Brotherly love

 

My name is Jacob and I live in Nairobi. my parents died in a car accident in 2007 when I was in Form 1 and my little brother was in Grade 3. We were left alone with no one to look after us and I was forced to drop my classes to be a parent to my brother.

I went to a garage where a guy I knew was the mechanic and I pleaded with him to teach me simple mechanic works I could do just to get a coin I to take home. He did and I provided for my brother as I paid for his school fees.

My brother became my everything and everything I thought. I never even had a girlfriend because I feared she would drive my attention away from my brother.He was my only friend. He did his school exams last year and I sent him to the village to spend his holidays there as I look for money to take him to a secondary school because I was sure he will pass as he is a very bright boy.

After one week there,I was called and told that my brother had contracted a flu,the next day I was told that he had cerebral malaria and I decided to go home the next day, before the day ended I was called and told that he had worsened and had been rushed to the nearest hospital.

When I arrived at the home village hospital my brother could barely walk or talk and the doctors gave up hope    and they suggested we look for a spiritual help.

I plead to all his friends and those reading this letter to please pray for my brother. He is everything I have in this world.

This is very touching, a brother sacrificing his everything so that his brother can have the best. All that he has in this world is his little brother who is now struggling for his life. He is not asking for our money but a little prayer to for heal his brother. Let us spare some moments to pray for this unfortunate young man. Let us share this story with everyone we know so that more can pray for him too.

Jacob

nairobi

Prayer for Jacob and his brother

Heavenly father look upon Jacob and his ailing brother with mercy and love. Touch him with your healing hand and if it is your will may he getter better to be reunited with the brother he loves and misses most in the world. 

Give strength and courage to Jacob to endure the pain and agony he is going through in his life. His brother is all that he has and may his sacrifices and love for him earn him your love and mercy. 

Continue to strengthen their faith in you and not give up hope for securing your love and mercy.

Jacob’s love is an inspiration for us all. It reminds us that it is not money and comforts that are most important but sincere love for one another especially for those in need.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Uncle George revisited

Uncle George 2.0

                                          93-year old Uncle George with his characteristic smile

Uncle George is the grand old man of Batu Gajah, whom I wrote about some years ago. He is well known for his characteristic cheerfulness and laugh. After the demise of his wife 6 years ago he has been staying alone in his house, moving around on his bicycle wearing his characteristic Mexican hat.

He turns 93 year old this June and during a recent visit to him I can visibly see the signs of aging in him. He is weak and wobbly and says he feels very tired and has poor appetite. “I like to eat but I just don’t have the appetite to do so” he says sadly.

Of late he was sickly and has been in and out of hospital a number of times. It is sad to hear that at times when he does not feel well at night he has to walk out of his house to get a lift to the nearby hospital. It is reassuring to hear him say that w anyone seeing him by the roadside with his hat on always stop and send him to the hospital.

When I spoke to him many years ago when his wife was still with him he said. “My greatest fear is loneliness” and today his fears have become real as he is staying all alone at such an advanced age. He feels very lonely and depressed as very few come to visit him these days. However despite his misery he still puts up a very cheerful look, which used to be his characteristic of him as known to his friends in Batu Gajah.

We do all sorts of things in life to accumulate wealth for us and our families hoping these will give us happiness when we are old. He is a man at 93, who has enough money and a comfortable house but no company to share his life. He longs for the company of his friends and relatives but there is none and he is left loneliness, something feared most in his life.

We may not be able to cure him of his ailments as we have our own problems and responsibilities. The least we can do is to think about him and  do the little we can on our part to cheer up this grand man of Batu Gajah. Praying alone is not good enough but to visit him and spend some time with him whenever we can will be most rewarding acts we can afford at times.



May God bless Uncle George with peace and happiness and alleviate the pain and sorrow of his loneliness at the twilight of his life.

Lent 2013 – What this Lent means to me?

 A time to prepare ourselves to do right

The temptations of Jesus

The gospel reading for the first Sunday of Lent on 17 February 2013 rightly summarizes what Lent should mean to each one us in today’s materialist world where greed appears to rule supreme. It was taken from Luke 4:1- 13 which relates how the devil tempted Jesus to subdue to his demands in return for all worldly attractions. The following were the three temptations of Jesus :

1. Realizing Jesus was hungry from fasting; the devil asked Jesus to turn the stones to bread to satisfy his hunger and thereby proving he was the son of God. Jesus flatly rejected it saying, “Human beings live not on bread alone”

 

2. Then leading Jesus to a height, the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world and promised to give them all to him if only Jesus would pay homage to him. Once again Jesus was firm and refused to honor the devil saying, “You must do homage to the Lord your God, him alone you must serve.”

3. Subsequently the devil led Jesus to Jerusalem and set him on the parapet of the Temple and challenged to jump down to prove that he was truly the son of God as if he really was the angels will protect him from all harm. Once again Jesus refused to take up the challenge to prove who was saying, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”    

These temptations of Jesus are exactly what we all are being exposed to daily in our lives. Despite being extremely hungry he was strong enough to reject the devil demands. Despite the tremendous wealth and splendor laid in front of him, he refused to give in to his human greed. Despite being challenged on his status as the son of God, Jesus refused to submit to the devil’s wish to show his power and might.   

In the world today we are all the time being tempted with all forms of luxuries in life - food, wealth, and power, and to go against the basic virtues taught by Jesus – righteousness, love and sacrifice. How strong are we to reject these temptations that come our way? Most of the ills in our society are basically due to our weakness in rejecting these temptations.

Lent represents the time, about 40 days, which Jesus prepared himself mentally and spiritually for his ultimate self-sacrificing love on the cross. Jesus gained his courage and strength to reject evil, endure the agony of his passion and sacrifice his life on the cross for us by his prayers and fasting. Despite being tortured and crucified unjustly he had the courage and even the love to forgive those who persecuted and killed him when he said, “Father, forgive them as they do not know what they are doing”. 

We too fast and pray during lent, but are we doing them for the right reasons? Like Jesus praying and fasting must give us the strength and courage to say “No” to the temptations of the world, fight evil and share our love with others including our enemies.

Preparing to defeat evil and injustice

 

The Penang Diocese has chosen a very appropriate theme for its Lenten campaign this year.   It is Faith = Love + Action which in simple terms just means that Faith without love and action is useless. We all have faith in God but does that faith translate to love in action?

Our society today appears to be driven by greed and selfishness. One’s success and status is determined by the amount of wealth he has accumulated, doesn’t matter how it is done. One is respected for the power and wealth he has and not for his virtues. Massive corruption, abuse of power and suppression of the legitimate rights of the poor are the norms. We are angry but appear helpless in the face of theses abuses that occur rampantly right in front of us.

Yes, things look hopeless but as Christians we must have the faith that if we do the right thing God will come to our side when it matters most. The right thing to do is to put our love into action, which we all must start this lent. Let us look around to recognize those in need of our love and put into actions to share that love with others and at the same time to let’s gain the courage to say “No” to the injustices around us.

God has given us the best chance to right the wrongs in our country at the coming 13GE.   What is needed most to win this  most crucial elections is unity among the different races and this unity can only be realized by our love and mutual respect  for one another, especially for those from different race or creed. We need to put into action our faith by sharing our love and goodwill with others thereby maintaining the unity needed to defeat evil.

We must do the right thing with the wisdom God has given us. We must not let our greed and selfishness to affect our decisions in doing right. Jesus had shown us that that evil and injustice can only be won with love and sacrifice. For us today it may not be easy to tolerate the insults and injustice against us but that is what Jesus and lent is all about.

"Enculturation" of the Eucharistic Celebration of Mass

Of late it has become a fashion to in co-operate cultural practices into the Eucharistic celebration of the Mass. This become a standard practice on the Tamil festival of  Pongal and the Chinese New year. There has been tremendous opposition to such in cooperation of cultural elements into Mass from Catholics, especially from senior members of the congregation. Instead of organizing dialogue and debates on the issue, as usual, these objections have been ignored by the church administrators resulting in many members leaving the church with heavy hearts. Some of them have been actively practicing Catholics for many years and we can imagine the extent of disappointment they would have suffered, in coming to a decision to leave the church they loved so much.

Unfortunately their leaving does not seem to upset the present leach leaders and clergy whose attitude of  “ If you are not happy you need not come” is most irresponsible and un-Christ-like. It is disturbing that   such cultural practices may become permanent features of our mass in the future. 

Cultural practices should not be in-cooperated into the Mass which is central to our faith. By doing so the sanctity of the Mass as a Eucharistic celebration is diluted and I am afraid that soon its real meaning will be lost too. Many of our children today do not know the real meaning of mass and this practice of assimilating cultures into will only accelerate the confusion among them. They will grow up think the mass is a time for entertainment and nothing more.

I feel the mass should be left intact - one solid hour of serious worship, prayer and reflection to enrich our lives with the word of God as his coming to us Holy Communion. It should an hour of great solemnity communicating with God. Mass is not a place or time to "enjoy" ourselves as it not an entertainment or reality show. You can always have traditions and cultures at other times other than during mass inside the church. I admit our cultures are important to be upheld but why bring them into the mass and the church. Why can't they be held outside mass separately?

Even an eulogy to celebrate the life of the deceased at funeral services are not allowed as we are told that would divert our focus from Jesus but ironically cultural practices and even dances are allowed. In fact a good eulogy on the life of the deceased can be a lesson for us in our own lives.

In our country we are already so racially divided by the government and racism has already taken a strong footing in our Church, why make it worse by in cooperating individual cultures into our church services?

Finally it amuses me when we emphasize so much on worshiping our ancestors, when many of our aged and ailing parents and grandparents are left neglected and lonely in deplorable conditions in homes for the aged.

Failed bible - burning a sign of people’s maturity

There was sigh of relief when the proposed bible-burning event did not materialize last Sunday in Butterworth. As I drove through the place I felt happy that not a single ill-motived person was in sight. The failure of this bible-burning event showed 2 important developments of Malaysian society;

1.The elevated level of maturity of the Malaysian people at large. The vast majority of Malay Muslims are not easily influenced by the racial and religious provocation of a few radicals among them. The Christians too are wise enough to ignore such provocations and act with great restrain so as to maintain the peace and harmony

2.The evil motive of the mainstream media that blew up the issue to confuse and arouse the people especially the Malay Muslims. This too did not have the intended effect to instill fear and confusion among the people  

These two positive attributes in the people of all races are the most promising developments that augurs well for the future of the nation. It gives hope for a more peaceful and harmonious future in our multiracial and multi-religious nation.

Peace and the Allah dispute

The Allah dispute is threatening to tear apart Pakatan Rakyat especially PAS and DAP and may even be the cause of a Pakatan defeat in the coming elections. The swift turn - around by PAS on use of Allah by non-Muslims followed by the goodwill visit by Tuan Guru Nik Aziz to DAP chairman Karpal Singh and the Bishop Sebastian Francis of Penang may be an indication of severe undercurrents, which outsiders  may not understand.

The Christians were indirectly the cause of Tengku Razaleigh's failure in the eighties due to the crucifix issue. Do the Christians want to be the cause again of Anwar Ibrahim’s failure this time around with the Allah issue? The Christians like all other peace-loving Malaysians also want political change they do not want to be the obstacle to the change of government at the 13GE.

It is time for the Christians to rise up in wisdom to drop this Allah claim now so that they can successfully bring about a change of the government first. They have made known their rights on the issue of Allah but they must also understand the anxieties of the ordinary Malay Muslims who are highly anxious of "giving up" Allah as they were brought up over 50 years of politicised Islam under Umno rule to think they alone have exclusive rights to Allah.

Anwar Ibrahim by taking a liberal stand in support of our claim of Allah, has risked losing the support of the Malays that may affect his chances of capturing Putrajaya.The mainstream media will leave no stone unturned to label him and Pakatan as traitors to the race and religion. Let us not let him down and his sacrifices by being adamant in our claims to Allah now. After all God by whatever name we call Him is God.

As Christians we must turn to our Master and Lord, Jesus, for guidance on this important issue that we are facing today. Jesus had 2 choices on being unjustly sentenced to death – to fight his mighty opponents with force or submit to their judgment. Of course he made the more difficult and humiliating choice – the cross. Yes, he chose to offer his other cheek when struck on one. His action then is very clear on what ours should be today.

Our church leaders on behalf of all the Christians in the country must come together and consider very carefully what they should do to put an end to this dispute that may threaten the peace and harmony among the races. They must put the well-being and peace of the people above all other considerations. A graceful way to get out of the impasse for now is to issue a statement like this,

"Historically and constitutionally we are of the opinion that we have the right to use Allah in our scriptures and worship like Christians in other parts of world, but due to the anxieties and fears expressed by our Muslim brethren in our country, we will drop this claim now for the sake of goodwill and harmony to prevail among the Muslims and Christians.

We continue to pray to the Almighty that a day will come when all Malaysians can pray together side by side free to address the one true God in the name they choose. God bless Malaysia".

The Allah dispute is a chance to show our commitment to peace, which should not be compromised for any reason whatsoever. It is a chance to show our tolerance and goodwill even to our fellow citizens of a different faith. It is a chance to put to practice which Jesus himself demonstrated while here on earth. What we do now really depends how much we want to be like Jesus bearing in mind that it is we who need God's protection not God who needs ours.

Sunday Reflection 27 Jan 2013

Live not just preach the Good News

In the Gospel last Sunday, Jesus clearly spelt out what he was on earth for and what we should also do to fulfill our own lives in this world.

“The spirit of the Lord is on me, for he has anointed me to bring the good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,^{”(Luke 4:18)}

In his sermon, the celebrant spoke about the declining morals today which he said was because the people do not want to follow the laws of the church which they think are too suppressive of their freedom. On the contrary he said the laws of the church are meant to liberate the people from sin not stifle their freedom to do what they like.

He spoke about the rising promiscuity in society today; premarital sex, contraception, pornography and stealing and he asked how we could be happy indulging all these immoral acts. We look around we see evil everywhere – corruption, racism, cruelty, greed, hatred and violence. Those in power abusing their power to suppress the poor and ignorant and others abusing religion and God for their abnormally greedy needs.

True people today are questioning every laws and values that were held so dear over so many centuries. Not only laws on sexual morality but on almost every aspect of our lives. Good has become bad and bad become good. Why are we facing such an hypocritical life in the world today?

It is important to ask ourselves 2 main questions:

1.How have I contributed to the declining morality today?

No one particular individual or group can be blamed for this situation we have today. All of us, parents, teachers, pastors and political leaders in all levels and leaders in whatever organization we belong to, are all responsible for the rot we have today.

Do we practice what we preach to the children and others under our care? Do we follow the very laws and rules that we want others to do so? Are we showing examples by our own good and morally righteous behavior?

Very often we preach one thing and do something else. We ourselves continue to do immoral things but expect others to be all good.

2.What can I do to reverse this immoral trend that is fast becoming the way of life?

The only way is to lead by example. Youngsters today hate to be told what to do and they will rebel if forced to do so. But they will be subtly influenced by our living examples that will slowly instill good values in them. Such slow infusion of the right values by example will lead to the adoption of the right approach when they are faced with difficult situations later in life.

Jesus said he came to bring the good news to the afflicted, to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free. We cannot be Jesus to do all these, which he did but we can refrain from doing anything that oppresses others and deprives them of their freedom and rights. The least can do is to demonstrate the right values to our children and others under our care. The Good News which  Jesus brought  cannot be preached but lived.

From my own experience I understand fully how difficult it is to bring up children with good values in an extremely evil world today even by being good parents ourselves. There is no way children can grow up to be morally upright if we ourselves don’t indulge in such virtues for them to see.

The Gospel reading

 Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21

¹ Seeing that many others have undertaken to draw up accounts of the events that have reached their fulfilment among us,

² as these were handed down to us by those who from the outset were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word,

³ I in my turn, after carefully going over the whole story from the beginning, have decided to write an ordered account for you, Theophilus,

⁴ so that your Excellency may learn how well founded the teaching is that you have received.

¹⁴ Jesus, with the power of the Spirit in him, returned to Galilee; and his reputation spread throughout the countryside.

¹⁵ He taught in their synagogues and everyone glorified him.

¹⁶ He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read,

¹⁷ and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:

¹⁸ The spirit of the Lord is on me, for he has anointed me to bring the good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,

¹⁹ to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord.

²⁰ He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him.

²¹ Then he began to speak to them, 'This text is being fulfilled today even while you are listening.'

THE TAN SRI SHEPHERD ABANDONED HIS FLOCK?

Who says I must respect Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam just because he was anointed Archbishop? Najib too was anointed by UMNO to be Prime Minister but he has not earned my respect. Yesterday the sycophant rag, the STAR,  front-paged “UNITY PLANS FOR GAZA”! An apt headline would be “UNITE  TATTERED 1MALAYSIA”! This is one “shepherd” who strayed from his priority, to allow Mahathir’s proxy Ibrahim Ali to besmirch his motto/slogan: 1 Malaysia.

 

The Sun also front-paged Najib’s who pledged solidarity with the Palestinians and backed reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. In the name of Allah, even the OIC cannot bring these two fractious muslim groups together, fat chance the scandal-strapped PM of a corrupted country can bridge this gulf between the factions HERE. There is in town a homegrown NGO that goes by the name of COMPLETE, admittedly striving to champion the Palestinians. Even this group has two factions, one siding Fatah, the other Hamas as a fund raising event recently proved. Perhaps, Najib could do well to unite COMPLETE before venturing into Gaza.  

 

Now, back to Murphy Pakiam. If my uncle, Datuk Tan Cheng Or, was not bedridden he would give two tight slaps to his former student Murphy Pakiam!  In 2007, The Herald and Pakiam, as its publisher, filed for a judicial review after it was ordered to stop using the Arabic word "Allah" in its publication by the Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs. On the last day of 2009, HE was not in court when the High Court Judge allowed for the use of Allah in the Bahasa version of the Bible. The government appealed against judgement and Murphy dutifully followed Najib to the Vatican!

 

Within two months of Pakatan taking Selangor, the parish priest of St Paul the Hermit was granted permission from the Selangor Government to build a new church. The priest of this poor parish approached the Tan Sri Archbishop for funds to initiate proceedings. The Bishop told the priest to get his parishioners to raise funds. The parishioners are by majority, poor estate workers. And the Right Honorable Pakiam’s motto is: Mercy and Peace.

A group of Catholic doctors on their own time collected medicine and made nocturnal visits to  Mynmarese immigrants hiding in the jungle. The Tan Sri heard about this and stopped the doctors from their “clandestine” trips to give aid to the disadvantaged. Mercy?

 

And now Ibrahim Ali wants to burn the Alkitab and our SHEPHERD continues to pray(????) for guidance amidst an embarrassing silence? Thank God a national group representing the evangelical Christian community has stepped up to the plate to tell Najib to practice what he preaches! Tan Sri Murphy continues to twiddle his thumbs! Impeachment is a secular penalty. Is there an ecclesiastical equivalent or should the shepherd go to pasture to bring back some dignity to the office! 

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Tuesday, January 22, 2013