arrogance

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Friday, 14 February 2014 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cyril, Monk, and St. Methodius, Bishop, Patron Saints of Europe (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Let all who have ears listen and those who have eyes see, and those who have tongues speak of the power and the glory of God! Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we witnessed Jesus’ healing of the man who was deaf and mute, and opening his ears and tongue, Jesus revealed to us all the true authority He has over all, and the truth about Himself, that He came to open our minds and our hearts, to welcome into them the Lord.

Yes, brethren, it is imperative for all of us to open wide the doors of our hearts and sharpen the edge of our senses, that we may know when the Lord comes to us, so that we may welcome Him and bring Him to dwell in ourselves. We have to be responsive to the Lord calling for us, that we may heed His call and come to Him.

We ought to avoid the fate and punishment that fell on Solomon and his descendants, who because of Solomon’s obstinate attitude and refusal to listen to the Lord had resulted in the kingdom of Israel being torn apart, together with the community of the people of God. Solomon was wise, and was greatly blessed with wisdom, power, and authority by the Lord, but these were also the cause for his greatest undoing.

In continuation with yesterday’s reflection on the readings, Solomon fell because he put his trust more and more in his human power and glory, and gradually less and less on the Lord, unlike his father David, who constantly kept up his faith and devotion in the Lord throughout his life. Solomon was swayed by the devil, through his wives and concubines, who blinded him and deafened him from the calling of God, asking him to keep faithful the commandments his father had kep so faithfully.

That is exactly what can also happen to us all, brothers and sisters in Christ, because power, authority, worldly glamour and prestige are all the things that keep our attention away from the Lord and blinds us against His truth, and deafens us from His call, and closes our tongue that we may not call on Him. These prevent us from reaching the Lord and the Lord from reaching us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we let what had happened to Solomon also affect us? Shall we let ourselves be punished for our disobedience because we refuse to listen to the Lord as Solomon had done? Shall we let ourselves be condemned because the Lord saw wickedness in us because we refuse to obey the Lord and walk in His ways as Solomon had done?

It is easy for us all to forget about the Lord and become engrossed in ourselves, in all the glory we have, and in all the good things that the world can offer us. As you know, especially in our world today, where more and more things are being commercialised and consumerism is getting at a dangerously high levels, it is even easier for us to be led astray by the temptations of the world than ever before.

That is why the Lord sent Jesus into the world, to send His own Son to open the eyes, the ears, and the tongues of the people, that He may resensitise them and reopen the senses of their hearts to the love of God, and to the truth that is in the Lord. Through His teachings and revelations of God’s nature and love, which He passed down through His apostles and disciples, we receive the revelations and our minds are opened.

God wants to open our minds, and to let our eyes see, and our ears hear, that we may believe in Jesus, and break free from the chains of pride and arrogance, from the shackle of desire and greed, and from the oppression of lust and anger. He wants to free us from all the distractions that burdened us and kept us away from Him, but we too need to work hard and do our best, so that we may break free and return to the Lord our God who loves us.

Today, we celebrate the feast of two saints, said to be brothers, that of St. Cyril and St. Methodius who converted many pagan nations and peoples in central Europe during the Dark Ages, and they helped to bring many people who lived in darkness into the light of God. That was why they were also known as the Patron Saints of Europe, due to their hard and zealous works in bringing so many people of that continent into the faith.

St. Cyril and St. Methodius helped to translate many works of the faith into the language of the then pagan peoples, and through their preachings and works, they truly, just as Jesus had done, opened the eyes and the ears and the tongues of those people, who then witnessed the truth about the Lord, the folly of their old ways, and the need for them to repent and follow the Lord, and that they did.

The two saints converted many souls and brought many to salvation in God. A people who lived in darkness had seen a great light indeed, that is the Light of Christ reflected in the actions, words, and deeds of both St. Cyril and St. Methodius, without whom many people would have been lost to damnation and hell.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, the example of Solomon and the two saints, as well as Jesus Himself, showed us the need for us to strongly reaffirm our faith in God and to reorientate ourselves that in all things we align with our Lord and God. And it is important for us to seek Him out in humility and ask Him for His healing and mercy, that we may have the doors of our hearts and senses opened, that we may truly experience His love and mercy.

May the Lord our God continue to bless us, empower us, and open ever wider the doors of our hearts to Him, while closing it to any influences of the devil. May He remove from us all the distractions of this world that we may then be truly faithful to Him without any hindrance. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 12 February 2014 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Wisdom comes from God, and God alone. We mankind may try our best many times to try to understand the Lord, but most likely we will not even get half of it right. Our feeble human understanding and knowledge cannot hope to comprehend the mind of the Lord, who knows everything and has His plans for everything.

It is human pride that often stands in the way of receiving true wisdom and knowledge from the Lord, and it is human arrogance that often prevent us from understanding God’s true meaning and purpose for all of us. The result being that we misinterpreted the true desire of the Lord, and in our state of misinterpretation and confusion, we fail to do the things that the Lord truly wants from each one of us.

In our pride and arrogance in our human knowledge and intellect too, we have missed the point in serving the Lord, instead of serving Him with love and making Him more available to all, we tend to limit Him and prevent Him from being known by all, through our own lacking interpretation of His will and His laws. We assumed wisdom when we actually have none, because we trust in ourselves rather than in God.

Jesus criticised one of those assumed wisdom, as He brought the people to a clearer understanding of God’s will and desire for us. That was precisely just like king Solomon sharing his wisdom with the Queen of Sheba who praised him for his great wisdom, and in Jesus, there is something greater than Solomon, for while the wisdom of Solomon came from God, Jesus is Himself God.

Jesus revealed that while the Jews followed a rather strict dietary law, today called the kosher law, and something similar was mimicked by the Muslims who followed a different yet similar set of dietary law, with its set of allowed and prohibited food items, that these laws are truly obsolete and unnecessary. And following these laws do not make anybody righteous or condemned in any way.

By common sense it is indeed true, even in terms of our own simple intelligence. Sometimes, there is more truth in simple thoughts rather than complex ones. Food that goes into our mouth indeed goes through our body and then is passed out as waster through the other end, and the same happens to whatever we drink and consume into our bodies.

In no way indeed, for us all who knows about the science of how our body works, that these food affect anything other than our body functions and our digestive system in particular. Whether the food is allowed or forbidden has no bearing on our faith or our worthiness before God, and it is indeed foolish to think that eating good and allowed food makes us righteous and eating prohibited food makes us sinful and damned.

Jesus rightly pointed out that it is what comes out of us that bear our sins rather than what we take into ourselves. Food are non-living objects, and they do not have intelligence or wisdom to think or do something. Yet, compared to things that come out of us, namely actions, words, deeds, and others, what came out of us all these while are the products of our intelligent, sentient, and living wisdom.

Yes, we have wisdom in us, but an incomplete one. How did we get it? Remember the Book of Genesis? Our ancestors, Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and ever since, the knowledge of things good and evil is within us. We know what is good and what is evil, and we share that knowledge to our children, and pass it on throughout the generations.

It is the actions, words, and deeds that come out of us that either justify us or condemn us. When we do things in accordance with God’s will, that is doing things considered good, then we are justified, but if we do things not in accordance with the will of God, then we are condemned. It is as simple as that, and yet many refused to believe in the true wisdom of Christ, who as God is the source of all wisdom and revelations.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, how about us? Will we believe in Jesus, and trust in His wisdom? Or do we rather prefer to trust in our own strength and wisdom? In our own intelligence and knowledge of the things around us? Do we prefer to trust in a source that is always and completely right? Or do we prefer to trust in a source that is unreliable and changing as much as it suits us?

These are the questions that we should ask ourselves, and indeed we should no longer ask question or doubt the wisdom of our Lord. Let us entrust ourselves to the Lord and let Him decide what He wants to do with each one of us, trusting ourselves to His most divine and wonderful wisdom. Amen.

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Sunday, 9 February 2014 : 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

We are light of the world and salt of the earth. That is what our Lord had made us all to be, all those who believe in Him and has been welcomed and are now part of His Body, that is His Church. We are all called to be light and salt for all the nations, and to proclaim the kingdom of God and the Good News of Jesus Christ to all the nations, to all the peoples, especially those who live in darkness and those who have no flavour in their lives.

Yes, we are called to bring light to those who had fallen into the darkness and to bring flavour to the blandness of people’s lives in this world. Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we hear in the first reading, from the book of the prophet Isaiah, of the examples of the things we can do, in order to accomplish this in accordance with God’s will.

In all of us, God has given seeds of faith, hope, and love, and many gifts of various types, which we can use to help one another, and bring indeed the light and flavour to the livelihood of many. Each one of us have different set of skills and abilities, granted to us by God, awaiting for us to use them for the good of our fellow men, our fellow brothers and sisters.

Yet, many of us did not use these gifts God had given us, and let them to be dormant. There are various reasons attributed to this lack of action, but the most important and common of which include, fear of failure and embarrassment, laziness and sloth, and finally, greed and desire for self-aggrandisement and glorification. All of these prevent us from utilising fully God’s gifts for each one of us.

And when this happened, the light that is in us becomes hidden, and the salt that is in us becomes tasteless and bland, and therefore the gifts in us become dormant and useless. We fear failure and embarrassment in the eyes of men, because we are concerned of how others view us and our actions, as we practice our faith in this world. We also have our own desires and temptations, that we use our gifts instead for the benefit of others, but for our own good and our own glory, often at the expense of many others.

We are often to take the first step, and have the initiative to embark on the mission of good works as the Lord had told us to do, because we are often uncertain, what will our actions do to ourselves. We often ask ourselves first many times, whether what we are doing or going to do will impact us in a way that disadvantages us, by making us look embarrassed or less preferable by our society and our friends in any way.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this world has its set of values, many of which do not necessarily agree or correspond to the values which our Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord in the Holy Scriptures had taught us. The world therefore will not necessarily see our actions based on our faith in good light, but our Lord who sees all, will see that whatever we are doing, to be good.

If we continue to be concerned about our image or standing in the society, as well as our friendships and relationships, then it may be difficult for us to be truly the light and salt of the world. To be light of the world, we have to throw far, far away our prejudices, our fears, and our uncertainties. Instead we should put our trust in God, and believe in Him only, trusting that He will guide our way to the truth.

We should also throw far away our desire and our greed, for power, for affluence, for pleasure, and for many other things of the world. If we are to become the true light of the world and salt of the earth, then we have to be truly selfless, that our beings be transformed to be conduits of God’s love and grace, that through us, the world will see the Light of our Lord and the beauty that He brings into this world, which brings flavour to all things.

We should not be worry or fearful, but yet we too should not be showy or seeking attention in any way. We have to make use of what God has given us, in faith, hope and love, and show them through concrete actions, out of pure and unadulterated and unconditional love for our brethren, just as the prophet Isaiah had said.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us from today onwards, resolve to seek out those in need, whether they are in need of material goods, basic survival items, or even as simple as needing love. Let us be the light of the world and the salt of the earth, showing this world that there is much good in God and in following God, that all mankind may be saved in the Lord. God be with us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 5 February 2014 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red (Martyrs)

2 Samuel 24 : 2, 9-17

The king said to Joab and the commanders of the army who were with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and count the people that I may know how many they are.”

Joab gave the total count of the people to the king : eight hundred thousand sword-wielding warriors in Israel and five hundred thousand men in Judah. But after he had the people counted, David felt remorse and said to YHVH, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done, but now, o YHVH, I ask You to forgive my sin for I have acted foolishly.”

The following day, before David awoke, YHVH’s word had come to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, “Go, and give David this message : I offer you three things and I will let one of them befall you according to your own choice.”

So Gad went to David and asked him, “Do you want three years of famine in your land? Or do you want to be pursued for three months by your foes while you flee from them? Or do you want three days’ pestilence in your land? Now, think and decide what answer I shall give Him who sent me.”

David answered Gad, “I am greatly troubled. Let me fall into the hands of YHVH whose mercy is abundant; but let me not fall into human hands.” So YHVH sent a pestilence on Israel from morning until the appointed time, causing the death of seventy thousand men from Dan to Beersheba.

When the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, YHVH would punish no more and said to the angel who was causing destruction among the people, “It is enough, hold back your hand.” The angel of YHVH was already at the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite.

When David saw the angel striking the people, he spoke to YHVH and said, “I have sinned and acted wickedly, but these are only the sheep; what have they done? Let Your hand strike me and my father’s family.”

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Monday, 3 February 2014 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, and St. Ansgar, Bishop (Scripture Reflections)

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

Today we witnessed the exorcism conducted by Jesus our Lord on the possessed man of Gerasenes, and how even the evil spirits obeyed the Lord and feared His authority. In today’s readings, we listen about the concept of authority and power, and how mankind had interacted with these across time, with the story of the rebellion of Absalom, the son of David, and how Jesus cast out the demons from the man.

The authority of Jesus was clear. He was the Son of Most High God as the demons themselves proclaimed. He was the Word of God made flesh, incarnate into Man in Jesus through Mary His mother. The evil spirits, the Legion feared Him because they knew who He was, even if mankind could not recognise who He was.

The evil spirits feared Jesus as Lord not because He has wealth, influence, or power that denote greatness in our human eyes. The greatness of the Lord is not measured in terms of human power and glory. What is power and glory to us mankind have no meaning and are nothing before the Lord our God. Jesus Himself showed us all this through His own actions.

Jesus was great not just because He was already the Lord and Almighty God, but because in His actions He showed the perfection of God’s love and mercy to us all. He was great because even though He has power, majesty, and authority, He chose to come down and be our servant, that through His works, we may have new hope in Him, and as our Shepherd, He guided us through the narrow gates towards salvation.

As Jesus mentioned in His Last Supper with the disciples, that the true meaning of leadership is service. A leader must be the servant of the people whom he or she leads, and the power and authority that the leader has been given must not be misused. True authority does not equal oppressing others or destroying those whose ideas or views not necessarily in line with our own views and opinions.

The Lordship and authority of Jesus is one of humility and service, and He did not boast of His miracles and achievements, while mankind like us must have been tempted to glorify ourselves or seek praise and glory from others for what we have done, gaining credits for our works. The irony is that, it is always the devil and the evil spirits in league with him that clamoured to proclaim Him! Yes, such as the evil spirits that inhabited that man of Gerasenes.

The authority of Jesus in casting out the numerous demons, the Legion, from that man showed His power and sovereignty over all things, be it angel, man, or demons, and is a testimony clear enough for all of us today to hear. We are fortunate to be able to witness this testimony through the Holy Gospels written by the Holy Apostles, who witnessed what happened first hand on that day.

If we trust in the Lord and in His power, then we will have no need to worry, for our Lord will be with us and He will take care of us well, and He shows us how to live a good and faithful life. The contrast we can see in the first reading today, which is centred on the civil war in Israel, between king David, the faithful servant of God and his own son, Absalom.

Absalom as the oldest son of king David was driven by his youth and ambitions, and he aspired to be the king of Israel, even though his father was still the reigning king and the chosen one of the Lord. Absalom succumbed to the taste of power and human glory, and that doomed him, causing him to rise up in rebellion against his own father.

As the story would go, Absalom was defeated in that war, and he lost his life in the process. The example of Absalom and David in today’s reading showed the frail nature of human power and glory. Power and glory in human terms are just temporary. We cannot hope to depend on our human power, as if we depend on them as Absalom had done, then we shall fail.

In a way even king David also had a part of blame on himself in this matter. David as a king as was common among the kings of his time, had many wives and children. Having more wives and children was associated with power and glory, and the more wives and children one had, the more powerful and prestigious was one seen by their people and their neighbouring countries.

Trusting in human power and authority was what had made David, the faithful servant of God, to err in some occasions. First of which was his plot to kill Uriah after committing adultery with the latter’s wife, Bathsheba, despite Uriah’s great loyalty to him, and then David’s sin of wanting to count the number of the people of Israel and Judah, as if he revelled in the great glory God had given him and was immersed in a moment of self-glorification and self-praise.

And David met his troubles because of what he had done, be it the rebellions of his sons and their mischievous behaviours, or the disease and pestilence that swept across the land and killed many, as the sign of God’s displeasure. This is proof that trusting in human and worldly power does not bring us good. Rather than be proud of our own power, ability, and achievement, we should rather trust in the Lord and walk in His ways.

Today, brethren, we celebrate the feast of two saints of the Church, that is of St. Blaise and St. Ansgar. St. Blaise was the well known patron for throat based diseases, which feast day usually saw the traditional blessing of the throats with two crossed candles. St. Blaise was a renowned physician who went around many places to heal peoples, often with miraculous results, and people flocked to him seeking the consolation of the flesh as well as the soul.

St. Blaise was a faithful follower of the Lord, and practiced his faith truthfully in the works that he had done, but when Christians were persecuted by the last persecution of Christians by Emperor Licinius of the Eastern Roman Empire, he was arrested by the governor of his province and subsequently was tortured and martyred for his faith in the Lord.

Meanwhile St. Ansgar was an Archbishop who lived in northern part of Germany during the late Dark Ages, and was renowned as the Apostle of the North, for his works of evangelisation, bringing the Good News of the Lord to many peoples in the northern Europe, where paganism still dominated most of the people. St. Ansgar tirelessly worked for the cause of the Lord and gained many converts, even baptising lords and kings of the pagans.

Despite his position in the Church, St. Ansgar did not have an easy work ahead of him. Often times many of his supporters withdrew their support from him, and St. Ansgar had to proceed with his missions with great difficulties. Yet, St. Ansgar persevered and he never complained. And the Lord gave him the help he needed through various sources, and he prevailed in his missions.

The examples of St. Blaise and St. Ansgar show that if we walk upright in the path of the Lord and if we remain faithful to Him and trust always in Him, then we have no need to fear at all about the work we are to do, our about our lives. God will care for us and He will protect us. He has all the power and authority, and no evil shall dare to approach us, for they know who they will be dealing with if they mess with us.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us today therefore put our trust in God, and keep our faith in Him strong, especially avoiding the bad influences of this world, taming our greed and desire, particularly for power, authority, and influence among many others, and seek only for the Lord. May our Lord therefore be with us, and guide us to walk upright at all times in His ways, that we may never again fall into sin. Amen.

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Friday, 3 January 2014 : Weekday of Christmas Time, Memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Today we glory in Jesus Christ, and we praise Him with the greatest exaltation we can give. Indeed, we ought to do that every single day of our lives without ceasing, with every single breath that we take. For it is through Christ that we have life, and it is also through Christ that we have hope for a new and everlasting life in joy and happiness.

Why is Jesus so special? And why is He so important to all of us? That is because as we all know, He is God Himself, and yet He is not a distant and unloving God who lords Himself over us as gods typically do, in our understanding of the term divine. Instead, Jesus is the Word, who is God and who is with God since the very beginning of all, begotten of the Father not created, and who emptied Himself of His glorious divinity, so that He might be born into this world, as one of us, a lowly human.

His coming had been prophesied by the prophets and the messengers of God for many millennia, and His coming had been expected and awaited by the people of God. God was known as the God named I am who I am, or YHVH in short. His Name is holy, and as one of the Ten Commandments stated, that the people of God must treat this Holy Name with the greatest respect.

We who are the most beloved ones of the Lord’s entire creation, had sinned against Him and rebelled against His will and commands, preferring to trust in Satan rather than in the power of the One and only True God. Yet, God is Love, and in us, He saw that there were good in us, just as all of creation was once perfect in goodness.

Everything was good then, until rebellion, pride and jealousy entered into the heart of Satan, who rebelled against Him and boasted that he would sit at the throne of God, only to be cast down, away from heaven. From there, Satan tricked and lied to our ancestors, that they were deceived and sin entered into the hearts of mankind. Ever since then we had been made dirty by the presence of sin in us, and yet in each one of us good is still present.

That is why God decided to come down upon this world in order to save us all from our fate that is death. He came to us, through the intermediary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, His mother, who bore Him as He remained in her womb for nine months after He, by the power of His own Spirit, entered into the world of mankind

And just like all of us, He has a Name, and a Name was given Him, that is Jesus, which in the original Aramaic is Yehosuah in approximation, containing the Name of YHVH, that is the Lord. Yes, that is in conjunction with the other name that Jesus is known, that is Emmanuel, or God-is-with-us. Yes, the very Name of Jesus is Holy and great, for it is the Name of God Himself, and not just any gods, but the One and only True God who dwells with us, by being born into the world, in order to be our Saviour.

He came into this world and began His ministry, of healing, of teaching, of feeding the people of God. He gave a great revelation on the nature of God and His love. Indeed, as we all know, that God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, so that all who believe in Him will not perish in death, but gain eternal life, which was promised to us by the Lord Himself.

Jesus came into this world with power and authority, and not just any kind of authority or power, but the true authority, out of whom all authorities came about. There can be no power or authority that does not have its source in Jesus. Even the devil, Satan, who had reigned mercilessly upon us as our jailor in the slavery by sin, and who had exercised power and control over us, was powerless and is powerless, and will ever be powerless before Jesus.

The evil spirits feared Him, and said His Holy Name aloud to the people to hear, that is Jesus, the Holy One of God, the Christ Himself. They trembled with fear upon hearing His Name, knowing the fate that they will suffer at the hand of God’s justice. They were once beautiful angels in heaven, but they followed the devil, once Lucifer, the brightest and greatest angel into his rebellion as I mentioned earlier. Ever since then, they were doomed, and destined to suffer for eternity by God’s justice.

The Lord’s authority is over everything, every single matter that exists in our universe and beyond. He is the Lord of all things visible and invisible. That is why even at the utterance of His Name, every knee and every beings shall bow down, genuflect, even flat to the floor! Yes, every beings, everything created by God, be it angels, mankind, animals, plants, or even the demons, the evil spirits, and Satan the great enemy of all himself.

Yet, brethren, sadly, many of us these days seem to take lightly upon this Most holy Name of all names. They made fun of His Name and disrespected His glorious Name. They did not respect the Name of the Lord, through whose sacrifice on the cross, we have been made whole once again, and gained the hop e of life eternal in Him. We instead prefer to deal with the devil, just as our ancestors had done, and glorify him instead of glorifying the Lord in Jesus.

This must not be the way we live our lives, brethren in Christ! We have to seek a total and complete change of our wayward ways, and seek to rectify the impropriety we had done upon the Lord. Keep the Lord’s Name sacred and glorified, just as He had commanded us in the Ten Commandments He gave to Moses. We cannot mock or disdain the Holy Name of Jesus.

Remember, brethren, the power of the Holy Name is powerful. If we are faced with a great power of evil, and we recite this great Name with faith, that is with true faith, and if we are upright in our lives, then no power, no matter how great or how evil it may be, can assail us. God Himself will come to protect us, and those who are against us will flee in fear, because they know that God is with us, Emmanuel! Jesus indeed! The One whose Name is exalted above every other names!

Yes, let us all give glory to our Lord Jesus, and glorify His Name from now on if we have not done so. Come Lord Jesus, be with Your people, and with Your children, and deliver us from the evil one, with the might of Your hands and with the glory of Your Name!

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Sunday, 8 December 2013 : Second Sunday of Advent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Today, we hear about the story of St. John the Baptist, the one who became the herald and the messenger of the coming of the Messiah, the Christ, the One who was to save the world. St. John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus was the one who prepared the way for the Lord, not with loud trumpets and the song of angels, but with the call in the desert, the call for the repentance of peoples.

For mankind had been long under the thrall of sin, such that they were long enslaved by the evils of sin. They were not prepared to receive the Lord in that state. They have to be prepared first, that when the Lord came, they were in a state where they would be more receptive to the messages of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

John gained great successes, because throngs of people came to him to be baptised at the Jordan, and committed themselves to the repentance over their sins. Yet, this does not mean that he had an easy job, as you all would notice, how, just as Jesus had encountered opposition and challenges from them, John too faced the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who trusted only in themselves and in their religious knowledge and truth, and not in the revelation brought first by John and made whole by Christ.

They were the people whose sense of self-righteousness brought the people of God to ruin. They thought that they had been very pious and faithful to the Lord by obeying all of His commandments and laws without fail, but they had gotten it all wrong. When they did all those rituals and commandments, they did them not for God, but for themselves.

They liked to be praised on the streets, in the Temple, and by whoever they met along the way. They were the pious ones, the influential ones, the powerful ones, the ones with authority over the people, as leaders and teachers of the people especially in the matters pertaining to the faith, and yet they failed, miserably. They looked and thought highly upon themselves and condemned others who did not do what they had done.

They questioned John because they first saw in him, a rival to their teaching authority and their influence. They also questioned him because they did not look highly and kindly on him, just as later on they would not have high regards for Jesus either. For them, the faith is all about obedience, observation, and most importantly, to them, the obedience of the people to their way and method of teaching, including the way of thinking and the way they had interpreted the faith for the people.

In this, they had misled the people, and brought them to damnation instead of to salvation, and that was why John was so angry at them, for these people had abused their authority as leaders of the people, leading them to the wrong way. John showed the people a preview of the work of salvation in Jesus, that is mercy and love.

If the Pharisees condemned sinners and people they thought as unworthy as sinners, thinking that they did not deserve salvation, unlike them, and if the Sadducees jeered on those who put their faith in the resurrection and new life in God after this world, John and later Jesus Himself, showed that the nature of God is love, compassion, kindness, and mercy.

The Lord is slow to anger and rich in mercy, and if only that we repent and turn our back from our lives of sin, the Lord will welcome us with wide, open hands, to welcome us into His kingdom, the rewards He had repeatedly promised us through Jesus Himself. In the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly said to His disciples and to the people, that all who believe in Him will not die but live, a new and eternal life. Jesus also repeatedly stressed that the Lord shows mercy to those who seek His forgiveness

Jesus did not make all those promises as if they are empty promises. That is because they are all real, brethren! Jesus made these promises to us, and seal them with none other than His own sacrifice on the cross. Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection three days after that are the culmination of the long-planned plan of salvation God had crafted for us all, ever since we fell into sin. And John, who cried in the desert asking the people to repent, made the first step in the fulfillment of that plan.

Yes, brethren, Jesus offered Himself freely to us, and His salvation He also offered freely to us, from up there on the cross. He did not die for nothing. He died so that we can live. We ought to heed the call of St. John the Baptist, and begin to reflect on our own selves if we had not done so, on whether we have repented from our sinfulness and change our ways for the better, or whether we have ignored the heeding of the Lord made clear through John.

We often play the part of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, that is to be jealous of others who steal our glory, to fear those who are going to humiliate us or take away the authority away from us. We often become judgmental of others, thinking of the faults in others while failing to see the failures that we ourselves possessed. This is why, we, like the Pharisees and the Sadducees, despite our sinfulness and weaknesses, did not go and make an effort to change ourselves.

We are often too busy to spend some time with the Lord, and instead our faith becomes more like a chore and a routine rather than true faith and devotion. We go to church every Sunday, attend the Mass, receive the Holy Communion, and then we go back, go back to our daily routines, and we repeat this again and again, over and over again. If I ask you, what is the meaning behind all of these routines?

The Lord has given His all to us, He even died for us, for our sake, to spare us the fate of death, and He even sent a messenger to prepare the way for Him, and to act as an extra set of mouth to remind the people of the importance for them to repent, and to realise how much their God loves them. But we are often not serious in our love for Him, because we are too busy with our own businesses, with our own daily routines, and with the world!

Yes, just as the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the teachers of the Law. They were too busy in their own world of righteousness and in their fallacy of salvation, that they failed to notice the Messiah when He came into the world, and they rejected Him, just as they had doubted and rejected John at the Jordan. This is the path to damnation, and we have a choice here, brothers and sisters. Will we choose to go the same way as they had done?

This Advent season has entered its second week, and in another three weeks, we will be celebrating the birth and the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ into this world at Christmas. He abandoned the glory of heaven and even His own divinity so that He can be with us, and eventually to sacrifice Himself for us. That is how serious and strong is His love for us. Are we able to do the same for Christ?

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us today onwards, heed the call of St. John the Baptist, to repent for the kingdom of God is near. It is coming soon, and we do not know when it will exactly come. We certainly do not want to be caught unprepared when Christ comes again in His glory to judge all creations. It is up to us, whether we want to be judged with the righteous and enter the eternal glory of heaven, or with the damned, to suffer eternally in hell, a total separation from the love of God.

May the Lord watch over us, and help us to make a wise decision, that our lives will be able to change for the better, and no longer sin, but to love more tenderly from now on, that we will truly be worthy of being called, the children of God. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 2 December 2013 : 1st Week of Advent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we begin the first of the weekdays of Advent, and appropriately, as we prepare for the coming of Christ, we are reminded on our humanity, and our frailty, one which needs help from the Lord. We heard this from the story from the Gospel, where Jesus healed the servant of the army captain, and the humility and faith of the captain, which he showed in all sincerity before Jesus.

We are all definitely too familiar with the words that the army captain had said, “I am not worthy that You, the Lord, should enter under my roof.” That is the statement that we always recite and repeat all over and over again every time we celebrate the Mass, just after the Agnus Dei, or the Lamb of God hymn. The other statement, “But only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” is certainly also a very familiar phrase to all of us, as this phrase is also used at the same time with the previous phrase.

These phrases were the words that the captain had said to Jesus, after he asked Him to heal his ailing servant, and he turned to no other help but Jesus the Lord. To some, the initial reaction of hearing these words would be that of detesting the captain’s arrogance. Some may even say, ‘How dare this captain say these things to the Lord when He had agreed to come and heal the ailing servant of the captain?’

This is our natural response, but we have to look beyond the surface into the true meaning of those words the captain had uttered. The captain in fact had so much faith in the Lord Jesus, that he knew even if Jesus did not come physically into his home, He, as the Lord of all and Almighty God has the power to heal his servant at that moment even there, where the two of them were far away from the captain’s home. Such was the faith of the captain, that he believed completely in Jesus without question.

But that is not all that there is in the faith and devotion of the captain. The captain’s response to the Lord also showed the quality and the truth about his faith and devotion. Not only that he is devoted to the Lord and placed his full trust in Jesus, but that he showed great humility and understanding of his own unworthiness as he sought the Lord for help with his servant.

All of us are sinners, brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all sinners ever since our ancestors first disobey the instructions and the will of the Lord, but we are not lost. Our Father and Lord loves us still, and He proved that to us by sending Jesus His own Son to us. Yet, many of us still deny our sinfulness and turn our back to the salvation which Christ has offered us freely.

That is how Christ praised the faith of the army captain. He may be an army captain, and to many people of his time, he may not be seen as someone who will do good deeds or have faith in God. Worse still, the army captain, as it was during the dominion of the Roman Empire, may well be a Roman centurion. And the people of Israel looked at them with disdain, treating them as pagans and unworthy of salvation.

Yet, you knew what happened. Jesus praised the faith of the army captain, not just because of his total dedication, but also because of his humility, a great humility indeed, to realise his sinfulness and unworthiness, to the point of saying it publicly that he was not worthy to have the Lord at his home. And compare this to the faith of the Pharisees, as you all notice that they are the ones considered holy and pious by the people. Yet, they were arrogant and proud, disdaining the sinful while not realising that they themselves were sinful too.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, now we all know the meaning of the words we always say at the Mass. From now on, every time we say those words the captain had once said, let us remember the faith of the captain, and also try to emulate the faith he had. We have to be aware of our own sins and unworthiness, while at the same time, trying our best to dedicate ourselves to the Lord without being taken in by the temptations of the evil one.

May the Lord who rewarded those faithful to Him, also reward us in the same way, and that we may realise the depth and gravity of our sinfulness, and therefore strive to draw ever closer to the Lord our God, seeking His generous mercy and love, that we may strive to be more like Him, and aspire to reach the heavenly glory that He had promised us. Amen.

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Sunday, 24 November 2013 : Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Christ the King (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the last great feast in our Liturgical Year, that is the great solemnity of Christ the King, or in full, of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. This is the last Sunday of our Liturgical Year, and from next Sunday onwards we will be entering into the season of Advent, in preparation for Christmas.

This is the feast, the great solemnity which marked the end of the year of our liturgy, but this year, it is even more glorious. Why so? Because on this year’s solemnity of Christ the King, we also celebrate the closing of the Year of the Faith, which Pope Benedict XVI had initiated on 12 October of last year and ran for a whole year until today. Indeed, today is a great occasion, to celebrate our faith, the faith we have in Jesus, our King and our Saviour.

Today, we glorify Jesus Christ our Lord, the divine Word of God incarnated into flesh in Jesus. He is King, and He is the Lord of all the universe, of all creation, whom He had created at the beginning of time. And yet, He chose to lower Himself, as the proof of His dedication, to those whom He had been king for. As He is the king of all creations, including all of us, we are all His people. And to show His love and dedication for us, bound to death that is our fate for sin, He came down to us, and for us, giving Himself for us that we can be saved.

Yes, Jesus although He was not obliged to help us, He still gave Himself to us, opening to us the floodgates of His mercy and love. In order to do so, He came to us, to fulfill God’s plan of salvation. And He did not do so in a manner so as to dazzle or amaze people. Instead, He came in silence, in the quiet night, that night in Bethlehem. No inn or lodging was made available for the king, and the king of kings made His entry into this world in a humble and dirty stable, fit for animals but not for men.

That is because, brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord’s kingship is not a kingship of this world. He is the true king of all things, and His kingdom is not a kingdom of this world. That is why, if kings of this world are usually rich, privileged, and powerful, the Lord as the king of all kings is instead humble, gentle, and benevolent. He did not flaunt His power and authority, and instead He worked with complete obedience and devotion to the Lord His Father.

When Satan tempted Jesus in the desert as He fasted, he was unable to convince Him with the allures of glory, which are human glory, worldly glories, which would have tempted most if not all of us. All of these were the worldly glories that Jesus as King would have done, if He is a king of this world. He would have taken it easy, as after all, what is mankind, so sinful and rebellious that they are worth saving? Such would be the thoughts of the devil to Jesus. Yet, Jesus would have none of that and rebuked the devil.

In Jesus lies the salvation of this world, that is the redemption of all mankind. He did so by offering Himself, the perfect and unblemished lamb of sacrifice, exchanging for us our fated deaths, into the new life He had prepared for us. He paid the price in full to ransom us, a price He paid with none other than His own flesh and blood, shed from the cross as He hung above it between the heavens and the earth.

The kingship of Jesus is not for Him to enjoy being a king, and neither it is for Him to enjoy good life, as many of the kings and leaders of our world had done. The kingship of Jesus is one of service, dedication, and love, in which, He as king, is our shepherd, the leader of all in our way towards complete and perfect reunion with God. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, leads us in our way towards the Lord.

But many of us openly mocked Jesus and His kingship, often not recognising what He has done for our sake, and rejecting His offers of goodness through salvation of souls. We are indeed often like the prodigal thief crucified with Jesus, as well as the Roman soldiers and those who had crucified Him, mocking Him openly of His kingship, questioning His power and authority.

Let us all reflect, how often do we all, even in our daily actions, that we have rejected Jesus, that we have rebuked Him, and even made a mockery of Him in front of His enemies. And yet, if you all noticed, He did not care. After all, He is the Lord and King of all creations, of all things that were, that are, and that will ever be. He is omnipotent beyond any imagination, and He could just destroy us with a single thought, and yet He did not do that.

He cared for us and loved us, to the point of coming down for us. Remember what Jesus told us about the parable of the shepherd. How a good shepherd will leave his good flock and go out all the way in search of the one that is lost. That was precisely what Jesus had done, our Good Shepherd. He went all the way to save us, the lost ones, that we can be reunited again with the flock of Christ, destined for eternal salvation.

Such a good king we have, don’t you all think? Yes, that is Christ our Lord and King, a king who does not just demand obedience and service from his subjects, but instead as a king who serves and loves his people. But many of us refuse to acknowledge His kingship and reject Him, just as His own people rejected Him as He hung on the cross to save them.

Whenever we sin and commit things against the laws of God, and in violation of the Lord’s love for us, we refuse to admit the kingship of Jesus our Lord. Whenever we sin and commit things evil in the eyes of God and refuse to admit them and change from our sinful ways, we act in the same way as the unrepentant thief, who mocked Jesus for His kingship.

Instead, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us be like the repentant thief. Let us be like him in that he openly acknowledged not only that Jesus is truly king and Lord, but also that he reveals and admits the depth of his own sin and his unworthiness before the same king, asking in deep humility and shame for forgiveness by the Lord.

And he was forgiven, and given a place in heaven, literally being the first one that Jesus saved through His death and resurrection. We too can follow in the repentant thief’s footsteps, provided that we realise and reflect on the depth of our own sinfulness, and resolve that from now on, we will change our attitude and truly accept the Lord our God as our Lord and Saviour.

So today, as we also celebrate together, the end of the holy Year of the Faith, as well as the great solemnity of Christ the King, let us together with the entire Church, all the same children of God, renew our profession of faith before our Lord and King, taking our vows that we will, from now on, live an upright and righteous life, in accordance with the will of God, and open ourselves to His infinite love.

Let us proclaim that Jesus is the king of all kings, our king and our Saviour. And let us also usher in this era of mercy and love. Surrender ourselves to the Lord’s mercy and love as the repentant sinner had done, and keep our faith strong and burning in God! God bless us all with His Son, Jesus, our King. Amen.

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Saturday, 16 November 2013 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Margaret of Scotland, and St. Gertrude, Virgin (Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listen about how our Lord is a great and just judge. That He is the judge of all creations, just as He is the One who created all of them, including all of us. He is just as He is loving, and He listens and pays attention to all that He loves, which includes all of us, His most beloved ones. He will not leave us behind in quagmire or in trouble, for He will always care and love for us, His children.

And as Jesus had mentioned, the Lord is just and He upholds His laws that is love. And as He mentioned how even the evil and proud judge was bound to fulfill the wishes of the widow who kept pestering him to help her. That is how the Lord will be even more loving and caring towards us, giving us what we need just if we ask Him and sincerely approach Him with humility.

He knows all our needs and all our wishes, without the need for us to even utter a single word. For is He not our Lord and Creator, who knows all things, and who has power and authority over all things, be it in heaven or on earth. We need to just ask and beseech Him for Him to come and grant us what He wants out of us. Remember that Jesus invited us to come to Him, that is to knock at His door, that is to reach out to Him, and to respond to His call.

He has shown His power over time and throughout history, showing His might and power to His people, Israel. They have been brought to the Promised Land by the power of His hands, who smote those who enslaved them hard, that they let His people go. God has shown His deep love to them, opening the doors of His heart, and pouring to His people the fullness of His love.

How not so, when He guided them as they proceeded out of the land of their slavery, and persevered with them despite their constant disobedience. He provided them with good and nourishing food, even with bread from heaven, and sweet, crystal-clear water to drink. He cared for them like a father cares for his children, protecting them from harm and guiding them towards the right path.

That is why, brethren, we should not fear the Lord. For indeed, the Lord welcomes us to return to His embrace through His most wonderful love and mercy. All we need is for us to actively and proactively seek Him, and open ourselves, making ourselves available to accept His love. We should begin from now, to redirect our focus back towards the Lord.

Today, we celebrate the feast of two saints, namely St. Margaret of Scotland and St. Gertrude. Both are great saints, and when they were alive, they were good and exemplary women, beloved daughters of the Lord. St. Margaret was the princess of England, and who was married to be the Queen of Scotland, while St. Gertrude was a young religious who received revelations and visions from the Lord and His saints, on the nature of the love of God, and whose works helped many to gain deeper insight on their faith.

St. Margaret of Scotland was a very pious woman, who went on doing her work to ensure that the faith was upheld true and pure, without any heretical teachings across her country of Scotland. She was truly exemplary in her faith, piously devoting herself to God. She made her faith truly alive by showing her love to the poor, and to the last ones in the society.

St. Margaret served the poor and cared those rejected by the society. She championed the faith during her reign as Queen and helped her husband the King of Scotland to keep him on track in the faith, since he was a person who was not particularly interested in the faith and committed sinful acts during his reign. St. Margaret therefore kept a nation strong in their faith, anchored in the Lord.

St. Gertrude was a pious and holy woman, whose life was entirely dedicated to the service of the Lord. She received mystical visions from the Lord, which showed the Lord and His love for mankind, and the undying love He wants to show to all of us, the sorrow that He had for our sinfulness and rebelliousness. We have caused great pain to the Lord, for we have rejected and spurned His love, which He had offered freely for us, especially through the sacrifice and death of Jesus His Son.

St. Gertrude was also well known for her many works and writings, many of which had been lost to time. Her writings focused on the Lord and His great love, and dedication He has for all of us. She was one of the early devotee of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, a popular devotion nowadays. She gave her all to God, and so deep was her love and dedication that she considered herself as a bride of the Lord.

Following the examples of these two great women, and great saints, we ought to be more like them, and love God more and more. We must love our Lord just as He had loved us so much, that He was willing to give up Himself in death, that through His own suffering, death, and finally, resurrection, we can be made whole, worthy, and saved in Him.

May the Lord continue to bless us, watch over us, love us and give us His merciful love. Through the intercession and examples of St. Margaret of Scotland and St. Gertrude, may we grow to love our Lord more, and seek Him in faith and humility, seeking His mercy and throwing ourselves at His feet, that He may once again spark in us the love for Him. Amen.