‘Chap Goh Meh’, the fifteenth night of the Lunar New Year, marks the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations and indeed so soon have the festive celebrations come and gone. As I reflect on what has happened especially on its first few days of celebrations, I have much to thank and praise God for his immense love and wonderful works.
My first two days of the Lunar New Year was spent with my family members and relatives. My family members were originally all non-Catholics. Although my grandfather and my dad had their education in Catholic and Lasallian schools, somehow they did not become baptized Catholics. This was mostly due to the family tradition of my grand-dad which was very steep into filial piety and certain practices of showing respect to ancestors [often referred by others as ‘ancestors worship’]. My dad did not send any of his children to Catholic schools much to the disappointment of his father, my Ah Kong. Peng Yam, my Ah Kong, was very proud of his alma mater, St Joseph’s Institution, and spoke well of some the La Salle Brothers he knew. He was also familiar with a priest in Ss. Peter and Paul’s Church who had asked him if he wished to become a Catholic but he felt it was not necessary. It was his hope that his grandsons would follow his alma mater’s call. Apart from our two cousins from my dad’s only sibling, all the other grandchildren went to government schools. But somehow along our life’s journey, half of my dad’s six children became Catholics. For various reasons, my siblings are generally positive towards the Catholic faith. But I dare not say that the Catholics among us are always strong in terms of witnessing to the new-found faith. Despite our weaknesses and also at times the challenges of mixed marriages [religions-wise] as well as certain values differences, it must be God’s grace that all eleven nieces and nephews ended up in Christian Mission Schools, with the bulk in Catholic Schools. They went into the Christian mission schools through the normal route, no ‘pulling strings’, either because they live near Catholic schools while others, certainly with the grace of God, got in through balloting. Their schools are St. Nicholas Girl’s, CHIJ Toa Payoh, SJI Junior, Monfort Secondary, St Margaret’s and Geylang Methodists.
So my family gathering during the Chinese New Year season was very refreshing and interesting as I took the graced occasion to update myself with the lives of my family members. I learnt that my nieces and nephews are very happy to be in the mission schools. God has indeed been so very good to us and I am sure that many people have also been blessed with such wonderful grace of God whether they are aware of it or not. My experience of God’s incredible grace is best expressed in Psalm 91 when the psalmist says: “O Lord, how great are your works! How deep are your designs! The foolish man cannot know this and the fool cannot understand.” In this, there must be a reason and it is well expressed in the First Meditation of St. John Baptist De La Salle : "God is so good that He not only brings us into existence by His act of creation but also desires that all of us come to the knowledge of the truth. This truth is God Himself and all that He has willed to reveal to us through Jesus Christ, through His apostles, and through His Church. God desires all of us to be taught this knowledge, that our minds may be enlightened by the light of faith.”
For all the graces that our God of surprises, our Trinitarian God, has bestowed on us and on all our loved ones, let us join the psalmist in praising our Heavenly Father and acknowledge His mighty deeds by saying: "Your deeds, O Lord, have made me glad; for the work of your hands I shout with joy!” Amen.
My first two days of the Lunar New Year was spent with my family members and relatives. My family members were originally all non-Catholics. Although my grandfather and my dad had their education in Catholic and Lasallian schools, somehow they did not become baptized Catholics. This was mostly due to the family tradition of my grand-dad which was very steep into filial piety and certain practices of showing respect to ancestors [often referred by others as ‘ancestors worship’]. My dad did not send any of his children to Catholic schools much to the disappointment of his father, my Ah Kong. Peng Yam, my Ah Kong, was very proud of his alma mater, St Joseph’s Institution, and spoke well of some the La Salle Brothers he knew. He was also familiar with a priest in Ss. Peter and Paul’s Church who had asked him if he wished to become a Catholic but he felt it was not necessary. It was his hope that his grandsons would follow his alma mater’s call. Apart from our two cousins from my dad’s only sibling, all the other grandchildren went to government schools. But somehow along our life’s journey, half of my dad’s six children became Catholics. For various reasons, my siblings are generally positive towards the Catholic faith. But I dare not say that the Catholics among us are always strong in terms of witnessing to the new-found faith. Despite our weaknesses and also at times the challenges of mixed marriages [religions-wise] as well as certain values differences, it must be God’s grace that all eleven nieces and nephews ended up in Christian Mission Schools, with the bulk in Catholic Schools. They went into the Christian mission schools through the normal route, no ‘pulling strings’, either because they live near Catholic schools while others, certainly with the grace of God, got in through balloting. Their schools are St. Nicholas Girl’s, CHIJ Toa Payoh, SJI Junior, Monfort Secondary, St Margaret’s and Geylang Methodists.
So my family gathering during the Chinese New Year season was very refreshing and interesting as I took the graced occasion to update myself with the lives of my family members. I learnt that my nieces and nephews are very happy to be in the mission schools. God has indeed been so very good to us and I am sure that many people have also been blessed with such wonderful grace of God whether they are aware of it or not. My experience of God’s incredible grace is best expressed in Psalm 91 when the psalmist says: “O Lord, how great are your works! How deep are your designs! The foolish man cannot know this and the fool cannot understand.” In this, there must be a reason and it is well expressed in the First Meditation of St. John Baptist De La Salle : "God is so good that He not only brings us into existence by His act of creation but also desires that all of us come to the knowledge of the truth. This truth is God Himself and all that He has willed to reveal to us through Jesus Christ, through His apostles, and through His Church. God desires all of us to be taught this knowledge, that our minds may be enlightened by the light of faith.”
For all the graces that our God of surprises, our Trinitarian God, has bestowed on us and on all our loved ones, let us join the psalmist in praising our Heavenly Father and acknowledge His mighty deeds by saying: "Your deeds, O Lord, have made me glad; for the work of your hands I shout with joy!” Amen.
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Stay tuned for the next post by Br Gregory Chan on 21st Feb 2011.
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