The Sun stood still

The Solemnity of the Nativity of St John the Baptist

Throughout the history of Christianity, the liturgical year has been a way that the church has celebrated the redemption story, with each of the cardinal feasts emphasizing a different aspect of the story. What brought further depth of meaning to the celebration was the uncanny correspondence between sacred time and the ordinary seasons of the year. Easter marks the Christian Spring, a time of rejuvenation and rebirth. Christmas comes in the thick of winter, with the winter solstice announcing the Sun’s victory over the cold and dark winter nights. Such correspondence is often lost on us Malaysians who live close to the equator, as we do not have the privilege of celebrating the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter nor do we experience a radical shortening and lengthening of days and nights.

Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Birth of St John the Baptist. The Nativity of St John the Baptist on June 24 comes three months after the celebration on March 25 of the Annunciation, when the Archangel Gabriel told Our Lady that her cousin Elizabeth was in her sixth month of pregnancy, and six months before the Christmas celebration of the birth of Jesus. The purpose of these festivals is not to celebrate the exact dates of these events, but simply to commemorate them in an interlinking way. Therefore, for those of you who can’t get enough of Christmas and those who bedeck your homes with Christmas decorations all year round, today’s feast provides the first rumblings of the coming storm of Christmas.

The significance of today’s feast of the nativity of St John the Baptist becomes more apparent when we are able to appreciate its correspondence with the Summer Solstice. The word 'Solstice' derives from the Latin term meaning 'sun stood still', as in the winter and summer the sun appears to rise and set in practically the same place. In the northern hemisphere, the Summer Solstice date tends to be either June 21 or 22. Why then do we celebrate the Feast of St John the Baptist on the 24^th? This isn’t very clear but just as Christmas is celebrated on the 25^th of December instead of the 21^st of December which marks the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the fixing of the present dates for both celebrations could be due to the inaccurate calculations and the limitations of the astronomical devices available in ancient times. 

The birth of St John the Baptist must be truly significant in order for the Church to celebrate this date with its most solemn category of feast days, one which even supplants the liturgy of Sunday. But it is not only the Church that pays tribute to this man. It appears that the cosmos adds its eulogy to the event. The Sun stands still to illuminate this important figure in salvation history. Perhaps the greatest tribute still remains in the hands of our Lord. We remember the words of Jesus in the gospel of Luke, “Among those born of women no one is greater than John” (Luke 7:28). But this further begs the question:  What’s so great about John the Baptist?

The first answer lies in human destiny and God’s plan of salvation. When the Church celebrates the feasts of saints, it celebrates the victory of the Paschal event that is the eternal life that has been won by these men and women by virtue of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thus each feast reminds us of our destiny. As a rule, the church celebrates the feast of a saint once a year, on the anniversary of the saint’s death. Death marks the entry of the saint into eternal life, into the economy of salvation. Although this is the general rule, there are two significant exceptions. Apart from Christ, there are only two others persons whom the Church accords its greatest festal honour to celebrate the event of their conception or birth. These are none other than the Blessed Virgin Mary and St John Baptist. 

We celebrate the conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a Solemnity to denote the Church’s understanding of her immaculate conception, that is Mary tasted the fruits of redemption not at death but from the very moment of her conception. Although we also celebrate her birthday, it is of a less solemn feast because Mary had already experienced salvation at the moment of her conception in St. Anne’s womb. On the other hand, we celebrate the birth of St John as a Solemnity because at the time of his birth, he had already been admitted into the glorious company of the saints and a full participant in the economy of salvation. This took place during the visitation of Mary to his mother, Elizabeth. Luke’s gospel records the experience and words of Elizabeth who speaks of this event by stating that the child within her womb leapt for joy. 

The greatness of St John the Baptist can also be seen in his unique and singular role of linking the Old Covenant or Old Testament to the New. According to St. Augustine, John is the hinge that represents both the old and the new. John the Baptist is the hinge between the Old and New dispensation, the Old and New Testaments. On one side of that door is the Law and the Prophets of Jewish history and tradition. On the other side of that door is Jesus. The father of John, Zachary’s inability to speak on the Jewish side of the door represents the inability of the Old Testament to speak to us or bring us to salvation. With the birth of John and his naming, we move to the other side of the door where salvation is possible through Jesus. In one sense he was like the Biblical prophets that came before him. On the other side, he was the prophet who foresaw the Christ, who recognized the Christ and who initiated the public life of the Christ.  Jesus’ baptism by John and the subsequent message of the Father began the public life of Jesus. In mark’s Gospel this is the event that begins the Gospel.

St John is great because, like many other great personages before him in the Old Testament, he received his name directly from God. The gospel story of the birth of John focuses on the naming ceremony. In biblical times, and still today in many cultures, personal names function the way business names do, that is, they aim to convey what the bearer of the name stands for. Names reveal an essential character or destiny of the bearer. The name John means “God is gracious.” His birth signals the beginning of a new era in God-human relationship, an era to be characterised by grace and not by law. In John we see that God already has a purpose for His children before they come into this world, and so the challenge of life is for them to discover this purpose and to be faithful to its demands.

But perhaps the greatest contribution of St John is seen in his relationship to Christ. He is the one prophesied from of old to be voice crying in the desert calling people to prepare the Way of the Lord. He is the finger that distinguishes and points out the Lamb of God from the crowd. He is the one that announces the greater personage who will come after him, the one who will baptise with fire and the Holy Spirit. He is the one who delivered the message of repentance in order to prepare people to believe in the one who will inaugurate the Kingdom of God. He is the first to lay down his life prefiguring the death of his Master. He is the one whose light must dim, whose influence must decrease, in order that the light of Christ may increase. His greatness lay precisely in this – his very existence, his life was lived wholly for the other. And it was only in the other, in the person of Christ,  that he discovered greatness.

St Augustine saw great significance in this tradition that the Baptist was born at the summer solstice. From the Summer solstice to the Winter solstice, the days will grow shorter while the nights lengthen. Thus, it was not difficult for St Augustine to make the connection with the Baptist’s words in St John’s Gospel ‘He (Jesus) must increase and I must decrease’ (John 3.30). Now this may seem bizarre to us, but the movement of the sun and the seasons of the year seem to support the Baptist’s humbling confession. The cycle of shortening days and lengthening nights ends during the Winter Solstice, December 21^st. Thereafter, the reverse happens – the days grow longer and the nights grow shorter, thus literally playing out the dynamics of John’s words – “He must increase and I must decrease.” The waning of one central biblical figure marks the waxing of another. The Voice gives way to the Way. The Sun which shines at the centre of its own constellation, a giant among men, now recedes in order that the light of the Other may shine brighter.  John the Baptist, the Summer Sun stands still before the light of the other, the true ‘Sun of Righteousness’ (Malachi 4.2), the ‘Dayspring from on high’ (Luke 1.78), the ‘Light of the world’ (John 8.12, 9.5). Here the greatest among the created men acknowledges its Creator and Lord and bows before him – the eternal Word through whom all things were made. 

As we celebrate this Solemnity, our testimonies too must join that of the Baptist, who points to Christ and away from himself.  Christ ‘must increase and I must decrease’ must be a constant life commitment. In a culture that idolises the subjective self, where man has enthroned himself at the centre of his universe, the prophetic witness of John the Baptist reminds us once again that even the greatest among us must fall on our knees to acknowledge the One who is greater. Christ must increase and I must decrease. If the Sun can stand still to mark this event, so can we. 

The Genealogy of Jesus

Christmas Vigil 2016

Of all the ways to start a best seller, this isn’t one of them. “A genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham…” followed by a long list of names, most of them unpronounceable… Yawn. It’s likely many would have doze off before reaching the end. It’s no wonder that this passage is one we tend to overlook. Many, including priests who have the benefit of choosing the shorter version, would be inclined to skip verses 1 to 17 and go right to verses 18, which says, “This is how Jesus Christ came to be born.” We just don’t know what to do with it. So why does Matthew begin the Christmas story with a genealogy?

Genealogies were significant ventures in the past because they were ways people stayed connected. In most eras of human history and in different parts of the world, family names and family histories were integral, living factors in people’s lives. In scripture, the genealogies were not only devices which sought to compress centuries of human history into a single paragraph but more importantly served to demonstrate God’s faithfulness to his people in every generation, a faithfulness that remain intact in spite of humanity’s sinfulness.

Genealogies meant a great deal to the Jewish people too. Knowing your genealogy was important to a people who cared about maintaining their identity. Genealogies were important to show that they were part of the Chosen race; it was a prerequisite qualification for temple priesthood; and finally, it served to support the cause of royal claimants to the throne of the ancient monarchy of Israel. That’s exactly why the genealogy of Jesus is so important: it proves that he is descended from the unbroken line of Abraham and the David. The genealogy of Jesus serves as a kind of provenance, a certificate of origin. But in the usual ironical twist of the ordinary, we encounter a surprise ending: after detailing this whole illustrious line of ancestors (with a few questionable characters thrown in for good measure), it became clear that the line is broken at the very end. Joseph is indeed a direct descendant of David and Abraham, but Jesus is not of his issue!

The beginning of the Christmas story in Matthew has several important lessons for our generation too.

First, the genealogy, by connecting the birth of Jesus to human history, seeks to present this event as a new beginning for creation. It doesn’t take a genius to notice that the word ‘genealogy’ and ‘genesis’ have a common root, which means beginning. Here St Matthew deliberately wants us to begin reading his book with a sense of recalling the past. He wants to take us all the way back to the beginning and see his book, beginning with the birth of Jesus Christ, as a fresh start and a new beginning. Matthew is saying in the first line of his gospel that this world has two beginnings. The first one took place a long time ago in Chapter 1 of Genesis when God created the heavens and the earth, and everything was good. But we know how that story ended. Man has yearned ever since to correct the fatal mistake of his forefathers and undo all the damage that sin has brought to the world. The good news which St Matthew announces on this night is that the birth of Jesus does exactly this. Christ is the new beginning.

The original creation, which is damaged, flawed, and broken, is now being restored and transformed in the person of Jesus Christ. And so for all of us who are longing for a fresh start, and who are longing for everything in this world to be put right, the birth of Jesus is what makes this possible. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The birth of Jesus is a new beginning for all of us, and for the whole world.

Second, the birth of Jesus also proved that God fulfills his promises; in particular, He will go to ridiculous lengths to keep his promise to save us. From the moment of man’s fall, when Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying God, God has set into motion this great plan to bring about humanity’s redemption and salvation. We hear this promise reverberating through the centuries as humanity and Israel plodded along. The only one way to redeem man was to provide a substitute, not just any sacrificial animal, but a perfect man, a perfect sacrifice that would take the place of sinful man. And, through Jesus, God gave the whole world a substitute. That’s why Matthew makes it clear by giving us this genealogy that Jesus is the Son of Abraham, the promised sacrifice. But God has also promised his people with a king. Jesus is that king because this messed up world of ours is in need of a ruler who will undertake this cosmic clean up and reclaim the universe for God’s glory. In, Jesus we see the fulfillment of the promise made to David that his descendant will reign forever.

The fact that God keeps his promises is great news because it means that God will work through ridiculous circumstances to save his people. He will spare no effort to save us, because God always keeps His promises. There comes a point when we are tempted to cut our losses and call it quits. But not God. No matter how unfaithful the Israelites were, no matter how hopeless things seemed, no matter how impossible it was to keep going, God never abandoned them, God kept going. The genealogy becomes an account of God’s sublime faithfulness. Through wars, famines, betrayals, slavery, exile, and turmoil, God is going to make sure that Jesus comes.

And that brings me to my final point. When you examine some of the names listed in this genealogy, you would certainly come to the conclusion that God will work through ridiculous people to accomplish his will. Thus the genealogy highlights that the birth of Jesus includes us all. Most of us are embarrassed of and do all within our power to sugar-coat the narrative, conceal the skeletons in our closet, the black sheep of the family, the shady characters that sully the pristine purity of our family tree. But here in this genealogy, St Matthew lays it bare and sets out a family line that hides nothing and reveals everything. Listed among the list are illustrious patriarchs that figure prominently in the Old Testament, kings, and persons of power and position. But the list is not re-edited to weed out the questionable characters.

Included in the list are four women. What is significant here was who these four women were? Why are they mentioned and not others? We have Tamar, the prostitute who tricked her father-in-law into incestuous union to ensure that she could continue the line of her husband; Rahab, another prostitute who was the ‘Matahari’ of her days, betrayed her own people and sheltered the enemy spies; Ruth, the grandmother of David, who was a foreigner, a Moabite, who seduced her employer and married him; and then we have Uriah’s wife, the woman involved in David’s scandalous adulterous affair and cover up and the mother of Solomon. So in this list you have great people, but you also have people with a past. The genealogy leaves a paper trail of men, women, adulterers, prostitutes, heroes, and Gentiles open for public scrutiny. Right from the start, Matthew is telling us that Jesus is immersed in the gritty and seamy side of fallen humanity. No matter who you are, people like you are already part of Jesus’ story. Right from the start, God chooses the most sinful, broken, and unlikely people to be his players and actors in His divine drama of salvation. Man’s wilfulness, sinfulness and brokenness cannot hinder the purposes of God. That’s great news.

So enduring a torturously long reading of the genealogy wasn’t simply a waste of time. This is no boring prelude to the exciting stuff that’s going to come later. In fact, this is story-telling at its best. Right from the beginning, St Matthew wants us to understand that the birth of Jesus marks a new beginning, it demonstrates the fulfilment of all of God’s promises, and finally announces the good news that Christ’s coming is for all kinds of people, saints and sinners alike. As we continue to keep vigil and await the moment when we remember the birth of that wonderful baby in Bethlehem, let us take in this amazing picture of God’s plan of salvation, a plan that he seeks to fulfil against the odds, a plan that refuses to be waylaid by human failing and weakness. Let us on this night, join this wonderful story. It’s a time for a fresh start; it’s time to start believing that God has not abandoned you because he always keep his promise; and finally it’s time to realise that this story includes you, no matter how unlikely a person you may be.

We are called to bear witness of God's love

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe 

I guess a sense of unworthiness is probably something most of us experience at some time or another. We may feel unworthy for a particular task, unworthy of another's trust, unworthy of another's love. And that's not surprising. We know our failings and our weaknesses better than anyone. I guess this sense of unworthiness is most apparent in the area of our relationship with God. There is awkwardness when confronted with God’s invitation. Why would God choose me? Why me? I don’t think I have it in me to respond to his call, accept his invitation and be a witness to his immense love.  But this hesitation to heed the call of discipleship may have less to do with genuine humility than it has to do with a rather selfish, narcissistic and self-serving cultural influence. We can all recognise the self-centredness of our contemporary culture, a culture that constantly believes that we are self-sufficient and that it all begins and ends with “me”. It’s a culture that makes us believe that you can’t achieve or get anything unless you work for it, or unless you deserve it, or unless you’re born with it. It’s a culture where personal merit counts for everything.

Here is the good news. And trust me, it is good news: God’s love and choice is not about personal merit. It's not all about you. You are loved and chosen in spite of the fact that you don’t deserve it. We are all that lost sheep that the shepherd goes in search of. Now... could that take the pressure off a little? Yes, it can when we come to recognise that the call of discipleship, the call to witness to the love of God is often too heavy for any man or woman. That is why it is sheer humility that recognises that we can accomplish nothing without Divine Assistance, without being propped and held up by grace itself. It is a recognition of the truth, albeit a painful one, that Christ actually doesn’t need us. It may not sound like it, but that's Good News. Why? Because none of us are capable, on our own, of fulfilling the good works that God has called us to. We can't make it on our own, and if everything relied upon else, it'd be a disaster. Instead, we need Him. We - priests and laity alike - need to turn over everything to Him, holding nothing back, and entrusting all to the Holy Spirit.

If our perpetual sense of unworthiness makes us question God’s choice, how much more could we question the choice of Juan Diego, the seer of Guadalupe, whose feast we celebrated two days ago. Why would God grant this singular privilege of witnessing the Marian apparition to this simple Aztec peasant, a new convert to Catholicism, whose simple faith was nourished by the most basic of catechesis? In fact, Juan Diego himself was keenly aware of his unworthiness when entrusted with the mission of delivering Our Lady’s message to the bishop, “I am a nobody, I am a small rope, a tiny ladder, the tail end, a leaf.” “I beg you to entrust your message to someone more known and respected so that he will believe it. I am only a simple Indian whom you have sent as a messenger to an important person.”

Without refuting this, but recognising his humility, it was Mary who addressed him lovingly as “Juanito, Juan Dieguito”, "the most humble of my sons", "my son the least", "my little dear". “My dearest son, you must understand that there are many more noble men to whom I could have entrusted my message and yet, it is because of you that my plan will succeed.” Yes, there were certainly many other more credible, more qualified candidates to witness to our Lady’s favour. And yet it was to this “little one” that found favour in Mary’s eye.

In Juan Diego, we indeed see the example of one who has been called and chosen to bear witness to God’s love. Such love is truly gratuitous, it is unconditional and unmerited. The lesson provided in the choice of this simple witness is that a true gift or giving is not to be based on receiver’s merit or else it is a reward: It should not be based on the condition of recipient’s worthiness but of the willingness and generosity of the giver. In fact God, through our Blessed Mother, chose to grant this favour to Juan Diego, though he was unworthy of it. That in itself is testimony of the depth of God’s love.

But if the choice had nothing to do with Juan Diego, what part did he play? What part can we play in this whole divine saga of God choosing us to be his witnesses. Here is the truth, a truth that has been spelt out throughout the pages of Sacred Scripture and across the Christian centuries in the life testimonies of saints, confessors and martyrs: The act of giving always create choices or conditions: the acceptance or rejection. Receiving requires unconditional acceptance; you can have it if you will accept it. You can’t have it if you reject it. And so we have the prophets, the apostles, the saints and martyrs – they were presented with the choice of either accepting or rejecting God’s choice of them. And they chose it, as did Juan Diego.

Often, it's when we are at our lowest, when we have failed, when we are most acutely aware of our weakness, that the Lord comes to us and works his wonders. It is to the lost sheep that the Shepherd comes in search of. And it's then we have to trust in him, to launch out into deep water, knowing that it's not our strength or our talents that matter, but his. St John Chrysostom reminds us that as long as we are sheep, we overcome and, though surrounded by countless wolves, we emerge victorious; but if we turn into wolves, we are overcome, for we lose the shepherd’s help.” At every mass, we utter the act of humility when the Body of Christ is lifted up, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed.” And at every mass, we witness the great miracle of his love – the Eucharist!

St Paul was undoubtedly speaking of the likes of Juan Diego, when he wrote,  “God chose what is low and despised in the world ... so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Cor 1:28,29). It takes a long time for most of us to realise our true stature before the Lord. And that is why, from time to time, God lifts up a saintly person, one like Juan Diego and invites us to hear Him say with Jesus, the Son of Mary, "I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike." Mt 11:25

I’m sure that many of you are aware that St John Paul II named Our Lady of Guadalupe, or Our Lady of the Tepeyac Hill as the ‘Star of Evangelisation.’ And the main thing for that title is because of what happened afterwards; so many conversions took place. Till that time, Christianity was seen as a foreign religion and tool at the hand of the invading colonialists. But after the apparitions to St Juan Diego, thousands of Indians began flocking everyday to the missionary centres seeking baptism. According to records, some priests had to baptise as many as six thousand people a day. This evinces that conversion is always the work of God, not that of men. We are merely poor instruments who bear witness to his Love.

Today, we continue to invoke the prayers of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Star of Evangelisation, we pray for the grace and the courage to bear witness to God’s immense love. And if there is still anyone out there who feels intimidated, who still feels fettered and weighed down by a sense of unworthiness, that we are not good enough or could never measure up to God’s demands, well let’s remember St Juan Diego – a living proof that you need not be someone important, eloquent, well-educated, talented or good at public speaking to be a witness of God’s love. The fact that you are not all these things and yet God has chosen you is proof enough of the message you’ve been commissioned to proclaim.

Do you believe in Miracles?

Feast of St. Anne & St . Joachim

In our modern, sophisticated, and scientifically rooted world, claims of miracles are often distrusted and treated as either ravings of the mad or the primitively superstitious or just another phenomenon that has temporarily not received a logical and scientific explanation yet.  The word "miracle" comes from the Latin word for wonder and, literally means "a sight to behold." Thus its usage in common speech often signifies the wondrous, the improbable, or the newly discovered. Sometimes people tend to refer to natural events such as the sunrise, seasons, birth, and coincidence as “miracles.” Likewise, we also speak of the miracle of modern medicine, science, or technology. Many of these items are in some way wondrous. But to apply the term "miracle" to any of these, however, is to omit the most distinctive feature of a miracle: God's direct intervention in the world. God has not abandoned us!

More accurately and traditionally understood, a miracle is a supernatural or a preternatural sign or wonder, brought about by God, signifying His glory and the salvation of mankind. It is a call to faith. As a sign, a miracle is perceived by the senses and makes present the supernatural order, God's governance of nature, and His loving plan of salvation. A miracle of grace, such as a sudden conversion of a notoriously evil man, would be a supernatural miracle because, even though the act of conversion is invisible, it manifested by visible acts. All other miracles are divine interferences with the physical laws of nature. They are preternatural, which means beyond nature, and visible. Matters of faith, such as Our Lord’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament, are a mystery, not a miracle in the strict sense, because the reality is not visible to the human eye.

Miracles ultimately point to how God acts in our lives. Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, is Himself God's revelation. The most fundamental miracle is therefore the Incarnation. All of salvation is rooted in the Incarnation, and so it is with miracles. It may be said that the Incarnation is the "miracle of miracles." Through the Incarnation, the Invisible Deity is made Visible. While the Incarnation is the root miracle of salvation, the Resurrection is the definitive and ultimate sign of Christ's divine authority.  It is clear that those who consistently reject the possibility of miracles will often end up demythologising both the Incarnation and the Resurrection – that is, that God didn’t really become man, nor did Jesus really rise from the dead. For the skeptics, the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery are all part of the Christian myth, together with miracles and a whole load of other nonsense.

Thus our belief in miracles of Christ ultimately affirms his divinity. Christ performed these miracles not just to dazzle us with the spectacular. A magician or an artist could easily do the same. Rather, miracles will always have as their primary purpose the glorification of God and the calling of people to salvation. The signs worked by Jesus attest to His divine authority and invite belief in Him. They were signs of the Kingdom of God breaking into our world. After His Ascension and Pentecost, Christ's disciples worked miracles in the name of Christ, thus giving the people signs of His divinity and proofs that He is who they said He is. In the same way later saints worked miracles to testify to a higher authority and that people are called to His kingdom. 

Today, the church celebrates the Feast of St. Anne and St. Joachim. Both of them are the parents of Our Blessed Mother. Traditionally, the history of the Church and the chronicles of various places of pilgrimage have recorded countless miracles wrought by Christ through the intercession of His Sainted grandmother. Nor have they ceased to this day. Pope Gregory XIII, when introducing the feast of St. Anne declared "We believe that St. Anne continually intercedes for us with the merciful Lord, for through her great benefits have come to mankind. From her, was born the ever pure immaculate Virgin Mary, who was found worthy to bring forth Jesus Christ, our Redeemer." To many Saints God has granted the power of working miracles. 

Jesus could not refuse to His own grandmother. Those related to Him by the ties of blood were dear to Him in life and still have great power through their intercession. There can be no question, then, that St. Anne has great influence over her Divine Grandson and that by her intercessory power she can also work miracles in favour of her clients.

Miracles aren’t about altering or defying reality. On the contrary, miracles point to the “heart of reality” – to the way things are supposed to be in overcoming the way things are; which is always pretty surprising when we think “the way things are” is all that there is. Where we see scarcity God sees abundance. When we see dead ends, God sees beginnings. When we see the failure of sin, God sees the victory of redemption. And so those scholars who want to rationalise miracles are missing the whole point. Miracles are done to show, not simply tell, that God’s abundance is more real than the world’s scarcity; that God’s love is more real than the world’s brokenness; that God’s reconciling, vivifying, multiplying grace is more real than the world’s division and subtraction. Miracles, in expounding the power of grace over the limitations of nature, remind us that a marriage has not failed just because we have exhausted all human efforts at reconciliation. Where there is still faith, and hope and charity, there is the power of grace that brings healing and forgiveness to even the most impossible of situations. 

In an age of science, we need to reaffirm our belief in miracles. We, of course, do not go in search of them, for what is contingently good ceases to be so, when it is desired for itself without reference to the Ultimate Good, which is God. God is the author of miracles and it is He who must decide when a miracle is deigned necessary.  Miracles are never meant to distract us from God. Rather, their essential purpose is to indicate that the human person is destined and called to the kingdom of God. Instead of insatiably hunting for the miracles of God, we should refocus our attention in searching for the God who stands behind those miracles. And in our single-hearted search for God and his will, He sometimes deigned it proper to reveal a miracle to strengthen our resolve and spur us on to greater heights. Miracles therefore act as signposts pointing the way that we need to take, reassuring us of God’s presence especially in moments of doubt, and finally, breathing new excitement into our faith. These signs therefore confirm in different ages and in the most varied circumstances the truth of the Gospel, and demonstrate the saving power of Christ who does not cease to call people on the path of faith. By contemplating these special graces, it is hope that we may come to love and recognise him daily in the ordinary situations and seasons of life where God is most certainly present and alive!

Mercy and Truth

Solemnity of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. The devotion to the Sacred Heart encouraged by many saints such as St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, St. Gertrude. Today's feast reminds us the Mercy of God. If mercy is about compassion, mutuality, and ultimately the welfare or salvation of the other, then it must be intimately linked to Truth. It was mercy that drove Christ to confront our sinfulness and our blindness. It was on the cross that the Truth of Christ’s mercy was revealed in all its depth and glory– that sin is the real cause of Jesus’ death on the cross, and in return for what our sin had done to him, Christ had only mercy to offer us – “Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” Christ is the personification of the depths of Divine mercy.  This is the wonder of the cross, that here we see the fullest measure of Truth and the fullest measure of mercy at the same time in the same place and all because of the same Saviour. At the cross, we see Truth and Mercy meet.

Today, we remind ourselves of God’s tender mercies – when we strive, more than ever, to let Him break through the locked doors of our hearts. But in order for him to do that, we must face the truth about our sinfulness. We need to “look the beast in the eye, so that the past wouldn’t hold us hostage anymore”. Christ has left the tomb. If we choose to, so can we. We can step out of the tomb of selfishness and sin.  We can feel the healing light of God’s care. We can take that second chance. God’s mercy, Divine Mercy, assures it.  The Sacrament of Penance enables it. We can be made new.

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! 

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.

Ubi Petrus Ibi Ecclesia,Where Peter is, there is the Church

Feast of the chair of St. Peter

“Ubi Petrus Ibi Ecclesia,” “Where Peter is, there is the Church”, is the famous quote from St Ambrose of Milan. This statement makes an important claim; in fact, an undeniably outrageous claim. It points to the essential centrality of the papacy in relation to the Church’s unity. In other words, it is saying “without the papacy, there is no Church.” Though many would contest and reject the veracity of this claim, popular culture has accorded him a special role, a caricature at best. One such popular image is that St Peter stands as a sort of gatekeeper (“or perhaps, even a goal keeper), guarding the Pearly Gates, the entrance to the heavenly realm – a seemingly ignoble job. Though hardly accurate, the image is derived from the gospel passage we heard today, where Jesus bestows special prerogatives on Peter.

First, St Peter is given a new name, which in Scripture denotes a change in status or position. Jesus spoke Aramaic and gave Simon the Aramaic name Kepha (Rock) which is “Petra” in Greek and “Peter” in English. The Greek “petra” is feminine so the masculine “Petros” was adopted. If “Petra” refers to a rock, “petros” can refer to a little pebble. This has often been the contention of Protestants who see in the conferment of this name, not a great honour but a subtle insult. Protestants argue that Christ is the only foundation (1 Cor 3:11) attempting thereby to unseat Peter. There is, however, no distinction in Aramaic, between Kepha the “Rock” and Kepha, the Apostle Peter, upon which Jesus would build his Church. Peter is Kepha, He is the rock. In fact, Syriac Christians, who continue to use Aramaic in their scriptures and liturgy, also claim that Jesus, the Rock of Salvation, conferred his own name and title on Peter. This must simply be the greatest honour accorded to any man.

Having been conferred a new title and name, St Peter is also given the metaphorical keys by Christ.  As Jesus, the new King of Israel, re-established the Davidic throne he appointed Peter to the office of royal steward to rule “over the house” of the king. Keys represent primacy and exclusive dominion and this authority was granted to Peter alone. As the steward of Christ’s kingdom, Peter is given the authority to bind and loose. These are keys not of any earthly palace but of heaven itself, which is another way of saying that the issue is linked to salvation. Of course, this entails more than the no-brainer job of opening heaven’s door to the faithful. The term binding and loosing was also familiar in Rabbinic tradition. They represented the legislative and judicial powers of the Rabbinic office. These powers Christ now transferred in their reality here to Peter. To say that St Peter has the key means he can declare certain things to be lawful and others unlawful; that is to bind or to loose, or to prohibit or to permit, or to forgive, and to teach and to govern with the authority of Christ in matters that are necessary for our salvation. In all this, he acts with the power of Christ!

But the authority of the King, officially conferred here on his steward, does not end with the death of the steward. Jesus would not have missed filling up this gaping loophole. The office of a royal steward was a hereditary position. Familiar with their history, the Jews certainly understood that the office of Peter would be filled by successors as was the royal steward’s office in Judah. The steward may die, but the office continues. That is why the keys remain a prominent symbol in the coat of arms of every Pope.

The authority and the power of the Petrine Office, that is the office of St Peter in Christ’s kingdom, which is now handed down to his successors, the popes, is not just a point of contention with the Protestants who clearly reject it, but has also become a scandal of sorts for Catholics. Irony has it that the rock, the foundation of our Church and our faith, has in fact become a stumbling block to critics, dissenters and persons who often treat their personal opinions as dogmas. For many people nowadays, there is something of a sense of skepticism about institutions – we tend to think of them as overly bureaucratic, slow to respond as if they were intentionally established to hold us back and slow us down. Our modern notion of democracy has also instilled in us a suspicion of arbitrary power, especially so much power centred on one single person. In fact, this expression has entered into the English language, “the Dread of Popery.” A belief popularly held by many is that no one individual should have unfettered powers of decision. Perhaps, the real point of contention is that no one should act like God, or at least act with divinely instituted powers.

Ultimately, in rejecting the authority of Peter and that of the Popes, one inadvertently but necessarily rejects the testimony of Scripture and in doing so we reject the authority of Christ; because Peter is his choice. Of course, this link between rejecting the Chosen of God and the God who chooses is not confined to the papacy. Throughout Scriptures, we see God’s choices of leadership often been called into question because these do not conform to our own criteria of suitability for a candidate. In fact, God often chooses the least likely to succeed – the youngest or the oldest, the frailest, the most insignificant, the candidate most likely to fail. The choice of God often highlights his absolute sovereignty and gratuitousness, rather than a decision based on the extraordinary qualities of the candidate. The chosen man often has nothing to offer and can do nothing himself, but instead relies heavily on grace and the power of God. At the end of the day, God takes all the credit, not man.

When God founded the Church, he founded a visible body, a visible body with a visible head, and that visible head had a name – Peter. The institution of the Papacy and the authority attached to this office is of divine institution. This was no human invention - the apostles did not come together and decide this. The Papacy and his authority was not the result of political manipulation. Quite the opposite, it is Our Lord who establishes this institution. It is Christ who builds and not Peter. It is not our choice, it is not our wisdom who picked out this apostle. The primacy of Peter is a primacy willed by God and not created by men.

If you have any confusion in your mind where that Church is, when faced with all those conflicting voices that inevitably always sound sincere and credible, if there are different claims to the Truth, you can know with certainty where the church is, Jesus assures us, “I give you a marker, a beacon – look for Peter.” Peter will be a point of stability, a guarantee and an assurance that the Church will not be fazed even when everything shifts. In a market place filled with various ideological options, where the search for certainty and stability is often frustrated, the Papacy provides us with clear direction. Where do I find the fullness of the Lord? Where do I find His Mystical Body, and not just a body that I have constructed? Then we only need go back his words, “On this rock, I will build my church.” “Where Peter is there is the Church.” Of course, the Holy Father remains utterly human, he sins as you and I sin. He may have opinions as we do. But when he teaches in his office as Pope, we can have confidence that Christ speaks definitively through him. He is indeed a gift from God.

I started with a quote from St Ambrose of Milan. Actually, the entire quote sounds like this, “Ubi Petrus ibi ecclesia, et ibi ecclesia vita eternal." Where Peter is there is the Church, and where there is the Church there is life eternal! If you want to know where the Church of Christ is, find Peter, and you will find the Church, and if you have found the Church and come to love Her and Her counsel and humbly submit yourself to the authority of Peter’s Successors, then be sure that you are on the sure path to eternal life.

Look to the East

Solemnity of Christ the King 

What is orientation? For many, orientation could simply refer to the introductory briefing or training to acquaint a person new to the job, project, organisation or to a particular lifestyle (campus) ensuring that they are moving in the same direction (thus orientation) as the rest. Another popular notion of orientation today has to do with sexual preferences, namely one’s sexual orientation. 

So, what is the significance of orientation to Christians? Few people know that the etymology of the word comes from Christians. The word “orientation” itself means facing East (Latin ‘oriens’). Church buildings, traditionally, have been oriented ie. traditionally built to face the rising sun, thus literally ‘facing East.’  The Christians were not the first to have a specific orientation. Synagogue worship was oriented toward Jerusalem, the place of the Temple. Christians, however, chose to face East (thus Ad Orientem).  The choice of direction was not merely a matter of preference for a particular compass point. Christians imagine themselves looking toward Christ, whose future coming in glory is aptly symbolised by the brilliance of the rising sun. According to St. Gregory of Nyssa, the Orient contained man's original home, the earthly paradise. St. Thomas Aquinas, speaking for the Middle Ages, adds that Our Lord lived His earthly life in the East, and that from the East He shall come to judge mankind.

In today’s great Solemnity of Christ the King, which marks the end of the Liturgical Year and also symbolically points to the climax and conclusion of human history, we are reminded once again of man’s ultimate purpose – man’s chief end is to glorify God and to acclaim him as Lord and King. Thus this celebration provides the needed orientation, not just for today but everyday. We are asked to turn our hearts and minds to the East, to Christ our King, who is the central figure of history – He is “the Alpha and the Omega”. It is according to this sense that we are invited to turn our hearts to the Lord during the celebration of the Mass, as the introductory dialogue to the Preface reminds us. Sursum corda “Lift up your hearts,” exhorts the priest, and all respond: Habemus ad Dominum “We lift them up unto the Lord.” We note how our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI constantly reminds us that in worship we are meant to focus on God, to give God the glory, not to glorify ourselves. 

So as we come to the end of this Liturgical Year and on the eve of the new one, let us orientate our hearts and minds to Him. We look for the first rays of light piercing the veil of darkness, sin and destruction. In the words of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings, “at dawn look to the East.” Let us behold the beauty of our King, our Lord, and our Saviour, revealed and not concealed by the cross.

The kingdom of God

Solemnity of All Saints 

In today's Gospel, we hear the word of Jesus' vision of the Kingdom of God - the Beatitudes.  Happy are you … Blessed are you … Rejoice … Be joyful. Seems strange and inappropriate to say these words to one who is poor, or someone down and out, or when one is mourning for the loss of a loved one. And yet Jesus, doesn’t pause for a moment to exclaim … happy are you … blessed are you … rejoice … be joyful.

What is this joy that Jesus speaks of? Is joy something that you get when your needs and wants are fulfilled? Is this joy something that we can experience now or only in the next life, after we die? Can there be joy in the midst of troubles, sorrow, pain and suffering? 

In the eyes of the world, sorrow and joy are two separate matters. People tend to say: “When you are glad, you cannot be sad, and when you are sad, you cannot be glad.” In fact, our contemporary society does everything possible to keep sadness and gladness separated. We try to hide and forget about death, illness, human brokenness. 

But the beatitudes, Jesus’ vision of the Kingdom of God, gives us an entirely different picture. Jesus shows, both in his teachings and in his life, that true joy often is hidden in the midst of our sorrow. His life, death and resurrection alone is proof of this reality. The cross is a symbol of death and of life, of suffering and of joy, of defeat and of victory. In the cross, both joy and sorrow can exist together. That isn’t easy to understand, but when we think about some of our life experiences, such as being present at the birth of a child or at the death of a friend, great sorrow and great joy are often seen to be parts of the same experience. Often we discover the joy in the midst of the sorrow.

And so we come to understand that true joy is not the same as happiness. We can be unhappy about many things, but joy can still be there because it comes from the knowledge of God’s love for us. In other words, joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing – sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war or even death – can take that love away. We are, as St. Paul tells us in the second reading, the beloved children of God – this is our true identity – this is the source of our joy. To be a saint means to be joyful even in the midst of trials and sufferings. 

When does this joy happen? The blessedness which belongs to the Christian is not a blessedness which is postponed to some future world of glory; it is a blessedness which exists here and now. True, it will find its fullness in heaven; but for all that it is a present reality to be enjoyed here and now.

Nothing happens automatically in the spiritual life. Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to God and have found in God our refuge and our safety and that nothing, not even death, can take God away from us.

The Feast which we celebrate today invites us to cast our vision on the City of God, the Heavenly Jerusalem, therein dwells the Saints, the rightful citizens of Heaven, who in this earthly life lived the Beatitudes. Jesus does not merely speak the Beatitudes. He lives the Beatitudes. He is the Beatitudes. Looking at him you will see what it means to be poor in spirit, gentle and merciful, to mourn, to care for what is right, to be pure in heart, to make peace, to be persecuted. He is the new "code of holiness" that must be imprinted on hearts, and that must be contemplated through the action of the Holy Spirit. His Passion and Death are the crowning of his holiness. We’re called, too, not just to hear the beatitudes, not just to live the beatitudes, but to be the beatitudes. The beatitudes describe both the face of Christ and the face of a Christian, the face of one striving with God’s help to become a saint.

Jesus' life therefore becomes a constant invitation to share in the life of holiness. The Saints remind us that there is always a choice to be made, a choice between two voices competing for our hearts even now, the choice between good and evil, between life and death. Whenever we choose to live a life of holiness in union with Christ, whenever we are called to live the Beatitudes, we are choosing to reject the claims of evil, no matter how sensible or attractive they may seem. Therefore, holiness is a way of life that involves commitment and activity. It is not a passive endeavor, but rather a continuous choice that requires a radical change in mindset and attitude. The acceptance of the call to holiness places God as our final goal in every aspect of our lives. We are indeed children of God.

The saints also remind us of things that are changeless, timeless.  Things we need to remember and hold onto right now.  Things like Courage, Sacrifice, Holiness, and Hope. For all the trials and hardships that the world has known, through the centuries ordinary people have stepped forward to live out those ideals.  Now, many of you may protest that most Christians will never get the privilege of becoming a ‘red’ martyr, one who gives his life for his faith. But then all are called to be ‘white’ martyrs, martyrs in their own right in living faithfully the vocation of holiness in their own respective circumstances. Daily life, the demands of family and work, marriage and parenthood, tending to others’ needs, dealing with the things that go wrong: it’s through all that, most usually, Christ’s love is to be lived. We can either chose mediocrity or we can choose the same path by living it with heroic acts of faith, humility and fidelity. That too is the path of holiness.

God's Angels watch over us

Feast of Archangels: Ss. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael

Angels are an essential part of the Christian faith. They are a "truth of the faith" and are mentioned over a hundred times in the Bible. Today the Church's liturgy celebrates the Feast of the Archangels, Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. But apart from Catholicism, angels are found in a number of religious traditions, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism. Michael is the only archangel named in the Bible as recognized by both Jews and Christians. Gabriel, named in Luke, is considered to be an archangel, as are Raphael (mentioned in the Book of Tobit) and Uriel (mentioned in the Book of Enoch).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has this to say about angels in general:“The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls ‘angels’ is a truth of faith. The witness of Scripture is as clear as the unanimity of Tradition. St. Augustine says: ‘Angel’ is the name of their office, not of their nature. If you seek the name of their nature, it is ’spirit’; if you seek the name of their office, it is ‘angel’: from what they are , ’spirit’ from what they do ‘angel.’ With their whole beings the angels are servants and messengers of God. Because they ‘always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven’ they are the ‘might ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word.”

As purely spiritual creatures angels have intelligence and will: they are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all visible creatures, as the splendor of their glory bears witness.”

As we celebrate this wonderful feast, we are also reminded that God's Angels watch over us as his guardians. We are not alone in our struggle against sin and evil in the world. The armies of heaven fight for us and with us in the spiritual battle for our hearts, minds and wills. Though we may not see Him, here is a God who protects, guides, and reveals himself to us. 

The hidden power of the cross

Feast of Exaltation of the cross 

Today the church celebrates the Feast of Exaltation of the Cross. The Cross of Christ, the centre and pinnacle of God’s saving work, is also the centerpiece of our faith. The cross reveals the most profound depths of God’s love: “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16). Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI tells us that “the cross … is the definitive sign par excellence given to us so that we might understand the truth about man and the truth about God; we have all been created and redeemed by a God who sacrificed his only Son out of love. This is why the Crucifixion … is the culmination of that turning of God against himself in which he give himself in order to raise man up and save him. This is love in its most radical form.” (Deus Caritas Est, 12)

The symbolism of power hidden in the cross is often lost on us, and is only revealed as a mystery of revelation. The Cross represents the Sovereign authority of God and his providence. This is certainly difficult to comprehend. Yet, what seems to us to be failure is, in God’s eyes, the victory of sacrificial love. It is on the cross, that Christ receives the highest exaltation from God, ironically, at the moment he suffered the greatest humiliation at the hands of men. As Christ was lifted up on the Cross, now by means of the Cross, he lifts up humanity, and indeed all creation. As today’s gospel reminds us, “for God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved”. The Cross possesses the power to forgive sins which are hidden, the power to heal consciences and human hearts. It is there that we have been set free of the debt of sin and liberated from the clutches of death.

God is not asleep

Feast of St. Monica

For those of us who have been through a crisis would know what it means to be gripped by panic, doubt, fear.  One likely reason for such anxiety is that we begin to wonder whether God is really paying attention to us during our distress or had slept off on the watch. It is enough to drive a man crazy when he is confronted with the deafening silence of God.

Today the church celebrates the feast of St. Monica. She is one of my favourite saints. St. Monica was a tenacious, patient and persistent prayer warrior who pray for 17 years for the conversion of her son, Augustine, who later became so strongly drawn to the faith that he was eventually canonised as one of the church's greatest teachers and philosophers and was designated as a doctor of the church. Wow...17 years of patient and persistence!

As we celebrate the Feast of St. Monica, her life story provides us some insights about God's silence. The silence of God should not be interpreted as His refusal to answer, nor does it indicate that He is disinterested in our affairs. The silence itself is an answer. Today, we may be in the midst of a difficult situation, we may be facing a problem that seems so huge. In human experience, God does not always intervene or seem to intervene as we would desire and our cries of agony often continue unattended. Rather than the presence of God, we perceive only his absence. 

God in His infinite wisdom, reveals Himself both in word and in silence. Both serve His purpose. Both silence and revelation bring us to a point of decision, offering us faith that goes beyond the superficial, a deepened relationship with God, a broadened understanding of who He is. In his silence we come to discover that true joy is not the absence of pain but the presence of God. As we come to accept his Silence, we humbly acknowledge that in this life God never fully discloses all the answers to our questions. Our comprehension will always remain as at dusk, between the full illumination of understanding and the darkness of complete ignorance. We may know enough to see, but not enough to fathom its depth. He has given us what is sufficient for the next stage of our journey, and allows us to crave for more. With that mystery, with that craving, there is a lesson to be learnt - God is to be trusted. This will stand us in good stead for what lies ahead.

However, the good news is God does not remain silent forever, and he is definitely not sleeping on the job. God will speak from the centre of the maelstrom to declare his authority over the mess in our lives, and God will rise up to calm the storms that continue to assail the illusory and temporary calmness of our lives. So, in the face of such stormy weather, what should we do? Pressing the panic button, fleeing or just throwing in the towel are certainly not viable solutions. We recognise that great temptation to abandon faith in God who seems to have abandoned us to our troubles. So, even when He seems silent or asleep, don’t PANIC! Believe that He is firmly in charge and He will steer us on course. 

Regina caeli, laetare, alleluia

Queenship of Mary 

Many of us have our favourite devotions to our Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary, under various titles, such as Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and our Lady of Good Health. Today the church celebrates the Queenship of Mary, which can be found in the annunciation narrative. For the angel tells her that her Son will be King over the house of Jacob forever. So she, His Mother, would be a Queen.

The titles "king" and "queen" are often used loosely, for those beings that excel in some way. Thus we call the lion the king of beasts, the rose the queen of flowers. Surely Our Lady deserves the title richly for such reasons. But there is much more. The solidly theological reasons for her title of Queen are expressed splendidly by Pope Pius XII, "He, the Son of God, reflects on His heavenly Mother the glory, the majesty and the dominion of His kingship, for, having been associated to the King of Martyrs in the unspeakable work of human Redemption as Mother and cooperator, she remains forever associated to Him, with a practically unlimited power, in the distribution of the graces which flow from the Redemption. Jesus is King throughout all eternity by nature and by right of conquest: through Him, with Him, and subordinate to Him, Mary is Queen by grace, by divine relationship, by right of conquest, and by singular choice [of the Father]. And her kingdom is as vast as that of her Son and God, since nothing is excluded from her dominion." (Radiomessage to Fatima, Bendito seja)

Notice that there are two titles for the kingship of Christ: divine nature, and "right of conquest", Eg, the Redemption. She is Queen "through Him, with Him, and subordinate to Him." The qualifications are obvious, and need no explanation. Mary's Queenship is basically a sharing in the royalty of her Son. We do not think of two powers, one infinite, the other finite. No, she and her Son are inseparable, and operate as a unit.

In fitting tribute to Mary, Queen of Heaven, the Holy Theotokos, I close with the lyrics of this hymn that shows the profound connection between Mary and her son Jesus. 

Mary the dawn, Christ the Perfect Day;

Mary the gate, Christ the Heavenly Way!

Mary the root, Christ the Mystic Vine;

Mary the grape, Christ the Sacred Wine!

Mary the wheat, Christ the Living Bread;

Mary the stem, Christ the Rose blood-red!

Mary the font, Christ the Cleansing Flood;

Mary the cup, Christ the Saving Blood!

Mary the temple, Christ the temple's Lord;

Mary the shrine, Christ the God adored!

Mary the beacon, Christ the Haven's Rest;

Mary the mirror, Christ the Vision Blest!

Mary the mother, Christ the mother's Son

By all things blest while endless ages run. Amen.

The work of Miracles

Feast of St. Anne and St. Joachim- Seventeenth Ordinary Sunday Year B

Simple mathematic calculation would tell you feeding five thousand in today's Gospel would not be sufficient on a meagre meal of five barley loaves and two fish. It is no wonder that the Apostle Philip exclaimed, “five barley loaves and two fish, but what is that between so many?” The simplistic solution of Jesus to feed the multitude of five thousand with only a meagre ration must have been perplexing. And so it was quite natural for the disciples to express their perplexity at the logistics of Jesus’ food division. No way will this plan work.

Perhaps, we who often style ourselves as modern sophisticated folks will be quick to deny that we actually believe in nonsense like miracles. We often failed to recognise the Kingdom of a God cannot reduce to a formula of figures. A whole movement arose among Biblical scholars, about a century ago, to explain away the miracles of the Bible. In this case, they decided, Jesus didn’t really feed the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes. That couldn’t have actually happened.  Thus, a common approach for preachers would be to say that what probably happened was that the disciples took those bits of food out into the crowd, and the crowd was so inspired by Jesus’ words and the action of the disciples that they began to take out the food that any sensible person would have brought with them when you go into the desert, and they began to divide it up amongst themselves. And so, after everyone shared their food with each other, there was more than enough for everybody. That’s much more plausible than this pleasant fairy tale about a miraculous multiplication. 

If this indeed is the proper interpretation of the above story, then the virtue that should be emulated is that of generous giving and sharing. There is nothing wrong about generosity. In fact, generosity is a much needed virtue. However, this point misses the mark by a long shot. Notice that Jesus doesn’t argue with the disciples about the scarcity of food nor does he reprimand them for their selfishness. Facts are facts. Five loaves and two fish are visibly limited resources when considering the needs of five thousand. And in a way the disciples were right. The way the real world works is much more about division and subtraction rather than multiplication. The entire field of Economics exists to address that problem: how best to divide up, allocate, and use those limited resources, and it permeates our lives in countless ways. But, here the problem isn’t about economics, nor is it about our lack of generosity, nor even the little supply of resources. The real problem is faith, or rather their little faith in what Jesus can do.

In our modern, sophisticated, and scientifically rooted world, claims of miracles are often distrusted and treated as either ravings of the mad or the primitively superstitious or just another phenomenon that has temporarily not received a logical and scientific explanation yet.  The word "miracle" comes from the Latin word for wonder and, literally means "a sight to behold." Thus its usage in common speech often signifies the wondrous, the improbable, or the newly discovered. Sometimes people tend to refer to natural events such as the sunrise, seasons, birth, and coincidence as “miracles.” Likewise, we also speak of the miracle of modern medicine, science, or technology. Many of these items are in some way wondrous. But to apply the term "miracle" to any of these, however, is to omit the most distinctive feature of a miracle: God's direct intervention in the world. God has not abandoned us!

More accurately and traditionally understood, a miracle is a supernatural or a preternatural sign or wonder, brought about by God, signifying His glory and the salvation of mankind. It is a call to faith. As a sign, a miracle is perceived by the senses and makes present the supernatural order, God's governance of nature, and His loving plan of salvation. A miracle of grace, such as a sudden conversion of a notoriously evil man, would be a supernatural miracle because, even though the act of conversion is invisible, it manifested by visible acts. All other miracles are divine interferences with the physical laws of nature. They are preternatural, which means beyond nature, and visible. Matters of faith, such as Our Lord’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament, are a mystery, not a miracle in the strict sense, because the reality is not visible to the human eye.

Miracles ultimately point to how God acts in our lives. Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, is Himself God's revelation. The most fundamental miracle is therefore the Incarnation. All of salvation is rooted in the Incarnation, and so it is with miracles. It may be said that the Incarnation is the "miracle of miracles." Through the Incarnation, the Invisible Deity is made Visible. While the Incarnation is the root miracle of salvation, the Resurrection is the definitive and ultimate sign of Christ's divine authority.  It is clear that those who consistently reject the possibility of miracles will often end up demythologising both the Incarnation and the Resurrection – that is, that God didn’t really become man, nor did Jesus really rise from the dead. For the skeptics, the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery are all part of the Christian myth, together with miracles and a whole load of other nonsense.

Thus our belief in miracles of Christ ultimately affirms his divinity. Christ performed these miracles not just to dazzle us with the spectacular. A magician or an artist could easily do the same. Rather, miracles will always have as their primary purpose the glorification of God and the calling of people to salvation. The signs worked by Jesus attest to His divine authority and invite belief in Him. They were signs of the Kingdom of God breaking into our world. After His Ascension and Pentecost, Christ's disciples worked miracles in the name of Christ, thus giving the people signs of His divinity and proofs that He is who they said He is. In the same way later saints worked miracles to testify to a higher authority and that people are called to His kingdom. 

Today, the church celebrates the Feast of St. Anne and St. Joachim. Both of them are the parents of Our Blessed Mother. Traditionally, the history of the Church and the chronicles of various places of pilgrimage have recorded countless miracles wrought by Christ through the intercession of His Sainted grandmother. Nor have they ceased to this day. Pope Gregory XIII, when introducing the feast of St. Anne declared "We believe that St. Anne continually intercedes for us with the merciful Lord, for through her great benefits have come to mankind. From her, was born the ever pure immaculate Virgin Mary, who was found worthy to bring forth Jesus Christ, our Redeemer." To many Saints God has granted the power of working miracles. 

Jesus could not refuse to His own grandmother. Those related to Him by the ties of blood were dear to Him in life and still have great power through their intercession. There can be no question, then, that St. Anne has great influence over her Divine Grandson and that by her intercessory power she can also work miracles in favour of her clients.

Miracles aren’t about altering or defying reality. On the contrary, miracles point to the “heart of reality” – to the way things are supposed to be in overcoming the way things are; which is always pretty surprising when we think “the way things are” is all that there is. Where we see scarcity God sees abundance. When we see dead ends, God sees beginnings. When we see the failure of sin, God sees the victory of redemption. And so those scholars who want to rationalise miracles are missing the whole point. Miracles are done to show, not simply tell, that God’s abundance is more real than the world’s scarcity; that God’s love is more real than the world’s brokenness; that God’s reconciling, vivifying, multiplying grace is more real than the world’s division and subtraction. Miracles, in expounding the power of grace over the limitations of nature, remind us that a marriage has not failed just because we have exhausted all human efforts at reconciliation. Where there is still faith, and hope and charity, there is the power of grace that brings healing and forgiveness to even the most impossible of situations. 

In an age of science, we need to reaffirm our belief in miracles. We, of course, do not go in search of them, for what is contingently good ceases to be so, when it is desired for itself without reference to the Ultimate Good, which is God. God is the author of miracles and it is He who must decide when a miracle is deigned necessary.  Miracles are never meant to distract us from God. Rather, their essential purpose is to indicate that the human person is destined and called to the kingdom of God. Instead of insatiably hunting for the miracles of God, we should refocus our attention in searching for the God who stands behind those miracles. And in our single-hearted search for God and his will, He sometimes deigned it proper to reveal a miracle to strengthen our resolve and spur us on to greater heights. Miracles therefore act as signposts pointing the way that we need to take, reassuring us of God’s presence especially in moments of doubt, and finally, breathing new excitement into our faith. These signs therefore confirm in different ages and in the most varied circumstances the truth of the Gospel, and demonstrate the saving power of Christ who does not cease to call people on the path of faith. By contemplating these special graces, it is hope that we may come to love and recognise him daily in the ordinary situations and seasons of life where God is most certainly present and alive!