20181203
BEING A MISSIONARY
CHURCH IN SINGAPORE
03 DECEMBER,
2018, Monday, St Francis Xavier, Patron of Missions
1 Cor 9:16-19,
22-23
16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting.
For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 For
if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am
entrusted with a commission. 18 What then is my
reward? Just this: that in my preaching I may make the gospel free of charge,
not making full use of my right in the gospel.
19 For though I am free from
all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more.
22 To the weak I became
weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I
might by all means save some. 23 I do it all for the sake
of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
Gospel Mark
16:15-20
15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel
to the whole creation. 16 He who believes
and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And
these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out
demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick
up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they
will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
19 So then the Lord Jesus,
after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the
right hand of God. 20 And they went
forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed
the message by the signs that attended it. Amen.*
BEING A MISSIONARY CHURCH IN SINGAPORE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 COR 9:16-19, 22-23; MARK 16:15-20 ]
Today, we celebrate the
Feast of St Francis Xavier, the patron saint of missionaries. He was a great missionary. It is
estimated that in the ten years of his missionary travels, he baptized 30,000
people. Though he died at a relatively young age of 46, he had done much
in bringing Christianity to the Far East and East Asia. He planted the
seed of faith in the lands that he entered.
When we think of St
Francis Xavier, we cannot but also think of the missionaries who brought the
Catholic Faith to Singapore.
Whether it is the MEP Fathers or the religious congregations such as Infant
Jesus Sisters, FMDM, Canossian Sisters, La Salle Brothers or Gabrielite
Brothers who have been here for more than a hundred years, our faith and where
we are today is largely due to their contributions, not just to the local
Church but to the country. Through the countless and untold sacrifices of
these missionaries, the Church has become what it is today.
What was their secret in
bringing the faith to us? Their secret is found in today’s scripture
readings. Firstly, they knew the method. The way to proclaim the
Good News is to touch the lives of our people in their needs. The gospel
must be proclaimed first and foremost to the poor. This, of course, refers primarily
to the materially poor. The first contact with the people is to touch
them where they need help most. Without attending to their material
needs, we cannot proclaim the gospel. But the poor also includes those
who are suffering physically from ill-health, sickness, emotional and spiritual
pain. Many suffer from loneliness, rejection, oppression and
injustices. Hence, the Lord told the apostles, “These are the signs that
will be associated with believers: in my name they will cast out devils; they
will have the gift of tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and be
unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their hands on the
sick, who will recover.”
Indeed, this was what
the first missionaries did when they arrived in Singapore. We were then very poor and most did
not receive any education. So when the MEP Fathers came to Singapore,
they bought land and gave them to the poor to build their houses. The
parishes, especially with the help of St Vincent De Paul, reached out to the
poor regardless of race, language or religion. The FMDM sisters started
Mt Alvernia Hospital to care for the sick. Then there were the Little
Sisters of the Poor and the Canossians who took on the challenge of caring for
the aged and the sick. The IJ Convent provided a home for the orphans and
free education for the children.
Alongside helping the
poor by offering humanitarian aid, the gospel was also proclaimed. The faith was shared with those who were
ready to come to know Christ. Many were enrolled in the faith and
received baptism. When the people recognized the goodness and generosity
of the missionaries, they were more receptive to the gospel that was preached
and taught. This was because they saw and received the gospel, the Good
News of God concretely in their lives. So the gospel preached was
accompanied by works.
But the effectiveness of
their mission was not dependent on just the works they did, or their preaching
of the gospel; it was dependent mostly on the effectiveness of the agents of
the gospel. The
gospel is not merely proclaimed through social services and powerful preaching
alone. These are necessary, but more importantly, people are moved by the
agents of the gospel, their lifestyle and disposition.
Firstly, if the
missionaries in those days were effective, it was because of their exemplary
lifestyle. Indeed, they were
truly men and women of deep faith in Christ and they sought to live out the
life of Christ in their daily life and ministry. They lived in simplicity
and charity. They were always available to the people, whether for
material help, emotional support, advice, counselling or spiritual help.
They laboured for the people selflessly, day and night, and without
reservations. The priests and missionaries in those days would visit the
houses and sought to know their parishioners. That is why the priests are
called Fathers, the religious, Brothers or Sisters because they were seen and
loved as members of everyone’s household.
Secondly, they were
people who had a sense of mission. St Paul said, “I do not boast of preaching
the gospel, since it is a duty which has been laid on me; I should be punished
if I did not preach it! If I had chosen this work myself, I might have been
paid for it, but as I have not, it is a responsibility which has been put into
my hands.” The missionaries offered their lives freely for the service of
the gospel because they were convinced that the gospel was really Good News for
all of humanity. Because they themselves had encountered the Good News
and found salvation and meaning in Christ Jesus, the impetus to share Christ
with all was a spontaneous response to the gift of the Good News. As Jesus
in the gospel said, “Freely you have received; freely give.” (Mt 10:8)
Thirdly, they were
identified with the people they lived with. This is an important aspect of
mission. When we are separated from the lives of our people, their pains,
and struggles and suffering, we lose touch with them. The gospel we
preach will be over their heads and will not touch their lives. That is
why there is no way to proclaim the gospel simply from the pulpit or from our
offices. Pastors and missionaries must move with the people to know their
heartfelt pains and struggles at work, in marriage and in family life.
This was what St Paul said about himself. “So though I am not a slave of
any man I have made myself the slave of everyone so as to win as many as I
could. For the weak I made myself weak. I made myself all things to all men in
order to save some at any cost; and I still do this, for the sake of the
gospel, to have a share in its blessings.”
Fourthly, the gospel was
offered free without conditions attached. St Paul said, “Do you know
what my reward is? It is this: in my preaching, to be able to offer the Good
News free, and not insist on the rights which the gospel gives me.” The
Good News, if it were really to be Good News, must be offered freely and for
free. The social and humanitarian works that we do are not tied down to
the conversion of our recipients. All we seek to do is to share the Good
News of God’s love for them because we love them regardless of race, status,
language or religion. Indeed, this is a distinctive trait in the
missionary work of Catholics. We are conscious that we do not impose our
faith on our beneficiaries. Rather, we allow them to encounter God through
us, and if they are given the gift of faith, we will share with them more
explicitly about Jesus Christ.
In the light of what we
have reflected, we must now ask ourselves, what does it mean to be a missionary
Church in Singapore today, given that the situation we are in is different from
50 or 100 years ago? We
are not that poor, although there are poor in Singapore still, especially among
the vulnerable, elderly, abandoned, ex-prisoners and offenders, those rejected
by society, and foreign workers without jobs. Today, our secular schools
are much better equipped with the latest facilities and their teachers are
better trained than many in our Catholic Schools. The hospitals are
better equipped with the latest technology than that of our hospital and
nursing homes.
So we must ask
ourselves, what can we do to evangelize? We must offer them what the world
cannot offer, our personal touch, our compassion and our understanding and
support; most of all, the basis of our hope and our faith. We must be
there to listen and feel with them in their struggles. Where needed, to
offer them material and financial help. In Catholic schools, we can
distinguish ourselves by making our schools loving, serving and gracious
communities where there is a spirit of comradeship and most of all, grounded by
the Catholic ethos of the gospel. In our hospital and nursing homes, we
can offer them personalized services, doing everything with a smile and with
joy so that they know they are loved and wanted, and not be seen as a burden to
others. There are many who are rich and affluent, but their lives are
miserable and empty. They too need to hear the gospel of Hope, and most
of all, to know that Christ can give them meaning and purpose in life.
Unless we learn from our missionaries of the past and imbibe their spirit,
acquire the fundamental principles in missionary work, whilst applying and
adapting to our times, we will eventually lose our relevance in society.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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