Keep your three doors open

Jun 05, 2014

Praying fervently, listening attentively, and doing faithfully what Jesus is asking us

We should keep our three doors open said Archbishop Emeritus Murphy Pakiam to the 36 confirmands at the Church of Our Lady of Fatima, during the 10.30am multilingual Mass on Sunday May 25.

The three doors are: praying fervently, listening attentively, and doing faithfully what Jesus is asking us. Elaborating, he said we should model our lives on and follow the example of Our Blessed Mother. She prayed, listened to God’s message and said, ‘let it be done’, and carried out the message faithfully.

He clarified that the three doors are equally important. What is Jesus telling us through our prayers; we respond with, ‘speak Lord your servant is listening’. When we have prayed and listened, we understand and accept God’s word to us, and we perform the action he is telling us to do.

Speaking on the Holy Spirit, His Grace said that Jesus, at the last supper before his suffering and death, reassured his disciples, “I will not leave you orphaned. I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth. He will testify on my behalf and you also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning (Jn14:16; 15:26).

The prelate said, “We are united with the Father and possess the courage, understanding and close relationship with and reflect the presence of Jesus in the world.”

He added our religion is not just going through ceremonies and rituals. After the Sacrament of Confirmation, we may feel there is nothing else, whereas there is something more and much richer. In fact, after Confirmation we attach ourselves to Jesus. We rejoice in the Sacrament of Confirmation because we receive the seven-fold gifts from the Holy Spirit.

Another important Sacrament is Reconciliation. Confessions at penitential services are held in churches only twice a year, at Christmas and Easter. When we make a confession, we acknowledge that we are sinners. At the confession, we experience the tender mercy of God.

In addition, the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is the fruit of the Mass. Jesus is in the Blessed Sacrament. We all need God and Jesus is there in the Eucharist for us.

His grace said that Jesus always had compassion for the sick, the rejected and the marginalized. We need to reach out to these people, for example, in the old folks’ homes nearest to our houses, which have multiplied around Kuala Lumpur in the last few years. He asked us to go and visit them, but not as a group making the visit once a year and then feeling happy about that. No. We have to make the effort by allocating, say, one hour a week to go and visit the homebound. We should overcome the group mentality. Jesus sent his disciples two by two. We can do the visit with a friend or by ourselves spending weekly one hour. Thus, we will actuate the Holy Spirit’s seven-fold gifts in our hearts through our personal touch with the homebound.

After the homily, His Grace invited the concelebrants, Fr Stanislaus Soosaimariam, the Parish Priest, and Fr Clarence Devadass, the former Parish Priest, to extend their hands over the candidates as he prayed aloud for God to pour the Holy Spirit upon the confirmands. He then signed their foreheads with the oil of chrism with the words, “Be sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit”.

Just before the closing, Fr Stan thanked His Grace for celebrating the Mass and for enlightening us on ‘Keep Three Doors Open’. He added BECCOT meeting reported that BECs recited the rosary daily in the month of May in honour of Our Lady. Currently, the Parish was planning a nine-day Novena to the Holy Spirit from May 30 to June 7 at 8.00pm, focusing on its fruits and gifts. He invited the parishioners to make the Novena a priority to grow in the Spirit.

Archbishop Pakiam said that we should take part in the BEC, get to know its members, pray for them and become the New Way of Being Church. As a BEC, we become conscious of the homebound people including the Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and others. They will realize the goodness of the people of God. He stressed that the best way of preaching the Gospel is at the BEC level by praying, reaching out to people and participating devoutly in the Mass. --By Francis Magimay