Christian faith

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Friday, 9 September 2016 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Peter Claver, Priest (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)
Luke 6 : 39-42

At that time, Jesus offered this example, “Can a blind person lead another blind person? Surely both will fall into a ditch. A disciple is not above the master; but when fully trained, he will be like the master. So why do you pay attention to the speck in your brother’s eye, while you have a log in your eye, and are not conscious of it?”

“How can you say to your neighbour, ‘Friend, let me take this speck out of your eye,’ when you cannot remove the log in your own? You hypocrite! First remove the log from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your neighbour’s eye.”

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Friday, 9 September 2016 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Peter Claver, Priest (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)
Psalm 83 : 3, 4, 5-6, 12

My soul years, pines, for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young, at Your altars, o Lord of hosts, my King and my God!

Happy are those who live in Your house, continually singing Your praise! Happy the pilgrims whom You strengthen, to make the ascent to You.

For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; He bestows favour and glory. The Lord withholds no good thing from those who walk in uprightness.

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Friday, 9 September 2016 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Peter Claver, Priest (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Priests)
1 Corinthians 9 : 16-19, 22b-27

Because I cannot boast of announcing the Gospel : I am bound to do it. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel! If I preached voluntarily, I could expect my reward, but I have been trusted this office against my will. How can I, then, deserve a reward?

In announcing the Gospel, I will do it freely without making use of the rights given to me by the Gospel. So, feeling free with everybody, I have become everybody’s slave in order to gain a greater number.

So I made myself all things to all people in order to save, by all possible means, some of them. This I do for the Gospel, so that I too have a share of it. Have you not learnt anything from the stadium? Many run, but only one gets the prize. Run, therefore, intending to win it, as athletes who impose upon themselves a rigorous discipline. Yet for them the wreath is of laurels which wither, while for us, it does not wither.

So, then, I run knowing where I go. I box but not aimlessly in the air. I punish my body and control it, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be rejected.

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Thursday, 8 September 2016 : Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when we all celebrate together the birthday of the Mother of our Lord, who was born of her parents, St. Joachim and St. Anne, and destined from the moment of her conception, immaculate and free from the taints of sin, to be the bearer of God’s salvation.

On this day, we celebrate together the birth of the one who would eventually become the Ark of the New Covenant, the bearer of the Messiah and the Saviour of the world. Today is a significant event, for the birth of Mary heralded the beginning of the time of grace, as God’s long awaited plan of salvation for His people was being fulfilled through her.

And as we listened to the message of the Sacred Scriptures, surely all of us would wonder why then the Lord would bother to go through so much trouble just in order to deal with us His people. We must be wondering why would He go through all these to help us and to bring us out from the darkness and into the light of His salvation. But that is exactly the wonder of the mysteries that God had revealed to us, that is His love.

God loves us all so much, so much so that in His love, He certainly would not want to see us suffer and perish in the darkness together with Satan and his allies who He had condemned into the eternal damnation. For us, there is still hope if we are able to commit ourselves to change our ways and to repent from all those sins and the things that kept us separated from God.

But in order to establish firmly the covenant and promise which He had made with us mankind, His beloved people, He has given us the perfect gift in His own Son, the Divine Word Incarnate, the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. And as promised by Himself to us through His prophets and servants, He would Himself come and dwell among us, to be one with us, that we may be His people, and He may be our God.

If at the ancient times, God descended among His people in pillars of cloud and fire, then God has since then decided to dwell among us, to be with us His beloved ones, and what way is better than for He Himself to come down upon us and dwell among us as one of us? He took up our flesh through the intermediary of His mother Mary, that as He share in our flesh and existence, so will He share with us His glory and the eternal life He has promised us.

And through Mary, His mother and along with her, He has shown us the examples of how we ought to live our lives that we may be considered and be counted among His faithful and righteous ones. She is a role model for us all in how she had been faithful to the mission which has been entrusted to her. Mary since her birth has been a devoted servant of the Lord, pious and righteous in all her ways.

But most importantly, even though there were uncertainties and doubts in her heart, she gave her all and devote herself completely to the care and love for her Son, Jesus our Lord. She persevered through all the challenges, protecting and guiding her Son through His life. And having followed Him through her life, following Him even through the moments of His Passion, looking at His suffering at the hands of His tormentors and enemies, and eventually witnessing His death on the cross, certainly what she had done was not merely something ordinary.

Having stood by faithfully and committed herself completely to the Lord, and by being righteous, upright and just in all of her actions and deeds in life, Mary is indeed the best role model for all of us the people who are faithful to God and members of His Church. By following her, we will be able to find the best path to reach out to the Lord our God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we rejoice and celebrate today in commemoration of the birth of the mother of our Lord, Mary, the Mother of God, let us all also take some time to reflect on our own actions in life, and see in what way we can emulate and follow in the footsteps of Mary. May the Lord help us in this endeavour, and guide us that we may find our way to reach Him and the salvation which He has promised us all. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 8 September 2016 : Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Matthew 1 : 1-16, 18-23

This is the account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (their mother was Tamar), Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron of Aram. Aram was the father of Aminadab, Aminadab of Nahshon, Nahshon of Salmon.

Salmon was the father of Boaz. His mother was Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed. His mother was Ruth. Obed was the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David, the king. David was the father of Solomon. His mother had been Uriah’s wife. Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Then came the kings : Abijah, Asaph, Jehoshaphat, Joram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah.

Josiah was the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. After the deportation to Babylon, Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel and Salathiel od Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud, Abiud of Eliakim, and Eliakim of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, and Akim the father of Eliud.

Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar of Matthan, and Matthan of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and from her came Jesus Who is called the Christ – the Messiah. There were then fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, and fourteen generations from David to the deportation to Babylon, and fourteen generations from the deportation to Babylon to the birth of Christ.

This is how Jesus Christ was born : Mary His mother had been given to Joseph in marriage, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, made plans to divorce her in all secrecy. He was an upright man, and in no way did he want to discredit her.

While he was pondering over this, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She has conceived by the Holy Spirit, and now she will bear a Son. You shall call Him ‘Jesus’ for He will save His people from their sins.”

All this happened in order to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet : The virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and He will be called Emmanuel, which means God-with-us.

Alternative reading (shorter version)
Matthew 1 : 18-23

This is how Jesus Christ was born : Mary His mother had been given to Joseph in marriage, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, made plans to divorce her in all secrecy. He was an upright man, and in no way did he want to discredit her.

While he was pondering over this, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She has conceived by the Holy Spirit, and now she will bear a Son. You shall call Him ‘Jesus’ for He will save His people from their sins.”

All this happened in order to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet : The virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and He will be called Emmanuel, which means God-with-us.

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Thursday, 8 September 2016 : Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 12 : 6ab, 6cd

But I put my trust in Your unfailing love, my heart will rejoice on seeing Your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord, for He has been good to me!

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Thursday, 8 September 2016 : Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Micah 5 : 1-4a

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, so small that you are hardly named among the clans of Judah, from you shall I raise the One Who is to rule over Israel. For He comes forth from of old, from the ancient times.

YHVH, therefore, will abandon Israel until such time as she who is to give birth has given birth. Then the rest of his deported brothers will return to the people of Israel. He will stand and shepherd His flock with the strength of YHVH, in the glorious Name of YHVH, His God.

They will live safely while He wins renown to the ends of the earth. He shall be peace.

Alternative reading
Romans 8 : 28-30

We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love Him, whom He has called according to His plan. Those whom He knew beforehand, He has also predestined to be like His Son, similar to Him, so that He may be the Firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

And so, those whom God predestined He called, and those whom He called He makes righteous, and to those whom He makes righteous He will give His Glory.

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Wednesday, 7 September 2016 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today with regards to the readings taken from the Sacred Scriptures which we have heard, I would like to talk about the devotion and life of our holy priests and all those who have devoted themselves fully to the Lord, as religious brothers and sisters, monks and all others who, according to St. Paul, has chosen the path of celibacy, that is rejecting marriage as what others normally do, but instead choosing to remain virgins and devoting that virginity and commitment to the Lord.

And this is something that is very important for us to know and to understand, as it is the central and core tenet of our holy priesthood as well as those who have devoted themselves to the religious life. It has been passed down to us by the Apostolic Tradition of the Church for over a millennia that all those who entered religious life or be ordained as a deacon or a priest and beyond be required to be unmarried for many reasons.

Many of those who are against the Church and attacked the Church ridiculed our approach to celibacy, by saying that such things are unnecessary or even foolish, and that is because they did not understand the reason why it was there in the first place. Had they understood its reasoning and the history of this practice that dated from the beginning of the Church, then they would not only stay silent but they would come to embrace the beauty and the gift of our celibate religious and priests.

From the beginning of the Church, many argued against celibacy because of the fact that many of the Apostles were married. In fact, St. Peter the Apostle was married too. However, if we noticed further, those were also the lives which they led before God called them to be His disciples and Apostles, upon which they left behind their professions as fishermen, tax collector and others, as well as their families behind.

And then this is also tied to the practices of the early Church, notably in Rome and its local churches and parishes, but also were widespread elsewhere, that priests who were married at that time, became embroiled in the scandals and undesirable interactions between them and their wives, as well as their children. It was difficult indeed to divide their attention between serving the needs of their own families and the people who had been entrusted to them as their flock, the sheep of the Lord.

Then, matters arose regarding their children and inheritance issues about them. It was known then that there were quite a number of priests who tried to push on the properties of the Church and the faithful to their children as inheritance, which was viewed with disgust and disdain by the Church as a whole as a sign of corruption. But truly, at the same time, we have also to understand that as males were usually the breadwinner of the family, as priests had a full time work, he was usually unable to provide for their children, and hence such situations often arose.

Thus, after we have discussed about this matter, its history and how it came to be, now we all can see how the priests, religious and all those who devote themselves to the Lord, to the Church and to His people cannot be divided in their attention between serving the Lord and serving his own personal needs and family needs. What we need are those who can commit themselves fully a hundred percent in their attention, to shepherd the flock of the Lord without bias or distraction.

And in this time and era, the need is even greater for the Church and the faithful to have devoted and faithful shepherds in our priests and all those who have given themselves to the service of God. And there were so many challenges and difficulties facing them that we almost should pity them for their sufferings and the tribulations they faced that we all may have salvation from God through their hard works.

But it is truly not pity which we should give them, but rather our prayers, support and assistance. We should assist the priests and the religious we have around us, caring for them and helping them in their ministries by doing our part as members of the Church, as the priests cannot work alone, but must be supported and assisted through our efforts, that the contributions of the laity and the priests alike will bring good things to mankind and to the whole world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all pray for the increase in religious and priestly vocations, that more and more young people, young men and women who are called by God may be able to respond in kind and devote themselves fully to Him and to His people in the Church. And among us, let us all give support to all those who have given themselves to God and sacrificed much in order to serve the Lord with all of their heart.

Let us all help them and give them our firm backing, that through their works and through our support, God may exercise His works in this world and bring all the people together through the Church, that everyone may receive salvation, justification, and the grace of eternal life. Pray for all of our priests and religious, that God will always be with them. Amen.

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Monday, 5 September 2016 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Calcutta (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, what the Scriptures brought out to us today is the reminder for us that the Lord Jesus Christ brought upon us a new life, one that is free from the corruption of sin, one that is free from the old ways of wickedness and evil. He showed us the new path to tread on, as we approach the throne of His everlasting grace and mercy.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we heard in the Gospel today, the usual and common argument that often arose between Jesus and His opposers, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, whether it was right and lawful to heal a sick man on the day of the Sabbath. The Sabbath day is a day in the week which is dedicated to the Lord, and according to Jewish customs, no one is allowed to do anything or any work.

The purpose of establishing such a day was so that the people of God has a time to rest and leave behind their work and busy life behind, and then spend some time with their Lord in prayer. Otherwise, they would forget about the Lord and carried on their daily works and thus paid no heed to the One Who had freed them from the slavery by the Egyptians and Who has loved them generously.

But over time, the people forgot the intention of the Sabbath, and the elders of the people, the teachers and masters of the Law ended up using these laws to further their own gains and agenda, and in this manner they have misled the people into thinking that to obey the Lord means to follow the rules imposed upon them without question, even when they did not fully grasp or understand them.

And what was intended for good things instead became a source of suffering and difficulties. God never intended for His laws to become a hindrance for people from doing what He desires of them, that is to do good and be good, to love and to care for their fellow brethren, and ultimately, by doing these, that they may be able to show the same love to their Lord and devote their whole lives to Him.

Doing the work of God is also the same as bringing glory to the Name of the Lord. It is a disgrace indeed if the people of God did not act in the way that God had taught them to do, but instead following their own whim and their own desires, which was exactly what the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law did. Not only that they misled the people and laid on them heavy burdens, but they also stopped people from doing good on the holy day just because the law they made said so.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is important that we realise how much God loves us all, and it is important for us to appreciate that love He has for all of us. He never abandon us in our times of need, and He always treasures us all and our company. Shall we not give Him back the same kind of love that He had shown us first? We have spurned and rejected His love many times, and yet He still offered His mercy to us all. Is that not enough reason for us to repent and change our ways?

As St. Paul mentioned to the faithful in Corinth, let us all also seek to purify ourselves and make ourselves anew in God. Through baptism we have been cleansed from the original sins of man, and thus now, from now on, let our actions, words and deeds be a reflection of who we truly are, the beloved children of our Lord and God, that all who see us may know that we belong to Him, and they too shall be converted to Him.

Today we also commemorate the feast of St. Teresa of Calcutta, whom we more commonly knew as Mother Teresa. She was an Albanian by birth, born about just over a century ago in a Macedonian village, and since her youth, St. Teresa of Calcutta, then known as Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu had heard the calling of the Lord to devote herself to a life of piety and devotion in the religious life. She would went on to join the congregation of the Sisters of Loreto, where she eventually went to India, at which place she would devote the rest of her life serving and helping the poor and the least among the society.

She was touched and moved by what she had seen in the great suffering that poverty and disease had brought upon these least privileged among the community, especially those who had none to love them and care for them. Many were shunned by the society and were considered outcasts. Many suffered and died alone even in the worst of places, in slums and sewers not fit for a human being. And these were the reason why St. Teresa of Calcutta was renowned for her efforts in trying to alleviate their suffering, and ensuring that these people had someone to love and care for them.

To that extent, she established the Missionaries of Charity, where she gathered like minded individuals in a congregation to whip up the effort she had initiated to care for the last, the lost and the least of the society, ensuring that they are treated as humanely as possible, and even in dying, to die in peace and with dignity knowing that they too are counted among the children of God. We all know who St. Teresa of Calcutta is, and not because of marvellous and mighty deeds, but rather because she has endeavoured to make God’s love visible for us all, and make it available for everyone.

Through the examples of St. Teresa of Calcutta, may all of us be inspired to follow in her footsteps, caring and loving for our least loved and abandoned brethren. May God bless us all and our endeavours, and may our every actions and words be bearers of God’s salvation to many more lost souls among the nations, that all may be saved in the Holy Name of God. Amen.

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Monday, 5 September 2016 : 23rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Teresa of Calcutta, Religious (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Luke 6 : 6-11

At that time, on another Sabbath, Jesus entered the synagogue and began teaching. There was a man with a paralysed right hand, and the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees watched Him : Would Jesus heal the man on the Sabbath? If He did, they could accuse Him.

But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to the man, “Get up, and stand in the middle.” Then He spoke to them, “I want to ask you : what is allowed by the Law on the Sabbath? To do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” And Jesus looked around at them all.

Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored, becoming as healthy as the other. But they were furious, and began to discuss with one another how they could deal with Jesus.