Conversion

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Friday, 27 June 2014 : Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, World Day of Prayer for the Sanctity of Priestly Life (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast that is truly important for us, that is the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, celebrating the very love that God has for us, and which He had shown to us through Jesus Christ, His life and ministry, and ultimately the death He faced on the cross, all the pure and concrete show of His love for us.

Today we also celebrate the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctity of Priestly Life, that is we pray for the priests and all those who had dedicated themselves to the Lord, to keep themselves holy and faithful, that they will keep themselves, in their thoughts, in their actions and in their deeds, to be always holy and representative of the Lord, and bring glory to Him through their actions.

God had chosen them out of His people to serve them, and to be His consecrated ones, to live life in holiness, and to help spread the love He had shown to the world through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the actual and concrete manifestation of God’s love to us, the love made flesh, and the Word of God made flesh. Through Jesus God wants to tell us that He loves us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God loves us so much, and I keep on telling this to all of you repeatedly, because many of us fail to realise this, and we fail to realise how every single breath we take, and this life, are all because of His love for us. If not for His love and mercy, we would all have perished and be destroyed because of our sins and iniquities.

Instead, God who hates sin and rebellion against His will, is willing to look beyond our sinfulness and desires to welcome us back into His presence, after we have repented and changed our ways, that we leave behind our sinfulness and wicked lives, changing them for a new life in God. And He gave us the ultimate gift of His love, a concrete and real gift in Jesus, the proof of the ultimate love of God for us.

Brethren, the love of God has descended from the Lord and to us, through Jesus, whose heart is always filled with love and concern for each and every one of us. The devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is a relatively recent occurrence, having been institutionalised only a few hundred years ago. However, this was born from the desire of mankind to recognise that love which God has for each and every one of us.

The Lord does not seek our destruction or for us to perish because of our sins, unless if we ourselves refuse to be saved. As we had heard in the Gospel today, through Jesus our Lord, God wants us to come to Him and be saved. He offers freely His love for us, and He stretches His hands wide to welcome us back into His loving embrace and protection.

He will bring us enlightenment and rejuvenation if we change our ways to trust Him and repent from our past, sinful lives. But sadly, the reality is that many of us do not realise this love that God has for us, flowing freely and generously from His most loving and merciful heart. We either fear God because we fear the punishments and consequences of our sins and faults thus we fear to approach the Lord, or we are simply too engrossed in our worldly lives for us to notice this love, ending up in our ignorance of God’s love.

This devotion to the Sacred Heart and this celebration we have today is meant to remind us of God’s great love for us, which is evident and enshrined in His own Most Sacred Heart. Yes, brethren, a heart that is full of love for us, full of mercy for our plight, and full of compassion for our difficulties in this world. This is the essence of the celebration we have today, a celebration of God’s love and mercy through His Most Sacred Heart.

This love is now given to us through the extensions of His love, that is through His disciples and holy Apostles, and from them through our priests, bishops and all those who gave themselves to the service of God and His people. Our priests and all those devoted to a life of service to God through holy ordination had been entrusted with power, love and authority to be Alter Christus, or in simple terms, to be the Christ personified and living in the person of the priests.

As such, it is imperative and necessary that our priests to have that sanctity and holiness, that they may truly represent Christ in our world today. Let us all pray therefore, that our priests will be and will remain holy and thoroughly dedicated in their service to God and mankind. We pray that through the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus our Lord, they too may love tenderly and give of their love to those who are in great need for love.

Let us help one another, particularly our priests and religious, that our lives will be better aligned with the will of God, and that we will grow stronger in love and faith. God be with us all, and may the love of His Sacred Heart be with us and enter our heart, that we too may love one another and Him, just as He had loved us first. God be with us all. Amen.

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Friday, 27 June 2014 : Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, World Day of Prayer for the Sanctity of Priestly Life (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 102 : 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8 and 10

Bless the Lord, my soul; all my being, bless His holy Name! Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all His kindness.

He forgives all your sins and heals all your sickness; He redeems your life from destruction and crowns you with love and compassion.

The Lord restores justice and secures the right of the oppressed. He has made known His ways to Moses and His deeds to the people of Israel.

The Lord is gracious and merciful, abounding in love and slow to anger. He does not treat us according to our sins, nor does He punish us as we deserve.

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Saturday, 14 June 2014 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflections)

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

Brothers and sisters in Christ, again I have to emphasize today, of the importance placed on the understanding of the laws of God and His true intention, rather than blindly following rules without understanding, and take things literally without proper discernment and thinking. This is the essence of serving the Lord and His people, just as Elisha, son of Shaphat had been called long ago to serve God’s people.

Some Christians like to take things in the Scriptures literally, as it had been written, even going as far as proclaiming the Holy Scriptures as the sole truth and the sole authority of the faith in the process of salvation. This is what is called the sola scriptura approach, popular among Protestants who in their heretical and misguided thinking, they thought that their understanding of the Scriptures is sufficient to guide them in faith and in life.

However, as we know, this is very wrong, and by depending on their interpretations, human interpretation that is flawed and imperfect, they have erroneously practiced their faith, thinking that we faithful cannot make oaths or anything similar, out of fear of sinning and going against the Lord’s will. But this is not in fact what Jesus meant when He said what He said in the Gospel today. This is the danger of literally interpreting whatever Jesus said and hold onto them as if they are inviolable laws.

Jesus liked to preach to the people of God in parables, through the use of stories and links to real-life contexts, which has two purposes. First, this facilitates understanding by the people, in consideration that most of them at the time were illiterate, and therefore unlikely to have strong background knowledge of what they have in the Scripture, and whatever they believe in, is mostly the oral traditions passed down through the generations and through the teachings of the priests.

But these, as we know it, were imperfect knowledge, since mankind had limited and feeble intelligence that is incapable of comprehending the fullness of the truth in the word of God, except if it is revealed to them through the Holy Spirit, or through the teaching of the Prophets. Those who trust only in the Holy Scriptures and in their flawed understanding on them, is being foolish.

This links to the second purpose of Jesus’ preaching using parables and stories to the people. If the first purpose is to make the teachings more understandable to the faithful, who were mostly farmers, fishermen and shepherds, and that was why so many of Jesus’ parables involve the terms that these people were familiar with, the second purpose is in fact to hide the true meaning of the word of God before it is time for them to be fully understood by the people.

Jesus Himself highlighted this, and He showed how the meaning of the words He had spoken had to remain hidden for a while until the appointed time when the Lord was to reveal Himself in His entirety to the world. But Jesus Himself did explain the meaning of His parables to the disciples, especially when they asked Him what He meant as He taught the people with those parables.

Yet, even after that, the disciples still did not understand perfectly, and as we know, there were many moments when they failed to understand what was to happen with Christ, especially when He suffered trial and death, when He was crucified on Calvary, and finally when He was risen from the dead, and the tomb of Jesus became empty.

It was through the Holy Spirit, the Advocate and Helper, that the Lord chose to reveal His truth to the people of God in its fullness. The Apostles and disciples received the Holy Spirit, and it was from them that the teachings of Jesus, the word of God, and the true intentions of the Lord were made clear to the people. The Scriptures, that is the New Testament section including the Holy Gospels themselves were written by the disciples inspired and filled with the Holy Spirit, to provide the people with understanding of their faith.

So what did Jesus mean then, by what He had said today? He did not mean to completely ban vowing and oath-making from us, and not to condemn us if we do so. What Jesus had meant was in fact that, whenever we do something and commit ourselves to something, especially when we say it verbally, we must truly mean everything that we spoke of, and we also have to take them seriously in mind and heart.

If we do not desire to do something, then we should not lie and make a false oath or vow. That is evil. And if we desire to do something, then it is more important and meaningful for us to go and act on it rather than just making empty promises and be slothful about it. That is the true essence of the Lord’s message to us. Rather than blaspheming against God by lying in His Name or on anything that He had created, it is best for us as Christians, to go forth and do all things that is right, immediately and with full consciousness.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to keep alive the teachings and the knowledge which had been passed down to us through the Church, that is the deposit of faith. The Church alone is the custodian of this deposit of faith, which keeps us all anchored firmly to the Lord and His truth, and we have to keep it and follow it through. Let us not fall to the attempts of the devil to discredit the faith or the Church through his lies.

May God continue to guard us, keep us in His grace and love, and empower us to remain always in His truth and receive much blessing. May God be with us all, always. Amen.

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Friday, 13 June 2014 : 10th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 26 : 7-8a, 8b-9abc, 13-14

Hear my voice when I call, o Lord, have mercy on me and answer. My heart says to You.

I seek Your face, o Lord. Do not hide Your face from me nor turn away Your servant in anger. You are my protector, do not reject me.

I hope, I am sure, that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Trust in the Lord, be strong and courageous. Yes, put your hope in the Lord!

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Thursday, 5 June 2014 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red (Martyrs)

God has given glory to His Son, Jesus Christ, and He has shown it through Him, as He Himself revealed to the disciples as in the Gospel today, and also based on what He has done in this world. To the rebellious and wretched nation and people who constantly disobeyed His will and commandments, He once again showed His truth and glory through Christ, who performed such wonderful miracles on the kind and scale which have not been seen before in this world.

And through those too, God wanted to remind the people of the love which He has for them and the concern which He always has for them, through all ages. Through Jesus, mankind watched firsthand the undeniable evidence for the love of God, and He proved it through His willingness to bear the suffering and punishments for our sins on the cross and to die to save us from death.

He rose up from the realm of the dead and entered into His glory to bring us from the darkness and hopelessness of this world into the new hope and light of the world that is to come. He wants us to be saved, and to do so, He did not hesitate to give His all, even His life for our own good and safety. All these so that we may have hope in Him, and through Him, enter into the eternal life He has prepared for us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we must always keep the tenets and the basics of our faith strong, trusting in God in the matter of all that He had revealed to us. What are in this faith? We must always believe that the Lord is God, One and only Almighty and omnipotent God, Lord above all lords and Sovereign of all sovereigns and powers on earth and in heaven.

And then not just that, but that He is One, but has three separate and yet equal Divine Persons, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all three of whom are different and separate from each other, and yet at the same time also are completely united to each other in perfect love and harmony, forming the Most Holy Trinity that is the basic of our faith.

And that the Son, who is the Word of God, was made flesh and descended into the world as one of us, and we know Him as Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, who revealed to His disciples the glory that He had in Him, just before He was to be betrayed to the chief priests and the elders to be crucified. The Son is worthy, and He offered Himself to the Father to be the One to make clean the people of God, as the only sacrificial victim worthy to absolve the sins of all mankind, something, that the blood of animals cannot do.

And that through His suffering and death, He endured for us the punishments and sufferings which should have been our due for our sins and unworthiness, and instead He bore them upon Himself, and liberated us from death by His rising from the dead on Easter day. The Risen Christ is the proof that God gave as a final reminder of His love to all of us, which St. Paul bravely stood by in the first reading today.

We also have to keep all of these basic tenets of our faith, and we have to keep in mind always the love that God has for all of us. God is Love, and He will always love us, and He will never want us to be separated from Him, unless it is we ourselves who want to be separated from Him. Hence, brethren, loosen our hearts and open them for the Lord, and allow His love to touch us tenderly and transform us into creatures worthy of Him.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Boniface, a bishop and a martyr of the faith. He was a bishop in the region of what is now today’s western areas of Germany, and he did many evangelising and preaching works throughout the still pagan areas of Germany, then still occupied in its eastern portion by many separate pagan tribes worshipping the pagan gods such as Odin, Thor, and other related Scandinavian pantheons.

St. Boniface worked hard for the faith, and managed to convert many people and helped them to accept the faith in God, abandoning their sinful old ways and cast down their pagan idols to accept the Lord Jesus as their Saviour and God. He preached in many places and villages, explaining about the faith to the people who then went on to accept the faith.

A particularly famous and renowned happening about St. Boniface and his evangelisation is that he felled a sacred oak in Germany, where the populace had once worshipped the pagan gods there, especially the god of thunder, Odin. When St. Boniface spoke up against the pagan worship and courageously hacked the oak tree down, the people waited for the gods to punish St. Boniface. However, seeing that no harm came upon St. Boniface, they laid down their pagan worship and eagerly took up the faith in God.

St. Boniface was martyred when he met a rogue group of pagan bandits on his way to preach to villages, and he was slain by them, while trying to defend himself with the Gospel book. He welcomed death readily, even at that moment when he was already very old. He did not fear to die, as long as He had brought the light of Christ to so many people and saved so many souls from destruction and damnation.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, inspired by the examples shown by St. Boniface, let us all be courageous in defending our faith, and let us all have a living and strong faith, one that is anchored firmly on the basic tenets of our faith and put all our trust completely in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. May He guide us always and remain with us always, all the time. Amen.

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Tuesday, 3 June 2014 : 7th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red (Martyrs)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard the continuation of the prayer of Jesus for His disciples, for all mankind and for the world. Jesus made clear to all of His disciples of the truth about all things on Himself and all the things that He had come into this world for. He made clear to all mankind that it is through Him all salvation will come from, and no one can reach the Lord other than through Himself.

God has given all to His Son, Jesus Christ, that in Him can be found hope and redemption. And it is this that we believe in and treasure as our faith. Jesus has given His all in order to save mankind, which was His mission upon coming into the world. Despite the difficulties and the challenges that He faced, He obeyed the will of the Father perfectly and thus bring glory to God and redemption to mankind.

Today’s readings are both about those who are about to face danger and peril, and in both cases, indeed they would face a violent death in the end. As we know and heard, Jesus in the Gospel today was praying for His disciples, and He did this during the time after the Last Supper just before He went through His Passion and suffer for our sake, and died on the cross.

In the first reading, St. Paul also showed his anguish, having been accused and resisted by many of those whom he had been sent to work with, and he was also about to be judged in Jerusalem, after having been arrested and sent back for judgment by the authorities. We know that eventually St. Paul would appeal to the Roman Emperor and asked to be judged in Rome, where he would eventually meet his end, by beheading on the order of the Emperor Nero, who instigated the first official persecution of the faithful and blame them for the fire of Rome.

But both of them did not fear the persecution and death they were to face. Instead, they welcomed death openly without fear, and they continued to work for the Lord’s sake all the way till the end. St. Paul continued to minister along his way to Rome, converting many to the Lord, including those in Malta and in Rome itself. And Jesus as we all know, healed the severed ear of the servant of the High Priest, Malchus, and He forgave those who condemned Him to death, on the cross itself.

This is an attitude and a way of life which we all should emulate in our own lives, that is to truly bring about a genuine and living faith in each one of us. We have to be like St. Paul and Jesus in their mission that they carried in complete faith to God the Father. And today, we celebrate the feast of St. Charles Lwanga and his companions, holy men who did not fear or hesitate to defend their faith unto death, and worked for the sake of the Gospel.

St. Charles Lwanga was born in what is today modern day Uganda in south-central part of Africa, and he was born into the then kingdom of Buganda, which still practiced animism and abhorrent practices, especially wicked sexual practices and perversions prevalent at that time, particularly those committed by the king of Buganda himself.

St. Charles Lwanga had quite a high and significant position in the court of the king, and while the whole court and country was made to reaffirm their paganistic beliefs and cast out Christianity, which when this happened just about one and a half decades ago, the faith of the One True God began to enter into Buganda and converted many to the true faith.

St. Charles Lwanga himself secretly converted to the faith and through his works in secrecy, he managed to convert many people, especially many convicts and others who then joined the true faith together with St. Charles Lwanga. But the end came for him, when he chose to stand by his faith, when the king’s sexual perversion and debauchery went bad and by persuading the victims of the king to adopt the faith and resist the king’s influences, St. Charles Lwanga and some others were punished and tortured, and were finally executed.

St. Charles Lwanga stayed faithful to the end, and publicly showed his faith to others, and even praying over his executors as they tortured him, hoping that they too will be baptised and receive the faith as he had done. His faith and devotion to the faith was truly commendable, and we too should be inspired by what he has done.

Our faith must be strong and vibrant, and we cannot be idle. We have to stand fast by the Lord’s side and not be afraid of rejection or persecution by the world or others disagreeable to our faith, that is those who are still in the darkness of Satan and the world. Let us all be courageous, and be inspired by St. Charles Lwanga and his companions, the Ugandan martyrs, in their faith, so that we may grow ever more worthy of the Lord and be righteous before Him.

May God be with us all, and may St. Charles Lwanga intercede for us together with his companions in heaven. May God help us all. Amen.

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Friday, 30 May 2014 : 6th Week of Easter (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, sorrow is part and parcel of our lives as we walk in this world. It is our due, as the Lord had mentioned, that we are now in sorrow, because precisely we are in a world filled with darkness and lacking God. It is because we are distant from God then we are filled with sorrow, since within us, we have this innate desire to be reunited to God, our loving Father and Creator.

But our sorrow is not eternal, and neither will it be a completely hopeless situation. In fact, as we all know, that Christ is our hope and our joy, the Easter Lamb, through whom we have been given new hope in order to come closer to the Lord and gain the wondrous blessings and joy, which only God can give, and not the world.

We are in this world today, and we are in the time when we labour for the eternal joy. Life is difficult and full of opposition, if we choose to remain faithful to our calling in life, that is to serve God. There is an alternative indeed, a quick escape and a shortcut, which the devil provided for us. This is exactly to immerse ourselves in the wicked pleasures of the world, that is the pleasure of the flesh, and enjoying the fruits of the world’s earthly desires and goods.

We mankind are naturally predisposed and vulnerable to sin, as we have sinned before the Lord and ever since our ancestors disobeyed Him, we have tasted the sweet fruits of sin. Mankind finds joy and happiness in the pleasures and abundance offered by the world, but are these true happiness and joy, or are they just mere illusions?

The joy and happiness are real, but these are not true joy, which I have to again emphasise that only God can give us true joy. The joy that we experience in this world is fleeting and temporary, and those joy and happiness will not satisfy us forever, and indeed, they may instead lead us away from the Lord and the ability to understand what is true joy and happiness.

In this era in particular, especially in the developed countries, and increasingly apparent in the rapidly developing countries, that we have grown to be pampered even since when we were very young, and still yet continue until when we have reach adulthood. Our lives are growing more and more comfortable and filled with ever-increasing desires and wishes.

The world feeds this desire and lifestyle, by directly feeding our wants and our longings. We have in us the negative emotions such as sloth, greed, pride and many others, which helped to prevent us from escaping the endless cycles of desire and consumerism, which are increasingly becoming more and more prevalent in our world today. Just look at the amount of advertisements in our television, and you will know how decadent and hedonistic our world is becoming today.

It does not mean that we should abstain and avoid every kind of worldly attachments and live like an ascetic, but we should take everything in moderation, including the pleasures of the world. Sure, it is very tempting for us to want this and that, but it should not make us slaves to our will and desires, but rather, we have to control ourselves and our wants. Do not let our desires control us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us not be trapped in the pleasures of the world, but let us seek the pleasures that last everlasting. Yes, the true pleasure and the happiness that only God can give us. Let us resist our temptations and our desires, and do not allow the devil to influence us. Resist the goodness of this world, in that while we may enjoy them, but they should not be excessive.

May the Lord guide us on our way, and help us to seek Him, and seek the joy and happiness that He can give. Let us remain focused on our way, and commit ourselves completely to Him, that we may in the end, receive eternal and everlasting glory in heaven. God bless us all. Amen.

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Wednesday, 28 May 2014 : 6th Week of Easter (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we hear how privileged we are to have known the Lord, who had been revealed to us through the Apostles and the disciples of Christ, and through their successors, who continuously preach the Good News and make it known to us. The Greeks in today’s first reading and their predecessor did not have such a privilege, and for many generations, they had lived in darkness and in ignorance, not knowing the truth and the intention which God has for them.

I have once mentioned about the faith of the Greeks in the Hellenic era and earlier, and those of us who know the Greco-Roman mythology and the ubiquitous reference to their gods even to the modern era will know it quite well. There were many gods and goddesses in the Greco-Roman pantheon, each of whom represented an aspect of nature and the world, which they considered to be living and sentient as divines.

This was why the Hellenic people at the time worshipped those gods and built magnificent statues and temples for them, and also offered sacrifices in various kinds to these gods, and yet they did not truly know them. The same happened essentially everywhere else in the world, with the people worshipping aspects and events of nature as divine, and treated them as gods and goddesses.

But if you ask me, these obeisances and devotions are nothing more than mankind’s insecurities, fears, and desires that came forward and end up manifesting as these observations, these worships, and these gods with their stories and mythologies. The mythology and the story behind the gods are often mankind’s attempts to explain the natural phenomena around them and linking them to divine presence.

But these were crafted out of human understanding, and not because of any divine truth and revelations. And they were false, and they misled mankind to believe in the falsehoods, and who fed all these? The devil did. He is most pleased when mankind was misled by lies and misunderstandings, or the twisting of wisdom.

Mankind desires for the love from a superior being, someone whom they know to be the One, the Lord and God who created them, who cared for them, and who provided for them daily and filled them with His Spirit. But not everyone has an idea, of how to approach the Lord, or know how He is like, and that is why, so many people went wayward and away from the Lord, led by the lies of the devil.

God made Himself manifest first to the people of Israel, to Abraham and his descendants, to whom He revealed some of His truth and love, and which He continued to reveal over time through the prophets and the judges. Through them the people of God received more and more knowledge about God and His infinite love for us. But sadly, the people often did not remain faithful and they disobeyed Him despite knowing the truth.

That was why Jesus came into this world, to be the One, who not only revealed the fullness and perfection of God’s love and truth to mankind, but also to be the One through whose truth, made mankind worthy again of Himself, and by dying and by His resurrection, made the plain truth about Himself visible to all, and rose up from among mankind, His witnesses to proclaim that truth to all peoples, of all nations.

Today we are also urged, to cast away the lies, the veil of lies and darkness that still remain, if any, un our hearts and minds. If the people at the time of St. Paul failed to see God in His truth because their hearts were closed within a veil of darkness crafted by men, within layers of superstitions and false faith in tales and mythologies, then we in this world today suffer from the same thing, that is the darkening of our hearts and minds by the concerns of this world, that is by material possessions, and other forms of the pleasures of the flesh.

Let us all today be courageous and be firm in saying no to Satan, and rejecting all of his lies, so that we may finally pierce through the veil of darkness he has cast around us. May we be truly faithful and be good servants and children of God, and be worthy through our words, actions and deeds, which are always in the mold and following the example of Jesus our Lord and Saviour. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 27 May 2014 : 6th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are faced once again with the reality of our world, both past, today, and also what it will be in the future. We know that this world does not belong to the Lord but to the devil, for the evil one has his dominion over the world, and we are all under his power which he exercised through the world.

With Christ and His death on the cross, and His glorious resurrection from the dead, He had liberated us from the thrall and dominion of Satan, in that he no longer has any direct power or control over us, and eternal life has been promised and assured to us, providing that we follow the Lord and always walk in His ways.

But the devil still has his ways in this world, and he remains very capable of tempting us and leading us astray from the path that we walk on towards the Lord and His salvation. He has many ways and tools through the world, and his weapons are plenty. Just like when Satan tempted our Lord Jesus with all the things at his disposal, including the wealth and temptations of the world, he will do so to us too, to make us falter.

Why is this so crucial, brethren? And why do I bring this matter up today? That is because today we celebrate the feast of the missionary who brought the faith to the land of England, which that time was filled with mostly the Anglo-Saxon invaders and some native Britons, around the end of the sixth century, more than a thousand years ago. He is St. Augustine of Canterbury, the founder and the progenitor of the Church in England, which is now known as the United Kingdom.

And you all know that there was a great tragedy of the faith, when heresy, an immense heresy and unworthiness brought so great a destruction for the faithful, which remains even until today, and the great repercussions continue to affect even to the rest of the world. Truly, the devil was busy, and is busy causing havoc among the faithful and in God’s Church!

What am I talking about then? It is about the so-called ‘Church of England’, the ‘Anglican Communion’, the product of the devil and his cultivation of division among the faithful, the product of the King of England five hundred years ago, King Henry VIII, who in his futile and desperate attempts to seek a male heir, resulted in him choosing to follow the path to damnation and brought many down with him, rather than submitting to the will of God.

Let me fill you in with some background, beginning from St. Augustine himself, the founder of the Church in England. St. Augustine was a priest and missionary from Rome, who was the personal confidant of Pope St. Gregory the Great and a holy and pious person, dedicated to the works of the Lord. He was well renowned for his great piety and exemplary lifestyle, and as such he was chosen to evangelise the Good News to the heathens in England.

England was once a province of the Roman Empire, and the faith had made its way to that country, and ever since the Emperor Constantine made the faith legal,  the Church there had grown, but with the downfall of the Roman Empire in the West, the society in England broke down, and with the invasion of the Germanic Anglo-Saxons from what is now northern Germany, the faith in England floundered and for many years, the people there lived in darkness.

Pope St. Gregory the Great who was elected Pope in 590 AD was a great worker and dedicated reformer, who was very dedicated to the evangelisation of the word of God among the many people who still were ignorant of the faith, and he sent many missionaries, including to England, whom he sent St. Augustine of Canterbury to.

St. Augustine of Canterbury was known as such because he founded the see of Canterbury in the southernmost part of England where he landed after his trip from Rome. The see of Canterbury eventually grow to become the first or the primate seat of all England and the isles there, and that is why now the supposed successor to St. Augustine of Canterbury is the Archbishop of Canterbury, but the one who now holds that seat is illegitimate and unworthy of such a position, ever since the King, Henry VIII sundered the Church in England from the obedience to the Pope, the entire rebellious episcopate and priesthood in England had been rendered invalid.

King Henry VIII was a great and mighty king of England, great in all things especially in his willpower and desire, but he is seriously lacking in one thing. He lacked a male heir, which was all-important especially for monarchs and rulers who always sought for ways to secure their rule and reign, even to that of their descendants’. His first and lawful marriage to Catherine of Aragon provided a daughter but no son.

Hence, Henry VIII was desperate and tried to have his marriage to Catherine annulled, or in short, to divorce her so that he can marry another woman to provide him with a male heir. He petitioned the Pope in Rome to be allowed to do so, but as we all know that divorce is sinful and terrible, for it tramples upon the sanctity of marriage life, which we know is a Sacrament, and a union by God which no man should divide.

The Pope refused to give his permission and sanction, and king Henry VIII in his obstinence, decided to break relations with Rome instead, and established the so-called ‘Church of England’, a national church with the king at its head. It is an act of desperation, and an act of wickedness, done without greater regards for the good of the faithful people of God, casting many souls into eternal damnation and deny them salvation by leading them into heresy.

St. Augustine would truly be sad had he lived to see such degradations and wickedness that his successors at the throne of Canterbury had allowed to happen, as the bishops conspired and followed the king and his successors into sin and wickedness, and therefore hell is assured for them.

And even more lamentable is that, king Henry VIII in his desperation and insanity, even went on to marry a total of six times, a marriage that produced only one male heir, who was sickly and died not long after king Henry VIII himself, ultimately a punishment from God for his debauchery and great sin of causing a split in the Church of God and the faithful.

Today, as we remember St. Augustine of Canterbury and ask for his intercession, let us ask him to pray for the Anglican ‘churches’, that these may see the error of their ways, abandon their sinful rebelliousness and return to the Holy Mother Church, expunging from themselves the mortal sins of Henry VIII and embrace total and complete repentance.

May God guide them, and also all of us, to be able to walk the true path, the path towards salvation in God, and be reunited as one people, and believe in Him without the taint of the corruption of Satan. Let us not be like those who have rebelled against God, like king Henry VIII and his supporters, who put ahead human and worldly concerns, as well as their private desires ahead of God’s love and truth. God bless us all. Amen.

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Tuesday, 27 May 2014 : 6th Week of Easter, Memorial of St. Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 16 : 5-11

But now I am going to the One who sent Me, and none of you asks Me where I am going; instead you are overcome with grief, because of what I have said. Believe Me, it is better for you that I go away, because as long as I do not leave, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go away, it is to send Him to you, and when He comes, He will vindicate the truth before a sinful world; and He will vindicate the paths of righteousness and justice.

What is the world’s sin, in regard to Me? Disbelief. What is the path of righteousness? It is the path I walk, by which I go to the Father; and you shall see Me no more. What is the path of justice? It is the path on which the prince of this world will always stand condemned.