Posts
(06.12.2009)
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Gospel Reading: Luke 3:1-6
“All mankind shall see the salvation of God”
The Responsorial Psalm this evening sums up the message of God’s word - What marvels the Lord worked for us! Indeed we were glad.
You know, this is durian season. Imagine a good friend of yours invited you to his durian farm, the best of the best. All the trees are cluttered with durians. What would you do? Would you be this someone who goes around the plantation or the farm with a piece of paper and a pen jotting down where the source of the stream is; looking at the environment where he gets nourishment for these gigantic trees? And after your survey you meet your good friend and you say to him: you know, you have a fantastic durian farm; but how many years does it take you for these trees to bear fruit? But your friend says these are the best of the best, no grafting; from selected durian seeds, the best of the best; and it takes about 25 years. And you say to him, give me 15 years; I will go to Thailand and look for those grafted durians. They call it genetically altered food. And within 10 years, I will have better fruits than yours.
Would you do that?
But very often this is what we do with our God. Our God offers us life; offers us forgiveness; offers us joy. We tell God, no, hold on; let me perfect myself first; let me dress up my wounds; let me change myself, and then I will come.
The word of God this evening invites us to be glad - to be glad that Christ our saviour comes to us. The word of God invites us to take delight in God’s marvellous deeds. Isn’t true, God gives us the best. It is his desire to include all, but what to do, being human we always excuse ourselves.
But this evening, can’t we just take delight in the marvels of God in our life? Let us not improve it. Now, as Catholics we are famous - we must baptize it first; then we can enjoy it. Remember when our diocese welcomed this Alpha course, many of us - even priests - went through it; and we say God is at work; the Holy Spirit is at work. But you know what? We tell one another - just because we’re Catholics; because this was written by an Anglican priest - we say they do not include the Eucharist; they do not include confession; so before we can use Alpha, let’s baptize it first.
But why? You mean to tell me that God’s love, God’s gift is never good enough? Must we improve it? Must we approve it? No, can’t we just be His children, and delight in Him, without excuse, without reason? Just celebrate Him coming to us, taking delight in His marvellous deeds, in His love for us.
I’m sure many of you have watched this Scottish choir member, an amateur singer who made it big time – Susan Boyle. I’m sure many of you have heard her singing. When she was acknowledged and acclaimed as a sensation, did she tell the world: Hold on; I didn’t go for my grade one music lesson; can you hold on your applause, let me go back to grade one. Or, I have not gone through the vocals; can you let me go through my vocals?
No. You know, what is holding us back so many times is because we feel that God’s gift is not good enough, or we’re too good for this.
But, can’t we be His children, and celebrate?
When you’re invited to a durian farm, enjoy! Don’t go around prospecting and telling yourself you’ll enjoy durians only in your own farm ten years from now. Just enjoy what is here, delight in it!
In this mass, our Lord comes to us; can we delight in Him, can we allow Him to give us delight, can we allow Him to surprise us, can we allow Him to fulfill us?
And we all can delight in God, because we have a God who loves us.
Our parish is very blessed; we have so many good things. What to do, when it is ours we tend to take for granted.
This evening, I’d like to introduce to you a production from our own choir. Sure, they may be amateurs. You know, if you look at film awards, one of the things they will always talk about is the budget; and many of the movies or films are made on low budgets, or what they call shoe-string budgets. But the Trinity morning choir is not on a shoe-string budget - they have no budget! They don’t have even a recording studio. It’s amateur, but just because it amateur, it doesn’t mean that there is no blessing; there is no delight.
And this evening, I’d like to introduce you to their first production, Flow of God’s Love Through Healing. I’d like to invite you to listen and allow this music ministry to touch us, to enrich us…..
Rev Fr Stephen Lim
Holy Trinity Church, Kuching
