Malacca Johore Diocese News Update #184

Aug 09, 2024

Greetings dear friends of MJD,

The Paris Olympics extravaganza is marred by one thoughtless event. Conflicts are brewing on the Lebanese border. Student unrest in Bangladesh has forced evacuations of Malaysians. Malaysia is trying to be the Asian Tiger again. She is vying to join the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates). New cyber laws to license social media is next. State funding or fund-raising sponsored by beer and tobacco companies for vernacular schools? There’s always two sides to a story. Some see no harm. Some react. Some choose to be indifferent. Some forgive. Let us rise above our pettiness.

“Heart” Times: The weekend was a week of encounters. A man comes up to me at a parish feast and says: “Today is the saddest time of my life”. I did not understand. Later I discovered that his young, upcoming son-in-law, with a newborn child, was killed in an accident on Tuas Bridge on the way to work a few months back. Fifty-two volunteers and sponsors sank into the mud to plant 449 mangrove saplings at the Sg Pulai Forest Reserve, with the Forestry Department and Johor Nature Society. Then a cancer survivor relates her story, and the beginnings of the ICARE Cancer Support Association Johor Baru. Hard times became ‘heart times’. I saw a grieving father still serving. The afflicted reaching out to the afflicted. Communities, young and old, greening the earth. People with a little love can make a difference. “At the heart of every other Christian virtue is love.

Generosity without love is extravagance; care without love is mere duty; fidelity without love is servitude. Vocation without love is job.

Never grow tired of loving. If love is the soul of Christian existence, it must be at the heart of every other Christian virtue. Thus, for example, justice without love is legalism; faith without love is ideology; hope without love is selfcentredness; forgiveness without love is self-abasement; fortitude without love is recklessness; Every virtue is an expression of love. No virtue is really a virtue unless it is permeated, or informed, by love.” — Richard Rohr

A Thought For The Week: The Prison Hundreds of Turkish prisoners held a sitin for more than six months. They abstained from food, and 12 of them died in defence of the honour of the cause. The hunger strike sparked off when Turkish authorities decided to build a smaller prison and transfer the prisoners there.

Their present prison was spacious, while the new one was narrow. For this reason some prisoners sacrificed their lives. It was for only a few extra metres of space.

Lesson from the prisoners: We do not feel freedom except when we are deprived of it. They may be prisoners, murderers and robbers, but they are ready to die for a sunbeam, some air or a wider space. It is said that the most famous sentence in history is “I am free”.

Announcements For The Week:

1. Fr Thomas Chong SJ, the parish priest of St Theresa, Gajah Berang celebrated his 25th Sacerdotal Anniversary on July 31. May the Lord bless him with health and grace in his ministry.

2. The Malaysian Association of Social Workers and Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat are organising an Introduction of Social Work Training on August 10, 11, 17 and 18 from 8.30am to 6.00pm at Universiti Malaya. Registration fee is RM100.

QnQ? Q ask: People appear to be longing for something. What are they really seeking?

“The Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert talk about two ‘hungers’.

There is the Great Hunger and there is the Little Hunger.

The Little Hunger wants food for the belly; but the Great Hunger, the greatest hunger of all, is the hunger for meaning.

There is ultimately only one thing that makes human beings deeply and profoundly bitter, and that is to have thrust upon them a life without meaning.

There is nothing wrong in searching for happiness.

But far more comfort to the soul is something greater than happiness or unhappiness, and that is meaning.

Because meaning transfigures all. Once what you are doing has meaning for you, it is irrelevant whether you're happy or unhappy.

You are content - you are not alone in your Spirit - you belong.” — Laurens van der Post

See the Holy Spirit @ work: We’re all assigned a piece of the garden, a corner of the universe that is ours to transform. Our corner of the universe is our own life — our relationships, our homes, our work, our current circumstances — exactly as they are. Every situation we find ourselves in is an opportunity, perfectly planned by the Holy Spirit, to teach love instead of fear.” - Marianne Williamson

Something to tickle you: From the world’s perspective, there are many places you can go to find comfort. But there is only one place you will find a hand to catch your tears and a heart to listen to your every longing. True peace comes only from God.” – Charles Stanley

Bishop Bernard Paul