Posts
(12.12.2009)
Sunset mass (38 from the RCIA Programmme are baptized during the mass)
Gospel Reading: Luke 3:10-18
“What must we do?”
The word of God this evening is so appropriate because in our midst 38 of our brothers and sisters will be baptized. They will receive baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist.
You who are baptized today… you are blessed; you are blessed because you experience God’s love in your life.
We, so-called cradle Catholics… we were baptized when we didn’t know anything. And that’s the problem with us cradle Catholics. That’s why, newly baptized brothers and sisters, it is so dangerous for you to ask us cradle Catholics what must we do. Actually, when you see us, don’t ask that. Because we not only will tell you the wrong thing, we will show you different things.
You see, as cradle Catholics, we were brought into church sleeping, as a baby. Two months… I was baptized when I was 2 months young, exactly 54 years ago. The problem is not that we were baptized when we were babies; the problem is: 54 years later I’m still sleeping in church!
You know, we take things for granted. So many times we have seminars and things that enrich us, but because we are cradle Catholics, we think we know a lot and we won’t advance; we won’t take the step to discover more.
Like recently, we have Dr Jeffery Goh and his wife, Angie to share with us on Corinthians. I asked a cradle Catholic, would you like to come for this seminar? It’s going to be exciting. You know what he said? I’m a cradle Catholic; I can’t come to the seminar. I said, why? He said what to do, my parents were rubber tappers; that’s why I got rubber brain – cannot register, cannot remember.
But you know what this good friend of mine is very good at? He’s got fantastic memory – for 4D. He will never fail to tell me - this number 3442. But I said you told me you’ve no memory because you’ve rubber brain? But he said 4D must remember. And he told me 3442, in the year 2003, Chinese New Year, struck first prize.
Can you imagine - his memory is so good. But ask him to come to Corinthians, for a seminar, he tells me he’s got rubber brain. These are called cradle Catholics.
So my young brothers and sisters, I must apologize to you because as Catholics we have not been good examples for you; we failed you. We failed you because we take our faith lightly. You take your faith seriously because you experience things that transform you. But because we were baptized as babies, we take things for granted.
In this holy mass, we thank God for you. And we know that you will be the shining light for us.
Look, I have been a Catholic for 54 years. I have difficulty in praying. I have difficulty in smiling. And you know another thing about cradle Catholics… you know everyone is talking about this H1N1… we cradle Catholics are worse off. We have what you call foot, hand, mouth and eye diseases. Foot – because we can’t walk to church. If we come to church we can’t shake hands because our hands are diseased. And if we shake hand we can’t look at one another because we’ve got eye disease.
We failed you. We are not a shining example. You know us.
But you will be our shining star because you encounter God’s love – your life is transformed. And we look at you - your life is amazing: there is enthusiasm; there is so much energy. And, we too would want that. You are an inspiration to us because with you in our midst – you have been touched by the Lord; you allow the Lord to transform you. You become a witness for us. And for this I thank you.
And as a community we pray; we pray that, especially this coming Christmas, we all will encounter the Lord so that none of us can say we are cradle Catholics. We are all active Catholics. We can be active because we can experience God’s love. And we all can experience God’s love because God is loving.
In this holy mass we thank God for His love. We thank God for calling us to be His beloved children. May we always rejoice and celebrate this joy of being God’s own beloved children.
Rev Fr Stephen Lim
Holy Trinity Church, Kuching
