A list of 12 or 13 vices

In the gospel reading today, we heard of accusations directed against Jesus by Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem because some of his disciples ate with ritually unclean hands (Mark 7:1-5).
Usually, when we read this story, we seldom ponder on who Jesus' disciples were. We take for granted that they might be the Twelve or some followers. This morning, Fr. Milanese gave a new interpretation in his homily. He related this story with the miracle of 5 loaves and 2 fish. Wow! This is a new insight! It makes sense when we consider the context of the story. It happened after the miracle. Of course, Fr. Milanese extended the definition of disciples to include the crowd of 5000. They listened to Jesus' teaching before they ate. According to the gospel of John, many of them sought Jesus because they had eaten. To a certain extent, they were qualified to be disciples. If we confine the disciples to the Twelve, it means the Pharisees and scribes had to spy on Jesus in order to obtain the evidence against him. So, Fr. Milanese's interpretation is reasonable.

Near the end of the story, we heard of Jesus listing 13 vices that came from the heart and they defile. Here is the list:
evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly (Mark 7:21b-22).
From what we learned in the Biblical Institute, this list is catechitical, i.e. it is a list of vice taught to the community from which Mark worked. The Christian community was told not to do these vices. By the way, if we read the list in Greek, it rhymes.
οἱ διαλογισμοὶ οἱ κακοὶ ἐκπορεύονται, πορνεῖαι, κλοπαί, φόνοι,  
μοιχεῖαι, πλεονεξίαι, πονηρίαι, δόλος, ἀσέλγεια, ὀφθαλμὸς πονηρός, βλασφημία, ὑπερηφανία, ἀφροσύνη^.

No list is ever complete. For example, drunkenness, domestic violence, gambling and homosexuality were not mentioned. Perhaps such vices were not problems in the Marken community.  Anyway, let us meditate on how these vices defile.

Evil thoughts is a broad term. They affect our relations with other people. They make us ugly.
Unchastity is more specific. Engaging in unrestrained sexual activities defile our bodies.
Theft is specific. But how does taking away others' things makes us unclean? Possessing things that are not earned degrades our capability. It makes us cheap.
Murder takes away the life of innocent people. Our hand is defiled by the blood shed.
Adultery destroys our marriage and those of other couples. It harms a lot of adults as well as their children. Once more, it degrades our sex and makes it cheap.
Greed is not just internal. When we take advantage of others and obtain more than we deserve, we look cheap.
Malice is a wish to harm others. It poisons our mind. The rest is dirty.
Deceit makes us look good but in fact we are not so good. We are not true to ourselves and to others. We are scam.
Licentiousness is sexually dirty.
Envy makes us green, not our true colour.
Blashpemy makes our mouth foul.
Arrogance drives away people because it sends out dirty signals.
Folly makes us stupid.
I have to admit that my repression is deep and I dare not dig too deep into it lest I may collapse. So I cannot offer any better meditation on these vices. Perhaps my readers can throw better lights on them.

Dear Lord, in the days ahead, expose me to my vices and grant me enough grace to overcome and uproot them. Amen.

The ambiguous attitude towards the flesh

The Bible is a library of only 73 books penned by different authors. Though Catholics believe that God is the author behind all human authors, it takes a lot of their efforts to harmonize the apparent inconsistencies, inaccuracies and sometimes even contradictions found in the sacred texts which provide the foundation for the faith and beliefs of all Christians.

First of all, God is truthful. He cannot tell lies or contradict Himself and the truth. The message He gives us must be the truth.
Secondly, God must guarantee that His truth is correctly conveyed to us. He must protect the earthly authors from making mistakes or misrepresentations of His truth.
Lastly, God must make sure that the readers anywhere in space and time will read and understand His truth correctly. He gives them the Holy Spirit to guarantee the correct reading of His will.
Therefore, the first inaccuracy which all modern Christians must answer is the six-day creation story recorded in Genesis 1.
Here comes the first lesson of Biblical Interpretation --- the genre of a piece of text. We do not expect a love poem to be scientifcally accurate. Since the creation story in Genesis 1 is a celebration hymn and not a scientific report, we do not expect it to meet the criteria of peer review of papers submitted to Lancet or Nature. It is a hymn because there are a lot of repetitions and refrains such as "God saw that xxx was good" and "And there was evening and there was morning, day nn" etc.
What is a day? What did a day mean before the creation of our sun? If you insist on a 24-hour definition of a day, you cannot be correct.
Other inconsistencies require greater understanding and a broader attitude to resolve. In the readings today, we come face to face with yet another kind of inconsistenc which is a harder nut to crack.

In the second reading, we heard of the words of St. Paul to the Ephesians. He told husbands to love their wives.
For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it (Ephesians 5:29)
Immediately afterwards, we heard in the gospel of John Jesus' words which seem to despise our flesh.
It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail (John 6:63).
So, should we follow Paul's advice to cherish our flesh or Jesus' to despise it? Both versions come from the same God who does not contradict Himself. So, how are we to harmonize them?

I think such a dilemma arises because we stubbornly want to seek an absolute and universal truth, a sort of theory for everything that is applicable in all contexts. Even today when all of us are enjoying the convenience provided by quantum mechanics,  people are still puzzled by the duality of light. How can such a common phenomenon be both a wave and a bunndle of particles at the same time? Human beings dislike ambiguity and try their best to resolve it. It takes a lot of effort for us to accommodate diametrically opposite ideas and to put them together in our heads. However, if we work very hard to come up with the truth which is abstract and universal, have we sacrificed the richness of it? Can truth be so embracing and universal that people can only see one of its many facets?
The Bible is just such an encyclopedia. You will find it praises the goodness of wine and on the next page, warns people of its evil; or advises you to do good for people to see so that they may praise God in heaven and several paragraphs below, exhorts you to do good in secret. How do you harmonize both?
I will leave it as an exercise for my beloved readers. But I will drop you a hint. The teachings of the Bible is NOT situational ethics. Got it?

Dear Lord, Your teaching is richer than gold and sweeter than honey. To quote St. Peter today, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life (John 6:68). Amen.

It wouldn't happen to me

Post war people have enjoyed economic prosperity for nearly seven decades. Many of them have lost a sense of crisis. One year after the earthquake cum tsunami cum nuclear disaster, even a modern country like Japan has not taken care of all the victims. Some of them are still living in relief camps. Comparatively speaking, China is not too backward in taking care of their disaster victims. In short, many people are too complacent.

Reading St. Paul's epistle to the Ephesians today in the context of present day situation, we should learn to stay alert. Christians in the first century believed that the return of the Lord was imminent. The contemporary generation would pass away very soon. All the worldly evil powers and corruption would be defeated. In short, Christians of the first century were not complacent in their life. They stayed highly alert because the end was near. A sense of crisis permeated their daily life. With this context in mind, we will appreciate better what Paul was trying to tell the Ephesians.

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,
making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 
Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is  (Ephesians 5:15-17).
Unwise? Certainly it wouldn't be me.
Many of us have benefited from compulsory education and reached at least the post-secondary level. We have learned science and mathematics. We have been enjoying the convenience provided by the advances in science and technology. We are able to explain many things scientifically which ancient people could only superstitiously cling to their myths etc. God is one of those myths and we have no need of God in our equations. How arrogant!
Here, St. Paul wrote in the context of the imminence of Parousia. There would not be much time left so he advised the Ephesians to make good use of the remaining time which was going to be cut short soon, to keep away from the evil of the world in order to prepare for the Second Coming of the Lord. In this sense, it is wise of Christians not to tarry and to waste their time doing foolish things. Rather, understand the will of the Lord and act accordingly. Here lies the wisdom of Christians of any generations.

The Japanese, who should be regarded as wise according to modern standards because they have all the technology to minimize the possible damages caused by active tectonic movements of the plates under the Pacific Ocean, were caught with their pants down. Their sufferings have taught the world a lesson on the dangers of nuclear power generation. It also showed how feeble our technology was before the might of the elements. Yet, I wonder if the world has ever learned to seek the will of the Lord from these natural and human disasters. Many still think that it would not be me. Disasters wouldn't happen to me.



So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you;
he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him (John 6:53-56).
Who can swallow this, to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink his blood?
His saying is hard to listen indeed unless we accept the fact that Jesus loves us so much that he lay down his life for us all. His love is unfathomable yet we reject it at our peril. If we say it would not happen to me, we turn our back to the eternal life offered by Jesus.



Dear Lord, let us not insist on our arrogance. Let us open our heart to invite You into our unworthy heart. Let me partake Your eternal life. Let it happen to me. Amen.

Jesus is the Bread of Life

Last evening, the old students of 1987 Class celebrated their Silver Jubilee of graduation in the auditorium of their alma mater. It was my privilege and honour to be invited among other ex-teachers to join this enjoyable big-family event. Many old students whose younger faces I could still remember, came up to greet me, introducing their wives and children.  Many old (literally) colleagues cracked jokes on the good old days. They are still energetic and stylish (with greenish silvery hair). The LaSallians (students as well as teachers) truly possess a special kind of air that mark them a class of their own.
I miss one particular person whom the organizers claimed to have invited, Brother Alphonsus Chee FSC, my former boss. Every year since I left La Salle, I send him through email feast day greetings. He replies politely everytime except for this year. I worry about his health. The La Salle Brothers who retired from the post of principal in LSC Hong Kong, almost without exception, suffer from cancer of some sort. I entrust them in the care of the loving Lord.

Nobody is able to see their own future, including prophets of God. Had they been able to see their future, I wonder if they would have done what God had sent them to do. Seers of all ages made predictions about others but not about themselves. A veil of ignorance is necessary to get jobs done.
However, the for the true religion of God was able to sustain the true prophets to accomplish the mission God gave them even though they had known what would happen to them afterwards. Elijah had just finished competing with the false prophets of Baal and Asherah, 850 in all, defeated and killed them all. Yet, he had to run for his life because he had antagonized the Queen. Behind him were assasins sent by the Queen. Before him was a vast wilderness which nobody would normally survive. He escaped into the wilderness and travelled for one day. He had had enough. Elijah wanted to die but he could not kill himself. So, he prayed to God for his death.
But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree; and he asked that he might die, saying, "It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am no better than my fathers." (1 Kings 19:4)
Of course, God had more missions for Elijah and would not let him die. God sent an angel to feed him with bread and water. With renewed strength, Elijah continued travelling for 40 days and nights and reached Mount Horeb. There, God would reveal Himself to Elijah and sent him off for further missions to rebuild the Yahwist religion in Israel.

With the limitations of our humanity, who would not get tired? Frustrated with the labour, the miserable results and perceived obstacles, who would not throw up their hands in the air? But God would catch us and hold us in His hand. He would feed us and sustain us in our efforts. Jesus assures us that God would give us him and His Holy Spirit.

In the gospel reading today (John 6:41-51), we heard Jesus systematically explain the claim he made that "I am the bread which came down from heaven." (John 6:41)
First of all, it is a mystery of faith and faith is a gift from God. Faith does not come from sight but from hearing (Romans 10:17). Unfortunately, man relies more on sight than on hearing. For the survival in the wild, sight perhaps is more essential than hearing. But in human relations, hearing is more essential in that we hear a person's words, observe his actions and only then pass judgment.聽其言、觀其行。
Secondly, we may not be able to verify what we hear. The gospel of God is breaking into the world and transforming it. It takes time to fulfill. Meanwhile, there is only faith to accompany us before the fulfilment of the total reconciliation with God. But of course, God continues to sustain our faith with continual interventions.
Thirdly, Jesus promises us eternal life which again cannot be verified. We either believe this promise or reject it.
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life (John 6:47).
Throughout our life, we see in ourselves and others that God is faithful. His words have never failed. He keeps all His promises. So, there is no reason to reject it.  Bingo!
Lastly, in his eagerness to assure us that his promise is not an empty one, Jesus invites us to eat him! Here is another leap of faith. It defies all human logic and is the greatest obstacle to overcome. This is not a rational language but a language of love, of intense love of which I cannot write anymore.

Dear Lord, I surrender myself to Your intense love. Amen.

Standing before a Sign

Among Christians, Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants have different practices regarding the Lord's Supper. Catholics believe that the bread is the real body of Jesus. Thus, in the first few decades of missionary works anywhere in the world, from ancient Rome to Qing China, Catholics were accused of practising cannibalism.

Catholics follow the gospel teaching to use unleavened bread to celebrate the Lord's Supper, i.e. Mass. Eastern Orthodox does not use unleavened bread as Holy Communion. Protestants go even further to deny the real presence of Jesus in the Holy Communion. They make use of Jesus' words: This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. (Luke 22:19) and insist that the bread is only a remembrance, only a sign and not a real presence.

Signs signify something. For example, red lights signify 'stop' and swastika signifies luck etc. However, there is a special kind of signs which signify themselves. They are called real signs. For example, our body, which is visible, is a sign of the invisible person 'I'. But I am embedded in my body. Without my body, I do not exist anymore. So, my body is a real sign of the person 'I'. With this understanding, Catholics insist that the unleavened bread is a real sign of the body of Jesus. It is Jesus himself. Put it in a different way, the Holy Communion is another incarnation of Jesus, the Son of God, in yet another sign.

Today, the gospel reading continues to tell us what happened after the 5 loaves 2 fish miracle. A miracle is a sign pointing to a transcendental presence, God intervening once more in human history. This miracle recalls what God did to the hungry Israelites in the wilderness. They had consumed all their food which they had brought out of Egypt and they were in the danger of starvation. So, God rained down manna from heaven everyday, except on Sabbath, to feed them for the next 40 years until they entered the Promised Land. This much the Jews knew but they could not know that the manna in the wilderness was only a pre-figure of the sacrament of the Eucharist in the future. In the gospel reading today, we hear what Jesus tried to explain to them. Jesus is the true Manna.

I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst (John 6:35).

When the Jews had eaten enough, they wanted to make Jesus king to guarantee that they would be well fed (John 6:15). The next day, they came to Jesus and of course, Jesus knew their intention. So Jesus taught them not to labour for food that would perish.

Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you; for on him has God the Father set his seal (John 6:26-27).

The Jews did not understand the true meaning of the miracle. They were physically satisfied but did not go one step further to discover the spiritual meaning which a miracle is supposed to convey. I suspect that the Jews even didn't know that they were fed in a miracle. They had eaten but did not know where the food came from. Had they known, they would not have challenged Jesus to work a feeding miracle again to persuade them to believe in him.

So they said to him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see, and believe you? What work do you perform?
Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" (John 6:30-31)

Here lies the paradox of a miracle!!
In order to see a sign as a miracle, people need to have faith first, not the other way round. The Jews had put the cart before a horse. They wanted to see a miracle before they believed in Jesus. They were surely scientists but they would be disappointed because science could not capture God.

Through the eye of faith, a sign is not just a sign, but a miracle. Without faith, a miracle is only an ordinary sign and nothing more.

Fr. Milanese did a good demonstration in his homily this morning in explaining the meaning of signs. He pointed at the huge exalted crucifix hanging behind the altar and asked what Christians and non-believers would see.

As for a non-believer, he would only see a wooden bearded man whose hands are raised. Behind him is a wooden cross. For a Christian, he would see the once dead but now risen Lord, his Saviour. The crucifix is a miracle, a victory of life defeating death and an ammunition during exorcism. Therefore, with the eye of faith, we see not just a sign, but a miracle. Without faith, the wooden object is at most a piece of art work.

Fr. Benedict Lam, while he was our parish priest, told us a personal story about his father. It was a miracle. When the Japanese invaded their village, his father was rounded up together with the others to march toward the forced labour camps from where very few would return. Suddenly, he discovered that his shoelaces were loosened. So he bent down to tie them up. When he stood up again, the column of forced labourors had long gone. For him, it was not luck. He thanked God. It was a miracle that he could cheat death ...

Standing before a sign, it takes faith to see a miracle. Holding in your palm a piece of wafer, it takes faith to see the body of Christ and his great love of humanity. Swallowing the piece of wafer, you don't need faith any more to feel the intimate union Jesus wishes you to partake. Faith is a supernatural gift from God. Let us pray that this gift is worthily received.

Dear Lord, with a faith as meagre as a mustard seed, You promise us to move mountains. I pray that this faith may grow day by day so that we may more easily meet You wherever we go. Amen.

The Miracle of 5 loaves and 2 fish

The miracle of 5 loaves and 2 fish appears in all 4 canonical gospels. We are reading the Johannite version today. John's version includes a unique detail that does not appear in the other three. The 5 loaves and 2 fish came from a boy (John 6:9). I think this detail can dispel the myth that the miracle was NOT a miracle.

In a generation of scientific thinking, people want to do away with miracles and explain them away with scientific explanations instead. Jesus' healing miracles and exorcism were assigned psychosomatic explanations. Jesus became a faith-healer only. When I was a young boy, I heard on a Sunday radio program which explained the 5 loaves 2 fish miracle with the following explanation. The food came from the 5000 people themselves. When they knew that the boy selflessly offered his 5 loaves and 2 fish, they took out their food to share. So, it was not a miracle after all. The altruistic behaviour touched the crowd. This seems a reasonable explanation but a second thought will render it useless.
Consider the size of the crowd. Imagaine how 12 apostles were able to settle the crowd of 5000 to sit down in groups of 50s and 100s (Mark 6:40). How long did it take to pass around the message that a generous boy offered up 5 loaves and 2 fish to share with everybody? Moreover, the other 3 gospels do not mention this boy. Obviously, only a small group near Andrew and Jesus knew where the food came from.
On the contrary, I hypothesize that the boy was not generous but was selling food to the crowd. Why would a boy carry 5 loaves and 2 fish to join the crowd flocking towards Jesus? The food was more than he could consume. Therefore, it was possible then that the boy wanted to do some business with his surplus food. No matter how mundane the original purpose of the food might have been, Jesus made use of it to work a miracle. Yes, God is able to transform our humble and ignoble means into edifiying and sanctifying channels of grace.

Fr. Martin Ip delivered a very good homily today. He focused on our reluctance to cooperate with Christ. In the first reading, we read the story of multiplication of loaves by Elisha (2 Kings 4:42-44). A man from Baal-shalishah brought Elisha 20 loaves of barley. Elisha instructed his servant to give them to 100 men. His servant questioned how 20 loaves of bread would be enough for 100 men. Elisha insisted and the 100 men were fed and there were leftovers. A multiplication of loaves miracle had taken place. This was a pre-figure of Jesus' miracle.
In the Johannite version of the miracle, Philip played a similar role as Elisha's servant with a difference. Unlike the synoptic version in which the apostles asked Jesus to send the crowd away, Jesus took the initiative to test Philip how they were to buy bread to feed the crowd (John 6:5). Philip gave an objective answer (200 denarii) without objecting openly Jesus' intention to feed the crowd. He might think that the sheer size of the problem would be enough to dissuade Jesus from doing the impossible.
Here, Fr. Martin pointed out a common mistake we make in our life as a Christian. Very often, we do not have enough faith in God, forgetting that He loves us and is able to do anything for our good. Very often, we are discouraged by a perceived problem and throw our hands up in the air, forgetting that God is God because He is apt at turning evils into goods.Very often, we think that our capabilities are insignificant, forgetting that Jesus has once multiplied 5 loaves to feed 5000 men. We do not have the faith that Jesus will do the same, multiply our efforts more than 5000 times to achieve a good cause.

Dear Lord, I pray that we do not belittle our meagre and insignificant contribution. May we offer up our unworthy deeds for You to build up the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Amen.

Prelude to 5 loaves and 2 fish

If you were a story teller, how would you talk about the life of a supporting character (JB) within the context of the life of the title role (JC)?
I am not a screenwright, but I assume that for a reasonable plot, JB will appear on scene before JC. After introducing JC, JB will retire to the backstage. Perhaps JB will appear once or twice later but JB will never outshine JC.
By now, you probably will have guessed that JB means John the Baptist and JC Jesus Christ. Yes, this is basically how St. Mark handled the roles of JB and JC in his gospel.

Next, telling a story chronologically is a standard method. St. Mark did not deviate too much from it. However, as an author, St. Mark has the full control of the layout of his gospel. For example, he grouped 5 conflicts between Jesus and the Jewish authorities together in ascending order of severity in Mark 2-3. Here, we have no way to prove whether the conflicts really happened in such a sequence. Again, since 12, Jesus visited Jerusalem annually like any other adult Jews did. We have no reason to think that Jesus would deviate from such a custom. Yet, St. Mark compressed the annual visits to Jerusalem by Jesus into one at the end of his public ministry. Therefore, when we read the gospel, we should bear in mind that the Evangelist is not writing history as we understand it. He has something else to tell us.

Now, back to JB. In the gospel according to St. Mark, John the Baptist took up the role as a forerunner of Christ. He preached the message of repentance, baptized the people and announced the imminent coming of Christ. After baptizing Jesus, John the Baptist disappeared from the scene only to emerge later in Chapter 6 to be beheaded by Herod Antipas. Why did St. Mark put JB's martyrdom in Chapter 6? The story can stand alone and be inserted reasonably anywhere in the public ministry of Jesus. Well, St. Mark previously sandwiched the raising of Jairus' daughter with the healing of the bleeding woman in order to bring out the importance of faith. Here, the martyrdom of John the Baptist is sandwiched in the sending of the apostles to preach the gospel. I guess St. Mark wanted to say that we Christians should be prepared to embrace martyrdom in preaching the good news of reconciliation. But we will not be alone. We have John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, St. Stephen and a host of martyrs marching ahead of us. We will follow.

After preaching the good news for a while, the apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught (Mark 6:30). It was time to take a break and had a good rest with Jesus before the next mission. When we relax after hard work, remember to rest with Jesus. However, be prepared to forsake your rest because the task is overwhelming. A huge crowd was awaiting the company.
As he went ashore he saw a great throng, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things (Mark 6:34).
Will you throw your hands at the air and stamp your feet on the ground? Well, that is life. However, the compassion of Jesus immediately drove him to teach the crowd, perhaps even to heal their diseases.
Do we have such a compassion for the needy? Do we turn our sight away from them because we are already exhausted and we cannot spare a moment? Don't forget, a miracle is awaiting to happen when we step out of our comfort zone.

Dear Lord, may our compassion for the needy grow day by day. May You be glorified in our charity. Amen.