“Blessed are the Poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

A Summary of the 29th World Youth Day

This year and next, World Youth Day will be celebrated on a local level and in 2016 it will be an international gathering with the Pope in Krakow, Poland. The Pope told young people that in April, 2014, he will canonise Blessed John Paul II, who began the international celebrations and will be “the great patron of the World Youth Days”.

Our Holy Father has chosen the Beatitudes from the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew as the themes for the World Youth Day celebrations for the next three years (2014-2016).

The themes are:

 29^th World Youth Day, 2014: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:3).

 30^th World Youth Day, 2015: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Mt 5:8).

 31^st World Youth Day, 2016: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” (Mt 5:7).

Pope Francis challenges young people to “Have the courage to swim against the tide, have the courage to be truly happy!” In his message for this year’s 29th World Youth Day, he calls on us to focus on the first beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

The “poor in spirit,” whom Jesus described as “blessed” are the same people the world considers to be “losers”, “To be blessed means to be happy,” said the Pope who challenges young people to take seriously their approach to life and to decide which path is right for them and leads to true joy and which is the true path to happiness offered by Jesus..

The Pope observes that the “Beatitudes of Jesus are new and revolutionary.” “They present a model of happiness contrary to what is usually communicated by the media and by the prevailing wisdom. If you are really open to the deepest aspirations of your hearts, you will realise that you possess an unquenchable thirst for happiness. That thirst can only be satisfied by union with God.” The Holy Father urges young people to work toward that goal. “Say No to an ephemeral, superficial and throwaway culture,” he tells them.

The Pope added, “Young people who choose Christ are strong: They are fed by his word and they do not need to ‘stuff themselves’ with money, possessions and fleeting pleasure. He said, in the Bible being poor is not just about having few material possessions. “It suggests lowliness, a sense of one’s limitations and existential poverty. The ‘anawim’ (God’s poor) trust in the Lord, and they know they can count on him.”

The Pope said his namesake, St Francis of Assisi, “understood perfectly the secret of the beatitude” and demonstrated that by living “in imitation of Christ in his poverty and in love for the poor.”

To be poor in spirit, Pope Francis offers young people three pieces of advice in his message:

·         First of all, try to be free with regard to material things.

·         Second, if we are to live by poverty in spirit, all of us need to experience a conversion in the way we see the poor which means meeting them, listening to them, caring for them and offering for them both material and spiritual assistance.

·         Third, the poor are not just people to whom we can give something. They have much to offer us and to teach us particularly “people’s value is not measured by their possessions or how much money they have in the bank.”

Looking to Mary, particularly in the Magnificat, the Pope tells young people, “The joy of the Gospel arises from a heart which, in its poverty, rejoices and marvels at the works of God.”

My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

HOLY WEEK is here. It is an awesome 8 days of the liturgical year. It begins with Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday) and ending with Easter Sunday. We are called to enter into a deeper journey of uniting ourselves with Jesus, connecting our sufferings to His sufferings, our passion to His passion, our need for the glory of resurrection to His glorious resurrection.

Holy Week is a time when millions of minds will be focused upon last hours of the earthly life of Jesus. Jesus makes His triumphant journey from Bethany to Jerusalem to pass through death. This is the most sacred time of the Church liturgy. It highlights the peak moments of Christ’s love for us.

Jesus was betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter and abandoned by all – “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” But He remains faithful to God’s will to the end, does not turn back in His trial.

This final week of Lent offers us an opportunity to bring our hearts and minds into harmony with Christ. We are invited to make a special effort to attend and participate in this Holy Week liturgy and listen to the Passion and death story of life of Jesus in a spirit of prayer and embrace its message.

Please do find some quite time to read and meditate on the Passion and death of Jesus. You can choose any Gospel you want because each Gospel has presented 2 chapters of Passion and death of Jesus. Just spent your quite time reading and praying the passion narrative of Jesus this Holy Week.

My Family, My Identity, My Happiness!

Homily of the Lenten Compassion Walk 2014

Theme: Pro-Family

Sub-theme: "Same Book, New Chapter"

Venue: Church of St Thomas, Kuantan

Date: 5-6th April, 2014

Participants: 900 youths (17-39 years)

The objective of this year’s Lenten Compassion Walk is to promote traditional family values and to build our homes today on the foundation of God’s love by keeping the 4th Commandment closer to our hearts. During this season of Lent we have gathered all of you here to refresh, energize and motivate you with family values and how to be a responsible child in your home and society at large. Aside from finding new friends, and new families, this event is aimed at making you realize the importance of the family.

We are not going to redefine the family. Everybody knows the definition of the family. A child. A mother. A father. Right?

You have received a lot of input these past two days. You had group sharing sessions and you went for a mission at various BECs, beaches and streets to find out public opinion about family values, how healthy the family life is and how they function. 

Where shall we go from here? It is simple; when you go back to your own homes what you need to do is simply serve your family. Serve your father. Serve your mother … make this a top priority in your life. You need to help your family become stronger and closer to each other ever than before and enjoy the best that life has to offer at home.

Most of the time your parents are worried about you, confused and feeling restlessness. Even right now they may be thinking of you and wondering about you. Are you aware of this!

You are precious gifts from God and you have awesome responsibilities, roles and function in your family.

A child says, “I have an iPhone”. Another one says, “I have an iPad”, the third one says, “I have an iPod”. The father says, “iPay”. We know how much energy time and money our parents spend each day for your studies, for your food, clothes and other necessary things. Are you aware of the sacrifices they make for you to enjoy your life? How are we showing our gratitude to them?

Whenever I hear confessions especially from teenagers and youths, I always ask them what is the 4th Commandment? Very often they don’t remember. Most of you may think, “ Why should I remember? I have already graduated from my 1st Holy Communion and Confirmation class. The commandments are only for children”.

Today, we need to remind ourselves about the 4th commandment that is to honour your father and mother. When you respect and honour your parents, I am sure that someday   when you have children of your own, your kids and the people around you will respect and honour you. If you don’t honour your parents now, you may not receive any respect from your own family or society in the future.

Taize Prayer

Lent is nearing its end. Look at the gospel today on the raising of Lazarus from the tomb. We are already too long in the grave of sin. This means that even with our bad attitudes, God calls us again to be a changed person and to come out from our tomb. God is willing to help us to be faithful to the life to come. 

Lazarus came back to life not by his own power but by the power of God. It is the power of God that enables us to break all the chains, all fears and to give new life. It is time for us to come out of the tomb, as Lazarus came out of his tomb. Our selfishness / self-centeredness, indifferences and certain attitudes make us hard and cold towards others. For instance, do not engage too much with video games, pornography, spending time unnecessarily, loitering, etc.

Taize Prayer

St Paul says in the 2nd reading today, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Jesus, he/she does not belong to Him.” We have received the Spirit of Jesus through our Baptism. It is basically the attitude of dying to one self…by giving our time, our resources, our energy, and ourselves in the service of our homes and society that we experience love, joy peace and happiness.

Our two days experience of being together with lack of food, lack of sleep or sleeping in inconvenient places have helped us to see how much our parents are doing for us to ensure that we don’t suffer like this – no food, no sleep, no comfort. Today, you need to be rooted in God’s love and God’s care.

Many parents are wounded not physically but emotionally. The wounds may have been caused by our own behaviour and by our own words and deeds which have deeply hurt them. We ourselves cause wounds. Wounding our parents, our siblings, teachers and our loved ones have become a cycle which has to be broken especially in this season of Lent.

We have almost come to the end of the season of Lent. Have you made yourselves available to touch your wounded parents with your words and deeds? When you close your eyes to your wounded parents, you are also closing your hearts to God. In the Gospel we heard that Jesus wept and he was disturbed. This is what happens when we hurt our parents. When we open our eyes and acknowledge their hurts and wounds, then you you can make a difference and a significant change in your lives. So, when you return home do give your parents a hug and tell them that you are sorry for having hurt them knowingly or unknowingly. Show your gesture of Christ’s love and compassion and I am sure it will bring healing to them and blessing to your families.

Don’t blame your parents. Very often society places the blame on parents as being the cause of dysfunctional families. But we are also part of it right?

Here’s a suggestion for all of you. Do at least one nice thing for your parents every day. It could be a word of encouragement or appreciation or do a good deed like giving them a helping hand in the housework, which will turn out to be a great consolation for them. By doing that one nicer thing will help to see your parents in cheerfulness always. This is your sacrifice to your parents and for your families from now on.

Our sub-theme is “Same Book, New Chapter”. We are going back home to our same families. It is our own family. But you are going to make a difference in your families. You are going create a new chapter, new family with freshness of Christ’s love and peace. 'My Family, My Identity, My Happiness'.

Come Out From Our Tomb!

Lent is nearing its end. Jesus’ command to Lazarus to “come out” is a command to all of us (Jn 11:1-45). We are already too long in the grave of sin. God calls us again to come out from our tomb. If we still find ourselves in the tomb of selfishness, we should come out of it. Our selfishness makes us hard and stiff towards others and community. Look at a man at his birth; he is so fragile and tender. But at death, he is hard and stiff. We need conversion, a constant conversion from the sinfulness to a new life. Of course, any change for the better would cause us pain and suffering right?

Lent is not about suffering and sacrifice. It’s a corridor to new life. Lent is all about reaching the resurrection: renewing our faith, entering a new life free of old sins, reconciling damaged relationships, and living in the Spirit of God more than we ever did before.

God is willing to help us with His power today. Lazarus came out to life not by his own power but by the power of God. It is power of God that enables us to break all the chains, all fears and to give new life.

Therefore we need to bring all our fears and weaknesses to God in prayer. Martha brought her sadness to the Lord and her sadness was transformed into a faith-experience to her. God’s power combined with our own Lenten sacrifice – prayer, penance and act of charity can transform our fears, sadness, bitterness, sinfulness into a new life as well sharing in His resurrection.

Lord, That I May See!

The gospel account for the 4th Sunday of Lent (Jn 9:1-41) is about physical blindness – the giving of sight to a man born blind. It is all about light and darkness, knowledge and ignorance, faith and unbelief. 

Christ is asking us to look at our blind spots because coming out from darkness into light is not an easy journey. Jesus knows our weaknesses and is willing to help us, provided we come to Him for healing.

In this Lent, what Jesus is asking us whether we are in the light or still in the dark. He is offering us a chance to take another look at ourselves. Having been called to walk as children of the light we must keep praying, “Lord, that I may see, that I may choose again to be with you, to obey you and to look to you for help and direction.”

Whenever our eyes are opened to acknowledge others, we grow in the light of faith and knowledge of God. We pray for greater insight into the will of the Lord and for the ability to see more clearly the needs of other people in our lives.