Catholic homilies

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Monday, 12 February 2018 : 6th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s readings from the Scripture we are reminded of the need to have faith in God, and not just any kind of faith, but a living and genuine faith. From today’s Epistle written by St. James the Apostle, we heard of his exhortation to the faithful at that time, regarding the need to believe in God with focus in Him and not to doubt and falter in their faith.

He mentioned that there would indeed be moments when their faith would be tested, and that doubts would come to their minds and hearts. But it is possible to remain true to our faith in God, since the faith that we have must be based and anchored in God, or else we will easily lose our faith. St. James often reiterated in his Epistle the importance of a living and genuine faith, one that is based on actions and good deeds, and not one that is empty and dead.

In the Gospel passage we heard today, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law doubted Jesus and His teachings, and set out to test Him and ask Him to perform signs and miracles among them. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were among the most well-educated people in the community at that time, and they were well-versed in the Scriptures and matters of the Law. Yet, why was it that they opposed the Lord and His good works?

That is because, they put their trust in their own intelligence, understanding and comprehension of the teachings of the Law. They did not allow other forms of interpretation and understanding of the laws and rules, and hence, saw what the Lord Jesus and His disciples had done among the people as serious threats to their own teaching authority and prestige in the society.

As such, they opposed Him and His disciples, and they made it very difficult for Him at every available opportunity, trying to test Him and make any evidence to be against Him, that they might arrest Him and thus remove that dangerous threat to their authority and power. Hence, having closed their hearts and minds to God, no matter what they had seen, all the miracles and signs that the Lord Jesus had performed, they did not believe in Him and refused to believe.

Unfortunately, we mankind are people who are often stubborn and difficult to persuade otherwise, and we tend to follow what the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had done. And the issue here is exactly because we have our pride and our intelligence, thinking that we are better than everyone else. Everything tends to revolve about ‘Me’ or ‘I’ or ‘We’ and not about ‘you’ or ‘they’ or ‘others’.

That is why if we do all these things, we can never be truly faithful to the Lord, just as St. James mentioned in his Epistle today, how people who do not have true faith and doubt because of their own stubbornness and refusal to believe, will always have two minds and will stumble in the end because of their inability to commit wholeheartedly to the Lord and to His cause.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is not what all of us as Christians should be doing. We should be thinking less about ourselves and more about others. And in order to see that for ourselves, we do not need to look any further than to see what the Lord Jesus Himself had given to us, a sign and proof beyond any worldly signs or proofs the world could have conjured, far beyond what the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law could have expected.

He gave Himself up for us, suffering for us, bearing our own mistakes and sins upon Himself, carrying the cross up towards Calvary, and having born all of our trespasses upon Himself, He laid bare everything, dying for us and in the process, gaining for us the way to eternal life and salvation. He showed us the example of a perfect and undying love, of self-sacrifice and genuine care for others. He forgave His enemies, the same Pharisees and teachers of the Law who cried out for His death.

And we as Christians, should do the same in our own lives. Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us from now on, be sowers of the seeds of love, peace, harmony, compassion and care, by doing what we can in our own respective lives, to love one another as best as we can, and showing concern for our brethren in need. We must no longer put ourselves at the forefront of every concerns and thoughts, but instead, learn to let go of our greed and pride, and learn to serve others humbly with love, as the Lord, Our God Himself had done.

May the Lord awaken in each and every one of us a strong and courageous spirit to love, to care and to be good Christians in action, word and spirit. May He continue to bless us and all of our endeavours, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 11 February 2018 : Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we commemorate the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, the Marian apparition to St. Bernadette Soubirous in what is now famous as the pilgrimage site of Lourdes in southern part of France. The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God appeared to the young St. Bernadette Soubirous, calling mankind to repentance and to be forgiven from their sins, by sincerely turning away from their past wickedness and embrace God’s mercy.

And during those apparitions, the Blessed Virgin showed St. Bernadette the place of a spring which gushed forth from the ground, and have ever since been gushing out water, which is holy and blessed, and have for the past one and a half century since the apparition, shown miraculous properties, and healed many of those who came to visit Lourdes on pilgrimage. Pope St. John Paul II himself went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes just a year before his passing, having long suffered from his illnesses.

That is why it is all the more fitting that today’s Scripture passages match so well with the occasion of the World Day of Prayer for the Sick, celebrated every year on the eleventh day of February, the commemoration of Our Lady of Lourdes as mentioned earlier. In the first reading today we heard what God instructed to Moses and Aaron with regards to the disease most feared in those days, namely leprosy, while in the Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord Jesus Himself healing a leper.

In the Old Testament, God gave to Moses the laws which He had established to be followed and obeyed by the people, which included many aspects of societal life, including what to be done when a person fell ill with diseases, in particular leprosy, which was likely a highly contagious version of the leprosy as we know it today, easily spreading from one person to another, unless certain measures were taken to prevent the outbreak of a pandemic.

Understanding the Law which God has passed on to Moses require us to look carefully into what had happened at that time, the historical and societal background of the Israelites at the time when the laws were given to them. At that time, Israel were travelling on the long journey from Egypt towards the Promised Land, travelling in a desert where staying together in a closely knitted community would be essential to survival.

Wandering off alone in the desert would bring about great risks to the people, who could end up getting lost or struck by predators without being able to get the necessary help. However, staying close together in camps and tents within the community of Israel at the time, which numbered in the hundreds of thousands if not more, exposed the whole community to great risk of disease outbreak.

That is the reason why God made the rule for the occasion such that, all those who contracted contagious disease such as leprosy were obliged to leave the camp and live outside the community until his disease and all of its symptoms have been healed. Otherwise many more people in the community would be infected by the contagious disease, and many more would have suffered.

Yet, this did not mean that those lepers who were obliged to live outside the community were forgotten. God did include the rule that should their condition improved and their disease were cured, they would be able to return to the community of the people of Israel, after having presented themselves to the priests who would then judge whether the person was to be allowed to return or not.

In the Gospel passage today, it is evident that whatever the practices were during the time of Jesus, it was no different from the practices at the time of Moses. The lepers were feared and shunned, just as it was in the past, forced to live away from the people and outside of the community until they were able to show that they have recovered from their leprosy. And it was on that occasion mentioned in the Gospel passage today that Jesus met one of those lepers who asked Him to heal him.

Indeed, He had mercy on the man and healed him from his leprosy. That is what God truly wanted with His people, for He loves each and every one of them without exception, equally and without prejudice. That was why He wanted them to be healed from their pains and sufferings, including the stigma and suffering caused by the leprosy the man and many others contracted.

This is what each of us should know, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we are all afflicted and sick. We may be perfectly healthy in the physique and the body, and we may be surprised that truly, we are all sick at the moment. You may not believe what I have just said, but what I meant is that, we are sick because of our unworthiness, our wicked actions, our disobedience against God and therefore, our sins.

Sin is the culprit for all of our sufferings and sorrows, ever since mankind first fell into sin, beginning with our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, who failed to resist the temptations of Satan. Sin is therefore a disease that strike at our soul, at the very depths and innermost part of our beings. If we are not careful, sin will eventually swallow us up entirely, just as we can succumb to the diseases that strike at our flesh and body. And sin is much worse than any of our physical illnesses, as sin defiles everything and destroys everything.

Parallel to what we have discussed earlier about the treatment of those who fell ill with leprosy, forced to live outside of the community of the Israelites until they were healed, and certified as such by the priests, then it is not different at all with all of us mankind, who suffer from the disease of the soul, that is our sins. If we read the Book of Genesis, surely we would have remembered how Adam and Eve, our ancestors, were driven out of the gardens of Eden, from the presence of God, because they have sinned against God.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us reflect and ask ourselves this question, ‘What is it that we want from God?’ and ‘Do we want to be healed by God?’. These questions serve as reminders for us that in our sickened state, and as we suffer the consequences of our disobedience in this world, we are indeed in need of healing, and that we are not in a good condition at all.

Unfortunately, many of us are too proud to admit that we have been wrong, that we are in need of help and assistance. We refused to listen to God speaking to us in our hearts and through those who we encounter in life, and many of us stubbornly continued on in our way of life, filled with sin, with greed and desires of the world, with violence and jealousy for one another, and all sorts of things that kept us away from reconciliation with God.

Yet, we are fortunate to have God Who is ever and always kind and loving towards us, Who is always ever generous with His mercy and forgiveness. His arms are always open towards us, waiting for us to return to His embrace that we may be fully reconciled with Him. But to be able to be fully reconciled with God, we must be willing to listen to Him and follow His ways, the examples through which He showed us to guide us to Him.

Let us all look at the action of the man whom Jesus had healed from his leprosy. Jesus strictly told him not to tell anyone that it was He Who healed him from his illness, but the man went on regardless, telling everyone that it was Jesus Who healed him. As a result, the people shunned Jesus and the priests made it very difficult for Jesus and His disciples to work among the people, barring Him from their towns and cities.

This was because they must have heard how Jesus approached the leper and touched him in order to heal him, which was taboo according to the laws of Moses. In a sense, God made Himself ‘unclean’ in the eyes of the law in order to make the man clean, and it was to that extent that He was willing to do, in order to care for mankind, to love us and to embrace us sinners.

God knew best what was to be done, and that was why He told the man not to tell anyone about what He had done. But it was likely the man’s pride and hubris that made him to falter, as if he had told the priests he was healed naturally as Jesus told him to do, that would be entirely ordinary and usual. Instead, while it was not mentioned in the Gospel passage, but from our human experiences, it is likely that the man told everyone because being healed in such a miraculous way is something to be boasted and proud about.

And that is exactly how mankind fell into sin, when we start to put the ‘I’ or the ‘We’ ahead of everything else. Pride, ambition, hubris, jealousy, desire, and all these other obstacles to our good and loving relationship with God which will result in our downfall. It is therefore important for us all to realise that we are in need of God’s healing and mercy, because all of us are unworthy, sinners and delinquents.

Let us all learn to distance ourselves from all of those obstacles I have mentioned just earlier, the obstacle of pride, of greed, of human ambition and worldly greed and many more. Let us desire to be healed and to be reconciled fully with God, through genuine conversion and change of heart, abandoning our past sinful ways and embracing fully God’s generous and everlasting love for us all.

Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us all, pray for us who are physically sick, and also all of us who are sinners, sick of this disease of the soul, our sins, that we may seek your Son, to be healed and to be made whole once again through our faith in Him. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Saturday, 10 February 2018 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Scholastica, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the sins done by the people of God, as we continue to hear the story from the ancient kingdom of Israel, after the division of the old kingdom of Israel of David and Solomon into two kingdoms. The southern kingdom of Judah remained in the family of David until the end of that kingdom, while the northern kingdom also called Israel, started with Jeroboam mentioned in the first reading today, would change hands many times.

And the rivalry, jealousy and fear which king Jeroboam of Israel felt, having seen how the people still went to Jerusalem to worship God in the Temple built by Solomon, made him to disobey God and went on to impose a new pagan and wicked worship of golden calves. In this we see once again, how the people fell again and again into sin, disobeying God and refusing to follow Him.

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, if we think that what the people of Israel had done were wicked, then so were our actions, our words and our deeds. Many of us often do not realise just how much wickedness and how many sins we have committed, sometimes even unknowingly, because for us, often sinning is the norm for us. Temptations to sin and the pressures from our peers and those around us are plenty, and that is why, we often fall again and again into sin.

That happens in particular when God is not in our hearts and minds. Even when we think that God has a place in our hearts and minds, but often we relegated Him to a less prominent position, putting Him aside to a corner, and instead focusing on our numerous worldly concerns and desires. We forgot about God because we were too busy pursuing our worldly careers and concerns, and we only remembered Him when we were desperate and in need, thinking that God would surely listen to us.

But God will only help those who are willing to be helped themselves. What does this mean? It means that if we do not proactively live our lives in accordance with His ways, and refuse to accept His offer of love and mercy, then we cannot be helped. It is only upon our agreement of accepting His generous offer of mercy and love, which He had made unconditionally for our sake, then we can be saved.

But we can be assured of God’s everlasting and generous love, ultimately because even though despite all of our sins, wickedness and disobedience, God still loves us, each and every one of us, just as what we have heard in the Gospel today ought to assure us of this fact. The Lord Jesus saw a large multitude of people, four thousand men not counting the women and children present there, and they were all hungry, having followed Him and heard His teachings without stopping by to rest and eat.

Thus, we heard how the Lord took seven loaves of bread available in the hands of the Apostles, and blessed them before the people, breaking them all and gave the bread for all the people to eat. And they all ate well, according to what we have heard, and there were enough leftovers in fact, to fill up seven full large baskets of leftover loaves of bread. Such a miracle was God’s doing alone, and it showed also just how much He cared for us.

And not only that, not just that the Lord had pity on His people who suffered from physical hunger of the body, but He also had pity on us because of our afflictions of the soul, the mind, the heart and our whole beings. Sin has claimed us and has enslaved us under its power, and we have therefore been made unworthy and unclean before God. Without God’s help and mercy, we would have fallen without hope into hell, to suffer for eternity as a consequence for our sins.

But the Lord laid down His own life, by offering His life in exchange for ours. He willingly sacrificed Himself on the Altar of the Cross, at the hill of Calvary, when He was crucified for us and died. He gave us His own Most Precious Body and Blood to eat and drink, that by the Most Holy Eucharist He has passed down to us through the Church by the hands of our priests and bishops, we may be filled not just physically, but also well satisfied in spirit, and healed of all of our afflictions.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us think back again at our own respective lives. How many times had it been that God had been kind to us, giving us chances after chances, and opportunities after opportunities, guiding us towards the right path? We might have disappointed Him and rejected Him, but God Who loves us all very much, will not easily give up on us.

Let us all reorientate our lives that we no longer refuse His love and generous offer of mercy, but instead, follow in the footsteps of our holy predecessors, the Apostles and the saints, especially today’s saint, St. Scholastica, holy virgin and devout servant of God, whose memory we remember together. She is the sister of another great saint, St. Benedict of Nursia, and together, each of them showed many future generations of the faithful, right up to our present era, how to be truly devoted to God, in a life filled with God and His love, and for some, they followed her examples, and devoted themselves to God in a consecrated life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us fill our lives with prayer, not just prayers mumbled through the mouth, but prayers made from our hearts and minds. Let us open ourselves completely to God, allowing Him to come into us, and to dwell in us, speaking with us in the depths of our heart. Let us allow Him to transform us all by His love, so that eventually, we may be ever more like Him, and be worthy of the eternal glory He has prepared for all of those who are faithful to Him. May God be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 9 February 2018 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today from the Scriptures in the Old Testament, we heard about the moment when the kingdom of Israel was split into two parts, because of the disobedience of king Solomon, who led the people into sinful ways and pagan worship of idols and false gods. The descendants of David retained the rule over the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, having also some of the members of the other tribes, while the other ten tribes of Israel mostly rebelled and established the northern kingdom of Israel.

Then in the Gospel passage we have just heard today, we heard about the marvels of the Lord Jesus’ healing work among the people, as He healed a man who was deaf and almost mute. He laid his hands upon the man’s ears and tongue and said ‘Ephphata!’ which means ‘Be opened!’ signifying to the people that the man was healed from all of his afflictions and predicaments.

True enough, the man who was once deaf and almost mute, could then use his ears again to listen, and his mouth to speak words, something that the man could not do, probably for many years. Many of us take listening and speaking for granted, as we have always had the ability for many years, ever since we were born. We often do not understand the challenges faced by those who were deaf or mute, as life without the ability to listen to sound and to speak is truly difficult.

The two readings today seem to be unrelated and distant, but in reality, they tie in together well in a most peculiar way. In order to be able to see this link and understand the meaning of the passages today better, let us look deep into the circumstances of history, especially at the time of the division of the kingdom of Israel. At that time, the tribes of Israel except for the tribe of Judah, to which king Solomon belonged, grumbled against the king because of the heavy taxations levied on them.

In addition, king Solomon was well known for his many grand projects and achievements in establishing his powerful empire, but many of these were built upon the foundation of labours which were levied from the tribes of Israel. All of these caused the people to resent the rule of the king even more, and it took just a spark to incite them to rebel against the authority of the king.

Ironically, this was foreseen by the prophet Samuel, who anointed the first kings of Israel. He foresaw that if Israel, who had demanded to have a king at the time, were to have a king over them, then they might ended up being oppressed by the king who ruled tyrannically over them. And all these did happen, just as the Lord warned His people it would come to pass.

The king, Solomon, sinned against God because he failed to listen to God, even though he had perfectly functioning ears. Just as the people who had refused to listen to the prophet’s words, they have healthy ears, and all senses, and yet, they failed to perceive the truth and what they need to do in order to follow the right path and not to fall into error and sin, as what had happened at that time in Israel. The people, led by their kings, fell into sin caused by disobedience against God.

Thus, brothers and sisters in Christ, the healing miracle done by the Lord Jesus in our Gospel passage today, Who cried out ‘Ephphata!’ or ‘Be opened!’ is a reminder for all of us Christians, just as this rite is celebrated also traditionally in the conferring of the Sacrament of Baptism, that as Christians, we should open our ears, and not just our physical ears but also the ears and doors of our hearts and minds to God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray to the Lord, asking Him to heal us all from all of our stubbornness, from all of our refusals to listen to Him and to obey His words. Let us all seek His forgiveness, for all that we have wrongly done to Him, and for all the wicked things we do, having placed our own selfish desires and greed before our obligation to serve and love Him with all of our hearts, as we should have done.

May the Lord be with us always, and may He strengthen each and every one of us, that we may draw ever closer to Him, and that we may find our way to Him, receiving from Him the promise of eternal life and glory. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 8 February 2018 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Jerome Emiliani, and St. Josephine Bakhita, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saints and Virgins)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we began our Scripture reflections with the story from the Book of Kings, telling us about how Solomon, the mighty and great king of Israel and son of king David, another famous king of Israel, fell from grace and fell into sin, due to his weakness and submission to the many demands of his wives and concubines, giving in to the temptations of the flesh, as well as the temptations of human pride and worldly greed.

He turned away from God and became enslaved to sin, and therefore, God withdrew from Solomon and from his descendants, the promise of glory and well-being which He has promised them. That is because they had not been faithful to their part of the Covenant which they made with God Himself. Rather than putting their trust in God, they had allowed Satan to enslave them and to rule over them through sin.

In the Gospel passage today, we heard of a different story, about a woman who came to Jesus begging for Him to heal her daughter who was beset by demons and evil spirits. The woman’s daughter suffered terribly under the enslavement of the evil spirits, and as such, the mother also suffered greatly as well. Knowing and indeed, believing that the Lord Jesus alone was able to help her and her daughter, the woman came to Him.

But the Lord was reluctant to help her, telling her that it was not right for Him to throw the bread intended for the children to eat, to the dogs to be eaten by them. What did He mean by this? It means that as at that time, the common belief was that the Messiah came only to save the people of Israel, then Jesus Who is the Messiah should not have dealt with non-Jewish people, including the woman who was a Syro-Phoenician woman.

Yet the woman persevered in her faith and commitment to see her daughter healed from her condition, and humbled herself such before God that she did not mind to accept what the Lord said to her, even though it might have sounded very insulting and demeaning to her. But in truth, the Lord did not mean to disrespect her, rather to show to all the people, having known what she would say to Him, that even among the non-Jewish people there was such a great faith.

We can see the contrast here, firstly of the famous king of Israel, Solomon, who willingly embraced the devil and his temptations to sin, going from a free state of being a son of God in good graces, into a state of slavery, because sin is indeed the enslavement of our souls under the forces of sin and evil. Then we see the contrast between that and the faith of the Syro-Phoenician woman, whose daughter was enslaved and wanted her to be freed from such slavery, and thus, begged the Lord to do so.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to reflect on ourselves and our lives as we internalise what we have heard from the Scripture passages today. We mankind have fallen into sin because of our failure to obey the Lord and His commandments, and we preferred to follow the rebellious ways of the devil, who thus enslaved us through sin and death ruled over us because of those sins.

Yet, throughout history, many of us have ended up like Solomon, failing to resist the temptations and the urges to sin, which are the stumbling blocks put in place by the devil, meant to be our downfall. We voluntarily enslave ourselves once again to sin, even though as we know, the Lord has liberated us all from sin, by His death on the cross. I am sure we can see just how ironic our actions sound like, when we come to think of it.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to be free, and indeed, desire strongly to be free, for unless our souls and our whole being are free from sin, we will still be enslaved to sin, and thus, in danger of eternal damnation. We need to take the concrete steps and make the conscious efforts to actively seek the Lord, just as the Syro-Phoenician woman had done, and beg the Lord to heal us and save us from our predicament.

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Josephine Bakhita, whose life and story truly fits into our narrative and theme today on humanity’s enslavement to sin and the need for liberation. St. Josephine Bakhita herself was a longtime slave during the early years of her life, living in the area now known as Sudan. From her young age, she had experienced slavery firsthand, having been snatched and abducted by slavers, sold as slave to the highest bidder in the slave market.

St. Josephine Bakhita went from master to master, and she suffered great indignities during her years of slavery, suffering and pain were her daily cup. Eventually, she came to be under the patronage of an Italian, who brought her away from the land of her suffering into Italy, where she eventually managed to obtain her freedom and she also came to accept the Catholic faith through faithful instruction, and eventually became a religious nun renowned for her great faith and piety.

St. Josephine Bakhita and her amazing story of conversion and liberation, not just from physical slavery of the body but also spiritual and mental slavery of sin is truly a very real and relevant example for us, as we reflect on what we have heard in today’s Scripture passage. Her experiences, together with that of the other saint we celebrate today, St. Jerome Emiliani, the patron saint of orphans renowned for his commitment to alleviating the sufferings of the poor and those who were orphaned, serve as reminders for us Christians.

All of us should first of all strive to be free from our enslavement to sin, by actively practicing our faith and shunning all that is wicked and evil from our own respective lives. And then, we should also help one another, especially when we see that some among us are in the danger of falling and slipping away into sin, that we should encourage one another to live faithfully and remind ourselves that we should resist the falsehoods and lies done by Satan to trap us.

Let us all pray, brothers and sisters, that all of us Christians may be truly free, free from all the chains and bonds of sin, which have prevented us from being able to be with God in all of our hearts, minds, souls and our whole beings. May the Lord be with us always, and through the intercession of the holy saints, particularly St. Josephine Bakhita and St. Jerome Emiliani, may we as sinners, come to seek the Lord’s most abundant mercy and receive His forgiveness. Amen.

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Wednesday, 7 February 2018 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we listened today to the words from the Scripture telling us about the moment when the Queen of Sheba from the land of Ethiopia travelled to Jerusalem to see for herself all the glory that was told about Solomon, God’s chosen king and leader for His people, Israel. Solomon was widely known at his time because of his great wisdom, his great wealth and power.

Solomon showed her all of his glory, his wisdom and all that God had granted him, and the Queen was amazed at all that she had seen, which surpassed all the rumours and news she had heard from her homeland. Solomon had great number of wives and concubines, and great amount of wealth, and he had a strong army and rich stores of grains and goods, all that the people of this world would have ever wanted.

However, those riches and his wives and concubines corrupted Solomon, who fell into pride and hubris, disobedience against God and lack of faith, as he gave in to the demands and allures of his wives to allow pagan worship in accordance with the customs of their respective people, leading Israel back into sin, as they turned away from the Lord their God. His great wealth and power made him proud of his achievements, and God was no longer the centre of his life.

But, did those wealth, riches and the wives cause the corruption in Solomon? And do all these things lead him to sin by themselves? If we remember what we have also just heard from the Gospel today, and heed what the Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees, then we will realise that it was not the case. The Lord Jesus rebuked the Pharisees because of their extreme dedication to the external observances of the Law.

The Pharisees were very strict with the observances of the rules and regulations of the Law, particularly in the matter of cleansing and purification, as they grumbled upon seeing Jesus and His disciples not performing the ritual purification as described by the Jewish customs at the time. According to them, the washing of the hands before meals should be done in a particular way, from the tip of the fingers right down the whole arms all the way to the elbow.

And they were also very particular with regards of the food prohibitions, on food that was considered to be unclean in accordance with the Jewish law, that no one could touch the unclean food, and in fact, they could not even come in contact with people considered to be unclean, such as those deemed to be sinners like the prostitutes, tax collectors, criminals, and all those who were deemed to be unworthy.

But in their insistence and enforcement on all to obey the rules and regulations right down to the smallest details, being afraid that external defilements might make them unclean and impure, ended up becoming irrational and made them to lose their focus and purpose in fulfilling those laws and commandments. Instead of bringing them closer to the Lord, as what the Lord intended when He gave those laws to His people, it ended up leading the people away from God.

Sin and disobedience, all the defilements and wickedness came about not from the outside but from the inside. This is what the Lord Jesus wanted to point out to the people. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law might be outwardly pious and obedient to the Law, but their hearts have no God in them. Instead of God being at the centre of their lives, it was their ego that takes the most prominent place.

They sinned not because of all their external actions, which were probably good, but because of their insincerity and lack of faith, because of their hubris and ambition, because of their greed and inability to resist their human desires and wishes. It was all of these negative emotions and feeling coming up from inside of them, which led them to sin against God. On the other hand, people who were deemed sinners were saved, because they sincerely desired to be forgiven from their sins.

It was the same with king Solomon as well, as king Solomon’s wealth, all of his kingdom’s might, power and glory are all just means to be used, and they are by no means good or evil. Money can be used as much for good purpose such as charity and good deeds, as they can be used for wicked purposes, to cause suffering and pain for others. Rather, his sin and disobedience came about because of his pride and the growing greed inside his heart and mind.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of these are reminders to us all, that as Christians, we have to strive to live faithfully to God, not just for the sake of appearances or for the sake of fulfilling our obligations, but instead, we must truly love God through everything we say and do. Otherwise, our faith will be empty and meaningless, and we will easily fall into temptation, the temptation of pride and greed, the temptation of worldly pleasures and power, as king Solomon and the Pharisees had succumbed to.

Let us all renew our faith with a new zeal, so that in all that we do, we will always do them for the glorification of God, and for our great love and dedication towards Him. After all, He has blessed us and loved us all, just as He has blessed Solomon greatly. But let us not be swayed and tempted by the blessings we have, and instead, let us learn to share the blessings we have, loving our brethren in need, so that we may be true Christians, sharing God’s love with one another, particularly to those who need it most.

May God be with us always, and may He continue to bless all of our endeavours, so that in everything we do, we will be filled with joy, knowing that God is with us along the way, and He will be with us and we will share in His eternal glory, reserved for all those who are loyal and faithful to Him. Amen.

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Tuesday, 6 February 2018 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today from the Scripture passages we heard what is the meaning of becoming true disciples and followers of the Lord. Today we are all called to reflect on how each one of us can be more devoted to the Lord, by obeying Him, listening to Him and doing things He has taught us to do in the right manner and in the right way.

From the Old Testament today we heard the continuation of the reading taken from the beginning of the Book of Kings, in which if yesterday we heard about the festivities and celebrations surrounding the completion and dedication of the Temple of God in Jerusalem, built by king Solomon, then today we heard about how king Solomon prayed on behalf of the people before God.

King Solomon humbled himself before the Lord, thanking Him for all that He has done for His people, and by willingly coming down into the world to dwell among His people. He acknowledged that no matter how big and grand the house he has built for the Lord, there could be no earthly building or establishment that could have contained Him.

King Solomon beseeched God that He might listen to His people in their time of need and forgive them from their sins, so that He might turn to them when they sought after Him in sincere and genuine faith. And that grand edifice of worship that is the Temple was therefore purposed for the sole aim of the placement of God at the very centre of the lives of the people.

God must be at the centre and He must be the focus of our lives, or else we will easily slip and fall into the temptations of sin. And that was exactly what happened at the time of Jesus. In our Gospel passage today, we heard how the Lord Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their hypocritical attitude in following and enforcing the Law, as they enforced a very strict adherence to the rule of the Mosaic law, but they did that in a way which did not promote true understanding and appreciation of the Law.

The Pharisees wanted the people to follow the rules and the obligations as set by the Law to the smallest details, but all these ended up becoming empty rules and regulations, that the Pharisees themselves were unable to fulfil. And when they did the observations of the Law, they did not do them for the purpose of glorifying God, instead they did them for their own self-advancement and personal glory.

And according to the Lord Jesus, the actions of the Pharisees were even more hypocritical and inappropriate because they say one thing about a certain Law, and yet in a different occasion, they say a different story about the same rule of the Law. He used the example of the law which dictated that all of the people had to take care of their parents, and yet, the Pharisees mentioned that the people had excuse from their obligation just if they offer a sacrifice.

Similarly, on the matter of divorce, while God specifically mentioned that the man and woman whom He has blessed and united as one through holy matrimony cannot be separated by any means, but by arguing in accordance with the rules and regulations as established by Moses and the subsequent leaders of Israel, they argued that people could divorce their wives or husbands by simple matter of administration.

It is clear that in those cases, God was no longer at the centre of their judgments and even in fact, their lives. And that is why they falter and fell into sin. Unfortunately, this has happened to us mankind many times, and if we do not learn from our past history, I am afraid it will continue to repeat again and again in many of us. King Solomon himself in his old age fell from grace, and tempted by his great glory, prestige and might, he grew proud and no longer stayed faithful in the Lord, falling into the persuasion of his many wives and concubines who persuaded him to allow pagan worship and thus bringing the whole kingdom and people of Israel into sin.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, perhaps we should look upon the examples of the holy men and women whose memory we must remember on this day, our devout and courageous predecessors, the Holy Martyrs of Japan, as represented by St. Paul Miki and his many other companions and fellow defenders of the faith, who suffered greatly and died defending their faith.

St. Paul Miki was one of the many Christian converts in Japan, during the late era of the Warring States and the early Tokugawa Shogunate, a few hundred years ago. During that time, great missionary efforts had caused great revolution of the faith in Japan, and hundreds of thousands of people converted to the faith. However, due to the changes in the political and social condition, what was once a flourishing faith growing under favourable circumstances quickly turned into a nightmare for many of the faithful.

Soon enough, many of the Christians were forced to choose between abandoning their faith and thus live, or to remain true to their faith and suffered and eventually to be killed. Many were forced to desecrate the holy images of Christ and the faith, under very intense scrutiny from the authorities, and the Christians living at that time in Japan truly suffered greatly, and many martyrs were made.

Many abandoned their faith for the sake of safety and security of the world, but many, including St. Paul Miki, refused to abandon their Lord and Master, and chose to suffer and die instead. St. Paul Miki and his many other fellow countrymen and foreign missionaries believing in God were persecuted after they were rounded up and arrested. They were forced to march hundreds of kilometres under the most arduous conditions from Kyoto, the capital of Japan to Nagasaki, the place of their martyrdom.

But all these did not dampen their spirits, and it was told that they sung the praises of God in the hymn, ‘Te Deum’, singing throughout their journey, in what is known as one of the most touching and courageous display of faith. They marched to their certain death, and yet, God was always foremost in their mind, and they knew that He has blessed them with life, and despite all that the world levied on them, God will triumph in the end with His saints.

And still, in the end, St. Paul Miki and the fellow priests who were part of the death march imitated Christ to the very end, by forgiving all of their persecutors and torturers, by his words, ‘After Christ’s example, I forgive my persecutors, I do not hate them. I ask God to have pity on all, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain.” They were then martyred for their faith in Nagasaki, in the year of Our Lord 1597.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect on what we have just discussed today, and particularly, what we have just heard about the courageous faith of St. Paul Miki and his fellow companions, the Holy Martyrs of Japan. They have put their complete trust in God, and He was always foremost in their mind, despite all that they had to go through, and they followed His examples to the very end, obedient to His teachings with clear understanding.

Now then, are we able to do the same? Are we able to walk in the footsteps of the holy martyrs and faithful servants of God? Are we able to put God as the priority and the centre focus of our lives? It is imperative that we should do this, as without God at the heart of all that we do, say and act in our lives, we are bound to lose our way and fall into sin, and if we are not careful, into eternal damnation.

May the Lord, through the courage of His holy martyrs, St. Paul Miki and companions, inspire each and every one of us as Christians, that we may live ever more faithfully and devote ourselves ever more thoroughly with each and every passing day. May the Lord be with us always, and may He strengthen us in faith. Amen.

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Monday, 5 February 2018 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the moment when the House of God, the magnificent Temple built by Solomon, the king of Israel, was completed and consecrated to the Lord. The Temple was meant to be the dwelling of God among His people, as the Ark of the Covenant bearing the Tablets of the Law was placed in the holiest part of that edifice, and as we heard in the passage today, God Himself came down to dwell among His people.

The grand celebration that followed the completion and consecration of the Temple was truly amazing, as we were told how thousands upon thousands of sacrificial offerings were made, and many days of celebrations followed after the main celebration, with feast, revelry and rejoicing among the people. Such was the grand spectacle of the celebrations that came with the opening of the House of God. And God Himself came to dwell among His people.

However, unfortunately, for all of its amazing architecture and grandeur, the people of God did not remain faithful to Him. Even king Solomon himself would fall into sin and led the people into the worship of the pagan gods and idols. And many successive kings of Judah would continue to sin against God, and doing what were wicked in God’s sight. The Temple was defiled in multiple occasions, and eventually, it was destroyed by the Babylonians at the end of the kingdom of Judah.

But God did not give up on His people, despite having punished them for their lack of faith and waywardness. He gave them opportunity after opportunity to repent from their sins, and He sent them prophets after prophets to call them to turn away from their wickedness. In the end, He fulfilled His promise to us, by sending us the Saviour, in Jesus Christ His Son, Whose works and exploits we heard in our Gospel passage today.

If God once came down to dwell in a House made from gold and finest timber wood, to dwell among His people, then, He had come by Himself in the flesh, in the Real Presence, as the Divine Himself has become tangible and real, no longer hidden from our sight, but revealed to all the people who witnessed His coming, and to many others who knew Him because of the testimony made by all those who saw His coming.

God loves each and every one of us, His beloved children. He has not abandoned us when we are in need, and He always provided for us through His love. However, many of us have not realised that we have been receiving this generous love all these while. And we continue to sin before God, rebelling against Him and by our disobedience we defiled the Temple of His Holy Presence, our bodies, minds, hearts and souls.

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, through the Sacrament of Baptism we have been made nothing less than God’s own adopted sons and daughters. And by receiving the Eucharist, we have received the Real Presence of Our Lord in His Most Precious Body and Blood into our bodies, and therefore we have become God’s holy Temple, the Houses in which He dwells.

Yet, many of us defiled this House by our sins and wickedness, by our refusal to listen to the Lord and to His ways. Instead, we rather chose to continue down the path of sin, and immerse ourselves deeper and deeper into the trap laid unto our path by Satan. There are all sorts of defilements and wicked things we have done, by indulging in the pleasures of the flesh, immoral behaviour, corruption and collusion, by our allowance of the devil to come into our lives.

If we continue to do so, we will be destroyed because of our great sin of having defiled the Temple and House of God that is our body, our heart, our mind, our soul, and indeed, our whole being. Is it what we want to happen to us, brothers and sisters in Christ? Surely we do not want it to happen. I am sure that we want to be forgiven our sins instead and want to be reconciled with God.

However, all these will not come to us easily and without challenges. There will be plenty of opposition, difficulties and suffering, and without perseverance and strong courage and commitment, many of us will falter along the way. Many of our holy and devoted predecessors have suffered similarly, even to the point of suffering death. St. Agatha, the saint whose memory we celebrate today, is one of them.

St. Agatha was a native of Sicily and one of the most venerated martyrs of the Roman Empire. She lived during particularly difficult time in the history of the Church, as the Roman state and the authorities actively persecuted Christians and destroyed many of the churches established throughout the Empire, especially under the Emperor Decius. It was told that St. Agatha devoted herself completely to God, living a life of holy virginity consecrated to God.

She rejected the amorous advances of a corrupt and pagan official who was enamoured by her beauty, and the official in his anger, reported St. Agatha to the authorities, who arrested her and tortured her. Despite all that they had done, and all the pains inflicted upon her, she remained strong in her convictions and she refused to abandon her faith in her God. She was martyred defending her faith, and her commitment and courage to the very end inspired many of the Christians generations after her.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all reflect on these which we have just discussed and remember the examples of St. Agatha, her courage and determination to remain true to her faith and obey the Lord despite the temptations and pressures to do otherwise. May the Lord give us the strength to persevere in our own faith journey, that we may draw ever closer to Him. May God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 4 February 2018 : Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we listened to the Scripture passages which remind us of the mission which we all as Christians have received from the Lord. As Christians, all of us are called to follow in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus and His Apostles and disciples, whom He had sent to proclaim the Good News, to minister to the people who are in need, those who are sick, those who are poor.

And it is important for each and every one of us to remember that in all that we do in the Name of the Lord, we must do them for the right purpose, with the right intention and in the right manner. Otherwise we will end up losing the purpose and meaning of what we do, and instead of gaining grace and justification, we will end up receiving rebuke and condemnation because of our lack of faith and commitment.

In the first reading today, we heard the passage taken from the Book of Job. Job was a devout follower of God living several millennia ago, many years before Christ came into the world. It was told that he was a very rich man, blessed with a great and loving family, with many worldly and material properties, thousands of animals, flocks, camels and all sorts of things that mankind at that time would have desired.

Satan wanted to test Job and see if he would buckle under pressure of temptation and despair if he were to remove from Job all that were precious and important to him. Thus, Job lost his properties to thieves and brigands, and he lost his family due to tragic accidents in very short period of time. He was very unfortunate and in sad condition, and we can surely notice that in our first reading passage today.

He recognised how our life is truly momentary and fleeting in nature, and he lamented on his then miserable state of life. But in the end, Job remained faithful to God, and despite his misery and despair, he did not blame God for what happened to him. He blamed himself instead, but God told him the truth about everything that had happened, and showed him how God’s purpose is far above even the best of human intellect and understanding.

In the second reading today, St. Paul in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in Corinth mentioned that as someone who serve the Lord, he did it because he wanted to glorify God and to obey His will, not because he wanted to be rewarded or to gain from whatever it is that he was doing. Ultimately, all of his efforts and works were not about himself, but about serving the community and the faithful people of God.

St. Paul devoted himself wholeheartedly and spent his time to serve the people, making himself the servant of all. He was following in the footsteps of the Lord Himself, Who in the Gospel passage today went from place to place, preaching to the people and teaching them about God’s way, and healed many of their sick ones. Through all of these, we see how to be true disciples of the Lord, by devoting our time, effort and attention to God.

In our world today, it is very easy for us to be tempted and lose our way. There are plenty of temptations, from money, material possessions, power, glory, and all others that can prevent us from finding our way to the Lord, or from being able to give our very best in serving Him. When those who serve the Lord do not put God first and foremost in their mind, it is very easy for them to end up doing things for their own selfish gains and not for God’s sake.

Now, let us ask ourselves, have we been like those who are concerned only for their own benefits and good? Have we done all the things in our life being concerned only about increasing our own wealth, prestige, glory and all other things? Brothers and sisters in Christ, as Christians, all of us should not do this. We should be more like Christ, Who is humble, obedient and devoted to all that has been entrusted to Him.

Let us all pray and discern carefully how we should carry on living our lives from now on. Let us all humble ourselves and recognise that all the things we say and do, we should say and do them for the Lord’s greater glory and not for our own. He has loved us so much, and cared for us so much, that He gave us His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may live. Ultimately, it is only by clinging on to Him that we will survive, and not in all of our worldly attachments, which are temporary and fleeting.

May the Lord awaken in us the courage and the strength to live faithfully according to His ways. May He empower us to do more for the sake of our brethren in need, those who are poor, those who are downtrodden, lonely and without hope. Let us show care and concern for them, that we may show them God’s love, that God is always there for all of us. May God bless us all and all of our good endeavours. Amen.

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Saturday, 3 February 2018 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, and St. Ansgar, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

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

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in today’s first reading we heard about the young king Solomon at the start of his reign praying to the Lord asking for guidance and strength. And God asked Solomon for what he desired, and he answered the Lord with the request for wisdom, the wisdom to judge right from wrong, in leading the people of God as he was still young and lacking in experience.

God was pleased with Solomon’s request, praising him because he did not ask what the others in the world normally would have requested. Given that we can request for anything we want to have, many of us would have chosen to request for money, or material possessions, or prestige, or worldly glory, or length of life and comforts of life, or even all of them. But Solomon did not do that.

He asked from God what the world could not give him, and wisdom, that is true wisdom is something that only God alone can grant to those to whom He was willing to reveal it. Ultimately money, wealth, prestige, long life and everything else that we normally desire, are all temporary and impermanent, and eventually we will lose all of them, and we will bring nothing with us at the end of our lives.

But even wisdom itself cannot guarantee everything or safeguard everything. If we read on further about the life of king Solomon, we will notice how in his later age, during his old ages, he was swayed by his many wives and fell into sin, erecting many pagan idols and altars to the foreign gods to satisfy his wives and concubines. God was angry at Solomon because he was unable to keep his commitment to Him and instead fell into temptation of his great wealth and power.

This is a reminder for us, that all of us must not be tempted and must resist the temptations of money, of prestige, of worldly glory, of material possessions, that we do not fall into sin as Solomon had been. Instead, we should really put our complete trust in God, in His wisdom and in His ways. When we start to put our trust in our own power and abilities, that is when we begin to sway away and be tempted.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God cares for us so much that He is willing to go to such great lengths to provide us what we need, and give us what we need. Just as He has offered help to Solomon in his time of need, He gave us nothing less than His own Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Lord and our Saviour, and in the Gospel passage we heard today, we see just how committed He is to all of us.

Despite being very tired, as Jesus and His disciples ministered to many people in many different places, when He saw the people being lost, leaderless and clueless, like sheep without a shepherd, He had pity and compassion on them, and He continued teaching them for many hours, guiding them to the right path by His words, telling them and calling them to repentance from their sins.

We should heed what the Lord has done, and as Christians, we must be courageous in doing what the Lord Himself had done and shown us. And we should perhaps model ourselves after faithful servants of God, whose memory we remember and celebrate today, namely St. Blaise and St. Ansgar. St. Blaise was a holy bishop and martyr of the faith, who lived in what is now today Armenia. St. Ansgar was a renowned missionary and bishop who worked hard to spread the faith in the region now part of northern Germany.

St. Blaise was a very skilled and experienced physician who often ministered to the people for their various sickness and illness, caring for them physically as well as spiritually, as their bishop and shepherd. He cultivated a strong spiritual life and habits, which was notable among his flock, and many were inspired by his great faith and dedication to God.

During one of the last great persecutions of the Church and the faithful, St. Blaise was among those who were arrested by the authorities, and as he remained steadfast in his beliefs and in his zeal in living the faith he had, he was martyred by beheading. However, his examples and great faith remained alive many decades, centuries after he died, even until this very day.

St. Ansgar meanwhile ministered to the many pagan peoples and tribes living in the area now found in the northern parts of Germany and Scandinavia. He went from place to place, working hard in the footsteps of the Lord Himself, teaching the people about the faith and about God. Many turned to the faith and converted because of his hard work, and slowly, more and more people, throughout northern Germany and Scandinavia became Christians.

He lived simply and devoutly, committing himself to prayer and fasting. St. Ansgar cared greatly also for the weak and for the poor, ministering to them regularly. Many were inspired by his examples and followed suit in the ministry to the people of God, and more and more people wanted to be baptised as Christians, having witnessed what the holy man of God had done.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all as Christians also do the same in our own lives, that in whatever capacity we are in, and in whatever way we can contribute, we may be able to spend our time, effort and attention, to love the Lord all the more, to dedicate ourselves ever more, and to put our trust in God alone, just as St. Blaise and St. Ansgar had done.

Let us not be tempted by worldly glory, hubris, desire, greed, ambition and all the other things which are major obstacles in our path to reach out to the Lord. Rather, let us all be ever more humble before God and men alike, so that in everything we do, we say and we act, we do them for the greater glory of God, and God Who knows all that we do, will bless us greatly. May God be with us always, with our efforts and works. Amen.