Day: June 20, 2013

by

Wednesday, 19 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Romuald, Abbot (Gospel Reading)

Matthew 6 : 1-6, 16-18

Be careful not to make a show of your righteousness before people. If you do so, you do not gain anything from your Father in heaven. When you give something to the poor, do not have it trumpeted before you, as do those who want to be seen in the synagogues and in the streets, in order to be praised by the people. I assure you, they have already been paid in full.

If you give something to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your gift remains really secret. Your Father, who sees what is kept secret, will reward you.

When you pray, do not be like those who want to be seen. They love to stand and pray in the synagogues or on street corners to be seen by everyone. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. When you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is with you in secret; and your Father who sees what is kept secret will reward you.

When you fast, do not put a miserable face as do the hypocrites. They put on a gloomy face, so that people can see they are fasting. I tell you this : they have been paid in full already. When you fast, wash your face and make yourself look cheerful, because you are not fasting for appearances or for people, but for your Father who sees beyond appearances.

And your Father, who sees what is kept secret, will reward you.

by

Wednesday, 19 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Romuald, Abbot (Psalm)

Psalm 111 : 1-2, 3-4, 9

Alleluia! Blessed is the one who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commands. His children will be powerful on earth; the upright’s offspring will be blessed.

Wealth and riches are for his family, there his integrity will remain. He is for the righteous a light in darkness, He is kind, merciful, and upright.

He gives generously to the poor, His merits will last forever and His head will be raised in honour.

by

Wednesday, 19 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Romuald, Abbot (First Reading)

2 Corinthians 9 : 6-11

Remember : the one who sows meagerly will reap meagerly, and there shall be generous harvests for the one who sows generously. Each of you should give as you decided personally, and not reluctantly as if obliged. God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to fill you with every good thing, so that you have enough of everything at all times, and may give abundantly for any good work.

Scripture says : ‘He distributed, he gave to the poor, his good works last forever.’ God who provides the sower with seed will also provide him with the bread he eats. He will multiply the seed for you and also increase the interests of your good works.

Become rich in every way, and give abundantly. What you give will become, through us, a thanksgiving to God.

by

Tuesday, 18 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if yesterday we heard the virtue of forgiveness and not pursuing hatred into vengeance, by showing mercy and love to one another, today we heard that we must love one another, and not to give into that hatred, that we should love even our enemies, and being our enemies, we need to love them even more, so that our love would truly stand out as being true love, and not love that is not sincere.

But no, brothers and sisters, it does not mean we should forsake or stop showing love to our friends, and to those who are dear to us. In fact we must love them even more, especially because loving someone with whom we had already had good relationship with is easier, and it is natural therefore that we should shower them with more love.

But to love only those whom are already on good terms with us and also love us back is easy, and therefore does not need much effort, as loving our enemies, just as the Lord had told His disciples as we heard in the Gospel reading today. Loving our enemies is the first step for us to discover the true meaning of love. Because love is not just giving ourselves to those whom we deem worthy of our love, and therefore is conditional. Instead, love should be unconditional, and we should offer it to everyone. Yes, even to those who hate us and persecute us. They are in fact in ever greater need for our love.

This is a challenge the Lord posed to us, to love our enemies, just as we love those who love us back, and just as we love ourselves. If we love our enemies, then we have surpassed that barrier, which prevented us from truly appreciating the meaning of love. For love is not to be kept within ourselves, and neither should it remain just within our circle of friends and close ones, but in fact should be shared, that it will grow and bring its blessing to many more people.

Many of those whom we are enemies with are most likely just because of circumstances, and many people in this world indeed remain unloved, and lacking love, they are unable to comprehend the meaning of love on their own, and therefore may resort to committing evil things, which inadvertently may lead to them being our ‘enemies’.

Remember that an enemy is a subjective term. If we consider someone our enemy, then that someone, if he or she responds in kind, we will also be his or her enemy, and therefore, being enemies are in fact reciprocal, and from there, eventually it will likely become worse, as seed of distrust and hatred grew between the parties involved. That is why loving our beloved ones and hating our enemies do not work anymore, because, while we grow ever closer with those who are dear to us, our enemies will also, in time, become our more and more troublesome enemies.

Loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us however, is a key that breaks the cycle, this cycle of hatred and enmity, and bring forth a renewed chance at a relationship. If someone considers us his or her enemy, but if we do not do the same, and instead act with love towards them, this may even sway them and touch their hearts, that whatever evil had caused that enmity in their hearts will be erased, and therefore allowing our love to come into them, the love that we receive from God, that they too will be loving like us.

Is it not much better to have more friends than enemies? Indeed, in fact, we should not have enmity to anybody at all. We are all the same children of God, equal before His eyes and presence. We should not let the evil one poisons our heart with enmity, fear, wrath, anger, and jealousy, which eventually is the main cause to many cases where relationships turn sour into becoming enemies.

Do not let the evil one spread his lies and his evil upon us. Be friends and loving with everybody, and then we will finally understand the true meaning of love. Just like our Lord Jesus Christ, who did not pick those whom He died for on that cross. Yes, indeed, Christ died for all mankind, and He offered His salvation freely for all who would accept Him as their Lord and Saviour. He forgave His enemies, the chief priests and the Pharisees, those who called for His death, and who had crucified Him.

Forgiveness and love are not easy to be done. To forgive means to forget all the anger, jealousy, and hatred, and all the negative emotions that are bound to accompany us, whenever we are hurt, whenever we are persecuted and treated badly. But, if we ourselves do the same thing in revenge to another, is it not then we ourselves are the enemy here? We are merely perpetuating the cycle of evil.

Love is what God desires of us, because we are His children, and we are ought to be like Him, and God is Love. That is also what He told us through Christ His Son, and through the commandments that He had given to Moses on the holy Mount Horeb, that all of us should love the Lord our God with all our hearts, with all our minds, and with all our strength and being, and then also to love our neighbours, be it those who love us or those who hate us, just as we love ourselves. Just as it is not right to hurt ourselves, is it not also improper for us to hurt our neighbours, our brethren, whom we ought to love? Especially those in the deepest depth of darkness and those without love.

Let us share our love through our actions and through our words, that all of us will be more like our Lord who is Love, and that we will be able to practice what Christ had taught His disciples, to love our enemies, and to pray for those who had persecuted us, and to bring hope to those who are downtrodden. Be like Christ, brothers and sisters, and show Him through our actions to all who see us, that they too may believe and be saved! Amen.

by

Tuesday, 18 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Matthew 5 : 43-48

You have heard that it was said : ‘Love your neighbour and do not do good to your enemy.’ But this I tell you : ‘Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on both the wicked and the good, and He gives rain to both the just and the unjust.

If you love those who love you, what is special about that? Do not even tax collectors do as much? And if you are friendly only to your friends, what is so exceptional about that? Do not even the pagans do as much?

As for you, be righteous and perfect in the way your heavenly Father is righteous and perfect.

by

Tuesday, 18 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Psalm 145 : 2, 5-6, 7, 8-9a

I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to God while I live.

Blessed are they whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God, Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and all they contain. The Lord is forever faithful.

He gives justice to the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free.

The Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord straightens the bent. The Lord protects the stranger.

by

Tuesday, 18 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

2 Corinthians 8 : 1-9

Now I want you to know about a gift of divine grace among the churches of Macedonia. While they were so afflicted and persecuted, their joy overflowed and their extreme poverty turned into a wealth of generosity. According to their means – even beyond their means – they wanted to share in helping the saints.

They asked us for this favour spontaneously and with much insistence and, far beyond anything we expected, they put themselves at the disposal of the Lord and of us by the will of God. Accordingly, I urged Titus to complete among you this work of grace since he began it with you.

You excel in everything : in the gifts of faith, speech and knowledge : you feel concern for every cause, and besides, you are first in my heart. Excel also in this generous service. This is not a command; I make known to you the determination of others to check the sincerity of your fraternal concern.

You know well the generosity of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Although He was rich, He made Himself poor to make you rich through His poverty.

by

Monday, 17 June 2013 : 11th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we learn how to be true followers and disciples of the Lord through our own deeds and actions. That we reflect in our actions love and compassion that is of the Lord, and do not promote violence and hatred. People then can recognise the presence of God within us, and will know that we belong to the Lord, and may then follow Him themselves, inspired by what they have seen within us.

The reference to the ‘eye for an eye’ and ‘tooth for a tooth’, was the ancient Law of Israel, contained in the Law of Moses, given to the people of Israel during the Exodus. The Law entitled those to whom had been afflicted, an equal retribution to what had been afflicted on someone. While this seems to be a just decision, but it can cause a perpetuation of hatred and violence if misused, as what had most certainly happened over the centuries of the usage of that Law.

If we misuse the Law, and perpetuate hatred with that Law, by the means of unending cycles of revenge brought by the demand for equal punishment for those who made faults upon us, then we are no longer children of God, because God is good and He is love. Instead, we become the children of the devil, because the devil represents destruction, hatred, and violence, represented in the misused law of justice, turned into a mockery of revenge.

Instead, we must be courageous to break away from that cycle of evil, of hatred, of vengeance, and of violence, by committing ourselves steadfastly in the ways of the Lord, in that of love, compassion, and kindness. We should be ready to forgive others when they made mistakes to us, and even when they hurt us, because when we hurt someone back because they hurt us, that will cause a lasting enmity which may simply continue without end, and will end up causing even more problems in the future.

We need to show that we belong to God, and that we reflect the works of the Holy Spirit through our words, actions, and deeds, and not belonging instead to the devil, who works ceaselessly to deceive God’s children and bring them into the pit of falsehood through the means of the world’s temptations that would ensnare the weak-hearted and those without a strong faith in God.

That is why we need to fortify ourselves through our faith, and by living that faith, through good deeds and actions, anchored and based in the Lord, that we reflect Him in all the things that we do. By having a firm anchor in God, we will not be easily led astray and therefore, will not fall into temptation of evil, and will not follow him into the path of evil, that is revenge, seeking vengeance, hatred, and perpetuation of violence, such as presented by the ‘eye for an eye’ law.

Instead, we will seek the truth of God, the love of God, and will aim for a perpetuation of love, or peace, harmony, and friendship among the children of God, that instead of a deadly and vicious cycle of evil and hatred, in its place, we follow a wonderful cycle of love, that perpetuates love and brings hope instead of death.

One may ask, why did then the Lord who is good, gave to His people this kind of law which would certainly have ended with vengeance, evil, and hatred? Surely He would keep away things of evil from His children? That is in fact because of the very stubbornness of the people of Israel, most evident during their Exodus from Egypt, when they repeatedly disobeyed the Lord, to the point of rebellion, so that the Lord had no choice but to impose a strict Law on them, so that they will not stray even further. God’s intention was good, and that was why He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to explain the true meaning of the Law, that it was intended for love, and not for vengeance, and that such laws are in fact unnecessary.

In particular, brothers and sisters, we also need to learn the value of forgiveness, because it is never easy to forgive someone of their faults to us, especially if it causes us pain and suffering. But if we do not forgive and instead choose to claim equal justice and vengeance, that would perpetuate the ill feeling between us, and will not promote the cause of love. God wants us to live in peace and loving harmony with one another, and the first step we must take in order to achieve that is, to forgive.

Once we know how to forgive, we would be able to halt the progression into the endless cycles of revenge and hatred, because we break that cycle, by our act of love through forgiveness and mercy. Remember that although we are sinners and deserve death, and that the Lord hates sin, and yet, the Lord is willing to forgive us from our sins, and gave us even His only Son as a sacrifice to redeem us from our sins, that we can be made worthy for Him.

If our Lord can do so much for our sake, then is it not right that we should also do what He has done for us? After all, we are His beloved children, and children ought to emulate what their father is doing, and there is no better father than God Himself, who is the Father of all mankind and of all creation.

Let us, brothers and sisters in Christ, become children of God through our love and dedication to God’s truth, peace, and love, by our actions and concrete deeds, so that through us, we will propagate a new light in this world darkened by evil and hatred. Sow love with our actions, and we will reap peace as a reward. Let us always strive for peace and harmony. If only all people would know to love one another and forgive, this world would have been a much better place. Amen.