihilation by a powerful enemy and there was also an internal power struggle to bear with.
In fact one might even get angry with God about the hunger and famine and the political turmoil and the wars and violence that is happening all around.
Just like the story of the young man who was angry with God over the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
Then he had a dream in which God told him this : I have great things in store for the poor and hungry.
The young man asked angrily : Like what!?! God answered : I am sending you
Well, like is often said : If we are not part of the solution, then we are part of the problem.
I guess the problem is realising that we are called be the solution.
Just as in the gospel, the solution was in the hands of the disciples, the solution to life's problems also lies in our hands.
But we have to ask God to help us realise it.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
1st Week of Advent, Tuesday, 01-12-09
Isaiah 11 : 1-10
Luke 10 : 21-24
Fairy tales make us smile, fairy tales like Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.
They make us smile because the ending is so rosy, so dreamy, so happily ever after, and we feel nice about it.
But the real world is not a fairy tale and we don't usually end up smiling or happy ever after. In fact it can like happy never after.
What we heard from the prophet Isaiah seemed to be like a fairy tale.
The wolf lives with the lamb, the lion eats straw like the ox, infant plays over the cobra's hole.
A picture of serenity, a picture of peace and harmony.
But can it be true, can it ever be true? Or is it just a dream and a fairy tale?
We might say that it is not possible, and that it because we, too often, have experienced the hard knocks of the real world.
In this hard and real world, there are no dreams or fairy tales.
The story of Vincent van Gogh, the great Dutch painter, is one such case.
He actually produced 1,700 paintings and drawings before he died in 1890. However in his lifetime, van Gogh sold only one painting, and that for only a miserable sum.
So in the hard real world, dreams and fairy tales just fizzle out and vanish. Or is it so?
It is into this hard real world and that Jesus came to help us dream again, and to give us hope and to help us believe that the Kingdom stories are not just airy fairy tales.
So as we begin our Advent preparation, let us also become like little children of the Kingdom, children who want to dream, children who dare to believe that stories can come true, children who dare to hope against hope.
Just a final world about Vincent van Gogh. If he had stopped painting and drawing because his first work could not sell, then this world would be a hard and cold place without any art.
Luke 10 : 21-24
Fairy tales make us smile, fairy tales like Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.
They make us smile because the ending is so rosy, so dreamy, so happily ever after, and we feel nice about it.
But the real world is not a fairy tale and we don't usually end up smiling or happy ever after. In fact it can like happy never after.
What we heard from the prophet Isaiah seemed to be like a fairy tale.
The wolf lives with the lamb, the lion eats straw like the ox, infant plays over the cobra's hole.
A picture of serenity, a picture of peace and harmony.
But can it be true, can it ever be true? Or is it just a dream and a fairy tale?
We might say that it is not possible, and that it because we, too often, have experienced the hard knocks of the real world.
In this hard and real world, there are no dreams or fairy tales.
The story of Vincent van Gogh, the great Dutch painter, is one such case.
He actually produced 1,700 paintings and drawings before he died in 1890. However in his lifetime, van Gogh sold only one painting, and that for only a miserable sum.
So in the hard real world, dreams and fairy tales just fizzle out and vanish. Or is it so?
It is into this hard real world and that Jesus came to help us dream again, and to give us hope and to help us believe that the Kingdom stories are not just airy fairy tales.
So as we begin our Advent preparation, let us also become like little children of the Kingdom, children who want to dream, children who dare to believe that stories can come true, children who dare to hope against hope.
Just a final world about Vincent van Gogh. If he had stopped painting and drawing because his first work could not sell, then this world would be a hard and cold place without any art.
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