Feast of Corpus Christi 2011

Among the 7 sacraments, we are most familiar with the Holy Communion because we can receive it everyday whereas some sacraments can only be received once: Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Order and some are not received so often: Reconciliation, Anointment and Matrimony. The Holy Communion is very rich in meanings. Therefore, the priests can speak on nearly any topic about it.

For example, this morning at 9:30 a.m., the parish took the opportunity of this Feast to conduct a commission ceremony for the extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion.Fr. Lejeune officiated at this ceremony. He stressed the communion dimension of this sacrament.
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).
Through the bread we receive individually,  we are all united in Christ as one body. Fr. Lejeune stressed that the Pauline theology of Mystic Body of Christ is not simply a theory. It is a reality. Christ is our head and we are members of His body. Through us, Christ reaches out into the world. We ourselves bring Christ to the world. In a sense, we ourselves are a sacrament for this world. Fr. Lejeune told the extraordinary ministers that they should always keep this in mind when they visit the aged and the sick. They do not simply visit them as a person, as an individual and as themselves. They are Christ. They are the Church. It is the duty of extraordinary ministers not just to bring the Holy Communion to the old and the sick. They should remind them again of their belief in Christ, to pray with them and encourage them in their weaknesses. When they do these in their visits, they do well and Christ will reward them.

Symphorian, my youngest son, received his first Communion this morning at 11 a.m. Fr. Martin Ip celebrated this mass. He focused more on the attitude of these young people. He began with a TV commercial of rice. The commercial consisted of flashes back of a bridegroom. He always made sure that all the food was eaten. The last flash back was when he was a young boy. When he finished eating his dinner, there were rice grains around his lips and in his bowl. His mother told him that if he ate like this, the face of his future bride would look like his bowl. She would have a scarred face! This kind of warning is understandable in harder time when resources were scarce and nothing should be wasted. Of course, the TV commercial must have a happy ending. It finishes with a close-up of a beautiful bride walking down the aisle, arm in arm with the lucky man. People always say that your attitude determines your altitude. Fr. Martin encouraged these young boys and girls to be humble and pious. Let Christ transform them from within to become children beloved by our Heavenly Father.

As for me, the more I meditate about this Sacrament, the more I find that I don't know it.
And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD (Deuteronomy 8:3).
It is not fair to blame the Jews who found Jesus' teaching difficult to swallow. His teaching is truly difficult. How would any decent and sensible man speak like this, telling people to eat his flesh and drink his blood? In hindsight, after the Last Supper, we know that Jesus was talking about the bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist. Even this is difficult. Some people are not willing to accept that the bread is a real-symbol which is more than a representation of the real thing. It is the real thing. Just like our physical body. It is a real-symbol of our person. My body is not just the outward sign of my person.  It is me! However, some Protestants insist that the bread is a mere symbol to remember Jesus (Luke 22:19). It is not the real body of Jesus.

He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him (John 6:56).
This verse is more readily  understandable nowadays when blood transfusions and organ transplants have become accepted, common medical practices to save life. Just imagine, your liver and kidneys continue to survive inside the body of the recipient or your blood flowing in his blood stream. How wonderful the feeling would be! Greater love has no man than the laying down of your life for a total stranger (John 15:13). Jesus has done just that. We, who call ourselves Christians, followers of Christ, should do likewise.

Dear Lord, there can be no doubt about Your love for us. Let us love our neighbour in return. Amen.

Basic Christian Communities

Today is the Feast of the Blessed Trinity. It is also the Sunday of BCC, not blind carbon copy of emails, but Basic Christian Communities. This morning, Deacon Karl Tsang read the Gospel and delivered the homily. It was the first time I heard his homily after he had undergone an operation on his knee. He will go under the knife one more time in mid-July on the other knee. May God bless him. Deacon Tsang was still very humourous and lively. Obviously, the Sacrament of Anointment has worked well and the surgery had not taken any toll on him.

He began his homily by quoting a question from a Protestant friend who asked him what Catholics were doing when they made the Sign of the Cross. Without answering the question, he quickly switched strategy and asked the congregation whether they had seen European footballers making the Sign of the Cross before they began the matches. Why did they do that?
Later, in the homily, Deacon Tsang confessed that he seldom spoke at the 9:30 a.m. Masses. He usually preached to the old ladies at 8:00 a.m. Today, in 9:30 Mass, he saw many young people and gentlemen, perhaps because it was also Father's Day today. Therefore, he quickly changed tactics and asked them something the congregation were supposed to be more familiar with. He even came down with a microphone to ask different people questions, men, women and young people. I think it worked well. There were a lot of interactions. Time and again, Deacon Tsang made use of people's responses to illustrate the teachings of the Blessed Trinity.
He kept his homily short because today, representatives from BCC's shared their experiences and encouraged the congregation to join or to form BCC's.

In this parish, there are 15 Basic Christian Communities. Some of them have a history of more than twenty  years! BCC in Hong Kong started mushrooming with the approach of the 1997 handover. At around the time of Sino-British negotiation in 1984, the Catholic Church in Hong Kong was afraid that the Communist government would expel all the Catholic priests in Hong Kong, just like what she had done in 1952 in mainland China, because these priests were loyal to the Vatican, an alien anti-Communist power. In such a scenario, there would not be any more shepherds to take care of the faithful. They needed to fend for themselves.
Taking cue from the successes of the BCC experiences overseas, the Catholic Diocese in Hong Kong started to prepare for the worst and set up these BCC's in different locations all over Hong Kong wherever they could survive
BCC's in Hong Kong usually meet once a month at the home of one of the members. They do Bible sharing as well as daily life sharing. Of course, there are other social and spiritual activities to bind the community together. Members keep the confidentiality and lend support to each other in their up's and down's. Theoretically, it should work. In reality, I don't know how successful this experiment has been. I know not of any systematic studies or statistics of the current situation of these communities.

I have reasons to be wary. These BCC's began in the rural regions in South America. They faced the problems we would be facing --- there were not enough priests visiting them. Nobody administered them sacraments. To sustain their spiritual life, they met around the Word of God. The situation in Hong Kong is different. We live in a urban area. Most Catholics in Hong Kong belong to the middle-class. Many of them are professionals and spend a lot of their time in their careers, whether they be teachers, doctors, lawyers and accountants etc.Urban life is hectic and religious life is mostly confined to the 1 hour they spend on Sunday masses. For many of them, being a Sunday Catholic is already a good Catholic! A handful of missionary priests are able to inspire some enthusiastic youngsters but not too many. So, when the last missionary priest disappears from Hong Kong, who would inspire the Hong Kong Catholics? Of Course, I should not sound too pessimistic. I should not ignore the power of the Holy Spirit to inspire and to motivate.

People join these BCC's with different expectations. Some look for social networking while others are more evangelical. They want Bible sharing more than anything else. When they are not able to find what they want in the BCC, they vote with their feet. Of course, we should not worry too much with numbers. Even God would not force us to be saved, force us to stay. He invites us to partake in the fullness of His eternal life. Therefore, we only pray that these BCC will continue to grow and develop in the nourishment of the Holy Spirit.

Dear God, You are One, yet a community. May our life bear witness to the Triune communion. Amen.

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Dear All,

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY &
Feast of the BLESSED TRINITY

May I wish all fathers, be they biological or spiritual or both,
a happy & healthy year ahead.
May the Triune God
Shower you with overflowing grace.
Amen.
Yours in the Risen Lord
Alex Kwok
Visit My webpage

Homily Practice --- the Blessed Trinity

Tonight, it was our turn to practise delivering a homily on the Blessed Trinity. Four of us delivered our homilies in front of the other deacon candidates and Fr. Joseph Yim, who is our instructor. The other three had written their speeches in full and read them out while I wrote an outline and rehearsed most of the materials in my head. When I did my homily, I looked at my audience and did not refer to the outline. Regrettably, I missed a crucial point and had to retract.
In the subsequent feedback session, the members gave candid comments on our performance. I was natural but there were quite a lot of subconscious actions which I was not aware of. My smiles were too broad, and did not look solemn enough in the reading of the Gospel. I also made the mistake of naming names. I should not compare different religions/sects in homilies. Fr. Yim pointed out a crucial though minor mistakes. I spoke too careless about invoking the Holy Spirit to turn the bread and wine into the sacrament of the Holy Communion. It is theologically wrong. The bread and wine are turned into the Holy Communion, the body and blood of the Lord. They are NOT turned into a sacrament! Fr. Yim encouraged us that we are still green. Practice makes perfect. He suggested videotaping our homilies if we seriously wanted to improve.

Fr. Yim also told us the differences between Sunday homilies and instructions in catechumen classes. The target audience are not the same. People attending Sunday Mass are baptized and are believers already. The purpose of Sunday homilies is to deepen their faith, to encourage/console them to face daily challenges. In catechumen classes, our job is evangelization. We need to introduce the Good News of Jesus and hope that one day, the catechumen would accept Jesus as their Saviour. The same differences also apply to Wedding Masses and Requiem Masses where part of the audience in wedding, or even all of the audience in funeral are non-Catholics. These are also occasions of evangelization. However, with the time constrains imposed by the occasions, we can only focus on the Catholic views on marriage and family in case of a Wedding Mass; and our belief in resurrection and afterlife in case of a Requiem Mass.
Next Monday, four other members will deliver their homilies on Corpus Christi. In the meantime, I will tidy up my homily, translate it back into English and put it here. Stay tune.

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today, I would like to discuss with you an equation: "one plus one plus one equal to one." But before that, let us take a look at our current situation.
Unlike other believers of monotheism who believe in one and only one God, the God we Christians believe in is a bit complicated. For Jews, Yahweh is one. For Muslims, Allah is one. There is nobody beside Him. The Christian God is also one but there are three persons in this one God: the Father who created this known universe; the Son who died on the cross to redeem this world and the Holy Spirit who sustains the redeemed world. We call this idea "the Blessed Trinity", a term invented by theologians for the sake of discussion. Since we are the only believers in this Blessed Trinity, we have the responsibility to understand this God better and to explain this Blessed Trinity to the people we meet.
Not all those who hold and wave the Christian Bible are Christians. You must be familiar with the sight of those Jehovah Witnesses whom you meet on LRT platforms or Tuen Mun Town Park. They give out booklets and magazines, such as the Watch Tower and Awake! free of charge. They claim to be Christians but they do not believe in the Blessed Trinity. The above equation is posed by them.
How can "one plus one plus one equal to one"? It must be three. Or can you have one third of the Father plus one third of the Son plus one third of the Holy Spirit to make up one God? Therefore, either there are three Gods or the idea of the Blessed Trinity is wrong. Since Christians believe in one God. Therefore, the idea of the Blessed Trinity must be wrong. Q.E.D.

How shall we defend the Blessed Trinity?
I am sure you must have heard of the story of St. Augustine struggling with the idea of the Blessed Trinity. Briefly, Augustine was agonizing over the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. He walked along the seashore to clear his head. An angel appeared in the form of a young child. It ran to and fro, scooping sea water into a little hole. Augustine was curious and asked the child what he was doing. The child replied that he wanted to move all the water from the sea into the little hole. Augustine was amazed and answered how it was possible for the tiny hole to contain the infinite sea. The angel retorted how it was possible for Augustine's tiny brain to fathom the infinite Trinity!
What do we learn from this legend? Of course, we should not be discouraged by the infinite mystery of God and give up contemplating the Trinity. Rather, we should make good use of the intellect God gives us to seek Him. There must be a purpose for everything. God has so created us that we may exercise our intellect to know Him. So, how do we proceed?
Well, I take cue from the infinity of God to solve the equation posed by the Jehovah Witnesses.
One plus one plus one cannot be one when the "one" is finite, such as an apple. However, if the "one" is infinite, such as the set of integers, the story is different. Infinity plus infinity is still infinity! Therefore, the JW equation is correct because God is infinite. God the Father is infinite. God the Son is infinite. So is the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the infinite Father and the infinite Son and the infinite Spirit make up the infinite Trinity.

If you find such infinity talk hard to follow, don't be discouraged. God allows us to fathom His infinite mystery with our finite mentality. Jesus used parables. We use analogy. We use some finite images to express some transcendental concepts. For example, we always describe God as a father. God is like our father in a certain way but He is not our father. So, how shall we proceed to express the Trinity with analogy?
Don't worry, God has revealed Himself to many of His good friends. These saints have left us with many workable images. For example, John, the beloved disciple of the Lord once said that "God is love" (1 John 4:8). How true it is! Though love is not infinite, doesn't "love plus love plus love equal to love" hold true?
Love involves a relation. Love involves an object, be it oneself or another person. God is love. Therefore, there must be a relation in God. But God is one, an infinite one. What sort of relation is there in God? Without God's revelation, we will never know. But God reveals Himself as the Father and the Son. The Father loves the Son and in this communion, there proceeds the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth, the spirit of love. This way of saying can only be an analogy. The truth is much broader and deeper.

The gospel today says,
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
God is truly love. Not only does the Father love the Son, He also loves the world. He does not want to see sinners perish. He saves them and gathers them into a Church, an assembly of believers. Therefore, the Church should bear the mark of the Trinity. So, how does the Church show the face of the Blessed Trinity to the world? Of course, in our prayers, sacraments and liturgy, we always call on the Triune God. We begin our Mass with greeting in terms of the Trinity. We recite the Nicene Creed after homily to declare what we believe. In the Eucharistic prayer, we invoke the Holy Spirit to come down upon the bread, the Father's creation, to consecrate it into the body and blood of the Son, the sacrament of the Holy Communion etc. We lead our religious life in the milieu of the Blessed Trinity. But what about our secular life? Through the communion of the believers in love and the support of local churches among themselves, the world witnesses the communion of the saints and from it, sees the Triune God. Do we, parishioners, demonstrate this communion of love? Do we just care about our own groups and ignore the needs of the others? In our families, do husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law love each other? When we do, the face of the Blessed Trinity is revealed.

Let us contemplate for one minute what we have done in our situations to manifest the face of this Blessed Trinity.

When we forgive, we release ourselves

These days, following the instruction from the Vicar General, I visit Deacon Tsang's catechumen class after attending Sunday Mass in the morning. Deacon Tsang is the Spiritual Director for my deacon formation. Though we serve in the same parish, we are busy with what we are doing and seldom meet. Therefore, participating in his catechumen class is a golden opportunity for me to receive the Deacon's spiritual direction. Of course he is the main speaker in the class. But he allows me to chip in anytime I feel like contributing my knowledge of the Bible and my passion for hymn singing.

In between the Mass and the Catechumen class, I visited the St. Ambrose Choir which I have to leave behind because I have to attend Deacon's class. They were doing spiritual sharing today. These young people always take an activity approach. They would begin with a simple game and share their feelings afterward. Indeed, they need more trainings in biblical formation. Anyway, when they finished I did some revision of biblical knowledge with them. First of all, today is the Feast of Pentecost. The Church celebrates the Descent of the Holy Spirit. So, the first question I asked them was naturally the "Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit" and where in the Bible they came from.
Answer: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, 【Piety】 and Fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2-3a).
In 2006, under the direction of Fr. Baptista S.J., John Fok and I wrote an article on "The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit" to deal with the translation problems of this verse. The understanding of our faith must be based on the Bible. Therefore, we cannot afford to ignore the translation problems in the Bible.
My second question was a bit naughty. I said that since the theology of "the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit" is based on the Old Testament, we need to know what the New Testament says. So, look up Paul's letter to the Galatians to locate the  "Fruits of the Holy Spirit". It did not take long for them to locate them. Here they are:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, 【longanimity, mildness】, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control, 【chastity】 (Galatians 5:22-23a).
Some manuscripts / translations have nine while others have twelve. Again, we should be aware of the translation problems found in these passages.

Back to Deacon's class. He talked about the Pentecost on this Feast. Besides reading from Acts 2, he also read from today's gospel. He focussed on the following two verses in particular and told us to practise group discussion with these two verses.
And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained;" (John 20:22-23)
Deacon Tsang frequently contrasts the Catholic Tradition with those of Protestants'. For example, Catholics believe in the presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist while Protestants believe that the Holy Eucharist is only a remembrance. For Protestants, Jesus does not reside in the bread. Catholics confess their sins to the priests to obtain forgiveness while Protestants believe that it is enough to confess to God to obtain forgiveness. There is no need of a middle man who, as a mere man, cannot forgive sins etc. Catholics would quote the above verses to defend their position. Catholics are following the commands of Jesus.

The sacrament of Reconciliation is a service rendered the believers. Catholic priests themselves need confessions as much as the laity. Sins are not just offences against God, but also offences against the Church. The priests need to provide this reconciliation service to bring sinners back to the Church. The service has been handed down right from the apostles who received this reconciliation mission from the Lord in the reading today.
In our group discussion, all the members came to the consensus that to forgive is good for ourselves. However, there are people whom we could not hope to do anything even if they hurt you or your dignity. For example, your boss. What can we do but to submit and swallow our pride? Here, forgiveness is not involved.
If your brothers do not offend you on purpose or even do not know that they have hurt you, what do you gain if you hate and curse them? Try to communicate your frustration. But before that, forgive them first. If they know they have done you wrong, I am sure they will apologize. You don't wait until they apologize to forgive. The earlier, the more comfortable you will be.
If your brothers offend you on purpose to make you angry, not forgiving and continuing to be bitter serves your "enemies" well because you react according to their intention. What's more, it hurts more to be betrayed by people closest to your heart. The best strategy is to forgive and forget so as not to torture yourselves with resentments. Hopefully, with God's grace, your brothers will learn their faults, repent and reconcile. Even if they don't, you have already released yourself with forgiveness.
At the end of the day, nothing can happen without God's consent. Nobody can hurt you without God's consent. Therefore, take every offence as a trial from God, as an opportunity to upgrade your EQ, a step forward to sainthood.

Dear Lord, help us forgive, not just seventy seven times. We need Your forgiveness. Amen.

Presence of the Absent

Every year, Fr. Giovanni Giampietro, PIME, visits our parish to promote his production. Today, he came again to promote his latest brainchild --- "The Ricci Road" DVD. Last year, he led a team of 30 young people and spent 11 days to re-trace the trek of Fr. Matteo Ricci, SJ, from Macau to Beijing. This time, it was our privilege to have him celebrated the 9:30 a.m. mass with us too. He was still witty and charismatic despite signs of aging. Today, we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord. I could see that he enjoyed the enthusiasm of the Tuen Muen parishioners very much. Twice in the course of the liturgy, he praised the congregation of their participation and the performance of the altar boys and choir (Fr. Giampietro was one of the early advocates of the Vatican II liturgical reforms in Hong Kong). Unfortunately, he had left the readers out in his praises!

Fr. Giampietro's homily has always been impressive. He picks up a key concept from the readings and elaborates around it. At the end of his sermon, I am sure all of us will be able to remember the teachings of Jesus very clearly. This morning, he began with a pun --- "the absence of the present" and "the presence of the absent". This line sums up perfectly the theme of the ascension narrative recorded in the gospel today.
Many people are present physically. Their bodies are here but not their souls. They daydream and pay no attention to their surroundings. Probably the speaker is too boring. Of course, this does not apply to Fr. Giampietro today. Some people are absent. They are not physically here but everybody cares and thinks of them. Fr. Giampietro quoted the case of the family dinner gathering. Of course, we all knew that he was referring to the presence of Christ here and now even though he was not physically present among us. (Theologically speaking, Jesus is the Word of God. He is already present from the beginning of the Mass, and not just after the consecration of the Eucharist.)
and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age (Matthew 28:20b).
Jesus made this promise which forms the last verse of the gospel of Matthew. Yet, this is not the key concept today.

The key concept which Fr. Giampietro wanted to inculcate in us is that of the power and authority which Jesus gave us. Whenever possible, he repeated this in his sermon.
In the first reading, Jesus told the disciples to remain in Jerusalem to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit who would give them power to bear witness for him.
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8). In the second reading, St. Paul reassures the Ephesians of God's great power in us who believe.
and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe (Ephesians 1:19a).
In the Gospel reading, Jesus commissioned the disciples to preach the Good News, to baptize and to teach his commands. Of course, to empower them to discharge their duties, Jesus gave them the appropriate authority.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you (Matthew 28:19-20a).

Fr. Giampietro is a persuasive speaker. He is able to make up typical situations to illustrate his point. Catholics are known to be timid in evangelization. They do not know much about what they are believing. They do not know much about the Bible. When they go to Sunday masses, they think that they are already very good. If they recite the Rosary everyday, they deem themselves even holy. So, Fr. Giampietro made a caricature of them. "When somebody approaches a Catholic and asks him about his faith, the Catholic would 'humbly' admit his ignorance. He would say, "Ask the priest. Ask the catechumen instructor or the pastoral nun. They are professional. I would say the Rosary for you." No! This is not how you should make use of the power and authority Christ gave you in your Baptism and is empowering you again at this moment!
Fr. Giampietro is a liturgy expert. At appropriate moments in the course of the liturgy, he would chip in with a few sentences about how Jesus empowers us in the liturgy. His homily literally spans across the whole Mass! He is such an adorable old chap! God, I thank and praise you for this Italian missionary.

Dear Lord, may Your Spirit continue to empower us to bear witness for You in this fast changing world. Amen.

Acknowledgment: The picture of Fr. Giampietro was retrieved from 齊家運動 , 2011年齊家日