Our Big Night

Finally...it is done! Christ is Risen!

As brothers and sisters in Christ, we now enter a new chapter in our lives. Last night... actually... the entire RCIA year leading up to our big night will forever be embedded in my memory.

It has been a very emotional Holy Week for me. Years of medical training were nothing compared to one short week! Actually, the emotional ride began for me on April 2, when I did my first Confession. What I feared to be a scary and torturous experience, turned out to be a wonderful opportunity to reveal my true self to God and become closer to Him.

I then started a Novena to the Divine Mercy of Jesus Christ, for the deepening of my faith and the hope that my family will get the "calling" as well. Like many others, I initially saw the prayer as just a bunch of repetitions. How can saying the same line over and over again be meaningful? Little did I know how powerful this kind of praying can be. I began to cry just after the second time I recited "for the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world." I truly "got into" the prayer, realizing what it really means for Christ to suffer and die for us, in order to atone our sins.

I haven't been able to stop the tears since. The worst was Holy Thursday! It was really special to sit with you all at church, reliving the events that took place at the Last Supper. The most touching part was the washing of the disciples' feet, hearing Jesus' parting words, to urge us to love one another as He has loved us. To love, we must serve. These words were all the more powerful in the hymn "As I Have Done For You". I promised myself that, in the future, every time I get frustrated, I will stop and sing this song in my mind, to remind myself what I ought to do in this life -- to serve.

Good Friday was just as emotional. It was like going to a funeral. I am trained to be unfazed by most things: pus, blood, excrement, pain and death. Yet the sight of a chunk of wood made my eyes overflow with tears. (But I found out that if you just let the tears roll down your face without closing your eyes, the mascara won't smudge...)

Then came the big day -- April 11, 2009. Words cannot describe how joyful I felt watching each one of you walk up to the altar. I looked at everyone, and thought about how we were all strangers back in September. Now we are on the same journey together, as brothers and sisters. I feel so blessed to be in your company.

My friend (who is atheist) told me the other day, when she watched a You Tube video on the Divine Mercy Novena, she had a "feeling". I know exactly what that feeling is. I had the same feeling last summer and it prompted me to join RCIA. I am sure all of you did as well. I wonder what your stories are. I hope that someday, I will learn all of your stories, to hear about what God did in His divine plan for all of us.

We have reached a milestone, and yet this is only the beginning. We all have much to learn, and I hope that we will continue to help each other on this journey. I'd like to share with you a very special song -- people probably use it for weddings but to me, it sums up how we are now all servants for each other, and most importantly, of Our Lord.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_wMO5KxeAI&feature=related

Will you let me be your servant
Let me be as Christ to you
Pray that I may have the Grace
To let you be my servant too

We are pilgrims on a journey
We are travellers on the road
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load

I will hold the Christ light for you
In the night time of your fear
I will hold my hand out to you
Speak the peace you long to hear

I will weep when you are weeping
When you laugh I'll laugh with you
I will share your joy and sorrow
'Til we've seen this journey through

When we sing to God in heaven
We shall find such harmony
Born of all we've known together
Of Christ's love and agony