Advent homily

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Sunday, 19 December 2021 : Fourth Sunday of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday is the last Sunday in the season of Advent, and on this Sunday we focus our attention to the last of the four Advent themes. After going through the theme of Hope, Peace and Joy in the previous three Sundays of Advent, today finally we focus on the theme of Love. As we prepare ourselves for the great celebration of Christmas in just a few days’ time, we are all called to remember why Christmas is there in the first place. That reason is because of God’s love for each and every one of us.

Christmas is not just about having festivities and celebrations, and not just about parties, merrymaking and all the paraphernalia often associated with it. Instead, as Christians all of us should fully know and realise that first and foremost, Christmas is a celebration of love, of the love that is always enduring and pure, that has been given to us from God, from His heavenly abode. God loves us all so much that He has given us His only beloved Son, the Divine Word Incarnate, Whose coming and appearance into this world is what we celebrate at Christmas.

Why love, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because God Himself is Love, and by His incarnation, in taking up the humble existence of our human flesh and by lowering Himself to be born into this world, He has shown us what true love is all about. His love is what made Him to create all of us, because He wanted to share with all of us, with all of creation, the perfect love that He Himself has, in the perfect love of the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That overflowing love has always been intended for us, to be filled with every grace and blessings.

However, it was because of our disobedience and the weakness of our flesh that our ancestors chose to listen to the devil instead of holding on to the truth of God and keeping their faith in Him. They chose to listen to his lies, and allowed themselves to be persuaded and convinced to disobey God’s direct commandments. As a result, we have been found guilty and corrupted by sin. We were made perfect, blameless and without fault, and should have shared in the everlasting joy and true happiness in God’s presence. Unfortunately, our sins and the corruptions in us sundered us from His grace and love.

But God did not give up on us, and His love for us yet endured. He has devised for so great a plan and prepared everything for us, waiting for the time this plan would be revealed to all of us. He has given assurances and glimpses of this truth and the Good News through His prophets and messengers, and eventually, as we heard in our first reading taken from the Book of the prophet Micah, God revealed how He would come to His people, through the small town of Bethlehem Ephrata, the small town of David, where the great king of Israel hailed from, from his humble origins as a shepherd, the youngest son of Jesse of Judah.

God sent His Saviour, His own Son, born into this world in that town, on that day which we celebrate as Christmas, which therefore is the full and perfect manifestation of His love in the flesh. God’s love has become tangible and accessible to us, since no longer that God is One that we cannot see and perceive. Having shown Himself through His Son, God has shown us just how much He loves us and just how amazing His commitment has been to the Covenant that He has established with us.

He came into this world through Mary His mother, dwelling in her hallowed womb for nine whole months before being born into this world. And as we heard in our Gospel passage today, even the mother of St. John the Baptist, Elizabeth, who was Mary’s relative, recognised the Lord present in Mary’s womb, and both of them praised God for everything that God had done for them. The miraculous nature of the pregnancy for Elizabeth, which happened in her advanced age, and for Mary, whose pregnancy happened before she consummated her marriage with St. Joseph her husband were proof of God’s intervention and the fulfilment for the plan of His salvation for all of us.

But even more than that, the Lord through that action of becoming Incarnate in the flesh, to be born as a Man, was an act of supreme love and compassion, which He generously showed towards all of us sinners. And why is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because the Lord came to us in the human form and existence in order to share with us our humanity, to be the New Adam that would overturn the past sins and mistakes committee by the first Adam which led us all into sin.

And in the most important action He did for our salvation, done out of His ever generous and enduring love for us, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, willingly took upon Himself the punishments and the consequences of our sins. He took up His Cross and endured the most humiliating conditions and punishments, suffering for us on our behalf, in perfectly obeying the will of His Father, showing us what God’s love is all about, and how we ought to love God as well. As we heard in our second reading today, from the Epistle to the Hebrews, that is all that God wants from us as well.

He does not require from us offerings and sacrifices, referring to the ritual sacrifices done up to that time according to the Mosaic Law. It truly means that He does not require from us mere formality of faith and worship, and neither did He desire lip service from us His people. Instead, what He wants is a total commitment made with love and real genuine love we have for Him, as Christ Himself, in bearing His Cross has shown us. In that supreme act of self-sacrifice and selflessness, God Himself, the Son of God and Son of Man, the Divine Word Incarnate in the flesh, the One born on Christmas Day, showed His love for us, and His love for His heavenly Father, as part of the Holy Trinity of perfect Love with the Holy Spirit.

And that is what we ought to recall today, brothers and sisters in Christ, remembering the great love and the ever enduring patient love and compassion that God has always ever lavished on us, all these while. That is why this Sunday, we focus our attention on the what is arguably the most important of all the four Advent themes, that is Love. For without love, the love that God has for us, then we could never have been saved, and there could have been no hope for us at all. It was God’s Love for us that made all these possible.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, having come to realise God’s most amazing love for us, are we going to show Him the same kind of genuine love? Or are we going to continue to be stubborn in shutting Him out from our lives and in ignoring His loving presence in our midst? And most importantly, are we going to continue sidelining and forgetting about Him in our festivities and celebrations in and throughout the entire season of Christmas? We have to reflect and remember on what Christmas is truly all about.

Today, as we recall God’s loving presence in our midst, let us all strive to do our best to love the Lord with new hearts full of devotion and dedication to Him. If we have once ignored and abandoned Him for other idols and distractions in the world, let us now seek Him again with ever greater zeal and commitment. Let us all rediscover that love that each and every one of us ought to have for the Lord. And may the Lord, our ever loving God continue to love us and bless us, and may His love continue to be poured upon us, most generously, that we may also grow in our love for Him.

May all of us strive to celebrate Christmas worthily and remind one another what Christmas is truly all about, of a celebration of God’s most amazing love for His beloved ones, all of us, His children and His people, now and always. Amen.

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Saturday, 18 December 2021 : 3rd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scripture, we are reminded as we get ever closer to Christmas, of how the Lord has fulfilled His promises to us and gave us the perfect love that He manifested in the flesh, in our midst, in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God Most High and the Son of Man, born of Mary, His mother and part of the family of St. Joseph, His foster-father and becoming the Heir and Son of David, King of Israel.

As we heard from our first reading today from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, God promised His people that He would come to bring them liberation and salvation from their many troubles. And as God has revealed to them all throughout the past history, through many prophets and messengers, He would send His deliverer, the Saviour to come as the Heir of David, sending His only begotten Son to be the One to lead all of His beloved ones out of the darkness and into the Light of His salvation and truth.

God did not give up on us all, His beloved ones and He did everything He could to gather us all in, scattered throughout this darkened world full of sin and evil. He has always reached out to us, calling on us all to return to Him and to find our way to His presence. He wants to forgive us all our sins, and that is why, He gave us so great a deliverance and a Deliverer through Christ, Who came to us by the power of the Holy Spirit, indwelling in Mary, His mother, as told by the Angel of the Lord to St. Joseph, Mary’s legal husband and foster-father of the Lord.

By this action, God Himself has descended into the world, to live in our midst, Emmanuel, God is with us, a reminder that all of us are truly precious to God and greatly beloved by Him. God so loved the world that He has given us all His only Son, that through Him all will have life and be saved. That is the truth about the Good News that God has brought to us and revealed before all of us. And this is what we have to remind one another as we continue to progress through this season of Advent, to prepare ourselves so that we may celebrate Christmas worthily and appreciating the true significance and meaning of Christmas.

Let us spend some time to look at how we usually look at Christmas, how we perceive it and treat it year after year. Doubtless to say, many among us treat is as a festive and joyous occasion, but too often we are distracted by the many temptations of worldly excesses, as surely we know how we are often inundated by the commercialised perception and marketing of the secular Christmas. These are distracting us from the true essence and meaning of Christmas, as the One Whom we should be focusing on and celebrating about has often been sidelined and forgotten.

Instead, we treat Christmas as a time of feasting, merrymaking and celebrations to entertain ourselves, our ego and our desires. We seek to outdo one another in the grandness of our celebration and in the expenses we spent to celebrate, as well as desiring for many good things to please ourselves, whether in the celebrations themselves, in the company of people whom we celebrate with, and in the presents we exchange and receive, desiring and hoping to get better things for ourselves, or to revel in all the festive mood and all.

But we forget entirely why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. We forget why we, as Christians, are called to focus above all, Christ and His saving work, His kindness and compassionate mercy, the wonderful love by which He made fully manifest God’s enduring love and providence for all of us His people, through His ministry and work, His revelation of God’s truth, and finally, through His own volition, embracing a most painful suffering and death for our sake, by taking up His Cross. He suffered and died so that through those, we may all be saved.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the remaining time we have in this season of Advent, as we are coming ever closer to Christmas, let us all spend some time to reflect on how we perceive and plan to celebrate this Christmas. It is indeed right and proper for us to celebrate in Christmas as we should. However, we have to celebrate it with proper understanding and appreciation of God’s love for us made evident and clear in the flesh, through Christ His Son, that our celebrations are centred on the One Whom we ought to be rejoicing about.

Let us all therefore do our best to inspire one another to renew our Advent journey and reflection, so that we may come ever closer to greater appreciation and understanding of God’s work of salvation and love for us, in all that He had done for our sake. Let us all turn towards Him with genuine love and devotion, and do what we can to live a good and faithful Christian life, so that in whatever we say and do, we will always strive to be worthy of God, in all things, and worthy to welcome Him into our hearts and our lives, as we should do, this Christmas. May God bless us all and be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 17 December 2021 : 3rd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we mark the moment when we are just one week away from Christmas. We are therefore being expressly reminded of why we celebrate Christmas and what we are preparing for in this season and time of Advent. It is important that we really understand this so that we may enter into the great celebrations and joy of Christmas with the right intention and the right purpose, that we may appreciate truly the true meaning of Christmas.

We have heard from our Scripture passages today the truth about the identity of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, born into this world as the Son and Heir of Adam, Abraham and David, as prominently highlighted in our Gospel passage today, in the entire genealogy or lineage of our Lord Himself from the very first days of mankind in Adam and through to his descendants, and to Abraham, the father of nations, and then through Israel and to David, the great King of Israel, to whom the Lord had promised that his kingdom and house would last forever.

Then in our first reading passage today we heard how Jacob, also known as Israel, was giving his last words and wishes, and blessings to all of his sons. He gave them his last exhortation and words of God’s wisdom, and it was at that very same occasion that Jacob spoke peculiarly regarding Judah, one of his sons, saying that the sceptre of power and rule shall remain in Judah, and how the reign over the people of God shall remain in his house forever, a promise that came true as David, the great king of Israel was born from the tribe of Judah, to whom God renewed the same promises He had made.

The Lord Jesus was thus born into the House of David, as His long promised Heir, born into the family of Joseph, the heir-general of King David, the foster-father of the Lord. It is through the Lord Jesus, Son of God Most High and Son of Man alike that God has revealed fully His intentions to us, His everlasting and enduring love for each and every one of us. God gave us all His only begotten Son that through Him and His actions, His perfect obedience and the ultimate loving sacrifice that He would make and offer on the Cross, God would be reconciled with us and we shall see His glory and receive true joy from Him.

That is why as we enter into this final stretch of the Advent season, we are all called to spend the time to reflect carefully on how we have been preparing ourselves to welcome the Lord at Christmas. For Christmas is not just merely a celebration of the Lord’s historical coming into this world, but even more importantly, is the celebration of the Light and Hope that He has brought upon each and every one of us, His people, who are still living in the darkness of this world. He has come into our midst, bearing forth His love manifested before us, that we may see and come to know of God’s love for us.

Have we loved God in the same way as He has loved us, brothers and sisters in Christ? God has always ever generously extended His love and compassion towards us, but we often disregarded His love and ignored Him. How many of us have not even factored Him into our celebrations? In our preparations to celebrate Christmas, with all its joyous activities. We must not forget that the Lord must be at the centre of all of our joy and festivities in Christmas. After all, it was God’s most wondrous gift to us that He had given us to redeem us and to bring us once again back into His loving embrace.

Many of us do not really know or understand the true significance of Christmas, and this became serious obstacle preventing us from being able to celebrate Christmas worthily and meaningfully. Too many of us are focused too much on the festivities and merrymaking that we treat it just like another holiday and time to celebrate. Many of us have also forgotten what Christmas truly means, and in the way we celebrate it, we focus excessively and model our celebrations after the secular Christmas commemorations which are plenty all over around us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore make the effort from this day onwards to reorientate ourselves around our Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Let us love Him and serve Him ever more faithfully with each and every passing moments. Let us also make our upcoming Christmas celebrations one that is truly focused on Our Lord and one that is really worthy of welcoming the Lord into our midst, as we must remember that Christmas is not just about celebrating our Lord’s historical coming into this world, but more importantly is about welcoming Him into our hearts, into our families and homes.

May the Lord continue to guide us in all of our endeavours, and help us as we continue to journey through this season of Advent, that we may come to celebrate His upcoming Nativity with great joy and true understanding of how much He has loved us all these while, and how by His coming into our midst at Christmas, He has shown us a new Hope and Light, to dispel the darkness and despair of our lives. May God bless us always, now and evermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 16 December 2021 : 3rd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listen to the words of the Lord contained in the Sacred Scriptures, we are yet again reminded repeatedly as we have often been throughout this season of Advent, to recall the great love that God has shown us, the mercy and grace that He has bestowed upon us throughout our lives, all the opportunities and chances that He has given us. He has always been so kind and generous to us, but it is we who often disregarded His kindness and love, spurned His mercy and generosity.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah we heard of the words of encouragement of the Lord Who reminded His people that His love is always upon them and that they are always His precious and beloved ones no matter what. He reminded them all, who have faced sufferings and challenges, trials and tribulations that they endured, how all of those will pass and they will once again enjoy the bounty of God’s grace and blessings. He calls on all of them to have faith in Him and to entrust themselves in His love.

God will not abandon His faithful ones and He will always care for them and provide for them, just as He has repeatedly done in the past, throughout our history. He has always loved us despite the many less than faithful attitudes that we have shown Him, our stubbornness and constant refusal to embrace His love, compassion and mercy. He still loves us even though we have sinned and disobeyed Him, and sent us all the promised Saviour, His own most beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, to save us from our fated destruction and to free us from facing the fate of eternal damnation.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the mention of St. John the Baptist by the Lord Himself, Who spoke wonderfully about the one who had come before Him to prepare His way among the people of God. St. John the Baptist was indeed the Herald of the Messiah, the one prophesied to usher in the time of God’s great grace and salvation. He did all he could, obeying the mission entrusted to him, so that the people who heard him and his cries for repentance may realise their sinfulness and need for God’s mercy and forgiveness, and therefore seek to be reconciled to Him.

By speaking of St. John the Baptist and by affirming and praising his efforts, the Lord Himself has also reassured us that His time of grace and salvation has come upon us, and He has fulfilled the promises which He had made earlier through His many prophets and messengers. He would not abandon all of us in the darkness, but will always do His best to reach out to us and to gather us to Himself. That is why God gave us the sure path to eternal life and sent us His Son, the reason why we celebrate in the upcoming Christmas season, and why we prepare ourselves this time of Advent, to prepare our hearts, our minds and our whole beings to welcome the Lord.

That is why we are reminded today, that as we progress through this season of Advent we must really spend the time to reflect on what Christmas truly means to all of us, and how we are going to celebrate it. Are we going to give in to the excesses of Christmas merrymaking and celebrations and end up making it into a celebration of our own ego and desires, rather than to celebrate it for its true meaning and importance to us? The Lord’s coming into our midst in this world is the true significance of Christmas as because of that, all of us have hope once again through Him.

It is not wrong to celebrate Christmas most joyfully and indeed, we should celebrate it to the best of our ability, but we must always centre everything on the Lord, the One Whose birth is what Christmas is all about. We rejoice not because we like all the parties and celebrations, and not because we expect the finest food and things, gifts and presents, but because we know that through the Lord we have seen His light and hope, that in the darkness of our world, God’s light will still triumph together with us. That is the true essence of Christmas, brothers and sisters in Christ.

Let us all therefore make good use of these remaining few days of Advent to carefully reflect and discern if we are truly ready to celebrate Christmas worthily and properly, and we should do our best to prepare ourselves if we are not yet ready to welcome the Lord with all of our heart. And let us also share the joy we have through Christ, our Christmas joy with one another, especially when there are just so many people out there who may now be suffering or sorrowful, and our brothers and sisters out there who may not be able to celebrate Christmas the way we are celebrating it. May God be with us all always, and may He bless each and every one of us, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Wednesday, 15 December 2021 : 3rd Week of Advent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Lord in the Sacred Scriptures, we are all reminded of God and His enduring love for us, the salvation that He has presented to us and the generosity by which He has always cared for us and provided for our needs. He has always watched over us and has done everything for us, for our salvation and eternal and true happiness, together with Him in eternal life.

In our first reading today, taken from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, we heard of Lord reminding His people that He is the One and only God and Creator of all the whole Universe. He is their God and they are His people. All of us are also reminded of this same truth, and are reminded how God alone is worthy of our worship and our adoration. He has created us out of love, which endured all these time despite of our lack of faith and our constant disobedience and waywardness. He has always looked after us and sought for us to return to His loving embrace.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the encounter between the Lord Jesus and two of the disciples and followers of St. John the Baptist. Those disciples asked the Lord with the question from the St. John the Baptist, inquiring whether He was indeed the One that had been predicted to come, the Messiah or Saviour of the world, or whether the Messiah was still yet to come. St. John the Baptist had been sent into this world ahead of the Lord to proclaim His coming and to prepare His way, but even he did not know fully who the Messiah would be.

This is the case even though St. John the Baptist himself had baptised the Lord at the Jordan, and recognising Him as the One Whose coming he was proclaiming before the people. St. John the Baptist was in fact just making sure that the One Whose coming he had been preparing for, had indeed come, and therefore the time of mankind’s salvation was already at hand. The Lord told them that everything had happened as God Himself had said would happen, all the miracles and wonderful works that had taken place, and they were evidences enough to prove the truth about His coming.

Now, having heard all of these words from the Scriptures, all of us are reminded of what we are all supposed to do this season of Advent, to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christmas. We are just another ten days away from Christmas, and yet, if we ask ourselves, are we ready for Christmas?, can we surely give a definitive yes as an answer? We may think that we are ready for Christmas and all are set and prepared, but in truth, Christmas is not as much about the celebrations and feasts, but rather, most importantly, it is about the state of our hearts, minds, our whole body and soul.

We may have prepared everything needed for our Christmas festivities and celebrations, all the things that we planned to do for our Christmas parties and merrymaking. Yet, are we ready to welcome Christ, Our Lord Himself this Christmas? Are we ready to welcome Him into our hearts, into our families and houses, into our presence and life? That is what Christmas is all about, brothers and sisters in Christ. Christmas is more than all the lights and glamours, all the celebrations and feasts. Those things are superficial, as Christmas is truly about Christ, Our Lord and Saviour.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we must always remember that Christmas is the time to celebrate and rejoice because Christ, Our Lord has willingly come down upon us because of His great and enduring love. He Himself had taken the rein of everything that He had planned for our salvation and came to us to bring forth His love and generous mercy, to show us His compassion and desire to be reunited and reconciled with us. But we are often still distracted and easily swayed by the many temptations in this world that we forget about Him and we ignore Him, and sadly, the same can be said about Christmas as well.

We have to remind ourselves just how fortunate we are to have been beloved by God. Yet, by our own stubborn attitude and ignorance, we end up shutting Him out from our lives. And there is nowhere else that this is more evident than in our celebration of Christmas. Too often we celebrate Christmas with a lot of glamour and merrymaking, and yet, we forget the One Whom we ought to be focusing our celebrations on, the One Whose birth and coming into this world. This is not what we should be doing, brothers and sisters in Christ.

Therefore, let us all seek the Lord with a new heart full of faith and love for Him. Let us all prepare ourselves to be worthy to receive Him and to welcome Him into our hearts this Christmas, remembering how two thousand years ago, He has come to us in Bethlehem in Judea, revealing once and for all, God’s eternal love for us, and His plan to save us and lead us into everlasting life with Him. May our Christmas joy be complete and may the rest of our Advent season be meaningful, by our proper preparation from now on. Amen.

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Tuesday, 14 December 2021 : 3rd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are called to remember our duty and responsibility to listen to the Lord, to obey Him and follow His ways and teachings. The Lord has shown us all the way, and He calls on us to follow Him that we may become His people, His disciples and followers. And through His truth, He shall gather us all into His presence and free us from the fetters and chains of our bondage to sin and evil.

In our first reading today, as we heard from the Book of the prophet Zephaniah, in that occasion, God spoke to His people through the prophet who lived during the time of King Josiah of Judah, one of the last kings of Judah who happened to be also the last among the righteous kings. At that time, so that we can understand better the context of the words of the Lord, the people of God had been scattered and divided among the nations, as the former northern kingdom of Israel had been crushed and destroyed, while the southern kingdom of Judah had gone through many periods of difficulties and defeats against their enemies.

And all these happened because the people had not always stayed faithful to the Lord, as their kings and lords led them to sin and disobey the Lord, false prophets and teachings going rampant all over the whole land. They had strayed from the guidance shown by the prophets and the messengers of God, and they had turned a deaf ear against those who had called on them to return to the Lord and to repent from their sins. They had not heeded the Lord’s call that He had made repeatedly calling on them to return to Him with faith.

That was why God smote His people who had been rebellious against Him, that all those who disobeyed Him knew what it meant for them to go against His will and for walking in the path of wickedness and evil. While God is always loving, compassionate and merciful, but we must not forget that He is also a just God Who upholds justice and truth. No sin and evil can stand before Him unaccounted for and unless we have sought Him for forgiveness and mercy, then we will need to account for our sins and wickedness.

Yet, He still loved us nonetheless and still wanted all of us to be reunited and reconciled with Him, as He fulfilled His promises made through the prophets, promising all of us that salvation would come in His Messiah, Whom He later revealed to be none other than His own Son, Himself descended in the flesh and taking up the form and existence of Man. In Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, God has extended to us the loving hands and outreach of His ever generous love, compassion and mercy. Despite our constant stubbornness and delinquency, our persistence to sin and disobey Him, God still wants us to come back to Him.

That is why in our Gospel passage today we heard the Lord speaking to the people using the parable of a father and his two sons, reminding all of us that what is important for God is for us to follow Him, in not just words but also actions, as there is no point for us to speak of faith in the Lord and yet in our actions, we are not doing what someone faithful to God should be doing. And without God being truly present in our hearts, without true and genuine love for the Lord, then our faith is dead, meaningless and empty. We are no better than hypocrites.

Today, all of us should follow the great examples set by St. John of the Cross, whose feast day we are celebrating this day. St. John of the Cross was a famous co-founder of the Discalced Carmelites together with St. Teresa of Avila, another great saint of the Church. They worked together and did their best to reform the then corrupted and divergent Carmelite order, to return to the original designs and aims of the order’s founders and eliminate the excesses and creeping worldly corruptions.

St. John of the Cross was also a great figure in the Counter Reformation, in his efforts and works to bring many of those who have fallen to the sway of heresy and false teachings to return to the Mother Church. Through his writings, numerous theological works, sharings of his mystical experiences, preaching and tireless dedication, gradually more and more of the faithful began to be touched by his great piety and devotion to God, and many others who have erred and lost their path came back to the Lord with repentance.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all be inspired to follow the Lord, to be faithful and obedient to Him as St. John of the Cross had done, that is with genuine faith and devotion, and not with false and empty promises and merely superficial faith. Let us truly love the Lord, our most compassionate, loving and patient God, Who has done everything to reach out to us and to save us all from our fated destruction because of our many sins. Let us all look up to His love and generous mercy, and dedicate ourselves anew to Him, now and always. Amen.

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Monday, 13 December 2021 : 3rd Week of Advent, Memorial of St. Lucy, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scripture we are reminded yet again of the coming of the salvation of God in Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour. As we heard from our first reading today from the Book of Numbers, we heard how the man of God, Balaam the Seer blessed the people of Israel and spoke of a prophecy of what would be come, the coming of the Star that would rise from Jacob, an early proclamation of Christ’s coming into this world. Then we also heard from our Gospel passage today of the Lord Jesus Himself and His debate with the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who questioned Him on the authority and legality of His actions and works.

In our first reading that we heard from the Book of Numbers, we heard of the people of Israel who were at that time on their way to the promised land of Canaan, that God had promised to their ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. At that time, the Israelites had become a great nation with hundreds of thousands of people, all having journeyed through the desert for a long period of forty years during their Exodus from Egypt. God guided them and protected them during all that time, provided for them, food and drink, as well as crushing their enemies before them, all the while punishing those who refused to believe in Him and disobeyed His Law and commandments.

It was then that the king of Moab, one of the later neighbours of the Israelites, namely king Balak was worried about the Israelites, their great numbers and power, and feared them. As such, he resorted to using methods such as curses that he asked a seer named Balaam, son of Beor as we heard in our reading today. Balaam was tasked by king Balak to curse the people of Israel so that the curses might destroy them and make them to be at a disadvantage. Yet, as we heard in today’s first reading, Balaam instead spoke the truth, of whatever God had told him to proclaim before the king, a blessing instead of a curse for the Israelites.

Balaam praised God and His people, the Israelites, blessed them for all of their wonders and he also proclaimed the vision that he had received from God. He saw a vision of a Figure to come, that he was not yet able to comprehend, and yet, that figure was indeed like a Star that would arise from Jacob, a reference to the people of Israel, to be the One Who leads and guides the whole entire world. Through this we can see how Balaam was blessed by God and given the rare opportunity to glimpse God’s great plan of salvation for all of the nations and all the people, through His Son, Jesus Christ.

As we look upon from our current age and time, in which Christ had come into the world and revealed Himself, we know that Balaam spoke the truth, and he had given the people of God back then an insight of God’s plans and all that He had done out of His great love for them. And yet, we should be able to see the irony that it was Balaam, a man who did not even belong to the people of Israel, who proclaimed God’s love and truth, while God’s own people denied Him, rejected Him, doubted Him and questioned His authority as we heard in our Gospel passage today.

In our Gospel today, we heard how the Lord was questioned by the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees as He was teaching in the Temple, who questioned Him for His actions and all that He had taught the people. This was likely because of the jealousy that those people held for the Lord, as they saw Him as a rival and great threat to their own popularity, influence, authority and power. Contextually, we must understand that the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law made up one of the two groups of very influential leaders of the community back then.

As such, they likely saw the Lord and His immense popularity, His radically different teachings and truths as a challenge to their own authority and power, that they opposed Him, refused to listen to Him and stubbornly resisted in believing His message of truth despite all that they themselves had witnessed, seen and heard. All the miracles and the works the Lord had done, all the wisdom He had shown and the words He had spoken all point out to Him being the Messiah or the Saviour that God had promised His people, and those same Pharisees and teachers of the Law, being those who were most knowledgeable about the Law and the prophets should have known this better than anyone else.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why it is important that we should not let our pride and worldly desires from interfering with our faith in the Lord. We should learn to listen to the truth and not to be easily swayed by all of our worldly temptations and concerns. Otherwise, we may end up behaving and responding like the Pharisees and those teachers of the Law who remained stubborn in their opposition of the Lord, and even St. John the Baptist, the Herald and messenger whom God had sent to prepare the way for His coming.

Today, all of us celebrate the feast of St. Lucy, also known as St. Lucia of Syracuse, the daughter of a Roman noble who died as a martyr during the height of the last great persecution of Christians under the reign of Roman Emperor Diocletian. She had consecrated herself to God as a holy virgin, but her mother who did not know about this, arranged for her to be married to the young son of a rich noble pagan family. The mother was then suffering from a disease, and was worried about St. Lucy’s future.

Through the intercession of St. Agatha, another great martyr of Sicily, St. Lucy’s mother was healed, and St. Lucy was able to persuade her mother to give generously much of their wealth and inheritance to the poor and the needy. This was not taken kindly by her betrothed pagan fiancé, who reported her to the local governor. The governor ordered St. Lucy to make offerings to the pagan idols, which she refused courageously. She was arrested and according to some traditions, was put to death by the sword after attempts to force her to a brothel and burning her did not succeed because of God’s miraculous intervention.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I hope all of us take good lesson from the faith that St. Lucy had in the Lord and strive to do what we can to be faithful to God. We should learn to live our lives with genuine faith and commit ourselves to follow Him the way that St. Lucy and many other saints and martyrs had done. And let us be inspired by the love and hope that Christ Our Lord Himself had brought us, that brought joy even to Balaam so many years ago. It is this same hope and love that we are expecting throughout this season of Advent, of celebrating the coming of Christ in this Christmas.

Let us all live our lives with great faith and dedication to the Lord from now on, committing ourselves in each and every moments to serve Him and to look forward to His wondrous coming in glory, to dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly in the manner that St. Lucy and all of our holy predecessors had done. May God bless us all and may His grace be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 12 December 2021 : Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Rose (Gaudete Sunday) or Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we celebrate the occasion of the Third Sunday of Advent, also known as Gaudete Sunday. On this day we may have noticed that the vestments used are rose in colour instead of the usual purple or violet. This colour is only used twice in the entire liturgical year, one of which is today and the other one at Laetare Sunday on the Fourth Sunday of Lent. This Gaudete Sunday is named as such because of the words of its Introit at the start of the Mass, ‘Gaudete in Domino semper…’ which means ‘Rejoice in the Lord forever…’

Just as the previous two Sundays of Advent we focus on the aspects of Hope and Peace in Advent. Today therefore we focus on the aspect of Joy in this Advent season. That aspect of Joy is why we have a more cheerful tone as compared to the more restrained and sombre nature of our Christmas preparations throughout this season of Advent. This focus on Joy is a reminder for all of us that we are preparing ourselves this Advent for the coming of the True Joy of Christmas, that is the salvation that has come to us through Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Salvation.

In our first reading today, all of us heard from the Book of the prophet Zechariah, in which the Lord reassured all of His people through Zechariah that He has always watched over them and He will always love them and care for them. God will bless them all and He will not abandon them to their fate. We must understand the context of what happened during the time of the prophet Zechariah. The prophet Zechariah lived and worked during the time of the early Persian Empire, likely according to historical evidence, during the reign of King Darius the Great.

At that time, the people of Israel, descendants of those who have lived in the old lands of Israel, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, had just returned from their long exile in Babylon and other far-off lands, after God had redeemed them and liberated them through the Great King of Persia, Cyrus the Great. They and their ancestors had faced great humiliation and sufferings due to their own infidelities and stubbornness, their abandonment of God, His laws and commandments. They had been brought low and defeated, their lands and cities laid to waste, Jerusalem destroyed with its Temple cast down.

Therefore, the words of the Lord through the prophet Zechariah were reminder for God’s own people that even as they endured trials and sufferings, God was still with them, and as they themselves experienced their emancipation and liberation, they ought to be joyful for the Lord’s providence and love. Having been allowed to return to their own homeland and once again gathering as a people and community, no longer scattered among the nations, and even having their Temple of God rebuilt with the support of the Persian King, all these were more than enough reasons for them to rejoice.

The prophet Isaiah as we heard in our Psalm today also reiterated this, as he spoke words of rejoicing in God’s salvation and providence, in all that He had done for His people. God has blessed us all His people and He has done many wonderful things for us, and hence, all of us ought to rejoice and to be glad because God and His presence among us, in His coming to this world through Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, has guaranteed us that eternal life and salvation, if we have faith in Him and believe in Him wholeheartedly.

Today, in our second reading, taken from the Epistle that St. Paul wrote to the Church and the faithful in Philippi, we also heard the same exhortation to the faithful to rejoice because God is by our side, and He has always remained by our side through good times and bad times, and He has always guided us and patiently showed us His love all these while. We have been so fortunate to have been favoured by God in such a way, that He even gave us all the perfect gift, the best of all, that is the gift of His salvation through Christ.

We rejoice and should no longer be fearful or afraid, as God’s words are trustworthy and He has always fulfilled His promises, no matter what. He sent us St. John the Baptist as we heard in our Gospel passage today, to be the Herald proclaiming His coming to the world and also to prepare the way for Him in this world. St. John the Baptist proclaimed God’s Good News and truth, revealing to all of the people what God was going to do in order to save them. He also revealed to them, when He came, the Messiah of God, Jesus Christ.

All of us have been reminded throughout all these readings from the Sacred Scriptures today, of the wonderful love of God made manifest through Christ, His Son, Whom He had sent to us, and Whose coming we celebrate this Christmas. That is why this Sunday we focus on the aspect of Joy in Advent, the anticipation if the great Joy that we are going to celebrate in Christmas, for having received God’s grace and salvation, and for having been blessed by this opportunity we have to know God and His ever generous love.

And it is timely and proper today that we spend some time to reflect on the nature of the Joy that we are expecting this Christmas. Is this joy referring to the festivities and celebrations that we are planning and hoping to do this Christmas? Are we looking ahead to the merrymaking and bling of our Christmas parties, and yet forgetting about what Christmas is truly about and why we celebrate it? This is the time for us to reflect on how we should focus our Christmas joy and celebrations that we may better appreciate what its true importance and meaning are to us.

Is Christ the true Joy of our lives? And are we joyful because He has come to us and having loved and cared for us so much, despite of our stubbornness and sinfulness? Or are we joyful because we are merely looking for pleasure and gratification in all the festivities and merrymaking? Have we prepared ourselves well that we may truly know what it is that bring joy to our lives and existence? Christmas is a time for us to rejoice indeed, and this Sunday we have a glimpse and preview of that joy, but we must constantly remind ourselves lest we are distracted by the many temptations offered by the secular celebrations of Christmas that are focused not on God but on ourselves and our worldly desires.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we gather together to celebrate this Gaudete Sunday, the Joy in the season of Advent, our joyful expectation of the coming of Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, let us all remind ourselves that we celebrate because we are happy for the hope that Christ has brought us, and we are grateful for the assurance and peace that He has brought us all by His coming into this world. Let us not be distracted and be overtaken by the excesses of the pleasures and merrymaking of the secular Christmas celebrations, and instead let us be the role model and example in how each and every one of us can celebrate Christmas worthily in a meaningful way.

How do we do so? It is by sharing the Joy of Christmas with one another, especially with those who have no such privilege to celebrate Christmas the way that many of us do every year. There are many out there who cannot celebrate Christmas because they were not allowed to do so, and even were oppressed and persecuted for being Christians. Many therefore had to celebrate Christmas in secret, while holding on to that Joy that they also anticipate for the coming of the day of their liberation and freedom, for the day of their emancipation much like how the Israelites once longed for theirs.

Let us therefore do whatever we can to bear the joy of Christ to the world, by our actions and by whatever we can do to help our brethren who are lacking in joy and who have yet to appreciate and understand the true Joy of Christmas, that is Christ, Our Lord. Let us be the ones to bring forth joy, happiness and smile to our brethren, especially as we know so many people who are still suffering, sorrowful and in terrible state after the troubles and challenges many of us have been facing in the past two years.

May the Lord, our true source of Joy, the true Joy and the reason for our Christmas celebrations be with us always. May He bless us all and may He strengthen each and every one of us in faith, so that we may always, by our exemplary Christian living, faith and joy, bring forth the true joy of Christ into this world, to restore the joy to a world drowning in sorrow and darkness. May God bless us all and be with us, now and always, forevermore. Amen.

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Saturday, 11 December 2021 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of Pope St. Damasus I, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White (Popes)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Lord in the Sacred Scriptures, we are all called to reflect on the lives of two great servants of God of the past, both of whom had dedicated themselves to the Lord all their lives, enduring great trials and challenges in serving the Lord and facing persecutions and oppressions all the while doing God’s works. We should reflect on their lives this Advent that we too may become more faithful by following their examples and faith.

First of all, the prophet Elijah, one of those two great servants of God was mentioned in our first reading today from the Book of the prophet Sirach. The prophet Elijah was a great prophet and servant of God sent to the northern kingdom of Israel, to their king and people, to remind them of God and their obligation to serve God and abandon their sinful worship of the pagan gods and idols. Elijah laboured for many years, preaching God’s message and performing miracles among the people and their king who were stubborn in opposing God.

As mentioned in the Book of Sirach, Elijah performed many wonderful deeds, such as bringing God’s retribution in the years of famine and drought that happened during the reign of king Ahab for his wickedness and the Israelites’ constant refusals to follow the Lord, and then the moment when he stood up alone against the four hundred and fifty priests of Baal, the Canaanite pagan idol at Mount Carmel. By the power of God, Elijah called down fire from Heaven that showed that God is indeed the true God and Creator of all, and defeating all those priests of Baal before the people of God.

Yet, at that time, just as Elijah performed many wonderful deeds, he also faced a lot of tough experiences as he was often rejected by the king and the people, and had many enemies among them, even though they had witnessed everything that God had performed and done through Elijah. He had to flee into exile and was on the run from the land of Israel because of this, on more than one occasion. He had to work and labour alone amidst the often hostile populace and encountered a lot of challenges along the way.

Elijah was then later on taken up to Heaven in a flaming chariot sent by God, as witnessed by his disciple and successor, the prophet Elisha. All these were mentioned by the prophet Sirach as well. Then, he was again mentioned by the Lord Jesus in our Gospel passage today, as one of His disciples asked Him regarding the coming of the prophet Elijah, and how he had actually come then. It was believed among the Jewish people, the descendants of the Israelites, that the prophet Elijah, who was taken up into Heaven and therefore did not die, would come again to proclaim the Messiah or the Saviour of God.

This was a reference to St. John the Baptist, the one who was the Herald of the Messiah, the one who prepared the path for the Lord Jesus as predicted by the prophets. The Lord mentioned how John was the fulfilment of those prophecies, and indeed, his works and ministry had prepared the path for the Lord and His coming into this world. St. John the Baptist had often been compared with the prophet Elijah because both of them had suffered persecutions for their works and both of them lived in a similar manner, travelling in the wilderness, proclaiming repentance and the coming of God’s salvation.

Some said that St. John the Baptist was indeed the same prophet Elijah sent into the world to finish the works that he had once initiated. And others said that St. John the Baptist had the spirit of the prophet Elijah, which was not the same as being the same person, but that both by that extension had the same ministry among the people of God, the same approach and efforts. And regardless which one is the real case, St. John the Baptist and the prophet Elijah both had laboured hard, sweat, blood and endured sufferings for the sake of the glory of God.

Today, we have yet another great servant of God who dedicated his life to Him, and who can also become our role model and inspiration in life. Pope St. Damasus I was the Pope, and therefore leader of the Universal Church during the important years and time of the Church when there were numerous converts and more and more coming to believe in God. At that same time, there were also a lot of divisions and disagreements in the Church, which Pope St. Damasus worked very hard to overcome as the leader of all God’s faithful people.

Pope St. Damasus himself became Pope during a turbulent time of a succession crisis following the death of the previous reigning Pope due to interference from the secular ruling class and nobles of Rome. There was a contested election and two rival Popes were elected, in a heated campaign before Pope St. Damasus eventually prevailed against his rival. This rival himself belonged to the heretical party, the Arians, who had wrecked a lot of damage and divisions in the Church for many decades up to that time.

Pope St. Damasus was instrumental in leading the charge against the heretics and all of their false teachings, devoting much of his time and efforts to overcome the falsehoods spread by those who claimed to teach the truth of God, but in reality were spreading false ideas. He also helped the creation of the Biblical canon especially in the Western, Latin half of the Church by his works with St. Jerome, whom he tasked with the compilation and the proper translation of the Greek Septuagint Bible into Latin, which would become the renowned Latin Vulgate Bible.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in Pope St. Damasus, his life and works we can see how those who dedicated their lives to serve God often had to face a lot of challenges in their mission, and many had to even face prison, suffering and death, like what the prophet Elijah and St. John the Baptist endured, the latter which suffered martyrdom at the hands of King Herod, for his courage in defending the truth of God and the sanctity of His teachings and ways. Having heard of these great examples, are we now more encouraged to live our lives faithfully in accordance with God’s truth?

Let us all seek to glorify the Lord in each and every moments of our lives, that we may indeed be ever faithful in our every actions, words and deeds so that through us, through our contributions no matter how small they may be, we will always bring glory to the Name of the Lord. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 10 December 2021 : 2nd Week of Advent, Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet or White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Loreto, also known as the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto, commemorating the popular pilgrimage site at Loreto in which exists the very house that the Lord Jesus Himself, His mother Mary, St. Joseph, the Holy Family lived in, at the small town of Nazareth in Galilee. On this day we recall the marvellous things that happened to that house and also the lives of those who were once the occupants of that holy House, as we approach the coming of Christmas.

The Holy House of Loreto as it is known today is a most peculiar anomaly and most inexplicable occurrence, as the Holy House, that once was in Galilee in the land of the ancient Israel, came to rest in Italy, in the city of Loreto. A great shrine and Basilica was built around the Holy House, welcoming many pilgrims every year who would like to see the very House in which the Holy Family had once lived in, the House where the Lord Himself grew up as a Child and learnt about many things from St. Joseph and Mary.

The Holy House of Loreto had been analysed and proven to be built with the same style and materials that are consistent with the house built during the time of the Lord Jesus in the region of Nazareth and had been dated from that same time period. Thus, to have such a house present so far away from its original location is nothing short of miraculous. The story goes that the Holy House had existed in Nazareth for long after the Lord’s time in this world, and this house was one of the first churches used by the Apostles themselves, traditionally to celebrate the first Mass after the Resurrection of the Lord by St. Peter himself.

Then, the tradition states that Angels carried the House itself miraculously from its original place to a site in what is today Croatia, to safeguard it from those who sought to destroy it and harm it and its pilgrims. Then, afterwards, it was moved again a few times for similar reason, before it finally rested on the final location where it had remained ever since, at the Basilica of the Holy House of Loreto. At every time it was moved, it happened miraculously, and witnesses said that the House was transported by the Angels of God as mentioned.

What is the significance of this celebration today, brothers and sisters in Christ? The Holy House of Loreto itself symbolised the presence of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in our world, as the physical reminder for us of God’s love and presence in our world today, that He once walked in the flesh, in this world, and inhabited that very same house to which all those pilgrims now regularly flocked to, inspired by the story of its miraculous transmigrations, and by the popularity of the intercessions of Our Lady of Loreto, the Blessed Mother of God and Matron of the Holy Family, our mother.

As we are currently in the middle of this holy and blessed season of Advent, all of us are called to reflect on our lives and how we have responded to God’s love and presence in our lives. God has always been kind to us and He has always generously extended to us His loving forgiveness and compassion. Yet, many of us have forgotten His generosity and love, and failed to recognise His presence in our lives here in this world. We have spurned His love and dedication, and stubbornly continued to live in the state of sin.

Therefore, we are all invited to contemplate the importance and meaning of Christmas, what it means for us and how we are going to celebrate it properly and worthily. Are we going to celebrate it with a lot of pomp and merrymaking and yet lacking in its real essence that is Christ? Are we going to make our Christmas celebration one that is full of revelry and feasts and yet the One for Whom we are actually celebrating is sidelined and forgotten by all? These are the important questions that we have to ask ourselves as we prepare ourselves for the coming celebrations of Christmas.

If Christmas is nothing more than a time to be happy and jolly, without clear and proper understanding of its nature and significance as we should have, then we have had the wrong idea about it and failed to celebrate it meaningfully and worthily. Are we going to continue doing things in the same way, brothers and sisters in Christ? Let us all pray and discern, remembering the Lord our Saviour and His coming into the world, through the Holy Family that He had been born into, in His Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Loreto and St. Joseph, His foster father.

Let us ask for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mother of God, Mary, Our Lady of Loreto. Let us ask her to pray for all of us sinners, all who have caused her Son much sorrow and pain. May all of us draw ever closer to the Lord and receive from Him the assurance of eternal life, true joy and everlasting glory, through our repentance and by having our sins forgiven through Him. May God bless us all, now and always, forevermore. Amen.