Council of Trent

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Saturday, 30 April 2016 : Fifth Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. Pius V, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard first about the works of St. Paul who went about many cities and towns across regions of the Eastern Mediterranean. He went preaching the word of God and the Good News, telling many people of the need to repent from their old, sinful ways and to follow the Lord our God from then on. And he encouraged the faith of the many communities of the faithful whom he visited along the way.

If we read more of the entirety of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles as a whole, we would realise just how difficult his works were, and how dangerous they were. Indeed, many of the faithful welcomed him along his journeys and they listened to him. But in many of those places, he also encountered those who opposed his works, those who opposed the faith and the Church, and refused to believe in God.

The Jews, especially the hardliners among the priestly clans and the Pharisees refused to believe in Jesus and made life difficult for St. Paul and the Apostles. In a few occasion they even harassed them and incited the whole city to go against them. Their works were disturbed and they were even stoned and assaulted. But with the grace of God, they were able to persevere amidst the persecution.

And some of the Greeks and the pagans who refused to believe in God also made their case against St. Paul and the Apostles, thinking of his teachings and the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as threats to their traditional way of life, their culture and as insult and affront to their traditional gods. And thus, many people and groups ganged up against St. Paul, the Apostles and the faithful.

This is a fulfilment of what Jesus Himself had told His disciples at the Last Supper, about how the world would hate them for what they had done for the sake of the Lord, and because they belong to the Lord and no longer belonging to the world. They would suffer rejection, challenges and persecution because of their dedication to the Holy Name of God, and for the salvation of God’s people.

But God reassured them at the same time, for He told them that it was indeed a great privilege to be able to suffer for the sake and for the cause of the Name of the Lord. And they suffered because they refused to bend to accommodate the demands of this world, and they therefore gained glory and righteousness through what they have done in good faith in the Lord Jesus.

This is especially important for all of us today, as we have to realise and we have to constantly remember that the works of the Church and thus the same works of the Apostles have not been completed, but instead, it is still in progress, and we are the ones who have been entrusted with the same works as what the Apostles had been entrusted with.

Now we have to ask ourselves, are we up to the challenge? Are we able to give of ourselves just as the Apostles have given themselves for the sake of evangelisation and preaching the Good News to those who have yet to hear of it, or to sinners awaiting for the redemption and salvation in God? We have to make a conscious choice and effort to put ourselves at the forefront of the works of the Church, to bring more and more souls to salvation in our God.

Now, let us today remember the example of this pious saint whose feast day is celebrated today, Pope St. Pius V, Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Christ, and the leader of the entire Universal Church approximately five centuries ago. Pope St. Pius V lived through a time of great difficulty for the Church, and he led the Church through those very turbulent and trying times, where people were also martyred for their faith, and many false prophets were lying around seeking prey from among the people of God.

At that time, the Church and the faithful people of God were under siege and under constant threat from the inside and from the outside. The pagan and godless Ottoman Turks were rising and became mighty, seizing territories after territories, enslaving more and more people under their iron rule, and the whole Christendom was under great fear of this great rising power.

And besides that external threat, from the inside, the Church was assailed by the heretics and the people who called themselves as Protestants, following false teachings and the heretical thoughts of men planted by the devil himself to destroy the Church and its unity. Many souls were lost to heresy, and many people fell along the way, as they were tempted by the temptations of those heretical teachings and left the truth of God behind.

During that very trying and turbulent times, Pope St. Pius V led and steered the Church with great patience and effort, keeping control of the faithful and ensuring that works were done to prevent more and more souls from being lost to the damnation of hell. And thus, he helped conclude the very important Council of Trent, a gathering of the leaders of the Church designed to rejuvenate and purify the faith, so that the Church would be far better able to resist the attacks of the heretics.

Through his efforts, many of the lost souls and heretics repented their sins, and by the hard works of the various missionaries sent to reclaim these lost souls, many were restored to the grace and salvation in God. And Pope St. Pius V was also instrumental in his role in encouraging and organising a great defence of Christendom, culminating in a total and crushing victory of the forces of Christ against the heathen Ottomans at the battle of Lepanto.

Inspired by Pope St. Pius V and his tireless dedication to the faithful, his hard works amidst the difficulties and challenges, just as St. Paul and the Apostles had encountered, for the sake of the salvation of as many souls as possible, therefore all of us should also follow in their footsteps and help to bring one another, all the lost sheep in this world to return together to our Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us all vow and renew our efforts to become each and every one of us, as good and ever better Christians, not just by mere words, but also through real and concrete action. Let us all commit ourselves to the Lord through His Church and bring all the peoples to salvation and grace in the Lord. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 30 April 2016 : Fifth Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. Pius V, Pope (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 15 : 18-21

At that time, Jesus spoke to His disciples at the Last Supper, “If the world hates you, remember that the world hated Me before you. This would not be so if you belonged to the world, because the world loves its own. But you are not of the world, since I have chosen you from the world; because of this the world hates you.”

“Remember what I told you : the servant is not greater than his master; if they persecuted Me, they will persecute you, too. If they kept My word, they will keep yours as well. All this they will do to you for the sake of My Name, because they do not know the One Who sent Me.”

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Saturday, 30 April 2016 : Fifth Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. Pius V, Pope (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 99 : 2, 3, 5

Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God; He created us and we are His people, the sheep of His fold.

For the Lord is good; His love lasts forever and His faithfulness through all generations.

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Saturday, 30 April 2016 : Fifth Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. Pius V, Pope (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Acts 16 : 1-10

Paul travelled on to Derbe and then to Lystra. A disciple named Timothy lived there, whose mother was a believer of Jewish origin but whose father was a Greek. As the believers of Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him, Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him. So he took him and, because of the Jews of that place who all knew that his father was a Greek, he circumcised him.

As they travelled from town to town, they delivered the decisions of the Apostles and elders in Jerusalem, for the people to obey. Meanwhile, the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number every day. They travelled through Phrygia and Galatia, because they had been prevented by the Holy Spirit from preaching the message in the province of Asia.

When they came to Mysia, they tried to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to do this. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. There one night Paul had a vision. A Macedonian stood before him and begged him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!”

When he awoke, he told us of this vision and we understood that the Lord was calling us to give the Good News to the Macedonian people.

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Wednesday, 4 November 2015 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we commemorate the life and the examples of St. Charles Borromeo, also known as San Carlo Borromeo, a great saint and reformer of the faith and the Church, who was the Metropolitan Archbishop of Milan, one of the principal and most important sees of Christendom, and a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church.

At that time, the Church and the faithful were assailed greatly and terribly by the forces of the so-called Protestant ‘reformation’ where misguided people and their leaders took it into their hands to change and alter the teachings and traditions of the Church as they pleased and wished, and many people went astray following their own path and their own wishes.

And so many people, so many souls were lost forever as a result of such an unfortunate turn of events, and many people were misguided to follow the path of their error and worldliness into the damnation of hell. However, that is not all, as even within the Church, many people did not truly serve the Lord and rather than dutifully carrying out their responsibilities as members and ministers of the Lord’s Church and community, these people served their own interest first.

All these were the works of the devil and his agents, who sowed the seeds of obstinate behaviour, pride, greed, stubbornness and the seeds of sin into the hearts of men, and by tempting many with the temptation of money, pleasures of the world and other things, he succeeded in luring many away, and brought about much confusion in which he thrived and managed to lure away even more souls away.

He also contributed immensely to the Council of Trent, the very important and crucial gathering of the Church designed to reform the Church, condemn the falsehoods of the Protestant heresy and to help bring back many souls into God’s grace and salvation. He proposed many disciplines and practices that could help purify the Faith and the Church so as to make it much more resilient against future heresies and threats from both outside and inside the Church.

In the end, many people returned to the Holy Mother Church, and many of them repented from their sins. What St. Charles Borromeo and many other holy men and women, servants of God had done at that time was truly beneficial and good, and because of their great efforts and dedication, they helped restore the hope to countless people who would otherwise have fallen into eternal damnation of hell.

Today we heard St. Paul exhorting the faithful on how to fulfil completely the Law and commandments of God, that is by showing love and care for one another. The Law of God is truly about loving our God, and not just that, but also loving one another in the same way as we have loved ourselves and God. And this was exactly what St. Charles Borromeo and his contemporaries had done, for the love of their fellow men, fallen and lost to the darkness, they worked their best to save them from their fate.

In the Gospel today, we heard Jesus our Lord speaking about readiness to give it all to the Lord, and readiness to leave behind everything that have severed us and kept us away from truly being able to call ourselves the children of God. And He also spoke of wisdom, of the need for us all to think and reflect of the consequences of our actions and the need to be ready for everything that is to come.

And thus, we have to think of the consequences of our actions and how these will impact the state of our souls in the end of time. Have we made ample preparations for the day of judgment that is to come? If we sit still and do nothing, then I fear all of us are headed for a sure and certain destruction and damnation in hell. It is just like what Jesus told the people, like a king who did not consult with his advisers and went to war against another stronger than him, and in the end, only defeat and misery awaited him.

What do we need to do then, brothers and sisters in Christ? We all need to devote ourselves to help our brethren in need, those who are less fortunate than us, and just as St. Charles Borromeo had shown us, also by helping those who have been misled and misguided by heresy and by the lies of Satan, so that all of us may find our way out of the trap of sin and destruction, and eventually proceed to eternal glory of heaven, and receiving the whole eternal inheritance meant for us.

Let us all therefore from now on work together as one people, as one Church, by working together to achieve the common goal of justification and sanctification for the eternal life. May God bless us and guide us in our endeavours and efforts, and may He bring us to eternal glory in Him. Amen.

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Wednesday, 4 November 2015 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Luke 14 : 25-33

At that time, one day, when large crowds were walking along with Jesus, He turned and said to them, “If you come to me, unwilling to sacrifice your love for your father and mother, your spouse and children, your brothers and sisters, and indeed yourself, you cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not follow Me, carrying his own cross, cannot be My disciple.”

“Do you build a house without first sitting down to count the cost, to see whether you have enough to complete it? Otherwise, if you have laid the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone will make fun of you : ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'”

“And when a king wages war against another king, does he go to fight without first sitting down to consider whether his ten thousand can stand against the twenty thousand of his opponent? And if not, while the other is still a long way off, he sends messengers for peace talks.”

“In the same way, none of you may become My disciple, if he does not give up everything he has.”

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Wednesday, 4 November 2015 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 111 : 1-2, 4-5, 9

Alleluia! Blessed is the one who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commands. His children will be powerful on earth; the upright’s offspring will be blessed.

He is for the righteous a light in darkness, He is kind, merciful and upright. It will be well with him who lends freely, who leads a life of justice and honesty.

He gives generously to the poor, his merits will last forever and his head will be raised in honour.

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Wednesday, 4 November 2015 : 31st Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Romans 13 : 8-10

Do not be in debt to anyone. Let this be the only debt of one to another : Love. The one who loves his or her neighbour fulfilled the Law. For the commandments : Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not covet and whatever else are summarised in this one : You will love your neighbour as yourself.

Love cannot do the neighbour any harm; so love fulfils the whole Law.

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Thursday, 30 April 2015 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. Pius V, Pope (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we hear a brief summary of the history of salvation and of the people of God, Israel, in the first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles, where St. Paul preached and testified for the faith in front of his fellow Jews in a synagogue. He told them about how God led His people out of Egypt, and gave them leaders to guide them, from the Judges to the kings, and on David, the faithful servant and king which God had chosen to rule over His people.

And it was told of the fulfillment of God’s promise of salvation of His people, through the promise which God had made to David, that His descendant would rule forever on his throne. And indeed, everything was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, including God’s promise to mankind, that salvation would come to them. Jesus broke free mankind from the chains of their slavery to sin and liberated them, just as the people of Israel once had been freed from their slavery to the Pharaoh and the Egyptians.

This freedom however, is not easy to maintain, as history had once proven. The people of Israel during their sojourn in the desert, were sorely tempted and many of them repeatedly gave in to their desires. As a result, they complained against God, rebelled against Him by saying how good their lives were back in Egypt as compared to what they had then in the desert, even though God fed them with manna and birds, and made them drink sweet and clear water in the middle of the desert.

Is this not the same with our own experience? We also have often done the same in our own respective lives. If we reflect on it, we should realise that there are some or many moments in our lives where we also disobeyed the Lord to pursue our own desires. We have this tendency to be tempted by the many things that Satan and the world offers us, and if we accept them as such, then we are no different than the people of Israel of old.

In the Gospel today, Jesus spoke about how a servant is not greater than his or her master, and therefore, as this is the case, all of us as the servants of God should not presume things and do things that betray our Lord and show that disobedience to the Lord, for if we truly belong to the Lord, then we ought to do things as the Master had taught us. If we do not, then we are liars and hypocrites, and we do not belong to Him, and thus we have no part in His inheritance.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have for an example, a saint, whose holy life had been an inspiration for many throughout the ages. This holy man, who happened to be the successor of St. Peter the Apostle as the Pope and Bishop of Rome, and therefore as the Vicar of Christ and leader of the entire Universal Church of God had a very important role to play in the development of the faith of many whom he had touched and inspired.

Pope St. Pius V lived at a time of great uncertainty, of many dangers and threats to the people of God and to the Church. He led the Church through a very turbulent time of dangers both outside and inside the Church. At that time, the threat of the mighty Ottoman Empire was at its zenith, and many feared the eventual conquest of Christendom by the forces of the heathens. In addition, the effects of the Protestant ‘reformation’ still caused great divisions in the body of the faithful, wars and conflicts.

Pope St. Pius V played a pivotal role in all of this, by truly committing himself to the role which he had devoted himself to, as the Leader of all God’s faithful, by assembling the combined forces of Christendom and the forces of the faithful that eventually led to a major and crushing victory against the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Lepanto. As such, the external threat against the faithful and the Church gradually diminished afterwards.

And with regards to combatting dissent and opposition in the Church and beyond, Pope St. Pius V successfully completed the long delayed Council of Trent, which resolved many of the outstanding issues in the Church and emphasized on the maintenance of the true faith and all of its teachings, as preserved by the Church since the time of the Apostles, to counter all the harmful effects of the so-called ‘reformation’.

Pope St. Pius V therefore led the Church in the vigorous effort of Counter-‘reformation’ to combat the rampant heresies among the people, and as a result, countless thousands and millions of souls returned to the true faith. Such was indeed the example of how all Christians should live their lives, that is to be truly devoted and faithful to all the ways of the Lord.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, are we all able to be true disciples of the Lord, and devote ourselves completely to Him? Are we able to commit ourselves to the way of truth and be true disciples of our Lord? It is the opportunity which we have today that we should not waste. May Almighty God therefore guide us on our path and help us so that in all of our actions, we may always be faithful to the Lord, and as a result, be found worthy to receive the inheritance which He had promised to all of us. God bless us all. Amen.

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Thursday, 30 April 2015 : 4th Week of Easter, Memorial of Pope St. Pius V, Pope (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 13 : 16-20

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly, I say to you, the servant is not greater than his master, nor is the messenger greater than he who sent him. Understand this, and blessed are you, if you put it into practice.”

“I am not speaking of you all, because I know the ones I have chosen, and the Scripture has to be fulfilled that says : ‘The one who shared My table has risen against Me.’ I tell you this now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you may know that I am He.”

“Truly, I say to you, whoever welcomes the one I send, welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me, welcomes the One who sent Me.”