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From the homily sharing by Fr. Heng on the Feast of the Holy Trinity, I would like to extract this:
There is a story of St Augustine of Hippo, the great philosopher and theologian, one day walking along the beach as he was pondering on the mystery of the Trinity. He passed a child who was running to-and-fro from the sea to the beach trying to scoop buckets after buckets of sea water and pouring it into the hole that he had dug. Being curious St Augustine asked the child, “What are you trying to do?” The child replied, “I am trying to fill this hole with the sea.”
We all know that what the child is trying to do is an impossible task because it is humanly impossible to empty the billions and billions of gallons of sea water into a hole with a small bucket. First, the bucket is too small. Second, it will take all eternity to do so. Likewise, if we were to rely on our own limited human capabilities, like the child relying on his small bucket, it would be impossible for us finite human beings to try to understand fully the infinite mystery of God in the Trinity, with our small minds.
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We know that it is impossible for the child to fill the hole in the beach with the sea through the buckets of water that he scoops from the sea. However, if he were to dig a drain to connect the hole to the sea and allow the sea water to flow in and fill up the hole, then in some way he is able to fill his hole to the brim with the sea. Likewise, if we want to be filled with the mystery of God’s Truth, we must also, with God’s grace, try to “dig” into His mystery and be connected to God through the Holy Spirit that Jesus sent us after His Resurrection. The more fully we allow the Holy Spirit to fill our minds and hearts with its Truth, the bigger would be the hole we will be digging to allow the “sea” of God’s infinite mystery to fill us with its Truth so to speak.
God is the ocean and the emptiness in our lives is the hole we are trying to fill. The meaningless activities in our schedule is like the gas we are trying to fill this hole up with. As soon as we try to pour this gas into the hole, it escapes back into the air. What's left is the empty hole - the same emptiness and void in our hearts.
Many people, after school or work, return home, switch on the computer, go onto Facebook, chat online, play games, watch movies, tv dramas, etc. A living testimony is myself. Boredom overwhelmed today and no matter how many games I played, it just could not give any concrete joy, peace or meaning. Nor did it succeed in ridding the boredom. Read a magazine to pass time and I fell asleep on it. I was so tempted to drive out to buy the Nintendo Wii!! I pretended that all these would get me pass the boredom and empty feelings but I knew well enough they wouldn't. How unwise and unloving of me to refuse myself the connection with God. How foolish of me to block the drain I had begun digging and prevent the "sea" to fill this empty "hole".
The more years we spend on earth, the more we come to know of what can fill our lives and what cannot. But we can also grow in our ability to live in self denial of this fact. At each dawn, it is yet another opportunity God gives to us to build this drain and connect with Him so that He can guide us and reveal Himself to us and so that we may grow to love Him and walk in His ways. Pray for wisdom and faithfulness to dig this connecting drain and to clear it of leaves and trash that clogs it all so frequently, so that God's teachings, message, peace and joy can continuously fill our hearts, minds and souls; that this emptiness will be filled to its brim and remain full always.
19 July 2010
11.47pm
My friend once said that we need to be filled before we fill. We need to have God within us before we bring Him to others. With a distant relationship between him and me, we cannot fully bring Him to others.
ReplyDeleteTruly, allowing His Spirit to come into us fills us with peace, joy and freedom. We may be exposed to the pleasures of the world but they should not fill our soul. Only God should.