Dec. 25, 2007: Christmas Day

Today is the day we celebrate the birth of an infant boy born to seemingly insignificant parents 2,000 years ago. His parents were simple and poor young couple. Yet, somehow this infant boy's history is intertwined with our story. And in order to understand how this little infant has anything to do with us, we have to understand first our own story.

In the beginning, few years before my existence, my mom went on a blind date with my dad. My mom said she was not impressed on that date, and she was going to look elsewhere. But her mother and sister insisted that she was getting too old and she needed to take this 'last chance.' After a couple of months, my mother relented to their pressure. So I almost did not exist without my grandmother and my aunt's insistence.

In the beginning, my mom was born in northern tip of North Korea before the Korean War. Her father was a judge and had a comfortable living. Then he was tortured by Japanese soldiers during occupation by Japanese; he was so traumatized by torture he no longer could work. Then the Korean War began. Her family left their house and all their property with only what they could carry on their backs. They were able to catch a US amphibious transport from the coast and was placed on an island in South Korea for several years. Because of the Korean War, my mom could have died and I never have existed. Before being pregnant with me, my mother had ovarian cancer which nearly killed her life. And the doctors told her that another pregnancy was not possible. In my mother's lifetime there were so many precarious moments where my very existence hung by threads. My mom constantly prays in thanksgiving to God for sparing her life.

When we begin to think about how we came about, we have no idea the number of moments when the possibility of our very own existence was slim. As my own story shows, my very existence depended on forces and events that I had no control over. There are some of us who are born into a loving family, but there are those who are born into a broken one. This we do not have control over. There are some who experience a tranquil life and a happy death. Yet there are some who experience loss, abuse, addiction--some of which we have control over and some which we do not. How are we to make sense of all this? What does the birthday of a little infant have anything to do with all this?

As my story shows there was an invisible hand guiding the course of events and forces which brought me into existence. To whom does this invisible hand belong to?

"In the beginning," our Gospel says today, "was the Word...and the Word was God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." This invisible hand belonged to God. Everything about our life came to be through Him. We may not have been aware of this mystery, so He becomes visible to us on this day. The Gospel continues, "And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth."

If we think about it, our life span is only about 80 years. Yet to orchestrate this short 80 years of life, God had to orchestrate generations upon generations before us in order for us to come into existence. Why does God orchestrate all this so that we can exist? The only thing that explains this is love. John 3:16 says, "God so loved the world that He sent His only Son."

How are we to respond to this love? I will summarize in three mandates. First, come, let us adore Him. Come and see the Savior who has lovingly orchestrated my life from the very beginning. Come and adore the Lord of my life and learn of him. Secondly, come, follow me. Answer the call to be a disciple. Learn to grow in virtues and reject the temptations of devil and of this world. Finally, come be my light. He has entrusted his very own life and light in us. We are to carry this light to overcome the darkness of this world.

Come, let us adore Him.
Come, follow Me.
Come, be My Light.

Dec. 23, 2007: 4th Sunday Advent (A)

If you ask young people of this generation when they should get married, most if not all would say when they know, beyond the shadow of doubt, they love someone. If you ask my mother's generation, especially those from Asian culture, the answer is quite different. For them, love is not such an important factor. My mother's generation looked at spouse's family background, job situation, and personality. It will probably shock the young people today when they hear that people in some cultures marry without barely getting know someone. They would say, "How can you marry someone you do not love?" They may be thinking, 'Such marriage would not last.' But strangely, it's the opposite. Divorce rate of my mother's generation was under 10%.

A different mindset was in place. One elderly man told me, "When my wife dies and goes to meet St. Peter at the pearly gates, St. Peter is going to declare her a saint for just putting up with me all these years." This would be a strange way of helping your spouse reach heaven. But isn't that the essence of marriage as instituted by Our Lord, to help your spouse reach heaven? That's why the Church calls the Sacrament of Matrimony a sacrament of service--directed at salvation of others.

In the Gospel today we meet a young couple who has been engaged but not yet married. Couples in those days did not go on dates to movie theaters, shopping malls, or restaurants. They were engaged without really knowing much about each other. Betrothal or Jewish engagement was a solemn affair where two families negotiated about finances and when the couple was to have their home-taking ceremony which would allow the couple to live under one roof. For a virgin, the period between betrothal and home-taking ceremony was often a year or more, at least to ensure that she had not been pregnant by another man. In the Gospel, Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but they did not have their home-taking ceremony yet. During this waiting period, Mary was found with a child.

Can you imagine what was going through Joseph's mind? Here a woman that he was engaged to, a woman he looked forward to sharing a lifelong companionship was not faithful during the waiting period. Mary must have explained about the Angel Gabriel and being overshadowed by the Holy Spririt. But could Joseph have enough faith in Mary to trust her and her story? This is where the true meaning of love emerges. It is not the kind of love where when the flame dies, you move on. Instead it is the kind of love that St. Paul talks about in First Corinthians. "Love is patient and kind...Love takes no pleasure in other people's sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes." (1 Cor 13:4-7)

Can you imagine how our history would have turned out if St. Joseph said 'no' and quietly divorced Mary? There would be no fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy that the Messiah will come from the House of David, as we know that St. Joseph's ancestor is King David. In the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, there is a long geneology of Jesus. We are told that there were 14 generations from Abraham to King David, 14 generations from King David to Babylonian Exile, and 14 generation from Babylonian Exile to Christ. What if just one of the person in this long geneology said 'no' to God's plan? We think our 'yes' to God is insignificant because we think we are small in comparison to God's grand plan. But Mother Teresa used to say that our 'yes' is only a drop in the ocean, but that ocean would be that much less because our drop is missing.

Advent is not about us waiting for God to arrive. It is about God waiting for us to say 'yes' like St. Joseph did, to give Jesus the permission to arrive at the manger of our heart, to fulfill the unique mission that God has entrusted to each one of us. The only kind of manger that he is expecting us to prepare for his Son Jesus is a heart that "takes no pleasure in other people's sins but delights in the truth', a heart that " is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes."

Dec. 21, 2007: School Christmas Mass

When I was twelve years old, I was invited to a birthday party of a friend at ShowBiz Pizza. Now it is known as Chuck-E-Cheese's. How many of you have been there? While we were eating pizza, there would be a show put on by the muppet-looking robots that sang and danced. Mr. Munch was the purple monster, Jasper T. Jowls was the hound dog, Helen Henny was the chicken, and Chuck E Cheese was the mouse. And when you were there, with all the robots, all the arcade video games, and all the lights and sounds, you forgot why you were there in the first place. Instead of remembering that this was a birthday party for my friend, I was busy feeding quarters to SkeeBall machine to win tickets so that I can trade for a toy. I spent a lot of money, but not on my friend.

Sometimes that can happen to us on Jesus' Birthday, the Christmas. Many of us ask for gifts and toys and lots of people are busy buying gifts for each other. But how about Jesus? Isn't it Jesus' birthday? What are we giving Jesus for his birthday?

You know Jesus was born in a stable where there was no electricity, no heat, or lights. So even if you wanted to give him a Nintendo Gameboy for his birthday present, there would be no batteries to run it with. I think there is a good reason why he chose to be born in a stable. He's telling us that gifts for his birthday does not require money or batteries. He wants us to realize that the most precious gift he wants for this Christmas is for us to come and see him like the shepherds and the drummer boy. That means we can come to see him at the church or we can talk to him right at our bedside in prayer. The best gift that we can give to Jesus on his birthday is our love for him.

Dec. 16, 2007: 3rd Sunday Advent (A)

Few years ago when I was teaching a CCD class, a 14-year old young lady asked me, “Mr. Paul, how do you know when the boy you are dating is ‘the one.’” I asked her, “What do you mean by ‘the one’?” She said she’s been dating one particular boy for the past six-months. This was her longest relationship she ever had, and she felt may be this is the boy she is suppose to marry. I was ready to give her the standard answer a typical parent would give: ‘You are too young; you got to date more and after college you can consider getting married.’ But would that answer have satisfied her?

We have many couples here in the church who have been married 5, 10, 25, and even 50 years. I’m assuming that all of you are married to ‘the one’ which this young lady is referring to. So I’m assuming you are experts at finding ‘the one.’ How would you advise this young lady? Or am I presuming too much? Have you found ‘the one’ or are you still on the search?

There is a great analogy that relates to this whole question—a hook on the wall to hang clothes. That young lady is looking for the perfect hook to hang all her heavy expectations about her perfect man. Initially she finds a boy that fits her expectation; she found the right hook to hang her hopes and dreams. But hopes and dreams, by their nature, are infinite. They grow and get heavier. And soon enough, her expectation exceeds the limit of that hook. Inevitably that hook either bends or breaks. How many married couples here experienced this?

What this reveals is that all of us have a heart that longs for the infinite. But how can a person who is finite fill this longing. No human can. Only a person who is infinite can fill this.

In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist asks this crucial question to Jesus. “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” John is seeking the one whom the Prophet Isaiah has described in the First Reading today. “Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing.” Does Jesus fulfill this impossible expectation of John and Isaiah? Jesus answers, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them…” Yes, Jesus is the only one who fulfills our infinite thirst and longing. And He is the one for whom all of us are waiting for during this Advent.

St. Augustine has found this truth late in his life, after years of unsuccessfully trying to satisfy his infinite thirst with earthly things. He writes in his Confession the following:

“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you… You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness…”

Jesus asked the crowd who gathered around John the Baptist the following: “What did you go out to the desert to see? Someone dressed in fine clothing?” Jesus could be asking us today, “What did you come to church to see?” Certainly we are not here to see priests and deacons. They are finite, frail, and limited; we will be disappointed if we try to hang our infinite expectation on their finite hooks. Priests and deacons can only point to the one who is infinite and will satisfy all our thirst. Likewise, we cannot hang our infinite expectation on our spouse or that Mr. or Ms. Perfect whom we are searching for. There is only one person whom we are seeking: Jesus. We have found Him here in the Catholic Church. But, it will be up to us to grow in relationship with Him. We may not have such a great relationship with Him at this moment. But St. James encourages us today: “Be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth…You too must be patient. Make your hearts firm, because the coming of the Lord is at hand.”

Dec. 8th, 2007: Solemnity of Immaculate Conception

Have any of you taken a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France? I went there with my mom and sister in 2002. On February 11^th, 1858 in a small town nestled in the foothills of Pyrenese mountain, Blessed Mother appeared to a 14 yr-old girl named Bernadette. On her first apparition, Bernadette describes her this way: “I saw a lady dressed in white, she wore a white dress, an equally white veil, a blue belt and a yellow rose on each foot.” Bernadette said the Rosary with the lady, and the lady vanished afterwards. The people in this small town heard about this mysterious visit and pressed Bernadette to ask the lady what her name was. They wanted to know whether it was the Blessed Virgin. On her 16^th apparition, the lady finally revealed her name. She said in French, “Que soy era Immaculada Concepciou” (I am the Immaculate Conception). When Bernadette heard this, she had no idea what this title meant.

I think many of us, like Bernadette, have trouble understanding this doctrine called Immaculate Conception. Simply put, Virgin Mary was conceived without Original Sin. Her mom and dad conceived her in a normal way; but in the very act of Mary’s creation, God withheld the stain of Original Sin that all of us would normally be born with. So, Mary was totally and completely redeemed by this special grace from God from the first moment of her existence. This meant that Mary spent her whole existence in a perfect relationship with God.

So what is the big deal about Mary receiving this special treatment? What I’m about to say will be hard to understand, but stay with me. Every Christian was born anew in baptism with the help of Mary (repeat). We know that there is only one Savior, Jesus. Even Mary needed to be saved by Jesus. Yet, whether you are a Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, Orthodox, or Catholic, every baptized person, in some mysterious way, was helped by Mary to be born as a Christian. How many of us at this moment is thinking, “Huh?”

Let’s go to the scriptures. Our First Reading comes from the Book of Genesis. The last line says, “[Adam] called his wife Eve, because she became the mother of all the living.” Adam and Eve are our original parents, to whom we owe our fallen human nature. In order to explain this I would like to use the analogy of the Play-Do (colored clay). Do you remember playing Play-Do with one of those plastic molds that you can stamp different shapes with. Every lump of Play-Do that you stamp with a square-shaped mold comes out square. Likewise, every human person born in the mold of Adam and Eve have with them fallen human nature which includes the Original Sin. With Original Sin, we lost God’s grace. No human person can escape this.

Now let’s go to the Second Reading which is the Letter to the Ephesians. St. Paul says, “[God] chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ…” God from the very beginning wanted all of us to be holy, perfect, and without blemish. But, oops, our original parents derailed the original plan. So God created an entirely new mold from which new creation will be formed from. This new mold will be instrumental in bringing new children who will fulfill God’s original intention—children who will be holy and without blemish—in other words ‘full of grace’. This new mold is none other than, Mary. In today’s Gospel, angel Gabriel greets Mary as, “Hail, full of grace!” Mary is the new mold by which men and women of generations to come will be born anew through water and Holy Spirit—which is baptism.

The Second Vatican Council document Lumen Gentium puts it this way: “[Mary] is clearly the mother of the members of Christ…since she has by her charity joined in bringing about the birth of believers in the church…” “[Mary] being obedient, became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race.” That is why Mary is called the New Eve. Devotion to Blessed Mother is not optional for Christians. This is built right into our soul. Someone said the following: “The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart.” Do you know who said this? Martin Luther, the founder of the Protestant Reformation.

Why do we celebrate Mary’s Immaculate Conception? All Christians should celebrate it because it is the date from which our new rebirth as Christian was made possible. On this date God created a new mold; our new spiritual mother. The old Adam and the old Eve are gone; the New Adam and New Eve have arrived.

What sign has God left us with to prove this? On the back of the church, I left on the table a photo I took of St. Bernadette of Lourdes. Please take one as you leave after mass. After she died in 1879, the Church officials dug her body up in 1909 as part of her canonization process. After 30 years, her body was incorrupt (it did not decompose). I took that photo in 2002. So even after 123 years her body was still incorrupt. It is a sign that for us Christians who are born anew through baptism, death has no grip on us. Our life is eternal in heaven with God where there is no death and where there is no corruption.

Dec. 9, 2007: 2nd Sunday Advent:

Do you remember how old you were when you were taught to wash your hands before eating? Let me rephrase this. How old were you when you began washing your hands on your own? When it’s lunch time my 2 ½ yr-old niece now knows how to go to the bathroom sink, step up on a stool, dab her hands on a dinosaur soap dispenser, and turns on the faucet. Then she comes right back to the kitchen and climbs up on the high-chair. We learn early on that it’s important to have clean hands so that we don’t put into our mouth bad stuff when we eat. As an adult, I appreciate this lesson. When I worked at a chemical plant, you can literally get on your hands stuff that can do some serious damage to your body. So the rule of thumb at the plant is ‘wash your hands, always.’

Did you know that priests also wash their hands during mass? They do this after all the gifts are brought to the altar. The altar servers bring water and towel, and as they pour the water, Father washes his hand. Why do you think he needs to wash his hands? The hand washing prayer that he says in silence gives us a clue: “Lord, wash away my iniquity; cleanse me from my sin.” Father is praying that he may be cleansed of sin before he touches something so pure and so holy. This reminds me of when Moses approached the burning bush, and God told Moses, “Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

So here is my question. Have we washed our hands before coming to mass today? I don’t mean the kind of washing we do with soap. What I mean is the kind of washing that Father does during the offertory—washing ourselves clean of sin. Why should we be clean of sin? Just as our mothers ask us to wash hands before meal, our Church asks us to wash ourselves clean of sin before the Lord’s Supper. In Psalm 24 we read the following: “Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? The man with clean hands and pure heart, who desires not worthless things, who has not sworn so as to deceive his neighbor.” The Church, like a good mother, asks that we should be free of serious sin or mortal sin prior to receiving communion. If we are aware of such serious sin, the Church asks that we wash ourselves clean by going to confession.

Let me give you an analogy from my chemical plant days. I go out to the plant and get my hands dirty with some chemicals which are known cancer causing agents. Suppose I eat some boiled shrimp with these hands, licking my hands as I go along. What happens? I take in both the food that is good for me and chemical that can kill me. Likewise, we can do some serious damage by receiving communion when our hands are dirtied with mortal sin. St. Paul tells Corinthians the following: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup" (1 Cor. 11:27–28).

We find a similar warning in today’s Gospel. John the Baptist cries out, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” The kingdom of heaven is Christ himself. And we are about to receive him into our heart during communion. Do you remember what Jesus did when he saw all the money changers and merchants in the temple? He became angry; he overturned tables and drove them out. Our Lord is about to arrive into our soul, the temple of the Holy Spirit. What will he see? Are we prepared for his arrival?

It is for this reason that our parish is offering Advent Penance Service at 7pm on this coming Thursday. We’ll have many priests here to hear confessions. All of us will have ample chance to wash our souls clean before welcoming Our Lord into our hearts during communion and during Christmas.

I would like to close with the opening prayer that Father read at the beginning of mass. Listen carefully what we should be asking Our Lord on this second week of Advent.

God of power and mercy,
Open our hearts in welcome.
Remove the things that hinder us from receiving Christ with joy,
So that we may share his wisdom and become one with him
When he comes in glory,
For he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

Dec. 2nd, 2007: First Sunday of Advent (A)

I told those who were at the vigil mass of Thanksgiving that I was going to be with my family in Dallas and was going to wake up early and stand in a line at Best Buy on Black Friday. Well, I did wake up at 5AM, but I had a dilemma. Usually I dedicate very first part of my waking hours to prayer; my motto is ‘put God first and the rest will follow.’ Well, this past Black Friday morning, I had to wrestle between prayer to Jesus versus a $150 camcorder. Thankfully, I chose prayer. I drove by Best Buy at 6:30 AM, and there were no parking spots left. Inside, there were people all over the place running around in madness. I heard in the news later that some people waited the entire Thanksgiving Day outside Best Buy.

This goes to show that people have remarkable ability to sacrifice sleep and stay awake to accomplish a goal. How long people are willing to sacrifice sleep and stay awake depends on the goal. This Black Friday, one of the most sought after item was a video game machine called, “Nintendo Wii.” One of our parishioners told me that he was out waiting in line at 2AM outside a toy store. When the store opened at 5AM, the manager walked outside and told all the parents waiting in line that they were sold out of Ninendo Wii two days ago.

The question is, “Are we willing to go that far for our spiritual welfare”? Our Lord tells us in the Gospel today, “Stay awake! For you do no know on which day your Lord will come.” “You must be prepared,” he says. If all of us have the capability to sacrifice sleep to be waiting in line at 2 AM in the morning, then all of us have the capability to make sacrifices to be spiritually ready for Our Lord. What’s at stake is our soul which is more precious and irreplaceable than a $150 camcorder or a $250 Nintendo Wii.

Few years ago, seminarians at the Notre Dame Seminary learned that one of the Lafayette seminarians had a motorcycle accident. He had a severe head trauma and was in coma. That very night, the seminarians organized an all-night prayer vigil with the Blessed Sacrament exposed. That seminarian’s recovery was nothing less than miraculous. This past June, he was ordained as a priest for the Lafayette diocese.

Can’t we do the same for a family member or a friend who is facing a challenge? Staying awake, making spiritual sacrifices on their behalf? Can’t we do the same for ourselves, asking, “Come Lord Jesus. Prepare my heart so that I can worthily receive you in the manger of my heart.”

St. Paul tells us, “You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed…Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.”

I know on January 1st, many of us make New Year’s resolutions. Well today is the First Sunday of Advent, the ‘new year’s day’ for a new liturgical year. How about making a spiritual New Year’s resolution? How about making a commitment to stay awake spiritually and prepare ourselves for Our Lord’s arrival, ready to answer His unique mission for each of us this New Year?