chosen people

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(Easter Vigil) Saturday, 30 March 2013 : Easter Vigil of the Resurrection of the Lord, Holy Week (Psalm after First Reading)

Psalm 103 : 1-2, 5-6, 10, 12-14, 24 and 35

Bless the Lord, my soul! Clothed in majesty and splendour; O Lord, my God, how great You are! You are wrapped in light as with a garment; You stretch out the heavens like a tent.

You set the earth on its foundations, and never will it be shaken. You covered it with the ocean like a garment, and waters spread over the mountains.

You make springs gush forth in valleys winding among mountains and hills.

Birds build their nests close by and sing among the branches of trees. You water the mountains from Your abode and fill the earth with the fruit of Your work. You make grass grow for cattle and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth.

How varied o Lord, are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all – the earth full of Your creatures. May sinners vanish from the earth, and may the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, my soul!

 

Alternative Psalm

 

Psalm 32 : 4-7, 12-13, 20, 22

For upright is the Lord’s word and worthy of trust is His work. The Lord loves justice and righteousness; the earth is full of His kindness.

The heavens were created by His word, the breath of His mouth formed their starry host. He gathered the waters of the sea into a heap, and stored the deep in cellars.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord – the people He has chosen for His inheritance. The Lord looks down from heaven and sees the whole race of mortals.

In hope we wait for the Lord, for He is our help and our shield.

O Lord, let Your love rest upon us, even as our hope rests in You.

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Friday, 15 March 2013 : 4th Week of Lent (Scripture Reflection)

We have to be humble, brothers and sisters in Christ, and not to be engulfed in our personal pride and arrogance, that we will be able to truly see the Lord and His good works in our world today, which He had done through the Church, with our assistance.

So how is this humility like? Is it by lowering ourselves before others physically, or by mentioning it verbally? or by acting it out so that others can see this humility in us? No, as that would not be right, in fact not true humility.

True humility is rather shown by our hearts, and our being, in how we listen to God’s will, and accept the advice made by others, which in this case, is exemplified by the prophets who told the people of Israelites of the coming of the Messiah, that is Jesus Christ.

Instead, the people of Israel hardened their hearts, filled with pride and arrogance, rejected the Lord and plotted against Him, that is because of their refusal to settle down and open their hearts. both to God, and to listen to the words of their fellow men, the prophets who had been chosen to speak the words of our God.

These people in their pride thought that they knew the Lord, and through their great faith, they had been saved. But it is exactly this pride that covered the true humility that is in the heart, and brought about veil on their eyes, that they fail to see Christ, the Chosen One of God, and failed to recognise Him and His works as the works of that Divine Messiah.

Therefore brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray that our eyes can be opened, and the veil of pride and vanity that we have in us can be lifted from us, that we no longer focus on ourselves, but now can see clearly the graces and works of our God, and at the same time, also capable of sensing and seeing the sufferings and the troubles facing our fellow brethren in this world, and do our best to help alleviate their suffering. Physically, yes, but even more importantly, to help others in a spiritual manner.

For physical nourishment is finite and one will always be hungry again, but spiritual nourishment, through the love of God poured into them through us, will satisfy them and make them hungry no more. For spiritual hunger is more sinister and worse than that of the physical hunger, which bread can solve, but not for spiritual hunger.

May God bless us in our daily lives, that all of us will remain humble, in true humility that is of the heart and not of the shedding of externals, and true humility that humbles our souls before God instead of hypocrisy before others. May God bring our works for the good of others, make them greater, and bring them to complete fulfillment, Amen.

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Monday, 4 March 2013 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Casimir, Prince of Poland and Lithuania (Scripture Reflection)

God shows us today that His love and His care is universal and extends not to just a single person or a single people. He healed Naaman from his leprosy through Elisha the prophet, and He also succour the widow of Zarephath in Sidon through the prophet Elijah, who helped her after her miserable life due to her husband’s passing. It is through their faith in God’s deliverance and power that, even though with some reservations and doubts they had, but ultimately their obedience to God’s will through the prophets that caused the outpouring of divine love to them, who were not of Israel, God’s chosen people.

Many of us today think that we are special, and that we have special talents that others do not, and many of us with these advantages think that we should be honoured and praised because of such abilities that we have. Many of us also look down on those who apparently have no such abilities and talents like what we have, and shun them, and even sometimes bully and persecute them to an extent. But today, God teaches you that even the great are not perfect, and more often than not, it is the meek and humble that will receive God’s love and blessing, and will be found righteous than the powerful.

It is not that God despises those who have power, those who have talents, abilities, and fortunes. It is rather that He despises those who misuse those power, and those who thought highly of themselves and oppress the less fortunate because they have these. Like the people of Israel, the chosen people of God, who often thought highly of themselves because they were chosen by God, but they were then at the time of the prophets drunk with power, possession, and worldly temptations, leaving God behind, and worshiped the false gods of their Canaanite neighbours.

A humble offer from Naaman to seek the prophet of Israel, the King of Israel had spurned. He even tore his robes and accused the Syrians of attempting to spy in the disguise of search for the prophet. Such is the haughtiness and pride of the king of Israel and Israel at that time, that even those who came in humility and gifts they had rejected, although they came truly to glorify the God of Israel, our God.

In their humility and obedience, Naaman and the widow obeyed the will of God through the prophets. Despite some grumbling in the beginning, Naaman washed himself seven times in the Jordan and was healed; then the widow fed Elijah the prophet with the bread made from the flour she was to use to prepare the last meal for herself and her son. Through these acts of faith they are blessed and experienced the love of God.

Naaman who was the commander of the Aramean King’s armies, lowered himself before God and his prophet and his obedience, while the king of Israel haughtily and proudly think of himself and his power, and in the time of King Ahab of Israel, during which period Elijah lived, not only the king was proud, but he even brought the people of the northern kingdom to sin against God ever more by sacrificing to foreign gods and killing God’s prophets.

Today, we commemorate the feast of St. Casimir, who was the crown prince of the united Kingdoms of Poland and Lithuania in the late 15th century. He never succeeded the throne to which he was the crown prince of, because he died early in life, but in his relatively short life, he had achieved much, and was noted for his great piety and love for God, and was committed to chastity in life and always was humble, especially noted was his great humility before God, and also before those who are his subjects.

He was like the modern day Naaman, but even more so because the piousness he had in his life, that made him today a patron saint of the youth. He is not of the first chosen people of God, but yet God had made him righteous, and now a saint, he intercedes for us in heaven, all because of his love, his faith, and his obedience to God.

Let us pray therefore brothers and sisters, that in our lives, and indeed in our daily lives, we can always dull the edge of our pride and our vanity, and sharpen the edge of our humility, and increase our dedication and love for God and our fellow men, our neighbours, and even those who did bad things to us, and those who hates us. Humble ourselves before God, asking for His mercy, and allowing Him to work His wonders through us, that all those whom we meet in our lives, will be able to experience God, His love, His kindness, and His grace, through us and our actions.

St. Casimir, pray for us all, pray for our youth that they will grow ever stronger in faith and love to God just as you once did. All the Holy Saints and prophets of God, Elijah and Elisha, pray for us. Amen.

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Saturday, 23 February 2013 : 1st Week of Lent (First Reading)

Deuteronomy 26 : 16-19

On this day, YHVH, your God commands you to fulfill these norms and these commandments. Obey them now and put them into practice with all your heart and with all your soul. Today YHVH has declared to you that He will be your God, and so you shall follow His ways, observing His norms, His commandments and His laws, and listening to His voice.

Today YHVH has declared that you will be His very own people even as He had promised you, and you must obey all His commandments. He, for His part, will give you honour, renown, and glory, and set you high above all the nations He has made, and you will become a nation consecrated to YHVH, your God, as He has declared.