Christian sermons

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Monday, 11 November 2019 : 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Martin of Tours, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture reminding us all about the importance of keeping ourselves open to the Wisdom of God through His Holy Spirit, by which His presence and truth enter into us and transform us in the manner that is perhaps incomprehensible to the world and to the norms of the society where we are living in. Yet, it is something that is necessary for us as we grow in our faith.

And it is also an important reminder to each and every one of us that all of us living in this world have been entrusted with the responsibility and the duty of being witnesses of Christ in our daily living with faith, as we are all visible to each other through our actions and our deeds. If we do not live our lives with faith, essentially we are turning ourselves away from God and from His truth and wisdom.

Unfortunately, many of us often succumbed to the temptations of this world, the temptation of power, of fame, of worldly material goods and prosperity, of glory and human praise and adulation. Many of us chose therefore to trust in our own strength and wisdom, and ended up falling into the trap that the devil and our tempters have put in place to make us stumble in our journey of faith.

And the devil knows how to manipulate and trick us well, and the greater the power and responsibility we have, the more that we will be tempted to stray away from the path of the Lord. Power indeed corrupts, as the people says, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is in our human nature, our predisposition and desire for power, for pleasures and happiness in life, for joy of this world that made us vulnerable to the temptations to sin.

That was why the Lord Jesus rebuked His opponents, likely referring to the Pharisees and the elders and the chief priests as He spoke out against those who have misled the children of God into the wrong path. And all of that was caused by their preoccupation with maintaining their prestige, power, influence and authority in the society that led them to their haughty and misled attitudes.

Therefore, after having discerned about what we have just discussed, we can see how that all of us are called to serve the Lord and follow Him in His way of truth. However, following God requires us to be open to His truth and wisdom as I mentioned, and we have to be humble and lay down our pride, or else it will be difficult for us to resist the temptations to follow instead the path of the devil, that is the path of worldliness.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, perhaps we can get some inspirations from the saint of today, a renowned saint whose life is truly exemplary before God. St. Martin of Tours was one of the early bishops of Tours in what is now southern France, at the years of the waning of the Roman Empire in the west, about a century after the toleration of Christians through the Edict of Milan. St. Martin of Tours came from a noble background and was an officer in the Roman army before he had a change in life and became eventually the Bishop of Tours.

It was told that on one occasion, on a cold night, as St. Martin rode along on his horse, he saw an old beggar by the roadside suffering and without anything to cover himself from the cold temperature. St. Martin, moved by what he saw, took his sword and cut part of his centurion’s cloak, and gave the cloak to the old beggar to be a comforter and protector in the midst of the cold condition.

That very night, the Lord appeared to St. Martin and revealed that the old beggar was none other than God Himself, and showed him how he had done a truly blessed action by his humility and generosity for the least and the poorest, which reminds us of what the Lord Jesus said, that whatever we do to the least of our brothers, we are doing it for the Lord Himself. Through that and all other experiences, St. Martin of Tours eventually decided to leave the military and deepen his spiritual life instead, becoming the Bishop of Tours by the support of his flock.

St. Martin of Tours was truly dedicated in his service as the shepherd of his flock, dedicating his time and efforts to take care of the needs of his flock, in particular their spiritual needs. He was a champion of the true faith amidst several heresies that were rampant at that time, protecting his flock from the false teachings and helped to guide them down the right path, leading by example through his own virtuous life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are we able to follow the good examples set by St. Martin of Tours? We ourselves can follow in his footsteps and do what he had once done in our own respective lives. What we need is the humility and the desire to resist the many temptations present all around us, and also the desire to love God with all of our heart. Let us ask for the intercession of St. Martin of Tours, that God will strengthen our faith through his prayers. May God bless us all, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 10 November 2019 : Thirty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday as we get closer to the end of the current liturgical year, we heard about the readings focusing on the theme of the resurrection into new life, as we began today with the first reading from the Second Book of the Maccabees on seven brothers and their mother who were persecuted by the Seleucid Greeks under king Antiochus and then in the Gospel we heard of the encounter and exchange between the Lord Jesus and a group of Sadducees.

Let us all first understand the context of the readings today, in which we heard of the persecution of the faithful Jews by the Seleucid king Antiochus who wanted to impose Greek customs and religious traditions on the whole of his Empire. At that time, the tyranny and heavy-handedness of the king made many of the population to rise up in revolt, led by the priest Mattathias and his family, who would be known as the Maccabeans.

As we can see, the persecution of the Jews who remained faithful to the laws and commandments of God was truly terrible, as exemplified by the persecution of the seven brothers and their mother. They were tortured, made to suffer and then executed one by one, beginning from the eldest son to the youngest son because they all refused to abandon their faith in God and embrace the king’s order to embrace the pagan Greek practices.

All of them defended their faith and stood by their dedication to God without hesitation, right up to the last and the youngest son who was persuaded by the king to abandon his faith for the sake of being considered the friend of the king and receiving many worldly privileges of power, wealth and glory that were abounding through the king and his influence. But none of those were able to move the heart of the youngest son who remained even more adamant on his faith.

We can see very clearly how courageous all of them, the seven sons and their mother in their readiness to face bitter suffering and painful death in the defence of their faith. They would not have had such courage when faced with all the forces of the world levelled against them, had they not have faith in God and in His promises of an everlasting of true joy, happiness and wonders in Him despite all the trials and challenges that they had to face in life.

They turned away from the comforts and the false happiness of the world, and chose to focus on the Lord and follow the path He has shown them. Their perseverance and their enduring faith in the Lord’s providence and the Covenant which He had made with them allowed them to endure all the terrible persecutions and trials. They sought the promise of the world that is to come and not put their focus on the happiness in the world that they were in at present.

And this is where our story from the first reading is connected and is parallel to the story from our Gospel today, as the Sadducees confronted the Lord and asked Him regarding the resurrection from the dead. The Sadducees were a powerful group at the time of the Lord Jesus, as one of the two main influence groups alongside the Pharisees. Unlike the Pharisees who were concerned and focused on the matters of spirituality, religion and the Law to a great excess, the Sadducees were their polar opposites.

The Sadducees were kind of the secular and worldly party of the Jewish people, all those who were influential and powerful in the community and with ties to the government, with probably many of them also belonging to the supporters of king Herod and his descendants, the rulers of Judea and Galilee. The Sadducees were those who looked at the world in a secular and non-religious manner, in opposition to the Pharisees and also to Jesus and His disciples, as the Lord spoke often in favour of leaving behind material goods of the world in the seeking of the divine.

The Sadducees used a story to test the Lord with regards to the matter of the resurrection because they did not believe in either the resurrection or the afterlife. They neither believed in the Angels or in any spiritual matters, as they were focused on purely materialistic and worldly matters in their sight and understanding of the world. They wanted to test and even discredit the Lord using the story of a woman who had seven husbands and asking Him whose wife she was in the afterlife.

Understanding the context of the Jewish law, if a man who was married to a woman died without having a child, one of his brothers had to take the woman to be his own wife, and a son born of the union between the deceased man’s brother and his wife would be legally considered as the son of the deceased for the matter of inheritance and preserving the deceased man’s memory and legacy. It was this part of the Law which the Sadducees made use of in trying to test the Lord.

But the Lord chided and rebuked the Sadducees for failing to understand the Law properly and for their worldly view and perspective of things by which they focused on such trivialities and misunderstood what the most important things in life are. When they asked the Lord whose wife the woman was among all the seven brothers who all married her, they failed to understand that marriage is not about something human only but even more importantly is a union blessed by the divine in imitation of God’s love.

In the case of the Sadducees, they thought of the woman being a wife as a commodity and possession, in the manner that was common in the world at that time. During that time, the status of women in the society was quite low, and they were often considered as the possessions of their family, parents or husbands. In that context, the Sadducees took am understanding of matter with a purely worldly mentality and sentiment, worrying more about who the woman would belong to rather than the matter of the resurrection itself.

And why is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because the Sadducees were too afraid to leave the life as they knew it. They were too attached to the world that they refused to think of what would come after the end of their earthly existence. That was why they focused on living their lives at the moment to the fullest, seeking worldly pleasures and satisfactions, and in doing so, they ended up falling into the temptations that brought them further and further away from God.

Essentially, what we heard about the seven brothers in our first reading today is contrary to what we have heard from the attitudes of the Sadducees. The seven brothers put their faith in God first and foremost before anything else, willing to suffer and even die for the sake of defending their faith and in remaining committed to Him. They would not betray their faith and their God for the sake of worldly happiness and status. On the other hand, the Sadducees acted and believed in a manner diametrically opposite, as they focused on the world and perhaps had no God in their heart at all.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of these then come to us, as we all can follow the path that either of these two groups of people showed us. God has given us the freedom to choose the path of our lives, and so, do we want to follow the path of the Sadducees, focusing on the world, enjoying everything and forgetting about God, just as what the Greek king tried to persuade the seven brothers to do, or do we want to be faithful like the seven brothers in the Book of Maccabees?

And as we can already see from what those seven brothers endured and suffered from, to be true disciples and followers of the Lord, as our Lord Himself said, we must be ready to carry our crosses in life with Him, to suffer with Him and from time to time, to be ridiculed, mocked, humiliated, rejected and even persecuted for what we believe. That is part of the commitment that we ought to have as those who truly believe in God and want to walk in His ways.

Let us all therefore truly be faithful to God at all times and in everything we say and do in our lives. Let us all draw ever closer to Him and let us all dedicate ourselves with ever greater zeal and love for God, through every actions and efforts we take in this life we have in this world. Let us all be courageous in loving God, and resist the many temptations of false pleasures and joys of this world so that our lives may truly be Christian-like and inspirational that through us and our good examples of faith may bring ever more souls to redemption and salvation in God.

May the Lord inflame in us the strong and living flame of passion and love for Him and His ways, that we may truly desire to seek our true treasure and inheritance in God, and not ended up being distracted by the many comforts in life that may seem to be satisfactory and pleasurable, and yet does not last forever. May God guide us all to Him, and embrace us all with the fullness of His love. Amen.

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Saturday, 9 November 2019 : Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this great day and occasion, we together with the whole Church, the entire Christendom rejoice for the Holy Mother Church, because today we mark the anniversary of the Dedication of the great Mother and Head of all the churches of the whole entire world. On this day we mark solemnly the remembrance of the Dedication of the great Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome, which is also the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, our Pope.

The Basilica of St. John Lateran was one of the earliest churches to be built after the ending of the official persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire, after the Emperor Constantine the Great extended toleration of Christians through the Edict of Milan and soon took up the Christian cause by donating lands and money to support the growing Christian Church, beginning a vigorous program of church buildings, including that of the Basilica of St. John Lateran in the middle of the ancient city of Rome.

A lot of people may not know that the Basilica of St. John Lateran or the Lateran Basilica is actually the Cathedral of the Pope and not the Basilica of St. Peter in Vatican. Although the latter Basilica is truly of great importance, second only to that of the Lateran Basilica, being the Basilica built over the Tomb of St. Peter and his place of martyrdom and being the largest and most wonderful of all churches in Christendom by architecture and also being the place where the Pope celebrates most of his liturgical celebrations, but it is in the Lateran Basilica that the Cathedra of the Bishop of Rome is placed.

A Cathedral is the mother church of the entire diocese and is the seat of the bishop, as that is where the Cathedra or the official seat or throne of the bishop is placed. Since the earliest days of the Church and also following ancient customs, the seat of authority is the mark of a ruler’s authority and power, and they are also used to denote the teaching and preaching authority in religious context. When Pontius Pilate condemned Jesus to death, he was also seated on the Seat of Judgement, or Gabbatha in Hebrew.

Similarly therefore, the bishop’s Cathedra is the preeminent symbol of his authority over the whole diocese, and the church where the Cathedra is placed, is called the Cathedral of the diocese, the most important and preeminent of all the churches in that entire diocese. In the same way therefore, the Cathedra of the Popes being located in the Lateran Basilica means that the Lateran Basilica is the Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome and its most important church.

And Rome being the heart and centre of all Christendom being the seat of the Vicar of Christ as the Successor of St. Peter the Apostle made the Lateran Basilica all the more important, as this particular House of God and church is not just an ordinary Cathedral for any bishops, but is the Cathedral and the primary church of the Vicar of Christ, the Pope himself. As a result, this is reflected in its title being the Archbasilica of the Most Holy Saviour, dedicated to both St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, and also given the additional title of being the Head and Mother of all the churches in Rome and in the whole world.

Therefore today, we rejoice with the whole church for this Dedication anniversary and remembrance of the greatest church and House of God on earth, calling to mind the suffering and the pains endured by the many martyrs of the early Church who had to go through persecutions before the triumph of Christianity and the faith in the time when this great Basilica was built, as a symbol of victory of the true faith over the pagan religions and the false gods of ancient Rome.

And also, we reaffirm our loyalty, obedience and unity to the Church of Rome, to the Vicar of Christ, currently His Holiness Pope Francis, the Successor of St. Peter the Apostle as the leader of the entire universal Church, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of God. By celebrating this Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, we show our unity to the whole Church, and adhering ourselves to the bounds and the rules of the Universal Church as espoused in the divine authority invested in our Popes, seated on his Cathedra in the Lateran Basilica.

This is why we have to keep in mind this unity and this faith we have, which is very important, considering the many bitter divisions of Christians over the past two millennia, bitter divisions that still last to this very day, although efforts had been made towards the reunion of the splintered Church of God. We have to pray fervently and do our best in whatever small ways we can do, to maintain and foster unity among all Christians.

Hopefully one day, soon, the entire Christendom and all those who believe in the Lord will be reunited as one united Church as how it was in the early days of the Church, united under the leadership of the Vicar of Christ, the Pope and Bishop of Rome, together with the entire episcopate, the College of Bishops and all the leaders of the Church. This is why as we celebrate today’s glorious occasion we also have to pray for the unity in the Church and also the unity of all Christians.

And now, brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all today also called to reflect on ourselves, for one thing that we must also not forget is the fact that each and every one of us are truly also Temple of God’s Holy Presence, where God truly dwells and made us all to be His House. His Spirit He has given to us, and through the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, by which He has transformed the essence of bread and wine into His own Precious Body and Blood, we have received Him into ourselves.

Therefore, all of us are God’s living Church, the true Church of God that is even more important than all the physical church buildings we have. For while all those churches are built by men, we are all built by God Himself, and we were made to be good and perfect, had it not been for sins that made us to be defiled and corrupted. And yet, God’s love for each and every one of us is still so great that despite even all of that, He wants to forgive us and be reconciled with us.

And thus, we have to realise just how seriously we have to take God’s love for us, His compassion and merciful heart always directed towards us. If we take very good care of our churches and make sure that only the best are given to God, in our worship and in the careful prescription of the liturgical laws and norms, then we must also show the same attitude and commitment in our own lives as well. For we are all God’s living Church, and He is truly present within us.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of the famous story of the Lord Jesus clearing the Temple from all the merchants who were peddling their goods and exchanging money in the courtyards of the Temple. In that story, we saw the Lord’s great anger as He chased out all those merchants and overturned all their tables and ceased all of their transactions, all because they have actually defiled the sanctity of the Temple by their actions.

The context of this action was that those merchants were tolerated or were probably even encouraged by the Temple authorities as they were beneficial to each other, with the merchants’ livelihood depending on the presence of the Temple and its many worshippers and visitors and the continuous activities in that Temple. Meanwhile, the Temple authorities, the priests and the elders gained from the presence of the bustling merchant activities as they were the ones who also sold the necessary sacrificial animals to the worshippers coming to the Temple.

However, as they did so, they ended up being greedy and corrupt in their practices, tricking the worshippers coming from afar by being unfair and unjust, as the prophets themselves once foretold, of the wickedness of those who would treat their brethren with contempt and seeking only their personal benefits, overcharging for their goods and services, and gaining plenty of profits from the losses incurred by innocent people who came to the Lord seeking to worship Him.

That was why the Lord was rightfully angry, as He cleared the Temple grounds from all those corruptions as a stern reminder for each and every one of us, that we should not allow those corruptions from defiling our own House of God either, that is the Temple of our body, our heart, mind, soul and our whole being, for God is truly present in us, and He Who dwells in us is all holy and perfect. Should we willingly and consciously defile our own Temple, we shall suffer grievously in the end.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, having been reminded that we are all God’s living Church and that we are the Temple of His holy Presence, let us all strive from now on to be righteous and to be faithful in all things. Let us all distance ourselves from sin and from its many temptations, so that while we may fall into sin again from time to time, but by our resolve and by our desire to love God wholeheartedly, we will always remain anchored strongly to God.

Let us all strive to be holy and be exemplary in our actions in life from now on then, so that we may be beacons of light and hope for our fellow brethren, that despite the challenges and darkness in our lives, we will always be focused on God and will be ever closer to Him. Let us all seek to love God and be faithful to Him ever more, with each and every passing days. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Friday, 8 November 2019 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are all reminded that in our lives in this world, we will always ever be tempted to walk down the path of sin, following the whims of our desires, the desires of our flesh, the desires for money and worldly possessions, all sorts of things that distract us from God and His ways. And unless we persistently and actively seek to restrain ourselves from those temptations and sins.

Today we listened to the words of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel passage in which He spoke to His disciples and followers using the parable of the dishonest steward to highlight the importance of dedicating oneself to God and not to other, worldly things. In that parable, we heard of the story of a steward who was dishonest and corrupt in his actions, whose corrupt practices led him to enrich himself off his master’s money.

When he was discovered by his master and was dealt with a notice of dismissal, he panicked and then did whatever he had been used to doing all the while. As we heard how he approached another two servants of his master, we heard how he cunningly manipulated the debts that those two servants had towards his master, a practice that he probably had done all the times while he was still embezzling his master’s money.

The master praised the astuteness of the dishonest servant, but actually if we understood both the intention of the Lord’s use of this particular parable and also the context of the story and the situation, we should see just how sarcastic the master was when he praised that dishonest steward. Essentially he was rebuking the same steward who had been corrupt and showed how that steward was doing whatever he knew how to do, in being dishonest to safeguard himself and his own interests.

Then this leads to what the Lord then continued on, in highlighting how man cannot love two masters at the same time, and how man cannot serve both God and money. He explained saying how if one love one of the masters, then that man will be bound to love the other one less or even despise the other one. Similarly therefore, we cannot claim or endeavour to serve both God and also the ways of this world.

This is a reminder for all of us as Christians that God should be the primary focus of our lives, of our every actions and deeds, of our every effort and considerations. God should be at the very centre of our lives and our existences, and that befits our role and identity as Christians who believe in God and in His salvation and providence. If we do things otherwise, and choose to follow instead the path of worldliness, how can we call ourselves as Christians then?

Unfortunately, it is a sad reality that many of us Christians have not been truly faithful to God as we should have. We have often put God aside in our relentless and continued pursuit of worldly glory and satisfaction, in our desire for money and material goods, for fame and status within the community, for praise and adulation, for pleasures of the mind and the body among many others.

This is where as Christians all of us are called and challenged to be different, and to resist those temptations that had made so many of us to fall into the darkness of sin. It will not be easy for us to resist those many temptations and wickedness, but unless we put conscious effort and do our best to be righteous and good in the presence of God, then it may be difficult for us to embrace our calling fully to live as faithful Christians.

Let us all therefore do our best in our respective lives, for each and every moments, to be followers of Christ by our good examples in life, and by our dedication and commitment to do His will and not just on formality only. Let our faith in God be a great and sincere one, and let us all draw ever closer to Him and to His saving grace. May God be with us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Thursday, 7 November 2019 : 31st 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 Scriptures we are called to reflect on how God has loved each and every one of us so much that every single one of us are precious before Him and He does not want us to be lost to the darkness. Sin has caused us to be separated from Him and has created the chasm and separation between us and God’s fullness of grace and love.

Fortunately, God’s love for us is even more powerful and greater than all of that. That is proven because even though we have committed many acts of sin throughout our lives, He never ceased to reach out to us and calling us to be repentant and to turn away from those sins. He wants us to be cleansed from those sins and therefore become worthy of the fullness of God’s grace and inheritance. He is always on the lookout for us, being concerned for our souls.

This is what we have heard in our Gospel passage today, when the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples about the matter of God seeking His people as being compared to that of a shepherd who is looking for his one lost sheep, or likened to a person looking for a lost coin. In those cases, the shepherd and the person looking for the lost coin would have done all they could to find the one thing they loved and desired the most.

And this ought to be compared with and seen in the light of how God loves us all very dearly and how each and every one of us are precious to Him. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were making vicious and wicked comments on the Lord and His actions when He reached out to those whom the community in general considered as sinners and as people who were unworthy of God. These were the tax collectors and prostitutes, as well as people who were crippled and inflicted with diseases.

The Pharisees were in particular critical of all those people, seeing them as sinners unworthy of God’s help and grace. But in the process they have overlooked the very fact that they themselves were sinners who were equally unworthy and whom the Lord in fact also sought. The Lord came into this world to reconcile all of His people with Him, and even that included all those who had persecuted, hated and ridiculed Him.

That was what St. Paul spoke about in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in Rome, in our first reading today, as he reminded all the faithful of how God has extended His loving mercy, compassion and forgiveness to us, in seeking us the lost sheep of His. He came into this world and willingly took up His Cross, and bearing in our stead and for our sake, the mighty and the many burdens of our sins, He died for us that we may live.

The Lord loves us that much that He was willing to endure all of the sufferings of our sake. It was His love, the love of the true and Good Shepherd that allowed Him to go through all of that. Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, what then has been our response to God’s love? Have we embraced His love, mercy and forgiveness with the same kind of love and faith? Or have we instead spurned His love and rejected Him?

If we harden our hearts like that of the Pharisees, being so full of themselves and filled with pride and selfish thoughts, then there is going to be hardly any space in our hearts to allow God to enter into our hearts and transform us. Instead, we should humble ourselves and not judge each other by our sins, for ultimately we are all sinners before God. And rather than judging and being condescending to others or comparing our sins and worthiness, we should instead focus on helping one another to live virtuously and righteously in accordance with God’s will.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all spend some time to discern how we will proceed in life from now on, knowing what we need to do in order to be truly righteous and to seek God in all things we do, reaching out to Him Who has always been ready to welcome us back and to be reconciled with us. Let us all do our best therefore to follow God and be obedient to His will from now on. May God bless us all, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Wednesday, 6 November 2019 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard a very clear message from the Scriptures, reminding us all that to be a disciple of Christ we must be prepared for everything, even difficulties and challenges, that we will have to be prepared to endure what Christ Himself had endured in being rejected, ridiculed and being humiliated at times, even from those who were close and dear to us.

We have to know that this is the full reality of becoming a Christian, which means that we dedicate ourselves fully to God, and because we believe in Him, it is only right that we walk in His path and obeying His laws and commandments. But as the Lord’s parable in our Gospel passage today ought to remind us, we must be ready for all sorts of things that are to come as we commit ourselves to God and His way.

In that parable the Lord spoke of how anyone who wanted to build a house would have considered all the costs that are going to be incurred and add them up together to see if they have enough resources and money in order to build the house until its completion without being lacking in anything. And then in another example, the Lord used the comparison with kings who were about to go to war, and how they would have planned for everything before deciding to go to war or to seek for peace.

In using these examples and comparisons from the world, the Lord wants us to do the same with our own lives and how we proceed on in life knowing that what lies ahead of us is nothing less than a very important choice we need to make between following God and following the ways of this world or the way of Satan in contradiction with God. If man can think through and discern for the less important matter of the world like building of houses and planning for war, then all the more important that we make the effort to discern the path for the salvation of our souls.

There are two path lying ahead of us, one of following God, which means that we follow His commandments and laws, obeying Him and His will through the teachings and the commandments preserved through His Church, or instead we can choose to ignore Him and forge our own path in life, doing things in life according to our own preferences and desires, doing things with the primary intention of gaining benefits and good things for ourselves.

In the end, the path of the Lord will lead to eternal life and glory together with Him, which He has promised to all those who remain faithful to Him and hold on to His commandments. On the other hand, disobeying Him and remaining in a state of sin without the desire to be reconciled with God will lead us down a different path, one that will likely end up in an eternity of suffering and regret, the damnation in hell.

Do we want to follow the Lord or to walk away from Him? The choice is clearly ours to make, and we have been given many opportunities, again and again to make the conscious choice for ourselves. God has presented to us what will be our fate if we choose to be with Him and what will happen instead if we abandon Him and choose the way of this world, the way of Satan and his many temptations and falsehoods.

The path that God has shown us indeed will not be easy and convenient for us. If we expect that becoming a Christian means that we will enjoy the bounties and wonders of life in this world then we do not know yet what being a Christian truly entails. To be a Christian as I mentioned earlier means that not only we will share in the joy of Christ, but also in His many sorrows, sharing the cross He has borne for our sake, and suffer with Him.

Are we ready to make the commitment to follow Christ and to carry up our crosses with Him? Let us all dedicate ourselves to Him anew and spend our best efforts to love Him and to commit ourselves to Him from now on. May the Lord help us all to resist the temptation to move away from the path He has shown us, and reject all the false pleasures and joys that the Satan and the forces of this world are bound to show us to detract us from reaching towards God and His salvation. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Tuesday, 5 November 2019 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the messages from the Sacred Scripture reminding us of putting God first and foremost in our lives, and not to be distracted by our many worldly temptations and concerns in life but instead seek for the love and grace of God, which He has generously and freely given to us all, as He truly loves us all very much without reservation.

If we look at our Gospel passage today, we can see just how God has lavished on us all kindness and compassion, and yet, it is we who have often ignored Him, abandoned Him and not being thankful at all the things He has done for our sake. God, represented as the master in the parable which Our Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples, invited many guests to His banquet, but many of those guests refused to attend the banquet.

Those guests claimed that they were busy with their many works and concerns in life, despite having been graciously invited to the rich banquet prepared for them. And the master in his anger, instead decided to extend the invitations to all the others who were more willing to come and join in the banquet. The Lord Jesus was making the examples of cripples, lame people and all the poor by the roadsides for a good reason.

He was using this comparison to highlight how we mankind are often easily tempted by many worldly temptations of money, material possessions, glory, fame, status and influence, among many other things. We are often lured in by these things and become distracted from the rich generosity of God’s love and grace in our lives, symbolised by how those guests refused or ignored the invitation by the master of the banquet to come to the banquet generously prepared for them.

This is a reminder for each and every one of us how in our own lives we often fall into these same temptations, being pulled in by the weakness of our flesh and by the desires in our hearts and minds. And as a result we end up distancing ourselves from God and become estranged from Him, which then open up the door in our hearts and minds for sin to enter even deeper into us and dominate us even more.

How then, we as Christians resist these temptations and proceed from now on? It is now that we must heed what the Apostle St. Paul had spoken to us through our first reading passage taken from the Epistle he wrote to the Church and the faithful in Rome. In that segment of his Epistle, St. Paul exhorted the faithful to keep their faith in God and to be righteous and true to their faith in all things and to hate whatever is evil and wicked in the eyes of God.

He also exhorted the faithful to serve one another and the Church according to the various gifts God has given to His people. This is our calling as Christians because we are all called to be role models and examples for each other in living our lives with faith. By our faith and obedience to God’s will, by our rejection of sin and by our righteousness in life we become inspiration for each other and beacons of God’s light in our darkened world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have received today from the Sacred Scriptures let us all be reminded of our obligations and indeed what we need to do as Christians, by our faith and dedication to God. We have to follow Him with all of our strength and with all of our hearts, or else we are merely having a formal faith without substance and meaning, and are hypocrites by nature.

Let us all seek to devote ourselves ever more to God through our regular little contributions in our daily lives. May God give us the necessary strength, courage and perseverance to continue living our lives from now on with genuine faith and dedication. May God bless us all and our good endeavours, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 4 November 2019 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day as we listened to the words of the Sacred Scriptures we are called to be generous to one another just as our Lord Himself has first been very generous to us from the beginning. He has always been generous to us, in providing for us all that we ever need in life and in giving us first of all the gift of life as well as then many opportunities for us throughout life to be reconciled to Him.

Despite our constant and persistent disobedience, rebelliousness and wayward behaviours, we have always received the fullness of God’s mercy and compassion, as He loves us all very much and wants us to be saved and freed from our fated destruction. By our sins we have been made unworthy of God and we should have faced destruction and eternal damnation if not for God’s enduring love for us.

In our Gospel passage today we then heard the Lord exhorting His disciples and the people to be generous in giving, to be kind and loving to one another, by using the analogy of giving a feast or dinner, in which the custom of that time and I am sure which we are still doing today is that we invite all those who are close and dear to us, and we expect our invitation and kindness to be repaid in kind.

Take for example our current wedding and feast traditions. When we are hosting a banquet, in quite a few cultures and traditions we are expecting the guests to bring gifts or put in their monetary contributions to show that they are contributing to the expenses that we have incurred in hosting and preparing for the banquet and celebrations. But then, if our guests do not give us as what we expect them to give, we then end up feeling bitter and unappreciated.

Then this precisely brings us to wonder about why we even bother to invite the guest we have invited in the first place. Did we invite them because we care about them and we also know that they care about us too and are important to us? Or have we instead thought of our guests and invitees as mere means to an end, or as a return in investment and as something that we can gain from for our own benefits?

That is why many of us mankind failed in building up good and meaningful relationships in our lives. We often do not realise that we have put our selfish desires, our pride and greed ahead of the needs of others. That is why many of us have not been sincere in living our lives with faith, and many of us have hurt one another, or manipulated each other just so that we can benefit and gain from whatever we want.

This is where we need to look at the Lord’s generosity again as He continues to give and very generously give, even after He has already given so much for us all these while. And we must not forget that He has given us the ultimate gift in His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Whom He sent into this world in our midst, that He willingly bore the heavy burden of our sins and suffered for our sake on the Cross, that by His suffering and death, by His ultimate loving sacrifice, He can give us the everlasting reprieve from sin and death.

Today, we also should reflect on the example and life of St. Charles Borromeo, whose feast we celebrate this day. St. Charles Borromeo was a holy man, a dedicated bishop and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church who as the Metropolitan Archbishop of Milan and one of the most prominent and important leaders of the Church of his time was a crucial and very important figure in the Counter Reformation and also the reforms of the Church and the faithful.

Although he was a very high ranking and influential prelate, St. Charles Borromeo remained humble and dedicated himself to the service of the Church, avoiding the corruptions and scandals that affected many other members and prelates of the Church of his time. In fact, he was known to enforce strictly his reforms aimed at rooting out all the vices and bad practices of the Church within his Archdiocese and encouraging similar developments elsewhere.

St. Charles Borromeo gave his all in service both to God and also to the flock whom he had been entrusted with, dedicating himself, his time, energy and efforts to care for the needs of the faithful and in purifying the Church from all sorts of corruptions and wrong practices. He shows us just what a faithful Christian can do, in being generous with his efforts to love God, just as God has generously loved us first.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, how about us then? Are we willing to be generous in using our time and efforts for the good purpose of the Lord? Are we willing and able to dedicate ourselves with faith, doing our best to serve Him and be generous with our love towards one another? Let us all challenge ourselves to love ever more and to be more faithful all the days of our lives from now on. May God bless us all, now and always. Amen.

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Sunday, 3 November 2019 : Thirty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this Sunday we are all being reminded of just how loving, compassionate, merciful and wonderful our God is in all of His ways, in how He has been treating us all these while, in His great and enduring patience with us that even after all that we have done to make Him angry at our stubbornness and wickedness, He still wants to forgive us and to be reconciled with us.

In our first reading today taken from the Book of Wisdom, we heard of God’s omnipotence, as He is All-Powerful and is in control of everything in this world, even to the minutest and smallest details. And this is highlighted because no matter how well we may try to hide our sins and shortcomings, our mistakes and faults before God, we will never be successful. He knows us all in and out, the very deepest parts of our beings and our innermost secrets.

And yet despite knowing our faults and shortcomings, our filthy state of sin and our despicable attitude, God’s love for each and every one of us is still greater even compared to all of those. That is why He was able to forgive us and embrace us despite our many sins and our many faults. He wants us to be forgiven so that we may be reunited to Him and will not be lost to Him forever. If He wants us destroyed, He could have easily done that and yet He did not.

On the contrary He did everything to reach out to us and to embrace us with love. That was the essence of our Gospel passage today in which the Lord Jesus encountered Zaccheus the tax collector. In that occasion, Zaccheus, who was a renowned tax collector in the community wanted very badly to see the Lord, and even though he was short in body and posture, he tried his best to see the Lord by climbing up the sycamore tree.

Zaccheus loved the Lord very much, as we can clearly see from the way he tried his best to seek the Lord. And as I said earlier on, God knows everything about us, and He noticed Zaccheus all the same, putting His attention and focus on him despite the enormous crowds all around Him. He called Zaccheus to His presence and made it clear that He wanted to go to his house and to be a guest over there.

Very quickly, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law frowned and condemned the actions of Jesus, by saying how could He had entertained to go to the house of a sinner. And this must be understood in the context of how the tax collectors were resented and even despised, being prejudiced against just because of their profession in collecting taxes on behalf of the Romans who were resented, and they were therefore resented and hated as well.

But they failed to see how Zaccheus was a sinner just as they too were sinners. They have unjustly looked down on him based on their own prejudices and biases, and causing them to be blinded against their own shortcomings and faults. Zaccheus had however, something that is greater than all of them, the Pharisees and the rest of the people who had judged him unfairly, had in them.

He had faith in the Lord, faith that allowed him to use all his might to climb up the sycamore tree, believing that He is the One Who can save his soul from damnation. He has faith and hope in God, hope that he will be forgiven from his faults and sins, which he was certainly aware of, because of the constant prejudices and biases that were constantly deployed against him and his fellow tax collectors.

And he loved God, or else he would not even have made the effort to see Him. To prove his love for the Lord, he even made the very public announcement before all those who were gathered that he would right all the wrongs that he had committed as a tax collector, willingly parting even with his money and possessions when he said that he would repay all those whom he had once cheated four times as much.

When God saw all of that in Zaccheus, He saw a lost sheep that has finally come back to its Shepherd, and therefore praised him as a true son of Abraham who deserved salvation as much as everyone else. He was rebuking those Pharisees and all those who looked down on Zaccheus as a sinner while they themselves were even worse sinners because they refused to admit that they had sinned, unlike Zaccheus who admitted everything publicly before the Lord and showed his love for Him.

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all spend some time to reflect on all that we have heard through the Scripture passages today. Let us all look in ourselves and find that Zaccheus that we should have, and whom we should indeed emulate. Are we in love with God so much that we are willing to seek the Lord just like how Zaccheus had done his best to seek the Lord with all of his might? Are we able to follow the Lord with all of our strength as we should have?

St. Paul in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful in Thessalonica in our second reading today then reassured us all that again, God’s love will make everything possible for us if we allow His love to enter into us and transform us, allowing Him to strengthen us and to give us that encouragement that we will be able to follow Him with faith and commitment regardless of the challenges and difficulties that we may have to face in being His faithful disciples.

We must be strong and we must stay faithful and keep hope in God’s enduring and ever great love for each and every one of us. For the devil is always devious with his many tricks and ways to try to prevent us from reaching out to God, by whatever means necessary. He may try to convince us that we are so sinful and despicable that we do not deserve to be saved. And that was exactly what the Pharisees did, as Satan spoke through them to try and prevent Zaccheus from being saved.

But God brushed off the devil and embraced that sinner who had returned home with such great love for his Master. This is why we too must have faith in God’s love and know that there is no sin too great for God to forgive, as long as we desire with all of our hearts to be forgiven and sincerely repent from all those sins and turn away from them. Zaccheus did that, and made a public profession of faith and love before all the people. If he could do it, then why can’t we do the same?

Then, the devil may also try to disturb us by trying to tempt us with many worldly pleasures and distractions by which he wants us to succumb to those temptations and as a result becoming more and more distant from God. If we allow these temptations to overcome us through our desires, we will end up falling deeper and deeper into sin, and from there eventually into eternal darkness unless we proactively resist the temptations.

Are we able to follow in the footsteps of Zaccheus who willingly wanted to atone for his past sins even if that meant that he would lose part of his money and possessions? Are we able to detach ourselves from the temptations of this world so as to become more committed and dedicated to God, that we may be more willing and capable of seeking God’s presence in our lives? We are all called to follow the example of Zaccheus, in putting God above everything else and love Him with all of our hearts from now on.

May the Lord be with us always, and may He bless us and empower us all from now on that we may be able to live our lives with faith. May He strengthen us all to live virtuously and focusing our attention on Him in every moments of our lives from now on. Let us all embrace the generous love of God, His mercy and compassion through which He wanted to heal us all from our sins and afflictions. May God bless us all, in our every good endeavours, now and forevermore. Amen.

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Saturday, 2 November 2019 : Feast of All Souls, Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Black or Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we continue to celebrate through the Allhallowtide period, as we move on from the glorious celebrations of yesterday’s Solemnity of All Saints to the more sombre commemoration of All Souls Day today. While yesterday we focus our attention on the glorious holy men and women, the saints of God who are already in heaven, today we remember the memory of the holy souls departed from us.

On this All Souls Day, we remember all those our brethren who have departed from this world, having met the end of their earthly existence and are now not yet worthy of the glory of heaven unlike those saints who are already there with God. Instead, these souls are now waiting in purgatory, in a place where they are purified from their sins before they are allowed to enter into the heavenly glory with God. They are worthy enough to evade the eternal damnation in hell but not yet worthy of heaven at the moment.

Today we remember those holy souls, who are holy because in life they have been righteous and faithful, and not those who have completely rejected and refused to believe in God right up to their dying breath. However, because of their remaining substantial sins, be it venial sins or more serious sins that are yet to be confessed or forgiven by God, they are considered to be yet fully worthy of God, for we must remember that while God loves us all very much and wants us to be with Him, but He is also all good and perfect.

And thus with that in mind, we must understand that sin has no place at all before God, no matter how small or insignificant those sins are. Sin is corruption of our flesh, our mind, our heart, our soul and our very being, and therefore, as long as we have any remaining sin in us, we are still yet unworthy of entering the glory of heaven directly unlike the saints whose virtues so exceed their shortcomings or that they have lived lives full of virtue that they deserved immediate entry into heaven.

Therefore, the Church taught us the doctrine of purgatory, as a place in the afterlife where the departed holy souls are being purified in the ‘flames’ of purgatory, as their residual sins are being purified from them so that eventually they will merit the glory of heaven. The greater the residual sins one has, consequently the longer he or she has to spend in purgatory prior to joining with God in the fullness of heavenly glory.

Those holy souls in purgatory are often described as suffering, suffering not from any physical injury or even flames as those depictions of purgatory like to project to us. But rather, it is the unbearable separation from God, Who is already so close to them and yet still distant from them that made them to suffer. They love God very much, and yet there is still the chasm between them and God caused by their residual sins.

Of course their suffering is different from those in hell as those in hell have absolutely no hope and have been shut off from the Lord for eternity, but nonetheless, the moments that the holy souls in purgatory spend there being separated from God must have been a tough suffering indeed. There has been verified witnesses and events in the history of the Church when the holy souls in purgatory had appeared or made known to us how they are suffering there, waiting for the full reunion with God.

Now, having discussed about the holy souls in purgatory, let us then move on to the significance of this day, the All Souls Day. On this day in particular, we focus our attention on all those holy souls still in purgatory waiting for entry into heaven. Just as yesterday we remember the saints who are still part of the Church as much as we are as the Church Triumphant in heaven and we as the Church Militant on earth, thus the holy souls in purgatory are also still part of the Church, the Church Suffering.

The Church Suffering are praying with us, for our sake, that we may live our lives virtuously so hopefully we may avoid the same fate that they are now enduring in facing a period of lengthened wait before they can enter into heavenly glory and joy. But they cannot pray for themselves, and they need our help in this regard. We can pray for the holy souls in purgatory, asking God to help them and to reduce the amount of time they have to spend there, because we remind God of the love which He has for us, to forgive us all our sins.

That is why it is important that today we recall the memory of our loved ones and all those whom we know, who are no longer with us and are probably waiting in purgatory this very moment. Let us all pray for each and every one of them, and let us all help them to be purified and be forgiven their sins that they may enter the gates of heaven at the soonest possible moment. And let this day also be a reminder for us that we may end up spending a long time in purgatory too, unless we straighten up our lives.

This means that as we remember the holy souls in purgatory, we have to keep in mind and reflect on our own way of life too. We have to live our lives faithfully at all times, distancing ourselves from sinful and wicked acts and things in life. That way, we may be worthy enough that our virtues and goodness will allow us to go right up to the heavens, just as the saints are. While we have breath in us and time given by God, let us not wait until it is too late for us.

And lastly, let us all pray for those holy souls in purgatory who may have no one to pray for them, so that through our prayers, they too may be helped. And maybe we should also remember even those who have used to be our enemies and treated us badly in life, and are now in purgatory. Let us all forgive them what they have done to us and pray for them so that as what God has said Himself, that He may forgive us our sins just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.

May the Lord, our ever loving and wonderful God continue to love us and bless us, and may He give the holy souls in purgatory a reprieve from their suffering out of love for Him, that they may be reunited completely with Him in the heavenly glory they have yearned for. And may we all too be faithful and be righteous that one day we will also merit the entry into His glorious kingdom. Amen.