corruption of sin

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Wednesday, 11 February 2015 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of our Lady of Lourdes, World Day of the Sick (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (our Lady of Lourdes)

Mark 7 : 14-23

At that time, Jesus then called the people to Him again and said to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and try to understand. Nothing that enters a person from the outside can make that person unclean. It is what comes from within that makes a person unclean. Let everyone who has ears listen.”

When Jesus got home and was away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him about this saying, and He replied, “So even you are dull? Do you not see that whatever comes from outside cannot make a person unclean, since it enters not the heart but the stomach, and is finally passed out?”

Thus Jesus declared that all foods are clean. And He went on, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him, for evil designs come out of the heart : theft, murder, adultery, jealousy, greed, maliciousness, deceit, indecency, slander, pride and folly. All these evil things come from within and make a person unclean.”

Alternative reading (Mass of our Lady of Lourdes)

John 2 : 1-11

At that time, three days after Jesus had called Nathanael to be His disciple, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus was also invited to the wedding with His disciples. When all the wine provided for the celebration had been served, and they had run out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”

Jesus replied, “Woman, what concern is that to you and Me? My hour has not yet come.” However His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.”

Nearby were six stone water jars, set there for ritual washing as practiced by the Jews, each jar could hold twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them to the brim. Then Jesus said, “Now draw some out and take it to the steward.” So they did.

The steward tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing from where it had come; for only the servants who had drawn the water knew. So, he called the bridegroom to tell him, “Everyone serves the best wine first, and when people have drunk enough, he serves that which is ordinary. Instead, you have kept the best wine until the end.”

This miraculous sign was the first, and Jesus performed it at Cana in Galilee. In this way He let His glory appear, and His disciples believed in Him.

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Tuesday, 10 February 2015 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Scholastica, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we continue the theme of the readings as we heard yesterday, of the Lord creating the whole world and the entire material universe as we know it now. He made all things good and perfect, all free from the taints of imperfections and evil in the beginning. Then indeed, we may be asking, how come then is it that there is so much evil things in the world now? How come is it that there is so much hatred, violence, jealousy and greed around us?

The answer lies in what mankind had committed in disobedience against the Lord, the sins which they have done in the presence of the Lord and men alike. Sin is a sickness of the soul, a blemish in the otherwise perfect and immaculate creations of God, especially for mankind, the greatest of all God’s creations. That is why there is so much evil in the world, so much sadness, sorrow and conflict that strike us all on daily basis.

And that was why God sent His Son Jesus into the world, in order to bring about the true purification of all mankind from the taints of sin. And today’s readings indeed share the same theme, that is cleansing and purification. However, we can see clearly in the Gospel today, the conflict that existed between Jesus our Lord and the Pharisees in how they approach this.

As I have often mentioned, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law are notorious for having adopted an excessively strict and unforgiving stance on the interpretation and application of the Law. As a result, they gave a great burden for the people of God to bear. There are many laws, rules and regulations which the people to obey, from things that are truly important to trivial matters and things such as the cleansing of the hands before meals, just as the one mentioned in the Gospel today.

The hereditary laws and customs of the Jewish people stipulated that each person should undergo ritual cleansing, washing and purification regularly, and this includes the ritual washing before meals, where each person are supposed to wash up to and including their elbows. Indeed, such is the complicated nature of the laws, to the point that obeying them and following them required a great deal of effort, and it is likely also that many would lose the true and real intention behind why they even observed those laws in the first place.

And that was why Jesus criticised the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law so much, because they are focused so much on the external cleansing and the purity of their exteriors, that they completely forgot about their insides, that is their heart and soul. It is useless if we are concerned only about the cleansing of our bodies and the exterior, ignoring the correct alignment of our heart, that is our interior.

Why is this so, brothers and sisters in Christ? Christ had mentioned in another passage that to be concerned about which food that is worthy or unworthy, clean or unclean does not make sense, for that which brings about sin and corruption comes not from the outside but rather from the inside. External dirt and filth while unappealing do not bring about the corruption of our beings, but the corruption that is within us will eventually corrupt our bodies and externals as well.

Already this can be seen in how the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law reacted to the teachings of Jesus. They professed to be faithful to the Lord and liked to show off their piety by public display through prayers and other actions in the public places, and yet they were so judgmental to sinners and all those who genuinely needed God’s help that you truly would not believe at all that they belonged to the Lord in the first place.

They also rejected Jesus and His teachings and they spat upon His actions, which were clearly the actions of God made real in this world, the manifestation of God’s love and mercy. Instead, they were so blinded by their pride and their hubris, that these eventually led to their eventual downfall. Just as they have rejected the Lord, so will the Lord reject them.

Today, we also celebrate the feast day of St. Scholastica, a holy virgin and saint of God. St. Scholastica by tradition was the twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia, another great and renowned saint well known for his holiness and dedication to the Lord. Both St. Scholastica and St. Benedict were devoted servants of the Lord who made monastic lifestyle an appealing way of life to the people of God.

Monastic lifestyle is for those who have decided to give all of their lives in complete and total dedication to the Lord. They withdrew from the world and from all forms of worldliness and instead, dedicate themselves in a life of prayer. As such, they commit themselves to a life of contemplation, of looking into themselves and the emptying of oneself of personal ego, but seeking the cultivation of individuals filled with the love of God.

In that way, rather than seeking the purification of the externals first, we focus on the purification of our interiors first, that is to shun all forms of temptations of sin, the lies and sweet words of Satan designed to bring about our downfall. That is what the Lord wants from us, that we all genuinely reject sin and all forms of wickedness and instead follow Him with all of our heart.

May all of us be awakened and see in Christ and all He had done, the abundance of love and mercy which God wants to shower us with, if only that we can listen to Him and learn to practice the faith we have by action and real dedication from the heart. Let us not lose our focus as the Pharisees had lost theirs and let us all be truly faithful, not just in external appearances, but truly love God from the deepest depth of our hearts. God bless us all. Amen.

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Monday, 9 February 2015 : 5th Week of Ordinary Time (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today in the readings from the Scriptures we see how God had done His marvellous and wondrous works in this world, beginning from the very beginning of time up to the present and as He will continue to do so in the future. And He did these all through His Word, the Word that made all things be and which made all things present, that is Jesus, the Divine Word incarnate into Man.

He who made all things real had resolved to come and save all those He had created. This is because ever since we mankind disobeyed the Lord and chose to follow the words of Satan instead of the words of our Lord, sin and evil, that are imperfections entered into our world and make things wicked as it is now. Remember that our Lord in the Book of Genesis had created the world, all good and all perfect, and no evil could be found within the world when it was created.

It was the pride of Satan, the desire and greed of men and all other evils that brought about the imperfections that ruined the perfect goodness that was this world. Hence, ever since, evil and wickedness found their way into the world, and if we see violence, hatred, prejudice, greed and other terrible things in this world, all of them stemmed from our sinfulness and disobedience against God.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, but despite what our ancestors had done to ruin and mar the beauty and the purity of creation, our Lord still loved all of us without exception, and although He hates our sins very greatly, but He loves all of us, the sinners, and He has no other wish than our freedom from the clutches of sin and from the chains of death. That was why He gave us His full love and dedication through Jesus, His Son.

Jesus laboured and worked to bring about the healing and reconciliation of mankind with Himself, so that by His works, He might reunite a people who had been scattered throughout this darkened world. His coming is like light shattering the darkness which had engulfed us for a very long time, and His light is like a guide which shows us the way out of the darkness and into the salvation which He promised to all those who keep their faith in Him.

Therefore, why do we all hear of the story of how God created the universe and all the things living and unliving today? That is because it is in our Lord’s desire to make us anew and to return us to the same state as when we were first created. He wants us to be made clean once more and freed from the illness and darkness which had covered us all body and soul, which tainted us and prevented us from embracing our Lord in complete love.

Sin is the disease of our soul, and as long as sin and darkness are in our hearts and as long as they taint our soul, our bodies will not be free, and death will continue to bind us. Thus, Jesus came to deliver us from the bonds of sin, from the chains of death. He freed us by His own sacrifice on the cross, and by showing us the selfless love which He had shown us by that sacrifice, so that we may be awakened from our dark slumber and begin to find our way towards our loving God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, from now on, let us all take concrete steps to change ourselves and our way of life, so that we may be relieved from that burden of sin which has plagued us since times immemorial, and so that by accepting fully the love which Christ our Lord has for us, that we may be made worthy and righteous once again, just as what the Lord intended for us, before sin came and corrupted us to the darkness.

May Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins and help guide us on our way, so that the inheritance He had intended for us, that is to live with Him eternally in perfect bliss and happiness may become a reality for us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Sunday, 8 February 2015 : Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sexagesima Sunday and Memorial of St. Jerome Emiliani and St. Josephine Bakhita, Virgin (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we continue to progress on towards the celebration of the most important parts of our Faith, that is the suffering, Passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today is Sexagesima Sunday, or literally meaning ‘sixty’ as a reminder for us that we are within about sixty days from the coming of Easter.

And on this day we heard about the nature of our lives, of our dwelling in this world, and the answer to all of our difficulties, plight and sorrows. As the first reading, taken from the Book of Job had mentioned, the suffering of this world, the pain and sorrow we all experienced, are like what Job had once experienced when Satan tested and tempted him against the Lord.

If we read the entirety of the Book of Job from the beginning to the end, we would realise that the suffering of mankind was never, ever the intention of our Lord. Suffering is in fact the result of the works of Satan and all of his allies, the forces of darkness in this world, and also more importantly, because of our disobedience against the will of God, that is sin.

Job’s friends accused Job of having sinned and committed wickedness before God. But meanwhile Job continued to complain and lamented for his sufferings, part of which we heard in our readings today, he continued to remain faithful to the Lord and never did once he cursed the Lord or blamed Him for what had happened to him. God showed Job that there are much that he did not understand, and He gave His answer to all of Job’s complaints, and for his continued faith despite his ramblings, he received great rewards surpassing what he had lost and what he had suffered from.

Thus, God wants to succour us and help us, and that was what God intends with us. The psalm today speaks of the healing which we can find in God, and it is this healing which our Lord Jesus Christ had brought with Him as He entered into our world to save it and to save all of us, His beloved people and children. The Gospel today reinforced this, by showing how Christ is concerned with all of His people, from the greatest to the least, and was concerned about spreading the truth He brought into the world to all the peoples.

He worked to heal the people of their afflictions, of the diseases that scourged their bodies, just as Job once was covered with boils and scabs that itched, and far above all these, was the healing which our Lord wrought upon our souls. What is this sickness of our souls? It is none other than sin. Sin is the scourge upon all of us, and it is a great barrier that prevents us from reuniting and being in complete unity and reconciliation with our Lord.

But we truly have no need for fear, as the Lord Himself had spared nothing else but Himself, and incarnate through His own Son, He made Himself the salvation and deliverance for us all mankind. For He is the Word of God, the Divine Word who is God and always is with God since before the beginning of time, and who was incarnate in the flesh to become like one of us, born a Man.

And through Jesus therefore, the word of God became real and concrete in this world, and instead of speaking through messengers and prophets, by the coming of Jesus into the world, God Himself speaks directly to us all, by what Jesus had taught us, and which His Apostles and disciples, and through them the Church, had preserved and passed down upon us.

In the readings for the Sexagesima Sunday, we hear of the parable of Jesus, that is the teaching of Jesus using stories and real experiences to make it easier for people to understand, the translation of the word of God into the words of men. Through what Jesus taught the people, what we know as the parable of the sower, the word of God has the power to bring us from the darkness of this world and from the suffering of the world into eternal happiness and joy with God.

However, as the parable shows us, that the word of God is like seeds planted by the Lord, who is the Sower, and the fate of those seeds depend on what kind of treatment or soil that they land on. This means that from our side, we must put in effort and work to ensure that the word of God can fall on fertile soil, and hence grow to bear rich fruits, that will lead us to our eternal reward, just as God once rewarded Job for his faith.

There will be many obstacles, brothers and sisters in Christ, as the parable shows us, and surely as our own experiences should have told us, that to be truly faithful and devoted to the Lord, and to follow Him in all of our ways is not going to be easy. Temptations of the world, the pressure from our peers and friends, and from the world itself to conform to the ways of the world or be rejected will be great, and it is on our part that we need to put in our effort to resist those challenges and temptations.

Today we celebrate the feast of two saints, St. Jerome Emiliani and St. Josephine Bakhita, two people who had very different life stories, and yet their experiences and examples will show us that what God had done unto us, by His coming into the world to offer us His generous mercy and love, is truly unmatched and unprecedented in the history of this world.

St. Jerome Emiliani was once a civil servant who worked in the government sector a few hundred years ago in what is today Italy. He eventually left behind everything to join the sacred priesthood and dedicated himself completely to the Lord and to his fellow men. St. Jerome Emiliani was renowned especially for his great love and care for orphans and all the children who were destitute and filled with problems in their lives.

St. Jerome Emiliani therefore helped to establish institutions and places where orphans and many other people who had been ostracised and rejected could stay as their new homes, and he himself with other priests and servants of God ministered to them and cared for them. He also established houses to accommodate former prostitutes who had repented from their sins.

Meanwhile, St. Josephine Bakhita was born in what is now Sudan just a century and half ago, and when she was young, she had to taste the bitter pill of war and violence, as well as the experience of slavery and subjugation by others, forced to accept the religion of heathens by her captors. She was sold as a slave and she was treated very badly, often tortured and not given proper food and place to live in.

By the grace of God, she was freed from her slavery when she was purchased from her previous owners by a Christian diplomat who came into the region and then entrusted St. Josephine Bakhita with the care of his family and children. A court thereafter ruled that St. Josephine Bakhita had not been legally a slave as where she was at, the state had ruled out slavery since before her birth, and thus she was then a freedman.

She was then baptised as a Christian and accepted into the Church by the future Pope St. Pius X, who was then the Patriarch of Venice, as she lived in the region where he had jurisdiction in. St. Josephine Bakhita thereafter joined the Canossian sisters, where she had lived for a while prior to her freedom, and from then on she lived a life of holy contemplation and filled with prayers and dedication to God. Great is her reward at the end of her earthly life.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we continue to prepare for the celebration of Holy Week and Easter, as well as we prepare for the season of Lent that precedes the former, which is soon to come, let us all take all these lessons and words into our hearts. St. Jerome Emiliani cared for the least of the people, the orphans and the rejected, just as Christ Himself gave Himself to the service of all those who have not been loved and those persecuted by others.

Let us all allow God to come into our lives, and through the planting of His words in our hearts, let us all be changed and transformed to become true and faithful children of our Lord, in all our words and deeds. Like St. Josephine Bakhita, the slaves turned freedman and then into a faithful servant and devoted woman, by allowing God to come into our lives, we allow ourselves to be freed from the slavery of sin and detaching ourselves from the things of this world.

May Almighty God bless us all, guide us all back to Him and in Him may we find satisfaction, succour and enlightenment, that we may all rejoice in Him in His everlasting glory, as we receive the great rewards for our faith, and may all of us be healed from the earthly and worldly afflictions. Amen.

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(Usus Antiquior) Sexagesima Sunday (II Classis) – Sunday, 8 February 2015 : Holy Gospel

Liturgical Colour : Violet

Sequentia Sancti Evangelii secundum Lucam – Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke

Luke 8 : 4-15

In illo tempore : Cum turba plurima convenirent, et de civitatibus properant ad Jesum, dixit per similitudinem : Exiit, qui seminat, seminare semen suum : et dum seminat, aliud cecidit secus viam, et conculcatum est, et volucres caeli comederunt illud.

Et aliud cecidit supra petram : et natum aruit, quia non habebat humorem. Et aliud cecidit inter spinas, et simul exortae spinae suffocaverunt illud. Et aliud cecidit in terram bonam : et ortum fecit fructum centuplum. Haec dicens, clamabat : Qui habet aures audiendi, audiat.

Interrogabant autem eum discipuli Ejus, quae esset haec parabola. Quibus ipse dixit : Vobis datum est nosse mysterium regni Dei, ceteris autem in parabolis : ut videntes non videant, et audientes non intellegant. Est autem haec parabola : Semen est verbum Dei. Qui autem secus viam, hi sunt qui audiunt : deinde venit diabolus, et tollit verbum de corde eorum, ne credentes salvi fiant.

Nam qui supra petram : qui cum audierint, cum gaudio suscipiunt verbum : et hi radices non habent : qui ad tempus credunt, et in tempore tentationis recedunt. Quod autem in spinas cecidit : hi sunt, qui audierunt, et a sollicitudinibus et divitiis et voluptatibus vitae euntes, suffocantur, et non referunt fructum.

Quod autem in bonam terram : hi sunt, qui in corde bono et optimo audientes verbum retinent, et fructum afferunt in patientia.

English translation

At that time, when a very great multitude was gathered together and hastened out of the cities unto Jesus, He spoke by a parable, “The sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.

And some others fell upon a rock, and as soon as it sprung up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some others fell among thorns, and the thorns growing up with it, choked it. And some others fell upon good ground, and having sprung up, they yielded fruits a hundredfold.” Saying these things, He cried out, “He who have ears to listen, let him hear.”

And His disciples asked Him what this parable might be. To whom then He said, “To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to the rest only in parables, that in seeing they may not see, and in hearing they may not understand. Now the parable is this : The seed is the word of God, and those by the wayside are those who heard, and then the devil came and took the word out of their heart, lest in believing they should be saved.

Now those upon the rock are those who when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no roots, for they believe for a while, and in time of temptation they fall away. And those who fell among thorns are those who have heard, and going on with their way, they are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and yielded no fruit.

But those on the good ground are those who in a good and very good heart, hearing the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit in patience.

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Friday, 6 February 2015 : 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Red

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard about the stories of faithful marriage and what we must do to preserve sanctity and holiness in our matrimony, as well as the story of the death and martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, the messenger and herald of the Lord, who was murdered, albeit unintentionally by Herod, the king of Judea at the time.

The readings of today are all related in that they spoke of the same theme, that is the sanctity of marriage, the holiness which should be maintained at all times in our marriage, and not only in our marriage but also in our lives. And they also highlighted to us the dangers and obstacles that will come our way if we stay faithful to our Lord, the opposition and difficulties that will be laid upon us.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Paul Miki and his companions, who are the brave and courageous servants of the Lord, who were martyred for their Faith during the violent persecutions of the faithful in Japan during the early years of the seventeenth century under the Tokugawa shogunate. St. Paul Miki was a Jesuit, a faithful missionary and servant of God, and a very successful preacher of his time, bringing many into the Church through his words and actions.

The faith had been growing strong in Japan at that time, and hundreds of thousands, peasants and lords alike have turned towards the Lord, accepting God as their Lord and Saviour. However, the secular government at the time changed their earlier toleration of the Faith and became very hostile to it. To them, the Faith is a threat to their existence, simply because it spoke the truth about this world, that is filled with much filth and wickedness.

And thus St. Paul Miki and his companions suffered, for they remained true to their Faith and refused to succumb to the temptations of the world, and they spoke for the truth which Christ had brought upon this world. They were persecuted and tortured, but they did not give up the Faith, and instead through their perseverance, they showed the truth of Christ to all who have tortured and persecuted them. Some even believed, converted and followed in being martyred with them.

And St. John the Baptist had also endured the same suffering for the Lord, for speaking up the truth of the Lord, out of concern for mankind and all the sins they have committed. He chastised Herod and his brother’s wife, Herodias, whom Herod had taken as if she was his own wife. This was a great adultery, the improper relations one had outside of marriage, and this is what St. Paul in his letter to the Hebrews had reminded us all against.

By the fornication of the flesh which Herod and Herodias had committed, by being unfaithful to the sanctity of marriage and through their actions which spat upon the sacredness of the bonds of holy matrimony, they have sinned greatly before God. And what is truly sad is that, despite having sinned before the Lord, they continued to live in their sin, and being engulfed in that sin, they ended up sinning even more.

Indeed, such is the great danger of sin, that it continues to corrupt the soul and bring us to sin even more. Herod was corrupted with the sin of greed, of lust and of pride, and with Herodias, they together committed the sin of adultery, and later on Herodias also developed the sin of anger and hatred against the truth spoken by St. John the Baptist.

And Herod gave in to the temptation of the flesh, when he saw the beauty of Herodias’ daughter, giving in to temptation, and under that same temptation, proclaiming vows and oaths he could not retract later on. And Herod therefore took part in the slaying of the messenger of God, and his sin grew ever more. Herod sinned because he refused to repent and continued in his sinfulness and in not changing his life.

This is a warning and a revelation to all of us, that the anchor of our faith, the foundation of our lives must be strong, that is our families. If our families are built upon a solid foundation of faith, that is keeping holiness and purity in our marriage and married life, then we can be assured that sin will have a hard time to get unto us. It does not mean that we will be free from the threat of sin, which is ever-present, but rather that if our families and the institution of marriage are not well respected, then the danger of sin is ever the greater, just as the case of Herod had shown us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we ought to recall the examples of the holy saints and martyrs, of the courage of St. John the Baptist who dared to chastise a king to make him see the errors of his ways. Even though this was not to happen, but at least through what he had done, he became a shining symbol of the true faith in the Lord.

And the examples of St. Paul Miki and his companions should also inspire us, that sin and all of the darkness of evil has no power over us as long as we remain faithful to the Lord. St. Paul Miki was tortured, scourged and humiliated, and they were made to an extremely arduous journey and death march from the Imperial capital of Kyoto to Nagasaki, where they were martyred, a very great distance for them to march under terrible condition and torture by their executors.

Yet, they gladly march to meet their death, and they sang the great thanksgiving hymn to God, the ‘Te Deum’ along the way. This is because they knew that they had stood up for their faith and for the Lord, and in what they have done, they had brought countless others into salvation in God, and that God would not abandon them and they would not be disappointed.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all profoundly change our way of life and reflect on the actions of the holy martyrs and saints which I have mentioned. Let us no longer live in sin, but dedicate ourselves to a life of holiness, a life filled with virtue and the love of God. May Almighty God be with us all, forgive us all our sins and in His mercy and love, may He find us worthy for our deeds made out of faith and love for Him and grant us eternal life. Amen.

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Wednesday, 28 January 2015 : 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Mark 4 : 1-20

At that time, again Jesus began to teach by the lake; but such a large crowd gathered about Him, that He got into a boat and sat in it on the lake, while the crowd stood on the shore. He taught them many things through parables. In His teaching He said, “Listen! The sower went out to sow. As he sowed, some of the seed fell along a path, and the birds came and ate it up.”

“Some of the seed fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil; it sprang up immediately because it had no depth; but when the sun rose and burned it, it withered because it had no roots. Other seed fell among thornbushes, and the thorns grew and choked it, so it did not produce any grain.”

“But some seed fell on good soil, grew and increased and yielded grain; some seed produced thirty times as much, some sixty, and some one hundred times as much.” And Jesus added, “Listen then, if you have ears.”

When the crowd went away, some who were around Him with the Twelve asked about the parables. He answered them, “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But for those outside, everything comes in parables, so that the more they see, they do not perceive; the more they hear, they do not understand; otherwise they would be converted and pardoned.”

Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand any of the parables? What the sower is sowing is the word. Those along the path, where the seed fell, are people who hear the word, but as soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.”

“Other people receive the word like rocky ground. As soon as they hear the word, they accept it with joy, but they have no roots, so it lasts only a little while. No sooner does trouble or persecution come because of the word, than they fall. Others receive the seed, as seed among thorns. After they hear the word, they are caught up in the worries of this life, false hopes of riches and other desires. All these come in and choke the word, so that finally it produces nothing.”

“And there are others who receive the word as good soil. They hear the word, take it to heart and produce : some thirty, some sixty and some one hundred times as much.”

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Sunday, 25 January 2015 : Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the great feast of the conversion of the great Apostle St. Paul, who was once known as Saul, the great enemy and persecutor of the Church and the faithful ones of God. God made him to be an Apostle and the great champion of the Faith, spreading the Good News of the Gospel to the farthest ends of the known world at the time. By his works, many followed in his footsteps and were converted as well.

This is in line with the readings we heard today in the Holy Scriptures, the first reading taken from the Book of the prophet Jonah spoke of the repentance and penitence shown by the people of Nineveh, the great capital of the Assyrian Empire, which God had marked to be annihilated for their sins and wickedness. The people, from the king to the lowest servants and slaves immediately repented from their sins after they listened to the warnings of the prophet Jonah.

This is to highlight God’s nature, that is His love and mercy, which He freely gives to all those who put their trust in Him and those who want to be forgiven for their wickedness. Thus, He forgave those who have come to His throne and mercy, and most importantly, those who dedicated themselves to change their way of life and committed to a life free from sin and to walk in the way of the Lord from then on.

Thus was Paul forgiven and called by God, to change his ways of sin and wickedness, the sin of the rejection of Christ and of the persecution of the faithful ones of God, into one that is devoted to the salvation of souls and total faith and trust in God. Indeed, even today, we can only be truly amazed at how God called one of His greatest servants and defenders from among the sinners and among those who have once hated Him so much so as to swore to destroy His entire Church.

And in the Gospel today, the theme is repeated yet again, for God through Christ called the servants whom He would make to be His greatest servants and witnesses in the world, the Holy Apostles, who have been given the authority to teach and preach the Good News, the power to heal and to forgive sins, just as the Lord gave them all these.

This is to show us that God does not want to punish us sinners and rebels against His will, even though rightfully and justly we should have been punished very severely for the disobedience we have committed against the Lord. Yes, just as St. Paul who once as Saul became a scourge for the faithful, getting hundreds or maybe even thousands or more of the faithful of the early Church to become martyrs, and yet God was willing to forgive him and embrace him back into His love.

That is why we have to always remember that God truly loves us sinners, but He hates entirely our sins, our wickedness and all the filthy things we have committed in this life. Condemn not the sinners but the sin. That said, we must not have the false attitude of showing mercy to those who have committed sin but without seeking for their repentance and changing of their ways.

And why is this so important, brothers and sisters in Christ? If we look at what St. Paul himself wrote in the second reading, which was taken from his letter to the faithful in Corinth, he wrote about the imminence of the coming of the end, of the coming of the kingdom of God, and therefore, as we all should be aware of, that is the imminence of the coming of the last and final judgment of all creation, of all mankind.

Are we not too concerned of the fate of our fellow brethren? Are we all too selfish and concerned only about ourselves that we forget about others who still linger in the darkness and in sin? Are we proud of ourselves having been saved by the Lord and do we look down on those who are still filled with the filth of sin, without us offering a hand to help them out of their sinfulness into grace?

If our answers to all of this self-reflecting questions are yes, then we really have to look into ourselves, and ask us what is our faith truly about? Our faith in God is about believing in the Lord who have so much love for us sinners, that despite of all the filth of sin surrounding us, He still resolved to help and rescue us, and that was why He gave us Jesus His Son, to be our Redeemer.

Those of us who heard of the Good News of God and believed, and chose to accept Him as our Lord and Saviour, had been bathed and cleansed from the taints of our sins, of original sins and of our own sins, by the Blood of the Lamb of God, Christ who sacrificed Himself on the cross for us. By His death we were cast free from the suffering of death, and by His resurrection we are brought to a new life, life filled with the grace of God.

We have to realise that even great saints were themselves sinners once. No one was born a saint, except perhaps the Blessed Mother of our Lord, Mary, who was born clean and immaculate, free from sin, in order to prepare her in her role as the bearer of the Almighty God and Saviour, and of course our Lord Himself, born a Man and yet free from sin. All saints and holy people of God were once sinners too.

Yes, some saints were once murderers, adulterers, and we knew how St. Augustine lived in his youth, in debauchery and in the midst of worldliness, that his mother St. Monica prayed day and night with tears for the conversion of her son. And that is the attitude we should all have, to pray fervently for those around us who still sin, that they may receive the call and grace of God, and hope that they will turn their ways and embrace God’s mercy and forgiveness.

Like St. Paul, who had done so much great evils and sins in his youth, had he not been called, or if he had been rejected by God, and had he been rejected by the community of the faithful, then surely many countless souls would have been lost, those whom he had directly and indirectly touched throughout his long mission and service to God, whom without him would likely not have heard the word of God, spoken through St. Paul, the faithful servant, and the repentant sinner.

Therefore, shall we all realise that our action and proactive act are necessary for us to help our brethren to also find their way to the Lord? That is true Christian faith and true love, as Christ had taught us, that we embrace those who have hated and persecuted us because of our faith, those who have sinned and refused to believe in God, and by our actions, in which we show and infuse God’s love and mercy, we may bring them to realise the gravity of their sins, and the threat of eternal death they are facing, and therefore, immediately to turn their ways to find the Lord our God and their God, before it is too late for them.

May all of us be strengthened with the new Spirit of God, in the evangelisation and conversion of the world, so that many more people and many more souls can be saved and will be saved from the clutches of Satan, through our actions, be it through direct acts, or through our words and our loving acts to them, or even if it is through a simple prayer, prayed for their sake.

Let us all no longer be indifferent or ignorant of the plight of others around us who still dwell in sin, but let us free them, just as the Lord freed Saul from his sins and called him to be His servant, and thus let us help one another, to become holy people of God, saintly and devoted, that in the end, as many as possible are saved and brought into the Holy Presence of God. God be with us all, and forgive us sinners from our sins. Amen.

by

Saturday, 17 January 2015 : 1st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Anthony, Abbot (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the theme of today’s readings are similar and indeed is a continuation of yesterday’s readings. If yesterday we heard about the healing of the paralytic man by Jesus, showing God’s love and mercy for sinners, that is all of us mankind, then today we heard about the calling of Levi, the tax collector who followed Jesus and would later be known as Matthew, one of the Twelve Apostles and one of the Four Evangelists or the Writers of the Four Holy Gospels.

In this we can see that no one is beyond redemption and no one is unworthy of salvation. Salvation is offered freely by the Lord to all of us, and it is ultimately in our hands and in our decision to accept or to reject the salvation offered to us. If we accept His salvation and forgiveness for our sinfulness, then we have the potential, capacity and opportunity to become great servants of God, exalted and praised. On the other hand, if we choose to reject Him, then our share is suffering and pain everlasting.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we have to reflect on our own lives, and how we have responded to the call of Christ. Yes, our Lord has called us many times and He constantly wants to remind us to distance ourselves from corruption of this world and all forms of sins, so that we will not be tainted by its corrupting nature. Mankind are all by nature prone and vulnerable to the temptation and to the pull of sin. If we do nothing, then it is likely for us to stumble and fall into the deep pit of sin.

Sin, as I have often mentioned, is the sickness and disease of the soul. Sin makes us all sick and defiled, and if we continue to live with sin, then gradually we will be drifting further and further away from God and we will eventually be lost. Sin however does not have the final say on us, as Christ would prove, by His actions and deeds, through which He sanctified the race of mankind, bringing to them a new hope of liberation from sins.

Jesus came to offer us sinners new hope, by calling us to repent and to abandon our ways of life filled with sins. He came to call sinners back to His love and to convert a people who are wicked and turn them into the creatures of love, of gentleness and care, and of harmony and peace. Thus that was why He called Levi the tax collector, to follow Him and became one of His disciples, counted among the Twelve Apostles.

We may ask, why Jesus would bother to look for sinners and the lost sheep, wicked and sinful men. Why would He bother to go all the way into the depth of the filth and quagmire that is this world, the sole purpose of which is to rescue those who have been trapped in the quagmire and bring them to safety. In fact, do you know that Jesus our Lord let Himself be trapped in that quagmire, so that all of us trapped in it can use His Body to go to our safety?

And thus it is in the same way that our Lord Jesus Christ had gone to find the lowest and the poorest of all, the greatest sinners of all, that by bearing the full brunt of all their sins, He brought about the salvation of all who repented their sins and believed in Him. Those who repented and followed the Lord just as Levi had done, shall receive the forgiveness of their sins, and the eternal grace and blessing of God.

Therefore, today we are called by God to follow the example of Levi, that is to leave behind our lives of sin and embrace the love and mercy of God, following our Lord Jesus and accepting His salvation with our whole heart. That us what we ought to do if we are to attain a new life in Him, life that is free from sin, and in which we are no longer bound to death, which is the consequence of sin.

Today we also celebrate the feast of St. Anthony the Great, also known as St. Anthony of Egypt, one of the first monks of the Faith, namely those who chose to retreat from the worldly materials and possessions, retreating into secluded places and following a life filled with prayer and total devotion to the Lord. St. Anthony of Egypt followed this lifestyle after he reflected on the meaning of the words of Jesus, particularly, ‘Follow Me!’

Thus in order to seek the kingdom of heaven and the grace of God, St. Anthony practiced his faith by retreating from the world and all of its temptations, shunning all forms of sins and worldliness. But he did not have it easy. Temptations and the demons are always tempting him and attacking him, trying to make him fail in his devotion and holy way of life in following God. Nevertheless, St. Anthony persevered and through his intense devotion, many examples and works were made which inspired countless peoples and souls to also follow God with all of their heart.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we do not have to go to the extent of what St. Anthony had done, but at least we have to follow in his footsteps, just as Levi had done before Him, abandoning the life of sin which we have, and exchange it for the life in Christ. We have to live out our faith from now on, that is we have to truly mean what we believe in and not just to let it be empty words or profession of faith without meaning.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, from now on let us commit ourselves anew to the Lord, so that in all things we say and do, we will glorify God and give witness to Him, that others who see us may also believe in Him and be saved as well. God be with us all, now and forever. Amen.

 

First Reading : 

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/16/saturday-17-january-2015-1st-week-of-ordinary-time-memorial-of-st-anthony-abbot-first-reading/

 

Psalm : 

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/16/saturday-17-january-2015-1st-week-of-ordinary-time-memorial-of-st-anthony-abbot-psalm/

 

Gospel Reading : 

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/16/saturday-17-january-2015-1st-week-of-ordinary-time-memorial-of-st-anthony-abbot-gospel-reading/

by

Sunday, 11 January 2015 : Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we mark the feast of the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, celebrating that moment when Christ began His ministry in this world, as the official beginning of His works, by the baptism which He took through John the Baptist, His herald and messenger, the one sent to prepare the way for Him. This is also to set the precedent for all of us the faithful, we who have received the holy seal of baptism as the mark and sign of divine favour, our Lord’s love for us.

On this feast day, all of us should be thinking about our own baptism, and remember the day when we were baptised, be it as a young infant newly born, or as a teenager or an adult, or even in our waning years, as we made the crucial and good decision of taking up the Lord’s cross and chose to follow Him as His disciples. We should all remember that day, when we are brought to the presence of God, and in His presence, we were sealed with the holy waters of baptism, marked as the children and possessions of our Lord.

And with that, Satan and his allies, the forces of darkness and this world no longer has power and authority over us, and they since that moment are not able to harm us anymore, for the Lord is ever before us, destroying all those who seek harm for us, His children and His beloved people. And baptism is also a pivotal moment, when our sins, the chains of the original sins of mankind, the disobedience our ancestors had shown to the Lord, are removed from us.

Sin is the tool that Satan is using to enslave us all mankind and prevent us from finding our way to the Lord. Sin is the means by which Satan tempts us to walk in his rebellious ways and turn against God, and baptism is meant to sever our connections and indeed our chains, the chains of our enslavement by sin. This is why we have to remember our own baptism, and for those among us who still seek the baptism of the Lord, then we have to put our entire heart’s focus on it. Because through baptism, we who were wicked and deserved death have been brought into the new hope of new life in Christ.

God is forever faithful and loving to us, and thus He shall never abandon us to destruction. It is we who have forsaken our Lord, who cares for us and the only One to show us true love. Therefore He made that act of love, of ultimate love, by the sending of His Son into the world, that through Him, the baptism He offers mankind, and through His loving sacrifice on the cross, the ultimate act of obedience to the will of God.

In the first reading of today from the book of the prophet Isaiah, God reaffirmed this love which He has for us, and called us back to Himself. He did not desire to punish us or to destroy us, unless if we ourselves want to be destroyed and rejected because we refused His generous offer of love, forgiveness and mercy. It was told that we should seek the Lord while we still can, and while it is not yet too late, and indeed, that is what we all ought to do.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us who have received the Sacrament of Baptism in the Church ought to rejoice, for it had indeed not been too late for us. We have made that solemn and crucial decision of choosing the Lord over that of Satan and the world, and we were baptised in the Faith, and became the children of God. We surely have heard of those who prefer to postpone their baptism until the last minute, that is until death is knocking at the door.

But, those who did so failed to see, that firstly, we have no control or knowledge over what our fate will be in the days, months and years to come. We know only of the past we had, and the present in which we all live in. Only God knows what we are to face, and therefore, we should not wait until it is too late. There are certainly cases of those who delayed until the last minute, and when death comes without their knowledge, sudden and unexpected, only eternal regret and suffering will remain with them forever in hell.

Therefore, on this feast of the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are all reminded that we should take our baptism seriously. Baptism is not just a one-off event after which we have no need to be concerned anymore with it and progress on with our own respective lives. Baptism is just the beginning, brethren, that is the beginning of a new chapter in our lives, the chapter of our life as the children of God and as the members of His Church.

Baptism is the beginning of our journey of faith together with God, and also together with all the members of the Church, with the Pope, the bishops and the priests, and with every single one of those who have been accepted into the Church, that is baptised in the Name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. We believe that faith alone and baptism alone does not bring about salvation, as these require action and genuine effort for us to achieve it.

Baptism is like the reset button, which resets our life once again back to the zero point, and it is also like an eraser, providing us with a clean slate from which to begin anew. In the ceremony of the Sacrament of Baptism, all of us or our godparents made the profession of the Faith together and affirm our rejection of all of Satan’s lies and temptations, and this is the moment when we abandon our old lives filled with sin and embrace the new life offered by the Lord.

Yes, brethren, a life no longer filled with wanton desires, greed or selfishness, a life no longer filled by jealousy, lies and falsehoods, but from then on, from the moment of our baptism, we have a new life, a life following the teachings and the ways of our Lord, as He had revealed through His Son, Jesus Christ. This feast of His Baptism by John today is a remarkable event, when God revealed yet again to the world, the truth which He was bringing through Christ.

Why do we believe in the Holy Trinity, brothers and sisters? That is because at that baptism in the Jordan, we see the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit together as One unity, God inseparable and yet three in aspects. The Father affirms the Son, while the Son is in the world, doing the will of the Father, and the Spirit is the mover of all things. All three united in perfect harmony, and through John who witnessed all the events, He proclaimed Himself to the world.

This is God who has loved us so much that He is willing to send His own Son to us, so that we may be saved. And by that baptism we witnessed today we know that through the same baptism, we have experienced the same event of that day in the Jordan, sharing with Christ the grace of God. Just as Jesus Christ the Son received from the Lord God the Father the affirmation, that He is the Son, His Beloved, therefore all of us also share in the same kinship as Christ, being all made as the sons and daughters of God.

And now that we have been made the children of God through baptism, do we take it easy and continue to live our lives as we had lived before our baptism? Of course not! Imagine that if we live as we have lived before, with wickedness and vices, with selfishness and greed, then who will believe that we are the children of God? No one will believe that we belong to the Lord, but instead we belong to Satan and his allies, and though we have received baptism and be cleansed from our sins, but the sins we commit afterwards will be our undoing.

As long as we walk in this world, in our mortal flesh, we will always be prone and vulnerable to sin. Therefore we must be ever vigilant and be careful as we live in this world, that we sin no more or at least we must learn to restrain the urge and the temptation to sin again. It is part of the cross we have to carry as the followers of Christ, to resist the temptations of Satan. After all, brethren, remember that Christ our Lord was also tempted?

He was tempted in His humanity in every way we have been tempted, with greed, fame, power and praise, but He triumphed, to show that there is indeed a way out of sin, and that it is possible to say no to Satan and reject him. And His death on the cross and subsequent resurrection shows that sin and death does not have the final say on us mankind. All those who believe in Jesus and all of His teachings, and who accept to be baptised as He had commanded His Church to do, shall be saved and be freed from the fate of eternal death and suffering.

Now what remains is for us all to make ourselves truly worthy children of God. As I have mentioned, baptism is the new beginning for us, and from then on we have to prove that we stay faithful to the Lord. Our faith cannot be one that is passive and superficial, as faith without good works, as St. James mentioned in his epistle, is essentially dead.

Therefore today, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we celebrate this feast and celebration of our Lord Jesus’ baptism at the Jordan, let us all remember our own baptism, and if we were too young to remember it, then let us all seek those who have the memories of that event, such as our godparents and parents. This is so that we can remember the promise which we or our godparents had made on our behalf, the promise of resistance and rejection of all of Satan’s falsehoods and lies.

And lastly, let today be a reminder for us all as well, that we have a duty and mission to carry out as a baptised member of the Church. Jesus before He ascended to heaven leave one last mission to His Apostles, a mission that is still ongoing even today. He commanded them to go to all the ends of the earth preaching the Good News and calling on all the peoples to repent and follow the Lord, and to baptise them all in the Name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

Thus, let us all begin if we have not begun, to live according to our faith and according to what we believe in Jesus. Let us all from now on walk the talk, and truly mean what we preach. No one will believe us or follow us in the way of Christ, no matter how good we preach to them, if we ourselves do not show that faith in our lives, in our words, our deeds and actions.

Hence, let us all do the will of God by showing faith in our daily actions, and through that, let us reaffirm the profession of faith we made at our baptism, rejecting Satan in all of his lies and wickedness. God bless us all. Amen.

 

First Reading :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/10/sunday-11-january-2015-feast-of-the-baptism-of-the-lord-first-reading/

 

Psalm :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/10/sunday-11-january-2015-feast-of-the-baptism-of-the-lord-psalm/

 

Second Reading :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/10/sunday-11-january-2015-feast-of-the-baptism-of-the-lord-second-reading/

 

Gospel Reading :

https://petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang.com/2015/01/10/sunday-11-january-2015-feast-of-the-baptism-of-the-lord-gospel-reading/