Taken For Granted That We Are Alive and Kicking?

What if all Catholic priests blog and write their weekly / daily sermon sharing it with the community of the same faith?  I often ponder upon this as some sermons are pretty well delivered and they deserve to have a wider audience.  Why does The Bible stop at the Book of Revelation?  OK, I know why from the theology point of view.  But all these God inspired sermons, what if we keep compiling them and create a definitive copy for generations to read?

For those who are new to Catholic faith, regardless of where in the world you are in, if you attend a Mass today, the exact same set of Bible passages will be read, the exact same opening and closing prayers will be delivered.  The only difference is the sermon after the reading of the Gospel.  Another interesting thing that I observe is that seldom do the parish priests stay in the same Church for a long time.  They move around from Churches to Churches, across the geographies.  Vatican has a global reach (and it is going YouTube!).  Once in a while, I come across beautifully crafted sermons that I wish I had written it down somewhere.  Today I have encountered one.  So I shall write it down for my future reference.

Today’s sermon was long, as always.  But there is one touching true story within that makes me ponder.  I think it has something to do with taking living for granted.  One day, a man has decided to visit a Church more often than just a Sunday Catholic (side track: I just asked Cynthia what’s wrong with being a Sunday Catholic and she said we shall talk to God everyday … everyday?!).  It was because his wife has cancer and the doctor told him that the chance of surviving an operation was very low.  On the day of his wife’s operation, this man was feeling worried and lonely and so, he went to Church.  Coincidentally, it was Ash Wednesday.  When the priest anointed the ash onto his forehead as part of a Catholic tradition and said, “Remember, O man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return” (note: there are 3 versions by the way … and he got the dust version).  It suddenly hit him that whether it was his wife’s life or his, life is finite.  Unto dust we would return.  That evening, he wife passed away.

Our priest went on to link this true story to today’s reading and he ended the sermon with something for us to ponder.

Everyone of us should find our answers or reasons of why we must continue to live.

Maybe it is good to stop for while and self reflect on just that.  Maybe we shall look at a bigger picture than the small things in life.

PS. Photo taken when I was in Hong Kong.  A shoot from the Zoo into the Cathedral near my old school.