Dealing With 'Accolades'...

As I write this, I would have pass over many other notable events, e.g. the Olympics, the National Day celebrations, and from the liturgical settings - two sacerdotal (priestly) ordinations and the celebration of the Assumption.

This weekend, which I find myself now is the one with the seminarians in recollection. We will end soon by 12.30 p.m. after the mid-day prayer. This time round, however, I am not the main person conducting, as per usual, but Deacon Sherman Kuek from the diocese of Melaka-Johor. He is a permament deacon serving as Director of the Pastoral Institute of that diocese. He specialises in catechetical matters and is a well-known speaker within the conference of Malaysia-Singapore-Brunei region. He shared with the seminarians his life changing conversion and provided the framework for his theme of the talk, namely, The Beauty of the Catholic Faith. He also blogs here.

This morning, he gave a homily that while short and succint, was very pointed enough to get the message across which all of us at Mass would not miss out on. The gospel reading that morning was about the scribes and Pharisees with the need to be looked up to, fawn over, wearing broader phylacteries and the warning of not following through with what they preach. Deacon Sherman mentioned about the manner how priests and religious or clergy in general, can also unconciously fall into this trap. An elderly and wise priest once told him that once you have preached, no matter how good the homily may be, when finish, just shut up and get lost!

I believe this is the wisest advice for any clergy to follow and keep to heart. It certainly will put one in place with humility, which is rather rare these days. It will help all of us to know that at the bottom of ut all, this is really about God and not about us (at all). This may also cater for the homily that is half baked - one does not need to be around to get the flak from our listeners...

Helped By Jacob's God

Image via Wikipedia

There have been a few inspiring moments that made me very hopeful for the ministry of the priesthood, at least for the near future and within the S-E Asian region.

One is to see that our seminarians have taken to using their skills towards their homily practices at a more regular pace and frequency in their introduction to the psalms during their prayer times at the chapel. Their stories and sharing in relation to the psalms and prayers which we will do later is a good way to get them to form their homilies in time to come when they do begin their ministry of the Word later. All of their introductions thus far have been inspirational, offering much food for thought, and also creating an atmosphere of attentive prayer where one is taken and prepared into even as we move towards singing the hymn that follows after that. This is a practice that came into the Seminary only recently and it is a timely one, too.

This would allow the seminarians now to learn how to formulate their thoughts well, seek out ideas and homily aids, all to break open the Word to the faithful to understand and digest better, so that the People of God can be better inspired to live out their calling as sons and daughters of God that we all are. It is a small contribution to bringing about a better and orderly manner to homilies in the pulpit during Mass by priests in general, and to slowly do away with sloppy and unprepared ones...

Another inspiring sign on this ministry, is the homily today by the newly ordained priest Fr Andrew Stephen (Malaysian), who celebrated Mass for our community in the seminary. He was here with us this morning as a traditional practice for all newly ordained from this Seminary to come back and celebrate a Mass for us. His homily spoke of his struggles from his younger days when he never paid any attention to his studies and school, but through the miraculous grace of God, still managed to rise up to life's challenges and ended up beng a priest today. He could safely and proudly say that, apart  from his 'O' levels certificate which he just got through, through the skin of his teeth, the only other paper  qualification he managed to receive was his degree in Theology from the Baccalaureate exams before he graduated from Seminary studies. That's really a feat of going from 'zero' to 'hero' in such a short period of time!

Of course , all this is only possible through the very grace and blessings of God and his love for us all.

"He is happy, who is helped by Jacob's God" (Ps 145)

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What Drives Your Life?

Image by Annoysius via Flickr

Many people try to use God for their own self-actualization, but that is a reversal of nature and is doomed to failure. You were made for God, not vice versa, and life is about letting God use you for his purposes, not your using him for your own purpose.
Rick Warren, A Purpose Driven Life

I suspect that many of us baptized Christians are not aware of the fundamental relationship that we are to have between us and our Creator, spelt out by the statement above in Rick Warren's book. It becomes a sorrowful tragedy when we totally ignore this relationship and think that we can do better than God. This usually leads to all kinds of unnecessary disappointments and sufferings in life which we then ungraciously blame God in return!

I used this pointer from that book when I presented the homily last weekend and from some of the responses I have gotten so far, they seem to indicate that it has made quite a few to sit up and pay attention. My point on the homily was about letting our lives be led or driven by God for his purposes, using precisely the Sunday readings on the call of Isaiah, Paul and Peter, showing how they accepted with great humility their own limitations which will be compensated by God's own power for the mission he calls them to.

Today, we are also called and missioned that way. Depending on what is at stake, we will be equipped accordingly and be given charge with a mission to carry out that befits our disposition and skills. The problem lies in our response to all this. Quite often, the matter of humility - a sense of who I really am in relation to the Other, the Transcendent - is usually left out. This, then, gives rise to religious superiority or that level of arrogance and spiritual pride that one is better than the rest creeps in, breeding jealousy, hate, in-fighting, back stabbing and the lot, among individuals or groups in the church.

The matter of humility raises another fundamental point, that, it is utterly wrong to suppose that we could ever be worthy of what God gives us and what folly to second-guess His freely-given love and blessings. God doesn't reward us by virtue of our personal achievement in doing things for Him. God just gives to us and gives us abundantly, period! That is what grace means - always unmerited and given unconditionally.

We work in a reward-punishment mentality so often that we end up applying this to God, as though he is to follow by our rules too. That is putting God in a box where he can be tamed and control. I don't know about you, but that is not the kind of God I want or choose to believe in!

It's not about you. The purpose of your life is far greater than your personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It's far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.

The Purpose Driven Life

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New Year Bites

Ok, so we have now gone into the a new year and new opportunities to look out for. For one, the first thing annbody need to do now is to begin to get use to write 2, 0, 0, 7 especially on their cheque books where the date is concern. ;-)

Another is this new found fame - or bane - that came along with an innocuous letter to the editor of the Catholic News that highlighted one of my homily which is also on its webpage link. I had given this copy of the homily to a parishioner who then decided to have this publicised in the CN. I've gotten people and friends coming up to me congratulating my fame for having been the first priest to have his homily mentioned in this manner and in such a public setting too! :-P Nope, you won't get that link here as I am not in the business of promoting this item! You just have to read the CN paper and get to their webpage link from there :-D

Anyway, since the new year began, we've gone through the parish feast day, started out on the process to call for new members to the Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) from members of the congregation in the Open Category section and sending off a confrere (Fr Carlo Ly) as he leaves his earthly existence for somewhere much better with the One who called him...

Fr Carlo's funeral was well attended by many who knew him through his 33 years of service over at Queen of Peace. The funeral mass was just about an hour and a half with two eulogies that highlighted the simple and prayerful shepherd that Fr Carlo was to his flock. As another priest goes off to receive his eternal rewards, that sort of decreases the number of us in the playing field of the Lord in the Archdiocese of Singapore. With vocations to the priesthood not likely to jump in leaps and bounds for the next five years, I really wonder how the scene will be next few years ahead?...

Meanwhile, I shall be waiting for clear skies and just put my trusty telescope to good use and scan the heavens for some signs! ;-)