Life-Giving

In the last week, the theme of being life-giving has been coming up over and over again.

First it was an article in the newspaper where a MP conducted a straw poll, finding that there is a tipping point, a monetary value of benefits that the government can offer to women to encourage them to have children. It was suggested that an amount of $500,000, half a million dollars would change the minds of some childless women. I wonder if that is the real reason why couples (not only the woman) are not having children? Is it that it is too expensive to raise a child in this day and age? Or is it a matter of values and attitudes towards child-bearing and being life-giving. Could it be the notion that having a child is too troublesome, restricts the freedom, limits career prospect, which is delaying or stopping couples from having children.

This was contrasted when we were doing the story of Jephthah's daughter in Jdg 11, who went to bemoan her virginity because she was going to die before fulfilling the mission of her womanhood - that of bearing a child. There are so many stories of women in the bible (Sarah,...etc), where being barren is seen as a curse, and when they are gifted with a child, there is much thanks to God for the gift and blessing that the child is.

Furthermore, I have the two birds flying to and fro, building their nest on my balcony, one strand at a time. These birds with their "small little bird brains" compared to our human intelligence, yet are able to know their purpose and to bring forth new life. Seeing them fly tireless to-and-fro weaving the nest strand by strand, surely limits their "freedom", taking up 4 whole days, reminds and challenges me that I have to be life-giving and tireless in living out this Mission and Vocation that God has called and entrusted to me.



Talking about being life-giving, Wednesday during our afternoon-off, I joined 2 other brother seminarians as they went to donate blood. This was my first time donating blood, and on our journey to the blood bank, I asked both to share why they regularly donate blood. One brother shared that when his father was in hospital and needed blood, it was readily provided, and as such he feels that he wants to donate, so that others too may have blood when they need it. The other brother who is from Malaysia, shared the situation back home, where if a person requires blood for an operation, they will be required to find donors to replace the number of packets used.

Listening to their sharings, and after going through the relatively simple, painless and fast process of donating blood, I started to reflect on this whole experience. Firstly, why have I not donated blood before? It was not that troublesome or time-consuming. In fact there was a guy who was there next to me, who came on his birthday. He had taken a half-day off for his birthday, and there he was donating blood. I guess for myself it was the lack of awareness, or urgency. Most of the time it would need a dramatic situation to jerk me out of my comfort zone. But thankfully I have these 2 brothers who encouraged and motivated me with their own inspiring examples.

Secondly, what is my motivation for donating blood? In the army, those who donate blood get to skip strenuous exercise for the day. For me, it would be the free chocolate brownie and Milo at the cafe after donating blood. Jokes aside, as it is understood in the Old Testament by the Jews, that blood is life, then donating blood would be one of the ways that I can be life-giving. I am just satisfied that my blood can be a gift of someone in need. In fact I would recommend everyone who is physically able, to donate regularly. There is always someone in need of it, don't wait till you need it then realise the importance of it.

Rosy Cheeks or Blind & Bogay

A young boy once asked me this riddle:

"How do you tell the difference between a person in heaven and a person in hell?"
"One has a halo and wings, the other has horns?"
"No. The one in heaven has rosy cheeks and is fit and muscular, the one in hell is blind and bogay (no teeth)".
"How is that so?"
"Because the one in hell takes a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye. The one in heaven has rosy cheeks because he offers the other cheek when he is slapped, and fit because he walks two miles when others walk one."

While this riddle takes what Jesus said in the Gospel (Mt 5:38-48) literally, it does help us visualize the difference between the life of love and the life of hatred. The life of hatred allows hatred and vengeance to perpetuate which will result in a world full of blind and toothless people. But in a world of love and forgiveness, the one who receives injury or insult, puts a stop to it by not taking revenge. He in fact tries to further eradicate hatred by "going that extra mile", by loving the enemy. In loving the enemy, it is not so much doing something good to gain our own salvation, but by loving the enemy, we are trying to help change the person to be better person.

In the battle between good and evil, love and hate, I use scenes from two movies to remind of what Christ was trying to teach us.

First in the movie "Fearless" starring Jet Li, we see the cycle of hatred going on, when first Jet Li's disciple is beaten up by, he goes to take revenge and ends up killing his rival. His rival's godson then takes revenge by killing his wife and child. Jet Li then goes to his rival's house, but before he can get his revenge, the rival's godson commits suicide, denied of his revenge, he turns to his rival's wife and child. In the principle of an eye for an eye, he could have had his revenge for what he himself lost. But he comes to his senses, and walks away. Thus we see how hatred can only stop when one party decides not to revenge a hurt.

The second movie, illustrates Christ call to love. In the movie, "Pay It Forward", a boy Trevor starts a class assignment on a plan to make the world a better place. He decides to do 3 good deeds and he tells the recipients of the good deeds not to repay him, but to do 3 good deeds to someone else. In one chain we see Trevor helping his mum, who in turn forgives her mother, who helps a gang member, who in turn saves a girl's life, and then the Father of the girl gives away his car to a journalist whose car was smashed. At the end of the movie, we see how one boy's initiative touches the lives of so many people.

This is the question that we are faced with - Do we want to be part of the chain that passes on hatred, or the chain that spreads love?

New Neighbours

This weekend, I was blessed with an encounter with 2 soon-to-be parents. On Saturday afternoon, these 2 yellow birds started flying to my balcony, and entertaining me with their chirping and gymnastics on my laundry line.

I was wondering why they came repeatedly to my balcony, when I saw one of the birds bringing some sort of fibre or grass and trying to attach it to the line. Then I knew that they were trying to build a nest. But try as they might, they were not successful, the strips kept falling to the floor. Evening came, and the birds did not return.



To my joy, the birds were back on Sunday morning, when I came back to my room at 8am after breakfast. They were chirping away and still trying to build the nest. I wished I could stay in my room to enjoy their company, but we were having the Seminary Open House, so I had to go and meet the visitors and introduce the seminary to them.

Imagine my surprise when I came back to my room at lunchtime, to see that they had ingeniously used a clothes-peg on the line as an anchor, and started to build their nest around it. Looks like I will be having constant visitors and entertainment in the coming days. Praise the Lord for this wonderful blessing and encounter with His creation.



But like the story about good luck, bad luck that I wrote about once before, this weekend I suffered a small loss. I dropped my camera, during the open house. And though it didn't seem like that hard a knock, it is not able to take any more photos. Luckily, I was able to take out the last few photos I took of the birds and the nest. Now I just have to take photos with the camera on my phone, or borrow a camera from one of the brothers.

But then again, maybe not bad luck, but good luck. Maybe its a sign to get a new camera, or to detach, since lent is coming. Hmm...

One of my brother seminarians mentioned that now I can't use my laundry line to hang my clothes to dry. But I guess its a small price to pay. What's a little inconvenience compared to this gift of encountering God's creation at work. I wonder how many eggs and baby birds God will bless me with.

Praise the Lord for this wonderful blessing.

God Is Calling Me To Marriage

This is the article that I wrote for last year's seminary magazine "The Journey 2010". When I first proposed the title of the article, I got many puzzled looks and jokes about whether I was going through a vocation crisis. Read the article to find out more.

I once asked a boy in a confirmation camp, what was stopping him from being holy. And his reply was “I don’t want to become a priest”. That answer surprised me. But when I got that same answer from another boy at that camp, it got me thinking. Why was holiness exclusive to the Priesthood? It seems that for those boys, if one were to be holy, it was because he was thinking of becoming a priest, which means that a normal lay person does not have to be holy, or at least not so holy. Sadly this view is shared by many Catholics,

Call to Holiness
In that same line, if I were to ask a young person today “have you discerned your vocation?”, often the answer would be, “no lah, I don’t think that God is calling me to be a priest/nun” The word “vocation” has come to be synonymous with the priesthood and religious life. Partly it could be that the usage of the word has always been linked to priesthood and religious life. Think of terms like “Vocation Sunday” and “Vocation Promotion Team”.

Part of my journey in my renewal of faith in 2003 was to discover what it meant to be Catholic, what it meant to be a disciple of the Lord. I learnt from the Parable of the Rich Young Man (Mt 19:16-22), that it was not just about keeping the commandments, but to follow Christ. And it was in the Lord’s Prayer that I found my answer – “your will be done on earth as it is heaven”. Having prayed that prayer so many times, I realised that it is not an abstract prayer that somewhere, sometime and someone will do God’s will, but that I as Christian, am praying that I may do the Lord’s will in my life. I knew then that I had to discern my vocation. To grow in holiness meant doing the Lord’s will, which meant discerning and living out the call, the vocation that He had made me for.

The Call to Marriage
One of the most common questions I get asked is "how do you know that God is calling you to priesthood?" Recently I have tried a new response to that question. If the one asking is a married person, I would ask them "how do you know that God called you to marriage?" Often the response would be a blank stare or forced laughter. Sometimes the honest ones will say they never really discerned or that they were not that holy when they got married. Then I would ask them how they are living out their marriage vocation now. Silence again.

Vocation Crisis
We often hear that the Church is facing a Vocation Crisis, because of the dwindling numbers entering the priesthood and religious life. But I believe the real Crisis in Vocations is that our Catholics have stopped believing that God has a Will for each and everyone. If our married couples do not see their marriage as part of their call from God to live a life of holiness, are they truly living out a married vocation? Or is their marriage just the same as any non-Catholic marriage.

If every young person were to be asking God “Lord, how do you want me to live my life?”, I am sure that not only will we have more priestly and religious vocations. We will have stronger marriages and better Catholic families where the faith is lived out.

God is Calling Me to Marriage
In my ministry, I have had the privilege of meeting some couples who have shared how God called them to the marriage vocation. But the number of them are fewer than the number of seminarians we have in the seminary. My wish is for all young people to discover God’s call in their lives, so that they will be able to grow in holiness. And also for those who are already married, to find out and live out their marriage as a vocation. It is a call to love, to serve, to lay down their lives for their spouse, for their family, and be the light of Christ in the world.

To read the rest of the articles in the Journey 2010, you can download the pdf version at this link.

Fall on your knees

Merry Christmas to one and all!
I just want to share a wonderful encounter I had with the Lord this Christmas.

I was at Mass on Christmas Day, it was just after Communion, and I was praying when the choir started to sing O Holy Night for the Thanksgiving Hymn. As I reflected on having just received Christ, the words of the song started to strike me. How we in the world wearied by sin is pining for the Lord, and His coming frees us and fills us with joy and light. And of course when the choir sang the chorus, I trembled with the awe of just being on my knees before our Lord, imagining what the shepherds might have felt kneeling before the baby Jesus in the simple manger.

I hope that this Christmas was as good for you as it was for me. God Bless.

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
O'er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friend.
He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

Becky Kelley - Where's the Line to See Jesus

Just saw this music video on Youtube.
Found in quite appropriate for reflection on the spirit of Christmas



So where is Jesus in your Christmas this year?

Novena - Bringing Christ to Others

As we enter into the 3rd Week of Advent, I would like to share with you an encounter which gave me a new way of looking at the season of Advent.

Two years ago, a family invited me over to their home for dinner. As I was making my way to their place, I was making some plans in my mind. Here I am, a seminarian being invited for dinner, I was asking God what could I do for them. And so I decided that, after dinner, just before I left the house, I would suggest if I could lead them into a short time of prayer together as a family.

So after dinner, I was chatting with the parents, and just as I was about to make my big suggestion, they asked me, “brother, would you like to join us in our night prayer?”. I was a bit taken aback by the change in my plans, but still it gave me an opportunity to pray with them, and so I agreed. To my surprise the five children went to their rooms and brought out their bibles. I, myself didn’t bring my bible, but luckily I had an electronic version in my phone, so I said I would use that. It amazed me to see this family coming together every night to pray, reading the bible, especially since the youngest one was only 5 years old.

To top it off, at the end of the sharing, the mother asked them what would be their advent project for the year. They finally agreed on donating food items to the Boys’ Brigade Share-A-Gift project, which gives food to the needy. They made plans the next day to go down to NTUC to buy the items, and the youngest even volunteered the $20 ang pow her grandma had given to her.

I went home that night, truly humbled, by what the Lord had given me the opportunity to experience. Here I was thinking that I would be leading this family in prayer, and there the Lord threw aside all my plans in showing my the deep faith of the family. As amazing as that is, that is not the only thing that I took back that night. This family challenged me in terms, what was I doing during this Advent period. How was I preparing myself for the arrival of the Lord.

I thought that I was doing a lot in my prayer, reflecting on the mystery of Christ’s birth. Not being caught up with the materialistic, consumerism of Christmas shopping. And here this family was not looking at themselves, but thinking of others and how they can share their blessings with those who were in need.

What this family did, was what our dear Blessed Mother herself did. After the angel Gabriel told her that she was going to be the Mother of Jesus, she could have spent that time praying, reflecting on her own blessings. But instead she set off to her cousin Elizabeth’s place, because she was in her old age, and 6 months pregnant, needing all the help she can get.

What our Blessed Mother brought to Elizabeth was more than just physical aid, but she brought the child Jesus that she was carrying in her. When we look at ourselves today, can we also imitate Mother Mary. Are we carrying Christ within us, in all the blessings, the love that God has showered on us? Or is Christ outside of us, that we are still waiting for him to be born in our lives? If He is in our lives, are we able to bring that love of God to those around us, especially those in need?

As we come in prayer to Our Lady, and adore the Lord Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, let us pray that in the remaining 2 weeks of Advent, we may recognize that Christ is dwelling in each of us, and we may take the time to make His love present to others too. Amen.