Exodus 32: 7-11, 13-14/ 1 Timothy 1:12-17/ Luke 15:1-32
Children love to play games. Yet the image that may come to our minds when we say that children love to play games could be that of a child having a handphone or a tablet in the hand and playing some kind of computer game.
Or for the older children, it may be at the laptop or desktops playing some kind of serious online games.
But when it comes to children playing games, we may want to go retro and recall the games that we play when we were children.
And those games are usually very interactive. For example, in the game of “catching” there will be laughing and shouting and screaming as the children run around and try to catch each other.
And then there is “hantam-bola”. In those days, there was only the soft rubber ball. I can’t imagine if we used golf balls to play “hantam-bola”. (OUCH!)
And then there is the game of “hide-and-seek”. All the children would go hiding and the seeker, after the countdown, would go looking for them.
It is quite an intriguing game in the sense that those children who were hiding would always want to peek out of their hiding place to see where the seeker was.
Somehow they won’t just be contented with hiding and concealing themselves until the seeker can’t find them.
In other words, those who are hiding will somehow give away their hiding place.
So the seeker will somehow be able to find those who are hiding.
But that is where the fun is. The children can hide but the seeker can find them.
It is not going to be that much fun if the children hide and cannot be found.
Well, the fun of “hide-and-seek” is to hide so as to be found. Strange isn’t it? That’s why it is rather intriguing.
In the gospel, Jesus told two parables about something that went missing, something that was lost.
There was a parable about lost sheep and another one about the lost coin.
It is obvious that the sheep and the coin did not play hide and seek. They were lost, they went missing.
And then there was the puzzling and ridiculous search for what was lost and missing.
The shepherd leaving the 99 behind to look for the missing sheep; and the woman lighting a lamp and sweeping out the house just to find a lost coin.
Yes, puzzling and ridiculous, just to look for that one lost sheep and that one missing coin.
Yet, Jesus is telling us how puzzling and ridiculous God is. It is quite difficult to believe that God will go all out just for one that is missing or lost.
But Jesus told these two puzzling and ridiculous parables in response to the criticisms against Him.
The Pharisees and scribes complained that He welcomed sinners and ate with them.
But the fact is that Jesus came to seek and to find what was lost and missing.
In a way it is like some kind of spiritual hide-and-seek.
The tax collectors and sinners, were hiding from public view because of their sin and yet Jesus came looking for them.
But this hide-and-seek drama was first played out in the Book of Genesis.
After Adam and Eve fell into sin, the Lord God came walking in the garden and they hid themselves.
Then the Lord God called out: Where are you?
Well, Adam and Eve did not go into deeper hiding; they responded to the Lord God.
As for the tax collectors and sinners in the gospel, they too responded to the call of Jesus.
In fact, they were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what He had to say.
Yet there may be many others who don’t know how to respond to the call of Jesus.
They may be lost in the troubles and difficulties and anxieties of life. Jesus calls out to them but they may not know how to respond or that they may have lost the voice to respond.
Well, exam time is coming (only secondary and P6) and the students are all hyped up and stressed out with the studies.
Not only the students are stressed, their parents, are also stressed out. Students and parents seem to be taking exams. (In Singapore, exam is a family affair!)
Today, we have called the students, to come for this Mass to pray for their exams and we too will pray for them.
Yet there may be other students who are not here. Some may even skip Mass to mug for their revision.
We need to pray for them too, because they have lost the voice to call out to the Lord for help.
But more than just praying for the students for their exams, we the Church have to be the voice for the world to call upon the help of the Lord God.
Last Saturday, Pope Francis called upon the Church for a day of prayer and fasting for peace in the world and especially for Syria.
More than 100 000 people joined the Pope in a prayer vigil at St. Peter’s Square, and the Church throughout the world also heeded the call of the Pope.
The Pope is leading the Church to be the voice for the world to call upon God for His saving help.
Let us join our voices in prayer to cry out to God for His help, be it for the students preparing for exams or for peace in the world.
Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Our voices in prayer will tell Him where we are and that we desperately need Him to find us and save us.
Numbers 21:4-9 / Phil 2:6-11 / John 3:13-17
Death by crucifixion, to say the least, is barbaric. It is indeed a cruel death.
And we don't deny the fact that Jesus died the cruel death of crucifixion.
But for St. Paul, and also for us, the death of Jesus on the cross, is the essence of our hope.
The cross is the sign of divine love, the sign of how much God loves the world that He gave away His only Son.
But the cross as the sign of hope and love is a paradox, a contradiction.
Because a cruel death seems to exclude any kind of hope or love.
Yet in Jesus, the symbol of death has become the symbol of life and love.
When we see Jesus stretched out on the cross, we do not just think about the pain that He suffered; we also must think about the love that He showed as He stretched out His arms on the cross.
So what the cross was meant to do, is no longer as important as what Jesus now meant it to symbolize and to show.
The cross that belonged to evil and death has now become the cross of life and love because of Jesus.
In the cross, Jesus showed how much God loved the world as He emptied His life on the cross.
In the cross, we also now know that God sent His only Son into the world not to condemn the world, but rather through Him, we and the world might be saved.
So let us look at the cross, let us embrace the cross, and let us carry the cross as we follow Jesus in the triumph of the cross.
1 Tim 1:1-2, 12-14 / Luke 6:39-42
We all know of the "Golden rule" and that is to do unto others what we want others to do unto us.
But going one step back, actions take shape from the thoughts that go on within us.
Hence, if we want to do unto others what we want them to do unto us, then what do we think of others and what do we wish for them?
In the 1st reading, St. Paul began his letter with a greeting to Timothy and wished him grace, mercy and the peace of God.
St. Paul himself experience the grace and mercy of God, and he himself admitted that he was a blasphemer and all he did was to injure and discredit the faith.
But God was merciful to him and even granted him the grace to be a believer and to serve the Lord, and hence he experienced the peace of God.
All that he received from God, he now also wished that Timothy would receive too.
Hence, we have to ask ourselves if we are blinded by planks in our eyes and yet at the same time wishing that others would also be blind and fall with us into the pit of adversity.
If we have such bad thoughts, then let us ask for the grace and mercy and peace from God.
Let us asked to be forgiven and healed so that we can do unto others the good that God has done unto us.
Col 3:12-17 / Luke 6:27-38
We read in the New Testament that we have to "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect ..." (1 Peter 3:15)
So it goes without saying that we must be able to explain why we believe in what we believe; at least we must be able to sound logical and reasonable.
Yet we are also confronted with the hard teaching of Jesus in today's gospel, we may find ourselves saying "That is too difficult" or "I am not able to do this" or simply "How can?!?!"
But just as good things don't come for free, the truth won't come as easy.
Yet as disciples of Jesus, we are chosen in truth and in turn we too must choose the truth.
And the truth in today's gospel is that when we give ourselves wholly to the truth, we too will be given the freedom that comes from the truth.
And by the amount of commitment we give to the truth, that amount of freedom in the truth we will be given back.
As the 1st reading puts it, we are God's chosen race and His saints. We should be clothed in sincere compassion, kindness and humility, gentleness and patience.
Over and above everything else, we must put on love. Love is the answer and the reason when we love our enemies and do good to those who hate us, when we bless those who curse us, when we pray for those who treat us badly.
If that is not love, then any other answer is not going to logical or reasonable.
Col 3:1-11 / Luke 6:20-26 (2017 / 2023)
To be focused would usually mean to keep our eyes fixed on a target or on the object of our concentration.
To get an idea of what it means to be focused, we just have to see those documentaries on the wild life and see how the big cats were hunting their prey; their predator eyes were fixed on their prey in the chase and nothing would seem to distract them.
In a deeper sense, it also means more than just having a fixed line of sight on our targets or objectives.
It would also mean that our hearts are directed and fixed on what we desire in order to achieve our goals.
St. Paul told the Colossians in the 1st reading that they must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is.
Their thoughts must be on heavenly things and not on the things that are on the earth.
The imagery is powerful in that when they get distracted and start to turn their eyes to the things of earth, then they will be lured by the things of earth - fornication, impurity, guilty passion, evil desires and greed.
But in the gospel, it is Jesus who was fixing His eyes on His disciples as He taught them about the kingdom of God.
His focus is also on us as He calls us to strive to live the teachings of the kingdom of God in our lives.
May we also be focused on Jesus so that we commit our lives to Him here on earth, our reward will be great in heaven.
Col 2:6-15 / Luke 6:12-19
What we would put at the top of our priorities in life would be our independence and freedom.
We treasure our independence and our freedom and as a matter of fact it is a human right.
We would not normally surrender our independence and freedom to anyone that easily, no matter how great that person might be.
When Jesus summoned His disciples and picked out twelve of them to be His apostles, would they have understood that He was asking them to surrender their independence and freedom to Him?
Because that would mean that they would also have to surrender their will and do only what Jesus commands of them.
As much as it sounds rather demanding, yet that is also the meaning of "apostles"; because an apostle is one who is sent to do the will of the one who sent him.
It also means that the apostle must be united with his master and has the mind of the master and knows his master's will.
Hence St. Paul exhorted the Colossians by saying: You must live your whole life according to the Christ you have received - Jesus the Lord; you must be rooted in him and built on him and held firm by the faith you have been taught, and full of thanksgiving.
We are not called to be just followers of Jesus. We are called to be His disciples. Hence we are also called Christians.
In order to truly understand the meaning of our independence and freedom, we must be deeply united with Jesus so that in surrendering ourselves to Him and doing His will, we will find true fulfillment in our lives.
Col 1:24 - 2:3 / Luke 6:6-11
No one would normally think of suffering as something pleasant or would welcome it.
Much less would anyone sincerely say that it makes him/her happy to suffer for another person.
To suffer for yourself might make sense in that it is either in reparation for your own wrong doing or maybe there is something to gain from it.
But to suffer for others and to suffer willingly and happily does sound strange and puzzling.
But when St. Paul told the Colossians in the 1st reading that it makes him happy to suffer for them, he states the reason for it.
In his suffering, he hoped to make up all that has still to be undergone by Christ for the sake of His body, the Church.
In this suffering, St. Paul said that he will struggle wearily on, helped only by the power of Christ driving him irresistibly.
Jesus came to heal us of our sicknesses and take away our infirmity. Yet He too had to suffer for it.
In the gospel, He healed the man with the withered hand, but it only made the scribes and Pharisees furious and that eventually got Him nailed to the cross.
We may think that we can't be that noble to suffer so that others can be healed. But like St. Paul, may the power of Christ drive us irresistibly so that we will undertake this suffering lovingly and joyfully.