Reflections

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Sunday, 10 November 2024 : Thirty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all called to be generous in loving others and to be kind upon everyone around us, and for us to give generously from our hearts, and to heed the plight and sufferings from those who are less fortunate than us, especially so if we are in the position to help and assist our fellow brothers and sisters. Especially as Christians we are always reminded to be full of love firstly for the Lord, and then also to be full of the same love towards our fellow brothers and sisters around us. We should not ignore that calling and the opportunity for us to reach out to others who are in need, to show generous love through our daily actions and living.

In our first reading this Sunday, taken from the First Book of Kings of Israel and Judah, we heard the story of the prophet Elijah who had been sent to the town of Zarephath away from the land of Israel at the time when the land of Israel was experiencing great drought and famine due to the sins of the Israelites and their king Ahab, who was wicked in his actions and who disobeyed God. The prophet Elijah went to the town of Zarephath and encountered a widow there who was struggling to make a living for herself and her son amidst the great drought and famine, and it was then that the prophet Elijah asked the widow for some food, to which the widow replied that she barely had any food left for herself and for her son, which she was going to make for them to prepare for their impending deaths from the famine.

It was then that the prophet Elijah reassured the widow of God’s love and providence, and that she should trust his words and the assurances of the Lord, that in her generosity and goodwill, she would be well taken care of by the Lord, since no one who had shown love and kindness on God’s servants would be ignored or abandoned by God. And hence, as the woman willingly shared her share of food, making bread for Elijah, the messenger of God to eat, sharing from her own lack of food and poverty, Elijah showed her God’s power and providence just as he had said, that the jug of oil and the flour would not run out till the day rain returned to the land of Israel and the famine disappeared from the land and the area. Through this story, we are all reminded that we can still love and be generous even when we are lacking and in need ourselves, and God will remember us for all this love we have shown this way.

Then, in our second reading this Sunday, taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews, we heard about the author of the Epistle telling the faithful from Jewish background and origin, of the role that Christ, the Saviour of all the whole world had played in our salvation, by His coming into the world as the Son of God, manifested and incarnate in the flesh, appearing before us all and showing us all God’s ever generous and tender love, to be our one True and Eternal High Priest, willingly taking up upon Himself the punishments and the consequences due to our many and innumerable sins. Through His ever generous and wonderful love, God has opened the doors of His mercy and salvation to all of us through His Son, through the breaking of His Body and the shedding of His Blood, by which He made us all to be righteous and to have our sins atoned for completely.

And we heard how the author explained that the Lord had done this once and for all, offering Himself as the perfect and worthy sacrifice in atonement for all of our sins, and He did all these while shedding all of His glory and majesty, having chosen to become the lowest and most despicable of all things to share His ultimate and most powerful and enduring love with us, love that is most generous, unconditional and perfect, teaching and showing all of us what it truly means for us to love, to have this love for others around us, to be truly selfless and generous in loving everyone and not just ourselves. And He showed this to us, to continue to reassure and strengthen us, reminding us that He will always be with us, journeying by our side through all the struggles and difficulties.

In our Gospel passage this Sunday, we heard of the words of the Lord from the Gospel according to St. Mark in which He praised the great faith and generosity of a poor old widow who gave donation from her own poverty, a tiny amount of two copper coins, as compared to the rich donations of the many other people around her. In saying so, the Lord was not in fact being biased against the rich and those who have given a lot of money, as those people could have also been genuinely generous and full of love towards others. Rather, what the Lord was trying to point out to His disciples and to all of us is that generosity and love is something that we should never try to quantify or compare. We should not try to compare to see who have given more or who would be rewarded more, but rather focus on doing what we can, and share what we are capable of sharing for the benefit of others around us.

This means that like the old widow of Zarephath and the old woman at the Temple, who have given generously from even their own poverty, when they themselves were lacking, we should always be ready to share our blessings and whatever we have, not counting whether it will profit us or affect us financially, but giving and sharing because we truly care and want to help others. Of course at the same time we should also be prudent and mindful that what we share do not end up causing difficulties and hardships for ourselves and those who are under our care like our families and children, our parents and others as well. Essentially, we are all called to love generously and constantly at all times, to be prudent in making good use of the blessings and opportunities which we have been given by God, be it plenty or little, more or less that we have been blessed with.

As Christians, let us all continue to love generously and sincerely, following the examples of the Lord Himself, Who has loved us so patiently and generously even when we have not loved Him, forgotten about Him and disregarded His kindness, compassion, mercy and love. Let us all learn to love generously like Christ our Lord, and to love one another as He has loved us, and of course to love Him most consistently and with greater faith and dedication as we should have done. Let us all continue to carry out our daily actions and works with love, to be truly exemplary in showing care and concern towards one another, particularly to our brothers and sisters around us who are less fortunate and suffering, those who are unloved and neglected by the society.

May the Lord, our most loving, compassionate and generous God continue to show His love towards us, His beloved children and people, and may He continue to inspire all of us to love Him and to love our fellow brethren as well, to love ever more generously and sincerely at all times. In the words of the Prayer of Generosity of St. Ignatius of Loyola, let us all pray : Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve You as You deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labour and not to seek for reward, save that of knowing that I do Your most holy will.’

May all of us be truly full of love and compassion, kindness and mercy, care and concern, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 9 November 2024 : Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Universal Church celebrates the great Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, also known as the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, the great Church of God dedicated to the Lord, the Most Holy Saviour Himself, and then to St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist in the area known as the Lateran in Rome. This great Church of God, the House and Temple of God’s Holy Presence is unique and special, the greatest among all the churches in all of Christendom and the whole world. And why is that so? That is because the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran is the place where the Cathedra of the Pope as the Bishop of Rome is located at, the place that is therefore the Cathedral of the Pope, the Mother Church of the Diocese of Rome.

Many people throughout the world often have this misconception that the Basilica of St. Peter in Vatican, another great church building and indeed the largest and greatest in size in all of Christendom is the Cathedral of the Pope. This misconception is further reinforced by the prominence which the Basilica of St. Peter played in most of the important and large scale Papal occasions and events, being situated within the Vatican City over which the Pope is the Sovereign, and being built atop the tomb of St. Peter the Apostle, who was the first Pope and Vicar of Christ. However, Archbasilica of St. John Lateran has precedence over that of Basilica of St. Peter, which is undoubtedly the second most important of all the churches after the Lateran Basilica itself, because first of all, it was the very first church to be publicly built in Rome after the centuries of persecutions of Christians by the Roman state.

It was built at the site known as the Lateran Palace, which was a prominent site in the centre of the city of Rome during the Roman Empire era, being also part of the fortress belonging to the Imperial Guards. Then, after Emperor Constantine the Great triumphed against the forces of his enemies, and as he attributed his victory and triumph to the Christian God, he donated that land and place to the Church, and with the tacit support and funding from the Emperor and the state, therefore a great church of God was built in that site, the very first of the Basilicas of Rome, older than even the Basilica of St. Peter. And it was in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, dedicated on this date to the Lord, the Most Holy Saviour, the ninth day of November, exactly seventeen centuries ago, in the Year of Our Lord 324.

This great Church of God is truly a place of great history and a place truly worthy and honourable to worship God, having been set aside and consecrated to God, dedicated to Him forever to be the place worthy of the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Divine Worship. And as the seat of the Pope, the place of his Cathedra, as the Mother Church of all Christendom and the whole world, thus, all of us rejoice together in the anniversary of this great church’s dedication, and we give thanks to God for all the great graces that He has bestowed upon us through this most wonderful House of God, and the many wonderful things and the many souls that had been saved thanks to the use of this great House of God in the propagation of the Christian truth and faith.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel, we heard the details of the great heavenly vision received by Ezekiel in which he saw the glory of God and His majesty, and the great Heavenly Temple where God’s Holy Presence is enthroned in. This passage, which is always used for the Dedication of churches, highlighted the importance of the place to be made as the place of the worship of God, the dwelling place of the Lord Himself, because the Lord Himself will dwell in those houses, and be present in our midst, and from the Heavenly Temple in Ezekiel’s vision, great flood of life-giving water poured forth, reminding us of the presence of God in our midst and in our lives as the life-giving eternal Spring of Life, through Whom all of us shall be brought into the assurance of eternal life and salvation.

From our alternative first reading passage, that is also the second reading for this celebration as a Solemnity, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in Corinth, we then heard the exhortation of the Apostle to the faithful people of God, and to all of us that we must take good care of our own body, our hearts, minds and souls, our whole being, because each and every one of us whom God had called and chosen, and become members and parts of His Church, we are all part of the Body of Christ, and the Temples of His Holy Presence, the Temples of the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Lord our God, the Master of the whole Universe Himself is dwelling within us, and consequently we must make sure that we are truly worthy of Him, for we are all the Living Church, the living stones of the Temple of God, and much as we have consecrated great churches, like that of the Lateran Basilica, we too have been consecrated to God.

Then, in our Gospel passage from the Gospel according to St. John, we heard about the moment when the Lord Jesus came to the Temple of Jerusalem not long before the time of the Passover when He Himself would finally embark on His last mission, His Passion, suffering and death. But at that time and moment, He cast out all the merchants and money changers peddling their business at the courtyard of the Temple of God in Jerusalem. Those people were doing things that were necessary in order to allow people from the various parts of the Jewish diaspora to exchange their money and goods to worship and offer sacrifices at the Temple of God, which could only be done with lawful money issued by the local Jewish authorities. However, what was wicked is the fact that many of those merchants and money changers overcharged the pilgrims and profited greatly from their works.

That was why the Lord Jesus became angered and cast out those wicked people, cleansing the Temple of God from a place of business and wicked deeds, purifying the place to be truly what it was meant to be, as a place where the people of God may come to encounter the Lord, His Presence in their midst. And when He was confronted by the chief priests and the elders, the Lord also foretold the coming of His Passion and death, referring to the Temple that would be destroyed, that is none other than His own Body, to be broken and shared for each and every one of us, and then to be restored and resurrected in glory on the third day, to prove to everyone that He is truly the Saviour, the Holy One of God, God Himself coming to dwell amongst us.

For the Lord is truly so great and holy, that places used for His sacred worship and dwelling place, where the Holy Eucharist, our Lord Himself present in the Body and Blood, in His whole Being and Divinity, must indeed be blessed, hallowed and made worthy of His Holy Presence. In the past, only the finest materials were used to craft the Ark of the Covenant, upon which the Law of God was placed, the bread of the manna and the staff of Aaron, and God’s Presence would descend upon the Ark itself on occasions, and no one could touch the Ark, because it was so hallowed, and anyone who touched it ended up being struck down and dead. In the same way, God prepared Mary, His mother with the special grace and sparing her from the taint of original sin, and remaining in the state of fullness of grace that she may bear Him within her.

In the same manner therefore, all of us must strive to live a truly holy and worthy life, one that is truly acceptable by the Lord and honourable in all things, distancing ourselves away from sin and from all the things that can lead us astray away from the Lord and His salvation. Each and every one of us are reminded that as Christians, we are all the ones whom God had called and chosen, and as His people, His dwelling place and Temple, all of us are reminded to keep ourselves holy and consecrated to Him at all times, just as we had done at the time of our baptism. Like the Lord Jesus, Who cast out all those wicked merchants and money changers, who profited unjustly from their business and efforts, causing sufferings to the pilgrims, we too should cast out from our hearts and minds, from our Temple, the wickedness of evils and sins around us.

And for those who know the details and the events unfolding during the Consecration and Dedication of a church, they can clearly see the parallel between what happened in the dedication of a church and in our Christian baptism, as we all receive the holy water, the light of Christ, the clothing with the white garment and incensation just as the same is done to the church to be made worthy for Divine worship. We have been marked at baptism, and truly clothed with the glory of God, descending upon us from Heaven, God Himself dwelling in us, His Holy Spirit being sent and bestowed on us, much as He has come to dwell in the churches, in the places of Divine worship. And we must also not forget that we have all received the Lord Himself, in His Most Precious Body and Blood in the Eucharist, Him truly being present in us and within us all.have also received the Lord Himself in the flesh, through the Eucharist, much like the Holy Eucharist being stored in the Tabernacle. We are the Tabernacles of the Lord’s Holy Presence, and we should always therefore keep ourselves holy.

We must not allow ourselves to be snared any further by sin, or defiled by all the wickedness of the world. The Lord had made it clear that we ourselves are also to be hallowed and be made holy and worthy of His Presence, and if we allow our wickedness and evils to defile this Holy Temple of God, then we will have to account for it before the Lord. That is why, we are reminded that we should always be exemplary and committed in the living of our faith and lives as Christians so that we will always be full of God’s grace and love, and that we will always be fully attuned to Him and His will, obeying Him in all things and at all circumstances in our lives. We should also do our best to continue to glorify God by our lives, in each and every one of our actions.

Let us all therefore commit ourselves anew to the Lord from now on, to dedicate and consecrate ourselves anew to Him, renewing the commitment we have made at our baptism, to be truly dedicated and worthy of God at all times, and to be holy and honourable as the great houses and churches of God, particularly the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran which dedication we commemorate today. Let us always remind ourselves and one another that we are God’s Holy Temple, the Houses of His Holy Presence. May the Lord continue to help, strengthen and guide each and every one of us so that we may always remain firm and strong in our constant devotion and commitment to God, to be ever faithful and good in everything we do in our lives, for the greater glory of God. Amen.

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Friday, 8 November 2024 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Lord contained within the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded that we are all called to a life of holiness, righteousness and virtue as is expected of us as Christians, as God’s holy and beloved people. Each and every one of us are called to a life of virtue and faith, where we truly embody our faith and belief in God, and showing that faith genuinely through every moments of our lives, and putting the Lord at the very centre and as the focus of our whole lives and existence. All of us must always keep this in mind as we continue living our lives in this world today, so that we may truly be the worthy bearers of our Christian faith and identity, as those whom God had called and chosen as His own people.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful people of God in the city and region of Philippi, we heard the Apostle telling the faithful there about how each and every one of them as Christians, as the people God had called and chosen, and as they have received the revelation of God’s truth and love, all of them are expected to live in a holy and worthy manner, distancing themselves from all sorts of wickedness and evils which would have corrupted them and led them away from the path towards God and His grace. They and hence all of us, as God’s faithful people are reminded not to live in a worldly manner, but rather in a manner that is truly pleasing to God and worthy of Him.

St. Paul also mentioned in that same passage of the fact that all of us are ultimately meant for Heaven, by stating that our citizenship is truly one that is in Heaven, and we are meant to be in Heaven with our Lord and Creator, as He has always intended for us. We were never meant to be defiled in this world of darkness and sin, and we should not have endured all the sufferings, difficulties and challenges that we are facing in this world, as that was not what the Lord intended for us. He had intended for all great and wonderful things for us, creating us to share His most wonderful love with us, but our inability to resist the many temptations of this world and our attachments to the worldly desires and ambitions had led us astray and kept us away fom God and His righteousness.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel according to St. Luke, we heard of the famous parable of the dishonest steward which the Lord Jesus told to His disciples and all the people who were listening to Him at the time. In that parable, the Lord told the disciples about a dishonest steward who had been reported to his master because of his dishonest action which therefore led to him being dismissed from his position. And we then heard how that steward then quickly acted in order to secure his own livelihood after he lost his job and position, by using his position to leverage certain bargains and privileges from those who owed money and things to his master. Essentially, if we were to read more into the actions of the dishonest steward, he was actually carrying out even more dishonest actions through what he had done.

That was how the dishonest steward attempted to safeguard himself, by making use of the tricks and ways that he himself was very familiar with, doing dishonest actions and carrying out those things to benefit himself and so that he could safeguard his livelihood after he was no longer having a job anymore. We heard how the Lord described then the master commending the dishonest steward for his astuteness in his actions, for having done what he did to swindle even more money and possessions from his master by manipulating the debts from his master’s debtors. On the face value, this parable may be somewhat confusing to us, and we may even be surprised to think that the Lord Jesus was perhaps promoting the dishonest and wicked acts that the dishonest steward had done. But that is not the case, brothers and sisters.

In fact, what the Lord wanted to highlight to His disciples and therefore to all of us is that those who were following the ways of this world, those who were accustomed to the ways and practices of the world are filled with the wickedness of this world and its many temptations, distractions and all the things that can separate us from the Lord and prevent us from truly being able to return to the Lord. Meanwhile, those who are righteous and worthy, just and obedient to the Lord, like how a steward should have been to his master, ought not to carry out those things that the dishonest steward had done. That dishonest steward had indeed done things that would guarantee him good life in this world, but that does not mean that what he has done is right and recommended. For as mentioned earlier by St. Paul, that we as God’s holy and beloved people, we belong to Him and Heaven is our true abode, not this world.

That is why this parable by the Lord on the dishonest steward is in fact a reminder for all of us that we must not allow ourselves to be swayed by worldly desires and ambitions, and we must always do our part as Christians, as God’s faithful and beloved people, to be His good, worthy and committed stewards, to be truly good and just, righteous and exemplary in all of our deeds, in everything that we say and do at all times? We must not allow ourselves to be easily swayed by those temptations and desires we have in our hearts, and we should endeavour to put the Lord and His righteous paths and teachings at the centre of our lives and actions. We should not resort to wicked ways and means to fuel our own ambition and personal desires, and instead, we should make good use of whatever the Lord has given to us, His many blessings and opportunities we have received, to glorify Him.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, the question is, are we all willing make the commitment to follow God wholeheartedly and to turn our hearts and minds completely to Him, that we, who all belong to the Lord and are meant to dwell in the eternal joy with God in Heaven, can truly be worthy of everything that God has promised us? Are we capable of giving our best to the Lord, our time, effort and attention, everything that we are in the service of our Lord and God? Or are we merely just giving Him our lip service and our faith merely a formality? This is why each and every one of us must always strive to overcome our attachments and entanglements with worldly desires and all the things that can lead us down the path of destruction and ruin, just as the dishonest steward had shown us.

May the Lord continue to guide and strengthen us in our journey from now on, so that we may always strive to live our lives in the best manner, to be always faithful to Him, as His worthy and dedicated stewards, the stewards of His creation and of this world and everyone we have encountered in life. Let us all continue to glorify the Lord by our lives, and lead by example in our every actions, words and deeds, and in our every interactions with one another, to proclaim the Lord and His righteousness through our own virtuous, worthy and noble deeds, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 7 November 2024 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are constantly being reminded as we have always been by the Lord to be those whom God had deemed to be worthy, holy and truly deserves to be in the eternal Kingdom and true glory and happiness which He has prepared for each and every one of us. We must always strive to put our focus on the Lord and to come and seek the Lord, as He has always been kind and merciful towards us, showing us His everlasting grace and kindness, revealing His love and patience to us at all times. And we should no longer be stubborn in resisting His ever generous mercy and love, the compassion and kindness which He has given us and shown us all these while, but we must always be grateful instead of the opportunity we have been granted and be the good role models in faith for each other.

In our first reading today, we heard of the words of St. Paul the Apostle in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful people of God in Philippi in what is today part of Greece. In the continuation of that Epistle we heard of the sharing from the Apostle regarding his beliefs and experiences of being a faithful and zealous Jew and Pharisee in his younger days, in what was likely addressed especially to the Jewish converts to the Christian faith in Philippi. St. Paul mentioned about how he followed the Law of Moses in its entirety just as how the Pharisees back then often zealously followed and observed the Law, getting himself circumcised and following other tenets and parts of the Law despite having been born and growing up outside of the lands of Israel, in Tarsus in Asia Minor.

What St. Paul then further highlighted to the faithful and especially the early Jewish Christians and maybe other Jewish people in Philippi was that while obeying and observing those Law and commandments were good and worthwhile, but they are superseded and transcended by the knowledge of Christ and His salvation, and of the ways and manners which the Lord Himself had brought into our midst, purifying and clarifying the intentions, purpose and the practices of the Law of God. What was once seen as means to achieve righteousness in God, and which was misunderstood and misused as means to make oneself feeling superior and better to others, like what many of the Pharisees had done in their way of observing the Law, the Lord had pointed out and St. Paul had further reminded the people of God that one’s faith in Christ matters way more than fussing over how one ought to observe the Law of God.

Indeed, the Law itself was in fact meant to lead us to God and to teach us to love Him more, to be more faithful to Him. But many during the time of the Lord Jesus and His Apostles when these New Testament Scripture passages we heard today were written, had lived their lives in manner contrary to the true intentions of God’s Law, and as mentioned, many among the Jewish people, especially the Pharisees among them who put more emphasis and importance in the details, rituals and the practices of the Law rather than in truly understanding, implementing and appreciating what God’s Law and commandments were all about, and how they really should have been observed and lived, focused on the Lord in all things rather than being obsessed with the rituals and details as many of the faithful then had done.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard of the Lord speaking to His disciples and all those listening to Him using parables to highlight to them about God’s wonderful mercy and love, which He has kindly offered and shown to all those whom He had called and chosen, to all of us mankind, who are truly dear and beloved to Him. He used those parables to highlight to them the concepts of God’s mercy and love with themes that were easily understandable by those living at that time, as He used the example of a shepherd who was looking for one lost sheep among the hundred sheep that he had, and also a woman who was looking for a silver coin that she had misplaced and could not find, among all the silver coins that she had possessed. All those were events and things that all of the people could relate to and understand easily.

And the Lord’s message to His people, to all of us was that, if He Himself like the shepherd who left all of his other sheep to look for the lost sheep and like the woman who went through all the efforts to search every corner of her house in looking for the silver coin, then it is the same with Him as well, as He has a Heart that is always full of love for each one of us. Thus, God wants us to know that He would go out all the way in looking for us, His beloved and precious ones, so that every single one of us would be found, reconciled and reunited with Him once again. He would never abandon us to the darkness and as long as we are willing to listen to Him calling on us to follow Him, and heed His call, there is always a path for us to come back to Him.

And that was why He gave us all His Law to help and guide us in our path, to learn how to love Him and to be truly faithful to Him, and to rediscover what it means for us to be God’s holy and beloved people, distancing ourselves from anything and everything that had corrupted and separated us from God and His love. And not only that, He even gave us all His most beloved Son to be our Saviour, to bring forth the salvation that He has promised to us and our ancestors, and to lead us all back to Him. Christ, the Son of God is the Good Shepherd just as He Himself mentioned in the parable to the people, as He went forth calling for the last, the lost and the least among the people so that they all may find justification and reconciliation with God through Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we must never take this love from God from granted, and we truly should appreciate all the love that God has given us. Let us all be thankful for all the love of God, and His generosity in caring for us and in being compassionate with us, by striving to live our lives with the desire to love Him and to obey His will at all times, to do what is right and just in the manner that He Himself has taught and shown us. May the Lord continue to bless us and strengthen us in our journey in life so that by our every efforts and works, our contributions and commitments in our daily living and actions, we will draw ever closer to the Lord and His saving grace. May our lives be truly worthy of God and may all of us be good and worthy role models and inspirations for everyone around us. Amen.

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Wednesday, 6 November 2024 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded that as Christians, as God’s holy and beloved people, each and every one of us are called and expected to do what is right and just according to what the Lord has taught and shown us, to obey Him and His will at all times and be inspirations and good role models for one another. We are reminded to do what is pleasing to God as it is what we are truly expected to do, to be worthy of God and to be faithful to Him, to be the beacons of His light, truth and Good News among the nations. And since we have known this fact, truth and the mission entrusted to us, hence, it is imperative that we have to live our lives courageously and worthily as true and genuine Christians.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in the city and region of Philippi in what is Greece today, we heard of the Apostle reminding the people of God there to live their lives righteously and worthily of God so that in everything that they say and do, they will be good examples and inspirations for one another, to stand apart from the wickedness of those who did not believe in God or those who embraced the ways of the world. At that time, there were many people in the community who had lived wickedly in the manner of the pagans, those who were influenced by the many hedonistic and worldly attitudes and practices of that time, and it was these practices which St. Paul reminded the faithful against doing.

St. Paul wanted to remind all the Christians in Philippi and also all of us who have listened to his message today through the Scriptures that we cannot be idle in the living of our faith, and we should not conform to the ways of the world simply because we live in it. On the contrary, since we have been taught and shown by the Lord Himself through His Church on how we ought to live our lives as Christians, as His holy and beloved people, then we truly ought to show it through our real actions, words and commitments, and not only through empty gestures and proclamations, or empty and meaningless faith that is essentially just a formality. A true Christian is someone who truly acts upon whatever he or she believes in, and this is what all of us should be doing in our lives as well.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard of what the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples and to the people listening to Him, teaching them using the comparison to the planning by those who wanted to build a house or by kings planning before a war so that they could gain the things that they wanted or desired. He used that comparison to show that if mankind can plan well in advance of the things that are to come, then all of us should do the same in preparing ourselves well for what we already know will come for us and will happen to us, just as the Lord has told us and reminded us. We all know that in the end, as we conclude our lives in this world, no matter how long it may be, we will have to account for our lives and for whatever it is that we have done, and for whatever it is that we may have failed to do.

That is why, knowing this, then all of us should very well prepare ourselves and commit ourselves to follow the Lord ever more faithfully in all things, doing our part to live our lives worthily of the Lord as good and faithful Christians, truly faithful in all things and not merely paying lip service to the Lord, and truly embodying our faith in our every moments in life, in our every actions, in our every words and interactions with one another, in our every efforts and endeavours, our every contributions and works, so that in all things, even in the smallest and seemingly least significant things, we will always show true and genuine faith in God, and we will be truly inspirational and good as role models of our Christian faith to one another.

This also means that we should not put the desires and pursuits of worldly glory and ambition, worldly matters and greatness, treasures and riches of the world to be our priority and focus in life, unlike what many others had done in their lives. Echoing what St. Paul the Apostle had told to the faithful in Philippi earlier on that we have just discussed, we too are challenged to live our lives worthily in the manner that God has shown and taught us, and to distance ourselves from all sorts of vices and wicked things, from unhealthy attachments and obsessions for worldly comforts, desires and ambitions, all of which may lead us down the path towards ruin and destruction, as they kept our focus and attention away from the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have discussed and discerned, let us all ponder these carefully as we continue to progress through life. Are we going to continue living our lives in ignorance of what the Lord our God has entrusted and called us to do? Or are we going to embrace His call and to walk in the path that He has shown to us, following Him to wherever it is that He wants us to go in proclaiming His greatness and truth among the nations? Remember, brothers and sisters, that each and every one of us are important parts and members of the Church of God, and our every works and contributions do matter in advancing the cause of the Lord’s missions and works. Our every contributions and works are important parts of the Church overall missions and works in the outreach to more and more people and to bring God’s salvation to all mankind.

May the Lord continue to strengthen and encourage us all so that we may grow ever more committed in our dedication to the Lord, in our strong desire to love Him and to follow Him at all times. May He empower each and every one of us in our every actions, deeds and efforts, in our every encounter with those people around us so that we may continue to proclaim God’s truth and Good News to more and more people with ever greater zeal and courage, through our own exemplary living and actions, now and always. Amen.

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Tuesday, 5 November 2024 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all presented with the important reminder for all of us not to allow ourselves to be swayed by all the false leads and temptations of this world which may bring us into the wrong paths and directions in life, as all those things may hinder us from truly being able to embrace God’s path wholeheartedly and prevent us from accepting Him as our Lord and Saviour, from following the path that He has shown us and from coming close to the salvation which He has generously provided, granted and reassured to us all these while. Our inability to detach ourselves from the various worldly attachments and distractions is a major reason for us to keep falling into the path of sin.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Church and the faithful in the city and region of Philippi in what is today part of Greece, we heard of the Apostle reminding the people of God there to be faithful and obedient to God in the same manner as how Christ has been obedient to the will of His heavenly Father, and just as how He has shown us what it truly means to be a people whom God had called and chosen. The Lord showed us all of these through His willing acceptance of the role that He has been entrusted with by His Father, that is to become the Mediator of a New Covenant between God and mankind, and to be the One through Whom all of us mankind are to be saved and liberated from the dominion of sin and evil.

First of all, we have to understand that we have suffered sin and its consequences in the first place because of our refusal to obey the Lord and as we had preferred to follow the whim of our own desires and worldly ambitions, all of which had led us into this path of rebellion and disobedience, separating and sundering us away from the Lord, from His love and grace. had made us to disobey the Lord and His commandments, leading us to be corrupted by sin, and hence, defiled and corrupted as we are, we can no longer stay in the presence of the Lord, He Who is all Holy and perfect, and in Whose Presence sin and corruption of the world cannot exist or stand. That is why, by our own conscious choice to abandon God and to embrace the path of sin, we have ended up being separated and sundered away from God’s love and grace. Yet, the Lord has never given up on us, and He has given us none other than His own Son, so that if we desire knowledge, glory and power of the Lord that led us to sin, by His selfless giving and show of perfect obedience, He may lead us all back to Himself.

Through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Lord has made available to us the sure path towards His salvation and eternal grace, opening the doors of His rich and most generous mercy, love and compassion, calling on all of us to come back to Him and to follow the examples showed by His Son, to be obedient and humble in our ways, so that through our humility and obedience, we may finally be freed from the dominion of sin, evil and darkness around us. God has always loved us all and He has always sought for the reconciliation between us and Himself. This is why we must not resist anymore or be ignorant of the efforts that He has made to bring us back to His loving Presence. He wants us to walk down this path of forgiveness and reconciliation, and if we continue to disobey and disregard His love, then in the end, we will regret our course of action.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, which was taken from the Gospel according to St. Luke, we heard the parable that the Lord Jesus used to teach the people, in which the story of how many of the people that a man had invited to come to his banquet refused to come and attend the banquet due to their various excuses and reasons, as they used those excuses to tell the envoy and messengers the host sent out that they could not come to the banquet despite having been invited to come to it. Essentially, each one of them were putting their own personal reasons and actions, their own attachments above the rich and wonderful banquet that they had been invited to attend, which they did not have to pay for at all, not even for a single cent.

We heard then how the host was furious at the rejection and refusals shown by those invited guests, and he told his servants to go out to the streets and to invite all those who were there to his banquet, to gather everyone to come to his table where he would provide for them rich and wonderful food and drink. This is in fact a metaphor for our own situation, as we all have been invited to God’s holy Presence, to come together and to enjoy the glorious inheritance that He has prepared for all of us. But many of us had disregarded His calling and generous offer, much like those ungrateful and wicked invited guests that had snubbed the host and refused to come to the banquet to attend to their own personal ambitions and things.

Therefore, it is a reminder fo all of us that if we put our own worldly ambitions and desires, our attachments to worldly matters and pursuits, all these above that of obeying God’s Law and commandments, and if we allow our many distractions and temptations present around us to lead us away from the Lord and His path towards salvation and eternal life, then we shall share in the fate of all those who have refused to attend the banquet that they had been generously invited into. Those who have fallen into Hell and damnation are those who have consciously refused the Lord and rejected His generous offer of love and mercy, and it is not God Who condemns us and strikes us down, but rather, our own wickedness and sins, and our own stubborn attitude, our rebelliousness and disobedience are what will condemn us into an eternity of darkness and destruction.

Let us all therefore abandon this prideful and wicked attitudes we have, be more humble and welcoming towards the Lord and His generous love. Let us turn away from our sins and evils, and embrace wholeheartedly the love of God, the kindness, compassion and mercy which He has generously poured down upon us. Let us remember the love of God shown to us through His beloved Son, His loving sacrifice on the Cross, which He has freely and willingly given to us, so that through Him, we may all have a part in the eternal and most joyful banquet of Heaven, which we shall all partake, and we will all be sharing in the love and wonders of the Lord forever. May the Lord be with us always, and may He continue to empower us to live ever more faithfully in His Presence, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 4 November 2024 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded that as Christians, our first and foremost calling and mission in life is to show love to one another, and to be full of love in us, just as the Lord Himself is all full of love, for God is Love, and the love that He has shown to us, we too should also bear in our every actions, our every words and interactions with each other, our deeds and all the every parts of our lives. If we do not have love in us and if we do not love others around us generously as we all should have, then how can we truly call or consider ourselves as true and genuine Christians? That is because without love, then our faith as Christians, as those who believe in the Lord, it is truly dead, because faith without action, which are founded on love, is indeed dead and meaningless.

This is why, as we all listened to the first reading today, from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful people of God in Philippi in Greece, we are all presented with the Apostle’s kind reminder to the faithful in the city of Philippi that they all should truly embody their Christian faith through their love for one another, and for them all to be truly united as one people, all believing in the same Lord and God, the same Saviour Jesus Christ, Who has saved them all through His most wonderful manifestation of the perfect and selfless love that He has poured down on all of us from His Cross, at the moment of His Passion, His suffering and death. St. Paul pointed out that they all share the same Spirit of Christ, and therefore, they all should love one another, putting the needs of others above one’s own selfish desires and interests.

Contextually, at that time, during St. Paul’s missionary journeys which brought him all throughout many parts of the Mediterranean region including to the city and region of Philippi itself, there were a lot of divisions within the Christian communities especially between those followers and converts from the Gentiles, the non-Jewish populations like the local Greeks and the Romans, as well as many other people and then the Jewish diaspora population, many of whom were also divided in their allegiances and ideals like those in Judea and Jerusalem, and many of them subscribed to the idea of the Pharisees in particular, which championed the imposition of Jewish ways and customs on all the Christian faithful, and the idea that the Jews had the exclusive right of salvation in God, which likely led to divisions and friction in the community of the people of God.

Thus, what St. Paul told the Ephesians made sense as he exhorted them to leave behind all those prejudices and attitudes which the people had held in them, and which they had acted to one another, leading to strife, conflicts and divisions in the Church. He reminded them and also all of us that we must always remain united in our common faith in Christ, our Lord and Saviour, and we should not lose our sight and focus on this faith which we ought to have in the Lord, our most loving God. Our faith must always be centred in the Lord and not in our own ideals and thoughts, our intellects and worldly wisdom, or else we will find that it is easy for us to be swayed by falsehoods and temptations of the world, by false ideals and ways that may distract us from the path of God’s righteousness and grace.

In our Gospel passage today from the Gospel according to St. Luke we then heard of the Lord Jesus saying to a man who had invited Him to a celebration or banquet before His disciples about how when one invite someone else to a banquet, then the host ought not to invite those who are of their own families and friends, those who are close and dear, precious and beloved to himself or herself, but rather, one should invite the less privileged, those who were poor and who had nothing to celebrate with, and the context that the Lord told the man and His disciples was that, if the host were to invite those who were his families, friends, and all those who were good to the host, then the invitation and goodwill can be easily repaid, while when inviting those who had little or nothing with them, it will in fact be the Lord Himself Who would reward those who had done such a wonderful deed.

Again, as with many of the Lord’s other words and teachings, we must understand fully the meaning and the intention behind the words that the Lord Himself had spoken and not be hasty to interpret His meaning plainly and literally as many would have done. He does not ask us to despise or dishonour our own families, relatives and friends, or to only be partial towards those strangers and people who are less fortunate. Rather, His intention as He said this was that, He wants us to break free of our attachments and our constant pandering to those around us who are jockeying and desiring for attention, rewards and expectations from one another. That is how our relationships in this world are usually built upon, that is upon transactional kind of relationships, and the Lord wants us to learn to show true and genuine love, one that is not transactional, to everyone around us, be it those known to us, or those others.

Today, the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Charles Borromeo, a great servant of God and His Church whose life and dedication to God should be an inspiration to each and every one of us as Christians. St. Charles Borromeo was a young noble from the influential Borromeo family and he was a relative of the Medici Pope, Pope Pius IV, who was his uncle. From his youth, the young St. Charles Borromeo had been brought up and prepared for career in law, and he had a good academic preparation and education. And his connection to the Pope eventually brought him to be appointed as the assistant to the Pope, which was common at that time. He was first appointed as a protonotary apostolic and then at the still young age of about eighteen, he was made a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church.

As a Cardinal, St. Charles Borromeo lived a simple and austere life, unlike many of his contemporaries. His connections to the Pope and being a member of the nobility did not make him proud, haughty or greedy. On the contrary, St. Charles Borromeo sought to deepen his relationship with God and to live his life and missions as best as he could. He took part in the Ecumenical Council of Trent in reforming the Church, and he spent a lot of time and effort in trying to implement the changes and reforms, especially after he was appointed as the Archbishop of Milan by the Pope, one of the greatest and most influential sees in Christendom at that time. He worked hard as Archbishop and resolved to reform the Archdiocese which at that time had faced a lot of worldly corruption and laxity in their spiritual and moral discipline.

He spent a lot of effort making pastoral visits and trips to visit his various flocks, reforming the seminaries that trained the new generation of priests and establishing various institutions to benefit the people throughout his Archdiocese. And he continued to be humble in his actions, devoting himself to the good of the people of God. He faced a lot of hardships and opposition, but St. Charles Borromeo never allowed all those difficulties and challenges to dissuade him from doing his best to glorify God and to show his constant love and care for his people, providing for their needs and guiding them through the right path in life, and he was also courageous in his campaign to root out and eradicate corruptions and wickedness in the Church and its institutions, until the last moments of his life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we have discussed earlier and from the life and examples of St. Charles Borromeo that we have listened to, clearly we can see that we must put our love for God and what He has entrusted to us, our missions and calling first and foremost, and not our personal ambitions and worldly desires, just as St. Charles Borromeo himself had done. If we allow those things to tempt and affect us, then very soon we may find ourselves distracted and misled down the wrong path. Hence, let us all renew our effort and conviction to follow the Lord ever more faithful and wholeheartedly in all things, now and always, and become good role models and inspirations for our brethren around us. Amen.

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Saturday, 2 November 2024 : Feast of All Souls, Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Black or Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is the celebration of All Souls Day, the last among all the commemorations of Allhallowtide period, and on this day we remember all the souls of the faithful departed, all those whom we know and are dear to us, as well as all those whom we may not know, but who are all still awaiting for the completion of their period and time in the Purgatory, a place where we ourselves may one day end up in, as we await and expect the blissful joy and true happiness of Heaven which the holy saints of God have now enjoyed and are experiencing by the virtue of their obedience and faith in the Lord, and ultimately, the holy souls in Purgatory will also end up in Heaven as well, as they too are truly worthy of the Lord, but with their residual sins and corruptions preventing them from immediately attaining the entry to Heaven.

Today, we remember all those whose lives, actions, words, deeds and everything they have in their lives had not been wholly good and worthy of God, and whose residual or remainder sins, which are venial or minor in nature and not mortal sins, have kept them away from truly being able to enjoy the immediate effect of Heavenly glory and joy. This stems from the fact that God is all good and perfect, Almighty and all blissful. Hence, no corruption, darkness and sin may exist in His Presence, and in the past, God’s Presence and appearance is enough to strike dead anyone who dared to look at Him, except for the select few He gave the opportunity to do so, like Moses and Elijah. And even so, God’s Holy Presence was so great that it was unfathomable to them and those who looked at Moses after he saw God wondered at the great light and majesty of God reflected on Moses’ face.

Therefore, the Church and the Church fathers, the Apostles and their successors, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit had always taught of the necessity for all those who have met the end of their earthly lives to be rid of their sins and wickedness before they were to be admitted into Heaven. The saints, those whose virtues and good deeds far outweighed their sins and faults had by the grace of God and declared as such by the Church after a period of proper scrutiny, they have all deserved to gain entry immediately into Heavenly glory. But for many among us, whose virtues and good deeds may still be marred by some of our remaining more serious sins and obstacles, we have to bear some period of waiting in the Purgatory. It is not so much a place as it is in fact a state of our soul, where the suffering the holy souls are facing there are caused not by despair, unlike those in Hell, but rather because of the separation and yet to be fulfilled desire to be reunited fully with God. But they are ultimately destined for Heaven. 

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah we heard of the very wonderful words of the assurances that God has given to His people, the Israelites living in the southern kingdom of Judah, as at that time when the peop;le of God and their kingdom had been faced with great challenges and difficulties, obstacles and trials, having been broken in their unity andd scattered, and many among them having been defeated, conquered and overcome by their enemies and neighbours, enslave and exiled from their homeland once again as they had one endured before. Hence, God’s gentle words of assurance and love, and His promise of the end of their sorrows and sufferings, all the words He had spoken through Isaiah must have indeed been significant, and they also serve as a prefigurement for the salvation of all mankind as well.

Then, in our second reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in the city of Rome, we heard of the great reminders from St. Paul to the Romans and also to all of us, a message which our Gospel passage today also reminded us and echoed, that thankfully we have the great love of God for us which He has manifested through His Son, and this love has been shown to us most wonderfully in the most loving sacrifice of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, perfect evidence of God’s ever enduring love for us, that He was willing to offer Himself in the most selfless and wonderful way possible, becoming for us all the perfect and worthy offering and sacrifice to liberate us all from the power and dominion of sin, darkness and death. Through His loving sacrifice, all of us are brought to the perfect fulfilment of God’s love and everything that He has planned for us.

Lastly, as just mentioned earlier, in our Gospel passage today, from the Gospel according to St. Mark, we heard the part of the story of the Passion of the Lord, focusing on the moment of His death on the Cross, and afterwards, from the part of His glorious Resurrection from the dead on the third day. Through this reading we are clearly reminded that death has been defeated, overcome and conquered by Christ, Our Lord and Saviour Himself through His death on the Cross and most importantly through His Resurrection. And that is why all of us as Christians truly believe that Our Lord Jesus, our Saviour has truly died on the Cross to save us, as if He did not die, how can He then lead us through death together into the everlasting life and Resurrection that He has experienced Himself?

And if the Lord Jesus did not rise from the dead in glory, if the Saviour and Holy One of God Himself did not manage to triumph against sin and death, how can we then win against them as well? The Lord’s glorious Resurrection from the dead is a clear message of hope and reassurance from the Lord Himself for each and every one of us that if we continue to have faith and trust in Him, then we must be rest assured that we will also share in His glorious Resurrection, and death will not be the end of our existence, but rather it will be a new beginning and a transition from our mortal existence in this world to return to a new life blessed by God and to be full of His grace and love just as He has always intended us to be, from the beginning of time and everything.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore as we commemorate this All Souls Day today, let us all continue to pray for our brothers and sisters who have departed from this world to the afterlife. And we should also pray for all those holy souls in Purgatory, who may not have anyone praying for them in particular, because we must understand that our prayers are truly efficacious and the Lord will listen to our prayers made on their behalf, just as the saints in Heaven are also constantly praying for both us and for the holy souls in Purgatory as well. And we can see here the beauty of how united the Church of God is, even beyond the bounds of our mortal life and existence in this world, as both the saints and the holy souls in Purgatory are still together with us, parts of the same Church of God.

And we must not forget that one day, as I mentioned earlier at the beginning of today’s discourse and reflection, we may also end up being in Purgatory ourselves, having sinned and committed things that are against God’s Law, commandments and His will throughout our lives. If through our lack of repentance and forgiveness for some of our more serious sins, then those sins may serve as barriers preventing us from immediately enjoying the fullness of God’s grace and love, and which is why we end up in Purgatory as mentioned and discussed earlier just now, in order to purify us in our whole being, that we may be truly worthy of Him, as no evil or sin, imperfection and corruption may exist in His Holy Presence. 

Then, it may also seem that we may not be as righteous and as worthy as the saints are, but we must always remember that the saints themselves were also sinners like us, but they chose to commit themselves wholly to the Lord and embraced Him wholeheartedly. If we continue to do our best to live worthily in the Lord, then one day we too may share in the eternal glory that they have experienced as well, together with all the holy souls in Purgatory. All of us are one Church, one Body of Christ, all united in our love and faith in God, and one day, all of us will worship and praise the Lord together as one holy and beloved people, with nothing else separating us from God and the fullness of His love.

May the Lord, our most loving, compassionate and merciful God be ever merciful and forgiving for everyone who are now still suffering and enduring the wait and expectation of Heaven in the purifying flames of Purgatory. May He remember them in His most loving mercy, and remember His ever enduring and gentle love for all of them, that He may forgive them all their remaining sins and all the obstacles preventing them from returning completely and fully to His Presence in Heaven. And may we all, who are still living in this world be reminded as always to live our lives worthily of the Lord, to distance ourselves from sin and to continue to show care and concern for one another, as the Lord has told us to do, and to always remember and show our care for those souls in Purgatory who needs our help. May they have eternal rest in God’s Peace. Amen.

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Friday, 1 November 2024 : Solemnity of All Saints (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Church celebrates the occasion of the great Solemnity of All Saints, celebrating all the holy saints, all those holy men and women who have enjoyed the beatific vision of Heaven. Today we rejoice in the honour of all these predecessors of ours who have lived their lives most worthily of God and who have shown us all how we should live ours as Christians, as God’s holy and beloved people. And today we celebrate and honour all those saints who do not have their own date of celebration or feasts in particular, together with all the other more well-known saints. They all now enjoy the great joy and happiness that the Lord has promised to all of us, the experience of Heaven, the reward that they have received from God for their faith, their virtues and all the good things that they had done in life.

And while the saints are already in Heaven enjoying the happiness and wonders there, they do not forget about us, and in fact, they are still constantly praying and interceding for each and every one of us in this world. They are in fact part of the same Church of God, and are still part of this same one Body of Christ, made up of all the believers and faithful people of God, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. While the most visible and tangible members of the Church are the ones who are still living in this world, daily struggling with our faith and with all the challenges, temptations and difficulties in life, but the saints are very much part of the same Church and they are also always concerned about us, knowing the challenges and difficulties that they themselves had once gone through and overcome.

The saints of God are parts of the Church Triumphant, with them having triumphed against the evil one and their fellow forces, in trying to destroy and bring them to their downfall. They have triumphed and won a victory with God against their enemies, and have been found worthy to enjoy the eternal gift and grace which God has always intended for each and every one of us as Christians, as His holy and beloved people. Together with them, we are also all parts of the Church of God, as the Church Militant, the ones who are still struggling daily, fighting against the evil ones and their deceptions and temptations, in trying to each God and His salvation. And we must also not forget all the other members of the Church, the parts of the Church Suffering, whom we will commemorate tommorow as part of this Allhallowtide, the faithful and holy souls of the departed in Purgatory.

Let us all now go through our Scripture passages on this Solemnity of All Saints. In our first reading today, taken from the Book of Revelations of St. John the Apostle, we heard of the vision of St. John as he saw a great throng of the righteous, a hundred and forty-four thousand of them, who had been deemed righteous by God, and who had washed their garments clean in the Blood of the Lamb, all those who have arrived into the glory and the true joy which God had prepared for them, to be united as one in praising and glorifying the Lord, together with all the Holy Angels of God, and all those whom St. John had seen in his heavenly vision are truly the saints of God, the ones whom God and His Church had deemed to be worthy of veneration and of the bliss of Heaven.

This is a reminder for all of us that no matter what challenges, difficulties, persecutions or obstacles we may have to face or endure in our path and journey in life, in the end, if we remain faithful to the Lord and true to His path and to the missions entrusted to us, eventually, we will share in His victory and triumph, and we will be triumphant like all those saints that St. John had seen in his vision. To those early Christians living during the time of St. John’s ministry and when he received these visions of the end times in the island of Patmos during his exile there, being persecuted and oppressed by the Romans and the local authorities, or by the Jewish leaders and authorities earlier on, as well as by other members of the public and the pagan supporters, this would have indeed been a truly uplifting, encouraging and hopeful message of reassurance and support.

From our second reading, taken from the Epistle of St. John the Apostle, we heard of the words of assurance from St. John reminding all of us of God’s ever enduring love for us, as He is truly our loving Father, and He has always been filled with generous and most bountiful love towards us. And because we have been truly loved by God, we are truly fortunate, as He has always considered us to be His children, and has always designed it to be so. For each one of us have been created as mentioned in the Book of Genesis, in the image and likeness of God Himself, and we have been made perfect and most wonderful, to enjoy the fullness of God’s creation, to be the ones to share His most generous and wonderful love that overflows from Himself to all of us, and as His beloved children, therefore, He has always intended for us to enjoy forever this eternity of bliss.

However, because of our disobedience and refusal to obey the Lord’s words, will and commandments, we have fallen into the traps of the evil one, who lured us with the false pleasures and attachments of worldly desires and goods, all of which had made us to fall astray from the path that God has shown us. Instead, we chose to rebel against the love of God and embraced instead the false lies and sweet words of Satan, walking down this path of disobedience and sin which caused us to be sundered and separated from God’s love and grace. We have disregarded the great things that God has created and meant for us, and instead sought the inferior and illusory desires of our worldly pursuits, attachments and ambitions, all the things which had kept us away from His loving Presence and from the eternal inheritance and true glory awaiting us.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, taken from the Gospel of St. Matthew, we heard of the words of the Lord teaching His disciples and all the people in the famous Sermon on the Mount, also known as the Eight Beatitudes. The word Beatitude is the same meaning as ‘Blessed’ or ‘Beatus’ and this is because the Lord pronounced a series of blessings for all those whose lives have truly been worthy of God, in how they have embodied good and virtuous lives, full of love for one another and with genuine faith and desire to love the Lord and to seek Him wholeheartedly in their lives. We heard about those who were poor in spirit, referring to those who were humble enough to recognise their faults and shortcomings, recognising the need for them to embrace God’s mercy and love, His guidance and strength, and also those who have mourned and in trouble, being persecuted because of their faith in God.

We also heard of those who were peacemakers and striving for peace, those who seek and hunger for justice for everyone, those who show mercy to others around them and other virtuous qualities and things which the Lord was in fact encouraging all of us to do through His proclamations. All of those virtues, values and actions were what the innumerable holy men and women, some of whom had been declared officially by the Church as saints and celebrated in our ceremonies and liturgies, have done in their own lives, in their own unique ways. And each one of us also have the potential and opportunities that the Lord Himself has granted us generously to be like one of them as well. Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, today, on this Solemnity of All Saints day, while we celebrate and rejoice in the memory and honour of all those holy men and women, our predecessors, it is also an important reminder of what we can be.

All the saints have once been sinners as well, just like us. They had their flaws and weaknesses, faults and mistakes which they had made. If we read through the numerous lives and experiences of the saints, then we will realise that at some point in their lives, they have encountered many of the things which we have ourselves experienced, all the struggles, challenges and difficulties, the persecutions, trials and obstacles we may have faced in different moments in our lives. But what is common from the lives and experiences of the saints is that they all reject the path of sin and darkness, embracing wholeheartedly afterwards the path towards God and His salvation in their own unique ways, making good use of the various gifts, talents and opportunities that He had granted to each one of them, for the benefit of the people around them and for the causes of the Church and its missions.

We must realise that the Church is one Body of Christ, the united Body composed of those whom God had called and chosen from this world to follow Him, and to be His own people. And He had called us all with our own various diverse backgrounds, with our own imperfections and flaws, faults and sins. We are not a Church composed of perfect people without any fault, sin or imperfections, as none of us can claim to be such perfect people. But we are all reminded through the examples and the fates of the saints, who are now enjoying the wonderful bliss of Heaven, that we may also share in their joy, and that none of us are denied this opportunity by the Lord. Now what matters is for us to embrace this opportunity that the Lord has given us and do our best to walk in the footsteps of the holy saints of God, to enter into the narrow path to the Kingdom of God.

May the Lord, our most loving God and Creator, and with His innumerable saints and the Holy Angels, continue to strengthen us in all of our journey and efforts to come towards Him with faith and dedication. May He continue to bless our every good efforts, works and endeavours in each and every moments of our lives so that we may always be committed to do what is right and just, virtuous and worthy of His cause, as we should always be doing. May His glorious saints, our holy predecessors, in their constant intercessions and prayers for us continue to help and inspire us all in our own journey, so that one day, we may ourselves be in their place, to be worthy partakers and parts of God’s everlasting Kingdom and dominion. All the Holy Saints of God, Holy Men and Women of God, pray for us sinners, now and always. Amen.

by

Thursday, 31 October 2024 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are reminded of the need for all of us to remain faithful, strong and vigilant amidst every moments in our lives when we may face challenges, difficulties, trials, opposition, ridicule, obstacles and other hardships that may dampen our desire to follow the Lord faithfully as His beloved and holy people, as His disciples and followers. We must not easily give up just because of these obstackes and challenges. We need to put our trust and faith in the Lord, that He is always with us in our journey and struggles. We must also realise that as Christians, it is likely that we may face persecution and oppression just as the Lord Himself has faced the same difficulties and persecutions.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in the city and region of Ephesus the exhortation that he gave to the faithful about how the people of God should always strive to put on the whole armour of God, which is a reference to all the many gifts, blessings, graces and all the guidance which we have received from the Lord, the gift of His Wisdom and the Holy Spirit, that become our source of hope and strength amidst all the difficulties hardships, trials and all the darkness surrounding us. The Lord has always provided us with the means and the help needed for us to resist the challenges and to remain strong despite the persecutions that we may face. Most importantly, we must always trust in the Lord and be open to His help, as we likely cannot overcome those difficulties by ourselves without God.

At that time, in Ephesus and in other places, the Christians in the community did face quite a bit of challenges from various sources, from the external attacks and obstacles laid by the local and Roman authorities, the opposition from the pagan worshippers who disliked the spread in popularity of the new Christian faith, as well as from the Jewish authorities and groups who wanted to curb the continuing spread of the Christian faith in proclaiming Christ despite their efforts to snuff the Church and the Christian missionary efforts from the very beginning. There were also significant divisions within the community of the faithful, from the disagreements in how they ought to follow the Lord and His Law and commandments, and also the presence of false teachers and heretical ideas that were already rampant even from those early days of the Church.

Then, in our Gospel passage today from the Gospel according to St. Luke, we heard of the words of the Lord Jesus in His lamentations on Jerusalem when some of the Pharisees told Him to leave the place because Herod wanted to kill Him for what He has done in His missions among the people. In His response to Herod and the Pharisees, the Lord was in fact also showing premonition of what He would face and suffer during the time of His Passion, His suffering and death on the Cross, when He would be betrayed by one of His own disciples, rejected and accused by the elders and the leaders of the people to whom He had been sent to, with the people crying out for His punishment and death, even when He had no fault at all with Himself, or deserve any of those punishments.

The Lord lamented over Jerusalem because of the persecutions that He and the many other messengers and prophets had suffered and endured, despite the constant and persistent love and kindness, mercy and compassion that God has shown to them all, to those people who had been stubborn, obstinate and hardened in their hearts and minds, whose sins and wickedness, infidelities and lack of faith had led to them falling ever further and deeper away into the path towards damnation and destruction. God still does not want to see His people suffering and destroyed, and therefore, as we have received such a great grace from God, being loved so much by Him, it is essential and just for us to realise how our sins, wickedness and stubborn attitudes did not help at all.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us are reminded that prayer is indeed very important, as the Epistle to the Ephesians had also mentioned earlier. Many of us have lost our path and way in life, falling into the path of rebellion and disobedience against God because we have allowed the temptations, pressures and coercions of the world to pull us away from the path towards God and His salvation. And most importantly, many of those people have not developed good, vibrant and active prayer life in their daily occurrences and moments. Without this important link to God, which prayer provides us, it is therefore easy for us to fall into the attacks of the evil ones, and to the many pressures of the world to push us to conform to its ways, and away from God’s path.

This is why all of us as Christians must always spend good and quality time with the Lord our God, in silent prayer and devotion to Him. Prayer is a way for us to communicate with God, and through this prayer and connection, we can come to know what the Lord wants from us, from our lives and paths going forward. Through prayer, each and every one of us can remain connected and attuned to God’s will, to His love and grace, and it will help us to persevere through the many challenges and trials we have to face in our journey. We should also open our hearts and minds, to be humble in listening to God, and to allow Him to lead us down the right path in life. We should not be like all those who have proudly put forward their greatness and achievements in life, that they end up being stubborn in opposing the Lord and His truth, as those people who have persecuted the Lord and His prophets had done.

Today, which is also the Eve of All Saints’ Day, the beginning of Allhallowtide and which we all celebrate as Halloween, we also remember all those holy and devoted people of God, our holy predecessors, whom have persevered through the many hardships and obstacles as mentioned, and they did not give up their faith in God. On the contrary, they remained faithful and committed to Him, living their lives and enduring through the many persecutions and challenges with joy, knowing that they have obeyed the Lord and lived their lives according to the path that God has shown them. We should also therefore be inspired by their good examples and inspiration, and remain strong in our own faith, remembering that all those saints and martyrs are in fact still with us, constantly praying for us and supporting us in our journey.

May the Lord, our most loving and compassionate God continue to strengthen and empower each and every one of us with the power, wisdom and guidance, the ‘armour of God’ needed for us to resist the temptations and pressures in life. May He continue to guide us in our journey of faith and life, helping us to be good role models and inspirations for everyone around us by our faithful journey and obedience to God and His will, keeping in mind at all times to maintain a good relationship with God through prayer and other means. May He continue to bless us in our every good efforts and works, our every commitments to His cause, so that by our every actions, words and deeds, truly worthy of Him, we may continue to proclaim Him as always in our communities and among all those whom we encounter in life. Amen.