chosen one

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Tuesday, 6 August 2013 : Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

2 Peter 1 : 16-19

Indeed, what we taught you about the power and the return of Christ Jesus our Lord was not drawn from myths or formulated theories. We ourselves were eyewitnesses of His majesty, when He received glory and honour from God the Father, when from the magnificent Glory this most extraordinary word came upon Him : “This is My beloved Son, this is My Chosen One.”

We ourselves heard this voice from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. Therefore, we believe most firmly in the message of the prophets which you should consider rightly as a lamp shining in a dark place, until the break of day, when the Morning Star shines in your hearts.

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Saturday, 6 July 2013 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr (Psalm)

Psalm 134 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6

Alleluia! Praise the Name of the Lord. O servants of the Lord, praise Him, you who serve in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.

Praise the Lord, for He is good, praise His Name, for It is beautiful; for the Lord has chosen Jacob as His own, Israel as His possession.

I know that the Lord is great, that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases, He does – in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in their depths.

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Friday, 5 July 2013 : 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Matthew 9 : 9-13

As Jesus moved on from there, He saw a man named Matthew at his seat in the custom-house, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And Matthew got up and followed Him.

Now it happened, while Jesus was at table in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners joined Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is it that your Master eats with sinners and tax collectors?”

When Jesus heard this, He said, “Healthy people do not need a doctor, but sick people do. Go and find out what this means : What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

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Sunday, 30 June 2013 : 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today in the reading, particularly the First reading from the First Book of Kings, we listened to the calling of those who had been chosen by our Lord and God. Those whom he had been chosen like Elisha were called, and were given specific trust on certain ministries that they have been entrusted with. Elisha was called from the fields and his oxen by Elijah, to be his successor, and continued the works of the prophet in the lands of the Kingdom of Israel.

We too have our calling, our vocations in life, and what they are depends on what the Lord has in plan for all of us. There are those among us called to be ministers of the Lord, in the same way as Elisha the prophet had once been called. Those of us who are called then, if we accept the calling, become priests, religious, deacons, and all the others who dedicate themselves fully to serve the Lord and minister to His people, while spreading the Good News of the Gospel.

One may think that Christ may sound very rough and impolite when He said that the dead should bury the dead, and one may also think that Christ is being rude when someone asked to first say goodbye to his family before following Him and was rebuked with the words that if someone turn back from their chosen or appointed duty, that person is not fit for the kingdom of God. However, there is in fact great truth inside what Christ had told us today as we heard in our Gospel reading today.

Indeed, in order to serve the Lord, and in order to minister to His people, we must not be half-hearted in our efforts and our work, and we must put all our hearts, all our minds, and all our beings into the works, and focus all of our attention on Christ. There must not be space for doubt or indecision in our hearts, or we risk evil to enter our hearts and corrupt our purpose, which may turn the very noble act of our ministry into something corrupted and hideous.

Well, one may say that this is just a one-time farewell, or a one-time thing, but we must not underestimate the power of evil, as little as that is compared to the power of the Lord, and the power of the world’s temptations and allures. Many had fallen into those temptations and could not keep up their commitment to the service to the Lord and His people, and ended up becoming a contempt to the faithful and a disgrace to the Lord and to the faith.

For we humans are weak, and we are naturally predisposed to temptations and human desires, desire for wealth, and desire for pleasure. If we do not have a hundred percent attention on the Lord, and if we do not put all our hearts and beings into the task ahead of us, not just for the case of the service to the Lord and God’s ministers, but indeed for any other occupations and careers, we must be entirely focused on what we are doing, or we risk mistakes and other flaws that may undermine our own credibility and trustworthiness.

Worse still for the servants of the Lord, because we are directly accountable to God for our actions, our words, and our deeds. When one especially has been called and had chosen to accept the calling and become one of the servants of the Lord, one must not be distracted by worldly concerns and desires. Not even one peek! Since even one peek would tend to corrupt our hearts and twist the true purpose of our ministry, even with just one attempt.

We often think that, ‘It’s only once, it won’t hurt, will not try it again anyway afterwards’, but there is no guarantee that after the first one we will definitely not do it a second time, a third time, or even become an addict. And for priests, religious, and servants of God, a very strict code of conduct must indeed be in place, for they have been marked and appointed as shepherds of God’s people, and shepherds cannot lead their flock unless they themselves have been proper in their conduct and behaviour.

The sheep follow the shepherd, and therefore, if the shepherd does something wrong, the sheep of the flock are bound to follow the actions of the shepherd. We who are called and chosen have to remember that we are responsible for God’s people and to the Lord Himself, in that we must make sure that we do not make any of God’s children, to fall into sin because of us. Remember that Christ greatly chastised those people who did so, “Better for those who let these little ones to fall into sin, to go into hell and be tortured there for eternity’. He condemned those who had misused their authority and abused people’s trust and God’s trust in them.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters in Christ, let us today pray for those called and chosen, for those priests, bishops, our Pope, and those in the religious orders, that they will remain faithful and steadfast in their faith and in their calling, that they will faithfully discharge the duties that the Lord had entrusted them, and lead the flock God had entrusted them with dignity, love, compassion, and determination.

Let us also pray for those who are aspiring to join the service of the Lord, and those who had been called, but had not made their decisions in their lives. Let us pray, that indeed, in the face of so many worldly temptations and allures, they can remain faithful to their faith and their calling. Let us pray that the parents of those who are called will not be stubborn and reject God’s call for the sake of their own selfish desire for their children. This is one of the main reason why so many did not end up follow their calling, because their parents and their families did not support God’s work by their rejection!

For parents, let’s be open-minded, and be open to the fact that one of your sons and daughters may be called by God to be His servants to serve His people, all of us, and instead of disgust and opposition, take that as a great opportunity and an honourable occasion. Not everyone is called, and not everyone is worthy, and as the parents of those who had been called, all of us should be proud of them instead, and support them to make a wise and carefully thought decision.

May the Lord therefore grant all of us strength and determination to persevere in our missions in life, to be a loving child of God, to be a loving brethren to our brothers and sisters in need, and to listen to God’s will. May the Lord be with all those whom He had chosen from among us, that the Holy Spirit will continue to guide them and strengthen their faith, resolve, and dedication to their respective ministries. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 30 June 2013 : 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

1 Kings 19 : 16b, 19-21

God said to Elijah, “Elisha, son of Shaphat, from Abel Meholah, you shall anoint as prophet in your place.”

So Elijah left. He found Elisha, son of Shaphat, who was plowing a field of twelve acres and was at the end of the twelfth acre. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak over him. Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah and said, “Let me say goodbye to my father and mother; then I will follow you.”

Elijah said to him, “Return if you want, don’t worry about what I did.” However, Elisha turned back, took the yoke of oxen and slew them. He roasted their meat on the pieces of the yoke and gave it to his people who ate of it. After this, he followed Elijah and began ministering to him.

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Saturday, 29 June 2013 : Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles, Great Feast Day of the Church of Rome (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, the great pillars of the Church, particularly the Church of Rome, the heart of Christendom and the Universal Church. Saints Peter and Paul were martyred for their faith in Rome, and that is why they formed the pillars of the Church there, just as a saying correctly said that, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians”.

Persecution, suffering, and martyrdom did not prevent the people from searching for salvation in the Church, and in the faith in Christ, but instead these actually propelled more and more people towards the Lord, and therefore, through the sufferings and deaths of martyrs, the Church grew and grew ever more, made fertile by the blood of martyrs, many of whom became incredible sources of inspiration for all of the Christians.

But do not think that these saints and martyrs are superhuman in nature. They are the same human just like all of us here, but they have been made great by the Lord, who saw the good that is in them, and their love and dedication for Him. They were normal, humble people made great by the power of the Holy Spirit.

St. Peter and St. Paul both had had their weaknesses and vulnerabilities, and they had succumbed to human temptations and evil once. St. Peter denied the Lord three times out of fear of his life, and St. Paul was a great persecutor of the faithful in God in the early part of his life, as Saul. But the Lord deemed them worthy, and therefore, they were chosen from among so many other people, and they were made great by the Lord our God.

St. Peter was chosen from among the Apostles to be the one to uphold the entire Church of the Lord, that is all the people of God, united as one Body, with Christ at its head, and Peter as His Vicar in this world, as His representatives, carrying out His will. Thus St. Peter became the first Pope, the first Vicar of Christ, the head of the Universal Church. St. Peter did much work to advance the cause of the Lord, establishing many Christian communities, such as in Antioch, of which Peter was also its first bishop.

Then St. Peter went on to Rome, to preach there and lead the growing Christian community in that capital of the Roman Empire. The Emperor of Rome at that time, Emperor Nero treated Christians harshly and persecuted them in false accusations on that they were the ones who caused the Great Fire of Rome, which was actually caused by Nero himself in order to clear land to build a new Palace to feed his own grandiose and megalomaniac ideas.

St. Peter fled from that great persecution with the other Christians, but along the way out of Rome, on the road, he met Christ, who appeared to him while carrying a cross on His back. St. Peter, recognising Christ, asked the Lord, “Quo vadis, Domine?” which means “Where to, Lord?” or “Where are you going, Lord?” Jesus was carrying the cross in the direction of Rome, and He said to Peter, “Ad Romam iterum crucifigi” which roughly means, “To Rome, to be crucified again.”

Hearing this, St. Peter realised that suffering is truly part of being the Lord’s disciples, and persecution that awaits them should not be looked upon with fear, but instead with joy and courage, knowing that one had done the right thing in defending his or her faith in God. He gained strength, courage, and resolve, and he turned back and returned to Rome.

Eventually, St. Peter was martyred, by crucified on a cross. Yet again, St. Peter showed his great qualities, in that, in full knowledge of his unworthiness, he rejected that he should die in the same way as His Lord had died, that is to be crucified on the cross, and instead asked to be crucified upside-down, that in his unworthiness, he did not die the same way that Christ had died for all of us for the sake of our salvation.

There went the first Bishop of Rome, in his life and journey towards the Lord, the first Pope, whose successors went down the generations, keeping the faith faithfully, and remain as the keepers of the kingdoms of heaven as granted by Christ, and as the Vicar of Christ on earth. Indeed, no power on earth or hell may be able to stand against the Church of God, built on the solid rock foundation that is the faith of the apostle St. Peter.

St. Paul also went to Rome, and was beheaded during the height of the persecutions of Christians. He faced death willingly and openly, and his death, together with that of Peter, continued to seed the growing Christian populations in Rome and beyond. Today we are commemorating those two great saints, and we hope to be able to emulate their examples in our own daily lives.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us from today onwards learn of the examples following the footsteps of the Apostles, especially that of Saints Peter and Pail the pillars of our faith. Do not be afraid, and do not need to be disheartened when we face trouble and persecution, for the Lord will be with us, and He will provide for those who love Him.

Do not be afraid and keep faith. The Lord provides for us and He guides all of us, just as He provided for Saints Peter and Paul during their times of tribulation, during their long years of ministry to the Lord’s people and Church. We too can follow their examples and follow in their footsteps, even in these modern day. We must be strong and faithful as Peter was, and be vocal and courageous as Paul was.

May the Lord be with us, and with the prayers of the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul, may all of us become better Christians, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and strive to do more good for the sake of our brethren. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 24 June 2013 : Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (First Reading)

Isaiah 49 : 1-6

Listen to me, o islands, pay attention, peoples from distant lands. YHVH called me from my mother’s womb; He pronounced my name before I was born. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword. He hid me in the shadow of His hand. He made me into a polished arrow set apart in His quiver. He said to me, “You are Israel, My servant, through you I will be known.”

“I have laboured in vain,” I thought and spent my strength for nothing.” Yet what is due me was in the hand of YHVH, and my reward was with my God. I am important in the sight of YHVH, and my God is my strength. And now YHVH has spoken, He who formed me in the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob back to Him.

He said : “It is not enough that you be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob, to bring back the remnant of Israel, I will make you the light of the nations, that My salvation will reach to the ends of the earth.”

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(Special) Sunday, 23 June 2013 : Vigil Mass of the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (Gospel Reading)

Luke 1 : 5-17

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there lived a priest named Zechariah, belonging to the priestly clan of Abiah. Elizabeth, Zechariah’s wife, also belonged to a priestly family. Both of them were upright in the eyes of God, and lived blamelessly in accordance with all the laws and commands of the Lord, but they had no child. Elizabeth could not have any and now they were both very old.

Now, while Zechariah and those with him were fulfilling their office, it fell to him by lot, according to the custom of the priests, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. At the time of offering incense, all the people were praying outside; it was then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

On seeing the angel, Zechariah was deeply troubled and fear took hold of him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, be assured that your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall name him John. He will bring joy and gladness to you, and many will rejoice at his birth.

“This son of yours will be great in the eyes of the Lord. Listen : he shall never drink wine or strong drink, but he will be filled with Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb. Through him, many of the people of Israel will turn to the Lord their God. He himself will open the way to the Lord with the spirit and power of the prophet Elijah; he will reconcile fathers and children, and lead the disobedient to wisdom and righteousness, in order to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

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Sunday, 9 June 2013 : 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Second Reading)

Galatians 1 : 11-19

Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, that the Gospel we preached to you is not a human message, nor did I receive it from anyone, I was not taught of it but it came to me as a revelation from Christ Jesus. You have heard of my previous activity in the Jewish community; I furiously persecuted the Church of God and tried to destroy it. For I was more devoted to the Jewish religion than many fellow Jews of my age, and I defended the traditions of my ancestors more fanatically.

But one day God called me out of His great love, He who had chosen me from my mother’s womb; and He was pleased to reveal in me His Son, that I might make Him known among the pagan nations. Then I did not seek human advice nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. I immediately went to Arabia, and from there I returned again to Damascus.

Later, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to meet Cephas, and I stayed with him for fifteen days. But I did not see any other apostle except James, the Lord’s brother.

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Tuesday, 14 May 2013 : 7th Week of Easter, Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in less than a week’s time, Easter season will be drawing to a close with the feast of the Pentecost, when we celebrate the birthday of the Church, that is when the Holy Spirit came down on the Apostles and marked the official ‘beginning’ of their ministry in spreading the Good News to all over the world, to all nations and to all mankind.

But Easter does not end here and at that time, my dear brothers and sisters, for indeed, the mission Christ had entrusted to the Apostles still continues today, that is to baptise all the nations in the name of the Holy Trinity and to make disciples of all the nations. That is the charge placed by God upon us, and we should then do something in order to fulfill this mission.

Remember that we too are disciples and apostles of the Lord, apostles and witnesses of Christ in our own times and in our own places, bearing witness for the Lord in our own societies and in our own neighbourhoods, among our own friends, our own family, and our own surroundings. We reflect Christ through our own words, our thoughts, our actions, and how we interact with others, especially whether we have reflected the love of God in all that we do.

Today, we celebrate the feast day of St. Matthias, one of the Twelve Apostles. But, St. Matthias was in fact not in the original Twelve, which include Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus in their number. After Judas had betrayed Jesus, he was filled with the sense of regret for having sold his Master for a mere thirty pieces of silver and that he had betrayed innocent blood. Alas, it was way too late for him. He was condemned and his place was taken by another.

Yes, that was because he was unworthy of being one of God’s disciples, and therefore was cast off and replaced with someone who was more worthy of that honour, and St. Matthias was chosen by God to fill up that role. St. Matthias was also one of the longest followers of Jesus but was not included in the Twelve until after the Lord’s death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. Yet he is equally as good as any of the remaining Eleven Apostles of the events surrounding the salvific mission of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That clearly shows that the work of evangelisation and conversion of the world to the cause of Christ is not yet done, and will always continue, that is until the second coming of our Lord into this world. This world is still bathed in darkness, and much of mankind with it, without seeing the light of Christ. We, the disciples of the Lord, who have received the faith from the teachings of the Church and thus the Apostles, therefore have the duty to continue the mission that has been entrusted to us.

St. Matthias carried out his task with fervour and strong love for God, evangelising the faith to the people in the distant regions of Asia and met martyrdom in the region now known as Georgia. He was martyred while in the midst of working in the fields of God, spreading the seeds of faith on the soil of mankind. Many did heed his call and became believers, but there are many too who rejected the faith and also caused St. Matthias’ own martyrdom.

In our world today, there are many who had drifted away from the light of Christ. Many of them were even former believers in Christ, but drifted away due to various reasons, many of which involve the worldly temptations and developments that took them further from the words of God. The loud noises made by the world has shut the Lord’s voice from them, that they can no longer listen to Him in their hearts and minds.

It is therefore up to us, brothers and sisters, to bring the words of the Lord back to them, to show them once again the true path to salvation that Christ had revealed to all of us. Let us follow in the example of St. Matthias and the Apostles in evangelisation, in order to bring the Good News of the Lord to the ends of the earth, and to all mankind, that they all may live. Amen.