Hospitality and Peace

Feast of Visitation 

One of the greatest desires of every person is that of peace. We constantly hear this all the time. We realize that money cannot always buy happiness. We experience that conflicts and misunderstandings are part and parcel of life. But there is one thing we always hope for is peace. Firstly, it is peace for ourselves and then peace for others – our family, our society and the world.

But in world that is so filled with violence, hatred and wars, where we see conflicts occurring not only in society but also in our own families, we may start to think that peace is only a dream. It is easy to be disillusioned and to feel that peace can never be attained. The problem lies with our incorrect understanding of what peace really means. Peace is not to absence or the cessation of violence and conflict. Peace is possible even in the midst of conflict. Peace is not only an external reality but something that must take root in our hearts. If there is no peace in our hearts, we can never experience peace outside of ourselves. 

A great deal of unrest is caused by the unrest in our hearts. There can be no rest in our hearts as long as we constantly want to have things according to our ways. The problem with wanting things according to our ways is that we are never in control of the situation. We want our children to grow up and be successful. We want them to marry good wives and husbands. But we are not in control of these things. When we don’t get things our way, we will not be happy. We won’t have peace in our hearts. The only way in which we can find peace is to allow God to take control of our lives. We are given the example of Christ, who came to obey the will of God the Father. When we are prepared to allow God have his ways and not our ways, then we will have peace in our hearts. It is only when we have peace in our hearts that we can become peacemakers.

It doesn’t take much to be a peacemaker. Today’s gospel gives us one simple way of making peace – hospitality. When we offer hospitality to one another just like Mary and Elizabeth offered hospitality and friendship to one another, peace takes place. It is when we refuse to offer hospitality to another person or when we refuse the hospitality given by another person that causes the lack of peace. We don’t have to begin by trying to solve all the problems of the world. We don’t have to wait till countries stop producing weapons of war. We don’t have to wait for violence to end. Peace can be a possibility today. All it takes is a simple word of encouragement, a kind act, a loving offer of help. Peace begins when we believe we can make a difference, beginning with ourselves. 

A little baby that was born 2000 years ago to a poor family made a difference. In the face of so much opposition and where so much hate and violent exists, one man who spoke of peace made a difference. When so many people were unable to forgive one another for the injury that they have done to one another, a single man on a cross was able to make a difference by forgiving his executors. That man is Jesus. He is the Prince of Peace. Jesus was able to change the course of history, world events and lives of so many people without lifting a gun, starting a war or ruling a country. If today you feel that you are just one person, don’t worry. You too can make a difference. Start by allowing God to take control of your lives. Surrender your life to him and you will find peace, peace even in the midst of problems and difficulties.

Happy Feast of Visitation! 

We receive communion because we are in communion

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ - Year C

Some might think that the Catholic Church is prideful or snobby for not allowing non-Catholics to receive Communion. To some people, I am sure, these restrictions seem harsh and unnecessary, anachronistic to say the least, and a violation of the ecumenical spirit of our age. The question is, "Why are there so many restrictions about receiving Holy Communion if people are of goodwill and the Eucharist is so helpful for us?" “If Protestants allow other Christians to receive their communion, why can’t we be more hospitable?” These are certainly legitimate questions, motivated by good intentions. But good intentions are never sufficient reason to allow open communion. The reasons are more subtle than that. 

The first reason is that the reception of holy Communion is not just an expression of belief in the Lord Jesus Christ but also an indication of membership, "communion," in the Church, the Church where its members visibly share "oneness of faith, life and worship." Unity among Christians is not yet complete, and the reception of Holy Communion by other Christians ignores this reality. The second reason is that the reception of Holy Communion in a Catholic Church presumes Catholic belief about the Eucharist, in the doctrine of transubstantiation and that the mass is a veritable sharing in the sacrifice of Calvary, doctrines rejected by other Christians.

While the motivation for inviting everyone to Holy Communion might seem to be "ecumenical," in the long run the practice does more harm than good to authentic ecumenical relationships. The most detrimental thing is to use the Eucharist as a ‘tool’, a functional means, to make friends, trivialising its value and relegating it to a superficial coffee house or mamak stall ‘fellowship.’ It is also detrimental to Christian unity to just "white wash" our differences with others and sweep it all under the carpet as if such differences were insignificant. Unity based on a whitewashing of differences, according to Pope Emeritus Benedict, is a facade and only stalls fruitful dialogue. Pretending that there are no differences and by resting on the lowest common denominator of the faith is to pander to false and promiscuous union.

Such a strict regiment was not the invention of the early theologians of the Church. It is a fruit of systematic reflection of scripture. In the New Testament, St. Paul reminded Christians about proper reverence in receiving the Body of Christ: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself..”  (1 Cor 11:27-28).

For Catholics, communion is not just an act of worship but also an ecclesiological act. Our reception of communion is ontological – we receive communion because we are in communion. Full communion should never be regarded as a trivial desire to be together, but rather involves completeness of "those bonds of communion – faith, sacraments and pastoral governance – traditionally known as Creed, Cult and Code – as outlined by St Justin Martyr. For Catholics to participate in such communion without establishing these bonds would be self-deception and hypocritical. It trivialises the very act of receiving communion and reduces it to a purely symbolic and instrumental ritual. Likewise, when we formally refuse to accept the Church’s proper authority to teach, rule and sanctify – her doctrinal inerrancy, her spiritual jurisdiction and her sacramental power  - these rejections separate us from the body of the Church.

The Eucharist, the source and summit of our Christian life, continues to be a spiritual magnet that draws people to experience the riches of our Catholic faith. But we must never forget that the issue of communion hinges upon our proper disposition and further on our Catholic understanding of Church- Eucharistic communion is inseparably linked to full Ecclesial communion and its visible expression. We receive communion because we are in communion. Anything less would be hypocrisy and a lie.

The Mystery of God

Holy Trinity Sunday 

We are back in ordinary time! After 40 days of austerity and fasting during the penitential season of Lent, three climatic days of celebrating the central mystery of our faith during the Easter Triduum, and 50 gloriously festive days of Eastertide concluding with a commemoration of the birth of the Church at Pentecost, one would have expected a more sedated Ordinary Time allowing us to return to our daily, ordinary and sometimes mundane routine. We are in Ordinary Time, but there is hardly anything ordinary about this time. The next few weeks remained littered with celebrations, a series of three Solemnities of the Lord, beginning with the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, which we celebrate today, followed by the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) next Sunday and finally, the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on the Friday following Corpus Christi.

Celebrating the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity after Pentecost makes perfect sense because today’s feast sums up God’s revelation which was brought about through the Paschal Mysteries: Christ’s death and Resurrection, his Ascension to the right hand of the Father and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 

Whenever some of us talk about the Holy Trinity, we often get a headache? Many of us are often caught up in the problem of numbers and mathematics – how can three be one and how can one be three? We often forget that this isn’t what the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is all about. Today’s readings give us three areas of reflection.

The doctrine of the Trinity highlights the fact that God is mystery. In the old testament, we read about God appearing on mountain tops and speaking from clouds. Mystery here doesn’t mean that God has kept many things secret. On the contrary, God has fully revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ. When we speak of mystery, we are speaking of the limitations of human knowledge. Man may have advanced in science and medicine and many other fields, but he is still unable to explain everything. This is because man is himself a mystery. Life and death are mysteries. The universe is a mystery. Suffering is a mystery. Love is a mystery. And finally God is a mystery. Learning this truth will make us more humble. Learning this truth will make us understand that we do not have all the answers to all the problems in the world. Learning this truth will allow us to depend wholly on God and allow him to take charge of everything.

The second truth which we can learn from today’s feast is that God is a God of relationships. Mystery does not mean that God keeps at a distance. Although we can never fully know or understand the depth of God’s mind, we can still have an intimate relationship with him. In fact, man was created for relationship with God. This is possible only because God chooses to come close to us. He does not come close to us by descending from the clouds. God comes close to us by becoming one of us. God the Son came into the world in order to save it. God the Son became human, became one of us, so that we might become one with God.

God chooses to come close to us because he is love. This is the third truth that we can learn from today’s feast. If there is any quality which can best describe the nature of God, it is Love. The Trinity is not a thing. It is a relationship of persons. The Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father and this love is perfected by the bond of the Holy Spirit. That is why St. Paul reminds us that we should “grow perfect; help one another, …be united, live in peace” because we are made in the image and likeness of this God of love and peace.

If we are to be signs of the Trinity in today’s world, then we must be people who are able to live with mystery. In other words, we must remind the world that there is more than meets the eye, that there is a greater truth than that which is revealed by science – it is God. We are also called to be witnesses of the Trinity through our way of life. We must strive to build communities where we can live in unity and peace and in mutual forgiveness. When we are able to express this in our actions and words, the Trinity ceases to be a mere concept but becomes alive in each of our lives.

Come Holy Spirit

Solemnity of the Pentecost - Year C

The third person of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit, is sometimes referred to as "the forgotten" member of the Godhead. He is, no doubt, the least spoken of among the three persons of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It’s no surprise that this is the case for many of us, since this most mysterious person of the Trinity has very little analogous correspondence with our visible and experiential reality. We can think about God the Father in terms of our own experience of our own fathers. We can even picture him as this kindly and fatherly old man with his signature beard and a twinkle in his eye (sounds like Santa Claus!) In the case of the Second Person, there is no problem picturing him as he is the most pictorially represented of the Three, and since we are dealing with a man who like us actually lived almost two thousand years ago in Palestine.

But when it comes to the Holy Spirit, however, the matter becomes complicated. Since the Holy Spirit has not assumed any bodily form, it is impossible for us to imagine him in any concrete way. His old English title, “the Holy Ghost,” obviously did not help, even though we may picture him as the more affable and friendly Casper rather than the malevolent spirit in Poltergeist. His spiritual nature comes across as something ephemeral and non-tangible. The best visible representation we could possibly have of him is to depict him as a dove, since the gospels narrate how he descended upon Jesus in this form; or as tongues of fire as how the Acts of the Apostles described the event of Pentecost in today’s first reading.

So, who is this most mysterious member of Most Holy Trinity? The third part of the Creed affirms this Truth: “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.” Just as the title “Lord” in reference to Christ is an affirmation of divinity, when the Church applies the title “Lord” to the Holy Spirit, she is saying that the Holy Spirit is truly God, co-equal with the Father and the Son. We also profess that the Holy Spirit is the “giver of life”. For the ancients, breath in the body was the sign of life. Then it came to mean the source or principle of life. God’s Spirit was involved in the production of all life in the world as we read in Genesis (1:2): “the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.” It is the Spirit that gives life, both physical and spiritual. In order to have eternal life a man must be born “of water and the Spirit” (Jn 3:5). According to St. Paul, “the Spirit brings life” (2 Cor 3:6). So in the Creed we proclaim our belief that the Holy Spirit is “the giver of life”.

But apart from these two theologically rich titles given to the Holy Spirit, the mention of the Holy Spirit in the third part of the Creed is also an affirmation that Christ's work of redeeming the world did not stop with his crucifixion and resurrection. Quite the contrary: those events were the launching pad, the beginning of a ministry that reaches its resolution only when the whole world is redeemed through the work of the Holy Spirit, a work which continues in the Church. And it is in the context of the Church that we must now find the Holy Spirit’s most profound mission.

One of the characteristics of a life of true love is that we become bonded to each other. Thus the account of what took place at the First Pentecost is less of an emphasis on the spectacular appearance of tongues of fire, the visible sign of the Spirit’s presence, or even a lesser emphasis on glossolalia, the ability to speak in foreign tongues and the tongues of angels. The main point of the story is how the Holy Spirit acts as a principle of communion for this disparate gathering of peoples who hail from different parts of the world and who are visibly divided by language and culture. The story is about undoing the harm and healing the injury done at Babel, where through man’s willfulness to reach the heavens without reference to God, humanity suffered the curse of disharmony and disunity. Now with the descent of the Holy Spirit, these barriers are no longer impenetrable. The Holy Spirit is thus set as a bond between God and man, and also between all the faithful. This bond is called “communion.” This is where the ephemeral and non-corporeal Holy Spirit is made visible, within the communion of the Church. Contrary, to what we often assume, communion is never the product of human machination or natural camaraderie, it is and always will be the work of the Holy Spirit.  Communion is the result of the creative and harmonising power of the Holy Spirit. Pope Benedict once taught, “unity can only exist as a gift of God's Spirit, which will give us a new heart and a new tongue, a new ability to communicate.”

That is why at the beginning of every Mass, the priest says these words as the opening greeting: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”  The Holy Spirit is the One through whom Communion is achieved. Apart from him, no communion or at least permanent communion would be possible. In other words, the Holy Spirit gathers the people who are divided, knits and weaves them together into the Mystical Body of Christ. We must therefore remember that every act that seeks to foment disunity, create discord, cause divisions, or choose individualism over communal living (going ‘solo’ like the Lone Ranger), would be a sin against the Holy Spirit.

Today, we labour under the illusion that harmony, peace and unity can only be arrived at through a suppression of the Truth. Many believe that Truth is divisive, that conflict arises as a result of conflicting ‘truths’, none of which is absolute. This myth is furthest from the Truth. Authentic unity is never the product of compromising the truth or blurring the lines between Truth and error, but is derived from a humble submission to the Truth. Love and communion must always be in service to the Truth. The contrast between Babel and Pentecost can also be seen here. The people at Babel sinned when they pursued their own version of the truth, but at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit enlightened the apostles and the first converts to the Church with the Truth of Christ. The first brought division, the second brought unity. At Pentecost, the Risen Christ lovingly and mercifully pours forth his Spirit of Truth upon the apostles and He will remain with the apostles, their successors and the Church always because Christ is with his Church always, thus confirming the Truth that is authoritatively taught by the Church. If there is conflict and opposition, it is not because the Truth is its cause. Rather it is sin.

Therefore, it is not enough that we should strive for unity and live in peace with one another, but we must also live according to the Spirit of Unity and Truth. And so, we must pray for the Spirit to enlighten and guide us to overcome the temptation to follow our own truths, and to welcome the truth of Christ transmitted in the Church.

Life in the Spirit reassures us that we are not pathetic victims, huddling together whilst the storms of 'progressive' secularism consign us to the dustbin of history. We are the people of God, we are the Body of Christ, and we are the people led by His Spirit. We are called to proclaim the Good News of Jesus to a people who are spiritually starving and in desperate need of it. We have been made witnesses of the passion and resurrection of Christ, bearers of the Cross, and proclaimers of the Word of God, but we are also beneficiaries of the Spirit who refreshes, heals, inspires and always draws us into deeper communion with Christ and His Body, the Church.

May all be ONE

Seventh Sunday of Easter - Year C

Common Malaysians are still reeling from the shock of communally divisive campaigning leading up to the recent Sarawak Election. Sentiments were fanned to intentionally pit one community against another. Ethnic and religious stereotypes were reinforced to instill fear among the various communities. What happened to the ideals of authentic national integration and inter-ethnic harmony? Many have grown skeptical.

Today's Gospel reading  is certainly a welcome breath of fresh air. Today’s gospel reading is certainly a welcome breath of fresh air. At last! Someone is truly serious about the issue of reconciliation and unity.  It’s none other than Jesus himself. The gospel is an excerpt of a longer prayer of Jesus found in Chapter 17 of the Gospel of John, which is traditionally called the “High Priestly Prayer”. Its name is derived from the action and words of Jesus who now intercedes with the Father in Heaven, as a High Priest, on behalf of his friends on earth. Although, it is composed of simple words, this is a potent prayer and Jesus meant every single word of it. It is not a declaration of what is, not a blueprint for oneness, but intercession for what shall be.

All of us are God’s children. All of us are recipients of the saving grace of Jesus. All of us are called to be that One family of God. There is no room for division and distinction in this one family of God. The poor will not be separated from the rich. The educated will not be separated from the uneducated. People of different languages and different cultures will not be separated and placed in different rooms. This is the prayer of Jesus during the last supper just before his death. He was concerned not only for his disciples, those that the Heavenly Father had given into his care, but also for the others – the unconverted, those who rejected him and would put him to death, his greatest enemies. And so Jesus prayed: “Holy Father, I pray not only for these, but for those also who through their words will believe in me. May they all be one. Father, may they be one in us as you are in me and I am in you.”

Where are we now as we hear the prayer of Jesus? What steps must we take for this to become a reality? Pondering these questions, it becomes clear that we must begin by becoming one within ourselves. The prayer of Jesus challenges us to look deep into ourselves. We must allow Jesus to restore the inner unity of our very soul, which so often has succumbed to sin. Our society is divided because our souls are splinted. It is easy for us to accuse others of being racist, but it takes great courage and self-honesty to recognise our own penchant for stereotyping, prejudice, ethnocentricism, and racism. No one readily acknowledges himself as a racist. But we see the tentacles of this evil spectre in the form of our preoccupation with our own self-interest and selfishness. Martin Luther King, perhaps the most socially transformative preacher of our time, once wrote that the redemption of a society trapped in racism “can come only through a humble acknowledgement of guilt and an honest knowledge of self”. Becoming at one within ourselves prepares us for the greater blessing of becoming one with God and Christ.

After having looked within ourselves, we must begin to look outwards, outside our petty little world. Too often we are tempted to allow our Christian lives to remain in air-tight compartments, limited only to Christian friends, in a sort of Christian hot-house, from the womb to the tomb. Our Beloved Pope Francis, who strongly champions a Church who is more evangelistic in its outlook, notes that “a Church that does not go out of itself, sooner or later, sickens from the stale air of closed rooms”. If we confine our discussion of unity within the ranks of the Church or just among Christians, we may suffer from the self-referentiality which the Pope condemns. Self-referentiality is unacceptable for the Church because its mission is love, and love seeks to reach beyond itself in generosity. Therefore, for the sake of a confused and sinful world which is facing enormously complex problems, Christians must not, dare not, isolate themselves from that world. No, the church exists in order to reach the world. The church is here to be God's instrument by which human life in every area and at every level is penetrated by the transforming gospel of Jesus Christ, that men may see that in Jesus Christ there is the authentic voice of God to men; that in him is the ultimate issue of human destiny, and in him we come face to face with all that is important in human affairs.

Finally, as we come to the end of the Easter season, the readings that the Church gives us directs our gaze upward. If our view is only confined to ourselves and others, we will most certainly find the drudgery of life unbearable. Our looking inwards and outwards only prepares us for this final viewing. The model that Christ gives us on the eve of his own death, as reflected in his priestly prayer at the Last Supper, shows us a man serene, charitable and intimately united to his Father. Union with the divine gives him the serenity and peace to face the suffering of the cross. In our first reading today, from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear about the martyrdom of St. Stephen, and we hear that he “gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God’s right hand”.  It is the same union with the divine that gave St Stephen the same serenity as Jesus possessed. Those of the world "covered their ears" at the mention of the Gospel message, but those of us who listen to Christ will find solace. St John, in concluding the Book of the Apocalypse, invites us to look up at Christ who is the morning star and pray, “Come, Lord Jesus.”  And in today’s Gospel reading, as he finishes the Last Supper, Jesus begins his prayer by “raised his eyes to heaven.” As we look up to heaven, what do we see? We see an embrace, a clasp of deepest friendship, a union of hearts and minds greater than the most satisfying earthly relationship could ever be. 

The prayer of Jesus that “may they all be one” still haunts as well as inspires. It is wearisome, deadly wearisome, to endure the tension, the conflicts, the hate speech and demonising that continues to plague our society. The blight of triumphalism, of power games, and the obsession with always being right still throw up huge, offensive roadblocks against Jesus’ prayer. Such sin drags us back to the Upper Room, to dull disciples among whom we now sit, to the grief of our Lord over our tearing apart the seamless robe of unifying love in which he would wrap us. Yet he comes to us with Easter’s treasure. Despite the sins which continue to splinter, to separate, and to divide, we are comforted to know that there is One who is not only praying for our unity, but who assures us that he is protecting “not only these, but also those”, and he does so in the Father’s name. The outcome of the prayer, “May the all be one”, will never be just left to us. It will always be in his strong hands. Thank God for that!

Now and Future

Solemnity of the Ascension of The Lord - Year C

Christianity is often seen as a life-denying religion – a religion that is only focused on life after death and one which encourages its followers to avoid their earthly responsibilities. Christians are often accused of having their heads in the clouds, for looking upwards without having any care for what is below. On the other hand, many people live as if there is no life after death. They believe that everything must find a final resolution or closure within this life. They search to better their lives by looking for or constructing an earthly Utopia here below.

This is a far cry from the message of the Feast which we celebrate today. The ascension does not lead us to focus only on heavenly existence whilst ignoring earthly life. We need to look upwards, but we must never forgot to look down too. “Why are you standing here looking up into the sky,” the two men dressed in white, presumably angels, which you would find at the end of today’s first reading ask this of the apostles who were still gazing up into the sky long after Jesus had departed from their sight. Perhaps, they were rooted to that site in disbelief, a kind of denial that Jesus had actually departed. In any event, the angels’ caution was a reminder that their sky-gazing activities should not distract or detract them from their mission. Whilst applying themselves to their mission on earth, they should also not lose sight of the eschatological event – that Jesus will one day return. In other words, we should not only look at what is immediately before us, but also ahead of us. Within this single scene, we can come to the conclusion that Christianity brings together both ethical obligations and missionary responsibilities that are tied to our existence here on earth as well as every Christian’s hopeful expectation of the Last Things – the Parousia or Second Coming of Christ, death, judgment, heaven and hell.

In the early decades of Christianity, many Christians sincerely believed that the world was going to end with the return of Christ in their lifetime. This led to an entire spectrum, a variety of lifestyles and behaviour. Some stopped working for they thought that their days were numbered and should therefore be better spent in prayer and vigilance for the Lord’s imminent coming. This resulted in economic crises in families. There were others who felt that since the world was coming to an end, it would therefore be best to spend the remainder of our lives in purely hedonistic activities – debauchery, drinking, partying and fulfilling every particular need of the flesh. In many of Paul’s letters, we see him frantically trying to correct this misunderstanding on the part of Christians and to remind them that their new life in Christ and in the Spirit had serious moral implications. In any event, they should continue their daily business and apply themselves to the missionary responsibility and commitment to the community.

This feast, therefore, reminds us to pay attention to the way we live our present earthly lives so that this can be perfected in our heavenly life. Rather than a denial of life, earthly responsibilities and commitments, today’s feast challenges us to affirm this life and recommit ourselves to our responsibilities, especially our responsibilities to our fellow brothers and sisters. St. Paul, in today’s second reading, writes to us: “I … implore you to lead a life worthy of your vocation. Bear with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness and patience. Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together.”  Our responsibilities include the mission to evangelise. Before ascending to heaven, Jesus left his disciples and the Church this mission: “Go out to the whole world, proclaim the Good News to all creation.” It is the good news of the Kingdom of God. 

Although we are asked to proclaim the Kingdom of God through our words and actions here and now, we must not deceive ourselves by thinking that we can replicate heaven on earth. We must not confuse our present temporary existence with the eternal life promised by Christ to his believers. In the early age of Christianity, some Christians also grew impatient in waiting for Christ’s second coming. They felt weighed down by the trials and tribulations of their lives. They faced persecution from outside the church and conflict within the church. They were beginning to lose faith in God because they had lost hope in Christ returning to save them. In the face of such difficulties, we often find ourselves being blinded by our fears and anxieties, by the weight of present sufferings and trials. We are unable to see the light of God’s final act of redeeming humanity and recreating the world. Short term and seemingly achievable goals that provide temporary relief replace long term ones that promise salvation. Our vision becomes narrowed to the point of spiritual myopia.

This was the problem of the disciples in today’s first reading. When they asked Jesus whether the time had come for the restoration of the kingdom of Israel, their focus was only on building an earthly kingdom, a kingdom confined to their ethnic identity. But the event of the Ascension leads them to understand that the kingdom of God is much broader than any vision of an earthly paradise that could be achieved in this life or even in the future to come. The kingdom of God would only come to its perfection at the end of time, when God recreates the whole of the universe in Jesus Christ. This, however, does not release us from our present responsibilities but rather challenges us to constantly work for the Kingdom of God throughout our earthly lives. We will never be able to create a perfect society in our lifetime, therefore the need to always work for the betterment of society, the healing of relationships and the promotion of justice, love and peace in this world. Keeping our gaze on the bigger picture, on the Kingdom of God, allows us to rise above any setbacks, failures and disappointments. We are only able to see a small part of the picture. Our personal failure is not to be translated as ultimate failure which would be disastrous. In fact, our faith and hope informs us that our victory is already assured. The Ascension is our assurance of this.

Today, as we reflect on this feast of the Ascension, let us not look into the sky and be lost in the clouds like the disciples in today’s first reading. Rather, let us recommit ourselves to the mission which Christ has entrusted to us, here and now. But, let us also not be to too concern with our human pursuits that we lose sight of God’s kingdom and Christ coming at the end of time, for then we will only substitute the promise of heaven with a poor imitation here below.

Tip for exam success - Pray the Holy Rosary

The Month of May

May is the month of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

What better occasion to start praying the Rosary, than the month of May! Today, you might be in the midst of preparing for your final exams, let us not forget to invoke the prayer of Our Lady, the Holy Theotokos , Our Lady of the Holy Rosary to help you succeed! To Jesus through the Blessed Virgin Mary. All of the attributes of mercy and love attributed to Mary find their ultimate source in the Lord. The unity between the Mother and her divine Son is very intimate and unbreakable.

Today, through the intercession of Our Lady, we pray that the Lord will give you the peace of mind as you prepare for this time of study. We pray that the Lord will keep you focus  and keep you from all distractions. We pray that the Lord will give you insights that you might understand what you are studying and help you to remember it when the time comes. Above all, let us also thank the Lord for the ability to study, and for the many gifts and talents that the Lord has bestowed on us. 

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Mary, Seat of Wisdom, Pray for us!