Events will keep happening to us in life. For most of these events, we have little control. These will sometimes take us to places we don’t want to go and into emotions we don’t want to feel. When they happen, our struggles make us wonder about the meaning of life. Tellingly it happens at the other end of the spectrum too. We think we find happiness through material success but instead find the pots of gold empty. Our heart is unsettled, troubled till we find peace.

In the film, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is told to find herself a place where there is no trouble, and so she muses with her dog, Toto, “Some place where there isn’t any trouble. Do you suppose there is such a place, Toto? There must be. It is not a place you can get to by a boat, or a train. It’s far, far away. Behind the moon, beyond the rain… somewhere over the rainbow.”

We are created beings. We have a soul. In life we are making our way back to our Creator. But our worldly needs are pressing. We have material and emotional needs. Our soul has spiritual needs. The journey through life seem to bring all these into conflict. There is inner tension as we seek one over the other. In truth we need them all. But the imbalance unsettles our heart. Is there a trouble-free spot?

“Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it”. (Today’s Gospel)

Inner conflict arises from the priority-arrangement of our needs. Satisfying worldly needs bring about almost immediate self-gratification. This will always be a pull on us. Compared to a life carrying a cross, who would want that? We are created to be both body and soul, with our soul the dominant inner voice. The soul finds peace when dwelling in holiness, where life is fulfilling and meaningful. Unfortunate for the body, peace is not a purchase with material wealth. This is who we are and understanding this allows us to prioritise our needs.

Our life’s journey takes us through many personal events. We climb peaks of joy and wander in troughs of suffering. Events form the hills and the valleys mapping out our emotional terrain. Through these our soul search for the way home to our Creator. This seeking refines the way we journey through life. This finding for the way home is the meaning of this life. Being in a place of meaning brings us fulfilment and peace.

Fulfilment feeds the soul. It flattens the curve of our material and emotional needs. Our Creator shows us this path home. Take up the cross of our worldly challenges and follow Christ in his ways. Holiness as opposed to sin keep us on this path. Holiness is a life of service motivated by love of God and the other (“loses his life for my sake”). When we prioritise our self to preserve life, we lose life. Give life, win life, new life. This is the way for our soul.

Personal events that speak to us about our way home are often characterised by the storms they bring. In the eye of the storm there is a sweet spot of peace. Somewhere beyond the rain, over the rainbow, the symbol of his promise, God dwells in us and we can trust him.

St Augustine who had a colourful journey through worldly life is most qualified to say, “Our heart is restless until it rests in You”.

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

I was born with an imperfection. I am allergic to chilli. Smelling chilli, especially when fried, will cause my scalp to itch. Eating it causes me to sweat profusely. In company, I was self-conscious and do not know how to say, “I can’t”, and so end up with a drenched shirt and being even more embarrassed. I began worrying when I had to meet people for a meal. Soon enough I developed a fear. Today I can sweat just by looking at spicy food on my laptop.

We live in a world that expects success. Success at all cost does not hesitate to leave a person behind. Fierce competition among businesses has filtered down to be among individuals. Curriculum in schools are getting more demanding to prepare our young to meet this expectation of success. Money is a common measure of success. But money is also a much-needed necessity for people who do not have enough. A lot of people are being thrown into a race we are ill-prepared for or have no capacity to run in.

Today, many of our lives are being consumed by worry. We start to sweat thinking about the future. Expectations these days bring fear instead of anticipation. Worry has become a modern-day suffering. And worry is about an imaginary future that may not even happen.

“Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. Why, every hair on your head has been counted. So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.” (Today’s Gospel)

God cannot be present in imaginary futures. He is present in the reality of our life in the here and now. He acts in the now. When we worry, our thoughts go into a tailspin. It blows away all clarity. Worry loosens the grip on every of our logical thoughts. Everything is blown away from our ‘now’ into the chaotic, imaginary future. But worry tightens the grip on hope. When we worry, hope is the only thing left in the now. God is this hope, always present to us and he says, “Do not be afraid”.    

The world will continue to strive for its success. Humanity has this responsibility to keep developing and progressing. God is present in this and say to us to trust him to provide for the world. With this faith, we as parts of the one body of humanity are tasked to take care of one another so that no one will be left behind. “Sin” (Second Reading) enters this delicate equation through you and me when we put “self” before God and others. “Do not be afraid” can ring a new tone. Our actions can make others afraid of us. We can cause worry.

All of us are people of influence. What we do, or not do, directly affect others in our homes, social circles, and workplaces. The “sin” is hidden in the excuse of having to progress and succeed. There are many silent sufferers out there. We are called to use our influence in a different way to become the handle of hope for others to have a firmer grip on this presence of God in the now. In the weary ways of the world, we are called to stand up for God so that through us people will no longer be afraid and worry.

We must bathe fear and worry not with sweat but with compassion.

‘So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven. But the one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven.’

12^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

We have spent months living in unaccustomed ways. Social distancing and physical distancing are unnatural. Lockdowns have made us realized that as people, we are not meant to be alone. We need to be with other people. We need other people. Our lives are interlinked. Today is Corpus Christi. We celebrate humanity as one single body. In this one body we are in spiritual communion also with the Holy Trinity. And we learn that everyone has a space in this body.

“The fact that there is only one loaf means that, though there are many of us, we form a single body because we all have a share in this one loaf.” (Second Reading)

We cannot wait to exit our lockdowns, to return to our offices and for shops to reopen, hoping that life outside will quickly return to what it was before. For many there will not be a job to return to. And many shops have sadly closed for good. This is the new reality; a harsh economic climate awaits. We are also waiting for church doors to open and for public masses to resume. And when they do, some may never return while others who had been away will come back. This is also a new reality; beneath what we see there can be spiritual turmoil.

Corpus Christi reminds us that we are the Eucharist. We must be bread and be church to one another. We are all interlinked in this one body. As lay people we are called to focus on our immediate world. For all of us, our immediate worlds have changed. There are people we know, if not ourselves, who are having a tough time financially, emotionally, and spiritually. To these people who we know, we are called to reach out; to be bread and be church to them.

To be bread and to be church now is to address immediate needs. We are called to be church outside the space of worship and the room of prayer. It is a time for change, a time for deeds. Instead of saying, “I will pray for you”, we are called to be answers to their prayers. For those in our immediate world who need money, it would be church if we can give some. If we have none to spare ourselves, we can always give time by spending time with them to bring emotional comfort. If we have been giving, we can give more than what we have given. And it is also not a shame to receive. After all, we share in the one loaf.

Being in lockdowns have made us realized that the church is not in physical buildings but in us. At our last mass, after receiving the Body of Christ we were sent out into the world. Little did we know that the doors were to close behind us. Mass – “Ite, missa est” – Go you are sent. We are sent to be bread and be church to our immediate worlds. Today, there is a different world out there so we cannot remain the same Church. Let this pandemic be the yeast that grow us as bread.

Corpus Christi

Since Monday, the liturgical colour of the Church returned to green. It signifies we are back into Ordinary Time, but these are anything but ordinary as the world take its first steps exiting lockdowns. The virus is still somewhere out there but storm clouds have gathered over the economy. There is a pressing need to get out to repair lives despite the threat. The journey of life continues. We must get on with it.

Today is Holy Trinity Sunday, “in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”. The message we reflect on in today’s Gospel gives us the opportunity to be fully conscious of the one ordinary that has been constant, unchanged, faithful in our journey in life, through our daily “getting-on-with-it” and many extraordinary challenges in our personal life: God is unconditional love.

“God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.” (Today’s Gospel)

Whenever the journey of life leads us into tougher terrain, we wonder where God is. If God is love, why does he allow this virus to destroy my life? There are big questions about suffering, justice and so many others. This wondering and pondering is good. It reawakens us to become fully conscious of the presence or absence of God in our life. Many times, God is absent because of our expectations of who God is, or bluntly, who we want him to be for ‘me’.

There are many misconceptions of who God truly is. God does not love. God is almightily authoritarian; he judges and punishes. He is an angry God. He is the creator of the universe so don’t preach the concept of a personal God. We all have our personal discontentment with God. In the time of Jesus, the people expected the Messiah to be an all-conquering king instead of one who hung limply on the cross in the name of love. Love at that moment was redefined through the Most Holy Trinity.

“The Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness.” (First Reading)

God reveals himself on our personal journey through life. It is not that he intentionally holds himself back but just that he is so infinite and unconditional in his love for each one of us. Through our intellectual minds, we first learn about God as our Creator, the still distant God. God the Father desires a personal relationship with us, so as the Son was sent into the world, Jesus comes to be with us in our struggles. We must make the personal journey from head to heart to encounter Jesus. In the absence of any physical manifestations, the Holy Spirit allow us to feel, sense and know this truth about God.

The unconditional love of God includes his unmovable respect for our personal freedom of choice. That will never be taken away but with that respect his unconditional love promises to pick us up from the consequences of our choices, if they go bad, and often they do. God only judges at the end of time. Between now and then, our journey of life through this challenging terrain allows God, through the Most Holy Trinity, to reveal his love to us to keep us on the path to eternal life promised.

This virus has shown the interconnectedness among every person and our planet. Every action has a consequence. Planet Earth demonstrated this in its recovery as Man was locked away. We reap what we sow. And as we make for the exits of the lockdown, we must be aware that we are not alone. We are not alone as there are others with us and inevitably that we suffer some consequences of their action. But inevitably too, the unconditional love of God remains a constant with us as we journey through life. We are not alone. The Most Holy Trinity is with us.

God is nearer than we think. Our expectation leads to misconception. We regret the past and worry about the future, wishing and looking for God in them. In so doing, we miss his presence. God is present in the moment. If we still ourselves and come into the here and now, we will be fully conscious that nothing is harming us in each present moment. As we breathe, we feel our life and the unconditional love of God.

“Brothers, we wish you happiness; try to grow perfect; help one another. Be united; live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (Second Reading)

The Most Holy Trinity Sunday