Friendship — Learning

The third day of the Assembly was a time of learning the history and journey of the Catholic faith in each of the arch/dioceses in Malaysia through the development of Malaya, North Borneo and Malaysia.

Jan 26, 2019

Malaysian Catholic Clergy Assembly: DAY 3
18.7.2018


The third day of the Assembly was a time of learning the history and journey of the Catholic faith in each of the arch/dioceses in Malaysia through the development of Malaya, North Borneo and Malaysia.

For over a year, Fr Danny Mathews (pic) journeyed to the different parts of Malaysia to interview and record sharings by clergy, religious and laity on how the seed of the Catholic faith was sown and later grew into the Malaysian Church as we see and experience it today in the respective arch/dioceses of Malaysia. This was collated into a multimedia presentation and projected to the Assembly.

After that, the clergy were given the opportunity to meet in small groups to share their inspiration on the faith, and how to serve God as deacons, priests and bishops. They also shared their hopes and aspirations for the future of the Malaysian Church.

The process during the day was learning from our stories of the past and recognising our unity in diversity.

-- Learning
-- Unity Diversity Culture
-- Vocation Stories
-- Diocesan Stories
-- Clergy Mission & Witnessing


Archbishop John Wong’s Homily
“Today, we enter into another topic arning. This morning, we learnt about the history of the Catholic Church in the different arch/dioceses. Then we learnt from each other when we listened to the vocation stories of the clergy, religious and laity. “However, the first thing that we must not forget is that the best way to learn is from God and His Word. Especially in today’s two readings. “I would like to share with you three points to consider: “1. Matthew’s Gospel. Like Jesus says, no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except through the Son. Hence my dear brothers, do we know who this Father and Son is to us?

“If someone were to ask you, ‘Who are you?’ And asks for 10 different answers, how do we answer this? We can tell our name, our designation, our hobbies, but it gets harder to say who you really are. “Even though we may know ourselves, how open are we to accept who we really are? Especially when it comes to our weaknesses, the negative characteristics we have? In today’s Gospel reading, we can also say we know the facts of the Father. But do we really accept the Father? The Father must be the centre or priority of our lives. We, bishops and priests, we know ourselves very well, and sometimes we do not place Him in the centre of our lives. “The only way to get to know the person is how a child does it... with trust through the Holy Spirit. “How can we do this? Jesus calls us to have a childl ike simplicity and humility to lead us into a deeper relationship with the Father. “2.

The Gospel acclamation says, Blessed are you Father, the Lord of Heaven and Earth, for revealing the mystery of the kingdom to mere children. “In the Gospel, Jesus blessed the Father for hiding certain things from the learned and revealing them to the children.

Do you think that Jesus has hidden anything of the Kingdom of God from you? Have you ever experienced the revelation of the Kingdom of God? “The Lord is constantly revealing to us the Kingdom of God. He never hides anything, if we allow him. “In order to really experience the presence of the Kingdom of God, His love and His mercy, we need to listen to him. “Then we have to stop (be still) and look where God is leading us.

Then we need to gaze into the mystery of God which he is always and constantly revealing to us. “3. Today’s responsorial psalm is very consoling. The Lord will never abandon his people, nor forsake those who are his own.

We know that we have been chosen specially by God and that He will never abandon us. He will never withdraw his protection, His guidance and his support from us, especially when we face challenges, difficulties, crisis in our lives. He will never abandon his chosen ones.

“We just have to look into our life history in times of doubt. In times of crisis, we should have the courage and confidence to say that the Lord will never abandon us.

“So my dear brothers, with this knowledge that the Lord will never abandon his chosen people, let us approach Him with confidence at the altar of God who is inviting each one of us to come and experience his Kingdom and know that He will never abandon us.”

 

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