Category Archives: 12th

Imagine you are a childless couple and are already getting on in years, and you had guests at your house. While having a meal, one of the guest suddenly says: “I shall visit you again next year without fail, and your wife will then have a son.” How would you respond? Quite likely some would say, “don’t be silly, my wife and I are too old”; some might say, “oh come on, don’t talk rubbish, factory closed long time ago (the ‘factory’ here refers the fertility period of a woman, before she hits menopause).”

This is exactly how Sarah in today’s reading responded when she heard such words. In the reading, “Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, ‘Now that I am past the age of child-bearing, and my husband is an old man, is pleasure to come my way again!’” Yet, the guest in the reading did not take it as a joke or a laughing matter and re-emphasised, “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the same time next year I shall visit you again and Sarah will have a son.”

Now, this does not mean that elderly childless couples should get worried or concerned about conceiving at an old age and bearing a child. If it really happens, then we should praise God for such a miracle. But what it means is, if God can enable Sarah to conceive at an old age, just imagine what He can do for us if we are to consistently pray and ask Him. May we not laugh or scoff at such things, since God can make a way, even though there seems to be no way. May we put our trust in Him, and let Him do what is best for us, for His purpose and glory.

I still remember at one parish I served: there was this man who had been ill for quite sometime. His family and he were non-Catholics and not even Christians. I was quite surprised when his family came to ask me to pray over him because they believed that prayers are very powerful for his recovery. It was indeed an expression of faith. While praying over him, I saw in them the calmness and surrender not expected from a non-Catholic family. The man got better, and the family eventually attended RCIA and got baptised.

In today’s gospel, Jesus was amazed at the deep faith of the centurion who was a Gentile. Even though the centurion was not a follower of Jesus, he still believed that Jesus can heal. Because of such faith, Jesus healed the centurion’s servant.

What can we learn from this? When we have faith in God, God can make many things possible. All we need to do is to trust and believe that God will help us, not according to our time and our way, but in His time and His way. May we have faith like that centurion, a faith that continues to rely and trust in God’s power even if things do not happen the way we want and the time we expect.

The Temple that king Solomon built was a huge and magnificent building. Huge blocks of finest stone were used to build it, and it was decorated with gold and silver ornaments. It was the pride and glory of Israel and a belief that God dwelt in their midst in that Temple. Because the temple appeared to be impressive and seemingly indestructible, the Israelites began to have a false sense of security, and became complacent in their faith, thinking that God would always be on their side, come what may. But the Israelites were soon rudely awakened and shaken to the core, when king Nebuchanezzar of Babylon conquered Jerusalem and his army laid the Temple to waste.

This was the basis on which the book of Lamentation in today’s reading tried to put into words the sorrow and grief of the people, when they realised that they had been been putting their trust and dependence in the wrong place. Instead of being faithful to God and walking in His ways, they had walked in their own ways, thinking that the Temple would always assure them of God’s presence. As a result, the people realised their folly too late, and ended up in exile and captivity.

We too could also fall into the same trap. We may have become complacent in our faith, especially when we have church structures and magnificent buildings around us, and we begin to put our trust in such structures and buildings, while we continue to commit despicable acts, instead of putting our trust in God and walking in His ways. May we open our eyes and realise that we are only creating our own illusions and false sense of security, and do our best to remain at rights with God, seeking forgiveness through the Sacrament of Confession when possible, lest we too end up in exile and captivity through our own negligence.