casting out demons

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Monday, 27 October 2014 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are reminded of our choices in life, with every actions that we take and with every deeds that we do. We have been given the free will to commit to things that are good and to things that are wicked. We are free to choose to do what we deem is right. However, in the end, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Judge of all, will judge our actions at the end of time and pass His judgments according to what we have done in life.

Since we are all created by God good and pure, only to be tainted by the sins of our disobedience, that is sin, therefore we are all initially and intended to be good in all things. God who created us regards us as His own children, and we are all intended for goodness. That is why we who are the children of God, who is good in all things, perfect in purity and holiness, and the Light who brightens the world, should also be good and exemplary in the things we do in this world.

We have a choice, brothers and sisters in Christ, that is to follow the examples of Christ, who showed us how to live like children of the Light, or to follow the examples of the Pharisees and the other wicked ones, who did not follow the Light, but followed darkness instead. They served their own purposes and they served their own hearts’ desires rather than doing what they ought to do as children of God. Thus they were cast away from the presence of God and were rejected by the Lord who judged them amongst the unworthy.

Let us look deeper into the readings which we have today. The Law and the commandments of God taught us how to love, and love tenderly we should indeed, giving our love to God first and then in the same way, to show the same love to our brothers and sisters around us. And this love is such that we must show the same love both to God and to our fellow men, the love which we have accorded to ourselves.

But the Pharisees and the wicked loved themselves first, and loved themselves to such a great extent that they failed to love others as they have loved themselves, and they instead despised others, even those whom the Lord had entrusted to their care, such as the woman troubled with the evil spirit for eighteen years waiting for delivery. They cared for themselves so much that they also failed to give the love they have due for the Lord.

Do you remember, brethren, when Jesus once said that whatever we do to the least and the smallest of our brethren, we do it for the Lord Himself? This is precisely the case, and the woman, troubled by the evil spirit, physically and spiritually, was in great need of help. Yet the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law did not lift up even a finger to help the woman. It is in fact even likely that they have set her up there in order to trap Jesus and find a reason to blame Jesus for what they knew He was going to do, that is to heal the woman on a Sabbath day.

We know that the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were infamous for their unbending and ultraconservative attitude at preaching and observing the Law of God revealed through Moses. However, as the Law was intertwined with the laws and rules and ways of the world, they lost focus of the true meaning and purpose of the Law, ending up becoming unmerciful and unjust in their actions.

Thus the Lord Jesus rebuked them for their unbending and rigid attitude in following the ways and the laws of the Lord. They followed the Law for the sake of following it, and for what? To satisfy their own pride and human desires, the desire for fame and human praise, as Jesus also rebuked them on another occasion, pointing out how they liked to pray in public places with loud voices so as to be praised by others.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is an important lesson for all of us. That means all of us should not follow in their examples, the examples of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. We must not follow the wicked path of pride, of injustice, of greed and human desires. We must not let our arrogance and our jealousy, such as the jealousy of the Pharisees against the works of Jesus, to blind us from our true goal, that is to love God and our brethren.

We have to take heed of what the Lord had shown us in the Scriptures we heard today, that we will not head in the direction of destruction and damnation. These are the share of fate of those who do not walk in the way of the Lord, who live in fornication and sin, and who listen more to the demands of their desire and the temptations of their flesh rather than to listen to God. Shall we follow this path to ruin? Of course none of us would want this fate for us.

What can we do then? It is therefore necessary that we listen to Jesus, and what Jesus said to the Pharisees in rebuking them, is the words of love, that is the profession of the love which He has for all of us. The love and mercy, and the desire to see us repentant and being forgiven from all of our sins and distress, and the desire to bring us back into the path of grace, by granting us rich mercy and blessings, as far as we deserve the salvation which He offers us freely.

And how can we be deserving of such great mercy from our Lord? It is by listening to the words of St. Paul in the letter he had written to the faithful in Ephesus, by keeping all of our actions holy and proper, by having true and genuine love in all the things that we do, by showing love to one another, showing mercy and tenderness to those who are in need, just like Jesus having pity and mercy on the afflicted woman.

It was also mentioned that if we are bound to ‘Money’ which in fact refers to the pleasures and the temptations of the flesh and of this world, then it will be difficult if not impossible for us to be saved. This is because, these are obstacles on our path, and they veiled our hearts and the eyes of our heart from the goodness of God, and just like the Pharisees, they tempted them and corrupted them to do acts that are contrary to the teachings of the Lord. They brought mankind to hate and to hurt one another instead of having love for each other.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today let us all look into ourselves, and see if our actions have been based on the love which we ought to show our God and our fellow men. Let us all forsake all the temptations and fornications of the flesh and of the world, resisting the temptations of the world and instead learn to love ever more tenderly and graciously, showing mercy to all who need them, and help one another to seek and reach out to the salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ, our loving God. Let us sin no more, and receive the fullness of His mercy. Amen.

 

First Reading : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/26/monday-27-october-2014-30th-week-of-ordinary-time-first-reading/

Gospel Reading : https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2014/10/26/monday-27-october-2014-30th-week-of-ordinary-time-gospel-reading/

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Friday, 10 October 2014 : 27th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 11 : 15-26

At that time, yet some of the people said about Jesus, “He drives out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the chief of the demons.” Others wanted to put Him to the test, by asking Him for a heavenly sign.

But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them, “Every nation divided by civil war is on the road to ruin, and will fall. If Satan is also divided, his empire is coming to an end. How can you say that I drive out demons by calling upon Beelzebul? If I drive them out by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive out demons? They will be your judges, then.”

“But if I drive out demons by the finger of God; would this not mean that the kingdom of God has come upon you? As long as a man, strong and well armed, guards his house, his goods are safe. But when a stronger man attacks and overcomes him, the challenger takes away all the weapons he relied on, and disposes of his spoils.”

“Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me, scatters. When the evil spirit goes out of a person, it wanders through dry lands, looking for a resting place; and finding none, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ When it comes, it finds the house swept and everything in order. Then it goes to fetch seven other spirits, even worse than itself. They move in and settle there, so that the last state of that person is worse than the first.”

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Saturday, 4 October 2014 : 26th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 10 : 17-24

The seventy-two disciples returned full of joy. They said, “Lord, even the demons obeyed us when we called on Your Name.”

Then Jesus replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. You see, I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the Enemy, so that nothing will harm you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the evil spirits submit to you; rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.”

At that time Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and made them known to little ones. Yes, Father, such has been Your gracious will. I have been given all things by My Father, so that no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.”

Then Jesus turned to His disciples and said to them privately, “Fortunate are you to see what you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings would have liked to see what you see, but did not see it; and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

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Friday, 19 September 2014 : 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Januarius, Bishop and Martyr (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs)

Luke 8 : 1-3

Jesus walked through towns and countryside, preaching and giving the Good News of the kingdom of God. The Twelve followed Him, and also some women, who had been healed of evil spirits and diseases : Mary called Magdalene, who had been freed of seven demons; Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward; Suzanna, and others who provided for them out of their own funds.

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Sunday, 14 September 2014 : 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is truly a great feast day of the Church, of such a great importance for us, as in it lie one of the greatest aspect of our faith itself. And this is none other than the exaltation and the glorification of the Holy Cross, on which our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ had hung upon as He went on His mission of salvation to save us all from death because of our sins.

The Holy Cross is not just any cross, but it has been made holy and sacred because it was on that wooden cross, made from a tree, that Jesus had emptied Himself completely from His divinity, and suffered a grievous and horrendous pain as He laid dying, hanging from that cross. The Holy Cross is a reminder for all of us, of He who once hung there out of His love for us, so that we may have new hope in this life, and that we may look beyond death that is once our fate.

The cross was the favourite punishment method by the Romans, the conqueror of the known world at the time, where they used it to punish rebels against the Roman authority, as one of the most severe methods of punishment, reserved only for those who brought about great harm and threat to the Roman state. The victims of crucifixions were left to hang on the cross, made from a tree and carved to form a cruciform plank, so that the victims were left to hung between the heaven and the earth.

This punishment was both designed to bring the greatest amount of suffering to the victim, by denying the victim a quick death, giving them a slow and increasingly painful suffering, and also to give the greatest humiliation possible, as the victims were stripped to mere loincloth or even naked, stretched wide on that cross, often on the roadsides and high places like hills, so that many would be able to see the humiliation and suffering of those who dared to test the might of Rome.

Thus, the cross was a symbol of ultimate humiliation and suffering for all who see them at the time of Jesus, during the peak of the Roman Empire. But yet, many centuries prior to the time of the Romans, the prophets have foretold of the suffering Messiah, namely through the prophet Isaiah, who prophesied how the Messiah would come and bear the suffering for all of mankind. It was also mentioned how He would suffer, even long before the time when the punishment was common.

For in crucifixions, the victim would either be tied to the cross or in especially serious and severe occasions, the victims would be nailed upon the cross. The latter method would be more grievous and painful, and even more humiliating, and was indeed reserved only for the worst enemies and the greatest of punishments for the enemies of Rome.

And the prophet Isaiah mentioned that the Messiah would be pierced, and that piercing indeed represented how Jesus, the Lord and Messiah would be nailed on the cross. He would also be lifted up high, like when Moses lifted high up the bronze serpent in the desert. This too is a premonition of what was to come when the Lord came to save His people from destruction and death.

When the people of God, the Israelites were saved from their slavery in Egypt, they went through a long Exodus and journey through the desert in their progress to reach the land promised to them through their ancestors. In that journey, which was not an easy one, God was with them along the way, and He blessed His people, giving them great providence and food along the way.

Yes, if we read through the Book of Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, we should all realise how blessed this people had been. God destroyed their enemies and all those who went on to fight against them were crushed and have their forces utterly beaten, and God gave them into the hands of His people. And we all should be aware that God Himself freed them from the chains of the Egyptians with great might, with ten plagues, each of which were of terrible ferocity.

God even sent His people the bread from heaven to eat, in the form of manna, and large birds for them to catch and eat as well. He gave them clear and sweet water to drink, and we have to imagine that, having crystal clear and good water to drink in the middle of the desert is no mere small feat. Nothing is of course impossible for the Lord, and He loves us beyond anything else.

And it is that love that prevented Him from totally and completely annihilating that people which had risen up against Him, despite all He had given them and blessed them with. Having been given and endowed with so much graces, the people of God made complaints after complaints of their supposedly ‘miserable’ existence and life in the desert, and even longed for the ‘good’ life in Egypt where they once lived in slavery.

They spurned His love and kindness, complaining even against what they have been given to eat, bread from heaven itself. This was why, eventually, God took action against them, to remind them that He is Lord over all, and that those who constantly defy Him and oppose Him will meet their end in eternal suffering and destruction. He sent them therefore, fiery and poisonous serpents that attacked them, struck them and killed many of them.

But we have to always remember and take note that it is not God who desired our destruction, as it had happened with the Israelites. In fact, it was the people’s own stubbornness and refusal to return to the light of God which had caused their own destruction. The serpents represented the suffering and the punishment that the people must endure for their sins, and the ultimate effect is indeed none other than death.

Ever since mankind had first disobeyed against the Lord, they have sinned against the Lord in their hearts and in their bodies, such that they were no longer worthy of the Lord. The consequence of sin is death, as sin separates one from the Lord. The Lord who is all good and perfect cannot tolerate the imperfections caused by evil to be in His presence, and therefore, naturally, sin led mankind to death, and if nothing had been done, then all mankind would have faced death eternal, and eternal separation from the love of God.

And that is hell. Hell is the total separation of a creation of God from the very love of the Creator and Lord of all. And this total separation is final and unchangeable. Thus, this is what hell is truly about, not the fires and the images of hell that we are commonly exposed to, but the suffering in hell is far greater than we can ever imagine, since it means that the total separation from God’s love, that should be unimaginable to us all, because it was God’s love that is everything to us, how we live and why we live in the first place, and we are able to walk and enjoy this life on earth because of God’s love that is with us and in us.

Hell is what is due to mankind as the punishment for our sins, and in hell, it is the despair and the state of total hopelessness which is the greatest suffering, as all the souls in hell know that there is absolutely no hope of escaping that state, eternally damned and separated from God’s love, and it is this eternal and constantly repeating despair, hopelessness and guilt of having betrayed the Lord which brought about the greatest suffering for the souls in hell.

But is this what God intends for us? Is this what He intended for the people He loved and which He had created in His own image, as the pinnacle and the greatest of all His creations? No! This is exactly why He wants to save us, and so great was His desire, that the very truth was laid bare for all to see and hear, as we often heard in the famous phrase from the Gospel of St. John, chapter 3 verse 16, namely that God loved the world and His people so much, that He sent His only Son into the world, so that all those who believe in Him would not be lost and perish, but gain eternal life.

This is the very essence of what we are celebrating on this day, that is the glory and the mystery of the Holy Cross of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, whom the Lord Himself had sent, a part of Himself, His own Word made incarnate into flesh as one of us, and to walk among men, so that He might exercise His power and bring salvation to all those who believe in Him. And the way how He did that, was through the cross of suffering, which He transformed into the cross of glory and triumph.

As I had mentioned much earlier on in this homily and reflection, that the use of crucifixion and the punishment of the cross was indeed to punish and to bring the greatest suffering on the sufferer, and also to humiliate the sufferer, and in this case, this suffering One is Jesus, the Messiah and Saviour of all. Even though He was guiltless, blameless and without sin, He offered Himself freely as part of God’s long planned salvation for His people, so that through His death, He might open a new path for them, into salvation and eternal grace.

To those who observed His death and especially among those who followed Him during His ministry would indeed question, why would such a holy Man and the Messiah no less, suffer such a humiliation and suffering so great if He was indeed chosen by the Lord. And we know that even throughout history and until today, there are still many those who refused to believe in the crucifixion of Christ because they deemed it impossible and unreasonable for such a great One to suffer such a humiliating death.

Yet we know that Jesus Christ, Son of God, Messiah and Lord of all, chose this way because indeed, He loves us all very dearly, and He would not want us to be sundered forever from His love, that is hell. He does not desire for us to inhabit hell, simply because, that was not His intention for us. His intention is for us to live happily with Him in love and harmony. And that was why He chose to come into this world, that is to bring all peoples to Himself.

But sin lays between God and us, as a great and seemingly insurmountable barrier that prevent us from returning to God our Lord. Therefore, if we read the Book of Leviticus, we know that there is such a thing as sin and burnt offering, where animals such as lamb were slaughtered and then burnt on the altar, and the blood together with the animal constituted a worthy offering to God, who then accepted it as the partial reparation and remission for the sins committed by God’s people.

But the people of God remained in sin, and also they inherited the original sin of their forefathers, ever since they rebelled against the will of God and followed Satan into his rebellion instead. This original sin and other sins that mankind committed kept them separated from the love of God, and due to the immensity of the sins of mankind combined together, no amount of sacrifice would be able to redeem mankind from their sins, save for one.

Yes, the one sacrifice and the only one, when the Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself offered His own Body and Blood as the only worthy sacrifice for the immensity of the combination of our sins together. Only He who is perfect, perfectly unblemished and pure, without any taints of sin, and He who is Lord of all, had the worthy offering to make in order to save us from our sins.

And thus He suffered, all the sufferings and humiliations He endured, all the spittle and the mockery from the people He endured, and the cross of suffering He carried on His back, enduring lashes after lashes and mockery after mockery as He made His journey towards Calvary. Yet He did not give up. We cannot even comprehend the kind of suffering which Jesus endured for our sake.

Why so? This is because the suffering He endured was much more than just the apparent physical suffering, even as great as that suffering was. He endured the weight and the consequences of our sins, and all of this bore down on Him as a great weight beyond any other weight. He was blameless, and yet He was crushed for our sins. This was also yet another fulfillment of the prophecy of the prophets.

But Jesus endured all of them with perfect obedience and perfect love for us. He is truly the new Adam, as St. Paul had said, as the One who went to correct all the wrongs that began with Adam, the old Adam, our forefather who sinned against God. Just as Mary His mother is the new Eve, whose obedience and faith, rebuking Satan and his lies, Jesus is the new Adam through which God renewed mankind.

Jesus therefore changed that symbol of ultimate shame, the cross, designed as such by the Romans, into a symbol of hope and glory. He turned the cross from a symbol of death and destruction into a symbol of salvation and liberation from sin, from the slavery of the forces of evil, and the guarantee of life eternal as promised by the Lord. Thus, the essence of the cross and the crucifix we have today signify this important turning point, which Christ had made the cross into our hope, through His death on the cross for our salvation.

Sadly indeed, despite all that the Lord had done for us, many of us mankind still acted like the people of Israel of old, disregarding the love of God and even ignoring Him altogether. How many of us actually realised the love that God had for us? Every single step He took on His passion journey towards His death, He did it out of His love for us. He did not want us to perish, but it is many of us who chose perishing in the world rather than embracing God’s love.

Remember, that in Jesus we have been saved, out of God’s love. He wants to forgive us our sins, but this is only possible if we too play our part, and believe in Him. We can start this through our own actions and our own daily lives. Have we acted in accordance what our Lord had taught us? Have we practiced our faith and what we believe in our lives? Have we loved our brothers and sisters as much as we love ourselves?

We have much work to do in front of us, brothers and sisters in Christ. Our lives will indeed be difficult, if we choose to follow the Lord and walk in His path. But our Lord had made His cross a sign of victory and triumph, the Holy Cross, that even Satan and his forces will tremble and flee from. Satan knows that the cross was his ultimate undoing. His defeat lay at the cross that had liberated mankind from the burden of their sins. He knows that his doom is coming, and he cannot avoid that final defeat.

However, Satan will grow desperate and he will do all he can to stall as many souls as possible on his way to doom. Remember that he has all the power in this world to tempt and persuade us to divert our path from the path of salvation into the path of doom. Temptations of the evil one is plenty in this world saturated with materialism, consumerism and love of the self. Selfishness and violence is on the rise, brethren, and if we do not guard ourselves against Satan’s advances, we will fall.

Therefore, let us all work together, brothers and sisters in Christ! We who have been saved by the suffering and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ must be strong in our faith and in our dedication to God, so that Satan will not stand against us. Remember the Holy Cross and Jesus our Lord whenever temptations of Satan come to prevent us from seeking the Lord. Proclaim the Holy Name of Jesus and staunchly rebuke Satan for his attempts to tempt us.

Jesus has indeed been given the Name which is above every other names, for first He is God made flesh, and thus, it is the Name of God Himself, Master of all the universe and over all creations. Then, through His perfect love and obedience, He had become an example for all mankind and for all creation, and no one in creation can do anything other than to obey this Lord and Master who had given His all to save His beloved ones. And even Satan had to obey the Lord, with fear and great trembling on his knees. Such is the power of the Name of Jesus Christ. Do not use His Name in vain!

And even in the Roman Empire, which was pagan and idol worshipping, the Lord also gained a final victory. Many Emperors of Rome persecuted the Christians, the faithful ones in the Lord, but their prayers and the blood of the martyrs eventually triumphed, the triumph of the Holy Cross, when the Lord made them strong and grow in might, so that more and more people would come to listen to the words of salvation in the Gospels and the Scriptures.

Ultimately, the famed Emperor Constantine saw a bright sign of the Lord, Christ Himself in His insignia, as the victorious and conquering King, and went on to win a great victory that eventually led to the repentance and conversion of the Roman Empire into a great, Christian Empire belonging to God. Thus, the Cross had triumphed against the enemies of the Lord, led by Satan and his fallen angels.

Therefore, let us all take an opportunity, every day in our lives to look at the cross, at the crucifix on which lie the Body of Jesus our Lord, as a reminder that He died out of His infinite and enduring love for us, so that we who have seen Him and believed, will not die but live a new life everlasting, just as Moses lifted the bronze serpent and all who had been bitten and saw the bronze serpent did not die but live.

We have been bitten by the serpent, Satan, and his poison is threatening to destroy us, that is sin. But if we trust in the Lord Jesus, and look at the victorious cross, the Holy Cross of Christ, we will not die but live too! Let us carry together our crosses in life with Christ, so that just as He told His disciples, that we may have a share in His resurrection, and therefore be granted new life eternal, freed from all vestiges of sin and evil, and rejoice for eternity with our loving God. May Almighty God bless us this day and every day of our lives, that we will always be faithful and dedicated to the Cross of Christ! Amen.

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Wednesday, 3 September 2014 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we come together to celebrate the feast day of a great saint of the Church, that is Pope St. Gregory the Great, one of the great popes of the early Church, who was one of the few Popes who was given and truly deserved the title ‘the Great’, all because of his works and dedications to the Church of God, as the great reformer who brought great changes to the practices of the Church in ways that benefitted countless souls and helped them on their path to redemption.

Pope St. Gregory the Great was born in Italy at a time of difficulty when the civilised world was under great trouble after the fall of the Roman Empire in the Western regions of Europe including Italy. The Roman Empire in the East managed to reclaim Italy, but it led to a long series of conflicts and warfare that characterised the early life and indeed much of the life of Pope St. Gregory the Great.

Pope St. Gregory was renowned to be a very great and prolific writer, whose numerous works and writings had inspired countless faithful, brought countless souls back from the brink of damnation, and had also been of a very great impact to the development of the faith in the Church, as well as in terms of the liturgy of worship in the Church. He took part in rejuvenating and reforming many parts of the worship, to make them proper and truly worthy of the Lord in various aspects, including rites and music.

What we know now as the Gregorian Chant can in fact be attributed partly to its namesake, that is none other than Pope St. Gregory himself, he who reformed the ways that Church music was used, and how eventually this beautiful liturgy of worship then developed throughout the many centuries between him and us, and become essentially what we know as the Mass of the Ages, or the Mass of the Tridentine Roman Rite, a Mass and celebration of the liturgy in perfect beauty and worship worthy of the Lord.

Pope St. Gregory the Great also wrote extensively on various topics, on the various aspects of the faith, and he also took part in the defense against heresies and schisms before he was elected the Pope of the Church. He did many good works, the results of which is that the rejuvenation and empowerment of the Church and its teachings on the faith, which brought light and hope to mankind living in darkness and despair after the fall of the Roman civilisation.

He was thus known, along with St. Augustine as one of the greatest Doctors of the Church, especially in the western regions of Christendom, and the legacies of his work can still be easily and clearly felt, both in his successor, the Pope we have today, and the heart of the Church in Rome, where Pope St. Gregory was once the Bishop of, and finally throughout the entire Universal Church itself, particularly in his writings and in his reforms on the celebration of the sacred liturgy.

All of these are to remind us, in accordance with what we heard in the Scripture readings today. Jesus cast out demons in His mission, and those demons tremblingly obeyed the commands of He who is God, and He who is the Word of. God made flesh in Jesus, and He who holds all the authority over all heaven and earth. And God is the One who made all things possible, including all possibilities for us, and the growth of our faith.

We mankind are easily lured away from the path of truth, that is away from the path of the Lord, the path towards salvation. Sin is the tool that Satan used in his continuous and tireless efforts to lure mankind away from salvation and into eternal damnation with him. That is why, the Lord who loves us wants to save us, by sending unto us Jesus, His own Son, to redeem us from the power and dominion of these evil spirits.

Jesus meant business when He came into the world, to heal the afflicted and the oppressed sons and daughters of men from the tyranny and dominion of Satan and his allies. He brought fear to the forces of darkness, which had been for long unchallenged and supreme in their control and grip over mankind. His words is power, and He brought healing and salvation to all those who had been long gripped and enslaved in darkness, bringing them back into the light.

God is truly indeed the One who made all things possible. It is through Him that all things are made possible and real, and through the help of the actions of the disciples and Apostles of our Lord, their successors, the bishops and the priests we have today, we receive this same truth which had been revealed through Jesus and what He had done.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, then what had Pope St. Gregory the Great done in order to relate to these Scripture readings which we heard today? Pope St. Gregory the Great had reformed, established and standardised the ways of worship in the Church, creating a golden standard upon which the later generations would look back upon for reference and guide. Pope St. Gregory not only contributed in terms of his voluminuous writings and letters that helped the faithful to grow stronger in their faith, but also through his works in bringing the heaven itself, the glory of God to earth.

For indeed, the Holy Mass itself can be likened to the heavens brought down to earth, the glories of heaven and the majesty of God brought into our humble abode, no matter how gloriously decorated it is, to house the very Real Presence of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, in the Most Holy Eucharist, which is truly the heart and the centrepiece of the Mass. The Mass is the Sacrifice of our Lord, in which we celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, when He single-handedly took all of our sins at once, and became the lamb of sacrifice to make us whole again.

Therefore, in essence, the celebration of the Holy Mass itself is a celebration of this very important and crucial moment in our history, and indeed, in the history of all creations. We are celebrating something divine and not something of the world. And thus, a proper and fitting celebration and way of worship is necessary, as a way for us humble men to glorify and praise our Lord who gave Himself for us, to rebuke Satan forever and get us out of the dominion of evil into the light.

Thus, Pope St. Gregory the Great acted similarly to what St. Paul, Apollos and the many other disciples of our Lord, by sowing the seeds of the Lord on fertile soil and helping these seeds to grow by nurturing them and providing for them. Those seeds of faith, hope and love have been planted by the Lord in our hearts, and it is up to us all to allow them to grow and bear fruit. And Pope St. Gregory the Great, together with numerous other saints and holy people of God made this possible.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect on our lives and on our actions, on whether we have lived our lives according to the will of God, and to the way which our Lord Jesus had shown us. Indeed, there will be challenges along the way, as Satan and his allies certainly would not waste their time to attack and assault us in any way possible. But if we remain vigilant and strong, we will be able to resist them and remain true to the Lord?

And how can we do this? None other than through prayer, charity and total devotion to the Lord through our complete and total participation in the celebration of the Holy Mass. Prayer helps us to establish a crucial link with our Lord and God so that we may know His will for us, that we may live more closely according to His ways. And charity helps us to live our faith that we may have a real, concrete and living faith based on our actions and deeds, and not just by empty belief alone.

And lastly, as Pope St. Gregory the Great had initiated and done, we have to have a very great respect and good attitude towards the celebration of the Holy Mass, in which we have to see it as the celebration of the sacrifice of heaven, the very ultimate sacrificial act of our Lord Jesus, who gave His own Body and Blood for us, that all of us who take part in Him may be saved and gain eternal life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore from now on, let us participate fully in the Mass, not by distracting others and ourselves from the Lord, as participation does not equal loud music, loud prayers or excessive gestures. Instead, let us understand the importance of the liturgy of worship and follow what our ancestors and our fathers in faith used to do. In that, our faith will grow, and from there too, the seeds of our love will germinate, grow and produce rich fruits.

May Almighty God bless us all, protect us and guide us on our way in this life, so that we may remain ever faithful, and that we may bear real and living fruits of our faith and love, both for our fellow men and for our Lord. May all of us be gathered together and be empowered with strength to overcome the challenges and the temptations of the world made by Satan to hinder us. May God be with us all, forever and ever. Amen.

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Wednesday, 3 September 2014 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Pope St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 4 : 38-44

Leaving the synagogue, Jesus went to the house of Simon. His mother-in-law was suffering from high fever, and they asked Him to do something for her. Bending over her, He rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she got up and waited on them.

At sunset, people suffering from many kinds of sickness were brought to Jesus. Laying His hands on each one, He healed them. Demons were driven out, howling as they departed from their victims, “You are the Son of God!” He rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, for they knew He was the Messiah.

Jesus left at daybreak and looked for a solitary place. People went out in search of Him, and finding Him, they tried to dissuade Him from leaving. But He said, “I have to go to other towns to announce the good news of the kingdom of God. This is what I was sent to do.”

And Jesus continued to preach in the synagogues of Galilee.

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Tuesday, 2 September 2014 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate together the love of God for us mankind, which He had shown by giving us Jesus, His own Son to bring this world and all mankind into salvation and eternal life with Him in heaven. And today we heard how Jesus performed His miracles, casting out demons and healing the sick as He ministered to the people of God, doing many good works.

Jesus showed us hope and strength by showing that evil and death has no power over us, and over all those who had put their trust in the Lord. Those who trust in the Lord will never be disappointed, for God will care for them and protect them, all the days of their lives. And through Jesus we have been given the Spirit of God, that is the Holy Spirit, who passed through the Son from the Father, and who revealed to us the truth about our Lord and God.

Those who belong to the spiritual world, that is the Spirit of God and the holy angels who serve the Lord, all are beyond our ability and physical senses to be able to detect them and know them, and yet through the Spirit and the revelations given to us through the Church, we know that they are there, and they are around us, and within us, that is the Spirit of God which had been placed in us.

And even the evil spirits, the allies and the servants of Satan, which we witnessed in the men possessed at the time when Jesus was ministering in Capernaum, knew Jesus and understood His true nature fully, for they too, once belonged to the same order of angels that served the Lord. They followed Lucifer, the evil one who fell and be trapped in his own pride, and entered into a rebellion against God, and thus they were together cast away from heaven.

God is truly loving towards us, and we are truly the most beloved and the greatest among His creations, created in the very image of God and be awakened with the very Spirit that came from the breath of God. Do you notice this? The Lord Himself breathed life into us through His Spirit, that dwelled in us and made us whole. Yet, we too fell when our ancestors followed Satan into his rebellion by listening to Satan and disobeying the will of God.

But the Lord gave us such a grace, that we are given another opportunity through life to redeem ourselves, and through the sending of many prophets and messengers that carried on the will and word of God to us, which all are aimed at our salvation and redemption from destruction and eternal damnation that is our fate. Yes, the fate of all who had defied the will of God and rebelled against His love is death, and yet, the Lord wanted us to know that we have no need for fear, as long as we put our complete trust in Him.

Satan and his angels, the evil spirits, were not given a second chance, and indeed, they remained in their rebellion and hatred of the Lord and all of His creations, that they are truly beyond any form of redemption. It is not the same for us humans, for God had made us special and to be the greatest and most beloved of all of His creatures.

Satan who tempted and made our ancestors to fall into sin certainly did not remain quiet and passive throughout this. In fact, he had marshalled all of his forces in the world and beyond, and he launched strikes after strikes at us mankind, so that more and more may fall with him and to suffer together in eternal damnation and separation from God. But the Lord who knows all and who created all had other plan for us.

He showed that He is truly in control, and He cast out the demons to show it clearly to them and to men, that in God, everything is possible, and that He is truly the One whom everyone ought to praise and worship. All honour belongs to God and to Him alone. And if He cares for us and loves us beyond everything else, then we are truly blessed, for we share in the Lord, the promise of salvation which He had made to us through Jesus.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, we all need to come to a greater realisation that God is with us, and that He has placed within us His Spirit, so that we may know the great works of Jesus, and by listening to the readings from the Holy Scriptures today, we are made aware of the assurances given to us by the Lord, who promised to protect us and guide us on our way, rebuking forever and rejecting forever the power and authority of Satan, the great enemy of all who are living.

Satan is afraid of the Lord, and he rightly did so, because he already knew his fate and the futility of his endeavour, for he goes up against none other than the Lord and Master of all the universe, and even Satan himself and all of his allies are bound and answerable to God and His authority. And he knew of his ultimate fate, that is destruction, eternal agony and suffering that await him, and thus, he and all of his angels feared the Lord greatly, for they knew that it is in Him that their doom will come. Jesus is the great Judge, the last Judge of all who would judge all creations at the end of time.

May our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen in our hearts, our desire to know more about Him, so that we may truly discern about His presence around us, and therefore bringing all of us to greater wisdom and understanding in the Holy Spirit of God. Let us reject Satan with all of our hearts, our strengths and our minds. If we have any trouble, let us all remember that, if we call on the Holy Name of Jesus with full faith, no evil may stand against us. May Almighty God instead bring you to triumph and victory in His Name. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 2 September 2014 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 4 : 31-37

Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee, and began teaching the people at the sabbath meetings. They were astonished at the way He taught them, for His word was spoken with authority.

In the synagogue there was a man possessed by an evil spirit, who shouted in a loud voice. “What do You want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I recognise You; You are the Holy One of God.”

Then Jesus said to him sharply, “Be silent and leave this man!” The evil spirit then threw the man down in front of them, and came out of him without doing him harm.

Amazement seized all these people, and they said to one another, “What does this mean? He commands the evil spirits with authority and power. He orders, and you see how they come out!”

And news about Jesus spread throughout the surrounding area.

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Tuesday, 8 July 2014 : 14th Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Matthew 9 : 32-38

When they had just left, some people brought to Jesus a man who was dumb, because he was possessed by a demon. When the demon was driven out, the dumb man began to speak. The crowds were astonished and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”

But the Pharisees said, “He drives away demons with the help of the prince of demons.”

Jesus went around all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom, and He cured every sickness and disease. When He saw the crowds, He was moved with pity, for they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are only few. Ask the Master of the harvest to send workers to gather His harvest.”