Monthly Archives: June 2022

Is God so vain that we must glorify Him?

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Our Creator does not need anything from us, but giving Him praise is for our sake

As Christians, we hear many times over that we are supposed to give glory to God in all things. At Mass, we even have an entire prayer that begins with “Glory to God in the Highest”. After a while, we may begin to wonder: for things that we really put serious effort in, why can’t we claim just a little credit?

It would seem the Catechism of the Catholic Church doesn’t answer the question either:

[293] Scripture and Tradition never cease to teach and celebrate this fundamental truth: “The world was made for the glory of God.” St. Bonaventure explains that God created all things “not to increase his glory, but to show it forth and to communicate it”, for God has no other reason for creating than his love and goodness: “Creatures came into existence when the key of love opened his hand.” 136 The First Vatican Council explains:

This one, true God, of his own goodness and “almighty power”, not for increasing his own beatitude, nor for attaining his perfection, but in order to manifest this perfection through the benefits which he bestows on creatures, with absolute freedom of counsel “and from the beginning of time, made out of nothing both orders of creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal.

[294] The glory of God consists in the realization of this manifestation and communication of his goodness, for which the world was created. God made us “to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace”, for “the glory of God is man fully alive; moreover man’s life is the vision of God: if God’s revelation through creation has already obtained life for all the beings that dwell on earth, how much more will the Word’s manifestation of the Father obtain life for those who see God.” The ultimate purpose of creation is that God “who is the creator of all things may at last become “all in all”, thus simultaneously assuring his own glory and our beatitude.

At first glance, the message here is all glory comes from God, what you do means nothing at all, so zip your mouth, just genuflect and say, “All glory to God”.

And there are non-Catholic groups who will teach you just that: human effort counts for nothing because even this is a gift from God. Such an answer, though, seriously downplays the gift of free will to humans. If all effort came from God alone, then there is no choice available to us as to whether to apply that effort or not.

So let’s start again from the basics.

God’s glory is in that He is omnipotent and perfect in every dimension. His unlimited ability to create new things is a portion of that glory too. And the crown of His glory is His ability to create beings with free will who also can exercise part of that creative ability. These beings definitely include humans.

According to the Catechism, St Bonaventure teaches that God creates in order to demonstrate his glory. This makes sense because that creative ability is part of God’s glory. God created the Universe and everything in it, everything corporal and spiritual.

Did God create the Universe to boast to someone? That is impossible, because there was no one else present before God created the Universe.

Did God create the Universe and living beings to have someone to boast to? That is slightly more logical than the first suggestion, but is still problematic. Why would God have to boast when He has nothing to prove about His glory?

As the Ultimate Creator, He creates beings not in order for them to affirm His glory, but so that, out of love, He may replicate his glory in each of them. Or, as the Catechism teaches, “so that He may become ‘all in all’”.

This statement, if taken literally, would contradict the Church’s stance against pantheism, where God and the Universe are made to be identical to each other. That is an incorrect belief because God is still separate from creation.

Rather, this statement should be taken metaphorically. God does not become one with the Universe, but rather reveals His existence through the glory He displays and imbues in creation. God is the source of every goodness in our lives, the reason why possibility exists for goodness.

When we give glory to God, we are affirming that all these potentials derive from the glory of His creation. Pexels, Joshua Woroniecki

Every source of beauty and happiness comes from God.

When we give glory to God, we are affirming that all these potentials derive from the glory of His creation. In doing so, we are not sacrificing the fruits of our efforts, which still belong to us according to the purpose of God as spelled out in a famous verse from the Book of Jeremiah:

For I know well the plans I have in mind for you—oracle of the LORD—plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future of hope.

(Jer 29:11)

Rather, we are avoiding the trap of making ourselves into the source of all this goodness. We accept our positions as created beings, rather than as the Creator. In so doing, we avoid falling victim to a spirit of arrogance, and destroying our communion with God and with others around us.

History is replete with examples of people who did horrible things because they believed they were gods. From the tyrants of several millenia ago who actually formally claimed divinity, to today’s dictators who claim that they created their own glories and hence deserve to do with them what they please. All these have caused untold suffering to many people around them.

In our age and our region of Asia, some of this even manifests in the cultural sphere. There are legions of youth every year who chase after pop idols, getting drawn in by the allure of their popularity and glory in culture. The most dedicated fandoms advance from purchasing props – like pillows and perfume with their pop idols’ faces on it – to trying to live lives exactly like their pop idols.

This can go to crazy extremes. On Internet platforms like ebay, there are people who hawk old T-shirts and even used soap and perfume of these pop idols, and these can reach the price of a month’s salary. These sales may continue even if the star confirms they are not authentic items. These fans will go to such extents to live the exact life of their idol – or part thereof. Nothing is off-limits barring lack of money: earrings, hairdos, clothing, shoes, perfume, smoking, foul language, drugs, disrespect to elders and so on.

All source of beauty comes from God. Pexels, Matheus Bertelli

In ascribing all glory to their pop idols, these Asian youth are destroying their uniqueness and lives,as well as damaging those around them through their reckless behaviour.

This demonstrates the benefit of us giving all glory to God instead of ourselves or each other. When we ascribe all glory solely to God, we gain a perspective that allows us to assess our positive and negative qualities, and those of others more objectively.

So let us all reflect on how God’s glories eclipse each of us today!

Main Image: Pexels, Joshua Woroniecki

Eph 5: How Husbands can mirror Jesus at Home

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What is leadership? In much of Antiquity and indeed, the Roman Empire where Jesus and his disciples preached, it was not particularly enlightened. Often, it was through the use of tools of intimidation like threat of armed violence and asymmetrical power (those who have it using it on those who don’t). You were considered lucky if the leader of your tribe or kingdom was noble and ruled through respect and love rather than fear.

In Jewish eschatology, the Messiah is the future Jewish king from the Davidic line as foretold in the scrolls of Isaiah. The expectation of Christ or Anointed was that He would also be a great political and military leader who would rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, overthrow their Roman rulers and establish the Kingdom by conquering the enemies of Israel.

Pexels- Evelyn Chong

“The first will be last and the last will be first.”

Matthew 20:16

However, when Jesus came, He preached an “upside down world” – a new humanity built on service and sacrifice rather than dominance. That’s not to say that Jesus was militarily weak or did not have the will to fight either. After all, He did say to Pontius Pilate: “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” What Jesus demonstrated was complete obedience to God’s will.

Why Ephesians 5 matters: How husbands and wives argue/fight is the key to lasting relationships

Often couples show a fundamental disrespect for each other when mild complaints like “You didn’t do the dishes” escalate into a general criticism such as “You don’t do anything for the family.” In a very human interaction, a husband listening to this response can only come back with equally hurtful retorts in “self-defence” and before you know it, the disrespect is rampant, nobody hears the other, and the true grievances go unheard and unresolved while you are stoking the embers of vengeance in your hearts.

This is the “old humanity” that Jesus calls us to leave behind, the old humanity that was dependent on power, meanness and violence (physical or verbal).

How the Gospels portrayed Jesus is mirrored in St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

Ephesians 5:25

Male figures in the family have a high calling. All men are called to be leaders in their homes. It begins with St. Paul’s exhortation: “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Pexels – Josh Willink

The husband’s call to be Jesus at Home

In John 13:1–5, we see Jesus laying aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tying it around his waist, He then poured water into a basin and began washing the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. Even as He died on the cross, Jesus forgave the people who killed Him. In essence, the epitome of servant leadership.

In Ephesians, St. Paul has a conviction that how we usually behave and treat each other is superficial and he believes that true conversion comes from our new identity in Christ and it is from this well-spring of Christ-in-us that we as husbands must behave. In His time on earth, Jesus often used Jewish marriage customs as a beautiful allegory of God’s relationship with the church and this is how husbands must be to their wives.

Though it is never tacitly discussed, the Sacrament of Marriage, a lasting commitment between a man and a woman to a lifelong partnership, is on the level of the priesthood. In that sense, in the persona of Christ, husbands are to be of service to their wives and all the sacrifices that come with it (think Jesus turning His cheek – Matthew 5). This, however, should not to be mistaken for passivity but rather the acknowledgement that God will handle it.

In Scripture, we find many examples of what Jesus would do when someone wrongs Him. In John 18, Jesus is struck in the face by an official of the high priest. His response was to question why he was struck in the face. He asked the official to tell him what he said that was an untruth. 

John 19:3 shows that Jesus was struck in the face again when he was sentenced to be crucified. Looking far back into the Old Testament, we see David sparing Saul’s life again and again because 1 Samuel 26:9-11 tells us that David left the punishment of Saul to the Lord. Whether it is Jesus or David, the protagonists or antagonists in their lives are there by Divine Providence and thus, obedience to God (even unto death on the cross) and trusting God’s sovereignty over all aspects of your life, is the quintessence of Christianity.

“If you fight with your wife and win, what have you really won?”

Donnie Yen to the author during an interview

It is in biblical marriage that your old selfish self dies on the cross and husbands become mirrors of our Lord and Saviour. And what did Jesus say about the cross? “let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:26)

God – The Supreme Embroiderer Part 1

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He turns bad into good and takes our adversities to weave a beautiful picture

When I was a little boy, my mother used to embroider a great deal. I would sit at her knee and look up from the floor and ask what she was doing. She informed me that she was embroidering. I told her that it looked like a mess from where I was sitting, which was the underside. I watched her work within the boundaries of the little round hoop that she held in her hand.

She would smile at me, look down and gently say, “My son, you go about your playing for a while, and when I am finished with my embroidering, I will put you on my knee and let you see it from my side.”

I would wonder why she was using some dark threads along with the light ones and why they seemed so jumbled from my view. A few minutes would pass and then I would hear Mother’s voice say, “Son, come and sit on my knee.”

This I did, only to be surprised and thrilled to see a beautiful flower or a sunset. I could not believe it, because from underneath it looked so messy.

Then Mother would say to me, “My son, from underneath it did look messy and jumbled, but you did not realize that there was a pre-drawn plan on the top. It was a design. I was only following it. Now look at it from my side and you will see what I was doing.”

Many times, through the years I have looked up to my Heavenly Father and said, “Father, what are You doing?” He has answered, “I am embroidering your life.” I say, “But it looks like a mess to me. It seems so jumbled. The threads seem so dark. Why can’t they all be bright?” The Father seems to tell me, “My child, you go about your business of doing My business, and one day I will bring you to Heaven and put you on My knee and you will see the plan from My side.”

The above anecdote is taken from Embroidery (Author unknown). It is short and simple, but contains a wonderful message that helps to explain the questions and problems in life, especially spiritual ones, we often encounter.

For example, why does God allow me to suffer so much and bad things happen to me every now and then, even though I am not the agent or cause of these incidents? I am sure all of us have experienced such unfortunate situations at several points in our lives.

From accidents and natural disasters (storms, floods, forest fires, etc.) to those that man inflicts on others such as wars and criminal acts that cause us to lose those we love, our homes and personal property.

I, too, have been through several traumatic events and sufferings while growing up. I was born and raised during the Vietnam civil war, between people in the North and the South, due to differences in government and political ideologies. By the time the war ended in April 1975, I was 15 years old, but had witnessed many tragic scenes: bombs killing innocent people – especially women, children and the elderly – and destroying villages and cities.

I have seen mothers mourn their children, wives their husbands and the plight of orphans who no longer had parents. At least two million civilians and 1.3 million combatants died during the war that started in 1954.

In 1981, I had to flee my hometown and country. I had no choice but to leave behind everyone and everything dear to me, especially my parents, family and friends, to be free to answer God’s call for me to enter the priesthood.

The Communist authorities, who won the war and had taken over governing Vietnam, tried to stop me after discovering that a Catholic seminary had secretly accepted my application to study for the priesthood.

They forced me to enlist in their military in 1980 to fight against the Khmer Rouge, their rival communists in Cambodia, and it was highly unlikely I would have survived this war. So, I deserted the Vietnamese communist army and became a fugitive who was hunted like an animal.

There were times, while I was on the run from my pursuers that I silently lashed out at God, because He had called me to follow Him as a disciple of Jesus and I felt He had abandoned me. I asked why He chose and called me, only to leave me running for my life.

“God, could you see what you have done to me?” I complained to God. “I must endure persecutions because of my faith and because I did answer your call. I had to leave my home and family and must search for a way out of my own terrible situation, and it seems to me that there is no way out.”

The only way to survive this persecution, I concluded, was to escape from Vietnam. It can be said that from 1980 till the end of 1981 was the darkest time of my life. I lived completely in despair and in that great misery I pleaded many times with God to take my life, just as Tobias prayed to God in the Old Testament (Tb 3:1-6):

3:1. Then Tobias sighed, and began to pray with tears,
3:2. Saying, Thou art just, O Lord, and all thy judgments are just, and all thy ways mercy, and truth, and judgment:
3:3. And now, O Lord, think of me, and take not revenge of my sins, neither remember my offences, nor those of my parents.
3:4. For we have not obeyed thy commandments, therefore are we delivered to spoil and to captivity, and death, and are made a fable, and a reproach to all nations, amongst which thou hast scattered us.
3:5. And now, O Lord, great are thy judgments, because we have not done according to thy precepts, and have not walked sincerely before thee.
3:6. And now, O Lord, do with me according to thy will, and command my spirit to be received in peace: for it is better for me to die, than to live.

It is like the embroidered story at the start of this article. Seen from my side, I felt that everything was in chaos, deadlock and despair. I could not see a way out and became depressed and pessimistic during this dark time that had engulfed me. Life became meaningless and I did not want to live anymore.

I wanted to die peacefully so that I could be united with God in heaven. It was my sincere wish and great desire at that time because this would solve all my problems. Every night, with tears in my eyes, I prayed earnestly to God to take me away to Him.

I prayed this way for more than one month, only to get up each morning very much alive. God had remained silent and did not grant my wish.

For about 10 months I lived in such a terrible condition, hiding as a fugitive and constantly afraid the military police or local law officers would eventually catch up with me. My state of mind was dreadful that my family finally ordered me to flee Vietnam, as the situation had become quite dangerous for both me and them.

God weaves a beautiful picture of our lives but we can only see its beauty when He is finished His work.

I didn’t want them to suffer the consequences of my actions, so I searched and eventually found someone who was gathering other people who were in a similar dire situation. They had a small boat for 51 of us, including children, to escape Vietnam.

At the first opportunity in darkness one night, these agents goaded us like cattle to a meeting point at the coast and onto the boat so small there was hardly space for anyone to lie down and rest.

We had no choice but to endure what was no guarantee that we would survive our desperate flight from Communist oppression.

The weather was no friend either because fierce rainstorms conspired to accompany us at sea. For five days high waves tossed our boat vigorously and when the sea was calm, the blazing sun burnt our skins.

It came to the point that although no one fell off the boat in trying conditions, we were losing hope of surviving because no land had come into view, and we were running out of food and water.

Everyone, Christian or not, had quietly made their peace with God before what must surely come: death. Then, just as suddenly as our hope was almost gone, as twilight took over from day, we spotted lights in the distance.

As we squinted our eyes, we could make out people. It was land and we guessed it was probably a village of people going about their evening activities.

To our amazement when we reached the “village” it was a camp for other Vietnamese refugees like us at Pulau Bidong in the eastern coast of Malaysia.

The joy of everyone on our little boat that we had reached such a place was indescribable and one of unbelief. We had escaped from the jaws of death at sea. For us, it was a great miracle. Whether one believes or not, we were all convince that surely it was the Hand of God that had been with us all along at every step of our ordeal, in Vietnam and especially in our journey to freedom in the treacherous sea.

Through our jubilation, I could imagine God admonishing us: “O men of little faith?” (Mt 8:26)

Continue to Part 2

God – The Supreme Embroiderer Part 2

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He weaves beauty in our lives, but we won’t see the masterpiece until it is ready

Continued from Part 1

In transit at Pulau Bidong, the feeling was that of someone without any relatives or friends living in countries that accepted refugees. Odds were I was unlikely to be resettled and would eventually be sent back to Vietnam.

But after more than six months living there in poor conditions, I was fortunate that an Australian humanitarian delegation had requested to interview me. They eventually decided I ticked all the right boxes as a refugee and allowed me to resettle in Australia. This was my greatest joy yet, for it opened a new path for me to answer God’s call to the priesthood.

I arrived in Perth, Western Australia on August 10, 1982. It is nearly 40 years since that day, and I have worked to devote all my time and energy to be a worthy student of God.

My first task was to learn English, which I could not speak or write, with the view that one day I could go back to the Seminary to continue my vocation to the priesthood. I was very fortunate to have first entered Saint Charles Seminary in Guildford, in the Archdiocese of Perth in 1982.

Later at the end of the following year, I moved to Sydney to join the Redemptorist Order.

In February 1984, I officially started my formation program with them and after 10 years, my Provincial Superior approved and recommended that I be ordained as a Redemptorist priest. This happy occasion came to pass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Maidstone Parish in Melbourne on 16 July 1994.

After my ordination, the Provincial Superior allowed me to pursue the second-year program of my Psychology studies at the University of Western Australia. I then went on to study for a Master of Moral Theology at the University of Notre Dame in early 1996.

After I gained Australian citizenship, by God’s grace I was invited to Vietnam to teach Moral Theology at the Redemptorist Seminary in Saigon (also known as Ho Chi Minh City). After a year of teaching there, I was sent to Rome to pursue a Doctorate in this subject at the Alphonsian Academy in Rome.

The Redemptorists founded the academy in 1949 and since 1960 began specialising in moral theology as a part of the Pontifical Lateran University’s Faculty of Theology.

On April 8, 2003, after three years in Italy, I completed my doctorate and returned to Australia to continue the mission God and the Redemptorist Congregation entrusted to me.

I can now reflect with clarity on the important events that have taken place in my life: From accepting God’s call to beginning my journey towards the priesthood in a very difficult situation and entering the “underground seminary” to having to decide to leave my homeland via the sea voyage.

Living in the Pulau Bidong Refugee camp, my days were filled with hardship, suffering and despair because I did not know what my future would be like and where it would go.

When I arrived in Australia, I was faced with new challenges. First, I found myself in a completely foreign culture and language. I was like a lost sheep and helpless as I was alone in a foreign land without any friends or relatives. Except One. God was the only friend I had, and He was my companion. I had faith in Him, who was full of love and mercy, and hoped He would never abandon me in my misery!

But Australia has given me a golden opportunity to continue my priestly vocation journey. It also provided me with a good and favorable environment to indulge in my studies, so that I can continue to follow my dreams. With so many ups and downs, and many important events that have since happened, I reflected that I had a view exactly like the boy in the story.

I saw underneath the tapestry God was weaving in my life and was confused, bewildered and felt hopeless. I thought I will never be able to continue my vocation journey, even after I escaped from Vietnam because when arrived in Australia, I found it difficult to learn English.

Enunciating English words drove me crazy, as it does not have a consistent rule to guide me how to pronounce them correctly. Then, I did not dare think that I would qualify to study philosophy and theology at the Major Seminary, even if I were accepted. There were times when I felt completely exhausted and was convinced I would fail in my vocational endeavours.

Australia presented new challenges in my journey to the priesthood.

But mysteriously, God had His own plan and would carry it out to lead me through the twists and turns of my journey. I experienced the kind of melancholy mood of the two disciples on the way back to Emmaus, who were sad, depressed and desperate, because three days had passed and they still have not seen their Master risen from the dead, as he promised.

Like them, I wanted to retreat and give up, and to accept a return to my previous life. In that critical moment, Jesus himself appeared before me, just as He did to the two Emmaus disciples. He encouraged and gave me more energy, patience, and will-power so that I would be able to overcome the difficulties I was facing.

After 28 years since I was ordained as priest (1994-2022), I am amazed and realize it was God who weaved everything in my life. It was His hand that guided and led me to where I am today.

Indeed, He is a mighty God and a talented and brilliant embroiderer.
Only He can perform great things: from nothingness to existence, from the trivial to the great, from something ordinary to the extraordinary, from an unknown person to an evangelizer filled with a burning love of God’s good news and of His unconditional love for humanity.

Dear God, I thank You with all my heart and would like to express my deep gratitude to you. Thank you for illuminating and revealing to me Your wonderful message through the story “God’s Embroidery”. It gives me an insight into Your marvelous plan, although it can sometimes be too mysterious for me and others to comprehend it fully.

I am so deeply grateful for whatever you have done in my life. You truly know what is best for me and how to form me according to your Son’s image. May you continue to transform and help me to realize that I need to be more patient with myself, and with the work you are doing at present.

I need to wait until Your embroidery is completed. Only then can I fully understand and see the masterpiece of Your embroidery, and that is also the finished article that You want to show me of my life through the ups and downs that You have allowed me to experience.

May I always trust you wholeheartedly in your divine providence and in a plan that you have for me, since you are my God, a merciful and loving Father.

Penginjilan: Hilang dari terjemahan

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Gereja wujud untuk menginjil dan ini mesti menjadi misi kita juga

Sebagai penganut Katolik, anda dan saya tidak pernah dibesarkan dalam budaya penginjilan. Seorang seminarian yang memberi ceramah di program belia kami dengan berani menegaskan bahawa “Gereja tidak lagi menginjil”.

Sejak kecil sehingga membesar, saya percaya semua agama adalah sama, cuma berbeza perjalanan menuju kepada Tuhan; Saya seorang relativis agama. Saya menganggap tuntutan eksklusif satu agama adalah protestan yang bersifat menyinggung perasaan individu lain.

Jadi, apa yang mengejutkan pemikiran keagamaan saya adalah apabila saya membaca kisah tentang orang-orang kudus, yang mana semangat jiwa mereka kedengaran lebih Protestan daripada versi kepercayaan Katolik yang saya terima. Santo Francis Xavier, perintis penginjilan abad ke-16 di Asia dan penaung misi menuliskan:

“Ramai orang di sini tidak menjadi Kristian kerana satu sebab sahaja: tidak ada sesiapa yang menjadikan mereka Kristian. Berkali-kali saya terfikir untuk pergi ke universiti-universiti Eropah, terutamanya Paris, dan di mana-mana menjerit seperti orang gila, menarik perhatian mereka yang lebih berilmu daripada amal: “Trajedi apakah: begitu ramai jiwa yang terhalang dari syurga dan jatuh ke dalam neraka, terima kasih kepadamu!”

Saya mula membaca Alkitab untuk diri saya sendiri dan menyedari bahawa jika saya menganggap tuntutan eksklusif agama Kristian adalah ketaksuban, maka Yesus adalah puncanya. Dia berkata: “Akulah jalan dan kebenaran dan kehidupan.

Tiada seorang pun yang dapat datang kepada Bapa kecuali melalui aku” (Yohanes 14:6) Dan Gereja moden, dalam dokumen seperti Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975), Redemptoris Missio (1990), Ecclesia in Asia (1999), Dominus Iesus (2000) dan Evangelii Gaudium (2013) tidak pernah mengubah mesejnya mahupun dalam keadaan mendesak untuk penginjilan.

Terdapat jurang yang besar antara ajaran Magisterial dan Katolik popular yang diamalkan oleh umat beriman di gereja. Melupakan atau enggan mematuhi perintah Yesus untuk ‘Pergilah, jadikan semua bangsa murid-Ku (Mat 28:19) bukankah juga perlu dikenal pasti sebagai ketidaktaatan dan dosa?

Di manakah silap kita?

Majlis Vatikan Kedua yang telah bersidang dari 1962-1965 mengemas-kini ajaran Gereja Katolik untuk konteks dunia moden. Bimbingan Roh Kudus dalam Majlis tersebut tidak pernah diragui (kecuali oleh mereka yang menghampiri kemaksiatan). Tetapi yang pasti, sikap Gereja Katolik terhadap agama lain dan pengikutnya, berubah 180 darjah.

Daripada pengusiran, kutukan dan panggilan “ajaran sesat”, para uskup dunia merasakan Roh Kudus memanggil Gereja untuk membina jambatan dalam ekumenikal dan dialog antara agama. Ia tidak bermakna bahawa Gereja telah mengubah ajarannya tentang peranan unik Kristus dan Gereja. Kepercayaan bahawa Yesus adalah satu-satunya jalan penyelamatan dan bahawa tidak mungkin ada penyelamatan di luar Gereja; dan tidak bersetuju dengan kepercayaan lain tidak bermakna Gereja harus bersikap menentang.

Malangnya, 99% penganut Katolik, nuansanya telah hilang dalam penterjemahan. Ketegangan antara dua dakwaan: bahawa Yesus adalah satu pengantara, dan bahawa orang-orang dari agama lain boleh diselamatkan, bermakna semua agama adalah sama dan kita tidak perlu menginjil lagi.

Oleh itu, tempoh selepas Vatican 2 mengelirukan untuk generasi tanpa Carian Google untuk menyemak apa yang diturunkan oleh profesor seminari dan paderi. Sebilangan besar mubaligh Katolik mula tertanya-tanya sama ada mereka telah mensia-siakan hidup mereka dan telah meninggalkan perintah agama. Setelah kehilangan tujuan mereka untuk membimbing jiwa ke syurga, mereka menjadi ejen bantuan kemanusiaan sahaja.

Jadi apa yang perlu kita lakukan?

Umat ​​Katolik seharusnya tidak berundur daripada membina persahabatan mesra dengan jiran mereka yang beragama Islam, Buddha, Hindu, agnostik atau ateis. Umat Katolik harus berada di barisan hadapan dalam isu keluarga yang pro-life, berkhidmat kepada pendatang dan menjaga ciptaan.

Tetapi umat Katolik juga harus mengamanahkan prinsip bahawa “Tidak ada penginjilan yang benar jika nama, ajaran, kehidupan, janji-janji, kerajaan dan misteri Yesus dari Nazaret, Anak Tuhan, tidak diwartakan” (Evangelii Nuntiandi 22).

Dalam menghadapi medan misi sebesar 2 bilion jiwa Asia, Perintah Agung, kata-kata terakhir Yesus, mesti menjadi keutamaan pertama bagi setiap Katolik: untuk menjadikan murid mubaligh yang menjadikan murid mubaligh lain.

Menjadi mubaligh untuk anda dan saya adalah perubahan yang besar. Jika anda mengasihi Tuhan dan ingin mengambil bahagian dalam perubahan ini, sertai bersama untuk berubah.

English Version – Evangelisation: Lost in Translation

For without me you can do nothing

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Like the smartphone that needs a battery to be useful, we need Christ for power

Last week, I had the opportunity to celebrate Mass at the chapel of the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle, Western Australia, and the Gospel reading was from St. John’s Gospel 15:1-17, which I quote as follows:

Jesus the True Vine

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 

6 If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. 

10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants,[a] for the servant[b] does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 This I command you, to love one another.

John 15:1-17

This is one passage among the four Gospels I love to read and meditate on. It contains a lot of Jesus Christ’s deep feelings that He wants to share and convey to his beloved disciples. Of course, this includes those of us who have been baptised as Christians.

The entire passage can be viewed as a “love letter” or “will” that Jesus desired to give His disciples before He entered his Passion, which ended with His disgraceful crucifixion and death on the cross.

Anticipating this was going to happen and knowing that time was running out, Jesus seemed anxious on giving his last thoughts and admonishing his disciples with these golden words:

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

John 15:4-5

What does Jesus have to do with smartphones?

During my homily at the Mass on Wednesday afternoon, I invited students and lay people to learn about a rather practical truth in our spiritual life, which Jesus himself made clear to all of us as He said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I abide in him, he bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing.”

I ask the students: Do you use smartphones, such as Samsung or iPhone? They replied: “Yes, Father.” So, I invited one of them to show me her iPhone 13 series, which is the latest model, and asked: “Can you tell me and your friends here, what your iPhone 13 can do for you? And what advanced features it has?

She stood up and happily shared with us the latest apps on her smartphone and said:

“This Iphone 13 is very smart and useful. You can use it to make phone calls and talk to people all over the world. You can use apps like Viber, Zalo, WhatsApp or Facetime to communicate and even can make video calls for free (that is, when you call and talk to your loved ones, you can see them and their surroundings).

“You can also use your iPhone to transfer money to relatives or friends or to pay bills, and especially to take pictures, record videos, scan documents and then email them to your family and friends. What’s more, this mobile phone can guide and direct you on what route to take when you are driving, especially to places where you have never been to. The Google Maps’ GPS system is convenient and accurate. I don’t have to look at a map and worry about getting lost.”

I listened to her sharing about the wonderful applications of smartphones, which most people around the world use today to the point that we cannot live and work efficiently without them. We all rely heavily on our mobile phones and we have them with us 24 hours a day. If you leave home without one, we can even say it is dangerous, because you won’t be able to contact anyone or send messages in an emergency.

After she finished telling us about what the wonderful apps of her new iPhone 13 could do, I gently asked her: but can you use that “amazing iPhone”, if it runs out of battery and you forget to recharge it? She looked at me, then smiled sadly and replied, “No, Father.” If my phone runs out of battery power, I cannot use it. My smartphone is dependent on the battery to work. Without power, it becomes useless, since it is not able to do anything.

Through the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, God imparts Grace to us to lead useful and fruitful lives in Communion with Him

Christ the Vine powers us to bear good fruits

I smiled, thanked her and said: “You are right, when the battery runs out, the mobile phone, no matter how advanced it is, becomes useless and impossible to use for anything it is designed to do.”

This is precisely at the heart of the matter that Jesus wants to convey to us, through the passage in John 15:1-17, because the Lord Himself affirms, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15:5).

Without a battery, the mobile phone couldn’t do what it is made for. Even the newest and most expensive ones become useless. The life of each of us Christians is the same. Without a close union with Jesus Christ, we too become useless and can do nothing, just like the branch must be united into the vine to survive. We need to draw life-giving energy from Christ the vine and then bear fruit.

This is the essential truth in the spiritual life of each one of us because without God we can’t do anything. So we need to abide in Him, like a branch needs to be united with the vine. Separated from the Vine, who is Christ, we the branches will wither, and eventually have to be thrown into the furnace to burn.

Jesus used this very real image to describe and help his disciples understand the mysterious truth in their spiritual lives. Jesus’ use of the image of a vine and a branch made it possible for his disciples and listeners in Palestine to understand and comprehend this sublime truth because in Israel everyone is familiar with it. So, it was easier for everyone to grasp and gladly receive this message from Jesus.

However, in our present time and the world that we live in, I use the image of a mobile phone to explain Jesus’ message in John 15 to my young University students, for them to understand this profound truth that Jesus reveals. This essential truth is that we need to be intimately united with God in our spiritual lives.

Read: Pope to Combonians: Without Jesus, we can do nothing

We are united to God in the Sacraments

Each one of us will be useless if we are not united with God through a life of prayer and diligent participation in the sacraments, the most important of which is still the Holy Eucharist we celebrate at Mass.

And through the Mass, God gives us an abundant source of grace so that each person can live their own “vocation” He has called them to be. The Catholic Church has always declared: “The Mass is the source of all graces and the summit of the Christian life.” (See Catechism of the Catholic Church’s “The Sacrament of the Eucharist”, Nos 1322-1418, Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy and Pope John Paul II’s The Eucharist in its Relationship to the Church, Ecclesia de Eucharistia)

The new and modern mobile phone will not bring any benefit to the user if it runs out of battery. Likewise, for us, too, our lives will become futile and meaningless, if we are not truly in close union with God.

Since God is the source of all graces and our great treasure that we always want in our lives, then when we find it, we will be filled with authentic joy and experience inner peace. Happiness, then, will fill our hearts.

I invite you to ponder Jesus’ “love letter and will” He has given us John’s Gospel. Read it slowly and meditate on it (Jn 15:1-17), so that you may be able to draw out the wonderful insights for yourselves.

May God bless you all.

For God, every dark cloud has a silver lining

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Meditating on His mysterious Providence as a loving Father for our lives

(Editor’s note: Fr Peter had to flee the clutches of the Vietnamese communist army to answer God’s called to the Priesthood. Watch the documentary on his dramatic escape in the video link provided in this story)

Recently, I felt very fortunate to have received two wonderful messages from God. The first message is this: God is weaving my life and each one of us, so we need to wait patiently until the embroidery is completed. Hopefully by then and only then will we be able to look closely and see in its entirety the splendor of this wonderful embroidered painting of which God is the author. Regarding this experience, I had written an article: God the talented embroiderer in order to share with the readers my own personal insight.

And this weekend, I received another message through the story: “Is Your Hut Burning?” by an unknown author. The heart of this story is that “every cloud has a silver lining”. People often call it “a blessing in disguise”.

I’d like to take the liberty of quoting the full text of the above story for your convenience.

“The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him.prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.

Though exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements and to store his few possessions.

Then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst had happened: everything was lost.

He was stunned with grief and anger. “God, how could you do this to me!” he cried.

Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him.

‘How did you know I was here?’ asked the weary man of his rescuers. ‘We saw your smoke signal,’ they replied.”

It is easy to get discouraged when things are going badly. But we shouldn’t lose heart, because God is always at work in our lives—even in the midst of pain and suffering.

The next time “your little hut is burning to the ground” – remember, it just may be a smoke signal that summons the grace of God.

From Is Your Hut Burning? by an unknown author

When I read and reflect on this story, I think of some events that happened in my life in the past, but at that time, I could not understand or explain why. But these things happened to me, just like our shipwrecked friend who was washed up on a deserted island. Unfortunately, his hut eventually caught fire. It’s really cruel that things like that can happen to anyone.

Like this guy, my first reaction was to blame God for allowing bad things to happen to me, “God, how could you do this to me!” The year was 1980, the Communists were in control of Vietnam for five years and I was a fugitive from their military.

The military police was hunting for me because I had deserted from the army, six months after I was forced to enlist. I was on the run and had to keep travelling from place to place, just to evade them.

I was depressed and frustrated, and screamed to express my anger and resentment towards God. After all, I had given my life to serve Him and a seminary had quietly accepted my application to study for the priesthood. I tried to make sense of things in the hope of finding an answer, or at least something to comfort and help me accept the unfortunate realities that had engulfed my life.

After many days of scratching my head in an attempt to understand what was happening against my will, I still could not find a reasonable explanation on why God had allowed this to happen to me. In the end, I just had to surrender and accept things despite my desperate situation.

There were times when I fell into a state of complete despair, with no desire for anything or to continue with life because it had become meaningless. In light of such circumstances, could it be said that death is a better thing? I had such a thought, even though I knew life is the most precious gift God gives us and we, in every way, must sustain and protect it.

For almost a year, I wandered around under the weight of extreme depression and disappointment because I couldn’t see my future and find a way out of my desperate situation. In fact, it seemed to me there was no way out. Everything had become meaningless to me. Pessimism overwhelmed me and the will to live was slipping away.

Fr Peter at home in Perth besides a portrait of his late mother.

But indeed “in misfortune, there is luck”. Or in Vietnamese we say, Thành ngữ tiếng Việt: Trong cái rủi có cái may, which in English means “A blessing in disguise”. If I had not fled the training at a secret military camp, I would never have thought about escaping by boat from Vietnam. And I would not have been forced to leave my family and seek freedom, so that I could pursue my priestly vocation.

VIDEO: Watch Fr Peter’s journey from refugee to the priesthood: Heeding the Divine Call

But thanks to the chance I got to squeeze into boat, filled with my fellow refugees, and was able to flee from Vietnam that I was finally able to see a ray of hope for my future. Despite the difficult journey traversing the rough sea, the small wooden boat of about 11 meters in length and 3 meters wide held steady amid huge waves and strong winds.

After five days adrift we finally arrived safely at a small island, called Pulau Bidong in Malaysia. It turned out to be providential because it happened to be refugee camp for escapees, who were also from Vietnam. This was a great miracle for us. Everyone in our boat was happy because we had cheated death. We rejoiced and from the bottom of our hearts, we silently thanked “God” for giving us a chance to rebuild our lives.

As I was looking back, I believed that God’s wonderful divine hand led us to the camp. He has a way of acting that I sometimes cannot understand, for who can fathom God’s ways and His thinking.

Thanks to the experience I had during the most tragic and dark time in my life, I was later able to somewhat understand and sympathize with those who were in a similar situation as I was in.

Bishop Peter Connor ordained Fr Peter at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church
in Maidstone Parish, City of Melbourne on 16 July 1994.

So, every time I have the opportunity to meet and confide in these people, I share with them my hardships and tribulations in order to encourage and comfort them. I believe that all sufferings and difficulties in human life will eventually pass, as our grandparents used to say, “The river has a bend, man has a time.” Again, there is also the same Vietnamese saying that goes like this, “Con Sông có khúc, con người có lúc”.

When we think about that advice, it is very wise, as none of us have to live forever in extreme suffering. Moreover, if we are Christian, one who has faith in God as a bountiful and merciful Father, then He himself will never abandon us.

So, when I read these words, which are recorded in the Bible, they are the positive answer to our negative thoughts. I feel extremely delighted, because it turned out to be true with what I’ve been through.

These words from God correspond with my own experience when I say it is impossible but God instead replies, “Yes, it was possible because nothing is impossible with Me (Luke 18:27)”. I say I am not smart enough and may not be able to study in the Seminary. God again replies and say, “I give you wisdom” and “You can do all things” (Philippians 4:13). And the list of things I used to argue with God could go on as in this story I am telling you.

So, today, I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to re-read these golden words and I realise that the Word of God is really a light, guiding my way and it has given me the power to overcome all adversities.

His Word encouraged and uplifted me, especially when I was feeling down and wanted to give up everything. In short, the Word of God is the living Word, with incomparable power and the ability to transform us. It is like a light shining in the dark, helping us to see things and dispel fear.

For all the negative things we have to say to ourselves, God has a positive answer for each of them.

You say: “It’s impossible.”
God says: “All things are possible.” (Luke 18:27)

You say: “I’m too tired.”
God says: “I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

You say: “Nobody really loves me.
God says: “I love you.” (John 3:16 & John 13:34)

You say: “I can’t go on.”
God says: “My grace is sufficient.” (2 Corinthians 12:9/Psalm 91:15)

You say: “I can’t figure things out.”
God says: “I will direct your steps.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

You say: “I can’t do it.”
God says: “You can do all things.” (Philippians 4:13)

You say: “I’m not able.”
God says: “I am able.” (2 Corinthians 9:8)

You say: “It’s not worth it.”
God says: “It will be worth it.” (Roman 8:28)

You say: “I can’t forgive myself.”
God says: “I FORGIVE YOU!” (1 John 1:9 & Romans 8:1)

You say: “I can’t manage.”
God says: “I will supply all your needs.” (Philippians 4:19)

You say: “I’m afraid.”
God says: “I have not given you a spirit of fear.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

You say: “I’m always worried and frustrated.”
God says: “Cast all your cares on ME.” (I Peter 5:7)

You say: “I don’t have enough faith.”
God says: “I have given all a measure of faith.” (Romans 12:3)

You say: “I’m not smart enough.”
God says: “I give you wisdom.” (I Corinthians 1:30)

You say: “I feel all alone.”
God says: “I will never leave you or forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)

Every cloud has a silver lining. God’s wonderful providence for our lives is so marvelous, which He has planned for us, but it’s unfortunate we are unable to see this clearly.

May God mercifully give us the strength and help us, so that we can always keep our faith and fully trust in Him, even when we feel hopeless and face dangers, sufferings and fall into difficult situations. Even at times like these, Lord, may we never lose our trust in you as a merciful and loving father who loves us deeply. Amen.

(A fuller version of Fr Peter’s story will be published here next week)

Mission to save lives: Shipwrecked crew (Part 1)

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What starts as work to lead people to safety can be detoured to self-indulgence

On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occurred, there was once a little life-saving station. The building was primitive and had just one boat, but the crew were committed to saving lives and kept a constant lookout for ships that got into trouble at sea. When a ship went down, day or night, they unselfishly went out to rescue people.

Because so many were saved, the station’s work became widely known. As a result, the station was overwhelmed with offers from people who wanted to give their time, talent and money to support its important work. New boats were bought, fresh crews were recruited and a formal training session was put in place for those who joined the ranks of the crew.

As membership grew, some were unhappy the building was old and had outdated equipment. They yearned for a better place to hold survivors they plucked out from the sea. So they built a large new building, replaced the old emergency cots with comfortable beds and brought in better furniture.

In time the station became a popular meeting place for the crew. They met regularly, always greeted and hugged each other, and shared stories about what had been going on in their lives. The love and care among the crew were evident.

As time passed, most members lost interest in going out to sea on life-saving missions. They hired lifeboat crews to handle this important task. About this time, there was a large shipwreck off their coast, and the new hires went out to sea and returned to the station with boatloads of cold, wet, dirty, sick, and half-drowned people.

The survivors were a mixed bunch. Some had black skin and others yellow. They were a few who were fluent in English, while most didn’t understand the language. Among them were first-class cabin passengers, and there was a clutch of deck hands. In just a short time, the station that had become a beautiful meeting spot was transformed into a place of chaos. The plush carpets got dirty and the exquisite furniture suffered scratches.

In the ensuing melee, the property committee swung into action and constructed a makeshift shower outside the building where the shipwreck survivors were cleaned before they were allowed inside.

At the station’s next meeting there was a rift among the members. Most wanted to stop their life-saving work as they were unpleasant and a hindrance to their fellowship. Others insisted that saving lives was still their primary mission and pointed out that the station still had this status. But this minority group was voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all sorts of people that the station recently did, they could do this at another location down the coast. And that’s what they did.

Those who joined the original team were not transformed into disciples of the mission in which their belief in saving lives would have been deeply rooted. If this had been the case, the new members would, in turn, attract and transform others into disciples to believe in their cause.

As the years passed, the new place experienced a repeat of what afflicted and ended the mission of the station it replaced. It evolved into a place for fellowship, committee meetings and special training sessions about their mission, but few went out to save people from drowning. Survivors were also no longer welcomed in this new station that was supposed to save lives. Another station was founded further down the coast to do this.

History continued to repeat itself. And if you visit that seacoast today, you will find a number of adequate meeting places with ample parking spaces and plush carpeting. Shipwrecks are still frequent in those waters, but most people drown.

What went wrong with the mission of saving lives in this unfortunate tale?

It is apparent new members were attracted to the mission but were not adequately formed to actually love the work of saving lives. In time, they enjoyed the fellowship, which should be a by-product of the mission and not the main course.

The crux of the problem: Those who joined the original team were not transformed into disciples of the mission in which their belief in saving lives would have been deeply rooted. If this had been the case, the new members would, in turn, attract and transform others into disciples to believe in their cause.

We can view this story through the lens of the wider Christian missionary. Where do Catholics stand in comparison to other non-Catholic Christian groups? How robust are we? You will be surprised at the results of surveys that were conducted to measure how we faired.

Image: Katalin Rhorvát, Pexels

Part 2 Mission to save lives: The shipwrecked disciples

Mission to save lives: Shipwrecked disciples (Part 2)

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We need to build up more life-savers in the Catholic Church

In Part 1, I told a tale of a group of life-savers whose work to rescue survivors of shipwrecks attracted people to join their mission. But they were not deeply rooted in the cause of saving lives, lost their sense of mission and became a social club.

To be deeply rooted in a mission is to be transformed into missionary disciples. Such people who experience this type of conversion are so convinced of the good of their work that they in turn want others to join their cause. This strong passion for their work in helping others has the effect of creating more passionate believers.

In Christian terms, this will create disciples who create other disciples, who do likewise and so on and so on. But how do Catholics fare in the work of discipleship because he work Jesus Christ, in which we are called to join His mission, is about saving lives? It is not a one-off rescue outing to pluck people from the jaws of death. It has implications to place them safely for all eternity. This work, which has divine origins in Christ, is called evagelisation.

According to the apostolic exhortation “Evangelisation in the Modern World” the Church exists in order to evangelise (EN 14). But writing for Catholic Missionary Disciple in his article, 5 Reasons Catholics Don’t Evangelise, Marcel LeJeune notes that in a 2013 poll on the importance of Christians who actively shared their faith, Catholics ranked the lowest.

The poll conducted in the United States drew from the best and most engaged Catholics, and yet only 1 out of every 3 “active Catholics” agreed they had a responsibility to share their faith with others and actually did so in the past year. To my knowledge, no similar study has been done in the Malaysian or Singapore Church, but I doubt we are better off.

Catholics must stop making excuses such as “I’m not worthy cos I’m still struggling with sin”, “I don’t know enough about my faith”, “They won’t listen to me” and “I’m not that type” are some excuses you and I make are to exempt ourselves from the Great Commission. It’s similar to how Moses winced and whined before God. (Ex 3:11-22, 4:1-17).

Let’s look at some reasons why I believe Catholics are failing in their fundamental duty

1. Catholics aren’t disciples 

Most Catholics are baptised not because they consciously made a decision to become a disciple of Jesus. Sherry Weddell, author of “Forming Intentional Disciples” notes, “We have asked hundreds of diocesan and parish leaders from 60 dioceses throughout the English-speaking world this question: What percentage of your parishioners, would you estimate, are intentional disciples? To our astonishment, we have received the same answer over and over: ‘Five percent’. When Catholicism is just a religious duty to fulfil and Catholics cannot see the transforming value of Jesus in their lives, it is very unlikely that they will want to share Jesus with others.”

You and I need to look at what Jesus and the Church say about discipleship, before we can make changes, both personal and structural. If our lifestyle is one of compromise, mediocrity and lukewarmness, we would be good for nothing but to be thrown out. Live according to your calling as salt of the earth and light of the world. Then give testimony on how making Jesus the Lord of your life, has been life-changing.

2. Catholics are universalists or believe differences of faith don’t really matter

Universalists believe in the false doctrine that no one will go to hell. In our efforts to promote inter-religious dialogue, the nuances of church teachings are lost on simple Catholics and most have become religious relativists. Respect for other faith traditions and the truth that “all religions teach you to do good” has crossed over to claim that “all religions are the same” and that “everyone will go to heaven”. So what’s the point of introducing Jesus if you don’t believe that He is the One Mediator and lifeline to the Father (John 14:6)?

The nuanced Catholic teaching is found in the Vatican II Constitution, Lumen Gentium (No 16). After laying out the conditions in which a non-believer might be saved, it declares soberly that “VERY OFTEN (translation from the Latin, Flannery edition; capitals mine), men, deceived by the Evil One, have become vain in their reasonings, have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the world rather than the Creator.” This means that, while the Catholic Church teaches that there is a possibility that a non-believer goes to heaven – and always through Jesus – the probability is so low that we shouldn’t be presumptuous. Catholics must pray with heartfelt urgency, “On my Jesus, save us from the fires of hell” and be spurred to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

3. Catholics are scared and make excuses not to do it

“I’m not worthy cos I’m still struggling with sin”, “I don’t know enough about my faith”, “They won’t listen to me” and “I’m not that type” are some excuses you and I make are to exempt ourselves from the Great Commission. It’s similar to how Moses winced and whined before God. (Ex 3:11-22, 4:1-17).

Yet, Jesus gave the command to all, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19). I may be scared to evangelise but you know what frightens me more? That I will one day profoundly regret that I never shared with my loved ones, my secret to the fullness of life.  As part of God’s rescue mission, you and I need to grieve that family and friends who are stumbling without Jesus, could be lost forever (Rom 9:2-3). Only a Holy Spirit love for Jesus and the world can push us out of our comfort zones and make us unashamed of the Gospel! (Rom 1:16).

4. Catholics don’t want to be offensive and lose friendships with non-Christians

I put this as a separate category from the above because living in multi-religious societies, this is a genuine concern. It’s about how our message is going to be received. It’s true that some wouldn’t care. Others might even disagree and reject us. Jesus promised nothing less.

But you can disagree with someone without becoming disagreeable. In fact, there are many people who would want to discuss religion with Catholics. Protestants, Muslims, Mormons and Korean cult devotees. You may be irritated or offended but walking away sends the message that Catholicism doesn’t have an answer. Why don’t we see this as an opportunity to evangelise? I’ve known some Catholics who built up their faith through apologetics discussions. One even became a priest! Those who do not know Christ as Lord and Saviour DESERVE to know the truth and if it’s not going to be from you, then from whom?   

5. Parishes aren’t supporting nor training active personal evangelism

I will say this politely: Catholics, even leaders, who claim it is sufficient to witness with our lifestyle, is not teaching what the Magisterium teaches. Evangelisation is reduced to serving to the poor. Other times evangelism is just waiting for inquirers to sign-up for the RCIA. In one parish, it was a step-up for the priest to ask parishioners, week in and week out, to bring their non-Christian friends to Mass.

But to reverse the current Catholic culture and restore a practice of the apostolic church, Catholics need to be firstly taught “Why Evangelise” and then be encouraged step-by-step how to do it. Only when all parish leaders, including clergy, have had first-hand experience of personal evangelism, will we know how to make “missionary outreach paradigmatic for all the Church’s activities” (Joy of the Gospel 15).

What are five things you can do to help the Church recover Her evangelistic identity?

  • Join a training on personal evangelism. Learn how to share your story of conversion and how to present a basic message of Christianity that invites listeners to place their trust in Jesus. Read a book on how to answer basic apologetic questions like Trent Horn’s “Why We’re Catholic”.
  • Invite church friends to join you for training on personal evangelism. Make a point to share what you are learning about evangelism with someone weekly, especially to correct all the false understanding prevalent among Catholics. Better yet, offer to start the class on evangelism in your parish.
  • Pray daily for your non-Christian friends and lapsed Catholics. List 10 people you can name in a decade of the Rosary. If you are going to offer Mass for the dead, remember to put in intentions for your living non-believer friends as well. And you can always end a conversation by asking “how can I pray for you?”
  • Volunteer to be a hospitality minister that does more. In some parishes, it would already be amazing if they smiled and greeted you. Be friendly and ready to engage in conversation even to invite strangers to join you for a meal.
  • Plan every open event to be evangelistic. Can non-Catholics join in the hiking trip? They sure can. Can non-Catholics join in to serve the homeless? They sure can. Can non-Catholics join in the choir or caroling? They sure can. It may mean conscientiously planning for the presence of non-believers (singable hymns, inspiring homilies etc) and intentionally asking the Catholics to invite their friends especially for celebrations like Christmas and Easter.  

What do you think Is stopping you from evangelising? What can you do to start evangelising? We would love to hear any other ideas you might have to raise up an evangelistic Catholic culture.

Part 1: Mission to save lives: The shipwrecked crew

Sacred Heart heals all wounds

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Christ’s heart of love bears our pain to save us from ruin and hell

(Editor’s note: June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Solemnity is on 24 June)

“May you live in interesting times.” I learnt from a book on the history in China that this sentence is considered a curse in Chinese culture. Just because peace is boring, and war is interesting. Indeed, the heart of every story is a conflict between the protagonist and someone or something else.

In which case, I suppose modern Chinese must feel rather unfortunate to be living in an age with wars, plagues and other tragic events. And, as in many other epochs of history, the Apocalypse industry is back up again: pray, tell me, which COVID variant is God’s Divine Punishment, or are there different variants because each is meant to punish a different sin?

In the midst of all this chaos, it is important for Christians to refocus on the fact that our God is a God of Love, not a God of Judgement. In fact, as the Gospel of John teaches us, God loved the world so much that He sent His Only Son to die for mankind’s sins. The keyword here is “mankind”. Christ didn’t only die for Jews. He died for gentiles, including the Chinese people.

In such times, it is a huge temptation for us to lapse into conspiracy-theory mode. With COVID-19, we might ask whether the virus came from Communist bioweapons. Or was it planted by the Pentagon, James-Bond style? For the other major event, the Russia-Ukraine War, the theories may swing around whether the Russians are really brutal, or Ukraine is making use of liberal Western propaganda machines to paint themselves as more saintly than they actually are.

Conspiracy theories are instruments of the Devil. The Lord sees mankind as mankind, and not in our various nations. As Scripture teaches us, He takes on the burdens of our sins onto Himself. He is the Lord who cares for the widows of Ukraine and the unwilling soldiers of Russia. He cares as much for the Texan veteran who has COVID Beta as He does for the teenager in Shanghai who is down with Omicron. God does not do Real Politick.

One of the best ways to focus on the love of God is by meditating on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This is a devotion that was developed by the French saint, Bernard of Clairveaux. The devotion gained prominence in the Catholic Church after the apparitions to Saint Margaret Alacoque more than a few centuries later.

This virtuous nun was given the privilege of lying against the Heart of Christ and told to spread the message of His love around the world. Her position allowed her to hear Christ’s heartbeat.

When interviewed about her apparitions, she said:

And He [Christ] showed me that it was His great desire of being loved by men and of withdrawing them from the path of ruin that made Him want to manifest His Heart to men,

This demonstrates how close Christ wants to be to each and every one of us. And in the Gospel, he demonstrated this closeness and love by sacrificing Himself on the Cross at Cavalry. This heart of Love is a heart of pain as well, the heart that bears all our pains so that we can be saved from the path of ruin that leads to Hell.

To get a real sense, imagine a stream of blood flowing out from the centre of the Sacred Heart. The Precious blood of Christ that purifies, cleanses and heals all our wounds from sin. As you meditate on the Sacred Heart, cast your pains onto him and imagine all the pains that dissolve in His Precious Blood.

Let us all remember then that Christ is the Prince of Peace that rescues us from the burden of “Interesting Times”.

Deposit of Faith and the 3 Persons

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Centred on the Trinity, it is a treasury of Catholic Truths

When I started reclaiming and relearning my Catholic faith about 20 years ago, I realised what I knew was probably at Primary 4 level. In my interaction with Catholics high up the pecking order, they used terms that were foreign to me.

Some of these I learnt quickly such as Magisterium. It comes from the Latin word magister, which means “teacher”. It refers to the teaching authority that Jesus Christ gave to St Peter and the rest of the Apostles. And from them to their respective successors. The Magisterium is exercised chiefly by the pope who can do so independently and the bishops who must teach in union with him.

One term that took a while to get my head round it is “Deposit of the Faith”. The words give the impression that faith is stored somewhere, such as in a vault. Something that banks do when we deposit our money with them. But faith does not have a physical form, and it took me a few years to understand the term fully.

Deposit of Faith simply means the vast body of divine wisdom that God has manifested to His people from the Old Testament. But it was especially revealed to us in the words and actions of Jesus Christ the Incarnate Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

It embodies all the teachings of Christ that He entrusted to the Apostles with the commission to make them known to the entire world (Matt. 28:16-20). They have since passed this Deposit of Faith to their successors to this day, without any additions or subtractions to preserve the purity of what they had received from Christ.

No one can change Jesus Christ’s teachings because they come from God. They are His divine plan for our Salvation – a roadmap to eternal communion with Him. Or else like a map that has had unauthorised alterations, it will lead us on the wrong path and we will be lost forever.

As St Paul in his epistle to the Thessalonians tells us, “We thank God constantly for this, that when you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the Word of God” (1 Thess. 2:13).

“Deposit of Faith” has biblical roots as it appears in the Greek version of the New Testament. In the apostle’s letters to Timothy, St Paul entreats his fellow missionary, “O Timothy, guard the paratheke (παρακαταθήκην) or deposit (1 Tim 6:20). He repeats this again in 2 Tim 14 to “guard the paratheke that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit”.

This Deposit, then, is to teach Christians everything that Christ has revealed about Himself, the Father and the Holy Spirit. It serves as a bulwark against heresies that attempt to corrupt the Truth about God and His salvific plan for the whole world.

As the principal mode of transmission of His Teachings is through oral teaching, Christ gave the Apostles a simple formula to teach and recall them from the Deposit of Faith with the assistance of the Holy Spirit. This formula is founded on the Blessed Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Here, I’ll quote Monsignor Eugene Kevane, a pioneer in the field of catechetics, from his Introduction to Teaching the Catholic Faith Today (published in 1982 by Daughters of St Paul).

What was the content of Jesus’ teaching? How did He form the minds of His disciples? A catechetical reading of the Gospels shows that He taught them to understand who He Himself is and what the religion is by which mankind is to respond to this central doctrine.

“So that they would know who He Himself is, He taught them the mystery of the Trinity. Within the Godhead of Yahweh, the One God of the Hebrew revelation, there are three equal divine Persons …

“The Trinitarian pattern of this teaching that witnesses to Him is clear from His final mandate to His apostles as founders of His worldwide Teaching Church: “Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time” (Matt 28:19-20)

From the Trinity, springs forth all the teachings of the Catholic Church that are contained in the Deposit of Faith. “The Trinitarian profession of faith for baptism, with its subordinate topics for each Divine Person, became the Articles of Faith which the early Church called the Symbol and which we of the Latin Rite called the Apostles’ Creed from the Latin ‘Credo’,” Msgr Kevane wrote elsewhere.

“These Articles of Faith formed the first set of topics in the teaching. It formulated Jesus’ Deposit: it enabled his Apostles and their Successors to hand on the baptismal Profession of Faith by teaching. It was the substance of catechetical instruction then and now.”

Christ’s teachings do not change, even though the world went through a dramatic transformation in the last two thousand years. They are timeless and have addressed every issue of faith and morals in the ancient days of the Apostles and can do so now in our present day.

This does not mean our understanding of what Christ taught doesn’t develop. It does. A perfect example is the doctrine of “Outside the Church there is no salvation” or Extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

This doctrine was strictly taught in its narrow sense in the early years of the Church, especially to combat erroneous teachings within and without the Church, such as the Albigensian and other heresies. But the Church gained a fuller understanding of this teaching at the Second Vatican Council.

The Fathers at the Council taught that those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart … can be saved (Lumen Gentium, 16).

In doing so, they preserved the substance of Extra ecclesiam nulla salus: That the Church is necessary for Salvation and without Her no one can be saved.

In essence, the Deposit of Faith is a treasury the Catholic Church – as guardians of the revelations of Christ – draws from to define, teach and defend the Truths about God. The four Marian dogmas, which essentially are about the Person of Christ, are such occasions when the Magisterium has unlocked this precious treasury.

In the Solemnity of the Trinity today, it is important to reaffirm this essential toolkit Christ gave His Church to lead us to God.

Culture: Seeing Christ in the games we play

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Hero of world’s most popular computer game has a Messiah-like character

Although many of us despair about secular media, sometimes they contain elements that prompt us to reflect on our Catholic faith. This includes video games.

This is the case with Thoma, a playable character in the world’s most popular computer game to date, Genshin Impact. The name of the game is Japanese, but the producer is Chinese. “Genshin” translated into English means “The Original Deity”.

Thoma has two key designations that describe his prowess as a hero. The first, Blazing Defence, is the firepower that he has been given to fight monsters, and connected with his in-game skill, Blazing Blessing. The second, Protector from Afar, is about the game’s main storyline.

He is a foreigner who has been accepted as the servant of an heiress to one of the three great clans who rule the country. He is gentle and unassuming, but yet assertive. The first time a player and the character meets, Thoma helps him get a visa to enter the closed country. But he soon discovers his official position is the housekeeper for the heiress. He also runs errands for his mistress. These “errands” include trade negotiations, breaking up gang fights and investigating espionage. Not your average grocery shopper.

Thoma is not a perfect analogy, but in certain key aspects, he resembles Christ.

In-game, while he is among the best of the characters, his storyline shows that the most impressive thing he manages to do for the people at court is to conduct a housekeeping class for them. This recalls the story in the Gospels about Christ not being able to do any miracles in Nazareth because nobody believed He was the Messiah. They refused to call him anything other than “son of the carpenter”. Admittedly, a carpenter in the time of Christ was still more prestigious than a housekeeper, but they were not part of the learned classes like the Levites and Scribes.

Both Christ and Thoma share similar experiences of being under-appreciated because of who they appear to be. Thoma also suffers double because he is a foreigner. Our analogy here can remind us that we are called to be “in this world, but not of this world”.

Despite the abuse that he receives at the hands of the courtiers, he is still affable and kind towards them, telling the player that they are just the way they are as courtiers. When he gets angry, it is at the real ruffians and the monsters. Christ is also forgiving and merciful, even to the soldiers who arrest him. When Peter cuts off the ears of the high priest’s servant in the arresting party, Christ heals his ears. Of course, Christ goes several steps ahead of Thoma in that He eventually sacrifices his life for the salvation of all mankind on Good Friday.

Thoma possesses fire-element powers in the game. His normal skill is a lunging attack with a flaming spear. His second ability is an offensive-and-defensive fire power called “blazing blessing” which deals fire damage to enemies and creates a flaming barrier around him and his friends.

Fire is a potent image in the Scriptures. In the Old Testament, a pillar of fire leads the Israelites out of Egypt. God also shames the prophets of Baal with fire from Heaven. Christ brings a different sort of fire to the mix – a fire of the heart. The Holy Spirit that descends on the Apostles on Pentecost is described as tongues of fire in the Book of Acts.

There are also a few times when Christ is associated with strong lights or burning fire. In the Book of Revelations, John sees Christ standing with “eyes like a fiery flame” and “feet like polished brass in a furnace”. Earlier on in the Gospels, Christ appears with a burning visage during the Transfiguration.

So, He effectively dispenses “blazing blessings” to all of us.

The depiction “Protector From Afar” is ironic when applied to Thoma. Usually when one thinks of someone being “afar”, it is of someone who has cut off contact with all people and maybe lives in a monastery or somewhere similar. But Thoma is exactly the opposite. Everybody in the neighbourhood knows him and recognizes his face. However, they don’t know that he is also the legendary “Fixer”. In that sense, he is “afar” from everyone.

Similarly, Christ’s other name is “Emmanuel” or “God is With Us”, yet many times we feel He is far away and fails to recognize His presence in the people around us. He is also “afar” in another way. As the Second Person of the Trinity, He watches us from a context bigger than the 3D setting of our daily routines. He is able to work wonders in our lives because He has more resources than we can imagine.

The final similarity between Thoma and Christ, though, will probably be the most unique. It is also the one that inspired this article.

In Thoma’s quest, he brings the player to a tree in the middle of town where he feeds stray puppies every morning. He has developed a very close bond with the animals to the point of giving each of them names. In addition, he has not merely invited the player to feed the puppies but to also help knit sweaters for each of them, whom he loves. What is even more amazing is that he is the one who gathered all the puppies to the tree in the first place from different corners of the city!

Are you able to guess the analogy here? If you can’t, it is probably because the puppies are a distraction. (Boy, are they adorable!)

This aspect of Thoma dovetails very well with the parable of the Good Shepherd. Like Thoma, Christ as the Good Shepherd goes around the country seeking out the lost sheep and gathering them back into the sheepfold. However, thinking about Thoma’s tree, we could have another insight. While it is commonplace to believe that the Shepherd has one sheepfold, perhaps what the Shepherd really does is gather the lost sheep into many Sheepfolds all under His ownership.

This ties in with the doctrine of subsidiarity in the Catholic Church, where every local Church is the Church of Christ by itself and is not part of another local Church, including the Church of Rome. So, in that way there are many Churches but also just one Church. And all are the same in that they have Christ as their Shepherd!

So, if you are Genshin Impact player or have children who play the game, you can use Thoma as a weak cipher of Christ.

Our journey to Pentecost Sunday

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Travelling on the road of faith, hope and charity for TAF

It is almost a year ago since Deacon Adrian and I toyed with the idea of producing material that is easy to read for all Catholics. We had several conversations through WhatsApp and Zoom because he lives in Kuala Lumpur and I, in Singapore.

We agreed on a plan that if we were to do anything, it would be on a “Simple writing, simple reading” formula. But we had no clue initially on how to go about doing this or what medium it should be on or where we are going to get more help.

If it would be books, booklets, pamphlets or something else, was a question that continuously nagged at us.

We thought a website would be cool, but neither of us was at the level of creating one. It had been quite a while since I started my own blog, and was a little rusty. Besides, there are tons of Catholic websites on the Internet, why would anyone want to come to ours?

That was another question that had been nagging at us.

Our goal, though, is to help Catholics understand our faith better. It is not meant to teach those already neck-deep in studying Catholicism, but if we can contribute anything to their journey, that would be a bonus.

We want to cast our nets far and wide to all Catholics in Malaysia and Singapore, but primarily to those who are trying to understand and learn our faith, including students.

Our language style should, therefore, be easy to understand. As far as possible, we wanted to try and avoid terms that get people scratching their heads. This is no easy task, but we wanted to try.

In this light, we had conversations with a few Catholics who we felt were well-grounded in the faith, but that effort produced nothing. Just as our Lord Jesus Christ lamented that “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Luke 10:2-4)

So, instead of twiddling our thumbs, both of us prayed. We had to have faith.

During Advent last year a handful of promising names emerged. On Christmas Day I started writing at a site that hosted bloggers, just to keep our hopes alive. Then, on Ash Wednesday, two Catholics decided to join our mission: Jonathan Ho and Clement Wee from Singapore.

A few days later, Sister Shirley Chong came on board. She is a Daughters of St Paul Sister from Malaysia and based in Manila.

Our pace accelerated from then on and after several conversations, through Zoom and WhatsApp across Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore, we decided to set up a website. We also agreed that we should cast our nets even further in Asia, and not just Malaysia and Singapore.

But baby steps first. We need to learn how to walk before we start jogging and then running. We also settled on our name, The Asian Fishermen, because we want to obey Christ’s Commission to everyone in His Church to evangelise. But we are going to do this through simple means and in our simple way.

As our journey crossed major Church days and seasons, we planned for our website to go live on Easter Sunday. But midway through our journey I fell ill and had to recuperate. The team decided they did not want to launch this mission without everyone on board.

So, we all agreed that the next important date available should be Pentecost Sunday, the day the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles and send them on their way to fulfill Christ’s Great Commission of spreading the Gospel to the ends of the world.

We are here, then, on this day, to do our small part in this work for Jesus Christ. None of us have any clue where we are going or how The Asian Fishermen, or TAF, will develop. But we place our faith in the Holy Spirit to lead us where He wills us to go.

A happy and blessed Pentecost!

The Tohu va-bohu around LGBTQ

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Light and form, aided by the Holy Spirit, are needed

Tohu va-bohu (תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ) is the biblical Hebrew phrase in Genesis 1:2 that describes the condition of the Earth before the creation of Light: “And the Earth was formless and void…” Tohu means formless, chaos or confusion, and bohu means void and emptiness. By extension, Tohu va-bohu symbolizes the mental “confusion (storm) and lack of information (darkness),” which also describes what is around LGBTQ issues. Misconceptions contribute to the “tohu” while “bohu” is widespread. In this article, a few misconceptions are pointed out, and some unknowns are introduced.

The Misconceptions

# 1 – It is chosen. Having non-heterosexuality is never chosen. Just as a young person one day finds out his/her attraction to the opposite sex, some people also one day realise they are attracted to the same sex. This can lead to the next misconception…

#2 – It is somehow genetic. There are many identical twin studies done over decades. These studies show that when one twin is gay, the chances of the other twin being gay are only 11 to 14%. If the cause was genetic, the percentage should be close to 100% for identical twins since they share the same genome.

The latest and most thorough study, led by Dr. Andrea Ganna and published in August 2019, concluded that “there is no gay gene.” They performed a GWAS (Genome-Wide Association Study) on almost half a million individuals and found that even though many genes contribute to same-sex attractions, their combined effect accounts for only 8 to 25% of heritability. Dr. Melinda Mills, Director of Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science in Oxford, said, “This is a solid study.” Dr. Eric Vilain, a geneticist at Children’s National Health System of Washinton DC, said the study marks the end of “the simplistic concept of the ‘gay gene.’ ”

# 3 – People with homosexuality experience trauma or bad childhood experiences. Not all who have same-sex attractions have trauma and adverse childhood experiences. There are other factors – like relationship with the opposite gender is dominant, perfectionism, fear of being disliked, poor role models around – to name a few.

Even trauma and adverse experiences depend on who inflicts them and who—if any—is supporting them for recovery, healing, and prevention of re-occurrence. Each person with same-sex attraction has a unique set of underlying factors. To hold a narrow view that “trauma and adverse childhood experiences are the cause” excludes everyone else who struggles with homosexuality but does not have these experiences.

The Unknowns

#1 – Homosexuality exists in animals. There is a long list of animals that exhibit homosexual behaviour. Just Google it. Dr. Bruce Bagemihl’s 1999 book Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity is a very detailed scientific book. In it is written, “homosexual behaviour in animals is greeted with nonchalance from nearby animals…” In other words, no creature is incensed or outraged at the sight of homosexual behaviour. So, should humans learn from animals?

The human brain has a highly developed Neocortex where morality, religion, and abstract thought exist. Animals do not have a developed Neocortex and therefore have no cognitive dissonance with homosexuality. On the other hand, humans can reduce cognitive dissonance by giving up their moral-religious beliefs or modifying their moral-religious beliefs.

# 2 – Homosexuality exists in the unconscious part of human memory.  Human brain function is 95% unconscious. Much of conscious human memory is Explicit. It is the “software” we can learn through Episodic events and experiences, and Semantic concepts and facts through learning. We can “declare” these memories. That’s why it is “explicit.”

Emotional conditioning and Priming exist in the Mammalian Brain. Emotional conditioning is also the “software” that conditions a boy or girl to respond accordingly to relational experiences. A boy who feels “not as good as other boys” and is bullied by other boys does not receive enough positive conditioning as a male. A girl who is unable to fit in with other girls and constantly sees females being treated poorly with disrespect may have difficulty feeling emotionally conditioned as a female.

Such experiences can be grouped in a category called Same-Sex Disaffiliation. Other categories* that affect emotional conditioning include Same-Sex incongruence; relationships with the opposite sex are dominant; unhealthy relationships with the opposite sex; gender concept distortion; sexual conditioning; sexual abuse; certain physical attributes; insufficient occupation with reality; and certain neurological conditions such as high-functioning autism and OCD.

These mean that there are many situations where Priming and Emotional Conditioning are affected in ways not congruent to the biological sex. And much of these occur below consciousness. That is why the feelings are not chosen, are felt deeper than consciousness, and are felt as innate.


# 3 – Those who have non-heterosexuality but do not identify as LGBT are the majority. Once we understand that it is not chosen and anybody can be affected, then even those who are conservative and religious can have it. However, misconceptions, bad regard and taboo in their social-familial environment can be frightening and even dangerous to them. And so many are hidden, often very deeply. The table below shows that regions with more conservative-religious communities have high percentages of the hidden.

(Extracted from a study by Pachankis & Bränström, 2019).

With this knowledge, some important implications include:

  1. Not regarding all with non-heterosexuality as the same.
  2. Having detailed and differentiated language to describe who they are and what they need.
  3. Knowing detailed and differentiated approaches to help those who are hidden and those who are not.
  4. Having detailed information to educate the important people around them, including mental health professionals, religious leaders, governments, educators, parents, relatives, and friends.

For Pentecost, let us ask the Holy Spirit to provide us with more light to fill the void, and a framework to emerge as more information builds up our understanding – to “guide us into all truth” (John 16:13). Let us remember that nothing happens without God’s permission and that the greater good in us can sometimes only arise when we face problems. May these light and understanding help us to reduce abuses, prejudice, and negative regard around those with non-heterosexuality, especially in conservative religious communities.

—–

Reference: Pachankis, J. E., & Bränström, R. (2019). How many sexual minorities are hidden? Projecting the size of the global closet with implications for policy and public health. PloS One, 14(6), e0218084-e0218084.

*These categories are explained in detail in Bryan’s book “The Un-affirmed Core: Understanding the Factors Behind and Around Homosexuality”

  • To purchase a Paperback copy at SG$18.30 plus SG$5 local Singapore delivery, please email to eventsales.enquiries@gmail.com
  • For eBook, you can purchase a copy from one of four platforms at Bookfies

What a Cardinal William Goh means

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Singapore Church Shepherd set to be in largest Asian bloc to elect future Popes

  • What it means for the Asian and Singapore Churches
  • What it means to be Cardinal William Goh
  • Brief History of Cardinals
  • Electing a Pope and how Conclaves came about

At the College of Cardinals meeting Pope Francis has called for on 27 August, the Singapore Catholic Church will receive its first Cardinal. Archbishop William Goh is among 21, including five other Asians, the Pope will elevate to this rank at the Consistory.

This order of bishops, who don red hats, is only second in the Church hierarchy after the Vicar of Christ. As head of the Singapore Catholic Church, Abp William, 64, will be Cardinal Priest and the sole ethnic Chinese in the College who is also the only one who speaks Mandarin. He will join the group of Electors of future popes.

What it means for the Asian Church

His rise in rank, as well as those of other Asians, should be seen in the light of the work of European Catholic missionaries who arrived in Asia in the 16th century (the region eastwards of the Middle East). Their toil to spread the Gospel has been bearing great fruits for quite some time now.

Pope Pius XII gave due recognition to the work of these European missionaries In a 1946 Consistory when he created Asia’s first cardinal, Bishop Thomas Tien-ken-sin, Vicar Apostolic of Qingdao in China. Seven years later in 1953, he gave the Red Hat to the second Asian – Archbishop Valerian Gracias, head of the Bombay (Mumbai) Archdiocese in India.

Following in the footsteps of Pius XII, John XXIII also created two, Paul VI, 11, John Paul II, 20, and Benedict XVI, 8. But it is Pope Francis who, within nine years in the Chair of St Peter, went full throttle with 20, including those in the coming August Consistory.

Francis’ reach went into Asian countries that have never had Cardinals and touched those such as Bangladesh Archbishop of Dhaka Patrick D’Rozario in 2016.

Out of the 25 Asians currently in the College, he created 12 of them. Except for one, all were from Southeast Asia, including for the first time from the episcopal sees of Laos and Myanmar. Malaysian (2016) and Bruneian (2020) bishops were among this cohort but they have since died.

From end of August this will be total number of Cardinals in the College:

ContinentElectorsNon-ElectorsTotal
Europe8067147
North America23932
Latin America381856
Africa241539
Asia321446
Oceania422
Total201125326

This is a significant jump in Asian pope electors compared to the four previous conclaves when five were in the Sistine Chapel from which Paul VI emerged as Pope. Nine were there when John Paul I and II were chosen, and 10 were at both Benedict XVI and Francis’ elections. To put this in perspective, from the end of August Asian cardinals will have a far bigger say in who will be the next Pope. Whether he will emerge from among their numbers we do not know.

But their enlarged presence in the College will give the Asian Church’s voice more attention to evangelise a continent of 4.7 billion people that is still under 11 percent Catholic (excluding China, where statistics are difficult to compile).

What it means for the Singapore Church

A Cardinal William Goh will not change the nature of his office as Archbishop of Singapore. His episcopal see remains at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd. It will be business as usual for the Singapore Church, but how Catholics address him will change. Currently, the style for Archbishop or Bishop is inherited from the British colonial days, which is “Your and His Grace” in greeting and writing. Outside of most Commonwealth countries, the norm is “His and Your Excellency”.

The British style for Cardinals is “His and Your Lordship”.

This is unlikely to be the case with Card William. After Abp Anthony Soter Fernandez was created Cardinal in 2016, a precedent was set as even the Catholic Bishops Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei styled him as “His Eminence”. This was also adopted for Brunei’s Apostolate Vicar Cornelius Sim in 2020. Both have since died in 2020 and 2021.

Vestments’ colour will also change. From amaranth red (similar to purple) for bishops, Card William will switch to scarlet.

What it means to be Cardinal William Goh

After he was consecrated and installed as the fourth Archbishop of Singapore on 18 May 2013, he told the Archdiocese Catholic News, “I am still the same old Fr William Goh, with the same passion and love for Christ and His Church.

“The office does not change me but I hope I can change the office. I will still be that Shepherd of Christ that I am called to be, to seek the lost, console the hopeless, heal the wounded, give sight to the blind, reconcile those estranged and build bridges and communion in the Church and with the rest of humanity.”

Abp William said his vision “is to work with my brother priests to renew the faithful and together with the laity, to build a vibrant and evangelical Church so that we will be the face of Christ in a world that is bereft of hope and love”.

He has done a lot since then. Setting up the Office of the New Evangelisation or ONE, is his signature centrepiece. His work in building up the Church will continue with more vibrancy and not regress as Cardinal. At heart, he is still Fr William, but some things will have to change and these are spelt out in Chapter III, The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, of the Code of Canon Law 349-359.

A few things stand out.

While the primary duty of Cardinals is to elect Popes, they are also required to assist the Holy Father collegially to deal with questions of major importance.

They may also be called as individuals to help him in matters they are familiar with or have a history of expertise. These include those living in their respective dioceses overseas. This means Card William will have to go to Rome whenever the Pope calls him if he is needed. These are instances that are outside his mission as Archbishop of Singapore.

Finally, although Card William will not live in Rome, the Pope will assign him a titular church in the city, as a symbol of his closeness to the Holy Father in assisting him in Church affairs.

Brief History of Cardinals

The custom of a group of select clergy assisting the Pope in the governance of the Church can be traced back to the 1st century when the third successor of St Peter, Pope St. Cletus or Anacletus (76–88), ordained 25 presbyters (early Church priesthood) for the city of Rome. They helped him, as Bishop of the city, to celebrate the Eucharist and administer the Sacraments in his place.

Towards the end of the 1st century, Pope St. Evaristus (97–105) divided the city’s Church’s titles or properties (today’s equivalent to dioceses) among the 25. This practice of assisting the Bishop of Rome developed in the 5th century during Pope St. Simplicius’ reign (468–483).

He arranged for some successor bishops of the original 25 to assist him at his major basilicas of St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Lawrence. In time they evolved to become his confidants in the governance of the Church and matters of doctrine. The “dioceses” of these chosen bishops are known today as ‘‘suburbicarian sees”.  In later centuries they were conferred with the rank of Cardinal Bishops.

The term “cardinal” first appeared during the pontificate of Stephen III. In the Roman Synod of 769, it was decided that Popes should be elected from among deacons and cardinal priests. At the time, the 18 deacons were charged with providing for the needy in Rome. By the 12th century, each of their deaconries had a cardinal leading their work.

The role of Cardinals and their College can change as the Pope sees fit because it was his predecessors who created them. And they have changed over the centuries and recently, John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II made substantial modifications.

Pope Francis is doing the same now.

So, how Popes are elected and the role of Cardinals can change. It is the prerogative of the Holy Father to select who should be in the College of Cardinals and no one else, as he is the Vicar of Christ and the Supreme Lawgiver for the Church.

More information: Why cardinals have ranks, and how Pope Francis changed them

CNS photo/Paul Haring

Electing a Pope and how Conclaves came about

Excerpt from the 2002 edition of the Catholic Encyclopaedia

Until the 4th century the method of electing the Bishop of Rome did not differ considerably from that used in other bishoprics. The neighbouring bishops, the Roman clergy, and the laity of Rome each participated in the election.

Since the role of these various classes of electors was somewhat unclear and the office was one of extreme importance, the procedure was open to abuse.

Consequently, with the advent of the Christian Roman emperors (4th century) the imperial influence was brought to bear on papal elections.

The first important step in the attempt to reform papal elections was taken by Pope Nicholas II on 13 April, 1059, at the Council of Rome. The decree, which he published, declared that the papal electors were henceforth to be only the higher clergy of Rome (i.e., the Cardinals) with the rest of the clergy and the laity permitted merely to give approbation to the election. The emperor was likewise to be informed of the results of the election and allowed to confirm the choice that had already been made, although it was made clear that this was only a concession granted to him by the Holy See.

Provisions were made also for holding the election outside the city of Rome, if conditions warranted.

At the Lateran Council of 1179 Pope Alexander III, in the Apostolic Constitution Licet de vitanda discordia, further stipulated that all Cardinals were to be considered equal, and that a two-thirds majority of the votes was necessary for a valid election. With the passage of time, it became apparent that the College of Cardinals was on occasion prone to delay its selection of a pope and, as a result, to inflict upon the Church the harmful effects of a long interregnum.

To remedy this situation, Gregory X, by means of his bull Ubi periculum (1274), instituted the conclave system of strict seclusion to secure a more rapid papal succession. Further modifications were added in 1562 by Pope Pius IV who issued regulations regarding the method of voting in the conclave through his bull In eligendis.

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It’s time for the season of ‘Heart Work’

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Opening our hearts to others bit by bit in Ordinary time is a small but significant step towards Heaven

Forty days have passed since we celebrated Christ’s death and resurrection. We have finally arrived at Pentecost and enter a season of 25 weeks of Ordinary Time. So, what now? What do we do? Do we move on in life and return to our daily routine of busy schedules until we are in a festive mood again during the season of Advent and Christmas? That’s six months away!

Can we expect anything new in between?

I recall a memory from a long time ago when I was a young girl.

My grandparents lived very far away from my parents’ home. One day, I decided to visit and spend some time with them because they missed me. I started out on my bicycle. On the way there, I passed by a hawker stall and whiffed the scent of my favourite dish. I couldn’t help myself and stopped to eat it.

Then, I spotted a bookstore. I was curious and went in to browse the titles they were selling. When I finally got out, I bumped into friends whom I haven’t seen for some time. We wanted to chit-chat and catch up with each other and went for a drink. By the time I reached my grandparents’ home, it’s almost the end of the day. Yet, they were so happy to see me.

They had been waiting for me to arrive since the morning and had prepared and laid out on the table so much food for me to enjoy. But I was already tired and filled up from my mindless “gallivanting”. What’s worse was that I arrived empty-handed. Because of the diversions on my way there, I completely forgot to buy them something nice.

I was disappointed with myself for having fallen short in my love for my grandparents. My passions got in the way. That happens because I gave priority to my passions over my grandparents. And by that, I had, in fact, put myself first before them. Although no sins were committed during the many things that distracted me on the way to their home, the good that I had intended, nevertheless, missed its mark.

Every single act of selflessness is a sacrifice, a martyrdom. And every martyrdom participates in Christ’s Martyrdom. It is, therefore, holy. And the good news is a selfless heart is trainable.

Life is often full of distractions like mine.

We journey on Earth as Christian pilgrims, Heaven is our destination. This is our belief and hope because Jesus says that He has gone to Heaven to prepare a place for us and will return to take us there (Jn 14: 2-3). Heaven is a place for saints, who made it there because they were holy in their earthly lives. Have we been living our lives like them to finally make it there or have we made so many detours that we have lost our way? Or been able to come to our senses and struggle to finally get there late in the evening?  Unless, of course, we die a martyr’s death?

If we make it to Heaven, Jesus, who has been waiting since the morning for our arrival will greet us with joy and sit us to a feast He has laid out on a table for us to enjoy. Just like what my grandparents did for me.

Everything boils down to one thing: our loving hits or misses the mark to a degree we love our neighbour compared to ourselves. Loving demands self-forgetfulness and self-sacrifice which take us out of our comfort zones, and without which our loving would be sloppy. Pushing it further, negligence in loving, often, is the root of the sins of omission.

Being self-forgetful is difficult. To what extent do I forget myself?  For this, we can only look to Jesus whom we follow: His loving for us leads him to the cross. His self-forgetfulness is his total selflessness. His passion is not a comfort zone that causes diversions, but the focus that serves the very purpose of his loving – the expiation of our sins.

If we strive to open our hearts every day, just a little bit more than yesterday, to accommodate a neighbour (somebody we care very much, an acquaintance, somebody irksome, somebody we don’t want to know …) we will, consequently, must also let go a little bit more of ourselves in the process. We will slowly become less and less attached to our comfort zones, and more and more capable of directing our passions towards Heaven. In the process, our self-centeredness gradually diminishes, giving way to an attitude that disposes us to be more ready for bigger self-sacrifices.

This is “heart work” that demands a lot of hard work. But doable!

Many Christians tend to think that holiness is not for them because it is an endeavour that is unattainable, if not close to impossible. But holiness is nothing short of being good. Being good is being loving at the core, for what can be good if there is no love? Goodness starts from the heart, and can only come from one that is selfless.

Every single act of selflessness is a sacrifice, a martyrdom. And every martyrdom participates in Christ’s Martyrdom. It is, therefore, holy. And the good news is a selfless heart is trainable.

There! Holiness IS ATTAINABLE.

During this season of Ordinary Time when our spiritual journey is moving at “cruising speed”, this is one “heart work” that we can strive to do. Until such time when Advent arrives, and calls us to prepare our hearts to receive Jesus at Christmas, our hearts will be ready!  And as our long-term life project of getting ready for Jesus to come fetch us to His Father’s house, consider the questions that He may ask: Will it be “what sins have you committed?” or “How much have you loved?”  May Jesus find our hearts big, our loving steadfast!

“You did not choose me. Rather, I chose you. And I appointed you to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will remain, so that the Father may give you whatever you ask Him in my name. The command I give you is this: love one another.”  Jn 15:16,17

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Evangelisation: Lost in translation

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The Church exists to evangelise and this must be our mission, too

As Catholics, many of us, maybe even the majority, were never raised in a culture of evangelism. One seminarian who gave a talk at a youth ministry went as far as to boldly assert that the “Church no longer evangelises”. Growing up, I believed all religions were the same and were just different roads to God. I was a religious relativist and considered the exclusive claims of one’s religion to be offensively Protestant.

So it was a shock to my religious thinking that when I read the saints, their zeal for souls sounded more Protestant than the version of the Catholic faith I had received. St Francis Xavier, the 16th century pioneer of evangelism in Asia and patron of missions wrote:

Many, many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only: there is nobody to make them Christians. Again and again I have thought of going round the universities of Europe, especially Paris, and everywhere crying out like a madman, riveting the attention of those with more learning than charity: What a tragedy: how many souls are being shut out of heaven and falling into hell, thanks to you!

Saint Francis Xavier

Something was out. I began to read the Bible and realised that if I thought the exclusive claims of Christianity were bigotry, then Jesus was the source. He said: “I am the Way the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). And the modern Church, in documents like Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975), Redemptoris Missio (1990), Ecclesia in Asia (1999), Dominus Iesus (2000) and Evangelii Gaudium (2013) had never changed her message nor her urgency for evangelism.

There is a HUGE chasm between the Magisterial teaching and popular Catholicism the faithful practise in the pew. To omit obeying Jesus, even to ignore his command to, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19) needs to be called out for what it is: disobedience, even a sin.

Where did we go so wrong?

The Second Vatican Council that had convened from 1962-1965 updated the teaching of the Catholic Church in the context of the modern world. The guidance of the Holy Spirit in this Council has never been in doubt (except by the loons on the fringe). But certainly, the posture of the Catholic Church towards other religions and their followers, changed 180 degrees. Rather than excommunications, anathemas and calling out of heresies, the bishops of the world sensed the Holy Spirit calling the Church to build bridges in ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue.

This didn’t mean that the Church had changed Her teaching on the unique role of Christ and the Church. She still believes that Jesus is the only way of salvation and that there can be no salvation outside the Church. But disagreeing with the beliefs of others doesn’t mean that She has to be disagreeable.

Unfortunately, for 99% of Catholics, the nuances were lost in translation. The tension between two assertions: that Jesus is the One Mediator, and that peoples of other religions can be saved, simply meant all religions were the same and we didn’t need to evangelise anymore. Thus the period after Vatican 2 was confusing for a generation without Google Search to check what was being passed down by seminary professors and the pulpit. Swaths of Catholic missionaries began to wonder if they had wasted their lives and left the religious orders. Having lost their purpose of converting souls for Heaven, they became agents of humanitarian relief!

What then are we to do?

Catholics should not back away from building warm friendships with their Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, agnostic and atheist neighbours. Catholics should be at the forefront of pro-life family issues, serving the migrants and care for creation.

But Catholics should also be convicted that “there is no true evangelisation if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, are not proclaimed” (Evangelii Nuntiandi 22). In the face of the vast mission field of two billion Asian souls, the Great Commission, Jesus’ last words, must become the first priority for every Catholic: to make missionary disciples who make missionary disciples.

The missionary conversion for you and me will be nothing short of massive. If you love the Lord and want to part of this change, join us on this webpage as we unpack the issues one by one.

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Is God a Divine Debbie Downer?

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Debuting in 2004, Debbie Downer was the creation of Paula Pell, a two-decade veteran writer on “Saturday Night Live” and a key force behind some of the show’s most enduring sketches, including Ms. Downer. Evolving from the character’s immense popularity, the name Debbie Downer eventually became an established slang referring to a negative person who has the tendency to bring down the mood of everyone around them.

To secular eyes, the Bible is archaic, a holdover from a time of peasant farmers and scientific illiteracy. Some atheists in fact claim that these are “legal requirements” to govern our actions, reducing the Law to a set of do’s and don’ts.

Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash

Do God’s Laws spoil our fun?

As I was driving the girls to dance lessons one Saturday, I took the opportunity to ask my daughters what they thought about rules governing good behaviour:

“Girls, when daddy gives you rules to follow, do you think I’m spoiling your fun?”

Yes!

“Why do you think that?”

Because it means that there are things we want to do but cannot!

“Do you remember what happened that time when you had too much candy?”

[Replying with some shame] We became very sick.

“You see, when daddy gives you rules, it is because I have the experience to know that too much of a good thing can spoil what was designed to be enjoyable. I knew you would get sick eating too much candy, I gave you rules so that you could keep enjoying candy for a long time.”

Photo by Gabe Pierce on Unsplash

The world is designed to be enjoyed

God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good – Genesis 1:31

Perhaps the lightning-rod issue that best reflects how secular society views Christian virtue as mere “stuffiness” or as uptight fun-hating wet blankets is how the Bible governs sexual behaviour: outside of sacramental marriage, it is a sin.

While it is a polarising viewpoint for non-believers, the reality is that a recent 2020 psychological study affirms that while Tinder users showed more positive attitudes towards consensual nonmonogamy and greater sociosexuality than nonusers, they also expressed increased dissatisfaction with their sex life.

In my perspective, the main issue is that ‘consensual nonmonogamy” reduces something like an amazing gift of sex to a mere physical necessity, this in turn reduces us from image bearers and reflections of the Lord to mere animals. In short, you cannot reduce a gift to mere biological necessity and expect to still feel satisfied.

“We long for happiness, but we’re made for joy.”

Father Mike Schmitz

As the word itself implies, happiness is associated with happenings, happenstance, luck, and fortune. If circumstances are favourable, you are happy; if not, then you’re unhappy. One of the greatest misunderstandings of our time is the belief that we are supposed to be happy all the time and so we have a rabbit race for sex or to a lesser degree, like immature children, we think that in order to be happy, we need all the candy we can consume.

God isn’t some Divine Debbie Downer, He made us for joy, and He knows the very things that we might chase and in the process, hurt ourselves. He gave us those rules so that we might have life and have it in the full.

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The way to save the unborn

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In an era of many opinions, Church Teachings help penetrate fog of confusion

We were lost! It was many years ago when I was on a National Service training trip where I got lost in the forest with three of my fellow soldiers.

In the vast wilderness of the Australian forest, we wandered aimlessly for hours. Every turn seemed to look the same in the forest. Without a map and compass to guide us, we felt anxious and helpless.

This can be similar in our lives today, in the Internet age, we are bombarded by information from every media platform, online and offline. Every media has a message to deliver to us according to their own goals.

As Catholics, we are not left to our own devices, rather we are linked and united to the universal Catholic Church. The Magisterium sets us in the right direction with regards to teachings about our faith and our moral values.

This is especially important when many are confused about topics on relationships, and sexuality, especially in what we ought to do or not do.

In my own personal journey, I too seek to find the truth. The teachings of the Church form a map for me to navigate the different issues out there while the Church and its leaders constantly point us in the right direction like a compass. With this, we are assured of God’s guidance for us and how to live in accordance with God’s plan for mankind.

I have always been interested in apologetics where we attempt to understand and address each and every aspect of our faith and beliefs. In addition, the topics concerning our moral life and building the culture of life are interesting and important to practical living in our modern society.

Among them, are fundamental teachings on how life begins at conception, the proper use of methods for birth control, end of life situations, just to name a few.

Indeed, the Catholic Church has the answers and provides us with a map and compass to navigate our life on Earth. Going forward, I will be contributing articles on pro-life topics that are in line with the teachings of the Magisterium.

A Table of Plentiful Mercy

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The symbol of unity that binds men to each other, and to God

“But now do not be distressed, and do not be angry with yourselves for having sold me here. It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you.” (Gen 50:20)

These were Joseph’s reassuring words to his brothers who, in previous chapters and several years earlier, sold him to slavery in a foreign country. An amazing act of forgiveness isn’t it?

How many of us, if in Joseph’s position, are tempted to inflict some sort of vengeance against such conniving brothers. After all, the hurt from being abandoned by your closest family members is a cut too deep to heal. But Joseph chose to recognise something else instead: God’s infinite mercy.

And, not only that, he commanded his servants to throw a feast for them! Unbelievable. But, Joseph demonstrated one clear point: God seeks the good of everyone. In the New Testament, Christ echoes this. He teaches us to forgive our enemies because this is God’s nature. He lived this out, dying for all men, not just some.

Our true enemies are not physical, but spiritual.

Joseph’s altruistic action has a link to another striking verse in the Old Testament: “I will prepare a table in the presence of your enemies.” (Ps 23:5)

This is exactly what took place with Joseph for his brothers. It wasn’t a table of vengeance, with scorpions and poison served on a platter, as you would see on Fear Factor. It was a genuine table of love and plenty.

It was a literal feast.

Feasts are connected in Scripture with tables since they are meals. The table is where we offer things to God, and where God presents things to us.

The Passover table is the most important symbol in our religion because it is the table of the Last Supper. And the Eucharist is the body of Christ.

Saint Paul stresses the importance of the Eucharistic meal in a very famous verse: “Therefore whosoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily shall answer for the Body and Blood of the Lord“ (1 Cor 11:27)

“Therefore my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that your meetings may not result in judgement.” (1 Cor 11:33-34)

What St Paul is thinking of in 1 Cor is not readily apparent to us. In our day, the Eucharist has already become stylized, ceremonialised and ritualised. In the early Church, the Christians actually did break actual loaves of bread. St Paul is dealing with a sort of desecration that would be a joke if anyone tried it today. The Corinthians were eating the bread before the ceremony began!

If we translate what St Paul says in 1 Cor 11 to modern speak, it could be like this:

“Please remember, the Bread in the Eucharist is the Body of Christ. It is not the bread at a buffet, where you can grab and chomp down. If you treat it as such, you are not worthy to receive the Sacrament.”

When St Paul mentions the phrase “discerning the body” earlier on, he isn’t merely talking about it in a moral sense, that is teaching that when eating the bread, they are eating the body of Christ, and so they shouldn’t disrespect it. Instead, he is pointing out something else that is equally important: the Eucharistic meal is a sign of the spiritual unity of the Church. It is in partaking of the Bread that we show that we are One Church.

Discerning the body refers to recognizing that all the believers together make one whole.

Given that today we have split up the bread into small hosts, that significance may be somewhat lost on us.

The most significant split in Christian unity occurred with Martin Luther’s Reformation in the 16th century. There have been other divisions in various degrees since then. In Asia, the most prominent is in China between the Communist government-controlled Patriotic Church, established in 1957, and the Underground Church, which retains allegiance to the Pope.

In this unfortunate situation, both groups are forced to exist separately. Our feeling of scandal should deepen by noting that despite the division, their worship of God is identical. In fact, no Pope has accused Catholics in the Patriotic Church as heretics.

In fact, although Pope Benedict XVI acknowledges they are under the control of the CCP, he nevertheless said:

“In China, too, the Church is called to be a witness of Christ, to look forward with hope, and – in proclaiming the Gospel – to measure up to the new challenges that the Chinese People must face.”


Pope Benedict XVI,
2007 Apostolic Letter to Catholic clergy and lay in China

The tenuous relationship between China and Christianity has little to do with the atheism of the Communist Party, as it arose from the Rites Controversy during the Ming Dynasty and the Taiping rebellion towards the end of the Qing Dynasty.

In short, the division is because of the fractious relationship between China’s communist authorities and Western countries whose clergy, they felt, when they were there in the past, exported their personal political views.

The situation in China, then, is probably more analogous to the Investiture Controversy in medieval France as opposed to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in Revolutionary France. Therein exists a defence of Pope Francis’s attempt at establishing ties with China. Without attempting to second guess his or the Holy See’s intentions, there is a case to make that it is to unite all Catholics so that they can worship openly as one.

As Christians, we need to recall the eschatological promise that in the New Jerusalem everyone will be ringing out praises to God in public. Yes, we should embrace martyrdom as a cross when we have to bear it. And we need to hail those holy men and women of China, and elsewhere who have bravely stood up for the faith with their lives.

But, it is a distortion of Church teaching to say that the aim of a Christian in life should be to seek martyrdom. Doing so would mutate God’s promise of Eternal Life into one of Eternal Death, and be a grave disrespect to the martyrs whose love of God we claim to emulate.

In the end, we all wish to be fully alive and visible at the Great Heavenly Banquet of God.

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A Confession: My return journey home

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Christ’s love and healing powers in the Confessional turned my life around

I would have gone to Hell had I died in 2004. For over two decades, I had lived a life that was not consonant with my Catholic faith. I had ticked a few boxes that earned me a ticket there. The one that was like a millstone around my neck: adultery with a married woman from another country.

Travelling on this road to perdition, the U-turn came when she, a non-Catholic, was visiting me and bought a Rosary from the Carlo Catholic bookstore next to Saints Peter and Paul’s Church at Waterloo Street.

She asked if I could get it blessed for her. It was a weekday and I replied there should be a priest in church whom we could approach to do so. In the car park, I saw that the church door was opened and the logical first place to look for him.

My instinct was spot on.

As we walked through the door Father was indeed there. He was at the pulpit delivering the homily for the evening Mass. In referring to one of the readings that day the first words I heard him say were, “Come back to me!”

It stopped me dead in my tracks and the hairs on my back stood up. I whispered to my friend that I had to stay for Mass and took a seat in one of the pews. When Mass was over, I immediately approached Father that I urgently needed to go for Confession.

As I poured my heart out in the Confessional of what had become of me and my faith, Father listened patiently. I had expected a harsh admonishment. Instead, he gave me absolution and forgave all my sins. I can’t remember what he said after that, but it went along the lines of, “Go and sin no more and give yourself entirely to God”.

I was crying throughout my Confession, especially when Father, through the mercy of God, granted me absolution. In between sobs, I could only mutter that I would. When I got out of church, I informed her what we were doing had to stop. She agreed readily after witnessing what went on with me at and after Mass (She later reconciled with her husband and both attended RCIA and were baptised Catholic).

My parents brought my brothers and me up as good Catholics and they were hurt when they saw the life I was leading. They’d probably known about the sinful shenanigans that had enslaved their son. But they never gave up on me and it was their prayers to God that moved me to mend fences with Him through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

That moment began my journey of reclaiming and studying diligently my Catholic faith. It is almost 20 years since that wonderful day and this journey will continue until I die. This is why I am still a work in progress.

In looking back recently on my career as a journalist, writer and editor, I realise that God had been training and forming me to use my skills for Him. What I have is never mine, but His.

But in returning home to the Catholic Church, I had gone through many twists and turns. The pivotal moment came in 2015 when I decided to leave my fulltime job as a Senior Correspondent with MediaCorp’s Today newspaper that paid very well.

With bills to pay and aged parents to look after, I arrived at a point where I was not sure where my next paycheck was going to come from. That day, after driving through the gates of MediaCorp at Caldecott Hill for the last time I headed to the Adoration Room at Catholic Spiritual Centre in Punggol.

In prayer, I told Jesus that I am giving Him through His Mother my new career, which I had no clue what it was going to be. And I said to the Mother of God, “You are the Boss of my life, and more than ever before my career!”. I have since never had to go out looking for projects to earn my keep. Instead, I had people calling to commission me for projects. Up till today!

God, in turn, has filled up the rest of my life with His work, in parish ministry and now with The Asian Fishermen. I have no illusions the Devil is all hunky-dory with what has been happening in my life. He is going to come back with a vengeance to thwart my work for God.

But with the Almighty on my side and the Immaculate Conception, radiating God’s power, keeping a close watch over me, I am not afraid of the Devil’s shenanigans.

I have faith in this divine protection because of Christ’s promise to those who accept His commission to evangelise and get everyone to Heaven, “Fear not, I am with you always till the end of time!” (Isaiah 41:10, Matthew 28:20)

GOD FORGIVES ALL SINS IN THE SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION (CONFESSION)

I am not the first wayward Catholic who found his way to the Confessional and cried like a baby while pouring out my grave misdeeds, which are mortal sins that kill the soul. Many are burdened with the same type of sins as mine. Some are even worse.

They need not suffer in silence because Christ is waiting for them to come home because all the sins of the world cannot prevent us from returning to Him, if we are truly repentant and seek His mercy and forgiveness.

After I stepped back inside the Church, I’ve met others who have travelled on the same road home.

Their experience of crying while confessing their sins and receiving absolution is the same. Also, the feeling that God had shattered the Devil’s heavy millstone hanging around our necks and instantly healed their wounded souls. This relief from the heavy burden of guilt is indescribable.

But there are also others I’ve known who were scared of stepping into the Confessional because they fear admitting their sins, especially of procuring an abortion or being a party to the killing of innocent life, a child, in the womb, and adultery.

There is no foundation for harbouring this fear. Christ tells us that all sins can be forgiven (1 John 1:7–9, Mark 3:28, Matt 12:31-32)

God is the ultimate healer, the Supreme Doctor who can cure all ailments, especially those that sicken a soul, which is beyond the ability of human doctors. It is no accident, therefore, that the Catholic Church is called the hospital for sinners because Christ has given Her the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession).

In the Church He founded, He empowered His apostles, their successors and the priests they ordained to administer this beautiful Sacrament of His mercy and forgiveness. They do this in His capacity (in Persona Christi or in the Person of Christ). This is why we are in the very presence of Christ in the Confessional and in receiving His love for us to wipe out all our sins, even the grave ones, we break down in tears.

So, if you are Catholic and being weighed down by the burden of sin, don’t suffer in silence. Ask any Catholic priest for the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) and let Jesus heal you in the Confessional.

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