Apostles

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Saturday, 4 May 2013 : 5th Week of Easter (First Reading)

Acts 16 : 1-10

Paul travelled on to Derbe and then to Lystra. A disciple named Timothy lived there, whose mother was a believer of Jewish origin but whose father was a Greek. As the believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him, Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him.

So he took him and, because of the Jews of that place who all knew that his father was a Greek, he circumcised him. As they travelled from town to town, they delivered the decisions of the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, for the people to obey. Meanwhile, the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number every day.

They travelled through Phrygia and Galatia, because they had been prevented by the Holy Spirit from preaching the message in the province of Asia. When they came to Mysia, they tried to go on to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to do this. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.

There one night Paul had a vision. A Macedonian stood before him and begged him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” When he awoke, he told us of this vision and we understood that the Lord was calling us to give the Good News to the Macedonian people.

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Friday, 3 May 2013 : 5th Week of Easter, Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles (Scripture Reflection)

Christ did not die, but He lives. He did not die a death that lasts, since He was risen by God the Father from the land of the dead, as the firstborn from the dead, the first One to rise from death and conquer death itself, to prove that death does not have the final say, and neither Satan, the evil one, has final say over us, and all creation.

For Christ, through His death and then His resurrection, made all creations new, and He rejuvenated all of creation, by the shedding of His Most Precious Body and Blood, which He offered as a perfect and unblemished sacrifice that day on the cross on Calvary. The Lamb of God, the Paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed for us, and has been found worthy, that we too, can be found worthy by God, our Father.

We are the sons and daughters of God, our Father, and therefore we should also be like our Father, who is good and perfect. Yet, sadly, we had been tainted by the evils of sin, by the disobedience of Adam our forefather, and Eve, his wife, being seduced by Satan, the deceiver. But God did not want  us to suffer death and eternal separation from Himself, and He wants us to be once again worthy of Him who is good and perfect.

Christ became the new Adam who renewed mankind’s contract with God, by providing them with a new life through the Spirit, but this time, He completed and made perfect that union between God and mankind, sealed through His own blood, as He is fully man and fully divine, indivisible and one. Christ came so that we can have hope once again, of life in the Spirit. God breathed life into mankind by His Spirit, that is His breath, but mankind squandered that life and made it imperfect by their disobedience.

The Blood of the Lamb that is sacrificed on the cross justifies all those who believe in the One sent by God, that is Christ, once again, and made them whole, just like the days before the fall of mankind. He then was resurrected from the dead and became the living proof and truth of all that He Himself had brought and taught to all those who had listened to Him and His preaching,

Today, we commemorate the feast day of the two apostles of Christ, in both St. Philip and St. James, both of whom became His witnesses to the entire world. They preached the Good News of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, which are indeed Good News, for they brought the long-awaited redemption to all mankind who believes in God and in Christ, His Son.

St. Philip and St. James worked hard to spread the Good News of the Lord to the many peoples of their time, and they converted many to the cause of Christ. Philip once told and explained the Word of God to the emissary of the ruler of Ethiopia, and converted him through the word of God and baptism. They did many other good things, just as Christ Himself had said, that those who belong to God, will do just like what the Lord Himself had done, that is what Christ had done in His short life and ministry in this world.

St. James, who was also called James the Just, became the first leader of the Christians in Jerusalem, becoming its first bishop and was one of the most important leaders of early Christendom with Peter, the leader of all the apostles and disciples.

Both of them endured rejection, persecution, and intense suffering for their service of the Lord, and they ultimately faced death with courage, in their ministry and in their defense of their faith in God. They had done well in this earth, and were rewarded with eternal life with Christ that is their due. Brothers and sisters in Christ, can we follow in their footsteps? The footsteps of the apostles and many other holy men and women who had walked the same path in following the example of Christ in doing God’s commandments and what is good in His eyes?

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us strive to be more like these holy apostles, and follow in their footsteps, to be always courageous in proclaiming the Word of God and the Good News, to our fellow men, and to explain them to our brethren in faith, who are wavering in their faith in God. For in our world today, there is still a great need, if not greater than ever, for evangelisation, to bring light to many in our world, darkened by sin.

May God bless us and strengthen our faith and love, and may His holy apostles and saints pray for us and watch over us. Pray for us, St. Philip and St. James, apostles, that we may be more like you and can dedicate ourselves to Christ our Lord, ever more. Amen.

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Friday, 3 May 2013 : 5th Week of Easter, Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles (Gospel Reading)

John 14 : 6-14

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you know Me, you will know the Father also; indeed you know Him, and you have seen Him.”

Philip asked Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that is enough.” Jesus said to him, “What! I have been with you so long and you still do not know Me, Philip? Whoever sees Me sees the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?”

“All that I say to you, I do not say of Myself. The Father who dwells in Me is doing His own work. Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; at least believe it on the evidence of these works that I do.”

“Truly, I say to you, the one who believes in Me will do the same works that I do; and he will even do greater than these, for I am going to the Father. Everything you ask in My Name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Indeed, anything you ask, calling upon My Name, I will do.”

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Friday, 3 May 2013 : 5th Week of Easter, Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles (Psalm)

Psalm 18 : 2-3, 4-5

The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the work of His hands. Day talks it over with day; night hands on the knowledge to night.

No speech, no words, no voice is heard – but the call goes on throughout the universe, the message is felt to the ends of the earth.

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Friday, 3 May 2013 : 5th Week of Easter, Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles (First Reading)

1 Corinthians 15 : 1-8

Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, of the Good News that I preached to you and which you received and on which you stand firm. By that Gospel you are saved, provided that you hold to it as I preached it. Otherwise, you will have believed in vain.

In the first place, I have passed on to you what I myself received that Christ died for our sins, as Scripture says; that He was buried; that He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures; that He appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve. Afterwards He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters together; most of them are still alive, although some have already gone to rest.

Then He appeared to James and after that to all the apostles. And last of all, He appeared to the most despicable of them, this is to me.

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Thursday, 2 May 2013 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor (First Reading)

Acts 15 : 7-21

As the discussions became heated, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that from the beginning God chose me among you so that non-Jews could hear the Good News from me and believe. God, who can read hearts, put Himself on their side by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them and cleansed their hearts through faith.”

“So why do you want to put God to the test? Why do you lay on the disciples a burden that neither our ancestors nor we ourselves were able to carry? We believe, indeed, that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are.”

The whole assembly kept silent as they listened to Paul and Barnabas tell of all the miraculous signs and wonders that God had done through them among the non-Jews. After they had listened, James spoke up, “Listen to me, brothers. Symeon has just explained how God first showed His care by taking a people for Himself from non-Jewish nations.”

“And the words of the prophets agree with this, for Scripture says, ‘After this I will return and rebuild the booth of David which has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins and set it up again. Then the rest of humanity will look for the Lord, and all the nations will be consecrated to My Name. So says the Lord, who does today what He decided from the beginning.'”

“Because of this, I think that we should not make difficulties for those non-Jews who are turning to God. Let us just tell them not to eat food that is unclean from having been offered to idols; to keep themselves from prohibited marriages; and not to eat the flesh of animals that have been strangled, or any blood. For from the earliest of times Moses has been taught in every place, and every Sabbath his laws are recalled.”

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Wednesday, 1 May 2013 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker (First Reading)

Acts 15 : 1-6

Some persons who had come from Judea to Antioch were teaching the brothers in this way, “Unless you are circumcised according to the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.” Because of this there was trouble, and Paul and Barnabas had fierce arguments with them. For Paul told the people to remain as they were when they became believers.

Finally those who had come from Jerusalem suggested that Paul and Barnabas and some others go up to Jerusalem to discuss the matter with the apostles and elders. They were sent on their way by the Church. As they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria they reported how the non-Jews had turned to God, and there was great joy among all the brothers and sisters.

On their arrival in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the Church, the apostles and elders, to whom they told all that God had done through them. Some believers, however, who belonged to the party of the Pharisees, stood up and said that non-Jewish men must be circumcised and instructed to keep the law of Moses. So the apostles and elders met together to consider this matter.

 

Alternative Reading (Mass of St. Joseph)

Genesis 1 : 26 – Genesis 2 : 3

God said, “Let us make man in Our image, to Our likeness. Let them rule over fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over the wild animals, and over all creeping things that crawl along the ground.” So God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

God said, “I have given you every seed-bearing plant which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree that bears fruit with seed. It will be for your food. To every wild animal, to every bird of the sky, to everything that creeps along the ground, to everything that has the breath of life, I give every green plant for food.” So it was.

God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. There was evening and there was morning : the sixth day.

That was the way the sky and earth were created and all their vast array. By the seventh day the work God had done was completed, and He rested on the seventh day from all the work He had done. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day He rested from all the work He had done in His creation.

 

Alternative Reading (Mass of St. Joseph)

Colossians 3 : 14-15, 17, 23-24

Above all, clothe yourselves with love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. May the peace of Christ overflow in your hearts; for this end you were called to be one body. And be thankful.

And whatever you do or say, do it in the Name of Jesus, the Lord, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Whatever you do, do it wholeheartedly, working for the Lord, and not for humans. You well know that the Lord will reward you with the inheritance. You are servants, but your Lord is Christ.

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Tuesday, 30 April 2013 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Pius V, Pope (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the path to the service to God is not easy, and there will be many obstacles, but the Lord Himself will aid us in our great service to Him, through various ways, and He will never abandon us. He had shown His faith to us many times, especially to all those who love Him back too.

He gives all of us His peace, that is an everlasting peace, not the peace as we know it in this world, which is superficial peace, but true peace that transcends all our understandings, and all that we know about peace. For when we are together with Christ, we experience such a great joy and satisfaction that only God can give. This is the true peace that Christ gives us, if we would just believe in Him and put our trust entirely in Him.

Christ is always with us, even though we may think that He is no longer there. He is always with us, in our hearts, with us, and He walks with us, especially at the hardest times of our lives, when He is there, supporting us, and protecting all of us whom He loves, from harm and evil. Then let me tell you the well known story of the lone man and the Lord who walked together on the beach, and the footsteps on the sand.

A man walked on the beach with the Lord, walking side-by-side on the sandy beach, leaving their footprints behind. There are therefore two set of footprints on the sand, one of which belongs to the man, and the other which belongs to the Lord. All is fine until difficult times face the man, who then looked back at the sand, and saw only a single set of footsteps.

He then began saying bad things about the Lord and complained at how God has abandoned him in the times of his greatest need, and at bad times. But the Lord was not angry with him, and instead tell the man gently, that whenever the man is in bad times, there are only a single set of footsteps, not because God has abandoned him, but it is because God carries the man on His back, and that footsteps is the Lord’s.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our God, our Lord loves us, very much, so much that He wanted to come down to us, to be human like us, and to be simple and humble servant of God’s children, and to suffer the ultimate suffering and death on the cross. The suffering of Christ is real, and the cross is real, for through the cross, we have been removed from death that is our due, because of our ancestors’ and our rebellion against the love of God.

We had been ransomed from death by the blood of the Lamb, who is Christ, and through His resurrection by God His Father, and our Father, He restored us to life, and promised, and indeed granted all of us who believe in Him, eternal life, that is true life that is of Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in complete and perfect union with Him who is the way, the truth, and the life.

Just as the cross is real, the resurrected and Risen Lord is real too, and it is in His resurrection that we placed our complete faith, that through Him we are redeemed and chosen by God to live forever in eternal bliss in His love.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our mission today is to continue the works of the holy Apostles and disciples of the Lord, that through us, the Good News of our Lord will continue to spread and reach many, especially those who did not yet have the chance to receive the message, and those to whom the Word of God had been an annoyance.

Never give up to spread the Good News, to all people, to all nations. We have to persevere for the sake of the salvation of our brethren, our fellow brothers, children of the same, One True, and real God. God walks among us today, and He is within us. His real Presence in the Eucharist that we receive in the Mass allow Him to make our own beings into His Holy Temples, where He resides, and through Him, we receive the Holy Spirit that empowers us.

Be renewed by the Holy Spirit, and by the great zeal for the love for God and all His people. Today we also commemorate the feast day of Pope St. Pius V, a great reformer of the Church, who lived at the difficult times of the early modern era Church, when the Church was assailed by multiple opponents and difficulties, from the Protestant ‘reformers’ and from the Muslim threat of the growing Ottoman Empire. Many true Christians and children of God were martyred during these difficult and turbulent times.

Yet Pope St. Pius V did not give up, and he continued to persevere, with complete trust in the divine providence, to whom He entrusted the Church of God, and eventually God showed that He indeed supported the Church, just like how the Lord supported the man in his difficult times, that he only saw a single set of footsteps. And therefore, the Lord walks with the Church, and He protected the Church of God through that difficult time, and eventually the Christians scored a major victory against the Muslim Ottomans at Lepanto, and crushed their oppression on many Christians forevermore, which Pope St. Pius V commemorated by establishing the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Many souls too returned to salvation through the Church, and many returned to the true faith in God. Through his completion of the Counter-Reformation reforms and the Council of Trent, he helped to rejuvenate the Church and return the faith into a strong and glorious position once again.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us remember today, that our God is with us, and that He loves us, and He will always want to protect us, if we remain faithful to Him. Be faithful, and be courageous, and let God do wonders with our life. Let us follow in the courageous examples of Pope St. Pius V, that we can also be light to the nations, to be like the disciples of Christ, to bring the Good News and salvation to all mankind. Pope St. Pius V, pray for us. Amen.

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Tuesday, 30 April 2013 : 5th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Pius V, Pope (First Reading)

Acts 14 : 19-28

Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium, and turned the people against them. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the town, leaving him for dead. But when his disciples gathered around him, he stood up and returned to the town. And the next day he left for Derbe with Barnabas.

After proclaiming the Gospel in that town, and making many disciples, they  returned to Lystra and Iconium, and on to Antioch. They were strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain firm in the faith, for they said, “We must go through many trials to enter the Kingdom of God.”

In each church they appointed elders and, after praying and fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had placed their faith. Then they travelled through Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia. They preached the Word in Perga and went down to Attalia. From there, they sailed back to Antioch, where they had first been commended to God’s grace for the task they had now completed.

On their arrival they gathered the Church together and told them all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the non-Jews. They spent a fairly long time there with the disciples.

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One, Holy, Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church : Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus

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One (Indivisible by men and worldly ambitions)
Holy (Sanctity and Divine, belonging to Christ and is His alone)
Roman (Church built on St. Peter the Apostle by Christ)
Catholic (Universal, no Church but in the true Church of God, the One Body of Christ)
Apostolic (Missionary Church, spreading the Word of God to all mankind)

Church (The One Body of Christ, the united body of all the believers in Christ)

That is our Church, the Church Christ had entrusted and established on Peter, His Apostle, to whom He entrusted His flock and the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven.

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Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, salvation only in the Church, and there is no salvation beyond that.

Ut Omnes Unum Sint, ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam
(That they all may be One, for the greater glory of God)
+Peter Canisius Michael David C. Kang
Taipei, Taiwan
Saturday, 11 May 2013