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Wednesday, 20 March 2013 : 5th Week of Lent (Scripture Reflection)

Sin and the evil that comes with sin and rebellion against God has indeed enslaved us, even when many of us don’t realise that we are being enslaved. That is also because we adopt a rather open attitude at sin, and even embrace sin and evil, to the point that we are indeed almost glad at being slaves of sin and evil. We have been enslaved by sin as our forefathers were, since the days of rebellion of Adam, the first man, and Eve, the first woman.

Sin is evil, and is a state of rebellion against the love and authority of God. That is why God, who loves us so much, being the greatest of His creations, would want to send His own Son in order to save us. For slavery under sin is costly indeed, for anyone who want to liberate those slaves, that is us, from that mountains of sin. Imagine the amount of sin that we accumulate daily, not even counting yearly, or even our whole lives!

Imagine the weight of sin that Christ had to bear on Golgotha, that is Calvary, and on His journey towards there. When we do devotions especially in the form of the Stations of the Cross this Lent, indeed we would have heard and would have been reminded of the physical sufferings and burdens that Christ had to carry, with His heavy cross onto Calvary from Jerusalem. Yet, the heaviest weight, is not that of the visible and physical, but in fact, those that are invisible, and these were the mountains of our sins, all of us, past, present, and future.

Yes, in order to free us from our slavery, as Christ had mentioned in the Gospel today as what He wanted, a perfect and worthy sacrifice and exchange is necessary. No amount of animal blood and sacrifices will ever be worthy or enough to alleviate our sins, no matter how many times they were offered to God, as per the Law of Moses.

It is the very Precious Body and Blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, that is worthy of cleansing us from our sins and ‘purchasing’ us to free us from the slavery of sin. He has to die on the cross for that to happen. And yet so many people wished for His death, not because they want to be freed from their sins, but because they had grown so comfortable in sin, that they did not want sin to end enslaving them, but continue to dominate them in perpetuation.

So blinded were the people that they failed to see the freedom that God had brought them. Remember the rebellion of Israel against Moses and God at Massah and Meribah? When they grumbled that God had led them to the desert to die? That the life under slavery in Egypt were much better and much more suitable to them? That is the same, but now the Lord, through Jesus Christ had come to liberate all mankind, not just Israel, from the slavery of sin, but yet, there were still those who rejected our Lord just like at Massah and Meribah.

God offers His salvation and liberation of all of us from sin for free, for the price of His Body and Blood, which we receive regularly at the Mass, as the result of the Sacrifice offered by the priest, in union with the Sacrifice on Calvary. It is readily offered and available for us, if only our heart and our being are open to this freedom by the Lord.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray, that we will remain strong in our faith and in our conviction to remain in the Lord, and be free from sin and the chains of slavery it brings. May we remain in God’s love and remember always His love and sacrifice on the cross for our sake. God bless us all. Amen.

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Covering of Images and Crosses in churches : First Vespers of the Fifth Sunday of Lent

Today, in the evening of Saturday, 16 March 2013, after the First Vespers of the Fifth Sunday of Lent, the images (statues of saints and our Lord included) and crosses in the Church should be covered, especially if the Bishops’ Conference recommends such a practice.

This is to prepare us for the Holy Week, and to begin the journey towards the Holy Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday), that culminates with the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The crosses are covered until the Good Friday services, when they are revealed to the people, in the Veneration of the Cross. The other images in the churches remain veiled until before Easter Vigil celebration begins.

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Friday, 15 March 2013 : 4th Week of Lent (First Reading)

Wisdom 2 : 1a, 12-22

Led by mistaken reasons they think, “Life is short and sad, and there is no cure for death. Let us set a trap for the righteous, for He annoys us and opposes our way of life; He reproaches us for our breaches of the Law and accuses us of being false to our upbringing.”

“He claims knowledge of God and calls Himself, Son of the Lord. He has become a reproach to our way of thinking; even to meet Him is burdensome to us. He does not live like others and behave strangely.”

“According to Him, we have low standards, so He keeps aloof from us as if we were unclean. He emphatises the happy end of the righteous and boasts of having God as Father. Let us see the truth of what He says and find out what His end will be. If the righteous is a Son of God, God will defend Him and deliver Him from His adversaries.”

“Let us humble and torture Him, to prove His self-control and test His patience. When we have condemned Him to a shameful death, we may test His words.” This is the way they reason, but they are mistaken, blinded by their malice. They do not know the mysteries of God, nor do they hope for the reward of a holy life; they do not believe that the blameless will be recompensed.

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Wednesday, 13 March 2013 : 4th Week of Lent (Scripture Reflection)

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is closely linked and intertwined with God the Father, our Creator. Together with the Holy Spirit, the third part of the Trinity, they form the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Many would misinterpret this, including the Jews at the time, that it means there are 3 Gods at the same time, and that Christians worship 3 Gods, and therefore polytheistic.

No, this is simply not the case, for The Three members of the Holy Trinity are indeed three distinct members, not the same from each other, and distinctively different between the three of them, but yet, at the same time, are also One, and indivisible. This is the mystery of the Holy Trinity, that God who is present in 3 Godheads of the Father Creator, the Son who is the Messiah and the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit the Advocate, are at the same time distinct as they are one. They are one because they are bound by the link that is immemorial and infinite in nature, that is perfect and divine love.

For Jesus Christ as the Son loves the Father perfectly, and so does the Father loves the Son in the same way, and the nature of this relationship to the Holy Spirit is none other but the same as well. And the Son does the will of the Father, because He obeys the Father, and even unto death, as our Lord Jesus Christ died for us on Calvary, on the cross, that we all can be saved, from death, and from sin.

Jesus Christ our Saviour, is the Word of God, which the Father had sent down to us, to be like us, sinful man, that he can teach all of us, as the Word, the Words of God, the love of God, and the true meanings of God’s commandments, that is love, and the very nature of God Himself, that is love, mercy, and compassion. He showed God’s teachings through His own examples, and through His ultimate dedication to the cause of the Lord. That is to die on the cross on Calvary, to give Himself up as the worthy sacrifice for all our sins. For He brought into Himself the sins of all men, and the contrite hearts of all those who believed in God, and became the worthy sacrifice, saving mankind from being doomed due to their rebellion against God.

Christ had suffered, and He had died on the Cross, and then he too had risen from the dead, and in glory He returned to the Father and left this world at the hands of His disciples, who continued to propagate His mission and His words, throughout generations, throughout many centuries and millennia, through good and hard times, through bountiful harvests of faith and persecution of the martyrs and the faithful in God, to all of us today who belong in God’s Church, which He established through Peter.

The Church today is the last and only bastion of truth, love, and light in this world increasingly eaten up by evil forces of consumerism, hedonism, secularism, and atheism. Many had abandoned God in search of temporary and worldly pleasures and temptations, and left God for their own reasons and their own ideas, and even thinking that they need no God, even though it’s the very God who had come down to us, in order to build a bridge between us and the Lord who created us, that we are finally able to return to God, through Christ’s death on the cross, His ultimate sacrifice, for all of us.

Our Church had been the greatest charitable body in the world, and had done much to help the poor and the suffering, and there are of course still much more that we can do to help, even every one of us, we can all contribute more to help those least and the weakest in our society. Let us all help the Church in its mission, help all who are involved in serving the weak, the poor, the ostracised, and the persecuted ones. Let us also of course strive to spread God’s Good News and message of love to all, especially those who had rejected Him, and those who even persecuted God’s holy people.

For Christ, the Son of God, will come to judge His people again at the end of time, at His Second Coming, which time and place we do not know about. But He always reminds us to be vigilant, and to be awake, lest we are caught unawares. He will judge those who had done acts of love, for one another, and for God, worthy, and worthy to join Him in eternal bliss of heaven. And to those whom had failed to love, those who failed to forgive and those who had forsaken Him, He will reject and drive away from His presence.

Let us not worry, since if we do what is good, God is on our side. Continue doing acts of love, mercy, and compassion, and begin to do charitable acts starting from small, little things we can help, like not refusing to help a beggar, and tried to spare a coin for them, and also to help one another in the society, and to be aware of the plight of our fellow brothers and sisters, that we will all remain strong, in God’s love.

Help one another to grow in faith, hope, and love, the three cardinal virtues of life. Let us pray that our faith in God will remain strong, that our hope in Him and mankind will be ever present, and be light to those who despair, and let our love burn within us, filled with God’s love, to show God’s love to all mankind, and to all the nations, that those who have yet bend their knees before the God who loves them and gave His life for them, will follow. Amen.

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(Special) Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff / Missa pro Eligendo Pontifice (Gospel Reading)

John 15 : 9-17

As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Remain in My love! You will remain in My love if you keep My commandments, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. I have told you all this, that My own joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.

This is My commandment : Love one another as I have loved you! There is no greater love than this, to give one’s life for one’s friends; you are My friends, if you do what I commanded you. I shall not call you servants any more, because servants do not know what their master is about. Instead I have called you friends, since I have made known to you everything I learnt from My Father.

You did not choose Me; it was I who chose you and sent you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. And everything you ask the Father in My Name, He will give you. This is My command, that you love one another.

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Sunday, 10 March 2013 : 4th Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday, 2nd Scrutiny for Baptism (Scripture Reflection)

Forgiveness. Something that is easy to be said, but difficult to be done. Something that we want to do, but hard to do, because either we lack love in our hearts, or have the hatred and darkness in our hearts that block us and prevent us from carrying out acts of forgiveness and mercy.

Today, our Lord Jesus Christ showed us the virtues of forgiveness and mercy, just as what God the Father had done for us, through the parable of the prodigal son. It shows the extent of God’s boundless and infinite love for us, who are sinners, but yet He is willing to take all of us as His children. After all, are we not His most beloved of all creation? The very beings created in His image? Though indeed, we were marred by our rebellion, beginning from the rebellion of our foreparents Adam and Eve, who fell into Satan’s temptation.

But God again shows that no sinner is beyond His mercy and salvation. That is why, out of His great love for all of us, the only One worthy to redeem us, His Son, Jesus Christ, was given to us as a ‘Sacrificial Offering’, the perfect offering that redeemed us every single cents of our debts, that is our sins and faults.

We who had been saved by Christ through His Sacrifice, and through our baptism, either when we were infants or when we were already adults, when God took us to be His sons and daughters, are like the elder son of the father in the parable, who had already had a share in the wealth and all the properties of the father, who is God represented. We should not act like the Pharisees, who thought themselves of worthy, and that others who had ‘erred’ in their eyes, they labeled as sinners and unworthy to share their salvation and faith.

For the Pharisees in the blind man case, represented exactly the sentiments of the elder son, where pride, arrogance, and power trumped over humility, love, and compassion. Just like the elder sons of Jesse, whom the Lord asked the prophet Samuel to visit to appoint the new king of Israel, they had been rejected although they were strong, powerful, and has that aura of command, being the elder and thus more mature sons according to the society’s norms.

No, the Lord seeks not these kind of strength, pride, and power, for these things often corrupted men and deviates their heart from their true love for God, and instead to love mankind, the world, and all the temptations of power and glory that Satan offered through the world. God desires indeed the qualities found in David, whom he chose as the new king of Israel to replace the disobedient Saul.

For David is humble and loving, and he truly loved the Lord with all his heart and after his anointing, he set out to do good throughout all his life, for God’s sake. And except for the sin he committed in murdering the husband of his future wife (he is still like us after all, a sinner), he was committed to a life of dedicated love to God, and to all his fellow men, whom he ruled justly.

It is through humility and love that we can learn the true nature of God, that is love, mercy, and compassion. For if we let ourselves be blinded by our pride, jealousy, our hatred, and all things of evil and sin, we blind ourselves, not only from the truth in our fellow men, but also blind ourselves from God. This is exactly what happened to the Pharisees and the people gathered, who condemned the blind man, cured by Jesus, failing to see God’s work in Jesus, and failing to listen to the testimony of the blind man, which is truth.

For they are too embroiled in their own self-vanity, pride, and preservation, and jealousy against all who intruded into their sphere of control and power (who was indeed Jesus), that they rejected God directly, out of these sheer darkness in their hearts. For them, these had closed their hearts from God’s love, but still, God gave His life to save all, including them, and He forgave them in the end at Calvary. This is how great the love that God has shown us, that He gave Himself for us.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us strive that we will not be like the ungrateful and arrogant elder son, who think highly of himself and failing to see God’s love in all, and for all, even for the greatest sinners, represented by the younger son. Because he has been always with the Father as we are with the Father through Christ and through our baptism, but we have to reach out and help out those who are still struggling, and those who had lost their way to God.

Help one another, strengthen one another in faith, and bring the Good News to others who had yet to receive it. Let us, brothers and sisters in Christ, as One community, One Church in Christ, do our best to show God’s mercy, forgiveness, and love, through our charity and our actions, which will make God’s love manifest in this world. That more can be saved, through our action, not out of jealousy, not out of pride, but out of love, and humility, and let us rejoice together when anyone returns or comes to the Lord, acknowledging Him as their Saviour.

May God bless us all, and bless those who had rejected Him, those who had hated Him, and those who had closed their hearts to His love. Amen.

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Wednesday, 6 March 2013 : 3rd Week of Lent (Scripture Reflection)

God our Father, had given the Ten Commandments to the people of Israel through Moses. These laws were meant to be the guidelines of how the people of God should live. The prophets too came over the centuries, during and after the times of the kingdom of Israel, to preach and explain about the Law, and at the same time proclaiming the coming of the Messiah, who will set all things right and save the world.

That Messiah is Christ, who came into the world, the divine Word of God, becoming a humble man, born through the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem. He came indeed not to destroy or displace the Law of God. Rather, He came to fulfill it, to purify it, to make sure that indeed the Law is for man so that they can orientate themselves and love God and their fellow brethren, in what Christ has taught the disciples, that is the two main Commandments of Love, that is to love God with all our being, and to love our fellow men as much as we love ourselves.

Such is the perfection of the Law that God had first given to the people of Israel, and then Christ had spread throughout the world as the Universal Law of love. In obeying and living out this Law, it is how we please the Lord, who will see us as worthy of Him. No more excessive laws and rites that we must follow, such as the 613 laws of the Jewish Law, which evolved from the laws that God has told Moses while he was on the Mount Horeb, the mountain of God.

It may seem that the commandments of love are easy to be done. After all there are only two of them is it not? No! In fact, these two are the hardest ones to be one. Because, it is never easy to love God and our fellow mankind. To truly love God is to spend our time for Him, to listen to Him, through our constant prayers, and to do His will, which is of course, linked to loving mankind, as when we do good deeds to our brethren, we show our sincere love for God. Love for God cannot be just with words and all prayers. These devotions and prayers are indeed important, but without a concrete action to live our faith, and our love, we are nothing but empty husks without love.

God wants to embrace all of us, no matter how broken we are, and how sinful we are. Better for us to be ugly and broken outside, but with the love of God inside us, waiting to break free, rather than being beautiful outside, and empty and dark inside. Lucifer the lightbringer too were once very beautiful and amazing, but inside, he has a dark pride, the pride that brought down many, angels and man alike, into the rebellion against God.

Because we are so rebellious, especially you all should know about the long story of the Israelites since their delivery from Egypt all the way to the time of Jesus, especially in the Book of Kings, how they even slaughter the prophets of the Lord, disobeyed His commandments, and spurned His love. This is why God set those rules as the Law to ensure that the people, tempted as they are, and weak as they are, and vulnerable as they are to sin and evil, through the Law, they can be safeguarded.

Nevertheless, by the time of Jesus, people had lost so much of the ideas and the original intentions of the Law that they ended up being ‘enslaved’ by the very Law that God has given them to safeguard them, through the Pharisees and their strict observation of the rules and the laws. It is through Christ that mankind was once again awakened to the true meaning of the Law, that is a Law of love that is to bring mankind closer to God, and to lead in the reconciliation with God, from the rebellion of our forefathers.

None but Christ Himself, the Messiah, and the Son of God, implemented what He preached, that is to give Himself in greatest form of love to all of us, that is His Sacrifice on the Cross. Through that love He had given us, we now have hope of life in Him, and to be reunited with God, as Christ became our bridge to return back towards the Lord.

We don’t have to give our life as the proof and sign of our love to God, but what matters is, in whatever things we do, even little ones, let us always remember to thank God, either in happiness or sorrow, in good times or bad, and to share the love God has planted in us to our neighbours, that the love will not just stay there, but blossom to let the love of God manifest in others, and therefore the world.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today, let us begin by doing small acts of love in our daily lives, acts of love that can brighten both our days and those around us, especially those who sorrow, and those who have lost hope. Bring to them the warmth of love and hope that is from God, and kindle in them a new fire of God’s love. Let us imitate the example of Christ who had loved us so much so as to give Himself up for our sake, that just as He was glorified on His Resurrection, we too can share in that glory, in the fullness of God’s love and compassion. Amen.

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Saturday, 2 March 2013 : 2nd Week of Lent (Scripture Reflection)

The parable of the prodigal son is indeed a well-known parable and story, that many have heard, which symbolises God’s eternal love for us and His great mercy. Do not be mistaken however, that God will simply just overlook any kind of error and sin because of His love for us. For God first and foremost is Holy and therefore He hates sin in all its forms. He hates evil and things that marred the holiness of His creations. He does have mercy, and His great and the incomprehensible degree of His love allows Him to forgive us, just like the father of the prodigal son.

But how does this forgiveness come about? It is not by being idle and wait for God’s forgiveness. If we stay idle, or worse if we continue to dwell in the world of sin, God will not forgive us, but rather condemn us for our continued rebellion against His love. Remember, that, in the parable of the prodigal son, it is the son, who in great humility and repentance, decided to turn back home and seek his father.

Instead of being haughty and proud, he lowered himself and even declared his unworthiness before the father. The father forgives him first because the younger son is back after being lost into the world, and then because he so humbly had submitted himself to the father’s judgement and in full humility even declared his unworthiness, which made the loving father to love him even more.

Forgiveness is not easy, but the Lord is willing to forgive as long as His children who have sinned, and thus rebelled against Him just like the prodigal son, are to humbly seek His mercy and love. God is kind as He is just, and He will show us great blessings and graces if we are obedient and try our best to remain in His favour, by first listening to the Word of God, and the commandments of love as brought by Christ, and to make our faith manifest through our good works and service for the good of all mankind, starting from those around us.

But do not forget, that God in His great mercy, do not just forgive us like that, for if we are forgiven but we ourselves continue to accuse others who had made mistakes to us, is it not contradictory? Just as Christ had said, love one another as I have loved you, and do upon others as what you wish to be done to you.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us first forgive one another first, forgive those who had made you hurt, those who had ostracised you, and then let us ourselves not hurt others, not ostracise others, and not made others’ lives to suffer. Only then, let us offer ourselves, our sinful beings in humility at God’s feet. He, who is our Father, will lift us up again, and makes us whole again, and once again worthy of Him.

If only love, kindness, and forgiveness can be ever present in everyone in our world today, that world would have been much nicer, is it not? All of us Christians, are just like the elder son of the father in the parable, as we had been brought closer to God through our baptism, and had been taught the faith and the love of God through our priests and our fellow brethren in faith. However, let us not be like the elder son who in jealousy became angry with the father because he seemed to overlook him due to the return of the prodigal younger son.

Because, we, who are like the elder son, have been saved in Christ, provided that we remain faithful to Him and practice our faith through our works and service for others as the Lord commanded us. However, there are many out there, who have yet to listen and receive the Good News of the Lord, and many still are also former believers in Christ, who had lapsed in their faith along the way, and had fallen into the traps of evil, through worldly pleasures, consumerism, secularism, and many others. They are the younger son, the lost prodigal son.

Rather than be annoyed and be jealous of them, when the Lord welcomes them into His kingdom like what the elder son did, let us instead help the Father, in seeking these lost sheep, these lost children of God, for through us, God can work wonders in our world. Let us help one another, particularly these lost ones, in finding together our way to the Lord, who will welcome all of us with His love and outstretched hands, the hands which had been pierced with nails on the cross to redeem us from death and eternal damnation, and into eternal life and union with Him.

Let us pray, brothers and sisters in Christ, that first we will always remain faithful to God, obey His commandments, and do what we can, and whatever is within our abilities to help one another, to love one another, and to reach out especially to those who hunger for God.

Then, let us also pray for our Holy Church, which is now without a shepherd, that God will appoint soon a new shepherd to guide His holy people, that through the Church, God’s work will be made manifest and real in this world, guiding all peoples back towards the Lord from their sinful past. May God, who is our loving Father, bless us all, and remain with us, and always be ready to welcome us back if we had gone astray and then humbly seek His mercy. May God place into our hearts the heart of mercy, the heart of love, and the heart of compassion for others. Blessed be God, forever and ever! Amen.

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Wednesday, 27 February 2013 : 2nd Week of Lent (Scripture Reflection)

Today we again hear about the virtues of humility, and that humility is indeed not the symbol of humiliation, but rather, the symbol of internal strength and justification before God. We also listen today that as the ones who are faithful to the Lord and to His message, life will not be easy for many of us, as the world who hates Christ and His truth, the evil one who hates Him, will definitely also hate all of us, who believe in Him.

Then, through humility, we learn the value of service, to serve one another, following the example of Christ who led by example, the very example of His own life, that ended with His sacrifice on the cross, His ultimate service to all of us. He taught us that to be a leader, we have to render service to others, and ultimately to be responsible for the people entrusted to us. Such is Christ as the Good Shepherd showed His example to us, as a good shepherd lay down his life for his sheep. So too a leader must lay down his ego, and strive to work for the good of the people that he is the leader of.

It is always difficult to do good, to do charitable and loving acts in this world, as there will be many who will not be pleased at such acts, and there will be many who are against the Lord and His ways. But we have to persevere to do so, for the good of the people around us, and for the world itself, even if it hates us so.

Today, in his speech at his last General Audience with the public, our beloved Pope Benedict XVI has mentioned that although he will no longer be Pope, he will never abandon the Church, but rather he will continue in prayer and therefore, as we all should know, lead us in the spiritual battle against the evil one and his mischievous ways, through prayer. For indeed, a praying retired Pope is more powerful than even when he was still active as Pope and leader of our Church. Our Pope too, imitating Christ, in his great humility, has decided to step down, and therefore allow others who are more capable to continue the good works he had started for the good of everyone, especially that of the faithful in Christ.

Our Pope mentioned that although he stepped down from the cross that he has undertaken as our leader, he remains at the foot of the cross in prayer, to support the new Pope who will bear the cross of Christ, together with all the faithful. It is a symbol indeed of great humility, which we too can follow. Remember too, Christ who is divine, but yet lowered Himself such that He was willing to die on the shameful cross, only for the symbol of that shame to be transformed into the victorious cross. We, who are to bear our own crosses with the Lord, should therefore follow in our Lord’s footsteps, to carry our crosses in humility, in order for the burdens of our crosses to be transformed too, into the victorious cross.

But, we are not in this alone, for God walks with us, He who suffered through mockery, humiliation, and death for us. And remember too that all of us, brothers and sisters in Christ, walk together this path of faith, towards the Lord. The path will not be easy, and many challenges would await us, but if we stay faithful in Christ, and believe in one another, and most importantly help one another in our journey, and keep love at the centre of our being, we will prevail. The Lord too would not have prevailed, had He not, out of His infinite love for all of us, willing to continue, bearing the weight of all of our sins, through falling and rising, and through curses and lashes, towards Calvary, and from there towards salvation of all mankind.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today, let us pray for ourselves, pray for one another, and also pray for our Pope, that together, despite all the sufferings and the obstacles laid in our path towards God, that we can stay together, help one another, and shoulder our crosses, that when the time comes, our burden and our shame will be transformed to that of the victorious cross of Christ, the symbol of salvation. Let us pray too that all of us will be able to embark on missions to reach out to others around us, to alleviate suffering from all, and to show love to all those whom we meet, even to those who hates us and wish for our destruction.

God bless us all, God bless His Holy Church, and God bless our Pope, Benedict XVI. Amen!

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Friday, 22 February 2013 : Feast of Chair of St. Peter the Apostle (Scripture Reflection)

Today, one might ask, why do we celebrate the feast of a chair? Why the chair of St. Peter? As we all should know, that all dioceses in the world has Cathedrals, one in each diocese, and in the Cathedral, there is a special ‘chair’ that only the ordinary or the bishop of the diocese can sit on. This is because that chair is the Cathedra, the bishop’s throne or seat, which represents his authority, which is given from the Lord Himself.

Where does this authority come from? Right, you all should know indeed, that it came eventually, down the centuries and millenia from the early leaders of the Church, who themselves receievd that power and authority from the Apostles, whose leader is Peter, who was then known as Simon, son of Jonah, or Simon Bar-Jona, the fisherman.

Simon answered out of great courage and speak out the truth sincerely about Christ, who is indeed the Messiah and the Son of the living God, who has come to save the world, although maybe none at that time has yet to understand that He has to do this through His suffering and ultimately death on the cross. But indeed, for the great act of faith that Simon showed, Christ entrusted him with His authority and power, as His vicar on earth, simply through the words that He mentioned, that He will give Simon the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and He will build His Church, that is all the faithful in Him, united as one Body, on him as the foundation.

Hence, that is why Christ renamed Simon as Peter, whose Aramaic (the language spoken at the time of Jesus) origin was Kephas/Kepha, which means rock, that was then translated to Greek as Petros, and then to Latin as Petrus, which all means rock. The Gospel indeed has some pun to the word as Christ did say, “You are Peter and on this Rock…”, which one may interpret as the play on the word Petros/Petrus/Kepha, and there are those, who said that the rock does not refer to Peter at all.

No, this cannot be, since that Rock does refer to Peter, and why? It is because of his great faith in Christ, that is like a great rock, will become the most suitable foundation of His Church on this world, for Peter himself later on, as the leader of the Church, rooted himself firmly in Christ, even to his death in Rome.

It does not mean that Peter did not falter in his faith and dedication to the Lord. As everyone should know, that Peter was well-known for his betrayal of the Lord, even after he said during the Last Supper that he would never leave or abandon the Lord, but when Jesus was tried and mocked, and someone suspected Peter of being Christ’s accomplice, he denied Christ three times, out of fear and uncertainty, seeing that the Lord he has always believed in, has now been judged and soon to be sentenced to death.

Nevertheless, it is not Peter’s failures that we should focus on, but rather, what happens after, as he should indeed be a role model to all of us, that after whenever we fall, we must rise up again and rise up ever stronger than before, even stronger than before we fall. It was Peter who led the Apostles in the days after the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of Christ, and it was to him that Christ asked, “Peter, do you love Me.”, also three times.

Just as we often heard indeed in the Bible that God is merciful and willing to forgive all who had erred but yet willing to fully turn themselves back towards Him again, the same thing was what Christ did to Peter. Peter knew that he had been forgiven, and he gave Christ the promise of undying and eternal love, and that he will never fail Him again as before. Christ then entrusted the care of all His sheep in this world, all those who believe in Him, in Peter, whom He then affirm as the leader of all the faithful, and His representative in this world.

It is at that point that Christ entrusted the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and built His Church, which began on Pentecost, with the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. It was Peter who defended Christ and gave a fiery speech, asking the people to believe in Christ, and caused many to convert to the cause of God, and therefore, marked the very beginning of the Church.

Through Peter, we have many of his successors, who are the Bishops of Rome. Why the Bishop of Rome? This is because, in the established tradition and the letters following the events of the New Testament, Peter would travel to Rome eventually and settled there, before being martyred by the Emperor Nero of the Roman Empire sometime in 67 AD, not long after the other great Apostle Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, who is also associated together with the Bishop of Rome.

St. Peter in his great humility, when he was about to be crucified, through which he will face his martyrdom, refused to be crucified in the same way as the Lord did, and thus chose to be crucified upside down. This is what we know now as the ‘upside-down’ cross, or the cross of St. Peter.

Many had misunderstood this ‘upside-down’ as the symbol of the Antichrist, when the Pope, for example Blessed Pope John Paul II utilised it on his chair during his visit to the Holy Land, which in fact is the symbol of his own authority as the successor of St. Peter, and the symbol of Peter’s humility in being crucified upside-down that he would not die the same way as Christ, as he felt unworthy to do so. Now that all of you know about this, tell those who has yet to know about this, that they too may know and not linger in falsehood, but remain in the truth.

The chair of St. Peter can be seen at the back of the High Altar below the famous Holy Spirit stained glass on the walls of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, which was built on the spot where St. Peter was buried after his martyrdom. This chair, which is armless, and made of wood and inlaid with precious metals, contains the materials from the original chair that was known to have been used by St. Peter himself when he was in Rome. In a sense, this was St. Peter’s cathedra, and thus, the very first seat of authority that was present in this world.

Many of the Bishops of Rome who succeeded Peter had been great Popes, and many too had been saints and great saints, contributing greatly to the growth of the Church of Christ to whom they are entrusted to, through Peter. Of course there are also some Popes who had been bad Popes, and were great sinners. We condemn what they did, which in one way or another have done bad to the Church of Christ and to the faithful, due to their failure to faithfully carry out the mission that has been entrusted by Christ to them through Peter.

The Popes, who are the Bishops of Rome, are human too, as St. Peter was, and therefore was also prone to sins and errors as other mankind are, but we had indeed gone a long way since St. Peter was entrusted with the keys of kingdom of heaven. After the Council of Trent, and the succeeding councils, the Church has rediscovered itself, and led by the Pope, who is the leader of all the faithful in Christ, we continue in our mission that Christ had given us, that is to spread the Gospel, the Good News to all, and to baptise everyone in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray for our Pope, the successor of St. Peter the Apostle, that he will continue to carry out his mission entrusted to Him by Christ, and use the authority he was given to unite all the faithful in Christ. Now that our Pope, our beloved Pope Benedict XVI has decided to step down due to ill health, we pray for him that God will continue to watch over him in his retirement, and we pray for whoever his successor as the Bishop of Rome, St. Peter’s successor, will be. It is out  of the same humility that our Pope has decided to step aside, because he felt that someone else can better fulfill the roles and mission entrusted to the Popes since St. Peter, just like Peter himself humbly asked to be crucified upside-down to not die the way Christ died for the salvation of the world.

St. Peter the Apostle, you to whom Christ entrusted the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and upon whom He built His Church, pray for us, pray for our Pope Benedict XVI, your successor, and his successors, and pray for the new Coadjutor Archbishop of Singapore, Msgr. William Goh Seng Chye, who will be ordained today, and who will receive the authority given to him through the endless succession that came from you, and from Christ, who gave you the authority over the Church and the world. Pray for us, St. Peter. Amen.