Christmas 2012

Someone mentioned to me, “How quickly Advent went by.” Yes. Advent is over and we are now at Christmas. We had arrived at what we were preparing for: celebrating the birth of God made man. Christmas this year was a quiet one for me. I spent time with family. I believe that the drama of Christmas (the shepherds, angels, the manger birth and that there was no room in the inn did occur) I also believe that it was also a quiet occasion. I mean that there was praise and wonder but there was no party atmosphere. I'd like to think that the singing of the heavenly hosts was ethereal rather than boisterous and overwhelming. I did not offer my services to any parish for Midnight Mass this year. I spent a quiet evening observing family interactions and thanking God in my heart. I'd like to think that I was like the shepherds whom we read in the Gospel of St. Luke: pondering the mystery of the Christ–child in my heart.

First Sunday of Advent (Dec 2012)

Watch yourselves,

or your hearts will be coarsened with debauchery

and drunkenness

and the cares of life,

and that day will be sprung on you suddenly,

like a trap.

For it will come down on every living man

on the face of the earth.

Stay awake, praying at all times

for the strength to survive all that is going to happen,

and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man.

Our contemporary culture has influenced us to look at different things with regards to Christmas. Ask any child what Christmas is about and chances are he or she will say, “Presents and Santa Claus.” Only one who has been formed well by good Christian parents will say, “Baby Jesus,” without batting an eyelid. Why so? Christmas has become the perfect opportunity for retailers to retail. They have taken the Christmas message of giving to new heights (or depths, depending on one's perspective). “Christmas is a time for giving,” is rather common to our ears, is it not? There is nothing wrong with the message per se. It is how we use the message. The reason for giving is that God gave us His only begotten Son. The Son of God took flesh, i.e. became a human being, a being less than God, so that we might be saved. The reason for giving is that Christ had come. The focus is Christ, not the season. The focus of Advent should then be the preparation of ourselves to receive Christ. The worldly ideas of buying gifts, preparing menus and decorating the house can distract us. We can end up getting drunk on the wrong ideas and the cares of worldly life so much so that our hearts become coarse. Christmas no longer centres on God's gift to humanity, but our gifts to others.

Advent is a time for preparing our hearts to receive the Infant Jesus. We should try to refrain from pre-empting Christmas like singing carols and having Pre-Christmas parties. I suppose that we would be expected to have the obligatory office Christmas celebrations before Christmas. We can't really fault those who are not Christians, and they form the majority of our society. However, as Catholics, are we on the right path? Are our focus still on Christ? So, how are we, as Catholics, preparing ourselves for Christmas?

Confession:
I had been embarrassed to post this last week as I found myself at the Crazy Christmas show an hour after I had celebrated the last Mass for the morning. I enjoyed the show but felt guilty for not practising what I was preaching. During the week, I was led to Matt 23:3, which says, “so practise and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practise.” Thus, at the risk becoming like the Pharisees, I post this because what I have written was not wrong but for God's glory. Not posting would have been the more selfish thing to do.

Christ the Universal King

One of the hardest things to do as a Christian is to let go. We celebrate the Solemnity of Jesus Christ the Universal King today. To allow Christ to be king means that we will have to let go of our wilfulness and allow Christ to lead. The Lord usually leads us through unfamiliar territory in our journey of faith. Fear of the unknown is disturbing indeed. However we must let go of our own insecurities to trust the Lord. If we don't let go, we won't be able to cling on to the Lord. Christ is our King. We should know that we are secure with Him. Christ is King!! He is who we should depend on. Amen.

Final Year Farewell Function

As I write this, the seminary community is celebrating the Farewell Function of the Final Year students. Each of the Final Years have a pacifier in his mouth so that they would not be able to vocalize their protests as they are being verbally roasted by their junior brothers. Rather than sharing deep dark secrets, the junior brothers share their experiences of encountering their most senior brothers. Their sharings are not only encouraging but also very inspiring. There are stories of appreciation as well as messages of thanks.

Dead Tired ... And Digging my own grave?

The new semester has started but instead of being fresh and raring to go, I am feeling extremely fatigued.

The reason is that I had had a short trip to Manila last week. When we landed, we were greeted by the periphery of a typhoon (which I believe to have become the terrific storm that hit Hong Kong). Although not very serious, it was rather significant to me, one who has not experienced a typhoon before.

I must confess that I left before completing spring cleaning and I reached home to a situation where there was much that still needed to be done. Needless to say, I have not recovered from my trip and the cleaning and packing tasks that I had given myself are facing increasing delays unless I buck up and start getting more rest and become more disciplined.

On to the main reflection. I saw so much potential in the Philippines when I visited Manila. Yet there are so many poor people. It is not that the economy is bad. From my observations, the culture is only Catholic and Christian in the cultic and ritual aspect. It would take an extremely courageous Christian to evangelise their culture. That individual would be called by God to be like Abraham: to abandon the familiar but problematic way of life that both rich and poor Filippinos are used to (see Gen 12:1); to take the risk to lose his own life but to gain the Kingdom for God (Mk 8:35-36). Would that individual would use up his riches to give the dignity of proper work to his less fortunate brothers and sisters? Could he make a break from unjust nepotism? Could he distance himself from irrational adherence to clannish and tribal ties? As a Catholic, would this person look at the people in his country as brothers and sisters, involving himself in God's righteousness rather than imperfect human justice?

Of course, we Singaporeans are far from perfect ourselves. Whenever someone asks for material help, I wonder if I have given the right thing. Could the Church in Singapore help by providing meaningful work rather than handouts? Would the Church in Singapore take the risk to do what was right in the eyes of God? It is definite easier to give in to popular opinions and call it justice. It is certainly easier to give an interpretation to the Word of God that everyone likes and attract lots of parishioners. However, we risk losing parishioners if we preach and live the truth (see Jn 6:60-66). I can see injustice about me, and, sometimes, in the Church but feel helpless because I am not sure if an immediate intervention would make the matter better or worse. It becomes more heart-wrenching when there is an abuse of authority and I cannot do anything about it.   I myself have authority given to me from above. I can only pray that I am exercising this authority rightly in the eyes of God. I also pray that God may provide me the courage, wisdom and discernment to act in God's righteousness.

Packing Before the Move

I am now with my mother and two brothers trying to put over forty years of memories into boxes. We keep much which have contributed significant memories. We had to let go of some stuff which were significant but could no longer fit into our lives as they are now. I would
Have loved to keep the chairs on which we sat forty years ago. Whilst there aren't any economical value attached to them, there was where I sat as a child watching
Buffalo Bill Ah! The memories of childhood! We can remember but we cannot allow those memories to stop us on our tracks unable to move on. We had to let go of our cherished childhood to grow up. We need to let go of some of our stuff so that we can grow into new and necessary stuff. In Christian life, we get rid off old habits to embrace the habit of God's grace.ô

Documentary and Indignance

Just heard a documentary about the overpopulation in Philippines and that the government there is about to give free contraceptives.  Of course, the Catholic Church in Philippines have protested.  However, in the mean time, families are getting larger and people are getting poorer.  The Church had been made a villain in the documentary.  Yet, the problem isn't about the use and non-use of contraceptives but family planning.  It is so like the secular and commercial world to consider the surface and not the deeper issues.  The Church has no objection to family planning.  Family planning means that faithfulness in marriage, and discipline and responsibility in marital life.  The use of contraception affects the amount of faithfulness, discipline and responsibility in family planning.  As I write this, I realise that some pro-contraceptive readers would object to that last sentence.  Yet, faithfulness in marriage is not just faithfulness between spouses.  Faithfulness means faithfulness to God as well.  Discipline could mean being mindful of using the contraceptive but being disciplined in marital life also means that abstinence is an intrinsic part of being a married couple.  Responsibility also means that making informed decisions as a couple, like when to stop having children by practising abstinence.

I was indignant because of the way the documentary was made.  It demonised the Church as only concerned with doctrine and not really interested in the lives of the people.   If the leaders of the Church in the Philippines have made adequate efforts to offer assistance to their people to live responsibly as Catholics, then we should not just look upon them as leaders out of touch with the reality in which the rest of the Church lives.  If, however, the leaders are just sitting there vending out doctrine without concrete assistance, they would be like the Pharisees in the time of Jesus who lay heavy burdens but do not lift a finger to help (see Matt. 23:4).

All right.  I have rambled enough.

First Day of Mid-2012 Break

After a semester of lecturing and teaching, I had looked forward to this break. However, the first day was not as enjoyable as I envisioned it. There were some small housework tasks that I had neglected due to the heavy workload during the semester. Furthermore, I am not good when it comes to housework. I usually take twice the time to sort out my stuff. So, I need to schedule twice the amount of time. Vacation? Let's see how much of relaxation I finally get. At the same time, the daily spiritual exercises continue, albeit in a different time slot.

A New Year Reflection

     “Mary, Mother of God”—Now that's a title that Christians had officially given Mary, mother of Jesus, in the 5th century as a result of the Council of Ephesus which dealt with the Nestorian heresy. More than a millennium later, years after the Western Schism that was called the Protestant Reformation, some Christians accuse the Catholic Church of deifying Mary, a mere creature of God.

     The Catholic Church dedicates the last day of the Christmas Octave to Mary with the title of “Mother of God” not because we have deified her but because we want to glorify God, who has graced her with the role of being the mother to His Son.  The title actually protects the integrity of the personality of Jesus the Christ. The Council of Ephesus affirmed that Jesus is only one person with two Natures.   A woman gives birth to a person, not to a nature.   Nestorius had claimed that Mary was "Mother of Christ" and not "Mother of God".  This, in effect, splits Jesus into two persons.  Jesus does not have a split personality.  Thus Mary cannot be said to be only mother of Jesus the Man and not Jesus, the second person of the Holy Trinity.

     I have started a reflection on today's feast and have digressed to give a brief account of one of the Christological doctrines.  (I think Mr. Tim Staples does a better explanation than me here.)  Let me get back to the reflection.

     We celebrate this feast because we want to glorify God for showing us His willingness to fill His creatures with grace. Although we hear that Mary is highly favoured in the Gospel, God does not have favorites. (Please see Luke 1:28.  Being highly favoured and being a favorite are two different things.)  He wants all of us to be saved. That is why he announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds and the shepherds, in their turn, told others.  In the Gospel today, we notice that people came to know about this significant birth.  Mary, who has been given a significant mention by the angels, did not become arrogant or proud. Instead, she quietly kept all that had happened in her heart, pondering over them (Luke 2:19).

     I believe that God wants us to look at the gifts and graces He has given us.  We must be grateful for them and humbly accept them. The good news is that He is ever willing to grace us. Every gift we have had is not something that we deserved.  Rather, they have been given us because God loves us unconditionally.

Can we not, like the shepherds that night, start the habit to tell others about the generosity of God that we have experienced?