Deyim Deyim
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Today we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany, starting a new season of our Liturgical Year. After the Season of the Birth of the Lord, when the Son of God became man to save us, the Trinity appears today in a glorious image in which we are liberated by the Father’s voice, the Son’s baptism and the Spirit’s descent.
This revelation comes after a state of expectation and awaiting the Messiah the Saviour. The good news came through John who said “I baptise you with water… He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3: 16). John pointed to the Messiah and disappeared after he said “He must grow greater, I must grow less” (John 3: 30). With John the Baptist the Old Testament concluded and the New Testament started, the Testament of the great grace.
In his epistle today, Saint Paul reminds us that we have been saved not because of our own upright actions but by the free grace that has overflown us through our Lord Jesus Christ. But how can someone obtain the grace if they are not in touch with the giver of that grace? In the midst of a corrupt world which attracts us to be a part of it, John’s call prompts us to repent and return to God in order to receive the blessing. Are we aware of its importance?
Give us O Lord to be faithful to your grace and to renew our baptismal vows by devoting ourselves to you so we can maintain the presence of the Holy Trinity in our daily lives saying: Deyim…Deyim…
The Lebanese people have kept many traditions related to the Feast of the Epiphany, including the women preparing special food and sweets such as Awamet which are made with wheat flower, cut into small balls, cooked in oil and dumped in sugar syrup. They also make Zlabia and Macaron, calling these sweets “baraket el-eid”. One of the most prominent Lebanese beliefs is that Jesus walks around and visits the homes at midnight while saying: ‘Deyim, Deyim’, meaning ‘Everlasting, Everlasting’. Just before midnight, people would pray while kneeling to receive the blessing when Jesus passes by, and lift up their supplications which are answered because the gates of heaven are open on this night. They used to light up fire as January is very cold and sit around it, stirring the fire with a long stick. If they see a lot of sparks they become optimistic and they ask God to give them as much money or other things. Some of the other beliefs is that all the trees kneel for Jesus when passing except for the fig tree because of its arrogance, so they would burn its branches as a punishment. On this night, the housewife would go and check the food provisions in her house, stirring them while saying ‘Deyim, Deyim’, believing that the blessing would descend on them. On this day, the faithful bring their children to receive the Sacrament of Baptism. In the morning of the Feast day, the masses are celebrated and the faithful bring with them bottles of water with a green stick for the priest to bless them so the sick would drink from it to be healed, and the homes sprinkled with it to cast out bad spirits, mice, rats and so on. One of their sayings: “whoever does not have someone to baptise let them baptise a stick on Epiphany.” Some people used to celebrate mass at the spring water of the village so its water would be blessed. They would also make a dough on this night and the dough would rise without yeast. One of the traditions too is the priest visiting the homes, sprinkling them with water to bless them.
On a parish note, as we begin this new year - we have a hint of sadness in the air as we farewell Sr Margaret and Sr Guita who are leaving our parish community to start their new mission at St Maroun's Dulwich Hill. We thank both for their dedication, service and presence with us. Sr Guita supported the ministry of our Seniors Committee and had an active presence with their initiatives and events. Her cheerful spirit and smile will be missed around the parish. Sr Margaret leaves us after a tremendous 22 years of participation and service in the life of our parish family; particularly the youth. During her many years as assistant Youth Chaplain, she helped develop many of our current and former parish leaders. She used her experience and knowledge to support adult faith formation and her weekly newsletter contributions are always helpful in breaking open the Gospel of the week. We thank Sisters Margaret and Guita and wish them well on this next chapter of their religious ministry. We are joyful to welcome Sr Marlene and Sr Cynthia who will be joining our community.
Renewal Is A Natural Necessity
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
After Consecration Sunday of the Church, we celebrate today the Renewal of the Church. With Renewal Sunday, our Church continues her journey, through our Liturgical Year, towards her Redeemer and Saviour Jesus Christ. On this Sunday, our Mother Church calls us to reflect on readings from John’s Gospel and the epistle to the Hebrews.
Today’s readings remind us of our identity! We are the sheep of Christ. This is our character and our hope that we aspire to renew. Only his sheep believe in him, as our Lord Jesus said to the Jews who were arguing with him in the temple while he was walking up and down in the Portico of Solomon. As usual, Jesus puts his teaching in the relevant temporal and spatial context to make it easy to understand. From the temple of Jerusalem and on the very day of the Renewal Feast, Jesus revealed that he was the Son of God and the Master of the sheep. The Renewal Feast was celebrated to remember the purification of the temple by Judah Maccabee in 164 BC, after it was profaned by the King of the Seleucid Antiochus Epiphanes who had placed a statue of Zeus, the greatest of the Greek gods, in the Holy of the Holies. In this context, Jesus was talking to the Jews who believed that they were doing the right thing in worshiping the true God while they were in fact closing their ears to his voice, even seeking to kill him to silence his voice.
Jesus confirmed to the Jews that he was the Son of God, yet they wanted to stone him. “You do not believe,” Jesus said to them,
“because you are no sheep of mine. The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.” The epistle
confirms this revelation, as we understand from it that the Lord is the Good Shepherd who dies for his sheep and redeems them with his blood so that “those who have been called to an eternal inheritance may receive the promise.” This calling which is directed to each one of us as we are his sheep compels us to renew ourselves on the Renewal Sunday of the Church since we are his Church and every one of us is a living member in her and a stone in her structure. Without this renewal, we cannot be worthy to be really among those called to the eternal inheritance.
Renewal is one of the life’s rules, a natural necessity. Every living being renews its cells to continue to live, and every society that does not renew its ways of life and traditions, ages and dies out. It is the same with the Church. She has to renew herself so her faith in the Son of God remains a living faith that develops with the society without change or decrease.
God has blessed us with a perpetual renewal in our parish through its priests and committees. On Monday, all members of the Parish Council held a meeting to discuss the preparations for the Season of the Glorious Birth of Our Lord. Once more, we renew our spiritual and temporal preparations for this sacred season. The Parish Council is a sign of blessing from the Lord to our parish. Last Saturday, the Elderly Committee organised a trip for the elderly in our parish. We are grateful to this committee which is another blessing that the Lord has bestowed upon us. And from our elderly to our children, the future of our parish. Today we are witnessing the great commitment by the Fersen who are renewing their promise, with a new group making their commitment for the first time.
Furthermore, the Word is alive in our parish and is in perpetual renewal. For many years, the bible study evenings are continuing with the Family of Divine Word without interruption. This too is a sign of blessing. Participate in those evenings and give the Lord of Harvest some of your time. It is indeed a blessed parish, in which the Lord is constantly present with the intercession of our mother Mary and the commitment of its parishioners, the sheep who know his voice and whom he knows, they follow him and renew themselves in him.
Extra Oil
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
During the Season of the Glorious Cross, the overarching theme and question that the Lord asks us through the scripture passages is “are you ready?” We are always confronted with the comparison between the wise and the foolish and this Sunday is no exception. The ten bridesmaids in this week’s parable are split between the five that are labelled as foolish and the five that are labelled as wise. On face value, all ten of them appear to be the same. All of them had appeared to be prepared for the coming of the bridegroom except for one small detail, one crucial difference, the extra oil! The five wise bridesmaids were well prepared and carried with them extra oil in the case that the bridegroom arrived late and thus were well prepared when he finally showed up. Like the wise bridesmaids, the foolish ones had everything that they needed to know. They were not disadvantaged in any way; however, they were still not ready.
This parable reminds me of us. We, the people who regularly come to church and participate in the life of the church. We, who are equipped with everything that we need to know about Christ and profess all righteousness. Are we truly ready for Him to open the door for us? Are we ready to listen to the greeting that He may have for us? Are we ready for the reality that He may shut the door in our face because we have no oil in our lamps? Brothers and sisters, many of us carry the lamp but unfortunately, we run out of oil or are not prepared enough to bring extra oil with us. This oil represents the inward preparation of the heart for the return of the Lord. Do we really know Jesus? Most of us would claim that we do, but do we really know Him? Are we ready to love like He loves? Are we ready to be merciful like Him? Are we ready to forgive, like He forgives? Are we ready to sacrifice ourselves, like He sacrificed Himself for us? Like the parable, these questions are very confronting but are crucial for us to understand the crucial difference, the extra oil. Therefore, when the hour comes and we can hear the sound of the squeaking door that is being opened, will we have enough oil to enter into the banquet or will our fate be that of the foolish bridesmaids.
