Chinese Sunday Mass At Megamall – An Unforgettable Homily

We’ve decided to attend a Sunday Mass yesterday in Megamall. As it was our first time to attend an 11-12PM schedule, we were quite surprised that it would be a Chinese Mass. My eldest initially saw that it would be a Chinese mass before we entered the church but my husband and I thought that maybe she was just mistaken. There wasn’t many Chinese looking people inside the church after all, except for the choir members.  When the Mass started, that was when we realized that my daughter was correct. The big screens on both sides of the facing walls display Chinese characters.

My husband and I decided to stay. I thought maybe we can just get to go with the flow of the mass. Fortunately we did, because after the mass, we carried precious advices from the homily which I feel I should share.

Chinese Mass

For the benefit of those who haven’t been able to attend one, a Catholic Chinese Mass isn’t so different from a Filipino/English one. There were just some parts of the mass when the priest translated his words to Chinese but most of the time, he spoke in English, and sometimes in Filipino. Songs were the usual songs we hear on Filipino/English mass but they sing it in Chinese. I just sang using the language I know. On the big screens were the lyrics and the responsorial psalms which were written both in Chinese (characters and letters) and English. The mass program is exactly the same as with the ones we attend on community churches. The priest said that language is not important, but that we all speak in one language, which is the “language of love”.

RAGS to Riches

I truly loved the homily yesterday that I was felt compelled to share it here in my blog. It was inspired by the parable of the talents. The one where Jesus told a story of three persons who were entrusted different numbers of talents. The first one was given 5, the second person 2, and the third 1. To cut it short, the first 2 persons used the talents to work and grow them to more talents, while the last one, as he had only, buried it and didn’t grow any.

The priest told us that this parable can be applied in so many ways on our actual lives. That happiness depends on our own perspectives and attitude. There are some of us can be poor, some are rich, some are sick, and some are healthy. But everyone can find happiness depending on how we learn to :

R – ecognize that everyone had been given talents, just like in the parable. We need to know what our given talents are. The priest told the examples of Jessica Cox, the Fil-AM girl who was born without hands, but was the first woman who was able to fly a plane using her feet. She can also remove her contact lenses using her feet. OMG! I can’t even imagine myself putting contact lenses. Then there was also the story of the man with cerebral palsy who uses his feet to cross-stitch and now he is making one masterpiece to give it as a gift for the coming Pope Francis.

A – ppreciate these talents means that after you recognize your gifts, be always thankful or grateful for them. This will keep us humble despite all the achievements we get, and realize the importance of others, especially God in our lives.

G – row the talents by taking risks and putting effort in our works.  It’s not wise to keep the talents and bury them. They should be nurtured and grown. The priest said that many will say that the rich people can easily use their wealth to grow because they have so many while the poor ones do not have much that they won’t be able to do what the rich people do. Instead of this kind of thinking, why not think that it’s the rich people who have got too many to lose while when you don’t have much money, you only have few to lose, so why be afraid of taking chances.

S – share your fruits of labor and achievements because God loves the generous ones. And the more you give, the more you will get.

I was moved by this homily because there are many times when I feel I am losing my sense of purpose. Everybody has a purpose, and even if we only have so little, they are still many, depending on our perspectives. We can always be a story of RAGS to riches and it gives me so much hope not only for myself but also of what I can do for others.

 Mass Schedule in Megamall