changing our ways

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Sunday, 1 March 2015 : Second Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is the second Sunday of the season of Lent. We celebrate today the time and season for preparation for us to prepare for the celebration of the most important mysteries and parts of our faith, that is the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And today we are also presented with the catechesis or teaching, meant to showcase the love which our Lord had shown us in various ways, but foremost of all, through the giving of His Son, Jesus Christ.

There are many meanings and symbols attached to the readings we have heard on this day, and all of it are centred on two main messages which the Church desires all of us to bring home this day and reflect upon them to enrich our own faith life and help us to grow stronger in faith.

The first of them is that the love and faith our Lord showed us is so sincere and genuine, that it is unconditional and so devoted it was that He did not spare even His own Son for our sake and for our salvation. The second of which is that in Jesus lies our salvation and the fulfillment of God’s promise of salvation, and that there will be difficulty if we follow the path of Christ, but if we do so, then we will share in His glory and in the revealing of our true selves just as Christ had been revealed to the world.

In the first reading today, from the Book of Genesis, we heard how God asked Abraham, our father in faith, the father of Israel and many nations, to sacrifice his own beloved son, Isaac, the heir and son whom God had promised him. Imagine what Abraham would have thought when he heard of such a request from the Lord, to give up his own son and heir, whom he had awaited for such a long time, and yet then God seemingly just wanted to take him away.

Abraham was a very wealthy man, with many possessions, animals and large number of servants and land, and he was also faithful and righteous, picked by God from among the nations, to be the one with whom God made His covenant with. And God promised Abraham that he would become a great nation and his descendants would be innumerable, as many as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the seashore. Yet, God wanted to take the only son whom Abraham had, and wanted him to be given as a sacrificial victim.

And yet, Abraham obeyed and listened to God. He did not complain or protest against the Lord and what He had asked. Instead, he brought his son to the mountain where he was supposed to sacrifice his own son, and when his son asked him, where the sacrifice was, Abraham told his son that ‘God would provide’. Abraham knew in his heart that God would be faithful to His covenant, and as St. Paul mentioned in one of his letters, Abraham knew that God would not take away the son He had promised him, and that there would be a way, one or another, to come out from that predicament.

As difficult it was and as great a dilemma it was for Abraham, he did not hesitate to listen to the Lord, be faithful to Him, even to the point of being ready to cut the life out of his own son. He was ready with the knife when God stopped him, and told him that He had seen how great and genuine his faith was. Abraham’s faith and love for God is unconditional and genuine, desiring no returns, or else, he would not have walked up that mountain to sacrifice his own son to God.

The same therefore applies to how our Lord and God loves us all. His love is genuine, and He loves us all with all of His heart. He lamented greatly our waywardness and the loss of us all to the darkness, that is the darkness of this world. He certainly does not desire us to be lost, and therefore, for His great faithfulness and love, He did not spare even His only Son, the Divine Word which became Flesh, to be born as Man, and to die for our sake, as reparation for our sins.

This is a parallel to what had happened between Abraham and Isaac, his son. Just as Abraham was faithful to the Lord, the Lord Himself is faithful to His promises to all of us, that He will save all of us from the darkness and suffering of sin. Even if we deny Him and rebel against Him, He cannot deny Himself and His love for us. And that is essentially the essence of this season of Lent, the season of forgiveness. God gives us the chance to repent and change our ways, by believing in Jesus, His Son and by listening to what He had taught us.

And from there we come to the second of the meanings of this day’s readings. It is about what had happened that day at the Mount Tabor, where Jesus revealed the truth about Himself to the three of His disciples, Peter, James and John. He revealed the fullness of His glory on top of that mountain, an event known as the Transfiguration. Jesus was revealed in all of His glory as the Almighty God and Lord of all.

Another significance of this event can be seen from what happened next. Jesus spoke with two of the greatest figures of the Old Testament, namely Moses and Elijah. Moses was the leader of the people of Israel who led them out of Egypt where they lived in slavery and great suffering, and who have received the Law of God from the Lord Himself, and taught the Law to the people. Meanwhile, Elijah was a great prophet and servant of God who struggled against the wicked kings of Israel and who laboured hard to bring the people of God back to the path of righteousness.

Moses therefore represented the Law, while Elijah represented the Prophets. And the significance of their appearance to Jesus is that, Jesus is the embodiment and fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. The Law of God is the proof of God’s love for us, a set of guidelines meant to show us how to be truly devoted and faithful servants and children of our Lord, and therefore it is meant to help us to keep our paths straight, walking in the path of the Lord alone.

How about the prophets? They are the faithful servants and messengers which God had sent to His people in order to remind them and to bring them back to the right path whenever they have erred in their lives. They spoke of God’s truth and explain again the meaning of the Law to the people, who were often stubborn and rebellious in their ways.

Jesus fulfilled the entirety of the Law and the prophecies of the prophets completely and perfectly. He made the Law of God understandable to all the people, showing its true meaning and intent that is love. He taught the people and through His disciples, He revealed the fullness of God’s intentions and love for mankind. By the perfect fulfillment of the Law and the words of the prophets, He had made salvation and hope previously not available to us, to become available.

For Christ our Lord is the bridge which bridge the great span and rift that existed between us and God, for our sins and rebelliousness which had separated us from God’s grace and love. And by His glorious Transfiguration on the mount, which we heard from the Gospel today, He revealed to us our future, the fate which will be ours if we obey the Lord, His Law and walk righteously in His ways.

Yes, it has been promised to all those who keep their faith, that they shall be glorified in body, heart, mind and soul. Thus, the Transfiguration is a premonition and reminder of our own transfiguration, the glorification of the faithful. But it will not be automatic, and neither will it be an easy path for us to take. There will be opposition and challenges, and we all have to be ready for all of them.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, lastly, as Jesus went down from the mountain, and from there on to His suffering and death in Jerusalem, therefore all of us are reminded again that life is not all easy and there will be times when we have to suffer or even risk our lives for the sake of our faith in God. Peter and the other two Apostles were certainly awed by what they have seen when they saw Jesus transfigured in glory before them.

Peter therefore told Jesus that they wanted to build three tents for Him, Moses and Elijah because they felt such great happiness and joy being in the glory of God and seeing Man glorified because of faith. Jesus reminded them, that in order to reach there, they had to first go through difficulties, challenges and suffering, and that was why, they did not remain on the mountain forever, but they went down, and the Lord went forth to face His Passion and death in Jerusalem.

What does all of these mean for us, brothers and sisters? It means that all of us should use this Lenten season to the best of our abilities, to repent from our sins and seek God’s forgiveness. We have to bear our crosses, just as the Lord went on to carry His cross to Calvary. We have to have that clear goal, that is our transfiguration from the creatures of sin and darkness, into the creatures of the light. Until then, we have to work hard and resist the temptations of sin, and strive to walk always in the way of the Lord.

May Almighty God be with us all in this holy season of Lent, and help us to make use of this season to change our sinful ways into the way of righteousness that in the end, God will find us worthy and we will receive the full reward which He had promised to those who keep their faith in Him. He is ever faithful to us, just as Abraham had been faithful himself by not even holding back giving his own son, and more so for our Lord who did not spare even Jesus, His own Son, for our salvation. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 28 February 2015 : 1st Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, continuing from yesterday’s theme on obedience to the Law of God, and on the theme of love, both for God and for our fellow men, then today we delve even deeper into the theme, through the elaboration by Jesus, on how we ought not to choose whom we should love and show our care and concern, but in fact to everyone without bias, even though some of them might have caused us hurt and sorrow before.

Love should be impartial and just. We should not love because we want to be loved back. That is because that kind of love is a selfish love. We want to be loved and to enjoy certain benefits, and therefore we love. But once the incentive to love is removed, can we sustain the same kind of love we had shown? Love that is tied with condition and love that is serving ourselves will not last.

That is because that kind of love demands returns, and if that love is not reciprocated or replied upon equally, then what remains is indeed hatred, jealousy, or any other negative feelings and ill will, which often had caused so much bitterness in our world even today. Many people did such bad things to one another because of the lack of love in the hearts of men.

Instead, we should imitate the love which our Lord and God has for us, that so great is His love, that He did not just show it to us through the outpouring of grace, mercy and forgiveness, as well as in all the blessings He had given us, but in fact, He gave even Himself, as the willing Sacrifice, for the reparation of our sins, and therefore to bring us out of the pits of sin and death.

For we have been marked for death, by our disobedience and refusal to listen and obey to the will of God, and for our refusal to walk in His ways and obey His laws. We should have been cast to the uttermost darkness and suffering for our wickedness, but God had mercy on us because of His love. He hates our sins and evils, but He still loves us all dearly.

And that was why He was willing to make the act of ultimate love, in order to deliver us all from certain destruction. That love is unconditional and perfect. He did not expect us to love Him first before He laid down His life for us on the cross. And it is that love which liberated us from the pain of death and the suffering caused by our sinfulness. It is the kind of love which we need to learn and which we need to emulate and practice in our own lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today let us all reflect on our own lives, on our own words and actions. Have we loved everyone without prejudice, and without bias? Have we been loving others without conditions attached? If we are unable to do all these, then we are still chained and enslaved to our desires. And as long as this is the case, then we are not going to go anywhere.

Can we devote more time towards love in this Lenten season? That means we should exhibit and show more love, care and concern for one another, loving those who are unloved and rejected by the society. Let us love without partiality and without bias. Forgive one another and change our ways. Repent from our sins and be cleansed from our sinfulness. May Almighty God be with us always, bless us and guide us on our way. Amen.

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Friday, 27 February 2015 : 1st Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are presented with the reality of our life and our faith, that we have to live up to our faith. We cannot be paying merely lip service to the Lord and to what we believe in, or else, we are not true believers and will not be counted among the faithful. It is showing us that even the righteous ones will be held accountable for their sins and wrongdoings, and especially if they turn their back on the way of the Lord.

Similarly, as mentioned, those who have sinned and committed much evils are not to be condemned as lost to the darkness. For if they genuinely and sincerely repenting from their sins and turn their back on all those evils and wickedness, then they will be assured salvation and forgiveness of all their past faults. For what matters to the Lord is the redemption of all sinners, that is of all of us mankind who have rebelled against the will of God.

He was so concerned with them and the fate of their souls, so that He gave them the set of laws and precepts to guide them in their ways. They are to help ensure that the righteous remain righteous and just, and the sinners may return to the grace and favour of God. But yet, many did not understand God’s real intention and ending up with gross misinterpretation of the Law and using them instead to oppress the people with unjust intention.

And many followed the Law to the letter, and yet they failed to understand the meaning of each of the different points of the Law. In reality, the Law itself is about love, and it is meant to teach love to mankind, the people of God, be it the love they ought to have for the Lord, as well as the love they ought to have for mankind, for their fellow brethren.

That is why, we should be aware that obeying the will of God is equivalent to loving one another, sharing that love which we ought to have, and forsaking all forms of hatred, disharmony, jealousy, and all other negativities that affected us and prevented us from showing that genuine love for both God and men alike. This season of Lent, the holy season of preparation should be the perfect opportunity for us all to reflect on our own lives.

Have we been loving to our brethren, that is not just to those whom we love, but even to those who have caused hurt and injury to us, be it in physical term or in terms of inner hurt. It is not easy to forgive and to love those who have caused us pain and harm, and it is difficult indeed to let go of the pain and hatred within us. It is in our human nature to hate and be angry, because ever since sin entered into our hearts, they have been filled with the malice of the devil, and of all the earthly and worldly emotions that corrupted our true nature, that is love!

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, for God Himself is Love, and we who are the creations and children of God, we too are the creatures of love, and love is our true nature. Beneath all those layers of hatred, guilt, doubt, fear, greed, desire and many others that keep it hidden, is love. The Law of God, all of His commandments are all meant to guide us in the way of love.

Can we all renew our faith and our commitment to God, by abandoning all forms of sins and wickedness, and learning to love, and put love in all of our words, deeds and actions. That means, whenever we say anything, we must not have malice or ill intention in our hearts, and in our actions, we must not cause harm or injury to others, be it intentional or unintentional.

Let us all make full use of this Lenten season to change our ways for the better, that we may be found righteous and worthy by the Lord through what we have done. Let us all repent and genuinely seek the Lord, love Him and give all of our heart to Him, so that we may also receive the fullness of God’s grace and love. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 26 February 2015 : 1st Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the purpose of today’s readings are very clear, that is to present to us, the Lord our God as our loving Father who cares for us all tenderly and delightfully, seeking only our own good and happiness. Yes, that is the desire of our Lord, to deliver us from sins and from the sufferings caused by those sins, and break away the bonds which death had imposed on us.

This is clearly represented by the prayer of the Queen Esther of Persia, the Jewish wife of the mighty Persian Emperor at the time after the exile to Babylon, when the enemies of God’s chosen people were encamped against them and sought about their destruction. Through Haman, the Agagite, the enemy of the people of God, the destruction of the people of God seemed certain, having been officially backed by the laws of Persia and the approval of the Emperor.

Esther, in her position as the Queen of Persia and wife of the Persian monarch, had the great opportunity to help her people and intercede for their sake, but she was truly risking herself and even her own life if she was to do so. The queen prior to Esther was cast away and exiled in disgrace because she had not obeyed the king’s call. Conversely, to come into the presence of the monarch to beg for pardon for the people of Israel without the invitation of the monarch is considered a kind of crime that is punishable indeed by death.

It is against all these, the fears and uncertainty, amidst the love and concern which Esther had for her people, that she prayed to God for help. God listened to her prayers and fulfilled His plans through her works. He gave her strength and courage to come up and seek the monarch, even without his permission, in order to beg for mercy for the people of Israel that they might not be destroyed by their enemies.

All these are to show us that our Lord is full of love and mercy, and He is our Father while we are all His children, having been adopted as sons and daughters through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who became Man out of God’s everlasting love for us. God is kind, and He will give us what we need, if we ask it from Him. That is the essence of the Gospel today. God will not harm us or do something that cause us harm, because He is our Father and like all fathers, He cares for His children and will do good deeds for them.

But this does not mean that He is not strict in His interactions with us. Like all fathers, God also chastises us, His children, whenever we become wayward and lost, and whenever we disobey Him and do things our own way which lead us inevitably and eventually into sin. If He the Father of all truly loves us, then He will surely chastise us and punish us for our wrongdoings, and indeed that He had done, not to destroy us but instead to bring us to the right path and thus be saved.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we should know that we can depend on the Lord our God and our Father, and while all other hopes and ways are lost, the Lord is always there, ready to help and ready to provide us what we need. Queen Esther trusted in the Lord and she was not disappointed. The Lord guided her hand and she managed to overcome the devices of the enemy, and triumphed.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have the Lord who is our Father, and who loves us as a father does. If only that we put our trust in Him, He will surely provide us and help us with bountiful blessings. May God be with us always and may we also always walk righteously in His path. Amen.

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Wednesday, 25 February 2015 : 1st Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the story of Jonah, who was famously eaten by a whale and dwelled in its stomach for three days and nights, when he tried to escape from the mission which God had entrusted him, that is to warn the great city of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, of the impending doom and destruction God was bringing upon it for its sins and wickedness, the sins of its people.

We see through the readings, how God forgives, rescues and helps His people, who had been lost to sin, wickedness and the darkness of the world, through the means of the sending of His own Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is part of Himself, the Divine Word of God, who proclaimed the doom of the wicked and destruction of the haughty and sinful ones, who refused to repent from their sins, and yet, at the same time also assured those who were willing to repent and change their ways, the promise of eternal life and salvation.

God did not desire the destruction of His beloved people, as much as He hated their sins and disobedience. He wants them to be saved and reconciled with Him, and the way to do this is through genuine repentance and changing of our ways, that we would no longer sin but be righteous people and servants of God from now on. This was just like the people of Nineveh who sincerely repented from their sins and wickedness, and humbled themselves before the Lord.

But if we read further on in the Book of the prophet Jonah, we would realise that Jonah became angry with God, who forgave the people of Nineveh and did not carry out the punishment He intended for them. He refused to listen to God’s explanation for His mercy and he was deep in his anger, and when a plant that grew and sheltered him became parched and died, he burst out in anger against the Lord for that.

God chastised Jonah, by saying that, if the life of a single plant mattered so much for him to the point of being angry for its death, then the people of Nineveh, which number more than a hundred thousand were even more important for the Lord, for every single one of them are significant in the eyes of the Lord, and the Lord cared for each one of them.

That was why He tried to show them His love and mercy, by sending Jonah to them, and the same was repeated when the Lord Jesus came, and this time, not just for the people of Nineveh or for a group of people, but instead for all of mankind, past, present and future, including all of us. But, for this to happen, that is for forgiveness to occur, we must play an active role in seeking for that forgiveness, and that means, to be humble and to lower ourselves before the Lord, as the people of Nineveh, and to dispose of all forms of pride, anger and others from ourselves.

Many of us are like Jonah, who thought that because he was the messenger of God’s will, then he could look down upon the people of Nineveh as condemned people and people destined for annihilation. He misinterpreted the will of God, and ended up dwelling in his pride, prejudice and hubris, thinking that he alone is worthy and not the people of Nineveh. Thus, his ego welled up inside of him.

The same also often happens to us. We are often too caught up with our ego and pride such that we fail to see our own sinfulness and inability to seek God’s forgiveness because of that ego and pride. As long as we refuse to bend down our knee, acknowledging that we are all also sinners, before the presence of God, it will be difficult for us to be forgiven for our numerous sins and therefore receive God’s salvation.

May all of us be awakened to the reality of our sinfulness, and be aware of how much God loves us and how great is the care which He wants to show us all, the desire which will bring us much happiness and grace, if only we follow the path of the people of Nineveh, who repented from their sins and in their humility begged for God’s mercy and forgiveness. May God be with us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 24 February 2015 : 1st Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about how Jesus taught His disciples how to pray properly, by showing them the perfect prayer, which He prayed to the Father, as a way of communicating with Him. He showed the people, that prayer ought not be a long litany of words and requests or petitions, but instead, prayer should be direct in its meaning and purpose, or else, we end up losing the true essence and meaning of prayer itself.

Prayer is not a litany of demands or a way for us to extort what we want from God. Many of us have the misconception that because God is loving and gracious then He will fulfill everything that we ask of Him. We misinterpreted the meaning of the words of Jesus when He said, “Ask and you shall be given.” That is why when we do not get we want from our Lord through our prayers, then we often become disappointed or even angry against God, because we think that He does not care for us by not answering and fulfilling our prayers.

God knows every single thing that we need, from the least and smallest things to the biggest and most important things. There is no need to worry about anything but rather, we must have the courage and humility to ask Him to provide us with what we need in life. That is why Jesus in His prayer mentioned the part on ‘Give us today our daily bread’. It is meant to ask the Lord to provide us with what we truly need and not what we, in our endless desires, want.

The essence of prayer is for us to be able to communicate with the Lord our God, that we may speak with Him and He may also speak with us as well. As we can see, it is a two-way conversation between us and God, and not just a unidirectional conversation, as we all often did, by bombarding the Lord with requests, desires, demands, or even curses and anger when we did not get our prayers fulfilled as we wanted them.

Jesus taught us how to pray, and indeed, the Pater Noster or the Our Father, and also known as the Lord’s Prayer because it was Jesus who prayed it, is a perfect prayer. It begins with not a request or demand or wish, but with the glorification of the Lord and submission to the will of God. ‘Holy is Your Name’ and ‘Your will be done.’, indeed these are proof of our understanding that whatever we want, ultimately, it is not our will that will be done, but God’s will. Mary, the mother of our Lord also showed this when the Archangel Gabriel showed up to her and proclaimed that she was to be the Mother of God.

And as mentioned, the prayer asks for the grace enough for one, in what one needs in life. There is indeed no need for excess, as we are by our nature very difficult to satisfy. Our desire and want is such that, once we have what we want, we have the tendency to have more of it. We really have to wake up to the realisation that while there are many things that we may want to have, and while temptation is truly difficult to resist, but the Lord will show the way to us.

And this prayer also pointed out what we have to realise, especially in this season of Lent, that we are all sinners and therefore we deserve to be destroyed, and yet God in His rich mercy and forgiveness had forgiven all of us our sins, and if only that we are to put our complete faith and trust in Him, we shall receive His full grace and blessings. But if God had forgiven us our sins, then we too have to forgive those who sinned against us.

The parable of the ungrateful servant will highlight the importance of this. In that parable, a servant was forgiven from his great and huge debts by his master and lord, who had pity on him and forgave him all the debts even though he initially wanted the servant to be severely punished. But after that, the servant did not forgive another servant who had some debts to him, although those debts was far smaller than what the lord had forgiven the first servant.

As a result, the lord and master punished the ungrateful servant, who did not forgive even a small fault while his much greater fault had been forgiven by his lord. That servant was punished even greater than before, and the mercy shown to him was withdrawn. From this, we should learn that, whatever our brethren and people around us had done to us, be it something hurtful or malicious in nature, we have to learn to forgive them, and forgive one another our sins to each other.

For our sins are very, very great, the collection of the wickedness we have committed throughout our respective lives. Yet, if we are willing to abandon them and believe fully in the Lord our God, He is ready to forgive all of them and welcome us into His glory, but if we cannot even forgive our friends and others who had sinned against us, incomparable as they are to the sum of our wickedness, then it is also difficult for our Lord to forgive us our sins then.

Therefore, let us today reflect on what we have discussed and also heard from the Holy Scriptures. We have to bring ourselves closer to the Lord, firstly by fortifying our own prayer life, communicating and conversing with God, allowing not just ourselves to speak to Him, but even more importantly, that is to allow Him to speak in our hearts. If we have done so, then certainly, we will be able to know better what God wants from us, and that is our love, devotion and ability to love one another in the same way as we have loved ourselves.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all renew our faith to the Lord, not just by mere words but also through deeds. We have to love each other and forgive each others’ faults and sin to one another. And only then, we can be really called truly the children of God, and our Father who is in heaven, as Jesus had introduced Him to us, shall reward us with the gift of eternal life. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 23 February 2015 : 1st Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the words of the Holy Scriptures which mentioned to us about what is to come in the future. At the end of time, as all of us should be aware of, there will be a Last Judgment of all creation, where there will be one last separation of the good from the bad, the worthy from the unworthy, the faithful ones from the unfaithful ones, and the repentant from the unrepentant.

And the Lord also made it clear and simple for all to understand, what we all need to do in order to be counted among the righteous ones. It is not that difficult, but at the same time, it is also not that easy. What we need to do is simply to be there for those of our brethren around us who need our help and assistance. If we think for only ourselves and disregard the call for help from our brethren, then we are truly, really evil and wicked.

The key to achieve salvation is truly for us to open our hearts to love one another, and to see with our eyes and hear with our ears the plight and suffering of those who need our help. Salvation lies in those who have heard the words and teachings of the Lord, keep them in their hearts, and practiced them in their daily lives. Humans are selfish in nature, and they tend to always care about themselves first before even thinking about others. And it is this mindset and mentality, as well as the habit that we really need to change.

Our faith cannot be expressed merely with words and empty devotions, as I have often mentioned that a faith without action or deed is an empty and dead faith. It is just the same as if we do not have any faith at all. Our faith must be based on real deeds and actions, as works complement faith. Faith and works together made us justified and not just either of them only alone.

There are many people who thought that they are assured of salvation because they are faithful to the Lord, showing external devotions to the Lord and piety towards the people. But, in their hearts there was no God, for in their actions and deeds towards others, they showed not the faith they supposedly have, but instead they showed selfishness, greed, jealousy, hatred and many others that were unbecoming of the children of the Lord.

That was why, those people, whose prime examples were the Pharisees and the Scribes have received their just judgment, that is to be cast among the goats, the ones on the left of Christ, and to receive eternal damnation and punishment, not just for whatever wicked things they had done, but also by whatever things they have failed to do as expected of them by the Lord.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Polycarp, also known as St. Polycarpus, a Roman saint, bishop and martyr of the Church. He was the Bishop of Smyrna in today’s Western Turkey, one of the earliest centres of the Church and the faithful. He served the people of God faithfully and was a convert to the Faith himself. He served the people entrusted under his care with love and devotion, teaching them to be faithful to the Lord and to follow sound doctrine and teachings, so that they may truly be true disciples of Christ in not just words but also in deeds and actions.

St. Polycarp also did not hesitate to labour for and defend his flock, preaching to them and ministering to them whenever and wherever he was available to do so, despite the threat of persecution by the pagan government and officials of the Roman Empire. Eventually, St. Polycarp was captured, tortured, incarcerated before he was put to death for defending his faith bravely and courageously. Fire would not hurt him and thus, he was then martyred by another means, shedding his blood for the Lord and for the faithful.

Therefore, we should all be aware by the example of St. Polycarp and the other saints and martyrs, who had done so much hard work in their own different ways to help the works of God in this world. They did not remain idle or centred only on their own selves, and indeed, as we have seen, they did not even hesitate to lay down their lives and to suffer for the sake of their fellow men, their fellow brethren in faith.

As the Last Judgment story by Jesus should remind us, let us all take concrete steps to be true disciples of the Lord, that is by walking the faith we have, and therefore not just having an empty faith, but a living and real one, justified by our actions and deeds, helping those who have less or none, loving one another and forgiving one another our sins and faults, so that we truly practice what we believe in and which Jesus our Lord had taught us.

Let us never falter but continue to strengthen our faith, that when the time comes, our Lord will find us just, righteous and worthy of the eternal glory He had prepared for all those who have listened to Him and does His will. God be with us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 22 February 2015 : First Sunday of Lent, Feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the occasion of the First Sunday of Lent, the first of five sundays dedicated to the celebration of this holy season of preparation for the Holy Week and Easter. Today also happens to be the feast and celebration of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle in Rome, the Apostolic authority of the Chief and Prince of the Apostles, the Vicar of Christ and the Leader of the Universal Church.

On this day, the theme of the Scripture readings is about God, His love and mercy that He showed to all those who have sincerely looked for Him and are genuine in their desire to repent and address their wrongs. Today we heard of the promise which God had made, that so long as we are faithful to Him, we shall receive His grace and will not perish, but receive eternal life.

In the first reading, which was taken from the Book of Genesis, we heard of the narrative of what happened after Noah had been saved by God through the ark he was told to build. God made a covenant with Noah and his descendants, that includes all of us, that He shall never again destroy us with water, the waters of the Great Flood that had made all creations to perish, except that of Noah and his family, and all those which had been gathered in the ark.

There are many symbolisms in the readings today, the first of which is water itself. God will no longer destroy mankind with water, but instead, through water, life will come forth. Water becomes a life-giving object, and it is not just because we need water to survive and live, but even more importantly, because we all know that all of us at one point of time in our lives, be it as a very young infant or as a child, a teenager or as an adult, we have been baptised in the Name of the Lord

Thus, we can see clearly, the symbolism of the reading on Noah and the Great Flood. The Church is often portrayed as an ark, a large boat or a ship, where all the faithful are gathered inside and safe from the storms and the waves outside. Therefore, the rites and the sacrament of baptism is also a reminder of the Great Flood, the time when God separated the righteous from the sinners by the means of water that destroyed and annihilated the wicked, but saved the righteous out of the water and into the ark.

Therefore in the same way, through the waters of baptism, we who have made the conscious decision, or the decision by our parents and godparents, have been saved from the darkness and ignorance of the world, and were joined into the Church of God, the Ark of salvation, and together we are braving through the storms of this world, the difficulties, the oppositions, the challenges and the temptations that come our way from the devil and all of his forces.

And the significance of this to the other feast we celebrate today is that, the one who helped to steer the great ship that is the Church, is the Vicar of Christ, the one who had been entrusted with the governance and authority over all the souls of the faithful, who is our Pope, the successor of St. Peter the Apostle, who is the first of the Vicars of Christ, and whose seat of authority is in Rome, as the Bishop of Rome.

Thus, on this feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle, we should all reflect on the nature of the Church itself, the Ark of salvation, which is rooted in Christ and because it is safely and strongly anchored in Christ, no storm or wave can overcome it, and steered by St. Peter and his successors, the Church is moving forward in this world full of challenges, chair being the symbol of authority and teaching in the Church.

Therefore, all of these remind us that even though we have been saved by the grace of God through the waters of baptism, where our sins, the taints of the original sins of our ancestors had been erased from us, but we must still adhere closely to the teaching authority of the Church, which is centred upon the authority of the Bishop of Rome, our Pope, as the Vicar of our Lord Jesus Christ, His representative in this world.

And another strong reminder for us all today is about the nature of evil and what Satan and his allies are always busy doing on continuous basis, in trying to tempt us back into sin. Sin is always around us, and the temptations of the world are always very hard to resist at times. Temptation is the tool of the devil to bring us back into his dominion and so that we will suffer together with him in the eternal suffering of hell.

In the Gospel, we heard about the temptation of Jesus in the desert, when Jesus went for forty days and forty nights right after His baptism in the Jordan. He did not eat or drink anything during that period, and being in the desert where practically nothing lives, it must be really a great hunger and thirst that affected Him by the end of the forty days.

After all, although Jesus is divine and Lord of all creations, but at the same time He is also fully human, being both God and Man, and therefore, as all of us mankind are, He was also feeling the fatigue and the hunger that tempted Him to have something to eat. Although He is without sin, but He allowed Himself to be tempted by Satan to show us all an example, of what we should be and how we should live our lives and reject all forms of temptations and sin.

There are three things that we have to be aware of, brothers and sisters in Christ, the three greatest dangers that will often be on our path, which threaten to prevent us from achieving salvation in God. These three are gluttony and desire, human pride and finally the desire for power. These three were aptly showcased by Jesus, as He resisted the temptations of the devil who used these three against Him.

The first temptation, that of hunger, is playing against our human weakness against our stomach. When we have plenty with us, be it in terms of food or in terms of possessions, we tend to keep them all to ourselves. It is indeed not very wrong to say that we live by our stomach and for our stomach. When we have more, we tend to seek more and want for more, and when we do not have, we do all we can to obtain what we want, often at the disadvantage of others.

We are always worried about our lives, every single days of our life. We worry about what we are to have, what we have to eat, what will happen to us on this day and that, but in worrying so much, we forget that we have One who is always looking after us and He who indeed knows all that we will ever need in our lives. We have to learn to break free from our desires and know when to limit our desires.

There is no point if we are all well fed and had everything in the world, but we have no God inside of us, and if His words does not take root in us. In that manner, we secure for ourselves a good and prosperous life in this world, but we fail to secure the life that is in the world to come, then it is truly pointless. Remember of what had happened to the rich man in the story of Jesus on the rich man and Lazarus. He had all the food that he would ever want, and Lazarus had none. The rich man was cast down into hell because he had no love inside of him. He failed to show mercy, concern and love to those around him who need them.

And then, human pride, a great danger and threat to all of us. All of us mankind are by nature predisposed to hubris, arrogance and pride in ourselves. It is our pride that often make us boast of our own accomplishment and even looking down upon others because we think of ourselves as superior to them. It is pride that Satan was trying on Jesus, by pushing Him to glory in His greatness as God and Lord of all and show off to all the peoples His power, and therefore saving Him the need to labour and work hard as if He had done what Satan wanted Him to do, everyone would likely believe in Him and followed Him.

But Jesus knew that pride is not the way to go, as pride, hubris and arrogance will inevitably make us to be disobedient and rebellious, as we are less likely to admit that we have made a mistake and persist therefore in our sinfulness. Just as Lucifer the greatest and mightiest angel had been brought down by his pride, and becoming Satan, accursed and condemned, therefore, pride will lead us down the same path to destruction.

And the last of all, and the greatest of all temptations is power, and the desire to have that power. Indeed the saying is correct, that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Satan showed Jesus the power He could have if He would just worship him, who is the master of all the powers of the world, and also all the wealth that would accompany that. He would no longer need to go on and suffer for the sake of mankind and die for them.

That temptation is indeed the ultimate and greatest temptation of all. Any man would be sorely tempted by such offer, and with the offer literally given to them on a silver platter, it is obvious why it can be so easy for us to be tempted and fall into sin. But Jesus knew that true power does not lie in earthly wealth or through tyranny.

Rather, true power lies in the responsibility that comes together with that power and how to use that power responsibly. He chose to let go of all those temptations and faithfully carried out the mission which the Father had entrusted to Him. And because of that, all power and glory now belongs to Him alone, and dominion was passed from Satan and his allies to the triumphant Saviour.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have been told of all these, so that we too may learn of the devices of the devil in his attempts to bring us down with him into eternal damnation. He is wicked as well as cunning, and he has many means within his disposal to trick us and to mislead us into sinning before God, including what he had tried out with Jesus and failed.

Yes, what I mean is that we must be ever vigilant, as the devil himself can use the verses of the Holy Scriptures itself and twist them to serve his own desires. That was what He did with Jesus, but our Lord knew what was the true meaning of the devil’s words and He did not fall for Satan’s trickery. But we may not be as capable in resisting the devil and knowing the right from the wrong when the devil assails us.

That is why today all of these are a reminder yet again that we should all seek to deepen our faith in God, by growing deeper in our understanding of the teachings of the Faith, and the way to do so is by putting ourselves ever close to the teachings of the Church and obey her teachings completely and fully as espoused by the Vicar of Christ, our Pope, who is leading the Church of God and all the faithful in it through the tumultuous times and tribulations, facing the forces of the devil in this world.

Therefore, as we progress through this season of Lent, let us all renew our faith for the Lord and let us no longer sin and commit any sort of evil, but strengthen our commitment and devotion to Him, so that we may resist all of the devil’s tricks and false promises and remain truly faithful to our Lord, who then will reward us for our faith and bring us to eternal life and glory. Amen.

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Saturday, 21 February 2015 : Saturday after Ash Wednesday, Memorial of St. Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brother and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the calling of Levi, who would become the Apostle St. Matthew, who is also one of the great Four Evangelists, or the writers of the four Holy Gospels. In this therefore we learn a very important fact, which the prophet Isaiah in his book, that is our first reading today, had also talked about, that is the forgiveness offered to all sinners who repent from their sins.

First of all, let us all understand the background of what had happened, and why the Pharisees and the people in general hated the tax collectors so much and considered all of them as great sinners, and loathed to be near them and less so, to come to their place and eat with them? That is because, the tax collectors were seen as the traitors to the nation and to the people, as their job was to collect taxes from the people to be given to the Romans, who at that time ruled over Judea and all of the Promised Land of Israel.

No one likes to pay taxes, and less so if they have to pay tax to a foreign master and ruler. And the Jews were a proud nation, proud of their status as the chosen race and chosen people of God. Since the time of the Exodus, they have slowly grow in their pride, as well as in their prejudice against sinners, who they saw as unclean and had to be cast out of the society of the people of God and be denied the grace of God. Anyone, therefore, who associated themselves with these sinners, correspondingly were also considered as unclean and as sinners.

But in all these, they failed to pay heed and notice a great fact, that they were all also sinners, and truly, no one could boast rightfully that they were less or more righteous or worthy of God’s salvation, since all of mankind are really sinners in the eyes of God for their disobedience against God. And even those Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who liked to show off their piety in the public places, as Jesus had pointed it out rightly, that they were even greater sinners by their actions and by what were in their wicked hearts and minds.

They were not thinking about God in their hearts, and less so about the people of God, who had been entrusted to them, teachers of the Law of God, who should have guided these people to God. Instead, they forsook their duty to seek worldly glory and human praise. And through their actions, they deceived and misled the people of God and cast them even further into sin.

They were judgmental against sinners and refused to have anything to do with them. But as Jesus had shown everyone, He showed that God is merciful and loving, just as He is just and hating towards all forms of sins. And indeed He came to rescue first the most sinful ones, the ones who lie furthest from the grace, light and salvation of God. There is only one objective, that all these sinners would repent, change their ways and sin no more, and thus become worthy to receive the salvation of the Lord.

God hates the sins but not the sinner. But if we sinners do not change our sins and abandon our sins before it is too late for us, then God’s wrath will be upon us all the same. That is why in this season of Lent, we are constantly reminded of our sins and all the wickedness we have committed before the presence of God and men alike. We have to know of our sins, realise how wicked they are, and change our ways.

If we do so, we can be assured that the grace of God will be upon us. The prophet Isaiah affirmed this to us, and the life of St. Matthew himself give an even greater testimony of the sinner turned saint. There were many of the saints who were once great sinners. But what differentiated them from the other great sinners was that they repented, they knew of their sins and abandoned them, changing their ways and devoted themselves from then on to the service of God and mankind.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Peter Damian, a great bishop and Cardinal of the Church, as well as a Doctor of the Church by his numerous works and writings that still help and influence us even to this very day. He was a nobleman who gave up everything and all forms of worldliness to join religious life in prayer and devotion to God. But God had great plans for him.

St. Peter Damian in his roles and works would be instrumental in rooting out sins and wickedness from the Church of God, assisting the Pope, the Vicar of Christ in the governance and reform of the Church, so that all the wicked peoples not worthy of the service of God and unrepentant were cast out and rejected by the Church. As a result, the Church was purified of those who were like the Pharisees, sinful and yet refusing to change their sinful ways and misleading the people of God into sin.

He helped to reform many parts of the Church establishment, and through his numerous works and writings, he helped many people to be awakened to their sins and wickedness, and therefore helped to bring many souls to salvation and closer to the Lord their God. And this is exactly what we all should do as well, as the members of the Church.

We are all sinners too, and we are all equal before God. Never look down upon others who have sinned, as if we do so, then we too will be judged in the same way by the Lord. Instead, let us help each other, that everyone may be called to the Lord and abandon their sins and wickedness, and renew their effort to love the Lord their God and commit themselves to Him and His ways.

May the example of St. Peter Damian inspire us all, that we may use this season of Lent to truly repent from our sins, change our ways and lead a righteous life from now on, and help to keep one another in righteous life and avoid sin. God bless us all. Amen.

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Friday, 20 February 2015 : Friday after Ash Wednesday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the days of Lent, and the readings call us all to remember our true purpose of celebrating and going through this sacred season of Lent, the forty days of preparation for the coming of Easter. In this season, we go through fasting and abstinence on certain days, as a public and concrete way of showing our sincerity in following the Lord, by preparing ourselves body, mind, heart and soul for the celebration of our Lord’s Passion, death and resurrection.

But are we fasting and abstaining in the right way and for the right purpose? That is the essence of today’s readings. Are we fasting and abstaining for show so that people may be awed at what we are doing and therefore praise us greatly for doing so? Are we fasting and abstaining because our parents said that we must do so, or because the Church is teaching us to do so? Are we merely following the teachings of the Church without understanding them?

When we fast we have to realise that we are not doing it for ourselves, but for God. We fast and we abstain ourselves from eating meat and controlling our earthly and human desire, these are all to suppress our human emotions and desires, which often lead us to sin and to wickedness before the presence of God and men alike. Fasting and abstinence are meant for us to realise our frailty and our sinfulness, that we are truly unworthy sinners, given grace and forgiveness by our ever loving God.

Fasting and abstinence are meant to help us to restrict ourselves from the worldliness and things that often lead us away and distract us from following the teachings of our Lord with the wholeness of our hearts. This is why, even though the rules on fasting and abstinence involve food that we consume, but they should not be limited to this only.

Yes, fasting and abstinence can come in the form of restricting and limiting ourselves from our favourite hobby and activity, which often took so much time from us that we end up wasting our time and being unable to contribute positively and in a good way towards those who are around us. There are truly many things we can do and we can choose from many options.

We can abstain from computer gaming, watching our favourite television programmes and videos, from the sin of gluttony and sloth, from the pleasures of the flesh, and something as simple as stirring ourselves from laziness when we see someone around us who are suffering, not having enough food, enough love or respect by others as a fellow mankind.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the readings remind us that this Lent is a time for us to focus on the right things and fast as well as abstain for the right purposes. We fast because we know that by our sinfulness, we have been separated from our Lord by a certain degree. The more we sin, the further we have been separated from our loving God. And this is what all of us should be aware of.

We fast and abstain to remind ourselves on our own sinfulness, and it is also a kind reminder for us all who have more in terms of food, care, love and the goodness and graces of the world, we should share them with those who are less fortunate. That is the kind of fasting and abstinence that our Lord truly wants from us, and not those done for the sake of human praise and appearances as the Pharisees had done.

May the Lord awaken in us all the desire to love one another and to share the joy and grace we have, that no one will ever be in need again. May this Lent be a blessed season for us to reflect on our sins and therefore seek God’s forgiveness and repent in total sincerity. God bless us all. Amen.