22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2020

Last Sunday, we saw how St. Peter was graced by faith. God the Father revealed the truth of Jesus as Messiah to him. Yet today, almost immediately after being elected by Jesus to be the foundation of the Church, he shows how fragile human wills are. When he could not accept what Jesus was saying about his mission, Jesus rebuke him saying that he did not think in God’s way.

Can we always think in God’s way? I believe that we should not misunderstand the situation. Jesus revealed that God wanted Him to go to Jerusalem where he would suffer under the chief priests and scribes, then be put to death and then rise again. St. Peter had heard enough from Jesus that God the Father had sent Jesus. Thus, what Jesus said was something that is part of Jesus’ mission. He only considered that his master was going to be in danger. That is why Jesus said that St. Peter was not thinking in God’s way. Thus, Jesus did not mean that we have to always think in God’s way. Rather, we must not always think in man’s way.

It was God’s will that Jesus was to go to Jerusalem. It was not God’s will that the chief priests and elders chose not to listen to Jesus. It was not God’s will that they chose to harm Jesus. It was God’s will that Jesus was to go to Jerusalem. God does not control human decision. Human beings control human decision. God may try to influence our decisions but always to do good. Yet after the evil that was going to be done to Jesus, God finds a way to right the situation: Jesus will rise on the third day. St. Peter did not see that. He only saw the evil that was to be done to his master but not that God will raise Jesus.

There are many times when we find ourselves facing situations that we do not like. Our human way of thinking would ask the question why? Sometimes we are able to discern an answer, but other times we are not able to. When we bring our faith into the picture, that is, think in God’s way, we find that what we need to do is not asking but trusting. It is not that God wills evil for us but that in times of difficulty, God knows what needs to be done. Are we able to let go and let God handle the situation?

Once we understand this, we would understand what it means to carry our cross. The cross is not the suffering that God wills on us, it is the faith that we must bear in times of difficulty and suffering. We often say that our illness is our cross. We often say that we need to carry the cross when we find ourselves in difficulty. We must realise that what we are saying is that we must carry our faith, trusting that God will do what He thinks is best. Letting God also means that we continue to pray and when he provides us with solutions to our difficulty, we are to make a decision. We still have to say yes or no to Him. Sometimes, when we think in the human way, the solution that God suggests does not seem logical. Yet, when we think in God’s way, we find wisdom in what the world considers folly. When we say yes to God’s way, we will find life.

You will probably say to me, “Father, that is all good in theory. In practice, how do I know what to choose?” To think in God’s way means we must open our minds to God Himself. To do that means we must pray. I don’t mean mumble prayers, rather to open our minds and hearts to God in silence. It is in the silence of our hearts, not crowded with human thinking that we are able to see clearly. This needs practice. This is why we are to pray everyday. It is training our minds and hearts to enter into God’s way of thinking. Convention human wisdom also has something similar: we say practice makes perfect. So dear brothers and sisters, let us practise thinking in God’s way by having a consistent prayer life so that we may say yes to eternal life when God presents us with it.

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time 2020

I remember a very intelligent man saying that God does not exist because if God existed he would not be dying of cancer. Is it that this man does not have faith? 

Jesus asked his disciples who people thought He was. When repeating what other people said, the answers came fast. But when Jesus made that question personal, “Who do you say I am?” I could imagine the silence. You know, sometimes when there is an awkward silence during a conversation between friends — then someone has to say something to break the silence? It was probably something like that when Jesus asked the question. Simon was the one who broke the silence. What he said was something that no one else dared to say. Jesus was the Messiah.

Both Messiah and Christ mean the same thing. Messiah is derived from Hebrew and Christ from Greek. It is is not mentioned in the Gospels, but the other disciples probably thought that Jesus was the Messiah that all Jews were waiting for. What they were afraid to say, Simon dared to say it. The response from Jesus was just as surprising, “Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven.” Simon did not hear a voice from heaven saying that Jesus was the Messiah. He probably reasoned this on his own from the miracles and teachings of Jesus. So how could Jesus say that it was the Father who revealed it to Simon?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (153) says, “Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. ” We believe in God because God has given us the capability of believing in Him. In short, Faith is a grace. With the capability or grace to believe in Him, God reveals truths into our hearts. How we respond to this revelation is a free response on our part. Again, in the Catechism (166) we read:

Faith is a personal act – the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself. But faith is not an isolated act. No one can believe alone, just as no one can live alone. You have not given yourself faith as you have not given yourself life. The believer has received faith from others and should hand it on to others.

So Simon was given the grace of faith by God the Father. Then observing what Jesus did and said, Simon freely accepted the truth that the Father had revealed to him in his heart: that Jesus was Messiah. This belief was not kept in his heart but he shared it with the others when the opportunity came. It was possible that the other disciples had some idea Jesus was the Messiah, but their reluctance to freely accept this held them back.

However, Simon, who was praised and given the name Peter by Jesus, did not always respond positively. We remember how he denied Jesus. Yet, unlike Judas Iscariot, Simon Peter held on to the words of Jesus he had heard. Jesus said that every sin could be forgiven. His grievous sin of denying Jesus could be forgiven. He repented. Simon Peter eventually became a witness by dying for Christ. His experience of the forgiving Jesus at the end of St. John’s Gospel kept him clinging on to Jesus and to the task that Jesus had given him. Despite all his difficulties and failures, he continued to cling on to his faith.

What about us? If we were not given the grace of faith, we would have said what the cancer-stricken man would have said. The fact that we are here at Mass means that we have the grace of faith. Like St. Peter, we have encountered Christ and we responded in faith. We also mess up like St. Peter but are we able to cling on to our faith? When things don’t go the way we wished, would we let go of the God who loves us? Let us pray to God that we can cling on to our faith in Him and His Son. Let us also pray that we can be like St. Peter, able to share that faith with the people around us.

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2020

 Last month, we read in the newspapers of the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. Many people gathered together for protests despite the CoVid-19 situation. This movement started because of racial discrimination. Discrimination is something that is present everywhere. I experienced discrimination when I was studying in Rome. When the SARS epidemic occurred in East Asia, I found that people in the streets avoided me because I was East Asian. When Italy lost to South Korea during the FIFA World Cup in 2002, certain places did not want to serve me coffee because the Italians were upset with their team’s defeat by the Korean team. 

Today, Jesus seemed to discriminate against the Canaanite woman. The Jews did not mix with people of other nations. Jesus had been preaching only to the Jews and not to other people. Thus, it seemed he was looking down on the Canaanite woman by referring her to dogs. What Jesus said would have been praised by the Pharisees and scribes of his time. Yet when the woman demonstrated her deep faith, Jesus relents. Did Jesus really discriminate? In the eighth chapter of Matthew, Jesus healed a Roman centurion’s servant without question, yet He hesitates here. We can only surmise that he wanted to teach his disciples a lesson. When Jesus did not answer to the woman’s shouting, his disciples asked Jesus to give the woman what she wanted because they wanted her to stop shouting. The disciples were not worried about the woman’s daughter. They were disturbed by the woman’s shouting and just wanted her to stop. They cared for what they wanted and not truly for others’ needs. Jesus reminds his disciples that He gave the Canaanite woman what she wanted because she had great faith. The disciples discriminated against her because she was not a Jew. They had assumed that God had rejected everyone except the Jews. Jesus’s answer tells them that they were wrong. In our first reading, we hear Isaiah tell us that God will welcome foreigners to His holy mountain. In our second reading, we hear St. Paul tell us that although God had chosen the Jews, their rejection of Jesus had made them disobedient to God and those whom the Jews despised and discriminated against are now the ones shown mercy.

Like the Jews, we must remember that while we have the grace of God, it is also possible for us to lose it and that those who accept God despite not explicitly accepting Jesus might have greater faith than us. Coming to Mass is something important for Catholics. We are concerned for ourselves when we come for mass. Are we concerned about others who are not coming for mass? If we are not, then we are like the apostles, only caring for our own wants and are not concerned with the needs of others. The Eucharist should spur us on to greater love and care for our neighbour, whether they are Catholics or not. If we say we need the have the Eucharist but are not concerned for our neighbour, then we are actually looking at the Eucharist as a want and not really a need. I have heard people telling me that they suffered much during the circuit breaker. “I want to receive Jesus,” they would say. The celebration of Mass is important for Catholics and receiving the Eucharist is just as important. However, if the Sacrament does not lead us to greater love for neighbour, then we have to ask ourselves if we have become discriminatory, placing ourselves as first priority and others, ie. our neighbours as no priority. Let us turn our hearts to the Lord Jesus and ask for the grace to be more loving to our neighbours this week because we have had the privilege of receiving the Eucharist.

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2020

 One of the most immediate things we can see in the Gospel story today is how impulsive St. Peter was. In contrast, Jesus was someone who was deliberate and thoughtful. After a whole day of ministering to the people who came to him, Jesus sent the crowds away, and then went to pray. After that prayer, he decided to walk to the boat that was carrying his disciples. He sensed their terror and reassured them saying, “Courage! It is I! Do not be afraid.” On the other hand, Peter did not think. Remember, he was one of the terrified disciples in the boat. He heard the voice of Jesus but he was not sure. Then he decides to test to see if it was Jesus. He tells Jesus to make him walk on water. As soon as he moves his attention from Jesus to the wind, he begins to sink. Jesus tells him that he had little faith. Was what Jesus said true?

Peter was reckless. He just threw himself into the situation. That had nothing to do with faith. We need to use our heads and heart to be faithful. Peter, in this story, did not. He did not think through his request to Jesus and he did not trust enough in Jesus. Many of us equate faith with just trust. That is why we end up hurt and disappointed. Peter trusted that Jesus had the power to get him to walk on water. However, Peter did not use his head to think if he was able to let go and leave everything to Jesus. It was not that Peter had not enough trust, but that Peter did not think through to what he needed to do when he got out onto the water. As long as he had his heart and eyes on Jesus, he was fine. When he looked away from Jesus, he began to sink.

Many of us request of God many things, and we claim we have faith in God. Yet, like Peter, we do not think through what we are asking. Can we handle the consequences of our request? Can we endure the conditions that we must go through? Like Peter, we just say to ourselves: Trust God and he will make things better. When God starts to work, we get upset because we want God to do it our way, not God’s way. In order for Peter to walk on the water to Jesus, he had to go through the wind and the waves. In order for God to give us the best results for our requests, we need also to go through ups and downs. Are we prepared for it?

For example, a student asks God to help him do well for his exams. God can help him, but he has to go through his lessons diligently,. He has to work hard and focus. That is the journey he has to go through to reach what God wants to give him. If he expects God to give him straight A’s without him picking up his books to read, he would be in for a rude shock like Peter. 

Let us learn from the Gospel story today. Let us use our heads and hearts in faith. When we ask for the grace of faith, we are asking for the gift of being prepared for the journey that God will bring us on.

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2020

 Jesus came to show us the way to the Father. He proclaims the Kingdom of Heaven. We have been hearing this for a number of weeks. This week, we see the Kingdom of Heaven in action. Jesus feeds the multitude of people with just five loaves and two fish. Our first reading tells us that God calls all those who want to drink. Those who are thirsting for God will be satisfied. One who is thirsting for God is one who will drink whatever God gives. Jesus gives food to the hungry crowd. One thing that we must remember is that if we are truly thirsting or hungering for God, we will accept whatever he gives. There were only five loaves and two fish. Jesus fed them with just that, there was no sauce and no condiments.The crowd accepted what was given them.

I believe that we, who live in affluent Singapore, are a little spoiled. We criticise when it is not up to our taste. Sometimes, we would like to be satisfied with what we desire, not what God gives. Our second reading tells us that nothing can come between the love of God and us. However, the problem is that sometimes, even though there is nothing coming between the love of God and us, we still do not accept it. It is available to us but we would want the love of God in our own terms. It is when that happens that we reject the love of God. The obstruction is not something between us and God, but we ourselves. 

So let us come to the point of today’s reading. God calls us, are we responding? If we are one of the crowd in the presence of Jesus, and Jesus passes on the fish and loaves, and we are not particularly fond of fish, are we going to accept the food given to us? Let us remember that we have no claim to God’s love, nor what He wants to give us. He freely gives. We must freely receive. It is when we attach conditions to what He freely gives that we are not freely receiving. How can we claim a right to God when we, as sinners, do have the right to claim anything from the Creator?

Let us be grateful to the gift of God’s love. No matter what form it takes, let us be grateful. Let us pray for the grace of gratitude.

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2020

This Sunday we hear parables about extreme behaviour and reasonable behaviour. The first two is speaks of people who would sell everything to get something precious. I remember asking myself, after getting the treasure and the pearl, how is the man going to eat? He has sold everything! The third parable is rather reasonable. Fishermen with a huge haul of fish would need to sort the fish out to sell them. So what was that about? God sorting those who are fit for heaven and those who are not? It seems so. The fourth parable seems similar and yet it is not the same. There is mention of different things: old and new, but there is not mention of which is the one kept and the one thrown away. Yet, how are these parables connected to the first two?

We see that all the parables are about possession. The man wants to possess the treasure in the field. The merchant wants to possess the precious pearl. the dragnet possess the fish by trapping the fish in itself. The householder possesses things old and new. All these are connected to the Kingdom of Heaven.

The first parable tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is a precious treasure that we should acquire at all costs. We should allow God to rule in our hearts. The second parable tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven looks for precious things. We are the precious pearl, meaning that God would do everything to rule in our hearts, and we know that the rule of God is a rule of real and true love. Despite gathering everyone into itself, the Kingdom of Heaven is not accepted by everyone. So those who despise God would be allowed to leave it. However, outside the Kingdom of Heaven is the blazing furnace. Despite that, the Kingdom of God is meant for everyone, as the things both old and new in the storeroom.

This last point is also what the second reading is about. God chooses everyone. He sent His Son so that all would be justified and saved. However, he also allows us to make up our own minds. Thus, the third parable reveals to us the fact that there would be those who choose not to be justified and saved. How do we know we have chosen correctly? Our first reading tells us of the choice of Solomon. He asked for a heart to discern good and evil according to the dictates of God. In the world today, there are so many shades of good and evil because they do not follow the dictates of God but according to one’s own choosing. That is why one gets arguments like, “it is better to terminate a pregnancy than to bring a child into a world of suffering,” or “we need to be permissive to show the young that we love them, so we should not deny them anything.” More tragic is the argument that “I believe this is the right thing to do because it feels right.” Notice how the last one is dependent on oneself and not on what God has taught?

Today’s parable tells us to let the kingdom of heaven rule our hearts with love. The kingdom of heaven is precious; it welcomes all peoples. However, we enter the kingdom of heaven because we choose to follow God. We should ask God to give us wisdom so that we can be discerning, choosing the kingdom of heaven and rejecting that which is evil.

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2020

Today we are confronted with two more parables that deal with farming. Last Sunday it was about sowing the seed. Today the first two parables is about plants and the third is about yeast.

The first speaks of darnel and wheat and how they look similar to each other when young but then they act differently when mature. The parallel here in our region here (at least in Singapore) would be the two grasses we find in undeveloped areas: elephant grass and lallang. Both look similar when young but the latter catches fire easily when mature. Obviously we would prefer to have the less dangerous grass. In the gospel, wheat is a food plant and darnel is actually toxic to humans.

The second parable speaks of mustard, which has really small seeds but can grow into rather sturdy plants. We actually eat quite a bit of their leaves and stems as the vegetable mustard green. The third talks about the small amount of yeast added to a dough and it permeates all of the dough.

The common thread here is growth. How does growth occur? Today, science can explain and describe the processes that give rise to growth, but at the time of Jesus, there were no microscopes and laboratories to explain the growth. People simply accepted the fact that there is growth. The last two parables explain to us that the kingdom of God will grow but we don’t know how. The fact is that the Kingdom will grow. It is then not difficult to attribute the growth to God Himself. 

The first parable tells us that besides the kingdom, there is something else that grows. This other thing that grows is the opposite of what the kingdom is. Many would say that this other thing belongs to Satan. I would add that sometimes it is we ourselves who oppose the growth of the kingdom. Our pride and egos can be obstacles to the kingdom as well. There is a saying: the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

When we evangelise, we are doing a good thing. However, we must not have the idea that we are the cause of the growth of the kingdom. God gives growth to the kingdom. When we serve God we should discern regularly, asking if what I am doing is for the right motives. The discernment might not be clear at the early stages of our service, but as time passes, we should be able to discern. We should be humble enough to ask God to help us to weed out all wrong motives in our service of God.

We might have gone for courses to help us serve God better. However, we must regularly discern if what we have learned was for the service of God or was in fact to feed our own ego. We might have started to visit the less fortunate because we genuinely cared for them. Along the way we might have allowed our egos to taint our motives. After all, when someone praises us for doing good work, we feel good. If we do not discern and purify out motives, we might find ourselves visiting others so that we might be recognised for our efforts. We have allowed the darnel to overtake the wheat in the field. In our quiet time this week, let us ask God to help us do some weeding. We should weed out the darnel in our lives and allow the Lord to give growth to the wheat.