Chinese New Year Homily20 January 2012 | Fr. Johnny C. Go SJ

Nike Commercial: Lebron James

Five-clawed dragons in the commercial used to represent the Emperor of China

This Chinese New Year, what can we learn from this mythical creature?

Asia

Europe

The Chinese character for “Dragon” is actually the moon in snake form.

Every time he conquered a new

tribe, he added his defeated

enemy’s emblem into his own.

Emperor Huangdi

That’s why the Chinese dragon ended up with features from different animals:

How To Train Your DragonDreamWorks (2010)

Must capture a dragon to be recognized as an

adult.

HiccupViking Chief Stoick

Toothless the Dragon proves to be a most loyal friend,

who later saves Hiccup’s life.

Hiccup didn’t just believe all the bad

things that the villagers said

about dragons.

Loyalty from a most unexpected friend: Toothless

the Dragon.

We often allow appearances to determine how we treat others, especially when they’re different

from us.

Think of how many friendships are never discovered because of this.

Are there people whom we have labeled and have not given the

chance to reveal to us who they are and what kind of people they are?