Day: January 29, 2013

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The Church and our Faith, with the Social Media, for New Evangelisation

http://www.ucanews.com/news/young-catholic-turns-the-internet-into-a-campaigning-tool/67249

(“We Catholics, no matter how rich or poor we are, are equal in God’s eyes,” he said. “God works through Facebook. He changes something virtual into something real. This is God’s call to me.”)

Yes, the social media can be a great tool for evangelisation, and also for the spreading of the good works of the Lord, which through our hands and our effort, we can make God’s power manifest in our world.

Let us strengthen our faith by sharing it with one another through the social media, and use it as a proper platform to gain attention to those who are especially in need of help.

Youths are the future of the Church, and we have to make sure that all Catholic and indeed all Christian youths, to be protected from the evil influences on the social media, simply by ensuring that they are also exposed to good influences of the Church through the same social media.

https://www.facebook.com/gerejakatolik

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Tuesday, 29 January 2013 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Mark 3 : 31-35

Then His mother and His brothers came. As they stood outside, they sent someone to call Him. The crowd sitting around Jesus told Him, “Your mother and Your brothers are outside asking for You.”

He replied, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” And looking around at those who sat there, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers. Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister and mother to Me.”

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Chaldean Patriarch election during Synod of Chaldean Bishops in Rome

http://www.news.va/en/news/vatican-the-synod-for-the-election-of-the-new-chal

As Cardinal Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly has retired on 19 December last year, the Pope has called and convened a Synod for Chaldean bishops in Rome, in order to elect their new Patriarch of the Chaldean Church, in full communion with the Pope as the Bishop of Rome. The Patriarch is of the See of Babylon, an ancient diocese dating from before the original split between the Chaldean Church from Rome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaldean_Catholic_Church

The Chaldean Church was part of Nestorianism, who rejected the Council of Ephesus in 431, as they believed in the distinctive human and divine nature of Christ, while we believe that Christ is truly fully human and also fully divine at the same time, and both are inseparable. The Chaldeans first returned to full communion with Rome in the mid 1500s, and after a period of lull in the communion, the full communion was restored in the 1800s, and continued well until today.

Let us pray for the bishops of the Chaldeans, that they will elect a worthy Patriarch for the Chaldean Catholic community, as shepherd to guide the faithful mostly in the region of Iraq and Mesopotamia, especially through the turbulent times experienced by all Christians in that area with intense persecution and harassment of all the faithful in Christ. May God bless them, and may He bless our Universal, Catholic Church.

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Tuesday, 29 January 2013 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Psalm 39 : 2 and 4ab, 7-8a, 10, 11

With resolve I waited for the Lord; He listened and heard me beg.

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.

Many will see and be awed, and put their trust in the Lord.

Sacrifice and oblation you did not desire; this You had me understand.

Burnt offering and sin offering you do not require.

Then I said, “Here I come!”

In the great assembly I have proclaimed Your saving help. My lips, o Lord, I did not seal – You know that very well.

I have not locked up in my heart Your saving help, but have spoken about it – Your deliverance and Your faithfulness.

I have made no secret of Your truth and of Your kindness in the great assembly.

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Tuesday, 29 January 2013 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Hebrews 10 : 1-10

The religion of the Law is only a shadow of the good things to come; it has the patterns but not the realities. So, year after year, the same sacrifices are offered without bringing the worshippers to what is the end. If they had been cleansed once and for all, they would no longer have felt guilt and would have stopped offering the same sacrifices.

But no, year after year their sacrifices witness to their sins and never will the blood of bulls and goats take away these sins.

This is why on entering the world, Christ says : “You did not desire sacrifice and offering; You were not pleased with burnt offerings and sin offerings.” Then He said, “Here I am. It is written of Me in the scroll. I will do Your will, o God.”

First He says : “Sacrifice, offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire, nor were You pleased with them – although they were required by the Law.” Then He says, “Here I am to do Your will.”

This is enough to nullify the first will and establish the new. Now, by this will of God, we are sanctified once and for all by the sacrifice of the body of Christ Jesus.

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Monday, 28 January 2013 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Scripture Reflection)

Today, once again we see Jesus in His role as the High Priest and the Messiah sent by God. He is the Son, one of the Trinity, whom the Father sent down to us, for our sake, out of His great love for us. He is filled with the Holy Spirit, unlike the slander of the teachers of the Law as mentioned in the Gospel, who accused and slandered Jesus’ miracle work to be the work of Satan and his evil spirits.

Then why was Jesus so angry with them such that He rebuked them mentioning that sinning against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven, although He said that even those who insulted God can be forgiven? The reason is because, we need to differentiate between those who does not know God, but can recognise good works and miracles, which eventually originated in God, and those who claim that they know and love God, but cannot even recognise the very work of the Holy Spirit, which is manifested in the good works and miracles, as Jesus did.

The teachers of the Law belong to that second group of people, who are supposedly very knowledgeable about the Law and thus about God, but failed to see the works of God and the Holy Spirit through Jesus, and instead slanders the Holy Spirit in Jesus by attributing the works to the power of Satan. This is a kind of ultimate hypocrisy on the teachers’ side and Jesus clearly did not tolerate this, for as much as God is indeed forgiving and loving, He also hates sin. These teachers of the Law were the guides of the people, and they set the moral standard of the people of God. If they themselves slander the Lord and His great works through Jesus, then they are not a good guides of the people, since instead of bringing the people to the Lord, they will make people fall into sin instead.

Jesus Himself said : “If anyone cause these little ones (also mean the people, the faithful) who believe in Me to sin, it is better for him to be thrown into the sea with large milestone around his neck.” This is why Jesus was very angry at the teachers of the Law due to their role in deceiving people on the works of the Holy Spirit. The same too should also apply to our priests today, as they too are human, and are subject to temptations as we are. Therefore, let us fervently pray for them, that all of them will remain faithful to their calling, and will commit themselves fully to God and His works, ministering to God’s people to the best of their abilities. Let them not to fall into temptation and thus sin, as what has happened to some of our wayward priests. Pray for these priests too, that they can return to the light, and do their best to atone for whatever evil they have committed. God truly loves all and forgives all, even the worst of sinners.

Then, Jesus also emphasized again on the unity of the Church, the Church He has established and entrusted to St. Peter the Apostle. He said that if Satan is divided against himself and has his followers divided against him in a civil war, he will not be able to stand and be vanquished. The same also applies to our own Church, as how are we going to beat Satan and his evil works, if our own Church is divided against itself?

Many people throughout the centuries, fueled by personal ambitions and selfish desires had led to the fracturing of the unity of the Body of Christ, the Church. As a result, today, although technically there is still only One Church that exist, our own Catholic Church, established by Christ Himself and entrusted to Peter, there now in our world exists thousands of churches, which are the splinters and fragments of this holy Body. Even worse that instead of working together, many of these churches attack one another’s faith, and many of them also even went astray from the true faith in Christ, preferring alternative sources and leaders than Christ and the Holy Scripture itself. Many of the attacks were even directed at the Church itself, and many believed in the falseness that arose out of misunderstanding of the faith, and through centuries of division and enmity, born out of human imperfections.

Today, we celebrate the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, a great Doctor of the Church, who was called Doctor Angelicus, or the “Angelic Doctor” out of his great piety, his great faith, and most importantly, out of his great works of the faith and in the field of theology, that helps to define the basis of our modern Church, and also influenced many aspects of our modern world. He is the one person that we look up to, in the matters of the faith, and many aspirants to the priesthood should indeed read his great writings and learn more about the faith, to anchor themselves properly in Christ, that they will not be led astray like those wayward priests, or even worse to be like those teachers of the Law rebuked by Christ. St. Thomas Aquinas also defined many concepts of Christian virtues and ethics, which act as guidelines on how all of us Christians should strive to be. Let us all take some time to try and find the writings of this great Saint, read them, and reflect on them. In doing so, all of us, laity and ordained members of the Church alike, can gain great holiness.

Therefore, today, let us also strive to work for unity of all Christians, of all who believes in Christ. Let us stand up to our faith, and equipped ourselves with the knowledge of our faith and the Holy Scripture, to always be ready with answers, especially when a person who does not yet believe in Christ, or even our separated brethren in Christ came to us with questions about the faith, and about our Church, we are able to give a good answer, and may indeed help to dispel many misconceptions that others have on both the faith, and the Catholic Church, the One Church that God has established, that hopefully, one day, all Christians will be reunited again, and be able to call each other, brothers and sisters in Christ, once again.

Let us work to help fulfill the prayer of Christ to the Father : “That they may be One as we are One; I in them and You in Me. Thus they shall reach perfection in unity; and the world shall know that You have sent Me, and that I have loved them, just as You loved Me.”, and let the world truly know the Lord through our Christian unity, and stand up united against Satan and all his evil angels and supporters. God bless us all, and God bless our priests, and God bless our Pope, Benedict XVI, Amen.

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.

 

+Ut Omnes Unum Sint, ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam+

(That they all may be One, for the greater glory of God)