compassion

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Wednesday, 4 September 2013 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we continue today reading about the Lord’s ministry in this world, in His healing of the sick and those possessed by evil spirits, through which He showed His might and mercy, and in healing us He revealed to us the great true depth of His divine love, and the nature of His love. He cared for us so deeply that He even was willing to descend unto us, to be one of us, and to walk among us that we may have a new hope.

He was sent into this world on an important mission, that is to bring the Good News of the Lord to many, that they would be aware of the imminence of the coming of the kingdom of God, and that the Lord Himself had come to bring forth and herald the coming of the kingdom. He came to fulfill the prophecies and predictions of the prophets, regarding the coming Saviour, the Messiah who would come and save all, in the same way that Moses had come to liberate the people of Israel from their bondage in Egypt.

He brought forth into this world, a new and complete understanding as well as explanations on the Law of God, that is love. He showed that love is all God wanted from us mankind, the love we have for Him and for one another. He did not just preach that brothers and sisters and then did nothing. On the other hand, Jesus the Lord Himself took concrete actions in order to show His love, the love He had shown throughout His ministry on this world.

The healing of the sick and the healing of those possessed by demons were just some of the examples of the great divine love that our Lord had for us all. He showed mercy to those who clearly showed their faith in Him, to those who placed their hope in Him. He brought healing and new life to those who had asked Him for His mercy. And ultimately, He did no greater act of love, than His own death on the cross, the death that brought about new life for all the faithful ones in Him.

The Risen Christ, Lord of all, God who laid down His life for His people that we may all live and not die, is at the centre of our faith, brothers and sisters, as our faith is truly about rejoicing and praising the Lord our God, the Lord our Saviour and Redeemer. This is the Gospel that St. Paul and the other Apostles had worked hard, and even putting their lives in a line, to bring to the peoples who never saw or knew Christ.

It is easy for the people of Israel to believe in Jesus, because He did wonders, healing and miracles, casting out demons among many other things He had done, but does this really constitute strong faith? Well, sometimes yes, but more often than not, no. Remember that despite them praising and glorifying Christ for the miracles He had done, they were also the ones who called for His death when they were agitated by the Pharisees and the chief priests.

Therefore they in fact did not truly have faith or love for God in Jesus. What they truly had was in fact awe and the sense of surprise, and fascination on the miracles, the healing powers of Jesus. What they truly loved is the miracles and all the wonders He had performed. Yet they did not truly have God in their hearts.

That is why, today, brothers and sisters in Christ, we who are in this world of ours today, are happy, and truly are blessed. Why so? That is because we who have not seen the Lord and all of His wonders and miracles, kept our faith and love for Him, and we have kept our dedication to Him, despite having not seen all the great works He had once done to Israel, the healing of the sick and the casting out of demons.

But we must not stay idle, brothers and sisters, for we have indeed a lot of work to do, a lot of tasks that we must accomplish, as in our world today, the faith in God had been diminishing, because people once again clamour for things that they can see and they can feel tangibly, which apparently the Lord does not ‘offer’ them. That is why the reason, brothers and sisters in Christ, that many chose science as an ‘alternative’ to God. This really should not be the case!

Yet, the presence of God can be made truly manifest and real, through us, brothers and sisters in Christ, through our actions and deeds based in the love of God, that God who is love will truly manifest through our loving actions, through our loving deeds, and that is our task in this world, brothers and sisters. Let us make the Lord visible to others, to everyone who seeks Him, through us, through our own actions, that many will turn back towards the Lord their God and therefore receive salvation in Christ.

May the Lord our God who showed us love, and who cast demons from the possessed, and brought healing to the sick also empower us, to be able to love with all sincerity of our hearts, to be able to commit to His cause, and to be able to show His presence in this world through ourselves, to our brethren who have yet to believe in the Lord and God. May the Lord guide us and bless us through life. Amen.

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Tuesday, 3 September 2013 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

1 Thessalonians 5 : 1-6, 9-11

You do not need anyone to write to you about the delay and the appointed time for these events. You know that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When people feel secure and at peace, the disaster will suddenly come upon them as the birth pangs of a woman in labour, and they will not escape.

But you, beloved, are not in darkness; so that day will not surprise you like a thief. All of you are citizens of the light and the day; we do not belong to night and darkness. Let us not, therefore, sleep as others do, but remain alert and sober.

For God has not willed us to be condemned but to win salvation through Christ Jesus our Lord. He died for us so that we might enter into life with Him, whether we are still awake or already asleep. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, as you are doing now.

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Monday, 2 September 2013 : 22nd Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we hear about how Christ was rejected and mocked by His own people, the people of Nazareth His hometown. They rejected Him when He came to proclaim the truth about Himself, as the perfect fulfillment of the prophecy of the prophets of God, including Isaiah, who made a lot of predictions about His coming, which was indeed fulfilled at that moment when Christ proclaimed the very completion of that prophecy to His own townspeople.

Why so? Why did they reject Christ? Why did they reject the very Messiah sent to save them? Precisely because of familiarity and their failure to look beyond what is apparent to them, and the failure to overcome their own prejudices and judgements, which they imposed on Christ without mercy. They knew Him to be the lowly son of a carpenter, though an upright job, but a job of the poor, and therefore, in their minds, prophets, even less so the Messiah could ever come from such backgrounds.

Yet, indeed, the Lord who is King of kings and the Messiah of all mankind, was born of a humble carpenter’s family, of Joseph His foster father, and of Mary, the humble and loving mother He had. Yet, He is truly the Messiah, the Anointed One of God, whom His own people had rejected. Yes, the people of Israel had often rejected their own prophets sent to them by God over the centuries before the coming of Christ, and they turned deaf ears to their warnings and reminders of the need to follow the Law of God and turn from their evil and wicked ways.

The same too therefore happened to Christ, that He was rejected in Nazareth, His own hometown, and even long before that, before His birth, He was rejected everywhere in Bethlehem, because all the inns were full, and He had to be born in a humble and dirty stable. He was rejected even by the people, by the Pharisees and the chief priests who saw Him as a threat to their authority and their power over the people, as a rival.

And just as the people had tortured and slaughtered the prophets of old without mercy, they too slaughtered the Lamb of God, the Messiah who was sent to ensure their own salvation and redemption from death. They had rejected Him for a lowly criminal, Barabbas. They preferred a criminal to a king, a criminal to the One who had to suffer for all of their sins, He who forgave them even fully knowing of their actions in bringing about His suffering.

Yes, brethren, our Lord Jesus bared His love and mercy to all of us, and as He lay hanging on that cross, looking with great love and mercy upon all of His people, even those who called for His death, thos who crucified and tortured Him. Why so? That is because He loves all of us so much, that He does not want us to be separated from Him by our sins, our wickedness, and our unworthiness. He died for us and shed His blood that through that sacrifice, our sins may be erased from us and that we have a new hope for a new life, a new life, eternal life of joy in Christ our Lord.

Just as St. Paul had elaborated in the First Reading that the faithful, both those who are still alive and those who have already passed away when the Lord comes again, will rise with Him into heavenly glory He had promised us who believes in Him and accepted Him as Lord and Saviour. However, the question here is, are we ready? Are we ready to welcome and greet our Saviour, when He comes again, or during our lives? Or are we going to be like the people of Nazareth, the Pharisees and the chief priests in rejecting Him?

It is clear, brethren, that we have need to open our doors for Christ, and to welcome Him into out hearts, that He may remain in us, just as we remain in His love and grace. Do not harden our hearts with prejudice, stubbornness, and fear, as the Lord comes and approaches us, and reveals to us the truth about His glorious and yet humble self. Do not be like the people of Nazareth who dismissed Him merely because he’s familiar to them as a carpenter’s son.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today in our world, there are still many people who do not welcome Christ into their lives, and even many among those are they who call themselves as Christians, which I am sure including some of us here. Let us introspect ourselves and look into ourselves, whether we have kept the doors of our heart locked tight against the love of Jesus.

If the doors are closed, then let us have the courage to open it, let Christ in, bare everything to Him, just as He had bared all of His heart and love as He lay dying on the cross out of His great love for all of us. Let the Lord come into our hearts, healing it of our afflictions, of our wickedness, of our unworthiness, erasing from them the spirit of pride, of wrath, of gluttony, of lust, of greed, of hatred, of desire, and of all evils.

In their place may the Holy Spirit of love, peace, hope, and compassion come and reside within each one of us, that we may be truly and completely transformed into a people of love, a people of hope, and a people of faith, belonging to the Lord our God who will be pleased at our faith and who will raise us up on the last day. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 1 September 2013 : 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today Christ taught us the value of humility, of doing things in humility, and seeking not human glory in all our dealings. The prophet Sirach in the first reading today also put the emphasis on the relations between greatness and humility, that the greater someone is, the more that he or she should be humble, and to seek not things that lie beyond our capabilities and our reach.

Brethren, too many times have we heard about mankind trying to reach things beyond what they can do, that they became too absorbed in that pursuit and forget about anything else. It is very often that we even sacrificed much in order to get to that destination, to that desire that we seek to achieve. More often than not, this involved sacrificing even those dear to us. What makes mankind so desperate for such aims and targets that they devote so much for them?

That is because we often become immersed in our pride and in our desire, so much that we simply cannot let go when things do not go the way we wanted it. We always want to be the first in everything, the first in getting new items from the store, the first in our academic, economic, and other performances, that we fear so much from losing out to another people. In our deep pride, we cannot bear to lose to another person, because to us, there is often no consideration for being the second place.

It is in our human nature that we want to be preeminent, and first in all things, and that is our pride, that we ought to stand alone at the top without rivals. Yet remember, brothers and sisters, it is exactly the same sin that had brought down the greatest angel and the mightiest angel of all the angelic host of heaven. Who is that? Precisely, it is Lucifer, the false lightbringer, now known as Satan, the evil one, the devil, the deceiver, and the great enemy.

Lucifer was created as the most brilliant of all of God’s angels, the most perfect and beautiful of all God’s angels. It was told that he was created with twelve wings of a seraph, with incredibly bright light illuminating his figure, and hence his name, Lucifer, the lightbringer and the morning star. To him had been given power, glory, and might in addition to his beauty and wonder, by the Lord the Creator of all.

Yet, in his heart, due to his seemingly perfect beauty, power, and glory, he began to form dissensions and dissatisfactions with being a servant of God, and instead, in his great pride, he wanted to rise above all things, and take over the throne of God, as the ruler of all the creation and over all of heaven, as written in the Book of the prophet Isaiah. That he will raise his throne above the stars of heaven and ascend to the heights of heaven, seated on the throne of God, such are the things in his heart, the schemes that he plotted against God.

And yet, he failed. In his great pride he had sought to be like the proud guest who seek to reach the first place in the banquet, and he failed, badly. He was struck down and cast down from the heavens, as we read in the Book of the Revelation, when the Archangel Michael and the angels of heaven fought with the dragon, that is Lucifer, and defeated him with the power of God, and cast him away from heaven. The Book of the prophet Isaiah continued with the lamentation on the fate of Lucifer, as the fallen morning star, that had fallen and would never rise again as he had once boasted.

Indeed, as Christ had said to the Pharisees in the feast, that the one who seek to be the first will be made last, and will be relegated to the last position in great shame and humiliation. Truly, Lucifer, once the brightest, most brilliant, and mightiest angel of heaven, is now a shadow of his former self, known to us as the great enemy and the evil one, twisted, broken, and marred in his beauty, all because of his pride and lack of humility before God.

On the other hand, the Archangel Michael, whom we know as the chief of the angelic host and the leader of the angels of God, is made such not because of his pride, his power, or his might. Instead, the Archangel Michael was known for his great humility and obedience to the will of God, and it was indeed told that he always trembled before the presence of the Lord. That humility made the Lord to choose him as the leader of His angelic host, in the same way as the humble guest who seek the worst and last seat, is invited by the host to a position of honour.

After quoting the example of the archangels, of Lucifer and Michael and the comparison between them, and how it relates to the lessons we learn today from our readings and the Lord Himself, of the importance of humility in our lives, let us take some time to reflect on our own lives, whether we have always let our pride get in our way, and whether we have let our pride to take over us, as it had done to Lucifer.

To be humble is not easy, as temptations will certainly be great. We tend to compete with one another, not least in this increasingly more fast-moving and competitive world, where everyone’s success in life is measured by their achievements and by the things that they are able to do better than others, fueling even more and more competition in a vicious cycle, that if not controlled may result in excessive competition and everyone sought to overcome one another, at the expense of others as best as possible.

Yet, the Lord challenged us today to be different, to dare to be different from others, to be humble in our increasingly prideful world, in a world where people increasingly care less about one another, in a world where everyone vies to be the first ahead of others, and to achieve things that they are not able to do. The Lord challenged us to know the meaning of humility and the value of satisfaction, of knowing that we truly have enough in our lives, that all that we need have truly been taken care of by the Lord our God in various ways.

Christ had taught us the meaning of humility, and also teach us love, how to love one another, and how to love God. He has shown us all that through His own actions, that He, who is God, and who is divine and all-powerful, is willing to take the last seat of all, the most humiliating seat of all, to be born into a poor family of a carpenter and born in a dirty stable, even though He is indeed a King, King of all kings no less, the Master of all the Universe.

It does not just stop at that, as He lived humbly and did not seek glory for Himself. Many times the people who were amazed at His miracles and powers sought to force Him and to make Him their king, as the king of a renewed Israel, and yet, Jesus walked away from all that, and not only that, He even willingly walked towards His own death.

Yes, brethren, in His great humility, He who is God, let Himself be captured, tortured, mocked and spat at. He was given many lashes and eventually after carrying His own cross, was nailed to that cross on Calvary. Such is His great humility that He endured all sufferings intended for us, and took them all upon Himself. His wounds marked all the sufferings He had to suffer in our place, that we may live. He died, and died a humiliating death, a criminal’s death on the cross.

And yet? He who has died for all of us has risen from the dead! He has triumphed and conquered over the prideful one, Satan, the old Lucifer, whose pride had brought him from glory to humiliation. Christ had risen to His glory and made the greatest and most prominent of all. The Lord Himself had proven His own words today through His own actions, which He made out of pure love for all of us, that we all may live, that He had humbled Himself to die a humiliating death, despite being the Master of all, for our sake.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, inspired by the very example of our Lord Jesus, let us today heed His call, that we be humble in all our words, in all our deeds, and in all our actions. Let us be humble in all our dealings with one another, caring and loving for one another, just as the Lord had commanded us. Let us be truly brothers and sisters to one another, and do not seek the downfall of others or the failure of others for our own success. Let us throw away our pride and don humility instead, just as our Lord Himself had once done for us.

May the Lord continue to watch over us, protect us, and bless us, and that may He remind us at all times that we ought to be humble and loving in all our actions, and in all our dealings to our brethren, remembering the very life He had given us, through His own humble death. God bless us all, forever and ever. Amen.

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Sunday, 1 September 2013 : 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Luke 14 : 1, 7-14

One Sabbath Jesus had gone to eat a meal in the house of a leading Pharisee, and He was carefully watched. Jesus then told a parable to the guests, for He had noticed how they tried to take the places of honour. And He said, “When you are invited to a wedding party, do not choose the best seat. It may happen that someone more important than you had been invited; and your host, who invited both of you, will come and say to you, ‘Please give this person your place.’ What shame is yours when you take the lowest seat!”

“Whenever you are invited, go rather to the lowest seat, so that your host may come and say to you, ‘Friend, you must come up higher.’ And this will be a great honour for you in the presence of all the other guests. For whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be raised.”

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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Sunday, 1 September 2013 : 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Psalm 67 : 4-5ac, 6-7ab, 10-11

But let the righteous be glad and exult before God; let them sing to God and shout for joy. Sing to God, open the way to Him who rides upon the clouds.

Father of orphans and protector of widows – such is our God in His holy dwelling. He gives shelter to the homeless, sets the prisoners free.

Then You gave a rain of blessings to comfort Your weary children. Your people found a dwelling and in Your mercy, o God, You provided for the needy.

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Saturday, 31 August 2013 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to the parable of the talents, the silver talents entrusted by the master of the house to his servants, his properties to be taken care of by them while he was away doing his business away from the house. The hardworking and industrious servants were rewarded, while the lazy and wicked servant was punished, and what he had was taken away from him and given to the trustworthy servant.

Yes, brethren, this parable precisely applies to all of us, to each and every one of us. We also have ‘silver talents’ within us, all gifts from God, in different ways and different colours, each with his and her own gifts. Some do receive more and some received less, but all are being equally gifted by the Lord our God who trusted us with these gifts, not to be left idle, but to be used, for the cause of good.

What are then these ‘silver talents’ we have within each and every one of us? These ‘talents’ are in fact the skills, abilities, and knowledge that we have within us, that makes every one of us special, all special and unique children of the same, one God. Some of us has certain abilities and skills that can be useful if we use them properly and efficiently. These, just like the silver talents in the parable, can ‘grow’ when we utilise them and invest on them.

We are urged to be like the faithful and industrious servants, the ones who made good use of the money and invest them that when the master returned, not only that the original silver talents had remained, but even it had grown and multiplied twofold. Therefore, the master’s investment in his servants had not been wasted, that after all the time, the money made a worthwhile return.

Yet, brethren, many of us tend to be more like the lazy and unproductive servant, who dug a hole and hid the silver talent there in the hole, from the day that the master left it with him to the day when he returned and expected a return from his servant. In the similar way, we tend to remain within our comfort zone and remain idle, and hence, the buried silver talent, just as buried as our talents and skills, the gifts God had given to us to use for our own good, and for the good of people around us.

There are many reasons for such failure to invest the gifts God had granted us, and they are not limited to things such as sheer laziness, fear of failure, and the temptations and allures of the pleasures of the world. We tend to prefer our comfort zone and do nothing, and even if we are to do something, many of us tend to be selfish, and do it for our own good, for our own benefits, often at the expense of others. The last servant’s fear is precisely also caused by this, by his own selfishness, that is fearing for his own safety and therefore succumb to his fear of losing the money if he invested it, and therefore did nothing to the silver talent he had been given with.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us rediscover our true purpose in life, especially if all these while we had not done anything yet to utilise the gifts we have within us, for the good of others, for the good of everyone around us. Let us be proactive in our faith and in our lives, not to fear loss or discomfort for our works and for our actions, and not to be idle and lazy in using the good and the gift God had placed in us, in purposeful ways that will bring happiness, fulfillment, and contentment to all of us.

Be active, brothers and sisters, be loving and show mercy in all our words, actions, and all the things we do, to our fellow men, that we can care for one another, and when the Divine Master comes, what we sow in love, through our actions, we will reap in heaps, in heaps of reward that is eternal life. The Divine Master, that is our Lord Jesus would reward us according to what we had done in our lives, whether we had been like his faithful and hardworking servants, or rather be like the ungrateful and lazy servant.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, having heard the parable of the talents and the servants, let us be reminded of our mission in this life, that is to be true disciples of the Lord, ones that do not merely say, “Lord, Lord!” but do nothing, and instead take concrete actions, no matter how small or large it is, to make a difference for the better, for our fellow brothers and sisters, the children of the same, one God.

May the Lord our Master and our God be our guide, to lead us through the difficulties and challenges of this world, that we may work hand in hand, with one another, embracing one another with care, that all of us will reap together the fruits, the interests, and the benefits of our loving actions in this world. God bless us all forever. Amen.

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Saturday, 31 August 2013 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White

1 Thessalonians 4 : 9-11

Regarding mutual love, you do not need anyone to write to you, because God Himself taught you how to love one another. You already practice it with all the brothers and sisters of Macedonia, but I invite you to do more.

Consider how important it is to live quietly without bothering others, to mind your own business, and work with your hands, as we have charged you.

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Friday, 30 August 2013 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the well-known story, the parable of the five careless and five wise women, of whom the careless ones lose out against those who are wise, by not preparing ahead of their time, that they would be ready when the bridegroom comes. Those women truly represent mankind, brethren, that is all of us, in our daily lives and in our waiting for the great bridegroom, none other than our Lord Jesus Christ.

The wise and sensible women made ample preparations and brought with them backup of fuel that might be necessary for the event, and their hard work earned them with the welcome and entry into the banquet of the bridegroom, while the careless and unwise women did not made ample preparations beforehand, and ran out of oil when the bridegroom came late to the event.

The wise women gained entry to the party when the bridegroom came at midnight, with their lamps lit with the extra oil they had prepared beforehand. The unwise women, the careless women did not have enough oil and as they could not greet the bridegroom without their lamps lit, they had no choice but to go and buy the oil first. When they went away, the bridegroom came, and the unwise women were therefore late to the party.

The unwise women knocked in despair and pleaded to be allowed entry into the party, but the bridegroom rebuked them and rejected them, and that he did not know them, because they were not there when he came to greet him. The end result is that while the wise women enjoyed in happiness inside the party with the bridegroom, the unwise women were left out, outside the party, in bitter cold and suffering.

We can easily draw parallel between this parable and our own experiences in this world, and the things expected from us, as Christ had told us through His parables and through His teachings to His disciples passed down to us through the Church and the Scripture. As mentioned, Jesus is truly that bridegroom, the wise and unwise women waiting for the coming of the bridegroom are all of us, all mankind, all seeking for the coming of Jesus Christ our Lord, in His glorious second coming into this world, indeed, pretty much like that of the coming of the bridegroom in the parable.

This is where it gets very important, and what differentiates who will end up becoming those unwise women and perish, and who will end up being in joy for being the wise women, ever ready and ever prepared. As Jesus had often reiterated to His disciples over and over again, including in this parable, that the coming of the bridegroom, that is His second coming, is totally and completely unpredicted by any power of men. No one is able and will ever be able to discern the precise moment when the Lord will come again in glory at the end of time. Even that end of time moment is undefined, except the warnings that it is indeed close at hand.

Yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, to our God there is no such thing as being early, on time, or late. We can never box Him up in such categories, because we certainly will have no knowledge at all about the time of His coming. He had also specifically said that He will come again at the time when everyone is at their most unprepared, at the moment when no one on earth expects that He will come again at that precise timing.

We must indeed be like the wise women, who brought with all of them extra oil for use, that when the bridegroom came very late at night, their lamps would have sufficient oil for the entirety of the long vigil of waiting. Do not be like the unwise women, who came unprepared, and when the time comes, their lamps were without oil.

What is this oil and extra oil that the wise women bring therefore? It is not the physical oil that Christ truly referred to, when He taught us how to prepare for His coming. It is the love that is within us that burns brightly as the fire of love, that Christ will come and find that we are there when He comes, and He will recognise us and welcome us into His kingdom. But love is not meant for us just to be kept within ourselves and remain hidden from the world. Like fire, it requires fuel in the form of oil, and also oxygen to burn. If the fire is placed in enclosed space, it will eventually die out, and without fuel, the fire will also die out.

The fuel that inflames our fires is our own actions, words, and deeds, infused with the love we have within us, the love God had given to each and every one of us. If we open our hearts and let loose the love within us, that every word, every deeds, and every actions of our hands, legs, and others result in love for others, and for God, the love within us will multiply, like a fire brightly lit, well-supplied with fuel, yes, the fuel of love itself. If we keep our hearts closed, that love will grow dim and will die out eventually. Love is something that cannot be measured, but it can only grow when we share that love with one another, and with God.

If we keep ourselves from sharing our love, and if we remain idle and do no good for the sake of others, for the sake of God, we end up being like the unwise women, who will be too late for the coming of Christ, and at His coming, we will all be caught unprepared, and He will cast us out from His presence, because the fire in us has died out, running out of the fuel of love due to our own failure to act, our failure to love.

St. Paul had reminded the Church people in Thessalonica, that they ought to live according to the will and the commandments of God, that is love, in our First Reading today. Indeed, we are urged to love, to love God first and foremost before anything else, before even ourselves. We are ought to give ourselves, our heart, and our entire being to the Lord in complete and total dedication. And then, we also must give ourselves to our fellow mankind, to those who are in need for our love, for our help, for our care, especially the unloved ones, the ostracised, the prejudiced ones.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, having listened to the parable of the talents, and now in full knowing how we can make sure that we become like the wise women instead of the unwise ones, let us thus, from this moment onward, strengthen our acts of love, and commit ourselves more strongly and deeper into the cause of love, by making sure that all our words, our deeds, and our actions are based on love, that the fire of love within each one of us will burn ever brighter, and the Lord who comes unpredicted in His own time, will come and find our faith worthy, and reward us eternal life with Him. Amen.

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Wednesday, 28 August 2013 : 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Scripture Reflection)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we have the continuation of the litany of woes attributed by Christ to the Pharisees, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law, whom Jesus referred as the crooks leading the people of God, not into salvation, but into eternal damnation in hell. They practised not what they had preached, and neither did they keep themselves holy for the Lord, and their prayers were empty litanies of praise for themselves instead of humble supplications for the mercy and forgiveness by the Lord for their sins.

They liked to show off their piety in public prayers, praying openly to God with hands lifted up high even in public places like market places. People would then praise them, honour them, follow them, and even emulate them, for their ‘exemplary’ actions and their ‘piety’. In this sense, they gained worldly glory and worldly power, from the people, and as a result, they left the Lord without glory, and without due honour. They had made themselves even greater than the Lord.

This was what the Lord criticised from them, and rebuked them with the woes given to them. They have also made the Lord as nothing more than a lawgiver or the fearsome God who must be obeyed or else the people would receive punishment for their failure to follow the Law. The Pharisee and the teachers of the Law thought themselves as holy, and looked down on those whom they considered as hopeless ones, the sinners, the prostitutes and the lowest ends of the society.

Yet, it was precisely these people whom the Pharisees had condemned for their sins that in fact had the great humility to reach out with contrite hearts, seeking the forgiveness of the Lord, as many of the sick, the bleeding widow, the prostitutes, had done, while the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had not done so. They kept their heads upheld high, and hardened their hearts against the Lord and against His people, the very sheep entrusted to them as shepherds to lead towards the Lord, as the chief shepherd.

The Lord who will judge everyone on the last day, will judge them and cast them out of His presence, as they had not ony failed in their given mission to lead the people of God with responsibility and upright ways, but they even brought the people closer to damnation instead of salvation. They had even mocked and opposed those whom the Lord had sent to them to wake them up and remind them of their true task and their true purpose, the purpose of their positions in the society.

Just as their ancestors had opposed, mocked, and slaughtered the prophets and messengers of God, so they had opposed, mocked, questioned, tested, and eventually condemned Christ, the very One sent to this world to redeem it. This was because both them and their ancestors had hardened their hearts and kept the love of God out of their hearts. They turned a deaf ear against the advice of the prophets and their pleading that they change their ways.

Just as their ancestors during their sojourn in the desert, they not only turned away from the Lord their God, but also openly opposed Him and put Him constantly to the test, in the same way as how the Pharisees had tested Jesus many times, desiring and longing for Him to make a mistake that they can capitalise on. Smart? Oh certainly, by human standards, yes indeed, the work of Satan made manifest!

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that does not mean however, that wicked men and women has no hope absolutely in salvation in God. They indeed have much opportunity and chance to return to the Lord their God and return towards the path leading to salvation, providing that they really have a total change in their hearts, from one that was hardened against God, into those that are open for the wonders and warmth of His love. And today, as we commemorate the occasion, there is no better example than St. Augustine of Hippo, the great saint and Doctor of the Church.

St. Augustine of Hippo was truly a great man of the faith, whose works and dedications for the Church were invaluable. He was indeed once a great sinner, ever since he was young. Although he was raised as a Christian by his mother, whom we know as St. Monica, whom feast day we just celebrated yesterday, St. Augustine lapsed and left the Church to follow the heretical Manichaean syncretic religion that was widespread during that time at the late Roman Empire.

St. Augustine early in his life lived a life of pleasure and debauchery, and walked away, far away from the path of righteousness in God. He sought meaning in life, and yet he was not able to find it in all the pleasures of the world that he had experienced. His mother, St. Monica prayed hard for him, that he would return to God, and repent all of his wayward life. She never gave up on him, even though he did all things evil imaginable, seeking the pleasures of the world, and tried to find comfort in reason and rhetorics.

Eventually St. Augustine returned to God and made a full conversion back to the cause of Christ, not least because of the role his mother had played, and even more so, the very conviction by St. Augustine himself as he journeyed through his life, through tumult and times of confusion. In the end, he became a great defender of the faith, the bishop of Hippo, and through his writings, many people, even today, still benefit from his enlightenment on us on our faith, and on the tradition of the faith of the Apostles.

He is truly worthy of his title of the four greatest Doctors of the Church, and indeed a pillar of the Church and the faith. However, do note that he was once too a great sinner. Precisely, brethren, even sinners are not out of range for salvation. Indeed, great saints were often once great sinners too. In fact, as what Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the renowned Archbishop once had said, that the greater the sin one has in them, the closer one is to the throne of God, that is the throne of mercy. With greater sin and greater understanding of one’s sin does bring one to closer realisation of one’s mortality and weakeness, and can spur us into seeking God’s mercy, as St. Augustine had once done.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, we who are sinners should follow the example of St. Augustine, who sought God after he had done great sins before God, and who was turned from the path of sin into the path of salvation in God. He felt empty when He lacked God in his heart, and went all the way to find the fulfillment, which eventually he found in God, who gave him true and complete satisfaction and providence. The same too should happen to us, and let us not be like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, whose mouth is full of pious words and prayers, and yet their hearts are empty, lacking God in them.

May St. Augustine of Hippo be our source of inspiration, as does his mother, St. Monica, that we who are in this world, great sinners before God, may acknowledge our unworthiness and our sins, and seek to ask forgiveness from our merciful and loving God, He who is the Divine Mercy, and He who cares and loves for all of His children. St. Augustine, pray for us, intercede for us before God, that just as once He had forgiven you and turned you into a great pillar of the faith, may the same also happen to us. God bless us all with His love. Amen.