One of the features that is unique about the parish that I come from is that although it is a pretty newly renovated church building; the parish priest who renovated the parish had envisioned a fusion of the old and the new. Whilst the church has been refurbished and air-conditioned, there are also life-size statues of Saints at every pillar of the parish just like the church of old. There were mixed reactions to this decision for there were those who were uneasy with the changes that were being made to the building that they had grown up with; and then there were those who did not like the idea of having too many statues around in the church because they felt it was a swing back to the devotionalism of the pre-Vatican II period and then, there were those who were grumbling because they felt that there was some chauvinism because the statues of the saints had been arranged according to gender, with male saints on one side and female saints on the other. Amidst all these criticisms, I was deeply inspired at a mass which was celebrated by a visiting foreign priest who was passing through Singapore. As he entered the sanctuary of the newly-renovated church, one could see from his facial expression that he was deeply moved by the sight of the church and he exclaimed to the congregation, “I feel like I am in heaven!” He continued, “Look around you at these Saints, and how in every difficult period of history, God has raised up Saints for His Church. You are the Saints of these difficult times!”
This profound reflection of that visiting priest has remained with me all these years and even now, when I go back to my home parish during my holidays, I am deeply moved by the thought that I am having a glimpse of heaven. Indeed, the image portrayed by the author of the Book of Revelations in Rev 7:9-17 comes alive for me as I attend mass at my home parish with the statues of all these glorious men and women who have left their mark on the Church and as I stand amongst God’s People whom He is raising up as the Saints of today. Are we not the ones who are standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in the white robes of our baptismal garment and holding the palms of Christ’s victory over sin in our hands? Is not our common cry, “Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”?
It was easy for many to criticise the new statues that surrounded the newly renovated church but it took the eyes of faith to see beyond the criticism and to discover the message that God was communicating to us. Indeed, in every difficult age in the Church’s history, God has raised up some of the brightest “stars of Faith” in the men and women who have borne witness to Christ. Indeed, even today, as we stand amongst our fellow Christians, we may find it easier to highlight all their weaknesses and criticise them for their many shortcomings, but only when we look beyond their inadequacies and seek to discover the presence of God amongst them, can we also start to see the faces of the many bright shining “stars of Faith” that God is raising up even today amidst the difficult times the Church is facing. We can be certain that God is raising up Saints today. Could the person sitting next to you at your next Sunday mass be one of them? Even more, could the person you see in the mirror every morning, be the one God is raising up to be a great hero of Faith for the Church of today? May we constantly wash our robes clean in the blood of the Lamb so that we may stand victorious in the great liturgy of heaven. Let us constantly pray for the grace to respond to this high calling!
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Stay tuned for the next post by Br Terence Kesavan on 21th Nov 2010.
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