Reflections on Ps 100 & Phil 2:6-11 (Br Peter Anthoney)

Integrity is doing the right thing,

even if nobody is watching…

There was a King who wanting to find someone to take over his reign, someone who not only was able and intelligent but one who was trustworthy and held on to the virtue of integrity. Therefore, he summoned some of his wise young men and gave each of them a seed. They were to sow the seed and bring back the plant that grows from the seed a month later. A month later every one of them except for one returned with a healthy, lush green and well-grown plant. This exceptional one young man presented himself looking rather sad and disappointed with a pot that showed no sign of any form of growth.

With much fear he trembled to say that he tried very hard but his seed simply would not germinate. Everyone in the king’s court was watching him and the king closely waiting for the king to react to him. However, to their amazement the king welcomed this young man to his side and announced that the seeds that he had given all of them were boiled seed. They were actually dead seed. As such it was impossible for any germination to take place. All of them with their healthy, lush green and well-grown plant were undeniably dishonest and lacked integrity. He praised this young man for his integrity, humility and courage and appointed him to take over his reign as king of that country.


Like the psalmist of psalm says

“I look to the faithful in the land
that they may dwell with me.
He who walks in the way of perfection
shall be my friend”

Psalm 100(101): 6

Like the young man who exercised integrity, humility and courage in the task assigned to him we too are called to follow our Lord Jesus Christ who showered love, peace, joy and hope on us to continue his mission with faithfulness and integrity. Our call is not a call to be successful or to be attractive for the Lord but a call that will lead us to become naked in truth, humility and faithfulness before God and his people.

Our leadership role must take on the virtues of Christ who is ‘the’ perfect model who was truly a servant king.

Though he was in the form of God … He emptied himself taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of man And being found in the human form, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even death on the cross…

As St. Paul says in his letter to the Philippians (2: 6-11), there is a need for us to let go of ourselves and embrace the cross to become faithful and virtuous before our Lord and his people. God is forever inviting us to his presence, to be ‘His’ , so let us start living our life of faithfulness by keeping his commandments and embrace the virtues of humility, integrity and obedience. Let each and every one of us pray for the grace of His mercy and justice to prevail among us, to mould and shape us according to His will for us.


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Stay tuned for the next post by Br Anthony Liew on 14th Oct 2010.

Reflections on Exodus 3:1–12 (Br Jovita Ho)

As God called Moses, so is He calling you… do not be afraid but response in faith and freedom.

Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, priest of Midian. He led his flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of Yahweh appeared to him in the shape of a flame of fire, coming from the middle of a bush. Moses looked; there was the bush blazing but it was not being burnt up. 'I must go and look at this strange sight,' Moses said 'and see why the bush is not burnt.' Now Yahweh saw him go forward to look, and God called to him from the middle of the bush. 'Moses, Moses!' he said. 'Here I am' he answered. 'Come no nearer' he said. 'Take off your sandals, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your father,' he said 'the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.' At this Moses covered his face, afraid to look at God.

And Yahweh said, 'I have seen the miserable state of my people in Egypt. I have heard their appeal to be free of their slave-drivers. Yes, I am well aware of their sufferings. I mean to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians and bring them up out of that land to a land rich and broad, a land where milk and honey flow, the home of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. And now the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me, and I have witnessed the way in which the Egyptians oppress them, so come, I send you to Pharaoh to bring the sons of Israel, my people, out of Egypt.'

Moses said to God, 'Who am I to go to Pharaoh and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?' 'I shall be with you,' was the answer 'and this is the sign by which you shall know that it is I who have sent you... After you have led the people out of Egypt, you are to offer worship to God on this mountain.'



* ‘Moses was looking after the flock…’ Moses was doing what he did almost everyday for 40 years, ‘looking after the flock’ when he was ‘called’. What about you? God calls us in the ordinary circumstances of our lives, and yet His call puts in that extra-ordinariness into the circumstances that you are called. Do you allow yourself to be attentive to God’s voice speaking to you in the ordinariness of your life?



* ‘I must go and see this strange sight…’ Moses could have ignored this strange sight and think it is a figment of his imagination. Or he could have been struck with fear and ran away, rather than moving forward to see this burning bush sight. What about you? What are the ‘burning bushes’ in your life? Do you try to encounter it with eyes of faith, or do you run away from it in fear? Perhaps there are some ‘burning bushes’ in your life that you fear sighting because you cannot comprehend it. Bring it to the Lord in prayer, and pray for the grace of wisdom to understand, and the courage to respond.



* ‘Take off your sandals…’ Moses wanted to do things his ways when he was a prince in Egypt for the first 40 years of his life, then he went into self-exile for another 40 years before encountering the Lord in the burning bush. Moses seemingly wanted to live life in his own terms and conditions, yet God’s command is clear, ‘take off your sandals’. Moses is to come into God’s presence under God’s terms. What about you? Where are you at this point of life? The tension between Moses’ will and God’s will that Moses faced is much the same and real in your life. ‘Take off your sandals…’ is easier said than done, but it is possible with God’s grace. It is in prayer that your aspirations meets the mind of God, thus God’s will becoming yours as well. Pray for the humility and docility in taking off your sandals.



* ‘I have seen the miserable state of my people… I shall be with you.’ God’s call does not appear out of the blue nor is it plucked out from thin air. God’s call is rooted in the realities of your life and the circumstances in which you live in. There is a purpose in God’s call, and sometimes that purpose may seem overwhelming. Have you felt that way sometimes too? Have the circumstances of your life, in your home, college and workplace seemed to speak to you of God wanting you to ‘renounce yourself, pick up your cross and follow him’? Moses was hesitant, and perhaps for you too. But God’s promise is clear and certain! ‘I shall be with you’. Do not be afraid to respond!

(Thanks to http://www.thebricktestament.com for the above pictures)

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Stay tuned for the next post by Br Peter Anthoney on 12th Oct 2010.

Reflections on Celebrating Success (Br Gregory Chan)

The secular world has a very unique way of celebrating success – they peg it to material achievement. They use the imagery of “height” to convey to us the “dizzying heights of success.” The Property Market speaks of “high-end living” and “the height of living” to convey to us this exclusivity, this privilege of living it up. Even universities are not immune from “scaling the heights of knowledge.” The commercial world depicts this in high-rise mega corporate offices, in sophisticated boardrooms and plush executive suites. “Ahh! This is the life!” One is almost tempted to murmur, contentedly. However, if this does not translate into capital, or that projection does not convert into sales, or a project ceases to be income generating, one is looking at a very swift spiral into the doldrums. That is the reality.
My reflection looks at height in a very different sort of way.

“High above all nations is the Lord,
above the heavens his glory.
Who is like the Lord, Our God,
who has risen on high to his throne
yet stoops down from the heights to look down,
to look down upon heaven and earth?”
(Psalm 112:4-6)

God is taken to be on high, exalted, holy, set apart from humanity. Nevertheless, we too are not excluded from this holiness, for we are a people who have been “sealed by an eternal covenant” (Heb 13:20) the covenant of his blood. This is Christ’s exaltation on the Cross, this is why he is lifted up, for in his passion, death and resurrection, he has “raised up” for us “the cup of salvation” (Psalm 115:13). Christ’s exaltation is that he was brought down, laid low, to be beneath contempt, made to suffer intolerable indignities beneath a human being, to be treated even worse than a slave.



This then is why “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name” (Phil 2:9), for he does not look at whether we are able to convert projection into sales, etc. Rather, he has, by his blood, redeemed us, and by so doing “made us ready to do his will in any kind of good action; and turn us all into whatever is acceptable to himself through Jesus Christ.” (Heb 13: 21) Thus, celebrating success is not the about celebrating the dizzying heights of mega-corporations. It is about relationship, our relationship with Christ and each other. So, today, let us celebrate success, Christ’s success, in having won for us our salvation. Let us in turn bend our knee and “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2: 11).


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Stay tuned for the next post by Br Jovita Ho on 10th Oct 2010.

Reflections on Luke 17:5-10 (Br Edward Seah)

THE POWER OF FAITH AND HUMBLE SERVICE

For some years I had the privilege to live with a man even secular governments had acknowledged as a man of great faith who trusted in God’s providence. He was one who had renovated chapels or made big improvements to schools’ facilities without first raising the funds needed. In fact not only did he change the physical aspects of schools, he also exercised his creativity not attempted by many educators and which benefited not only his immediate students but the generations which followed. When he started La Salle College of the Arts some years after his retirement as the principal of St Patrick’s School, the Brothers were so stressed because they were afraid of the debt that he might accumulate.


Whenever I read in the scripture describing faith as strong enough to uproot trees and move mountains, I cannot help but remember Bro. Joseph McNally who moved huge chunks of metal and rocks even in his later age and transformed them into sculptures which speak to people about life experiences and its values. Nothing was impossible. These include his belief that everyone is made in the image of God and is basically good with all the potentials and giftedness. By sharing a fragment of his life story here, I am not canonizing him for like many of us he will likely remain anonymous in the liturgical calendar although the secular organizations and authorities had decorated him with many awards. Among these are the Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International, Montblanc de la Culture and the Singapore National Day Meritorious Service awards.


When the apostles asked Jesus ‘Increase our faith’, glad with their request, our Lord replied that if they had faith even the size of a mustard seed they could have the power to command trees to be uprooted and be transplanted into the sea. Indeed faith is a key factor in our lives and it is the quality rather than the quantity which needs to be increased. Faith does not depend on its size for it can grow in a qualitative way becoming deeper and richer resulting in the bearing of good fruits. Of course it does not mean that faith gives us the power to literally uproot trees and move mountains but rather that it gives us the grace to cope with difficulties and especially obstacles which come our way so that we may attempt greater things for the greater glory of God. Yet some people like Bro. McNally had faith which moved rocks and ‘mountains’.



His installation at the chapel of St. Francis Xavier Major Seminary here bears testimony to this for those rocks were moved from across the straits even though it was impossible even to get soil across. In the mid 70’s Bro. McNally also gave St Patrick’s School a beautiful refreshing landscape with huge red earthen rocks scattered around looking like fallen meteorites blending with the softness of bamboo and palm trees. It seems to me that these installations and some art collections there were gradually removed or destroyed by his detractors who of course also had no art education. One thing I remember about Bro. McNally is his belief that if the project is for the good of humanity and the Church, God will provide the funds needed. With such disposition he actually lived out the Lasallian Spirit of Faith, as found in the Brothers’ constitution called THE RULE, for ‘it is in faith that the Brothers are aware of God’s presence in their undertakings, their cares and their joys’ and it is also ‘by faith that the Brothers learn to see in every happening and in every person, especially the poor, a sign and a call of the spirit.’ And in God’s providence He sent many ‘guardian angels’ to deliver the funds needed.



With regards to humble service I must say that the noble thing about Bro. McNally was that he did not spend his life deliberately working to get those awards I mentioned earlier. He received those awards because he had great passion in education and totally immersed in being a steward in the creative kingdom of God. Often going beyond his call of duty, he gave his all not only to education and the arts but also for humanity beyond political boundaries.

What we need as Christians is to believe that in Jesus all things were created in heaven and on earth. That our Lord truly reigns and his decrees are to be trusted. May our faith, no matter how small, can always renew our lives and move us to share the Good News to the world solely for the greater glory to God.


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Stay tuned for the next post by Br Gregory Chan on 8th Oct 2010.

Reflections on Ps 121 (Br Benedict Chng)

Shalom! Shalom! Shalom! These are words of greetings heard when the Israelites reached Jerusalem. In psalm 121, the first 4 stanza echoes the joy of a pilgrim.

“I rejoiced when I heard them say – Let us go to God’s house. And now our feet are standing within the gates O Jerusalem”

These Israelites when they make their annual pilgrimages, they have to travel a long journey, their eyes, faces and whole bodies would be filled with joy at the first sight of the holy city. There in the holy assembly the people would mingle together like one people. It was like they used to do in the desert, gathering together around the meeting tent and the Ark of the Covenant. There the Israelites who had issues with each other would find justice because the doors of the palace of the king was where the tribunals of justice were held. It was there that the traditional greetings of Shalom were heard. It was indeed a cause of great joy to be invited “Come let us go to God’s house”.


As we come together to give glory and praise to the Lord…We too are like the Israelites gathering together exchanging our greetings of Peace, singing praises to His holy name. For those of us who are undergoing trials and sufferings in our journey, do not despair because there is always hope when you seek the Lord. Continue to persevere and not to give up, have that childlike confidence like St Theresa of child Jesus, trust our Father…for he is ever loving and ever forgiving. Shalom…Shalom.

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Stay tuned for the next post by Br Edward Seah on 6th Oct 2010.

Reflections on Ps 79, 80 and Isaiah 12 (Br Alphonsus Dominic)

“Gratitude by Evangelising”

On 30 Sep every year, we celebrate the Memorial of St. Jerome. St. Jerome, as we all know translated the bible to Latin. He has also written many bible commentaries..

Just as St. Jerome was chosen to translate the bible, we too are chosen, each one of us for a mission of helping to build God’s Kingdom. Psalms 79 & 80, and Isaiah 12 reminds us of the greatness of our God. We are encouraged to rejoice and renew our relationship with our all merciful God. Just as the Israelites, during the time of the Psalmist, recalled giving praise and thanksgiving to God, let us this morning recall all the marvels the Lord has worked in each one of our lives and give praise and thanksgiving to God.

This is further emphasised in the scripture reading from Romans 14:17-19 as we are encouraged not only to rejoice but to evangelise by sharing our God experiences and what we have learned from Wisdom herself.

As we reflect on the above psalms and passages, with gratitude and faith, let us ask the Lord to bless us with the grace of being more open to being His instruments in the mission that God has planned for each one of us.

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Stay tuned for the next post by Br Benedict Chng on 4th Oct 2010.

Reflection on this Sunday’s Gospel [27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, Luke 17:5-10] (Br Samuel Lim)

For those of us who are involved in church ministries – do we do it in the spirit of volunteerism? We commonly hear phrases like “I’m helping out in church,” and even “I do it for free, okay?” True, volunteers do things for free. When I’m a volunteer, I’m implying that I do things out of charity, out of my own effort and goodwill. Consequently, I’m also implying that it is up to me how much I want to give, so no one can dictate or impose. As a volunteer I’m also implying that the other party ‘needs’ my help, therefore I’m ‘helping out.’ Since it seems like the other party is at my mercy, whatever little I give is already a bonus and a privilege for them – therefore they have no right to demand for more. It is no wonder that there seems to be more people coming late for church meetings but most will be punctual for office meetings and job interviews. When church volunteers are being asked about their attendance or punctuality, we are not be surprised when we hear replies like, “I’m willing to come already very good, okay?”

Servanthood vs Volunteerism
In this Sunday’s Gospel [27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, Luke 17:5-10], we are invited to move beyond the spirit of volunteerism, and to embrace our calling as servants, with Jesus being our Master.

God’s Will vs My Choice
Which of you, with a servant ploughing or minding sheep, would say to him when he returned from the fields, “Come and have your meal immediately”? [Lk 17:7]
We can be quite certain that the servant mentioned by Jesus in the parable was ploughing and minding sheep in the field for his master, not for his own benefit. As a volunteer, I may choose what I want to give, how much, and to whom. As a servant, however, I serve according to the will of my Master. A servant obeys the commands of his master, and definitely does not demand things to be done his way. So the servant allows the master to be in control, whereas a volunteer seems to be saying, “I’m in control.”

God-Centered vs Self-Centered
Would he not be more likely to say, “Get my supper laid; make yourself tidy and wait on me while I eat and drink. You can eat and drink yourself afterwards”? [Lk 17:8]
As servants of the Lord, we should always put the interests of our Master before our own – not because he wants to be treated like a king but because his priority is to build together the Kingdom of God on earth.

Commitment vs Convenience
So with you: when you have done all you have been told to do, say, “We are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty.” [17:10]
We who are called to be servants should have a strong sense of duties and responsibilities. True servanthood even acknowledges the fact that the duties tasked by the master are themselves gifts, and that the opportunity to serve is itself a privilege to be grateful for. With these attitudes and dispositions then, the servant does his work out of commitment, while the volunteer may do it out of convenience. St Joseph Calasanz reminds us: “If in serving God you seek your own convenience, you are not serving God but yourself.”

“For the Son of Man himself did not come to be served but to serve…” [Mk 10:45]
How about us?

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Stay tuned for the next post by Br Alphonsus Dominic on 2nd Oct 2010.