Reflections

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Tuesday, 11 June 2024 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Barnabas, Apostle (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Barnabas, Holy Apostle of the Lord, one of the close collaborators and followers of the Lord, whose commitment and dedication to the Lord is truly exemplary and should be great examples and inspiration for all of us to follow in how we ourselves obey the Lord and follow His path in our own respective lives. Each and every one of us should always do our best and commit ourselves to the missions and the works which the Lord has entrusted to each one of us as His followers and disciples, so that all of us may indeed be active contributors to the efforts and works of the Church in our world today.

According to Church and Apostolic traditions, St. Barnabas was a Jew from Cyprus that was an important member of the earliest Christian community in Jerusalem, who followed the Lord and dedicated himself thoroughly in the service of the Lord. It was told that he sold his lands and property, giving its proceeds to the community of the believers, and henceforth went on to dedicate his life fully to God. St. Barnabas was one of St. Paul’s close collaborators, and went on several missionary journeys with the latter, proclaiming the Word of God and His Good News to many people in various cities and places, enjoying both great successes as well as hardships and challenges in the midst of his mission and work.

St. Barnabas was mentioned in a few occasions throughout the Acts of the Apostles, detailing his many works both together with St. Paul as well as on his own, as he continued to carry on his missions entrusted to him by the Lord through His Church, reaching out to more and more people and proclaiming to them the salvation of God. Many people came to believe in the Lord through the words and the works of St. Barnabas and his other companions, through their dedication and zeal in proclaiming the Good News and the salvation in God. The Lord has sent them all to be the bearers of His truth, and they all devoted themselves faithfully to those missions that had been entrusted to them.

Not much was known of the life of St. Barnabas after his mentions in the Acts of the Apostles, but like that of the other Apostles, and through several indications in the other Apostolic writings and traditions, it was likely that St. Barnabas endured great sufferings and eventually martyrdom like most of the other disciples and Apostles of the Lord at that time. In one of those traditions, St. Barnabas was martyred as he ministered to the faithful and to the people in the region of Cyprus, where he hailed from, and he was persecuted and struck by the opposition of the local Jewish community, some of whom were opposed to him and were hostile to his works and efforts in proclaiming the Christian faith. Nonetheless, through his courage and efforts, St. Barnabas inspired many in faith during his time and even long afterwards.

In our first reading today, we heard of the account from the Acts of the Apostles detailing all the various activities and works which St. Barnabas had done in the missionary journeys he had taken, to Antioch and then to Tarsus, and it was also at this occasion that St. Barnabas took St. Paul with him, then still known as Saul, to join him in the evangelising and missionary works. That was how then St. Barnabas and St. Paul were both entrusted with the important mission of proclaiming the Good News and truth of God to the non-Jewish people or the Gentiles. Both of them were sent with the mission to proclaim the Lord and His Good News to those people, and they were given the mission with the guidance and prayer of the Apostles, with the Holy Spirit leading them in their path and journey.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the words of the Lord from the Gospel of St. Matthew in which He sent out His disciples and followers on missions, both to prepare His path and also to spread His works and missions to more places, by sending them two by two to proclaim the Good News of God to more and more people. He entrusted them all with the responsibilities to proclaim His salvation to everyone who were willing to listen to them so that more and more people will come to believe in God and be saved through their faith and trust in Him. St. Barnabas had done what the Lord had entrusted to him to do, as well as those of the other Apostles and disciples of the Lord.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all also be reminded then of our own calling and mission in life, to be the faithful and committed disciples of the Lord in our own various fields and areas of commitment in life. Like St. Barnabas and his companion, St. Paul, they had been entrusted with the particular mission of reaching out to the non-Jewish people or the Gentiles because of their affinity to those who did not adhere to the Jewish customs and practices, and also their open-mindedness and willingness to reach out to those who had diverse backgrounds, unlike many among the Jewish community at that time.

Each and every one of us have also been called to various missions and works in our respective lives. We have been given diverse opportunities and areas in life where we can contribute more to the spreading of the Good News of God, and where we can be the good role models and inspirations in life in whatever we have been called to be, be it as an ordained minister like bishops and priests, or as those in the religious and consecrated life, or those who have dedicated themselves in a holy life, of singlehood and all those who have built good and loving Christian families, filled with love and grace of God, with their children and all.

All of us should do our best in our various missions and callings in life to commit ourselves to all that God had entrusted to us, in all the opportunities and blessings that He had granted to us. Each and every one of us have been truly blessed that God has entrusted these missions to us, and we should strive to make good use of these opportunities so that through our works and efforts, God may truly be glorified and He may indeed lead more and more souls to salvation and eternal life through our contributions and efforts, just as what St. Barnabas had done in his life and missions.

May the Lord be with all of us in each and every moments of our lives, and may He continue to guide and strengthen us with the necessary resolve and encouragement so that we may continue to persevere in faith despite the challenges and trials we may have to face in our journey in life as Christians. Like St. Barnabas, Holy Apostle, missionary and martyr, let us always be courageous in proclaiming the Lord, His truth, Good News and love to everyone we encounter each day and every moments in our lives, now and always. Amen.

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Monday, 10 June 2024 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of what we all need to do as those whom God had called and chosen to be His own people, to be those whom He has considered to be His children. Each and every one of us should continue to do what the Lord Himself has taught and shown us through His Church, and all the teachings and ways passed down upon us, so that by our every actions, our every words and works, our interactions with one another, all of us will continue to live ever more faithfully in the Lord, and be exemplary in all things.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah, we heard about the moment when the Lord called His servant, the prophet Elijah from the kingdom of Israel, as he was sent to minister to the people of the northern kingdom of Israel. At that time, the king of the northern kingdom was king Ahab, who was very infamous for his wickedness and all that he had done in disobeying the Lord and in refusing to follow the path of God. In fact, king Ahab brought the people ever further from the Lord by introducing more pagan worship and practices, through the support of his wife, the wicked queen Jezebel.

The prophet Elijah had a really difficult time in trying to do his mission among the Israelites, and this is because many of them were stubborn in their refusal to listen to the Lord and His prophets, including Elijah himself, and many of those prophets and messengers of God had been persecuted and even killed. Elijah himself had to evade persecutions and sufferings, and in this latest episode of his work, he told king Ahab that there would be great years of famine and drought throughout the land of Israel as a consequence and punishment for the sins and wickedness of the Israelites and their king. Elijah had to flee to the wilderness as God guided him to escape from the king and anyone who might have sought to blame and destroy him for his role in the famine and drought.

But Elijah obeyed the Lord faithfully and committed him to the missions that had been entrusted to him by the Lord. He allowed the Lord to guide him to wherever he was sent to, and he continued to devote himself thoroughly to the Lord despite the challenges and hardships that he had to encounter and endure throughout his missions. The prophet Elijah followed the Lord and went on to do many great things, despite having to move from places to places, suffering many things, but he did so gladly because he had faith and trust in the Lord. He showed us all the great examples and inspiration so that we all may also follow in his footsteps in how we should also follow the Lord.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the moment when the Lord taught the people and all of His disciples with the famous ‘Sermon on the Mount’. In that occasion, the Lord Jesus presented those who listened to Him with the series of eight blessings, also known as the ‘Eight Beatitudes’, marking all those who have been truly blessed by the Lord because of their way of life and attitudes in life. These Eight Beatitudes are essentially a guide of how we all as Christians should be living our lives so that in everything that we do, in our every moments and way of life, we will truly obey the Lord and be able to commit ourselves to His cause.

In everything that the Lord had said, the blessings He pronounced to all those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are gentle, those who hunger and thirst for justice, those who are merciful and those with a pure heart, those are working for peace and are peacemakers, and then those who have been persecuted because of the Lord and for their faith in Him, all these essentially characterised what we all as Christians should be like. Each and every one of us are called to be God’s faithful and beloved people, to live worthily in accordance with His Law and commandments, to do whatever we can so that we may proclaim Him in our world today through our own respective lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore strive to renew our faith in the Lord and to commit ourselves ever more thoroughly to His cause from now on. Let us all continue to do what the Lord has entrusted to us in the various missions and things which He had given to us, so that by our every actions, works and efforts we may continue to be committed to the Lord in all the things that we say and do. Hopefully our lives and actions, our every interactions and commitments will truly be good examples and we may be good inspirations for everyone around us, for our fellow brothers and sisters in the Church of God, inspiring others to follow in our footsteps just as the prophet Elijah and many others have inspired us to follow them in their examples.

Let us all be reminded of the Eight Beatitudes and everything that we are all encouraged to do as Christians so that by our good and exemplary lives, we may indeed be blessed by God, and by our examples, we may bring forth this blessings to everyone around us as well. May our lives always be the inspiration for others and may we all continue to devote ourselves and our whole way of life, our every moments to glorify God at all times. May He continue to empower and strengthen us in our daily struggles in life, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 9 June 2024 : Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday we are all reminded of our human nature and the sins which we have committed because of our inability to resist the temptations of worldly glory and desire, the temptations and coercions which the evil one and his forces have placed in our paths in life. All of us are reminded that we are all God’s people and we should always strive to do what is good, right and just, all in accordance to everything that God has shown and taught us, to be truly and holy, worthy and appropriate in our lives for Him at all times. Otherwise, how can we truly call ourselves as Christians, as God’s holy and beloved people?

In our first reading today, we heard from the beginning of the Book of Genesis in which the story of the moment of mankind’s fall into sin was told to us. It was the moment right after Adam and Eve, our first ancestors, ate of the fruits of the forbidden Tree of knowledge of good and evil, the tree that the Lord specifically told Adam and Eve not to eat from because if they were to eat of the fruits, then they would die. Indeed, that would come true, because when Adam and Eve, tempted by the falsehoods and lies of Satan chose to disobey God and ate the fruits of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil, they had to suffer the trials and hardships of the world, suffering in this world and eventually like all of us, we have to endure death.

It was never God’s intention to make us suffer and endure death, but it was by our own conscious choice, choosing the falsehoods of the evil one that had deceived and deluded us with temptations of worldly glory, power, knowledge and all the things that we ourselves often desired for in this world. God created us all good and perfect, all in His own image, and we have indeed been intended to a life of pure bliss and perfect harmony with Him forever, but because of our wickedness and sins, we have fallen into this state, and by our own choice we have fallen into this path of wickedness and evil, and we should have been crushed and destroyed for this rebellion.

And yet, God Who loved each and every one of us desired that all of us should be reconciled and reunited with Him. Despite our imperfections and evils, He wanted that each and every one of us may overcome our challenges and imperfections, all the temptations and evils present around us so that we may truly discover the true purpose in life, that is to be in perfect love and harmony in God, to be once again blessed and full of God’s grace just has how it was at the very beginning of time. That is why He has repeatedly sent us again and again His help, reaching out to us through His servants and messengers, His prophets, and ultimately, His own Beloved Son.

In our second reading this Sunday, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, St. Paul the Apostle spoke to all the faithful including all of us reminding us that through Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, God had revealed the fullness of His love and the intention to be reconciled with us. Each and every one of us are meant to overcome the limitations of our worldly and earthly selves. Our human existence and our sufferings in this world are part of this journey, of repentance and reconciliation with God. And the Lord has sent us His only begotten Son, to be the One to bridge the gap between us and Himself, and to show us all the truth of His salvation and love.

Through Christ we have received the assurance of eternal life, and the new life in the Lord, through the Holy Spirit that He has sent down to be upon us in His Church, to dwell within us and among all of us. And He also gave us all His own Most Previous Body and Blood to partake, that by partaking in Him, the Bread of Life, we may have life in us, a new life that is truly blessed and filled with God’s grace. And by accepting Him as Our Lord and Saviour, becoming part of this One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, we have all been called to return to the Lord, to our loving Father and Creator, Who has always loved us all these while, and Who wants to be reconciled with us.

But at the same time, as we all heard in our Gospel passage today, we must also be careful of the continuing and constant efforts by the evil one and all of his allies in sowing seeds of doubt and divisions in our midst, as Satan is always ever busy with his fellow forces of evil to lead us astray and to bring us all into our downfall as he has always done since the very beginning. We heard in the Gospel of St. Mark of how the Lord was confronted by a group of the Pharisees who accused Him of healing and casting out demons from a possessed man because He had been colluding and working with evil spirits, especially the prince of demons, Beelzebul.

The Lord rebuked those Pharisees and told them that what He had done, all had come from the Lord, and it was ironic that the devil and all of his forces, including that of Beelzebul, would not have fought among them and with each other. In fact, they were no less united in their efforts to attack and to destroy us all through their works in sowing doubts and confusion, just as they did at the time. The Pharisees themselves had in fact allowed these evil and wicked forces to tempt and mislead them down the wrong path, by persuading them to oppose the Lord and all of His works out of their jealousy, arrogance and desires. And by doing all that, they were in fact helping the devil with his works against us.

The Lord reminded all of us through all of these that we must always strive to oppose the temptations of sin, the allures of wicked desires and evils all around us, and we must strive to obey the Lord and His reminders to us, that we must always do His will, and do what He has commanded and taught us to do in our every moments throughout life. We must always remind ourselves not to allow the evil one to tempt and to drag us into our downfall, but instead we must continue to remain firmly faithful to the Lord and put our complete faith and trust in Him at all times.

Let us all hence continue to live our lives worthily in the Lord, doing whatever we can so that by all of our words, actions and deeds, we will continue to walk in this path of grace towards the Lord, and that we may grow ever stronger in our faith in Him. Let us all continue to persevere in faith, in our every day moments and lives so that we may not be discouraged by all the challenges and the hardships we may have to encounter in our journey. May the Lord, our loving and compassionate God continue to guide and strengthen us in each and every moments of our lives, and in our every works and endeavours. Amen.

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Saturday, 8 June 2024 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, after we have celebrated the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus yesterday, today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today we recall the great loving heart of Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother, who has loved us all most generously and wonderfully just as she has always loved her Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. From her Immaculate and most loving heart, just like that of her Son’s Most Sacred Heart, we have seen a great outpouring of love and affection, through which she has always patiently taken care of us, as our adoptive mother, who cares for us and for our salvation through her Son.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Isaiah in which the prophet Isaiah spoke joyfully about the coming of God’s salvation to His beloved people, reminding them of all the love which God has shown to all of us constantly and repeatedly. The prophet Isaiah spoke of the coming of God’s blessings and love, rejuvenation and reinvigoration for all of His beloved people, restoring them to grace and honour, after they have all fallen from grace and rebelled against Him, reminding them that after all, they were still beloved and dear to God, precious to their Lord and Master, Who have always desired their conversion and liberation from the many temptations and distractions, obstacles and other things that had pulled them away from their paths towards God.

The prophet Isaiah came at the time when the fortunes of the people of God, the Israelites had been getting very low, as they faced lots of trials and challenges, which were all because of their own infidelities and refusal to follow the path of God. They hardened their hearts against Him and turned away from His generous love and kindness, refusing to listen to the many messengers that God had sent to them to remind them of their obligations and missions in life, in their need to follow the Law and commandments of God, just as the Lord has taught them. They chose to follow the path of evil, wickedness and worldly desires, instead of following and obeying God. They continued to do so even after God has repeatedly shown His love and patience, always having reached out to them to show His love for them.

They persecuted the many prophets and servants of God out of their stubbornness and in their continuing desire to follow the path of sin, and as a result, they fell into their predicament, being divided one against another, and facing a lot of hardships and sufferings, which led to the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel and the deportation of many of its people just around the time when the prophet Isaiah began his mission in the southern kingdom of Judah. But God wanted to reassure His people that despite all these and the punishments that they had to endure then, and would have to endure in the future, God would always still love them as a loving Father, as a Father Who chastised His wayward children but One Who did so out of genuine love and care.

From our Gospel passage today taken from the Gospel of St. Luke, we heard of the moment when the Lord Jesus during His younger years at the age of twelve went to Jerusalem for the Festival and celebration of the Passover. In this quite well-known story, the Lord Jesus purposefully stayed behind in Jerusalem at the Temple when His family went back to Nazareth after the festivities which caused His parents, St. Joseph and Mary to be really worried and went back to Jerusalem to find the young Jesus, and found Him at the Temple. There they saw Him in deep discussions with the Temple priests and the teachers of the Law, revealing His Wisdom and part of His true nature as the Son of God Incarnate.

We heard how Mary and St. Joseph both showed their concern and worry, because Jesus had stayed behind in Jerusalem without their knowledge, and yet at the same time we also heard how Mary kept everything that she had experienced, witnessed and heard in her own heart. This is coupled with whatever she had experienced and witnessed earlier on, such as at the moment when the Baby Jesus was brought to the same Temple of Jerusalem shortly after His birth, and the man of God, Simeon spoke of everything that the Child would be, echoed by the prophetess Anna who was also there to witness the occasion. All these were kept by Mary in her heart, who kept on loving her Son throughout her whole life, the wonderful love that she has shown Him from her Immaculate Heart.

And she would indeed bear great burden and pain in her heart, pierced by the great sorrow which she had witnessed when she saw her own beloved Son suffering and dying on the Cross at the moment of His Passion. She still committed herself nonetheless, following her beloved Son even right up to the foot of the Cross. This is the same kind of love which God has shown His people earlier on in our first reading today, one that He told them through the prophet Isaiah, a love that is truly selfless, compassionate and wonderful, love that is ever nurturing and genuine, love that is ever patient and life-giving. And it is this same love which Mary herself has given to all of us, whom she has taken to be her own beloved children, as we have all been entrusted to her by the Lord Himself, at the moment of His Passion and death, that we may become her children, and she become our mother.

Throughout history, our loving Mother Mary has shown herself to various people especially during time of great conflicts and great hardships in the Church, and through her apparitions and examples, many had been touched by her love and the efforts she had done in calling all of us out of the darkness and into the light of God. Mary’s most amazing and love-filled Immaculate Heart has indeed shown to each and every one of us this generous love which she has always had for all of us. She wants to lead us all to her Son, and as our loving Mother naturally she does not want any one of us to be lost to her or her Son because of our sins, which may lead us all into eternal damnation and destruction. If that happens, then there will be no hope left for us, only darkness and despair.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us appreciate the great love that Mary, our loving Mother and the Mother of Our Lord and God has for us from her Immaculate Heart. Let us all also have the same love for her and for her Son, our Lord and God, and also for one another, so that in all of our ways and actions in life, we may truly be filled with love, befitting our mission and calling as Christians, that is to be loving just as the Lord has loved us. May all of us continue to love one another most generously, and follow the loving examples of our Blessed Mother at all times. Most Immaculate Heart of Mary, loving Mother, please pray for us all your children, now and always. Amen.

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Friday, 7 June 2024 : Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Church celebrates the great Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, celebrating the great love of God which has been manifested by the coming of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour. And this day, all of us commemorate this love manifested not just in the Person of Our Lord Jesus Christ, but also in His Most Sacred Heart, His bleeding and wounded Heart, pierced for our salvation, from which poured out the most wonderful, selfless and perfect love, and He truly wants to share with us this ever patient and enduring love that He had for us from the very beginning, for He had indeed created us all out of His most generous love.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Hosea in which the Lord spoke to His people, the Israelites through the prophet Hosea telling all of them that He truly loved all of them, and even though He had chastised and punished them for their many sins, rebellions and wickedness because of their unfaithfulness, but God continued to love all of His beloved people nonetheless, and He also mentioned to them everything that He had done for them throughout history, how He led them all the way, and brought His salvation upon them, patiently guiding them all so that they might find their way towards Him and follow Him faithfully and worthily.

At that time, the prophet Hosea was sent by the Lord to the people of the kingdom of Israel, the northern half of the once united Kingdom of Israel, consisting of the ten northern tribes that broke away from the rule of the House of David. For much if not most of its history and existence, this kingdom and its people had been rebellious against God, refusing to obey His Law and commandments, worshipping pagan idols and gods despite the many messengers, prophets and guides whom the Lord had sent to them in order to help them to find their way back to Him. Instead, they shut their ears and hearts against those servants of God, persecuted and silenced them, killing many of them in refusing to believe in God and in stubbornly refusing to repent from their many sins.

Yet, God still loved them and all of us nonetheless. He is patient and full of love, and He still wants us all to come back to Him, repenting from all of our sins. God is always ever generous with His mercy, and His Most Sacred Heart has been manifested to us with the fullness of His love personified and made approachable to us, the love that is truly warm and wonderful, the love that conquered even sin and death. Yes, that is what we heard from our Gospel passage today, in which we heard of the account of the Passion of the Lord, at the very moment when He died after having suffered most greatly and painfully for our sake and salvation. We heard how the Son of God Himself had truly died, emptying Himself of all glory and embracing all of us with His most perfect and selfless love.

We heard how the soldiers were told to break the legs of those who were crucified with the Lord that they might not continue to hang on the Cross through to the Passover day, but the Lord had already passed away, and one of them was told to prove and check that the Lord had indeed died. We heard how this soldier, which tradition stated to be one St. Longinus, pierced the side of the Lord with his spear, just as the Scriptures had predicted, and immediately Blood and water rushed out. This was the moment when the Lord’s love has been fully given to us through His loving sacrifice on the Cross, the moment when all of us were united to His death, to die to our past sins and wickedness, and to open for us all the path to everlasting life and salvation, by the means of His Church.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, this was the moment when the Church of God was born, when the Blood and water pouring forth from the Lord’s Body, from His own Most Sacred Heart, came down upon us all in this world. His perfect and most worthy offering had been completed and accepted by the Lord, His heavenly Father, as the most worthy offering for the atonement of all of our sins. Through this act of supreme love and kindness, compassion and forgiveness, God has united us all to Himself, our humanity and human nature to His own human nature and self, truly suffering and truly died on the Cross, the Lamb of God, persecuted and slain for the sake of our salvation.

St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians in our second reading today summarised all these in emphasising yet again the role which Christ, Our Lord and Saviour had played in the fulfilment of everything which God had planned for our salvation, to liberate each and every one of us from the power and dominion of sin and death. Through His perfect obedience and loving sacrifice, He has undone the disobedience and the corruption of sin and evil, which had separated us all from the fullness of God’s grace and love. Through Christ, we all have received a new hope and a new life, a new reality and existence that is filled with God’s grace and love, as we become part of His one Body, the Church, sanctified and made one by the outpouring of His Blood, which overflowed from His wounded and broken, Most Sacred Heart.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this Devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is one of the most popular and oldest devotions in the Church, and it is understandable because it is through gazing upon the most loving and most holy, most worthy and most wonderful Sacred Heart of Our Lord Himself, that we are constantly being reminded yet again of His immeasurable love and compassion towards us. Through His Most Sacred Heart, pierced and wounded for us, we are reminded of every single wounds that we ourselves have caused upon the Lord, Who has loved us all so selflessly and tenderly, so patiently and generously from the very beginning of time, from the moment when He first created this world and all of us.

We must understand and realise that it is our sins and wickedness, our faults and evils, our disobedience against God that had made Him to bear the consequences and punishments for all those that were meant for us. We should have been destroyed and perished because of our many faults and sins, and yet, God willingly took it up upon Himself to bear the burden of those sufferings and pains, all the wounds we have inflicted on Him, so that by His wounds, and through His Most Sacred Heart, full of ever burning and passionate Love for each one of us, we may have the hope and assurance of everlasting life through reconciliation and reunification with God, our Lord and Master.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore renew our commitment to the Lord, by recalling His love for us and remembering everything that He had done for us, all the love that came forth outpouring from His Most Sacred Heart. Let us continue to put our trust in Him and the love that He has constantly shown us, and do our best so that in our own respective lives in this world, our lives will continue to be full of love, both for the Lord our God and for our fellow brothers and sisters around us, now and always. Amen.

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Thursday, 6 June 2024 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Norbert, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of the love of God which He has given to all of us, as He grants us all the most wonderful graces and blessings, constantly reaching out to us and showing us His love throughout all of history. He has loved us all from the very beginning, and He has indeed created us all out of His ever enduring and patient love. He spared us from destruction and eternal damnation because of this same love, and gave us all the perfect gift of love, manifested in His only begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we are reminded this day that we should not take God’s love for granted, and we are also reminded that we have to love Him and our fellow brothers and sisters in the same way.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to St. Timothy, we heard of the words of the Apostle speaking about the salvation which the Lord has shown all of us, and which He has generously and constantly promised to us, and renewed that promise through all that He had done, through the coming of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, by Whom the whole world has been shown the sure path to God’s grace and eternal life. This is what St. Paul wanted to remind all of us, the faithful people of God, of just how wonderful God’s love has been, and how fortunate we truly are for having been beloved in such a manner.

This is why all of us are reminded of this great love of God, and what we all as Christians ought to be doing henceforth, in loving God, our Lord and Master, and in loving one another, our fellow brothers and sisters, at all times. We have truly been very blessed to be in God’s love and favour, and we must never squander the opportunities and the great generosity that God has shown us all these while. Otherwise we may lose sight on what truly matters for us in life, especially if we allow ourselves to be swayed by the many temptations and pleasures of the world around us. This is why we must remind ourselves always to be ever committed to the Lord, to His love and kindness.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard another similar reminder through the interaction between the Lord Jesus and a teacher of the Law who was asking Him about the commandments of the Law and which among them were the most important of all. Contextually, there are about six hundred and thirteen commandments and rule throughout the Law of God that was revealed through Moses to the people of Israel, and the teachers of the Law were those who were particularly strict in following and enforcing the Law and commandments of God, and the teacher of the Law who was asking Jesus might have indeed genuinely be curious on which of all those laws were truly most important one among them.

This is where we must also understand that the teachers of the Law were among those who were so particular and strict in their enforcement of the Law of God, that they were at times very inflexible and rigid in their application, and some among them even took pride and becoming haughty at their supposed better understanding and knowledge of the Law of God and all of its precepts and rules. But in doing so, they actually forgot the true significance, meaning and purpose of the Law of God, which is to bring the people of God closer to Him, and to show them all how to love Him and how they ought to love one another in the same way, which was exactly what the Lord Jesus told to the teacher of the Law.

It is a reminder for all of us that for us to be truly faithful to God, we must be filled first and foremost with love for Him. We must put the Lord at the very heart and centre of our lives, and dedicate ourselves wholly to Him. We cannot be truly faithful to Him unless we can do this, and we have to strive to love the Lord our God with all of our hearts and might, by observing His laws and commandments, obeying Him and glorifying His Name. And we cannot fully do so if we do not also love our fellow brothers and sisters, whom the Lord Himself has loved in the same manner that He has loved each one of us. How can we love God wholeheartedly if we have not also loved all those whom He loves as well?

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Norbert, a great bishop and servant of God whose life and service to the Lord can truly inspire us on how we ourselves can be truly faithful to Him. St. Norbert, also known as St. Norbert of Xanten, was a servant and missionary of the Lord, who was very committed to his ministry of preaching among the people of God throughout various parts of Western and Central Europe, where he proclaimed the Lord and many people followed the Lord through his efforts. He was particularly also concerned about the declining morale and discipline among the clergy throughout the many places that he visited and ministered in.

St. Norbert dedicated himself to help reform the Church and its clergy, in his many attempts to help uproot all the corrupt practices and way of living which many Christians and the clergy at his time had done, in efforts to stem the declining moral and virtues among the people of God and the Church. As part of these efforts, he founded the Canons Regular of Premontre, also known as Norbertians after their founder. He gathered those who were called by the Lord to seek a holy and virtuous life, dedicating themselves to a life of prayer and service. More and more people were inspired by St. Norbert and joined his congregation, and many great fruits were produced of his works in reforming the Church and opposing various heresies in the Church then. And later on as Archbishop of Magdeburg as appointed by the Pope, St. Norbert would continue to carry out his mission and reform works among the people entrusted to him, to the end of his life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through the great examples showed by St. Norbert and his life, let us all be inspired to follow the Lord ever more faithfully and to commit ourselves thoroughly to His cause. Let us all remind ourselves and one another not to be swayed easily worldly temptations and desires, but as we recall the ever enduring and generous love which God has always had for us, let us all continue to love Him first and foremost and do our very best so that we may truly be committed to God at all times and be the good and worthy role models for our fellow Christians, our fellow brothers and sisters around us, whom we also ought to love and care for, as much as we can. May God be with us always and may He bless us all in our every endeavours and good works. Amen.

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Wednesday, 5 June 2024 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today through the readings of the Sacred Scriptures we are all reminded that we are God’s holy and beloved people, and we often may have to endure sufferings and hardships, one after another in the midst of our journey of faith as Christians, as those whom God had called and chosen to be His own people. All of us must always remain firm in our faith in the Lord and we must strive to focus our lives and existences on Him, He Who is the Lord and Master of all of our lives, the Lord and Master of all the living and the dead, the Master of all the Universe. We are all called as Christians to be the bearers of God’s truth and love, and to live lives that are truly good, righteous and worthy of the Lord at all times.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Paul to St. Timothy in which the Apostle spoke of the reminder for all the faithful through St. Timothy, that all Christians, all of God’s faithful and holy people ought to do their best to stand up for their faith in the Lord, to be ever more committed to walk in the path of God’s righteousness and love. Each and every one of us have been given the various gifts and talents, the opportunities and chances by the Lord for us to reach out to our fellow brothers and sisters, to all those whom we encounter in our every day moments, so that by our interactions with them, and through our commitment to the Lord, our pious and faithful lives, we may inspire many others to believe in God as well and to embrace Him as their Lord and Master.

Then, in our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Mark in which the Lord Jesus was confronted with a group of the Sadducees who wanted to question and test Him with regards to their beliefs especially that related to the concept of resurrection from the dead. The Sadducees were one of the major and powerful groups that dominated the then Jewish community, composed of those who belonged to the high priestly and priestly caste, the Temple officials and others who were influential and powerful within the community of the people of God. Those Sadducees also represent all those members of the Jewish community who were largely Hellenised or influenced strongly by the Greek culture and customs. This is contrasted to the Pharisees who were the guardians of the Jewish culture and customs.

As the Sadducees were deeply entrenched in the worldly power, politics and hegemony, and as they enjoyed great prestige, position and power among the people of God, hence it is no surprise that they would have been very worldly in their outlook in life, in their beliefs and practices. They did not believe in the afterlife or the resurrection from the dead mostly because they revelled so much in the life they had in this world, all the glory, power and pleasures that they could not imagine an existence or life without all those things and privileges which they had enjoyed in life in this world. That was why they did not believe in the spiritual matters and life beyond this world, as they focused mainly on living their lives in this world and enjoying everything as best as they could.

But in doing so, they have not done as the Lord had entrusted to them to do. They being the leaders and influential members of the Jewish community, they should have become great sources of inspiration and leadership, as role models for all the people to follow, in how they embody their faith in God and the Law and commandments of God. And yet, by their worldliness and their embracing of the corrupt practices of the world, their love for money, wealth and prestige, all these made them to forget about their missions and what they were expected to do. In the end, they were all the examples of how we must always resist the many temptations and coercions, the desires for pleasures of the world that are always all around us.

Each and every one of us must indeed heed the words of the Lord reminding us that we are called to greater existence and holiness in life, to focus on Him and His truth, and not on the many desires and attachments of worldly things, all of which cannot truly grant us true and genuine happiness in life, and as well as in the life that is to come. The Sadducees in our Gospel passage today tested the Lord with the case of the seven brothers who shared a woman as a wife when each one of them passed away one after another without having any child, and this showed that their understanding of the Law and its precepts were superficial and they were driven a lot more by their desires and attachments to this world.

As Christians we must always remember that all of us must always live our lives centred and focused on the Lord in all things. We cannot serve God and worldly desires and temptations both, as the Lord Himself had said in another occasion in the Gospels. We must always strive that our every actions, words and deeds are rooted in the Lord, and we ought to resist whatever it is that may become hurdles and obstacles in our path towards God and His salvation. Otherwise, we may easily be swayed and tempted away from God’s path and fall into the slippery slope of sin, just as those Sadducees and many others of our predecessors had experienced. The temptations, coercions and pressures for us to succumb to sin are always aplenty, and if we are not careful, we may easily lose our path and fall into it.

Today the Church also celebrates the Feast of St. Boniface, a great missionary and bishop who was crucial in his missionary efforts and works in the land of those who still adhered to pagan beliefs and customs, proclaiming the Lord to all of them and convincing many to embrace the Lord as their Master and Saviour. St. Boniface was born in England to a Christian family and was raised in the faith, eventually joining the monastic life against the wishes of his father. However St. Boniface persisted on and continued with his commitment to God, learning more about the faith and building up his experiences, eventually becoming a Christian monk and priest, and was sent as a missionary in the mainland Europe, specifically in the northern and north-western parts of Germany in the area known as Frisia, which back then was still largely pagan.

St. Boniface carried out his missions and works faithfully amidst the challenges and dangers that he had to face at the time, due to the conflicts between the Christian Frankish kingdoms and the still pagan Kingdom of Frisia. He continued his ministry and gained many conversions from among the pagans, tirelessly spending time and effort to proclaim the Lord’s Good News and His salvation to all those whom he encountered during his missionary works. According to a well-known tale, St. Boniface also performed a great miracle, in standing up against the pagans when he struck down a sacred oak that was worshipped by the pagans then, as a gust of wind miraculously helped St. Boniface to topple the great tree, and the people converted to the Christian faith when they, who had expected St. Boniface to be struck down by lightning, was unharmed, convincing them that the Lord, Whom St. Boniface had been proclaiming about, is indeed the one and only True God.

St. Boniface was also entrusted with the leadership of the newly established hierarchy and structure of the Church in the region of his works, appointed and ordained as a bishop, and he continued to labour hard and tirelessly in proclaiming the Lord. He helped to build up the Church in various places of his ministry from ground up, bringing many to the path of God’s grace and salvation. And in the midst of these efforts, work and ministry, St. Boniface was assailed by a group of robbers during one of his missionary trips in Frisia. He was attacked and killed together with his company, and thus died a martyr’s death. He was also credited with these words, which he uttered before his passing, ‘Cease fighting. Lay down your arms, for we are told in Scripture not to render evil for evil but to overcome evil by good.’ And that was how he and his companions died a martyr’s death, ever dedicated to live lives that are worthy of God to the very end.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard of the life and works of St. Boniface, his commitment to God and his thorough embrace of the missions entrusted to him, and how he had lived worthily as a Christian, and having been reminded of what we must be vigilant against, all of us should strive to do what we can so that our lives may truly be holy and worthy of God, and that everyone who witnesses our works and actions may truly recognise the Lord being present in all of us. Let us all thus continue to glorify the Lord by our lives and may the Lord continue to bless us in our every good works, efforts and endeavours. Amen.

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Tuesday, 4 June 2024 : 9th 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 all reminded that we have to always commit ourselves to the Lord wholeheartedly in each and every moments of our lives, in our daily living and in everything we do, while at the same time doing what we can to be good and dutiful citizens and members of our communities in this world. All of us must always be exemplary in our every lives and actions so that in whatever we do, we are both truly seen and witnessed as holy people of God, whose actions, words and deeds truly reflect His light, truth and love. At the same time,we must also be good and law-abiding in our world as best as we can, as long as the worldly laws are in accordance to Divine laws.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Peter in which the Apostle spoke to all the faithful regarding what they all must do in the meantime as they were awaiting the coming of the Lord. He reminded all of them to do what was right and just, in accordance to the things that the Lord had taught them and led them through the Church. They must still continue to carry on living their lives worthily in the Lord and not to be idle or ignorant of their missions in life, and at the same time also reminding them to be careful and vigilant that they might not be tempted and swayed by the false teachings and ideas by those who might attempt to mislead them down the wrong path in life.

We must understand the context of what the early Christians perceived and understood so that we may understand better of what we have heard in that passage today. At that time, there was a general understanding and anticipation that the Lord’s Second Coming, which He Himself had pronounced and proclaimed, would come really very soon, and that it might probably even happen within one’s lifetime. Consequently, some among the faithful people of God and the Church might have thought that they, who had been assured of salvation in the Lord, ought to withdraw from public and worldly life, awaiting for the Lord’s return.

But St. Peter clearly stated and explained that this was not what they were all supposed to do. Regardless when the Lord would indeed come again, each and every one of the people of God and the Church must still continue to carry out whatever missions that the Lord had entrusted to them. Indeed, the Lord had entrusted to them very important mission that is to reach out to the people of all the nations, and to go forth to the ends of the earth, proclaiming the Good News and salvation of God to everyone. That is why, each and every one of the people of God must still continue to do their best to live truly holy and worthy lives in all circumstances, as best as they could.

At the same time, withdrawing from the world would also not be a good idea as this would have resulted in even greater difficulties and challenges for the nascent Christian community at that time. There were persecutions and trials facing the Church even from its earliest days, from both the Jewish and the Roman authorities, and from other local government figures and systems that saw the early Christians with great suspicion and even hostility. Some of the accusations were that the Christians were not obeying the laws and rules as they should have done, and thus, they were persecuted. But many of them indeed suffered because they remained true to their faith against those laws, rules and regulations which went against their faith in God, such as the order to offer sacrifices to the pagan gods and to the Emperor.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the moment when the Lord and His disciples were faced with question from the Pharisees who wanted to test the Lord and potentially trap Him with the question regarding whether one should pay their taxes to Caesar or the Roman Emperor or not. At the time, this was indeed a very risky and politically charged issue which would have led to great trouble for the Lord and His disciples if that question was not answered in the right way. First of all, if the Lord had told the Pharisees that they all should pay the taxes to Caesar, then the latter could have assigned blame to the Lord as traitors to the people, as back then, Roman taxes were widely hated and despised by the people, who saw those taxes as sign of oppression.

On the other hand, should the Lord mention that the people do not need or should not pay the taxes to Caesar, then the Pharisees could then accuse Him to the Romans of wanting to incite rebellion against them, as they eventually did against Him during the time of His Passion, His suffering and death on Good Friday. The Romans took particular emphasis on all those who went against their authority and rule, oppressing and punishing harshly all those who attempted insurrection and rebellion against them. As such, we can see that the Lord was faced with problems no matter what he decided to do. But, He wisely and wonderfully settled it, by saying to the Pharisees that one ought to pay to Caesar what belonged to Caesar, and to God what belonged to God.

The coins that the people used to pay for their Roman taxes were minted by the Romans and were engraved with the image of the Roman Emperors, and hence, they indeed belonged to the Roman Emperors. Therefore, it is indeed lawful to pay what was due to the Caesars, just as one ought to pay what was due to God. And the latter was a reference and intention for the Lord to tell all of us to give our best to the Lord. Since all of us belong to the Lord, our Master and Creator, we must always strive to give Him the best of our lives, our every efforts to proclaim Him and His truth, to live worthily at all times, just as St. Peter had reminded the faithful earlier on as we heard in our first reading today. We must always strive to proclaim the Good News of God through our exemplary lives, and part of this is by our fulfilment of our obligations as citizens of our respective states in this world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore do what we can so that in each and every one of our actions in life, we may always be truly committed and faithful to the Lord, to give our best to Him, just as we live our lives dutifully as the citizens and members of the states and countries of this world. Let our lives and examples be great inspirations and role models for everyone else all around us, so that we may show the path of righteousness and virtue to everyone whom we encounter, and that we may help one another to come ever closer to God and His salvation. May the Lord be with us always, and be with His Church, empower and strengthen us to live ever more worthily in His Presence, now and always. Amen.

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Monday, 3 June 2024 : 9th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded that each and every one of us are called to a truly holy and worthy existence, one that is truly blessed by God, that in our every words, actions and deeds, in our every dealings and interactions with one another, we will always continue to do what is right according to what the Lord has taught and shown us. As Christians, that is as those who have professed our faith in the Lord and have embraced Him as our God and Saviour, each and every one of us must always be exemplary and inspirational in how we all carry out our actions throughout our respective lives. We must also be wary lest we may be tempted by those pleasures, coercions and temptations present all around us which may mislead us down the wrong path.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Epistle of St. Peter in which the Apostle spoke to the faithful regarding the need for all of them to follow the Lord and commit themselves to the path of Christian living, in doing what God has called them to do. This is because as St. Peter himself had explained and elaborated, all of us have shared in His divine nature and we are all indeed created in His image and likeness, and as His beloved children and chosen people, all of us truly should live our lives worthily and be holy just as our Lord Himself is holy. It is crucial that we must be Christians that are truly committed to God and truly genuine in our Christian living. Otherwise, we will end up being hypocrites and no better than unbelievers and pagans, if we do not truly live our lives in accordance to our faith.

Especially if we call ourselves as Christians and have known the way and the truth of God, and yet, we have allowed ourselves to be deluded and swayed by the evils of this world, by the corruptions of worldly pleasures and desires, all of which could lead us to actions that are contrary to God’s path and teachings. Many of our own predecessors have shown us of what could happen if we choose to follow those temptations and if we succumb to the forces of evil and darkness, to the temptations of power, glory and worldly comforts and pleasures. We cannot truly call ourselves as Christians if we have chosen this path, and not only that, but we may even scandalise our faith and sully the Holy Name of God and His Church, as many of our predecessors had done.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the teaching that the Lord Jesus gave to His disciples through the parable of the evil tenants and the landowner of a field. In that parable, the Lord told His disciples about the story of how those evil tenants refused to pay their rental dues, and how they went to the great lengths even to resist the landowner and all the servants that he had sent to them to remind them of their obligations, going as far as to persecute the servants and to made their lives difficult, and finally, killing them, and lastly, even killing the son of the landowner, whom the latter had sent hoping that the evil tenants would listen to his son.

This parable was clearly referring to the way how the people of God treated His servants, the prophets and messengers of God and finally, His own beloved Son, Jesus Christ Himself. Therefore, the Lord was in fact making a premonition and predicting everything that He Himself would have to endure and to suffer from because of the stubbornness of those who continued to doubt Him and refusing to listen to Him and His words. Those evil tenants represent the people of this world, while the landowner himself represents God, Who had entrusted this world to us, and we are indeed His stewards and the guardians of His Creation. To each and every one of us He has entrusted to us this world with all of its obligations and responsibilities.

However, just as we have heard from the Gospel passage and the parable story, those evil tenants had grown greedy from their possession of the fields, and refused to give their dues, which represent our own human greed and inability to resist the temptations of worldly pleasures, glory, fame and ambition, all of which had dragged so many people into the path of ruin and destruction. Those people had refused to obey the Lord because their hearts and minds had been corrupted by the temptations of the world, and by the allures of the false pleasures and joys which deluded them into the wrong paths. As such, we are reminded that we should not follow this same path in our own lives. We are all again called to be holy just as the Lord is holy.

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Charles Lwanga and his companions in martyrdom, the Holy Martyrs of Uganda. St. Charles Lwanga himself was an important official in the Kingdom of Buganda in what is now part of Uganda, where the Christian missionaries had been active during the time of his life and martyrdom, proclaiming the Good News, truth and salvation in God to the people there who were then still mostly pagans. At the time, more and more people began to embrace the Christian faith, as well as abandoning the wicked practices of their past pagan beliefs and customs, and this brought about tension within the Kingdom, between those who still upheld the pagan ways and those who have embraced the Christian faith.

The then King of Buganda ordered the massacre of Christian missionaries and persecutions of Christians throughout his domain. He was also infamously renowned for his immoral behaviours and actions, which led to St. Charles Lwanga, who had secretly converted to the Christian faith, to take many of the Christian converts under his protection, finding ways to hide them from the persecutions by the authorities. St. Charles Lwanga also spread the faith among the people, teaching quite a few of them about the Lord and the Christian faith, and not few were baptised by him and the other missionaries. Eventually, this led to him suffering for his actions and courage in defending his faith.

St. Charles Lwanga stood by his faith and refused to renounce his faith when confronted by the King who ordered that all of his servants and court pages to renounce Christianity if they had become a convert to the faith. Thus, St. Charles Lwanga and others who have embraced the Lord were put to great sufferings and torture, and was eventually martyred by burning at the stake at the site of Namugongo, where a great Basilica and church now stands, marking the place where these faithful servants of God committed themselves to the very end, against the temptations of worldly comforts and glory, and chose to side with the Lord, His truth and love.

Through the examples and the inspirations from the story of the Holy Ugandan Martyrs, St. Charles Lwanga and his many companions in martyrdom, let us all therefore live our lives from now on to the fullest, in the best way possible as those who are committed to the Lord, devoting ourselves in each and every moments to glorify the Lord by our lives, to live in a holy and worthy way so that by our every actions, deeds and interactions with one another, we may always truly proclaim the Lord at all times, and be the shining beacons of His light, truth, love and Good News in this world, as we have all been called to do.

May the Lord continue to bless us all in all of our every good works, efforts and endeavours. May He empower each and every one of us so that by our good examples and actions, we will continue to shine forth with the light of faith, helping many around us to come to the fullness of God’s love and grace. May God be with us all, His beloved people, His Church and flock. Amen.

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Sunday, 2 June 2024 : Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the great occasion of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, also known as Corpus Christi, marking just like last Sunday’s Trinity Sunday, a very important and core tenet of our Christian faith and beliefs. All of us as Christians believe that the Holy Eucharist, which we celebrate at the Holy Mass or more appropriately, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, is none other than the Most Holy and Precious Body and Blood of Our Lord Himself. This is the belief in the Doctrine of the Transubstantiation, one of the core tenets of the Christian faith, that God has given us all His own Most Holy and Precious Body and Blood for our salvation, through the New and Eternal Covenant He had established with us.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Exodus of the words of Moses, the leader of the Israelites during the time of their Exodus from Egypt and their journey towards the Promised Land of Canaan, who spoke to the Israelites regarding the great and most wonderful love which God has shown to His people in all that He had done for them, and this culminated with the Covenant which He established anew with all of His people at the holy mountain of God, Mount Sinai, where the people of Israel had journeyed towards. There at the holy mountain, through Moses, the Covenant between God and His people was sealed and established, by the sacrifice and the outpouring of the blood of a sacrificial lamb upon the altar.

This was in fact a prefigurement of what would happen much later on, mentioned in our second reading today from the Epistle to the Hebrews. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews often linked the Lord Jesus to the role of the High Priest for indeed, Christ is the one and only True, Eternal High Priest for all mankind. Why is this so? This is because by His Passion, His sufferings and His trials, His crucifixion and ultimately His death on the Cross, our Lord has willingly offered the perfect and only worthy offering to the Lord for our salvation and redemption. In the past, the sacrifice and the outpouring of the blood of the animals like lambs were used to represent the redemption and forgiveness of God for the sins of His people.

However, the blood of the lambs alone would not have been enough to redeem all of mankind for all their innumerable sins and faults, and that was why the sacrificial and sin offerings were repeatedly done again and again by the priests and the high priests who offered them for the sake of the people of God. But God had promised His salvation to all of His people, telling and reassuring them all that one day He would send His Saviour, Who would deliver them all from their sins, much as how He has once delivered them and freed them from the hands of the Pharaoh and the Egyptians, leading them to freedom and bringing them to the Promised Land where He settled them and made them to dwell in peace.

Again all of those were prefigurement of the salvation that is to come for all of us, the whole people, all the children of mankind. For through His Beloved Son, His only Begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Eternal High Priest, He showed us all the sure path to eternal life and salvation, because by His offering of the perfect and most worthy offering, which is worth all of the immense and unimaginably great extent of our many sins and wickedness, of all mankind that has, is and will ever exist, from the beginning to the end of time, He has redeemed all of us, once and for all through this supreme act of sacrifice and offering. And what is this perfect and most worthy offering, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is none other than His own Most Precious Body and Blood, the Body and Blood of the Lamb of God, broken and outpoured upon us from the Altar of the Cross. Through His Precious Body and Blood, Christ has made with us all, a New and Eternal Covenant between us and God.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the account from the Gospel of St. Mark of the Institution of the Holy Eucharist during the Last Supper, which happened just before the Lord was to begin His Passion, His suffering and death. He gave His disciples the bread that He has blessed, prayed over and broken up, sharing with them His own Most Holy and Precious Body, with the words, ‘Take this. It is My Body.’ And afterwards, He also shared the chalice or cup filled with the wine He has also blessed, and told them that that wine is His Blood, the Blood of the New Covenant.’ When the Lord said this to His disciples, He truly meant it as He said that the bread is His Body and the wine is His Blood.

He never meant for the bread and wine to be merely symbolic or memorial representation of His Body and Blood and His Sacrifice on the Cross. He literally and truly meant that the disciples, and all of His Church, are truly consuming, partaking and having His own Precious Body and Blood, the Body and Blood of the Lamb of God, the Bread of Life, Who would soon suffer and endure the most bitter and painful sufferings for their sake, for all of us, so that by His willing sacrifice, He might provide for us the sure path to salvation and eternal life, breaking forever the chains of sin and death that had dominated over us from the beginning of time. This is also what He meant when earlier on during the discourse on the Bread of Life, the Lord also said that His Body is truly food and His Blood is truly drink, and all those who partake of the Bread of Life, of His Body and Blood, will never perish but have eternal life.

This is why from the very earliest beginnings and history of the Church, the Church fathers from the Apostles and their successors, throughout time and history and right down to this present moment have all preserved this core belief and tenet in the Real Presence of the Lord in the Holy Eucharist, that in each and every celebration of the Holy Mass, the bread and wine have indeed been turned by the power of God through the Holy Spirit, through the hands and prayers of His priests, to be the very essence and reality of His own Most Precious Body and His Most Precious Blood, although in appearance, they may still appear as bread and wine to our senses. Through our faith in Him, we believe that what we partake is none other than the Lord Himself.

But it is also important that we understand that each and every celebrations of the Holy Mass, unlike what some people outside and even within the Church had misunderstood and misrepresented, are not the repetitions of the sacrifice of the Lord at Calvary. Instead, every time the Holy Mass is celebrated, it is exactly the same Sacrifice that the Lord has offered and given to us at Calvary, at the moment of His Passion, His suffering and death on His Cross. What the Church fathers and the early Christians, and all of our predecessors in faith throughout time had partaken in the Holy Eucharist, is the same Precious Body and Precious Blood of the Lord just as what we have partaken and received, and all of us share in this Holy Communion, uniting all of us in this One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, the Body of Christ and Kingdom of God on earth.

The Lord has instituted the Holy Eucharist and also the Ministerial Priesthood at the Last Supper, to perpetuate this celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, so that by the power that He had granted to those whom He had chosen, and to their successors, the bishops and priests throughout time and history, right up to this day, at every celebration of the Holy Mass, the bread and wine have indeed been consecrated and transformed into the essence and reality of His own Body and Blood, which we believe as the Doctrine of Transubstantiation. When the Lord asked His disciples to ‘do this in the memory of Me’, some misunderstood that the celebration of the Eucharist is a mere symbol or memory, but the reality is that, each celebration is indeed meant to bring unto us the Sacrifice of the Lord at Calvary, and we all truly partake His Body and Blood, not merely having a symbol of His loving sacrifice.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we commemorate this great Solemnity of the Most Holy and Precious Body and Blood of Christ or Corpus Christi, let us all reflect on how much we truly believe in the Real Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. The sad and unfortunate reality in our Church today is that, many even within the Church had no longer believed in the Real Presence, and the belief in the doctrine of Transubstantiation and the Real Presence have been steadily slipping to an all-time low. Many of us treated the Lord and His Real Presence with indifference and lack of reverence and faith. We often treat the Eucharist as nothing more than bread and wine, and we lack the proper reverence and respect, honour and worship of the Lord’s Real Presence.

That partly explain why increasingly there are more and more lapses from among us in the Church, as we steadily and continuously losing people to the world, to the many temptations present around us, and many others do not believe in the Real Presence in the Lord either, especially those who have not believed in God, whenever they see us treating the Eucharist with indifference and lack of respect and proper adoration. That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, today, let us all renew our commitment to the Lord, remembering the New and Eternal Covenant that He Himself has made and sealed with us all by the breaking of His own Holy and Precious Body and the outpouring of His own Holy and Precious Blood, through His perfect and loving sacrifice on the Cross.

Let us all renew our devotion to the Lord, particularly in the way we treat the Holy Eucharist, Our Lord’s very own Most Precious Body and Blood, in how we honour and respect Him, and in ensuring that each and every one of us keep ourselves truly worthy to be the Temple of His Holy Presence, as we all partake His Holy and Precious Body and Blood into ourselves, into our very beings. Let us all strive to be truly holy and worthy to receive the Lord, our most loving God, Who has shared with us this most perfect and loving gift of His Body and Blood, so that as He had said, that we who partake in Him, will receive the assurance of eternal life and glory with Him, and will be raised with Him on the last day.

May the Lord, our God and Saviour, Who has given us all His Most Holy and Precious Body and Blood in the Eucharist, continue to bless us all and guide us in our journey of faith throughout our lives. May He empower and strengthen each and every one of us so that in all the things that we do, so that by our worthy lives and by our proper respect and belief in the Real Presence of the Lord, more and more people may come to the Lord and be healed by Him, and seek Him as their Lord and Saviour, now and always. Amen.