Friday, August 19, 2011

Who Do You Say I Am?

This week’s Gospel is from the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew. It is the well-known part in which makes his confession that Jesus is the Son of God.

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesare'a Philip'pi, he asked his disciples, “Who do men say that the Son of man is?”

And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Eli'jah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

It is from these passages that Catholics believe that the ministry of the Pope came about. There are many homilies that would focus on the question, “Who do you say I am?” The congregation would be asked to reflect on what their answer would be if Jesus posed the question to them. I believe that my homily this weekend would go along the same lines. However, in my preparation, I discover another insight. Before we answer Jesus' question, we would need to answer another question, “Who does Jesus say I am?”

To the answer, “A child of God,” I ask myself if I had really lived with a childlike trust towards God.

To the answer, “a Catholic priest,” I ask myself if I had truly helped God’s people eople to connect to Him.

To the answer, “A Christian,” I ask myself if I have allowed myself to see Christ in others and others to see Christ in me.

Just a short reflection ...

Thursday, July 14, 2011

I guess it's Newsworthy

I have had some people sending me text messages through my phone. I guess I do have to address this. The small snippet of news would probably be in the print edition if it has come out in the online edition.

At the end of last year, the Traffic Police sent me a summons to appear in court. In Oct 2009, I was involved in an accident. I was stressed, got distracted and failed to notice the red light in time. I went into the junction and a car who had the right of way collided with my car. I was in the wrong. This morning, I pleaded guilty to inconsiderate driving and was fined $800. Some parishioners, whom I would consider friends, sent text messages asking if I was okay. Going to court is not really a pleasant experience but I did commit a traffic offence and I accept the consequences.

Some of you might realise that I had also stopped posting at the beginning of this year. My posts and reflections are usually based on current happenings in my life and the observations I make around the time I make my reflections. I must confess that I had stopped because I did not want to say something I shouldn’t because of what I had seen in court or regarding my anxieties regarding my offence. I used to tell my father, “You’d never know …”

So, I am off to my retreat next Monday, or rather, more accurately, I am entering into my retreat on Monday. Hopefully, I will have a good retreat and emerge recharged to start posting this blog again. Yet — “You’d never know …” I am still quite sensitive regarding the accident and the court proceedings. All it takes is one insensitive person to make the wrong remark and the wrong time and I may end up depressed and effectively negating the retreat. “You’d never know …” I hear you tell me, the Lord might help my brother priests to be merciful to me and not comment about it. In any case, I believe the Lord would be there to see me through the retreat.

Alla prossimo

Saturday, January 08, 2011

Trying a new method of Blogging.

Call me backward or old but I recently found that there was another way of making posts on my blog. Here I am trying to make my first post using my handphone on email. Perhaps, I will be able to make more (but shorter) posts on this blog. Thoughts that come to me when I am in a pensive mood but away from the computer usually gets lost. I hope I will be able to share my thoughts more frequently thus.