Almighty God

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Tuesday, 27 October 2015 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the promise of God’s salvation to us all, amidst all the difficulties, challenges and sufferings that are present in this world. Today we witnessed how God gave hope to His people who had been beleaguered by all of those obstacles and pains, and how He promised deliverance and salvation through His Messiah and the coming of His kingdom.

Why is there suffering in the first place, brothers and sisters in Christ? Suffering was not intended for us, and neither was it that we were created to endure such pain and difficulties, but it was because of our own sins and wickedness that we have brought suffering upon ourselves, as due to these sins and the disobedience we showed to the Lord, we have separated ourselves from the love and grace of God, and therefore, there is nothing left for us but to endure bitter suffering on earth.

It is our punishment and our due for the disobedience, that ever since the days of our forefathers, we have been subjected to the consequences of our sins, that is suffering and pain of hard labour, and also ultimately, death, the end of our mortal life on earth. But God did not entirely leave us to our fate, and instead He promised salvation and liberation through Jesus, His Son, Whom He had sent into the world.

And through Jesus we heard the parables He mentioned with regards to the kingdom of God. These parables were meant to explain using terms that were easy for the people at that time to understand. The examples that Jesus used to describe the kingdom of God include the measures of yeast in a measure of flour, that is kept until the whole dough is rising, and also the small mustard seed that grows to become a large mustard tree.

All these spoke clearly of a very important point that we all have to take note as we live our lives, that is about the ‘potential’ that is present in each and every one of us, and what we ought to do in order to fulfil and realise that potential to the fullest. In this, we can see the clear parallel between the mustard seed and the flour with ourselves, the state we have before we embark on the path towards the Lord and His salvation.

All of us have been given the potential by the Lord to grow and become great and mighty in His eyes, not the might and power of the world, but rather great in love, in mercy and in our faith. This is represented by the growth potential in the mustard seed, the food stored in the seed to provide for its growth, and the yeast that is placed within the measures of flour and the dough.

All who have planted a plant before, or even a farmer or gardener will definitely know how seeds can be stored for many years, and yet they would not grow or germinate, unless certain conditions are fulfilled. Unless the seeds are placed on a rich and fertile soil, and provided with sufficient amount of water, air and also later on, sunlight, the seeds will not germinate, or even though they germinate, they will not last long and die.

Then, with regards to the yeast, all those who have made bread or cake before would have known that yeast that we have will need water to be able to function, and then the mixture must also be covered, like how Jesus put it, the yeast is ‘hidden’ within the dough mixture. If the dough and the yeast mixture is not covered, then the dough will not rise, since the yeast need to be free from oxygen in the air in order to be able to ferment the starch in the flour and the dough to form what we know as the leavened bread or the cake.

How are all these relevant to us, brothers and sisters in Christ? This is because it is the same for all of us! Without proper action and genuine sincerity in living our faith, we shall never be able to cultivate and let the gifts of God, the potential for great things inside us to grow and develop. Instead, as long as we dwell in sin and live in darkness, then we will be just like the seed that never grows or the flour and dough that never rises to become bread or cake.

Let us all therefore from now on reflect on our own lives’ actions and deeds. Have we been true disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, not just in words or on paper only, but also through real action and commitment? Let us all love one another and show genuine care for each other, and let us all walk faithfully in the holy presence of our God. May God show us His love and bless us richly and abundantly always, now and forever. Amen.

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Monday, 26 October 2015 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about Jesus and His healing of the sick woman who had suffered for over eighteen years due to the binding and works of the devil, who made her to suffer grievously. And yet, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law criticised Him for what He had done, for to them, He has blasphemed and sinned by breaking one of the most important law in the eyes of the Jews, that is the law of the Sabbath.

And yet, their faith and their reasoning failed them, for they saw with the eyes of their flesh, and they tried to understand the meaning of the Law of God using the feebleness and the limitations of their human minds and thoughts. They were unable to truly understand nor comprehend what Jesus had done, and what He had intended to reveal to them by that action, that they might see the truth.

As St. Paul put it in his letter to the Church and the faithful in the city of Rome, he explained how all of us mankind must no longer walk in the way of the flesh, or the way of worldliness, but rather, we ought to walk from now on in the way of Christ, as we are all children and belonging of the Spirit of God, and not the belongings of the prince of this world, that is Satan and his angels.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law thought in the way of this world, thinking of themselves and priding themselves as the impeccable and flawless guardians of the faith, and as the just and faithful ones because of their numerous prayers, devotions and also strict adherence to the laws passed on to them from the time of Moses.

Yet, they failed to understand that those laws and ordinances were all actually given to mankind for a singular purpose, that is to bring them closer to God, to bring them to much more active and genuine commitment to God, and to turn them away from the path of evil and into righteousness and salvation in the Lord. And they were not conceived or given to mankind in order to have some to lord over others and think that they had the right to just so and so just because they deemed themselves more superior in piety.

Jesus indeed rebuked these people harshly, for their misguided ways and inability to understand God’s true intentions, despite them being educated, supposedly wise and as the shepherds of the people of God. Jesus showed them that God intended His laws to guide mankind to Him, and not to bring about unjust and unnecessary sufferings, especially to those who are willing to change and repent their ways.

Therefore, God showed His mercy and compassion for us, by healing the woman who had been afflicted and enslaved by the devil for over eighteen years. Why did He then choose to do it on the Sabbath? It is to show it clearly to those who have been hypocrites and failed to understand God’s intention and the meaning of His laws, that He wants us all to be saved, and if possible, as soon as it is possible to save us, not a single moment must be lost.

We can see this being practiced in how the Church regulates the baptism of infants after their birth. It is truly imperative that parents bring their newborn child to be baptised as soon as possible after birth, so as to grant them the seal of the living God, the eternal seal of baptism that is stamped upon the souls of all those who have been received into the Church of God. The salvation of our souls is God’s priority.

Let us all now therefore renew our commitment to God, and be committed in our faith, to help one another to reach out to the Lord, just as Jesus had done. Let us help all those who are still living in the darkness of sin, and help them so that they may find their way to reach the Lord who loves them and wishes them all to be saved, that is all of us. May God be with us in all of our endeavours and bless us always. Amen.

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Sunday, 25 October 2015 : Thirtieth (30th) Sunday of the Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day the readings from the Holy Scripture all unanimously speak of one thing, one fact and reality, that is the salvation, healing and redemption brought about through our Lord Jesus Christ, the High Priest of all, Lord and Master of all, through Whose works and actions, all of us had been made justified and righteous, and purified from the taints of our original sins.

In the first reading, taken from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, God made a promise to all of His people that He will never forget them, and that His love for them will always endure, so long as they too love Him and dedicate themselves to Him. He will save them and bless them once again with His grace and love, just as once He had done in the past.

This was in the context of the time, when the prophet Jeremiah lived at a time of difficulty and hopelessness, where the people of the ten tribes living in the northern kingdom of divided Israel had been carried off into exile and slavery by the Assyrians who had invaded and destroyed their kingdom. God punished them for their lack of faith and wicked deeds, for their worship of the pagan gods like Baal and Asherath, and paid no honour to Him, the one and only true God.

And the people in the southern kingdom of Judah were not faring much better either, as the Babylonians that came after the Assyrians now threatened to bring destruction to Judah and Jerusalem, and indeed, they would destroy Jerusalem and the Temple of God built by Solomon, and the people would be carried off to exile and slavery in lands far away from their homes.

But after all these, the punishments for Israel’s sins, just as their ancestors wandered in the desert for forty years due to their disobedience, and just as all mankind had to suffer and perish in this hard and challenging world, due to the sins of our forefather Adam and Eve, his wife, thus, God also promised salvation and liberation from all sufferings to all of His people if they would return to Him.

And God had promised all of us this since the beginning of time, when mankind first fell into sin, namely by promising to Adam and Eve, that even though Satan got them and tricked them into disobedience against God, but there would be a time to come, when God would send a Deliverer and Saviour to them, to the sons and daughters of mankind.

And God continued to renew His promise to His people throughout time, as He promised His servants Abraham, Moses, David, and many others through His prophets and messengers, or by directly speaking to them. God blessed His people and kept them with the hope of His deliverance and salvation. Yet, it was so often that the people refused to listen to the words of His prophets.

And today in the Gospel reading, we heard about how the blind man called out to Jesus Christ our Lord to save him and heal him from his blindness. The blind man struggled on and he did not give up, even when Jesus apparently did not hear him and continued on His way. And indeed, the blind man’s efforts were rewarded by the Lord, who healed him from his afflictions and restored his sight to him.

This is related closely to what we heard today in our second reading today from the Letter of St. Paul directed to the Hebrews, where he spoke if our Lord Jesus Christ as the High Priest, and not just as any other ordinary High Priests of the Temple of God, but truly as the High Priest over all mankind and over all of creation, for it was by what He had done as our one and true High Priest that He had saved and delivered us all.

Yes, as mentioned earlier with regards to the salvation of our souls and the redemption from our sins, we have had the perfect and complete fulfilment of God’s promised salvation through Jesus Christ, the Saviour and the One through Whom God made His will complete, the will that all of us His beloved ones ought to be drawn closer to Him and be brought out from the pit of misery and sin we are currently in now.

Truly, we are like the blind man, sickened and troubled, afflicted and suffering the consequences of our sins. Yes, for sin is not just the disobedience against God and all the wickedness we have committed in our words and actions, but in fact, sin is a disease and like a cancer that afflicts our souls, our hearts, our minds and also our bodies.

And sin is eating away into our beings, crushing us, destroying us and making us rotten. Unless we do something concrete and real to get ourselves clean and free from all these sins, we shall be brought down by them into the abyss of eternal darkness and suffering. For this is true hell, the eternal suffering of knowing that we have been completely separated from the love and the grace of God, and there is no hope for escape.

Just like the priests and high priests of Israel, whom God had chosen and ordained out of the people, to be those sanctified and empowered to offer the offerings for the sake of the sins of the people, or sin offerings, where the priests offer the lovely smell of animals and burnt offerings at the altar for the temporary remission and forgiveness of the sins of the people of God, so God had also instituted once and for all the eternal redemption by the one true High Priest, our Lord Jesus Christ.

And Jesus did not offer the blood of rams or bulls, or birds or any other earthly offerings. Rather, He offered His own Precious Body and Precious Blood, His own Life, so that by that one and singular offering made at the Altar of Calvary, lifted up high on the cross, He might become the perfect offering, the perfect sacrifice which is worthy and the only one worthy to absolve forever the whole multitude of all of our sins.

And He offered it all willingly and freely for all of us, sinners and wicked people who have acted like the Israelites of old, like the people living during the time of the prophet Jeremiah in Judah. Exile and destruction would have been ours if not for the mercy and the richness of the love of God. However, this does not come free and easy for us. Why is this so? This is because mercy requires dedication and genuine repentance.

We often forget that God’s mercy and love requires first on our side, the willingness to accept them, and also the willingness and the desire, as well as the seriousness to leave behind our past sins and wrongdoings. No mercy will be shown or given to us if we persist in our sinfulness, in our rebellion against God’s will, for the simple fact that just as much as God loves us all without exception, even the greatest sinners, He despises our sins just as much, for evil has no place in His presence.

Today, as we all gather together to glorify our Lord and to give thanks to Him for His wondrous mercy, let us all not forget that we must dedicate ourselves to a life of holiness, far away from all sorts of sin and wickedness, far away from all sorts of adultery and unfaithfulness, from all sorts of debauchery and greed, from anything that can separate us from the love of God and thrust us into eternal damnation.

Let us all renew our faith in the Lord and commit ourselves anew to a new life blessed by His love and by His justice, that in all the things we say and do, we proclaim Him and we bring glory to Him. May God bless us all in our endeavours, and may He keep us united to Him and never be separated once again from His love. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Saturday, 24 October 2015 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the Lord speaking about the parable of the fig tree, which told us about a fig tree that was found to be barren and without fruits, and when the owner of the fig tree wanted to cut it down and dispose of it, the gardener asked for the fig tree to be given a second chance, where he would give it more fertilisers and help, hoping that it will bear fruit this time round, or else it will be destroyed.

This is coupled with what Jesus our Lord spoke about the sinfulness of the people of God, how the Jews liked to look down on the Galileans and the other Gentiles for their supposed inferiority in the sight of God, as they considered themselves as justified and saved, while the others were destined for condemnation. For God, there is nothing such as that, as all are equal in the presence of God, regardless of their race, their background and their origins.

God does not discriminate against any of us, just as all of us are equally sinners before Him, for we have all committed sin in one form or another in our lives on earth, and through our sins, we have been made truly barren and fruitless, that is no good fruits of faith and fruits of the Spirit can be found in us. What are these fruits? Hope, love, charity, chastity, and many others, all the good things that are expected to be in us, and yet we have fallen short of having these in our lives.

And when none of these can be found in our lives, how can we then be good and useful to the Lord our God? Our Lord indeed loves all of us, but He also equally hates and despises all of our sins and wickedness without exception. Just like the master or owner of the plantation, who wants the barren fig tree to be chopped off and destroyed. After all, if a tree has no fruit, what can the tree be useful for? Rather than keeping the tree to take up space on a fertile land, another tree should be planted in its place.

That barren and fruitless tree is just like us. If we are filled with sin and wickedness, then definitely we cannot find a place for us in the presence of God. The Lord will not receive us or bless us, for our sins and wickedness are abhorring to Him. Instead, we shall be rejected and cast out into the outer darkness. Only goodness and worthy things can come into the presence of our Lord. And these are the fruits of our labours in faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to heed what St. Paul also mentioned in the first reading today, that is his letter to the Church and the faithful in the city of Rome, that we should not succumb ourselves to the way of the flesh, but instead walk faithfully in the path that our Lord had shown us through Jesus. We are creatures of the Light, belonging to God, and yet our attachment to the desires of the flesh and of this world held us back from attaining salvation in the Lord.

It is by resisting and learning to reject these temptations that we will be able to gain fruitfulness in life. If we want to bear fruits of the Spirit, and the fruits of our faith, then it is necessary for us to labour and do hard work, so that in all the things that we do, we uphold as best as possible, and as far as possible, the way of the Lord, and obey the Law of God in all of its entirety.

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Anthony Mary Claret, known also as the founder of the congregation of religious bearing his name, that is the Claretians. He was a great missionary who spent many years in preaching and ministering to the people on the truth and the teachings of the Lord as espoused by the Church. He revealed to many of the people who have yet to hear the word of God, or have gone wayward in their lives, and helped to bring them to return to the Church.

St. Anthony Mary Claret went on to establish the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, also known as the Claretians after their founder, which he established to continue the missionary and evangelising work that he had done. And he continued on to preach and work hard for the sake of the salvation of many peoples, even when his life was at time threatened and in danger.

The examples shown by St. Anthony Mary Claret are clear indications of what all of us can also do for the benefit of all those who have been trapped in the shackles of sin. It is our duty to help each other, that we help those who have not borne good fruits of faith and were barren, that by the grace and love of God, we may regrow healthily in faith, and in our actions and deeds, may they be filled with many rich fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is love, hope, chastity, honesty and many others.

Let us all commit ourselves to accept God’s generous offer of mercy, His willingness like the master of the plantation to give a chance to the barren fig tree, representing our sinfulness and wickedness, so that by realigning ourselves and by obediently walking in His way, we may be found bountiful and filled with rich fruits that will justify us and bring us to salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 23 October 2015 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John of Capestrano, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we heard about God who chastises us and challenges us to live according to the way of the Spirit and not according to the way of the flesh. This may be easy to be said, but much harder to be done in reality. This is because we mankind are always vulnerable to the assaults of the devil through the flesh, through his many lies and temptations designed to turn our hearts and ways against God.

And if we are not careful, we may be drawn deeper and deeper into the trap that is our sins, and we will be trapped further and further into the trap of sin. And the more we succumb into it, the more and greater we shall fall. This is just as what St. Paul had mentioned in his letter to the Church and the faithful in Rome, our first reading today, that the evils in our heart assert themselves first.

In today’s reading, it was made clear of the conflict and clash between the way of this mortal world and the mortal life we have on this earth, our mortal flesh, with the way of the Lord, the way of the Spirit of God as revealed through Jesus and through His Law. The Law of God is something that easily attunes itself to us as all of us were indeed created good, righteous and just, but sin marred all of these.

This is why we have the tendency to seek things of the flesh, to fulfil our own desires first, as our desires and the temptations of our flesh prevented us from seeing the truth and the wonders of the Lord found only in righteousness and obedience to His Law. Instead, we find joy and pleasure in entertaining our own human emotions and needs, and we cajole ourselves in the pursuit of earthly glories and greatness.

And we tend to place great pride and confidence in our own human abilities and intellect, so much so that this resulting in the inability for us to recognise God’s truth when it comes upon us, because we take great pride in maintaining our own ways and customs, and we refuse and we are unwilling to change our ways for the better. And this also led to the conflict between peoples, between mankind, for the needs and wants of one person will inevitably clash and overlap with that of the needs of others.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us need to understand that in order to truly become followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, and thus, in order to be able to attain salvation through Him, we have to discard our earthly ways and resist the temptations of our flesh. Otherwise, as we have just discussed, that the flesh will assert itself first, therefore, our sins and wickedness will assert themselves and block out all the good things that we are actually capable of doing.

Let us instead, look up to the example of the saint whose feast we are celebrating today, namely that of St. John of Capestrano, or also known as San Giovanni di Capestrano, an Italian saint and Franciscan priest who lived about more than five hundred years ago, who was a famous preacher and a dedicated servant of God, who committed himself to the conversion of heretics and pagans, and to the purification of the ways of the faithful from all the taints and impurities of sin.

St. John of Capestrano laboured hard in all situations and conditions, as well as in many places and among many peoples, against all sorts of heresies and perversions of the faith among the faithful. And he did not fear even the strong, mighty and powerful in his missions, for to him, his mission was to bring as many souls as possible, out of the misery and the quagmire of their sins.

He even joined a great Crusade against the godless and the heretics, and fought as a brave and courageous defender and champion of the faith, showing his dedication to the very end, dying of a disease contracted during the Crusade, that he adhered strongly and faithfully to the ways of the Lord and to His Law, and rejected the ways of the flesh, of this world and Satan completely.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we not also follow in his footsteps, and learn how to reject Satan’s temptations through our mortal flesh and bodies? Shall we strengthen our spiritual defences by strengthening our prayer life, devoting ourselves ever more to the Lord and spending more time with Him in prayer, and also by committing ourselves to works of love and charity, especially to our brethren around us?

May Almighty God be with us always, and may He ever guide our path in the way of His love, and may He ever strengthen us that we can resolutely reject all the lies and falsehoods of the evil one. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 22 October 2015 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Popes)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we celebrate for the second time, the feast of a great Pope of recent memory, whose long reign and many contributions to the Church had helped it to stay strong and united amidst the challenges and difficulties that came to assault and bombard the Church and the faithful. He is Pope St. John Paul II, also known as Pope St. John Paul II the Great, the first ever Polish Pope, and the victor against the threat and tyranny of Communism.

And today we heard about how mankind had been afflicted by sin, and how sin has adversely affected us, in a way that we all have walked in the path of wickedness and vileness, by our actions and deeds because we were unable to detach ourselves from our sins. We were enslaved to our sins, to our greed and desire, to all the things that separated us from the love of God.

And this is in parallel of what had happened during the lifetime of Pope St. John Paul II, born Karol Wojtyla in Krakow, part of Poland. In his lifetime, he experienced and saw how his country experienced hardships and challenges, and were brought under one conqueror to another, and from one tyranny to another. He saw how his country was brought under the rule of NAZI Germany and then a long period of persecution under the Communists led by the Soviet Union.

And the country of faithful and devoted servants of God, was enslaved by the ungodly forces of fascism and later communism. The faithful people of God were persecuted and tortured, and even they had to lose their lives solely because of the fact that they believed in God and walked in His ways. The enemies of the faithful tried to snuff out the light of God’s Church and envelop everything in darkness.

But the Psalm today gave all a new hope and encouragement, as God spoke of the blessings that all the righteous shall receive, and the curse and destruction that await all those who have not walked in the path of the Lord. God shall look kindly upon all those who stood up faithfully for their faith, and who did not give in to the temptations and the pressures of the world.

Those who have followed what is wicked before the Lord shall be destroyed and rejected from all the glory and the favour of God. And they shall have no part in the Lord and His wonderful inheritance. God shall cast them out of His presence, just as He had cast out Satan and his fellow fallen angels out of heaven and down into hell. This is the hope that God has given us, and which many of the faithful people of God hoped in, even in the midst and height of persecution and challenges.

And our Lord Jesus Himself reminded us in the Gospel today, that His coming would not herald peace and prosperity as some people falsely believed. Some people thought that the coming of the Messiah would usher in the rule of eternal peace, glory and prosperity, and the Messiah would become someone like a model King who would rule all the people in justice and honour, and all sadness shall go away.

But we have to remember that this world is still filled with much darkness and wickedness, and there is no way that Satan who ruled this world with an iron fist shall just let it go without a fight or confrontation. When the Lord came to save His people, that was why Satan and his fellow fallen angels did all that they could do, in order to disturb and derail God’s works of salvation and mercy, by putting his lies and discord in those who opposed Jesus and His works.

It was not because God is a hate-bringing God or a warlike God that He would purposely stir up conflict and disharmony among His people, but rather, it was the opposition of Satan and his forces, the unwillingness of those who have followed the rebellion of the devil to renounce their ways which led to the conflict between the righteous and the just on one side, and the unrepentant and the wicked on the other side.

Thus, it was this same conflict that Pope St. John Paul II and many other brave and courageous defenders of the faith had encountered as they stood up for the Lord and for their fellow brethren in faith, against all those who seek the downfall, corruption and destruction of men, the beloved people of God. Many priests, bishops and laity alike suffered persecution and even martyrdom, just as one priest, now Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko, a close friend of Pope St. John Paul II would encounter.

Priests and laity staying true to the faith were arrested and tortured, and not few had to give their lives in the defence of their faith. But they continued to resist, and led by the future Pope St. John Paul II, they were vocal in withstanding the attacks directed against them by the communist and atheistic government, and while resisting without violence, they prayed to God together for a deliverance.

And God did deliver them from harm, by giving them a great gift in the unexpected election of the very first Polish Pope, and one who would lead the people of God in the resistance against those who were wicked and who have oppressed the people of God. And indeed, by his hard and courageous works, Pope St. John Paul II helped to topple communism and returned liberty and freedom to all those suffering from it.

Let us all today reflect, on what all of us can do as well, following the examples of Pope St. John Paul II, standing up for the Lord and for our faith, and proudly and courageously defending what we believe in the Lord and in all that He had taught us. Let us all not give in to the temptation of worldliness and all the lies of Satan, but instead cling tightly and strongly to the truth which God alone can give.

May Almighty God our Father guide us always in our path, so that as we walk in this journey of life, we may be ever more faithful and devoted to Him, and in the words of Pope St. John Paul II, let us never be afraid to open wide the doors of our heart, to welcome Him into ourselves, that by our actions, we may also open wide the doors to salvation to many who still dwell in darkness. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 21 October 2015 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s readings from the Holy Scriptures remind us that we all should refrain and abstain from sinning once again, and we should keep ourselves from doing all the things that will place us all under the dominion of sin once again. For we all have been liberated from sin and from the punishments for our sins, because our Lord Himself have come to save us and by His saving works we have been brought into a new life.

To be under the dominion of sin was like how it was once when we were subjected to the consequences of our sins, the effects of which we still feel even unto this very day. For the consequence of sin is primarily death, the separation we experience from the Lord of all life, that is none other than the Lord our God. By our disobedience and rebellion against His will and His ways, we fell into disgrace and into the abyss of sin.

And while we mankind we created perfect, good and without blemish, and while we would have enjoyed an eternity of grace, blessings, joy and happiness living together with our God in the bliss of Eden, but because of sin, we tasted the first taste of suffering, and of death. Death becomes an integral part of our life, and death claims the life of all the mortal beings like us.

And once, we see no hope beyond death, for death is intended as the punishment for our sinfulness, the consequences we are to suffer, and just as we came from dust, our physical bodies shall not last and return to the dust, and death and hell would claim our souls for eternity. There was once no hope out of this despair, against the darkness that awaits us after the end of our earthly existence.

Yet, God who loves us has given us the new, lasting and eternal hope in Jesus Christ, His Son. Through Him we have the path out of our predicament, the sufferings we are to bear for our sins have been paid in full by the sacrifice of His Blood on the cross, and by sharing and partaking of His Body and Blood, we receive the salvation and life which He had promised us.

This means that we have been freed from the bonds and the tyranny which sin and the devil have imposed on us. We are truly free if we hold tight in the Lord and His promises, and as long as we keep our faith in Him and trust in Him fully. But we can easily fall back into the dominion of sin, if we lapse and fail to hold back our desires and fail to resist the temptations of the evil one, who is constantly trying to pull us back into damnation through sin.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today, through the Gospel passage we heard together, our Lord Jesus Christ wants to remind us that each one of us whom He had brought out of the darkness have become God’s children by adoption through Christ, who is the Son of God and by assuming the form of Man, we too have become the children of God.

And because all of us are God’s children, He who is the Lord and Master over all of creation would entrust us with the care over creation, all the things in this world, and also with the care for one another, from one to his fellow men around him or her. It is by this that we have been appointed as stewards by our Lord, and it is truly up to us, and the choice is fully ours, whether we are to be good and responsible stewards, or whether our choice is to be terrible and wicked stewards.

It is in our human tendency for us to be lazy, slothful and selfish, thinking only about ourselves before anything else. This is why we often end up as the bad and wicked steward, who think that he could have it easy and laid back and rest, while the master is away from the house. In the same way therefore, because we think that God has given us so many opportunities and chances, then we can take it easy and slack, or sin and the Lord will tolerate those sins.

But all of us should know that the coming of the Lord will be truly sudden and unexpected, and if we are caught unprepared, the consequences will be truly fatal. Just as the wicked and lazy servant, our inaction will be our undoing. Shall we take heed of this so that we will not fall into eternal damnation just because we have failed to do something in order to help those who have been entrusted to us.

Let us all make the effort to love each other, guide one another and bring all of us closer to the Lord, by our efforts and actions, by caring for those who have fallen into sin and encourage them to return to the light, and also all those suffering from hunger and poverty, let us all help them in whatever way we can. May Almighty God bless us on our endeavours and keep us His stewards faithful to Him at all times. Amen.

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Tuesday, 20 October 2015 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are reminded to be ready to receive the Lord our God, our Saviour and Liberator who will come again one day to bring us all who are faithful out of the misery and sufferings of sin, and when He comes again, His coming will be swift and unpredictable, and no one will know or be prepared at His coming, unless all of us take heed of the reminders which we have received through the Scriptures and the Church.

Our Lord came to liberate us from our sins, and from all the taints of our darkened hearts and minds because of those disobediences and rebellions against the will and the love of God. And as the first reading today from the letter of St. Paul to the Church in Rome had stated, that while it was because of one man’s disobedience that all of us mankind had fallen, namely by the acts of the first Adam, it was by the New Adam that we have been saved.

And our Lord Jesus Christ is the New Adam, by Whom and by Whose actions we have been saved and made whole once again. How is this so, brothers and sisters in Christ? It is because of His humanity, which He shares with all of us. He is the Word of God, Divine and Infinitely mighty, powerful and beyond all comprehension, but He was willing to assume our lowly form and the lowliness of our flesh.

Imagine this fact, that God, Master and Lord of the whole universe, Almighty and great, have been willing to confine Himself into the mortal and frail body of a Man, so that by assuming this flesh through the Holy Spirit and by the cooperation of His Blessed mother, Mary, He became the New Adam, the New Man, through Whom God is pleased once again with us mankind, and the past taints of sin can be erased.

By assuming our flesh, and by then giving that life, the flesh and blood voluntarily to the Lord as an offering of sacrifice, God had made one and one only ultimate sacrifice for the sake of all of our sins, the best sin offering. And His petitions were heard because of His total and perfect obedience to God, even in the face of difficulties, challenge, rejection and ridicule upon Him.

While the first Adam was disobedient and while he chose to follow his own desires, listening to Satan instead of his Lord and God, the New Adam, that is Jesus Christ, was fully and perfectly obedient in all things, so that while the first man made sin to enter into the hearts and beings of men, the New Adam, Christ, by sharing with us the salvation which He had brought into this world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, then what we need to do is that we should look at the examples of Christ, and follow Him in all these. He was obedient in following the will of God His Father, even unto suffering and grieving under the pressure and the burden of the combined might of our sins. Even during the time of the agony in the garden, Jesus was tempted to abandon His ministry, and yet, in the end, His commitment and obedience are too strong for even the devil to manipulate.

Why is this so? It is because of His great and infinite love which He freely gives to all of us. It is His love, care and concern for each one of us that had made Him to be willing to sacrifice Himself for the sake of all of us. And by His loving sacrifice on the cross, we have been made whole again, and worthy of God’s grace and salvation. By His resurrection He had promised us all to be free from the snares of death because of our sins, and in Him we all have hope.

And this hope which He has given us is that, He will come again to collect and gather all those who have shown their faith to Him, and He will gather all of them from among the nations and from the whole world, so that we can be saved and receive the fullness of His blessings and the eternal life He had promised all of us. And yet, many of us are not ready and many of us slack in our lives and actions.

We always think that we still have the time and opportunity to do good in our lives, and many of us also think that we can still enjoy ourselves and take our own sweet time in living up to the faith which we profess. However, the reality is that, the Lord may come at any time, especially at a time that we least expect. And therefore, let us all be awakened to the need for us to take action in living up our faith in reality, and show our faith through action.

May Almighty God bless us all, and keep us all in His grace, and may He awaken in us the urge to love Him and to devote ourselves to Him. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

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Monday, 19 October 2015 : 29th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John de Brebeuf and St. Isaac Jogues, Priests and Companions, Martyrs, and St. Paul of the Cross, Priest (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Priests)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s Scripture message for us is very clear indeed, that all those who place their trust in earthly goods and worldly things shall falter and fail, as they put their faith in perishable things and on things that do not last forever. This is a clear lesson to all of us, so that we may learn to detach ourselves from our commonly excessive attachment to the goods of this world.

Jesus our Lord used the example of the rich man who thought that he had it all, and all the wealth and possessions he had accumulated all the years of his life would bring him pleasure and prosperity in his life. Yet, he did not realise that he is not the true master of his own life. It is the Lord God who is the true Master of all life, and He is the One who has control over all the lives of mankind, including all of us without exception.

That rich man had placed his trust in his great might and power in accordance with the standards and norms of this world, and he thought that he had nothing else to worry about, but he failed to understand that those things he had will not be brought with him over when he comes to his judgment in the presence of God. And he would have nothing to boast of, because nothing that he had accumulated would carry over to the world that is to come.

Instead of all these, our Lord advocated that we all should walk in His path, shedding all of our attachments to the worldly things and desires, and instead we all should adhere closely to the teachings and the truth of our Lord, which is the path of humility, of love and devotion to the Lord. Instead of being overly attached or obsessed with the goods of this world, with money or material goods, we should instead build up the true treasure that we will attain in heaven.

The earthly treasure of money, possessions and wealth shall eventually rot and be destroyed, but not the heavenly treasure that we shall build up if we live faithfully in accordance to the will of God. What is this treasure? It is the treasure of the love of God. While the worldly treasures bring about conflict and suffering, jealousy and hatred, the true treasure of love bring with it consolation and happiness to everyone.

How then, should we build up this heavenly treasure? It is by committing ourselves to actions that are founded upon love, and not the selfish love of men or love for money and possessions, but the selfless and perfect love that our Lord Jesus Himself had shown us, by laying down His life and suffered for the sake of all of us, bearing upon Himself all of our sins and all of their consequences.

We shall build up the true treasures of heaven by showing love in our own actions, caring for those who are lonely, rejected and downtrodden, and by giving hope to all those who are without hope. It is built by our act of giving light of love and hope to all those who have been living in the darkness and the uncertainty of this world, and by showing the path of the Lord to all those who need to be saved.

Let us all also heed the examples of the saints whose life we honour and remember today. Today is the feast of St. John de Brebeuf, St. Isaac Jogues and their companions, the martyr saints of North America, namely French missionaries who spent their lives spreading the Gospel to the pagan and unenlightened people of the New World, especially in what is now Canada and North America.

They went through many hardships and difficult challenges, the difficulty of preaching in place so cold and hostile to life, and in places where the locals and the natives were quite unwilling to open up themselves to listen to the word of God, and the barrier of language differences that made things difficult for these devoted missionaries, who regardless of all these challenges, they continued to persevere through and preached the truth of God to the people.

And indeed, many were converted to the true faith, and many followed on in the hardships and the challenges that await all those who decided to follow the Lord and His path. And they went through times of difficulty, attacked and tortured by those who refused to listen to the truth, and they were all eventually martyred for their faith, dying a painful death defending their faith and conviction to the Lord, and in the process, received the crown of everlasting glory.

And today we also celebrate the feast of St. Paul of the Cross, an Italian priest who was very devoted to the Lord, and he promoted the devotion to the Lord, especially to His most holy Passion, the love which He had shown to all of us, and the suffering which He had willingly endured for the sake of all of us, so that everyone of us may be liberated from the pain of death.

St. Paul of the Cross taught us that by meditating upon the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by focusing on the ultimate sacrifice which He had made out of perfect love for us all, we may be able to understand better what we need to do in life in order to become ever closer to the salvation which our Lord can give to us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all follow their examples and heed what we have heard in the Holy Scriptures today. Let us be better disciples and followers of our Lord, by persevering through difficulties and challenges, through temptations and resisting the pull of our desire, our human greed and wants, which threaten to engulf us into a life of hedonism and materialism opposed to the will of God.

Let us all be humble in all things, and grow ever more devoted to God, and find for ourselves and build up for ourselves not the temporary and illusory treasures of this world, but the treasure of the world that is to come. Let us all show our faith in God through our genuine love for Him and for our fellow men. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 18 October 2015 : Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Mission Sunday and Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about firstly, from the book of the prophet Isaiah, on the prophecy of the suffering Servant, the Messiah who would suffer for our sins, and who would be given the burden of all of mankind’s faults, and He would be crushed with the grief and the punishment due for our faults, mistakes and sinfulness.

And in the Psalm, we heard about the Lord our God, who is God that is caring and loving towards all those who are faithful to Him, giving His blessings and graces to all those who trust in Him, and who fear Him and give to Him what is due for Him, namely honour, respect and due worship. This is the promise that God gives to all those who keep their faith in Him, that He will not leave them, but bless them and remain with them forever.

And linking to these two readings is what St. Paul mentioned in his letter to the Hebrews, where he highlighted the fact that Jesus, who was crucified, suffered and died for the sake of all the people, is the One true great High Priest of all, who offered not the sacrifice of animals and grains, but a different sacrifice that is His own Body, and His own Blood.

And He offered it not many times, but just once for the sake of the salvation of the whole world. The offering of His own Body and Blood, the offering of His worthy life has been accepted by God, as the one and only perfect sacrifice that is worthy to absolve us all from all the accumulations of our sins. God has given us all this grace and opportunity for us to be freed from the tyranny and hold of sin.

Then finally, in the Gospel today, Jesus spoke about how the way that He has revealed to us is not the path of pride and worldliness, but instead, we have to chart for ourselves a new path and follow a new life according to the will of God our Lord and Father. And this new path is shown by how Jesus rebuked His own disciples, St. James and St. John who asked to be favoured over the others by asking Jesus to give them the favour of sitting on His left and right, essentially a very great honour.

But these two disciples were basically thinking in terms of worldly power and glory, and they were thinking in terms of human glory, fame and honour, but they did not understand the true meaning of God’s Law and intentions for mankind. They thought that to follow Jesus means to share in His glory and honour, as well as majesty and greatness, and this is not surprising, as the normal ways of this world demand that we demand and seek for glory, fame and recognition in the eyes of one another.

After all, in this world, many of those who serve kings and rulers dress nicely and attempt to show that they are the best dressed and best in appearance before their master and trying to garner his or her favour by doing so. And yet, with Jesus, who is truly the King of all kings, and Lord of all lords, things are very different indeed.

For His kingship and kingdom is not of this world, and thus His ways and His methods are different from what we all used to know. If the way of the world is to flaunt greatness, wealth, fame and promote human praise and glory, then the way of our Lord Jesus and King is the way of humility, of loving service and genuine care to all those whom He is Lord over, and that is why He told His disciples, that whoever wants to be great from among His disciples must be a servant to all.

It is too often in this world that mankind uses power and influence to control and to oppress those who are subordinated to them, and they use all these to maintain their power, their privileges and their status, not willing to lose or be reduced in any of them. They desire for ever more and more worldly goods, worldly power, fame and influence, and this is why we mankind by our nature always bicker, enter into conflict and wars, and end up bringing suffering upon another or even resorting to murder and destruction of life.

The Lord teaches us that His way is not the way of greed, or of succumbing to our personal desires and jealousy upon others and what they had and what we do not have with us. He teaches us that to become greater in His eyes does not mean the same as being great in the eyes of the world. On the contrary, the greater a person has become, the more humble he or she should become, and become even less attached to their glory and desires.

It is difficult for us to detach from all these worldliness and human desires, as it is in our human nature to want even more when we already have something with us. And the more we have, the more difficult it is for us to resist that temptation to seek for even more. And the most important reason is that, we mankind are always looking for something that can satisfy our needs and wants, but all the things and goods of this world prove to be unsatisfactory in providing what we need.

After all, all the money and possessions, all the material goods in the world that we have cannot buy for us true happiness and joy. They can only provide us with happiness that is illusory, temporary and impermanent. And as I have just mentioned, that we mankind always grow in our greed and desire as we have more things with us? This is why we can never be satisfied with whatever this world is able to offer.

On the contrary, what truly can provide us with true happiness and satisfaction, is the satisfaction that comes from the Lord alone. It is only God alone who can give us and provide us with true happiness, that is by the provision of His words, His Law, His truth and His perfect love, that He fills us up with, that all of us are needing right now, to liberate us from our own sinfulness, stubbornness, and inability to live in accordance to the way of the Lord.

This is why, on this day, the Feast of St. Luke the Apostle and Evangelist, we should all reflect on the Holy Gospels, which the Apostles had written and composed by the power of the Holy Spirit, to provide us with God’s truth and love, through the words they have written in the Four holy Gospels. The Gospels and the entirety of the Holy Scriptures are the repository and evidence of the truth and the words of God that all of us have heard, witnessed and shared, and thus we believe in Him from whom the words came.

And as today is also the celebration of the Mission Sunday, by this we should all realise that all of us are the bearers of God’s Gospel to the world, for there are indeed many of those our brethren, who are still living in the darkness of this world, and which by our actions and deeds, we may bring the revelation of God’s truth to them, so that they may be saved too, just as we have been saved.

Many of us mankind are still living in ignorance of the truth of the Lord, blinded by darkness and sin, and the light provided by the truth in the Gospels are truly necessary for us all to be able to liberate one another from the effects of darkness that had covered our souls and bring all of us into the light of Christ our Lord. It is the mission which our Lord had given and entrusted to all of us, to bring His light to the nations.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, let us all remember the mission which our Lord Jesus Christ had given to all of His disciples before the time when He was about to depart back from this world to His heavenly Father. This mission is that all of us bring all mankind, from all the nations and from the whole world, to receive baptism in the Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

And the way to do this is by proclaiming God’s truth, the truth of His words and the light of His truth by practicing our faith in our own actions, and showing our adherence and faith in God’s truth by showing these through all that we do to our fellow men, and through our commitment to the Lord and His ways. Let us all be missionaries of the Faith to one another, and in particular to those who lives are still in darkness, and who still have yet to hear the word and the truth of God.

May Almighty God be with us always, bless us all in our endeavours and works, so that in all the things that we say and do, we may bring more souls closer to the salvation in God. God bless us all, now and forever. Amen.