Month: October 2019

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Saturday, 26 October 2019 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

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

Romans 8 : 1-11

This contradiction is no longer exists for those who are in Jesus Christ. For, in Jesus Christ, the Law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death. The Law was without effect, because the flesh was not responding. Then God, planning to destroy sin, sent His own Son, in the likeness of those subject to the sinful human condition; by doing this, He condemned the sin, in this human condition.

Since then, the perfection intended by the Law would be fulfilled, in those not walking in the way of the flesh, but in the way of the Spirit. Those walking according to the flesh tend toward what is flesh; those led by the Spirit, to what is Spirit. Flesh tends toward death, while Spirit aims at life and peace. What the flesh seeks is against God : it does not agree, it cannot even submit to the Law of God.

So, those walking according to the flesh cannot please God. Yet your existence is not in the flesh, but in the spirit, because the Spirit of God is within you. If you did not have the Spirit of Christ, you would not belong to Him.

But Christ is within you; though the body is branded by death as a consequence of sin, the spirit is life and holiness. And if the Spirit of Him Who raised Jesus from the dead is within you, He Who raised Jesus Christ from among the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies. Yes, He will do it through His Spirit Who dwells within you.

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Friday, 25 October 2019 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture through which we are reminded that we must do our best to resist the temptation to sin in this world because by our human nature, we are always exposed and easily tempted by sin, because as the Lord said, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Therefore, unless we make the conscious effort to resist those temptations, it is likely that we will fall again and again into sin.

In our first reading today, St. Paul in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in Rome spoke of how sin truly is a very dangerous enemy that we have in us, and because of that, we must always be vigilant lest these sins mislead us further and even deeper into the trap of sin. Sin brings us into more sins because sin by nature itself is disobedience against God, and the more we disobey God, the more we are disconnected from Him and become more vulnerable against even more temptation.

But St. Paul also reminded us all that while we are easily tempted to sin because of the weakness of our flesh, but in truth, this was not how it was all supposed to be. When God created us man in the beginning, as well as all creation as described in the Book of Genesis, He intended everything to be good and perfect, unblemished and pure, and indeed He created everything to be all good.

Unfortunately, because of our desire and pride, our preference to listen to the lies of the devil rather than to obey the words of our Lord and Creator, sin entered into our hearts, into our minds and into our whole beings, corrupting us and making us filled with this sin, the original sin. And this sin made us enslaved to it, making us vulnerable even more to the temptations of Satan and his wicked forces.

And in our Gospel passage today, the Lord is reminding us all of what we need to do before it is too late for us, as He spoke of signs and wonders that led to the coming of the time of reckoning, as all of us ultimately have to give account of our own respective lives. We have to own up on all things we have done in our lives, whether we have been faithful or whether we have been disobedient and sinful in our way of life.

He reminds us all that the coming of the end of times is a certainty, while we ourselves completely do not know of the time of that precise occurrence. And in addition, all of us will also encounter death in our life sooner or later, as our earthly and mortal existence is limited and temporary. No one can lengthen their lives beyond what God has willed it. And when the time comes, we have to face the Judge of all, God Himself, and give an account of our lives.

If we have allowed ourselves to be swayed by sin and continue to sin without repentance or regret of the wicked things we have done in disobedience to God, then the outcome for us will not be good. And as long as we allow ourselves to be enslaved by sin and reject God’s rich offering of mercy and forgiveness, there will be no place for us in God. For God is all good and perfect, and the sins in us will be obstacles for us in our reconciliation with Him.

But as I have mentioned, and which all of us should be aware of is the fact that God loves us all regardless of our sins. And He is always patient and ready to welcome us back to His embrace should we be willing to accept His offer of mercy and strive to be forgiven from our sins by sincere and complete repentance. Indeed, this is not something that can just easily be done, as we all know that sin is very powerful in its allure and power, and we have ended up falling again and again into sin despite our best efforts.

Yet, we should not give up, as God Himself is by our side, guiding us and encouraging us on our struggle and journey. We must trust in Him and let Him to guide us on our journey, and not allow our desires and pride to lead us even further into sin. This is why it is important for us to deepen our relationships with God by having a healthy and regular prayer life, as well as by practicing our faith sincerely in our respective lives and capacities.

Let us all draw closer to God and strive to stay true to God’s path, dedicating our time and effort, our whole lives from now on to God’s greater glory. Let us all turn our backs towards our sinful past and allow God to forgive us our sins that we may be welcome into the kingdom of His eternal glory and receive true joy and happiness forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 25 October 2019 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 12 : 54-59

At that time, Jesus said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it happens. And when the wind blows from the south, you say, ‘It will be hot’; and so it is. You superficial people! You understand the signs of the earth and the sky, but you do not understand the present times.”

“And why do you not judge for yourselves what is fit? When you go with your accuser before the court, try to settle the case on the way, lest he drag you before the judge, and the judge deliver you to the jailer, and the jail throw you into prison. I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the very last penny.”

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Friday, 25 October 2019 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 118 : 66, 68, 76, 77, 93, 94

Give me knowledge and good judgment, for I trust in Your commands.

You are good, and Your works are good; teach me Your decrees.

Comfort me then with Your unfailing love, as You promised Your servant.

Let Your mercy come, to give me life; for Your Law is my delight.

Never will I forget Your precepts; for with them, You give me life.

Save me, for I am Yours, since I seek Your statutes.

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Friday, 25 October 2019 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Romans 7 : 18-25a

I know, that what is right, does not abide in me, I mean, in my flesh. I can want to do what is right, but I am unable to do it. In fact, I do not do the good I want, but the evil I hate. Therefore, if I do what I do not want to do, I am not the one striving toward evil, but sin, which is in me.

I discover, then, this reality : though I wish to do what is right, the evil within me asserts itself first. My inmost self, agrees and rejoices with the Law of God, but I notice in my body, another law, challenging the Law of the Spirit, and delivering me, as a slave to the law of sin, written in my members.

Alas, for me! Who will free me from this being, which is only death? Let us give thanks to God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

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Thursday, 24 October 2019 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today through the Scripture readings chosen for this day, the Lord wants to remind us through His Church that the reality of us being Christians, believing in Him and following His path through our lives is one of struggle, where challenges and trials, opposition and even persecution are likely part of our journey as we proceed on with faith. We cannot escape from this reality, and we have to endure it as best as we can as faithful Christians.

In our first reading today, St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans placed it very bluntly before us, the reality of how God and sin are standing on the opposite ends of each other. If God is all good and righteousness, then sin is all evil and wicked, and sin is the disobedience against God and caused by our rebellion against His will. And while sin on one side brings about corruption and death, on the other hand, God brings about purification and life.

St. Paul made his assessment and comments to the faithful and the Church in Rome in the context of how Rome being the centre and heart of the whole Roman Empire was the place where paganism and its practices of all kinds were at the most numerous and common. St. Paul spoke out against those evil practices which saw hedonistic celebrations and even human sacrifices practices in some pagan rituals, all the corrupt and wicked practices of men.

And being in Rome, those faithful people of God were constantly under difficult conditions, being exposed to the pagan practices and customs all the time, all around them. They were also required by law to treat the Roman Emperors as if they were divine and offer sacrifices to them and the pagan gods. Disobedience can mean terrible suffering and persecution, and even death and martyrdom.

But that was exactly what the Lord Himself had spoken and revealed to His disciples as we heard it ourselves in our Gospel passage today. The Lord plainly spoke of how His coming into the world would not herald an era of peace and harmony unlike what some people would think, as at that time many among the Jews thought that the Messiah would come and restore the glorious kingdom of Israel of old and bring peace to the whole land.

Instead, God revealed that His coming would instead bring about divisions and challenges for those who are faithful to Him, wherever they are and in whichever time period they belong to. And this has been proven right again and again throughout the long history of the Church, even to this present day, to varying degrees of difficulties. Some encountered great opposition, suffering and even martyrdom from those who are close to them, caused by their own friends and families.

Many of the holy martyrs of the Church had to go up against opposition from their loved ones, their own family members and friends, not counting all the others who are against them and their enemies. And this kind of persecution and rejection of our Christian truths and values still remain even to this present day where all around the world, opposition and challenges to our Christian faith, teachings and practices of the Church remain and even growing strong and intensifying.

In our world today especially there is a great rise in secularism and in apathetic and even hostile attitudes against the Faith, with more and more people succumbing to this apathy and ignorance of God’s truth and love. Many people sought satisfaction and joy in worldly things and ambitions, in the pursuit of power, glory, fame and material goods and wealth. And God’s ways are increasingly being forgotten and pushed aside in our communities.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, how then do we react to all these things happening around us, all the pressures for us to conform to the general norms and ways of the society that increasingly overlooked, has forgotten and abandoned God for the pagan and ungodly idols of this world, the idol of worldly desires, the idol of human pride, the idol of wealth and fame, the idol of pleasures of the body and mind among many others?

Today all of us should look upon the examples set by one saint whose feast we celebrate today, the famous founder of the Claretians religious order, St. Anthony Mary Claret, a holy bishop and a dedicated servant of God. St. Anthony Mary Claret was a holy and pious man, dedicated in his service to his flock and the people, renowned for his good sermons that drew people from afar. He spent many hours ministering to them and spending a lot of time especially in the confessionals.

He helped to organise the works of the Church in the places he has been assigned to, and he dutifully did all that he had been entrusted to do, including being the confessor to the then Queen of Spain among many others. He wrote extensively on the matters of the faith and placed great emphasis on the growth and development of Christian education and upbringing among the people of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we can see, St. Anthony Mary Claret dedicated his life to God, stood by Him and walked down the path He has shown us all as well. He certainly did not have it easy, sacrificing countless hours to minister to the people and definitely having faced rejections and oppositions from time to time. Are we able to imitate his good examples in life and his good faith in our own lives?

Let us all stand by God and renew our faith and commitment to Him, and let us draw ever closer to Him so that we may grow ever deeper in our love for Him and dedicate ourselves to His cause from now on. Let our every words, actions and deeds bring greater glory to God, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 24 October 2019 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Luke 12 : 49-53

At that time, Jesus said to the people, “I have come to bring fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and what anguish I feel until it is finished! Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on, in one house five will be divided : three against two, and two against three.”

“They will be divided, father against son and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother; mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

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Thursday, 24 October 2019 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Psalm 1 : 1-2, 3, 4 and 6

Blessed is the man who does not go where the wicked gather, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit where the scoffers sit! Instead, he finds delight in the Law of YHVH and meditates day and night on His commandments.

He is like a tree beside a brook producing its fruit in due season, its leaves never withering. Everything he does is a success.

But it is different with the wicked. They are like chaff driven away by the wind. For YHVH knows the way of the righteous but cuts off the way of the wicked.

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Thursday, 24 October 2019 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Romans 6 : 19-23

You see, that I speak in a very human way, taking into account that you are not fully mature. There was a time, when you let your members be slaves of impurity and disorder, walking in the way of sin; convert them, now, into servants of righteousness, to the point of becoming holy.

When you were slaves of sin, you did not feel under obligation to righteousness, but what were the fruits of those actions, of which you are now ashamed? Such things bring death. Now, however, you have been freed from sin and serve God. You are bearing fruit, and growing in holiness, and the result will be life everlasting.

So, on one side is sin : its reward, death; on the other side, is God : He gives us, by grace, life everlasting, in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

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Wednesday, 23 October 2019 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John of Capestrano, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the Sacred Scriptures in which we are reminded of the importance for us to stay vigilant and resist the temptation to sin. Sin is a very dangerous threat to us and if we allow sin to have its way with us, we will end up being dragged deeper and deeper into the darkness and in the end, we have nothing left but eternal regret and despair.

And St. Paul reminded us all in his Epistle to the Romans in our first reading today that all of us truly belong to God, and as Christians, we who believe in God and take Him as our Lord and Master should only obey and listen to Him alone, and not to any other things. It is when we allow ourselves to be tempted and swayed that we end up falling into sin, and from sin into eventually damnation.

We are all called to resist the temptation and urge to sin, restraining the desires of our body and mind. As these temptations can easily lead us astray and make us to forget what it is that we, God’s people ought to be doing with our lives, just as the Gospel passage today elaborated further to us. In that passage we heard the Lord Jesus teaching His disciples using a parable describing the actions of the stewards of a master.

In that parable, the actions of a lazy steward was described, as that steward delayed in doing the will of his master when the master was away on a journey. The lazy steward indulged in all sorts of things, in drunkenness and gluttony, and also abused the other male servants and maids. He thought that he could get away with all that because of his position and thinking that the master would not return so soon.

That was when he was truly very wrong, as the master returned and caught that lazy steward in all of his wickedness and he got his well-deserved punishment. This is something that all of us must keep in mind as we go on living our own lives, as the Lord’s way to remind us to be truly faithful to Him. The stewards represent all of us, God’s people and His servants, just as the master is a representation of the Lord, our God.

And sin leads us to fall astray just as the lazy steward fell into those temptations, disobeying his master and failed to do as he has been told and instructed to do. In the end, the lazy steward met a terrible reckoning as he delayed on and assumed that the master would not have come in time for him to rectify everything and sort things out first. He was wrong, and we can be wrong too, if we choose to follow the example of the lazy steward.

What does this mean, brothers and sisters in Christ? It means that we must not delay any longer in rejecting sin and in turning away from the path of sin and wickedness we have been walking along all these while. We must embrace God and obey Him from now on, for we do not know when the end of our mortal existence in this world will come to us. If we keep on delaying and dragging our feet, it will come eventually to the point when we will regret for not having done something much earlier.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we must realise just how much God loves each and every one of us and how He is always willing to welcome us back to His presence and how He wants to embrace us all with love, forgiving us our sins. But are we willing to be forgiven and to take the necessary steps needed to embrace His love fully by being repentant of all of our sins and by leading a holy life from now on.

Today perhaps we can imitate the good examples of St. John of Capestrano, a holy priest and dedicated servant of God who can show us what it truly means to be a good, dedicated and faithful steward and servant of God. St. John of Capestrano was a member of the Franciscan Order dedicated to the service of God, ministering to the people of God, calling them to a renewed faith and a holy life in God.

He was also remembered for his dedication to God, that he zealously opposed the falsehoods of the many heresies that sprung up during the years of his ministry in the fifteenth century, a few hundred years ago. He went about spreading the truth of God and wrote extensively against the heresies. On top of this, he was remembered for his courageous participation in the Crusade against the enemies of the faithful.

St. John of Capestrano showed us all what it means to be a true disciple and servant of God, and we are all therefore called to follow in his footsteps. Are we able to dedicate ourselves in the same manner as this faithful and holy servant of God? Let us all discern our lives carefully and think of what we can do from now on to serve the Lord ever more courageously and faithfully, delaying no more and embracing fully His ways. May God bless us all in our journey of faith and remain with us always. Amen.