19 July 2025 – 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) (Sunset Mass)

by Rev Fr Joseph Stephen, C.Ss.R.

People in Penang can recall how busy life is in this island. The early morning starts with traffic jam and there is endless cutting queues and screaming and cursing that takes place. We are all in a hurry, we are all in a rush. That is the way life has become for people in urban cities.

Time is money. Time is precious. we have endless, endless things to accomplish and endless things to attend to – whether they are emails, whether they are messages or whether there are meetings, multi-tasking. Endless things that we are called to do.

That is the way life is.

In the 13th century, Geoffrey Chaucer coined a word called ‘busy as bees‘. That is in the 1300, long before our forefathers planted rubber tree in straight line. Long before we saw factories emerging in Penang. Long before the port became busy. Long before high-rise buildings in Penang.

Busy as bees. But bees are good teachers and we can learn a few lessons from them.

One is certainly this. Bees are very focused insects. Their busyness is about taking care of the hive, their family. And that is where they spend their energy and their time.

Bees are wise. As they go looking for nectar (every plant has nectar and every plant has poison), they choose the nectar, not the poison.

Likewise, brothers and sisters, in life we have to learn to choose.

Just like in Luke’s Gospel, two women, both sisters, they chose. One was busy cooking, attending to the daily chores because she had a guest in the house. Jesus loved Martha and Mary. Probably made several visits to this house. Wonderful sisters and a brother. They attended to Him in a variety of ways.

And Martha was busy. Every time when Jesus came, she was busy cooking. And if Jesus told her that gin and tonic is a good drink, probably He might have gotten three glasses straight away because when you say you like it, people tend to give you more.

But Mary did something very different. She spent her time at the feet of Jesus, listening, pondering, seeking wisdom.

And Martha was troubled by this. She thought as a good woman, her sister should be helping her.

But Mary chose to listen to Jesus, something Middle-East women should never do – reading Torah, reading the scriptures. These are things that only men should attend to, not women. And Mary chose to do that.

What is Luke trying to tell his church that he is telling us today?

Any church you walk into, whether it is the Holy Spirit Cathedral or any parish in Penang or in the Diocese, you will always come across groups of people who are busy doing things in the parish. Much needed. Without that we will find it difficult.

Whether we have men and women helping you to park the car, it is needed. Whether people in the hospitality ministers to open the door and to welcome you, to say in this church we value smile. To see people reading the Word of God, to see people singing hymns, needed.

But there are also a group of people who say ‘Let’s ponder. Let’s listen.‘ And Luke is telling in his church this pondering, this listening, this reading is essential before you start doing things.

To allow God to speak to us, to allow God to direct our journey – whether it is marriage, whether it is family life, whether it is just ministering in this church, to pray and allow God to speak to us. What kind of church that Jesus intends to build here in this Cathedral.

It is not our vision, not our dream but the vision of Jesus. It is only when we discern and listen can we embrace that idea and say ‘This is the way Jesus wants the church to be.’

And then we strive to work towards that.

From the bees we learn a very hard lesson. To make one bottle of honey, the bees have to travel three times around the world. We don’t even think about it. Every morning we take honey in our coffee or in our cereal or in our bread. We do not know the hard work that goes into it.

Likewise, when you build a Christian community, hard work.
Hard work to discern.
Hard work to work together.
Hard work to plan together. 

So Luke is asking his early church made up of Gentiles who had already a variety of ideas. And he is saying have Christian idea that comes from Jesus, which means not doing but listening. Because they were so used to the gentile ideas – sword for sword, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. But he said, ‘Put that side. Listen. Pray. What is God asking?‘

Does our community need forgiveness? Work on that.

Does our community need mercy? Show that.

In a missionary country, there is a priest who every Sunday distributed food. So a lot of people came to collect food. And then when it came to worship, nobody turned up.

So one day the priest asked the community, ‘Why is it every time I give food, you people are coming in big numbers? Then when it comes to worship, no one is turning up.‘

The people said, ‘You didn’t teach us about Jesus. You only gave us food.‘

Probably that is what we do at time. We are great distributors of medical aid, of food, of free education, of care but we forget that this comes because of our sitting down and listening to Jesus and then trying to live it out in our lives.

We pray about it because like Luke’s church, the Cathedral is also on a mission that as we learn more, we try to become active proclaimers of God’s Good News to a very busy people in the city of Penang.

We pray and ask God for this blessing upon all of us so that He may guide us in our listening and in our action.

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