Day: September 5, 2014

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Cardinals Update : Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, President Emeritus of Pontifical Council ‘Cor Unum’ (Germany), turned 80, ceases to be a Cardinal-elector

On Friday, 5 September 2014, Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, Cardinal-Deacon of S. Lorenzo in Piscibus, President Emeritus of the Pontifical Council ‘Cor Unum’ (Germany), turned 80, and therefore, according to the rules written in the Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis, he lost his right to vote in any future conclave. Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes was born in Kirchhundem, Germany on 5 September 1934.

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Cardinal Cordes was made Cardinal-Deacon of S. Maria Ausiliatrice in Via Tuscolana by Pope Benedict XVI in the 2007 Consistory of Cardinals on 24 November 2007, the second Consistory of his pontificate. Cardinal Cordes was made a Cardinal in honour of his position as the President of the Pontifical Council ‘Cor Unum’, the branch of the Roman Curia focused on the efforts of the Holy See in the field of human and Christian development, involved in various charitable acts and humanitarian relief efforts, a position he held from 1995 to 2010. Before that, Cardinal Cordes was the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity from 1980 to 1995, and before that, the Auxiliary Bishop of Paderborn (Germany), from 1975 to 1980.

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http://www.gcatholic.org/hierarchy/data/cardB16-2.htm#707

May God bless His Eminence Cardinal Cordes with a blessed old age and health. May he remain strong in the faith and hopefully can perhaps still continue to work great graces and good works of love and peace just as he had once done in his long service to the Church, particularly his contributions as a member of the Roman Curia in helping the actions of the Holy See and the Pope.

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The College of Cardinals now stands at 210 members in total, with 114 Cardinal-electors and 96 Cardinal non-electors. There are now a vacancy of 6 Cardinal-elector as compared to the maximum number of electors allowed in the Conclave of 120.

Next Cardinal-elector to age out (80) will be Cardinal Franc Rode, C.M. (Slovenia), the Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and for Societies of Apostolic Life on 23 September 2014.

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Saturday, 6 September 2014 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about how Jesus again rebuked the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law on the matter of the observance of sabbath, the day of rest according to the law of Moses. Jesus rebuked these hypocrites for their lack of faith and lack of understanding of the true nature of the Law and sabbath itself, why it was conceived in the first place.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law adopted a very puritan and literal approach of the Law, and they truly oppressed the people with such a strict interpretation of the Law of God. That law on the establishment of the sabbath day was made when the Lord revealed His laws and precepts through Moses during the time when the Israelites went on their long exodus and journey from Egypt to the Promised Land.

We should first go back to the time when God first did His work of creating the world and the entire universe. God created the world in the seven days mentioned in the Book of Genesis, when He made all things from nothingness, creating the stars, the sun, moon, earth and all living beings and organisms, and made eventually all of us humans.

And He created all things through the Word, for six days, and He rested on the last day. This seventh and last day therefore became sort of the basis for the development of the sabbath day in the Jewish religious practice and tradition. And similarly, we too, who believe in Christ, also implemented it in our own faith, by committing one day as a day dedicated to the Lord, that is our Sundays.

Why do you think the Lord made it part of His commandments that is the third commandment, to honour the Holy Day of the Lord? That is because it is beyond just to imitate the example of the Lord who rested on the seventh day of His creation work, but in fact because the people of God was so rebellious and contemptuous of His laws and precepts, to the point that He had to discipline them and to ensure that they follow the path of righteousness.

It was to ensure that amidst the busy things and commitments they have in life, and amidst the temptations and corruptions of the world, so that the people of God would keep closely to His ways and not be diverted or distracted by the ways and the corrupt things of the world and therefore end up in damnation and destruction. God loves us, and we have to keep this fact always in mind. And so much is His love for us, that He always wants to talk with us and be with us, and that is why the institution of the sabbath, to keep this wayward people in check.

But He never intended such measure to be a burden or worse, oppression to His people. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law burdened the people with excessive emphasis on the exterior applications of the laws, and they oppressed the people, punishing them if they failed to do even the slightest and the smallest of the law. Yet these Pharisees and elders of the people truly failed to understand the true meaning of the Law of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we come together on this day to glorify the Lord and to spend time with Him, let us all come to realise how much God had loved us, that He gave us Jesus, His own Son out of that love. And we know that Jesus came to deliver the truth to mankind, that God desires not what the Pharisees had imposed on the people to do. He did not desire empty professions of faith, but true devotion and love, which we can show by spending our time sincerely with God.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, it is important for us to grow stronger in faith, as well as in realisation that when our faith and the Church made it compulsory for us to attend and participate in the Sunday Mass, it is not an obligation or a forced attempt that should be our primary desire in coming to the Holy Mass. Rather, it should be our sincere desire to seek Him and love Him, and also to ask Him for mercy, to forgive the sins we have committed in this life.

May Almighty God awaken the love we have for Him in our hearts, and the devotion we ought to have for Him, so that we may seek to follow Him and His ways in all the things we say and do. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 6 September 2014 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Luke 6 : 1-5

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the corn fields, and His disciples began to pick heads of grain, crushing them in their hands for food.

Some of the Pharisees asked them, “Why do you do what is forbidden on the Sabbath?” Then Jesus spoke up and asked them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his men were hungry? He entered the house of God, took and ate the bread of the offering, and even gave some to his men, though only priests are allowed to eat that bread.”

And Jesus added, “The Son of Man is Lord and rules over the sabbath.”

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Saturday, 6 September 2014 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)

Psalm 144 : 17-18, 19-20, 21

Righteous is the Lord in all His ways, His mercy shows in all His deeds. He is near those who call on Him, who call trustfully upon His Name.

He fulfills the wish of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them. For those who love Him, the Lord has compassion, but the wicked, He will destroy.

Let my mouth speak in praise of the Lord, let every creature bless His holy Name, for ever and ever.

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Saturday, 6 September 2014 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)

1 Corinthians 4 : 6b-15

Learn by this example not to believe yourselves superior by siding with one against the other. How then are you more than the others? What have you that you have not received? And if you received it, why are you proud, as if you did not receive it?

So, then, you are already rich and satisfied, and feel like kings without us! I wish you really were kings, so that we might enjoy the kingship with you! It seems to me that God has placed us, the Apostles, in the last place, as if condemned to death, and as spectacles for the whole world, for the angels as well as for mortals.

We are fools for Christ, while you show forth the wisdom of Christ. We are weak, you are strong. You are honoured, while we are despised. Until now we hunger and thirst, we are poorly clothed and badly treated, while moving from place to place.

We labour, working with our hands. People insult us and we bless them, they persecute us and we endure everything; they speak evil against us, and ours are works of peace. We have become like the scum of the earth, like the garbage of humankind until now.

I do not write this to shame you, but to warn you as very dear children. Because even though you may have ten thousand guardians in the Christian life, you have only one Father; and it was I who gave you life in Christ through the Gospel.

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Friday, 5 September 2014 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard how Jesus rebuked the Pharisees who criticised His disciples for not fasting and saying long prayers as they and the disciples of John had done. He rebuked them for their lack of real and living faith, as well as for their hypocrisy. Yes, the hypocrisy of those who claimed to be the leaders of God’s people and the teachers of the faith, who in fact did not practice what they had taught and preached.

In this we have to be mindful of what St. Paul said in his letter to the Church in Corinth, where he mentioned of the inappropriate nature of judgmental attitude, to the point that being judgmental represented human pride and arrogance in refusing to be faithful to God and His ways, where men prefer to trust in their own wisdom, intelligence and supposed ability to judge others than to trust in the wisdom and the will of God.

And such an attitude was truly prevalent among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law in Jesus’ time, as they being the apex of the teaching authority of the laws of Moses, acted aloof, high and mighty to the point of condescension in their dealing with the people they had been entrusted with. They condemned others and persecuted others who did not conform to their way of teaching the faith, and they criticised those who question or challenge their authority, including Jesus.

These priests, teachers of the Law and the class of the Pharisees are in fact what Jesus was referring to when He talked about the old and new coat, as well as the old and the new wineskins. The incompatibility between the new and the old in this parable of the coat and the wineskin highlights the incompabilities between the ways of the Pharisees and the way required for salvation that is through Jesus and His teachings.

The way of the Lord is the way of love and mercy, that is through caring and forgiving others from their mistakes to us, as the Lord Himself is willing to forgive us our sins and bring us back into His love and grace. The way of the Lord is not the same as the way of the Pharisees, who in their proud, arrogant and self-serving manners, oppressed and abused those who had been put under their trust and care.

And that is why this ties in perfectly with the holy woman and servant of God whose feast and memorial we celebrate today. This day, seventeen years ago, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta passed away in her old age after long suffering and declining health after her long years of service to the people of God who were themselves in great suffering and pain.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta was greatly renowned through the whole world for her dedication to charity work, and especially her care, love and concern towards the poor, and to the poorest among the poorest, the weakest among the weak, and the abandoned and ostracised among the society. She did not show any fear or disgust in any kind when she came to help these smallest and most suffering among the children of God.

The actions of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta brought her to great renown, but she remained humble as ever, and she famously proclaimed that, despite all the praises and the prizes she had received, and all the limelight she had enjoyed, she is merely a pencil in the hands of the Lord, as a mere tool to bring greater glory to God through her actions and service to both mankind and to God. Her actions should inspire us to do more, for the betterment of those around us, especially those who are weak and rejected by the society.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us should follow in her footsteps as told to us as well by Jesus, and do not follow the path of the Pharisees. For the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law acted on their ego and human desires, resulting in desire for self-preservation at the detriment to others, becoming hypocrites in the faith they pretended to believe in. Rather, let us all live our faith concretely and as real as possible through our actions, which must be based on love, by loving our brethren, especially those in greatest need for our love and mercy.

May Almighty God bless us this day and all the days of our lives, so that we may truly live our faith according to the ‘new’ ways of Jesus that is of love and mercy, and abandoning the model of the Pharisees, who practiced their faith in hypocrisy, pride and filled with arrogance. God be with us all, forever and ever. Amen.