The Lenten period continues as we cross the halfway mark with Laetare Sunday last week.
With the months that went by as we make our way towards the great feast of Easter, we were given experiences that spoke of the work of God that would want to instil in us a proper sense of the dynamics of God's activity - He is still actively working in our world, as I write, and continues in His unique and mysterious manner that always circumvents all human machinations and motives.
The recent ordination of His Grace Archbishop Coadjutor William Goh at the Max Pavilion of the Singapore Expo, offers the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore (clergy, religious and lay faithful) an opportunity to move into the year ahead with renewed vision to face the challenges ahead, with the values of His Grace that spoke of passion and compassion. This stems from his motto of his coat of arms, "Ut Vivant", i.e. "that they may live..." (Jn 10: 10 - 11). Our archdiocese need to sorely return to basics and know how to care for the flock like how the father in the prodigal son parable of 4th Sunday of Lent gospel reading did, when he dealt very magnanimously and with love as well.
This sits well prophetically with the recent conclave that chose our recent Pope, who shows the world and to 1.2 billion Catholics world-wide, what George Weigel described as "... a keenly intelligent, deeply holy, humble, and shrewd man of the Gospel. He knows that he has been elected as a reformer, and the reforms he will implement are the reforms that will advance the New Evangelization." In this Pope, he will be the Church's bearer of the Good News, an instrument of the New Evangelization, in defense of human rights and democracy, and being a true man of God.
In his first homily, as Pope, in a Mass to close the conclave yesterday evening (Rome time) at the Sistine Chapel, emphasized that every believer – including bishops, cardinals and Popes – must proclaim Jesus crucified to be true Christians: “We can build so many things but if we don’t confess Jesus Christ, then something is wrong. We will become a pitiful NGO, but not the Church, spouse of Christ”.
There are interesting times ahead and all of these would be under the very purview of God's and his Holy Spirit, the very Spirit that gave us this Pope and our Archbishop Co-adjutor.
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1 comment:
bueno diaz padre aloy,
yes. Pope francis a truly humble man.. when he was on the balcony.. he ask pple to bless him 2!! wow!! that's remarkable indeed!!..
another thing.. he's a Jesuit.. they take wows of poverty, chastity.. etc.. so he lives simply.. he takes bus to nearby church to say mass even though he's provided with a car.. he takes the same bus with the rest of the cardinals.. he's a pple pope..
i suggest instead of the pope writing long encyclicals but short ones with easy layman language rather than profound langauge on christian living with reference to the gospels..
cheers
G
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