All Souls, Saturday, 02-11-13

Isa 25:6-9 /Romans 5:5-11 / Luke 7:11-17 (Yr C)

If we know what the future has in store for us, then we would surely know how to prepare for it in the present.

We may not know what tomorrow may bring and that is why we say that the future is mystery.

However, there is one thing we know about the future that is a certainty - we will have to face death as our lives on earth come to an end.

And with that we cross the threshold into eternity, we cross into forever.

But even as we cross into that eternal forever, we would still want to be remembered.

And that is why the burial or internment ritual of the ashes is of importance. It marks our final resting place on earth.

And that is the sign on earth of our existence in eternity.

Today as we remember all those who have gone before us, especially our loved ones and friends, we may know where their earthly remains lie. It may be at the cemetery or at the columbarium.

In today's Mass of the All Souls, we pray for them. Beyond this, we can always visit them and offer a prayer for them that God will grant them eternal rest and peace in His presence.

Yes, those who have gone before us need our prayers. They need to be remembered as no one likes to be forgotten.

So let us not forget to pray for them, and remember them always. For where they are now, one day we will be there. And we would also want to be remembered.

All Saints, Friday, 01-11-13

Rev 7:2-4, 9-14 / 1 Jn 3:1-3 / Mt 5:1-12

Today's feast of All Saints proclaims a very profound teaching on the spiritual authority of the Church.

With the authority bestowed on her by Jesus Christ and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Church makes the bold declaration of the names of those who have attained the reward of heaven.

There are over 10,000 canonized saints and coming up on April 27 next year will be the canonization of two recent popes - Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II.

When the Church officially canonizes a person to be a saint, the Church also declared that the person is in heaven and in the presence of God.

This feast is also us a feast of awareness and closeness - an awareness of the spiritual world, and the closeness, the communion, of those saints with us.

As people of God and people of faith, we believe that the saints are canonized not for their own honour but for the glory of God.

And to some of these saints are given a particular mission. For example, on Monday, we celebrated the feast of St. Jude Thaddeus, patron saint of desperate cases.

And then for lost articles, we turn to that famous saint, St. Anthony of Padua.

And as for St. Therese of the Child Jesus, who is our patron saint, she is also the patron saint of the missions and also of florists.

The awareness of the saints and their particular mission will also lead us to be in communion with them.

Because their main heavenly mission is to help us on our earth journey to live the live of holiness and to do the will of God and to grow into a deep love for God and neighbour.

The Beatitudes that we heard in the gospel is the expression of the lives that the saints lived while on earth, and it is also the life that we are called to live.

And as much as the saints want to pray for us, we must ask them for their intercession.

Yes, we have the power to call upon their intercession, for they cannot do anything for us without our asking.

So let us have a deep devotion to the saints and to ask for their intercession as we journey on in faith to join them in heaven.

The mission of the saints in heaven is best expressed by what St. Therese said: I will spend my heaven doing good on earth.

30th Week, Ordinary Time, Thursday, 31-10-13

Romans 8:31-39 / Luke 13:31-35

One of the unpleasant experiences of life is when friendship turn sour.

Not only friendships can turn sour, a friend can turn into a foe over a trivial matter.

But for a foe to turn into friend, that is certainly not easy to come by.

In the gospel, it seems that some Pharisees came to warn Jesus of the hostile intentions of Herod.

Were their intentions good, or were there other ulterior motives that only those Pharisees know about?

Whatever it might be, Jesus was not too concerned. He knows that friends can easily turn into foes, and it is not that easy for foes to become friends.

We too need not be too worried or anxious as to whether our friends will suddenly betray us and turn into our foes.

And even when our foes suddenly become nice and friendly towards us, we will certainly need to be wary.

Whatever the case might be, the 1st reading tells us that with God on our side, who can be against us?

Moreover, there is nothing that can come between us and the love of Christ. Christ is more than just a faithful friend. He is our Saviour. In Him is our refuge and our shelter. May we also be just as faithful to Him.

30th Week, Ordinary Time, Wednesday, 30-10-13

Romans 8:26-30 / Luke 13:22-30

There was this real-life story that I came across in a medical journal. I can't remember the details of the story but I am sure you have heard of similar cases.

A car accident left a man speechless, motionless and hopeless. He was in a coma, and he was, as what we would call, in a vegetable state.

His fiancée, ignoring the advice of everyone, quit her job just to nurse him, with the hope that he will recover.

She talked with him, prayed with him, read to him the daily news and massaged him.

For five months, there was no response from him. Then one day, she saw his eyebrow flutter.

And in the days that followed, she heard him trying to utter something.

Two years later, with her by his side to steady his steps, they walked down the aisle for their wedding.

What she did for him, is what the 1st reading said that the Spirit will do for us - the Spirit will help us in our weakness.

And we are also told that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, even when the situation seems helpless and hopeless.

So when the doors seems so narrow and the struggle to enter seems rather futile, let us allow the Spirit to help us and strengthen us.

With the Spirit's help, we will be able to tell more real-life stories of the wonders the Lord has done for us.

30th Week, Ordinary Time, Tuesday, 29-10-13

Romans 8:18-25 / Luke 13:18-21    (2019)

Whenever we sigh, we can be telling others a few things.

We may be bored, as when we sigh in a long boring meeting; we may feel helpless in that we cannot change a situation and so we sigh; we may be frustrated that we cannot get something to work, and so we sigh.

But sighing is not as serious as groaning. Groaning could mean that we are heavily burdened and undergoing pain and maybe even struggling to stay alive.

The 1st reading says that the entire creation has been groaning in one great act of giving birth.

Not just creation but we too are groaning inwardly. The groaning here is the longing to be set free. But to be set free from what?

It is to be set free from the clutches of the world that makes us want to think that all in life is just the here and now.

Yes, we are subjected to the worldly thinking that the temporary is the eternity. And people do succumb to the clutches of this worldly thinking and they live wildly with the pleasures and desires of life.

But for us, we know that salvation lies in eternity. And St. Paul says at the beginning of the 1st reading that he considered the sufferings of this life can never be compared to the glory that is waiting for us in eternity.

Still, we need to struggle to believe in that salvation that God has promised those who remain faithful to him.

May our faith be like the mustard seed and the yeast in the parables in the gospel. May our faith keep growing, despite the groaning, and one day reach the eternity of heaven.

Sts. Simon and Jude, Apostles, Monday, 28-10-13

Ephesians 2:19-22 / Luke 6:12-19    (2014)

Not much is known about the two saints whose feast we celebrate today.

Simon was called Zealot probably because of his zeal for the Jewish independence before he was called by Jesus.

Jude or Thaddeus is the author of the letter in the New Testament in which he warned Christian converts against false teaching and immorality.

He is also venerated as the patron of "impossible cases"

Traditional sources had it that both of them were together in their missionary work in Persia and they were martyred.

Both of them also tell us something about the people Jesus chose to be His disciples.

Both of them, as well as the rest of the apostles, were insignificant people from insignificant backgrounds.

But both of them had  a purpose in God's plan of salvation.

Both of them became zealous for Christ and for the Kingdom and they also became channels of God's grace for those who were seeking God's love and forgiveness, or when they seek God's help when their problems in life seemed hopeless or impossible even.

We may think that we are insignificant persons and hence we think we have no purpose in God's plan of salvation.

But let us ask for the prayers of St. Simon and St. Jude that we will discover our purpose in life and also our purpose in God's plan of salvation.

We may be insignificant but it does not mean that we are impossible. Because with God, everything and everyone is possible.

30th Ordinary Sunday, Year C, 27-10-2013

Sir 35:12-14, 16-19 / 2 Tim 4:6-8, 16-18 / Lk  18:9-14

The month of October can be said to be a prayerful month.

And when we think about it, we can see that the month of October is indeed dotted with prayerful moments.

Well, the month of October began with the feast of our patron saint, St. Therese.

And then there was the feast of the Holy Rosary, and the feast of Our Lady of Fatima.

Tomorrow is also the feast of a saint that all of us have prayed to before - St Jude, patron saint of desperate cases.

And talking about desperate cases, as much as October is a prayerful month, it is also a stressful month, especially for students and also for the teachers, and also for the parents.

Yes, October is exam month and so it is a stressful month, but also a prayerful month, especially for the students.

It is said that last minute preparations for exams also produces the greatest motivation to pray.

And what do most students pray for? Certainly for good results.

And good results does not mean to just pass the exams.

(For some students and some parents) Good results does not mean just a D, or a C, or even a B.

Good results means scoring an A, and nothing less.

When asked why scoring A is so important for exams, one student candidly replied: Oh, because we are A-sians! :P

In the gospel, Jesus told a parable about two persons: a Pharisee and a tax-collector.

The Pharisee was like an “A” student: he is not grasping, not unjust, not adulterous.

He fast twice a week, he pays tithes, and of course, he prays.

The tax-collector was like an “F” student: he had got nothing to say but only this: God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

He was like a student with a report card full of red marks and with the head hanging down could only shamefully say: I am sorry that I failed.

As the saying goes, we reap what we sow. So if we study hard, we will get good grades, maybe even a string of As.

If we are lazy and don’t study hard, and play play play, and then, at the last minute, we pray pray pray very hard, even St. Jude may find it difficult to help a desperate case. It is more like a hopeless case.

The Pharisee was certainly impressive with what he did, and it is understandable if he bragged about what he did, just like the students who would say how they toiled and sweat with their studies in order to get good grades.

His only problem, and which was his biggest problem was that he started to compare himself with the tax-collector and subsequently he put down the tax-collector.

The Pharisee had already exalted himself but to exalt himself further, he went on to ridicule the tax-collector by saying: and particularly, I am not like this tax-collector here.

And Jesus said it plainly, God will not accept that. 

How can one be called religious when one starts to compare himself with another and subsequently condemns the other?

As the 1st reading puts it: The Lord shows no respect of personages to the detriment of a poor man, and He listens to the plea of the injured party.

Moreover, the 1st reading states that the humble man’s prayer pierces the clouds, and the Lord will not be slow to answer him.

Yes, the Lord will hear and answer the prayers of the humble and lowly who only have Him for their help.

I came across a story taken from a magazine called Guideposts.

There was a young school teacher who really wanted to be a good teacher to her students. But a student named Billy, who was like an “A” student and a smart alec, was causing havoc in her class so much so that she was becoming a nervous wreck.

One morning before class began, the schoolteacher was at her desk writing something in shorthand. Suddenly, Billy appeared and he asked her: What are you writing?   

She said: I am writing a prayer to God in shorthand. Billy laughed and said: Can God read shorthand? The teacher said: He can do anything, even answer this prayer.   

Then she tucked that slip of paper into her prayer book and turned to write something on the board. As she did so, Billy, being Billy, took the prayer slip from her prayer book and slipped it into his text book.   

Twenty years later, Billy was going through a box of his belongings.

He came across his old text book. As he began to thumb through it, that prayer slip fell out. Billy stared at the writing on that faded piece of paper.   

When he got to his office, he gave that piece of paper to his secretary to decipher.   

As she looked at it, she blushed and told Billy that she would type it out and leave it on his desk before she left.   

That night Billy read the prayer. It said: Dear God, don't let me fail as a teacher. I can't handle this class with Billy in it. Touch his heart. He is someone who can become either very good or very evil.   

That final sentence hit Billy like a hammer. Because just hours before he was contemplating on some illegal business that would make him very rich, but very evil.   

Billy read that prayer a few times, and finally he changed his mind about what he was contemplating on.   Eventually he located his old schoolteacher and told her how her prayer changed his life.   

The old school teacher smiled and said: And I thought that God took that prayer and forgot to answer it.   

Amazing story, isn't it? Really amazing. Yes, let us remember that every prayer uttered is also every prayer answered.   

And it will be answered powerfully, when it is uttered from humble lips that are surrendered to the merciful and loving God.

So may we begin and end our every prayer with that prayer of the tax collector: O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.