14 September 2025 – The Exaltation of the Cross | Confirmation Mass

by HE Cardinal Sebastian Francis

So it is with great hope that I invite these 25 young disciples, young apostles to lead the nation and the church forward. And in order to do that, to become visionaries and dreamers, when Saint Peter came out of the upper room, where Pentecost took place, he met a large number of people outside the upper room.

Too often, we remain within the upper room and the Spirit is telling us ‘Get out of the upper room! Go and face the world!‘

Peter came out of the upper room filled with the Holy Spirit and his first words were, when he came out he met people from many parts of the world, from Egypt, from Libya, from Mesopotamia, from Asia, from Africa, from Rome, Jews and Romans, people from all over the world, and this is what he told them:

In the last days, God says ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people‘ (not just those who are in the upper room), ‘on all people. And your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams.‘

Nobody is left out. Whether you are  young or whether you are old, you have a mission as long as you are on planet earth.

So what are we dreaming? What are we having visions about? It is about a new heavens and a new earth. Not just a new earth but even a new heaven. Maybe our thinking about heaven itself has to change because we may be too stereotype, too exclusive.

Yesterday, I met with several Muslim NGOs in Teluk Bahang with the Qatari Government present, a minister from Qatar and the Ambassador and several others. And I gave them the same challenge – to be visionaries and dreamers of a new world order. And they had just experienced a bombing in Doha and yet they were with us in Penang. And there are 17 negotiations for peace going on in Doha, in Qatar right now, initiated by the Qatarist Government.

So I invite our young people, I invite everyone to be visionaries and dreamers of a new heaven and a new earth. And that is what Peter challenged everyone when he came out of the upper room. Not to hang around the church and just be around the church. The mission is in the world!

Ministries and sacraments are in the church and formation is in the church but the mission is in the world.

The great Pope Paul VI, he is a Saint who initiated Vatican Council II fifty years ago, he said: ‘Where there is no vision, priest, leaders, whoever will simply die.‘

And I shared with them yesterday, with a predominantly Muslim group about Nelson Mandela. And he continued to dream and to see visions for a new South Africa even in prison. You can imprison the body but you cannot imprison the soul, no matter how powerful you are. And his dreams and his vision for South Africa and beyond was conceived in prison and purified in prison. And when he was released, he set the foundations for a new South Africa.

Psychology says, ‘Set your goals (another word for vision and dreams are goals) consciously and intentionally and even your chemistry will help you to achieve it.

Apostles and disciples are the future of the church and the basis for this is baptism, no religious life, not the priesthood and all that. That comes later. Baptism – that is what the Synod on Synodality is telling us through Pope Francis and now through Pope Leo. There is going to be continuity, not discontinuity.

The prophet Joel says:

And afterward I will pour out my Spirit on all people, all people who seek God with a sincere heart. Your sons and daughters will prophesy and your old men will dream dreams and your young men will see visions.

And Peter tells us again ‘but in keeping with this promise, we are looking forward‘. Not backward. There are some who want to bring the church back. It is not going to happen. You are not going to succeed because the Spirit is moving the church towards the Second and Glorious coming of Christ, not backwards towards what happened in Jerusalem 2000 years ago.

So Peter says:- But in keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth filled with God’s righteousness.

We have a vision and a dream of unity. Not a superficial unity but a unity based on diversity. And every component that is diverse, whether it be race or nationality or religion, we are going to celebrate Malaysia Day and the National Level celebrations, the Chief Minister told me yesterday at the same gathering, is going to be held in Butterworth, in Penang.

It is also a vision of equality. We are struggling with that in Malaysia. Not just unity in diversity and dance all kinds of cultural dances but no equality. A vision of unity, diversity, equality. Yes, there is in some countries a preferential option for the poor who need special attention. A vision of harmony, freedom. And all this is based on the trinity itself.

But there are those who also have dreams and visions that are prompted by the Spirit of evil.

And this is to bring about divide and rule, 5o bring about uniformity whether it be a one nation or one religion or one race or one culture or one language. And it will never succeed because it goes against the very image of God himself who created us diverse yet united.

Those who are dreaming and seeing visions prompted by the spirit of evil that bring about domination, manipulation, modern-day slavery with exploitation, persecution of minorities, oppression, etc.

All who fear God and love God,
~ must be on the side of God;
~ must be on the side of unity, diversity and equality;
~ must be on the side of innocent suffering, wherever it happens.

That is innocent suffering and it continues today in many countries and I do not want to name them because you know them, what is happening everywhere.

But if it is innocent suffering, then God is on the side of innocent suffering as He did at the crucifixion of Jesus. And it will be vindicated on the side of innocent suffering, beyond race, beyond religion, beyond nationality.

And young people, young disciples of Christ, we your teachers, your priests, your parents, your family and others, we send you forth ‘langkah demi langkah’ to prepare. This is the final preparation before we send you. You will leave us maybe for college, for university, some of you may start working, etc and you will enter into the adult world and the church prepares you and send you forth with confidence and with hope. Because the Holy Spirit will journey with you.

This is a vision and a dream. A vision and a dream based on a belief and creed that every human person on planet earth, male and female, are created in the image and likeness of God and are equal however long it takes us to struggle with this.

In 2016, the 3 Dioceses of Kuala Lumpur, Melaka-Johor and Penang met for what we call the Peninsular Malaysia Pastoral Convention IV in 2016. And the next time we meet which will be in 2026, next year, 10 years later, we will no longer meet as church of Peninsular Malaysia.

The 9 Bishops of Malaysia have together decided that we will meet next year a Pan Malaysian Pastoral Convention. Not Peninsular anymore but Pan including Sabah, Sarawak and Semenanjung. And 900 of us will meet, all the top leaders of the church, lay, religious, clergy together with your 9 Bishops in Sibu, Sarawak in September. One year from now. We are already preparing for it so that we will chart the Malaysian church and we as Malaysians will decide in communion with the Universal Church, with the Pope, the direction for the church of Malaysia.

And the last time we met in 2016 as Peninsular Church, Julian, Bernard and me, the 3 Bishops of Semenanjung, we articulated what the Holy Spirit wanted fo the church for Semenanjung. And we did this 10 years ago and it is not just a slogan. We are working day and night to make this a reality because this is the invitation coming from the Holy Spirit for our church of Peninsular Malaysia. And the Holy Spirit said, ‘I want a church in Semenanjung Malaysia that is creative, that is inclusive and that is bridge building.‘

And we 9 Bishops are united to lead the church in this direction. And we know that our people are with us.

James tells us, I told this to my Muslim brothers and sisters yesterday, I said though it comes from the Christian scriptures, it is meant for all, for all religions. James told us 2000 years ago, the Apostle James:-

The basis for all pure, unspoiled and incorrupt religion. (Religion itself can be corrupted) and spirituality is this. The religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this – to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Orphans and widows are the symbol. Both of them have something in common. Both have lost someone very dear. Orphans have lost their parents and widows have lost their spouses and this is simple religion. Simple, unspoiled, incorrupt religion.

So don’t corrupt it and make it more complicated.

So dear brothers, Matthew tells us:- ‘As we imagine and dream, in the meantime, we have to individually and collectively reach out to the victims of innocent suffering everywhere. The hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, the prisoner and the sick.‘

That is how Matthew tells us or Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew, how we are all, whether you are Muslim or Hindu or Catholic or whatever you are, are going to be judged.

Again, Matthew tells us blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Purity is not only about sexual ethics and purity. Purity is about caring for widows and orphans. Purity is about reaching out to prisoners and the sick and the poor and the hungry and the naked, clothing the naked. That is the real purity that we must all strive towards. And it comes out beautifully in the Beatitudes. Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God.

So please brothers, sisters, 25 young disciples led by the Holy Spirit of God, continue my dear people of God to imagine, to dream, to visualise and to ‘turun padang. I met the former Anglican Bishop of Malaysia, of Penang, Savarimuthu, at the Anglican Church of Saint George here in Penang some 40 years ago. And I happened to meet him by chance and he shared with me his plans for the Anglican church for Malaysia. He is Tan Sri Savarimuthu. This happened about 30-40 years ago.

And he was sharing his dream and his vision with young Anglican ministers and he had a fantastic plan and he came out and he saw me. I introduced myself to him, I was in the seminary teaching at that time. I was much younger and he was much older. And he spend almost half an hour making me stand at the porch and explained to me his dreams and his vision for the Anglican church of Malaysia.

And after half an hour, I told him ‘Your grace, you must be tired.‘ He said, ‘No, I am not tired. You may be tired.‘ So I said thank you to him and I went back. In the evening, I put on the radio and I heard Tan Sri Savarimuthu passed away. So I shared this with some priests and most were cynical and said, ‘Well, we have our plans, our proposals but God can dispose it.‘

But one priest told me John Savarimuthu, Tan Sri, Anglican Bishop of Malaysia died with his vision alive. And that is a death we must all hope for – to die with our vision alive, like Nelson Mendela willing to pay the price for it. This is mission.

So brothers and sisters, as we continue to dream and imagine and visualise, we ‘turun padang’ at the same time.

Called to be visionaries and dreamers. And as we ‘turun padang’, with all its challenges, let us trust that God will bring our dreams and visions to fulfillment in God’s time.

Yesterday, the President of the Consumers Association of Penang shared this. Yes, imagine a world of peace and harmony. Is it a dream? That was our topic yesterday. I said it begins with a dream. And the President of the Penang Consumers Association, a Muslim gentleman, mentioned that peace is ultimately God’s gift, when God will give it to Ukraine or to Gaza or to the conflict going on at the Cambodian-Thai border.

I just came back from Cambodia where we ordained the first local Khmer Cambodian Bishop. And I was delighted that the Bishops and Cardinals of Thailand were present in Phnom Penh for this ordination to show that Thailand and Cambodia, the church is united.

And we thank Prime Minister of Malaysia for initiating a peace treaty between Cambodia and Thailand right here in Kuala Lumpur. And I told a representative of the foreign mission, Ministry of Foreign Mission that – ‘Thank you very much’. And one Catholic, the former Ambassador of Malaysia to Thailand, who is a Catholic, was involved in the negotiations.

So brothers and sisters, I end with an African proverb.

When you pray, move your feet. That is an African proveb.

Pray with your feet. And that is my challenge to the young people who are going to be confirmed today.

We don’t want you to hang around. We want you to go, go to Kuala Lumpur, go to college, go to university, go and work. Some of you may be here in Penang but we are confirming you with the strength of the Holy Spirit and sending you on mission.

Yes, you still have to prepare for your SPM examinations and for your other studies, future studies, and we hope that the Holy Spirit will be with you and you will give your best.

Amen.

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