22nd Week, Ordinary Time, Tuesday, 04-09-12

1 Cor 2:10-16 / Luke 4:31-37

A country like Singapore depends very much on its economy for its sustenance and survival.

And for Singapore to go on growing and developing, it depends heavily on a particular form of economy.

Singapore depends heavily on a knowledge-based economy, and from that springs skills and services, research and development.

Yet as Singaporeans are weaned and raised with the emphasis on knowledge, yet there is another aspect that is calling for attention.

The social framework of the nation is calling for attention as social problems start to come out in the open from the aged to the young.

Hence besides a knowledge-based economy, our country needs to develop a value-based society.

As the 1st reading puts it, there is a spiritual dimension to life, i.e. there is the spirit of the world, and yet there is also the Spirit that comes from God to teach us to understand the gifts that He has given us.

It is with the Spirit of God that we are able to continue the mission of Jesus in proclaiming the Good News of repentance and to deliver and heal the world of evil.

As we heard in the gospel passage, the possessed man who was shouting at the top of his voice against Jesus could be conveniently seen as one who was deranged and mad and hence to be sent to a mental institution.

Yet Jesus came to proclaim the kingdom of God and hence he delivered the man of his evil possession and healed him with love.

Yes, with the values of the Kingdom of God, our lives will bring about more astonishment and amazement than just having a good economy.

22nd Week, Ordinary Time, Monday, 03-09-12

1 Cor 2:1-5 / Luke 4:16-30

Whether it is the spoken word or the written word, what is expected of words is they must must be effective, dynamic and captivating.

Hence the art of public speaking is indeed an art, and training as well as practice is very necessary.

If such are the demands of public speaking, then what about the criteria for preaching the Word of God?

In the 1st reading, St. Paul seemed to make it so simple when he said that he preached without any show of oratory or philosophy, although he did mention about great "fear and trembling".

With what he said, there was also something else that was implied, or that was not said.

As much as there was no show of oratory or philosophy, it didn't mean that he didn't prepare himself to preach the Word of God.

In preaching the Word of God, it was a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit, as well as the spirituality and conviction of St. Paul.

Certainly, what St. Paul preached was sensible and logical, but it was also the power of God that opened the hearts of his listeners.

And in the gospel, as we hear the so-called "mission statement" of Jesus, we hear again the power of the Spirit with which Jesus carried out His mission.

Yet when it comes to public speaking or even preaching, it is so tempting to succumb to the love for attention and eventually the love for power.

Yet whether it is in public speaking or preaching or ordinary living, it is with the power of love that comes from the Holy Spirit that will bring good news to the poor, liberty to captives and set the downtrodden free.

22nd Ordinary Sunday, Year B, 02.09.2012

Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8/ James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27/ Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

One of the most fascinating developments of the technological age is the rise of robots and artificial intelligence.

With a complex combination of computer programs and mechanical attachments and electronic sensors, robots can mimic animal and even human movements and characteristics.

And lately robots have been in the news. Just a couple of weeks back, a Japanese electronics company unveiled a robot which weights 4 tons and is 4 meters tall.

This massive robot is called Kuratas and it can be fitted with futuristic weapons system and with guns that can fire 6000 rounds a minute.

So this monster can be like a heavily armed RoboCop, but when fitted with cleaning equipment, it can be like a RoboMop!

It cost US$1.5 million (without COE!) but it moves at a top speed of only 10kmh.

But when it comes to speeding robots, then we must be proud of our students in Singapore.

Because recently at the Federation of International Robotic Association’s Robo World Cup in Bristol, England, a robot created by our Nanyang Polytechnic team broke the world record for sprints with a time of 32 secs over 6 meters.

The BBC dubbed that Singapore robot the Usain Bolt of sprinting robots.

So you see, we now have robots that fight like soldiers, clean up like janitors, run like sprinters, and they are getting better and they are doing more.

But no matter how good they are and how much they can do, it all depends on one thing.

And that is that little chip called the “central processing unit” (CPU) and it runs the computer programs of the robot.

So robots and computers can’t choose to do whatever they like. They can only do what they are programmed to do, and you can’t tell them to do otherwise.

So there is no point shouting at your computer or calling it “stupid”. They are only following their programmed instructions and they will stick to it.

In a way we can call them “robots of habit” – they will just do what they have been programmed to do and they won’t ask why. They can’t.

In today’s gospel passage, we heard the Pharisees and scribes asking Jesus why His disciples do not wash their hands before eating, and hence not respecting the tradition of the elders.

Jesus called them hypocrites, because they were only interested in regulations and traditions.

Putting it in another way, the scribes and Pharisees are like “robots of rituals”.

They have been programmed by human regulations and human traditions which they follow meticulously.

And these “robots of rituals” can also talk – they criticize others for not following the programmed regulations and traditions.

And the quotation from the prophet Isaiah sums up the crux of the matter: These people honour me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me.

In other words, the scribes and Pharisees follow the regulations and traditions like “robots of rituals” and they can even talk.

But the heart is not there. Just like robots have no heart but only a CPU that runs the program.

While regulations and traditions have a useful purpose and rituals can help to sanctify, yet it must come from the heart.

Because it is the heart that gives life to regulations and traditions and rituals, and then they become expressions of love.

Without the heart, we become like “robots of rituals” that only give lip-service.

Talking about robots, I wonder if you have seen the animated movie “WALL-E”?

It is about a robot called WALL-E (which stands for Waste Allocator Load Lifter – Earth class). In simple terms, it means that it is a garbage collector.

In movie, WALL-E was the only robot left on earth to clean up the mountains of garbage due to decades of mass consumerism, while the earth’s population had migrated to another planet.

Yet the movie is not about the ecology or about environmental issues.

WALL-E continues faithfully its directive of cleaning up the earth even though it was a lonely and a thankless task.

Its only friend is a cockroach and the robot-cockroach relationship is amusingly human as well as humourous.

Then another more advanced robot EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Examiner) was sent to earth to assess the conditions of earth.

Initially EVE was task-oriented, cold and hostile, a true robot in every sense of the word.

But along the way, a love relationship slowly blossomed as EVE gradually softens and befriends WALL-E.

Maybe I shouldn’t tell you more so that you will get a copy of the movie and watch it with your family or with friends.

It may seem to be like a children’s movie, but actually it has many layers of reflections for adults.

Although the movie is about robots, yet strangely it is the robots that bring out the human characteristics and human emotions.

Among other things, it shows that we humans can be rather robotic in our lives.

We sink into monotony and routine and we become like “robots of habit” offering only lip-service.

We run our lives like a computer program that runs on a CPU.

But inside of us is not a CPU. We have a heart.

And our heart is “programmed” by God to run with love, peace, joy, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

When we put our heart into our relationships, into our traditions and even into our regulations, we become truly human and we will also become truly loving.

And like WALL-E, with hearts of love, we will be able to clean up this world of the garbage of sin and evil, and we will also help to turn robotic humans into persons of love. 

21st Week, Ordinary Time, Saturday, 01-09-12

1 Cor 1:26-31 / Matthew 25:14-30

In this world, only a very small percentage of humanity will ever make a name for themselves.

The more popular ones are the actors and actresses, the pop singers, the top athletes and geniuses in their respective fields.

So, it goes without saying that the majority of us will come and go without the rest of the world ever noticing us.

Yet, we have this innate or inborn tendency to make a name for ourselves, to desire for attention, to bask in the limelight or to be just famous and popular.

In other words, we like to be praised by people and to be looked up to and even admired.

But the 1st reading would ask us this rather scorching question: What is there to boast about?

For us, how we stand before people is not as important as how we stand before God.

As it is expressed in the gospel parable, it is not about how many talents we have, but rather what are we doing with those talents.

We may not be flaunting our talents, but we may have to admit that we may be using our talents for selfish and self-gaining purposes.

Let us remember that we walk this way but once, and whatever good we can do, let us do it now, for we shall never walk this way again.

And for whatever good we do, let us give thanks and praise the Lord.

21st Week, Ordinary Time, Friday, 31-08-12

1 Corinthians  1:17-25 / Matthew 25:1-13

The term "simple truths" may give the impression that truth is simple enough to be immediately understood.

That may be the case in a logical truth, like the saying "what you sow is what you will reap". This is clear and simple enough as a truth of life.

But there are also other simple truths that require some reflection in order to understand what that truth is.

Because what initially seems to be foolish from the human perspective may actually have the seeds of divine wisdom.

As St. Paul said in the 1st reading, the crucifixion of Christ cannot be expressed in terms of philosophy because the language of the cross is illogical from the human perspective.

The Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom, and hence the crucified Christ does not make sense to them.

Yet, the foolishness of the cross is the power and wisdom of God, for God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

But to understand this, we have to look at the cross and the crucified Christ as the supreme expression of God's love for us.

When we understand how much God loves us, then we would want to be like lighted oil lamps which shine through the darkness of foolishness in search of God's wisdom.

Then we will also be willing to be like the oil that is being offered to be burnt and give out light for others. And that is indeed true wisdom.

21st Week, Ordinary Time, Thursday, 30-08-12

1 Corinthians 1:1-9 / Matthew 24:42-51

Time and tide waits for no one. Certainly, time has a way of slipping by us without us being aware of it as it flows by.

I was at a class reunion just the other day and someone mentioned that it has been 35 years since we left school.

If anything, 35 years is certainly a long time. And over that period of time, we had moved on from school to pursue our own directions in life.

It had been a long time, and yet we can recall vividly the moments we had in school and the occasions we met and how we had been keeping up with each other.

Yet the passage of time is not just for us to keep reminiscing about the past. It is also a time to look forward and to wait.

In the 1st reading, St. Paul tells us we are waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed, and that He will keep us steady and without blame until the last day.

So as much as we treasure the past for whatever it is, we also must stand ready for what is to come.

To stay awake is to be alert and well as to be sensitive to the small and quiet revelations of the Lord in our busy and hurried world.

In fact as we reminisce and reflect on the past, then we would have also seen how we had been careless and rather foolish even, to let the Lord pass us by without us understanding it or acting on it.

Let us awake from our spiritual slumber and stand alert and ready because the Lord wants to reveal how He is going to bless us.

The Passion of St. John the Baptist, Wednesday, 29-08-12

Jeremiah 1:17-19 / Mark 6:17-29     (2016)

The life of St. John the Baptist is indeed very dramatic. Even in his mother's womb, he leapt when Mary greeted Elizabeth at the Visitation.

At his birth, there was this amazing occasion of the choice of his name which restored the power of speech of his father Zechariah, and which also left the astonished neighbours wondering what would he grow to be.

His appearance at the river Jordan preaching repentance and baptising people earned him the reputation of "the Baptist" and he even baptised Jesus.

He had an illustrious ministry. Yet in essence, St. John the Baptist was a prophet and his greatest deed as a prophet was to point out Jesus as the Lamb of God.

And as a prophet, he had to fulfil his mission by proclaiming the ways of the Lord and pointing out sin and evil and calling for repentance and conversion.

For that St. John the Baptist paid the price when he pointed out Herod's sin, and for that he was captured and imprisoned in Herod's fortress.

If his life was dramatic and illustrious, his death was equally dramatic, although it was also very gruesome.

His death by beheading revealed the characters of Herod, Herodias, her daughter, and also all the guests present, who did nothing and said nothing to stop the heinous act.

For a great prophet like St. John the Baptist who had such a dramatic and illustrious life and ministry, his death seemed so humiliating.

Yet, today, we the Church honour him. Over and above all else, we honour him for his faithfulness to God and for his courage to accept and fulfil the mission of being God's prophet.

Even for us, in all the drama of life, the spills and the thrills, or even in the mundane and the monotony, what counts for us will be our faithfulness to God.

Because in the end, it is our faithfulness to God that mattered. It mattered to St. John the Baptist. It also mattered to God.