arrogance

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Friday, 5 September 2014 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard how Jesus rebuked the Pharisees who criticised His disciples for not fasting and saying long prayers as they and the disciples of John had done. He rebuked them for their lack of real and living faith, as well as for their hypocrisy. Yes, the hypocrisy of those who claimed to be the leaders of God’s people and the teachers of the faith, who in fact did not practice what they had taught and preached.

In this we have to be mindful of what St. Paul said in his letter to the Church in Corinth, where he mentioned of the inappropriate nature of judgmental attitude, to the point that being judgmental represented human pride and arrogance in refusing to be faithful to God and His ways, where men prefer to trust in their own wisdom, intelligence and supposed ability to judge others than to trust in the wisdom and the will of God.

And such an attitude was truly prevalent among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law in Jesus’ time, as they being the apex of the teaching authority of the laws of Moses, acted aloof, high and mighty to the point of condescension in their dealing with the people they had been entrusted with. They condemned others and persecuted others who did not conform to their way of teaching the faith, and they criticised those who question or challenge their authority, including Jesus.

These priests, teachers of the Law and the class of the Pharisees are in fact what Jesus was referring to when He talked about the old and new coat, as well as the old and the new wineskins. The incompatibility between the new and the old in this parable of the coat and the wineskin highlights the incompabilities between the ways of the Pharisees and the way required for salvation that is through Jesus and His teachings.

The way of the Lord is the way of love and mercy, that is through caring and forgiving others from their mistakes to us, as the Lord Himself is willing to forgive us our sins and bring us back into His love and grace. The way of the Lord is not the same as the way of the Pharisees, who in their proud, arrogant and self-serving manners, oppressed and abused those who had been put under their trust and care.

And that is why this ties in perfectly with the holy woman and servant of God whose feast and memorial we celebrate today. This day, seventeen years ago, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta passed away in her old age after long suffering and declining health after her long years of service to the people of God who were themselves in great suffering and pain.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta was greatly renowned through the whole world for her dedication to charity work, and especially her care, love and concern towards the poor, and to the poorest among the poorest, the weakest among the weak, and the abandoned and ostracised among the society. She did not show any fear or disgust in any kind when she came to help these smallest and most suffering among the children of God.

The actions of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta brought her to great renown, but she remained humble as ever, and she famously proclaimed that, despite all the praises and the prizes she had received, and all the limelight she had enjoyed, she is merely a pencil in the hands of the Lord, as a mere tool to bring greater glory to God through her actions and service to both mankind and to God. Her actions should inspire us to do more, for the betterment of those around us, especially those who are weak and rejected by the society.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us should follow in her footsteps as told to us as well by Jesus, and do not follow the path of the Pharisees. For the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law acted on their ego and human desires, resulting in desire for self-preservation at the detriment to others, becoming hypocrites in the faith they pretended to believe in. Rather, let us all live our faith concretely and as real as possible through our actions, which must be based on love, by loving our brethren, especially those in greatest need for our love and mercy.

May Almighty God bless us this day and all the days of our lives, so that we may truly live our faith according to the ‘new’ ways of Jesus that is of love and mercy, and abandoning the model of the Pharisees, who practiced their faith in hypocrisy, pride and filled with arrogance. God be with us all, forever and ever. Amen.

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Saturday, 30 August 2014 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

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

1 Corinthians 1 : 26-31

Brothers and sisters, look and see whom God has called. Few among you can be said to be cultured or wealthy, and few belong to noble families. Yet God has chosen what the world considers foolish, to shame the wise; He has chosen what the world considers weak to shame the strong.

God has chosen common and unimportant people, making use of what is nothing to nullify the things that are, so that no mortal may boast before God. But, by God’s grace you are in Christ Jesus, who has become our wisdom from God, and who makes us just and holy and free.

Scripture says : Let the one who boasts boast of the Lord.

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Saturday, 23 August 2014 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Rose of Lima, Virgin (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Virgins)

Matthew 23 : 1-12

Then Jesus said to the crowd and to His disciples, “The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees have sat down on the chair of Moses. So you shall do and observe all they say, but do not do as they do, for they do not do what they say. They tie up heavy burdens and load them on the shoulders of the people, but they do not even raise a finger to move them.”

“They do everything in order to be seen by people : they wear very wide bands of the Law around their foreheads, and robes with large tassels. They enjoy the first places at feasts and reserved seats in the synagogues, and they like being greeted in the marketplace, and being called ‘Master’ by the people.”

“But you, do not let yourselves be called Master, because you have only one Master, and all of you are brothers and sisters. Neither should you call anyone on earth Father, because you have only one Father, He who is in heaven. Nor should you be called Leader, because Christ is the only Leader for you.”

“Let the greatest among you be the servant of all. For whoever makes himself great shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be made great.”

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Tuesday, 19 August 2014 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Eudes, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)

Ezekiel 28 : 1-10

The word of YHVH came to me in these terms, “Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre : You are very proud and self-satisfied : ‘I am a god, I sit like a god in the heart of the sea.’ Yet you are a man and not a god; would you hold yourself as wise as God?”

“You consider yourself wiser than Daniel; no secret is hidden from you. Your wisdom and know-how have earned you a fortune, gold and silver flowed to your treasury. Clever in trade, you became wealthy and as your fortune increased, your heart became prouder.”

“But now YHVH has spoken to you, to the one who is like God : I am bringing foreigners against you, the most feared of all the nations. Their sword will challenge your wisdom and debase your refined culture.”

“They will bring you down to the pit and you will die in the depths of the sea. Will you be able to say ‘I am a god’ when your murderers are killing you? You are a man and not a god. You will die the death of the uncircumcised and perish at the hands of aliens, for I have spoken – word of YHVH.”

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Monday, 18 August 2014 : 20th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are presented with the story of a rich man who found it difficult to follow the Lord completely because he was unable to part with his considerable wealth and possessions, even though indeed he had done as the commandments of the Lord had asked him to do.

It is important to first note that Jesus did not mean to condemn the rich man or to humiliate him in any way. The purpose of His conversation with the rich man, as we heard in the Gospel is to show what we need to expect if we want to follow the Lord, in that our hearts and minds cannot be divided to both the Lord and to this world, and whatever that is in the world.

In our world today, it is no different, we still live in a world filled with desire and greed. We live in a world dominated by material goods, materialistic and hedonistic attitudes, where the pursuit of worldly possessions and goods are predominant in the minds of many people. The temptations of wealth and possession are all around us. And in many parts of the world, violence and death still often occur because people desire more of these.

Jesus did not testify against the rich and those who has plenty of possessions, and neither did He condemn them for being rich or endowed with money and wealth. What He wanted to point out was instead how these people often tend to have less ability to detach themselves from even a small part of their possessions, and also the tendency to want more, to seek more of the same wealth, to increase them to satisfy their human wants.

It is in fact the same with us who have less possessions, but nevertheless we often find it hard to even share what we already have less with those who are even less fortunate than us. We can also succumb to the same kind of prejudice and attitude which separates us from the Lord, because of our selfishness and inability to love and be charitable to others.

We ought to realise that there are many of those who are rich, and yet they use what they can do best with their possessions, and what they have excess in, so that they can help others who are in need. On the other hand, there are many of those who are poor and yet they persecute others who are poorer than them, and extort them for their money and possessions.

The key here therefore is to not condemn the wealth or the possession, or the ones who possess them without a credible reason. Condemn instead those who deny the poor any help or extort from them anything of value. Condemn instead those who remain idle when there are those who need help around them. Condemn instead those who worship wealth and possessions more than they should worship God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today we all should reflect on our own lives. Money and possessions are good, and they are indeed capable of both good and evil, as I have often mentioned. However, have we put them to good use, for our own benefits and when there are those who need help, have we offered some to help and aid them, and to soothe their sufferings?

May our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen our faith and awaken the spirit of generosity and love within us, that we may love our brethren in need and each other with true sincerity and love. God bless us all. Amen.

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(Usus Antiquior) Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 17 August 2014 : Homily and Scripture Reflections

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s readings clearly highlighted the need for all of us to have a good and proper way of prayer and living our faith, namely one that is not tainted with our personal and human desires, hubris and sins of our heart. The Pharisee prayed not with the wholeness of his heart, mind and soul, and his being is not entirely focused on the Lord as he prayed, which is truly not the way for us to communicate with our Lord and God.

For prayer is indeed a communication between us and the Lord, and it is important that in prayers, we talk with the Lord from our heart to His heart, but we must also be able to listen, and therefore we may listen to the words of the Lord speaking in our hearts. The Pharisee was engaged in a litany of self-praise and self-aggrandisment, and not only just praising his own goodness, as he also looked down on others and thinking of others as being not as good as himself. This is what we must not do.

We are all sinners, brethren, like that of the tax collector, or the publican. And he knew the full weight of his sins before him, and that was why he was so repentant and felt so unworthy before the Lord. He did not put down others, and he certainly did not boast about his achievements, but rather, he allowed God to work His wonders in him, by opening his heart, mind and soul wide open for the Lord to bring light back into his darkened self.

And the Lord had given us much to build up on during this life we have on earth. Why is this so? Because God had given us the spirit of life and that is why we are living now in this world. However, we who have believed in the Lord and have given ourselves to be baptised in the Most Holy Name of the Most Holy Trinity also received in us the gifts of the Holy Spirit, just as the disciples of Christ had received that day on the occasion of Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit, as we all know have seven cardinal features and seven types of fruits that can be born out of the Spirit in us. And the Holy Spirit also gives us various abilities and endowments, all according to our needs and to the will of the Lord in giving us those gifts and blessings. But there are those among men who claim to be able to get all the numerous gifts of the Spirit, without understanding what they are truly about.

Yes, I am talking about those common practices of ‘speaking in tongues’ practiced often by our heretical and unrepentant brethren in the so-called Evangelical and Pentecostal tradition of the Protestant ‘churches’, who often go so far as to make the practice of tongue-speaking as the mainstream of their worship. They pronounced babbling sounds as if they are speaking in tongues, mimicking the speeches of the Apostles, but this is in vain. In fact, they do not proclaim and praise the Lord in doing that, but instead invoking Satan to be present among them to tempt them.

The way to serve the Lord is not through this method, as when we do that, we have to remember the action of the Pharisee and the publican or the tax collector in their respective prayers. What is the intention of speaking in tongues? This is a dangerous practice that if done without understanding, and it is also already prevalent even among certain sections of the Church, that this will lead the faithful not towards the Lord, but towards the self-aggrandisement of the Pharisee.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I am also talking about those who in the Church, are claiming to represent the will of certain peoples, claiming that they are fighting for equality among different groups, some representing the women and some the laity as a whole themselves. Let me ask you this question, brothers and sisters in Christ, why did the Lord created us men and women in the first place? And why was there the division between the priesthood and the laity in the Church?

The answer to the first question is clear, as we are intended by the Lord to complement each other. Women were born from men, and without men, women are incomplete, and so therefore, men are incomplete without women. That is why, we can never have any equality in literal sense between the males and females in our society and in our Church, because each of us, man and woman are born with a particular purpose in life, and we have been given the specific gift, much like that of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Then regarding the priesthood and the laity, it is also similar. Those who are in the laity are those who choose to have an ordinary life, following the routines of this world that is to have a family and beget children for the love and glory of God, and those in the priesthood dedicated their whole life in devoted service both to God, their Lord, Master and Bride, as well as to the whole mankind.

We cannot stand for this kind of irresponsible movements and notions, and they are tantamount to challenging the Holy Spirit and God Himself, as if they are asking for the wholeness of the gifts that God had given mankind, which is a sign of hubris and human pride, which had once made Satan fall from his place of honour and glory, and which will also bring about our downfall if we are not careful.

Let us all reflect on this, and let us all lay down our pride, our arrogance, our human desire for fame, greatness and glory. Let us instead be like the tax collector, opening our hearts wholly and sincerely to the Lord, so that He may speak to us in the depth and in the silence of our hearts. Let us all build a culture of prayer, and not just any prayer, but prayer deeply rooted in our faith and in our desire to love both mankind and the Lord our God beyond all other things.

May Almighty God bless us and our endeavours, and strengthen the faith within us that we may all be examples for the world, becoming beacons of light in the darkness. Amen.

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(Usus Antiquior) Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (II Classis) – Sunday, 17 August 2014 : Holy Gospel

Sequentia sancti Evangelii secundum Lucam – Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke

Luke 18 : 9-14

In illo tempore : Dixit Jesus ad quosdam, qui in se confidebant tamquam justi et aspernabantur ceteros, parabolam istam : Duo homines ascenderunt in templum, ut orarent : unus pharisaeus, et alter publicanus.

Pharisaerus stans, haec apud se orabat : Deus, gratias ago Tibi, quia non sum sicut ceteri hominum : raptores, injusti, adulteri : velut etiam hic publicanus. Jejuno bis in sabbato : decimas do omnium, quae possideo.

Et publicanus a longe stans nolebat nec oculas ad caelum levare : sed percutiebat pectus suum, dicens : Deus, propitius esto mihi peccatori.

Dico vobis : descendit hic justificatus in domum suam ab illo : quia omnis qui se exaltat, humiliabitur : et qui se humiliat, exaltabitur.

English translation

At that time, Jesus spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves as just, and despised others : Two men went up into the Temple to pray, one was a Pharisee, and the other a publican.

The Pharisee standing prayed thus with himself : “O God, I give You thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also this publican. I fast twice in the week, and I give tithes of all that I possess.”

And the publican standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven, but struck his breast saying, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”

I say to You, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, because every one that exalted himself shall be humbled, and he who humbled himself shall be exalted.

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Sunday, 17 August 2014 : 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we hear a very clear and concerted message from the Lord, on the faith of those who heard the word of God, acted on them and internalised these into their hearts, and became truly faithful to the Lord. And that was what the Lord tried to show the people in the reading taken from the Old Testament, how even foreigners would come and serve the Lord faithfully and became light among the nations, and in how Jesus dealt with the Canaanite woman who showed her genuine faith in God.

If one is to read just literally what Jesus did and said in the Gospel today, then he or she may think that what was Jesus thinking of saying such things? Surely He must know that He was acting arrogantly and totally insulted the poor Canaanite woman whose daughter was in difficulty? Was it what Jesus truly meant? What did He mean to do with those words? Was He not out of His character?

Yes, all these questions, doubts and uncertainties may come into our minds if we do not understand what Jesus wanted to do, and what He wanted to show the world, through both words and actions, in fulfillment of what the Lord had revealed through His prophets long ago. Jesus wanted to show all that the Lord cares not just for a certain group of people or chosen ones to the detriment of others, but instead, He cares for and loves all equally.

For ultimately, all of us had been crafted in the very image of God, and to us He had granted us the breath of life and authority even over the entire creation, and the entirety of this world and all the other creatures God had created. And therefore, all of us are essentially equal before God, and what truly differentiates us is the actions and deeds that we do in this life, on whether they follow or whether they are against God’s ways.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to understand the mentality of the Jews of Jesus’ time, and even that of other times. This will definitely help us to understand why Jesus did what He had done, and why He said things as He had said it to the Canaanite woman. We all know that Abraham had been blessed by God in the days long past, long before the coming of Jesus, and because of his great faith, God chose to bless him and his descendants.

And from among his descendants, God had chosen Isaac, the son whom God promised to Abraham and his wife, Sarah. To Ishmael, the other son of Abraham, whom he had with Hagar, his slave, the blessing of God was upon him and his descendants too, but not that of the same kind or degree as the inheritance given to Isaac, the heir of Abraham and his descendants.

And then, from among the two sons of Isaac, God had chosen Jacob, the younger son, to be Israel, the one whom He had chosen among the sons of Abraham as the progenitor of a people He chose among all the nations. To Esau, the elder son of Isaac, a lesser inheritance was given. This first caused great struggle and enmity between the brothers, but eventually they reconciled themselves.

The people of Israel was born from the twelve sons of Jacob, who eventually became the twelve tribes of Israel, and all of whom migrated to Egypt during the time of Joseph, and who were enslaved by the Pharaoh and the Egyptians until the salvation of the Lord came to them through His servant Moses. God performed His power before His people and their oppressors, liberating them and bringing them to the land He had promised their ancestors, Abraham and his sons.

As ages passed and years went by, the people of God alternated between faithfulness and rebelliousness to God, and as years passed on, they became more and more restless and unfaithful to the Lord who had blessed them so much, to be the examples for the other nations. Yes, this is what God intended for His people, that the ones He had chosen among many may be examples of faith and goodness, like their father Abraham of old, that others may also follow in their footsteps.

Instead, they looked upon their chosen status as a privilege and a sign of elite status, which they interpreted as themselves being the chosen people of God, as those who are superior, greater and better than all others, than all mankind who also dwell on this earth. This is the very root of the problem which the Lord, through His prophets, and through what Jesus did and said to the Canaanite woman, intended to do.

The Jews of Jesus’ time were the descendants of the returned exiles from Babylon, the survivors of the exile from the destruction of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. They took pride of themselves as the guardians of the faith in the Lord, and many of them zealously looked down upon the others, especially those whom they considered as different from themselves, and who dwelled in the land with them. This was exactly why they looked down so much on the Samaritans and the Gentiles, namely the Canaanites and the Greeks.

The Canaanites were the descendants of those people who lived in the land of Israel since before the people of Israel received that promised land from the Lord. They were conquered and enslaved and treated badly by the people of Israel, but they managed to persevere throughout many ages and many years, and in today’s Gospel, one of them, a woman with a sickly daughter, sought help not from anyone else, but from the Lord Himself.

What Jesus said to the woman was in essence, intentionally trying to show the typical prejudice, stereotype and judgmental attitudes that many of the Jews of Jesus’ time had on these others, whom they deemed to be inferior than themselves and worthy of hellfire, just as much as they thought that their ‘devoutness’ is worthy of heaven. The disciples exhibited this attitude, and the Pharisees and the elders exhibited it to an even greater degree, even to the point of judging the Jews themselves of not being worthy if certain so and so fail to fulfill their ‘criteria’ of faith.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what is the message and the aim that God desires from us in this Sunday’s readings? That we realise that our faith is faith, and our love is love, and our hope is hope, no matter who we are, what blood we have, or whose descendant we are. We are all the same human beings, sinners descended from Adam and Eve, whose disobedience brought us out of the glory of heaven, like those Israelites of the past who disobeyed God and be destroyed.

We have to throw away all forms of prejudices and judgments on others, regardless of who we are and what we have done in this life. We should never, ever look down on others who also sincerely look towards the Lord and especially those who are trying hard to reach out to God. Instead of looking down on them or scoffing at them, thinking that we are better than them, we should rather offer them a helping hand and a friendly hug, to welcome them into the kingdom of God together with us.

Jesus taught us that if we are faithful and devoted to God with true sincerity, we will all be called the chosen ones of the Lord, and become His beloved children. That was why He praised the Canaanite woman’s great faith, as example for all others who followed and listened to Him. It is because that woman had such a faith not even possessed by many among the supposedly chosen people of God, many of whom ended up betraying the Lord and persecuted Him and His disciples.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we use this opportunity today to renew our faith in the Lord? And renew our love for Him and also for our brothers and sisters around us? Much has been given to us, and much is expected from us. We should help one another to reach out to the Lord and not to be judgmental on others, be it by appearance, action or anything.

Let us rather redirect all our efforts and attentions towards loving God and loving each other with true love and sincerity, that all who sees us, sees and experiences the love of God and may also therefore come towards the salvation in God. God bless us all and be with us in all of our endeavours. Amen.

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Tuesday, 5 August 2014 : 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Dedication of a Basilica)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate a great feast in the Church of Rome, commemorating the dedication of one of the four great Basilicas of Rome, or also known as the Papal Basilicas. And this Basilica is the Basilica of St. Mary Major, also known in its Italian name of Santa Maria Maggiore. This is an important patron saint of the city of Rome, the mother of our Lord also known as the protector of the city of Rome and its people.

She was also known by the appellation of our Lady of the Snows, because of an apparition and miracle which happened right at the site more than a thousand years ago, showing that Rome, the centre and heart of Christendom is under the protection of the Blessed Virgin. This happened when a devout Roman couple prayed to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, for a way that they may bestow their property to her honour as they were without child and heir.

The prayers was heard, and on this very day, on the fifth day of the month of August in the middle of the fourth century, at the height of summer, snow fell on the top of the Esquiline hill, the very site where the Basilica of St. Mary Major would then be built. The Pope at the time, Pope Liberius also received a vision and dream, leading him to the site where the snow fell during the height of summer. Consequently, a great basilica was built there.

This basilica was built in the honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary recently after the completion of the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431AD, which is the Council that definitively settled the issues on, and honoured the Blessed Virgin with the title of the Mother of God or Theotokos, which had been accorded since the Council of Nicaea a century earlier, but opposed by many schismatics and heretics after that.

An icon representing the Mother of our Lord was then crafted and enshrined in that Basilica, which remained standing until this very day. That holy icon is revered as the image of St. Mary Major, the patron saint of the city of Rome, the See of St. Peter and St. Paul and the heart of Christendom. It would in time grow to become one of the most important shrines of Christendom, reflected in its status today as one of the four Papal Basilicas to exist.

This celebration today ultimately comes together to point out one thing, and only one thing most important over all else, that is God loves us, and He will give us everything that He has, if only that we also love Him the same way that He had loved us. And in order to love Him, we have to listen to Him and follow His will. As Jesus mentioned in the Gospel today, those who followed the will of God and walked in His ways are the ones truly blessed.

This means that our interior disposition and our spiritual development must be foremost in all things. We cannot ignore our own hearts and souls, that these must be clean and pure, and all must be in accordance with the will of God. God loves us, and He wants us back into His presence, but it is only we who have the decision whether to do as God wants us, or whether we should walk our own paths to doom.

In the Gospel Jesus also pointed out the futility of those who sought the purity of the externals, and the purity of appearances without care and attention to the purity of the heart and soul. This is what happened to the Pharisees, the elders of the people and the teachers of the Law who followed the Laws of God in the Mosaic laws so strictly that they forgot the true meaning of those laws, and what they were intended for.

They kept themselves outwardly pure and they could boast to the people and showed them how pure and holy they were, but the truth is that on the inside, they were thoroughly dirty and unclean. Their hearts were not filled with God’s love, but with their own pride, ego and human desires. They did not love God and His people, but instead they love themselves and all of their worldly desires.

This is why keeping strict religious dietary laws and habits, as well as any proscriptions or prohibitions against certain kind of food or things that we fear may ‘defile’ us is foolish and stupid. It is pointless to do so as Jesus Himself had said, that nothing dirty from outside can dirty and affect us permanently, if it is not accompanied with the internal corruption of the soul and the heart.

What is important is therefore, that we have to ensure that our actions, deeds and words, namely everything that come out from us, from our mouth, from our heart, mind and soul be clean, pure and free from evil and deceit. It is indeed what comes out from within us and not what enters into us, be it food or whatever that causes us to be defiled.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all devote ourselves to God anew, and strengthen our faith ever stronger in Him. And let us all ask for the intercession of the Blessed Mother of our Lord, that she who is the protector of the city of Rome, may also come to our aid, protecting us and guiding us, that our faith may grow stronger and stronger. May Almighty God bless us and keep us in His love always. Amen.

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Saturday, 2 August 2014 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, Bishop and St. Peter Julian Eymard, Priest (Scripture Reflections)

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

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the story of the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, the herald and messenger of God, the one who came and went before our Lord to straighten His path in this world. St. John the Baptist preached God’s mercy and love, urging the people to repent before it was too late, while the gate to salvation and forgiveness is still wide open.

However, it did not mean that he had an easy task or life. He met with many oppositions and challenges, just as the prophet Jeremiah encountered in the reading from the Old Testament we heard today as well. The prophet Jeremiah had a different mission, but of the same nature, urging the people to repent and turn away from their path of sin, and return into the light of God. And he rightly met the same kind of opposition by those who did not want to listen to the word of God.

The same opposition had been encountered by many other prophets who spoke the truth about the decadence and wickedness of men, when mankind had forgotten their true purpose in life, which is to serve God and to show that we truly are the children of God. That means we should not be defiant in our actions and follow wickedness of Satan over the love of God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast day of two saints, namely St. Eusebius of Vercelli and St. Peter Julian Eymard. Both of them were truly holy men who followed the will of God and walked righteously in God’s path. They lived in a very different time period, with St. Eusebius living at the time of the Roman Empire during the early days of the Church, when the Church was assailed by heresies and divisions, while St. Peter Julian Eymard lived at the dawn of the modern era, in the nineteenth century.

Nevertheless, both of them were equally devoted and dedicated in their lives of service to God, and they worked hard in their respective lives to enlighten many of those who had fallen to the trap and darkness of the evil one. St. Eusebius of Vercelli fought hard against the great heresy of Arianism, which was widespread during his time at the fourth century after the birth of Christ. This heresy denied the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and claimed that He was just a mere man and creation of God.

St. Eusebius painstakingly and patiently worked to bring back many of those who had been seduced by the lies of evil into the true faith. These people were misguided by many things, and some of which include their own human frailties and weaknesses, such as pride, ego, desire and many other similar evils. These were no different from what had afflicted the people who rejected Jesus, and which had afflicted Herod.

Herod was seduced by the temptation of the flesh, in the beauty of his own stepdaughter, to the point that he made a vow without good consideration that eventually led him to a great sin, that is the murder of the prophet and messenger of God, St. John the Baptist. This is what St. Eusebius, as well as St. Peter Julian Eymard tried their best to eradicate from mankind.

St. Peter Julian Eymard had a strong desire to join the religious life since his youth, and despite the opposition from his father and others, he eventually made it to the desire of his life, to serve God. And St. Peter Julian Eymard did many good works for the Lord among the people, and he established two and more religious orders dedicated to the prayerful life to God, and in particular a strong and close devotion to the Most Holy Eucharist.

St. Peter Julian Eymard and St. Eusebius of Vercelli were both great role models for us all. Therefore, all that we need to do now is indeed to look at our own lives and reflect, whether we have been rejecting our Lord as the people had done so many times throughout the ages. And as we all have sinned and walked away from the Lord, let us use this opportunity to renew our devotion to God and strengthen our spiritual life, that we may always be close to God and His ways.

May Almighty God bless us all this day, and keep us in His love, that we may reflect in all of our words, deeds and actions, a true discipleship and proof of all of us being the children of our loving Father and God. Amen.