OXYGEN

04 Sep
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1 Corinthians 4:6-15

Take Apollos and myself as an example and remember the maxim: ‘Keep to what is written.’ It is not for you, so full of your own importance, to go taking sides for one man against another. In any case, brother, has anybody given you some special right? What do you have that was not given to you? And if it was given, how can you boast as though it were not? Is it that you have everything you want – that you are rich already, in possession of your kingdom, with us left outside? Indeed I wish you were really kings, and we could be kings with you! But instead, it seems to me, God has put us apostles at the end of his parade, with the men sentenced to death; it is true – we have been put on show in front of the whole universe, angels as well as men. Here we are, fools for the sake of Christ, while you are the learned men in Christ; we have no power, but you are influential; you are celebrities, we are nobodies. To this day, we go without food and drink and clothes; we are beaten and have no homes; we work for our living with our own hands. When we are cursed, we answer with a blessing; when we are hounded, we put up with it; we are insulted and we answer politely. We are treated as the offal of the world, still to this day, the scum of the earth.

I am saying all this not just to make you ashamed but to bring you, as my dearest children, to your senses. You might have thousands of guardians in Christ, but not more than one father and it was I who begot you in Christ Jesus by preaching the Good News.
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Luke 6:1-5

One sabbath Jesus happened to be taking a walk through the cornfields, and his disciples were picking ears of corn, rubbing them in their hands and eating them. Some of the Pharisees said, ‘Why are you doing something that is forbidden on the sabbath day?’ Jesus answered them, ‘So you have not read what David did when he and his followers were hungry how he went into the house of God, took the loaves of offering and ate them and gave them to his followers, loaves which only the priests are allowed to eat?’ And he said to them, ‘The Son of Man is master of the sabbath.’
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The Son of Man is master of the Sabbath

There was once an old abbot who had a cat that frequently disturbed him while he was at community prayers in the monastery. So the abbot bade his disciples to tie up the cat whenever community prayers were held. Eventually, the abbot passed away, but his disciples continued the practice of tying up the cat whenever they were at prayer, and when the cat died, they bought a new one to tie up at prayer time. Generations later, adherents wrote papers on the liturgical advantages of having a cat tied up during prayer.

No religion is exempt from such examples. In today’s gospel reading, the Pharisees questioned Jesus about His disciples who picked corn to eat on the Sabbath. The Lord then reminded them of a time when King David did something that was contrary to the Law, and ended with this curious statement: The Son of Man is master of the Sabbath.

Indeed Jesus did a lot of things that He wasn’t supposed to do on the Sabbath, such as healing the sick and casting out demons. Because of this, He riled up the Pharisees and gave them no shortage of evidence needed to persecute Him. By saying that the Son of Man is master of the Sabbath, Jesus was equating Himself to God who gave the Sabbath to the Jews and asked them to keep the day holy. But Jesus was also reminding the Jews of the reason why God gave them the Sabbath.

Often in religion, we stick to certain practices and rituals without knowing the reason why. Especially in liturgy, we often have people who already know the answers asking questions about the way certain things are supposed to be done. They do so in the hope that those they are questioning will be prompted to seek out the answers in the liturgical guidelines as prescribed. But sometimes what is lost is the original reasons why certain things are done.

For example, some people will say that musical instruments such as the guitar should not be allowed during Mass, because they are not liturgical. However, others will say that the purpose of liturgical music is to orientate people’s minds and hearts towards God, and if guitars help them to do so, then by all means. Some will object to this reasoning simply because it is not what the guidelines say and, as a result, cause friction within church members.

For anything that is written in the rulebook, there is always an original reason. Let us try to remember – or find out if we don’t know – these reasons so that we know best why we do things the way we do.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Daniel Tay)
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Prayer: We pray for all people who are caught up in the need to strictly adhere to religious rules, that we may discover why they are there, and work towards achieving that end, even if by different means. Amen.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks to the Lord for the gift of common sense.

Upcoming Readings:
Sun, 05 Sep – Wisdom 9:13-19; Philemon 1:9-10.12-17; Luke 14:25-33; Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time

03 Sep – Memorial for St Gregory the Great, Pope & Doctor of the Church

St. Gregory (540-590) collected the melodies and plain chant so associated with him that they are now known as Gregorian Chants. He was elected by unanimous acclamation for pope. Incidentally, he was also the first monk to be pope. Before his papacy, he turned his home into a Benedictine monastery, and used his money to build six monasteries in Sicily and one in Rome. He became a missionary to England upon seeing English children being sold in the Roman Forum.

- Patron Saints Index
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1 Corinthians 4:1-5

People must think of us as Christ’s servants, stewards entrusted with the mysteries of God. What is expected of stewards is that each one should be found worthy of his trust. Not that it makes the slightest difference to me whether you, or indeed any human tribunal, find me worthy or not. I will not even pass judgement on myself. True, my conscience does not reproach me at all, but that does not prove that I am acquitted: the Lord alone is my judge. There must be no passing of premature judgement. Leave that until the Lord comes; he will light up all that is hidden in the dark and reveal the secret intentions of men’s hearts. Then will be the time for each one to have whatever praise he deserves, from God.
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Luke 5:33-39

The Pharisees and scribes said to Jesus, ‘John’s disciples are always fasting and saying prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees too, but yours go on eating and drinking.’ Jesus replied, ‘Surely you cannot make the bridegroom’s attendants fast while the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come, the time for the bridegroom to be taken away from them; that will be the time when they will fast.’

He also told them this parable, ‘No one tears a piece from a new cloak to put it on an old cloak; if he does, not only will he have torn the new one, but the piece taken from the new will not match the old.

‘And nobody puts new wine into old skins; if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and then run out, and the skins will be lost. No; new wine must be put into fresh skins. And nobody who has been drinking old wine wants new. “The old is good” he says.’
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‘The old is good’, he says.

Some time ago, I got into trouble with a colleague. She was new to the company and her old ways of doing things were putting considerable strain among her new colleagues because she often put other people down to make herself look good. Wanting to be helpful, I tried to show her that her behaviour was causing friction in the office, but I was told off and reported to the boss for interfering with her work. That incident caused me a lot of hurt and pain, and I kept asking myself: Why?

I had firmly believed that I was doing the right thing, so why did it turn out like this? Eventually, I brought this to prayer, and I asked God to reveal to me my deepest intentions, because I wanted to be sure that my intentions were pure and honest. As it turns out, they weren’t. I learnt that just as I denounced my colleague’s behaviour, I too wanted to look good to others and to myself. So I asked God: What should I do?

The Lord’s response to me was to do nothing. Because my behaviour was identical to my colleague’s, I was the same as her, hence I was not capable of helping her. The only thing I could do was to help myself, and let God help my colleague, since only God knew her heart thoroughly.

In today’s first reading, St. Paul tells the Corinthians that even if a person’s conscience does not bother him, it doesn’t mean the person is innocent. As my experience above shows, a person can think that he has the best of intentions, but sometimes our true intentions are masked from even ourselves.

As such, we should not pass judgement on ourselves or on others, because we may never know our or others’ true intentions. We are therefore called to leave this matter of judgement to the Lord, no matter how much we want to take matters into our own hands.

The gospel reading today talks to us about the new wine and the old. Those who have drunk the old wine do not want the new, because the old is good, they say. Often we have believed in something for so long, that when shown something new, we decline to even consider it, because what we have believed in for so long is comfortable to us. So even though the new thing contains more truth than the old, we are reluctant to consider it out of familiarity for the old.

Today, let us pray for the courage to explore something new – be it a new thought, a new perspective, a new belief, a new teaching, or even a new religion – and to always be in search and pursuit of the Truth that wishes to reveal Himself to us.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Daniel Tay)
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Prayer: We pray for those who are searching for the Truth, that we may never let our fear of the unknown and our comfort with the familiar, prevent us from continuing on our faith journey towards God.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks to the Lord for revealing the Truth to men and women of all faith traditions who honestly search for Him.

Upcoming Readings:
Sat, 04 Sep – 1 Corinthians 4:6-15; Luke 6:1-5
Sun, 05 Sep – Wisdom 9:13-19; Philemon 1:9-10.12-17; Luke 14:25-33; Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time

02 Sep
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1 Corinthians 3:18-23

Make no mistake about it: if any one of you thinks of himself as wise, in the ordinary sense of the word, then he must learn to be a fool before he really can be wise. Why? Because the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As scripture says: The Lord knows wise men’s thoughts: he knows how useless they are; or again: God is not convinced by the arguments of the wise. So there is nothing to boast about in anything human: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life and death, the present and the future, are all your servants; but you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God.
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Luke 5:1-11

Jesus was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God, when he caught sight of two boats close to the bank. The fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats – it was Simon’s – and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.

When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.’ ‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.’ And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled the two boats to sinking point.

When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.’ For he and all his companions were completely overcome by the catch they had made; so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners. But Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch.’ Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.
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There is nothing to boast about in anything human

One of the saints that I admire is St. Thomas Aquinas. I know that many admire him for his wisdom and his writings, but what I admire him for is what he did not write. Thomas Aquinas’ greatest work was the ‘Summa Theologica’, a Latin name for ‘summary of theology’ or ‘highest theology’. It was intended as a manual for beginners as a compilation of all the main theological teachings of the time. But it was never finished. Something happened towards the end, something that made Thomas abandon his work.

While celebrating a Mass one day, Thomas had a spiritual experience where he encountered Jesus. After that, he refused to get back to work on the Summa Theologica, saying to his secretary, “I cannot, because all that I have written seems like straw to me.” It is not that the Summa Theologica is wrong, but that compared to what Thomas experienced that day, it was so small, so insignificant.

Today’s first reading gives us an insight into what Thomas might have experienced. St. Paul tells us that the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. Indeed the Summa Theologica can be said to be the highest theology, but in the end, it is still the wisdom of the world. That’s not to say that it is wrong or not worth learning, but rather, it is to say that the fullness of truth is so much richer that the Summa, the highest theology that men can create, is so small, so insignificant.

The gospel reading of today shares the same thread. It tells us about the call of Jesus’ disciples – the fishermen who did their very best to catch fish, but caught nothing all night. When Jesus, the son of a carpenter, told them to fish, and they did, they caught so much fish they needed help bringing them ashore. It was this experience that taught Peter the same thing that Thomas learnt – that our best efforts are nothing compared to what God has in store for us.

Today, let us ask the Lord to bless our efforts in whatever we do. Let us ask God for the humility to depend on Him, not on our own efforts in all that we do. Let us ask God to show us the fullness of Himself, and let us not depend on our human wisdom.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Daniel Tay)
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Prayer: Dear God, we are sinful men and women, and we beg your forgiveness. Grant us the experience that you shared with Thomas and Peter, so that we may always know that our best efforts, our best knowledge, pales in comparison to what You have in store for us. Amen.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks to the Lord for the wisdom of God.

Upcoming Readings:
Fri, 03 Sep – 1 Corinthians 4:1-5; Luke 5:33-39; Memorial for St Gregory the Great, Pope & Doctor of the Church
Sat, 04 Sep – 1 Corinthians 4:6-15; Luke 6:1-5
Sun, 05 Sep – Wisdom 9:13-19; Philemon 1:9-10.12-17; Luke 14:25-33; Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time

01 Sep
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1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Brothers, I myself was unable to speak to you as people of the Spirit: I treated you as sensual men, still infants in Christ. What I fed you with was milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it; and indeed, you are still not ready for it since you are still unspiritual. Isn’t that obvious from all the jealousy and wrangling that there is among you, from the way that you go on behaving like ordinary people? What could be more unspiritual than your slogans, ‘I am for Paul’ and ‘I am for Apollos’?

After all, what is Apollos and what is Paul? They are servants who brought the faith to you. Even the different ways in which they brought it were assigned to them by the Lord. I did the planting, Apollos did the watering, but God made things grow. Neither the planter nor the waterer matters: only God, who makes things grow. It is all one who does the planting and who does the watering, and each will duly be paid according to his share in the work. We are fellow workers with God; you are God’s farm, God’s building.
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Luke 4:38-44

Leaving the synagogue Jesus went to Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever and they asked him to do something for her. Leaning over her he rebuked the fever and it left her. And she immediately got up and began to wait on them.

At sunset all those who had friends suffering from diseases of one kind or another brought them to him, and laying his hands on each he cured them. Devils too came out of many people, howling, ‘You are the Son of God.’ But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ.

When daylight came he left the house and made his way to a lonely place. The crowds went to look for him, and when they had caught up with him they wanted to prevent him leaving them, but he answered, ‘I must proclaim the Good News of the kingdom of God to the other towns too, because that is what I was sent to do.’ And he continued his preaching in the synagogues of Judaea.
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It is all one who does the planting and who does the watering

How do you cure a common cold? One way is to go to a doctor who will prescribe you medication. You can take the medication and within a week, the cold should go away. Another way is you can self-medicate, using medicine you can purchase at a pharmacy. You can take the medication and within a week, the cold should go away. A third way is by using what your mother or grandmother did – you can drink hot chicken soup, and within a week the cold should go away. Or a fourth way is just to wait seven days, and the cold should go away.

Which of these methods made the cold go away? None of them did. The cold simply ran its course and went away on its own. But who designed the course? Who designed it such that a person with a cold can wait seven days and the cold will go away on its own? God did, and only God can truly cure. Other methods merely address the symptoms of the disease, but didn’t really do the curing.

In today’s gospel reading, we see Jesus the healer in action. We see Him curing the sick, by making their diseases go away immediately. No medicine, doctor, or remedy can do that. Only God can, and by curing the sick, Jesus was showing that God was with Him. However, even though Jesus cured the sick, He was able to address only their physical ailments, for the crowds came to Him with only their physical ailments. Jesus, in saying that He wanted to proclaim the Good News of the kingdom of God, was more concerned with their spiritual ailments. These were not cured because they were not brought to Jesus. We know that they were not cured because they wanted to prevent Him from leaving them; they wanted to keep Him all to themselves.

In the first reading, we see that among the Corinthians, many of them also had spiritual ailments. They focused on their doctors who did wonderful things among them, but they did not see God working in them. They hailed Paul and Apollos, but they did not see God’s hand working in them. Even among us today, there are those who are unspiritual, for there are many who will claim “I am for the Catholic Church”, “I am for City Harvest Church”, “I am for New Creation Church”, “I am for Lighthouse Evangelism”, but they fail to see that behind all these Christian churches, there is one God who heals people, who changes people.

As St. Paul says, we are all fellow workers with God. We are all building up God’s kingdom in the world today. Let us try to focus more on the Spirit of God that we have in common, rather than the different doctrines put together by men.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Daniel Tay)
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Prayer: We pray for all Christians, that our divisions that are the source of much scandal may be healed by Jesus the healer.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks to the Lord for healing our wounds.

Upcoming Readings:
Wed, 01 Sep – 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Luke 4:38-44
Thu, 02 Sep – 1 Corinthians 3:18-23; Luke 5:1-11
Fri, 03 Sep – 1 Corinthians 4:1-5; Luke 5:33-39; Memorial for St Gregory the Great, Pope & Doctor of the Church
Sat, 04 Sep – 1 Corinthians 4:6-15; Luke 6:1-5
Sun, 05 Sep – Wisdom 9:13-19; Philemon 1:9-10.12-17; Luke 14:25-33; Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time

31 Aug
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1 Corinthians 2:10-16

The Spirit reaches the depths of everything, even the depths of God. After all, the depths of a man can only be known by his own spirit, not by any other man, and in the same way the depths of God can only be known by the Spirit of God. Now instead of the spirit of the world, we have received the Spirit that comes from God, to teach us to understand the gifts that he has given us. Therefore we teach, not in the way in which philosophy is taught, but in the way that the Spirit teaches us: we teach spiritual things spiritually. An unspiritual person is one who does not accept anything of the Spirit of God: he sees it all as nonsense; it is beyond his understanding because it can only be understood by means of the Spirit. A spiritual man, on the other hand, is able to judge the value of everything, and his own value is not to be judged by other men. As scripture says: Who can know the mind of the Lord, so who can teach him? But we are those who have the mind of Christ.
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Luke 4:31-37

Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath. And his teaching made a deep impression on them because he spoke with authority.

In the synagogue there was a man who was possessed by the spirit of an unclean devil, and it shouted at the top of its voice, ‘Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus said sharply, ‘Be quiet! Come out of him!’ And the devil, throwing the man down in front of everyone, went out of him without hurting him at all. Astonishment seized them and they were all saying to one another, ‘What teaching! He gives orders to unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out.’ And reports of him went all through the surrounding countryside.
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An unspiritual man is one who does not accept anything of the Spirit of God: he sees it all as nonsense

Every once in a while, we hear talk of something spiritual. It could be about angels and devils. It could be about evil spirits and ghosts. It could be about feng shui and geomancy. It could be about bomohs and mediums. It is easy to say that this is all rubbish, but sometimes we are also presented with evidence that there is something going on that we cannot explain.

In today’s gospel reading, we see that there is something going on that the people have taken notice of. They see Jesus casting out an unclean spirit from a man. For anyone to do something like that, he must have a powerful spirit on his side, for only a spirit is driven out only by a more powerful spirit. This is true even for bomohs and mediums.

People visit mediums when they think an unclean spirit is in them, and the mediums cast out the spirits frequently by replacing them with a more powerful spirit. This is true also for Christians. When we have an unclean spirit in us, we visit a priest who, through the rite of exorcism, can cast out the unclean spirit within us and replace it with a more powerful spirit – the spirit of God.

It is this spirit of God that St. Paul is writing about in his letter to the Corinthians. All Christians who are baptised have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit who resides within us. It is this Spirit that teaches us about God, that shares with us the mind of God. It is this Spirit that helps us observe God working in our lives. Those who do not live by this Spirit think all this is nonsense. But spirits do exist, because every once in a while, we hear talk about something spiritual, and we are presented with evidence that there is something going on that we cannot explain.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Daniel Tay)
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Prayer: We pray for all Christians, that we may realise that within us resides the Spirit of the living God, the Spirit of Christ.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks to the Lord for the Holy Spirit that dwells within us and teaches us the ways of God.

Upcoming Readings:
Wed, 01 Sep – 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Luke 4:38-44
Thu, 02 Sep – 1 Corinthians 3:18-23; Luke 5:1-11
Fri, 03 Sep – 1 Corinthians 4:1-5; Luke 5:33-39; Memorial for St Gregory the Great, Pope & Doctor of the Church
Sat, 04 Sep – 1 Corinthians 4:6-15; Luke 6:1-5
Sun, 05 Sep – Wisdom 9:13-19; Philemon 1:9-10.12-17; Luke 14:25-33; Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time

30 Aug
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1 Corinthians 2:1-5

When I came to you, brothers, it was not with any show of oratory or philosophy, but simply to tell you what God had guaranteed. During my stay with you, the only knowledge I claimed to have was about Jesus, and only about him as the crucified Christ. Far from relying on any power of my own, I came among you in great ‘fear and trembling’ and in my speeches and the sermons that I gave, there were none of the arguments that belong to philosophy; only a demonstration of the power of the Spirit. And I did this so that your faith should not depend on human philosophy but on the power of God.
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Luke 4:16-30

Jesus came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:

The spirit of the Lord has been given to me,
for he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives
and to the blind new sight,
to set the downtrodden free,
to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.

He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’ And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips They said, ‘This is Joseph’s son, surely?’

But he replied, ‘No doubt you will quote me the saying, “Physician, heal yourself” and tell me, “We have heard all that happened in Capernaum, do the same here in your own countryside.”’ And he went on, ‘I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.

‘There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah’s day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land, but Elijah was not sent to any one of these: he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a Sidonian town. And in the prophet Elisha’s time there were many lepers in Israel, but none of these was cured, except the Syrian, Naaman.’

When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him down the cliff, but he slipped through the crowd and walked away.
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The only knowledge I claimed to have was about Jesus, and only about Him as the crucified Christ

In Singapore, we have a term that we use for small group discussions. It’s called ‘sharing’. I only realised from talking to non-Singaporeans that they do not grasp the meaning of this word so well. I first experienced small group sharings in cell groups when I was a teenager and since then, sharings have been an integral part of my faith journey. In fact, these daily reflections are no more than sharings by OXYGEN contributors.

An important part about sharing is that usually there is no wrong or right thing to share. Sharings are personal opinions and in the context of faith they are usually concerned with our faith or spiritual experiences. However, there are many who do not like to share because they don’t have the ‘right’ answers and may come out sounding ‘stupid’ because they are ‘wrong’ or not knowledgeable in the faith.

In today’s first reading, St. Paul tells us that when he came to the Corinthians, he did not share with them philosophical arguments. Rather, he shared with them what he knew of Christ as he experienced the Lord. Since it was his own experience, there was no right or wrong about it, and its rightness or wrongness was not what convinced the Corinthians to believe in Christ. Instead, it was Paul’s conviction and passion that convinced them that Christ is real and alive.

It is the same with us when we share our faith with other people. We do not need to worry about knowing much about our faith or having the right arguments to convince others of the truth of our faith. We have something much more important – we have encountered the risen Lord in our own way, in our own experience. It is in sharing these faith experiences with others that will convince them of the truth of the risen Christ.

However, this does not mean that our path will always be smooth. In today’s gospel reading, we see Jesus sharing with the Jews the truth. When he spoke something favourable, the people responded with approval. But when He spoke something that they did not like, they responded with violence. The same will happen with us when we share our experiences too. When we share something that is favourable to others, they will approve. But when we share with them something unfavourable, they will react accordingly. But let us not let that deter us from sharing the truth as we know Him, for any omission of the truth is a lie. Let our words and our actions speak the truth always.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Daniel Tay)
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Prayer: We pray for those who face difficulty in speaking the truth, may they be encouraged by the fact that when they speak the truth, they are speaking for Christ.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks to the Lord for those who boldly share the truth with others.

Upcoming Readings:
Tue, 31 Aug – 1 Corinthians 2:10-16; Luke 4:31-37
Wed, 01 Sep – 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Luke 4:38-44
Thu, 02 Sep – 1 Corinthians 3:18-23; Luke 5:1-11
Fri, 03 Sep – 1 Corinthians 4:1-5; Luke 5:33-39; Memorial for St Gregory the Great, Pope & Doctor of the Church
Sat, 04 Sep – 1 Corinthians 4:6-15; Luke 6:1-5
Sun, 05 Sep – Wisdom 9:13-19; Philemon 1:9-10.12-17; Luke 14:25-33; Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time

29 Aug – Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time

Jesus, The Mediator Of A New Covenant
God made the new covenant of His love with the poor, the lowly, the downtrodden and the oppressed. It is therefore in a spirit of humility, the spirit of Jesus, that we make our celebration today, asking Him to accept the homage of the humble.

- The Sunday Missal
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Sirach 3:19-21.30-31

My son, be gentle in carrying out your business,
and you will be better loved than a lavish giver.
The greater you are, the more you should behave humbly,
and then you will find favour with the Lord;
for great though the power of the Lord is,
he accepts the homage of the humble.
There is no cure for the proud man’s malady,
since an evil growth has taken root in him.
The heart of a sensible man will reflect on parables,
an attentive ear is the sage’s dream.
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Hebrews 12:18-19.22-24

What you have come to is nothing known to the senses: not a blazing fire, or a gloom turning to total darkness, or a storm; or trumpeting thunder or the great voice speaking which made everyone that heard it beg that no more should be said to them. But what you have come to is Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the festival, with the whole Church in which everyone is a ‘first-born son’ and a citizen of heaven. You have come to God himself, the supreme Judge, and been placed with spirits of the saints who have been made perfect; and to Jesus, the mediator who brings a new covenant and a blood for purification which pleads more insistently than Abel’s.
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Luke 14:1.7-14

On a sabbath day Jesus had gone for a meal to the house of one of the leading Pharisees; and they watched him closely. He then told the guests a parable, because he had noticed how they picked the places of honour. He said this, ‘When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take your seat in the place of honour. A more distinguished person than you may have been invited, and the person who invited you both may come and say, “Give up your place to this man.” And then, to your embarrassment, you would have to go and take the lowest place. No; when you are a guest, make your way to the lowest place and sit there, so that, when your host comes, he may say, “My friend, move up higher.” In that way, everyone with you at the table will see you honoured. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the man who humbles himself will be exalted.’

Then he said to his host, ‘When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not ask your friends, brothers, relations or rich neighbours, for fear they repay your courtesy by inviting you in return. No; when you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; that they cannot pay you back means that you are fortunate, because repayment will be made to you when the virtuous rise again.’
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There is no cure for the proud man’s malady

One of the things that my father taught me as a child was a saying that I think he learnt from his parents. He often said to me, a stubborn child that I was then, “If you’re stupid, I can teach you, but if you’re stubborn, I cannot help you.” I would say that the root of stubbornness stems from the belief that I am right. If I am right, I do not need to change nor do I need to learn. But it is in stubbornness that we remain stupid.

Stubbornness is very closely related to pride, for it is pride that makes us stubborn. It is pride that makes us think that we know better than other people. It is pride that makes us refuse to apologise, to say that we are wrong, to say that others know better than we do. Thus it is those who are proud that are foolish. Conversely, the humble are the ones who look up to others, who desire to learn from others, and who acknowledge that for all that they know, there is so much more that they do not.

Today’s gospel reading talks about the difference between the proud and the humble. A proud person is one who takes the places of honour according to how he thinks of himself. But there is often a stark difference between how a person sees himself and how others see him.

Contrary to popular belief, a humble man is not one who thinks lowly of himself. Rather, a humble man is one who sees others are higher than himself. A humble man focuses not on himself, but on others. Consequently, a man who is self-deprecating, and quick to lower himself in his own eyes and in the eyes of others may not be humble at all, for such a man continues to focus on himself.

Only when we focus on others, on raising others above ourselves, rather than lowering ourselves in others’ presence, can we begin to be humble. To be humble means losing focus on ourselves. Thus, a truly humble man will never realise that he is humble for he is too busy focusing on others.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Daniel Tay)
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Prayer: Dear Lord, we pray for those around us, that they may always be elevated above us in the eyes of everyone.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks to the Lord for examples of humility in our lives.

Upcoming Readings:
Mon, 30 Aug – 1 Corinthians 2:1-5; Luke 4:16-30
Tue, 31 Aug – 1 Corinthians 2:10-16; Luke 4:31-37
Wed, 01 Sep – 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Luke 4:38-44
Thu, 02 Sep – 1 Corinthians 3:18-23; Luke 5:1-11
Fri, 03 Sep – 1 Corinthians 4:1-5; Luke 5:33-39; Memorial for St Gregory the Great, Pope & Doctor of the Church
Sat, 04 Sep – 1 Corinthians 4:6-15; Luke 6:1-5
Sun, 05 Sep – Wisdom 9:13-19; Philemon 1:9-10.12-17; Luke 14:25-33; Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time

28 Aug – Memorial for St Augustine, Bishop & Doctor of the Church

After investigating and experimenting with several philosophies, Augustine (354-430) became a Manichaean for several years; it taught of a great struggle between good and evil, and featured a lax moral code. A summation of his thinking at the time comes from his Confessions: “God, give me chastity and continence – but not just now.”

Augustine finally broke with the Manichaeans and was converted by the prayers of his mother and the help of St. Ambrose of Milan, who baptised him. Upon the death of his mother he returned to Africa, sold his property, gave the proceeds to the poor, and founded a monastery. He founded religious communities and fought heresies. His later thinking can also be summed up in a line from his writings: Our hearts were made for You, O Lord, and they are restless until they rest in you.
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1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Take yourselves for instance, brothers, at the time when you were called: how many of you were wise in the ordinary sense of the word, how many were influential people, or came from noble families? No, it was to shame the wise that God chose what is foolish by human reckoning, and to shame what is strong that he chose what is weak by human reckoning; those whom the world thinks common and contemptible are the ones that God has chosen – those who are nothing at all to show up those who are everything. The human race has nothing to boast about to God, but you, God has made members of Christ Jesus and by God’s doing he has become our wisdom, and our virtue, and our holiness, and our freedom. As scripture says: if anyone wants to boast, let him boast about the Lord.
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Matthew 25:14-30

Jesus spoke this parable to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of Heaven is like a man on his way abroad who summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one; each in proportion to his ability. Then he set out.

‘The man who had received the five talents promptly went and traded with them and made five more. The man who had received two made two more in the same way. But the man who had received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

‘Now a long time after, the master of those servants came back and went through his accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents came forward bringing five more. “Sir,” he said “you entrusted me with five talents; here are five more that I have made.”

‘His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.”

‘Next the man with the two talents came forward. “Sir,” he said “you entrusted me with two talents; here are two more that I have made.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have shown you can be faithful in small things, I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master’s happiness.”

‘Last came forward the man who had the one talent. “Sir,” said he “I had heard you were a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered; so I was afraid, and I went off and hid your talent in the ground. Here it is; it was yours, you have it back.” But his master answered him, “You wicked and lazy servant! So you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered? Well then, you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have recovered my capital with interest. So now, take the talent from him and give it to the man who has the five talents. For to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away. As for this good-for-nothing servant, throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.”’
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For to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away

As the firstborn in an Asian family, there are expectations and responsibilities one has to fulfil. I used to (and sometimes, when I am weary and burned out, I still do) wonder why it has to be this way? I never asked to be born first. Why shouldn’t I do as I please? When I grew older and read the stories from the Old Testament, it was with Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of stew that made me reflect more thoughtfully: “What good is my right as the firstborn to me?” (Genesis 25:32).

In today’s reading, Jesus talks about the ‘parable of the talents’. A talent during the time of Jesus, was thirty kilograms of precious metal. In the parable, we see the master entrusting his servants, each according to their capabilities, talents before he goes on a long trip. They are expected to trade with this, and try to turn a profit, while waiting for his return. When the master returns, there is a reckoning, what the servants have been able to yield from what they were given. We see the master rewarding the servants’ fruits of labour – “since you have been faithful in little things, I will entrust you with much more”.

Jesus uses the symbol of the talent to refer to the gifts that we are given by God, “each according to his ability” (Matthew 25:13). The message of the parable is later referred to by Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, “and the Lord will pay each according to their work. We are fellow workers with God… the work of each one will be shown for what it is” (1 Corinthians 3:9. 13).

It is what we do with what we are given and how we do it that God sees. Unlike the useless servant who hid the talent in the ground and the example of Esau, who put his own desires ahead of the gravity of his birthright, it is a sin to keep for ourselves what we have received instead of using it to seek and fulfil our roles in God’s plan.

We are chosen by God to the roles we play to fulfil His purposes. “We carry this treasure in jars of clay, so that this all surpassing power may not be seen as ours but as God’s” (2 Corinthians 4:7). God chooses His jars of clay. And just as the humble clay pot has no place asking the potter why he was made that way, it is also not our place to question, why we were made rich or poor, firstborn, lastborn or middle-child.

We were chosen and made as we are with specific talents unique only to us to fulfil a purpose – His purpose. Let’s pray we are able to put down our own selfish desires and wants to look to God and seek His will for us.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Sharon Soo)
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Prayer: We pray for forgiveness, when we question why we carry the crosses we carry. We pray for the wisdom to discern His will, the courage to choose the road He would have us walk, and the patience to endure it.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks for the talents that God has granted us; may we recognise them for what they are and use it for His purpose, not ours.

Upcoming Readings:
Sun, 29 Aug – 1 Sirach 3:19-21.30-31; Hebrews 12:18-19.22-24; Luke 14:1.7-14; Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time

27 Aug – Memorial for St Monica

Monica was distressed to learn that her son had accepted a heresy and was living an immoral life. For a while, she refused to let him eat or sleep in her house. Then one night she had a vision that assured her Augustine would return to the faith. From that time on she stayed close to her son, praying and fasting for him. In fact, she often stayed much closer than Augustine wanted.

When he was 29, Augustine decided to go to Rome to teach rhetoric. Monica was determined to go along. One night he told his mother that he was going to the dock to say goodbye to a friend. Instead, he set sail for Rome. Monica was heartbroken when she learned of Augustine’s trick, but she still followed him. She arrived in Rome only to find that he had left for Milan. Although travel was difficult, Monica pursued him to Milan, where she became a leader of the devout women there.

- Patron Saint Index
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1 Corinthians 1:17-25

Christ did not send me to baptise, but to preach the Good News, and not to preach that in the terms of philosophy in which the crucifixion of Christ cannot be expressed. The language of the cross may be illogical to those who are not on the way to salvation, but those of us who are on the way see it as God’s power to save. As scripture says: I shall destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing all the learning of the learned. Where are the philosophers now? Where are the scribes? Where are any of our thinkers today? Do you see now how God has shown up the foolishness of human wisdom? If it was God’s wisdom that human wisdom should not know God, it was because God wanted to save those who have faith through the foolishness of the message that we preach. And so, while the Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom, here are we preaching a crucified Christ; to the Jews an obstacle that they cannot get over, to the pagans madness, but to those who have been called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is the power and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
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Matthew 25:1-13

Jesus told this parable to his disciples: ‘The kingdom of heaven will be like this: Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were sensible: the foolish ones did take their lamps, but they brought no oil, whereas the sensible ones took flasks of oil as well as their lamps. The bridegroom was late, and they all grew drowsy and fell asleep. But at midnight there was a cry, “The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet him.” At this, all those bridesmaids woke up and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, “Give us some of your oil: our lamps are going out.” But they replied, “There may not be enough for us and for you; you had better go to those who sell it and buy some for yourselves.” They had gone off to buy it when the bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding hall and the door was closed. The other bridesmaids arrived later. “Lord, Lord,” they said “open the door for us.” But he replied, “I tell you solemnly, I do not know you.” So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.’
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The sensible ones took flasks f oil as well as their lamps

I’ve often wondered how a modern marriage survives our current cultural environment. A close friend once showed me a glimpse of what it means to stand by your (wo)man.

His then pregnant wife, feeling insecure, had scrolled through his mobile phone and picked out the numbers of his female acquaintances. She called them up and purported to tell them to stay away from her husband. One of these women was an ex-girlfriend who, feeling slighted, reported her to the police for harassment. Instead of chastising his wife, my friend stood by her and defended her through the query. I asked him why. He said, to love someone means you love them even when you know they’ve done wrong, even when they try your patience.

The analogy of marriage and the wedding feast is often used in Scripture, to symbolise the relationship between Christ and the Church. Waiting for the return of Christ and working our faith, after the initial enthusiasm of conversion wears off, is like persevering in a marriage after the first blush of romance is over and your partner’s quirks begin to annoy you.

Fidelity to our faith (like to our marriage) can be a heavy burden, one that requires perseverance and patient endurance. We will not know in advance, what is expected of us or what trials we have to overcome. Fidelity means going the distance, even if the way forward seems illogical – “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and make fail the foresight of the foresighted”. Just like a marriage, we can sometimes grow weary, working our faith. The bridegroom is late and the girls grow weary from the waiting and the weight of expectation.

The girls fall asleep. “While it is day, we must do the work of the One who sent me (us); for the night will come when no one can work” (John 9:4). When our lives are over, there is nothing left to be done. It is while we’re alive that we are given the opportunity to work at our faith (and our marriage). Scripture gives us a vivid example of what is needed to keep the flame alive. Five careless girls forget to bring reserves of oil (patience and endurance), five sensible girls remember to do so. Those who forget fall away and are eventually shut out of the rejoicing when He returns, symbolised here by the wedding feast.

Conversion is much like romance and marriage. After the initial excitement, things can and do simmer down, and the trials we go through can wear us down. Like the five sensible girls of the parable, it is necessary to bring with us a store of patience and endurance, the oil to ‘relight our fire’, so we can last the distance and follow through on our calling and our vocation.

“But the one who holds out to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13).

(Today’s OXYGEN by Sharon Soo)
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Prayer: We pray for stores of patience and endurance while we bear our individual crosses. As in a marriage, we pray we look at each trial through the eyes of love, not anger and resentment.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks for our partners who bear with us patiently when we are weak and share our joys when we are strong.

Upcoming Readings:
Sat, 28 Aug – 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 25:14-30; Memorial for St Augustine, Bishop & Doctor of the Church
Sun, 29 Aug – 1 Sirach 3:19-21.30-31; Hebrews 12:18-19.22-24; Luke 14:1.7-14; Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time

26 Aug
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1 Corinthians 1:1-9

I, Paul, appointed by God to be an apostle, together with brother Sosthenes, send greetings to the church of God in Corinth, to the holy people of Jesus Christ, who are called to take their place among all the saints everywhere who pray to our Lord Jesus Christ; for he is their Lord no less than ours. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ send you grace and peace.

I never stop thanking God for all the graces you have received through Jesus Christ. I thank him that you have been enriched in so many ways, especially in your teachers and preachers; the witness to Christ has indeed been strong among you so that you will not be without any of the gifts of the Spirit while you are waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed; and he will keep you steady and without blame until the last day, the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, because God by calling you has joined you to his Son, Jesus Christ; and God is faithful.
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Matthew 24:42-51

Jesus said to his disciples:

‘Stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming. You may be quite sure of this that if the householder had known at what time of the night the burglar would come, he would have stayed awake and would not have allowed anyone to break through the wall of his house. Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

‘What sort of servant, then, is faithful and wise enough for the master to place him over his household to give them their food at the proper time? ‘Happy that servant if his master’s arrival finds him at this employment. I tell you solemnly, he will place him over everything he owns. But as for the dishonest servant who says to himself, “My master is taking his time,” and sets about beating his fellow servants and eating and drinking with drunkards, his master will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not know. The master will cut him off and send him to the same fate as the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.’
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Happy that servant if his master’s arrival finds him at this employment

When I lived in Singapore, there was a colloquialism that we used to say, whenever the boss was out of town – ‘boh cheng hu’ (roughly translated as ‘no governance’). It meant that while the boss was away, we could take longer lunches, head off home from work earlier and generally not push ourselves, at the same frenetic speed as we would normally do, when under his supervision. These periods usually occurred during the long summer lull, when the boss headed home for the summer. I remember the happy long lunches during those idyllic summers. Understandably, they were not the most productive of months for the company.

Yesterday we read about how some of the Thessalonians sat and idled away their time, pontificating on matters of faith instead of working out their faith, while awaiting Christ’s coming. Today we are shown how we as Christians, should carry on waiting for Christ’s coming.

There are four parables in a row here, in Jesus’ discourse – the parable of the master and servant (Matthew 24:42-51), parable of the ten bridesmaids (Matthew 25:1-13), the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) and the parable of the goats and sheep (Matthew 25:31-46). All the four parables deal with aspects of working out God’s harvest – faith, hope (endurance) and love (generosity).

Our reading refers to the first parable. We are told there will be the element of surprise “the thief would come by night” and take unawares those still revelling in their drunkenness and debauchery. We are told, the good servant (he who perseveres in his faith and toils to the end) will be rewarded for his perseverance. The bad servant (he who has been called but has fallen away, become distracted or complacent) is thrown out to the dogs. The underlying message is one of fidelity to one’s vocation, to be trustworthy working out one’s faith and to have endurance (hope) enough to last the distance.

There is no way of knowing the time of His coming. Often, we read of how such and such a person had a dream, the time of the second coming will be at such and such a date, how we are to store up supplies ahead of it. We’re specifically instructed in Scripture, to be wary of false Messiahs and false prophets foretelling the coming. We are told to hold fast to the basic tenets of Christian living and not to believe or engage in idle theorising.

Today when we reflect on our efforts at working out our faith, which category would we say we fall into? Are we the servant enjoying his idyllic summer lull or the faithful servant who diligently toils at his vocation, waiting in hope for the return of his master?

(Today’s OXYGEN by Sharon Soo)
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Prayer: We pray for strength and resolve, to stay on the course and keep our eye on the ball, even when it is tempting to join in with empty conversations around us.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks to the richness of parables in Scripture that inspire us to keep going when we’re weary and burned out.

Upcoming Readings:
Fri, 27 Aug – 1 Corinthians 1:17-25; Matthew 25:1-13; Memorial for St Monica
Sat, 28 Aug – 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 25:14-30; Memorial for St Augustine, Bishop & Doctor of the Church
Sun, 29 Aug – 1 Sirach 3:19-21.30-31; Hebrews 12:18-19.22-24; Luke 14:1.7-14; Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time