I read an article on the BBC quizzing the future of religion. This paragraph by the writer, Sumit Paul-Choudhury spoke to me in the context of Sunday’s message, “If you believe your faith has arrived at ultimate truth, you might reject the idea that it will change at all. But if history is any guide, no matter how deeply held our beliefs may be today, they are likely in time to be transformed or transferred as they pass to our descendants – or simply to fade away.”

I am one who believe that my Catholic faith has arrived at the ultimate truth. I believe that my earthly life is a journey into the existence of life-after-death which is eternal. My God want me and significantly, every other person regardless of religion, to make it through this door. I try my best to live by this simple law of life, “Love God, and love my neighbour”. My earthly journey is a consequence of this law; life can become tougher through my own actions and those of others in failing to observe this in all we do.

I believe God does not make our life tougher. He allows us complete freedom in our choices. Instead he is present always to pick up the pieces and mend us when consequences go bad. So he is not a judge of our choices nor does he interfere, but uses every opportunity to purify us (second reading). When the choices we make shut the door on him, he does not condemn but instead stands behind that door hoping that it will re-open. He is humble and unconditional in love.

“Someone said to him, ‘Sir, will there be only a few saved?’ He said to them, ‘Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed.’” (Sunday’s Gospel)

We may not all have a religion. We may not all even believe in God. But we all have a conscience. I believe that this conscience in its purest form is never unkind to another person. In its purity it is never self-serving.

I have taken timeout to spend a week on Ko Samui. I was first here more than 30 years ago. Last night I searched out the place I stayed then. It is still here. Then the surrounding was open land with few developments. Today it is built up with a proper street filled with entertainment joints on both sides. It jammed my mind but illuminate the progress the world has made, and with it the many available lifestyle choices we have today. The choice of faith, or religion, is like a narrow door lost somewhere among them.

There is a history we leave behind but this is also the history we come from. It is not world or civilisation history. It is our personal history. It began when we were born with a conscience that was never self-serving. Nothing in world civilisation history has changed that. This conscience is our moral compass that will help us navigate the choices we encounter along our earthly journey. And history will also never alter our final destination: death.

My faith has arrived at the ultimate truth. At the door into eternal life my personal history of my earthly life will be reviewed. I will not be judged by its results, it is not about being first, but by how I have really tried my best to be self-giving and not self-serving, to love the other. Only God knows the challenges we each face in life. He knows every opposition that is in our way. He is the only one who can tell how hard we have tried in our personal circumstance. This Sunday he says, “Try your best to enter by the narrow door”.

I cannot say by what measures I will be judged at that door. All my faith tells me is to try my best to live by that simple law. I have often enough been taken off course by my own choices but each time when I re-opened that narrow door my God was there waiting for me.

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Every day we put on an image like we put on clothes. We groom an image for our ‘self’ to be well accepted in society. We must be careful what we think; the need to be politically correct compromises our honesty. Deep in us we like to be well-liked, love to be well-loved. The onset of social media has driven this hunger for affirmation into a craving.

We used to send a worded resume for a job, an accompanying photo merely an option, but we send it hoping it will help, especially if we are good looking. These days it is not only about being “good looking” but more so, looking good. So we alter our behavior by allowing it to be influenced by friends and social media, because their opinions count. We change to create a better accepted self-image. For most of us we end up beautiful on the outside, but ugly in the inside.

Unlike clothes which we can easily change, when we yearn for a certain self-image we actually gradually , become that person. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Today’s Gospel). We allow our world to change us, so much so the person we become is in conflict with our created image.

“‘See that you are dressed for action and have your lamps lit. Be like men waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks.'”

We are all created in the image and likeness of our Master. We do not need to crave for love because love is in-built into us at our creation. It is natural for this love to flow out of our created image. Grooming a conflicting image of self can sometimes stifle this flow of love out of us to others. There can develop a chasm between who we have become from who we were created to be. When this chasm becomes too wide, we will be ill prepared when the Master comes knocking.

The Master will come knocking. It’s an inevitability, only that we don’t know the timing. We are all created good and loving, no person is born mean. We are born with a purpose; to contribute to the harmony of people living together. This is our responsibility, our God-given employment. We cannot afford to be slacking from this employment by being too preoccupied with worldly treasures. “Happy that servant if his master’s arrival finds him at this employment.”

The Master, when he comes for us, when death from this world calls, must find us “dressed for action”. We dress our self by the things we do. When we do things that stay true to our created image, we become beautiful on the outside and the inside. Our “lamps are lit” when all we do have a positive impact on the lives of others. The more we harmonize, the brighter our lamps.

Life is not a game of chancing and timing. We do not know the hour the Master will come knocking. To be ready we must always be clothe in the purpose of our created image.

Not implying that Beckham is a bad image!

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Every other week I spend some change to buy a lottery ticket and pray that it will be my turn to strike it big. I am hoping for a shortcut to have everything I need so I can have it easy in life. Given a chance I will stop toiling and labouring. I crave for a big barn of possessions so I can say to my soul, “My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time.” (Last Sunday’s Gospel)

I make a quiet promise to God that I won’t allow money to change me. I will even donate a portion of my winnings to charity. The balance I will use to build bigger barns for myself. For what end goal? Will I give it all away if having it all will change me to the extent that I will lose my way in life towards achieving the end goal of eternal life in heaven? Will you? The ideal solution is to meet God half way.

It is not a sin to be rich. It is quite natural to be wanting more and more. But it is also quite natural for money and riches to change us. Greed can throw us off guard. Last Sunday’s message is for this self-awareness that many things in life can take our focus away from our end goal. “Be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for a man’s life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs”.

Meeting God “half-way” begins with gratitude; to count our blessings each day and to know that what our soul really need, which is peace, is available all the time. We just need to guard against avarice of any kind to find this peace in us. Then there is humility to acknowledge that God wills us toward the end goal. Humility too is living with this realisation that “this very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?” Gratitude and humility help us to build barns for others, not barns of possessions but barns of compassion.

Bigger barns do not make us bigger people. They can actually make us smaller. Greed consumes us, nibbles away at our compassion, leaving us the hollow core of self-centeredness. It loosen the shackles of our moral responsibilities, promote a carefree life style that flirts along the borders of morality. It will cause pain where we hurt most, in our relationships with our loved ones and each other.

“Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on things that are on earth.” (Second reading)

We are in relationship with one another. To achieve the end goal of salvation only for self with no thoughts for the other is in itself self-centeredness. We are put into this relationship with one another so that we can help the other along toward their heavenly salvation. The possessions we own are God-given for us to bless the other person with, to make their worldly life easier and to build a barn for them too.

Salvation is this simple but challenging because it goes against the grain of human desire. Human desire can be tamed by believing in the end goal. Sometimes an empty barn is better than a barn full to help us get there. Hence we wait for our turn with that lottery ticket.

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time