brethren in faith

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Thursday, 6 November 2014 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today first we are reminded yet again of the love of God for us, the love which He generously and freely offers us all who believe in Him, and also to those who still yet reject His love and those who are still in the darkness of this world and sin. He came to save and heal sinners, bringing them back from the precipice that leads to hell, into the safety of heaven.

This was represented perfectly by Jesus in His parables on the lost sheep and the lost coin, where He showed how the owner of the lost sheep and the lost coin spared no effort in order to look for the lost one, and used all of his might to seek and find it, and reunite it back to the owner. And the same applies to all of us, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we are all belongings of the Lord, mankind, created by God, beloved and cared by our loving Father in heaven.

We have sinned before God, and sin represents our waywardness and failure to listen to the word of God and the failure to follow His path and His lead. To compare this to what Jesus had told His disciples, it is like the naughty and wayward sheep who refused to listen to the words of its shepherd, who guides it and the other sheep, keeping them away from harm and providing them with good food and care.

The shepherd is our Lord, our God, who loves us all equally and well. Meanwhile, the sheep are mankind, all of God’s beloved creations. God, the Shepherd, brings all of His sheep to wondrous places, good food and good water springs, allowing them to prosper and be happy in all things. Yet, like our ancestors before us, it is often difficult to satisfy our needs and wants. We always seek to have more, as greed is always within our nature.

It is therefore like a sheep who sees something good afar, beyond the range and care of its shepherd, and decides to follow it, disregarding the protection and care of its shepherd, and seek the good things, without knowing that beyond its shepherd’s protection, it may come into a great danger. But will the shepherd abandon the lost sheep or will he not recognise that one of his many sheep are lost? No, that is because he knows all of them well.

And therefore, our Lord and God knows us very well. He knows us all by name, and He knows everything that is in us and within us, to the depths of our soul. He will not leave us to danger and harm, and just as the shepherd in the parable told by Jesus, He is certain to give His best to seek us out, when we are lost, and when we sin. And how does He do this? He sent us reminders after reminders, through our Faith, through all those we interact with, whom the Lord touched with His Spirit to help guide us back to the right path.

This is a reminder for all of us not to judge one another, and instead to help one another, so that none of us may be lost. We should not judge another person by his or her cover, or by his or her actions and things they had committed. They may have committed a great sin before the Lord, but before we are quick to judge, as what we are prone to do, we should also remember that we are all, also sinners before God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what St. Paul had mentioned in his letter, which is our First Reading today, about circumcision refers to the practice of the Jewish faith, which signified the covenant which the people of God, Israel, had with the Lord, recalling what Abraham had done as part of his covenant with the Lord. Nevertheless, over the generations, this circumcision of the flesh, eventually became a sign of elitism and separation from the others, the uncircumcised people.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, were infamous for their strict and unbending obedience and observance of the Law of God as revealed through Moses. They revelled in their faith and zealous observance of the Law, and they often judged those whom they considered as sinners, shunning interactions with them and placing them as the condemned, thinking that they alone were truly worthy of salvation.

But this was where they got it wrong entirely. They criticised Jesus for reaching out to the sinners, the tax collectors and the prostitutes, who were considered the greatest sinners in the society. But they forgot the fact that while the Lord our God hates sins in all of their forms, and all forms of fornications, but the Lord loves us all, and He wants to reunite us with Himself, and to help us to repent from our sins.

From there came therefore the term ‘Hate the sin but not the sinner’. We cannot act in such a way that we prevent sinners from seeking salvation in God, for if we do so, as what the Pharisees had done, then we are likely to be held accountable for our failure to act to help our brethren to repent their sins and achieve salvation. For the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who had been entrusted with the care of the people, as their shepherd, their sins were even greater, for they have neglected the love they ought to show for the lost sheep of the Lord.

But brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us too, have been appointed shepherds over one another, over our own brethren in faith through baptism. Through baptism, we have been entrusted with faith by God, and we are expected to also keep one another in the faith, safeguarding each other from sin and wickedness. Therefore, we too have a responsibility to help each other to do what is right and just before the Lord.

This state of grace and just living is what is meant by the true circumcision as mentioned by St. Paul in his letter. The circumcision of the flesh is no longer relevant nor beneficial, for what the Lord now seeks from us is to have a true circumcision of our spirit and soul. What does this mean? That means just as circumcision removes the outer layer of skin from the inner flesh, this means that we should also shed off from ourselves the outer layer of sin, the darkness and wickedness in our lives, so that the true being, pure and holy, may emerge from underneath the sins and impurities.

Hence, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all pray, pray to our Lord that we may be given the strength and grace to help each other to remain true to the faith, and to reject and to abandon all wickedness in exchange for goodness and righteousness. May we all have the love for sinners, as our Lord Jesus had taught us, and have hatred for sin, seeking to do always what is just and good before God, at all times. God bless us all. Amen.

 

First Reading : 
https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/11/05/thursday-6-november-2014-31st-week-of-ordinary-time-first-reading/

Psalm : 
https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/11/05/thursday-6-november-2014-31st-week-of-ordinary-time-psalm/

Gospel Reading : 
https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/11/05/thursday-6-november-2014-31st-week-of-ordinary-time-gospel-reading/

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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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Thursday, 14 August 2014 : 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Matthew 18 : 21 – Matthew 19 : 1

Then Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how many times must I forgive the offenses of my brother or sister? Seven times?”

Jesus answered, “No, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. This story throws a light on the Kingdom of Heaven : A king decided to settle the accounts of his servants. Among the first was one who owed him ten thousand pieces of gold. As the man could not repay the debt, the king commanded that he be sold as a slave with his wife, his children and all his goods, as repayment.”

“The servant threw himself at the feet of the king and said, ‘Give me time, and I will pay you back everything.’ The king took pity on him, and not only set him free, but even cancelled his debt.”

“When this servant left the king’s presence, he met one of his companions, who owed him a hundred pieces of silver. He grabbed him by the neck and almost choked him, shouting, ‘Pay me what you owe!'”

“His companion threw himself at his feet and begged him, ‘Give me time, and I will pay everything.’ The other did not agree, but sent him to prison until he had paid all his debt.”

“Now his fellow servants saw what had happened. They were extremely upset, and so they went and reported everything to their lord. Then the lord summoned his servant and said, ‘Wicked servant, I forgave you all that you owed when you begged me to do so. Were you not bound to have pity on your companion, as I had pity on you?'”

“The lord was now angry, so he handed his servant over to be punished, until he had paid his whole debt.”

Jesus added, “So will My heavenly Father do with you, unless you sincerely forgive your brothers and sisters.”

When Jesus had finished this teaching, He left Galilee and arrived at the border of Judea, on the other side of the Jordan River.

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Sunday, 6 July 2014 : 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Romans 8 : 9, 11-13

Yet your existence is not in the flesh, but in the spirit, because the Spirit of God is within you. If you did not have the Spirit of Christ, you would not belong to Him.

And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is within you, He who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies. Yes, He will do it through His Spirit who dwells within you.

Then, brothers, let us leave the flesh and no longer live according to it. If not, we will die. Rather, walking in the Spirit, let us put to death the body’s needs so that we may live.

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Monday, 24 March 2014 : 3rd Week of Lent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the key message of today’s readings is that we have to be humble, and cast aside all of our prejudices and judgmental attitudes, and not be stubborn but instead put our trust in God and in His wisdom. That is what we need to know.

Why so, brethren? Why this message for us today? That is rightly so because Jesus and His prophets, shown through the example of Elisha, had been rejected in their own land and were cast aside by their own people. And Jesus pointed out to them, that prophets are not welcome in their own land, in their own hometown, and they were not honoured there.

All is because of the sin of human presumption and assumption. We like to judge and have our opinion on anything and everything around us. And the closer we are related to each other, the more we are likely to form our judgments and opinions on others.

And that was what the people of Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth thought about Him, when He came and proclaimed to them the truth about Himself, and about the Good News that He had come to proclaim. The people of Nazareth hardened their hearts and shut off their ears from listening to the words of salvation offered by Jesus, because to them, He can be no more than just a carpenter, and a carpenter’s son.

And in their minds, surely they will think that, who is this Jesus think He is? How dare He proclaims Himself as the One mentioned in the Scriptures? He thinks that He is a prophet is it? He is only a humble and good-for-nothing carpenter’s son! Is He and His father Joseph not the ones who repaired our wooden furnitures all these while? How can He then be the Prophet! Preposterous!

Yes, brethren, these are likely the thoughts that run inside of the people’s minds as they listened to Jesus, and that was why they were indignant and refused to listen to Him, and they were deep in their prejudice against Jesus and therefore they did not try to understand what Jesus was telling them, to the point of even open and blatant hostility against Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, shall we be like them? We have the benefit of knowing who Jesus Christ our Lord is, through the teachings of the Church which was passed down to us from the Apostles of Jesus themselves. Nevertheless, that does not mean that we may always be faithful to God and listen to Him and  His words.

We too can be wayward and walk down the wrong path if we are not careful, and if we do not cultivate and strengthen our faith in the Lord. And this also certainly taught us not to be judgmental or be prejudiced against others, our own brothers and sisters in the faith, or think in any way that we are more righteous or worthy of salvation than others because of who we are.

Let us instead help one another, and help indeed, so that all of us will be able to go as one people and reach out together towards the Lord, that at the end of our journey, we may glorify the Lord our God together as one! God bless us all. Amen.

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Christmas Message and Reflections, Anno Domini 2013

Christ our Lord is born in Bethlehem, in the city of David. Alleluia!

He who is the king of kings is born among us and dwell among us His people. Alleluia!

Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour is born to us, out of His love that in Him we may have new hope. Alleluia!

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate with the entire Church and with the entire world, the coming of one Man, but not like any man, because He was truly special. Jesus our Lord was born in Bethlehem, in the city of David, as prophesied throughout the ages, as the Messiah who would come to save all of God’s multitudes of peoples.

Christmas is a time for joy, and not just our own joy, but everyone’s joy, because Christ the Messiah is born for us, for our sake. In Christ is the culmination of God’s long-planned salvation for all of us. Mankind waited years and many, many years just for the coming of the deliverer, much like the people of Israel waited many years for the coming of the promised deliverer, suffering for hundreds of years in slavery in Egypt.

With Christ, a new hope for all mankind had dawned, and the royal baby, whose birth we celebrate today is the Saviour. He came into this world not for leisure or for a picnic, but for the deliverance of us all, none other than through His own sacrifice on the cross. Yes, that was the very reason why God came down upon us, incarnate as Man born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, His mother. He came to liberate us forever, from the slavery under sin and the power of evil, and to give us our inheritance, promised to us since the beginning of time. And this is joy!

Christmas is not just joyful because it is a holiday time, or a rime to relax from our work. And Christmas is also not just joyful because of all the partying and all the festivities that our societies often rejoice in. Christmas is not just about the gifts or merely about the shopping spree and the massive discounts that the shops offer us. Christmas is about Christ, and it is about Him. It is His birthday, and yet many of us often seem to forget that reality.

We spend long hours hunting for gifts and spend lots of time decorating our homes and our places, but do we all know the reason why we even do all of these. That is because we have been long immersed in the secularised version of Christmas that took Christ out of Christmas, and made it no different than other festivals and celebrations.

Yet, Christmas, besides that of Easter should be the greatest of our celebrations in the whole of our lives. That is because just as we are often exposed to the fact that Christmas is a season of giving, it is truly a season of giving, but it represents ultimately, the gift of our Lord to us, in Jesus Christ. Remember what is said in the Gospel of John, that God so loved the world, that He gave us His only Son, that all who believe in Him will not die, but receive eternal life.

Christ is the Lord’s gift to us, the ultimate gift of all. And Christmas marked that gift’s entry into the world, when God’s gift is made manifest and true to us. God fulfilled His promises to us, and He gave us the perfect gift, to liberate us from the power of sin and death. In Easter too, is the time of remembrance of the time when Christ gave Himself as a perfect and worthy sacrifice as the reparation for all of our sins.

So, we cannot omit or ignore Christ at all, whenever we make any festivities and celebrations this Christmas. To ignore Christ at His own birthday is pagan, and to exclude the values that Christ had taught us at Christmas is pagan. We cannot be too engulfed in our own joy and happiness, that we forget those who are less fortunate than us. Yes, those who cannot even afford to get their daily food and daily sustenance, much less still to celebrate Christmas in the way that we do.

This brings us yet into another important point to consider about Christmas. Christmas is not about the glamour and the wealth being displayed around, not in the lavishness or size of the gifts that we receive. Yes, Christmas can include all of these, but we cannot miss the true essence of Christmas, that is love. For it is God’s love for us that brought Christmas to us, and it is God’s love that enables us to even rejoice and be glad on this great and sacred day.

Christmas is about love, and about us understanding fully the love of God for us, and the love He had for this world, and also about us sharing, this love that God had shown us, which He had also poured generously on us, with one another. We cannot profess to be Christians, that is to be the believers of Jesus Christ our Lord, if we do not profess love. And what time is better to show that this Christmas? It is a season of giving indeed, but not just of material goods. Instead, let us resolve to also give of our hearts, to share the love, the joy, and the happiness we have with one another.

Seek out those who are without love, and those who are less fortunate than us. We do not have to go far! And indeed, it does not always mean that we have to go to the streets and seek out beggars in order to do so. We can do those things certainly, but what about our own homes, our own families, and our own circle of friends and acquaintances?

Yes, if we know anyone who is forsaken and devoid of love in our own communities, even within our own families, and those who are unloved, and indeed, those who held grudge and hatred against us, this is the time, the perfect time to show the love of God, and share with them what joy we have. For are we not the children of the same God? The same God who had resolved to come upon us to be our salvation through His birth, death, and resurrection?

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Christmas day and the Christmas season is the best day and time to begin life anew. If we have not been professing love, that is Christian love, then let us reflect on the love that God showed us through His Son. Follow what God had done, and show that same love to one another. This is a good time to forgive one another, and let go of our anger, hatred, jealousy, and any kind of ill feeling, and instead rejoice together with the angels and saints as they proclaim the glory of God who was born on Christmas day.

We cannot celebrate Christmas yet, and we are not ready to rejoice too, if we still hold grudge against one another, or against any of our brother and sister in Christ. That is why we often have penitential services and confessions during the Advent season, that is to clear up our sinfulness and to be ready for the celebration of Christmas. If you have not done so, then do not wait, but use this very opportunity to do so, and then rejoice together at the coming of our Lord.

Therefore, may this Christmas be a season of renewal for us all, that we will be renewed in faith and in love. And as much as it is a season of renewal, let it be a season of joy, but that of true joy, and not the masked joy of secularised Christmas celebrations. Yes, let this time be a time of joy, rejoicing in the coming of Jesus Christ our Lord, born a baby in Bethlehem to be the Saviour of all. Let us never forget this, and keep Christ always at the centre of our lives, and at the very centre of our hearts.

May the Almighty God, who had loved us so much so as to give His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, continue to love us, and bless us, that we will be stronger and ever stronger in our faith, our hope, and our love. That our faith and trust in Him will only get stronger and stronger, that our hope in Him and the eternal life He promised will only get firmer and firmer, and that the love He had shown us, we too will be able to replicate in our own lives.

Have a blessed Christmas, and rejoice in the Lord! Rejoice in the coming of our Lord Jesus, Saviour of the world. Merry Christmas! Buon Natale!

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Sunday, 11 August 2013 : 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today, we are urged through the readings we listened to, that we must be ever ready, ever ready for the coming of Christ our Lord, who will come at the end of time, to judge all things living and dead, in the final judgment, when those who are upright and do the will of God, will be rewarded, and those who are wicked, will meet their due punishment.

Our Lord Jesus who has ascended into heaven at the end of His ministry on earth, will come again at the end of time, as a victorious and conquering King of all Kings, and He will judge all creation, all mankind, for our virtues, our goodness, our faults, and our sins. He had promised us through His disciples, that He will come again and bring us back into His kingdom, to be with Him for eternity, in eternal happiness and true joy.

Yes, as He had promised Abraham and his descendants, He had also promised all of us, who shared Abraham as our father in faith, that He will give His grace and blessings upon all of us. To us had been granted much, and therefore much is also expected from us. That is because, the Lord had made His covenant with all of us, to renew the covenant He had made with Abraham, through the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus on the cross, with which He made a new covenant sealed with His Most Precious Blood.

Our Lord remains ever faithful, ever loving, and ever forgiving in His dealings with all of us, who are His most beloved children. He had sent His Son Jesus to be our Saviour, to break us free from the chains of sin and its slavery. He had redeemed us from Satan with the price of His own Blood. But a covenant requires all of us to also play our part, that is to contribute to the covenant we had made with God through Christ His Son.

How do we then take part in this holy covenant of God? It is not easy, brothers and sisters, because He requires our ultimate obedience and dedication to Him and His laws, His precepts, and all of His love. To put it in simple words, we need to obey the Lord and follow Christ, through whom God had made clear to us His intentions, the plan He had for us and this world. In following Christ, we have to carry our crosses and walk with Him, enduring much opposition, suffering, and persecution, especially from the forces of evil, who do not wish to see us redeemed and steered away from destruction.

To follow Christ means to love one another, to love everyone around us, our brothers and sisters, without exception, and to pour onto them our care and compassion, giving to them our unconditional love, as Christ had once done to us, through His death on the cross. And of course, we must also love the Lord our God, with all our hearts and with all of our strength, that we offer Him our full devotion, our full attention, and our wholesome love, without exception, to put Him first before every other things.

As I had mentioned, much had been given to us, and therefore much is also expected from us in return. God our Lord had entrusted this world and all in it to us when He created our ancestors. He gave us this world that we may be its steward, care for it, and be responsible for it. He had given us gifts and blessings in ourselves, and through the Holy Spirit, we have been strengthened with the fruits of His love. These gifts are within each one of us, our talents, our skills, and our uniqueness, which may be used for myriad purposes and different intentions.

We have to cultivate these gifts and nurture them, that the talents and the skills God had given us will grow, and be made manifest in this world, by our service and dedication to our fellow men, our fellow brothers and sisters, children of the same God, giving to them, to one another, the love, the hope, and the faith we have inside of us. If we share our love, faith, and hope, they will only grow and blossom. We have to practice our faith, brothers and sisters in Christ, and our good works for the sake of our brethren, that our faith may be alive.

Yes, the faith we have in God must be a living and vibrant faith, one nurtured with love, one filled with action based on the teachings of our Lord. If we have this living faith within us, like the faith had by our father Abraham, who followed the Lord with zeal and full trust in His providence, we will be rewarded just as our father Abraham was rewarded for his strong and undimmed faith, for his real, living, and vibrant faith.

Do not be caught unawares, brothers and sisters, when Christ comes again in all His glory, in His Second Coming at the end of time. We do not know when this will happen, and indeed, He will come at the time when we are at our most unprepared state, when we did not expect Him to come at all. He will come silently like a thief and He will then judge us, all of us, whether we have been faithful to Him and His commandments or whether we have turned away from Him and His path.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us heed the call that Christ had made to all of us, to follow Him and remain in His love, by showing Him a constant and vibrant faith, and our wholehearted dedication and devotion, our undivided love and attention for Him, and for all His children, our fellow brethren in God. Be prepared at all times for Him, that we will always be ready when He comes again, and not be found wanting for our faith.

Let us from today, dedicate ourselves and renew our commitment to Him, and to our fellow brothers and sisters, helping one another in our journey towards the Lord our God. We hope that everyone will be able to reach the end of our journeys successfully and that the Lord our God will welcome us and congratulate us for our dedication and our faith in Him, granting us the reward He had promised us through Jesus Christ, His Son. Let us not be the ones rejected by the Lord, because they did not bother to lift a finger, to help those in need, and to give themselves in love to their brethren in need. God bless us all. Amen.