My Nephew and the Segway

We were at Sentosa and my nephew wanted to ride on the Segway. His father, older brother and I joined him. It is quite easy to manoeuvre the Segway. My nephew took to it like fish to water. He was able to use it in less than one minute. I, on the other hand, had to take a while. The instructor guided me and I got to hang of it a few minutes later. I thought that the route we took to ride the Segway was rather short. It was quite a interesting trail to one who was a first timer. There were several hairpin turns and it was not all on level ground. I was glad I did not ‘chicken-out’. I would have missed an interesting experience and would have one skill less. (Alright, riding a Segway is neither an important skill nor a difficult one.)

I took some time in prayer and found that our life is something like that is it not? We learn new things and try to get a hang of the different things that life throws at us. Sometimes, we are afraid and shy away from difficulties. When we do this we will pass up new opportunities, new skills and new experiences. The Lord also avails to us different occasions to receive His grace. If we fear and avoid these occasions, we must not blame the Lord if we do not obtain the graces. If we reflect honestly, we will see that there are many times when we miss opportunities for grace due to our choices rather than God’s will.

A Merry Lent?

I believe that the whole idea that we should not have enjoyment in Lent is somewhat strange. Lent is a time when we prepare ourselves for Easter. It is true that we have to do penance and pray. We fast, pray and give alms (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18; Ash Wednesday's Gospel). Can we not enjoy prayer? Can not prayer give us joy?

Lent is not a time to deprive ourselves of joy so that Easter would be a joy-filled celebration. Far from it! Lent is a time of grace.

As I was typing this, I typed a ‘v’ instead of a ‘c’ and got the word grave instead of grace. It's just one letter away (in two ways – difference of one letter, and on the computer keyboard) for one to become another. It is also just a slight shift in attitudes to change Lent from graced to grave.

God's grace ultimately gives us His joy. God's grace is one that gives hope. What we should not do is to confuse joy with frivolity. I see fasting not as depriving me of food but as presenting me an opportunity to meditate and pray. It is a biological fact that after eating, blood flow in the alimentary canal increases as digestion and absorption of food occurs. This is why we tend to be sleepy after a meal. When I decide to fast, I can spend the time that was going to be spent eating with God. At the same time, because there is no increased blood flow to the gut, I should be more alert and can focus on the prayer. Of course one may say that the hunger could be a distraction. This is true if one has been fasting for quite a while. If we have had enough to eat for breakfast, we shouldn't be feeling weak during lunch. We may feel the urge to eat (in other words, hunger) but we should not be suffering from extreme effects. The traditional Catholic way of fasting was to take one main meal and two small meals or collations. Although encouraged to go beyond this, Catholics should not end up physically harming their bodies. The idea of excess can go both ways, and both can be spiritually harmful.

Being solemn should not be mistaken for being gloomy. There are two meanings for solemn: ‘not cheerful, not smiling’ and ‘deeply sincere’. I suggest that a solemn Lent describes a Lent filled with sincerity. The focus in Lent should not be one that simply leads to not cheerful.We should be sincere in seeking the grace God offers us in Lent and we would be filled with joy. A sincere Lent is one that is enjoyable.

Priesthood is a Vocation

The seminary began its academic year on 12th January this year. In one of his addresses, Father Rector, (Rev. Fr. William Goh) reminded us that the word “vocation” comes from the Latin vocare, which means “to call”. When someone comes to me and says that he is interested in becoming a priest, one of the most important questions I ask is, “How do you know?” It might seem like a callous way of reacting to someone who has come forward to offer himself to the Lord. However, the one thing that we need to know regarding someone who wants to be a priest is to discern ‘the call’.

Every person who hears a call needs to discern what that call is. However, the call of God is only one part of the equation. How one responds to the call is also important. It is not as simple as just saying, “Yes!” It includes the question of God’s will and our own will. The kind of priest one will become depends on how we respond.

I was troubled by what Jesus said, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Mt 22:14) However, since becoming a seminary formator and being involved in promotion of priestly vocations, I am beginning to understand what Jesus might mean. A priest is not only called, he has to be chosen. There must be criteria for choosing from those who are called. The latest instruction from the Congregation of Catholic Education gives us the guidelines for using psychology to screen candidates for the priesthood. The psychological screening is just one of the many means that are used for the “choosing”. The combination of different screening processes helps formators and the bishop (or religious superior) to “choose” the right candidate. The results of all the screenings are confidential. In many cases, it is prudent to keep these results from the candidates.

As a result, many get angry for difficult decisions that have to be made. Seminary formators are often chided for dropping a “good” candidate when priestly ordinations are few. Confidentiality prevents these formators for justifying their decision. Of course the formators give counsel to the bishop, and if the bishop cannot trust the formators, it is his responsiblity to replace them.

Coming back to what I was saying above, if God calls a man to the priesthood and he treats it as a career, can he be a good priest? Of course, sinful as we are, we can still change. Trusting in the Holy Spirit, formators search and discern for ways to help the man to purify his intentions. In the end, if the Holy Spirit shows the formators that the man who is called is not really interested in responding in the right way, should he be “chosen” ore “elected” to the priesthood? How should the formators interpret what is shown by the Spirit? I believe the answer is obvious.

Christmas Post

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I know I am cheating. I am writing this is in the afternoon on Christmas Eve. I have requested that this post be posted about an hour and a half after midnight. That should coincide with the end of the Midnight Christmas Vigil.


Do you have Christmas decoration? Is it like this? On the door? Actually, this doesn’t seem to be suitable for Singapore because we don’t have winter here. A wreath made up of the leaves of a pine tree? Perhaps we could look for a Singapore substitute but then it won’t have a Christmassy look. I wonder how the Australians and South American countries decorate for Christmas because it is summer there ...

I found several images on Google. Here is a funny picture I found. Pictures of Christmas decorations were similar to the Northern Hemisphere. The only decoration that would be specifically Australian is a kangaroo wearing a red cap, like the one Santa Claus uses. Here is one example and another at the bottom of the page. South America uses decorations for Christmas that also include symbols more suitable for winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

As the decorations for the Church is not ready and the Christmas Nativity Scene is yet to be complete, I cannot provide pictures that are more suitable for a Catholic Christmas.

So I leave you with the picture of the Christmas tree in the parish house.

Have a Holy Christmas!

 

Belief and Blessedness

Besides the eight beatitudes in Matthew 5, there are several others in the four Gospels. I wish to highlight two.

The first is from the Gospel of St. Luke:

As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:27-28)

There is a lot to be said about the how fitting this beatitude is for the Blessed Virgin. According to the same Gospel, she kept all she had experienced with Jesus in her heart (see 2:19, 51). Our Lady had the Word of God alive in her body and then embodied in her presence for so many years. She had a very personal experience of God’s Word. We might say that she was privileged because of that. If we consider the privilege as being with Jesus, then, Our Lady was very privileged indeed. At the same time, she still had to make a decision to follow God’s will. One should not say that she would naturally follow God’s will because she was physically with the Son of God. There were those who had experienced Jesus personally and yet not follow Him.

We have a similar privilege as Our Lady. We know our Lord personally. There are many who have heard of our Lord but do not know him personally. Some of them belong to other faiths and religions. Quite a number of them profess to be Christian. These are probably those who treat Christianity as a system of beliefs and rites – merely a religion and nothing more. For those of us who know the Lord personally, Christianity is not merely a religion. We have faith in the beliefs because we have a personal relationship with our God. Our belief is not in a system or an impersonal deity but a person. When we believe in a system, we rely on the set of processes determined by a set of rules. In Christianity, there is an added element of a person who loves. Our God has a special and personal relationship with us. He treats us like persons. He respects our freedom and He loves us. It is true that he allows evil and its consequences to occur. It is true that He will refuse us anything that is not right for us. He made the rules and He does not contravene those rule indiscriminately.

The rituals we go through are expressions of our faith. The official Liturgy is an expression of the faith of the whole universal Church. That is why being free and easy with the rubrics can be wrong. The Liturgy is not merely the expression of the local community. The rubrics do allow for flexibility in certain parts of the Mass. These parts are available for the specific expression of the local community. This include the language to be used at the Eucharist. That is why I am not against the celebration of the Mass in Latin. There are people who feel that they can pray better in Latin. There are also people who are more comfortable celebrating the Eucharist in a language that they normally use. These people are not prevented from celebrating the Mass in the vernacular and should not be looked down upon. I know many people who prefer Latin who considers the vernacular contemptible. I pray for these people. They have loved their preference more than their own brothers and sisters. There are also parts of the rubrics that should not be changed. I know of a particular parish priest who decided that everyone should stand at the consecration and when he renovated his parish church building, he removed all kneelers. It seems he had quite a following in his parish. When a new priest was assigned to that parish, part of the congregation refused to kneel even when the new priest tried to explain that the previous priest was mistaken. It seemed that the previous parish priest claimed that he was trained in Liturgy and those parishioners considered the new priest as infringing on their liturgical rights. Even the bishop did not move some of those parishioners! I don’t envy that new priest. It wasn’t an easy situation to manage.

We receive the Word of God through our reading of Scripture and through the Church. We need to keep this Word within us. Besides meditation and reflective prayer based on the Word, we could also do Bible Sharing as a way to keep this Word within our hearts. This keeping of the Word is a lifelong activity. As we would be celebrating the birth of the Word of God as a human being, let us hope that this Word remains alive in our hearts as we keep it.


St. John also has a few beatitudes in his Gospel. One of them is found in his resurrection accounts:

Jesus said to him [Thomas], “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” (Jn 20:29)

I was about to write a lengthy reflection of this beatitude. I happened to be listening to an Old Time Radio Programme as I was typing this. When I heard the ending, I realised that no matter how much I wrote, it was not going be as effective as listening to this programme. The programme is called Dragnet from 22 December 1953. The show dramatises true case files. If you could listen to this show, you can listen to an MP3 file (to be downloaded) or a streaming M3U file or a Real Player file. Then move to the last paragraph as the following paragraph is a spoiler. If you do not want to listen to the show, then you can read on.

Actually, I subscribe to podcasts from Mevio. All you have to do is search for “Old Time Mystery” or “Old Time Detective” to get some of the best mystery or detective radio shows.


WARNING ** SPOILER ALERT **

The show is about two detectives who were called to a Catholic Mission Church because the baby Jesus in the crib was missing. It was supposed to be based on true case files. Listening to the dialogue, it is definitely from that time period. It wasn’t the gritty type of dialogue you’d expect from the television shows of today. The detectives couldn’t find the statue before morning Mass. In the end, a poor child returned the statue because he wanted to let baby Jesus take the first ride in his little red wagon that the nearby firehouse gave him for Christmas.

** END OF SPOILER **



Children believe easily any representative of what is real. Baby Jesus is but a figurine in the story but the child treated as the real Jesus. I am sure the child knew that the Jesus that died on the cross several months before is that same Jesus in the crib at the baby. The child could not be bothered by small details. All he knows that Jesus is alive and that Jesus loves them. In bringing baby Jesus for a ride, he expresses the belief that Jesus would allow him to look after Him. Christmas is a time when we celebrate the arrival of salvation for the world. How often do we realise the great responsibility we have to ‘look after’ Jesus. So often the name of Jesus is derided and disrespected in our presence. Are we willing to look after Jesus? More importantly, do we believe that Jesus is real and He is depending on us? That boy had not seen Jesus in physically. Yet, he believed in the Son of God.

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

 

Persecuted and Persecutor

Picture from Wikimedia. The work of art by Fra Angelico is in the Public Domain. This JPEG picture is a reproduction that is part of a collection of reproductions compiled by The Yorck Project. The compilation copyright is held by Zenodot Verlagsgesellschaft mbH and licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.
(Mt 5:10-12)

Many will only consider the first part (v. 10) as the Eighth Beatitude. In reality, without the following two verses (vv. 11-12), the Beatitude is incomplete. This is because the latter part describes what Jesus means by righteousness’ sake. In an earlier post, I described righteousness as God’s righteousness. The righteousness of God is personified in the person of Jesus. Thus, if we are persecuted because of Jesus, we are blessed.

There are many who are persecuted simply because they were Christians. Such was the plight of the martyrs of the early Church. Nero needed a scapegoat for the fires that raged Rome during his reign and he chose the Christians. During the Neronian persecutions, Christians were killed indiscriminately, not taking into account whether the individual Christians were really guilty of the fire or not.

Christians are still persecuted in different ways in different parts of the world. However, there are also many Christians who do not act like Christians. They retaliate by committing acts of violence against those who persecute them, acting contrary to what Jesus taught:

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (Mt 43-44)

In some cases, it is quite understandable, no matter how un-Christian it is, how retaliation occurs. When the persecution takes away the life of a loved one, there is grief. Grief can lead to rage and the need to retaliate overwhelms the mandate to forgive and love. That is why in an earlier Beatitude, Jesus talks about mourning (v. 4). Grief should lead to mourning instead of rage. Christian leadership is important in every community. Without Christian leadership, communities who claim to be Christian might forget the values that Christ taught and end up becoming counter-witnesses. Often the fear of disappearing into oblivion prompts communities to retaliate. Yet Jesus taught:

For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Mt. 16:25)

The teachings of Christ are not easy to follow if we do not submit to the grace of God. Thus, we should not judge individuals too harshly for failing. Judgement should be reserved to the Lord.

There are usually many people who complain that they are being persecuted for doing what is right. What these people should realise is that by complaining, they are retaliating in some way. Of course, when one is frustrated, one needs to vent. However, when the complaints leads to putting down of the ‘persecutor’, is it not like retaliation? Thus, it is important for us who are frustrated, to choose wisely the people to whom we talk to. If they are usually the same people, there will be no misunderstanding with regards to our ranting.

More importantly, we need to realise that we might be the persecutors instead of the persecuted. Often we vent our frustrations by making life difficult for the people around us. For example, if we are dissatisfied with how our superiors treat us, we might take out our frustrations on those who work with us. Our disapproval of mistakes might be disproportionate to the mistakes made.

More reprehensible would be when we impose our standards on others. Sometimes we put ourselves on a moral high ground, claiming to be good Christians and then proceed to bring down those who do not fit our standards. We fail to see that we are more like the Pharisees and scribes at the time of Jesus than Christian!

I believe that this Beatitude encourages us to humble ourselves and not retaliate. This beatitude encourages us to allow ourselves to be “walked all over” by others for the sake of Christ. We are not asked to be cowards. Rather, we are called to consider the value of Christ’s attitude at His Passion as a lamb led to the slaughter. It is not an easy attitude to adopt but we need to if we truly want to be “Blessed”.

Creating an Environment of Shalom

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Mt 5:9)










Picture from Wikimedia. It is in the Public Domain.


When I was in primary school … and that was a long time ago … I remember singing this campfire song:

Shalom my friend!
Shalom my friend!
Shalom … Shalom …
May Peace be with you,
May Peace be with you,
Shalom!
Shalom!
  (Of course, the lines in the middle may be sung “God’s Peace be with you …”)

I was taught at that young age by a Christian teacher that the word shalom meant peace. After I was baptised (I was in my early teens), I remembered a Youth Mission where there was a talk about Peace. I am sure that the idea of shalom was explained there but I have no recollection of it. My memories of that Youth Mission centred around the personalities of Rev. Fr. Brian Doro, C.Ss.R., and the late Rev. Fr. P.J. O'Neil, C.Ss.R. Anyway, it was only during lectures on Sacred Scripture in the seminary that I discovered the rich meaning of the Hebrew word, Shalom.

Shalom means wholeness. When someone greeted another, “Shalom!”, it meant that the greeter hoped that the Lord would grant the one greeted the totality of being. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Hebrew word shalom was often translated into the Greek soteria, which meant salvation. It makes sense, doesn’t it. God created perfect human beings in the beginning. Sin introduced imperfections, causing human beings to be less that whole. Salvation would be the restoration of that perfect state, being a wholly perfect human being again. The Greek word for peace eirene, means tranquility and harmonious relationship. Eirene is qualitatively less than shalom. Although Jesus probably used Aramaic rather than Greek, there is little doubt that he had the idea of shalom when he presented the beatitudes.

So when Jesus talks about peacemakers, he is speaking of those who make shalom a part of their lives. In our present world of conflicts, we hear of peace-keepers. These are military troops or civilians who maintain conditions that prevent conflict and hostility. The peace that is kept is not even that which is described by eirene. The idea of peace nowadays refers to “the absence of conflict”. Christian peace refers to the state of being whole, being complete, a completeness that only God can give:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. (Jn 14:27)

So when Jesus talks about being a peacemaker, I think it refers to those people who promote situations where people are able to become whole by the grace of God.

When there is conflict, whether large or small, the Christian response would be reconciliation. Reconciliation is not merely making compromises. It is the active provision of an environment of shalom that would pervade all parties. Suing for peace, no longer means wanting what is good for my party, but wanting the totality of good for all. This means that if I was the aggrieved party, I do not demand justice on my part, but the totality of good for all. To compromise would mean “give and take” on the part of all parties. There would be some things that would be obtained and others that would have to be sacrificed. Peacemaking has no giving up but rather receiving totally from God.

In the pastoral ministry, priests are called to provide environments where their flock can grow at being whole as a human being. Creating environments where shalom can be a reality is the challenge for priests of today. We are so specialized nowadays that we tend to forget that other aspects of being human also exist.