Living La Dolce Vita

I have many things to thank God for as we end the year 2010, and have a lengthy list of things to improve, accomplish, and to look forward too. It means, I would be forever expressing my gratitude to God, and to all the beautiful and challenging people through whom He made His Presence and Being felt.

January: South Bishop's right hand

February: My heart rejoiced ‘exuberantly’

March: Home Sweet Home

April: A Mêlée Won

May: Assorted Moments

June: Embraced Servanthood

July: Packing and Unpacking

August: Full of Firsts’

September: Yes Man

October: Never Ending Celebrations

November: Health Awareness

December: Welcoming

Thank you God, for everything!

The Manger in our hearts

Christmas Eve Homily (December 24, 2009)

(This is my first Homily as Deacon, written in English but delivered in Mandarin)

This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it. All our preparation and waiting has finally come to its climax and indeed we should rejoice for Today is born our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord! Even if we receive expensive and precious gifts from our loved ones, nothing can top the greatest gift we are given by God, His only Son.

Look at our nativity house here, maybe it is just a beautiful decoration for us. For some of us we may immediately recognize its theologically sound representation: the Alpha, Omega, the Word made flesh. Outside the church is another nativity house, beautifully made and depicted a more familiar scene we often hear, read or watch: Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and their sheep, and the wise men. Which ever do you prefer both tell us of a real and life changing experience: Mary’s Fiat, Joseph’s silent obedience, the shepherds awakening, the wise men following of the star. Everyone’s experience is unique yet everyone is led to Jesus. The ways of preparation differ in time and degree yet each way is directed to the manger.

We can examine our life’s experience too. We may have had a lot of ups and downs, or maybe at this moment we are so relax and free, but do our experiences lead us to know Jesus?  Do we see ourselves being part of the manger? Do we experience the joy of after having gone through highs and lows we finally see the fruit of our labors? The answer to each of these questions is very important because if we want our rejoicing to be complete and long lasting it must be born out of that experience with Jesus. A child was born in a manger; the Word was made flesh precisely because He willed to dwell among us, Emmanuel – God with us. This is indeed a very Good News because whether our life’s experience is good or bad we are assured that we are not alone in the journey and we have hope of a safe destination.

My friend and I took us a week to make the two nativity houses. It took us hours to plan, even long hours to build them. We spent money for materials, transportation and food all for one clear purpose: we want to build, not just a manger, but a beautiful and meaningful manger for everyone to appreciate. In our own lives we too spent a lot of our time and effort in building our careers and ambitions in life, sometimes to useless endeavors, yet we forget to build our own beautiful and meaningful manger. We easily give up and thought it will never be done or we rushed on building it just for the sake of pride or for the sake of just having one. The building of a beautiful and meaningful manger lies on the clarity of goal. The beauty and appreciation of our experience lies on the manger we built in our heart.

Have a beautiful, joyful and blessed Christmas everyone!

Life is a Mystery

(Matthew 1: 18-25)

What is the difference when one says ‘life is a problem’ and the other one says ‘life is a mystery’? The one who treats life as a problem should simply have to find a solution to it because every problem has a solution. On the other hand, the one who views life as a mystery should simply live life as it is, with its ups and downs because mystery has God as its answers.

In the Gospel today we are presented the story of the birth of Jesus. Who would have thought that it could be this complicated. Why God did not just let the birth of His son be smooth and easy? Why does He need to involve ordinary people like Mary and Joseph who just want to have a simple and happy family life? The Gospel emphasized the complications by telling us of the marital condition of Mary and Joseph. In the Jewish matrimonial tradition, the would-be couple should undergo three stages of preparation: the engagement, which is often made when the couple were only children, then the betrothal which is considered the ratification of the engagement, once it is done it is considered binding. It lasted one year and the couple is already known as man and wife, even without its rights. The betrothal can only be terminated through divorce. The third and final stage is the marriage proper, which usually takes place after the year of betrothal.

c/o catholic.nowealthbutlife.com

Poor Mary and Joseph we may think. They are the most ordinary citizens, who like many of us only want to live each day, one at a time; with simple dreams; who only wish to have a simple yet happy family life. And yet out of their being ordinary God chose them to reveal His plan and chose them to be the vessel by which His plan may be fulfilled.  You see that is the point. God chooses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. You don’t have to become Ms Universe, or a Summa cum laude or the President of a nation or a CEO of a huge company to be special in the eyes of God. In the criteria of God being simple and ordinary is always His pattern of greatness and triumph.

But the story of life does not stop by being simple and ordinary. One must be willing to become instruments of God. Willingness is actually the only thing that matters in the end.  A person who is willing obeys, not by doing something out of blind obedience but with confidence and trust. Joseph being a righteous man wished to divorce Mary in secret, and his being a righteous man gave him that confidence and trust to not only listen but obey the will of God. We must not forget that we are created for greatness, designed for fellowship and friendship with God.

This is the second point. God wants us to be involved in the whole process because He willed to be one among us in everything except to sin. He accepted the fact that our life is not that easy and that men’s life is too complicated to handle. If He is going to be like us and among us, he needs to feel the pressure, the lows and highs, and all the troubles life brings. In that way we could not complain that God does not understand our miseries and pains because He is God. That is correct; He is God yet willed to take our human form so that each time we cry out to him in supplication we will be assured that He feels for us. We are confident to say that each time we come to Him, He hears our prayers and that He only gives what is best for us. Indeed, what a loving God we have in our midst.

This is the last point. In our midst a Savior is born, and His name is Jesus. In Jesus alone we can see what God is like, and what God wishes men to see and accomplish. In Jesus we see the love, the compassion, the mercy, the seeking heart, the purity of God as no man has seen and experienced. “Men did not really know what goodness was, but in Jesus we see true manhood, true goodness, and true obedience to the will of God. Life is quite different when Jesus teaches us how to look at things by opening our eyes to see things as they truly are. Jesus came to tell us the truth about God and the truth about ourselves.”

瑪竇一: 18-25

生命是一個問題和人生是一個奧秘的區別何在？一當一個人把生命看成問題時, 他應該只需要找到一個解決辦法，因為每一個問題都有一個解決方案。在另一方面，當一個人說生命是一個奧秘，他必須要渡過一個鮮活的生命，接受生命中的酸甜苦辣, 因為對一個奧秘, 只有天主才有答案。

在今天的福音，我們聽到了有關耶穌誕生的故事。誰會想到，它也可以這麼複雜。為什麼天主不只是讓祂的兒子出生平整，容易嗎？為什麼天主需要涉及老百姓像瑪麗亞和若瑟, 他們只是想有一個簡單而幸福的家庭生活？

你看這是問題所在。天主要我們參與了整個過程，因為祂願意住我們中間, 也願意跟我們完全一樣，除了犯罪。他接受了人類的生活不那麼容易，而人的生活太複雜處理。如果天主將要和我們一樣, 住我們中間，祂需要感到壓力，人生的低點和高點，生活中所帶來的麻煩。這樣，我們不能以怨抱怨向天主說祂不理解我們的苦難和痛苦，因為祂是神。是沒錯，祂是神, 但祂願意成為人，使我們人類每一次掉眼淚向祂祈求, 我們放心因為祂完全感受我們的情況。每一次我們來到天主面前，我們有信心地說，祂一定會聽到我們的祈禱，而祂只給了我們什麼是最好的。的確, 在我們當中, 我們有一位神對我們有多麼偉大的愛。

在我們當中誕生了一個救世主，祂的名字叫耶穌。在耶穌內，我們可以看到天主，和看到人的本質如何。在耶穌內我們會看到了天主的愛，仁慈，慈悲，純潔。人本身真不知道什麼是良善，但在耶穌內，我們就看到人真正的善，真正服從神的旨意。當耶穌教導我們如何看待事物，打開我們的眼睛看情況，人生則是會有新的意義和價值。

When the ‘King’ became ‘Cheap' (on Fr Jejemon Movie)

picture c/o Pinoy Movie Blog

The Catholic Church is once again challenged if not provoked by the new trends in Filipino pop culture. The recent issue on the movie of the king of comedy became the hot topic not only on showbiz tables but among the community of ‘religious men and women’. Dolphy, known for his comedic role is once again starring on his new film entitled Fr Jejemon. There are two controversial scenes in the movie which shows Dolphy playing a priest and while giving communion to communicants ‘accidentally’ dropped the sacred Host into the cleavage of a lady communicant. Another scene showed the sacred Host getting stuck between the dentures of an elderly woman.

Although this (may) happen in real life, its depiction still offends and disrespects the belief on the sanctity of the sacred Host. The Church officials and some Catholic groups called the attention of the MTRCB and urged the deletion of the controversial scenes. The king of comedy had apologized publicly to all who were offended and strongly denied that he had intention to fight against the Catholic Church.

While Dolphy has the purest intentions, the producers or the people behind its production might have had another motive. If we carefully analyze the reactions and counter reactions we will find some inconsistencies and perhaps a malicious motive to flare up the issue.

1. Any controversial issue creates an imprint to the minds of the people thus the only way to satisfy one’s curiosity is to delve into the issue. This is precisely the oxygen of popular culture. In the case of controversial films (or scenes) people long to see the movie. In such a scenario, creating an issue will definitely give the film producers the win-win advantage.

2. Dolphy professed in the interviews that he is a sagradong Katoliko (devout Catholic). But for that matter is it not for any real devout Catholic (or believer), by common sense and act of good conscience should have carefully considered and known the outcome of the said scenes, and that those scenes will only do harm than good? Yet the scenes were intended to be included. Making people happy through inappropriate means are always offensive and disrespectful.

Now that the damage was done and the issue on hot seats, amassing different reactions and people’s attention, the movie, its lead actor and producers are crossing their fingers that the trick will work. It may be a huge success but it will definitely not be on the list of valuable movies. It may be a flop which will only show that people are smart enough not to be bullied by malicious tricks.