If it is this week, it must be Cambodia

A regional workshop being hosted by Jesuit Refugee Services in Siem Reap.

It may be four weeks or less to Christmas but this does not mean that life is slowing down.  If anything, the pace is picking up.  Last week, my focus was a meeting in the Philippines with my Order but this was via skype.  It is all go.

As I look back, it is lucky, I could not go to the Philippines as I was here to literally help a neighbour in distress.  On Tuesday night, I am sound asleep to be awoken by desperate banging on my door.  It took me time to come to my senses to realize that it was real.  It sounded like there was a police raid happening.  What is going on?

It was my good neighbour arriving home in distress and without his room key as his bag with all his treasures had been stolen.  He was understandably distraught.  The task at hand was more than just get him into his room with the spare key but to listen and try, if I could, to give helpful advice.  The best advice I could give was to pray to St Anthony for the bag to be returned, and guess what?  The unbelievable happened.  The police notified him early the next morning that his bag had been handed in and so he got his bag back.  I never doubted.  St Anthony works every time.  I have great faith in him which I learnt from my dear mother.

Yes, there is a story behind the stolen bag but that does not matter.  What matters is that its finding tells me that miracles do happen, even in a Buddhist Thailand.  This is so reassuring as Christmas hastens in the midst of much activity and of an enduring sense of loss with the death in this last half of the year of three close and dear friends.  They just went but the miracle is I am here to celebrate another Christmas, while they live on in my heart and all eternity.  We are truly blessed by so much, and good friends are up there amongst the most of precious gifts we will ever be given.

So where am I?  Bangkok and approaching Siem Reap and Christmas as well, ever the most wonderful time of the year in the life of my loving parents and so mine as well. 
Ho!  Ho!  Ho!

It's looking a lot like Christmas

Just what everyone wants for Christmas

Well, it is less than 35 shopping days to Christmas and there is no shortage of offers for spending your money.  Bangkok has its brand new and most stunning shopping mall, Icon Siam.  It sits right by the river and its architecture is breath taking.  Then I read this week how much it cost to build and that is just breath taking too - US$1.6 billion.  With all sorts of hotels, condo buildings and shopping malls being built all over the place, one can see huge money being poured into development in this city.  Where do people get such money?

I see this reality in my Bangkok and then read the words of Pope Francis last Sunday at mass where he reflected that "the cry of the poor daily becomes stronger but heard less, drowned out by the din of the the rich who grow ever fewer and more rich".  I hear those words.  I want to share them for the end of the Church year on Sunday as they are gutsy words for finishing off an action packed year.  They tell it as it is but I stand back as they may be too confronting, and not just for others; and then I ask myself - who am I not to repeat them? 

And this is where you get it

In my Bangkok, I am surrounded by ones who live like millionaires thanks to debt and credit cards.  They have the cars, the condo, the furniture and keep buying but not because they can afford it all.  Does everybody need so much in their lives?  No.  What they do need in an Asian style culture is to look good.  Prestige and status are so important here.  It is about how you look to the world that matters.  Who you are comes second.  So no one ever seems satisfied with their lot.  They just keep spending and keep building up their portfolio.  So my Bangkok is full of lovely buildings which the vast majority of inhabitants cannot afford but that is not the point. 

It is looking a lot like Christmas, my favourite time of year.  And boy, do we need Christmas more than ever as it reminds us, in a world that can be so false, who we really are and what life is really about.  It tells us we are good people as we are and what really matters in life is how we look after each other, especially when we are down, and that we share a bit of joy along the way. 

Ho! Ho! Ho!

It is that time of year!

This tree has the privilege of being the first tree I saw for this 2018 Christmas season.  It will not be the best or biggest tree of the season, I am sure of that.  Still it will remain for ever the first, I am sure of that as well.  So let the season begin.

This was always the most important time of year in my family, thanks to mum and dad's love for Christmas.  The tree was ever the centerpiece.  Surrounding all the excitement and anticipation was all the activity and the busyness of the end of the year.  That busyness remains the constant.  I feel this especially this week as the season begins and I face three weeks of meetings elsewhere in the region.  This is not my normal pattern.  So as I face what may or may not lie ahead, I keep telling myself - step by step, stay calm and don't go into a frenzy.

At the end, with God's grace, I will still be here, life will go on and what is most important in life always remains most important. 

A Bex and a Cuppa

My Auntie Ron, long dead, was one of my heroes in my life as a boy.  She and Uncle Bill were just great people and great fun, or that is how they were to a ten old boy living under the much stricter reign of my parents.  I could go to them for sleepovers and it was fun all the way, beginning with the ride in their crazy cars driven by an eccentric Uncle Bill who was forever cursing every other fool on the road.  I loved it.  At their home, it was food of your choice and entertainment all night with TV of your choice, coke and chips and the ever riveting antics of Auntie Ron and Uncle Bill's incessant arguing.  That is how it was and I loved it.  Even their house was entertainment itself, with its somewhat kooky hole in the open patio that was meant to be the swimming pool.

Well, no one is perfect - not even Auntie Ron.  Life was tough, ever struggling to make ends meet, but ever joyful for her with her Billie.  When it got really tough, Auntie would take a Bex and a cup of tea.  Bex no longer exists but was a popular addition to life in Australia as the cure for all things.  Research later showed that Bex taken too often was no good for you.  So what was the cure for all pain, no longer is.  Such is what happens.

In life as we face its many struggles, its ups and downs, and try to traverse its confusing paths, we all need our Bex and a cuppa.  We just do it in different ways.   Some ways can be more destructive than others and so I could no longer find a Bex.  Maybe a cuppa is sufficient.

Through whatever confusion or struggle we face, we remain the good people we truly are.  We are just that paradox in life which can be so confusing but let it never fool us.  The basic truth is we are good people, we will get through whatever we face and we will continue to make that great contribution our world needs to enjoy from us.   As St Teresa of Avila would say to her Sisters after leaving the confessional - Keep on going!