Tag: catholic reflection

Pastor’s Weekly Reflection – Jan. 12, 2025

January 12, 2025

Dear Parishioners,

This week we commemorate the baptism of Jesus. This Sunday is also the last day of the Advent-Christmas season. On Monday, we will begin the first week of the Ordinary Time. All these decorations will be gone. The Church wants us to prepare ourselves for the new season by embracing our identity as followers of Jesus. Our Christian identity derives all its meanings and implications from the very identity of Jesus. In the event of the baptism of Jesus, God reveals to us who Jesus is: the Messiah, the Son of God.

As the Son of the Most High, who is sinless, why did Jesus want to receive baptism? Isn’t baptism for the cleansing of sins, especially, of the original sin? This is a good question, and our ancestors in faith did ask the same question. To answer it, we need to understand the full meaning of baptism.

In the ancient world, water is a symbol of both life and death. When a gentile converts to Judaism, he goes through the ritual of Tebilah, which is a rite of passage. There are three stages in such a rite: the separation from a previous state, an in-between state called liminal period, and the reception into a new state. The gentile wishing to become an Israelite must be separated first from his old gentile state. And the way to separate him from his old state is to return him to the primal womb, the water of chaotic nothingness. So, he is immersed in water. While being immersed in water, the convert is symbolically severed from his gentile state; he undergoes a symbolic death, a death to the old self. In this liminal period, he is neither gentile nor Jew; he is returned to nothingness. Then he is called out of the water. Emerging from the water, he is given his new Israelite state. Yahweh has bestowed on him a new life, a life in God and with God’s people.

Baptism not only erases the old self, the self of sins and brokenness, but also brings about a new identity, a new life in God, a new fellowship with other believers. Therefore, Jesus accepted baptism by John the Baptist, not to be cleansed of sins, but to show his total solidarity with us in our sinfulness and to call us to share his identity as the beloved of God.

We were all baptized. In baptism, we were cleansed of previous sins, both original and
personal. In baptism, we also received a new identity. The cleansing of sin in baptism is a one-time shot, but the new identity as God’s beloved is a life-time process. Whether baptism has any impact on us depends on whether the new Christian identity is really taking shape in our lives. The issue for us, the baptized, then is, What has happened to this God-given identity?

We live in a world of multiple identities. Each one of us has many identities. I am a
Vietnamese, a Jesuit, a priest, an American citizen. To the media, I am an internet user, a
consumer, a shopper, a voter, etc. We are all surrounded by a great number of identity-forming influences. These influences not only compete against each other but also gang up to suffocate our Christian identity. If we are not careful, our identity as Catholics will be soon swallowed up by others.

However, all identities are temporary and fleeting, except for the identity of being a child
of God, the identity of a Christian. Whether we are a president or a pope, a CEO or a worker, all will be nothing when we close our eyes and die. When we stand before the Supreme Judge, Jesus Christ, only the identity of being a child of God will be judged. Therefore, we must cherish our Christian identity above all other identities.

Just as God said to Jesus in his baptism, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well
pleased,” God said to each one of us in our baptism, “You are my beloved; with you I am well
pleased.” Indeed, God said so not only on the day of our baptism, but he also continues to say so every day of our life, regardless of our behaviors. Do you hear that? I mean, Do you hear that, right now? If you and I really hear that and make it a reality, our life will change, for the better.

In the Most Holy Trinity and in solidarity with you all,

Fr. Duc

Pastor’s Weekly Reflection – Dec. 29, 2024

Dec. 29, 2024

Dear Parishioners,

On the Feast of the Holy Family, let us reflect on the role of parents in raising children
under the guidance of the Word of God. The ways Hannah and Elkanah cared for Samuel in the first reading and the ways Mary and Joseph raised and taught Jesus in the Gospel give us good models for parenting.

Samuel was the God-given child of Hannah and Elkanah. Before Samuel’s birth, Hannah
was miserable because of her barrenness. She was the first wife of Elkanah with no child, but the second wife, Peninnah, had many children. This wicked Peninnah found every opportunity to humiliate Hannah. Once, after Elkanah offered a sacrifice at the temple in Shiloh, he brought a portion of the offering home for his family to eat. As soon as she sat at the table, Peninnah mocked Hannah sitting alone while Peninnah was surrounded by children. Hannah was so angry that she couldn’t stand it, burst into tears and refused to eat. The husband comforted her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why are you not eating? Why are you so miserable? Am I not better for you than ten sons?”

I wonder if the husbands now are as gentle, kind and loving as Elkanah was.
After that meal, Hannah entered the temple of God in Shiloh and prayed all night. Her
lips kept imploring with God silently, making Eli, the overseer of the temple, think that she was drunk, because he could only see her lips move but did not hear a word. He questioned her andshe replied, “No, sir, I’m just an unhappy woman. I had neither wine nor liquor; I was only pouring out my heart to the Lord. Do not think your servant a worthless woman; my prayer has been prompted by my deep sorrow and misery.”

Surely God heard that humble broken heart and granted her request. After giving birth to
Samuel, instead of keeping the child to ward off her rival, Hannah presented Samuel to the
temple of God in Shiloh and made him a disciple of Eli, so that he might learn to serve God as a prophet.

Although the son Samuel was more precious than gold and silver, Elkanah and Hannah
did not keep him for themselves, but wanted Samuel to find the vocation that God had for him. They knew that when Samuel lived in the temple, he would have the opportunity to listen to God’s call and must freely choose to respond to it. In the end, both parents, and especially Samuel, did not lose what they had, but earn their place forever in the history of salvation, just because they knew how to actively cooperate with God’s plan of salvation.

And just like Hannah and Elkanah, Mary and Joseph also help Jesus their son to listen to
God’s call and respond freely. Like many other parents, of course, they also had their own wishes about their child’s future: they wanted him to succeed and bring honor to the family, and especially to take care of them when they became old and sick. But no matter how much they wished, these two couples still put the vocation that their child would receive from God above the own wishes. Remember that what’s best for the child is also what’s best for the parents. Later it was Samuel who crowned the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David. When the Jews chose King David as their most worthy leader, they also recognized Samuel as their nation’s great prophet. Until now the flag of Israel is still the star of David.

For the parents who are worried about who would take care of them in their old age, let
me tell you this parable. There was a mother eagle with a young baby that she loved very much. Every year the birds take refuge in a place far away in search of a good climate. Loving the young child, the mother bird carried the baby on her back and flew away. The flock of birds crossed the mountains, rivers, and seas. However, the farther the bird flew, the more the mother felt that the baby on her back seemed to be getting heavier and heavier.

At the top of a tree, the mother bird sat down to rest; she was panting because she was
exhausted. Looking at the baby bird, the mother bird said, “My dear, please tell me honestly,
later when I’m old and weak and can’t fly, can you carry me on your shoulder during our
migration?

“The baby bird replied, “I can’t promise it, Mom.”
The mother bird was sad. She said as if she was about to cry, “I have cared for you all your life and you won’t even help me once?”
“Mom, I can’t promise you, only because at that time I will have to carry my baby on my back, just like you are carrying me now.”
That’s right, as long as the children take care of their own children as well as the parents have taken care of their own, that’s good enough.

In the Most Holy Trinity and in solidarity with you all,

Fr. Duc