May 4 2013

The Holy Spirit: The precious gift of God to the world

Homily for 6^th Sunday of Easter 2013 year C

Last Sunday I baptised two beautiful little babies. After the baptism I left the families at the sanctuary as they took some photos. I was heading to the sacristy when this little 2-year old kid came running after me. At first I didn’t mind him. But he continued to follow me. Still I didn’t stop to talk to him but then he gave an amazing comment which I never heard from a 2 year old kid before. He said: ‘You put water on Eden’s head before.’ I said ‘Yes I did.’ Then he asked me: ‘Why?’ I was caught by surprise. It is not only because I don’t know how to explain it to him in a way he could understand, but more so because of his age. I can’t believe that little kid had been observing me as I baptised and even formed an inquiry to himself. I tried to answer him but then another lady caught up with him. She also tried to explain it to him. I don’t know if that kid got anything out of our explanation. I am not convinced of my answer myself.

I’m sharing this with you because that innocent question of that little kid ‘why?’ evokes something in me as I was reflecting on the gospel for today. Jesus was hinting that he had to leave his disciples. If I were there, I would have also asked like that little kid why does he need to leave. I could have persuaded him to just stay with us on the grounds that we love his company, we love to listen to his words, we love to see him present with us as he is. Like the disciples, we could have said to him: ‘To whom shall we go now, you have the words of eternal life.’ But Jesus had reason to leave. He had to leave to prepare a place for us. He had to leave for the Holy Spirit to be active in us in our journey of faith.

The good thing about his leaving [through his death, resurrection and ascension] is that it opens for us more riches of God. It gives us opportunity to be the reflection of his light to others, just as the sun had to set fully in order for the moon to shine its full brightness. His leaving gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the paraclete, our lawyer, who will teach us everything and remind us of all that Jesus told us (Jn 14:23-29). And because of the Holy Spirit we come to see the fullness of God that Jesus has revealed in his life on earth. This same Holy Spirit is one that guides the Church through the centuries. It is the same Spirit of Jesus that sustains us as Church in the midst of persecutions, problems, trials, challenges, etc. It is the same Spirit that serves as the wisdom of the leaders of the Church starting from the Apostles until now. Because of the Holy Spirit, we can proudly say, the Church in which we belong to has been proven and tested by time and experience.

Over the centuries, the Holy Spirit is constantly at work in the Church, in each one of us, and in our human experiences. One concrete example of the working of the Holy Spirit in the Church is in the first reading we have heard today. The Apostles and the elders of the Church had convened a Council in Jerusalem to resolve the issue of initiating people into the Church. Apparently, some Jewish converts to Christianity said to the Gentile converts that they need to be circumcised to be part of the Church. This means, they have to follow the Jewish custom first before coming into the Christian Church. This was the issue. The Apostles resolved this with the help of the Holy Spirit. So the apostles had this notice for the Gentile converts: ‘It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to saddle you with any burden beyond these essentials: abstention from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meat of strangled animals, etc.’ (Acts 15:1-2;22-29)

In our time too, there are many ways that the Holy Spirit is at work. The election of Pope Francis is one. He wasn’t one of the ten strong contenders. He is not as young as many would have expected the new pope would be. But now he is showing us a lot of examples, in fact challenging all of us to have a lifestyle check. Another sign of the Spirit at work is this crisis of abuses in power and authority by some members of the Church. In crisis like this, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth and of justice, is working on renewal, and empowering us to assess ourselves and our faith in Christ. The beauty of this Spirit is that it gives us abundant gifts, riches from God. The Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has reflected on this during his homily at the Vigil with the young people during the World Youth Day in Sydney 2008. The Pope noted that this same Spirit has generously given us gifts that are “working within us, giving us direction and definition in our witness” to Christ and to our faith. The Pope then urged the young people and this is an invitation for us today who are here too: ‘that we turn to the Holy Spirit in order that we find the true meaning of renewal.’ The pope then concluded the homily by these words of assurance: ‘In accepting the power of the Holy Spirit you too can transform your families, communities, and nations.’

So as we continue our celebration today, let us assess our lives. Are we making ourselves available for the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us? Another way to do this is to stop asking ‘why’ do we have to do this, and to start asking ourselves ‘how we might live out the Spirit of Christ in our daily lives.’

Apr 28 2013

When Jesus ‘falls’ in love

Homily for 5^th Sunday of Easter year C 2013

I went to a retreat in the last couple of days with 30 others young adults, all leaders for the Victorian World Youth Day pilgrims in Millgrove. During the first night we had this activity called ‘getting to know you.’ We are asked questions that speak something about ourselves. One question was ‘If there is one person dead or alive you wanted to have dinner with, who would it be?’ I’m amazed of the answers. Obviously many chose the famous celebrities, like David Attenborough, or the Obamas in America or Keith Urban, or their dead grandfather, etc. However, not one in my group, myself included (how embarrassing) chose to have Jesus for dinner. I’m surprised and a bit ashamed of myself for not choosing Jesus. Fortunately, no one in my group dared to point it out to me otherwise I could have said ‘That’s my plan B.’ But as I reflect back on that activity, I said to myself: ‘It might just be for fun but it really reveals something of myself and also who or what other young people aspire to be in company with.’ I’m not going to tell you who I wanted to have dinner with as I answered the question that night, but to be honest with you, I didn’t choose Jesus.

Due to my Sunday commitments here with you I had to leave the retreat earlier. The retreat ends later today. I drove for three hours last night to get back home. It’s a long drive especially I’m on my own, but it made me think why didn’t I choose Jesus to have dinner with?

I found one reason from the gospel for today. In our gospel today from John (Jn 13:31-35), Jesus issued a challenge if you like, to his disciples. And if we read the text just before this gospel, Jesus threw the challenge during the last supper, during dinner, after Judas Iscariot had left.

This is one reason I can see now, why I didn’t say I want to have dinner with Jesus. It is because I don’t want to be challenged by him. I just wanted to enjoy the meal, to enjoy the company.

However, whether we like it or not Jesus is challenging us all today. And what is his challenge? Listen to what he said: ‘Love one another’. It sounds easy. We can do that. Anyone can do that. We might say: It’s not challenging! True, but there is more to this. Jesus added: ‘Just as have loved you, you must love one another.’ Here’s the rub. Jesus is commanding us (I give you a new commandment) to love one another the way he does.

**To love one another like Jesus does, we need to have a look on how does Jesus ‘fall’ in love?**

Firstly, He loves God, his Father so much. He is always obedient to his Father’s will. He always listens first to his Father in prayer and solitude for everything he does. He is so united with his Father in love and that gives him strength and power. The good news is that we are all invited to experience in ourselves this love between the Father and the Son. And we can make this happen in us, with the grace of God if we always allow God to be the source and the motivation of all the good things we do, if we listen always to Jesus and if we do whatever he tells us to do through the Church, through the Scriptures and through our Traditions.

Secondly, Jesus, our Lord and our God, loves us indiscriminately. He doesn’t look at us in terms of our nationalities, skin colour, social status, educational profile, etc. He loves us all the same no matter how sinful we think we are, no matter if we live in his love or not, no matter if we are loving or not, no matter if we reject his offer of love or not. The greatest proof of this is the Cross. If we want to see for ourselves how much God loves us, let us just contemplate on the mystery of the Cross.

Thirdly, Jesus loves his enemies. ‘Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing’ (Lk 23:34) And he urges us to do the same. He said: ‘Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again’ (Lk 6:27ff). This is a new commandment indeed. And this is hard but it is not impossible. Jesus wasn’t only telling us this. He really showed it in his life. And we ought to follow him in this way. We need to understand though that to love someone doesn’t mean we have to like them. Loving is different from liking. This reminds me of a Vietnamese seminarian in the seminary with me. He was asked one dinnertime if he likes the food because he just filled his plate with the lot. He said: ‘I can eat everything, but it doesn’t mean I always like them.’ One thing I do to show that I love that someone even if I don’t like him or her (I might be a priest but I am human too you know) is to pray for the person regularly. I just said: ‘Lord, you know that I don’t like this person, but look after him/ her. Take care of him/her.’ I can attest that this prayer really works. It’s slowly becoming good.

So as we continue our celebration of the Mass today, I invite you to make two resolutions: First, invite Jesus to have dinner with you. This means allowing him to be there in all aspects of your life (family, workplace, community life, etc.) He might be throwing a challenge at us but he would also give us the strength and the power to face it. Second, let us resolve to be more loving by following the way Jesus loves us all. One way to do this is to imitate what Paul and Barnabas did in our First Reading today. ‘They put fresh heart into the disciples, encouraging them to persevere in the faith’ (Acts 14:22). This is also our mission when we are baptized, to show that we love one another. This is an important mission because as Jesus would say to us now: [‘By] this love you have for one another everyone will know that you are my disciples’ (Jn 13:35).

Oct 14 2012

Let go and let God

Homily for 28th Sunday in Ordinary time year B 2012

Many of us would have heard so much publicity of the Church especially in our time. Though there is no doubt that the Church has done so much good in and for the world over the centuries, there have been instances as well that the Church herself fell short from the ideals. Thus, we can understand the people who gave comments, criticised, or even stand against the Church because they wanted to know the truth. So at times, when I heard people putting the Church into a bad light through negative and even sometimes unfounded, unconfirmed and an exaggerated report, I just pray and hope in silence. My prayer is that hopefully these people who attacked the Church are really motivated by the desire to know the truth, rather than distorting the truth. Because if truth becomes the motivation, the foundation and the ground of doing things, then most things would have been put into real perspective. The Church being divine and human institution, fall short from the ideals because some of her children turned away from the truth, turned their gaze away from the Lord and shifted their focus to themselves.
But what really is the truth? Pontius Pilate was caught up with this question himself. This same quest occupies the mind and heart of the rich young man in our gospel today. He also wanted to know the truth of real security. He wanted to invest for eternal life. And rightly so, his desire to know the truth led him to Jesus. It is just right that he ended up in Jesus because the truth is not something, but someone. The truth is not ‘what’ but ‘who’. ‘I am the way,’ Jesus declared, ‘the truth and the life.’ (Jn 14:6).
If Jesus then is the truth, then we must focus on him, we must not lose sight of him because in and through him we can see the truth of things, we can see the truth of our loving God revealed in Creation. In him we can see the truth of ourselves.
However, sometimes we find it hard to accept the truth that Jesus brings about. As G.K. Chesterton wrote: ‘He not only comforts the afflicted, but he also afflicts the comfortable. We find it hard to accept him because he can be a ‘threat’ to our security. He can be limiting our freedom. Our friend the rich young man in our gospel today can attest to this. He had definitely found the truth in Jesus. Jesus offered him eternal life. He had certainly heard from him how to invest for eternal life. And he has realized his vast wealth can’t guarantee him of heaven. Jesus understands this, so he told him to invest it, by selling it and giving the proceeds to the poor, then to follow him. And only after then that Jesus assured him that he’ll have treasure in heaven.
Jesus has revealed to this man the truth of himself- that he can have heaven but he has to let go of his earthly security and baggages. But he refused the offer because he can’t let go of his false security. He declined the invitation. If only he had realized what he had missed. If only he had realized what a great exchange he would have got if he listened to Jesus.
Jesus is also calling us now to let go of our earthly securities and let him help us to invest for eternal life. Only through following him, with him and in him that our eternal life’s security is assured and guaranteed. This is not day dreaming. This is not wishful thinking. This is a true promise as Jesus himself would respond to Peter in our gospel. When Peter bluntly asked Jesus ‘What about us? We have left everything and followed you,’ he declared: ‘There is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, father…for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not be repaid a hundred times over…not without persecutions (though: as a concrete sign of his cross in us) now, in this present time, and in the world to come, eternal life.’
Yet, Jesus is not only inviting us to let go our false securities. He also asked us to give up of everything for him. What does it mean? Among millions of other ways of giving up for Jesus, this can point to us three initiatives.
First: Devotion to the truth. This means living out the truth of our Christian identity, thus witnessing for Christ in the world in our own ways, means, capacities and capabilities. This also means devotion to the Word of God that ‘is alive and active…[that] can judge the secret emotions and thoughts’ according to the Letter to the Hebrews, the Word, that testifies the truth of who really God is.
Second is Devotion to the good. This means acknowledging the good in ourselves and in one another, no matter what other people say. This also means upholding and promoting the good for all, not just for the privileged few. This is a crucial call for us today because of the many apparent negativity, injustices, and bad things happening around us and even in us today.
Third is devotion to the beautiful. This means upholding the dignity of each one and respecting the inherent beauty of creation. This is also another important call for us because there is a growing trend now for many that ‘you are only someone if somebody sees you’, or ‘you are what other people say of you’ mentality. There is also this growing trend to destroy creation and claim it as property of someone or a subject in science, or under control by someone.
To realize all these initiatives however, we need to pray for the spirit of Wisdom. Only the wisdom of God can teach us and make us see and understand the ‘truth, the good and the beautiful’ in our God, in one another, in our world. ‘In [the] company of the Spirit of Wisdom,’ the author of the Book of Wisdom declared, ‘all good things came to me.’
So as we continue today, let’s endeavour to keep our eyes on Jesus all the time. Let’s make this our prayer that we may love the truth all the more. Let us pray too that we may be always faithful in our following of Jesus by letting go of our earthly securities and by giving up everything for him and for the kingdom. Amen.