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Prayer is not only doing something…but more so, being something to someone. In prayer we not only ask God what we want or need but we are making ourselves available for God to work something beautiful and salvific in and through us. Click this link and see: The beauty of prayer.
Or ponder on this story:
I dreamt having gone to Heaven and an angel showed me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels. My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, ‘This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God in prayer are received.
I looked around and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.
Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.
The angel then said to me, “This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings people asked for are processed and delivered to petitioners.” I noticed again how busy it was. There were many angels working hard, since blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.
Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there. “This is the Acknowledgment Section, my angel friend seemed embarrassed.
“How is it that there is almost no work going on here? I asked.”
“So sad,” the angel sighed. “When people receive blessings, very few send acknowledgments.”
“How does one acknowledge God’s blessings?” I asked.
“Simple,” the angel answered. Just say, “Thank you, Lord.”
“What blessings should they acknowledge?” I asked.
“If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy, and if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.”
“If you woke up this morning with more health than illness… You are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day.”
“If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation… You are ahead of 700 million people in the world.”
“If you can attend a church without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.”
“If your parents are still alive, you are very rare.”
“If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, but unique to all those in doubt and despair…….”
“Ok,” I said. “What now? How can I start?”
The Angel said, “If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.”
Count your blessings, and if you care, pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are……….
“Thank you Lord, for giving me the ability to share this message and the many wonderful people with whom to share it.”
The way to Friendship with God: Prayer
Star: the Sign to Jesus
Homily for Epiphany 2012
A couple of months ago, I read an article in the news of a Filipino man who idolized Superman so much that he not only wear superman costumes or collect superman stuff but he really underwent a surgery to look like Superman himself. I said to myself: ‘This man is really gone over the top. He considers Superman as his ideal self maybe, his model, or his only ‘star’ that he looked up to so highly. Yet he couldn’t be contented with just looking at his ‘star’. He wanted to identify himself completely with his ‘star.’ He wanted to look like superman himself so he braved the pain of the knife just to become someone he is not. I am very sorry for him. He was caught up with his fantasy – his star who is not even real at all.
Friends, it is not bad if we look up to certain people as our ‘idol’, ‘model’ or ‘star’. They can serve as our inspiration in life. But if we identify with them completely, we lose our sanity. We cannot just become who we are not. Even if we have everything that our idol has or we follow everything that our model does, we can’t really become like our model. Our ‘star’ is supposed to be our guide, our example, our ‘ideal self’ if you like. But they are just to serve us as a sign of a greater reality. We like our stars for instance because he or she is a successful celebrity, a popular sportsman, a wealthy businessman or an influential public figure. But even then they are just signs pointing to us that there is more to life, that we can enjoy life if we really work on it. And we know this because if we just look at them all the time on the TV, without doing anything, of course we are in no way getting nearer to our ‘star’.
Today’s the solemnity of the Epiphany is a great reminder for us not to identify ourselves with the sign or not to stop on the sign. We heard in the gospel that the wise men, though they followed the star, didn’t try to identify with it. They have understood that the star was pointing to something greater, in fact to someone special. They realized that there is more to the star than it looks. So when the star or the sign stopped over the place where the Child Jesus was, they were overjoyed because they know that they are about to see the reality behind the special star. And true indeed, they were satisfied. Their long trip paid off. They saw the ‘infant king of the Jews’. They worshipped him and offered their gifts to him. The Fathers of the Church would make significance of the gifts of the magi to Child Jesus. The Gold is for God as King, the Frankincense is for the Divinity of God and the Myrrh for his humanity (particularly for his burial).
But what does Epiphany mean for us now?
To understand this is to look at the wise men or the magis as our ‘star’, our sign. How?
The wise men represent the rest of the world to whom God has manifested himself as a human being. The story says they came from the East. Legend also says that the wise men are actually symbolizing the three continents that have existed in Jesus’ time: Africa, Asia and Europe. Epiphany therefore means that God has not only come to live with us, but also to show us that his saving love is for everyone. He comes as the ‘light of the nations’ as we hear from the prophet Isaiah in our First Reading today. He is the Lord towards whom every nation on earth will worship as we say in the Responsorial Psalm. He is the inheritance even for the ‘pagans’ according to St Paul in our Second Reading. The solemnity of the Epiphany is God’s testimony to us that we are all worth saving, no matter who we are, no matter where we are. Epiphany reveals to us that though God has chosen to be born from the Jewish family, He is to be the Messiah, the Lord and Saviour for everyone. Thus, John Powell, a Jesuit Priest would tell us to ‘show in our face that we are saved’ because in fact it is for our salvation that Jesus Christ has come and revealed his presence to all nations.
But how can we express our being saved when we heard the almost 3,000 South Sudanese were killed in a tribal war? How can we show in our face that we are saved while thinking of all those people killed and families displaced by the flood in the Philippines? How can we speak of God’s salvation for everyone while hearing the bloody persecutions of Christians in Nigeria and in the Middle East?
Again these can be signs, and in fact these are signs of God’s presence. It seems ironic, but the gospels would attest to this. When God is apparently absent, it is where when He is absolutely present. The Gospels tell us that He identifies himself with the poor, the persecuted, the less fortunate, etc. These signs open for us the deeper reality of our humanity, that we are all one and equal in the eyes of God. This means then that we are to care for one another, that we are to help our sisters and brothers over there in whatever way we can. Epiphany is not only God revealing himself to us in the joyful mood but also in the sorrows of our needy sisters and brothers around the world. We not only meet God in our joys but more so in our sorrows. As Church gathered here today we are actually offering the best gift we can give to God today as the magis did. It is in our prayers for today’s solemnity that we are actually offering to God, Jesus Christ himself as our gift to him. We are offering Him in our Eucharist as the sacrificial victim, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And as we all know, sin abides in all aspects of our life today, in the society and in the system. We just have to look at the attitudes shown by the government to the Asylum seekers and for the fundamental meaning of marriage. Sin is obviously there. May this Eucharist strengthen and help us to reconcile with ourselves, with God and with one another.
So as we continue our celebration of the epiphany today: let’s pray that we can see God in all the signs of the times. We can only do this by not remaining on the sign but going beyond it. We can also understand the meaning of the signs of the times, if we let God be God in our lives and if we embrace who we really are and not trying to become who we are not. Let’s also pray that as Church we may become truly sign for all the world that God is not only revealing himself to us but that He really is with us. Amen.
Mary:Real Mother
Homily for the New Year 2012
Friends, I wish you a happy, blessed and a fruitful New Year. We come here today not just because we want to welcome the New year (2012) joyfully and to celebrate this new year with the Lord through this Eucharist. We come here as a Church that celebrates the Motherhood of Mary. It is just fitting that this solemnity is observed a week after the birth of the Son of God. It must really be so because Mary was the one chosen by God to be the mother of his own Son. It is also proper that we celebrate her motherhood not only because she is the Mother of God but also because she is the Mother of us all.
While reflecting on the motherhood of Mary as the Mother of God and our mother, I remember this Jewish proverb that speaks so much on the importance and the dignity of mothers. It says: ‘God could not be everywhere, and therefore, He made mothers.’
‘When God created mothers’, so the story goes, ‘it was well overtime on the sixth day. An angel dropped by and commented, ‘Lord, you are taking your time over this creature!’
God replied, ‘You should see the special requirements in the specification! She has to be easy to maintain, but not made of plastic or have any artificial components. She has one hundred and sixty movable parts, and nerves of steel, with a lap big enough for ten children to sit on it at once, but she herself has to be able to fit into a kiddie’s chair. She has to have a back that can carry everything that is loaded onto it. She has to be able to mend everything, from a grazed knee to a broken heart. And she’s supposed to have six pairs of hands…and three pairs of eyes.’
‘I think you should go to bed now, Lord, and get some sleep,’ said the angel.
‘I can’t do that,’ said God. ‘I’m almost there. I have nearly created a being who heals herself when she’s ill, who can delight thirty children with one little birthday cake, who can persuade a three-year-old not to eat clay, a six-year –old to wash his hands before meals and a nine-year-old to use his feet to walk and not to kick.’
‘Can she think?’ asked the angel.
‘Not only think, but reach wise judgments and essential compromises,’ said God. ‘And she can do more than that. She can forget!’
Friends, this might just be an anecdote but it speaks a grain of truth – that being a mother demands she be a jack of all trades so to speak.
I have to admit I have never been acting like a mother nor I’m wishing to be. But I understood that being a mother requires she would go beyond herself most of the time if not all the time.
As the mother of God, Mary is no exception. She also had to go beyond herself. She also had to take the huge and irreplaceable responsibility of a mother to her child. Even before her child was born, Mary had to get out of her comfort zones in order to become that amazing meeting point between the Human and the Divine. ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ she asked the angel when he told her she’s going to be pregnant. Though confused, she kept trusting and believing. So she said in the end: ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word.’ She remained faithful even if she really didn’t understand everything that’s been happening in her. Heavy with child, she took the long trip with Joseph to Bethlehem to follow the order of the Emperor to register. Without prior bookings, she had to give birth in the stable of animals. Without proper clothes for the newly-born child, she had to wrap him with a swaddling clothes. Without proper bed, she had to lay him on the manger. And our gospel today tells us of Mary’s reaction to all that have happened to her: ‘She treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.’
As the baby grows, she had to look after Jesus with Joseph. They would present him to the temple. They would look for him when he was left in Jerusalem. Later on she would tell the servants in the wedding at Cana to do everything that Jesus, her son would tell them to do. Then towards the end of Jesus’ earthly life, she would accompany him on the way of the cross.
As a mother, she walked with Jesus from her womb to the tomb. She went out of herself to allow God to fulfil his will not only for her but for the salvation of all.
In this she became our mother. She is our mother because through her our saviour was born. Through her we are able to see in person the face of God. Through her we are able to see what God is like. Through her, we have experienced the graciousness and the unconditional love of God. In Mary, the 3 thousand year old prayer of blessing as we have heard in our first reading today, was definitely answered. In and through Mary, we have encountered our Lord who let his face shine on us and who is gracious to us. And through Mary, God has sent his Son, to be born a subject of the law according to St Paul in our Second Reading today, to redeem us as the subjects of the law and to enable us adopted sons of and daughters of God.
We have received abundant graces from God through the intercession of Mary, who went out of herself by saying her ‘yes’ to the will of God, thus making her the Mother of His Son and also the mother of us all.
So as we continue our celebration of the Eucharist today as well as to welcome this New Year, let’s thank Mary for accepting the will of God even if it meant for her going out of herself and to walk an extra mile. Pondering on Mary’s motherhood, let us also pray that God’s graciousness and blessings would be poured upon us all for this New year and that we may learn to listen well and reflect more on the will of God for each and everyone of us. Lastly, let’s ask Mary’s intercession that we may grow in love and we get closer to her son everyday- since Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation.
And my prayer for you this New Year:
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace. Amen.
Happy New Year everyone.
Homily for Christmas Midnight Mass 2011
Christmas Midnight Mass 2011
There is a quote that I really liked on my Facebook wall: Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.’
St Luke must have this in mind as he wrote the gospel. And tonight’s gospel on the birth of our Lord according to Luke is no exception. Luke narrates that God has come in the flesh for everyone. So we’ve got all these people mentioned in our gospel, representing the different ranks in the society, beginning with the emperor down to the poor shepherds. It’s just saying to us that Christmas is for all people, no matter who we are, rich or poor, boy or girl, old or young. Christmas is for all of us.
This time, we always hear people greeting to us: Merry Christmas.
But why do we have to be merry? What’s the reason of being happy?
Three reasons:
Because of what had happened in the past?
We have sinned. We broke the relationship with God. And Christ is the only one who can bridge and repair the broken relationship between us and God. Through sin we become aliens towards God and towards our sisters and brothers.
“The consequences of alienation from God are great,” says the Catechism. “We are alienated from each other. Male and female, originally meant for mutual help and support in love, become the temptation and ruin of each other. We are alienated ourselves; we are ashamed because we are standing naked. We are alienated from life, the birth of new life takes place in pain. Finally, we are alienated from our environment; ‘by the sweat of his brow, he must earn his bread.’ (accdg to Genesis).
God has to become human to understand our humanity and to help us get up from our fallen humanity. And Christmas is the time when God has become like us. It’s indeed worth remembering and it is worth rejoicing.
Because of what happens in the present?
Christmas is happening to us everyday. This means that God is always coming to reach us, to establish a relationship with us everyday, in our daily work, in our ordinary human circumstances. It might have happened more than two thousand years ago, in that silent night, in the lowly manger in Bethlehem, when God has given us the most wonderful and memorable present we can ever have. Jesus-Christ, the God-made-man was born in Mary, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in the manger is God himself born for us. And we are all here tonight to celebrate his birthday, to remember and re-live again that wonderful time of our salvation history, when God has made the big decision to become ‘Emmanuel’ (God-with-us) for us. God has come to us not only to tell us something but to live with us, really as one like us- human beings. Tonight God has come out of his own comfort zone. Tonight God has come down from his throne in heaven and chooses to be born in the lowly manger. Tonight God who is the source of all riches has chosen to be born in poverty, in and through that mere ordinary human situation in Bethlehem. Tonight God has come not only to tell us that he loves us but really to embrace us in a more personal and real way. If God has a skype, we might say, he not only rings us through skype but really he came to us personally, to touch us, to enjoy our company, and to be with us.
God has come as one like us to save us from our sins and to lead us to eternal life with him. Today we celebrate Christmas by renewing our relationships, re-connecting again, refreshing ourselves, giving presents, sharing experiences, enjoying the gift of life, counting our blessings and thanking God for everything he has done for us.
But why do we have do all this? Why do people bother doing this?’ Why do we have to be here this time, when we could have enjoyed a lovely meal and a glass of red in the pub down the road? Why do we come to here tonight when we could have been partying by now with our friends and relatives?
Because of what will happen in the future.
We are doing this for the future. We are not destined to party here on earth forever. Christmas means looking forward to the future. Christmas is not just remembering a piece of history. It’s no wonder a certain TV comedian said he doesn’t like history because there’s no future in it. Christmas is also not just enjoying life now or celebrating with friends now. Christmas aims or looks towards the future.
We can celebrate Christmas in the future by savouring the fruit of Christmas- which is our salvation, our eternal union with God, our perpetual gaze at the face of our Creator, our Saviour, our God.
Our Christmas lights are just glimpses or preview of the eternal light we have with God in the future. When we sing the Christmas songs, we are participating in the choirs of angels in heaven glorifying God for all he has done for us.
So our call: Be a Christian. How? Take on Christ. Let’s make Christ Jesus, the centre of our life. If we take Christ out of the word Christian, what remains is the IAN- and it can mean I AM NOTHING.
So as we celebrate this Christmas, let’s be proud of our being a Christian. Let’s walk in that great light which God has brought to us, according to Isaiah in our first Reading today. St Paul would add let’s give up everything that does not lead to God and all our worldly ambitions. Let’s live a good and religious lives here and now. Let’s us get out of our comfort zones and reach out to those people who are needing us and also whom we may need help from.
May we all have a happy, holy and safe Christmas.
Merry Christmas to us all.
Junjun FAITHBOOK 