A New Year Begins

With the start of Advent, another year begins in the Church.  It is time to remember with thanks and joy the life we share, to savour the life that is and to wallow in the journey that is continuing.   

This Church Year is featuring Luke's Gospel.  For me, the great appeal of Luke is that he presents a clear vision based on the teachings of Jesus. 

He appreciates that the end of the world is not nigh.  Reality is we are in for the long haul.  So let's face it head on.  Our aim then is to recognize that the Kingdom of God is here and now with us, who, as followers of Jesus, are entrusted with building it up in the midst of our world, being assured of its ultimate fulfilment.  This Kingdom is thus the impetus for us as Church.  It is a Kingdom for all, shown so clearly in God's mercy and compassion, embracing the sinner and the other.   

This is "life and death" stuff.  It gives purpose and meaning to life.  It turns everything upside down in our world.  It leads to a new way of being.  It challenges people to building new social orders, based on a God who loves all, and so based on social inclusion and human dignity.  The gospels transform us and our world.  If not, we must ask ourselves a serious question.  What don't we get?  

The gospels put life in perspective.  It is not that I am important but that we all are important.  They take us beyond our narrow worlds to see the big picture.    

A new year signalled by Advent is a gifted time for starting again.  Its central theme is that we wake up and get on with it.  Stand proud and tall, for God is with us, offering us liberation.  Hope is real and alive, no matter what the world throws at us.  

I have to finish with an anecdote.  After mass yesterday, someone told me - 

'Very few priests preach hope, like you do." 

I will leave it at that.  

Make a wish.

  

Another Year Ends

Loy Krathong

Yes, it is the end of another Church year.  And what is our gospel theme at this point in time?  Power.  

This is a volatile topic which many neither want to own nor even touch.  Reason is that this can be dangerous territory.  No matter what, reality is we all have power.  In dealing with this reality, we best own our power, for unclaimed power can be destructive. 

We experience power in many ways, too often negatively.  In any sphere of our life, we may suffer under the power of the bully, of the ruthless, of the greedy and self-centred.  We too often experience power as acting over us or against us, thus being harmful to our well-being.  Let us look to the gospel.  What does that tell us? 

Jesus is before Pilate, the Governor, for final judgment.  The gospel scene of John shows Pilate and all the other characters arguing over whether Jesus is the king of the Jews.  That is none of Jesus' concern.  In the midst of approaching suffering and death, he stands calmly, keeping his ground, maintaining his focus on his mission - building the Kingdom of God here and now. 

In doing so, the Jesus of the gospels shows us the way to assert power.  Power exists with us and for us.  Power lies at the grassroots of any community, for all to exercise as equal partners, each playing their role and exercising their responsibility. It is for the good of all.  It is shared with the other.  In tune with the present Synod on Synodality, power is exercised through living three verbs with others - encounter, listen, discern.  

It is not about power being misused and abused in our spheres of influence.  It is about building up inclusion, not enforcing exclusion.  It is about building up creation for the sake of the well-being of all.  It is about building up the Kingdom of God.  In the spirit of the beautiful Thai festival, Loy Krathong, it is about letting go of all hurt and harm, and starting ever anew together for good.   

  

Oriens morior, moriens orior

I am no Latin scholar, but a good friend shared this motto with me, and it so spoke to me, as it did to him.  It says: "Rising I die; Dying I rise". 

This short line says so much.  It is mystical, capturing a mystery of life.  Mystery is becoming more and more a key theme in my life.  It tells me that I do not have to explain everything.  This is not an excuse for an escape into the world of the irrational.  Rather we live with mystery and allow it to speak to us.   

This line is so powerful for me during the time of a pandemic and as we approach the end of another year.  Yesterday's gospel at mass had an underlying theme of be ever watchful; don't sleep through life.  Life is too precious and too short to miss.  As Mark in his gospel keeps emphasizing, we are ever on the journey of life.  We keep failing; so often not getting what life is really about, but still we keep going in the direction, shown by our faith in Christ crucified.  

Failure, poverty, suffering become the great humanizer, the great leveller of humanity on the way.  The problem is we too often lack the ability to listen, to see and to act, for maybe we are too sleepy, too fearful or just don't care.  Let us heed the cry of a woman in Fiji, as she spoke out about the dilemma of climate change. 

"Let us not be a generation of people who are evr hearing, but never understanding; ever seeing, but not perceiving.  Let us not be callous in heart and close our eyes and ears to the violence against God's creation."   

We made it

Happy and smooth re-entry.  

This Sunday, we happily moved back into the cathedral after over six months of lockdown. It was a happy and smooth re-entry which all can enjoy together, whether through physical presence or live-streaming, thanks to communio.  Yes, we never left each other.  We have remained together in deeeper ways, and I pray our bonds grow even deeper though these extraordinary timnes.  

As we came together at the cathedral, we thanked young Matthew, for being our symbol, our reminder of who we are in these shared, tough times.  For six months, little Matthew joined us for mass with his family at home through live-streaming.  His mum told me how he would sit there each Sunday and wai to me at the beginning of mass.  How cute!  So I would greet Matthew and Junior, another young member of our faith community, at the beginning of each mass.  It became our welcome ritual for mass for, as I greeted the two young boys, I greeted all of you.  

Hence they became a symbol for us.  This was truly about much more than being cute.  In their own way, they shared a message with us that helped sustain us as a community, and it was all so simple, for it was about offering a greeting and acknowledging each other.  This is hospitality, which is at the centre of eucharist.   

What si a symbol?  A symbol is the outward sign of a meaning in life that is so much more and much deeper.  Truth is that this is not about Matthew. It is about us, for each of us is a symbol for each other.  Like a national flag, we are a symbol to others, but we are much more than a flag.  An amazing gift from the God with us..  

We are living symbols to each other, living symbols of hope.  Let us know how, through faith, we are living signs of hope to the other.  We are so important to and for each other, sustaining and nourishing each other through our ongoing presence and commitment to each other, and so we are church.  

These extraordinary times highlight this, and so much more.  Alleluia!