Christian sermons

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Saturday, 18 January 2020 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scripture we are all reminded of the missions which God has entrusted to us as the people of God, whom He has called to be His servants and followers. We heard first of all the story of the calling and anointing of Saul as the first king of Israel by the prophet Samuel, and then the story from the Gospel on how the Lord Jesus called Levi the tax collector to be one of His disciples.

Therefore today we heard the story of the calling of two men by God to be the instruments of His works among His people. Saul was called from the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest and least important of the tribes of Israel at that time; and he was also from the least important and smallest of the groups and families within the tribe of Benjamin. And God called him to be the first king over His people Israel when the people cried out to have a king over them.

Saul was just a simple man without prestigious or powerful background, and God chose him to be the king over His people, much as how later on He would also choose a simple shepherd boy, David, the youngest and smallest of the many sons of Jesse to be the successor of Saul. God indeed chose His servants and called them, and not the other way round, that is we choose ourselves. He made those whom He had chosen to be worthy and empowered them as how He led Saul and David to many victories over their enemies.

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard of the calling of the tax collector Levi, whom the Lord Jesus called to be His disciple. Levi left behind his job and everything he had, following the Lord and eventually would be known by a new name, that is Matthew. As one of the Twelve Apostles, he would be known as St. Matthew, the Apostle and Evangelist as not only that he was one of the Twelve but with St. John the Apostle he also had the distinction of being also the writer of one of the four Holy Gospels.

When Levi invited the Lord to have a meal with him and the other tax collectors at his place, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law immediately judged Him and those tax collectors, condemning His actions and questioning why a supposedly holy and popular Man of God would mingle with the tax collectors who were considered among the least welcomed and also hated by a large portion of the population.

The tax collectors were despised because they were seen as collaborators who ‘sold’ their own countrymen and people to the Romans as they helped to collect the hated taxes and money for the Roman governors and magistrates. But in truth, those tax collectors were just the same as anyone else, when looked upon without the bias that many were looking at them with. In fact as we can see, while the tax collectors welcomed the Lord and were willing to listen to Him, it was the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who refused to believe in the Lord and rejected Him.

Again, as I said earlier on, God chose and called those whom He wished to be His followers. And unlike many of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law who wanted to show off their piety and righteousness before the people, and wanted to justify themselves as being better than others especially the tax collectors, they actually failed to see that God honours the humble and those who love Him more than they love themselves.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, how is this significant for us? It is so because we are all also called by God to be His disciples. God has called us to follow Him through our baptism, and if we are truly willing to follow Him, then we should open our hearts and minds to welcome Him into our midst. Are we able to do this? Are we able to trust in God to lead us down the right path going forward? God will lead us down the right path if only we allow Him to guide us.

Let us all seek the Lord and allow Him to guide us in our journey of life and faith. Let us dedicate ourselves anew to Him, and let us grow in our trust and faith with each and every days of our lives from now on. May God bless us all and may He be with us always, through all the goods and trials of this life we have in this world, that we may be His faithful disciples and witnesses to the nations. Amen.

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Friday, 17 January 2020 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony, Abbot (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard of the exchange between both the prophet Samuel and the people of Israel on the matter of kingship in our first reading today, and then the well-known story of how the Lord Jesus healed a paralytic man brought to Him through the roof in our Gospel today and also how the Pharisees in the crowd immediately criticised Him for His actions.

In what we have heard through our Scripture readings today, we can see then how we mankind often preferred to follow our own path and refuse to listen to God and His reminders for us. That is quite evident in what we have heard in our passages today, as the Israelites hardened their hearts and continued to insist to have a king over themselves just as their neighbours did, when the prophet Samuel had spent quite a considerable effort in trying to persuade them to rethink their choice.

The prophet Samuel presented to the people such a convincing argument, stating how God Himself was their one and only true King, and thus it was unnecessary for them to have a man as a king over them like their neighbours did. God has appointed the Judges to be His intermediaries and as the ones through whom God would act to lead His people, but it was those same people who constantly disobeyed and refused to believe in God and preferred to walk their own paths.

And they wanted to have a king over them most likely because they wanted someone who could make their country to be more prestigious and respected, to be an equal and like those of their neighbours, a king who could lead them to war and win against their enemies. More importantly, some of them probably wanted to benefit from having a king over them, as they could probably work to be in favour of the king for their own desires and benefits.

That was why they ignored all of Samuel’s warnings and advices in saying how those kings they wanted could abuse their power and authority to oppress them and make their lives difficult for the selfishness and ego of those same kings mentioned. And that was how the kings led the people down the path of sin and disobedience which eventually caused the downfall of Israel and its people, although there were indeed quite a few kings who were great and faithful too, like David and Solomon for most of the latter’s reign.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard yet another, related example of how we mankind preferred our own judgment and selfish desires rather than to listen to God. I am referring to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who were there when the Lord Jesus healed the paralytic man. They criticised Jesus when they heard the Lord healing the paralytic by saying that his sins had been forgiven. They refused to believe that the Lord Jesus was the Messiah despite all the signs and the wonders they had seen before their own eyes.

They preferred to trust in their own way of thinking and prejudices, seeing the Lord as an upstart and even a heretic by saying that He could forgive sins. They thought that only God alone could forgive sins and not the Man they saw healing the paralytic before them. If only that they opened their eyes, not just their physical eyes but also the eyes of their hearts and minds; and see the truth that Jesus is none other than God Himself, incarnate in the flesh as Man, as He has mentioned but they refused to believe, and as the prophets had said, but again they refused to listen to.

And there was the King Himself, as I said earlier how God is the true King of Israel, and thus, Jesus is indeed King over His people, not just because He is God incarnate, but also even more so because He was born into the House of David as his descendant, fulfilling the promise that God Himself made to David that his house will remain on the throne and as kings forever. It is in Jesus Christ that the Lord has once again fully reclaimed His right to be the inviolable and true King of His people.

But the people refused to believe even in their King and again preferred to believe in their own judgment and strength, in their own intellect and power. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were concerned about maintaining their reach and influence, their prestige and honourable position within the community, and that was why they viewed the Lord Jesus as well as His disciples as rivals and threats to their own security and status, and they allowed these concerns and desires to cloud their judgment.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are all called to reflect on our lives based on what we have heard in our Scripture passages today. Indeed, we can see just how we mankind easily succumb to the temptations of this world, the temptations of wealth, power, influence, fame, pleasure and many others that we crave and want. And in the process we lose ourselves and our direction in life and fall into the trap set by the devil and all seeking our ruination and defeat.

Today, we should therefore look upon the examples of faith set by St. Anthony the Abbot, also known as St. Anthony the Great, a renowned monk and ascetic who was remembered as among the first of those who dedicated themselves so completely and wholeheartedly to the Lord in the unique calling of monkhood and contemplative lifestyle in the desert. St. Anthony the Abbot left behind everything in the world early on in his life after his parents passed away, and went to the wilderness.

There in the wilderness, St. Anthony sought God and focused his attention on Him, while being constantly tempted by the demons and evil spirits who sought to turn him away from the path towards God. He led a very strict ascetic lifestyle and resisted the temptation of worldliness and although the demons tried to dissuade him by many means, they eventually failed to do so. The example of St. Anthony became well-known and quite a few others came to join in his way of life as well.

What St. Anthony taught us all is that, contrary to how our many predecessors have behaved, in turning their backs against God and betraying Him for the comfort of this world, succumbing to the temptations of pride, power, desire, wealth and glory, we can indeed be faithful to God and stay on the path that He has shown us. We do not need to follow exactly what St. Anthony had done in abandoning everything and becoming an ascetic. Instead, what we are called to do is for us to trust in God more and to truly honour Him as how we should honour our Lord and King.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all therefore strive to serve the Lord from now on to the best of our abilities, by placing Him once again at the very centre of our lives and existence, as the King of our hearts, our minds and indeed, our entire beings. Let us no longer be deceived by the devil and be distracted by the many temptations with which he tried to persuade us to abandon God and trap us into our downfall.

May the Lord our loving God, our mighty King, through the intercession of St. Anthony the Abbot continue to bless us and guide us all in our respective journeys of faith. May He be with us always now and forevermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 16 January 2020 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we continue the readings from the early chapters of the Book of the prophet Samuel and also the beginning of Our Lord’s ministry among His people as recorded in the Gospel of St. Mark, we are reminded that God loved us all and wants us to be reconciled to Him, but we must be willing to listen to Him and obey Him and His words.

In the first reading today, we heard of the account of a great battle between the Israelites and the Philistines, a neighbouring people of the Israelites who at that time oppressed the people of Israel and often raided into the lands of Israel. The Israelites were beaten hard and they began to think that if they brought the Ark of God or the Ark of the Covenant with them, God would be by their side and they would win against their enemies.

At that time, the Israelites were led by the judge Eli, who was also the mentor of the young prophet Samuel. But Eli was then already old, and in the earlier parts of the same Book of the prophet Samuel from which our first reading today was taken, the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were the ones who actually held the rein over the people, and were the ones who carried out the sacrifices at the Tent of God.

But those two men were corrupt, and they did not obey the will of God. Rather, they served themselves and their own greed. They would keep the best portions of the sacrifices for themselves when the Law clearly stated that those should have been given to God. Their corrupt behaviour and attitude were wicked in the eyes of God, and that was why, God was not on the side of Israel when those two men led the Israelites bearing the Ark of the Covenant into battle with the Philistines.

Then we heard of the result, how the Israelites were soundly defeated, the two wicked sons of Eli were slain in battle and the Ark of the Covenant itself was captured by the enemy. It was a great blow to the whole nation of Israel, and soon after the news came to Eli, the elderly judge of Israel passed away in grief, likely from hearing that the Ark of God had been captured by the enemy, on top of losing both of his sons.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard a different account, of how the Lord Jesus healed a person who was suffering from leprosy. Leprosy was a disease that was greatly feared and dreaded by the people for its supposed contagiousness and its terrible appearance. Those who have contracted leprosy had to stay away from the rest of the community and remain in the wilderness until they were proven to be cured of their leprosy.

The Lord healed the man who sought healing from his leprosy, and the man was told to report to the priest to be allowed back to the community while at the same time strictly ordering him not to tell anything about how Jesus had healed him. But the man disobeyed the Lord and went to tell everyone what had happened to him. This made things difficult for the Lord and as mentioned in the Gospel passage, Jesus had to remain outside of the towns and could not enter to those cities.

Why is that so? First of all, it is possible that the Lord had encountered a lot of opposition from the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who upon hearing what He had done, made it difficult for Him and His disciples to enter the cities and towns. In addition, it was also possible that because the Lord healed the leper by touching him, something that no one at the time would consider doing, that made Him appear to be unclean in the eyes of some people, and they distanced themselves from Him.

Regardless of whatever the reason was, the disobedience of the man against what the Lord had told him caused difficulties and also loss for many others whom the Lord could have healed then. This was just as how the disobedience and wickedness of the two sons of Eli had led the Israelites into great defeat and losing the Ark of the Covenant to their enemies. Through their disobedience and stubbornness, man has sinned against God and should have walked into destruction.

But in the end, God is still willing to forgive us and to give us another chance. That was precisely why He gave us His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Saviour. Yet, are we making good use of this opportunity that He has given to us? Shall we appreciate the great and generous love that God has given us and is willing to give us even more? Let us all reflect on this and think in what way we can seek God with greater desire to love Him and to embrace Him with all of our strength from now on.

Let us not disobey God any longer but instead open our hearts and minds, allowing Him to enter into our lives and transform us to be better persons and to be better Christians. May the Lord be with us and may He continue to guide us through this journey in life. May God bless us all and our many good works for His greater glory. Amen.

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Wednesday, 15 January 2020 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Scripture speaking to us of the works that the Lord has done among His people, and how He calls all those whom He has chosen to be His disciples to be His instruments through which He performed His many wonders in this world. In our first reading we have the calling of the prophet Samuel in his youth, while in the Gospel we heard how the Lord Jesus embarked on His ministry, healing many of the sick who came to Him, and also healed the mother-in-law of St. Peter.

Beginning from what we have heard in our first reading today, the young prophet Samuel heard the call of the Lord at night three times, calling him to follow Him and to listen to what He wanted to tell him. The prophet Samuel listened to the Lord and obeyed the Lord, who called him to be His worker in leading the people of God back to Him, guiding them through the many difficult years under the Philistine dominance, and eventually anointed two kings of Israel, Saul and David.

The prophet Samuel responded to the Lord as his mentor, the Judge Eli told him to, that when the Lord called, he was to reply with, ‘Speak Lord, Your servant is listening’. And this response marked the beginning of the ministry that the Lord had entrusted to Samuel and which he embraced wholeheartedly for the rest of his life. He did a lot for the Lord and sacrificed much of his time and energy to do the many works he has done.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the Lord Jesus healing the mother-in-law of St. Peter who was very sick with high fever. And after He healed her, many came to hear about His miraculous healing powers, and they all brought their sick ones to the Lord. The Lord healed them all and more and more came to seek healing from the Lord. He and His disciples could have just stayed there and be in their comfort zone, but what the Lord did next was that He went off to another place to minister to the other people there.

In this manner, the Lord also did what the prophet Samuel had done. He obeyed the will of His Father, and did what He has been entrusted to do, following where His Father has commanded Him to go, in serving the needs of the people of God in many places. He and His disciples moved from places to places, often not even having a shelter over their heads, and they had to endure challenges and trials along the journey, while ministering to the people.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, what is the significance of all these to all of us? It is that all of us have been called to the same ministry as the prophet Samuel and which the Lord had done with His disciples. We are called to follow in the footsteps of Christ and His Apostles in ministering to the people of God. We are called to follow Christ and to be witnesses of His truth to the nations, and the works He has entrusted to His disciples are still ongoing and not yet done.

Are we willing to make the effort and give our best to serve the Lord? Are we willing to commit our time and our energy for the greater glory of God as te prophet Samuel and as the Lord and His disciples had done? Let us all reflect on this today, and look back at how we have lived our lives thus far. Have we been truly faithful to God all these while? Or have we instead been serving our own selfish interests and desires all these while?

God has called us all to follow Him. If we have not done so, then let us embrace Him and endeavour to begin this journey of faith with Him. Let us all seek Him with all of our hearts and with all of our strength, and listen to His will intently rather than listening to our own desires and selfish thoughts. May the Lord be with us always throughout this journey, that all of us may remain steadfast throughout our own respective vocations in the Church, that we may do our very best for the greater glory of God at all times. May God bless us all and our good works. Amen.

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Tuesday, 14 January 2020 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day all of us heard the words of the Scripture which reminded us that all of us should put our complete trust in God and believe in Him and all that He has promised to us. God will never disappoint us and He will always be there for us no matter what. The Lord will provide for us and bless us in His good time, as He has done for His faithful ones as we heard in our Scripture passages today.

In the first reading today we heard the anguish and sorrow of the mother of the prophet Samuel, Hannah, one of the two wives of a man named Elkanah. Elkanah had many children with Penninah, his other wife, while Hannah had borne him none. At that time, for a married woman to have borne no children or to be considered as barren was a great humiliation and could even be considered as a sign of divine displeasure or a curse against the woman. Such woman was usually disliked and ostracised by the society at large.

That was why there was such a great pressure on Hannah to give a child to her husband, and on top of that, Penninah often teased her and ridiculed her because of her jealousy that Elkanah still loved Hannah more despite Penninah having given him many children. Hannah was therefore at her wits end and came before the Lord seeking for solace and help, throwing herself at His presence and surrendering everything to Him.

The Lord heard her prayers and answered her. She bore a son, Samuel, whom God honoured by calling him to be a great prophet, and also appointed Judge of Israel during the transition years to the monarchy, guiding the people of God through the difficult years and trials, remembered as a great prophet of God. And Hannah would be forever remembered and honoured as the mother of this great prophet. She was also given more children to replace Samuel, whom she promised and offered to God, thanking Him for all He had done for her.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of another story of God’s providence and love for His people, as we heard of how the Lord Jesus cast out evil spirits from a possessed man in a synagogue at the beginning of His ministry. The possessed man was beset by the demons who recognised Jesus for Who He was, the Son of God and Saviour of the world. The Lord commanded the evil spirit to leave the man, and it had to obey the Lord’s command and leave the man freed from his earlier torments.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what we have heard from all these truths from the Scriptures are reminders for us that God is always ever loving and compassionate towards us, full of mercy and full of concern, caring for us and listening to our pleas for help. He did not turn a deaf ear or a blind eye against our afflictions, but He will do whatever is in His will to help us, in His own time. As long as we believe in God and put our trust in Him, we really will not be disappointed.

But are we able to put our trust in Him? More often than not we put our trust in other things of this world instead rather than in God. We believe more in the strength of our own flesh and in the depth of our own intellect and wisdom thinking that we know how to solve everything. We only seek God when we have nothing else to turn to and we end up often forgetting about Him when we are in good times again. And when we do not get what we want, we become angry at God and we distance ourselves from Him.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we live our lives in this world today, we need to realise that without God our existence will be miserable and meaningless, and without God our lives truly have no real significance. Yet, we are often too proud and too egoistic, too filled with desire and therefore became too distracted and we are unable to trust God and have faith in Him as we should have. We need to open our hearts and minds, and allow God to enter into them, throwing away all of our pride and excessive desires that prevented us from reaching out to God.

Let us all be inspired by the faith and courage of Hannah in seeking God even when she was already so troubled and challenged, and let us all trust that God can heal us from our afflictions and that He will be with us throughout the journey of our lives. May the Lord guide us in our journey and may He strengthen us in our faith from now on. May God bless us all, now and always. Amen.

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Monday, 13 January 2020 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Hilary, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Bishops)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we begin the Ordinary Time of the year, in this period between the seasons of Christmas and Lent. As we begin this Ordinary Time, all of us heard the message of the Scriptures in which God called us all to be His followers and disciples, to do His will and to walk in His path, as He called the prophet Samuel at the time of the Old Testament and His first disciples from the area of the Lake of Galilee as described in our Gospel passage today.

In our first reading today we heard of the account of the time when the prophet Samuel was about to be born, at the end of the era of the Judges of Israel and before the coming of the era of the kings of Israel. Samuel’s parents, Elkanah and Hannah were mentioned in today’s passage, when they went to the house of the Lord and Hannah was sad because she had not been able to bear her husband any child, while the other wife of Elkanah bore him many children.

But God had great plans for Hannah, as through her, a great prophet would be born, Samuel who would be the last and among the greatest of the Judges of Israel and the one who would anoint two kings of Israel, Saul and David, leading the people of God through the difficult years of trials and attacks from the Philistines, and enduring the divisions and disagreements, the sins committed by the people and also the disobedience and sin of Saul. Samuel helped the people of God and guided them through all those difficult years.

In our Gospel passage, God also called several men to follow Him, those fishermen from obscure origins, illiterate and insignificant, and yet, through His calling, He made them all to be His disciples, as great fishers of men by which He called many people to Himself. Although those disciples were then totally ordinary and undistinguished but God gave them His power and strength, and He sent them the Holy Spirit and gave them His Wisdom that they became fearless and courageous witnesses of the truth of God.

They were called from their ordinary lives to be extraordinary by the grace of God. The disciples of the Lord, the prophet Samuel and all the other holy predecessors we have all have been called to greatness. They heeded the Lord’s call and followed Him, and God was with them, guiding them in doing His will. And they did many good works for the Lord, in bringing His people closer to Him and in bringing the truth of God to the nations.

And today, we have yet another example through the saint whose feast we celebrate on this day, namely St. Hilary of Poitiers, a renowned Church father and bishop of the early Church, in the region of Poitiers which is now at the central-southern portion of France. St. Hilary of Poitiers was known for his zeal and dedication in serving the people of God especially in how be opposed the heresy of Arianism in his diocese and also in the broader Church context.

St. Hilary had to go up against powerful authorities, both within and from outside the Church. As the Emperor then was himself sympathetic to the Arian cause, St. Hilary tried his best to persuade him to turn away from the Arian heresy and to oppose the influential Arian bishops, for the benefit of the faithful and for the salvation of the souls of those who have fallen into heresy. St. Hilary dedicated all his energy and strength in doing the will of God just as the prophet Samuel and the disciples of the Lord had done.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard all these good and inspiring examples, let us all be inspired to live our lives with faith, and dedicate ourselves to do the will of God following the footsteps of the Apostles and the prophets, and inspired by the faith of St. Hilary of Poitiers, as we begin this Ordinary Time of the year, a time for action and work of our faith. Let us all be witnesses of the Lord’s truth in our society and bear witness for our faith among the peoples.

May the Lord continue to guide us and strengthen us that we may have the necessary strength and courage to carry on living our lives with faith despite the challenges and trials we may have to face along the way. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Sunday, 12 January 2020 : Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday after the Solemnity of the Epiphany we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord which marks the end of the liturgical season of Christmas. Therefore officially the celebration of Christmas is over by the end of today and from tomorrow we will begin with the first part of the Ordinary Time of this current liturgical year cycle, that is until the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday.

On this day, the Baptism of the Lord at the Jordan River by St. John the Baptist is a symbolic reminder of the end of the Christmas festivities, as the Lord began His ministry in this world at the moment when He was baptised. He was no longer hidden from the world as it was when He was still a Child and during His early growing up years. After His Baptism, He began His ministry, through the forty days of temptation later on by the devil and then began gathering His disciples and started His works.

When the Lord was baptised, there were many things that happened which we should take note of, and how these are all significant for our understanding of both our faith and what we ourselves need to do as Christians, as those who believe that Jesus Christ, the One baptised by St. John that day, is truly the Lord and Saviour of the whole world. His Baptism proclaimed the truth of the coming of the long awaited Messiah, and fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet Isaiah in our first reading today.

In that prophecy, God showed how His Servant would come into this world, proclaiming His love and mercy, delivering His truth and liberating the people from the darkness and destruction caused by their sins. When Jesus was baptised, immediately the heavens opened and a Dove descended on Him, as the Holy Spirit descended on the Lord Jesus, and the voice of the Father could be heard, proclaiming that Jesus was truly the Son of God, the Beloved and Chosen One, sent into this world out of His love for us all.

In that very moment, we have actually witnessed through the Gospel passage, the manifestation of God’s plan for our salvation, as the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and the Holy Spirit came into that occasion in one place, showing how God would redeem His people by the giving of His Son to this world. And it was also very important that Jesus insisted to be baptised by St. John although the latter really wanted to be baptised by Jesus instead.

That is because through baptism, the Lord showed that by our common baptism, which we shared with Him, we have shared in His death with water being often associated with both death and life. And He also made the same connection as our baptism is, to the moment when the Lord led His people Israel through the Red Sea, passing through the water of the sea from their slavery in Egypt into the freedom towards the Land promised to them.

Thus, through His humanity, the Human nature He possessed in Him, Christ made His Baptism to be united to our own Sacrament of Baptism, when through the power and authority He bestowed on His Church and the Apostles, He made us all, who are baptised to be members of the Church, be it as an infant or as an adult through conversion, God’s own adopted children. That is because if Christ is the Son of God, and the Father called Him as His Son, we who have been baptised are also made the children of the Father, God’s beloved ones.

And brothers and sisters in Christ, that is not the end of it all. Instead, it is merely just the beginning, as I have mentioned earlier how Christ began His ministry after His Baptism, we too have also begun our new life in Christ and embarked on a new journey of faith from the moment we were baptised. Through baptism we have been marked as God’s own beloved children, and because of that, we have also been entrusted with the mission of the Church, to go forth and evangelise the truth which Christ has brought into this world.

Baptism is not the end of our faith journey, contrary to what some have been thinking. It does not mean that after we have been baptised that we are already saved by God and therefore had no more need to follow God’s will and do what He has told us to do. Rather, through baptism, we have been fundamentally changed in our being, as we have been made the spiritual children of God, and God has become our Father.

And if we are God’s children and He is our Father, is it not then just right and proper that we follow what our Father taught us to do? How can we call ourselves as God’s children if our lives are contrary to His will and if we do what is wicked and evil in His eyes? And if God is our Father, is it not right that we act in ways that conform with His ways and bring glory to His Name? This is our journey of faith that we began at our baptism.

Therefore today, as we mark the end of the Christmas season with this Feast of the Baptism of the Lord let us all focus on the moment of the Lord’s baptism at the Jordan, and unite it with our own baptism, if we can remember it well. For those of us who have been baptised as adults, try to remember that moment when the holy water of baptism touched us, either by immersion or at our foreheads. And for those of us who have been baptised as infants, ask our parents and/or godparents for that moment.

Let us all remember our baptism, its date and time, and more importantly, our promise at baptism which we renew at Easter every year. We profess faith in God as expressed in the Creed, in all its fullness and we profess that we will reject Satan and all of his lies, his advances and all the falsehoods he presents before us. And today, therefore, we are reminded by this moment of Christ’s baptism that we have our respective journeys ahead of us, and we need to do what we can to fulfil what God has called us to do through baptism.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all from now on be exemplary in our lives and dedicate ourselves to God anew, with the desire to follow Him, our Lord and Father because we are His beloved children. Let us all sin no more and try our best to obey the will of our Father and love Him more, just as He has loved us all so much that He has given us Christ, His Son to redeem us and to bring us a new hope. By our baptism, we have been made as partakers of this same hope and promise of eternal life.

May the Lord, our Father continue to watch over us and guide us in our journey of faith, and may He grant us the strength and courage to live our lives faithfully from now on so that we may become inspirations for one another in being good and faithful Christians. May all of us bear witness to Christ’s truth by our lives and do our best to serve Him at all times, devoting our time, attention and effort always as we journey together in faith as the members of God’s one Church. Amen.

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Saturday, 11 January 2020 : Saturday after the Epiphany (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we heard the words of the Scripture, on which we are reminded first of all on the matter of sin, which we must take seriously as sin is a serious obstacle on our way towards God the Father, and we have to be wary and be vigilant against our vulnerability towards those sins. And we must know how merciful God is towards us, as His love for us truly exceeds even the multitudes of our sins.

And God is calling on us to turn away from those sins and embrace His merciful and compassionate love. And He is also calling on us all today on the need for us to reach out to our brethren around us, to call on them and to remind one another on the need to realign our lives once again with God. The Lord has provided us with His truth through His Son, Our Lord Jesus as St. John mentioned in his Epistle in our first reading passage today.

We need to know that it is our Christian duty and obligation for us to reach out to our brethren who are falling out of their faith and path towards God. If we do not do so while we are perfectly capable of doing so, then we are actually partly to blame if they end up falling further and deeper into sin, because we have committed a sin of omission by our failure to act. We have to help one another in our journey of faith as we are bound to face challenges along this journey.

Now, we should look at the good examples set by St. John the Baptist in our Gospel passage today, as the inspiration and example we should hold up to, as we strive to become a better disciple and follower of the Lord. We all know how St. John the Baptist was vigorous in his works in calling on the people to repent from their sins and baptised many people at the River Jordan, which he still continued to do as we heard in our Gospel passage today.

That was when some of the disciples of St. John the Baptist came to him and complained that the Lord Jesus, Who was baptised by St. John the Baptist himself not long previously, was also baptising and getting more and more people to follow Him. The disciples made such a comment out of fear and jealousy, thinking of Jesus and His disciples as the rivals of their master, St. John the Baptist and themselves.

But St. John the Baptist was instead happy that more and more people were flocking to the Lord, and he reiterated what he has once told the Levites and the priests earlier on, that he was just a mere servant, whose role was to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. He humbly did his best and continued his works; and was happy that he was able to prepare the way well for his Lord and Master, the One Saviour promised for the salvation of the world.

The attitude and dedication of St. John the Baptist are the things that all of us as Christians must be inspired to adapt and follow well, as first of all, as what we have discussed earlier, the Lord has called on us all to be caring for one another and to help those who are falling away from His salvation and grace. And then, the humility which St. John the Baptist clearly exhibited is a good reminder for all of us that we are all serving the greater purpose and for the greater glory of God and not for ourselves.

Are we able to do the same in our own lives, brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we able to do our best in our respective lives that our lives may glorify God, and especially in our contributions as members of God’s Church, that we may inspire others around us whose faith are lukewarm and are in danger of slipping further and further into sin. Do not allow pride, greed and other negative things into us, as the devil is hard at work trying to distract us through the many temptations present all around us. Let us follow the humility and dedication showed by St. John the Baptist.

Hopefully we may become bright beacons of God’s light in this darkened world, to help lead everyone to God, that all of us will be saved together and live forever in God’s presence. May God be with us always. Amen.

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Friday, 10 January 2020 : Friday after the Epiphany (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we heard from the words of the Scriptures, we are reminded of the time when the Lord Jesus healed a person who suffered from leprosy, a disease that was truly feared at that time. For those who suffered from leprosy were treated with disdain and were rejected from the greater community, forced to live outside the boundaries of civilisation in the wilderness until they could prove that they had been completely healed from their leprosy.

Through what we have heard from our Gospel passage today, the Lord Jesus made a leper clean from all of his complaints and showed the leper that truly He was the Messiah, or the Saviour promised by God. The Lord Jesus showed the mercy and forgiveness of God to the leper, healing him from the disease and allowing him therefore to return to the society after being ostracised and excluded earlier on.

And this is what we have also heard from our first reading today, from the Epistle of St. John, in which we are reminded of the truth of God’s love, which He has shown us through Our Lord Jesus Christ, by which He has healed us from our sickness as well. Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, just as the leper was healed from his leprosy, all of us are also sick and in need of healing from God. I am referring to the sickness because of our sins.

Because of the sins we have committed, we have been separated from God, cast out from His presence and forced to wander in the ‘wilderness’ of this world. It is our sins that have made us to be like this, to be separated from God because no sin can ever stand in God’s presence, as God is all good and perfect, and sin is a corruption, dark and wicked thing which made us unworthy. But we must realise, brothers and sisters, that despite all these, God loves us all and wants us to be reconciled to Him.

That is why He gave us the best and most perfect gift of all when He gave us His own beloved Son to be our Saviour. And He showed us all these by the three testimonies that we have heard being mentioned by St. John the Apostle. The testimonies of the Spirit, blood and water are all that proved to us what the extent of God’s infinite love for us is like. It is through these manifestation of God’s love for us.

First of all, through the testimony of the Spirit, we have seen how the Lord Himself became tangible and visible to us. Remember that at the moment of the Incarnation, when the Word of God became Man, it was by the will of the Father and by the power of the Holy Spirit, that the Son was conceived in the womb of Mary, His mother. And again, when the moment that Christ was baptised in the Jordan, the Spirit descended like a dove upon Him, proclaiming with the Father’s words, that He is truly the Son of God and Saviour promised to Israel and the world.

And through water and blood, the truth of God’s love was given to us. Let us all look at the moment of the crucifixion of the Lord, when He laid down His life for our sake. As He hang upon the Cross, and died for us, and when He was pierced, blood and water immediately rushed out from His heart. This showed us all Who He truly is, as the Blood represents His divinity while the water represents His humanity, showing how God’s Son endured all the sufferings and die through His sacrifice, the ultimate show and representation of His love for us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are called to reflect on our relationship with God. God has loved us very much and has done so much for our sake, willingly sending His Son to be with us, to suffer for us and to bear our heavy burdens, to die for us that all of us who believe in Him may have life through Him and that we may be reconciled with God. Yet, have we loved God in the same manner? Have we devoted ourselves just as He has devoted Himself to us?

Let us all spend our time in getting closer to God and in establishing a loving and meaningful relationship with Him. Let us seek the grace and love of God, reconciling ourselves with Him and accepting the loving hands of God’s mercy extended to us, asking Him to heal us from our brokenness and sins. May the Lord be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 9 January 2020 : Thursday after the Epiphany (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture in which we are reminded first of all that God has always loved us, and because of that, He fulfilled His promises to us, as we heard of the Lord Himself speaking and declaring the coming of His salvation, as He proclaimed publicly that all the things which have been prophesied about Him had been fulfilled because He has revealed Himself at last.

And what we have heard in God’s proclamation is how He loves us by caring for us, freeing us from the burdens of our sickness and shortcomings, healing the blind and the paralytic, helping those who have been assailed and troubled by other things, and proclaiming the coming of God’s kingdom on earth, as the fulfilment of His long awaited promises to us.

But many of us remained ignorant of this fact and many of us failed to recognise God and His love being present in our midst because we are too preoccupied with ourselves and too busy worrying about our own worldly desires and needs. That is why many among us, even the believers and members of the Church are not true disciples of the Lord as our faith are only a formality, empty and without real, living faith. We caused others to suffer and to endure bitterness because of our own selfishness.

This is what St. John spoke about in his Epistle, which was read as our first reading passage today. St. John spoke of the hypocrisy of many among the people of God who claimed to have faith in God and love Him and yet, they did not have real faith, as they did not truly appreciate and understand what it means to love God and to have faith in Him. If they are truly faithful to God, then they should follow what He has done and do what He has taught us.

Many of us claimed to be faithful to God, and yet in our daily living, the way we act and work, the way we interact with each other, God is not present at all. Instead, what we have certainly often seen and witnessed, is the pervasion of selfishness, ego, human pride, greed and all sorts of things that caused us to fall into sin and into the temptations of the devil. More often than not, we acted in ways that were contrary to our Christian faith.

And this makes us all hypocrites in faith as we live our lives in ways that are contrary to our beliefs and we are those whom St. John called in his Epistle today as ‘liars’. For as long as we do not live our lives according to God’s ways, we do not truly belong to Him and we do not really have faith as how we should have it. The Lord through His Apostle St. John therefore reminds us that if we consider ourselves as Christians then we must love in the manner God has loved us all.

This means that if we want to be true and genuine Christians, we must love one another and show care and concern to all those who are around us. We must be less selfish, less egoistic and less affected by the desires and pride in our hearts and minds. Just as God has loved us all that He sent us His own Son to be Our Saviour, then we too must share that same love we have been given with each other. It is only by doing this that we truly become His disciples and followers, and we will no longer be hypocrites.

It will not be easy for us to walk down this path though, as we probably should already know just how difficult it is for us to resist the many temptations of the devil who is constantly trying to drag us into sin, by persuading us to give in to our selfish inner desires, our preoccupation with worldly things and concerns that distract us from being able to recognise God’s love and our responsibility to share the same love with our brethren. We will encounter much trials and struggles along our journey.

But as long as we put our trust in God and in His love, we should not be afraid of anything. We must trust in God’s love and providence, and because He has done so much for us, we too must love just as He has loved us. Let us all thus heed His words and His calling for us to be loving to our fellow men, and practice this each and every days of lives from now on. May God bless us all, in our every good deeds and endeavours. Amen.