Christian sermons

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Tuesday, 1 November 2016 : Solemnity of All Saints, All Saints’ Day (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Matthew 5 : 1-12a

At that time, when Jesus saw the crowds, He went up the mountain. He sat down and His disciples gathered around Him. Then He spoke and began to teach them :

“Fortunate are those who are poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Fortunate are those who mourn, they shall be comforted. Fortunate are the gentle, they shall possess the land.”

“Fortunate are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied. Fortunate are the merciful, for they shall find mercy. Fortunate are those with a pure heart, for they shall see God.”

“Fortunate are those who work for peace, they shall be called children of God. Fortunate are those who are persecuted for the cause of justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

“Fortunate are you, when people insult you and persecute you and speak all kinds of evil against you because you are My followers. Be glad and joyful, for a great reward is kept for you in God.”

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Tuesday, 1 November 2016 : Solemnity of All Saints, All Saints’ Day (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
1 John 3 : 1-3

See what singular love the Father has for us : we are called children of God, and we really are. This is why the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

Beloved, we are God’s children and what we shall be has not yet been shown. Yet when He appears in His glory, we know that we shall be like Him, for then we shall see Him as He is. All who have such a hope try to be pure as He is pure.

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Tuesday, 1 November 2016 : Solemnity of All Saints, All Saints’ Day (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White
Psalm 23 : 1-2, 3-4ab, 5-6

The earth and its fullness belong to the Lord, the world and all that dwell in it. He has founded it upon the ocean and set it firmly upon the waters.

Who will ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who will stand in His holy place? Those with clean hands and pure heart, who desire not what is vain.

They will receive blessings from the Lord, a reward from God, their Saviour. Such are the people who seek Him, who seek the face of Jacob’s God.

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Tuesday, 1 November 2016 : Solemnity of All Saints, All Saints’ Day (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White
Revelations 7 : 2-4, 9-14

I saw another Angel ascending from the sunrise, carrying the seal of the living God, and he cried out with a loud voice to the four Angels empowered to harm the earth and the sea, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads.”

Then I heard the number of those marked with the seal : a hundred and forty-four thousand from all the tribes of the people of Israel. After this I saw a great crowd, impossible to count, from every nation, race, people and tongue, standing before the throne and the Lamb, clothed in white, with palm branches in their hands, and they cried out with a loud voice, “Who saves but our God Who sits on the throne and the Lamb?”

All the Angels were around the throne, the elders and the four living creatures; they then bowed before the throne with their faces to the ground to worship God. They said, “Amen. Praise, glory, wisdom, thanks, honour, power and strength to our God forever and ever. Amen!”

At that moment, one of the elders spoke up and said to me, “Who are these people clothed in white, and where did they come from?” I answered, “Sir, it is you who know this.” The elder replied, “They are those who have come out of the great persecution; they have washed and made their clothes white in the Blood of the Lamb.”

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Monday, 31 October 2016 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are reminded through the Sacred Scriptures, by the words of our Lord Himself, that we ought to show love, care and concern for our brethren, particularly those who are lacking in sustenance, care and love. We should not ignore the plight of those who hunger, those who are suffering the daily effects of worldly sufferings.

Those who have more should be willing to come to the aid of those who lack, and when we have an abundance of love and good things, we should not forget all those who are less fortunate than us. This is the reality of our world, one that we should realise and appreciate, that we should not forget that in all of the blessings we have enjoyed in this world, there is always inequality in this world, and some others are perhaps suffering while we enjoy ourselves.

It does not mean then that we should not rejoice or be sorrowful or also seek to suffer. That is not what God had intended for us. Instead, as He had made it clear through today’s passage, that He wants each and every one of us to be filled with joy, that no one should suffer without help, and no joy should be excluded from others who should rejoice together with us.

It is what our Lord wants from all of us who call ourselves and who are indeed Christians. He wants all of us to share the love we have, the joy we have, for we have been united and made into one Body, the Body of Christ, the Church, and as members of the same Body, all of us who have been made the sons and daughters of our Lord ought to share that joy and blessings we have received from our Father and share the sorrow and joy we have with each other.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, thus we are called to recall what is our purpose and what is our objective as we live our lives as Christians. Are we devoted to the Lord, by loving Him and showing our obedience, walking in His path and doing what is right and just in His sight? And by doing this, does it mean that we have cared and showed care and concern for our brethren, particularly those whom we have seen to suffer from the effects of the suffering of this world?

Otherwise, if we have not done all of these, we are empty in our faith, in our faith life. After all, we cannot be truly faithful to God, if we profess to have such faith, and yet our words, actions and or deeds speak otherwise. Indeed, we may become hypocrites in our faith, and God will not look kindly on that. If we have not loved others and showed them our attention, if they need us, then are we true disciples of our Lord?

After all, God Himself had shown us all so much love, from the greatest of sinners to the greatest of the saints and the righteous ones. He had willingly come down into this world, and taking up our flesh and form, He had endeavoured to take up upon Himself the seemingly impossible task of ensuring our salvation from all of our sins. He has bore that cross and endured all the sufferings, out of the great love He has for us, even for His enemies and all those who had called upon and plotted for His death.

He has shown us all a perfect example, and should we all not follow Him then? He has called upon us all to be generous with our love and not to withhold our compassion and mercy from those who seek them. Therefore, as Christians, we should all come to realise and indeed commit ourselves to love one another, show forgiveness and mercy to those who have wronged us, and show the love of God to all those who have been unloved.

May God bless our works of charity and awaken in us a generous and loving heart filled with care and concern for our brethren, in the same way that He Himself had loved us from the beginning of time to now and to forevermore. Amen.

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Monday, 31 October 2016 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Luke 14 : 12-14

At that time, Jesus also addressed the man who had invited Him, and said, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends, or your brothers and relatives, or your wealthy neighbours. For surely they will also invite you in return, and you will be repaid.”

“When you give a feast, invite instead the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. Fortunate are you then, because they cannot repay you; you will be repaid at the resurrection of the upright.”

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Monday, 31 October 2016 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Psalm 130 : 1, 2, 3

O Lord, my heart is not proud nor do I have arrogant eyes. I am not engrossed in ambitious matters, nor in things too great for me.

I have quieted and stilled my soul like a weaned child on its mother’s lap; like a contented child is my soul.

Hope in the Lord, o Israel, now and forever.

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Monday, 31 October 2016 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Philippians 2 : 1-4

If I may advise you in the Name of Christ and if you can hear it as the voice of love; if we share the same Spirit and are capable of mercy and compassion, then I beg of you, make me very happy : have one love, one Spirit, one feeling, do nothing through rivalry or vain conceit.

On the contrary let each of you gently consider the others as more important than yourselves. Do not seek your own interest, but rather that of others.

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Sunday, 30 October 2016 : 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard that well known story of Jesus and Zaccheus, one of the stories that many of us must have heard while we were having our catechism classes, where we heard about how Zaccheus, the rich tax collector but a short man, desired to see Jesus and endeavoured to climb a tree just so that he could see Him, and for that, the Lord rewarded him with the privilege of Him coming to his house to eat with him and the other tax collectors.

And through that story, we heard the loving kindness, compassion and mercy of our Lord, Who loves each and every one of us equally, from the greatest of sinners to the greatest of the virtuous and righteous ones. God showed us all His love and mercy even though we have disobeyed Him and have been rebellious and delinquent in our ways. It is His desire that we are able to find our way to His loving mercy and be forgiven for our trespasses and sins.

That is the essence of our Gospel passage today, as well as some other stories of Jesus’ works, where He showed mercy to the woman caught in adultery, whom the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law wanted to stone to death. And that is also what He told His disciples when He related to them the parable of the prodigal son, telling them about a son who have disobeyed his father, and following his own desires, committed wicked lifestyle and eventually after having suffered, decided to repent and return to the house of his father, and the father accepted him back with love.

All of these showed to us the infinite mercy of our Lord, how great an extent He is willing to go in order to regain us back, all of us who have been sundered from Him because of our iniquities and sins, which resulted in our estrangement and fall into sin. But at the same time, as was the case when Jesus forgave the woman caught committing adultery, He told her not to sin anymore and go in peace from then on.

This is a reminder for us that while God’s mercy is given to us freely and unconditionally, but whether we will receive the fullness of His love and mercy depends solely on our desire to be forgiven, that is through genuine repentance and desire to change ourselves. No mercy and forgiveness can take place without repentance just as much as we cannot clap using only one hand. We have to have mercy and repentance working in tandem and only then we will be shown mercy and forgiveness.

After all, let us look at the examples of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, the scribes, elders and the chief priests themselves. God came into this world not just to save the prostitutes, tax collectors and all considered as sinners, since it is one misconception that can easily be made when we read today’s Gospel and other passages from the Sacred Scriptures.

Rather, God came to save all, be it those who are righteous or those considered as sinners, or those who have high and noble birth, and those who have low and common birth. He does not look at appearances, status or other worldly classifications of ourselves, but instead, He is looking deep into our hearts in order to see if we are truly worthy of His salvation.

Jesus forgave His enemies and those who have made Him to suffer from the cross, by saying to God His Father, ‘Father, do not hold this sin against them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ And through these words we can see that even Jesus came to deliver these people from their sins, and showed mercy as well as compassion to them, instead of cursing them and being angry with them. Now then the question is, did they take up His offer of mercy? Did they change their ways and repent? Or did they go on with their lives as how it was?

Therefore, we can see here that while God came for all of His people, to the Pharisees, to the tax collectors, to the chief priests, to the prostitutes, to people big and small in statures and status in the society, to those who have good appearances and bad appearances, all ultimately depend on their acceptance of that mercy and forgiveness.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the same applies to us as well. We have lots of opportunities given to us by God to be redeemed and to be forgiven our sins in this life we are now enjoying in this earth. However, are we doing something in order to accept that salvation offered freely to us and do what is required of us? As Christians, all of us have been accepted by God to be members of His own Sacred Body, the Church, and we have been brought into one people, to be God’s own chosen ones, and be cleansed of the taints of original sins of our ancestors, but this does not mean that we can be complacent.

In fact, there are many Christians out there who are complacent and lukewarm in their faith, thinking that they are justified on the account of their faith alone, but then let me ask you, ‘What is faith?’ There may be many among us who do not really know or understand what is faith truly about, that is what is our faith is about. Can we truly say that we believe in God if we do not even act in the way that our faith requires of us, and which our Lord had taught us through His Church?

Just as Jesus Himself said, that not all who said ‘Lord, Lord’ will be saved, and also all who claimed to know Him and have indeed sat with Him and knew Him will be saved, just because they did not do as He had commanded them to do, and rather than doing what is good in the sight of God, through their wickedness and evil, they have besmirched and stained the good Name of the Lord in the sight of many people.

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, our faith requires active participation in good works and commitment to love, loving our brethren and showing our faith through true and living commitment in our words, actions and deeds, that we then shall be found just and worthy by the Lord, Who will then welcome us into His promise of eternal life, true joy and glory with Him in His heavenly kingdom, where we shall enjoy forever the joy of everlasting life without end.

But all of these, as mentioned earlier today, requires us to devote ourselves to do what is good and righteous before God, shunning evil and repenting from our sins. All of us are sinners, and all of us have disobeyed the Lord in one way or another, but that does not mean that any of us are beyond God’s salvation or hope. As long as we are still alive in this world, and desiring for a complete change of our own sinful life, there is always hope for us.

That is where we as Christians should contribute to the good works of our Lord’s salvation. There are many out there who have given up the hope of God’s salvation, and even many more who are still living in darkness and in ignorance of God’s truth and salvation. It is up to us then to help them, and to guide them that they may find their way to the Lord and thus be saved.

And as such, shall we not, brethren, commit ourselves anew to do the will of God and to obey Him in all things? And as St. Francis of Assisi was famous through his prayer, let us also pray it together, that when there is hatred, let us all sow love, and when there is injury, let us pardon, when there is doubt, let us all bring faith, when there is despair, let us all bring hope to each other, and when there is darkness, let us be light to one another, and finally when there is sadness and sorrow, let us bring joy to each other.

May God help us all to become better Christians and role model for one another, that in all the things we do and say, we always proclaim the Lord’s glory and be ever faithful to His ways and commandments, by showing mercy to sinners, and by seeking genuine repentance and regretting sincerely all of our sins, that all of us may eventually find our way to the Lord. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 29 October 2016 : 30th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Saturday Mass of our Lady)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we are reminded through what we have heard in the Sacred Scriptures, that we should seek something better than worldly glories and fame which many of us mankind often strive for in this world. It is in our nature to seek for worldly treasures and glories, for these are the things that this world and our societies had taught us, and indeed which we are familiar with.

And that is what our first reading, the Epistle which St. Paul wrote to the faithful and the Church in Philippi is also about, as St. Paul spoke to them about living for the Lord and indeed, dying for the Lord, as the fulfilment and the ultimate form of the ways how we can perfect our lives in this world, that we ought to give our all to serve the Lord, by our deeds and actions, by our commitment and total devotion.

This is contrasted with what our Lord Jesus presented to His disciples, on the reality of how people then lived. They always sought the best places in events, parties, gatherings and other functions, and tried their best to undo one another in how they prepared and how they appeared to each other. And what do all of these lead to? What were their reasons? All mostly due to our sense of hubris, human ego and pride, all the things that prevented us from truly attaining salvation in God.

Human pride has often led for our undoing and downfall. Pride has led Lucifer, the mightiest of God’s Angels to fall and now he was known in disgrace as Satan, the Lord’s and our great enemy and adversary. He was created in might and glory, brilliance and wonders, but through his desire to rise up even higher, instead of rising he fell down and was cast down to complete humiliation and defeat.

This is an example that all of us mankind can learn from, that no amount of human pride will be able to sustain us and make us great, if all that we have done do not have their roots in the Lord. It is through God alone that we are capable of the great deeds we have done, for it was Him Who had placed in each and every one of us our talents and abilities, which we then are expected to use for the benefit of one another, and not just to satisfy our own selfish needs.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all ask ourselves, how have we lived our lives thus far? Have we been faithful to our God and have we lived in accordance with His ways? Or have we rather lived by our desires, trying to fulfil our needs and wants, competing with one another, seeing who can get a better position, more fame, or more prestigious occupations?

We have to realise that whatever we seek, we should seek those that are considered true treasures, and not the false treasures of this world. Indeed the reality is that we need money and all the other worldly goods in order to sustain ourselves and our lives, but we should not fall into the trap of desiring all these in more than what we truly need.

Rather, let us all realise that the more we have, the more we should give to our brethren in need, those who have less than what we have. That is the joy in sharing, as the saying goes that, shared sorrows is half a sorrow, while shared joy is double the joy. Let us always remember that whatever we share with our brethren, is not a loss for us, but instead is a gain, for whatever we do for the good of our brethren, the Lord will not overlook it.

And He Who knows all that we have done, will judge us to be worthy and good, and He shall bless us and welcome us into the inheritance and the promise of eternal life and glory which He had promised to all of us who have kept our faith in Him and done what He asked us to do. He shall not forget about us. May God therefore continue to love us as He had done all these while, and be with us to the time of our reunion with Him in glory. Amen.