The Catholic News

14 March, The Apostles: There was neither RCIA sharing nor any rite on the 6th Sunday of Year C, so instead of sitting at the first few rows, my husband and I decided to move a little further back to watch the full Celebration of Mass, at the same time getting ourselves familiar with it. The whole Celebration of Mass is beautiful except we couldn’t participate in the Eucharist yet.

My eyes began to roam about, noticing there’re still some small gaps between us where we were sitting. There should be another few more people sitting exactly where we’re sitting. Then, I began to wonder: Why there’re still many brothers and sisters at the Celebration of the Mass? Why I am at the Celebration of the Mass? Why some are not at the Celebration of the Mass?
What is it that keeps many coming to Church every Sunday or even everyday for some? Why are many still hopeful and faithful? Are many of us laggard behind the modern material world?

In the First Reading, Jeremiah mentions ‘a tree by the waterside that thrusts its roots to the stream;’ It’s not really a tree but a man. ‘when the heat comes it feels no alarm, its foliage stays green; it has no worries in a year of drought, and never ceases to bear fruit.’ If we’re like the tree, then where is the water? Looking around, the nearest water is the Church.

The Church is the river of flowing water where we can plant ourselves and grow stronger spiritually. We’re like the trees by the waterside. We’ll be stronger in our faith by ‘thrusting our roots to the stream’. On contrary, we may choose not to ‘thrust our roots’ down and put ourselves at risk when there’s any drought.

However, our forgiving and loving Christ never turns his back on us even though we may turn our back on the river of flowing water. The doors of the Church are always flung open for us to walk in to participate in the Celebration of the Mass. There’s always room for more people to sit and there’s always room for hope.

As a spiritually young tree, I pray that I’ll continue to be conscientiously faithful to the Celebration of the Mass and work out my prayer life, pushing the roots to reach the richness of God’s love and drawing from Him the Grace to live a more fruitful and meaningful life.

In this ever-changing and fast-moving modern world, it’s never easy for all Christians. There’re so much distraction and temptation that would draw us away from our most valued faith. Please pray for one another in unity that we’ll continue to hold on tightly to our faith so that ‘when the heat comes it feels no alarm,’ and ‘it has no worries in a year of drought, and never ceases to bear fruit.’ And so we’ll continue to journey yet knowing that we’ll never travel alone. For at the end of our journey, we’ll find the eternal oasis together where we belong.

written by Y.C. Tan
14 March, The Apostles