Tobit 1:3; 2:1-8 / Mark 12:1-12
Our faith and the Church teaches us that life is sacred because God is the Creator and it is He who gives life.
Life may be sacred for us, but for the world life is cheap.
At least from the way conflicts and differences are resolved by violence and war, it is quite obvious that life is cheap and counted as nothing.
When we see footage of dead bodies of an armed conflict, we don't shudder anymore. It is like watching a movie and we don't feel the effects of the atrocity.
In both readings of today, death seems to have a prominent role and it is of a violent nature.
In the 1st reading, a man was strangled to death and left there at the market place.
In the gospel parable, the servants and eventually the son of owner of the vineyard were killed by the tenants.
Even Jesus died a violent death by crucifixion. It goes to show that mankind will violently extinguish a life (or even numerous lives) if it continues to be a problem.
But respect for life and the sanctity of life are the key tenets of our faith.
Our witnessing to love and forgiveness and reconciliation will be the only answer to those who think that life is cheap.
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Trinity Sunday, Year B, 31.05.2015
Deut 4:32-34, 39-40 / Romans 8:14-17 / Matthew 28:16-20
We know what a plank is. Or at least we know what the initial meaning is.
It is a long, thin, flat piece of timber, used especially in building and flooring.
But words have a tendency to morph from its initial obvious meaning to some other meanings that might make us wonder where they come from.
The latest meaning of plank is actually an exercise. It's hard to believe that the plank exercise could provide such a great workout, until you try it. Some trainers would even recommend conquering the plank before attempting any heavy weight exercise.
It seems quite easy. Just get into pushup position on the floor. Bend your elbows 90 degrees and rest your weight on your forearms.
Your elbows should be directly beneath your shoulders, and your body should form a straight line from your head to your feet. Hold the position for as long as you can. Your goal should be to hold it for two minutes.
So even though you are not moving or lifting weights, you have to constantly squeeze your abs to hold the position.
The surprising thing is that most people can't last 30 seconds on their first attempt.
The longer you can hold the plank, the more resilient your lower back will be to injury, and the better your abs will look once you tone up the muscles.
Sounds too good to be true and it seems too simple, until we try it.
And when we actually get down it, the initial motivation will slowly wear off when we don’t see immediate results and then the exercise will be like those fancy exercise machines that end up as a clothes rack.
It’s not that we doubt the effectiveness of the exercise. It’s that we just don’t have the persistence and perseverance and we want immediate results with the least effort.
Well, today we celebrate a Sunday called “Trinity Sunday”. So what is it about this Sunday?
Oh we will say the usual things like God is Trinity, Three Persons in one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
But with God who is Trinity, what is the meaning in it for us? Do we really understand the meaning of Trinity? Or has that word morphed into other meanings?
If we have some difficulty in finding meaning in God as Trinity other than what we have been told, we are not alone.
The great Doctor of the Church St. Augustine of Hippo spent over 30 years working on his treatise ”De Trinitate” [about the Holy Trinity], endeavoring to conceive an intelligible explanation for the mystery of the Trinity.
He was walking by the seashore one day contemplating and trying to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity when he saw a small boy running back and forth from the water to a spot on the seashore. The boy was using a sea shell to carry the water from the ocean and pouring it into a small hole in the sand.
St. Augustine approached him and asked, “My boy, what are you doing?” “I am trying to bring all the sea into this hole,” the boy replied. “But that is impossible, my boy, the hole cannot contain all that water” said St. Augustine.
The boy paused, stood up, looked into the eyes of the Saint, and replied, “It is no more impossible than what you are trying to do – to comprehend the immensity of the mystery of the Holy Trinity with your small intelligence.”
The Saint was absorbed by such a keen response from that child, and turned his eyes from him for a short while. When he glanced down to ask him something else, the boy had vanished.
Some say that it was an Angel sent by God to teach St. Augustine a lesson on pride in learning. Others affirm it was the Child Jesus Himself who appeared to the Saint to remind him of the limits of human understanding of the great mysteries of our Faith.
Through this story, the sea shell has become a symbol of St. Augustine and the study of theology.
And this story, together with today’s gospel passage, reminds us of the mystery that we have been immersed into, and that is the mystery of Baptism.
We are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Like the shell, we can only understand so much of the mystery of God.
But like the shell, we also hold the mystery of God and that mystery is that of God’s love.
We scoop up God’s love with the shell of our hearts and we pour it out into the sands of the world around us.
The water of God’s love seeps into the sands and we don’t seem to see any results immediately, and we think it is futile.
And so we begin to doubt God’s love, and we hesitate, as we heard in the gospel that some of the disciples hesitated.
Over the past week, a handful of people had been folding these invitations that will be given out later. It is an invitation to the triduum and the parish feast-day Masses.
It’s rather labour intensive and about 3000 invitations have to be folded and given out this weekend.
Will there be a response to the invitations, or will they end up in the trash?
But these invitations were folded with love, and where love is sown, there will be a harvest, maybe 30, maybe 60 and maybe 100.
Whatever it may be, the mystery of the Trinity is the mystery of God’s love.
The meaning of God’s love has not changed and yet at the same time it is also growing, and will continue to grow, and as Jesus promised us in the gospel, it will continue to grow until the end of time.
Like the plank exercise, we must not doubt its effectiveness; we only need to persist and persevere in God’s love.
We know what a plank is. Or at least we know what the initial meaning is.
It is a long, thin, flat piece of timber, used especially in building and flooring.
But words have a tendency to morph from its initial obvious meaning to some other meanings that might make us wonder where they come from.
The latest meaning of plank is actually an exercise. It's hard to believe that the plank exercise could provide such a great workout, until you try it. Some trainers would even recommend conquering the plank before attempting any heavy weight exercise.
It seems quite easy. Just get into pushup position on the floor. Bend your elbows 90 degrees and rest your weight on your forearms.
Your elbows should be directly beneath your shoulders, and your body should form a straight line from your head to your feet. Hold the position for as long as you can. Your goal should be to hold it for two minutes.
So even though you are not moving or lifting weights, you have to constantly squeeze your abs to hold the position.
The surprising thing is that most people can't last 30 seconds on their first attempt.
The longer you can hold the plank, the more resilient your lower back will be to injury, and the better your abs will look once you tone up the muscles.
Sounds too good to be true and it seems too simple, until we try it.
And when we actually get down it, the initial motivation will slowly wear off when we don’t see immediate results and then the exercise will be like those fancy exercise machines that end up as a clothes rack.
It’s not that we doubt the effectiveness of the exercise. It’s that we just don’t have the persistence and perseverance and we want immediate results with the least effort.
Well, today we celebrate a Sunday called “Trinity Sunday”. So what is it about this Sunday?
Oh we will say the usual things like God is Trinity, Three Persons in one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
But with God who is Trinity, what is the meaning in it for us? Do we really understand the meaning of Trinity? Or has that word morphed into other meanings?
If we have some difficulty in finding meaning in God as Trinity other than what we have been told, we are not alone.
The great Doctor of the Church St. Augustine of Hippo spent over 30 years working on his treatise ”De Trinitate” [about the Holy Trinity], endeavoring to conceive an intelligible explanation for the mystery of the Trinity.
He was walking by the seashore one day contemplating and trying to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity when he saw a small boy running back and forth from the water to a spot on the seashore. The boy was using a sea shell to carry the water from the ocean and pouring it into a small hole in the sand.
St. Augustine approached him and asked, “My boy, what are you doing?” “I am trying to bring all the sea into this hole,” the boy replied. “But that is impossible, my boy, the hole cannot contain all that water” said St. Augustine.
The boy paused, stood up, looked into the eyes of the Saint, and replied, “It is no more impossible than what you are trying to do – to comprehend the immensity of the mystery of the Holy Trinity with your small intelligence.”
The Saint was absorbed by such a keen response from that child, and turned his eyes from him for a short while. When he glanced down to ask him something else, the boy had vanished.
Some say that it was an Angel sent by God to teach St. Augustine a lesson on pride in learning. Others affirm it was the Child Jesus Himself who appeared to the Saint to remind him of the limits of human understanding of the great mysteries of our Faith.
Through this story, the sea shell has become a symbol of St. Augustine and the study of theology.
And this story, together with today’s gospel passage, reminds us of the mystery that we have been immersed into, and that is the mystery of Baptism.
We are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Like the shell, we can only understand so much of the mystery of God.
But like the shell, we also hold the mystery of God and that mystery is that of God’s love.
We scoop up God’s love with the shell of our hearts and we pour it out into the sands of the world around us.
The water of God’s love seeps into the sands and we don’t seem to see any results immediately, and we think it is futile.
And so we begin to doubt God’s love, and we hesitate, as we heard in the gospel that some of the disciples hesitated.
Over the past week, a handful of people had been folding these invitations that will be given out later. It is an invitation to the triduum and the parish feast-day Masses.
It’s rather labour intensive and about 3000 invitations have to be folded and given out this weekend.
Will there be a response to the invitations, or will they end up in the trash?
But these invitations were folded with love, and where love is sown, there will be a harvest, maybe 30, maybe 60 and maybe 100.
Whatever it may be, the mystery of the Trinity is the mystery of God’s love.
The meaning of God’s love has not changed and yet at the same time it is also growing, and will continue to grow, and as Jesus promised us in the gospel, it will continue to grow until the end of time.
Like the plank exercise, we must not doubt its effectiveness; we only need to persist and persevere in God’s love.
Friday, May 29, 2015
8th Week, Ordinary Time, Saturday, 30-05-15
Ecclesiasticus 51:12-20 / Mark 11:27-33
It is not easy to admit that we are wrong, especially when we are confronted with facts.
It is even more difficult for people of authority to admit that they are wrong.
Simply because there is just too much to lose.
When the authorities confronted Jesus, it was Jesus who presented the facts.
But in refusing to acknowledge the facts, and by saying "We don't know", the authorities have exposed themselves.
Ironically, it was the people of authority that had put their own authority into question.
We are all people of authority in some way or another.
Some of us are parents who have authority over our children.
Some of us are supervisors and managers who have authority over our subordinates.
But this authority is given to us to discern what comes from God and to do the right thing.
In other words, authority is synonymous with service.
We serve our children by teaching them the right values.
We serve our subordinates with justice and fairness.
We serve like Jesus did, who came to serve by showing us how to live out the truth with love.
It is not easy to admit that we are wrong, especially when we are confronted with facts.
It is even more difficult for people of authority to admit that they are wrong.
Simply because there is just too much to lose.
When the authorities confronted Jesus, it was Jesus who presented the facts.
But in refusing to acknowledge the facts, and by saying "We don't know", the authorities have exposed themselves.
Ironically, it was the people of authority that had put their own authority into question.
We are all people of authority in some way or another.
Some of us are parents who have authority over our children.
Some of us are supervisors and managers who have authority over our subordinates.
But this authority is given to us to discern what comes from God and to do the right thing.
In other words, authority is synonymous with service.
We serve our children by teaching them the right values.
We serve our subordinates with justice and fairness.
We serve like Jesus did, who came to serve by showing us how to live out the truth with love.
Thursday, May 28, 2015
8th Week, Ordinary Time, Friday, 29-05-15
Ecclesiasticus 44:1. 9-13 / Mark 11:11-26
Each of us have our own ideas of what a church should be like.
It may be about the design and the appearance, the colour of the paint, the furnishing, etc., right down to how the staff should dress and what the priests should be doing.
And because each person can have a peculiar opinion about such matters, the Church has issued rules and guidelines to whatever imaginable point of contention so that there can be something to refer to and to follow.
In the gospel, when Jesus went about driving out those who were selling and buying in the Temple, He was not just trying to impose His personal views on what the Temple should be like.
He quoted this scripture passage: "My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples. But you have turned it into a robbers' den."
So it seems that the Temple has become a religious commercial and business centre and the original purpose of it being a centre of prayer was eroded and diluted.
What had happened to the Temple can also happen to any church. People can forget that they have entered the house of God and that they have come to pray to God and not to prey on others.
And Jesus also gave two teachings about prayer:
1. Everything you ask and pray for, believe that you have it already, and it will be yours.
2. When you stand in prayer, forgive whatever you have against anybody, so that your Father in heaven may forgive your failings too.
So to pray is to ask for forgiveness and also to forgive others. There can be no other opinions about that. Because that is what God wants of us.
Each of us have our own ideas of what a church should be like.
It may be about the design and the appearance, the colour of the paint, the furnishing, etc., right down to how the staff should dress and what the priests should be doing.
And because each person can have a peculiar opinion about such matters, the Church has issued rules and guidelines to whatever imaginable point of contention so that there can be something to refer to and to follow.
In the gospel, when Jesus went about driving out those who were selling and buying in the Temple, He was not just trying to impose His personal views on what the Temple should be like.
He quoted this scripture passage: "My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples. But you have turned it into a robbers' den."
So it seems that the Temple has become a religious commercial and business centre and the original purpose of it being a centre of prayer was eroded and diluted.
What had happened to the Temple can also happen to any church. People can forget that they have entered the house of God and that they have come to pray to God and not to prey on others.
And Jesus also gave two teachings about prayer:
1. Everything you ask and pray for, believe that you have it already, and it will be yours.
2. When you stand in prayer, forgive whatever you have against anybody, so that your Father in heaven may forgive your failings too.
So to pray is to ask for forgiveness and also to forgive others. There can be no other opinions about that. Because that is what God wants of us.
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
8th Week, Ordinary Time, Thursday, 28-05-15
Ecclesiasticus 42:15-25 / Mark 10:46-52
Once a man asked God: Why is it You don't fulfill my wishes, since You are everywhere?
God replied: I am like WiFi my child. I am available everywhere, but you need to connect with me with a correct password. And the password is - FAITH
Yes, passwords are needed to get into secured networks; unsecured networks, ie. those that do not require passwords are rather risky to get connected to.
So as much as God is everywhere and always available, we also need faith to be connected to Him.
In the gospel, the blind beggar Bartimaeus heard that Jesus was passing by, called out to Him, was scolded and told to keep quiet, but he only shouted all the louder. Finally, he caught the attention of Jesus and got his request answered.
But there was something significant that Jesus said to Bartimaeus: Go, your faith has saved you.
Although Bartimaeus was initially blind, he could sense who Jesus is, he persisted in calling out to Him, he persevered despite the obstacles, and he finally got what he asked for.
In one word, we can say that it was faith that connected him to Jesus, and with faith Bartimaeus followed Jesus.
May we have the eyes of faith to see where Jesus is, what He wants of us, and to follow Him with perseverance and persistence.
Once a man asked God: Why is it You don't fulfill my wishes, since You are everywhere?
God replied: I am like WiFi my child. I am available everywhere, but you need to connect with me with a correct password. And the password is - FAITH
Yes, passwords are needed to get into secured networks; unsecured networks, ie. those that do not require passwords are rather risky to get connected to.
So as much as God is everywhere and always available, we also need faith to be connected to Him.
In the gospel, the blind beggar Bartimaeus heard that Jesus was passing by, called out to Him, was scolded and told to keep quiet, but he only shouted all the louder. Finally, he caught the attention of Jesus and got his request answered.
But there was something significant that Jesus said to Bartimaeus: Go, your faith has saved you.
Although Bartimaeus was initially blind, he could sense who Jesus is, he persisted in calling out to Him, he persevered despite the obstacles, and he finally got what he asked for.
In one word, we can say that it was faith that connected him to Jesus, and with faith Bartimaeus followed Jesus.
May we have the eyes of faith to see where Jesus is, what He wants of us, and to follow Him with perseverance and persistence.
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
8th Week, Ordinary Time, Wednesday, 27-05-15
Ecclesiasticus 36:1, 4-5, 10-17 / Mark 10:32-45
If we had been to a class to learn a new language, we would know what the experience is like.
All our mental energies are focused on what we are hearing and trying to make a connection to how we can understand it.
So our ears have to listen, our minds have to think and make the connection, and meanwhile our energies are depleting and draining away.
And just after two hours of intensity, we may have a break and we would walk out of the class dazed and apprehensive.
We may be wondering if it is worth it to spend so much time and energy and gaining so little in return.
In the gospel, we heard that the disciples who were following Jesus were dazed and were apprehensive.
They have heard a lot of heavy teaching from Jesus about the cost of following Him, about persecutions and in today's gospel about service.
When we ponder on the teachings of Jesus deeply, we may also be dazed and apprehensive.
We are like learning a new language - the language of love and service.
Jesus is a good Teacher. Let us ask Him to help us understand that language. Then we will know how to love and serve.
If we had been to a class to learn a new language, we would know what the experience is like.
All our mental energies are focused on what we are hearing and trying to make a connection to how we can understand it.
So our ears have to listen, our minds have to think and make the connection, and meanwhile our energies are depleting and draining away.
And just after two hours of intensity, we may have a break and we would walk out of the class dazed and apprehensive.
We may be wondering if it is worth it to spend so much time and energy and gaining so little in return.
In the gospel, we heard that the disciples who were following Jesus were dazed and were apprehensive.
They have heard a lot of heavy teaching from Jesus about the cost of following Him, about persecutions and in today's gospel about service.
When we ponder on the teachings of Jesus deeply, we may also be dazed and apprehensive.
We are like learning a new language - the language of love and service.
Jesus is a good Teacher. Let us ask Him to help us understand that language. Then we will know how to love and serve.
Monday, May 25, 2015
8th Week, Ordinary Time, Tuesday, 26-05-15
Ecclesiasticus 35:1-12 / Mark 10:28-31
To make sacrifices and to give up what we are entitled to or what is rightfully ours are not words we would like to hear.
Because the human tendency is to be possessive and to hoard more than we need.
And we rebel at the idea of giving up what is ours and to even make sacrifices for the sake of others.
So in the gospel, we heard Peter asking Jesus: What about us? We have left everything and followed you.
So what was Peter and the rest of the disciples going to get for all they have given up?
Maybe we should ask ourselves: for all that we gave up and sacrificed for the Lord, what did we get? How were we rewarded? (If ever we were rewarded!)
The 1st reading exhorts us to make our sacrifices cheerfully, because just as the Lord God has given us, so we too must be able to give up what is even rightfully ours.
It continues by saying that a virtuous man's sacrifice is acceptable, and its memorial will not be forgotten.
But what we should not forget is that it is God who first made the sacrifice.
He sacrificed His only Son to save us. All our sacrifices amount to nothing compared with that.
We can only offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, and be generous to others just as the Lord is generous to us.
To make sacrifices and to give up what we are entitled to or what is rightfully ours are not words we would like to hear.
Because the human tendency is to be possessive and to hoard more than we need.
And we rebel at the idea of giving up what is ours and to even make sacrifices for the sake of others.
So in the gospel, we heard Peter asking Jesus: What about us? We have left everything and followed you.
So what was Peter and the rest of the disciples going to get for all they have given up?
Maybe we should ask ourselves: for all that we gave up and sacrificed for the Lord, what did we get? How were we rewarded? (If ever we were rewarded!)
The 1st reading exhorts us to make our sacrifices cheerfully, because just as the Lord God has given us, so we too must be able to give up what is even rightfully ours.
It continues by saying that a virtuous man's sacrifice is acceptable, and its memorial will not be forgotten.
But what we should not forget is that it is God who first made the sacrifice.
He sacrificed His only Son to save us. All our sacrifices amount to nothing compared with that.
We can only offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, and be generous to others just as the Lord is generous to us.
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