The Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Leo the Great, a pope in the 5^th century. The Church was assaulted by a different type of difficulty --- heresy. Thanks be to God. Pope Leo I was able to consolidate the truth of Christian faith and fended off the invasion of the barbarians.

We begin to read a book called the Wisdom of Solomon. Scholars deduce that it was written in Greek in around 150 B.C. Since a Hebrew version does not exist, the Protestant tradition does not include this book in the canon. For example, KJV, RSV put this book in the Apocrypha section after the book of Revelation. The Catholic tradition has never doubted its canonicity. This book is inspired by God. Though this book is written in Greek, its theology is very Jewish. So, the translators of the Chinese Bible, the Franciscan fathers believe that the author of this book was a Jew. He wrote this book to console and support the Jews who were suffering persecution. The author wrote in Greek because most of the Jews at that time did not know Hebrew. They were living under the Greek Empire. Naturally, Greek became the official tongue.

The book of Wisdom began with righteousness. It sets the tone of the whole book.
Love righteousness, you rulers of the earth, think of the Lord with uprightness, and seek him with sincerity of heart (Wisdom 1:1).
Wisdom will make you righteous. If you have wisdom, you are able to discern right from wrong. God will be delighted. Therefore, you work hard to study, to accumulate wisdom. Then you will be saved. How convenient! The author cherished a very optimistic outlook.
Do not invite death by the error of your life, nor bring on destruction by the works of your hands;
because God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living.
For he created all things that they might exist, and the generative forces of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them; and the dominion of Hades is not on earth.
For righteousness is immortal (Wisdom 1:12-15).
You feel like reading the New Testament --- God is not God of the dead, but of the living.

Then the author turns to examine why the righteous must suffer. Starting in chapter 2, the author listed several wrong attitudes commonly held by ungodly people. They would say, life is sorrowful and short. We come into existence only by chance. Therefore, let us enjoy it.
Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that exist, and make use of the creation to the full as in youth.
Let us take our fill of costly wine and perfumes, and let no flower of spring pass by us.
Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.
Let none of us fail to share in our revelry, everywhere let us leave signs of enjoyment, because this is our portion, and this our lot (Wisdom 2:6-9).
As if it was not enough, they hated the righteous because the righteous provided a mirror for the ungodly, making them shameful.
Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training.
He professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord.
He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;
the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange.
We are considered by him as something base, and he avoids our ways as unclean; he calls the last end of the righteous happy, and boasts that God is his father (Wisdom 2:12-16).
Because of these ungodly people, the righteous are persecuted.

Dear Lord, we are mirrors for each other. Let us lead a life worthy of the gifts You bestow on us. Amen.

Today, Fr. Lejeune chose reading the longer version of the Gospel, both Jesus' criticism of the scribes and the poor widow's offering (Mark 12:38-44). Reading them together gave us a new perspective.

In the Moral Theology course, we learn something about "Fundamental Option". Deep in our innermost self, we freely make one choice. We choose either God or ourselves.
When we choose ourselves, whatever we do, we do it for ourselves. We take care of our health for ourselves. We help others for ourselves. We go to Church for our own salvation.
When we choose God, whatever we do, we do it for God. We take care of our health for God. We help others for the love of God. We go to Church to praise and worship our God.
At the end of the day, or rather, at the end of our life, we will go before God to account for all the choices we have made, all the actions we have taken and all the things we have done.

The scribes whom Jesus criticized were simply doing their jobs. They gave legal advie, handled inheritance transactions, worked for their clients and even said prayers for the widows. They looked respectable on the outside. However, Jesus exposed their hypocricy. The scribes chose themselves in their fundamental option. They did not choose God. Whatever they did, they did it for themselves.
The gospel tells us that Jesus was sitting opposite the treasury, watching people putting money in. The sitting posture was a very strange scene, wasn't it? But we know that the sitting posture was a posture of teaching. Jesus taught anywhere he chose. The treasury became a classroom / laboratory. Jesus was prepared to teach a fundamental truth, our fundamental option.
We are all familiar with the story. Jesus made a remark on the widow who offered two copper coins.
And he called his disciples to him, and said to them, "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 
For they all contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living."  (Mark 12:43-44).
Jesus was not teaching arithmetics. He was not teaching percentage. He praised the widow, not because she had offered 100%. Rather, she had offered her whole living, her best while others had offered what they could spare. When we offer what we could spare, we love God with reservation. God is only marginal and dispensable for us. When we give our best back to God, we are loving God with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind and our whole strength, without reservation (Mark 12:30). This was what the poor widow had demonstrated. She loved God with her whole life. She had chosen God for her fundamental option.
The gospels do not leave us any record of the remaining days of this particular widow. Probably, she joined the Christian community after the Pentecost. Her earthly needs had been taken care of just like the widow of Zarephath in 1 Kings 17.

In Hong Kong, this year is the Year of Priestly Vocation. Fr. Lejeune appealed to the young people in the congregation to pray for priestly vocation as well as for their own vocation. Let us be generous. God will be more generous.

Dear Lord, enkindle our love for You so that we may respond more generously to You. Amen.

God is holy and we are called to lead a holy life. Naturally, we should follow God's examples. In Romans 15, Paul urged the Romans to lead a life like Jesus, our God.
Following the discussion of faith and charity in Romans 14, Paul appeals to those strong in faith to bear with those weaker in faith. When eating meat offered to idols does not trouble your conscience, it shows that your faith is strong. Yet, we should also consider the effects our behaviours have on the weaker brothers. Whose faith is stronger than Jesus'? Still, Jesus humbles himself to suffer for our shortcomings. Therefore, those stronger in faith should not seek personal honour and glory, but to be considerate and encouraging to the weaker brothers.
For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached thee fell on me." (Romans 15:3)

In Romans 15, Paul describes God in three different ways.
He is the God of steadfastness and encouragement (Romans 15:5). From this God, Paul prays that the Romans live in harmony so that they might glorify God in one accord.
He is also the God of hope (Romans 15:13). From this God, Paul prays that the Romans are filled with joy and peace so that they may abound in hope.
He is the God of peace (Romans 15:33). This verse sums up everything a Christian can ever wish for.
There are still many points to elaborate. However, I am too tired to continue. I have to accept my own limitations. Perhaps I will handle it better next time.

Today, I conducted an OLE session with a group of 16 S.5 students who had dropped RS. Adrian organized this. Dennis, Joseph, Agnes, Cecilia and me took charge of about 16 students in each group. Last year, John and Brenda took care of them, 44 each. Sometimes, Brenda invited me to run some prayer meetings with them, such as the Stations of the Cross in English. Therefore, I recognized a few of them. Today, I ran the session in English too. I found that these students were able to follow and immerse in the activity. It is my prejudice to insist on using English to teach RS and if possible to run religious functions in English as well. Of course, this OLE session cannot technically be labelled as EMI because the PowerPoint Adrian and Cecilia prepared was in Chinese and I allowed them to share in Chinese. However, I am sure that I was not doing monologue. The students were following my instructions. They did relaxation exercises with me, watched the PowerPoint, spent about 15 minutes writing a letter to themselves and stuck them on the blackboard. After the session when all the students were gone, I was tidying up the blackboard. One boy, Kelvin Chan returned to help me out. I was grateful to him and to God.

Dear Lord, though there are still many decisions the Principal made that I am not happy with, I complain less. Lord, grant me a more peaceful heart. Amen.

Appendix:
Οἱ ὀνειδισμοὶ τῶν ὀνειδιζόντ ων σε ἐπέπεσαν ἐπ' ἐμέ.
The reproaches of those who reproached thee fell on me (Romans 15:3b, Psalm 68:10b LXX, 69:9 MT)

διὰ τοῦτο ἐξομολογήσομαί σο ι ἐν ἔθνεσιν καὶ τῷ ὀνόματί σου ψαλῶ.
Therefore I will praise thee among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name (Romans 15:9b, Psalm 17:50 LXX, 18:49 MT)

εὐφράνθητε, ἔθνη, μετὰ τοῦ λ αοῦ αὐτοῦ.
Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people (Romans 15:10, Deuteronomy 32:43b)

αἰνεῖτε, πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, τὸν κ ύριον καὶ ἐπαινεσάτωσαν αὐτὸν πάντες οἱ λαοί.
Praise the Lord, all Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him (Romans 15:11)
Αἰνεῖτε τὸν κύριον, πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, ἐπαινέσατε αὐτόν, πάντες οἱ λαοί (Psalm 116:1 LXX, 117:1 MT).

Ἔσται ἡ ῥίζα τοῦ Ἰεσσαί, καὶ ὁ ἀνιστάμενος ἄρχειν ἐθνῶν: ἐπ' αὐτῷ ἔθνη ἐλπιοῦ σιν.
The root of Jesse shall come, he who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles hope (Romans 15:12)
ἔσται ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ἡ ῥίζα τοῦ Ιεσσαι καὶ ὁ ἀνιστάμ ενος ἄρχειν ἐθνῶν, ἐπ' αὐτῷ ἔθνη ἐλπιοῦσιν (Isaiah 11:10).

οἷς οὐκ ἀνηγγέλη περὶ αὐτοῦ ὄψονται, καὶ οἳ οὐκ ἀκηκόασιν συνήσουσιν.
They shall see who have never been told of him, and they shall understand who have never heard of him (Romans 15:21, Isaiah 52:15b).