vanity

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On the Altar Crucifix and the Benedictine Arrangement

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Priests and laity alike must always remember, that when we worship, all is to glorify God, and not ourselves.

That is why I also highly recommend Pope Benedict XVI’s recommendation on the Benedictine arrangement, that is when the priest celebrate the Mass ad populum (facing the people), there should be an altar crucifix on the altar itself, because that crucifix is for the priest to focus himself on the Lord, and not at all the people’s attention to him.

Facing the people means that priests are more prone to self-glorification and vanity, as now they are truly visually aware that all the attention in the church are on them. So, they need to make sure that their internal orientation towards the Lord is firm, and that is why the altar crucifix, to remind them at all times during the Mass.

The big crucifix behind the priest is for the people, the congregation to focus their attention to the Lord, but because of its location, it is not visible to the priest, hence, the presence of two altar crucifixes. They may be two in physical appearance, but one in spirit, and one in purpose and intention.

Then let me end with my favorite phrase from the Psalm (Psalm 115)

Non nobis, non nobis, Domine
Sed Nomini tuo da gloriam

Not to us, not to us, o Lord
But to Your Name we give glory

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Saturday, 23 March 2013 : 5th Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Turibius de Mogrovejo, Bishop (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Today we hear of the many conspiracies of those who were arrayed against Christ and His redemptive mission in this world. Those who had been blinded by their personal ambitions and greed, to be able to see God’s true mission through Christ, when He came into the world. Many gave in to their personal concerns on power and well-being to even block the works of salvation of Christ.

Such were the jealousy and the selfishness of the Pharisees and the chief priests at the time, that to preserve their position and their own honour, they chose to sacrifice a Man, for the sake of the ‘whole nation’, while in fact that they sacrificed Him for their own sake, and that this Man is not merely any Man, but Christ Himself, Saviour and Messiah, Son of God.

God however, remains faithful despite all of these shows of disobediences by His people, and He forgave all of them, even unto the cross on Calvary : “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing”. This is to show how great God’s love is that even to His constantly rebellious children, His people, He did not hesitate to show mercy, but to be shown mercy, ultimately, they too have to be humble and truly seek the Lord for forgiveness.

Despite their treachery and their wickedness, as God has shown through His remembrance of the covenant He made with Abraham in the days long past, God remembered His people, who had been brought to exile after the fall of their kingdom to Babylon. He brought them back to their ancestral land, and blessed them once again.

Through Christ, God fulfilled the promise He had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to King David, His beloved servant. That their descendants will thrive forever, and the throne of David shall remain in his house forever. For Christ is the descendant of David, and who but the Lord, who is eternal, can ensure that the kingdom that God had entrusted and given to David will be eternal? And through Christ, and His Good News, multitudes of nations now belong to God, indeed, all proclaiming Abraham as their forefather in faith.

Shall we then, renew our commitment to the new Covenant God had made with us? Yes, God had made a new, perfected covenant between all of us and Himself, sealed with none other than the worthy and Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, poured freely from Himself on the cross. So, it is entirely up to us, whether to accept God’s gift, freely given, with an open heart, or to spurn His gift like what the chief priests and the Pharisees did.

Today, we also celebrate the memorial of St. Turibius de Mogrevejo, an Archbishop of Lima, Peru in Latin America in the early 17th century, whom was well known for his great evangelising activities, and even more importantly, as the champion of the oppressed, the poor, and the natives at the time, against the tyranny of their Spanish masters. He sought to be close to his flock and make sure that they receive good care, just like how the Lord remain true to His covenant, and remain loving to all of us.

Let us pray, that today, God will strengthen in us, our love and dedication to Him, He who had died for us, He who suffered for our sins, but in the process, made us all whole once again, purified by the Blood of the Lamb, the Blood of Christ Himself, which purifies and made one whole. May God take care of us and bless all of us on this blessed day. St. Turibius de Mogrevejo pray for us.  Amen.

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Friday, 15 March 2013 : 4th Week of Lent (Scripture Reflection)

We have to be humble, brothers and sisters in Christ, and not to be engulfed in our personal pride and arrogance, that we will be able to truly see the Lord and His good works in our world today, which He had done through the Church, with our assistance.

So how is this humility like? Is it by lowering ourselves before others physically, or by mentioning it verbally? or by acting it out so that others can see this humility in us? No, as that would not be right, in fact not true humility.

True humility is rather shown by our hearts, and our being, in how we listen to God’s will, and accept the advice made by others, which in this case, is exemplified by the prophets who told the people of Israelites of the coming of the Messiah, that is Jesus Christ.

Instead, the people of Israel hardened their hearts, filled with pride and arrogance, rejected the Lord and plotted against Him, that is because of their refusal to settle down and open their hearts. both to God, and to listen to the words of their fellow men, the prophets who had been chosen to speak the words of our God.

These people in their pride thought that they knew the Lord, and through their great faith, they had been saved. But it is exactly this pride that covered the true humility that is in the heart, and brought about veil on their eyes, that they fail to see Christ, the Chosen One of God, and failed to recognise Him and His works as the works of that Divine Messiah.

Therefore brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray that our eyes can be opened, and the veil of pride and vanity that we have in us can be lifted from us, that we no longer focus on ourselves, but now can see clearly the graces and works of our God, and at the same time, also capable of sensing and seeing the sufferings and the troubles facing our fellow brethren in this world, and do our best to help alleviate their suffering. Physically, yes, but even more importantly, to help others in a spiritual manner.

For physical nourishment is finite and one will always be hungry again, but spiritual nourishment, through the love of God poured into them through us, will satisfy them and make them hungry no more. For spiritual hunger is more sinister and worse than that of the physical hunger, which bread can solve, but not for spiritual hunger.

May God bless us in our daily lives, that all of us will remain humble, in true humility that is of the heart and not of the shedding of externals, and true humility that humbles our souls before God instead of hypocrisy before others. May God bring our works for the good of others, make them greater, and bring them to complete fulfillment, Amen.

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Sunday, 10 March 2013 : 4th Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday, 2nd Scrutiny for Baptism (Scripture Reflection)

Forgiveness. Something that is easy to be said, but difficult to be done. Something that we want to do, but hard to do, because either we lack love in our hearts, or have the hatred and darkness in our hearts that block us and prevent us from carrying out acts of forgiveness and mercy.

Today, our Lord Jesus Christ showed us the virtues of forgiveness and mercy, just as what God the Father had done for us, through the parable of the prodigal son. It shows the extent of God’s boundless and infinite love for us, who are sinners, but yet He is willing to take all of us as His children. After all, are we not His most beloved of all creation? The very beings created in His image? Though indeed, we were marred by our rebellion, beginning from the rebellion of our foreparents Adam and Eve, who fell into Satan’s temptation.

But God again shows that no sinner is beyond His mercy and salvation. That is why, out of His great love for all of us, the only One worthy to redeem us, His Son, Jesus Christ, was given to us as a ‘Sacrificial Offering’, the perfect offering that redeemed us every single cents of our debts, that is our sins and faults.

We who had been saved by Christ through His Sacrifice, and through our baptism, either when we were infants or when we were already adults, when God took us to be His sons and daughters, are like the elder son of the father in the parable, who had already had a share in the wealth and all the properties of the father, who is God represented. We should not act like the Pharisees, who thought themselves of worthy, and that others who had ‘erred’ in their eyes, they labeled as sinners and unworthy to share their salvation and faith.

For the Pharisees in the blind man case, represented exactly the sentiments of the elder son, where pride, arrogance, and power trumped over humility, love, and compassion. Just like the elder sons of Jesse, whom the Lord asked the prophet Samuel to visit to appoint the new king of Israel, they had been rejected although they were strong, powerful, and has that aura of command, being the elder and thus more mature sons according to the society’s norms.

No, the Lord seeks not these kind of strength, pride, and power, for these things often corrupted men and deviates their heart from their true love for God, and instead to love mankind, the world, and all the temptations of power and glory that Satan offered through the world. God desires indeed the qualities found in David, whom he chose as the new king of Israel to replace the disobedient Saul.

For David is humble and loving, and he truly loved the Lord with all his heart and after his anointing, he set out to do good throughout all his life, for God’s sake. And except for the sin he committed in murdering the husband of his future wife (he is still like us after all, a sinner), he was committed to a life of dedicated love to God, and to all his fellow men, whom he ruled justly.

It is through humility and love that we can learn the true nature of God, that is love, mercy, and compassion. For if we let ourselves be blinded by our pride, jealousy, our hatred, and all things of evil and sin, we blind ourselves, not only from the truth in our fellow men, but also blind ourselves from God. This is exactly what happened to the Pharisees and the people gathered, who condemned the blind man, cured by Jesus, failing to see God’s work in Jesus, and failing to listen to the testimony of the blind man, which is truth.

For they are too embroiled in their own self-vanity, pride, and preservation, and jealousy against all who intruded into their sphere of control and power (who was indeed Jesus), that they rejected God directly, out of these sheer darkness in their hearts. For them, these had closed their hearts from God’s love, but still, God gave His life to save all, including them, and He forgave them in the end at Calvary. This is how great the love that God has shown us, that He gave Himself for us.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us strive that we will not be like the ungrateful and arrogant elder son, who think highly of himself and failing to see God’s love in all, and for all, even for the greatest sinners, represented by the younger son. Because he has been always with the Father as we are with the Father through Christ and through our baptism, but we have to reach out and help out those who are still struggling, and those who had lost their way to God.

Help one another, strengthen one another in faith, and bring the Good News to others who had yet to receive it. Let us, brothers and sisters in Christ, as One community, One Church in Christ, do our best to show God’s mercy, forgiveness, and love, through our charity and our actions, which will make God’s love manifest in this world. That more can be saved, through our action, not out of jealousy, not out of pride, but out of love, and humility, and let us rejoice together when anyone returns or comes to the Lord, acknowledging Him as their Saviour.

May God bless us all, and bless those who had rejected Him, those who had hated Him, and those who had closed their hearts to His love. Amen.

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Monday, 4 March 2013 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Casimir, Prince of Poland and Lithuania (Scripture Reflection)

God shows us today that His love and His care is universal and extends not to just a single person or a single people. He healed Naaman from his leprosy through Elisha the prophet, and He also succour the widow of Zarephath in Sidon through the prophet Elijah, who helped her after her miserable life due to her husband’s passing. It is through their faith in God’s deliverance and power that, even though with some reservations and doubts they had, but ultimately their obedience to God’s will through the prophets that caused the outpouring of divine love to them, who were not of Israel, God’s chosen people.

Many of us today think that we are special, and that we have special talents that others do not, and many of us with these advantages think that we should be honoured and praised because of such abilities that we have. Many of us also look down on those who apparently have no such abilities and talents like what we have, and shun them, and even sometimes bully and persecute them to an extent. But today, God teaches you that even the great are not perfect, and more often than not, it is the meek and humble that will receive God’s love and blessing, and will be found righteous than the powerful.

It is not that God despises those who have power, those who have talents, abilities, and fortunes. It is rather that He despises those who misuse those power, and those who thought highly of themselves and oppress the less fortunate because they have these. Like the people of Israel, the chosen people of God, who often thought highly of themselves because they were chosen by God, but they were then at the time of the prophets drunk with power, possession, and worldly temptations, leaving God behind, and worshiped the false gods of their Canaanite neighbours.

A humble offer from Naaman to seek the prophet of Israel, the King of Israel had spurned. He even tore his robes and accused the Syrians of attempting to spy in the disguise of search for the prophet. Such is the haughtiness and pride of the king of Israel and Israel at that time, that even those who came in humility and gifts they had rejected, although they came truly to glorify the God of Israel, our God.

In their humility and obedience, Naaman and the widow obeyed the will of God through the prophets. Despite some grumbling in the beginning, Naaman washed himself seven times in the Jordan and was healed; then the widow fed Elijah the prophet with the bread made from the flour she was to use to prepare the last meal for herself and her son. Through these acts of faith they are blessed and experienced the love of God.

Naaman who was the commander of the Aramean King’s armies, lowered himself before God and his prophet and his obedience, while the king of Israel haughtily and proudly think of himself and his power, and in the time of King Ahab of Israel, during which period Elijah lived, not only the king was proud, but he even brought the people of the northern kingdom to sin against God ever more by sacrificing to foreign gods and killing God’s prophets.

Today, we commemorate the feast of St. Casimir, who was the crown prince of the united Kingdoms of Poland and Lithuania in the late 15th century. He never succeeded the throne to which he was the crown prince of, because he died early in life, but in his relatively short life, he had achieved much, and was noted for his great piety and love for God, and was committed to chastity in life and always was humble, especially noted was his great humility before God, and also before those who are his subjects.

He was like the modern day Naaman, but even more so because the piousness he had in his life, that made him today a patron saint of the youth. He is not of the first chosen people of God, but yet God had made him righteous, and now a saint, he intercedes for us in heaven, all because of his love, his faith, and his obedience to God.

Let us pray therefore brothers and sisters, that in our lives, and indeed in our daily lives, we can always dull the edge of our pride and our vanity, and sharpen the edge of our humility, and increase our dedication and love for God and our fellow men, our neighbours, and even those who did bad things to us, and those who hates us. Humble ourselves before God, asking for His mercy, and allowing Him to work His wonders through us, that all those whom we meet in our lives, will be able to experience God, His love, His kindness, and His grace, through us and our actions.

St. Casimir, pray for us all, pray for our youth that they will grow ever stronger in faith and love to God just as you once did. All the Holy Saints and prophets of God, Elijah and Elisha, pray for us. Amen.

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Tuesday, 26 February 2013 : 2nd Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Matthew 23 : 1-12

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to His disciples, “The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees have sat down on the chair of Moses. So you shall do and observe all they say, but do not do as they do, for they do not do what they say. They tie up heavy burdens and load them on the shoulders of the people, but they do not even raise a finger to move them.”

“They do everything in order to be seen by people : they wear very wide bands of the Law around their foreheads, and robes with large tassels. They enjoy the first paces at feasts and reserved seats in the synagogues, and they like being greeted in the marketplace, and being called ‘Master’ by the people.”

“But you, do not let yourselves be called Master, because you have only one Master, and all of you are brothers and sisters. Neither should you call anyone on earth Father, because you have only one Father, He who is in heaven. Nor should you be called Leader, because Christ is the only Leader for you.”

“Let the greatest among you be the servant of all. For whoever makes himself great shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be made great.”

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Wednesday, 13 February 2013 : Ash Wednesday (Scripture Reflection)

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today we enter into the season of Lent, the season for repentance, and season for the blossoming of new hope and faith in God. For in this 40 days season of Lent, we have a great chance to bring ourselves ever closer to God, and to make ourselves ready to welcome God into our hearts, as we approach the most important liturgical season of the year, that is the Holy Week.

Today we receive the ashes, that is none other than the ashes produced by the burning of the palms from the previous year’s blessed palms of the Palm Sunday. These ashes which the priest will place on our foreheads are the reminder of our mortality and our fragility. It serves as a reminder for us, that we are human, and that we are limited, and ultimately, we are nothing before God, and our lives are just but a fleeting moment.

We have to prepare ourselves this Lent, and nothing better than to begin with humility, to humbly ask God for forgiveness. By the imposition of ashes, we show that we are ready to lower ourselves before God, most merciful and most loving.

These ashes may symbolise that we are nothing and that all we have are temporary, but even from the ashes, we can rise again to be great. Our sinful way of life and this world is just temporary, and therefore, let us do our best, not to be trapped, not to be ensnared by the false temptations and evils, and rather, let us make best use of our short and temporary existence in this world.

Let us turn our hearts to God, and sincerely ask for His forgiveness for our constant rebellion against Him. For in our human weakness, the evil one had had many tools to subvert us and lured us into sin to serve his own purposes, that is most importantly to separate us for eternity from the loving embrace of God. Let us use this Lenten season to rebuke Satan as Christ did when He was tempted during His 40 days retreat in the desert. Let us say no to Satan and his malicious ways, and reject him in all that we do. Make this Lenten season a holy and meaningful season, dedicated in prayer to God.

Let us approach the Lord with great humility and a loving heart reserved for Him alone. This is why Christ rebuked those whose hypocrisy made them pray in a very visible way, that is to be seen by all the people around them, with example being the Pharisees at that time. It is actually fine to show one’s great holiness, and indeed, one’s great faith and holiness, when shown, may deliver many to redemption too.

However, there is no prayer best than when we are alone with Him. To me, the best prayers are made, whenever I am in an empty shower in an empty bathroom, in my own room without anyone else, where, I can truly listen to the Lord speaking to me, and also to be able then to also speak to the Lord without restraint. Since, when we are alone with Him, we are truly open to Him, just as He is open to us. When someone is around us, less so a crowd, vanity, pride, and other sins will unavoidably arise in our hearts, and our focus will eventually be not entirely at the Lord anymore. No, indeed, if we allow our vanity and pride to grow great, we may end up focusing on ourselves, our own achievements by being ‘holy’ and ‘looked up to’ by the people.

Thus, today, let us, brothers and sisters in Christ, prepare ourselves for the Lord, make the best use out of this Lenten season. Do penance and repent sincerely, and the Lord will see our hearts and found them to be worthy. Let us step up our efforts in prayer and in our mission, in our work for the good of all around us, especially in this holy, Lenten season. Happy Lent everyone! Amen.