True Virtue of Humility

Twenty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

Today’s readings exalt the virtue of humility, not the superficial type, but the real hard type that comes with a hard-line Jesus and a tough form of Christianity. Humility is a Christian virtue but many are often confused as to its meaning. Many people believe humility means self-denigration; in other words, being very critical of oneself, one’s own talents and achievements. The irony is this: whenever we put ourselves down, we actually expect to receive more praises for our achievements. Such humility is undeniably false humility and false humility is a mask for pride. 

On the other hand, what Jesus is trying to tell is that we should not seek any reward, or praise, or thanks or honour for the things that we do. We should not look for positions of honour or for recognition of our achievements. Once we become addicted to praise and human recognition, we would then begin to do everything with a hidden motive. When we do not receive praise and thanks for the things that we do for others, we become hurt and angry. Humility is serving and giving without asking for anything in return. Humility is freedom from needing to please others. Humility is serving and giving for the glory of God and not for our own glory. Ultimately, what is most important is that we find favour with the Lord, as the first reading tells us. The humble man finds favour with the Lord, not because it is a form of reward, but because the humble man allows God to do what he himself cannot do. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines humility as “the virtue by which a Christian acknowledges that God is the author of all good”  (CCC 2559). Therefore, man is proud when he suggests that he knows better than God (or his Church).  Or that he can achieve and succeed on his own merits.  Or that he, by his own efforts, can reconcile himself with God for sins committed.  Or that he can go through his day without being in His presence.

Christianity is about Jesus Christ. He is at the centre of God’s salvation. Christianity is about following him and declaring our allegiance to him. It is making Christ known and not just self-promotion. Christianity is not about us. It has something wonderful to say to us, but it is not first and foremost about us. It is not man-centred but God-centred and Christ-centred. This is foundational and basic to the practice of the virtue of humility. This is precisely what is so wrong with the cult of personality - it places man on the pedestal and makes him larger than life, in fact so large as to eclipse God.

Humility calls for self-knowledge. We must recognize both our strengths and weaknesses. Every person is a mixture of both strengths and weaknesses. If we learn to accept both our strengths and weaknesses, we would then be much happier persons. Many people are not comfortable with their weaknesses. We either try to hide our weaknesses or try to criticize others so that we can look stronger. Humility is learning to live with both our weaknesses and strengths. In the same way, we must also recognize that everyone too have their own weaknesses and strengths. If everyone is equally strong, if no one has any weaknesses, we won’t need each other. God is truly wise to bring us all together – both weak and strong. We must always remember that no one can do everything. But everyone can do something.

Humility is also a call to accept our neighbours as persons, indeed as brothers and sisters. Sometimes, we would only communicate with those who share common interests with us, those who speak the same language, those who have the same skin colour, those who are part of our race or status. Humility calls us to recognize everyone as valuable and deserving equal respect. We must not only respect the rich but also the poor. In fact, we may need to give more attention to the poor, the sick and the weak because they are in greater need than the rich, the healthy and the strong.

Let us follow the example of Jesus, the Humble One – he who was Son of God humbled himself to become man, and even humbler still to become a servant of all. If we want to be called Christians, we must be prepared to follow Christ on the way of humility. For we believe, that it is there we will find favour with God.

The Narrow Door

Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

Many Christians actually believe that they are pretty good Christians since they have embraced the faith, but their version is just treacle—a syrupy version of hard-edged faith. The core teaching of this soft version of Christianity is the gospel of nice or ‘Moralistic Therapeutic Deism’, as one author coins it. Instead of a suffering Christ on the cross, the jovial image of Santa Claus or even a cuddly Care Bear has taken over as potent symbols of this new religion. The Gospel of niceness has seeped into our own Christian culture and it has become indiscernible from the real thing. We are often too nice to say no, to question others opinions, to critique others decisions or to point out the obvious. We let people get away with stuff that is blatantly incorrect or wrong-headed, immoral or illegal, ill mannered or self-centered – we make excuses by being nice about it. In such a religious system, the following words and concepts are taboo and have been expunged from our vocabulary – sin, moral evil, and of course, the definitive ‘hell’! ‘A God who is the personification of niceness will never tolerate hell!’ Political correctness in all its forms is the gospel of niceness in extremis. 

Here are some core beliefs of this new religion:

1.      God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other.

2.      The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.

3.      God is not involved in my life except when I need God to resolve a problem.

4.      Since no one is really bad, and sin doesn’t really exist except in neurotic guilt and God is so nice and good, everyone gets to go to heaven. Yahoo!!

The ‘narrow door’ which Jesus speaks off flies in the face of the core tenets of the Gospel of Nice and Soft Christianity. It implies that Christianity is not a ‘free for all’ ideology. It implies that there are boundaries, there are rigid demands, there are consequences to our actions, that truly living according to the Christian lifestyle would mean that one must be open to admonishment. It suggests that one should not take salvation for granted and that damnation is very real for those who choose not to go through the ‘narrow door.’ Jesus knew that the nice people would get him and put him on the cross – that what he was saying was not nice – it would upset the ruling powers and authorities and at some point he would be crucified. He knew what would happen if he was not nice – sanitised – acceptable and appropriate. He goes to the cross not because he was nice, but because he loved. Because he said what had to be said and called for people to be counter-cultural – to stand up and to say this is not right.

In the final analysis, the gospel of niceness won’t do. It isn’t salvific. It isn’t Jesus’ message. It isn’t the Kingdom. In other words, it’s a false idol. Therefore, we have to dump our idols, even when they’re nice and make us feel good about ourselves – the gospel of ‘shiok sendiri’. Admit it; part of the appeal of a gospel of niceness is that it makes us feel good about ourselves. It often translates into the gospel of comfort and convenience – we know that we have subscribed to it when we complain about the uncomfortable pews, the heat in the Church, the inconvenience of parking and of course, the long services and homilies. If the story is that niceness is the solution, then we’ve missed the point. Niceness won’t save us. Comfort and convenience won’t save us. In fact, the only thing the easy and soft gospel of niceness will do is to ease us into hell. We won’t know what hit us till it’s too late. On the other hand, the life, suffering, death, burial, and resurrection of a crucified Christ will be our salvation. Anything else is an idol and a false gospel.

The Gospel of Christ, paid by his own blood on the cross is demanding. It demands that we make the ultimate sacrifice by turning our backs on wealth, power and popularity, comfort and convenience, the false gods that have become the defining elements in our lives. It demands that we burn our bridges when we have resolved to follow Jesus on the road to Calvary. It demands that store treasures in heaven where it cannot be stolen or suffer the ravages of destruction. It demands that we avoid seeking honour among men but strive to become rich in the sight of God. It demands passage through the narrow door. Jesus wasn’t Mr Nice, neither was he Mr Soft. The same Jesus who preached compassion is the same Jesus who publicly embarrassed his nemeses (the Pharisees) by calling them “a bunch of snakes” in front of a large crowd of people. The same Jesus who said, in a particular and oft-misunderstood context, that we ought to “turn the other cheek” is the same Jesus who made a royal mess out of the temple by taking a whip to a bunch of moneychangers. The same Jesus whom we fondly depict in art as the gentle Good Shepherd, is also the Heavenly Judge who will not blink an eye when separating the sheep from the goats. The same Jesus who announces that men from all four corners of the earth will be taking their places in the heavenly feast also declares that some will suffer the ‘weeping and grinding of teeth.’

Does that sound like a cuddly Jesus who turns a blind eye to sin? I don’t think so. It’s the real Jesus, the tough Jesus, the Jesus who saves! Jesus didn’t float on down to planet earth like a deflating balloon.  He dropped down like an atomic bomb, and his very presence was a provocation. Many men and women throughout the history of Christianity, have been set aflame with the explosive message of Christ. Many have even followed their Lord and Master to the cross by accepting the glory of martyrdom. We can be sure of this. Christianity wasn’t something ‘nice’ or ‘soft’ or even ‘convenient’ for them. Christianity to them was life. And they were prepared to give up everything else, including their mortal lives, to defend this.

I would like to share with you a long quote from a 19th century Christian author and cleric of the Church of Scotland, Horatius Bonar, who prophetically forewarns our present generation of the dangers of Soft Christianity and reminds us of the need to be tough Christians.

“For there is some danger of falling into a soft and effeminate Christianity, under the plea of a lofty and ethereal theology. Christianity was born for endurance...It walks with firm step and erect frame; it is kindly, but firm; it is gentle, but honest; it is calm, but not facile; obliging, but not imbecile; decided, but not churlish. It does not fear to speak the stern word of condemnation against error, nor to raise its voice against surrounding evils, under the pretext that it is not of this world. It does not shrink from giving honest reproof lest it come under the charge of displaying an unchristian spirit. It calls sin 'sin,' on whomsoever it is found … The religion of both Old and New Testaments is marked by fervent outspoken testimonies against evil. To speak smooth things in such a case may be sentimentalism, but it is not Christianity. It is a betrayal of the cause of truth and righteousness. If anyone should be frank, manly, honest, cheerful (I do not say blunt or rude, for a Christian must be courteous and polite), it is he who has tasted that the Lord is gracious, and is looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God.

I know that charity covereth a multitude of sins; but it does not call evil good, because a good man has done it; it does not excuse inconsistencies, because the inconsistent brother has a high name and a fervent spirit. Crookedness and worldliness are still crookedness and worldliness, though exhibited in one who seems to have reached no common height of attainment.”

Love Triumph and Victory over Death

Solemnity of the Assumption 2016

Today, Roman Catholics throughout the world celebrate the great Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Church celebrates this feast in commemoration of its solemn belief that at the end of her earthly life, Mary was taken in soul and body to heaven, that is, to the glory of eternal life, in full and perfect communion with God. Our brothers and sisters from the Eastern Christian tradition, on the other hand, celebrate the event as the Dormition, or Falling asleep, of the Holy Theotokos, the Mother of God. From ancient times, this event has been regarded by Orthodox Christians in the light of a second Pascha, or a second Easter. Thus, the Assumption finds its true glorious meaning in the revealing radiance of the Easter dawning sun.

The Resurrection of Christ, the Holy Pascha, was a pivotal turning point in the story of humanity’s salvation. With His resurrection, Jesus Christ trampled upon the gates of Hades, released its prisoners from the clutches of death and the devil, and opened for us the gates of paradise, which was originally intended for man - the crown of all creation, and which became closed to us because of the sin of pride and disobedience to God on the part of our ancestors. What man lost through Adam, he has regained through the second Adam. God Himself chose to come down to earth, became incarnate in the form of man, and once again opened to us the gates of paradise, having manifested - instead of pride - the greatest humility, instead of disobedience - complete obedience even unto death on the cross, and instead of sin He - the most pure and absolutely sinless - took upon Himself the burden of all the sins of the world. With these three qualities - humility, obedience and purity of nature - the Lord showed us the highest example of what man can be like, of what he should be like, and of what the Creator intended him to be.

However, we may well be tempted to think that only God incarnate could be such an ideal man, while a mere mortal could never attain such perfection. But to show us the error of such thinking, we have before us the Mother of God, Who is the highest example of the attainment of such perfection, and Who teaches us with Her entire life, Her death and Her Assumption that man can attain perfection precisely by means of these three qualities - humility, obedience to the will of God, and moral purity. Her Assumption is evidence and proof of such a life. Mary is indeed the first fruit of the new humanity, the creature in whom the mystery of Christ – his Incarnation, death, Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven – has already fully taken effect, redeeming her from death and conveying her, body and soul, to the Kingdom of immortal life. In the Assumption of Our Lady, it is these three qualities of hers which are commemorated - humility, obedience and purity, - which have elevated Her, a mere mortal, above all earthly creatures and above the entire heavenly host, which have made Her according to the Divine Liturgy on the Feast of Dormition, “more honourable than the cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim, which have made Her the Queen of heaven and earth.

As in all other feasts of Mary, we do less to honour her but in reality worship the Sovereign Lord who fulfilled his plan of salvation through the instrumentation of his humble maid, the most supremely perfect among His creatures. In this area, the Fathers of the Church have often used the method of scriptural typology to speak of Mary’s relation to Christ. Typology is a special kind of symbolism. When looking at scripture, a type can be seen as a “prophetic symbol” because all types are representations of something yet future. More specifically, a type in scripture is a person or thing in the Old Testament which foreshadows a person or thing in the New Testament. For example, the flood of Noah’s day (Genesis 6-7) is used as a type of baptism in 1 Peter 3:20-21. When we say that someone is a type of Christ, we are saying that a person in the Old Testament behaves in a way that corresponds to Jesus’ character or actions in the New Testament. For example, in the second reading, Paul describes Adam as a type of Christ. Though death entered this world through the first Adam’s disobedience, eternal life was made accessible again through the obedience of the second Adam, Jesus Christ himself.

The Fathers of the Church often spoke of Mary as the New Eve. St John Chrysostom, the great Doctor of the East spoke of  how the garden of Eden was closed forever to our parents through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, but now the gates of Paradise, Heaven has been opened to the one who showed perfect obedience, Mary, the Mother of God and Our Beloved Mother. Where Eve listened to the deceptive voice of the serpent which caused humanity’s fall, Mary listened to the revealing and liberating Word of God and became the instrument of bringing man’s cause of salvation into the world, her son Our Lord Jesus. As a result of the fall, the serpent would constantly strike at the heel of the children of Eve but the ancient serpent, now a dragon in the Book of Revelation, will be deprived of victory over the Lady who is crowned with stars and who gives birth to the saviour who defeats the foe of the Church. Death and pain became the fate of our first mother because of the folly of sin, eternal life would be the prize won for our Blessed Mother because of her faithfulness to the will of God.

One may be tempted to ask: Isn’t the story of the Paschal Mystery, Christ’s death and resurrection sufficient? The answer is ‘Yes.’ But as the story of Adam is incomplete without mention of Eve, the story of the new Adam would be similarly inadequate without speaking of his new counterpart. If Jesus, the new Adam, is the primary cause of humanity’s salvation, then Mary, the new Eve, is the primary representative of redeemed humanity in displaying the effect of Jesus’ redemptive work. The new Eve followed the new Adam in suffering, in the Passion, and so too in definitive joy. Christ is the first fruits but his risen flesh is inseparable from that of his earthly Mother, Mary. In Mary all humanity is involved in the Assumption to God, and together with her all creation, whose groans and sufferings, St Paul tells us, are the birth-pangs of the new humanity. Thus are born the new Heaven and the new earth in which death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more.

A popular iconographic depiction of Mary in the Orthodox world is the one called Theotokos Hodegetria (Greek: Οδηγήτρια) which literally means "She who shows the Way.” The icon has Mary holding the Child Jesus at her side while pointing to Him as the source of salvation for mankind. Today, the Feast of the Assumption is a celebration of the same theme. Mary’s Assumption shows the Way – it is Christ who has saved her from the moment of her conception in her mother’s womb and it is Christ whose redemption has preserved her body from corruption and now leads her to heaven. The Mother leads us to her Son, the Second Pascha casts further light on the first, the fidelity, humility and purity of the New Eve reflects the perfect model of the New Adam. Mary shows us the way to heaven through her Assumption.

Today, as we raise our eyes above and through our imagination try to behold the splendour of this wondrous event of our Blessed Mother being assumed body and soul into heaven into the welcoming arms of the Holy Trinity in the presence of the angelic hosts and saintly choir, our vision looks beyond the person of Mary. The Assumption provides us with a glimpse of our future glory, our final home, the holy beatitude of heaven. Pope Benedict speaks to us of the power of this feast as one which “impels us to lift our gaze to Heaven; not to a heaven consisting of abstract ideas or even an imaginary heaven created by art, but the Heaven of true reality which is God himself. God is Heaven. He is our destination, the destination and the eternal dwelling place from which we come and for which we are striving.”

Today’s feast announces the victory of love over death. St Baldwin of Canterbury once delivered this beautiful homily on love and death.   “Death is strong: it has the power to deprive us of the gift of life. Love is strong: it has the power to restore us to the exercise of a better life. Death is strong, strong enough to despoil us of this body of ours. Love is strong, strong enough to rob death of its spoils and restore them to us. Death is strong; for no man can resist it. Love is strong; for it can triumph over death, can blunt its sting, counter its onslaught and overturn its victory. A time will come when death will be trampled underfoot; when it will be said: ‘Death, where is your sting? Death, where is your attack?” On this feast of Assumption, death is trampled beneath the foot of the woman who bore the Saviour of the world. Today, we celebrate the love of God and the love of our Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary, the Holy Theotokos, the New Eve, the Second Pascha and Hodegetria, She who shows the Way. We celebrate love’s triumph and victory over death. Today, we echo the hope of Mary in affirming the greatness of God – this is the God, who according to St. Paul, will put all his enemies including death under his feet.

Christ is coming soon...Be Prepared!

Nineteeth Ordinary Sunday - Year C

Have you ever been floored by something that changed your immediate circumstances and you never saw it coming?  I have. Indeed, it is a very painful experience for me and my family. As many of you know, I lost my mum one month ago. She is a wonderful lady that sacrificed a lot for the family. I can’t possibly describe the emotions that overwhelmed me. Undeniably, I'm still coping with it and feeling sad at this point of time. I realised that much of what I was feeling came from the fact that this was unexpected and unforeseeable. I felt ashamed and helpless that I wasn’t able to prevent this from happening. The experience was educational, though. 

In today’s gospel, Jesus uses a metaphor that you don’t normally hear. We readily associate him with the Good Shepherd or the Bread of Life. Although we don’t have the usual revelatory ‘I am’ statement that are often introduces the other titles and metaphors, Jesus practically speaks about his movements, especially about his future coming as a ‘thief in the night.’ What can a ‘thief’ teach us about Jesus? The element of surprise found in the metaphor is intended to shake us out of the stupour of complacency that often plagues so many of us when it comes to considering the whole uncertain matter of the future.  We are so ruled by the ‘now’ that our vision of the future is severely myopic. We tend to live in the land of critiquing the very recent past and a future that’s just a day or so away. When we stay here for too long, we trick ourselves into believing we’re making real progress or we sink into despair that we’ve not made any progress at all, thus condemning our endeavours as failures. This is the tyranny of NOW and it’s a dangerous place to live for more than a season.

Jesus is the ‘Thief’ who tells us he’s coming. No ordinary self-respecting burglar would announce the time of his arrival, but if he did he could count on being met by a reception committee. Not only does Christ warn us of his imminent visit, he also provides us with practical tips on how to prepare for his coming without being caught unawares. Christ is prepping us to be part of that welcoming party. The vivid imagery of thievery runs throughout today’s gospel passage and in the three tips he provides to prepare for his coming.

First tip, don’t be sitting ducks for thieves – don’t put out calling cards with expensive items attached to them; don’t flaunt your riches and make them appealing targets, don’t put your valuables in a place where it can easily be stolen. Rather store up treasures where “no thief can reach it and no moth can destroy.’ It is ironic that those who have valuables to protect are the most anxious on earth. The poor, on the other hand, have no need for fancy security seems. They risk losing nothing because they have nothing to lose. If we had been concerned with becoming rich in the sight of God as exhorted by Jesus in last week’s gospel, if we have been making the necessary spiritual investments for eternal life by corporal works of mercy, if we have been storing our treasures in heaven, then there is little to be frightened of when Christ comes as a thief in the night. In our efforts to store up treasures on earth, we forget that every soul who passes from this life becomes a "poor soul", regardless of how rich, or beautiful, or famous, or powerful they were in this world. The answer to the riddle: "How much money did Rockefeller leave behind?" is really quite easy: "Every penny of it." We cannot take anything with us, but we can ship it on ahead of ourselves by living a virtuous life. Our treasures are kept in the safest fortress ever known to man, heaven.

Second tip, don’t be caught off guard – always be ready and never assume that you can foresee how and when the end will happen. The tyranny of the ‘now’ has lured us into a false sense of security. We delude ourselves into thinking that we are an ‘indestructible.’ We live each day on the basis of business-as-usual. We put off our preparations for his imminent coming. We spend time addressing the urgent concerns of the ‘here’ and ‘now’. We count on tomorrow's sun to rise, on there being a future. We lay our plans on that basis. But Jesus says that all this will stop. When or how, we don’t know. But this does not detract from the truth that he is coming and that this is more certain than the most certain thing we know of. Thus, it becomes more urgent than ever to always “stand ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Notice the argument put forward by Jesus here. He says that if the householder had known when the thief was coming he would have watched and prevented the robbery. That is, if a man knows he is to be robbed at night, and knows the very hour in which it will take place, he will be ready for the burglar when he comes. So, keep ready at all times. Christians should never let down their guard. There is no holiday or break from our Christian duties and responsibilities, a ‘time off’ from being Christian. Christ may decide to pay us a visit when we are ‘off on a holiday’.

The third tip answers the question – ‘How can we always be ready?’ Jesus tells us that we must be ‘wise and faithful’ stewards who do not shirk our responsibility or abuse our authority, and faithfully care for the goods and other members of the master’s household. Stewardship is a way of living that acknowledges that everything is derived from God and continues to belong to God. These things have merely been entrusted to us for the common good of humanity and for the glory of God. Stewardship rejects the claim to an absolute right that comes from ownership. We are accountable to God. Thus, violation of stewardship is a form of stealing. The irony becomes apparent, only ‘thieves’, bad stewards, have need to fear the master of the house, who alone can return unexpectedly to perform an audit like a ‘thief in the night.’ This last tip also reminds us that our waiting is not passive; we are to keep our belts tightened and our lamps burning like men awaiting their master’s return from a wedding. Waiting for Christ to return means working for the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Many Christians seem to feel that waiting for Christ's coming means that we must behave ourselves lest we should suddenly be caught short by his appearing and be ashamed of what we were doing. But Jesus is no policeman, waiting to surprise us in an unguarded moment. Jesus reassures us: “There is no need to be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom.” Yes, Jesus is coming ‘like a thief in the night’ to unbelievers and those who are not prepared. But to the faithful, who have lived a life as a faithful and wise steward, his coming is not as a thief but as the Lord of Glory, he comes as our liberation and our salvation. The paradox of the Christian life is that though we look for him to come, yet all the while we are enjoying and experiencing his presence. He is coming, and yet he is with us now. What Jesus wants us to grasp is that these two activities are related. The intensity with which we love his coming is the revelation of the degree to which we are experiencing his presence. The hunger you may feel to see his face is directly proportionate to the present enjoyment you have of his presence. If, to you, the thought of his coming is a frightening thing, then you know little or nothing of his presence now. But if you do know what it means to live by Christ, if moment by moment with your whole being you are taking from him all that he makes available to you, you will find a longing, a yearning in your heart for his personal coming. Thus, we are called to face the future not in fear but to embrace the future in faith, as the second reading tells us, “only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen.”

Our Bodies are Sacred

Feast of Transfiguration 

In today’s gospel reading, we have something more than just an incredible trans-morphing of the body. Today the church celebrates the Feast of Transfiguration. We encounter the amazing scene of the Transfiguration, a word translated from the original Greek, “metamorphosis”, meaning “changed in form” or “transformed.” It is a scene that does not only allow the viewer to see the difference between past and present, but also provides us a glimpse of what the future would look like.

The scene of the Transfiguration is found in all three Synoptic gospels but here in the Gospel of St Luke, one discovers some significant differences. These differences include a parallel allusion to the scene of the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the only recorded discussion between Jesus and Moses and Elijah concerning the new exodus or Passover, the mention of eight days instead of six, eight being the symbol of Sunday, the Day of the Resurrection, points to one single theme. In the scene of the Transfiguration, we are given a glimpse of what the resurrection would look like.  As we behold the transfigured Christ, as we behold His glory, we are also being transfigured into His likeness. St Paul speaks of the transfiguration of Christians. The Transfiguration not only points to our transformation to His likeness, but it points to our future glory and the ultimate transformation of our physical bodies. The presence of the long dead Moses and Elijah is visible proof of this. Their presence speaks of the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body.

The Transfiguration provides us with a corrective to our present cultural mindset. Deny as we may want, we live in a body conscious culture. Young slim women and muscular men boasting six pack abs adorn the pages of our newspapers and magazines. Millions of dollars are spent developing products to make us look better, whilst less is spent to solve poverty issues and to find cures to presently incurable diseases like HIV, cancer, etc. We have used our innovative genius to create and develop products to clean up, paint up, and fix up. We spend more time worrying about our physical shape rather than on the state of well-being of our soul. Longevity and prolonging the appearance of youth seem to be greater concerns than eternal salvation. Deny as we may try, we do live in a body conscious world.

The Transfiguration reminds us that there is an alternative vision to the human body. Human bodies are not just meant to be physically beautiful. Human bodies are not cheap neither are they valueless. On the contrary, human bodies are precious or more importantly, human bodies are sacred. Many would vehemently reject this last association – how could this body of mine, one which I sometimes loath and detest, the one which seems to cause me affliction and pain, the well spring of temptations of the flesh be seen as sacred? We resist this association between the sacred and what we consider to be profane because we feel that the corporeality of our bodies would stain the pure nature of the divine.

The Incarnation, the Birth, the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, has made all human flesh precious and bodies sacred. The eternal Creator looks at the least human person and now not only numbers the hairs of our head – but sanctifies every single cell in our body, every drop of blood in our veins. God looks at the least and sees the eternal Child of God, Jesus – sees the Word made flesh and blood. We are saved in him. In Jesus, God says over the least human being, God gives the word, “This is my Body and Blood,” In the Transfiguration, we come to recognise that Jesus is the Transubstantiation of humanity. The day that we are baptised, something amazing happens to us, not just to our souls but to our entire being, including our bodies.

Very often, we seem to skip this reflection on our true identity and wish to move immediately into the area of morality. What must we do? What is prohibited to us? Morality without considering our fundamental identity is pure moralism. But acting flows from Being. Ethics is a consequence of our identity. Morality springs from our ontological identity, which is this – in baptism, we have become children of God, and we acquire our citizenship in heaven.  The authority of morality, therefore, is not imposed from the outside but comes from inside – it naturally flows from who we are. We do not need posters on our church doors listing out a dress code, if we are fully aware of our identity. We do not only dress for the occasion. We dress to reflect our being, to reflect who we are essentially. We should act in a certain way, because it is in our very nature, our very identity that demands this. Sin is a denial of our identity. Our identity as Children of God, Citizens of Heaven, Temples of the Holy Spirit, therefore, pose various cautions: Be careful where it goes; Be careful what it does; Be careful what it ponders; Be careful what it wears and how it behaves.

A renewed understanding of our bodies should lead us to practice certain virtues. One of these virtues is chastity. Chastity means we keep our bodies pure by abstaining from sexual activity except in the context of a loving and committed relationship of marriage.  Sex is an expression of committed love and a means of fostering that love in the context of marriage. But chastity is more than abstinence. It is consecration. We are made for God, and wholly for Him. Infidelity, fornication, sexual perversion, pornography, masturbation would be an aberration of this, in fact a desecration of the body. We live a lie whenever we violate our bodies. We deny who we really are. If we knew and believe that our bodies are meant to look like that of the Transfigured Christ in today’s gospel, we will live accordingly.  In a world gone mad with distortions of the supreme good, Love, in a society that has reduced sex to a commodity, Christian virtue of chastity calls for great courage, heroic courage.

After the Incarnation, and the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, our bodies, no matter what the blind violence of sinful men and women may indicate, is never again to be seen as something dirty or cheap. At the transfiguration, we are reminded once again that our body is sacred and precious, so precious that God would die for it. Our bodies would never again be our shame or fear. We don’t have to paint it or fix it. All the cosmetic surgeries, all the body tattoos and piercings, all the savoir-faire fashion in the world, will not be able to disguise or hide or enhance the natural beauty that already comes from us being the Temple of the Holy Spirit. We can’t view all of these in any ordinary glass mirror. We can only see a true reflection of ourselves when we gaze upon the cross of Christ, the sacrifice of love which is represented in every Eucharist. At every mass, we are reminded of our true worth. That value can never be bought by any human price. It is a gift from God. You have been bought with the price of Christ’s own body and blood. You are priceless!