change of heart

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Tuesday, 25 February 2014 : 7th Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

James 4 : 1-10

What causes these fights and quarrels among you? Is it not your cravings that make war within your own selves? When you long for something you cannot have, you kill for it and when you do not get what you desire, you squabble and fight. The fact is, you do not have what you want because you do not pray for it.

You pray for something and you do not get it because you pray with the wrong motive of indulging your pleasures. You adulterers! Do you not know that making friends with the world makes you enemies of God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy.

Can you not see the point of the saying in Scripture : “The longing of the Spirit He sent to dwell in us is a jealous longing?” But God has something better to give, and Scripture also says, ‘God opposes the proud but He gives His favour to the humble.’ Give in, then, to God; resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw close to God and He will come close to you.”

“Clean your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you doubters. Recognise your distress, be miserable and weep. Turn your laughter into tears and your joy into sadness. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will raise you up.”

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Friday, 31 January 2014 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. John Bosco, Priest (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White (Priests)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we hear today of the sin of David, the faithful and loyal servant of God. Not just any sin, but a great sin, because not only that David committed adultery with the wife of another man, but he also plotted to have the husband of the woman to be killed in battle, tantamount to direct murder of human life.

Today we are shown the vulnerabilities of our human selves, the temptations of the flesh and the attractions of the world, which assail us day after day without end. Even someone as faithful and obedient as David, was after all still a mortal man, with all of the vulnerabilities and inherent problems that expose one to sin and evil that are in this world.

This world offer us many amenities, joy, and goodness, especially in material goods and pleasures. Humanity can be easily swayed to take up the offer of the world and Satan behind it, and from there, grow towards materialism, desire, greed, lust, and many others. That was what David experienced, as the king of Israel.

Being a king or a ruler brought with it many privileges and goodness, and when he saw Bathsheba in that bath, he was tempted, and he failed. The law of God expressly mentioned the forbidden nature of adultery, and if you remember, that the last of God’s commandments would say that we must not covet the things and properties of others around us. This shows us that David, as the Lord’s most upright servant, should have acted in the way that conformed to the faith, and also obedient to the law.

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I repeat this proverb once again, because in this case of king David, it is absolutely true. King David is king over Israel, and his words are law. He has the authority and power over all of his servants. But when he found out of the bitter fruits of his adulterous action with Bathsheba, he was gripped with great fear that his deeds would be discovered, and therefore tried to pull Uriah the husband into a fabricated lie likely made by David himself.

When that failed, because of the valiant and unchanging obedience of Uriah to David, the king resolved to plot to kill him, which he succeeded in doing. That made him to sin not just once by that adulterous act, but also to commit another sin of murder. Thus had David sinned before the Lord his God. Nevertheless, unlike Saul before him, and unlike most of us, what David did was truly remarkable. He was genuinely repentant of his sinfulness, and he showed that he was regretful of having committed such sinful acts before God.

God had chosen David to be king over His people Israel, not because David was powerful or mighty, but instead He chose him because of his humility, his good character, and his righteousness. And that was the moment when these characteristics showed up in David, that although he did sin heavily before God, but he showed genuine remorse, and from then on, he resolved not to commit such sins again.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we learn indeed that we all may sin and commit evil things before God, but the most important thing is for us to realise and recognise our sins, and then repent and change our ways, as king David had done. Great sinners are not guaranteed hell as their end, as in fact many great saints had been great sinners.

What differentiates great sinners from great saints is one thing, that is the ability to recognise own sins and then act from it. The saints recognised their weakness and vulnerabilities to sin, and acted upon them, utilising what God has given them, that is the seeds of faith, hope and love in them. They did not fear in showing forth their faith, no matter how small it was, and how great their sins were.

That is in conjunction with what Jesus told His disciples and the people, that even if your faith is as small as a mustard seed, but that is sufficient if you truly utilise that faith, for even a small mustard seed, when grown, will become a large tree and bear fruits. What matters is that if we take concrete steps and actions, so that rather than lingering in our sinfulness, we may come into the light, and through our growing faith, we may bring others too into the light.

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. John Bosco, the patron saint of youth. St. John Bosco was a priest who saw the situation in his surroundings about the youths of the time, many of whom were homeless or even without families, orphans and neglected by the society. He felt sad seeing these children running around the cities at risk from harm and misconduct. Hence, St. John Bosco worked with those children and resolved to guide them that they may not fall to evil.

His many works and dedications, and his contributions to the Church was truly great. He also help founded the religious order now known as the Salesians, and his many other contributions made him a well known saint, and one whom many devoted themselves, asking for his intercession. The example of St. John Bosco should inspire us all, that we should also take action, helping one another, especially those with great risk of falling into the darkness.

Let us therefore, inspired by the examples of St. John Bosco and many other saints, let the faith in us to grow strong and shine brightly, as we act to give our help to bring many towards salvation in the Lord. Let us not ignore the plight of our less fortunate brethren, and show the love of God to them, and just at the same time, our faith too will shine forth, and God who sees all, will reward us. Amen.

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Sunday, 1 December 2013 : First Sunday of Advent (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord is coming soon, and He made it clear again to us today, as we hear the words of the Gospel. Christ will come again in His glorious Second Coming, and He will judge all creations, all mankind. There will be a scourging and separation of the righteous from the wicked, and the faithful from the apostates.

We must be ready for that time, because the Lord will come like a vengeful conqueror, to harvest the good wheat that He had planted and get rid of the weeds of darkness. He will not show mercy to those which have repeatedly showed rebelliousness and challenged His will at all times and did not change. He will gather those He regards as His own and discard those who are against Him or those who are not worthy.

We are like the people at the time of Noah, if you realised it. What happened during the time of Noah? You all know who Noah was. He was the one saved by the Lord by building an ark as the Lord instructed him to, in order to avoid the great Flood which covered the entire earth and destroyed all lives except all those which had been saved through the ark.

Why did the Lord do all this? Did He not love all of His children with all of His loving heart? Is He not love personified Himself? Yes, these are all true, and God is indeed Love that He is. However, mankind at the time of Noah had grown proud of themselves, and not just proud and filled with ego, but they also had grown to be very wicked. They disregarded all the laws of the Lord and lead a life entirely in abandon of the Lord.

The Lord grew angry at them and tried to bring them back to righteousness, and yet they did not listen, they turned deaf ears to His calling. And in that wicked world before the Flood, only Noah and his family remained righteous and obedient to the Lord. That was why the Lord called him to save him, by commissioning him to build a massive ark, to safeguard the righteous from the coming catastrophe and punishment that would befall the wicked ones.

The people of Noah’s time mocked him as he built the ark, and did not repent until it was too late. After the door of the ark had been closed, there was no hope left for them. They were left behind to perish, and perish they did. Noah was saved, as a righteous one, while the wicked were destroyed. And indeed, the same can be drawn as a parallel on the present day situation.

For our world today is also growing increasingly wicked. Wickedness does not necessarily mean doing things clearly defined as evil, such as murder, stealing, or adultery. Wickedness can also come about in even things such as greed and desire. Yes, for our world today increasingly distance itself away from the Lord and from the ways of the Lord. We are increasingly more and more engulfed in the corruption of evil and sin.

And the coming of the Lord is like the Flood, which came unexpected to those who ignore the warnings and heedings of the Lord. That is because many of us, like the people of Noah’s time, are hard-hearted and hardened our hearts towards the Lord and His love. We grew proud and arrogant, trusting in our power and achievements, and blasphemed more and more against the Lord our God. We had forgotten His love and the promise He has made for us.

The Lord comes at a time when we are most unprepared, when we are most deceived by the lies of the evil one through the world. He will come and judge us, for our actions and deeds, whether we are worthy of Him or not. And He will judge us not only based on our actions and deeds, be it good or bad, but also our failures, the failures to do things in accordance with His will and His ways.

Will we then choose to be like Noah? Or to be like those others who mocked and ridiculed Noah as he built that ark? We have a choice, brethren, and we have indeed been given the instruction on how to built our own ark of salvation, and the materials to do so. We have been well equipped by the Lord, with all these materials, that is none other than love, hope, and faith, and alas, many of us remain ignorant of our gifts and did not use them.

Hence, brethren, if we have not begun to work on towards our salvation in God, do not wait, and begin now. For the Lord does not wait on us to execute His will. He may come again any time, even in the next year, next month, tomorrow, or even in the next hour and even now! If He comes and we are caught wanting and unworthy, that is the end for all of us.

Do not fear, brethren, if we have done lots of bad and evil things in our lives. Our Lord hates sin and evil, but He is also rich in mercy and love. If we are truly sincere in our dedication to Him, to change our sinful ways and turn over a new page in our respective lives, the Lord will forgive us, and we will be well on our way towards salvation. Remember that many of the greatest and holiest saints were themselves once great sinners. What differentiated them from the condemned ones is that they change and were committed to changing their lives, to be in accordance with the will of God.

May the Lord our God, show us His everlasting mercy and love, giving us a new lease of life, one where we will once again walk in His ways, and be righteous and faithful. Amen.