Jesus, a celebrity?

Jesus was viewed as a celebrity in the Gospel today. The villagers of Nazareth had heard of the things that Jesus had done in other places. So, the homecoming of Jesus to his home village had caused excitement.  The local boy had made it big. So he has returned and had proven himself to be an eloquent speaker, or else he would not have “won the approval of all.” (As the Jerusalem Bible states.). Then Jesus proceeds to tell them that they would not get what they were hoping for: a demonstration of his powers. Of course, after his rather long discourse, the villagers were riled up.

Are we not like the villagers from Nazareth?  We gravitate to the spectacular. We would prefer the eloquent speaker to the less eloquent. Retreats and talks: do we regard the retreat masters and speakers like celebrities?  Whilst I understand that we want to be enriched spiritually by a meaningful retreat or talk, there are times I would pick and choose on the basis of whether the speaker meets my expectations.  At those times I recognise the villagers of Nazareth in me.  It is not the speaker I should be concerned about, but whether I am open to the message if Christ that is transmitted via the speaker.  If we are open to the Lord, He can speak to us with the plainest of statements.  There are many times when I chide myself for not delivering a homily well. Yet,someone would come to me and share how something I said during the homily was significant to them.  This does not excuse me from preparing for my homilies but it does indicate to me that it is God who matters, not me, the one who delivers the message.

Let us pray this week that we would stop being groupies or fans of particular speakers.  Rather, let us be followers of Chrst Jesus, the Son of God. Let us remember not to turn our priests and religious into celebrities. 

To be healed

What struck me in this week’s Gospel is the passage of scripture Jesus read in Nazara, his hometown. He was sent to “bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight.” (from the Jerusalem Bible)  For Jesus to do that to us, we need to admit that we are poor, captive and blind.  It is easy for us to admit those things when we are in crisis, personal or otherwise.  However, when we find ourselves in pleasant times, can we admit them as well?

We can be materially comfortable yet poor in our spirit, poor in our emotional dealings with others, or poor in our relationship with God, just to name a few examples.  We can be held captive by sin.  We can be held captive by bad habits.  We can be held captive by our pride, not being able to see that there may be more than one way of looking at things besides our own.  We can be blind in the sense that we are not sensitive enough to the things that are happening around us, even with the people we love, the people we are most familiar with.  The converse can be true: we pay attention to the little things that we become blind to the larger picture.  Was there not a saying: Cannot see the forest for the trees?  Can we admit that even with a 20/20 sight, we can be blind?

This is where the good news come in.  Jesus has come to bring us out of our poverty, captivity and blindness.  The thing is, unless we can admit our being poor, being held captive and being blind, we will not be able to accept the help of Jesus.  And if we cannot accept help from Jesus, can we truly help others in need?  Can we truly be able to continue the mission of Jesus as Christians?

Let us take the time to consider our poverty, captivity and blindness.  Then by admitting that we are, open our hearts to the aid, healing and grace of Christ.

“Do whatever he tells you”

These are the words Mary tells the servants when the wedding celebration was out of wine.  Jesus seemed to have protested but yet Mary did not seem not to have heard.  Was Mary being difficult?  Did she not hear what Jesus said?

I can picture it.  Mary knows that there was a difficulty and her son had some of his companions with him.  Her son should be able to do something to help the couple celebrating their wedding.  I believe she heard Jesus.  Just like most mothers, I suspect, she did not understand completely.  Yet she did respect Jesus’ answer that it was not his hour.  It was probably like, see what you can do to help.  So it was not Jesus' hour, yet there is definitely more than one way to help them, right?  Perhaps, Mary thought that her son could get his companions together to carry the jugs of wine from the vineyard in the next village.  Whatever it was, Mary must have had the confidence that Jesus would be able to help in some way.  That was why she did not specify the help.  She simply said, “They have no wine.”  Her instructions to the servants were just as simple: “Do whatever he tells you.”

Unlike Mary, we might not be so simplistic when we encounter a crisis.  We would probably specify what God needs to do.  Instead of saying, “Lord, I am in trouble,” and then listen for his instructions, we probably would say things like, “Lord, I need to get out of this mess I am in.  Can you get me out of this mess?”  When the Lord tells us what to do, we would probably not understand anything because we have got in our heads the solution we want.  His instructions would be left unheard and then we would complain that the Lord had not heard our prayers.  Ironic isn't it?

The Baptism of Jesus

One question regarding Jesus’ baptism had struck me many years ago: Why did He, who had no sin, need to be baptised?  Of course, after 20 years of priesthood, I have given a standard answer every time this question comes up.  Jesus wanted to be identified with sinful humanity even though he was sinless.  Saint Paul would say this, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21)

This idea of identification brings to mind what our attitude should be in this Jubilee Year of Mercy.  We need to identify ourselves with our brothers and sisters before we can truly be merciful as God has been merciful to us.  One of the ways of identifying ourselves with our brothers and sisters is to feel with them: to have sympathy.  In the Gospels, Jesus is said to have had compassion on the people around him.  He is able to have compassion because he sympathised with the people.  Let us not talk about mercy from a top-down perspective: Those people are less fortunate than me and since I am able, I will help them.  God’s mercy is not like that.  God knows our weaknesses and difficulties.  He sent His Son to become one of us to live in this weakness.  His compassion is not one of I’ve got the means and so I’ll help you.  Rather, it is one of I’m helping you because I’m with you.  Of course, we must have the means to help or else we cause more trouble.  Yet when we have God, we have the means.  He will indicate to us the means to help.  He will indicate to us how to help.

I remember many years ago, I was told this little principle: Don't just give fish, show how to fish.  Sometimes we have to just give fish.  Most of the time, after giving fish, we teach how to fish.  We can only know when to do which when we are with the people we serve.  When we give fish, we do not need to know the people we help; we simply provide.  To teach how to fish, we need to encounter and interact with the people; we must be with the people.  This calls to mind the little problem in an European country some time back regarding helping the refugees from the Middle East.  The refugees complained that they were given food that they were not allowed to eat.  Whilst it could have been a simple misunderstanding, I believe that the situation could have been avoided if those who wanted to help by providing food took some time to be with the refugees.

Thus, may I humbly suggest that the next time we are given the opportunity to help, we take a short time to discern.

First Sunday in 2016: Epiphany of the Lord

Nativity Scene, East Malaysia, 2006.  I cannot remember where I took this.

One hymn that is a favourite at Mass on this feast is We Three Kings.  Whilst we know today that the wise men who visited the Holy Family were probably not kings, we still sing the hymn.  Furthermore, we assume that there were three because of the three gifts.  However, the scriptures do not mention a number.  It is not the number that is significant but that they were from the East and outside Israel.  They were not Jews.  Let us consider John 1:11-12 :

He came to his own home, and his own people received him not.

But to all who received him, who believed in his name,

he gave power to become children of God; 

Herod, who was a Jew, was not only not receptive to Jesus, he was positively hostile.  Is it not what the passage above is saying?  The Jewish Herod did not accept Jesus but the non-Jewish wise men did.  Like Joseph, God communicated to them in dreams.  They were given the power to become “children of God”.

Like the Jews, we, who have accepted Jesus, have a special relationship with God.  Yet, we could be like Herod, when we take that relationship for granted.  Herod was not one who had abandoned his faith.  He knew his scriptures and made sure to ask the experts where the new king was to be born.  He probably still professed the Jewish faith and fulfilled all the requirements for sacrifices and other rituals but his life was not really one with God.  When we take our relationship with God for granted, assuming that our ritual practices are enough, we are in danger of becoming like Herod.  We come to Church to fulfil the obligation for Sunday worship but that is not enough.  We have to live our lives as Catholics.  Are we actually convinced of the values that Christ has given through the Church?

The wise men, instead, had probably not come to know God in the same way the Jews knew Him.  However, their hearts were open to him and they obeyed him when he communicated with them.  Perhaps we do not receive dreams everyday from the Lord.  However, we do have the Scriptures and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  Do we refer to them for our own personal formation as Catholics?  Do we try to understand the values that God wants us, who believe in his Son, to have?

So, the question for reflection for today and maybe the week ahead is: Am I living the values of the Lord I say I believe in?