24 May 2023 – Pentecost Triduum Day 1 | 7th Week of Easter (Year A)

by Fr Esmond Chua, OFM

So once again, a very good evening, sisters and brothers. Good evening. I was quite sure the Gospel was not long enough to fall asleep but okay. I hope this homily won’t also make you all fall asleep.

So today’s theme is Spark the Fire. And in order to begin the theme, I would like to reflect on that image of a spark, image of a spark with this box of match. I am sure you have seen this right? Nowadays they use the gun, the lighter gun. I saw the confessional room was using the lighter gun so I had to ask the server to find me a box of matches. You have seen this matchbox before right? Okay at least for the older generation. The younger ones I think they use lighters nowadays.

I would like to use this as a reflecting point on what is about the spark with the hope that it can help us to understand and therefore strive to allow God, the Holy Spirit, to reignite His fire in us. And so the first question I would like to ask is:

What is a spark? Or how do sparks happen?

If we were to look at this box of matches, we know that this box alone we can see at least three elements involved. First sparks happen when the elements are predisposed to be ignited, in other words, are ready or made to be ignited. In this case, we see this match it has a rough surface. And the match itself has what you call gunpowder. I think that is what they call it. And therefore, it is predisposed to be lit, to create sparks.

Second, sparks happen when these two strike each other either at the fast or a hard manner. Correct? Yes. So if you strike, I can’t do it now as I see a lot of fans. I am scared it will blow off, but you know if you were to strike, a fire will start.

And the third, sparks happen when it is in a motion. If I were to put this box just on the podium like this, it will never spark.

So similarly, sisters and brothers, if we wish God to spark that fire of faith within us, we need at least three things. We need three things so that we are predisposed, we are opened for God to ignite us. So, what are they?

First, just as things catch fire easier when they are dry or flammable or in other words predisposed, similarly for God to spark that fire in us, is to first surrender. Jesus in today’s Gospel and Paul in the First Reading are examples of what happens when one surrenders. Yes, to surrender is going to be scary. To surrender is difficult because we have various fears or we are sad to let go of what we are familiar with, what we are comfortable with and to let go in order to go to somewhere unknown. But in doing so, sisters and brothers, when we learn to surrender, when we learn to let go however scary, however difficult it may be, we know and we have seen God’s love and kingdom then becomes more visible.

And we see this in the life of Christ. By accepting the cross, by surrendering himself, He gave us life. We have life. And Paul accepting the fact that he will never again see the people in the First Reading, by doing so, he was able to avail himself for the Good News to be further preached elsewhere. And so, sisters and brothers, to surrender is to die daily. To die daily to things such as ourselves, such as pride, such as our insecurities, such as our fears so that God may be able to come in and live in and through us. This surrendering spark fires because when we die to the many false selves that we may have created for ourselves along the road of life, will we then begin to recognise our role, our role in the bigger picture of God, our role as His instruments, as His servants and not masters over God.

To surrender also sparks fires because when we die to ourselves, we are challenged to let go, to let go of all that holds us back from allowing God to have control over our lives. And so perhaps for this Triduum, we can reflect on the question what areas or things in my life that is holding me back? Holding me back from being ignited by God so that knowing this, I may therefore surrender them? Because if we pray, if you notice (I was standing at the back you know listening to the prayers that we were praying before the Mass), we were asking the Holy Spirit for this gifts, for that grace but Spirit wants to come to us but He can only do so when we surrender, when we empty ourselves, when we avail ourselves to the Spirit.

Second, just as sparks happen when at least two things hits each other, such as that match as I was mentioning, we need to embrace struggles. We need to embrace struggles. Struggles in life, sisters and brothers, helps us, pushes us to grow, to grow spiritually, to grow emotionally, to grow intellectually. And this is why Jesus says in today’s Gospel:

I am not asking you (the Father) to remove them from the world.

Rather He’s asking God the Father to protect us, to be with us through our struggles. Jesus himself knew and wants us also to learn that removing, that avoiding struggles does not define having a good life. Rather it is about walking through our struggles with God. Saying this however does not mean we are to go about finding or creating struggles for ourselves or others. In other words, ‘jangan jadi batu api lah‘ under the pretext of growing in faith. If not, later your parish priest will come after me to say go and start fights around. No. Rather we are called to embrace struggles by seeing our current struggles and turning them into opportunities to grow in faith, to grow in deeper love of God.

What do I mean by this?

Perhaps and certainly in our own lives, even now at this moment, we may be going through some difficulties, we may be going through some worries, we may be going through certain things that we find ourselves why it keeps repeating over and over again? Perhaps it is an invitation to ask ourselves what is the Lord inviting me through these moments? Through these worries? Through these struggles? What is He inviting me to grow? Where can I see Him in this struggle? Oftentimes we ask the Lord to remove that struggle but removing it won’t do us no good.

Finally, just as things need to be in motion in order to create sparks, for God to spark that fire of faith within us is to serve. In the words of Saint Paul in today’s reading,

We are to feed the church of God.

Oftentimes, we think and so assume that we can or we will only serve when we feel ready, when we feel moved, when we feel drawn or passionate about something. But such thinking, sisters and brothers, will only makes our serving become all about us, all about on our terms. In other words, we will tell God I do it when or because I feel like it. Serving, sisters and brothers, sparks the fire because it has been said grace cooperates with nature. In other words, when we move, God like I said earlier, God already wants us to bless us. But are we moving in order to move with the spirit of God, we move with the graces of God? It is like similarly we go to a buffer but we do not open our mouth. We go to a buffet but we do not walk to the table. Will we be filled? So the same, God wants to give us His graces to move through life but He needs our cooperation. And part of that is to serve, to serve one another, to move with the Spirit.

So sisters and brothers, if you feel that this call to surrender, to embrace struggles and to serve is either perhaps to idealistic or impossible, I invite you to think again because look around. In our midst we have living proofs to tell us that it is possible. And who are they? They are our elderly. Through their years of service from their younger days, I am sure you know they have made their sacrifices. As much as we say we are busy, I am sure when they were serving actively in church too they were busy. But they made this necessary sacrifices. They made the necessary surrenders perhaps. Truly they will have difficulties while serving but they surrendered and continue to serve nonetheless. Through their efforts, through their service, through their sacrifices, to have brought this community to where it is today.

And so dear sisters and brothers who are the elderly among us, we thank you for being that example. You may or may not done it with that intention but truly if we were to look, if you were to look back the moments that you served, even in hardship. The moments when you sacrificed, made sacrifices even when you had other responsibilities of family life for example, of work for example but it is though that service, that sacrifice, that the church continues to grow.

So I invite the young who are in our midst here too. True, today’s world will tell us to do what we feel like doing. I feel like it. Oftentimes in the ministry I used to serve before also. We invite the young, okay don’t just target the young. we invite others also. They say let me pray about it. I question how long you want to pray. Yes we must pray but we must also move for when we move, we see God’s hand at work.

And so sisters and brothers, as we gather around the Lord’s table and as we come for the next few days and the last few day for this Novena to the Holy Spirit, let us not just you know pray passively but pray actively. And that is to surrender, to embrace our struggles, to serve. So that when we predispose ourselves, when we avail ourselves to God and to His graces, when we see struggles as opportunities and as we cooperate with God’s grace in our service, our hearts may truly be ready for God to spark that fire within us. And in turn, having been ignited, may we spread this fire in our homes, our school, our workplaces and to the world.

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