Tag Archives: Prayer

Feb 16 2013

Prayer, Fasting and Obedience to the Word of God: Jesus’ way to beat the tempter

Homily for 1st Sunday of Lent year C 2013

In my homily last Wednesday (Ash Wednesday), I said to some of the children at our parish primary school  that one way to observe lent is to give up something that  we love doing such as eating lollies or chocolates, or watching TV, or playing video games. And this is to be done not for our own sake but in solidarity with the many children in the world who have less or even no way to watch TV because they don’t have any, or simply because they have no money to buy lollies or chocolates. I was almost caught up with my own word when after the mass, one girl told me she wouldn’t want to get back to school until playtime. I said to her: ‘Remember my homily? I said ‘you give up something that you love.’ And she readily protested: ‘But I love school!’ I could have said to her: ‘You must not give up going to school otherwise your parents would have to pay a fine of $70.

We who are here today, let us ask ourselves: How do we take this season of lent to heart?

Traditionally we observe lent in three ways: Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. Let us still keep up with these ways because these express a deeper motivation and a deeper reality. These express our inner self (fasting through denying oneself of some cravings), our relationship with God (prayer) and our relationship with one another (almsgiving). But perhaps many of us are working on what is the particular thing or action that we like or we love doing and which we desire to give up at least this holy season of lent. I heard some have given up sweets, soft drinks or wine. They are good resolutions but a big challenge too, because the temptation is great, very  attractive and is always before us. No wonder Oscar Wilde, in his play Lady Windermere’s Fan said: “I can resist anything except temptation.” Or as one priest jokingly said: “Temptation resisted is temptation wasted.”

If we are serious in our resolve then, let us take the Lord’s prayer seriously when we pray: ‘Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.’

In saying this, we are praying that we wouldn’t give in to temptation and not give up with our good resolutions. But how can this be possible?

Jesus in our gospel today would tell us that this is in fact possible, within our reach, within our grasp and  even within us. We heard in today’s gospel Jesus was tempted by the devil after 40 days of prayer and fasting in the desert.  His temptation is meant to show us that he completely identifies with our humanity. “For we do not have a high priest”, says the Letter to the Hebrews,  “who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin”( Heb 4:15 ). He was tempted in every way, that is in all levels of his being truly human. But he didn’t give into temptation because he didn’t give up his being ‘Son of the Father’ (his true self) and because he remained to himself and to his mission.

If we follow the gospel slowly, we can reflect four levels of temptation that Jesus had to face.

First is on the personal level. ‘If you are Son of God’, says the tempter. We remember on Jesus baptism, he was confirmed as the ‘beloved Son of the Father.’ Now, the evil one is trying to get personal on him. Yet, Jesus didn’t give in. He stood up his ground that He is anointed by His Father and filled with the Spirit of God to proclaim the message of the Kingdom. And  this helped him to stand firm no matter how personally attacked  he was. This is also a lesson for us. Some people might challenge us personally especially if they know we are believers of Christ. Mahatma Gandhi would be one challenger when he declared: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” So it’s a call for us to stand up for our faith and be really one in Christ and like Christ.

Second is on the physical level. Jesus was hungry and weak after 40 days of fasting and prayer. The devil challenged him to produce a fast food. Yet, he didn’t give in. Instead he stood firm and declared there is more to life than just longing for food. ‘Man does not live on bread alone,’ he said, “but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’ (Mt 4:4).

Third is on the intellectual level. The devil offered him power and glory over the kingdoms of the world. The devil persuaded Jesus to take control of his life and of his mission. The evil one asked him to forget who he was representing to and by whom he was sent into the world. The condition was that he would ‘worship’ the devil. Again Jesus remained on his ground that ‘worship’ is reserved to Creator only and not to the creatures. In our time, what are the things or people we unwittingly ‘worship’? Like Jesus, we must not forget that we are here because of God who created us, who loved us, who cared for us and who has reserved a place for us in his Kingdom.

Fourth is on the spiritual level. Jesus was tempted to jump from the parapet of the temple down below and put God to the test. Here the devil tricked Jesus on his level. Because Jesus had been using scriptural texts to prove his ground, the devil also used a passage in the scripture  about the angels of God protecting him from harm if he jumped off.  How can this be a way of testing God? Sometimes in life, we tend to bargain with God. We make promises that we would do this or that if only God listened to us, or answered our prayers or come to our rescue. Sometimes we just wanted the easy way out and the quick-fix God. This is a challenging thing because the devil always takes advantage of this opportunity. But  Jesus is showing us today how to deal with it. He remained trusting in God and obedient to his word. He didn’t listen to the beautiful words of the tempter, no matter how assuring it might seem and how sweet it sounds.

So what can we learn from the temptation of Jesus then?

Jesus didn’t give in to the temptation because he didn’t give up his resolution to be true to himself and to his mission from the Father. Like Jesus we wouldn’t be led into temptation and we would be delivered from all evil if we are obedient to the word of God, if we persevere in our prayer, if we deny ourselves in fasting and if we reach out to others in almsgiving. Let this be our hope and our prayer for this season of lent.

Nov 4 2012

Prayer, Eucharist, and Friendship: Key to loving God and our neighbours

Homily for 31st Sunday in Ordinary time  year B 2012

  1. Many of us might have heard of the extraordinary story of a Vietnamese Archbishop named Cardinal François Nguyen Van Thuan who was imprisoned by the communist government in Vietnam just three months after he was appointed coadjutor Archbishop of Ho Chi Minh (Saigon). He then spent 13 years of his being an Archbishop in prisons of the regime, nine of which was spent in solitary confinement. His extraordinary determination to be able to accomplish something good for God and for his people helped him survive in prison. The Cardinal then recalled that prayer saved him. ‘The Lord always helped me,’ he said. He also did write books about hope in prison. Another thing that sustained him in prison was the Eucharist. Because he couldn’t take anything of religions connotations with him he had to ask his friends to smuggle mass wine into the prison with a label ‘Medicine for Stomach Aches’ and also some hosts hidden in a container. ‘Every night I kept a tiny piece of bread for the following day’s Eucharist. And so every day for many years I had the joy of celebrating Mass with three drops of wine and one of water in my palm. This was my altar, my cathedral. For me it was the true medicine of body and soul something to stave off death in order to live for ever in Christ. One more thing he did that really made his life more remarkable was the friendship he had struck with his own jailers- or those who were assigned to guard him. ‘Those in charge had forbidden them to speak to me.’ The Cardinal recalled. ‘Initially my guards were changed every fifteen days. Prison authorities believed the guards risked being contaminated if left with me for any length of time. Eventually they stopped changing them because apparently they were afraid I would contaminate the whole force. And so the young students became my friends. The love of Christ has great power to change people.’

  2. What an extraordinary story of hope, of faith, and love. Yet it is also a powerful witness for all of us how to love God and our neighbour altogether. The Cardinal’s love of God was so deep that even the walls of the prison wall and the censor of the government didn’t stop him from taking him as his nourishment everyday as he celebrated the Eucharist on his palms as his altar. This love of God also reflects his love to his neighbours, which in his case his jailers. He made them his friends. He had no grudge against the people who have put him there.  Instead he showed the loving Christ to them.

  3. Friends, in our gospel today a scribe, one who knows a lot about the Jewish laws and prohibitions, all 613 of them, approached Jesus wanting to know which one of the laws is the key to all or the most important one. Jesus reminded him that it is love of God and love of neighbours one loves him/herself, taken as one commandment of love. Cardinal Van Thuan has concretely carried this out when he took his time in prison as an opportunity to be united with God all the more in the Eucharist and to show his jailers the love and forgiveness of Christ for all.

  4. ‘But what does Love of God and love of neighbour really mean?’ we may ask. Pope Benedict XVI in his encyclical letter Deus caritas est while reflecting on the passage of the first letter of John (1 Jn 4:20 “If anyone says, ‘I love God’ and hates his brother, he is a liar’ for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.) reminds us that ‘one is so closely connected to the other that to say that we love God becomes a lie if we are closed to our neighbours or hate him altogether.’[#16]. The Pope adds that the ‘love of neighbour is a path that leads to the encounter with God, and that closing our eyes to our neighbour also blinds us to God.’ [#16].

  5. So what does it mean for us now? We need not only to know who our neighbour is but more so of taking the move to help them in any way. Our neighbour is one who needs us and whom we can help Pope Benedict XVI would say. (Deus Caritas est # 15). We are also to bear in mind always, as Mother Teresa of Calcutta would remind us that ‘At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.’ But this also means we must not just understand our neighbours as people who are helpless or needy or far less privileged than we are. Rather, we are to look at them, (not to look down) as a whole person, to be appreciated of who they really are, and not to be looked down because of what they have- very little.

  6. So it’s worth reflecting and asking ourselves: How in love are we with our God and our neighbours? If we say we love God, have we expressed and lived out this love by showing to our neighbours that we care, support, and love them as they really are, not on what they have, or what they don’t have? Cardinal Van Thuan expressed his love of God despite his being imprisoned, in constant prayer, in taking the Eucharist his spiritual support and nourishment, and in  showing to his jailers the love of Christ for them. Jesus, our High Priest is showing us how he sympathizes to all our human needs, weaknesses and limitations. He is a concrete example of one who is in love with God with  all his heart, with all his mind, and with all his soul. He is also a definite paradigm of a person who is in love with his neighbour as he loves himself. In him all is one. We who are free: What are we doing to show that we care for and work out our fundamental calling: to love God and our neighbour as we love ourselves? 

Jun 8 2011

How Real is your GOD?

Homily for Wednesday [7th Week of Easter 2011]

I don’t like eavesdropping but on my way back from Benalla last Sunday evening, I just couldn’t help but listen to a young man sitting right behind me on the coach. He was talking with someone over the phone about somebody close to him who is in the hospital. He said something that really caught my attention, and left me pondering. He said, ‘She is resting well in the hospital now. God is so good, you know. HE is not indifferent.’ After that, I said to myself, ‘This man must have a real relationship with God.’

It is really hard to  know if our relationship with God is real or not. But I think, one way to know this is to look at the content of our personal prayers. Are we doing much of the talking? Or are we spending more time listening? Are we just asking God for favour? Or are we grateful to him for the favours received? What language are we using to address God? Is it LORD? MASTER? FRIEND? BROTHER? BEST FRIEND? or whatever… The language we use to address God tells us how we relate with our God.

 Our Gospel today  tells us of the God of Jesus. And for him God is his Father, a God who is not indifferent. A God who cares for us. Thus, Jesus can freely ask him, that we, his disciples might be one and holy, be protected from the evil one and that we continue to live in and by the truth. Even Jesus can relate to this God in a very casual way, when said, “I am not asking you to take them away from the world, but to make them victorious over evil in the world.” This is the God of Jesus, and he wants us experience this Father- God, this God who is not an indifferent God.

This leads us then to the core question: How real God is, in our lives?

Some of us might have a vending- machine God, wherein you just insert a coin [of good work], press the [reward] button, and you’ll get what you want. Some might have a waiter-God, you just make your order and he will serve it for you. Still some might have classroom- God, when you do much of the lecturing and God had to bear all the listening for hours even.

How real God is in us? The message today is that we relate to this God of Jesus Christ, HIS loving  Father, who loves, cares, and protects his son, the God who has the power to build us up and  who has given us the privilege of being part of his flock, as St Paul would say in our first reading today.

So as we spend the rest of today, let’s reflect on how real God is in our lives. Through this, we can say with confidence, ‘We have a real and living relationship with Him. He is so good, you know, he is not indifferent.’