Christmas...very simply...Christ becoming man...

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

 (John 1:1, Douay-Rheims)

 

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

(John 1:4, Douay-Rheims)

 

 

 

 

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

(John 1:4, Douay-Rheims)

 

 

 

 

 

Here's wishing all pilgrims the world over, that somewhere over the rainbow of God's abundant grace showered upon us this Christmas, we will remember to live our lives more meaningfully and simply...and as pilgrims, always decide to trust Jesus Christ,...choose the divine quiet and sacred silence...against the distracting noise and seduction of the world...and most importantly, persevere in our journey, taking little steps to make a simple difference...simply because Jesus lives through each one of us and this amazing grace from God from the very first Christmas, continue to be radiated out to the world today through us...in all our weaknesses, imperfections and foolishness...Blessed Christmas to all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

God's Grace to Grow in Stewardship

“Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not serving to the eye, as pleasing men, but in simplicity of heart, fearing God.  Whatsoever you do, do it from the heart, as to the Lord, and not to men: Knowing that you shall receive of the Lord the reward of inheritance.  Serve ye the Lord Christ.” (Colossians 3:22-24, Douay Rheims)

It has been quite sometime since my last piece of journal on this blog.  Many events have happened since then...on my journey.  I still feel sad when I recollect the sudden departure of my good companion and friend...only two weeks ago...but just seem like yesterday.  Sad or not, life for me must still go on...

Coincidently, I have been back working in the corporate world...the very week after my best friend’s funeral.  I still remember my last conversation with him, just the week before...he advised me to give it a shot...get back to employment...as there are still so many lives I am capable of reaching out to and touching.  My friend, I have taken your last words into heart...we are indeed God's gift to the world...our lives are meant to be shared...our light...to brighten where it is dark...

But then, my dear companion never stayed long enough to hear the good news...that I have successfully got the job...on the very day after he passed on.  In fact, the phone call came when I was at the wake at his residence near the coastal waters off the Straits of Malacca...

Sometimes, the happenings in life are such a paradox...emotions of sadness and joy all mixed up...one just does not know what to feel anymore.  What I know is that my journey from this point onwards will miss the cherished companionship of a very dear friend.  Nevertheless, I thank God for bringing him into my life and will always hold his words in my heart...guess this must have been similar of how the twelve disciples must have felt when Jesus suddenly left them at Golgotha...

Me getting a new job and losing a dear friend...at the same moment?  Perhaps the Lord has a hidden message for me...somewhere under the blanket of these events in life.  Perhaps Jesus wants me to bring His Light back into the world...perhaps there are lives I must still reach out and touch...  Perhaps, I must walk the rest of this journey without my good friend...perhaps, my dear friend is called onto another journey somewhere else...perhaps there is more learning for me...perhaps I require more refining...

Whatever it is, I remain the humble instrument of the Lord...  Once we have experienced God’s merciful grace and forgiveness in our lives...surely we are obligated to share and pass this on joyfully and willingly to many others who have yet to experience the same...

For me, two weeks have passed into the corporate world...the landscape of my journey is beginning to change again...yet my mission remains the same...to do my small part, in partnership with God, in making this world a little better; with my strength anchored on God alone.

My time management has gone a bit wacko since then as I re-orientate myself and settle into this new position.  What I have realized these past 2 weeks is that I must be even more disciplined, spiritually, as I pursue my new journey; as a disciple of Christ...amidst the “noise” and “seduction” of this crazy world.

Trying to be simple amidst the “complexities” and “complications” of the competitive entrepreneur world is never easy.  To achieve this spiritual equilibrium, I have fallen back to rely on the basic foundation of prayer and the rosary...coupled with much scriptural and spiritual reading.  This has helped, to a certain extent, to sustain me and maintain a calm “center”...not forgetting the Holy Eucharist which I am so privilege to receive at each Friday noon mass, given that my new place of employment is within walking distance to a cathedral.  Thank God for that!

Don’t get me wrong but I am indeed pleased to be back to work again...I know that my past sabbatical year has helped formed me somehow, to face the competitive business world with much more composure, confidence, spiritual maturity and priority.

Indeed God continues to work in mysterious ways...He has a unique plan for all of us...if we but be obedient to His ways.  Although we are sinners, He loves each one of us all the same.  So, here I am, Lord...is it I, Lord?...I will go, Lord, if you need me!

I just pray that my humble listening to Him, discerning...and obedience in journeying this route through the waves of life...will bring only more glory to His Holy Name.  I pray that He will continue to guide me in all my decisions and actions.  May He increase as I decrease...

“You have seduced me, Yahweh, and I have let myself be seduced...” (Jeremiah 20:7, NJB)

Ultimately, I know that I am “employed” by God and He remains my first “boss”.  As a Catholic Christian, I also know that my work on earth is a spiritual stewardship; not a secular necessity.  What I contribute, in any small way, at my workplace must serve His purposes with the utmost integrity and fit into His entire plan for Creation and the Universe.  I, a mere servant, partner with God through my “sacred” worldly responsibilities to bring life to this “dying” world and humanity.  By the grace and mercy of God, I now have another opportunity to grow in my stewardship at work...placing all my trust in God alone.  Alleluia!

“Otherwise, you might say in your heart, “It is my own power and the strength of my own hand that has got me this wealth.”  Remember then the Lord, your God, for he is the one who gives you the power to get wealth, by fulfilling, as he has now done, the covenant he swore to your ancestors.  But if you do forget the Lord, your God, and go after other gods, serving and bowing down to them, I bear witness to you this day that you will perish utterly.” (Deuteronomy 8:17-19, NAB)

The Price of Salvation...Not 'Free'

“Let your life be free from love of money but be content with what you have, for he has said, 'I will never forsake you or abandon you.'” 
(Hebrews 13:6, NAB)
 
If you have ever tried to Google for the word “Free”, you will receive about 7,170,000,000 results. It is interesting to note that if one were to just add on “Grace” the results would reduce significantly to about 68,500,000. Thereafter, if we bring “God” into the whole equation, the results will shrink down to only 8,000,000!  Now, if “Faith” were to be planted in, Google produces about 1,950,000 results. The price of “Commitment” will cause everything to go down even further to about 266,000 results and in this season of Lent, “Repentance” would result in the whole search humbling down to a mere 53,900!!  Interesting statistics, fascinating trend...



But what has this interesting Google discovery got to do with our journey towards Lent?  Let me attempt to simply illustrate my thoughts for today.
In life, as we already know too well, there are lots and lots of ‘free’ stuff around us, tempting us, seducing us, crying out for our attention, wanting a piece of our limited time – things, tasks, shortcuts, remedies, relationships, distractions, etc, etc.  A materialistic attitude is a gross obstacle to the spiritual life.  The philosophy of materialism makes man a 'little God'.  There is simply no place for God in this kind of mentality.


Well, grace is also ‘free’ and very simply it is the love given freely by God to all of us, His creation.  There is really nothing that we can do to merit grace, because it is a gift from the God who made us; gifts are free!   Let us ponder a little bit more on this term ‘free’.


In dull economic terms, ‘free’ technically does not exist in the domain of money; one of the reasons that ‘free’ is sometimes such a difficult concept to grasp – its something we cannot count with our fingers!  Very simply, ‘free’ has no cost or price attached (so it seems) and it is basically nothingness – something which gets consumers like us terribly excited, influencing our choices, distracting our focus.


Nevertheless, it is reasonable for us to sometimes associate ‘free’ with diminished quality – just because there isn’t a price attached to it; we tend to value it less, take it for granted, and without a second thought, waste it.  Generally, we do not care as much about things we do not have to pay for; we take free stuff because it is there, not because we want it.

Could this be a possible reason then as to why 'cradle' Catholics (who never had to pay any price at infant stage) are perceived to be less passionate and actively committed about their faith, then say, 'born-again' Catholics (who are transformed by the workings of God's grace during baptism)?  Food for thought!


Thus, charging a 'price' can encourage a much more responsible and committed behavior; consumers become more careful not to lose it.  The downside of this – when a certain cost or price is imposed, the participation decreases radically; as depicted from the earlier metaphor of the Google search results.  Coincidently, quite an interesting similarity observed!


As such, fellow pilgrims, faith is simply our personal act of response to the free gift of grace, which is always at the initiative of God who reveals himself to us.  God gives each one of us sufficient grace and free-dom to overcome the challenges in this journey through life, even when it sometimes seem like we are constantly struggling.
 It is when we are weakest that we are the strongest because that is precisely when God's power can be made perfect in us. 

We observed that many people, when things get so bad, seemingly hopeless and burdensome in their lives, tend to fall down on their knees in tears and beg God to fix things now; put things right immediately.


Our commitment to the former response is our acknowledgment of God as the loving Father, over our own limited mortal strength.  This is the beginning of our relationship with God; also the beginning of the end of our human pride - repentance.  We repent and surrender ourselves before the Lord of life in order that He may come, take control and transform our lives from within.


Conversely, the pride-ridden and self-proclaimed ‘strong’, who constantly boast of being in full control of their worldly affairs by virtue of their own competency, abilities and actions, would find it tremendously challenging to respond with such a spirit of radical discipleship; their hearts having been hardened by the cruel ways of the world.

To illustrate further, when soil is loose, it imediately absorbs drops of rain to be nourished and enriched.  However, if the same rain falls on a rock (our harden heart), it bounces off.  Similarly, one of the prerequisites of learning how to swim is to relax in the water.  As we relax, we discover how buoyant the water is and how much it supports us.

“...without me you can do nothing.”  (John 15:5, NAB)


As we journey on towards Lent, we come to realize that there must initially be a first step, on our part, towards making the commitment to repent, turn God-ward and acknowledge our need for God.  God cannot work in us as powerfully if we choose to be self-reliant, doubt Him and not want to take notice of His free grace continuously showered upon us. 

Today, simply take the first step to humbly acknowledge Jesus, the Son of God, who laid down His life, and paid the price of our salvation...the agony, the sorrow, the conspiracy, the humiliation, the mocking, the scourging, the crucifixion on a cross - the cruelest form of torture devised by 'free' man - the slow death over six agonizing hours.

“Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”  (1 Corinthians 3:16, NAB)




Therefore, wake up and freely choose to bring yourselves before the Lord and permit Him to act in you.  If God seems far away, whom do you think has moved?  Well, God obviously did not...

Breathe in the Will of God...into the new year

"Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."

"Cheap grace arose out of man's desire to be saved, but to do so without becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ."

"Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'Ye were bought at a price', and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God."

"Who stands firm? Only the one for whom the final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all these, when in faith and sole allegiance to God he is called to obedient and responsible action: the responsible person, whose life will be nothing but an answer to God's question and call."

"To be silent does not mean to be inactive; rather it means to breathe in the will of God, to listen attentively and be ready to obey."

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
(a minister in the Lutheran church, stood in courageous opposition to the Fuehrer (Adolf Hitler) and his policies. He was executed by the Nazis in the Flossenbürg concentration camp in 1945)

As pilgrims on this earth, we are all called into a communion of obedience...sharing the sufferings of God in the world.  God may not give us everything we want, but He always fulfill His promises, leading us along the best and straightest paths to Himself...He is our faithful companion on this journey.