God punishes social evils

It has been more than 65 years since the Great War. The world has gone through rebuilding and prospering. In the old structure, a certain group of people had enjoyed a lot of privileges and resources. The Great War has pulled it down and opened up opportunities for new comers. It has been 65 years and the new structures have matured and petrified. Fewer and fewer opportunites are available for an ever increasing number of new comers. Frustrated by the lack of opportunities of mobility, many young people nowadays stay hidden. Perhaps the world needs another Great War or global disasters of some sort to pull down the existing aging structure. This is nothing prophetic. This is a law of history.

The Chinese has an idiom which says 「飽暖思淫欲」 when the belly is filled and the body is warm, lust pops up in the head. That explains why many rich people become insensitive to the plight of the needy and continue to exploit them. The social structure facilitates such exploitation. This is sin on the social level and God hates this. His wrath is building up and calamities are ready to strike. Looking at it in this perspective, this becomes prophetic. Many prophets of the Old Testament had witnessed and were infuriated by such social evil, they proclaimed judgment in the name of God. Prophets of old were social conscience. Yet God does not punish alone. He forgives.

In this season of Lent, we have witnessed earthquakes afar and many car accidents near at hand. The cup of wrath seems to be filling up to the rim. Micah's word reassures us of a merciful God towards His chosen few.
Who is a God like thee, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger for ever because he delights in steadfast love (Micah 7:18).
So, let us draw near to God with a contrite heart. He does not retain His anger forever. God will forgive and has forgiven.

Dear Lord, let us come to Your presence and confess our sins. Allow us to drink Your steadfast love. Amen.

Was Judah, the brother of Joseph, a good man?

Today, we begin to read the beginning of the novella of Joseph in Genesis 37. I wonder why we should read his story in Lent. Perhaps the Church wants to remind us that sibling rivalry is one of the major sources of sins. Jealousy / envy is one of the seven Capital Sins which lead us to commit even more deadly sins (CCC #1866). In this season of renewal, it is appropriate for us to contemplate over this vice.

Most of the time, unfair treatments from the parents are the causes of rivalries among siblings. Fairness is difficult to define objectively. However, parents seldom pay attention to the perception of fairness. They put their hearts into providing the best for their children and children differ in age and needs. Naturally, children will be treated with different intensities of "parental love". In the eyes of the children, parents are not fair.
Not just children, parents themselves are human. They have their own needs as well. In the reading today, we find favouritism expressed by Israel / Jacob towards Joseph.
Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a long robe with sleeves (Genesis 37:3).
How old was Jacob? Let us make an estimate.
At forty, Esau, his twin brother, married daughters of Hittites and they made the life of his parents Isaac and Rebekah bitter (Genesis 26:34-35).
Later with the help from his mother Rebekah, Jacob cheated the first-born blessing from Isaac. Esau vowed to kill Jacob. Then, Jacob fled to the house of his uncle Laban; and met the beautiful Rachel, Laban's daughter. Laban promised to give Rachel to Jacob on the condition that he should work for Laban for seven years. But he cheated Jacob. After seven years, he gave the elder daughter Leah to Jacob instead. Jacob had to work for another seven years to marry Rachel. Of course, Laban was a reasonable man. He sent Rachel to Jacob after he married Leah for seven days (Genesis 29:27). Jacob was at least 47 by then.
Eleven children (ten sons and one daughter) were born before Rachel conceived Joseph. Four of the sons were born by the two maids, Bilhah and Zilpah. Perhaps they bore the 4 sons at the same time. Assuming a child was born per year, at least ten years went by before Joseph was born. Jacob was at least 57 by then. If a child was born per 18 months, Jacob would be at least 62. Therefore, Jacob favoured Joseph not only because he was the son of his old age, but also because he was born of Rachel.

Time flew by. Joseph was 17 when Jacob sent him to see his brothers who were pasturing at Shechem (Genesis 37:13). When Joseph met his brothers, they wanted to kill him out of envy. But Reuben, the eldest brother stopped them.
But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, "Let us not take his life."
And Reuben said to them, "Shed no blood; cast him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand upon him" -- that he might rescue him out of their hand, to restore him to his father (Genesis 37:21-22).
Therefore, the brothers caught hold of Joseph and cast him into a dry pit. Somehow, Reuben went away for a while. When a caravan of Ishmaelites came by, Judah proposed to sell Joseph to them. The brothers followed his proposal and thus began the adventure of Joseph in Egypt.
When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he rent his clothes
and returned to his brothers, and said, "The lad is gone; and I, where shall I go?" (Genesis 37:29-30)
It seems that nobody explained to Reuben that they had sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites, not even Judah.
In Genesis 38, we find another story of Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar. It is a complex story with many symbolisms. He had not treated Tamar fairly but in the end, Judah acknowledged his fault.
Then Judah acknowledged them and said, "She is more righteous than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah." And he did not lie with her again(Genesis 38:26).
Later, Tamar gave birth to two sons for Judah.
Judah was not righteous. Yet, God favours Judah. This Judah was destined to become the patriarch of a tribe from which Jesus was born. God did not choose flawless people to execute His plan. Praise be to God.

Dear Lord, we are flawed vessels. We are beset by our envy. Help us turn our sinfulness into righteousness. Transform it into our drive to do good. Amen.

It takes two to tango

We do not know the exact circumstances in which the books of the Bible were written. We only know that God and human authors were interacting in various ways while they were written. Today, we read chapter 17 of the book of Jeremiah.

We see God and Jeremiah tangoing together. Keeping in mind that there were no punctuation marks in the original text, we have to decide which parts were spoken by God and which by Jeremiah. Furthermore, books of prophets usually are collection of oracles. There is no plot to guide us which oracle goes first. The editors of the books have imposed a structure according to their own interpretations. Remember, the chapters and verses were imposed much later in modern time. We may disagree.

There are 27 verses in Jeremiah 17. Verses 11-18 are supposed to be words of Jeremiah. "Thus says the Lord" appears in verses 5 and 19. Still, from the contents, we can safely decide that verses 1-4 belong to God. Thus, we have finished the first step of study --- text delimitation. But I don't want to study it rationally. It does not do me much benefit. I want to pray with the text. So, I will focus on a few verses only.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?
I the LORD search the mind and try the heart, to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings (Jeremiah 17:9-10).
Perhaps these words are the outcomes of the reflection of the people of their own experiences with God. Perhaps they had been cheated by many deceitful fellow countrymen and were resentful because they could not obtain any restitution. But they had faith in the righteousness of the Lord who understands the hearts of men and shall reward them accordingly.
What about me? What do these verses tell me?

Before You, O Lord, I can hide nothing. You even know me more than I do myself. Through interactions with my family members, friends and students, You reveal to me what I don't know about myself. Very often, I am rash. Slow me down so that I can learn more about interpersonal relationships, about myself and my weaknesses. Most of all, allow me to know You more. Amen.

The Prayers of Jeremiah

In the course of Fundamental Theology taught by Fr. Peter Choy, we have come to the problem of the "Inspiration of the Bible". The Bible contains God's revelation, in particular the truth concerning our salvation. Moreover, God is the author of this Bible. Every Christian agrees to these two Church teachings. However, since the Bible is unable to explain itself to us, we can only figure out, from the little evidence we can gather from within the Bible, how the books were written. Other sacred texts have their origins in a more easily acceptable ways. For example, the Book of Mormon was given by Angel Gabriel in golden plates to Joseph Smith Jr. to translate into English. Quran was revealed to Muhammad by Angel Jibril (Gabriel) and was written down after each revelation. Muhammad dictated the revelations to his companions.
Nobody can challenge the authority of these sacred texts because of their supernatural origins. But the Christian Bible is a different story because the canon of the Bible was defined by the Church. Around the fourth century, the Church decided which books should go into the Bible and which should not. Therefore, the Christian Bible is more difficult case to handle because its catalogue was defined by men. What happened in Reformation was instructive. Martin Luther objected to the doctrine of purgatory and struck 7 books off from the Catholic Bible to form the Protestant Bible. Moreover, the Christian Bible is a collection of books which are obviously historical-cultural products. The human elements in the Bible cannot be denied. So, how God inspired these "human instruments" to write down the Bible is a very crucial question for Christianity. Did God dictate the books, words for words, to the human authors? Impossible. If it were the case, we should not find contradictory messages and inconsistent details in the Bible, but we do. Did God plant a general idea in the minds of the human authors and allow them freedom to write according to their personal styles, reflecting their cultural situations? Impossible. If it were the case, how could we determine which ideas came from God and which came from man? In fact, Marcion (85-160) rejected the Old Testament; pruned the 4 canonical gospels into one and kept only Paul's epistles. He was excommunicated from the Church. Thus, the inspiration of the Bible is a thorny issue.
I have no intention to enter into this problem. Today, I will only look at the prayers of Jeremiah to illustrate a simple point.

In the book of Jeremiah, we find many places where Jeremiah wrote that the word of the Lord came to him. The messages God told Jeremiah to proclaim were unpopular. Nobody listened to him. Still, Jeremiah faithfully proclaimed God's words. Sometimes, he prayed to divert the wrath of God towards the Jews.
As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I do not hear you (Jeremiah 7:16).
Sometimes, Jeremiah lamented his situation.
Woe is me because of my hurt! My wound is grievous. But I said, "Truly this is an affliction, and I must bear it." (Jeremiah 10:25)
Sometimes, Jeremiah concurred with the Lord.
Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man who does not heed the words of this covenant
which I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God,
that I may perform the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day." Then I answered, "So be it, LORD."(Jeremiah 11:2-5)
Sometimes, like many other major prophets, Jeremiah confessed the sins for the people and begged God for mercy for the sake of His name.
Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O LORD, for thy name's sake; for our backslidings are many, we have sinned against thee.
O thou hope of Israel, its savior in time of trouble, why shouldst thou be like a stranger in the land, like a wayfarer who turns aside to tarry for a night?
Why shouldst thou be like a man confused, like a mighty man who cannot save? Yet thou, O LORD, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not (Jeremiah 14:7-9)
Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? Does thy soul loathe Zion? Why hast thou smitten us so that there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against thee.
Do not spurn us, for thy name's sake; do not dishonor thy glorious throne; remember and do not break thy covenant with us.
Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Art thou not he, O LORD our God? We set our hope on thee, for thou doest all these things (Jeremiah 14:19-22).
Sometimes, Jeremiah cried in despair. He found all his efforts wasted. The mission was impossible. He could not break iron and bronze.
Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me.
So let it be, O LORD, if I have not entreated thee for their good, if I have not pleaded with thee on behalf of the enemy in the time of trouble and in the time of distress!
Can one break iron, iron from the north, and bronze? (Jeremiah 15:10-12)
After all, Jeremiah was a only a man. He found sweetness in God's word. Yet, he was consumed by the power of God's word. He was exhausted as illustrated by this collection of Jeremiah's prayers. I will end with part of his prayer when people attacked his integrity and plotted against his life.

Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to my plea.
Is evil a recompense for good? Yet they have dug a pit for my life. Remember how I stood before thee to speak good for them, to turn away thy wrath from them (Jeremiah 18:19-20). Amen.

Committment & True Self

The title of our philosophy course is an intimidating "Philosophical Anthropology". It is all an attempt to understand man. Fr. William Yip spotlighted the several essential schools of thought from ancient Greece to modern Europe. He chose Plato, Aristotle in ancient Greece, Heidegger and Marcel in modern Europe. To bridge the gap, he mentioned by passing René Descartes who conceptualized man as a thinking thing. Ancient Greeks treated man as an object while modern Europeans focused more on man as a person. We are approaching the end of the course and are studying the philosophy of Marcel. It is very enjoyable to read the essays of Marcel. They are grounded on concrete daily life experiences and do not read like abstract philosophy. Marcel tried to capture the essence of human being through reflections on fidelity and hope.

We discover our "Self" through relationships. On one side, there is a "you" without which, there is no "me". When there is no committment in the relationships, we will never be able to discover our true self. Commitment requires fidelity. We need to invest our time, our energy and our whole person in any commitment. The more we commit ourselves, the more we discover what we are able to become. If we just want to get advantages in the interaction with the others, a lot of what we are remains unknown to us.
Life is not a bed of roses. There are good times and bad times. In times of darkness, we can choose to throw our hands up and resign to life. This is despair. Despair is bad for us because our life will be frozen and things will not change for the better. But we can also choose to stay calm and patient to find a way out or to wait until time changes. In short, we can persevere in hope of a better tomorrow. If tomorrow is worse, we can continue to hope for the day after tomorrow. As long as we still have a breath in our nostril, there still remains time to change for the better. Hope for the better is our last resort. For us Christians, hope is a gift from God. Judas betrayed Jesus and was caught up in despair. He committed suicide. Peter denies Jesus three times and somehow, a slim ray of hope remained in hope. He endured patiently the forty odd hours of darkness and discovered the tomb of Jesus empty. Today, we have a St. Peter, but not St. Judas.

Today, we read the first chapter of Isaiah. The prophet criticized harshly the infidelity of the Israelites.
The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master's crib; but Israel does not know, my people does not understand (Isaiah 1:3).
First of all, they quantified their piety by offering a lot of sacrifices instead of a contrite heart.
What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of he-goats (Isaiah 1:11).
Secondly, they made a show of their piety with elaborate ceremonies. They had put their hearts in the wrong place. Instead of pleasing God, they annoyed Him.
When you come to appear before me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts?
Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and the calling of assemblies -- I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them (Isaiah 1:12-13).
Lastly, their piety was not matched by their charity. Rather, they covered up their evils with outward religiosity. Their religious life failed to transform them into a moral people.
When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood (Isaiah 1:15).
In short, their relationships with God lacked fidelity. Either they performed their religious life as a ritual without putting in their hearts or they did it with ulterior motives. God wanted none of these because it was bad for them. They would never find their true selves.
Is there a way out? Will things turn for the better? Is there any hope? Affirmative.
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil,
learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow (Isaiah 1:16-17).
Turn to God. Break with the past. Stop doing evils. Do good instead. These are sound pieces of advice from the Prophet and God backed him up with a beautiful promise.
though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool (Isaiah 1:18b).
The promise of our omnipotent God is our hope. He will forgive our sins. He has already forgiven them. It is up to us to accept this gift from God.

Dear Lord, Your mercy is our hope. In You we trust. Allow us to practise charity, especially in this season of Lent. Amen.

The Post-Eighties 八十後

During the sharing session of the Deacons yesterday, we came to the problem of "Generation Gap". We seldom hear this term these days. Instead, we have heard a lot of voices about the post-eighties. This is a term recently coined by the media to describe people who were born within the decade after 1980. The idea was first put forward in a popular book 「四代香港人」Four Generations of Hongkongers written by the HKU Sociology Professor, Prof. Lui Tak Lok.
In his analysis, the first generation was made up of pre-war quiet builders who came to Hong Kong as refugees after the Communist Revolution in China. They had successfully laid the economic foundation and built up Hong Kong. The second generation was the post-war baby-boomers. They were well educated and successful, enjoying the freedom their parents gave them. They gave birth to the third generation who were the consumers in the prosperous Hong Kong. However, their life was dictated by the second generation who charted their development and gave them little freedom. When the fourth generation was born, the social structure of the Hong Kong society has become so rigid that they are doomed to failure. There are scarcely any more opportunities of social mobility. They are the post-eighties. However hard they work, there seems to be no exit.
In the recent controversies over the demolition of the Star Ferry, the Queen's Pier, the resumption of villages to make way for the building of High Rail and the debates over political reforms, the society witnesses many people in their twenties and thirties take to the street, confronting the police in a peculiar manner. Some are undergrads. Some are unemployed graduates. Most of them are double-losers (no school, no job) spending most of their time sitting in front of the computer. They rally people to commit suicide and to take to the street through the Internet. Those in power, the second generation, understand little about them.

One of the Deacon aspirants shared with us his dialogue with his son while he was driving along Tsim Sha Tsui. He pointed to a banner of anti-drug-abuse slogan which read "Drug abuse saddens your parents". His son retorted that this slogan won because the judges were parents. This slogan won because it pleased them. But it would not have any impact on its intended target. Young people wanted to make a statement with drug abuse. They wanted their parents to be sad and mad because their parents had been too domineering! We believe in diligence and preparation. We believe that hard work pays. Learning English, piano, swimming, ballet, Math Olympiad etc. will prepare out children to enter elite schools. But our children see otherwise. They shall have none of these. Our children simply do not share our values. Suddenly, our Deacon aspirant found himself helpless. Many of us shared his sentiment.

We believe in God. We believe in the values handed down in the Bible. Our children may not. The Israelites lost their kingdom and their Temple was burned down. They were exiled and dispersed in foreign lands. They interpreted this as God's punishment for their disobedience.
To us, O Lord, belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness; because we have rebelled against him,
and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God by following his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets (Daniel 9:8-10).
It was a prayer of confession by Daniel during the Babylonian Captivity. He voiced the Israelite's acceptance of responsibility. On behalf of the people, Danielconfessed their sins of disobedience. He was prepared to invoke God's remembrance of His promise to their ancestors. He prayed for their salvation. The Israelites had sinned. They repented and expected God to deliver them. We accept the logic of Daniel. Will our children do likewise? Will we simply throw up our hands and let God do the rest?

No, we will not. We must mobilize whatever resources we have to equip our children with the necessary skill for survival --- faith in God. Even if all the young people have abandoned God, we must help our children build up their faith so that they may be able to rely on God to weather through whatever obstacles they encounter in their future. Even if all his peers have lost hope in the meaning of life, we must help our children build up their hope against all hopes in the promises of God. Even if all his peers are not considerate, we must help our children form a charitable heart to warm up the world. My sons, I have no riches to pass on to you. Our society does not provide you with sufficient latitude to actualize your potentials. But turn to our God, even if it is a minority choice. He will take care of you.

Dear Lord, enlighten us for we do not know how to reach out to teach our children Your way. Inspire our children and help them find the way. Amen.

Second Sunday in Lent (Year C)

On the fourth Sunday of the month, we usually celebrate a youth mass with guitars and the drum set. But the rehearsal this morning did not start off well. James, the organist has injured his middle finger during the Lunar New Year and is not expected to be able to accompany the choir for the next couple of months. Matthew took part in a piano competition and would not come to Mass this morning. Joe and Kenneth, the two guitar soloists took part in the Hong Kong Marathon. Wulstan took the cello and left home for a performance somewhere ... The situation looked terribly grim! To handle this "crisis", I was prepared to switch back to organ accompaniment and sought help from Cecilia Choir. When Sing the vice chairman returned and informed me of his arrangement, I was much relieved. They were prepared. They had trained two younger kids to take up the guitar and today would be their "graduation recital". Joe and Kenneth would come back to join us during the mass. After all, the situation was not that bad and I should have greater faith in these young people.

Fr. Martin seemed to know of my worry. In his homily, he mentioned our needs of greater assurance from God. The first reading told us the story of God setting up a covenant with Abraham I mentioned yesterday (Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18). Previously, God had promised to give Abraham children who would inherit Canaan. Abraham was already 90 and Sarah his wife was barren. So, God reassured Abraham with a covenant. In the gospel reading today, Jesus brought his three closest disciples up a high mountain and revealed his glory (Luke 9:28-36). Previously, Jesus told them that he was going to Jerusalem to die. The disciples were troubled. They had given up everything to follow Jesus and it seemed that all would be in vain. So, Jesus reassured them with Transfiguration. I have reservation in accepting this interpretation. Anyway, Fr. Martin's interpretation is not wrong because the Bible speaks to us and our understanding is related to our present situation. In fact, I am in need of reassurance at this very moment too but the two passages do not ring as such to me.

In the afternoon, I attended the Deacons' monthly gathering. There were a lot of exciting news. Two of the aspirants would go through the Rite of Acceptance and become Deacon candidates in March and three of the candidates would be ordained this July. Moreover, the Vicar General was planning to send a team of deacons to North America to study their situations. In their sharings, they were talking about the pressures they experienced as deacons. Many find preparing Sunday homily a pressure. Remember, some of them are already in their seventies. They are experiencing memory losses and are afraid of forgetting their scripts or speaking the wrong things. As members of the hierarchy, deacons are conspicuous targets among people within and without the Church. People look up to them, their speech as well as their actions for solutions. There are encounters which they are not sure how to handle. Very soon, they returned to the gospel reading today, the story of Transfiguration again. How do they show the face of Christ to the people they encounter? I think this question is not the exclusive privilege for members of the hierarchy. It is a question for all Christians. But somehow, there must be a difference. As Christians, when we are able to make people feel vaguely the love of Christ, to make them see that Jesus is a loving caring friend, I think we have done our job. But as for deacons, it will be a different story. Deacons serve the Word and the needy. Therefore, they must make the Servant image of Christ visible among people they encounter. It will be more than just the washing of the feet of the selected twelve members from the parish on Maudy Thursday. I do not know how yet. I am only an aspirant and I know I still have a lot to learn from them.

Perhaps I should not deliberately do something in order to achieve a desired goal. Fr. Martin mentioned the suicide case in which a mother jumped off the Tsing Yi Bridge to her death with her 7-year-old son. He mentioned the sharing of another woman who attempted and survived suicide three times. This woman was walking up the roof to commit suicide with her daughter who told her mother that she was thirsty. The woman suddenly woke up from her confused state and gave up the suicide attempt. The next time, the woman decided to cut her wrist when her daughter was fast asleep. She went to the bed to take a last look at her daughter. A thought popped up her mind. What would happen to her daughter when she woke up only to find her mother lying in a messy pool of blood? She woke up a second time. The last time she wanted to commit suicide, her daughter told her that she wanted to go into the kitchen to get the knife to kill herself too. The mother was horrified to find that this suicidal tendency had passed on to her daughter. At last, she sought professional help. Her daughter was a godsend that saved her life three times. Fr. Martin was sure that the little daughter did not say or do anything on purpose. We don't need to. Walk in the footstep of Jesus and He will do the rest.

Dear Lord, allow us to follow You. All will be right. Amen.