4th Week, Ordinary Time, Wednesday, 01-02-2023

Hebrews 12:4-7, 11-15 / Mark 6:1-6     

It is said that "home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in" (Robert Frost).

In many sense, that is true, that no matter what, when you go home, that is home and no other word resonates that deeply in our hearts.

Yet there are also a number of homes that are like a "basket of scorpions". Some of the family members just keep stinging each other.

In the gospel, we heard that Jesus went back to His hometown but there His own people scrutinized Him and in the end they did not accept Him.

In His own words, Jesus even said that "a prophet is only despised in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house".

Which makes us reflect on what is the environment and the spiritual atmosphere in our own homes.

The 1st reading gives us the spiritual foundations and directions of a Christian community, but that can also be applicable in our own homes.

It said: Always be wanting peace with all people, and the holiness without which no one can ever see the Lord. be careful that no one is deprived of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness should begin to grow and make trouble; this can poison a whole community.

Certainly what is applicable to the community is also likewise for the family and for the home.

Let us pray for peace in our homes and in our families so that we will grow in holiness and radiate the presence of God. 

May God's love be seen in our homes and may God be always present in our homes.

4th Week, Ordinary Time, Tuesday, 31-01-2023

Hebrews 12:1-4 / Mark 5:21-43     

It would be interesting to reflect upon why some Catholics become lukewarm and even lose faith altogether.

Don't they know who Jesus is, and what He can do for them?

And if they do, then why is it that He is not significant in their lives?

Why is it that they are not touched by Him?

Maybe the same question can be asked of the people in the scene in today's gospel.

So many people were crowding around Jesus, yet only one wanted to touch Him.

Certainly those crowding around Jesus have needs to be met.

So, could it be that after a while, it was a typical case of "familiarity breeds contempt' in that they were expecting Him to perform miracles instead of yearning for Him as the woman with the hemorrhage did.

And if familiarity breeds contempt, then routine and monotony can also be the death of reverence.

We may forget that in the Eucharist, something holy and sacred is happening.

Let us pray that we will never lose the faith to see the miracle of God sacrificing Himself for us.

And may we yearn to touch Jesus, just as the woman with the hemorrhage yearned to Him, and Jesus will in turn reach out to touch us with His healing love.

4th Week, Ordinary Time, Monday, 30-01-2023

Hebrews 11:32-40 / Mark 5:1-20      

It is only natural to be apprehensive about something that we don’t understand.

And if we can’t find immediate answers, then we will most likely reject it.

We are not that likely to check it out further as we would rather invest more time and energy in what we already know.

And we are also not going to go further with what we can’t understand or don’t know, especially if it is going to be a drain on our resources.

For the people of the country of Gerasenes, they came to see for themselves what Jesus had done.

They were already unhappy over the loss of the herd of the two thousand pigs.

And now they saw the man who was a demoniac, sitting there, clothed and in his full senses.

They just couldn’t comprehend what was happening, and they became afraid, and they began to implore Jesus to leave the neighbourhood.

When the security of our comfort is disturbed, we may react with anything from apprehension to rejection to fear.

But let us remember that rejection of what we don’t understand will only lead to ignorance.

Jesus came to reveal the truth about life. He also wants to reveal to us the truth about ourselves.

Jesus will lead us from the darkness of ignorance to the light of understanding.

4th Ordinary Sunday, Year A, 29.01.2023

Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13 / 1 Cor 1:26-31 / Matthew 5:1-12

During this festive period, one of the common greeting phrases is “Gong Xi Fa Cai”. 

That phrase means “wishing you wealth and prosperity”. 

That phrase is easy enough for children to say, and it is used during this festive period as a general greeting. 

For the Chinese, and as well as for other cultures, wealth and prosperity are symbols of a good and comfortable life. 

And with wealth and prosperity comes along status and social standing, as well as recognition and influence. 

So, with this kind of understanding, then obviously wealth and prosperity would be a priority in life. 

With wealth and prosperity, then we would be comfortable and we would be happy. 

Actually, the priority in life is that we want to be happy and comfortable, and the means to that would be wealth and prosperity. 

But, can happiness in life be brought about by wealth and prosperity? In other words, can money really make us happy? 

Oh yes, money can buy luxuries and make us comfortable, but money cannot buy us happiness, and we know that from the experience of life. 

Because happiness is a blessing from God and money cannot buy God's blessings. 

In the Old Testament, when God gave His people the Ten Commandments, it also came along with blessings and curses. 

As long as the people were faithful to God and kept the Commandments, God will bless them. 

But if the people were unfaithful to God and broke the Commandments, then they are asking for trouble in the forms of misfortune and tragedy. 

The Ten Commandments form the groundwork and the blueprint for the people's relationship with God and for the norms of morality. 

But along the way, the thinking became such that as long as the Ten Commandments are kept to the letter, then God will impart His blessings and that would be in the form of wealth and prosperity. 

Then came Jesus, and in the gospel, we heard His teaching about the Beatitudes. 

Beatitudes means blessings, and Jesus taught us what true blessings are, and how to receive those blessings. 

It is in being humble and gentle, compassionate and kind, striving for justice and peace, enduring abuse and persecution, that God will pour His blessings on us. 

So even if others throw a brick at us, let us not throw it back at them. Let us see as a blessing from God.

There is a story of a young and successful executive who was traveling down a neighborhood street, in his new expensive sports car. 

Suddenly, a brick smashed into the car's side door! He slammed on the brakes and reversed the car back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. 

The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and shouted, "What was that all about? Just what are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?" 

The young boy was apologetic. "Please, sir, please, I'm sorry but I didn't know what else to do," he pleaded. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop..." With tears dripping down his face, the boy pointed to a spot just around the corner. 

“It's my brother,” he said "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up." 

Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me." 

Moved beyond words, the young executive tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a handkerchief and dabbed at the scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay. 

"Thank you and may God bless you," the grateful boy told the young executive. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home. 

It was a long, slow walk back to the car. The damage was very noticeable, but the young man didn’t bother to repair the dented side door. 

He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: "Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!" 

More than that he remembered what the boy said to him: "Thank you and may God bless you"

Yes, God’s abundant blessings come in surprising and even unexpected forms.

When we understand the spirit of the Beatitudes, we will experience the wonderful and beautiful blessings of God, blessings that are beyond wealth and prosperity.

So, we continue to wish each other “Gong Xi Fa Cai”, and may God bless us with a wealth of love and may we be prosperous in good works.

3rd Week, Ordinary Time, Saturday, 28-01-2023

Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19 / Mark 4:35-41   

The first two words of the Creed are “I believe”.

Of course, in both versions of the Creed, we profess our faith in God.

So to begin the profession of faith with those two words “I believe”, it is essentially a personal declaration.

And each individual of the faith community declares and professes in the faith of the Church.

At the same time, it is also a declaration of what we believe about God, that He loves us, that He cares for us and that He will protect us.

In the gospel, when the disciples encountered the storm while they were in the boat, they panicked. 

But surprisingly, Jesus, who was also in the boat, was fast asleep. It seems that all the chaos didn’t even wake Him up.

Of course, the disciples were flabbergasted and we can imagine them shouting at Jesus: Master, do you not care? We are going down!

When the storms of life hit us and chaos is raging around and we are sinking fast, we will also shout at God “Do you not care?”

But let us remember Jesus sleeping in the boat, sleeping through the storm, and that was to tell us that He knows that God will protect and save them.

In storms and in chaos, let us whisper and repeat those words “I believe in God”.

Let us believe that God will still the storm and calm the chaos, because He loves us and He will save us.

3rd Week, Ordinary Time, Friday, 27-01-2023

Hebrews 10:32-39 / 4:26-34     

Just by observing the wonder of nature, we will come to the conclusion that there is a God, and that He created all things and He has also put an order to creation.

Even for those who do not believe in the existence of God, they will have to acknowledge that there is some power or force or energy that works in creation.

So the wonder and beauty of creation keeps pointing to something else, and for us who have faith, then all creation points to God the Creator.

But as the gospel parables put it, there are still many things that we do not know about creation, and also many things that we do not know about God.

Just as we do not really know how a plant grows from a seed, how a tiny mustard seed can grow into a tree, we do not really know the ways of God and His plans for us.

And we also may not understand the contradictions of life, like those mentioned in the 1st reading.

So we may have questions about why we have to suffer even though we believe in God, or why bad people keep doing bad things and the good people keep suffering.

We only need to pray for endurance to do God’s will and to live by faith so as to gain an eternal reward.

God sees what we can’t see, and God knows what we do not know.

Let us put our trust in God and we will see the wonder and the beauty of His plans for us.

Sts. Timothy and Titus (memorial), Thursday, 26-01-2023

2 Tim 1:1-8 or Titus 1:1-5 / Luke 10:1-9

One of the ways to motivate people to take on higher responsibilities is to recognize the contributions they are already making and the talents they have.

They need to be affirmed of whatever gifts that God has bestowed upon them so that what they have and what they are doing with it can be reinforced.

When St. Paul chose Timothy and Titus to be bishops of their respective churches, he was not looking merely at their gifts and talents.

In fact, Timothy and Titus were rather young to be the bishops of the churches.

Rather, St. Paul recognized the faith that they had.

And especially for Timothy, St. Paul reminded him of the sincere faith which was handed down from his grandmother and his mother.

St. Paul affirmed Timothy that he saw this faith in him, and that was sufficient for him to lead the church that was entrusted to him.

Here, it is good to remember that faith, is not so much taught as it is caught.

The faith that we have is "caught" from others - our parents, our teachers, our friends, etc.

Hence we have a faith to share, a faith that others are waiting to catch, so that they too will come to know God and believe in Him.