by Fr Francis Anthony
Numbers 6:22-27
Psalm 66:2-3,5,6,8
Galatians 4:4-7
Luke 2:16-21
Theme: O God, be Gracious and Bless us
Dear friends,
A lot of things is floating around for our reflection. As I began, we are bidding farewell to the year 2021, did all the various things that had happened, and it has touched each one of us in a different way. We are at a threshold beginning the new year and all of us are with hope that this year, the new year 2022, will give a bright horizon, though with Omicron it seems to be a bit disturbing.
Today, liturgically, we are celebrating the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. She stood at the foot of the cross when her son, Jesus, was going to die. And Jesus told her “Behold your son” indicating John who was there. And told John “Behold your mother”.
She became the Mother of the whole Church, not on the Christmas night, happy story, but the moment of deep suffering. She would have been wondering why this great misfortune should fall on her son, who during his public ministry, with just three years, we went around doing so much of good and people were flocking to be in his company. She was not made the Mother at that moment. She was made the Mother for the Church at the cross, the suffering.
January 1st is also the World Day of Peace. Yes, it is peace not just in the family but internationally, among ethnic groups, among the different religions, among the nations, that we be one in heart and soul.
So, my dear friends, you see so many things come to us at this moment of entering into the new year and we are puzzled. Why all these things are happening to us? We have no answer, I have no answer. But the realities are taking place. And we as children of God, who are privileged to call God “Father” as we have in the Second Reading, we ask God to give us a sense of family.
God is the Father of all, He is not just the Father of the Catholics. And all of us are His children. Let us recognize that identity and if we are able to see we are one family, we may be in different parts of the world, different ethnic groups, different religion but we are all one family of God. And we ask God to help us to live as children, united, caring, loving, sharing, with one another.
We have just looked into the papers and over the foreign news, the various countries that are fighting and the ruling government, having the upper hand, slaughtering the so-called rebels. Yes.
My dear friends, at this moment, we ask God to give us the strength to journey this life, with all these ups and downs, as we are looking into a good future and not just 2022, and all the years to come, we ask God to give us the strength where we, in our own small way, would be disciples of hope. That we will take the responsibility to bring about peace. Yes, not to pray for peace. In our own families, in our neighbourhood. Yes, we are not politicians, we are not the superpowers with ammunition.
We are ordinary people who have been gifted with the attitudes of love, of kindness, of concern, of care. Let us use these good values to bring about this harmonious life and the World Day of Peace, let it begin from within us. Let us not wait for the politicians to say something to us. Pope Francis gave the message and the peace can come about only by us.
Let us not surrender our role of identifying ourselves as family and surrender it to the politicians. That we and it is so beautiful (it’s tragic these floods that came about) to see it was the ordinary people who were out there first, helping each other. There were no directions given by the politicians. I speak of Malaysia. The inner goodness in us, let us bring that out and bring about a harmonious life.
My dear friends, this is possible because we are the children of God and in the First Reading, we have this beautiful passage of God’s blessing for all of us. God told Moses to tell to Aaron and the words they hear is asking God for blessing:-
May the Lord bless you and keep.
May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace.
Yes, the Lord is here. He is blessing us, He is looking at us, He is not just simply saying “I am with you always”. And all these, God’s concern, to bring you peace. Let us ask God to help us. And like the shepherds, they were informed or told about the birth of Jesus, they went to Bethlehem.
All of us, we are celebrating Christmas. Let us go to the Bethlehem of our hearts. Let us look deep within us, what type of a manger am I offering to God, to baby Jesus. Let us ask God to help each one of us.
This World Day of peace, let it shine in our families, in our neighbourhood, in our BECs, in our working area. Yes, let peace begin with us and let all of us make the effort. Yes, personal effort to not to overcome because of our pride and selfishness that we got angry.
Yes, we are human. We are human, we get angry but let us not become a slave of anger and destroy the love and the peace of our neighbourhood. If I am doing that, the blessing that I just read is not going to be effective.
God is turning his face to me, shining and with that strength, let me not become a slave of anger and get even with all but let me understand the other person and it is through this understanding that I can work for peace.
Click below to listen to homily and watch video:-
Click to live-stream Mass on 31 December 2021